What to Prepare Before You Get in Touch With a Voice Coach

Before you contact GVAA - Global Voice Academy, gather four things: a short recent voice sample (even a phone recording), the type of voice work you want (commercial, animation, audiobook, gaming, e-learning), your goals for the next six months, and your schedule constraints. This gives us enough to recommend the right coach and format in a single call.

Why does preparation matter before a first call?

Most people call cold. They know they want "voice training" and nothing more specific. That's fine, we can work with it, but the call turns into twenty minutes of us asking basic questions instead of giving you useful direction. When you arrive prepared, we spend the call doing what you actually want: matching you to a coach, picking a lane, and getting a start date.

Here's the uncomfortable part. Most people ask first about price. That's the wrong first question. Ask about fit. A cheap coach in the wrong genre will cost you a year. The right coach in your genre pays for itself the first time you book a job.

What should you record before you reach out?

A voice sample doesn't need a studio. A quiet room and your phone are enough for a first pass. Industry guidance from SAG-AFTRA and the voice-over trade press agrees that raw samples beat over-produced ones at the audition stage, because coaches and casting directors want to hear you, not your plugins [1].

Try this: record three short clips, no edits.

• Read a 30-second commercial script in your natural speaking voice, as if talking to one person.
• Read a paragraph from a novel you like, aloud, at a pace that feels unhurried.
• Say your name, your city, and one sentence about why you want voice training.
• If you already have a reel or past booked work, include one clip of that too.
• Save all of it as MP3 or WAV files with clear filenames.
• Keep each clip under 60 seconds so we can listen to everything in one sitting.

That's it. No music beds, no effects, no retakes until it's "perfect." We want the honest baseline.

Which goals and details should you write down?

Write a short note, five or six sentences, that answers: what kind of voice work do you want to do, what have you tried already, what's your timeline, and what does success look like a year from now. If you've taken classes, name them. If you've booked work, say what kind. If you're starting from zero, say that too. Zero is a valid starting point and often a cleaner one, because there's nothing to unlearn.

A typical scenario: someone contacts us certain they want to do animation. We listen to their sample and hear a natural, grounded read that would book commercial and corporate narration tomorrow. Animation can come later. That shift only happens if we hear the voice first. For more on how this works in practice, see how working with us usually goes.

What should you ask us on the first call?

Come with questions. The ones that matter are about method, not price. We've written a longer list in questions worth asking before you choose, but a short version fits here:

Pick the one that matches where you are, not where you wish you were. A beginner in a demo-prep session wastes money. A working pro in a beginner class gets bored. We'll steer you honestly, even when it means a smaller first booking for us.

Ready to reach out? Call us at 415-225-3848 with your clips and notes nearby.

FAQ

Do I need professional recording gear to send a voice sample?

No. A phone recording in a quiet room, closet, or car is fine for a first contact. We're listening for your natural voice, pacing and instinct. Gear questions come later, once we know what genre you're training for. Sending a polished reel is welcome if you have one, but it's never required.

How long should my first message to GVAA - Global Voice Academy be?

Short. Five to eight sentences covers it. State what kind of voice work interests you, any training or booked work so far, your rough timeline, and attach your clips or link to them. If you don't know what genre you want, say that plainly. We'd rather hear "I don't know yet" than a guess that sends us the wrong direction.

What if I've never done voice work at all?

Then say so. Beginners are a large part of who we work with, and starting fresh is often easier than retraining habits from self-taught work. Send a reading sample anyway, even if you feel awkward doing it. The awkwardness itself tells us useful things about where to start.

Should I decide on a coach before I call?

No, and we'd prefer you didn't. Coach matching depends on your voice, goals and schedule together. Picking a name off a website before we've heard you often leads to a mismatch. Let the sample and the conversation do that work.

Related reading

• Questions Worth Asking Before You Choose a Voice Coach