VO BOSS

Casting is global, digital, and massive. This week, Anne & Lau lead Bosses through the complicated world of casting. Resiliency & timing are key for booking that dream gig. Lau teaches us that not all rejections mean no. They often mean not right now. Anne shows us that we are every aspect of our business and that marketing well enough to get in front of voice seekers is part of your job, whether you like it or not! If you’re feeling overwhelmed and defeated during the casting process, tune in for some (super) powerful advice… Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I'm excited to bring back to the show special guest co-host Lau Lapides and Business Superpowers. Yay. Hey Lau. How's it going today? Lau: Awesome, Anne. So good to be with you. Love being with you. Anne: I'm so excited for this new series and actually, because you do a lot of casting, and I also do casting as well. I thought it would be a great episode to talk about casting because casting over the years, I'm sure, has evolved and changed. And a lot of times my students wanna know, well, what does it take to get in front of a casting director and impress them so that they get hired? Lau: Sure, it's a biggie. Anne: Who better to ask, Lau than someone that's been doing it for many, many years. Right? So let's talk about like, how has casting changed over the years? Lau: Mm that's a loaded question. I love the theme. I have to tell you, I love the superpower theme because innately, I think for actors, voice actors, there's this feeling of helplessness, of powerlessness, of waiting for a job or waiting for someone to like me. Right? You know, what did I do wrong? Why didn't they cast me? Why didn't they like me? And I love the theme of this show that you chose, because it's all about finding your inner power. Like what ignites us, what empowers us when we get to the casting, when we get to the agency, when we get to the hiring power, hiring people, how do we ignite our own power inside of us? So I love that. I love that. Okay. So it's a hard question to answer in the sense that it's so unique to each person. Every individual is a very, very unique experience throughout their performance life. But you know, I can give you a few tips along the way, in terms of, let's say you're starting out and you're early to market, and you're coming in, you're saying, huh, how do I get people knowing my name and hearing my voice? Well, for casting, I'll tell you one of the things that we're always looking for are people that are submitting a lot. They're really marketing themselves well, and they're submitting a lot, and they're unafraid to submit and resubmit because I think it's a truism in the industry that you're not gonna book the first job. You may not even book the second or third job or the 50th job. So what do we do? We have to have that tenacity, that inner power within us to say, it's okay. I can submit until the cows come home. And maybe, maybe they just don't need my value right now. So I'm not looking at this as a rejection. I'm looking at this as not a no, but a not now. Anne: Right? I love that. You know what, you're the first person that I've ever heard say that, the tenacity, submit, submit, submit, because I think for a lot of talent, they get discouraged, right? They're either like, oh my gosh, I've submitted. I haven't booked anything. And then they get down on themselves. And you're the first casting director that I've heard actually say be tenacious, submit, submit, submit. And actually, you know, I totally agree, because I feel like your name will become known as well to the casting directors. And at some point, I would imagine if you're continually submitting, either at some point, somebody's going to stop and give you feedback, if they feel it's necessary. And also it's just kind of a way to keep yourself top of mind, which is like any good marketing, is to keep yourself top of mind with a casting director. So I wanted to stop and say, thank you for saying that, because I'm sure that you just gave these BOSSes a whole lot more reason to just continue on, and be positive, and just submit, submit. So thank you for that. Love it. Yeah. Lau: Of course. That was my pleasure. And BOSSes listening in, I'm telling you, there are not enough places in the world and your lifetime isn't long enough to submit to every place you could be submitting to. So it's not about waiting for 5, 10, 15, 20 sources. It's about pasting. Like it's global, we're in a global industry now. You wanna cover the globe. So you don't wanna go from local. You don't wanna do regional. You don't even wanna keep it national. You wanna go international. So you wanna think about as you work with your coaches, as you work with your trainers, as you work with Anne, you wanna think about, boy, here's where I am in this market, but how am I viewed in that market? And then how am I viewed in this market? And it becomes an endless journey of how can I get in front of casting and representation that can represent me for that particular genre and that particular brand, which may change, which very well may change. Anne: Now, let me play devil's advocate here from the voice talent perspective and say, how do I find different casting directors that cast in different genres or different places? Is that something that's easily researched? Lau: Well, yes and no. In the sense that nothing is easy But everything's at our fingertips now. Anne: Right, right. Lau: We know this, everything is at our fingertips. So what you need, and I'm like preaching to the choir on this one, but what the BOSSes need is they need a great time management schedule. They need to be honest about what are they committing? I always say what you put in is what you're going to get out of it for your career. Am I putting in an hour, a day, am I putting in 15 hours a day? I'm most likely gonna get more out of it if I'm putting in more time. And the time needs to be very focused time, very incisive time. I need to know exactly, like how does an actor think I need to have purpose. I need to have an objective. I can't just generically go in and hope for work. I have to really, really target in. So let's say, say, I'm looking for casting directors. I know, based on my studio, I know one of the ways you can be seen live and virtually, virtually and live is to do showcases. And showcases are a fascinating event. We produce them and a lot of others produce them as well. And you get to go live in person, whether you're walking into a room or whether you're walking into a Zoom room, you get to meet people. There's nothing better than being in front of a casting director or an agent or a producer and saying, hi, I'm live. This is who I am. This is what I do. I'm gonna do it for you right now. This is a great option to get in front of as many casting people and reps, if you're looking for reps, as possible. A lot of people are afraid of it and they shouldn't be. Anne: Well, and I'm gonna just kind of plug my VO Peeps group. I mean, we do have workouts with casting directors and talent agents. And if you are afraid thinking that you're not ready to be seen or to be showcased, do the work to get yourself performance-wise where you feel confident. Because it's never a guarantee if you're performing in front of a casting director. And I always have to say that. Like, there is no guarantee you'll get work if you come to my workshop that is hosted by me and I have a talent agent or a casting director, but what a great opportunity to kind of showcase your talents. And so again, there's never any guarantee that you'll get work, but it's an opportunity for you to get in front of these people live in a Zoom room for the VO Peeps cases anyways, and then live also with -- Lau has showcases. And I know there's other casting directors as well that do those showcases, and that's a great opportunity to get seen and heard. Lau: It is. And it also will satisfy you. Like if you're doing the Peeps, you're doing the workout, it satisfies that live actor forum in you, where you wanna get some feedback. You wanna meet someone, you wanna talk about what you do. You wanna have the interaction of the room. I mean, that's something we just can't get alone in our studio or alone in our booth. We just can't capture it the way we can live. So I, I do think that's one, really important way where you're in a, either a workout or a casting workshop or a showcase, whatever that is. I would put that right into your time management. I also would work with either Anne, your coach, your trainer to really get together the marketing list you wanna get together of casting directors and of agencies that you can be target marketing. I think that's very important and a lot of talent miss that. I think gone are the days of opening up the phone book. We don't really use the phone book that often anymore. Anne: Well, wait, but wait, the Voiceover Resource Guide is coming back. I have to just do a plug for that because if you -- do you remember -- you've been casting direct for a while. You remember the Voiceover Resource Guide, the printed book? Lau: Yes. Anne: That used to be the only thing that basically gave you information for area coaches, area studios and casting directors, and that is making a comeback. And so it, it is in print and also online. So that's a great resource, and BOSSes, I'll be put in that link in our show notes and also any resources, Lau, that are online that you can share with BOSSes, I'll put that as well in the show notes. So you guys can check that out, but continue on Lau about how talent can get in front of first of all, find them, get in front of, and then how can we make a good impression? Like I think that's really what everybody wants to know. Lau: It is. It is, it is. And, and one more I wanna throw in the mix, Anne, and that is, I want you -- not you I want everyone listening in to think about every person that you meet or get in front of or have email contact with is a prospect. So they are a potential casting director. Anne: Yeah. Lau: They don't call themselves that that's not their title and they wouldn't even know what it is if you ask them, but they're the hiring person. They're the decision maker. They're the person who maybe owns their own business and needs vocal talent, doesn't know that they need them. So as you have your business, you have to think, wow, I am gonna look at my suspects and I'm gonna prospect them. And how do I prospect them? I'm gonna go after every organization, every group that I possibly can, that fits my interest of where my voice is. So for instance, I may go after the women's groups. There's a lot of professional women's groups out there that are wonderful, that would love to know, women and men, that would love to know your voices there, to promote their companies, to promote their products and services, to promote their organizations. A lot of them don't even have voiceovers to do that, right? Why not hit them up? They could be your casting director. What about your local chamber of commerce? What about your BNIs? Right? All of those, those are international professional clubs that you can go into and be in front of 10, 20, 50, 100 people at a time that are great prospects for you to then create what I call the rapport before the relationship. The two R's you have to remember when you're trying to get in front of anyone who's doing casting or hiring is, hey, I have to connect with you. I have to have some sort of authentic connection that you're interested in me and I'm interested in you. And then we have to build a relationship together over time. So it's really working in that sphere of understanding that casting is now global. It's now massive. And yes, you have casting directors proper in each city, in each state, but then you have all these businesses that may very well hire you once they know that you're there. Anne: Sure, sure, sure. And you know, I love that you've brought the term casting agent global now. It's really anybody that has a need for your services and that can hire you. And yes, there are traditional casting agents title only that belong to in studios typically. Right? And their job is to cast voice talent all day. And I like that you created a global job for anybody that hires you for your voice. And that's very true. The one thing I think that, BOSSes, you need to take into consideration is the amount of education necessary to connect and find the need for the job. Right? Because a lot of times we're auditioning, we're auditioning, we're auditioning. We're not getting any feedback. We're not getting any gigs. And we turn it all on our own performance. And I speak on this all the time, because I know that mentality. I have many students that talk about it all the time, and they're like, I don't think I belong in this industry anymore because I'm not getting any work. A lot of time, that work depends on the market. It depends on if there is a need at the time for your voice. And that is something that I think we forget as voice talent. We forget that a lot of it is timing based, right? A company may absolutely love your voice for their product, but if they don't have a campaign or they don't have something ready yet to release, they can't hire somebody. And so you just may be like, I'm submitting, submitting, submitting. And maybe just at that point, right, you might be marketing to them, they just don't need your voice yet. And that's when you're doing that kind of marketing and people are like, well, nobody's responding to me. I'm not getting any feedback to my marketing. Well, that may just be a timing issue. That's all it is. So don't always go to the place where, oh no, they didn't like my voice. Lau: Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, it's a business where we have to personalize everything but we can't take anything personal. Anne: Yes, absolutely. Lau: We just have to understand the difference between personalizing your work and me, Lau, feeling like you hit me, you hit me. Well, I have to be careful of that because then I'll be hit all day long, and it won't be about my value. It'll be about me personally, as you gotta keep it to your value. And I do think, Anne, that there's two factors as I look at the years and years of working with talent and connecting them and auditioning them and all that, two very big areas that are common that are the obstacles, the walls that people have a tough time getting through; identified them as focus and fear. Those are typically the two game stoppers for you that I'm scared. I'm terrified. I don't wanna be rejected. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not good enough. That's the fear factor. And then the focus of like, okay, do I understand my schedule? Do I know what I can authentically commit? Am I really putting in the time and energy I need to, to get the ROI that I'm looking for? And oftentimes folks are not doing it. If they're gonna be really honest and transparent, they're not putting in the time and effort that an entrepreneur that owns their own business really needs to put in, right? Anne: So are you talking now? Are they not doing enough auditions or are they not doing enough work to prepare their performance so that they can get hired or both? Lau: It could be all of the above. When we started the conversation, we were talking about casting. And so for looking at finding and prospecting my own casting opportunities, well, how do I do that? I have to put X amount of time into my work week in order to do that. And there was one more I wanted to hit too, Anne, and that was getting my lists together. And if you're connected to great people like Anne, who may be able to help you with, who are the casting directors, and the casting departments, and the agencies proper in the nation that you can then be going, okay, I gotta send, send, send, send, send, I'm gonna Google. I'm gonna get online. I'm gonna look at doing all of that. And it is a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Anne: It is, it is. Lau: But it's work we have to do in marketing efforts to understand who is hiring, who is submitting, and who is gone now because after COVID, a lot of businesses unfortunately went down or merged and changed. Anne: Yeah. And one thing I wanna point out BOSSes is that we have had a couple of different episodes on email marketing and just make sure if you are submitting or sending information out that you're abiding by rules and regulations so that you're not considered as spamming. And so be careful with that. It's one of the reasons -- and shameless plug, one of the reasons that I created the VO BOSS Blast is that we can market to a list that has already given us permission of casting directors and production companies that have said, yes, it's okay for us to market to. So that is something you guys can take a look at as well as doing your own research. And then it becomes a marketing challenge, right? How are you going to get in front of these people? And again, then it becomes that timing issue. But as Lau stated, you really do have to put in the effort. And I know how many people, they got into this industry thinking it's gonna be all fun and performance in the studio. Well, believe it or not, a lot of the time really isn't until you get that job, right? You've got to get the job. And then once you've got the job, you can't anticipate that that job will be there forever. You have to continually mine for new prospects and getting in front of new people that can cast you and hire you. So Lau, are there differences over the years in terms of what people are looking for today versus maybe 20 years ago? Let's talk about the difference in the types of voices they're looking for. Lau: Yeah. Well, there's been, I know, you know, this Anna huge swing in diversity casting and rightly so. Anne: Absolutely. Lau: That's been a long time coming. And so we've seen that both on camera and voiceover. Anne: Yeah. And I'm so thankful for that honestly. It's just really brought, I mean, these past years, and it's not to where we need it yet, but I'll tell you what. I've really been enjoying hearing and watching and seeing all the diversity. It's just been amazing. And I just wanted to keep continuing, so. Lau: Absolutely. I'm right there with you and it's been happening now -- Anne: It's been wonderful. Lau: -- solidly -- yeah -- for about three years or so, maybe a little bit longer, which is exciting. And now we have to look at, okay, vocal actors, if you're not in that diversity casting pool, that's okay. You have your value and now you have to do the work to say, how do I prospect the right clients, the right customers, the right casting who's going to be interested in what I'm doing and what my sound is? And, you know, be honest, like, are you a proactive person or are you more of a reactive person? And both are just fine. But one of the common denominators of successful entrepreneurs is that they're proactive, in that we're willing to go out and take action and take a lot of action and do it consistently for a long time, whether we get a return on it or not. I mean, that's just kind of the reality. We can't always depend on someone else doing it for us, and we can't always allow someone else to do it for us. There are certain things we just have to take agency of. Anne: Yeah, absolutely. Lau: Right? And our career, our career, our business, VO BOSS, the name of what we do, the branding is ours. And we have to take 100% commitment in that. Anne: Yeah. And you are the marketing department, , you know, you are the accounting department. You are the performance department. You are everything. And just to remind people, and again, I think we forget, we say, I am going to be a voice actor. And so you envision this life where you're gonna be in the studio, auditioning, doing gigs, and the other parts of that business, you kind of say, oh shoot, I have to do those too? And so yeah, you do. And as a matter of fact, that's kind of why there's entire marketing departments in companies that encompass people, like more than one people. And they're full time, as well as accounting people, people full time. So if you wanna run your business successfully, you've got to really remember that this marketing, you may hate it. You can decide to maybe outsource it, but you do have to have control over it being done and/or delegating it to someone. And it is a necessary evil, accounting is a necessary evil. But getting in front of casting directors, people who can hire you, that is a marketing effort and sales really. But if you're doing great marketing, the sales hopefully come automatically. Right? And you don't have to call people up and say, yeah, you know, sell your voice. But if you're doing marketing properly, hopefully it comes your way. And this stems back to a lot of conversations, and I'm sure we can talk about it as well in terms of, is your storefront ready? Do you have your website? Do you have your demos? Are you prepared to market in that respect? It's all encompassing. Lau: And you took the words literally right outta my mouth. That's how I know we're sister sisters. I know this because I was just about to say, I just coached a young man this morning and, and the concern was, ugh, I wanna get to the right agency. I need to be at a big agency. I need to get these kinds of roles. I need to do this. And then when we were actually coaching, there were a lot of issues in his delivery. So always be in coaching, always be training, always have that on your side because casting and agents and producers, you know, really isn't their job to give you feedback. I mean, you're lucky if you get some good feedback from them. A lot of casting were actors before and will just give you feedback, but many won't. And so to have that level of expectation is unrealistic. It's really not their job. Their job is to deal with placement, like recruiters. You're dealing with placement. It's the job of your coach, your trainer, or being in your class. That is really the feedback source that you need to have that piece before you're overly concerned about the business end of it. You don't wanna be marketing something that's not quite ready yet. That's not there or not competitive. Anne: Yeah. I think lifelong learners, I think as performers, whether you are acting on camera, whatever it is, theater and voiceover, I think we continually have to be lifelong learners. I mean, that's, as an educator, that's what I love so much. That's why I was in education I think because I love to learn and I am a lifelong learner. And so that includes your performance and everything that you do and your business to be continually learning. And you have to consider investment. Not everything is free. Sometimes you can train for free. There's a lot of great resources out there, but sometimes you do have to make an investment in it and you can't be surprised by that. And you can't complain. They complain about the cost of coaching, the cost of demos, the cost of marketing. But guys, that's just a reality. That is an investment in your business. And yes, maybe there are some things that cost more than you anticipated, but it is something that I think as a good business BOSS, right, you have to anticipate and you have to put that money away for that coaching. That always helps. So to get yourself in front of that casting director, now you're in front of them. You wanna be able to impress them with your performance and you wanna have something that's relevant and current. And so studying also I think trends, right? Go to iSpot, listen to current commercials, go to YouTube and listen to current voiceover. Now I'm the first person to say that not everything you hear is gonna be the right or great voiceover, but I think you can develop an ear for great voiceover. Lau: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, having that training piece on your side like having it in, in your back pocket, the professional development, the education you're right, Anne, it's just a lifelong thing. And I often tell my clients, we're not off the hook. They somehow look at us and think, you guys are the BOSS. You own the world, you know, everything you're done. Anne: You're getting, you're getting that work for me. . Lau: And I'm telling you, they don't understand that we're always growing businesses. We're always leveling up. We're always investing and reinvesting, and fixing problems, and doing things better. It's never done. There isn't the sense of, oh, I did it. I got my demos. I'm done. No, you're just starting. You're really just beginning. You're not done. You're only at the beginning. And that's what business is like, a general sense. It's like, you always feel like you're starting and restarting based off what your new objectives and your purpose is. Quarter one, I have a new purpose. Now, quarter two comes, I repurpose that. And now I got a new objective. So I have to be able to understand that and know that the truth is our profession is a drop in the bucket, not to minimize the way people feel. 'Cause I totally empathize. Especially in the middle of inflation, believe me, I get you. I get you. But I'm telling you it's a drop in the bucket compared to going to medical school. It is a drop in the bucket compared to my friends who went for an MBA to be a financial advisor. And even actors that are friends of mine that went through three year conservatory degrees come out owing $200,000, $300,000 that they may never be able to pay off. What we are investing, Anne, is incremental. It's not overnight. It's really significantly lower than a lot of other industries out there and what they call upon just to get to the point of an interview for a job. Anne: Right. Now you did mention, and I just was asking like how things have evolved and changed over the years in terms of what casting directors are looking for. And diversity was absolutely number one out of your mouth there. And I agree with that. What else is there? I'm gonna say that natural, believable, authentic style of delivery for sure, which is 90% of casting specs when they come through. Let's talk about that for a little bit. Lau: Mm-hmm. I know that's true. That's the thing everyone gets annoyed with is like, ugh, the natural, the conversational, the connected. Anne: That's the hardest, Lau: it's the hardest. Whether you're a voiceover or an on camera, they just don't wanna hear you act. Anne: Yep, yep. Lau: They just don't want you exaggerated. They don't want you to call attention to your style. They just want to connect to you as a very, very authentic real person. So yeah. It's super important. It's the thing. It represents a whole, actually the largest generation in the United States, which is millennials right now represents them. Right? So that's something we'd absolutely have to pay attention to. Anne: Even promo by the way, even promo is going more conversational by the way. I thought that was so interesting because I hosted Rick Wasserman the other night for VO Peeps. And he said, yeah, they're looking for conversational promo. No more of the announcer style. So. Lau: That amazes me. That really does. That's so true. That amazes me. I wanted to say in casting, now we look for people who have their own built-in audience. Anne: Yes. Lau: That was not a thing. like, I'm not a digital native. I didn't grow up with a computer. Right? Like I literally learned how to turn a computer on at 32 years old. All right. So I'm off the hook a little bit, but the younger generation is not off the hook. They have to come in with their own built-in audience. What I mean by that is a lot of casting will ask you, okay, for your social media, what's your fan base like? What are your numbers like? Who's on your Insta channel? Who's this? Who's that and you're taken aback going, what, why are they asking me this? Because oftentimes they wanna ride. They wanna ride on their coattails of your current audience. Right? So they wanna take people in that already have this built in fan club. So the persona, yeah, the personality really weighs heavily even for voiceover. Anne: And I think that's gonna be that's gonna be another episode, all about social media and social media etiquette, which has become just chaotic. And I think that it's important that as companies and BOSSes, we understand how to represent those companies and our products online. And that's very important, I think, to casting directors these days. So. Lau: Yeah. It's the wild west for sure. And, and dealing with protocol and etiquette but, and again, for listeners who are going, oh no, I'm 55, and I don't know anything about that. It doesn't make you or break you. This is not like, if you don't have it, you're not gonna work. It's just, what are the waves? What are the trends? What are things that we're paying attention to that we find people are really looking for? And that's one of those. Anne: Yeah. Oh good stuff, Lau. Good stuff. Lau: Good stuff. Anne: Thank you so much again for being here and dropping those nuggets of wisdom to the BOSS listeners. I'm very excited for our future episodes. BOSSes, by the way, if you are looking to have your voice make an impact, you absolutely can. And you can give back to the communities that give to you. Visit 100voiceswhocare.org to find out more. And also as always, we love our sponsor ipDTL. You too can connect and network like BOSSes and find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week. Lau, thank you so much. And we'll see you next week, BOSSes. Bye! Lau: My pleasure. Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

The hardest boss you’ll ever work for is yourself. In this episode, Anne & Lau jump into Business Superpowers by recounting Lau’s many interesting jobs and career shifts. She has been an actor, a voice talent, a manager, a professor, but most importantly, she is fierce in the face of fear. If you feel nervous, excited, or scared about a new opportunity, run towards it. What’s the worst that could happen? Failures and mistakes teach you more than success ever will, and with every overnight success comes years of unnoticed hard work. If that’s not enough motivation for you, tune in for the full career deep dive with your favorite self-employed Bosses! Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and today I am excited to start another brand new series, Business Superpowers with special guest Lau Lapides. Lau is founder and president of Lau Lapides Company, a boutique coaching, training, and production company for voice talent and actors headquartered in Boston with satellites in New York City, Miami, and LA. Her programs include hybrid online and in-person workshops, seminars, and one-on-one personalized coaching as well as showcases in New York City, LA, and online. Lau's media and broadcasting career coaches all currently work in television, film, radio, and theater, and their voices can be heard around the world. Lau, it is so much fun to have you here today. Thank you so much for joining me. Lau: I'm so excited to be here. Like I can't believe it. We finally met each other, got together, east meets west. Anne: Here we go. Lau: Here we go. . Anne: I'm just so excited that you agreed to do this. And I'm so excited about our series, the Business Superpowers, because we've got a lot to talk about. So let's start with you so that our BOSSes can get to know you a little bit better. Let's talk a little bit about your history, how you got started, and how you became such a BOSS in this industry. Lau: Wow. Thank you for that introduction. I appreciate it. I always feel like BOSS term in regards to me and personally has been like the overnight success. You know, when someone comes to you, Anne, and says, I wanna have it overnight, I wanna get that dream. Let's go. And I say, yeah, you can be an overnight success. Absolutely. A 40-year overnight success. Anne: Yeah, I always say my overnight success happened 12 years later. Sorry. Or at least you've gotta start with that. Lau: That's right. Anne: It's true. Lau: I always feel that way that it, it really has been such a lifelong process, such an amazing journey. The path splits off in so many directions. It's hard to even think about what the origins really were, but I'll tell you I was a dancer. Believe it or not. I was a dancer. Anne: And I was an engineer, so, wow. That's pretty cool. There you go. Lau: There you go. Same thing in a lot of ways, right? Walking, choreography. Anne: Right. But you don't always think, well, you'd end up with your own company in voice acting and, and acting, so. Lau: No, no. If someone were to tell me that I would do this 30, 40 years later, I would've laughed. I would've fell off my chair. I would not have believed it. So I started off as a dancer who really didn't speak at all. And then I went into an acting career. I had a whole acting career for a good 20 years, went through top level graduate program at UC Irvine in California. And that really changed my life, your neck of the woods. Anne: East and west. Here we go. So . Lau: East and west, east and west. And so after having this extensive theater background, I did a lot of repertory, a lot of regional, a lot of stock, became Equity, became an Equity actor, yada yada, so on and so forth. I ended up at grad school in California. That was really a turn for me. I started getting into a lot of media driven entertainment, started doing more TV/film, started my voiceover as a voiceover talent as a performer, really mid to late 20s. It was kind of later for me and then just kind of launched in that direction. And once I got my master's degree, I became a professor. I became a college and university professor and one of my specialties was to create curriculum . So I made my way back to New York. I lived in New York and I started creating curriculum all while I was acting and directing, 'cause I had also become a director and producer. Anne: I was gonna say, acting curriculum? Lau: Acting curriculum but it was interesting, Anne. The twist is, and this is where the whole BOSS in business situation starts to enter my world, is I was approached by top business colleges, and this was really out of my realm. Honestly, I'll be quite transparent with you. I knew nothing about that. I think I had business savvy, but I had the mind of a creative. Anne: Sure, absolutely. Lau: I was actor, voice talent, director. You know, I was on the other side of it, and all of a sudden I got approached by Harvard. I got approached by Babson. I got approached by Bentley. These were all the top business colleges at that time, now universities, Boston University saying all kind of like the similar theme. What is the problem and how can I fix it? So I knew right away, they all had a problem or a need. And it was, we want programming for our business students that is creative and teaches them how to speak. Anne: Mm yes. Right? Important. Lau: It's very important. Anne: To be, to speak and present. I know that for sure. We have so many parallels, you and I, because I was 20 years in education and started up as an engineer, and I was on the east coast and then started my voiceover career a little bit later. So I had what I consider the creative in the engineering aspect, in the technology aspect and then in education, because I got so geeky and excited about it, I wanted to share it. So then I taught and, and then it just, it became all these passions and loves of mine. And then ultimately I started a full time voiceover career after that and moved west. So we have so many parallels. Lau: Yeah. Anne: And you're absolutely right. The business aspect of things is so important in the creative. I think a lot of students that come to me, and I'm sure you're familiar with this, they feel stuck in their jobs. And they need the creativity, and that's exactly like, what's that problem? Like where's the creativity in your job and where is that outlet? And a lot of times people turn to the creative arts, which is fantastic that you had that left brain, right brain 50-50, which is something that I was always told I was very good at, that you could relate on both sides of the thing. And so fantastic. So now bring us up to date now. You're currently still on the east coast? Lau: Yes I am. And skip 10 years, got an offer to open a studio. It was the right time. I got a brick and mortar. I was very excited about it. Always wanted to have a studio, had been now teaching for a good decade, had been now directing. While I was still performing, I was acting and doing voiceover all the way through. There was something in me, Anne, that wanted to be a leader. And here's the interesting thing I wanted to bring out about being in business programs. I got an education by default. So I started to learn that I could be educated by the students I was teaching. Anne: Oh gosh, yes mm-hmm. Lau: Right? So these were students from all over the world. They were undergrad, graduate, MBA, fast track people, every country in the world. And I started to learn what I needed to know as a business woman to then open a studio. So when I was 40, I opened a studio and I opened first an actor division. First I opened an actor division, and then about two years later came my voiceover division. And this was in the first recession. One of the worst recessions we had in the country was the first five years of my business. And so I knew I was either gonna sink or swim this was it. And somehow we made it through. It started to explode. What I thought was a luxury based business or a dream based business really turned into a reality and something very pragmatic that people were looking for to solve that problem, to fill that need in them. You know, what do I do next in my life? Or how do I restart a career? Or how do I live my dream? And we were learning, we meaning myself and then I hired a staff of like six to eight really amazing coaches from all over the place, to help me realize this team leadership, client centered kind of philosophy that I had in my head after teaching for 10 years all these amazing up and coming entrepreneurs. And so that was an amalgamation of all those years. I had no business model. I should have. I didn't. My business model was hardcore. It was like, my dad always taught me. He was a great entrepreneur. And he said, put the key in the door, show up early and just go to work. Anne: Well, I was just gonna say to you, you talk about, well, I just opened up a studio. Like, oh, it was like literally a split second of our conversation. But in reality, like, I need to know like that is a BOSS move. Like there's a lot of things that go into saying, oh, I'm going to open up a studio. And I'm sure that you probably went through, oh my gosh, like, how am I gonna get the money and will I make money? And you didn't have a business plan, but I love how you just said put the key in the ignition and just go. I think that says a lot for just foraging ahead and manifesting success for yourself because I can only imagine how difficult that is. And BOSSes out there, I mean, as entrepreneurs, this is something that you really need to do when it comes time to taking that leap of faith and going for it and making this a business that you can support yourself with, I mean, and make money. I mean, it's the reason why we create businesses is so that we can make money. And that's just such an important factor. So this is the same studio right now that you're working out of, the one that you've opened? Lau: This is another one. We've moved since, and of course COVID had changed everything for everyone. So, you know, everyone has home studios now. Everyone has condensed down. Everyone has compressed. We are just getting back to live in studio again and traveling. We just came back from a showcase that we produce, our company produces in New York City and then a week-long competitive convention that we are a part of. So we're just literally now getting back to physically getting on a train, going to New York, going back into studios. And that's also part of our mainstay is to connect voice talent to people live if possible in an industry. Anne: So let's talk about the pandemic because as a studio, how did you survive during the pandemic? I mean, you've gotta pivot. So not only are you just opening brick and mortar studios, which have become with the progression of home studios, being something that everybody's got, that's a tough biz anyway, right? So, and then the pandemic, which pretty much just cut off all in person, in studio gigs. How did you survive and how did you pivot during that time? Lau: Yeah, I mean, so I'll take it to a moment 'cause you know how it is about life, Anne. There's so much you can talk about, but you gotta get down to the nugget of what you really wanna say. There was a moment for me in COVID, and to get back to your comments about the putting the key in the door, how does it feel, the terror that you have inside of you, the fear of failure, the how do I make the rental? This is all internal life that I had inside of me, as many BOSSes have inside of the, of saying I have to feel the fear and then I have to do it anyway. So if I feel the fear, I acknowledge it. I affirm it. It's natural. Now I'm gonna do it anyway. I'm gonna take that calculated risk. So to answer your question, there was a moment in COVID where I thought, okay, all production has gone down for actors. Voiceover is still great, viable and running. What do I film now? Like I'm a good, good problem solver. What's the need that we need right now? And at the time I was sitting in Boston thinking, what does New England need? And I came to me, we needed a voiceover division. We have no voiceover divisions that run out of agencies in New England. Like I know out of the major hubs. And I said, huh, how do I create that? So I immediately started reaching out to agency friends and colleagues, 'cause we work with everyone everywhere, and certainly in new England, we know the handful that are out there. And the bite that I got was a, a friend and colleague of mine, Tim Ayers, who's amazing and has Run Model Club Inc out of Boston for many years. He's owned it for about 10, 12 years. And it's been existence for a good 30 years. A lot of us are repped by them in the New England market. And I reached out to him, and he just had that progressive moment of saying, listening to his meshugene crazy friend Lau, just spout on, in the middle of COVID and all he said was yeah, yeah. Do it. I don't know anything about voiceover, so you're gonna have to do that. And I said, great! Not knowing anything, anything about being an agent or becoming an agent. So I had done casting. I had done producing, I was an actor, certainly a voiceover talent, but I had never been an agent. Anne: But you had all the knowledge and all of the industries surrounding it and the things that you would need to know to be a good agent actually. So I think all of you -- this had prepared you for the moment to become an agent. Lau: Right. But going back to your question earlier, which was brilliant is you are in that moment, you feel excited. And then when you realize the reality you go, ooh, that's a little scary. That's a little terrifying. Now I have to know stuff. Now I have to like now I have to lead. Anne: Not just a little terrifying. It's pretty much terrifying. Just saying. Lau: It's terrifying. And then when I felt it, I knew I was on the right track because that was the challenge that -- Anne: When you're scared. Lau: When you're scared, yeah, you need to jump out of the plane. You need to jump off the cliff. You really do. And I always think to myself, and I pass this on to clients and talent. I say, what's the worst that's gonna happen, really? I wasn't sinking a lot of capital or a lot of money into that, you know? No one really knew I was doing it. I said the worst is it doesn't work. It just doesn't work. And that's okay. I will learn a lot from the not working if it doesn't work. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. It's a learning opportunity. Lau: it is. It really is. I think everything is to be honest with you. And I think once we make mistakes and once we do the wrong thing, we learn even more oftentimes than when we do the right thing. Anne: Absolutely. So then you developed your voiceover division. And that is now running strong and now you're starting to come back in studio as well? Lau: Yes. Yes. Anne: Fantastic. Lau: Yes. So, you know, the agency of course is mostly online nowadays, you know. Tim works online. I work online. Very rarely are we seeing actors or voice talent in person. It's just not necessary. It's expensive to do that. It's time consuming. And so we had to learn how to be a hybrid business model. We had to learn that. Anne: Sure, sure. Now what sorts of things are you doing in studio these days? Lau: Well, we have a handful of folks that come to us. And the interesting part about it, Anne, is we have a really unique model. Our model now runs as the studio, which is Lau Lapides Company. That's our training production base. That's totally separate than the agency. The agency is under Tim. He's the owner-operator. I'm his lead agent that launched the voiceover division, MCVO. Anne: Got it. Lau: And they run parallel to each other. And it's fascinating. It's really interesting to see where are the crossovers and where's the distinctive separation, because in essence I'm a, for lack of a better term, a hired consultant to launch a division, but yet we're the ones who know how to run it. We're the ones who know the world. We're the ones who are bringing in all of the talent in the roster. So it's a very interesting kind of parallel that we walk. The people that we see in person, mainly coaching, mainly studio clients that will come in. Maybe they'll need to do a recording or they'll need a coaching session, or they just wanna come in and talk about their career. And there's always a group of people that are geographically local enough to do that and wanna have that in person experience. Then everyone else is online. Anne: Yeah. Technology is a beautiful thing, but also in person is something I think through that pandemic, I mean, people are just desperate to get out for face to face, an in person meetings, sessions. And I think that hybrid is really a wonderful thing. I remember myself when I moved from the east coast to the west coast -- it's funny because you said you wanted to be a leader, and I missed teaching. I missed leading a group, and that's what created my desire to start the VO Peeps. And that was a group that I wanted to lead and bring educational initiatives to. And it's just something that was wonderful at the time. And because I started in Southern California, there was only a certain amount of people that I could reach out to locally. And because I had such a background in technology, I was one of the first meetup groups to both stream meetings personally, as well as onto the Internet. So I had a very hybrid group. And so I could actually at that point become a global networking group. And that became something that I did long time ago, back in 2000 and, I think 2010 I started to do that at the time. Not many people were doing it. And so it became a really wonderful way to just reach out to a much broader audience. So you have such a, a wonderfully wide audience. So even though you're located on the east coast, you have a widespread reach that is global, which is something that, as voice talent today, it's something that we need to address and understand the market in that way. Because gosh, when I started doing voiceover, a home studio wasn't even a thought. It was a luxury. Some people, oh, they dabbled in it. And other than that, you just have to go to the studio and, and audition and do the jobs and getting the work was -- that was before pay to plays. And really the agent was the person who served you. Let's get a little bit more in depth with, let's say the casting processes. I feel like if you had to sum up like, what one thing do you do the most of right now? Or is it all things? Is it casting? Is it performance? Is it managing? What is it that you do that consumes your day? Or what's a day like for Lau? Lau: I would say managing. You brought it up. That's the word managing and management as you know, Anne, is hard. It's challenging. It's about how you deal with temperament, balance, time, energy, you know, it's all those things. How do you have longevity to keep going? How do you maintain stamina? How do you hold grace and not lose your patience? There's so much that goes into an education about how do you run a business? How do you manage people? How do you manage yourself? How do you keep yourself in line? I always joke with my people. I say really, honestly, I work for the hardest boss I've ever worked for. Anne: Yourself. Lau: She's tough. And that's me. Anne: I love that. That's I get. Yeah, I get that. Lau: Like I can stand outside and be honest about that and say, wow, she's a bitch. Sometimes I have to be really tough. And sometimes I have to be really strong, and sometimes I have to be really vulnerable and empathize with situations that I myself may or may not, or I myself may or may not think is a big deal. So I think the management factor of making an eclectic, diverse program run along with the agency division is a lot of the circus plates in the air. It's really a lot of that. And I realize I'm gonna drop plates at times. I realize I'm gonna set myself on fire at times. And I always have some sort of extinguisher waiting, you know what I mean? Like you're gonna get burned. That's just the reality of it. But yeah, so we're coaching all the time. We are working on jobs and gigs all the time. This was a great week for us. We hooked a lot of our agency MCVOs up with some great gigs this week, three big jobs we landed this week. So it's a lot of balancing act, and it's a lot about getting to people quickly, right? People want responses, being responsive quickly. Anne: I have to completely agree with that. And as a manager, right, as a boss, we expect those things of ourselves, of people we're dealing with. And I wanna kind of just bring what you've said in perspective for, let's say, people just coming into the industry. You may not have people to manage yet, but you absolutely have to manage yourself. And also part of the growing and part of growth, even as a small business entrepreneur -- you don't have to open up a studio to be managing things and managing people. Because I've talked about this on previous episodes and I'm sure Lau and I will talk about this as outsourcing. You will have to manage people, manage your business, and to do so successfully requires some skills that you can learn as you go. I mean, I think it's a wonderful thing. Once you become an entrepreneur and you're not necessarily -- you know, I worked in corporate for many years and I worked in education, which is another form of working for someone else. When it comes time to working for yourself, you're probably the hardest boss. And that includes not just the aspects of the business, but you're also hard on yourself personally, because what you're selling is part of a brand of yourself. You are a personal brand. And so not only is it doubly hard, I think, because you don't have a physical product necessarily to offset. Right now, if you're hard on someone, you're also hard on yourself because now you're gonna be hard on your product, which is your voice and your performance. And it's a very personal thing, which makes I think being an entrepreneur in our industry very difficult. You have to try to separate yourself so that you're not affecting your product by being hard on your performance or hard on your growth or lack of growth. Lau: That is beautiful, Anne, just perfect. And you have to play paradoxes every single day of your life. You have to play these opposites, which feel really weird and uncomfortable. Like on one hand, you have to be super hard on yourself so that you can perform, you can produce, and you can do it in a timely manner. And then on the other hand, you have to go easy on yourself. You have to forgive yourself. You have to not hold yourself to standards that are insanely ridiculous. You know what I mean? And you have to treat yourself as a human being because if you beat yourself up too much, you're just not gonna last long. You're not gonna have the esteem and the confidence to really last long in the industry. So you have to play these kind of opposites, this antithetical effect all the time, and go back and forth from it, and kind of say, hey, I need to do this. I need to get this done. It's important, but hey, wait a second. Where's the flexibility in it? How can I do it again better? What did I learn from it? And really kind of fluidly go back and forth from that mindset. Anne: Right. And it's not something, as we both mentioned in the beginning of this podcast, it's not something that happens a few times like a day or week. I mean, we're talking to really be successful in this industry in a marathon, not a sprint, right? Our overnight success took 12 years or 40 years, whatever that is, that is continue -- and I don't know if the fear factor for me got easier or I just dealt with it better because if I'm not doing something every day that scares me, then I'm not growing. And if I'm stagnating, that is the death of me. That is where I felt I was when I worked in the corporate world. I felt like it just wasn't growing. And that is something to me and my psyche and my development is really important. Lau: It's super important. I love that quote too. That's I think a famous Eleanor Roosevelt quote is do something every day that scares you. You know, and never, never, never give up. So there's that element of, yeah. I need to be afraid, but not so terrified that I'm paralyzed. You know, I like to say now analysis can be paralysis. Like don't overthink it too much. Don't overanalyze it too much because you can find a reason why not to do things all the time. Anne: Oh, gosh. Lau: Right? Anne: Oh yeah. Yeah. There's ways -- I'm a good procrastinator on certain things. Lau: I think most people are. Anne: Those are the things I wanna outsource. I wanna outsource those things, but. Lau: But you know what you said earlier, which was so true is like the delegation effect, learning how to delegate, learning how to -- Anne: Let go control. Lau: Yes. Anne: That's me. I'm a control freak. Did you notice that about me yet? Lau: Listen, you and me are gonna start that club because I am a self-professed control freak too. And part of that is a beautiful gift because you wanna have that sense of like, I can fully 100% manage what's going on, but we have to know that, you know, at the end of the day, we don't really have control over anything. It's like an illusion, you know? Anne: You're right. And I'm learning as I grow that it's impossible for me to grow without delegating and letting go control because I'm only one person with only so many hours in a day. And so I cannot grow my business without letting go of some of that control and trusting. And then it becomes a whole 'nother lesson I think in growing your business is trusting your team and getting people on board with you that believe in you, believe in your process, believe in the company and that you have a mutual respect for each other. And I always say that, you know, I treat my employees like gold because they really are gold to me, and I make sure they're paid well. I make sure all those things that scare me and say, oh my God, can I afford to do this? Do I have a budget? I make the budget. Right? And so again, you have to throw out a lot of faith, a lot of faith that things will come to you if you put it out there and that you are putting your faith in your employees and they have a sense of loyalty and pride and want to work with you for success of the company. And that's a really hard thing if you're not used to doing that, if you've worked for someone else for all your life and that's scary thing. Lau: And it's a skill. You're right, it's a soft skill. But ironically, it's a hard skill. It really is. And you need to cultivate it to some degree because you want to have your team, your village, your tribe, whatever you call them, no person is an island. I'm telling you, I could not build the studio myself. I had my family, my husband, my own children who now work in the business with me. I mean, it's immense, the help that and assistance that you need as you grow. And just like identifying, you have to be able to identify who are my people that are really great, and they're supportive, and they're helpful? And then who are the people who are the growth people? Those are the people who can really help you grow and level up in your business to the next tier and really not mixing up. Yeah, not mixing up the two, 'cause they're very different people, equally valuable and equally loved. I'll use that word love. I think you need to love people. Anne: And -- I agree -- and of course, even harder I think is if the people are not necessarily a fit for you and in letting go and in making that decision. There's that whole boss-employee kind of relationship. Are they friends as well? And there's a lot of delicate things in there, which, oh gosh, we could spend a whole 'nother podcast probably talking about that. Lau: We could, we could spend forever talking about that. . Anne: And actually I think we will, but I'm gonna say for today, Lau, thank you so much. It's been a wonderful privilege to have you coming on the show. I'm excited for our future episodes of BOSS Superpowers, of Business Superpowers. And so thank you so much for your wisdom today and telling us a little bit about yourself. And BOSSes out there, I want you to know that as individuals, sometimes it can seem difficult to make a huge impact, but as a group, you can help contribute to the growth of our communities in ways that you never thought possible. And you can visit 100voiceswhocare.org to learn how. Also a great, big shout-out to my sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect and network like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Thanks so much, Lau. Bye. Lau: Thank you, Anne. Loved it. Anne: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Iterate or evaporate. In this episode, Anne & Erikka are here to get you out of a funk. Whether it’s a slow season in your genre or you are feeling like work isn’t coming as easily as it did a few months ago, your hosts are here to cheer you on. Connecting with a community can help motivate you, but really the only person you have to impress is yourself! This industry requires you to be consistent, tenacious, and ready to keep going even when it feels impossible. Reflecting on recent accomplishments or setting new goals can reignite that fire. Maybe you need to journal about why you got into voice over in the first place. Whatever it is, we are here for you and if you need a little boost, put this episode on repeat! Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I'm happy to be back this morning, having a balanced breakfast with my good friend, Erikka J. Erikka! Yay! How are you? Erikka: Hey Ann. I am good. I did not have a balanced breakfast, but. Anne: Erikka: I'm coming back balanced and refreshed from vacation. Anne: Well, there you go. Erikka: That's great. Anne: And since we wanna remain with our theme of balance, I wanted to ask you, it seems like you had a wonderful, luxurious vacation. Did it restore the balance to your creative and professional life as well as your personal life? Erikka: I think so. I think so, but it was crazy because kind of looping back to what we said in earlier episode, I had like a chaotic day, right before I left. I know we've talked about like having backups and all those things, and man, did it save my behind because -- Anne: Ah, very important. Talk about it. Let's talk about it. Erikka: Oh my goodness. I had a SAG video game session that I've worked with once or twice before, but still, you know, those are like super exciting, but also wanna make sure everything's right. So had everything set up. They had me on Zoom first and they get on SourceConnect. And for whatever reason, Zoom and SourceConnect hated each other that day. And like my interface wouldn't work, and my DAW wouldn't work and it was just like, ohhhh, like. Anne: That's tense. That's a tense situation. So what happened? So what happened? Erikka: Luckily I had backups, Anne. Anne: Ooh! Erikka: So so I switched from my Apollo right over to my Audient, and I switched from Adobe audition right over to Pro Tools, which they use too, so they were super cool with. And I actually heard them comment, "isn't it great when an actor like knows what they're doing with the technical stuff?" Anne: Ooh. Score. Erikka: And I was, like -- Anne: That was awesome. Erikka: Yes! Anne: And you know what? I absolutely am quite sure that's gonna have a big bearing on them wanting to work with you again. Erikka: Well, I'll tell you what, it was also a very nice way to kick off vacation by not leaving a session, like, oh my God, I screwed up. It was like, it all worked out in the end. So then I could go on vacation happily and you know, relax. So it was great. Anne: Wow. Well, congratulations on that for sure. Erikka: Thank you. Anne: I know that for me, like when I go on vacation, I'm very much all on or I'm very much all off. And when I go on vacation, I can completely, thankfully I can completely disconnect. And then I find that when I get back, it's tough to motivate myself again. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: So I figured it would be kind of a good thing to talk about. How do you motivate yourself? And then also, how do you motivate yourself when, during the course of your voiceover career, let's say, things aren't working out the way you expect? I know a lot of people come to me, you know, I'm not booking and it's just really frustrating. And how do you self motivate when you're just coming off a vacation or when the chips are down? Erikka: Oh boy, that's something that I think is like a muscle that we have to keep toned in this business, you know? Because there's so many things that can not help to keep us motivate -- Anne: Demotivate. Yeah. Erikka: Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, you're not booking or whatever, but coming back off a vacation, it's like, yes, you've had this refresh, but it's always like hard to get back in the saddle, right? So usually what I'll do is I'll have at least one day of rest to make sure that like, I don't have -- Anne: Once you come back. Erikka: I'm typically still booked out. Anne: Yeah. I love that. Yes, I do that too. I book out one extra day when I come back for that jet leg or whatever it is. So you can just relax and kind of get yourself geared back up. Erikka: Yep. And if I see like an audition I really wanna do, I might try to do like one or two just to kind of like warm up getting back in the booth. Anne: Sure. Erikka: But you know, that way it's kind of my choice, 'cause I've already said like, hey, I'm booked out this day. Anne: Important question though. Did you completely book out during that vacation? Did you bring any equipment with you? Erikka: I did. So I have that Shure MV 88, which is plus, which is super tiny and it's so small that I don't mind carrying that. I stopped carrying around my 416 and my interface, 'cause that just felt like -- it was hard to be on vacation yeah. And I always get stopped by TSA. Like it's a microphone. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. Me too. Erikka: So I did bring it with me, but yeah, I didn't record a single thing on vacation. It was great. Anne: Good. Congratulations on that. Yeah. Erikka: Thank you. Thank you. Anne: Absolutely. Erikka: Yeah. So self-motivating, man, you gotta -- there's a lot of different things, whether that's warming up to get back in the booth and then thinking about why are you doing this? You know, what are your personal goals? What are your professional goals? What about you, Anne? Anne: Well, I think a lot of times, if you're getting frustrated, when let's say work, isn't coming your way or you didn't book that audition or you're not sure what's happening, obviously number one, it happens to all of us. So just know that. There are times when things can be slow, and things may not be happening the way that you expect them to. So number one, know that you're not alone. Number two, reach out. I think reach out to somebody that can be an accountability buddy or, or just a friend in the industry that can help you motivate, get yourself back on track. And just to kind of reinforce the fact that you're not alone, and maybe they're having some slow moments too, or maybe they're not, and then that may or may not make you feel better. But but for sure, I think know that it happens to all of us and reach out and communicate. Don't just let it sit inside you and fester. Erikka: Fester, yes. Anne: Because I think that just is like a self-fulfilling prophecy, you know what I mean? It just, it's hard to get out of until somebody can help snap you out of it. And so, Hey, just put this VO BOSS episode on repeat. So whenever you're down, and you need motivation to say it's okay and it happens, there are slow times in the industry. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Keep plugging away at it. It is a marathon, not a sprint. What other things do we say? Interestingly enough, Erikka, I've been in this industry over 15 years, and honestly it does take tenacity, and it takes consistency and staying with it. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Now obviously if you haven't booked in a year, that might be an indication that maybe you need some other outside help or maybe performance technique or something else. Maybe you're not marketing enough. But I think for the most part, when you go through these lulls, for sure, just understand that it does happen and reach out so that you're not in this self-sabotaging moments of saying, that's it; I can't do this or this isn't for me and quit, because it is a marathon. It is a marathon. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. And I think what you said is important about like, not just reaching out, like remembering that that also includes like coaches or, you know, finding workshops that maybe you need just need a refresh. Everybody still needs to train. I just had a class on Thursday when I got back. But you know, also sort of honing in on what exactly. like what's the problem? You can't really solve it until you know exactly what's missing. Is it that you're not reaching out enough and you're not drumming up enough leads? Or are you getting the leads and not quite landing the auditions? Maybe it's audition technique, 'cause maybe once you're in the job, it's great and they love you, but you're not getting the attention and standing out from the pack. Just sort of honing in on what is it that I need to work on to drum things up and knowing what the lulls are in the industry is key. Because it may not be you; it may just be the time of year, you know? Anne: Yeah, and also, not just the time of year, but the genre that you're working in as well. Erikka: Yes. Yeah. Anne: Like there are certain genres that probably don't let up, like if you're in promo, right? And you're the voice of a show, you will have a schedule that will be somewhat predictable when the show is running or before the show -- whatever it is, you'll be on a schedule for those particular jobs. Versus let's say commercial: if you're the voice of a particular campaign, there may be a lot of work at once and then the campaign might be over. And so then you're onto the next campaign. If it's e-learning or corporate, it could be kind of hit or miss, you know, sometimes it's feast or famine, that sort of thing. Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: And just understand that when there is a famine, I think that's the time when you have to step back and increase the marketing levels, increase your, you know, reaching out to your contacts, making sure that you're continually on the lookout for that next client. I think you really should never be complacent if you're busy and when you're busy. Always be on the lookout for finding that next client, because you just never know when that job may end. And I think for me, I don't expect anything -- Erikka: Yeah. Anne: -- from my clients and the more predictable the work is, obviously the more comfortable and the more confident you're gonna be. So for me, I've got some regular clients that I know in advance like what jobs are coming up. And that gives me a source of confidence so that I can go and audition for more jobs and maybe a different genre and take some chances there. Because I always like to mix that up. Erikka: Absolutely. Yeah. You don't wanna be taking all your risk at one point and then you don't have anything going on. You wanna kind of have your foundation, you know, know your, what your business plan is, know what your strategy is to keep yourself balanced, right, and to keep your balance sheet in balance. Anne: Absolutely. Absolutely. Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So those are all, all great things. Anne: And I think we talk about like goal setting in a recent episode. You know, I think goal setting is important because we can lose sight of -- within that goal setting, we write things down. We also not just write our goals down, but our accomplishments. And if you're doing that on a timely basis, on a weekly basis, a monthly basis, whatever that is, going back and taking a look at your progress and your accomplishments is going to be something I think that you can always keep track of. And that can also help to motivate you to say -- you know, I was thinking I haven't been busy, but in reality, I got that job. Or, you know, I got that wonderful testimonial from that client. Or I made contact with a bunch of new production houses that I'm on the roster. Whatever that is, you can take a look at what has happened so far. That's why I think keeping track in goal setting and writing down your accomplishments and goals that have come to fruition, I think that's so, so important. Erikka: Absolutely. Like my metrics are super self-motivating for me. And it actually has kind of pulled me out of a, oh, I don't think I'm doing as much work. You know, I haven't been feeling well, all of this. And then I go back, and I look and I'm like, well, it's not that bad. You know, and maybe it's not as bad as I kind of -- we, we inflate these things in our head, but when you go back and look at the numbers, especially like, what I do is I'll definitely look at my year over year. So I'll see I did this last March and you know, this this March and kind of get an idea of where I'm at, looking at incomes, you know, a number of auditions that I did, bookings, and even like callbacks. Like if I got a callback in a genre that I haven't gotten a call back in before, that is progress, and that's showing that, you know, I've gotten better. So all that stuff is incredibly self-motivating. Anne: Well, you know, you mentioned income, and I'd like to touch upon that just a little bit. I will say that for me, of course it's about voiceover. But for me, it's also about being the entrepreneur, and the entrepreneur is someone who can design their business so that it can be profitable and fruitful both in self-fulfillment as well as let's say financial, and I am not ashamed to say that that is part of a game for me. I like to make money. It helps me to support the household and the family, and I'm not ashamed to say that. And I think there's a lot of us that, especially when starting out in the industry are very timid. "I'm not experienced enough. I'm not good enough yet. I need more training." And they're very timid about charging a particular amount, charging what they're worth. We've touched on charging what you're worth, you know, multiple times in this podcast. But I will say that if you charge what you're worth, and even just once in a while, throw out a number that you think is ridiculous. When you get that number, that is a motivator, like no other . Erikka: Yes, totally agree. Totally agree. And being able to kind of, tying that in with goals and the income thing, is making sure that your goals are -- and I wanna be cautious with the word realistic. And what I think I really mean is incremental and iterative. Anne: Yes. Erikka: So it is okay to set astronomical goals for yourself, but make that a long term thing. Anne: Yes. Erikka: What are the steps to get there? If you wanna make $100,000 in voiceover, what is it gonna take for you to make per month, per week, per day? How many reachouts or, you know, whatever your lead generation strategy is, what do you need to do to to generate that number? And then taking a look at where you landed and kind of setting for the next iteration, what's a more realistic goal for me if I didn't hit it or, oh, I did go over. So maybe I need to reach a little harder because you put that into the universe, I really believe that you can limit yourself by kind of having lower goals. But if you have somewhere in the sweet spot, it can help you be very motivated. Anne: Yeah. And I do wanna continue a little bit more on that financial aspect of it, but if you have a cushion, if you have been able to, if you have a great repeat client, if you have -- or anything, not even, even if it's voiceover, if you have another job, right, that you're making income and you have some money that you have put aside, and this is my voiceover business investment money -- once you have the confidence of having money in there, I believe it is a true motivator to allow you to take more risks in your business. Erikka: Yes, totally agree. Anne: And that to me has been honestly, something that has helped me grow exponentially, just that confidence that I don't have to worry about the money because I've got money set aside for investment. I have a little bit of time to kind of strategize and calculate what can I do now to make money? And again, without people thinking I'm greedy, 'cause I don't like to classify that as greed at all. It's a simple acknowledgement and understanding that money makes the world go around right now, and I need to pay a mortgage. And so with that hardcore realization, to me, it becomes a challenge. "Okay. How can I have enough money set aside and reinvest that money so that I can make more money?" Erikka: Yep, absolutely. Anne: So that I can maybe invest in a good vacation that will help me reset myself creatively, which is something that I need and is coming up in the next year. You know, I've made plans to go on a nice vacation. That is something that I think is not only helpful for me personally, but also professionally because it's going to help me to reset. And so many of us have certain blocks for money. And once we realize what those blocks are, we can work to kind of clear those blocks and just, without getting too woo-woo, right allow the abundance, allow the money and not be ashamed or feel bad about it or simply accept it and allow it to come into our lives. 14:30 Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. So keeping that balanced mindset, not one of scarcity, but one of abundance and welcoming that not just money itself because yes, I love making money too. And recognizing that you have value when you are voicing these projects. You are helping these companies make money in some type of way. Anne: Exactly. Erikka: So you should be compensated for it. There's nothing wrong with that. But this money can allow you, you to not just hitting the number goal, but it can allow you to reach personal goals. Like maybe paying off debt or helping a parent or a child go to college or whatever. So it's a tool. Money is a tool that you can use to do things in your life. You work for it, you should get it, and there's nothing wrong with setting goals based on that. Anne: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the biggest money blocks that I faced when I was growing up was that my father was supposed to be the head of the household and making the money. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: And my mother was raising the children, right? And bless them both, love them both, but that was kind of what I was raised with. But thankfully my parents were always encouraging, saying I could be whatever I wanted to be. I didn't feel like there was a limitation, but just because it was something that I grew up with, and I saw, as I became a business owner, should I feel bad that I'm making more money? I remember when I was going out to get a job, I'm like, well, how much money should I make? Like that was an actual thought in my head. Well, if I get married, my husband should make more money than me, and I, you know, of course immediately put a stop to that. But I don't want that to be a limitation at all for that. So it was always like, well, as a woman, I shouldn't be making as much money. And of course I put a stop right to that in today's world. Heck no. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: You know? For me -- Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. I always wanted as much as possible. Anne: Yeah, exactly. And for me, believe it or not, you wanna talk about how we're motivating, how to motivate when the chips are down, that's a motivator. It is a motivator. And so I am continually trying to improve. And when I set my goals and again, I love that you said the incremental-iterive not outlandish goals, but when you set decent goals that are incremental, and you hit those goals, that becomes such a motivator. Erikka: Yes, yes. Anne: And again, it doesn't consume my business, but it absolutely drives my business because you want to be successful. And so to be successful, I'd like to make a profit for this because it is my full-time career. Now, if you're in voiceover, and maybe it's your part-time career, I want you to have a goal of making money as well, because I don't want you to not care about it because then it will drive down, let's say, it may drive down the valuation in the industry, right? So every one of us should get paid, whether we're working full-time or part-time, we should get paid what we're worth. Erikka: Absolutely. Think about, even if it's, if it is part-time or just side money for you, think about what you could do with that extra money, and maybe that'll help you keep your rates up like vacations. You know, just went to Cabo and it was gorgeous. It could be saving for retirement. It could be saving for college for kids. It could be saving to take care of an aging parent. It could be just investing, you know, go buy an investment property. So don't see it as just, oh yeah, I'll do this for $100 because who cares? Anne: It's just a hobby for me. No. I want you to turn that thought around and say, hey, demand the money that you're worth and concentrate on the clients who are willing to pay you what you're worth. Erikka: Indeed. Anne: And try to even change the notion that there are some jobs that may not be worth as much. I mean, I think a lot of that is our own self-inflicted limitations on what we can charge for a job. I mean, a lot of times, you know, we have talked about negotiation before. You know, the person who mentions money first usually loses. And so always asking for a budget really helps because one of the last jobs I asked for a budget, and it was literally five times bigger than the budget I had in my brain. And I said, oh, I think I can work with that. Right? And that was a great motivator that -- Erikka: Yep. Anne: Right? Erikka: Exactly. Anne: I'm like -- Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: -- wow. You know, I could actually get that money for that job and I didn't feel guilty. I didn't feel like it was overcharged because again, like you've mentioned, you're helping a business to make money. And so, you know, you are absolutely worth the money, and even if it's more than you think. And that really, I think helps to set like little benchmarks for like, okay, so I got paid for this particular genre this amount and you know what, it's not impossible that I could get paid that again or not more so. Erikka: Agreed. And even some like external motivators 'cause we wanna balance what's motivating us, right? 'Cause money is great. Money's important. Money is probably the main reason that most of us are doing this. We wanna get paid and compensated for our time and talents. But understanding that there are other motivators as well, in addition to other goals you can set, it can be personal, just kind of growing your artistic muscles and being a great actor, but even external motivations like awards. I think that awards showing achievements that you've made in certain categories, for one, I think that they are a marketing and advertising tool, which is great to drum up new business. And it's nice to be recognized by your peers and to be able to say, I did such a great job on this that I was awarded for it. So those can be great too. Anne: Absolutely. There is such a difference of opinion with some people about the awards. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Are they valid for us or not? But I think any type of recognition from our peers, that's validation. There's so many times when, again, we're such an isolated business and it's such a personal aspect of our brand that we're being judged on. Whether we get paid or not, right, whether we get that job or not, right, it is a personal part of us that is being valued, right? It's our voice. And so if we can have other people say, wow, great job, that really, really helps to motivate. And that includes award ceremonies. And again, there's the whole argument, well, you're paying for the award. Well, like you mentioned, consider that in investment in marketing. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: Does it really make a difference? I say, yeah, it does. I mean, it makes a difference to the person who may not be familiar with the voiceover industry, and they say, well, they've been awarded, so they must be good. I'm not necessarily marketing to voiceover people when I get an award on my voiceover work. I'm advertising to companies or other people that might hire me for the same thing. And it does leave an impression. Erikka: Yeah. Think about, I know that we've all either had a product or a brand or something that we've seen, and they have on their website when they've been talked about in certain magazines or when they've earned certain awards. Again, we are businesses as well. So why would we see this as any different? There's nothing wrong with it. And if you have the argument, what does it help? My retort would be how does it hurt? Anne: Yeah. Agreed. Erikka: You know, like -- Anne: That's a great retort. Erikka: Hey. Anne: I mean, why not? So. Erikka: Why not? Get dressed up and have fun with your friends. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I also think it's like, so anybody that knows me kind of knows that I'm a little competitive as I laugh, just a tiny bit competitive. And just the competitiveness of it all, even if I don't win, right? Erikka: Right. Anne: Which, you know, I'll be like rrr, but anyways , but even that little bit of competition is stirs up my adrenaline. Right? It's just fun. Erikka: It's fun. Anne: And again, it's something that wakes me up out of complacency. I think if you're not motivated, you're complacent. And complacency for me is like a dead end. It is a place where I can't grow and a place where ultimately I'll just get bored, and it's just not a place to be in my career. Erikka: Yeah. I don't know if I've said this quote before on this podcast, because it's like one of my favorites. So forgive me if it's a repeat, but one of my favorite quotes, because it's so short is iterate or evaporate. Anne: Ooh, I like that. I've never heard that. Erikka: I love it. It's like keep getting better, keep doing things and kind of going back and looking at how you're doing, or you're going to fade away. Anne: That's the nicer way of saying evolve or die. Erikka: Yeah. Exactly. Anne: Yeah, exactly. Which is one of my favorite Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: Actually that's so funny. Iterate or evaporate. Okay. So I'm gonna say that from now on. I like that. That's great. Yeah. So any other ways that we can help to self-motivate? Sometimes you just have to go on muscle memory, I think, you know what I mean? And just know as much as you're not feeling it, you're feeling low, you're feeling down, you're depressed maybe because you haven't booked a gig in a while. Just kind of going on memory again, play this podcast, and know that things will change. Things will change if you keep going, keep plugging away, be consistent. I think co consistency is key. Erikka: And remembering that yes, we have all these external factors like, you know, awards and money and all these things we've talked about. But personally, and as an internal factor, remember why you started. You know, why do you love voiceover? Why are you here? Why are you doing this? Why are you spending money on all this equipment and this training? And if you can get back to that love, that drive that got you started, that can be sort of a nice refresh to get you motivated to keep going. Anne: Yeah. What a wonderful way to end on this, Erikka. I love that you said it because when you remember why you got into it in the first place, that passion, that love it comes out in your performance. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: And there's no denying that can vibrate from your soul. Right? The passion and the love that you have for it. It really, I think it's infectious, you know? And it draws people into listening. And so I think that's a really wonderful way. Hey, wanna improve your performance? Remember why you started in the first place, bring that passion back to your reads. Erikka: And that passion might get you booked. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. Back -- Erikka: You'd be surprised. Anne: -- your leads, back to your marketing, bring the passion back to every aspect of your business, and it can only grow from there and move up. So. Erikka: You know it, indeed. Anne: Excellent, excellent episode, Erikka. Starting our morning outright with a balanced breakfast. Erikka: Or a balanced conversation for those of who just have simple carbs. Anne: A balanced, balanced motivation. So, ah, I love it. I love it. I love it. So I'd like to give a great big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. And also BOSSes, here's a chance for you to use your voice, to make a difference and give back to the communities that give to you. You can find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org. You guys, have an amazing week, and we'll see you next week. Bye! Erikka: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

In order to tell a story, you have to understand it. This week, Anne & Erikka discuss how to harness musicality to make the most out of your reads. Singing can teach you a lot about breath control, pacing, and emotional expression. Taking deep, diaphragmatic breaths will keep your air flow strong. This prevents you from breaking up ideas & phrases with pauses which ultimately interrupt the story you are telling. Knowing your voice and its capabilities can inform your daily workflow & schedule. Tune in to learn how you can harness the power of your voice… Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast and our balance series. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am thrilled to have back special guest co-host Erikka J. Erikka J, yay. Erikka: Hey, Hey Anne. How are you? Anne: We're kind of singing that. Erikka: Yes we are. Anne: You know, you are a singer. And I was thinking about this because I used to play an instrument for many years and I also sang for quite some time. I was an avid choir member and swing choir member as well, kind of like the glee club. And so it's interesting because it affects how I teach voiceover. So I teach voiceover with like conversational melody. And it's very interesting, 'cause I'll talk about, okay, start on your middle C. And then when you're going to inflect important words, that's pretty much just a tiny nuance of a step up. It's not like crazy notes. It's C to a C# or C to a D. And I thought, because you're a singer, we could really have a conversation about how there is a melody to our voice as we are speaking. We're not necessarily singing, but when we're talking and we're communicating, there's absolutely a melody. Erikka: Absolutely. But you have to keep it in balance. You don't wanna get sing-songy because then it starts to sound like, you know, old school commercials and nobody pays attention. It's not conversational anymore. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: But yeah, for sure. Anne: So let me ask you, you were a singer before you were a voice artist? Erikka: Yes. Anne: So what skills that you developed as a vocalist, how do they help you as a voice artist? Erikka: Oh man. So definitely for one was breath control. Anne: Ooh. Erikka: Yes. Anne: That's an important one. Erikka: When you get those really long run on sentences or those big words, and it's like, we gotta make it work or you gotta read speed through the disclaimers or whatever. I'm like, boom. You know, like . Anne: Look, and you just did a nose breath. I love that. I teach nose breath. Erikka: Yeah. I don't even do mouth breath. I don't even think it's automatic. Yeah. Anne: That's awesome. Because, so I talk about nose breath because it helps you to really get a deep diaphragmatic breath. Erikka: Yes. Anne: And there's nothing more powerful, right, than to deliver words when you're not afraid of running out of breath. Right? Erikka: Indeed. Yes. Yes. Because your brain is gonna be like, oh my God, I can't breathe, I can't -- Anne: Right. And that's all you can think about. You can't think about the story you're trying to tell when you're exactly gasping for breath. And honestly, I think there's something to be said for understanding the music before you sing it a little bit or kind of understanding the phrasing of the music, because for me, words and stories are broken up into phrases or clauses as my, my English teacher would say. And in those phrases, you don't wanna run outta breath. You don't wanna like stop. Like I am talking to you all staccato, like William Shatner. . You know, you wanna be able to have that -- here, it's a smooth phrase and I'm just talking. And if you guys, the BOSSes out there, you're listening to this right now is we're talking to one another, we're not breathing in the middle of our words. We're breathing either before we say them or at a comma. And if you run outta breath, like that's all you can think about. So you can't have a conversation while you're continually gasping for breath. Erikka: It's still a balance. Anne: Yeah. Talk to me about those diaphragmatic breaths for you. Erikka: So it's definitely, like I said, the support in being able to get through those long phrases, but it's also, like you said, finding the commas and that's not necessarily the commas that are written on the script. And I think that's important to keep in mind. When you're doing a conversational method of speaking, there are gonna be times when maybe, you know, you're in the middle of thinking. Like I just paused right now and I kind of, you know, I might take a natural breath there and that's okay. So it doesn't have to be, I have one breath for the entire sentence. Just now when I'm speaking, you can hear, there are some points where I'm breathing and it's just natural. You wanna keep the natural breath in there, but not the, oh my God, I ran outta breath, and I gotta breathe. Anne: Oh my God, just, I'm at the end of the, I'm at the end of the sentence now. Erikka: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So those are incredibly supportive. Anne: And it's funny because I had to kind of learn how to breathe even better after I had surgery way back in 2012. And it's interesting. That's when I started really doing nose breaths and diaphragmatic breaths, and it's incredible how confident it makes you feel. And so it really allows you to concentrate on the story that you're telling again. And you can deliver those words. Erikka: Yeah, yeah, I can -- Anne: Just when you want to. Erikka: I can feel them in my posture. Like it actually, like, I feel like it makes me sit up because it's like, your lungs are full, and it's like, I've telling this story. You know, this is my message. And you shall listen to me. Like it's . Anne: Yeah. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: And I think it's very similar to swimmers. Like I used to take swimming lessons and be like, okay, how long can you hold your breath underwater? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: It's a muscle that you can develop. So if you are in your booth, and sometimes you just don't anticipate long, unwieldy sentences. Boo on you, because you should understand at least at some point in your analysis of it, right? I always say go through the script like a first grader so that you kinda have an idea of where those long-winded sentences are and you know where you're going to breathe. You kind of have to plan where you're gonna breathe. So it's not at every single comma, but like you said, it can be in implied commas. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: And those are the only times you should have to breathe. And the cool thing about this is if you do that, if you breathe only like before you read a sentence or after, or at the commas or implied commas, then you have much less editing to do. And those of us, which I think Erikka, you are with me, we do long format narration a lot, it lessens the amount of editing you have to do afterwards. Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. Anne: And if you're talking about a piece of copy, that is an hour finished audio, right? And you're just getting rid of the big [air intake] before the sentence, versus trying to place those words in the proper place because you ran outta breath and now you're trying to piece it together so it sounds reasonable, well, that's maybe four or five or six movements, right, or edits in your software, not including the ones that you take in the beginning. So if you take a good breath in the beginning, you just wipe that out. That's one movement or one mouse swipe compared to four or five, when you're trying to rearrange sentences to make 'em sound decent, which they never do because you've pieced them together when you've run outta breath. And when you run outta breath, your inflection is off. Erikka: Yes. Yes. You're breaking up the story. And like you, you mentioned the swimming analogy. Another thing that like music kind of taught me was budgeting my breath because it could be, I've taken this deep breath. I might have to hold this long note or a high note. You can't like take a breath and then keep holding the note. It kind of, it kills the vibe. It's the same thing with speaking. If you breathe in the wrong place, it doesn't, it just doesn't work. Anne: Now, I like how you said, hold the note. Like if you get really technical about it, right? Holding the note doesn't necessarily mean that you have sound on the note. Right? So for example, I said, right. And I lengthened that. That's like, I would say an emphasized word, which I attribute to a whole note, right? Versus the words leading up to that important emphasized word, which would be half notes, quarter notes, 16th notes. The ones that aren't as important as the long note that you're holding. So I'm just saying that holding the note, you don't always have to have sound. And what I mean is when you are pausing, notice how I says when you are pausing. Notice how I didn't go when. you are pausing. So you're holding that note and that kind of meshes your words together. That sounds very natural. There's a lot of times when I'll tell people you're on the precipice. Don't cut in between your commas. Don't cut the words off, because what it does is it cuts off the idea of the phrase. Because you don't want it to be here, I am going to talk to you in a very crisp voice. And even though I sound conversational, I'm sounding very articulate. So that holding on the precipice of like, I'm about to, right? I didn't say I am about to. I said, I'm about two. So I held my breath and I think that's important for the natural sounding melody. Erikka: Absolutely makes you sound more relatable. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: And like, you're actually a person and you're not talking at people. You're talking with someone. That's the difference. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Absolutely. Do you have any exercises that you do like that you used to do to warm up when you were singing that are similar for voiceover? Erikka: I am your classic horrible singer in terms of warming up. We are bad about it. And I'm the first to admit. Anne: Now why is that? 'cause there's -- Erikka: We're just lazy. Anne: -- so many exercises. Well, there's so many exercises out there, and it's funny because -- Erikka: I know. Anne: -- it's always like, okay, what should I warm up with? What should I warm up with? And honestly, do I do warmups every single day before I voice something for an audition? I might, if I just got up out of bed. I'm not hydrated or my mouth hasn't moved, you know? Erikka: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anne: So, but other than that, it's funny. Sometimes I do a lot of telephony, and little secret, sometimes I warm up with my telephony jobs 'cause they're short. Erikka: Exactly. Anne: You know what I mean? And so honestly I can say those words and those sentences over and over again. And then that helps me to warm up. But I have a great app on my phone called Appcompanist, which my singing instructor Armie -- I'm gonna actually put a link to her 'cause she's amazing -- she got me turned onto that, but that's like, you can sing your scales, and that's helpful to help you get to a vocal placement that you might want to be in. Erikka: You bring up a good point. That it depends on like what you're about to do, because typically because I know that I'm bad about warming up, and I know some things, like you said, singing scales, like bumblebee to get your, you know, blah, blah, blah, your tongue going too, and then like straw foundation and all those kind of things. Or even just singing a song that you know, is close to your natural range. Like, you don't wanna stretch for really high or really low in your first words of the morning. But if I have something like a quick job, like you said, like telephony or in-store messaging or something, and it's where my voice naturally is when I first wake up, which is kind of lower Viola Davis in the basement, I do start with that work first and work my way up to something that might want more upbeat, more a higher pitch possibly. So I'm very aware of where my natural placement is and maybe what's a stretch for me, and I warm up in that way. Anne: Well, okay. So here's my question, right? So there's little tricks, I think, 'cause I, of course in the morning I, I have a lower voice and I'm like, oh I wanna do the audition in the lower voice or this is a great gig for me in my lower voice. So if I wanna get to my lower voice again, right, I can sing it down there. And when I sing it down there, I'll just, you know, do a scale, and it'll be up to scale. And then ba ba ba, you know, I'll get down to the scale and I can feel where the voice is in my mouth or my throat or in my chest. And interestingly enough, once I feel where it is, I can then use that as a starting point for -- Erikka: Yes, absolutely. Anne: -- my conversational, authentic, believable read. And that's how I get vocal placement to kind of change the start of the read. Now, besides that in terms of song, right, and melody, there's also the emotion. Now back in the day when I was playing piano, me and my best friend played piano together. Now she was amazing. She could sight-read and learn and play these incredibly complex classical pieces of music. And it used to always like, competitive Anne, I used to always get like, mm okay, fine. But my teacher used to always make me feel better because she said you have the feeling. You have the passion. And I think that understanding that along with melody, there's passion and nuance and emotion. So if you wanna get yourself to another place, another read along with vocal placement, you can then decide to understand the story and start from a different place in the scene or have a different reaction to it. And that means a different emotion to it. And that's gonna color the melody of the song differently. Erikka: Yeah. And absolutely like you mentioned kind of knowing where the voice is gonna come from. So as you're doing your script analysis, you can kind of think about where this character, you know, even if it's not character work, it's still a character 'cause you're reading as someone else, other than yourself -- where does that live? If it's very sort of determined and you know, gritty, it might be in your chest. It might even be more down in your gut. Like you said, it might be a little more in the throat if it's kind of mid and if it's, you know, really super upbeat and you're excited and it's like a sales presentation, you might be a little more in the nose or the head. So yeah. Thinking about where that vocal placement is gonna be, that's going to tell the story from that character's point of view, is key. Anne: Yeah. And I think vocal placement, like singing-wise, for me, gets me to the starting point. Then it becomes the story, and it becomes the emotion and the character, which I'm so glad you brought up character, because character's so important. Now when you sing, did you think you were a character? I mean, that's just a question I have. Were you placing yourself in a scene or is it just the melody of the song carried you? Erikka: You know, it's very funny you say that because what was always sort of my strong point and what I would talk about in interviews for my musical performances is that I really honed in on the feeling. And I think that was why I was able to translate into voiceover so seamlessly was because I was always coming from the place of story. And if my voice cracked or something, I just kind of, you know, I hated it 'cause I'm like competitive, like you and I'm like, I wanna be perfect, but I'm like, that may have gone with the story. So it was very much from the place of feeling. And my goal was to make you feel this story when I was sang it. I loved making people cry like. Anne: Right, right, right. Erikka: I would find a way to connect with the lyrics and the way that singing the notes and the melody from the place of that emotion and not necessarily quite so technical. Anne: Isn't that awesome? Like the more you really study music and voiceover, and it comes down to what's important? What is it that connects with the people who are listening to you? It ultimately comes out to be the storytelling, the emotion. Because that's what connects us, I think, as humans. And again, those of you out there that are afraid of AI, it's nowhere near coming to that human emotion, which is where we're always gonna win out. And we're always gonna win out for those people who decide that they want to hire that. Right? To connect to an audience. And so I think we always have that humanity. We have that feeling, that emotion, that nuance, that connects with our audience, and that's what we have to work on, I think, in our voiceover careers, if we want to continue to be successful while we are evolving along with AI voices, which have their place in certain, I think, genres. They're going to have their place. I mean, I say this because I talk to Alexa every day. Do you know what I mean? And I'm okay with Alexa's voice. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Alexa helps me get things done. And so I really do believe that the market will shift. But we always need to connect with the heart and the emotion. And it's so interesting that you vocally through singing as well as storytelling and voiceover, it all comes down to that. Erikka: Yeah. You have to make it personal. And that's, you know, kind of what we hear in, in voiceover is you have to connect to the story. And the songs that I found that were my favorite, and that I could tell were the most impactful were the ones where I found a personal connection to it. And I enjoyed like, it felt like a push. Like I literally would feel less anxious because I got that energy outta my body because I was literally like in it. And when you do the same thing, you can do the same thing with these scripts and voiceover, it's going to be more connected. It's going to naturally have a more balanced melody that sounds human because you've connected with it on a human level. So. Anne: And even though we talk about melody of conversation, there's that uniqueness of you, what you bring to it. Erikka: Yes. Anne: Even when we talk about character, I think sometimes when I talk to people about character, they think about cartoon characters, right? And they're playing another persona. Well, maybe they are, but there's always an element of you that is brought along with that character. And, and for, let's say more nuanced type of genres like corporate narration, eLearning, you're still a character. You're just maybe not as dramatic. In corporate, you're probably always gonna work for the company. You'll be a representative of the company, and in eLearning you're gonna be a teacher. And so those are characters, and those characters have emotions and feelings, and that's the special part that you and you alone can bring to the party, and to make it so uniquely yours where people say, I need to have an Erikka J to narrate that. I need to have an Anne Ganguzza to teach that. Whatever that is, it's that understanding of a vocal placement with a nuance of emotion and telling a story. Erikka: Yep. Absolutely. Anne: So let me ask you a question. Are you still pursuing, singing at all or singing in your voiceover? Erikka: You know, I've had a couple actually jobs and auditions where I've gotten the opportunity to sing as well. So I like that kind of keeps me fresh, but I haven't been pursuing it as much. I love music. I mean, it is definitely what got me here. My first love from way back when I was tiny, but it got to be a lot of, a lot of work with not a lot of return. Anne: Sure, right. That's tough. Erikka: Not as much as voiceover, it is. So maybe when my plate lightens up a little bit, I've thought about, you know, eh, maybe we'll, we'll do a little more music again, but for now it's really voiceover is the thing. Anne: I was like, why don't they bring jingles back? I feel like they're so identifiable. Erikka: I just did one. I just did one like a week ago. Anne: Did you? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Wow. Erikka: Yeah. It wasn't super corny at all, but yeah, there are very few in far in between, but yeah, I do get a couple. Anne: And I think, you know, in certain genres too, singing can help. Maybe with kids, genres that are, they're talking to kids, there can be more melody in it. Erikka: Oh yeah. Animation for sure. Anne: Yeah. You know, there's melody in everything, in the speaking language. And I think a lot of people don't even think of it in terms of melody. They just think of it in terms of reading words. And there's so much more to it, and I can't stress enough the importance of understanding the story before you tell it. A lot of us just pick up a script and we start reading from left to right. And you don't know what the story is when that happens. And so how can you have any connection to it or how can you have any emotion about it if you don't know what it's about? And so I think that's the last layer. So many people they think about melody in terms of it should sound like this. Erikka: Yeah, exactly. Anne: But in, in reality, the sound has to be natural. The sound has to come from you organically when you are telling a story, not so much in, it should sound like this, you know? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Because then it just, what happens is you're spending so much time. I think thinking about what it should sound like, that you take away from the amount of time you have to understand the story and then tell it. 'Cause in order to tell it, you've gotta understand it. In order to understand it. You've gotta read it. Right? Erikka: Yep. Anne: But not as a take, you gotta read it first, understand it, comprehend it and then tell it back, right? That's how we tell stories. Right? We have experiences and then we recall that experience and we tell it back. So how can you take words off a page if you don't know what they say and tell that story? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. And probably reading it at least two or three times. And you know, maybe to yourself, as well as out loud and not performing it so that you are just, again, internalizing that story and really understanding it, having the reading comprehension of it, where sometimes I've noticed that I might switch a word around or I might do a contraction because I'm not even reading it anymore. You know, and of course your client will tell you if it's like, oh, we really need it to say can not, and then you'll go back and fix it. But to me that has been a clue that like I'm really into the story. Not like a true misread, like something that's, you know, really integral to the message. But if I'm naturally contracting something, it's like, okay, my brain's on auto pilot. And I really understand what I'm saying. So making sure that you're balancing that melody and rhythm. Anne: Yeah. I think for me with corporate, I do so much corporate that I've kind of gotten away from the contractualization. Not that I don't wanna do it. It's just simply usually those of the scripts that, and e-learning are usually they go through so many rounds of approvals. That's true. And if it's written one way, I pretty much just voice it. But what I will do yeah. Is if I do feel a contraction will make it sound easier, I will give that as an alternate take. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: Hopefully that just is you, by the way, in case you wanted this, they have it. And then they're like, oh, that Anne, she takes care of us. Erikka: Exactly. Anne: She's wonderful. Let's hire her again and again and again. Erikka: And as corporate is becoming increasingly conversational and they wanna really relate to their employee base, I find that they're more open and amenable to that stuff, but great point that some of this stuff is really locked down because of legal. Um, so yeah. Anne: Also the thing is with corporate, because again with corporate, just, there's such a vast amount of corporate work. The companies that know how to story tell with their brand will write good scripts. And so you won't have those run on sentences. You won't have things that maybe aren't contractualized that will sound awkward. They hire copywriters that will write something that will sound good when it gets put on production. So. Erikka: Yep. Agreed. Anne: Yeah, it's a thing. So there is a thing, guys, BOSSes out there, called melody, and it does affect our performance. And so try not to think so much about the technicality of it, but understanding how technically there are certain things that happen in a conversational melody that in order to sound natural, dictate how we're going to tell that story. So we're not gonna be too high or too dramatic with our changes in notes. We're gonna start in a certain placement and then just concentrate on telling that story. And I think the melody will follow. Erikka: Indeed. Couldn't have said it better myself. The more that you're naturally connected, that melody is just gonna come out in the way that it should be, because it'll be natural for you. Anne: Such a cool conversation. I love talking about conversational melody. Erikka: Love it. Anne: Yeah. So BOSSes, a good way to really start to understand it is just listen to two people, having a conversation, for example, listen to all the episodes of VO BOSS. And you can really start to break apart what does conversations sound like? And you'll know that unless we're really excited, we don't go very high, and we have all sorts of rhythm besides just the pitch. That's all about rhythm and timing and imperfection, believe it or not. You know, I wish I was speaking Pulitzer Prize-winning sentences, but I don't. And therefore that causes the rhythm and the timing and the pacing and all sorts of things to make it sound just natural and believable. So thanks, Erikka, for a really cool conversation. Erikka: Thank you, Anne. This is lovely. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. So BOSSes out there, you can make a huge difference in someone's life for a small, quarterly contribution. And you might think that as a small company, you can't make a huge difference, but you really can. Visit 100voiceswhocare.org to find out more. And of course, a huge shout out to my favorite, favorite networking sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect and sound like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. Thanks so much, BOSSes. Have a wonderful week. Erikka: Bye! Anne: See you next week. Bye. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

There is no perfect voice for a genre. This week, Anne & Erikka let you in on the secret of genre exploration. Every genre has sub-genres and adjacent genres, but you’ll never know which ones work for you without trying a few out. Examine what kind of work you are drawn to and where your passions lie. That will inform what jobs creatively challenge you vs. ones that make you feel stagnant. As Anne advises, always follow your passions. With a growth mindset, focus on the message you send with each script + a little help from your Balance hosts, you’ll be on the path to success! Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am with the lovely and talented Erikka J this morning. Erikka: Hello! Anne: Hey Erikka. Erikka: How are you, Anne? Anne: I'm doing good. How's it going with you? Erikka: Going pretty good, man. Hanging out, you know, just another day in voiceover land. Anne: There you go. Another day in voiceover land. And it's so funny because we're so like, oh yeah, this is our day. This is what we're gonna do. We've got our auditions to knock out. We're gonna go find some new clients. We're gonna be working in the booth. I do have a lot of students that always ask me when they just get involved in the industry, well, first of all, how do I know that I have what it takes? And what genre, what is my niche? Where do I go in this industry? And for me, that's always a wonderful question of self discovery. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: I think there's lots of ways to find your niche in this industry, but I think it would be a good topic to talk about how we found our niches and what our recommendations are for BOSSes out there that are just getting involved. Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. Balancing to let the genre find you. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I think that it's kind of like letting your brand find you too. I think they're very similar. They're on parallel paths. And I know for me, the genres that I ended up doing, number one, I'm a big believer in following my passion. I've been that way all my life. Now, I don't know if that's just a thing that I just decided to listen to since I was young, but I've always followed things that I've enjoyed doing and found joy in doing, and I followed my passion. When I was young, I played music, I played piano. I had a love affair with horses. I owned a couple of horses, rode horses as a little girl. I would teach my dolls. All these things that I loved, I did and I explored, and I have to say that the same is true in my career. As I went to school, what I studied, what I ended up working in, in the corporate world, and in the educational world. And then ultimately I've found that I've been able to kind of bring it all together in voiceover. Because for example, I love to teach. As a little girl, I taught my dolls. I ended up 20 years being an educator in front of the classroom for kids, adults, college kids. And I find that I love eLearning. So the genre is kind of paralleling where my joys were and where my experiences brought me to. So eLearning, I worked in corporate for a short amount of time and then did a lot of corporate consulting. And so I love the corporate read. All of those things have kind of allowed me to do the things that I love to do. And obviously, because I love to teach, I'm a coach as well. And so for my business that is so wonderfully my own. And I feel so lucky and so joyful that I am able to do what I love and be able to support the household be able to support myself with it. So what are your thoughts, Erikka, on how do you find your genre? How did you find your genre? Erikka: Yeah. Very similar. Anne: Or genres. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. So for me, like I'm always like somewhat ADD with my interests. Like I like that. Ooh. And I like that, and I like that, and I like that so , but sort of my foundation and where I started, I had worked in corporate for quite some time and still do, in primarily in tech sectors. So I absolutely adore tech explainers or products because a big part of what I did as a project manager, sort of understanding the layout and then also breaking down requirements so that when somebody says, I want a widget that does this, having to break it down and be like, okay, so you want this to come out, kind of breaking that down for the user and putting it in layman's terms, so to speak. I enjoy doing that sort of breakdown, but maybe in shorter forms. So as opposed to like where you're talking about how you love eLearning, I'll do some eLearning, but I really love like the short form 90-second, let me help you understand this thing and what it does. And, you know, taking something complex and making it super simple to understand. I love that stuff. So that's really where I started. Corporate narration, same thing. Because of coming from the musical background, which essentially is storytelling in usually three to six minutes, see for a really long song in six minutes, but that's why I love like the commercial work or the short corporate narrations where, you know, I'm really sort of telling a story, sometimes getting more dramatic or using comedy to be able to tell those stories in a short amount of time, it just aligned with where my experience was and what I enjoyed doing. So those were sort of my foundations along with video games, love games, played games a lot as a kid, not as much now as I'd like, . I'm surrounded by gamers in my house. So constantly watching that. And I lean towards the dramatic and the dark more than the comedy. So I like using that, but yeah, those are kind of like my genres that hit me in the narration. Just loving to tell stories. Those are -- Anne: Yeah. I love that. And I think anybody that's just starting out in this industry, take a look at who you are from young age on up and where you've evolved and if you've followed those joys or those things that you really enjoy doing, and then try to translate into genres for voiceover. Or not even just for voiceover for your business, you know, the other part, it's not just the genres, right? But it's also letting the entrepreneurship follow you. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: There's the whole period of my life where I like to solve problems. I mean, you and I were both in technology, right? It's always solving problems and I also have an engineering background. And so because of that, I love the whole entrepreneur owning a business, kind of a thing, where I'm excited to build things, to build my business, to see where I can grow, where I can expand, how I can achieve success, how I can continue to reinvest in my business and grow in my business. I think that's the most important thing for me is if I am stagnant -- it's like, for me, I'm building a character, but I'm really building a business, right? Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: I keep adding to the story, and I have to keep evolving the character. I have to keep evolving the character of my business. And for me, if I don't, if I become stagnant, then number one, it's boring. And I don't do well with boring. But number two, it always allows me to grow kind of the whole, think of how do I make money the whole, how do I make money challenge? I even do like a class on money blocks where some of us have built in money blocks from long ago where maybe women weren't supposed to be earning as much as men or those types of things or the way you were brought up, the male was the breadwinner. Don't be greedy. That kind of thing. Well, I consider it part of the entrepreneurial game, right, how to make money with my business. And so it's not that money is like my first love, but I think it's the challenge of the game to be able to invest my money and then make a profit. And so I think what we all want to do with our businesses is to make a profit. And so that also evolves. And that was part of my personality. A big part of my personality is loving to solve challenges and solving problems. Yeah, I took that right into my business. Erikka: Yeah. I love that you said self discovery 'cause that's something that I talk about often too, is that you have to figure out sort of who you are as a person. And that kind of leads you to who you are as an artist. And as that evolves and develops, staying in touch with that is gonna tell you when maybe a genre isn't for you or if a genre isn't necessarily your primary. Like for instance, I love reading. I never get enough time to do it as much as I'd like, but I am not really into doing audiobooks. I know that I like the short form stuff. My attention span gets like mmh, so it's just not for me, even though I love books and I fully appreciate them, but it's not for me to do that as narrating. I had learned that about myself and be okay with it. In coming from a performance background, I discovered live announce was something that I really enjoyed. I'm used to being able to, you know, like on the fly, something live might happen and you've gotta be able to react and not be flustered. I did that on stage. So I was like, huh, didn't even know this would really be a thing for me. Anne: That's a special skill. Erikka: Right. Yeah. Yeah. So. Anne: The whole live thing. Erikka: That self discovery is really key to letting that genre. And your business, like you said, it's a persona, but you're building a brand your brand has an identity. It's a story. So you've gotta know who you are that's gonna align with the brand that you're building. Anne: Absolutely, absolutely. And interesting that you said being the voice of God. So back in the day, when I used to have to record onto phone systems, you had to do it live. And so you had to be on. If you screwed up the prompt in the middle of it, you had to start all over again. So there's a special skill in being able to, to be quick on your feet and to execute without mistakes. To me, if I were figuring out my rate sheet for that, that becomes a factor in the special skills like for medical narration. I mean, I worked in the orthopedic industry for six years, you know? And so I love medical narration, and that kind of found me. I mean, I kind of evolved because I started off in the engineering aspect of things. And then it kind of brought me into a narrower focus with biomechanical engineering at my job at the orthopedic company, which then ultimately translated into medical narration here. And the medical narration has expanded so that I'm not just talking orthopedics, and I'm certainly not a doctor, but the challenge therein lies in learning and discovering new topics in medicine that also I find I love to do that discovery, and that translates to my voice. So if somebody were to say what genre, I think really it can be any genre that you find that joy of discovery or that joy in. And sometimes you don't know it until you've tried it. Like you said, for the voice of God, you didn't know, right? Until you tried it and then you realized, oh wow, this is something that my theater training has prepared me for. And so I think every one of us should explore different genres. That's why I think workshops and sessions are a great thing. And one of the reasons why I developed the VO peeps so that I could have special, amazing guest directors come in from all different genres so that my community could have a lot to choose from and a lot to experience, a lot to explore and a lot to learn. And I think that letting the genre find you, finding what you enjoy doing, I think is probably at the very core of it. And you know, for me, like you were saying audiobooks, I did one audiobook and then I said, nope, not for me. I've kind of found the things that I love to do, but again, I don't wanna close my mind to trying new things. So for right now I've done a little bit of character work, but I've not really expanded into animation or even into like promo as much. But I know that I've got an interest in it. And it's something that I wanna look at. Erikka: And that's why I think that workshops are such a valuable tool to use in the beginning or as you start to make a foray into different genres, because it's more cost effective. Right? Anne: Yeah. Erikka: Usually they cost less because it's a group as opposed to like one-on-one coaching. You're able to hear what other people are doing and how they're getting directed, seeing all types of different coffee, experimenting with different directors, different coaches in these group settings. And that way you can kind of see like, is this really my thing? Like for me, promo, I sort of assume that since I have this lower register voice that, you know, has a lot of power behind it, that it might be something I really wanna do. And I always love beating the boys if I can, no offense. But... Anne: Hey, I hear that. Erikka: You know what I mean? And it is still something I wanna get into, but I found that it ended up being lower on my priority list because I wasn't getting as much traction as I was in other areas I was moving faster. So I was like, you know, maybe let me really refine and kind of get to expert level and everything else and consistently look. And then I'll come back around to promo. So it can help you prioritize your genre list as well. Anne: I like that you were talking about kind of letting it find you and you were getting hired in other genres. That's a really good indicator to find out what genre you might pursue in a more targeted, strategic fashion is what do you tend to get hired for? Do you tend to get hired for explainer videos? Do you tend to get hired for those one-off commercials, or do you tend to get hired for audio books? Whatever that might be, might be the genre that you really flourish in. And again, it doesn't have to be just one genre, but again, it shouldn't be every genre. I really don't know many voiceover artists that do every single genre. I think we all tend to just narrow down the focus a little bit and it doesn't have to be just two genres or, you know, it can be like narration. There's a lot of closely related -- corporate explainers are very closely to corporate narration. It's very close to corporate training, which is very close to medical narration. It's all part of the corporate world anyway. So all of that really kind of works for me. So there's multiple genres there that I can excel and flourish in. And then explore the ones that I haven't really had time to do before, because I've been working so much in these other genres, like character or promo or imaging. Like see, I've always wanted to do radio imaging, but I've never even tried it, like never But I'm always like, I wanna sound cool. So for me, I'd be like, oh, that would be a cool sound, but I've never tried it. I've always been a little shy actually. Erikka: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anne: About it, but I don't wanna not try. Erikka: Exactly. And that's the thing is like, unless you really do it and you're like, this is not my thing -- I feel like audio books are probably off the table for me, other than I did like a couple kids books. And I have like a couple like mid-length books that I've entertained or that I'm like, I might just do this one. It's, you know, public domain. I'll do it as a passion project one day just to kind of practice. But if I get one that's expected to be like 12 hours of audio, like I'm not gonna do the 48 Laws of Power. I know I'm not gonna be able to do something that long. God bless the voice actors that have that type of stamina. I know I don't. And I'm okay with it. Anne: You know, where I might go because I love the geeky stuff all the time, right, if there was a book that was completely geeky about, I don't know, a business book. And if it was something that I would discover as I read, I think that that could work, but the editing I would have to outsource. . Erikka: Yeah. I just, I just don't think I could, maybe that answer will change in a few years for me, even though I love reading it and consuming it or listening to audio books. Anne: Sure. Erikka: I just wanna be in and out. I just wanna get it done and to be done. Anne: Yeah. Well, I think it's important that we don't get complacent. Erikka: Yes. Agreed. Anne: And for me, that's just always been a thing where I haven't felt comfortable when I get complacent. I think I get nervous. Maybe it's more that than bored or maybe it's a combination of both, right? I don't wanna get complacent in one job for too long. And, and to be honest with you, my 20 years in education, I think my job, I had actually, believe it or not, in my job, there were certain levels that I traversed. And I went from getting my hands dirty and learning a bunch of stuff and really challenging like, oh, why does the network not work here? Oh, let me go and dig the wiring or look at the wiring in the ceiling and see what's going on there. And I love the whole challenge of that, kind of getting my hands dirty. Ultimately I started, year after year, I would, I would advance, you know, then I would go into like the networking. Then I would go into the administration. And then ultimately at the last part of my career, I was a project manager. And at that point, I wasn't getting my hands dirty anymore. I was managing people who were getting their hands dirty. And for me, I found out that that was not where I flourished. For me, I wanted that challenge of getting my hands dirty, figuring out the solution, not necessarily managing people. And at that point in my career, I had started to become a little bit restless. And that's when I really said to myself, well, I need to do something that's gonna allow me to grow. And I think that selecting your genre and balancing your genres or your performance or discovering what that is really comes with a lot of self-reflection in what it is that brings you joy and what it is that you're getting hired., a combination of that, what it is you're getting hired for. And if you're just starting out, try to focus on what are your past experiences. Like for me, I had experience teaching, which led me into e-learning. I had experience working for an orthopedic company, which led me to medical. I installed phone systems as part of my job that led me to a lot of telephony. So take a look at your experience and see what genre that might lend itself to, because when you can speak with familiarity and with confidence about something, it's going to be reflected in your voice. And that I think is gonna make you good at what you do. Erikka: Absolutely. And the other thing is to like not necessarily write off an entire genre to maybe to explore the sub genres, right. 'Cause like there's animation and I really kind of thought animation was off the table for me. I was like, everybody wants to do that when they come in, eh. Maybe video games, which I do think that that's still more my lane than animation. What I love, I love doing the villain stuff in animation. So I'm not really necessarily gonna too often -- I don't really see myself doing like the 14-year-old boy, like some women are able to do, but gimme a villain role I'm in and I'm excited about it. Anne: Now psychologically, Erikka, why is that? Where is that? Because that relief of tension -- Erikka: -- in real life. Anne: That's right. And then the alter ego kicks in. Erikka: So then I get to rrr, you know, it's fun. Anne: Yeah. Well, Hey, there's a creative challenge. And I think that, so BOSSes, we are all brilliant. Right? We are all brilliant people. This is the way I like to think of it. Right? We like the creative challenges. And so what is it that challenges you? What is it that you think will give you a challenge that you will enjoy? And so for me, the medical, of course it's because I feel like I'm helping somebody. I feel like if I do a voiceover for anything medical, right, it's helping somebody. But even more than that, there's like that challenge of, okay, what's the largest word that I can say eloquently? Erikka: The verbal acrobatics (?) of medical. Anne: Effortlessly? There you go. That to me is like, ooh, it's such a challenge. And I love it. Like I dig right in once I get a medical script and there's all these words. I dig in and I create my little phonetic spellings and I practice it so I can say it effortlessly, so it sounds like I'm a doctor. But that sort of stuff, I think letting the genre find you and letting your joy find the genre too is something to really think about. And so is there a voice for a genre? I don't think so. I think a lot of people consider like, oh, to do promo, I have to have a low voice. What are your thoughts on that, Erikka? Erikka: So not true. And the thing is that the more that you study the genre that you're trying to get into, and I don't just mean workshops and being coached, but I mean actually like watching TV, like going to watch the promos that are on -- it's been such a male-dominated genre historically that we just assume you have to "come in there and sound like this, tonight at eight." And that's just not it not now. So like I've heard women with much lighter voices than me that are super conversational to the point of sounding like a commercial, and they're booking promo. So I think that was a challenge for me and kind of was why I wasn't booking there at first because I had the idea of what it supposed to be, instead of bringing more of the authenticity to it. The reads are much closer to commercial now for promo, finding a promo voice. Anne: I love the whole authentic thing do and because -- Erikka: Yeah, me too. Anne: -- I think that voiceover artists, like in the beginning, it was always like, for me, when I got behind a mic, I was like, ooh, my voice is amplified. Erikka: Oh my goodness. Anne: And then I was like, I like to hear that in my ears, you know? 'Cause it was something like, I think sounds good or that somebody would want to hear. And I love the whole "let's get back to being authentic and being ourselves." Some of the most beautiful stuff that I've listened to is not a voice that many would consider to be like, oh a voiceover voice. Every time somebody asks me on one of my consult calls, so do you think I have what it takes or do you think I've got the voice? And I'm like, it really honestly, you know, and I've said this before, BOSSes, you guys, if you've listened to the podcast, it's only the first few seconds, maybe 15 to 20 seconds, 30 seconds that people are listening to what your voice actually sounds like. And then all they care about is what you're saying. Right? And what does it mean and is it of interest to them? And that connection that your voice has to them and how it can help them, that's really where it all counts. And I think that's why the authentic, the genuine is what sells, you know, in advertising, and it's what connects people together. And I think that's what we all, as humans, we really want. And a lot of this talk about the AI voice, there's going to be a place for that. And I know Erikka, we could have a whole podcast episode on this. There's definitely a place for that, but only when it's transparent. And I know that I'm talking to a voice that is not a human voice. Like, well, I talk to Alexa all the time. I talk to Siri all the time and I'm okay with it. Siri helps me, Siri has a job to do and she helps me. So when I don't necessarily need a human to help me, I am okay with that. But for everything else, right, our human voices need to connect. And I think that's one of the most important things. What genre can you divulge your authenticity in and connect with the audience of that genre. 'Cause different genres have different audiences. There's a different audience for corporate training than there is for promo. Right? People listening to promo voices are trying to find out information of what's on television. What's the next exciting thing? Or maybe it's like, oh what's happening next on HGTV? Right, there's your in-show narration. So depending on the genre, there's different audiences. So figure out not only what genre excites you, but know who is listening to the genre and who your audience is, because that's where that connection's gonna happen. Erikka: Yeah. And I think it's important to not limit yourself mentally and just say, well, oh, I'm not gonna do that. But try it. Like I said, like the audio books, I did a couple of kid books. I did a couple of mid-length narration for like news and I enjoyed that, but I was like, I couldn't do much more than this. So I know it's not for me. But like if you don't even give yourself the opportunity to see if you would like it, you might miss out on something that you're really good at. And/or like if medical intimidates, you try it anyway because those skills can translate. So if you're practicing reading multisyllabic words, you know, you finally get it, imagine how much better you're gonna read commercial copy now because you exercised your mouth to be able to get those kind of words out. So now when you get to just sort of regular English, you're gonna have that skill that you can translate into another genre. So I think it's good like you said, to just stay limb, stay flexible, learn how to play, not get stagnant ,and play with other genres, but know what your primaries are. And if you do have hard boundaries to just know, like that's not for me, . Anne: That's not for me. I know a lot of students in the beginning will spend a lot of time like investigating all the genres. And I love that. I think there's lots of good things to be said for that. But then there's also students who might spend time in every genre because they're afraid to start. That might be another podcast, but at least I think exploring the other genres, taking a few classes in the genres. I mean, I took some promo classes with a coach that I loved. I've really explored. I've taken some audiobook classes I've taken -- like I said, the one thing I haven't done is radio imaging, but I know a lot of people that do radio imaging, and I'm still like thinking about, oh, that's kind of like such a older genre. I'm not sure how well it's faring these days. Because I do believe I heard you . Erikka: I did do -- Anne: I heard you the other day. Yes I did. So it's very cool. Erikka: But that was fun. Like it taught me how to play better. Like, and I actually did a little bit of character development and I've taken that into some commercial copy. So. Anne: Well, that's an excellent point about that because the crazier and the more dynamic your character is in imaging, it really can help you in other genres. And I think a lot of times people that take my corporate narration, 'cause I'm always teaching how to be the real authentic voice. And that's not what people expect with narration. They expect to have a narrator's voice, and I'm like, no let's connect people. And so they can take that technique that they use in narration and apply it to commercial. Because learning how to be real and authentic with words that aren't yours is something that applies to every genre. So BOSSes, if you're out there trying to discover that genre, make sure that you are also getting those skills that allow you the acting to be real and authentic in those genres. So take acting classes, get coached on it. That'll do nothing but help you in any genre you decide to pursue. Erikka: And corporate narration I'm finding is increasingly having more opportunities for us to play. So it's obviously gonna be corporate to an extent, but I've seen some copy where it's like, they kind of want you to have the joke, land the joke, you know, be a little funnier, be a little more, you know, laid back. Anne: Or be dramatic, be passionate. Erikka: Be dramatic. Yes, absolutely. Anne: Yep. That's the corporate gold I've always talking about. It's good stuff. Erikka: Yep. Anne: So yeah guys, what genre are you? Erikka: Yeah. And prioritizing them. Yeah. Anne: Yeah. Look back, look at your passion. What brings you joy? And don't forget that even though you have genres, if you do have genres that you're already pretty well settled into and familiar with, don't forget to always play in other genres 'cause you just never know. You never know. Good stuff. So question for you, BOSSes, do you have a local nonprofit that is close to your heart? Because if you do, and if you want to help them, you can join an organization called 100voiceswhocare.org and help them extensively even if you don't have a lot to contribute. So find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org. And big shout-out to ipDTL, our favorite way to connect and network like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. All right, BOSSes. Have an amazing week, and we'll see you next week. Erikka: Bye BOSSes. Anne: Bye. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Do not apologize for little mistakes during a session. You are human! This week, Anne & Erikka teach you how to overcome performance anxiety. Certain elements of voice acting get easier after years in the booth, but sometimes the nerves never go away. Taking steps before a big gig like walking outside, spending time with a furry friend, or breathing can calm you down, but what happens when you feel anxious in the moment? Stay calm in the booth and know that it is a safe space for you to perform and be your best. BOSSES, if you’re unsure of how to take control of the situation & your anxiety, listen up! Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am excited to bring back to the show the lovely and talented Miss Erikka J. Woohoo! Erikka: Hey, Anne! Anne: Hi, Erikka. Erikka: How are you, darling? Anne: I'm wonderful. How are you? Erikka: Pretty good. Pretty good. Just the trucking along. I was thinking back this week actually about a workshop that I was in, and I really had like some anxiety. It was like crazy when I was on the mic. So I was in a class with the Andrea Toyias of Blizzard. Anne: Oh, love her. Erikka: I mean, I was waiting a year and a half to take this class with her, right? And I had actually just found out I was pregnant the night before, and I was just like freaking out because it was super unexpected. Great surprise. But I was just like, what am I gonna do? And all of a sudden, I start getting symptoms like I'm nauseous, right? Like super like, ugh. So I am now this class I've been waiting for for a year and a half, video game, you know, you have to use your whole body. I had like this beastly character, and I'm a ball of nerves and nauseous on top of that, whether it's from the anxiety or just the baby. But I'm like, how am I gonna get through this? And, you know, I realized that this was an opportunity for me to channel that anxiety into the energy of my character. And it really turned out great. Like she gave me good reviews, and I was just like, oh my God, thank God. Like I cried after, it was like all the emotions came out, but it was a great opportunity to sort of, rather than letting the emotions take over me and impact the authenticity of my performance, to actually channel that energy and be able to use it in an effective way that worked. So I was thinking maybe we could talk about how to overcome performance anxiety. Anne: Absolutely. Well, number one, I love that topic. Number two, I love that you are so open and upfront about it. Because a successful voiceover talent, you know, people seem to think, well, we, we have it all together. We don't ever get nervous when we come in the booth or perform, or we're live directed, but in effect we actually do probably more than people even realize. And I think it's just that maybe we've had a little more experience in dealing with it and trying to maybe turn that into something positive. I do have a lot of newer students that I've seen come into my workouts, my VO Peeps workouts, and get nervous performing in front of other people, let alone the director, but just performing in front of other people. And I know myself when I first started in the voiceover industry, believe it or not, I was almost like afraid myself to let go and explore my voice, because I didn't wanna hear it in my ears, because I thought, oh God, that sounds stupid. And so I think that's a really great mental emotion to talk about and how we can get over our performance anxiety so that we can make it work for us and not against us. So what are your tricks when you start to get nervous? And first of all, when we get nervous, there's so many things that can happen, even if it's a good nervous, right? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: If you're an excited, happy nervous, it's still, it gets you all your adrenaline hyped and your shoulders up, and it just makes your voice also with that same anxiety. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there are a few things. So like for one, coming from performing on stage as well, like that was sort of where I learned how to channel anxiety, because at the end of the day, it's just energy, right? But it's just like a really strong, sort of urgent energy, and what that can do when it works against you, if you don't have it in balance is like, sometimes I catch myself, it'll make me make my voice more higher pitch. And then they're like, well, can you we want you to speak more like kind of how you just were when we were talking. And it's like, oh yeah, Erikka, you're anxious, calm down. So that is kind of a way it can work against you. I tend to talk really fast too, when I get anxious. And I just have anxiety in general, sort of as the disorder. So I have to kind of manage that. Things that I do to get rid of it, if I feel like before a session I'm already kind of high strung about it, maybe it's a job I'm really excited about or, or nervous about, getting outside and really getting some fresh air breathing, the deep breathing thing -- I know it's like cliche. Everybody talks about breathing, but it really literally tells your brain everything is okay. There's plenty of oxygen available. I'm not gonna die, because that's what anxiety feels like. You're dying. It's just like, everything's wrong. And if you get that oxygen flowing into your body, real, really plentiful oxygen, that can help calm you down. Sometimes I'll go sing something really loud or scream. Like obviously safely, getting that scream energy out. 'Cause anxiety is just energy. Again, if you can kinda get that out of you to help you calm down and do that. Things like warm tea, just things that help you feel mentally safe are nice. Hug or going to your pet, you know, and playing with them and touching them and letting love on you a little before a session, all those things help me. Anne: I think that's wonderful. And I really am a big believer in the breathing, you know, and the taking a breath. And so if you're in the moment, right, okay, so this is maybe before the performance, right? These are things you can do. So when you're in the moment, right, and let's say you're being directed or you're in a workshop, a session, first of all, in any workshop or session, I just wanna kind of throw this out there that they are called workshops and classes for a reason. They're meant to be safe spaces for you to get that anxiety out, to experience that, and then experience recovering through that or whatever it is, working out your performance issues in a class. And so I hope that we can all feel safe or whoever's directing that workshop can help you all to feel safe. A lot of times the directors that I work with, they make a point of saying, look, get it out now. Do it now in this workshop, 'cause that's what we're here for. And that's the safe space. Where you probably don't want it to happen so much is when you're in a live directed session. So when you're actually in a session, I'm a big believer in the breathing. Now there's a couple of different things. Are you on Zoom, right? Are they watching you, number one, or are they not? And I am a big fan of you don't need to see me necessarily perform. And if I can actually get that to happen, I feel much more comfortable. It really helps me mentally relax. And it also allows me to do things in the booth, like maybe step away from the mic and, and breathe and instead of right in the booth or so that they can see me doing whatever it is I need to do to relax. And so I would say the breathing is a big thing, and also in the middle of a performance, if you happen to freak out, just know that you're a human being, and the people that are directing you are human beings. And so there's a lot to be said for that. I say that sometimes you don't really wanna admit that you're nervous necessarily in front of the director or whoever might be on the call, but you just do what you need to do. There's no rush, right? There's no like, oh my gosh, I have to get this done in the next five minutes. If there's any session where you feel like you're being pressured to get that read out in a short amount of time, I would second guess that client. That's for sure. If you can be with that client and you are not on camera, do whatever you need to do, you know, shake it out, breathe, mute your mic for a minute and do whatever you scream, sing, whatever you gotta do, breathe because they're never gonna really know . So that's kind of something you can do kind of behind the scenes. But if you are on camera, number one, I would try not to be on camera if you can help it, but you can always turn your camera off for a moment and/or mute whatever you need to do to kind of get there. I mean, unless you're in the middle of a sentence, right? There's no need to necessarily explain. You can just say, I need a moment, and do what you need to do. What about you, Erikka? When you're in the moment, what are some key things that you do? Erikka: Yeah, those are all great points, fully agree and sort of to elaborate on some of them, in the middle of a session -- well, for one, I usually start the session by taking control of the whole visual aspect. I'm like you, Anne, I'm a fan of camera off. So what I'll do is, in the very beginning of the session, I'll flip my camera on, say, hey, you know, I just wanted to introduce myself and kind of have that initial conversation to have the human connection. And then as we're getting ready to record, I'll say, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and flip video off so I can make sure that the audio quality is as high as possible. Anne: Oh, Erikka, golden nugget! Oh my gosh! Erikka: And they love that. Anne: Say that again. Say that again, because we can go home now. That was the best like piece of information, I swear. That, that's a great idea. Erikka: The pandemic educated everybody video takes up more bandwidth. And if you have video off, the audio is less likely to drop out. Nobody wants the audio to drop out because they wanna be able to critique the quality of the voiceover that you're giving and give you feedback so that they get what they want. So that way they're like, oh yeah, sure. Turn video off. I'm gonna turn video off. And then if they don't want video, it makes them feel comfortable. Like, oh thank God. I don't have to have video on Anne: I think a lot of people believe, it or not, are more relieved than not just because, you know, I don't know if we're having a little bit of anxiety from the whole, like during the pandemic, all we did was Zoom. Although I'm a big fan of the video connection that we did have. We just did it a lot. And so, you know, I did it to keep connected with my family and my clients, and I think, yeah, everybody could use a little vacation from the video being on all the time. It really has put on another added layer of potential anxiety for us as voice talent. Because most of us got into the business because we didn't wanna be on camera. We wanted to be behind the mic. And so I love how you said that you turn it on to say hello and make the human connection. And then just say, look, I wanna be able to flip this now so that we make sure we get the best audio. What a fantastic idea. I love that. Erikka: Sometimes I even make a joke just to keep it lighthearted, feeling the client out, if that works. And I'll just say, so you don't see my weird actor faces and they'll laugh, you know? And like that works because that's the truth. I'll flip it on at the end, you know, to kind of close it off and say, bye. I do make sure that particularly on Zoom or whatever platform I can, that I'll have my headshot so that they can see me. Even though they're not seeing me. So that kind of keeps the human connection as well. Anne: That's excellent. Now, Erikka, you know, that's funny because mine always just appears, but I don't ever remember putting it there. Where does that come from? That Zoom headshot, is that in the settings of Zoom when you set it? Erikka: It is, but you have to be logged in. So you have to actually be logged into your Zoom account and then you can set your picture and it'll come up. But if you just like click on their link, and you're not logged in, it'll just show your name that you typed in. Yeah. Anne: Ah-ha. Oh, that's an excellent point. I never realized that 'cause I'm always the one hosting the Zoom sessions for the most part. And interestingly enough, when I say to patch into my studio, if they don't wanna use the ipDTL link, or usually I use ipDTL, or usually I'm not the one providing SourceConnect, they would be the one providing SourceConnect link. But if I'm providing the link, then I'll usually give them an ipDTL link, and there's no video involved in that. And most people are relieved. And the reason why I tell them I do that, I'll give them an ipDTL link as a phone patch rather than Zoom is because it's better quality. And so it delivers better quality audio. They can hear me better, and it's always better to be able to hear better so they can direct me better so that I can do my job better. Erikka: That's what they want. Anne: So there's all sorts of kind of cool ways around being off camera if you so desire. Erikka: And you know, there really have been studies that have said that in the whole pandemic period that there was increased anxiety because if -- Anne: Being on camera? Erikka: Yeah. Because if I'm face to face with you, there's a safe distance, but there's a perceived closeness if like my face -- Anne: Oh, interesting. Erikka: -- here. And it's like, you're in my personal space, and it's more threatening. So it literally can makes you more anxious being on video on a digital platform as opposed to being in person, and you don't get to feel out and kind of mix the other person's energy. It's just this digital face. So it's natural that it makes you more anxious. Just take control of it. And I've never had anybody say, well, no, we want you to keep camera on. the only place I can see that ever happening is maybe video games. But even then, they're more concerned about audio. Anne: Yeah. And I think that, yeah, definitely. Let's just make the point though, that this is for a live directed session where it may not be necessary for you to have video on, even though your clients may like it. The other thing is that it might be the only form of communication that they have, right? Zoom, video, or Skype or whatever that is, or Google Hangouts. A lot of times, that's how they get a community of people together to listen and direct. And even in that case, you can absolutely take control of muting your camera or turning your camera off while you're performing. And so now what if you're in the middle of a sentence and you flub it up, Erikka? Erikka: Oh man. Anne: What is your course of action? Erikka: Yeah. So I talk about this with a few people. So for one, remember that you are human, and we make mistakes. We all stutter, even in regular conversation. Sometimes I'm able to catch it fast enough where it sounds natural. Because you know, one of the things of acting is that as just now, when I was thinking about what to say next, I hesitated. We don't have a script in real life. So we don't know what we're gonna say next. So some of that hesitation actually makes a more authentic performance. So if you can catch yourself and not get to the point of, oh my God, I just screwed up and just kind of get to the next word and it still sounds natural, sometimes it works and it actually makes the performance sound more natural. So I try to really just get back in it. If it's obviously like, you know, oh, I just screwed that up. I just pause and pick up. And there's a couple reasons for that. For one, if you kind of say, oh, I'm sorry, you know, you've already kind of, you've taken some power away from yourself with your client. Kind of told them, hey, I messed up and you've told your brain, you messed up, which is going to increase your anxiety and increase the risk that you're going to mess up again probably on the exact same word. Anne: Yeah, yeah. Erikka: And your brain is learning. It's like, okay, we may, we mess up there. We mess up on that word. We mess up on that word. Whereas if you just stop and then just pick up, it's a professional thing to do. It also makes it easier for editing so that they can just cut, if they like the first half of that sentence, and it was great, they can just Franken-take it, you know, and put it together and make it work. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. No, I love that advice to stop. So I always say to my students don't ever apologize. Yeah. You're human. It happens. You simply stop and pick up. Now you don't necessarily pick up from the very beginning of the entire piece of copy. You wanna probably stop and take just as you would be editing right in your own home studio, pick up where you would naturally pick up. And for me, that's at the beginning of the sentence, for the most part or at the comma, if it's that much, if I've still got the melody in my head and knowing where I'm gonna be. But for the most part, just simply stop. Never apologize. If you apologize, like you said, it definitely takes the power away. And a lot of times people may not even notice that you've flubbed up. And so you simply start it at the top of the sentence again, and that is an entirely acceptable thing to do. I mean, I've done that for years thankfully once I learned myself never to apologize, because again, we are human and just pick it up from the beginning. It does make it, number one, makes you look a lot more professional and number two, it makes it easy to edit. And the simple fact that you know this, right, you know, enough not to go into a bumbling "I'm sorry" apology or whatever it is, even if you have to cough or sneeze or what, whatnot, knowing that if you are silent and then pick up as if nothing happened makes it a really nice block of white space for that engineer to make it easy for them to fix. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: For sure. For sure. Erikka: And maybe that can also help you get outta the habit of saying, I'm sorry. It's just stop talking. Just, just get your brain to just stop. I make a mistake. I just stop. Anne: Just stop, breathe, know that it's normal and we all do it. We do. Erikka: Yeah, we do. Anne: We all do it. You know? And I always say to people, I wish I could do a read perfectly the first time. Right? It doesn't always happen. But I like how you also used it to talk about how to make that pause almost a natural part of things. Now I know that when I'm anxious, and I'm in the booth, the whole natural in the scene acting sometimes goes bye-bye. And so there's one thing that breathing can help you to come back to the scene. And always remember, even though you've got people watching you, I mean, imagine like you're performing like in the scene just as you would if you were on stage, or if you're not a stage actor or an on-camera actor, if you've got that video off, you are in your booth. That is your magic place. That is where you set your scene. You are in the scene, you're immersed in the scene. So just try, if you can, to block out the other external factors that are making you nervous and continue to be in that scene, because that's gonna make your performance more natural. And that's what they hired you to do for the most part. I mean, unless they told you to be crazy in character and you know your character, even then, right, you have to be in your character. So I would say, no matter what you're doing, you kinda have to be in character, even if you're doing an e-learning module, you're a teacher, right? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anne: If you're doing a corporate narration, you work for that company. So you're a character. So you need to remain in that character, and the booth where you are, is kind of your theater so to speak. As in a studio that you might be in when you're being directed live to. Now what about going to a studio and being directed live? What are your thoughts about that, Erikka? Erikka: Oh boy. I'll say maybe one, maybe two more things that I do use in my booth, but one of them might translate to in the studio too. In my booth. I think I mentioned before that for, just for performances and sort of a, who am I talking to, I do keep pictures of my family in the booth. And I found that sometimes that helps with anxiety too. So it's just like, you know, if you would look at the people that you love and that love you, sometimes it can just kind of help to bring you back. Anne: I'm opening, I'm opening my door, but you can't really see it. See if I can. Let's see. Erikka: Is, is that a kitty cat? Anne: Yeah. It's my studio cat. And on the other side of the door, which I can't, there we go. There's Anne and Jerry. Erikka: Yes. Anne: I have my family in the booth with me, the people that I love. Erikka: Yes. Anne: And I also have a booth buddy. Erikka: Yes! Anne: So this is my little booth buddy. Erikka: I got a booth buddy, but it's a (?). Anne: Oh. So you talk -- Erikka: My warm and fuzzy reads. Anne: There you go. So you talk to your booth buddy to help you in the scene. There's your audience right there. Erikka: Yep. Yep. Yep. Anne: So. Erikka: You can't see my family 'cause they're behind where the mic is, but yeah. I've got my kids, me and my boyfriend, and then ultrasound picture, my little boo-boo that's coming. Anne: Aww. Erikka: Another thing that I'll use too is I've got one of these stress balls. Anne: Oh. Erikka: And when you mentioned going to the studio, this is something that's more portable and not very -- it's discreet. So I could just have this in my pocket. So again, anxiety is just an abundance of energy. So one of the grounding tools that I know is used by some people that, you know, teach anxiety management is like literally like holding the tension in your hand for like five seconds and releasing, and you can do that with a stress ball. So it's just like, you're using all this strength and it's like, mm, get this anxiety out. And then you [breathes out], and you should feel some sort of relief. Anne: Yeah. And you know, what's good about that is like literally you don't want the anxiety to be in your mouth or in your brain. So having in your hand, having it transfer, and that's one of the good things too. I talk about with physicality behind the mic, right? When people don't wanna look at our silly actor faces behind that mic, when you are in that scene, you need to be in that scene, like physicating with your, with your hands, drawing things, jumping up and down, whatever you're doing, and that will help to divert the energy that might be all up in your shoulders and all up in your mouth and in your speech. Right? And kind of dissipate it so that it will be a little bit less. And so that's great. Erikka: And these are quiet. They don't make noise so much, so. Anne: Well, if you go to studio and you're flailing about, and you're doing like -- well, alright, I'm gonna say, how many of you have ever watched right behind the scenes, right, when people are at studios? I mean, there's all sorts of physication going on. As a matter of fact, that's the, the sign of a classic actor, right, behind the mic, who's physically making those silly faces. And I always talk about when you look at musicians on stage too, they always make funny faces. Right? Always. Erikka: Singing faces are way worse than actor faces. I know. Anne: I'm gonna tell you, singing faces are way worse. Erikka: I've been caught before. Like, Ooh, that's not going on social media. Anne: Yeah. But, but you know what? It creates the performance. And I always talk about Mariah Carey. She does a lot with her hands when she sings. Erikka: She does. Anne: How she like trills with her hands, and I'd be like, yeah, what is she doing there? And then I decided to do voiceover and I get what she's doing. It's all about the dissipation of energy and helping her create more energy and also dissipate energy. Which is really a great way to also relieve performance anxiety. Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. I used to grab my stomach a lot was my thing. And I don't know if that was from like the breathing exercises I learned, and they'd be like, why you grab your stomach? I'm like, I don't know. It's my thing. But it's just like, I don't know. It felt like everything that I was trying to get out was from my core. So I just kind of would hold my stomach and it would help me, ugh. I don't know, so. Anne: Yes. Consider whatever those silly faces are or what you think are silly moments of brilliance. Really. Turn it into a moment of brilliance and just who cares. Because if it gets the performance out of you, that the client is looking for, you're a genius. Like I dare anybody who gets an amazing performance out of you to laugh at what you do behind the mic. I mean, maybe they'll chuckle, but hey, they're gonna chuckle all the way to the bank. Erikka: That's right. Took the words outta my mouth. . Anne: Because you're the one that is absolutely giving them the performance that they're looking for and whatever it takes to get there. I would say for the majority of the time, if you're in your home studio, right, and you're being directed and they can't see you, what a blessing that is to be honest. What a luxury to be directed these days. Rather than us trying to like, oh my God, what are they looking for? How should I self direct? It becomes something that maybe you can start to look forward to. And you're not nervous about because for me being directed is a luxury because finally, somebody, just tell me what you're looking for. I can do it. I'll deliver it, whatever you want. 'Cause that's better that you tell me, rather than me trying to think of 100 different ways that you might like it. So if you can directly tell me -- let's say it's someone who's not familiar with directing, even if they might, like, I know a lot of people are like really, what if they line read for you? Now saying that the people behind the booth may or may not be able to line read for you, but if it helps them express what they're looking for, I'm not offended by that. And I don't think that if you have a client trying to express what they're looking for, and maybe they're not as successful, you know -- just me being a director for so many years, like I know what it's like when you're trying to express what it is that you're looking for. It's not always the easiest thing in the world. And for people who aren't used to doing it, give them some grace and just try to listen and give them what they want. Even if they say something completely weird and you're like, oh, so you want a little more smile or you give them more smile. And you're like, that was totally not what they said, just go with it because it's not easy for people who are not familiar or people who don't direct all the time to actually direct you. And don't let that increase your anxiety. Unless of course it becomes like two hours and you've given them the exact same take. You've come around circle and now you're giving them the take that you first gave them. And they're like, that's it so. "I gave them 100 takes. And the one that they took was the one that I just did like my first take." Erikka: I know, I know. Yeah, one thing that I'll do too, to sort of lower my anxiety and maybe even theirs, especially if they are relatively new or don't hire voice talent often and kind of are feeling their way through directing, you have to kind of feel the energy out, obviously in the client to make sure that this is okay. But for one, I'll kind of paraphrase back, especially if I get the line read, I'll also kind of explain. So you mean like you're looking for a little bit more upbeat, but still grounded? You know, like trying to do that because that way we're both clarifying what we mean and that can lower the anxiety on both sides. And/or I'll offer, would you mind if I did some triplets on this to play around with it and try different ways? They'll usually be like, yeah, sure, absolutely. So you do their line read and then kind of your interpretation of it, and they have options. They love having options. Anne: Exactly. So I think that's a great piece of advice. Give them options. I'm always, when I'm being live director-ed, I'm always giving them multiple reads just in case, you know, maybe there was a click or something that's hard for them to get out in one of the words, they can grab it out of the second take. And that way -- I do that a lot with self-directed sessions, I'll give them multiple takes for them to choose from, but also in live, I give them the full session and I'll give them multiple takes. I'm like, I'm happy to read this again. A lot of times when they're happy and they'll say, oh, that sounds perfect, I get a little nervous. Because I'm like, what if there was a little -- like I've edited myself enough to know that maybe there was a little click or mouth noise or I don't know, something could happen where they could use an extra word that might be clean. So I think giving them options and I think you taking the initiative and telling them, how about if I give you a set of three, so you can just pick and choose what you want later makes everybody happy and reduces the tension for sure. So I think in regards to being balanced, right, balanced in the booth and not overly anxious, these are some really excellent tips that we can take, whether we're self-directing or being directed by others on camera or off. Erikka: Yeah. Preferably off. Anne: Preferably off. Well, great episode, Erikka. I loved it. Erikka: Yeah. This is fun, me too. Anne: I love that we got to show our booth buddies and our pictures and our booth too. So I'd like to give a shout-out to my sponsor, 100voiceswhocare.org. You guys, if you ever wanted to do more to help your local community and give back with your voice, you can find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org to learn more about that. Also great big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. We love ipDTL because it allows us to connect with our other BOSSes and also with our clients. So you can find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week. Ah, get rid of that performance anxiety, that booth anxiety. Erikka: Breathe. Anne: Breathe, and we'll see you next week. All right, guys, take care. Erikka: Bye. Anne: Bye. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Do you have a vision board in your office? Because it may just help you achieve your goals. Anne and special guests Leah Marks & Nic Redman dive into what it takes to make your dreams a reality. The small steps, to-do lists, and simply articulating what your goals are can help you reverse-engineer your way to success. If that sounds overwhelming, do not fear Bosses! Leah & Nic co-authored The Voiceover Career Planner to help. It is part daily planner, part personal VO coach, featuring 52 experts offering weekly encouragement. Want to learn more? Keep on listening. Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguza, and I am here with a special episode with the lovely and talented ladies from the UK's most popular podcast for voiceovers, the VO Social. Welcome to the show Leah Marks and Nic Redman. Leah: Hi! Nic: Hello. I love how you say the title of our podcast. . VO Social! Anne: VO Social! Nic: That's amazing. Anne: Yes, it is good to have you back here on the podcast. Leah: Oh, we missed you so much. Oh, it's been awful, Anne, terrible. Anne: Well, I think we should catch up a little bit then since we last spoke. So tell me a little bit about what's new in the world of voiceover for you guys over there in the UK. Leah: Well, Nic, you go first. You go first. Nic: I have nothing hugely exciting to say about voiceover. Leah: Okay. I'll go first. . Nic: Okay, great. Thanks. I mean, I've been doing all the amazing, exciting jobs. They're all under NDA. I can't tell you about anything. Anne: There you go. Leah: Of course. Yeah. You're basically the queen of voiceover right now, but no one can ever know. Nic: Yeah, yeah. Anne: No one can know. No one can know. Yeah. I can't tell you about it or we'd have -- Nic: I'm coaching (?) so busy say, so I've just sort of been focusing on that. Anne: Fantastic. Leah: Yes, yes. I've been throwing myself headlong into acting, and I've been writing a play, which I'm now halfway through one draft of, which is not enough the way through any of the drafts so far, but I'm getting there. I'm getting my way through it. I am. So that's what that's, what's new for me. Definitely. Anne: Things are changing all the time. Right? I remember the last time that we spoke, I had to look this up, 'cause I felt like it was forever ago. It was July of 2021, right? Smack dab in the middle of that pandemic. Well, we were thinking it was the end, right? or the end of the pandemic. We were hoping. Remember when it was supposed to be like a month or two and we'd be okay? Leah: Remember when there wasn't one? Do remember when there was absolutely nothing to worry about? I liked that time. Anne: Exactly. Gosh. Well, you know, we had a big conversation in that episode about having a plan B, because things change and evolve. And I think, gosh, we had a discussion about AI and synthetic voices and how do we evolve and keep afloat during tough times or even just evolving times with the voiceover industry, 'cause it changes so rapidly. So I, I thought we should have a talk about that. Leah: Yeah. About the future and how to cope with it. Nic: Well, actually I'm speaking to you with my AI. This isn't real Nic, this is AI Nic . So that's how my life has evolved. Leah: Oh Nic, do your AI voice. Do it, do it, do it. It's amazing. And get ready. Anne: I'm ready. I'm ready. Nic: I don't know why, but I'm very good at doing an AI voice. Leah: Yay! Oh it's so -- Anne: That's fantastic. Nic: Really bad AI voice, a really bad one. Yeah. I'm working loads in that one; that one's really busy. Leah: Anne: Well, I remember we had talked about one of the things that we were doing having maybe not necessarily plan B, but just yeah. Plan B for when you evolved to expand your genres or expand your acting. Right? Expand your performance, which I think is always important. And I think acting is a great part of that, in terms of always evolving and creating new voices that are something that people want to hire. Leah: Yes, exactly, exactly. And I think you're right about planning and trying to be prepared for whatever may come. We've got a lot of things to say about planning at the moment. We've got like both of our heads absolutely stuffed with planning and goal setting and how to achieve your goals and all steps. Oh God. The lot of it. Yes. Anne: I'll tell you what. I have my personal experience, and I've actually spoken about this as well. First of all, I have to write things down. I have a notepad, old school or not -- actually I love my notepad because I can actually write things down, and when I finish them, I can cross them out. And that is so satisfying. Leah: That is nice. Nic: Satisfying. Anne: So satisfying. So I have that on a daily to do, but I also have spoken about the importance of goal setting. And I will tell you in my experience, when you set goals and you write them down, it really helps to make them happen. What are your experiences? Leah: So my experiences of making things happen, I'm a list person. I work out what I want, and then I work out to all the things I need to do in order to make it happen. And then I work out when I'm going to do those things. And then I break it down into whether I'm going to do them that month or that week or that day or in the morning of that day or the evening. And I break it all down so that I can't fail or does I feel like I can't fail. 'Cause I'm on a path then. I'm never in a situation where I have nothing to do to achieve my goal. So for example, with the acting and the playwriting, I want to be working in more audio drama. So in order for that to happen, I need to get audio drama produces to see that I'm a great actor. In order for that to happen, I need to be in more theater. In order for that to happen, I need an acting agent. In order for that to happen, I need to be on stage in the first place. In order for that to happen I need to write my own show. And so -- Anne: Well, and you also need acting, right? Maybe you want acting classes too, right? So you're working on all aspects of it. Leah: Exactly, exactly. Anne: That's like you just took what you wanted and worked backwards. Leah: That's exactly, exactly it. That's exactly it. Well, what we've done is we've reversed engineered. Anne: Oh that's it, that's it, reverse engineered, that's it. Leah: Yes. Yeah. So we've created this book, a tangible, hold it in your hand, change your life with one item book that allows people to do this exact thing, to work out what they want, work out how to get there, and then actually make it happen. So it's called the Voiceover Career Planner. We actually launched it last year. Anne: Awesome. Leah: We printed 100 copies, and we sold that right away; within less than a month, they were gone. And then what we did was we got all of those people who bought the planner to send us feedback. We squeezed as much information out of them as we possibly, possibly could. And then we poured all of that information into the second generation planner that is out September 2022, which I believe is when this episode is coming out. So we've got a lot of real life user experience. Nic: Yeah. Social proof, I think they call it -- Leah: Social proof. Nic: -- in the business. Leah: Social proof. Exactly. Anne: So let me ask you what makes it different than my list, my to-do list? Nic: What makes it different to a list? I don't wanna comment on the aesthetic of your list, Anne, to start with, but it's incredibly fit. It's dead fit and attractive as a planner, it's really glam. It's got gold on it and stuff, but joking aside. Anne: Well, there's something to be said for that. I mean, aesthetics. Nic: This is it. Hopefully enough. One of the things that came up, I was doing a session in my vocal empowerment program, which is an online voice technique training course that I run. And I bring in this guest expert to talk about habit creation, because the whole point of the program is to give people the vocal skills to want to do their warmup every day and feel like they can do and fit it in their routine. And she talks a lot about like one of the things that you need in order to build a habit, IE, make sure you do things to get towards your goals, is to make it attractive. Like make it seem like a nice thing. Anne: Yes, I agree. Nic: So this is why people love vision boards and they love, you know, putting things on like nice post-its that are pretty and stuff. 'Cause if you -- it's, like you say, the version of attractive for you with your list is, it's attractive for you 'cause you write it down, you get to put a gorging line through it, which is really, really sort of satisfying. And I think with the planner, what's nice about it is a you think, A, look at me, I've bought this. Aren't I dead good? I've got this and I'm committed. I'm gonna use it every day. Look at me with my planner. I'm so professional. Anne: Look at me with my planner. Nic: And it's so pretty. Yeah. And then you open it up, and it's got all this amazing information at the start, which has loads of different insights into even stuff like studio troubleshooting, website and SEO, vocal warmups, habit creation. Anne: So it's a daily planner? Nic: Yeah. And then it's got like a page a day. Anne: Okay. Nic: Oh no, the new one's -- Leah: So we've changed it slightly from the feedback from users. We realized that we could improve the usability even further and create a bit more room to write essentially by making the planner itself a little bit bigger. And so it's now somewhere between A5 and A4 size, if that means anything to you. Anne: Yes, it does, actually. Nic: Planner size. I dunno if you're into planners. I've gone about 49. Anne: Well, I used to scrapbook, so I understand page sizes, and I did a lot of printing. So I understand page sizes for sure. Nic: This is what mine sounds like. I've got it. Here, look. Leah: Oh nice. Anne: Oh! Leah: But this is -- so the way it's structured -- Anne: ASMR. Wait. Planner, ASMR. Leah: Oh yeah. Anne: Go ahead. Do that again. Ready? Leah: Oh. Anne: Oh. Leah: Lovely. Anne: That is satisfying. Well, let me ask you a question though, because first of all, I like places to write, that's for sure. And the cool thing is, is that I think if I'm trying to write down, it's not just a list of to-dos. There's other things. Leah: No, no, no. Anne: We talked about goals. Leah: Let me take you through it. Anne: Yes. Take me through it. Leah: So the first thing that happens is it guides you through setting goals, helping you work out what your goals are, whether they are achievable, and how they can be achievable, and then the different actions that you're going need in order to be able to get you there. So there's loads of like supports and structure in terms of that, several pages of that. Then once you've worked out what your goals are going to be, the majority of the planner is taken up with 52 weeks. So it's not dated. So you can start it at any point in the year. It's a 52 week planner. So at the beginning of every week, there's a plan out your week page with a special section for planning your social media content for the week as well. And then after that you have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday has half a space each because we're trying to encourage people to also take some time off. And then you set at the top of the page, what you want to achieve during the day. And then you can work out if you want to, what time during the day you want to achieve those things. And once you've got it all written down, then that is such an encouragement to actually go through it like you say, and draw a line through it. But it's not just the sort of overwhelming blank space that you would get if you just had a notebook. It's structured for you. It feels, I think, more comfortable to walk into it, to use a book like that, to use a page like that because it feels supportive. It's saying, okay, here are the things. Here is a space in which you can achieve something. And here is a way that you can do it. Why don't you just pop the details in here? And then it makes it happen. The other thing that we've got then is we've got reviews throughout the year. So like you say, the world changes, things change, you change, your circumstances change. And so every quarter, there's then an opportunity to review how your goals are going so far and whether you want to add in some more, whether you want to adjust the ones that you've got, whether you wanna change deadlines, what you might need to do in order to achieve those things. Again, you can assess that again. So it keeps you going all the way through the year, checking in with you. The other nice thing that happens is at the beginning of every week, we've got 52, and you know about this already, Anne, but 52 experts to give us their top tip. We've asked 52 people at the top of their game, across the audio industry, what is the one thing that you need voiceovers to know that will really benefit them, that you are the perfect person to advise on? And uh, so Anne, as you know, you are one of my 52 experts. Anne: Wow! Leah: Because we've put you -- Anne: So honored. Leah: Do you want to know where we've put you? Anne: So honored. Where? Leah: We've put you on the final week. So we are building up all year. Nic: You're the headliner, Anne. You're the headliner. Anne: Save the best -- no, I can't say that. No. Thank you. I'm so honored actually. Leah: You very, very welcome. Anne: Thank you very much. Wow. Yeah. So it sounds like what you're describing to me -- because I have done research on planners. I'm always looking for the perfect planner. Like there are different planners and they have different things. And I think first of all, one customized for voiceover, our industry, number one, is brilliant because I want quotes that relate, that relate to me. And I think that if there's information and quotes and goal setting that can particularly relate to our industry, first of all, that's super helpful. And I had decided back in the day, and there's people that go back and forth about which planner's best -- well, I settled on a Panda planner. But it sounds to me like you've got all the functionality of all these really great planners that are best sellers in this VO planner. Leah: Well, what we've done is Nic's been using them for years and having the same experience as you. Nic: Let me tell you, I love a plan. I love a list. I love writing stuff in a place, and I have been searching for the right planner. I've tried lots of planners.- Anne: Right. For years, right? Nic: For ages. Yeah. So I've got like, well, I won't name all of, but I've got loads of different ones, loads of different sizes and different vibes. And most of them are quote, unquote business planners, which is fine, but there's something really special about having something that you open that you can completely relate to. And instead of seeing some, to be honest, like generic NAF quote about like agree, living the dream or the sun rising over the money pot, whatever the hell it is, in manifesting this nonsense into your life, opening it and seeing a really useful quote about a voice type thing or a studio thing or an agent thing is so much more comforting, I think, and inspiring. Anne: Right. And it gives you ideas for your goals, I think. Nic: Yeah. Leah: Exactly. Yeah. Anne: Because I think that there's a lot of people, they may or may not think so deeply into their goals, but I think one thing that helps me when I'm goal setting is to break them down into realistic goals. And I think most people, when they say, okay, I'm gonna plan or they try to do something in the new year, they'll be like, okay, I wanna make six figures in voiceover, and I wanna get an animation job with Disney or something like that. So they're picking these lofty goals, and I don't think a lot of people really take the time to kind of break that down and reverse engineer it like we were talking about earlier to find out, okay, what is it actually going to take to get to that step? And I think something that can help you or encourage you or give you this space to break that down will make it easier. Because I'd love to have like a great coach every day saying, okay, what is your business plan for today? How are you gonna grow your business? And it's one of these things that we all have to do kind of on our own. We can get business advice. We can have maybe a coach that does that, but a planner that can help you on a day-to-day basis to do that, I think is really fantastic. And I'm not trying to take away from business coaching at all, but I think it can be a really great supplement, so that whatever you are thinking in terms of goal setting, this can help you break it down into easier, more manageable steps and give you inspiration along the way. Leah: It's like you've read our website. That was brilliant. . Nic: That's exactly it. Anne: Wow! Nic: Okay. Bye. Leah: Thank you! See you later! Anne: It's so funny because it's exactly my experience. I mean, I've been in the business for a long time. I know you ladies have also been in the business a long time. And I think it's something that we ultimately arrive at. This is what we need to do in order to really grow our businesses. I mean, I know for myself, I'm still going through evolution of growing my business. I don't wanna stay stagnant. First of all, we're creatives. Right? That becomes boring to me. And so I'm always trying to look for new things, new ways to grow my business and especially adapt to the way that the industry is evolving today. I mean, we've got more competition than ever -- Leah: Yeah, of course. Anne: -- in this industry. And I think the people who are smart and can plan ahead, and women of a certain age myself, I'm talking, I'm looking towards retirement. I wanna be able to -- Leah: Oh, stop it. Or unless you're, you're saying that you want to retire extremely early. 'Cause you're doing so well. Anne: That would be nice. Leah: Fine. Okay, good. Anne: But no, I'm at that point where now that this is a full time gig for me, right? I mean I used to work back in the corporate world day to day, and people took care of my health insurance and my, I got paid no matter what, you know, every so often. Now having my own business for this amount of time, I'm still looking to the future, and I don't wanna have to worry when I retire. So I'm constantly planning my business, how I can maintain and/or improve and grow it so that I can put enough money aside for that day when I retire and I just have a ton of fun traveling the world. That's what I want to do. Leah: That is a great goal. Where are you gonna go first when you've got all the time? Anne: Probably Italy first, but I do love the UK. I have to say, I have said this since I visited the last couple of times, I have said over and over again. I really, really love, I really love it there. Leah: Oh great! Anne: Yeah. I would love to spend some time and maybe spend part of the year in Europe, Italy, the UK, and then maybe come back to California. That's my goals. Leah: What a lovely dream, I love it. Anne: My financial goals -- right? And I need to be able to set those plans in place and I love to write things down. That's the other good thing. Leah: That's it? Anne: I really believe -- and I'm telling you, it's funny because I never really believed. I'm like, oh, that's kind of like that fluffy stuff, set your goals, write it down. And honestly you just have to do it once. And then you realize that, wow, you kind of manifest it when you write that down and you break it down. Right? Leah: It's so funny you should talk about that because one of the things that we did over the last six months or so is choose a voiceover who in no way used a planner to follow while he used a planner to see how it adjusted his outlook or changed any of his outcomes. Nic: Our planner; he used our planner. Leah: Yes, yes. Specifically our first generation planner. Yes. Um, so we got a guy called Joe Troy, who is a UK voiceover. And the only way that he planned at all before he met us and our planner was by writing down what he wanted on a piece of paper, and then like, squirreling it away somewhere. And then looking at it again at the end of the year, see how -- Anne: Right, right. Leah: That was it. And that is one way of doing things, sort of magical thinking kind of thing. And uh, and he was doing all right, like he was winning awards already. So he was doing pretty well for himself, but then he started using the voiceover career planner. And every month when we put out a new episode, we'd check in with Joe, we had a little jingle. Could you sing the jingle? Anne: Oh my God, that's -- Nic: Joe Joe, Joe, Joe Joe Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe the VO. Anne: . Leah: Yay! That was great. I, I was gonna try and sing it with you, but then I realized the delay would make it awful for everyone. But yeah. So that was the jingle. . And so we'd catch up with him, and he would talk about a different element of the planet that he was using and how that was affecting things. Ad it was brilliant because it was making such a difference to how like aware he was sure of what he was doing in order to make himself get to where he wanted to be. Nic: And that was accountability as well, wasn't it? Leah: He was already doing well, but yeah. Yes, that's exactly it. Yeah. Anne: I think the part of it is not just writing it down, but then also looking at it, and it serves, I think, as a reminder, on a day to day basis. Or, you know, you've gotta look at your goals, I think, more than once a year, because it helps you to cement that goal in your head, in your brain, in your mentality, in your flow to really, I think, move forward. So I wanna know, if there is space for me to write down my accomplishments or things I'm proud of. Leah: Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes. So we have a wonderful feature, which was actually, um, thought up by somebody in our focus group originally called Brendan -- shout out to Brendan, 'cause this is my favorite element of the planner. At the end of every week, there is a prompt to tell you to go to the back of the book and write down the one big thing that you achieved that week that you're most proud of on one page. And at the end of the year, you then have 52 things that you've achieved that year that you can be proud of staring at you in the face, congratulating you in one big, massive page of text. And I think that is such a wonderful thing. Anne: Oh, so important. Yes. Leah: 'Cause otherwise you can so easily forget. Nic: There's also a job tally chart, which I quite like. So every time you do a job, it's on a monthly basis. So you can like put a little tally in when you've done a job and then you can write down how much you've earned that monthly bottom corner. So there's light financials, nothing too intense for the financials. Leah: But it's good for an overview, isn't it? Nic: Just encouraging you to go, but how much have I earned, yeah, to keep a track on things 'cause that helps you forecast for the next year. Leah: Exactly. Anne: Well, in addition to that, I'm -- the financial yes, absolutely. But the accomplishments I think are so overlooked. When you look at what you've accomplished, it really -- first of all, not only does it make you feel amazing, right? Because you see everything you accomplished that you might have forgotten about, and you, and you might be down on yourself and saying, well, I don't feel like I've progressed at all or have I done any better this year than last year or even this month versus last month? But when you can look and see all that you've accomplished, it also sets the foundation for moving forward and progressing and growing. So I absolutely think that's one of the most important things you can do is not only to write down what your goals are, but write those accomplishments and celebrate them. No matter how big or small they are, they don't have to be huge accomplishments. Leah: You've really gotta feel like it's worthwhile, haven't you? So there's a couple of things. One of them is yes, you can see what you've done, but also like you were saying earlier about being able to see your goals, not just pinning it somewhere and forgetting about it. But also being able to look at your goal and remember that that's what you're doing it for because I think that as creatives, we can sometimes feel a bit like -- and what I'm about to say is not true for everyone, but it can sometimes be true for me, is that I want to be in the studio recording. Right? And I think that's what the goal for most of us is wanna be in the studio recording, but a lot of the work that we have to do in order to be able to get there -- so all the entrepreneurial stuff, all the SEO and the marketing and the business management, all of that is essential in order to get us there. But it can feel like such a drag for me sometimes. But then when you've got your goal right there in front of you, and you know that every single thing that you do is working you towards that end game, that thing that you want more than anything, that creativity, that purpose, then it makes it feel much more worthwhile, and it can make you feel less alone and less bored. Also. I think Anne: Of course that whole less alone too, because again, we are entrepreneurs; we're kind of our own businesses. Right? And I think there's a lot of, we seek support in others, in groups. But I think also to not feel so alone in terms of how your business is growing and being able to share that with others, let's say if you have a mastermind group or something like that. I think that's also really important to be able to have that in order to grow that business. And I know there's so many, so many of my students have been really frustrated lately in terms of like, but how do I get the work? I feel like I'm going nowhere. What can I do? And I'm always trying to think like most of the times my answer is, it's a marathon, not a sprint. And I think if you have something that you can just record and document your achievements, you know, your goals, what's happening on a day to day basis, and just go back and review it, that's an important thing too, is really helpful in helping you feel like, okay, I've got something solid here that is growing, is advancing even though I don't think it is. And I think your mental state about your business really has an effect on your performance as well. Nic: And I think it's about like keeping yourself accountable as well. It's very easy to sort of like you say, things change a lot and you know, you might think in your head, oh yeah. I'd quite like to do something in animation this year. But you know, two, three months in or first quarter in, you suddenly realize you've forgotten about that because you've been so busy with the usual corporate stuff you do, and you've not made any steps towards that, but if you've written it down, and you keep going back to it and going, oh yeah, I did say I was gonna do that. What steps do I need to get there? What could I feasibly do today to help me get a wee bit further? So for me, like accountability is one of the most powerful things in business. It's having someone or something to remind you of what you should be doing or checking in on you a little bit, you know, and that's almost like what the planner does 'cause you open it and you see you see your goals and it's like, have you done this though? So I think that's really useful. I mean, it doesn't talk to you. It's just a book. So don't don't think it's -- Leah: Oh, there is a little bit of that. Nic: -- cards that you open with my AI voice. Anne: Well, wouldn't that be cool? Leah: Well, we've extended beyond just paper though. 'Cause obviously we're not at app stage yet if we ever will be, but we have got a lovely little QR code at the back of the book, which is sort of an exclusive thing for planner users. So if you scan that QR code, it then takes you to a secret page on the website, which is absolutely full of additional use for content links, to some of the things I mentioned in the planner. There's going to be one of the new things with the second generation planner is. And actually I think you're the first person we're telling about this at this moment. Anne: That's fantastic. I love it. Nic: It's exclusive. Anne: It's not just the planner, but it's a website full of resources. Wow. Leah: Well, the QR code and the website full of resources was there since the first generation. But the new thing that no one else has heard about is the new way of presenting warmups that we put in this second generation. So what we wanted to do was create a resource for people so they would, they would know what warmup routine to use depending on what job or what type of job they were about to go into or what sort of session they were about to go into. And so Nic has worked very, very hard and developed these extraordinary four different routines that kind of -- between all four of them they cover almost every eventuality you can imagine. So it was not just about if it is a corporate job, if it is a five minute job, like it's everything that you can possibly think of. Anne: Wow. Leah: So when you scan the QR code at the back of the planner, so not only do you have the list of the different warmup exercises, but you also, when you scan the QR code at the back of the planner, it takes you to Nic guiding those warmups. Nic: Hiya. Anne: I want it. I'm sold. Leah: Yep. Anne: All right. So tell us then, because I'm so excited; I hope you're making more than 100 'cause I have a feeling. Leah: We are this time. Yes. Anne: It sounds amazing, number one. I want one of course. But how can BOSSes out there get ahold of this? Because it sounds amazing. Leah: Right. So we are doing a very different and special thing for our international customers this year. Because last time round, it was very tricky to get planners out to people outside of the UK. It was a palaver, the delivery cost, the distance, that, oh my God. This time we're doing it completely differently. We're using global distributors and people can find out how to get their planner simply by going to thevosocial.com/shop. And they'll be directed then to where to go, if you're an international, IE, outside of the UK customer straightforward. Anne: And when will this be available again? Leah: 1st Of September. Anne: 1st Of September. And I think we were talking about a special thing for the BOSSes. Leah: Yes. Especially for VO BOSS listeners. All you have to do when you get to the point where you are buying your planner is type in the discount code section, BOSS10. And you will get your very own 10% off the planner. What a deal. What a lovely time. Anne: Thank you. I love it. Leah: You're really welcome. Anne: BOSSes, you are getting in on this deal as early as we possibly can or we know about it. So I think we're gonna probably sell out. Better get there quick. So we don't sell out in 24 hours. Leah: Yeah. Anne: Okay, fantastic. So I am so excited about this planner, and I wish I had it now Now if BOSSes want to connect with you guys, how can they do that? Leah: Well, first of all, we're going to be in New York next week. So if you are in New York, then immediately come and find us. We're gonna be speaking at VOcation, which is very, very exciting. Nic: Yeah. But we'll also be eating all of the food in New York. so you could probably find us in any of the places that sell foods. Leah: I'm going to make a duvet out of pizza slices. Anne: Yes. Yes. Leah: That'd be great. Anne: I'm so glad that you can appreciate the pizza from New York. That is for sure. Leah: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nic: I don't get a giant pizza like in Friends, I'm, I'm not coming back ever again. I want a pizza with a diameter bigger than my entire arm span. Anne: That's awesome. Leah: But then if you are not in New York, if you are just outside of New York, you don't intend to come to New York, that's fine. It's okay. Each to their own. We're also available online for your every whim. Nic: Where can people find you, Leah? Leah: Yes. Okay. So @Leah_ETC. That's me. Yep. Nic: For all your Leahs, etc. Leah: Wherever you might go for that sort of thing. Anne: For your every whim. And Nic. Nic: I'm also in the internet when I'm not in New York eating a giant pizza. And you can find me at @NicRedVoice on the ol' Instagram, or you can just find everything about me in my other podcast, The Voice Coach podcast , at my website, which is www. -- that's three W's dot NicRedmanvoice.com. Anne: Love it. Love it. Well, ladies, it was such a pleasure having you today. And I cannot wait for this planner. And BOSSes, go out, get yourself a planner today, as soon as you possibly can. Don't forget about our special deal. BOSSes, here is a chance for you to use your voice to make an immediate difference in the world and give back to the communities that give to you. Find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org to commit to this. Also a big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect like BOSSes like we have done today and find out more at ipdtl.com. Thanks so much, ladies. It's been a pleasure. BOSSes, have a great week. We'll see you next week. Bye! Leah: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Prioritization is the most important skill for entrepreneurs. In this episode, Anne & Erikka go through the essential skills you need to balance multiple careers. Whether you are working from home or juggling a corporate and creative career, you can’t forget to take time for yourself. Breathe, and know that once you step in the booth, the time you spent recharging on a small break between meetings will pay off. Career balance includes finances, family, personal needs, passion and most importantly a long term vision of your career… Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast and the balance series. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am excited to bring back to the show as always the lovely and talented Erikka J. Hey Erikka. Erikka: Hey Anne, how are you? Anne: I'm doing good. It's been a busy week. How about yourself? Erikka: Oh yeah, definitely been busy and prepping for another busy one. So, you know, as you know, I've got my corporate job, I've got my kids, my family, I'm pregnant and you know, I've got voiceover, which is like, you know -- Anne: Voiceover. Erikka: -- all in its own, a big old thing. And we've got a holiday coming up soon here. So holidays, everybody likes to get their work in before everybody goes out. So, I got tons of meetings and stuff and projects at the job. I've got tons of sessions next week for voiceover, and I am just really finding ways to balance it all, 'cause it's a lot. Anne: Look, I know that when I had a corporate job and I was doing voiceover part-time it was the hardest thing. As a matter of fact, whenever I talk to a student that comes to me, I'll just say it is very, very difficult to dedicate time to voiceover when you've got a full-time job and your career that you're already engaged in. And I look at you, and I'm like, my gosh, because you've got the family on top of that, and you're in It just the way I was. So I know how crazy it was for me. I'd love to talk about how you balance your careers and be so successful at all of them and your family. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I actually just a couple weeks ago or so talked to eVOcation about this, different strategies and things. One of the biggest ones, and something is kind of like a lesson for my corporate career, is prioritization because sort of accepting and knowing that you can't do it all -- and that's whether you have a job or not even just being in VO, probably not gonna be able to get to every single audition, especially if you wanna make sure you get the jobs done and all of your marketing work and all of that. So being able to prioritize appropriately and know like what's first to do. Anne: All right. So when I know that and I know you've got a number of agents, and they're all vying for you, right? Especially when you're doing well. And I know you're on a really great success track, and I'm so happy. I know what it's like when I can't do an audition for my agent. Like, it's almost like, oh my God. Yeah. Oh no. You know, and I feel bad, I feel guilty. And sometimes they'll write me and say, where is it? Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anne: And so how do you deal with that? That's gotta be something. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Like how do you prioritize? Erikka: That's a great point for me. Definitely the ones for my agent are number one. I very rarely, these days audition on Voice 123, where I am present. But I rarely am going on there to find jobs to audition for. It's more like if somebody DM's me either for a job or for an audition, or I get like one of those client invitations where they've specifically said, Erikka, we'd like for you to audition for this. And even those, they're last on my list. Agents, managers, theirs get number one. When I do have to kind of look at those and say, okay, I might need to prioritize, I got a ton of them today, I do wanna make sure that it's the right audition for me. And I'm trusting 9 times outta 10, the ones are sending me are great. But you know, if I'm really not sure, or if I'm not really filling the script, or they kind of like want it read three times and it's rather long, I might email and say, hey, I'm gonna pass on this one. And they usually understand because I don't do it often. So yeah. That's how I prioritize that. Anne: Right. Well, I think you probably prioritize agents too. I mean, in my certain cases, I have agents that are more local to me in LA, and I have to prioritize those agents that are local and the ones that I'm booking with. There are some other agents that, how do I say it? They're not not important. It's just that I have agents that I kind of, I have to prioritize them, if they're more local to me and they expect that as well. Erikka: Yeah. Absolutely. Your mother agency, they call it, you know, like that's -- Anne: Yeah, yes, exactly. Your mother agency. Yep. They do. They get dibs and they get priority. And so if there are five auditions that come out, and one of them is from the mothership, if I can only do one, that's the one that gets it. Erikka: That's the one. Yep. And you can look at things like the job you want too like for the rate or like, you know, if it's like a category or a brand you've really been wanting to work for, like that can help you with those prioritizations decisions as well. But yeah, definitely take care of your mother agency. Anne: Now you also go into work, right? You have to go into work or are you working from home? Erikka: No. The only way I'm able to do this is because I'm full remote right now. And I have been for three years. Yeah. Anne: Okay. That's great. That's great, 'cause I know some IT, you have to be there because you physically have to be present to take care of equipment or something like that, but you can do everything from home. That I think is one advantage of the pandemic for people that have been working full time, if you have been kind of re-homed to a home office, I think that that actually is a benefit for people who are looking to get into voiceover because you can sneak away to your studio to do a 5 or 10-minute audition. That was something I did not have the luxury of doing when I worked in IT, because I had to be on site on premise, even though a lot of my time I was doing remote work, but I also had to be there to physically turn machines on and off or, you know, install machines and that sort of thing. So I do think that that is one of the biggest advantages from the pandemic, if you are now able to work from home, having a voiceover career as well is a lot more accessible. Erikka: Absolutely. And that was something that I brought up in my talk is that yes, I fully recognize that not everybody has my position, and I feel very blessed that I'm able to work 100% from home. And even now like my position, it's more like product management. So I'm in software. So thank goodness I don't have any hardware that I have to be physically present to manage. But now after the pandemic, there are an increasing amount of remote jobs. So it's not just necessarily me. It's like jobs that were not remote before, these companies are recognizing that they're able to retain their talent better if they're able to offer that sort of perk. And actually a lot of people are more productive when they do their corporate jobs from home in the corporate work. So yeah, it definitely allows me the flexibility to come in and outta the booth. Like my desk is over there, my booth is here, and I just back and forth between meetings and sessions and auditions. And it's crazy, but yeah. Anne: But here's an important session though. How do you turn it off? Right? You're at your home. So where's the family part of that and that family balance come in? How do you work with that? Because that's gotta be tough. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a couple things. For one, in the beginning, I was very, very -- I'm already a workaholic, so... Anne: Hah. My name is Anne Ganguzza, and I am a workaholic. Erikka: Hi Anne. Welcome. Anne: Yes. I'm right there with you. Erikka: So I mean, they already knew that I was like that, but I was kind of in overdrive and my family was like, hey, you need to chill, Erikka. You know? So like I did have to find the places to set boundaries. Like I mentioned that I had a recurring great client that had booked me for a Sunday once, and I did it that one time, but I said for the future, I really don't do sessions on Sundays. And they were like, oh, okay. And it was great. So now I know that that day is like set aside for myself -- Anne: That's my day too. Erikka: -- my family. Sundays, I generally don't do anything unless it's like huge. And I tell them, and I'm like, this is huge. And they're like, okay. They have to be on board too I think is the big thing. Like they understand this industry. They've seen how hard I work. They know it gives me flexibility with other things. I was able to pay off my debt because of voiceover, so that helps us all. So having them on board and setting boundaries so that you do have some special time with them is really important. Anne: I agree. You know, the Sunday is my boundary. The workaholic in me is like six days a week. But, and you're right. Sometimes I work on Sunday, but only if I have to. And what's interesting is sometimes when my husband, if he has to travel for business, and he is gone over the weekend, on Sundays, I may work and not feel guilty. 'Cause if I end up having to work on a Sunday, I feel really bad, 'cause I'm like, I need to spend time with Jerry and the family and whatever else we're planning on doing, 'cause we need to make plans as well. And I'm one of those people that I'm so planned ahead in my planner or in my calendar, if I don't block off on my calendar up to a year ahead, I will be scheduled with something. So again, busy is good, but sometimes busy isn't good. And so was there a time that you realized "I don't have the proper balance right now" and you need to reevaluate, and what was it that happened and how did you readjust? Erikka: Oh yeah, this was probably about maybe -- even though we're still technically in the pandemic, but like midway, you know, when it was like, all right, we know that this is the way of life for now -- I had been just like throwing myself into so many workshops and a lot of 'em were LA based. So, you know, I'd be working all day, doing auditions, maybe cook dinner, and then, you know, in a workshop 'til one in the morning I was exhausted. I was drained. I was burnt out. I could tell, like I was less motivated to do auditions. You know, like I said, my boyfriend, my partner, he's just kind of like, you are doing too much you know? So other people kind of calling me out, and that's when I was just like, all right, you know, these workshops are great, I'm enjoying learning, but you know, maybe I don't have to take every single one I see. Maybe I can just do a couple a month, you know? And so that was kind of the turning point for me. And also I had developed to a point that I didn't need to keep doing them as much. I almost got like addicted to workshops at one point, 'cause I just loved learning and, and developing, but I'm like also from an ROI perspective, am I spending too much money now on workshops and training where I'm already at this point? So that was another turning point to be able to say, all right, I need to spend more time on working and making the money and maybe -- Anne: To reinvest. Erikka: -- go back some on the training. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anne: I think that's a good point to talk about that point where you are evaluating the numbers. And I think it's important that when we get to the point in our career, you need to evaluate your numbers. I know a lot of people don't look at the numbers sometimes, and they're just like doing jobs, spending money, buying microphones, upping their home studio, but yet they haven't really looked at their numbers. And I think it's important that you look at your numbers. Where is your outgoing expenses and what's incoming and where do you need to make adjustments? But I think having money to reinvest, I think you're probably at the point where you're being successful enough that you've forgotten to kind of figure out, oh, I need to pay the bills, or you've got that cushion, but you've also forgotten to look at your numbers to find out really what are you spending? And I think that's an important stop point in any career. You need to regularly evaluate the numbers, incoming and outgoing, so that you know when you can reinvest and when not to be. And in terms of like myself, I know myself, when I don't have the right balance -- and this is not balancing corporate career, but balancing my own career -- when I'm too busy, working too many hours, and I start to get like panicky, where I'm like, oh my God, I just don't have enough time to finish this and I've gotta finish this and I can't stop. And I will start to have like panic attacks. And that's when I know that the balance has got to come back because it's not healthy for me to be in that high. My blood pressure probably spikes. Erikka: Yeah. Your body will tell you, for sure. Anne: Yeah. And so do you have certain days that you set -- do you have time limits? Do you say I'm on the job from nine to five or I have an hour for lunch? I've got an hour to do auditions. How do you split your time? Erikka: Yeah, so I think it does vary for me from day to day because sometimes it might make sense for me to do a session at 12, when I know that I'm not gonna have any meetings. There might be days where I have no meetings. So it's kind of more like, you know, I have a project to work on on my own time, and it's not necessarily that I have to be right sitting in front of my computer for eight hours. And I might be able to have some sessions during that day, that do build in some breaks. Like I make sure that like, if I have, you know, meetings from one to four, and you know, sessions at some point, like I will set a boundary and be like, I'm not available at this time because I know I just need to breathe. I need to get outside, get some air, eat, you know. Anne: Yeah. I think mentally for me the performance, right? There's the business aspect, right, where I'm doing accounting, I'm sending emails, I'm responding to clients, and then there's in the booth. And I think so much of what's in the booth is mental. And that takes time. Like you forget to give yourself grace and time to prepare for that or build that into your calendar. That's where I find that I am lax sometimes, because I'll be so exhausted after I'm doing all the other stuff that I get in the booth here, and I'm like, oh God. Erikka: Now I have to act. Anne: And then what happens is I wanna get through the audition quick and I have to stop myself 'cause that does me no favors in my performance. How do you deal with that in the booth? How do you get back that peace? That, you know, restoration. Erikka: Yeah. Just kind of reset, yeah. Anne: How do you reset to have that balance? Erikka: For me, getting fresh air is a huge one. Like I've been either sitting in meetings, or I've been in the booth, or I've been sitting at my desk doing invoicing and all the admin stuff that comes along with our business as well, right? And like, I'll be like, all right, I need to get up. My butt hurts. I need to stand up. That tells me I've been in the chair too long. Anne: Yep. Erikka: And you know, these days I, I have to get up pretty frequently to go pee. So that helps, but I really do like try to get fresh air and that's a good reset because it literally getting the oxygen to my brain is like telling my brain, you're okay. And there's an abundance of air to breathe. And like that is something that I have learned. It tells your whole body, relaxes. One thing I did mention to one person at eVOcation is that I learned in therapy, particularly for people with anxiety or they get really high stress or high strung, if you kind of take a second to pause and do like a body scan and check, 9 times outta 10, if your stressed, your tongue is like resting or pushed up against the roof of your mouth. Anne: Oh really? Erikka: Yes. Anne: Ooh. I find it in my shoulders. Erikka: Absolutely. Your shoulders get tensed up, but it's like, if you check and it's like, your tongue is like just resting up there, and it's like, if you just relax it and like drop it down to the -- Anne: Oh my goodness. Erikka: -- bottom. Yeah. And -- Anne: To the bottom. Erikka: -- drop it to the bottom and just kind of scan -- Anne: My tongue is at the bottom. Erikka: -- your whole body, you can just feel everything just drop. And you're just like -- Anne: Oh, you're right. Erikka: -- huh. I was stressed out. Anne: Including my, including my posture though. But that's, that's good in way. Erikka: Yes. Anne: You know? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great one to reset too. Anne: Wow. Erikka: Definitely the air does it for me. I wanna go back to real quick to something that you said about the money too and the reinvesting. I think that as someone who has both incomes where I have the corporate and the voiceover, so I'm not necessarily paying bills out of my voiceover income right now. That's what the corporate job is doing. So it's really easy to overspend in reinvesting Anne: Yes. Yes. Erikka: You know, because everything is, is somewhat extra, right? Like it could be paying off debt or whatever, but you still wanna watch and make sure that you're getting an ROI from where you're spending your money in your business. And you're not just spending because you have it. Anne: Right. Erikka: I got into that, and that's how I have like a million microphones and headphones and I started looking at my numbers, and I was just like, all right. If I wanna build this to a point where it is gonna be my source of income, I've got to start making strategic decisions about where I'm making expenditures, just like businesses do, setting budgets for different categories so I can watch my spending, just make sure that's aligning with what I'm bringing in. So I wanna bring that up. Anne: Mm. Yeah. It's easy for us to forget, to check those numbers. Even myself. This is what I do full time. I'm not even talking about balancing one career against another. I find myself that I'm not looking at the numbers enough, but what's really cool -- again, I say over and over and over again, the best investment I've ever made was my accountant. I have her on retainer. So she'll be doing monthly. She's the one that will alert me. "By the way you realize that you're spending so much per month on this subscription or your income that came in last month was little less than it was this time last year. So let's make some adjustments or whatnot," because she's also keeping track of my quarterly taxes that I have to pay. So that keeps me in check. So if you do not have somebody watching over you, looking at your numbers and you're doing it yourself, remind yourself at least once a month, if not more than that, in reality, if you're active doing this full-time, you should really be looking at your numbers once a week, if not every day, seeing what's going on, what's in and what's out, and just taking a brief look so that you're aware. Erikka: Yep. Yeah. Anne: I think that's important. Erikka: Yeah. I have a Google sheet, and I should be outsourcing to an accountant. I have somebody for taxes, but I'm just, I'll get there. It's taken me some time, but I'd have this Google sheet where I'm looking at my average income per job, also the median. So that way, if I get like a whopper, you know, when it's a five figure job, it's not throwing off my average. I can also see where I hit the median, 'cause that tells me when it's time to raise my session minimum. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: I'm looking at, like you said, year over year metrics. I'm looking at monthly, how much I brought in so that I can compare. I'm looking at quarterly averages of what I've brought in, and I have all that automated, the calculations are in the Google sheet. So I'm not having to calculate this every time. Every time I put in a booking, it's calculating that based on what's in the other sheet and, and showing me that number and I just look at 'em from time to time. Super helpful. Anne: So let's talk about mental balance and joy, right? So a lot of people that are in their corporate jobs want to escape. Is that how it is with you? Are you at that point in your job where you're like, I gotta get out? 'Cause I was at that point where like, I am so stressed out, I need a change. I was becoming stagnant myself in my corporate job. And that is the worst thing for me, just knowing my personality. It is the worst thing for me to remain stagnant and not grow. So I was like, I need a way out. I need to get out. And that escape was moving to California and then going into voiceover full-time. What about you? Where's your mental state there? Erikka: I think I'm okay right now, but I do think that, especially since I've got a whole new obligation coming along here, it's definitely on the long range plan to move out of corporate and to focus on -- I don't think I'll ever just do one thing, but kind of having voiceover and maybe something else that is my own personal endeavor. And I do think that you have to know what your plan is, like is this for short term or you're just trying to use this to build up some capital? Is it like a mid-range thing where you're building a career, and maybe you're gonna do voiceover after retirement or something like that? Or if you have a long range plan where you're like, I'm gonna have an exit strategy, I'm gonna build voiceover to a point where it can sustain my lifestyle and I'm comfortable, and then I can leave my job and that's more me. So I know like on the long range sort of roadmap, I will eventually probably leave corporate and just do voiceover because it's growing to the point where I'm gonna have to at some point. Anne: Right, right. Erikka: And knowing things like that, you have to prepare, right? You have to have balance in your approach. You have to start looking at -- Anne: You have to plan. Erikka: You have to plan. You reverse engineer how you're gonna get out. Don't just be like, I'm tired of my job. Bye, I'm gonna do voiceover, and wing it. You're gonna be miserable. And I don't wanna be a starving artist. Anne: Honestly I'm so glad that you said that because I have so many people that are like, yeah, I'm not happy at my job. I'm gonna get outta my job and just quit and do voiceover full time. And I'm always like, okay, whoa. First of all, you wanna make sure you've got a plan because it takes a while to get established in voiceover, unless you're a prodigy, and there's very few of those out there and it's with any good business that you are growing as an entrepreneur -- they used to say five years. I'm like, make it closer to 10 years, you know what I mean, that it's gonna take for you to really see a good ROI. And maybe like, this will be your way of life. You can support yourself. I'm not gonna say it takes 10 years for everybody. But I had a certain standard way of life that I like to live. You need to make a certain amount of money to do that. And so for me, that did not happen right away. It took me many years of growth. And thankfully I had a financial cushion, which was what I had put in place. And my husband also, who was working at a job. I was able to get healthcare benefits; so important healthcare, to have those benefits. And as a matter of fact, even now I'm always telling my husband, I don't care what you do. Just get me my health benefits. So I'll make money if you want, just get me health benefits, because that's a huge, huge part. Erikka: Yeah. I'm glad you said that, 'cause it's not just about the dollars that you're bringing in. Yes, absolutely. The benefits that you lose after you leave corporate, whether that's health, dental, maybe vision insurance. You know, right now I'm carrying debt for our family 'cause my partner's also freelance. Anne: Yep. Erikka: So if you know that that's not gonna be an option for you, either planning for that expense, or getting enough union work where you can qualify for the union health insurance. And that's kind of where I'm at. Looking at now that you're not gonna have a 401k, what are you gonna do for retirement? Anne: Right. Erikka: Are you gonna open, you know, SEPs? Are you gonna look at, you know, individual IRAs? So kind of having that for yourself, just looking at all of what you're gonna lose and coming up with a contingency plan for that, for when you're on your own or just being willing to do without it. You have to consider more than just the dollars, the taxes -- the fact that now the income that you're gonna have from voiceover is not only gonna support your business and you're paying your own taxes, but you're gonna have to reinvest in your business as well. So you have to make enough to cover all of that. Anne: And support the family. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Right? So whatever you have to do. And I remember those first years when I made that decision. Before I quit, and I say this all the time, I said to my husband, you're going to have to make one and a half times what you make now. See if you can get a transfer to California, but we're gonna have to make one and a half times, because I'm gonna quit my job, and I'm gonna go full time into voiceover. And you can't just can't depend on my salary after that happens. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: I had money put away in savings, but again, we're talking about a move across the country, that was expensive. Buying a new home, that was expensive. Even though we sold our home, we were buying a home that was brand new. So we did have to invest a little bit as well. And it just was something that we had to plan out. I said, make sure that you can guarantee this salary. And then, you know, it worked out and we moved. And then unfortunately my husband was laid off nine months after we got here. And then people said, when are you moving back? And I said, no, we're not moving back. So we made it work, but you still have to prepare for those unexpected things that happen. And so an exit strategy is important. Make sure that you have some money put aside that can support you in the event that you need to live off it for a year, I would say. That is so important and know that it's going to take time to build up your career in voiceover. I mean, at least give it five years. If you're at the point where you're working full time, and you're doing part-time voiceover, and you're making a considerable amount in voiceover doing that, first of all, congratulations because I know how difficult it was for me when I was working full-time, but I had to be on site, right, at my job, it was very difficult for me to make any money at voiceover 'cause I couldn't audition easily 'cause I was away from my studio. Now I think if you have the luxury of working from home, that's a whole lot easier. But still even if you can work from home, build in an evolution of here's transitioning from full-time to maybe consider your skillset and you can then be a part-time consultant in it while you're doing voiceover as well. And so therefore you are kind of compensating for the time it takes for you to build up the voiceover business while still utilizing your current skills in a consultant fashion, in a part-time fashion, that can supplement your living expenses and/or whatnot, your investment in your voiceover for the time being. I think that is something very important to put in place. And do not obviously, anybody listening to this podcast, do not think that voiceover is the easy job that you can just do from home. That just scares me when I do consults, and I hear people, they're like, well, I got laid off for my job and I wanna do voiceover. And that just scares me because that it's not that simple obviously. That transition takes time. There has to be an investment, and it amazes me again how many people don't have money to invest in voiceover to make it a sustainable career. Erikka: That's one thing too that I always kind of bring up, and it might be a little bit of an unpopular opinion, but I think that you should have a balanced approach when you're looking at exiting to not just have savings, but to also go ahead and build up a portfolio of credit that's available to you. Because this is a high investment industry, right? To be able to be in voiceover, you're constantly having to either spend money on equipment or you know, have subscriptions for connections or get training, you know, conferences, all these things, they do help you grow. So it's not like a one-time outlet. You do need to have some money for when technology fails and you have to replace it. It's easier for you to get approved for credit while you have that W2 income. So you don't have to use it. But kinda have the lines of credit available so that if the sky falls down, and you don't have enough savings to take you through that whole period, you have another fallback plan. It's like, you know, have your plan ABCD . Anne: That's a great idea. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: That's a great idea. And also I'd wanna mention on that line, consider if you're going to move low key into a new home. By the way, they don't look upon freelancers or people who are self employed very highly when you want to buy a new home for a mortgage loan. And I found that out very like firsthand when I moved here like two and a half years ago, and I've been established in the business. But I had to prove over and over and over again, here, I made this much this year, here are my bank records. Here, have it all. We can afford this. And it just was painful. It was painful. So if you need to make a move, make a move while you work at a job Erikka: The banks highly favor W2 work. Anne: They do, they do. Erikka: Yeah. So take advantage of that and then make your exit. Anne: Yeah. And then make your exit. That's actually a really good strategy plan. It's not that it can't be done because I did it. But you've got to basically hand over every piece of documentation that looks at your business and shows your income. And then you have to make sure that you can define where that income came from. You cannot just transfer $10,000 from PayPal into your bank account and say that it was for voiceover work. They're gonna wanna know really, where did that come from? And it's that type of a thing. Any large deposits into your bank account, you need to account for those. And if you say they're from your business, you gotta be ready to show the paperwork. That is just part of the reality. And especially now it's crazy out there in the housing market. It's expensive. So it's gonna make it that much harder even. Erikka: Cars too, like the other major purchase, you know, buying a car. And that's why, even if you do have W2 income now go ahead and get in the habit of keeping meticulous records, not just for taxes, but so that when you're in this situation, and maybe you're a year into your only freelance career, you've left your job and they want two years of history, you're gonna have to be able to show everything that happened over the past year and voice over plus that W2, which is gonna be easy. But get in the habit now, so that when those come up, you're able to really just show it and yeah, you want this fine? Yep. I can show you, no problem. 'Cause they wanna make sure it's not coming from illicit sources, right? Anne: Exactly. Exactly. Money laundering. That's it. I'm like, what look, what, where do they think it's coming from? Well, you could be laundering money. I'm like, oh, like that didn't even occur to me. Like, so I don't have a criminal mind there, but anyways, your last piece of advice for balancing everything so successfully the way that you do to the BOSSes out there; what would it be? Erikka: Oh man. I would just have to say, it's probably multi-pronged, but know your plan. Know what it is that you're trying to do with voiceover. If it's just something that you wanna do on the side, that is okay. But you need to know that and not kind of purport like you're trying to build something long term. Or if you are trying to build long term, start making long term plans. Start making steps to get your financial house in order, to prepare your family for this change. Don't want an emotional whim because you're tired of it. Grin and bear it, you know, just mm-hmm and know what you're doing and why you're doing it and who you're doing it for. And in the meantime, just set boundaries for yourself. Take care of yourself, know that you're not gonna be able to get into everything, but just know that you having both is also an asset. You're able to double dip for retirement, do a SEP and get your 401k. You're able to have another capital source to invest in your business. So just be patient with yourself. That was a lot of advice in one point. Anne: That was great though. It was sage, sage advice. Thank you so much, Erikka. You are an inspiration, for sure. Erikka: Thank you, Anne. Anne: Yeah, absolutely. All right. BOSSes. So as individuals, it can seem hard to make a big impact, but as a group, we can contribute to the growth of our communities in ways that we never thought possible. And you can find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org to learn how you can make a difference. Also big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect like BOSSes, like Erikka and I, and find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week, and we'll see you next week. Bye! Erikka: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

You deserve to take up space & feel valued for the work you are doing. In this episode, Anne & Erikka discuss how saying no to jobs builds your career as much as saying yes! There is morality involved with lending your voice to a person or company. In making these difficult choices, it is essential to keep your brand & personal integrity aligned with the jobs you take. Bosses, have the confidence to say no, and if you need a little boost, your favorite hosts are here to help. Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast and our balance series. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I'm excited to start my day again with the lovely Erikka J. Hey Erikka. Erikka: Hey, Anne. Anne: How are you? Erikka: How are you? I'm pretty good. Anne: I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Erikka: Hangin' in there. Anne: It's been a crazy year or a couple of years. Hasn't it? Erikka: It has. Yeah, for sure. Anne: And I have to say that I got a job offer the other day to do something for a political candidate. And it made me think, because my thoughts about voicing things for, let's say, political and/or let's say anything else that maybe I may, may not believe in have changed and have evolved over my career here. And I thought it might be an interesting conversation to have with you. Maybe our moral compass, so to speak. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Balancing that and balancing your yeses maybe, you know what I mean? Like what you say yes to and your no, 'cause your nos can shape your career just as much as what you do decide to voice. Anne: Oh, right there. That's a golden nugget. We can go home now because that says it all. Honestly, I think sometimes no is even more powerful than a yes and can really help define in so many ways. Well, just a little more on that job that I was talking about, you know, it was for a political spot, and I literally went so far as to look up the candidate because it wasn't evident by the content right away what was happening there. I ultimately, I ultimately said no to it because it did not align with my beliefs and not just the copy, but because I said it was hard to tell with the copy because it was a candidate that wasn't as well known. And so I just said no, and I'm thinking about myself, maybe, I don't know, five years ago, or even later than that. I might have said, you know what? It's, it's a gig. It's a political gig. Let's do it. Let's get on board. What about you? I know you do a lot of political work, and it may not just be political work, but -- Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I do a lot of political, and in the very beginning of my career, like literally, like I had been probably doing voiceover for like a month, and I did have a quasi-political sort of thing come to me. But now kind of looking back on it and it was weird because when I did it, I was like, well, you know, I'm just starting and oh my gosh, they booked me and they want me and I can do it, you know? And it's like, yeah, it's kind of borderline, but I'll just do it. And I've regretted it ever since. And it probably lived for like two weeks. It was something that was very short term, but it was supporting a candidate that I was not in support of somewhat. Like I said, a roundabout, like, I didn't say their, their name. But it was just that I learned that not all work is good work if it's going to misalign with your gut and how you feel and your own beliefs. And if from a more business standpoint, misalign with your brand. You don't want to jeopardize the trust that you've built with your clients that do align with your values and your brand. And then they're like, well, why is she voicing this? So I stopped doing that. Anne: Yeah. And I find that now, especially now, 'cause it's such a divisive climate these days politically that I think it's just shaping my business in a way that I didn't anticipate, number one. Not that I do a ton of political. I mean I do enough political to know now I'm absolutely like checking on the candidates, finding, going to their webpage and finding out if their beliefs align with mine, because I'm just not willing to have my voice recognized, and then another client, like you were mentioning, a longstanding client, maybe, I don't know, not align with that and then maybe have issues with me voicing for them in the future. But it's not even so much about that. It's become now about my performance too. I wanna make sure -- it's hard to create a believable performance when you don't align with the client that you are voicing for. And it doesn't have to be political. I think it could be anything. You know, now we've got, one of our next episodes probably gonna be all about AI, but with AI jobs, right? Are they gonna recognize my voice and then will there be, I don't know, judgment in one way or another, because that's also something that people have very strong feelings about. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, definitely not just political. Yeah. Just kind of, it definitely comes out in your performance. Like, yes, we can take on feelings and emotions and words that are not our own. I truly believe that when you're not enjoying the performance, when you really are not totally invested in it, it's gonna come through somehow, some way. And you know, the client may say there's something about it or it might just be a difficult session when they're really trying to pry it out of you. It's gonna come out in the wash and when it's not real. So yeah. I just prefer to say no. And I find that when I say no, the right things come along to replace it. So it's kind of having that, that kind of mindset, not having the scarcity mindset of, oh, I have to take the job 'cause it came. You know, having a more abundant mindset of I'll release this thing that isn't for me. So I can go to the right person and the right thing will come to me. So. Anne: Exactly. And you know, that applies in so many things if I can, the power of no. And especially when you're negotiating also, I think that, that makes a huge difference in terms of, I don't have to take this. If you have that thought process of, you know what, I don't have to take this job. And I have the confidence that if I say no to this job, that it will give me room for the next job to come along and fulfill my need for, I don't know, money to support my, whatever to support me in this career. So the power to say no is huge. And when you are negotiating that confidence that you have the power to say no, and that you are okay knowing that if you say no, everything's gonna be okay, and that something else will come along and fill its place. That is huge. And I think that a lot of people, when they first start out in the industry, it's a scary thing to negotiate a job. Because they're afraid that they're gonna lose the job if they quote too high. And so therefore they settle. I think you only have to have a few negative experiences when you settle, and then you get that client that doesn't align with what you want your business to be. And then they kind of nickel and dime you on every little thing that they want from you. And those are clients that when I get really, I only had a couple that really came back and nickel and dime me. And I was like, you know what? I did not quit my full-time cushy job to come to a job where I could be beat up by my client. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: This is why I got out of it. And so I wanna just tell any voice actor out there that is beginning, you do not need to suffer through a client that is abusing you, so to speak. Erikka: Oh my goodness. Anne: Right? Erikka: Yeah. Definitely talking about balancing yes and nos, that is such a great point on rates, because like you said, the ones that don't necessarily want to pay your price are the ones that are gonna have the most demands, want the most pickups or little changes or, well, could you, you know, say this one with a, like going up like they really like line reads you type things. And you know, things like that, but yeah. Not being afraid to fire clients. I think that that's so important. Anne: When they don't value you. Erikka: Exactly. Anne: It's all about the value. Right? You've gotta understand that what you do is of value. And we say this over and over and over again, but it's so interesting how it always comes back into play in these, the power of no, the moral, ethical compass that you have in working. It's not just, oh, do you take a political side? It's a moral compass when working with a client who may not treat you as if your services are valued. And that I think is huge. And like I said, I did not give up my cushy job you know, and thankfully I had a cushy job. I say thankfully and gratefully, but I did not give it up to go into business for myself to be handled by my clients in a way that is not aligning with what I want my business to be and someone that doesn't value me. And that is a huge, huge thing. And it's a huge thing when you talk about AI, right? And we think that the AI industry is out to get the voice talent and to take away their jobs and to devalue them. I personally, just through the VO BOSS podcast and all of my interviews, have been fighting to have AI companies value the artist and value the voice and value the asset of voice because they value other assets. Right? If you think about some of these big advertising companies, they value the product. Well, if the voice is representing the product, how can you not value that voice? How can you not treat that voice with the respect that you treat the product? Because it's a part of it. Erikka: Yeah. You're bringing a branding element that nobody else can bring. You have something, this voice, this tone, this way of delivery that they have chosen to represent their brand. That's the value and, and should be given the proper respect for that. And even to your prior point, I do still have my nice job But I think the thing is like, even at work, not to take it too far off topic, but just valuing yourself and whatever value you are bringing to the table in any business transaction, really in any transaction at all, any relationship. And if you command that respect for yourself and knowing that when you set those boundaries and say, you know, Nope, that's not for me or I'm not gonna allow you to treat me that way, you make space for the right things to come. So that comes with rates. That comes with the way clients treat you, that comes with the way your boss treat you. If you have a job and they're not treating you right, find something else. Anne: Absolutely. I love that you brought that up, especially in the corporate environment, because I know a lot of reason why people may be getting into the voiceover industry, right, is to escape the job where they don't feel valued. You know, I worked in the corporate world. Corporate is one of my specialty genres in coaching and in what I do in voiceover. And I always felt that corporate became the way that I was winning 'cause I would do corporate voiceover. And I thought, here's the way that I don't have to go in and be mistreated in a board meeting, right, by members of the company or, you know, not valued. Here, I can do the job, don't have to go to any meetings -- well, maybe a meeting with a person that's paying me, but basically I'm in, I'm out, and I got paid. Erikka: Exactly. Anne: And so therefore I win. I win at corporate. But I do happen to love corporate and I understand the corporate way. And in reality, as voice artists, we are hired pretty much by companies, whether they are companies that have a product or broadcasting companies, they're still companies. And again, you want to be valued by that company that you work for. And it's just something that resonates, whether you are in a company wanting to get out to form your own company, right, that you need to be valued. You need to be valued and you have the space to morally and ethically say no to create a good balance in your life for not just getting paid, what you're worth, but just having joy in what you're doing. Erikka: And you have to remember that like these businesses, they're not saying yes to every single partnership or every contract, and you as a voice talent -- I know that it's easy for creators and artists to kind of see us, ourselves as beneath or as you know, well, we're so grateful to get a job, but we are B to B businesses. So when we are working or deciding to choose to work with another company, that is a partnership. And you have to decide if that partnership is right for you, just like the big corporations do. You're no different. Anne: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That's such a great point. Wow. So do you have any examples of jobs that you've said no to yourself? Erikka: Oh boy. I know. I do. Let's see. I've definitely said no for rates. And the couple times where I might have bent, I regretted it. Anne: Because then they would come back and want every little pickup. Erikka: Either they wanted more or it was just like, when I did it, it wasn't as fulfilling. And I was just kind of like dreading it. And then I send the invoice and I'm like, I can't believe I put myself through that for this. You know what I mean? So I kinda stopped bending. The times that I do kind of bend more on rates are like, if it's something I really wanna do. And I really believe in like PSAs or for non-profits and stuff like that. But yeah, I have, more times than I can count, you know, just said, hey, this is my rate. This is what it is. And if they say, you know, it's not gonna work for us. Great. Definitely say no a lot for usage, and that's something, you know, I'm open about the fact that I do participate on P2Ps. Just really Voice123 right now. But I'm very careful to make sure that anything that says in perpetuity, these contracts or these blatant boiler plate, things that they send out, I gotta make sure that I'm protected, that they're not gonna use it for broadcast use or try to use it in perpetuity without it being totally kind of safe from creating conflicts in the future. And I'll say no very quickly for those. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I wanna point out that a lot of times there's a panic, right, if I say, no, I won't get hired again. And I just wanna say like in life right, think about the products that you buy. You can choose to buy a product that's maybe cheaply made and that doesn't last as long, or it's not as good value, or you can buy the stuff that has served you well in the past, right? A trusted brand that lasts a long time or you can depend on it over and over again. And when it comes to that, you don't care what you pay for it for the most part. Right? And I think that even though we think voiceover might be going down the tubes because online casting came and, and now AI is coming and, and people think, well, it's just be devalued, and so what's gonna happen? Well, I think it it's human nature that there's always gonna be the division of, okay, so there's good value. Or maybe there's not so good value. And I don't think that's going to change whether pay to plays are in the picture or AI is in the picture, because people are always gonna want to buy the thing that gives them the best value. And that does not always equate to money. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: Right? Erikka: You'll always have buyers for the Dollar Store sort of, you know, genre. You'll always have buyers that are more in like the Target sort of realm and then you'll have your Neiman Marcus folks. Like it's always -- Anne: Right. Erikka: There are people that are, that are price driven and those that are quality driven, and there's just different types of buyers. And it's just which one do you align with. Anne: Right. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: And those buyers can change at any given moment. There may be times when I feel like I don't need top of the line, I don't know -- I always go to the girl thing -- I don't need top of the line lipstick now, but but I always need a good hairdresser. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Do you know what I mean? Like, I feel like I wanna be that voice of our artist where people say, well, all right, I can forego maybe this part of the project, but I cannot live without Anne Ganguzza for my voice. Erikka: There you go. Anne: But that's what you wanna try to manifest for your business. Right? They say, Erikka J, man, she is like no other. She delivers. I love her voice. I can't live without her. And that's the type of client that you want. And there's a lot of clients out there, guys. I don't think we need to be worried that you're not gonna be able to get a client that will support that value and support your business. And I think you just have to believe, and I know a lot of times it takes -- it took me years to kind of get that belief and that confidence. And it's funny because it's still evolving, and I've been in this for over 15 years now. Erikka: Yeah. It's like a muscle. You have to keep stretching it. Yeah. Anne: It is like a muscle. It keeps growing, and you just like every day you realize, wow, you know what? I'm gonna be okay. People are going to want to hire me, right, because I deliver value. And then even if there are other things like pay-to-plays have become, it's tough. It's a lot of competition. Well, maybe that's something that you evolve out of and you do something different. And again, you always have to have that balance of this is aligning with my business, morally, ethically. And what's my other word? Does it bring me joy? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Right? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: There is that balance that makes my business go around kind of thing. And makes me happy that I do what I do. And when it no longer makes me happy or no longer fulfills my quota of, I need to support myself, right? Well then maybe I evolve into something else and what's given me the strength to be okay with that is the fact that I have built my business up. And that I have succeeded. I always say this. If the voiceover industry were to fall out, I'd be okay. Because I have learned how to operate a business myself, and I know that I can evolve, and I will evolve because I've proven it to myself before. And I know that you BOSSes out there can do the same. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: I'm not anybody special. I think there's something to be said for longevity and in following your moral compass. Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: Right? And having that balance. Erikka: Yeah. And I think part of balancing those yeses and nos, we talked about the moral compass. We talked about financially making sure the rates are right, the usage, making sure it brings you joy. I think another part of that is do you have the time? Because you don't wanna jeopardize your relationship with a client by you keep saying yes, yes, yes, yes. And you start falling behind on deadlines or you're not delivering the quality that sets up to par because the hours in the day are finite. Right? Your energy is, is finite per day. So sometimes you might have to say no, simply because you don't have the bandwidth, and you have to be okay with that because it'll be worse for you to deliver a subpar product. Anne: Right. Right. Erikka: Because you didn't have the bandwidth to really do it. Yeah. Anne: And I think it works. I mean, if you want it to, I think it can work in your favor and especially, Erikka, for you, I think because you are juggling a full-time job, a voiceover career, I mean family, everything. And so the fact that you don't have the time makes it like a little easier to say no. And a lot of times when you say no, that makes people want you more. Erikka: Yes, I totally agree. Anne: Just sayin'. And that makes people value you more. And that actually can turn out to be a wonderful thing for your business. Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: Right? Erikka: Yeah. Or like, for me, like I say no to longer form projects, because I know it's gonna be harder for me to fit that in. So it makes room for me to get more of the short term stuff. And like you said, it does kind of be like, oh, well you didn't have time for this, but I'd love you to do this. You know, like, could you do this one? Anne: Or even, I dunno, has it ever turned around, whether you've said, no, I, I don't have time for it. And they offer you more money? Erikka: They offer me more money or they offer me more time. They're like, well, if we wait until next week, could you do it? And I'd be like, well, yeah, actually I could Anne: Yeah, so in a sense, absolutely. I mean, it just works out, and I'm always saying being busy is a good thing as long as you're balanced and you're not going crazy. And like your health is at stake or something like that. But the being busy is good because then it's a great time, I always say, when you're that busy to raise your rates and see what happens and it's scary as hell, but when you raise your rates, and then you say, let me just see what happens, and people just, they take it. And you're like, damn. And it's so funny because to us, it's like this big, like, oh my God, I'm gonna raise my rates. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: And then the next thing you know, somebody's buying it and you're like, oh, well that was simple. Why didn't I do that before? Erikka: I am so glad you said that, Anne, because again, the laws of business, which we have to remember as BOSSes, that we are not just talking into a microphone, we're not just artists. We are entrepreneurs. We are businesses. What businesses do, the law of supply and demand. If the demand goes up, guess what, the price has to go up, because there's not as much supply to fulfill that. So yeah. Anne: That's right. It's a really wonderful thing. And I think there's too many people that let it get to them before they realize that, wow, this is how I can raise my -- this is how I can actually survive because there's not too many people that are just doing this as a hobby. I mean a lot of people, oh yeah. It's kind of fun. I'm dabbling in it. But in reality, the ones of us who are concerned about how do I market, how do I get the jobs? We want this to be a living. We wanna be able to do this and be successful at it so that we can support our families or whatever it is that we wanna do with that. And I think when it gets to that point, you've gotta figure out how you're gonna make that business work for you. And there are some scary, scary challenges. I'm -- like I say this all the time, you have to be scared of something every day, honestly. And I think that really is good for you to be a little bit scared. And I'm still scared when I raise my rates, and then I'm still like, oh, damn, that was easy. Somebody picked up on that. Erikka: Right. Right. Anne: It's like -- now I think you just have to be careful that you're within a market. Erikka: For sure. Anne: You don't wanna price yourself out of the market. And that is something that you have to, you know, understand. And I think that's something that, again, there's a balance of worth plus the market, because you can be a little more expensive than what typically is on the market. And that's where I kind of like to -- I don't wanna say I'm expensive, but I like to say they are my values. This is my price because I honestly, I don't have time to not have it be my price. Erikka: Amen. Yes, yes. And deliver the goods to match that price. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: You know, so that they are happy to pay that. Anne: Well, exactly. Happy and glad to pay it over and over and over again. And I don't feel guilty. Erikka: Yep. Anne: Right? I don't ever feel guilty. Erikka: Yep. Anne: Right? I don't know. Have you ever felt guilty when charging a client? Erikka: I, I might feel guilty when I first say it, but then like at the end of the job, I'm like, yeah, well that was worth that , you know, and they're happy. Anne: Yeah, if you work hard. Erikka: They didn't have to come back, you know, like they got what they needed quickly and yeah. Anne: Well, you know, that's so interesting that you say that too. I was on a live directed session the other day, and it boggles my mind, right, because I said, oh, do you wanna, you know, gimme some direction or you want me to just read it? And then you can gimme some comments later. They're like, yeah, let's do that. I delivered the read, and they're like, wow. That was perfect. And it's funny because that was quick. They're like, okay, no, that was perfect. We don't need anything else. Bam. I did it. They were like, wow, that's perfect. That was perfect. And they were so shocked and surprised and happy. And I was like, gosh, I wonder who they've been working with? Erikka: Really. Anne: Because for me it was just like, okay, let me just do this. And I was confident. I think confidence has -- we should have an entire episode on confidence. Erikka: Oh gosh, we should. Anne: You know, just because I was confident, there was no reason for me to be not confident. I do get nervous before a live session, but I'm confident in my abilities and to be able to deliver that, but they were so surprised and I was like, well, I'm so happy that I could deliver. And guess what? They hired me again. And so it just became like, it was quick, but it was worth it for them because it was quick. And I delivered what they needed quickly. Erikka: They're trading their money for you to make them spend less time. So the better that you can efficiently deliver with the read and what they're looking for, so that they're not spending hours directing you on a session, they're gonna appreciate that. And they're gonna happily pay you 'cause they can get more money. They, they don't have a lot of time. And yeah, I love what you said about, you know, it kind of just being ready, because if you get into that session and you're nervous -- I get nervous before live sessions still too. Anne: Yeah. I do. Erikka: One thing to kind help with that is I'm not afraid to like ask questions, especially if I have a client that maybe hasn't hired a lot of voice talent, so that I get clarity on the direction that they wanna go. You know, I'll do that at the top of the session. So then I'm more secure and more confident in what I'm delivering because it's not the guessing game and feeling it out in those first 15, 20 minutes. Right? And now I've just saved them 20 minutes because I took five minutes to ask questions, delivered the read in two, three takes -- Anne: Exactly. Erikka: -- we're done. Anne: Yeah. That's it, that's it, it's really delivering what they want. And that's the thing. 'Cause maybe, you know, you're confident in your performance, but you're not necessarily confident that you're gonna deliver what they want in their ears. So asking questions I think is, is super important. So guys, balance, I think balance in moral ethics, your value. I think that it is so important for a happy, successful career in voiceover. And I think that compromising -- look, I think anybody that gets into this industry, I think if they're coming out of the corporate world, which I have a lot of people, you know, trying to come out of the corporate world to do it full time, and I'm always like, well wait, just a moment before you do that. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: Right? And I think that, that is also another worthy topic for the podcast is, you know, your full-time job plus voiceover, how do you make it work? Which -- Erikka: And balance, and a balanced approach to the exit strategy. Anne: Yep, exactly. Yeah, exactly. But I think morally, ethically and worth-wise, you have to have a great balance and a great sense of who you are and your worth and to make things successful. And I believe in all of you, BOSSes out there, that it can be done. I mean, if I could do it, like like I've learned a lot over my 15 years, and, and that is a big part of what I've learned and a big part of what helped me become successful. And Erikka, I'm sure you see that every day. Erikka: Every day, balancing the yeses and the nos, balancing what I'm gonna do and not do. And yeah, for sure, eevery day. Anne: All right. Well, BOSSes, I'd like to give a big thank you to our sponsor 100voiceswhocare.org. This is your chance to make a difference using your voice and give back to the communities that give to you. Find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org. And also our sponsor ipDTL. We love ipDTL. It helps me to connect with BOSSes like Erikka here and all of you out there. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing wake and we will see you next week. Erikka: Bye! Anne: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

In this Bonus Episode, Anne is joined by The National Association of Voice Actors co-founders, Tim Friedlander & Carin Gilfry. NAVA is a new association that aims to advocate and promote the advancement of the voice acting industry through action, education, inclusion, and benefits. The three discuss why & how NAVA came to be, what their specific goals are, and how voice actors can join. If all goes to plan, NAVA will be the first organization to offer health benefits to voice actors. Bosses, you definitely don't want to miss this! Transcript >> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza. And today I am very excited to bring the founders of the National Association of Voice Actors or NAVA to the show, Mr. Tim Friedlander and Carin Gilfry. Welcome, guys, to the show. Thanks so much for joining me. Tim: Hello. Hello. Thanks for having us. Carin: Thanks for having us. We're excited. Anne: Well, I'm very excited to talk to you about this brand new initiative, which I think is only, what, a month or two old? Carin: Couple months. Yeah, a few months. Anne: So tell me, what is the National Association of Voice Actors? Tim: National Association of Voice Actors is a national association of voice actors. We made the title nice and simple to keep . It grew out of some groups that car and I have put together over the last, I started mine in 2014. I believe Carin, you were around the same time, 2016 or so? Carin: I think 2015. Yeah, something like that. Tim: Yeah. And these groups we have, uh, you have the voice actors of NYC. I have Gardner Street Voiceover Collective, various other groups I'm involved in. And over the years, we talk about business. We talk about how to get into the, into SAG AFTRA. We talk about what it means to go Fi-Core. We talk about various other different parts of the voiceover industry. Currently that conversation is around synthetic voices. So we're having that conversation in our groups as well. And we decided we wanna take that to a broader audience. And so we kind of took this off of Facebook and put this into a national group that we could offer education and support and financial support to on a much larger, much larger scale. Anne: I love that. Carin: In addition to that too, over the past few years, Tim and I have also, through our groups, been kind of creating emergency funds and donation funds for people in the voiceover industry, particularly during the pandemic. My group and Tim's various groups, we had emergency funds set up for people who lost their jobs during the pandemic, or who just needed extra money to pay bills or get a new microphone, 'cause theirs broke and they didn't have any money to do it. And so we were giving out payments to people, no questions asked without having a nonprofit. And so we thought that by forming a 501(c)(3), we would be able to do that in a much better way than just having a PayPal account and paying it out to people when they asked. Anne: Absolutely. Now it's membership driven. Is there a fee to join or can we join free? How is that working right now? Tim: Currently it's brand new and we have a membership committee that is going to be setting those standards for us on what that will be. Currently it's free to anybody who wants to join. And so there will always be a free membership tier that people can access the information. Definitely we wanna be a resource for people who are getting into the industry to find a trusted area for information. So we'll have a free tier that our membership committee will set for us. And then beyond that, there will be dues at some point, but we don't have that currently in place. Anne: Talk to me a little bit more about the resource-driven initiatives that you have. You mentioned before resources for the union or for Fi-Core for non-union people. What's that look like? Tim: Sure. We're currently calling it Pathways, different VO pathways that you have. And a lot of people think it's very black and white. It's either union or non-union. And in voiceover, for many of us who work in this industry know that it's very gray. There are non-jurisdictional jobs, which means it's not covered by a union contract. So what does non-jurisdictional even mean? What jobs are non-jurisdictional ,what can we work on? How do we join the union? If a voice actor wants to be in the union, what they need to do to get in that union? I was eligible for two years before I even know I could join the union. 'Cause I didn't know I worked under a contract that was a union contract. I didn't even know I worked under a contract. So that's just -- you know, I worked under an AFTRA contract for an audiobook that made me eligible. And two years later I was trying to get my eligibility and I was already set. I didn't know these things. And then also this concept that you can convert jobs. You can take a job that is currently non-union and convert that into a union job. So a lot of voice actors look at this concept of joining the union as having to give up all this work that I do in the non-union realm. And for a lot of people, that's not a tenable situation to be in, where you're gonna be giving up a massive amount of money, your entire living that you support your family with, to move into someplace where you may not even have access to auditions and jobs. So we are gonna show, we wanna provide that information on how can you navigate this industry. If I wanna go union, this is what I do. If I wanna go Fi-Core, this is what that means. If I wanna stay non-union, this is what it means. And the union is great when you can reach them. And their information is very solid when you can reach somebody over there, but they don't deal with voiceover specifically, and voiceover for everybody who knows is such a very unique niche aspect of what SAG AFTRA and the arts industry and community in general is, that we want something that's very specific to just voice actors. Anne: Very important. Carin: We also, we have an incredible advisory board of just people from literally every genre of work that there is in voiceover. We made a point of asking people from audiobooks and video games and commercials and TV narration, and all just across the spectrum of voiceover so that we have people advising NAVA on all of those different aspects. And we have people as part of our advisory board who are very important people in SAG AFTRA who are very pro-union and want everyone to join the union if possible. We also have people on our board who are Fi-Core and we have people on our board who are non-union. Our goal is to be voice actor first and to be as unbiased as we can be as a group and just provide accurate information out there for people to have, because I think SAG AFTRA is absolutely wonderful. But when I called and was trying to figure out whether I should join or go Fi-Core, I called them and I didn't feel like the information that I got about joining the union and converting work specifically -- they basically didn't tell me that I could convert work. And so I really thought that I was gonna have to give up every non-union job that I would book in the future. And it's mostly just because I think people are unaware that it's possible to do that. This group we hope is a resource for people with unbiased, accurate information. That's very voice actor forward. Anne: I think that's so important because I know there are so many questions when people get into the industry, like, what is the union and how do I become eligible for the union? Should I join the union? And it's always those questions that, you're right, the information has not been really readily available anywhere to find out that information, and it's complex. And so the different avenues are, I think each one of them has a special set of circumstances, and there are advantages and disadvantages to whichever way you decide. And I think having a resource to provide that information to voice talent is so very important for that. So that's a wonderful initiative, and especially things like -- I know that you've started something for healthcare or you're attempting to try to lobby for voice talent that, if they don't have healthcare, they can get it. Talk a little bit about that. Carin: Yes. Tim: Yeah. I mean, it's, it's something, you know, for anybody who is, those who are SAG AFTRA and have health insurance in SAG AFTRA, they know the benefits of having that access to phenomenal healthcare. And one of the things that we learned after forming this group that we did was that there is a possibility of providing healthcare for members of our association. And that is about the extent of the information though. It's about as far as we are in this, in this process. I started working on it before we actually had a group in this capacity. And I started in November of last year. I had been in discussions about possibly offering this for a year before that. And it was actually kind of put into motion of November of last year and is just for anybody who's dealt in healthcare, i's just a convoluted process of misinformation and different information and, and what information is accurate and what information is inaccurate and -- Carin: And changing what changing laws. Tim: Changing laws, yeah, exactly. Anne :Yeah. And it's such an important component for us as entrepreneurs, right, to have health insurance. I know we don't like to think about it, like we could ever need it, but I'll tell you, when you least expect it, you could really use that healthcare. And I know that first hand. And I was thankful that I was able to have healthcare, but it was through my spouse. So, and for those people that, that may not be an option, this is a wonderful initiative, and the best of luck with that. I think that's phenomenal. That's something that's very important. Tim: We look at it as, you know, I've, I've always thought of it as one of the things that can help advance people in their career. and it can help get you into that level where you are able to get union healthcare. It can get to that point. You know, the more work people can focus on -- I've always been somebody who in all my spare time, I personally don't wanna wait tables to support my career of being an artist. I wanna be an artist. Anne: Yeah. Sure. Absolutely. Tim: And I'm a musician all the time, and I want more people to have access to doing the art that they want to do, and love to do and make a living at it, and not have to stay in a job they don't wanna -- this is one of Carin's talking points that she brings up quite frequently is, you know, this, this concept of staying in a job you don't want to be in be just purely because you need the healthcare. Anne: Yeah, absolutely. And being able to have the income, right, coming in so that you can be confident in pursuing more work. And so I've always been, you know, a big proponent of have that little bundle of cash. And if you're spending that cash on something, when it goes wrong on healthcare, the whole thing kind of crumbles. And so I think it's important to have something like that put in place so that you can pursue your creative career and grow in it. Tim: We're just in the process of building that. So we just don't have, we don't have answers yet that are fully formed for us to give rates and to give who's gonna be covered and how it's gonna be covered, which is why we're here today talking about this. You need help from people to, you know, because -- Carin: We do have a plan of action. Anne: Yes. Let's hear the plan of action. I love it. Carin: Great. You can see, we have an infographic up on our website, which is navavoices.org. And you can see it's called, I think, the road to health insurance you'll see a little map on there. But basically the idea is we, as an association, have to come up with a pool of applicants who would apply for this health insurance. The health insurance companies wanna see who are these people, you know, what is their average age, where do they live, those kinds of questions. So we have a health insurance census, and we are hoping to get 800 to 1000 people to add their information to the census. Once we have that pool of applicants, that's when we can go to all the different health insurance companies and say, here we are, this is what we are. This is what we do. Our job is very low risk. We're not like construction workers, or even on camera actors have a more dangerous job than we do. We're literally sitting in a booth talking into a microphone. It's not very dangerous work. So this is who we are. They look at the full group and they say, okay, these are the rates. These are the plans that we can offer you. Then we choose which plans we think would best suit the needs of our members. And then during the open enrollment period this year, November and December, hopefully fingers crossed, if all goes, according to plan, we will have options for people to be able to purchase that health insurance, which will then start January of 2023. So the main thing right now is that we need as many voice actors who are interested in having this health insurance option to fill out the census. And also I should add that if you are on the census, you have the ability to purchase health insurance in November and December. If you're not on the census, you will not be able to purchase health insurance until the following year. Anne: So the next enrollment. Carin: Yeah, until the next enrollment. So, so if you have even like a little bit of interest in, maybe this is something that I might wanna consider, depending on what the rates are, fill out the census so that when we do get those plans and those rates, you will have the option to buy it if you want. Tim: Yep. And you can look at the compare rates when offers come around, and if it's not right for you, then there's no obligation to sign up on our plan. Carin: No obligation. Tim: But again to reiterate, if you aren't on the original census, and the rates come out and it looks like something viable you would want to get into, you wouldn't be able to join until the next open enrollment. So we definitely encourage everybody who is even just slightly and should want to compare rates. We have a question on there about "how interested are you, I'm just comparing rates," you can just check that section so we know that you're somebody who is just kicking the tires and just trying to compare rates. Anne: Fantastic. Carin: Just to clarify, you must be a voice actor in some capacity in order to be a member of NAVA and or qualify for this health insurance. So. Anne: Fulltime or part-time or in some capacity, paid jobs? Carin: Full-time, part-time doesn't matter, just in some capacity. Yeah. Paid jobs. We're working on what the vetting process is gonna be because we don't want it to be like an earning threshold. It's not gonna be like SAG AFTRA where you have to make 25,600 or whatever it is, almost $26,000 in union earnings to qualify for health insurance. It won't be like that. It will be like a vetting process where we'll see, oh, this person has a website. Oh, this person has a demo. Oh, this person has done a little bit of VO work. They qualify. Or, oh, this person has a profile on Voice123, they're probably doing some work as a voice actor. They qualify. And again, we don't know what that is yet, but it will be something like that, not an earning threshold. Tim: Yeah. And that kind goes in parallel with what the requirements are gonna be for the health plan. Like what level of connection does this group have to have between its members in order to show that they're part of a single group of association. So it all fluctuates, but we do, we have a membership committee who is handling that for us, and that we'll have something in the next, hopefully the next month or so that will, um, have some information on what different membership tiers will look like and what those dues will be and, and what the, what will be offered for those people who have different tiers. Anne: Fantastic. Now, as I look at the front page of your website, you have some lofty goals, which I really love, not only the health insurance that you just spoke about, but also you mentioned earlier financial assistance through scholarships and emergency funds. And I think that that's a really wonderful thing because prior to having this group put together, they were kind of all over the place. And I know at one point long ago, I offered scholarships through VO Peeps. And so since then there have been other groups that have offered scholarships. And of course there's the Brad Venable fund, which is amazing. Talk to us a little bit about what your plans are for that. I love having it in the central place. Tim: Yeah. You know, as I said, kind of some part of this started with us based on this financial aid that we were offering to some of our members in there and the kind of the foundation, what got the NAVA started in the early part of the year was we received a donation from Bev Standing and Rob Siglimpaglia after Bev's TikTok lawsuit was settled last year. They donated their GoFundMe money they had raised to the Brad Venable scholarship into that fund. And that became the foundation of what started NAVA. That allowed us to pay for the lawyers, pay for all of the incorporation, pay for the things that we needed. And also allowed us to put a decent amount of money aside into a basis for a fund which provided three full scholarships to VO Atlanta for three voice actors, which covered tickets, covered airfare, covered lodging, covered food for the entire duration of the time they were there. So we were able to cover all the expenses out of that fund. We also have been able to use that fund going forward to help some people, a little bit of money here and there. It's currently not public because we are still setting it up, and we have to wait until all of our final paperwork gets through for us to officially be fully sanctioned to do the things we wanna do. So currently it's on hold, but we will be able to take donations which will be tax deductible donations. So voice actors can donate to the group. We have a lot of people who over the years have just donated here and there. Somebody books a good job, and they turn around and donate a little bit of money to the fund just to help have our group. I think we've probably done $40 or $50,000 in the last 18 months to two years out of our group. Carin has done, you know, something similar along those lines. Carin: Yeah. Same, same number from my groups. Tim: Yeah. And a lot of voice actors, we all know, you know, $200 here and there sometimes is the difference between us getting through the weekend and not getting through the weekend or a client is late on paying or something doesn't come through. Or we do a lot of ACH. You know, we do direct bank transfer and your deposit gets made, but it's not gonna hit until Friday because it's a holiday. So sometimes just that $200 gets somebody through the weekend, gets somebody through the next 24 hours or the 48 hours until something come through, which we all know is small business owners. And as cash flow is tough sometimes, it's, those are the little things that help. And we help a lot of people in that little way that we wanna continue doing. Anne: Fantastic. Now you also have education and inclusion. So speak about education, resources. That's gonna be on your website? You're gonna also thinking of hosting classes maybe, or workshops or NAVA meetings that, uh, you would provide that? Carin: Yeah, I think we'll probably do a Zoom every month or so for our members about various topics, but also we are kind of partnering with different resources around the voiceover community that provide educational materials. So like GVAA for example, um, is -- Tim: VO peeps Carin: And VO peeps. Yes. Anne: VO Peeps, VO BOSS. Yeah. Okay. Carin: Yes, yes. And VO BOSS. Great. Anne: Thank you. Carin: No, but the GVAA rate guide is definitely something that we are fans of. And so that is part of our website, and SAG AFTRA has a lot of educational resources that I think people don't -- when they go to the website, it's not like totally 100% clear exactly where it is. So we can have links to those on our website. So people can just find a central place where you can go, where if you have a question, you can look up that information on our site, information on converting work, other things like that. Tim: Yeah. And there are lots, there's so many great coaches out there that we can, we want to help support and advocate for those who we know are trustworthy, who we know are great to work with, different people. And also I think Carin I've worked with most everybody in, in the Los Angeles area. I know who are some great people to work with, who personalities -- one of the great things, you know, a great coach, a great coach. If they're the great coach for you, some people work better with other people. And we know these things would help, help guide somebody into a great mentorship with a great coach or a great group of people who are offering classes and things along those lines. So that's kind of where we're looking at and promote. Anne: And the VORG is coming back. Tim: The VORG, the voiceover resource guide. Anne: The VORG. Carin: It's the VORG. Anne: I'm on the VO. Yeah. Tim: Voiceover resource guide goes to print. It's 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, hopefully tomorrow. And we go to print tomorrow. We have to. Anne: Wow. Tim: We're going out. Anne: That's incredible. The VORG was all there was back and see, now I'm gonna date myself. But the VORG was all, there was back, I wanna say in the eight, was it the 80s? It's the -- Tim: Voiceover industry's oldest publication since 1988. And actually up until about four years ago was the only printed publication in the industry. Anne: Yeah. Absolutely. And when I saw that was coming back, I was so excited to see that. Also now an online version as well, so absolutely. Recommending the best of the best in LA and New York and fantastic stuff. So, get your copy of the VORG. You can pre-order, right? Pre-order the printed copy, which, hey, who doesn't love, who doesn't love a good book? Tim: My stack of voiceover resource guides right here. So. Anne: Yeah, I was gonna say, do you have, I don't have one. I don't have one with me, but I do have one. So fantastic. Awesome. Talk a little bit about -- I know you mentioned this in your, in your meeting the other day, inclusion and diversity and how you support that. Carin: Yeah. So we are also partnering with kind of the people in the industry who have formed groups that are really interested in, in representative casting and authentic casting. And so Queer Vox and the PGM list are two groups that we are partnered with. Maria Pendolino is also starting a new group for disabled voice actors, which we will hopefully be able to be a part of. It's just about supporting all of our colleagues and supporting the voiceover industry and moving toward this authenticity and representation that I think we all are -- it's about time and Anne: Absolutely, absolutely. Carin: -- excited about. Yeah. So that's something that NAVA is supportive of. Anne: Oh, fantastic. Tim: And hopefully to be able to take that next step and be able to then educate and work with casting directors and productions on what this means to cast authentically earlier in the process, so it's not a, not an afterthought or something that's happening. Either when it's too late or when it becomes too difficult to find what's needed authentically. Anne: Well, congratulations guys. I mean, what a beautiful, wonderful initiative and resource for the community. Thank you so much on behalf of the BOSSes out there and everybody in the community for putting in the work. I know, again, I date myself, and I know how much work you're putting in, especially I had my own 501(c)(3) back in the day. So yeah. Good luck with that. And really thank you so much for everything that you're doing for the community. Tim: Oh, well, thank you. Carin: Thank you. Thank you so much for having us today. It's great to get the word out. And the VO BOSS is fantastic, and thank you for all the work you're doing -- Anne: Well, thank you. Carin: -- with all of your podcasts and information and all of that. It's just fantastic. So thanks for having us. Anne: Well, thank you. So that website, BOSSes, is navavoices.org. Any other links I need to be shooting out to people? Tim: That's our main link. Yep. Carin: The census is on the front page of the website. So if you wanna take the census, go there, click, and you're in. Tim: That's it. Carin: To the census. Anne: Awesome. Yes. All right. BOSSes. Sign the healthcare census and become a member now. All right, well, thanks again, guys. I'd like to give a great big shout out to our sponsor, 100 Voices Who Care. You guys can have an opportunity to have your voice make a difference. You can find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org. And of course, to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect like a BOSS and find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week. Thanks so much for joining us this week, and we'll see you next week. Bye. Tim: Bye-bye. Carin: Bye. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.