VO BOSS

Anne Ganguzza and Tom Dheere, discuss fresh strategies to balance work, health, and personal life while excelling in the voiceover industry. We share our trials and triumphs in navigating the voiceover industry from home. We open up about the challenges we've faced transitioning from a structured office job to the freedom of working remotely, and we discuss the importance of creating our own systems and structures for success. Tapping into our entrepreneurial spirit, we delve into time management strategies that have kept us afloat in the world of self-employment. This episode is chock-full of practical tips and insights. So get comfy and join us as we demystify working from home in the voiceover industry. 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a VEO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VEO Boss Podcast and the Real Bosses series. I'm your host, anne Gangusa, and I'm here with my real boss co-host, mr Tom Dheere. Hey, tom.  00:32 - Tom (Co-host) Hello, hello, hello, hello how are you, I'm good, how are you?  00:35 - Anne (Host) I'm excellent. You know, Tom, I dressed up today just a little bit. I still got a little bit of sparkle going on here and if you're just listening to this, bosses, you'll just have to trust me on this. But I did dress up, and you know that's very unusual, tom, because I work from home. And I cannot tell you how many times I'm in the booth here in my sweats and t-shirt and shorts, or whatever it might be.  00:58 And that's one of the advantages that I really love working from home. But I'll tell you what. I've known a lot of people that work from home and it can be a real adjustment. I think we should discuss that and let's talk about what it means really to work from home, because sometimes it's really hard to be productive or sometimes it's hard to stop working.  01:17 - Tom (Co-host) Yeah, that's one of the biggest challenges for people who are transitioning from being in a full-time or part-time environment, possibly for decades, and then coming home and then working from home. One of the biggest challenges is that if you get a job and you someplace you go to whether it's an office or a restaurant or a bank or wherever that you're working you have a set job description with set hours and you're supposed to do this then and that then, and this is when you can have a lunch break and this is when you go home and this is how much vacation you can take.  01:48 - Anne (Host) Yeah 95.  01:49 - Tom (Co-host) And a lot of people are like, oh, I hate it, it's so oppressive, da-da-da. But then they come home and then there's zero structure, there's almost no job description.  01:58 Apart from auditions and bookings, there are no deadlines. So at first the newfound freedom is very liberating and refreshing, but then they're like I have no idea what to do. I have no self-discipline, so I'm kind of all over the place. And to your point, and since I don't have any set hours, some people are working two hours a day, some people are working 14 hours a day, and neither of those are particularly good. Obviously, working not enough is not good, but working too much is not good either.  02:25 - Anne (Host) So, yeah, the struggle is real. I'm in that category, yeah.  02:28 - Tom (Co-host) Where I tend to work those 14 hours?  02:31 - Anne (Host) Yeah, I try not to, but it's very difficult. And there are some people who just it's not conducive to just joy, bringing joy to them, because they find it so hard to either turn off or to focus or to concentrate to get things done or they need that social aspect of being out in an office. I know that my husband was working from home for a good couple of years. He is now again working from home and he's much more attuned to it. He's much more adjusted to it. The first couple of years he was working full time from home he hated it and I know that for me, working full time from home was a big adjustment. I mean, it took me a good year or two to get used to it. I think I was really like okay, so when should I like market? Okay, I've got auditions to do. I know I can do that. Now what do I do?  03:23 I was also still trying to grow my business, and so I think in the beginning I wasn't as happy because I didn't have any direction, I didn't have any guidance, I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing and I thought maybe there is a formula right. Is there a formula for success in working from home?  03:40 - Tom (Co-host) There is. The problem with it is that everybody has to build their own formula. Everybody has to create their own systems and their own structures. I talked to my students about systems of thought how to think about what you're supposed to think about and systems of execution what's the practical application of your systems of thought? And there's so many different parts to it. I basically break it down into time management and workflow how to manage your time and then how to develop systems to do all the things that you need to do. Time management is very, very tough, especially if you're going from a job job a nine to five job where all the time management is taken care of for you for the most part because this is your hours, and you have to do this within this amount of time, and either you get it done or you don't, and if you don't consistently enough, you will no longer have that job.  04:32 That's it.  04:33 - Anne (Host) You know what I mean Exactly.  04:35 - Tom (Co-host) So, understanding how to prioritize and understanding how to focus, those are the two big things. What is more important than other things and how much time should you spend on it? And how to be able to maintain mental, physical, logistical focus on any given subject marketing, billing, audition, booking, balancing your checkbooks, invoicing you know all of that stuff.  04:58 - Anne (Host) Well, let's break it down in terms of your business, Tom. What is your first priority on any given day?  05:03 - Tom (Co-host) Health.  05:04 - Anne (Host) My health. I like that.  05:06 - Tom (Co-host) Understanding that if I am not physically, mentally, spiritually, psychologically, emotionally in good shape, I will not be able to engage in effective time management, and the rest won't matter.  05:17 - Anne (Host) That's actually really an excellent point. Thank you.  05:21 - Tom (Co-host) The third part of it is what are the things that I need to do 24 hours a day to maintain optimal health? Obviously, some days are better than others, some weeks, some months, some years are better than others.  05:31 - Anne (Host) Sure, I got you there, yeah.  05:34 - Tom (Co-host) It starts with and this is a big one, for a lot of people is waking up in the morning. When do you wake up in the morning? Some people are night owl, some people are early risers, and all of that is fine, as long as it's like oh, I'm not an early riser, I'm an night owl. You get out of bed and start working on stuff at like two in the afternoon and then you're done at four.  05:58 - Anne (Host) You know what I mean, unless you had the six hour work week.  06:00 - Tom (Co-host) Yeah, Getting up exercising if that's what you need to do, having a good breakfast for a lot of people, showering, cleaning yourself up getting dressed getting dressed on some level. Making the bed and making the bed, making the bed's big for a lot of people. Our friend Corey Snow, voice actor. He puts on a tie Because it mentally prepares him for his day.  06:20 - Anne (Host) Yeah, absolutely, well getting dressed up and putting makeup on helps me to just, you know, okay, I'm prepared now and I'm ready to go and exercise, of course, now, but that was not the case. As you said, some years are different, right? I mean that was not my priority during the pandemic, which it should have been but it wasn't. But things evolve and change. But now I find that I need to get up and do that Because and sometimes it's exercise after the day is done, because that helps to really relieve stress.  06:47 - Tom (Co-host) Helps you decompress? Yeah.  06:49 - Anne (Host) So it really kind of fluctuates a little bit for me. But yeah, I love that health being number one for you. And what would be your second priority, would you say after that?  06:58 - Tom (Co-host) The structure because, like I said, without the good health you can't operate within a structure. Structuring your time, getting up at roughly the same time every day is extremely important, and then setting up a system like, for example, roughly between 7.30 and 8 am every morning for me is auditions.  07:17 I get as many auditions, as done as I can between 7.30 and 8. That's between the pay-to-play sites, my agents and manager auditions myself, marketing, regular clients auditions. I do as many as I can, so sometimes I sit down, do that and then shower and get dressed and have breakfast.  07:31 - Anne (Host) Sometimes I do it in the inverse, depending on timing of the auditions are all so based on timing. Now I have agents that like to send it around 6, 5 and 6 o'clock and I try to get them done that night if I can, if I'm not too exhausted. Just because if I wait until the morning, I will have a morning voice, which is kind of cool in certain instances.  07:50 But I might need to do some warm-ups to get rid of that voice. But for me right now it's funny because years ago I would never have said this. But right now I am preferring my morning voice. And so I will prioritize my auditions to do the ones that I feel will call for a lower voice first.  08:08 - Intro (Announcement) I do that too Before.  08:08 - Anne (Host) I go ahead and do a series of a bunch of them.  08:12 So, that's very interesting. So, yeah, auditions I think the things that you cannot always depend on being at a consistent time, because auditions for me come in at different times all the time. But I like how you have a period in the morning where you can do those auditions that are not necessarily like I feel like all of my auditions that from my agents I feel are more timely, where I feel like I might have to respond to them within a certain amount of time, and maybe I can't wait an evening or a morning, but certain other ones I can wait, and so I put it in two categories. So I have a specific time, like I like, in the morning, to do auditions, but I also, if anybody needs them right away, I will have to respond right away.  08:51 - Tom (Co-host) Oh, of course, and I tend to batch them. So when I sit down at my desk in the morning at 7.30, I see what I've got, I prioritize and I do the warming up the voice based on what it is.  09:01 But then I'll probably do another batch, like right after lunch, unless there's one, and then maybe I'll do one or two at the end of the day around four-ish but usually by then my voice is kind of like it's not great because I auditioning all day, I've been booking all day, I've been working with students all day, so around four o'clock I'm kind of like on my way out vocally.  09:22 - Anne (Host) That's typically me too, because I've been yapping all day either coaching or doing auditions, and then, yeah, I have to be very careful. Sometimes I choose not to respond to auditions until the following morning when I have more energy because my performance is going to be better.  09:36 - Tom (Co-host) Right and my next priority to actually get around to answering your question. I like to manage my finances.  09:42 - Anne (Host) Next Okay.  09:43 - Tom (Co-host) I like to balance my checkbook, pay my credit card bills, generate any invoices that I need to, reconcile any invoices that I need to. I like to do that first, Like I do my auditions. Then I like to do my finances because, well one, it's the easy to check off boxes, but also I don't want to have those tasks lingering in my head while I'm doing my other things, like my marketing or auditioning or booking or working with students.  10:11 I just like to be like okay, all of my financial stuff for the day is done, it's out of the way it's over here because I know it has a very strict beginning, middle and end balance checkbook, pay credit cards, generate invoices, send invoices, reconcile invoices.  10:26 Sometimes it takes five minutes, sometimes it takes a half an hour, sometimes it takes an hour. But I like having all that done because I want to allocate the creative energy when it's time to get creative or work with students or do the booking. So I like to kind of get that non-creative stuff like done out of the way. You know what I mean.  10:45 - Anne (Host) Now for me I hire an accountant, so my accountant takes care of managing the balancing, which for me is just makes me very happy. She's been working with me for about 10 years so she knows pretty much the categories. But we do meet when we need to and we also have a once a month kind of standing meeting where we make sure everything is synced up and she understands, like if there's any bills that are outstanding and I'll have to check on them and that sort of thing. So my accounting part, for me it takes a little less time, just because that's not one of the things that brings me joy. It brings me joy. I know it does. I know it does I?  11:21 love to do it and I totally get that and it brings my account and joy too, because she loves doing stuff like that. But yeah, and this is a daily thing for you. Do you have to do it every day or no, not every day.  11:32 - Tom (Co-host) I'd say solidly twice a week, once earlier in the week or once later in the week. I mean, I used to say that a project isn't done until the invoice is sent and I used to be very disciplined about sending the invoice as soon as I send the audio files.  11:45 - Intro (Announcement) I don't do that as much.  11:47 - Tom (Co-host) It depends on the gig, obviously. If it's a long form gig or a long term gig, you know if it's an audio book or something like that. But if it's like a quicky explainer video that may require a retake or two that I'm not gonna charge for, I'll just whip it up and send it off. You know what I mean. But sometimes I batch them. Sometimes I'll wait a couple of days and do all the credit cards Because if I'm reconciling invoices, I'm updating my checkbook. You know they're all related to each other. You know what I mean the bills, the checkbook and the invoices. I'd say twice a week I'm probably doing that financial stuff.  12:18 - Anne (Host) Sure, well, the nice thing for me is that I live by my calendar. I live, live, live by my calendar, especially with students and coaching. So I have days that I coach and hours that I coach, and different coaching happens at different times, and so I know when I can set aside time to. You know, I have to go to the doctor or I have to do things like get my hair done or do my nails, and they are in certain days where I'm not working with students. And thankfully I work a lot of non-broadcast stuff so that I have some time, so that if I am in the middle of getting my hair done I don't have to audition or respond right away. I have a few hours.  12:53 I'm always able to like finagle the schedule of when do they need a job done by around my other schedule. But understanding my calendar and having it that consistent is important for me. To have a schedule like what I can make consistent, I think is beneficial If you can make something consistent to make it consistent, because then it starts to emulate, kind of like okay, I can expect to be coaching during this time or I can expect to be doing auditions. For the most part during this time I can expect to be marketing at this time and that makes it easier, I think, to manage the time and focus as well.  13:27 - Tom (Co-host) I agree, I am a huge Google Calendar person, are you? I call her Google.  13:30 - Anne (Host) Calendar Google Calendar.  13:31 - Tom (Co-host) You're a Google Calendar.  13:32 - Anne (Host) Google.  13:33 - Tom (Co-host) Calendar is the best. You want to talk about a great time management skill Like. Here's just a little secret bosses, mm-hmm. Right here. This is my monthly action plan. Everything I know that I'm going to do in November priority tasks broken down into Catch for Tool, technique, marketing and Health. Taught to me by Dan Duckworth of Voiceovers Unlimited, who has since retired one of my teachers.  13:52 - Anne (Host) Dan Duckworth. I remember Dan Duckworth, absolutely Wonderful human being.  13:57 - Tom (Co-host) He taught me so much. So one thing that I do is I take all of these checklist items, I put them on my google calendar. Now, that doesn't mean I have to do that that minute, but the nice thing is that I can kind of slide it around.  14:09 Oh yeah so, like this is a new thing I've been doing lately is like I'll take all of these and I'll schedule them after like 4 pm, so to be like Monday I'll be like, okay, I did my auditions, I did my finances, did whatever. It's like okay, so what do I have Dan here? Okay, I've got these things. So I'll just start oh, I'm like, oh, I'll do this one, I'll drag it up to nine, to nine, thirty, and I'll do it, and it's like done. And then I'll be like, oh, what else can I do? Oh, nine thirty to ten, oh, I'll drag this one up, I'll do it and it's done. I use that to kind of slide everything all over the place.  14:40 Now there's certain things I know like. If my blog comes out on a certain day, I want to promote the blog on social media that stuff does not move.  14:47 It'll definitely get 100% done that day, but I know between nine and noon I'll probably do it, but with the other things that are less time sensitive, it needs to be done at some point during the month. I'll front load my google calendar with all of this stuff and then I'll just start sliding everything around because you never know what your day is going to be like. You never know what auditions are going to come in, or bookings are going to come in, or the cat's going to explode the washing machine is going to break down Absolutely.  15:13 - Anne (Host) And that's what's so different about being your own business, running your own business and being an entrepreneur is that you don't always have like a predictable day, and a lot of times you don't know when is that job coming in and now, how long will it take you to do that job? And then how are you going to rearrange that around the other stuff that you have scheduled. So there's a lot of, I would say, time management. That is, tom, as you mentioned, so very important to do when you are working from home and working for yourself.  15:42 - Tom (Co-host) Yeah, yeah, the other big one is understanding workflow. I break it down into physical workflow, digital workflow and mental workflow.  15:50 A lot of what we just talked about is a lot of the mental workflow. The aforementioned Dan Duckworth taught me. The five categories of my voiceover business are exactly what you saw in the action plan Cash flow tools, technique marketing and health. So when it comes to managing your workflow about all the physical things you need to do through your day, right over here Are five binders and they're labeled cash flow tools, technique marketing All the physical stuff that I need for all of those invoices in cash flow, warranties and manuals and stuff is in tools. All of my acting lessons and stuff the vocal exercises and techniques, so on and so forth Are in those binders. So that helps my physical workflow. Also, having everything in the same physical place On your desk consistently Develops your muscle memory, so my calculator is always right here. Yes, I use a calculator. It's an old school calculator, but it's just like the Like.  16:42 I'm really fast at it and I know my right hand. It's always like right there when I'm bouncing the checkbook or adding stuff up, sure, and making sure that my pen jar is over there and my audio interface is over here. My phone always hangs out over here, my mouse always hangs out over here. Develop muscle memory. Your body likes to do things over and over again. It likes the repetition. So Can you see a? Logically, I don't think that's a word, but like, a big part of your time management and workflow is training your body to know that the same things are in the same place. So every time you're going to do a thing, you reach over here and it's there, sure.  17:15 - Anne (Host) And I'm going to kind of tack on to that, though, is understanding how you can become more efficient in your workflow, and for me, I just discovered dictation I knew dictation existed on the Mac, but I'm having like with auto correct these days.  17:29 Sometimes it completely rearranges my word and it gets very frustrating sometimes when I'm typing and so I'll just hit the function key twice and I'll just start dictating and it's surprisingly accurate and it really really helps me to be quite a bit more efficient and I know we've talked about this before on a podcast, but something simple like chat Gbt can help me to write emails to my clients. It is one of the biggest helpers that I have. Like, I think trying to write a professional email to a client sometimes takes me some time to think of the right words, whereas I can use a chat GPT to help me reframe some bullet points and frame it a little more professionally and, using those tools as they exist to help me become more efficient, it really really helps my time.  18:15 - Tom (Co-host) AI has a lot of benefits when it comes to being sort of a virtual assistant for you. I'm a hyper right fan myself. I actually don't use chat GPT. I discovered hyper right and it's good for all the stuff that you just mentioned. It's also a good like blog assistant. It helps you clean up blogs. So, like I'll record my video strategist blog, I'll record it, videotape it and then I'll use Google's hyper right. Hyper right, yeah, and then I'll use Google's. See, I'm going to write that down now. Hyper right, hyper right.  18:44 - Anne (Host) I use copy AI. Oh, there you go, yeah.  18:46 - Tom (Co-host) So I record my blog and then I use Google's speech to text to transcribe everything that I said, and then I copy and paste that into hyper right to help clean up all the verbiage. And then, once it all gets cleaned up, then I ask it to help me come up with a good title. That's nice, and then I can use it to come up with that short description which we embed inside the blog itself For searchability reasons.  19:08 - Anne (Host) So, yeah, yeah, for SEO, and I use a program for this podcast called Podium, that you can upload the MP3 and it will give you the show notes, it will give you takeaways, it will give you, you can even generate a blog on that.  19:22 - Tom (Co-host) I'm writing that one down.  19:23 - Anne (Host) Yeah, podium is good. It's a paid subscription, but I'll tell you what it works really well. I'm very pleased with it. You can also create video clips if you want, but Riverside, as most of you know that I use to record this video and the separate audio tracks also has a really great built in AI functionality to generate short clips, and so that has really impacted my workflow in a positive manner. Now there's always the and tweak, the and touch Sure, which I find that I still have to put in on the AI generated stuff. But as we speak, the tools are getting better and I'm not a hypocrite thinking oh my God, ai is out to ruin us and ruin our industry. I'm using AI to make my business more efficient and, including Tommy, you and I have talked about this including exploring having our own voices and being able to use those for our clients who may want to use those and make them available so that we can have a passive income stream.  20:19 - Tom (Co-host) We love passive income streams.  20:21 - Anne (Host) That, we do, that, we do, yes, we do.  20:24 - Tom (Co-host) There's another thing I want to talk about regarding workflow, which is digital workflow. Not just what we talked about, but I use Dan Duckworth's five categories of your voiceover business with my email. So I have Outlook and Gmail and they're synced, and I organize all of my emails into cashflow tools, technique, marketing and health.  20:41 - Intro (Announcement) So when I'm done with an email, it goes into one of those five folders with various subfolders.  20:46 - Tom (Co-host) And just looking at my browser right here I'm on Google Chrome.  20:49 - Anne (Host) So do you delete email? That's my question. Do you delete any email?  20:52 - Tom (Co-host) Oh, I delete emails all the time but I also keep an eye on the ones that when I'm like done with it, but I want to keep it, you know it goes into the folder which those five categories Plus. I have a category for the bio strategist, I have a category for clients and all that stuff. Also, I've got my Chrome browser right here and I've got on the top of the bar bookmarks, bookmarks. And guess what they're labeled? Dan Cashflow, tools, technique, marketing, health.  21:14 - Anne (Host) I love it. That makes sense.  21:15 - Tom (Co-host) So all of my social media sites are in marketing All the. Ai stuff is under tools. All of my like pronunciation guide websites are under technique, so on and so forth, and I've got one for my comic book, I've got one for video strategist, I've got one for, like, my hobbies and personal stuff. So I know that, like any time, I'm thinking about any part of my business physical cashflow binder, email cashflow folder browser cashflow bookmark folder, exactly bookmark.  21:41 - Anne (Host) Yep, talk about that muscle memory Email absolutely.  21:44 - Tom (Co-host) It's like creating sort of a digital muscle memory for me, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel.  21:49 - Anne (Host) Yes, and automated for your email as well. I have lots of rules and filters. So if it comes into a particular email address that goes into a particular folder. So, there's lots of ways that you can become more productive with your digital tools Absolutely. Now let's talk about focus, because focus, I think, is a huge stopper of productivity, especially social media.  22:13 - Tom (Co-host) Yes, well, first, everybody just grow up. You know what I mean. Put your big pants on your big pants, people, and you're doing grown-up stuff. Nobody's watching you, so you know. So that's my short, obnoxious answer.  22:25 There's obviously an element of truth in that, but a little more realistically, I know that I have certain things that I need to do and I have a certain amount of time to do them, and cool like the auditions obviously are deadline-driven. You know what I mean. You need to balance your checkbooks, you need to do your gigs and all of that stuff and everything else is kind of like up in the air. So I use Stephen Covey's four quadrants Quadrant one, focusing on that which is important and urgent. Quadrant two, that which is important but not urgent. Quadrant three, that which is urgent but not important. And then my favorite quadrant four, doing things that are neither urgent nor important. I don't think about it anymore. It just kind of happens now because I've developed this mental muscle memory.  23:09 - Anne (Host) Did you used to have to write that? I used to. Okay, okay, gotcha.  23:13 - Tom (Co-host) I used to have to do that. But understanding that what's the most important one, which is quadrant two, that which is important but not urgent, which is all of the long-term investment stuff in relationships in general, and part of that involves marketing. Marketing is always a long-term, non-urgent thing that you need to do and that's a thing that people spend way too much time on in the wrong way wrong, whatever that means, because that's a very individual thing. But understanding that playing around with my accounting software or endlessly organizing my contacts on my CRM are not urgent, they're not important, but I do them, or I used to do them, because it would make me feel productive and feel professional and that's just an abject waste of your time.  24:02 So understanding what's a waste of your time and what isn't a waste of your time, what needs to be done now, what needs to be done later and what never needs to be done at all.  24:10 - Anne (Host) Absolutely. I'm going to say one of the biggest time sucks is social media.  24:15 And I literally will just not open up any Facebook window or any Instagram. My phone is not. I'm not looking at my phone. For that reason, I only have windows open in my browser that I need to have open and I have a dedicated time for social media.  24:32 It don't always stick to it, but I have to be fairly rigid with my social media because I just have too many things in the day to do and I know that before, when it wasn't just such chaos, it used to be a thing that I could oh, let me check my email now. Or let me check my Facebook posts here, or let me check my Instagram here. It used to be something that I could just free form. But I can no longer do that with my schedule and remain effective and remain efficient in my business. So it may seem like I'm not as interactive as I used to be in social media, but I weigh the pros and the cons of that right, like how much is being on social media, engaging in social media? That is a thing that I must do. That is a specific time. Just browsing social media that's something I do after work, in my free time, and typically that happens now while the television is on and I find that I'm looking at my phone more than the television.  25:30 - Tom (Co-host) Yeah, I find myself doing that too. Sometimes I find myself with the television and my phones here, and then I've got my tablet over here on a little tripod stand and. I'm playing a game. It's like, oh geez, I've got three screens in front of me and I'm not paying proper attention to any of them.  25:44 - Anne (Host) To any of them. Yeah, exactly, and then I just fall asleep, because then I'm usually just exhausted.  25:50 - Tom (Co-host) Yeah there are apps where you can limit your social media use. So if you are early in your voiceover journey, you're home for the first time and you just find yourself doom scrolling on Instagram and stuff. You can set it up. So either it'll set a time limit or it won't let you look at it at all at certain times of day and that may be something you need to do. It's sort of the put the padlock on the refrigerator if you're on a diet kind of thing, Like sometimes you need to do that sort of stuff, Set yourself up so you can't do it.  26:21 Yeah yeah, absolutely.  26:23 - Anne (Host) So what is the biggest complaint from your students that say working from home sucks? I mean, has anybody actually come to you and said working home sucks? I guess I just need, I don't know how to manage my time. Or is that a common thing, or is it just? Oh, it's so common, so common.  26:39 - Tom (Co-host) I say it's funny because I have all of these videos that I sell and I have all these speaking engagements, conferences and courses and whatever, and anytime I say the two we're time management someone invariably goes oh my God, I suck at that. I need so much help with that. Please, please, please, help me with that. That is a epidemic in the voiceover community because, most of the time, because they came from a rigid nine to five structured environment. So, yeah, time management is something that people are often sorely lacking. Coming in and I think we just covered a huge amount of tips and tricks and strategies but also understanding mentally the what and the why about it, not just the how. I mean Google Calendar and blocking your social media apps are one thing, but that's only good. As the. I'll put it to you this way Ann Greg Iles, great author. He wrote maturity equals impulse control.  27:33 - Anne (Host) Interesting.  27:35 - Tom (Co-host) So what it really comes down to is how much impulse control you have, and if you lack an impulse control, that means you are, by definition, immature. So if you want to be an effective voice actor, you need to be a mature voice actor, and to be a mature voice actor is to have effective time management and workflow skills.  27:53 - Anne (Host) Well, I have been schooled, dear, I have been schooled. I love that. I love that. You know, tommy, you bring this kind of old school mentality, but I think it's something that we need to really be effective and grow our businesses. Because how many times you're right, I have no control, I'm on social media, I'm not focused, I'm not getting any work. Why? Why? I think really getting yourself disciplined in some fashion, at least during your work day, as you would if you were sitting at a company, is imperative, I think, to really running a successful business at home and making your work at home life suck less. Ha ha, ha ha.  28:30 - Tom (Co-host) Way to bring it home. There you go there you go, good job.  28:34 - Anne (Host) Wonderful conversation. I'll tell you what bosses do you have? A local nonprofit that is close to your heart? If you do, you can visit 100voiceshootcareorg to learn how. And IPDTL. They are our sponsor we love. Ipdtl helps us connect and network like bosses and become efficient work from home, sucking less employees of our own businesses. So find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing week and amazing productive, efficient, wonderful work from Home Week and we will see you next week. Bye.  29:09 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, ann Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission and Coast to Coast connectivity via IPDTL.   

Intimidated by the daunting world of finances, specifically in the voiceover industry? Tag along with the BOSSES as we demystify the intricacies of money management. Our banter-filled conversation is set to shine a light on the critical role of financial discipline, understanding taxes, and the art of investment categorization for your business growth. We provide crucial insights on all things expenses - from domain names and web hosting to the nitty-gritty of audio editing software. We also tackle home studio costs and the relevance of physical inventory for product sellers. And for those lean times, we've got you covered with our practical strategies that ensure you stay on top of your game. 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a VEO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VEO Boss Podcast and the Boss Superpower series. I'm here with my superpower boss co-host, Lau Lapides. Hey hey. 00:30 Lau. How are you? Hey, I'm fab. How are you? I need to activate my accounting financial superpowers because it is a new year and I've got a business that I want to grow and I need to make some investments and I need to really, I think, get my finances in order. So I think we should talk. I know people hate talking or even thinking about finances. However, I think we need to discuss what could be on the agenda for your business this year and how can you financially prepare.  01:09 - Lau (Co-host) I love that, and if we don't understand our status with our money and we don't have a good relationship with it and we don't have trust with money and we don't know how to treat it, then we will not have financial discipline and therefore not have the cash for the investments we need to make throughout our year. And I speak about that at every level. I mean, if you're making millions, even more so because I know colleagues of mine that are millionaires that are busted by the end of the year because they don't know how to save, they don't know how to spend, they don't know how to invest.  01:43 They're used to being managed by other people, and I think management is wonderful when you're at a certain level, but it can also be a curse and take a lot of that micro management over you and then you're left with like, wow, how do I live life? How do I earn money? What do I do with it?  02:01 - Anne (Host) Absolutely.  02:02 I've always tried to be so independent, just in my life and financially independent as well, and so it really behooves us as business entrepreneurs to understand even if we do let's say, I always talk about my accountant and the best thing I ever did was outsource my accounting but you also need to have an underlying understanding and concept of financials so that you can direct your accountant or also understand where's your money going, because maybe sometimes your accountant I don't know maybe they're taking it or maybe they're putting it in place is that you're not familiar with. So not that I want to infer that there's anything shady going on, but hey, we want to be educated.  02:43 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, I also want people to think let's talk taxes, baby. Oh yes, I am not an accountant, my husband is.  02:50 I do not get into that, but I will say running businesses, as you know, Annie, everything at the end of the day, whether it's quarterly, whether it's annual, you have to put you know one of the first things we say and we're fairly conservative fiscally my husband and I we joke. We say, oh, we just got a ton of money and that's awesome, what are we going to do with it? Put it away. I'm going to say I'm going to put 50% of that away from taxes for the next quarter and I'll say good move.  03:16 - Anne (Host) And I'm so glad that you brought that up. As a matter of fact, for the next three months I have a certain amount of money that is coming out because it might escort. I need to pay myself, and so I need to pay myself. I need to prep. So by the end of the year I'm not going to be paying tons and tons of money and taxes.  03:32 - Lau (Co-host) And has that ever happened to you? Because that happened to us a couple of times. It's devastating.  03:37 - Anne (Host) Gosh, when I first started off in voiceover and I started making money and I wasn't prepared, right At the end of the year I was just like, yeah, I'll do the taxes at the end of the year, put it off, put it off, put it off. And then, ultimately, at the end of the year I was like, oh, my God, I owe. And then it was like, oh, I don't just owe a little, I owed a lot. And then I was audited one year. I'll be very frank in telling you that?  03:58 Not because I mean, I wasn't doing any funny business, but literally sometimes you're a small business, right, and a lot of times if you are making claims, they want to substantiate those claims and make sure that you're doing your taxes properly.  04:12 So it was a random audit. Actually, I was audited twice. I passed both audits with flying colors. As a matter of fact, the last audit they owed me. So it really goes to show that I was prepared, and thank God I was prepared.  04:24 Again, like I said, I don't wait until the very last minute and I don't know if I was intending for this episode to be talking about taxes the whole time, but it all comes down to the end of the year, right when you got to pay your taxes. And so you have to understand, like, where is your money going, where is your investments going, what costs do you have? And I think that's super important, what are your costs and what is your income coming in? And you should be looking at your profit, your PNL statement. What is a PNL statement? I have people like I'm not even sure what a PNL. It's a profit and loss statement. So that is something that you should be familiar with, and if you're not, we're here to kind of talk to you about the basics at least. I'm not a financial advisor. However, I can share my experiences and I can tell you how important it is to be educated and to understand that there will be investments and you need to categorize those investments and you need to categorize your profits.  05:19 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, and at the end of the day, even though we don't want to talk about taxes the entire time, we're not on a barter system. If IRS comes, they're not going to take a cow right. They want money, they want cash. So, just being honest, having integrity about your business, just doing everything by the book, being very careful, having a bookkeeper, having an accounting team having the people you need on your side couldn't be more worth.  05:43 It just couldn't be. But let's talk about money in terms of, like, fixed costs. Putting together your understanding what are my fixed costs versus my movable, shakeable, flexible, variable costs, which do vary month to month? How do you set it up, Annie? When you set that up?  06:01 - Anne (Host) Well, I don't remember which episode it was, but I did touch upon this at one point. In terms of fixed costs, like for running your business, there is the cost of I'm an S corp, so I have to pay a certain amount of money every year right to maintain that license, and so I also have to make sure that things that it costs for me to run my business so not only the cost of the business itself, which I pay to the state or I pay to the federal government I also am paying things that would be like my website, my web hosting right. That is something I pay on a monthly basis. That happens each and every time. So those recurring costs I found to be well managed, number one by my accountant and it's categorized in my system.  06:46 But also I downloaded an app. I pay for this app on a monthly basis called Rocket Money, and Rocket Money will go out and grab all your subscriptions, cause a lot of times you can be subscribed to things that you forget about. This is the new way of doing businesses those subscription models which I pay monthly for my domain names, for my web hosting, which is the place where I host my websites, kind of think what else, my subscriptions to my audio editing software, twisted Wave or Adobe Audition. I also pay Adobe because I have Adobe Acrobat, the Adobe Suite that I pay for. Goodness gracious, this is so much, and I pay for a lot of things too, like my Riverside subscription. Right, this is what we record our podcast on. I pay for my Zoom connection. I pay for gosh, all these backblades, which is my backup system Right.  07:40 - Lau (Co-host) So here's the key, though, annie, is like we're lumping them all together because that's everything that you do every month and in your mind because you've been doing so long. Those are fixed costs, right To a new person coming in for the first couple of years. Some of those may be more variable in cost because, let's say, let's say hypothetically, you're ready to do a blasting service like Constant Contact or MailChimp or VO Boss or VO Boss, but we're blasting things out to your hundreds or thousands of leads, right, and you're gonna pay for that monthly. Now, we consider that kind of fixed because we've been doing that collectively so long. But someone coming in who's fairly new and say, well, can I spend that $40, $50 a month or $90 a month to do that? That's more of a variable cost, because they may or may not feel like I'm at a point where that's gonna be beneficial. I may not have enough leads to do that too. I'll do that in a year and see where I am in a year, but I can't do that with my rent or my mortgage.  08:39 - Intro (Announcement) I have to do that every month.  08:41 - Lau (Co-host) That's a fixed cost right. So that's really interesting for us to just reevaluate every year or every quarter, like what are our variables that we're thinking of as fixed, Like if I think of Google or I think of like storage on?  08:57 - Anne (Host) Zoom, or I think of this. My mind it's fixed. My iPhone, my phone bill for myself, I'm paying on a monthly basis that to me. I consider that a fixed cost. But you're right, I mean, it all comes down to what is it that is necessary to run your business? But, interestingly enough, because most of us are home-based businesses, now, brick and mortar, brick and mortar. Are you paying Brick and mortar as well as I mean, we gotta consider our offices, our home studios, right? Yes, as part of it. So for me it translates into I've gotta pay the mortgage because if I don't have a house or I don't have my home studio, I don't have my studio in my house.  09:33 - Intro (Announcement) You gotta pay.  09:33 - Anne (Host) Your insurance, gotta pay the water bill, gotta pay the internet, oh my gosh internet.  09:37 - Intro (Announcement) Utilities yes, Gotta pay electricity.  09:39 - Anne (Host) Otherwise I'm not gonna have all of that to be able to run my business at home. And you law have a brick and mortar as well, so there's all of that which is considered fixed for you as well.  09:50 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, it is, and that's not to say it can't shift and change. So if I decide to move to a different place, then the costs would shift and change, but they're always there. In other words, they don't really leave, unless the caveat is I'm 22, I'm trying to save money. I move in with my parents. They're gonna pay a lot of those bills for me for a year. I don't have to worry about that. They're gonna let me save money. Okay, that's your caveat. But other than that, when you're in the world, those are now part of our business, because if we don't take care of those, we literally can't run the business.  10:22 - Anne (Host) And, believe it or not, on a very small scale. Right, I have physical inventory because I sell a vocal throat care line and a vocal spray along with my vocal essentials, right? So there's inventory. I need to purchase inventory so that I can create those sprays, also to run that business.  10:41 - Lau (Co-host) And we would have merchandise Exactly that we may wanna take to a conference or we may wanna do a swag bag giveaway at a networking meeting or whatever. That's the inventory you speak of. That is really variable, it's not really fixed, it's still a variable cost. But for us it's important that we continue to do that to promote the business.  10:59 - Anne (Host) Absolutely absolutely.  11:00 - Lau (Co-host) Right, I love this conversation. This is so good. So what happens? I get in trouble. I find that I'm not doing as much voiceover work this month as I see happen Quite often times. People come in, they start crying, they're upset, they're like I might have to get another job. I might have to pull back on my spending. Where do we go first to pull back on that spending? We go to the variables.  11:24 - Anne (Host) Yep, great question. Yeah, absolutely, the variables. I mean, what can I do to save money, number one, or cut down on costs? And again, as your business evolves and as things evolve, everything, that's really important that we take a look at that, gosh, at least I mean I look at that every month, if not more than that. And I know that, especially when things are lean right, you've got more time right. If you've got more time, you've got more time to. Let's take a look at our marketing. Let's take a look at our investments. What are we spending right and what can we cut back on?  11:59 And I know, for me, some of mine was subscriptions that were no longer serving me, right, I was like, okay, well, I guess I don't need that. And then I've got things like I have a Peloton subscription. Am I using it? Because that's a certain amount of money? Am I watching the Discovery channel? Can I cut back on that? Those subscriptions? And in reality, by the way, my cable, and well, I guess, do you call it cable, my streaming, my streaming subscriptions are part of my business because I am researching the market, right, and I'm listening to commercials, I'm seeing what's out there, I'm educating myself on trending sound, trending voices, educating myself as a coach for my students right. So that is considered a business expense.  12:45 - Lau (Co-host) I would add a personalized list to this. So you have your fixed cost, you have your variable, but then you have your very personal expenses. That could be one or the other but if I'm hurting for money and I gotta go skinny one month, I'm gonna go to that personalized list.  13:01 So a very simple example of that is I'll always ask a client. I'll say listen, what are you doing this weekend? What did you do last weekend? Oh, I went to the movies cool. What did you spend on that? Oh, that was 15 bucks great. Did you get any food or drink there? I did. I think that was about 30 bucks great. Did you go out to dinner Super. I think I spent 25 bucks on fast food great. Did you spend on gasoline? Yeah, I think I spent five or six bucks. Add that up. That is the money that can go into your investment piece when you really need the coaching session.  13:32 - Anne (Host) You really need that event. You really need that. Can I skip the Starbucks? I remember that's the biggest thing. Can I skip the Starbucks? I'm gonna skip the Starbucks.  13:38 - Lau (Co-host) And I have to say, annie, I'm not a financial advisor, so I'm not advising you financially. I'm advising you from a logical perspective of saying be careful of saying to yourself, lying to yourself and saying I don't have the money, when really you should be saying let me find the money or create the money Absolutely.  13:59 We used to go under the cushions to find the change and put it in a big jar. Now we can go to what we're spending, what we're actually spending, and find the change in that jar. A Starbucks which we love five, six bucks. A cup of that that I may need to put into my coaching session.  14:17 - Anne (Host) Absolutely Hands down. One of the smartest things I ever did was create that business savings account. And then where are you going to put that business savings account? I literally just moved my business savings account from my bank to a higher yield interest bank and I'll tell you what it made the difference between oh gosh, I might have made gosh my bank was paying me nothing. I was like 0.001. And I think I was making like maybe $5 a year.  14:42 Well, guess what? I'm 5% APY 5%. And when you invest that now, I've made thousands of dollars for this year and then that can be reinvested in my business. So that savings account also is what saved me from when things get lean, when the jobs aren't coming in, when things slow down and then all of a sudden, oh my goodness, what am I gonna do. And it saves you from that panic where you probably do yourself more harm than good with that guttural like oh my God, I am gonna have to like get a job or I'm gonna have to quit.  15:17 Voiceover it's just not working. It's in that panic that I have a lot of people they come to me. I just I can't. I can't invest in a demo, I can't invest in coaching, because I'm just not making it back. And again, that is something that you really do need to understand that there are investments to be made. If you have the money put aside to make those investments right, that makes you feel a whole lot more comfortable and a lot less panicky, whether you're like oh, I said I gotta get out, I can't do this anymore, or you become discouraged, and then it really becomes a whole mental game. And that, I think, is the toughest part about voice acting right Voice acting the acting we can always practice.  15:55 We can hone our skills, we can become better at what we do. But that business sense that when the business is slow, when all of a sudden it's like, oh my God, this isn't working or how do I survive, you go into that like fight or flight kind of mode and really having that nest egg, having that savings account that can be earning interest, having that passive income, all that good stuff, that can be that little pocket of confidence that's what I say that little pile of financial confidence is huge in, I think, growing and pursuing your voice of our business successfully.  16:32 - Lau (Co-host) Yeah, and we all know those of us who have been in business for a number of years it's never what you make. It is never what you make. It is not about gross, it's about net. So it's about what you take home. That is, showing us how you are spending and investing your money, your gross income. And so having that level of sacrifice, of humility and of modesty to understand that just because I want something does not mean I need it or should have it. So if you're willing to sacrifice and give up something, you probably have more shot of building an actual business, because the business has the needs. You don't have the needs as much as the business has the needs.  17:14 And I wanted to say too what you're talking about, which is so important and we're doing that as well as diversification of your money. So not only if it's not making interest, if it's not building wealth for you, then you move it. But here's the thing there's a couple of really important reasons to move the money. Not only does if your bank goes bust. You don't have everything in one pot.  17:34 - Anne (Host) Exactly.  17:35 - Lau (Co-host) You're only insured, too, for a certain amount, right, but also you're literally setting up accounts for yourself that you hopefully will forget about. So you're not spending it, you're not touching it. It's growing, it's working for you, right? So that you don't have this. Don't think of it as like one clump, one lump of something. It's really different pieces that you're diversifying into the world. You may want to invest, you may want to go into the stocks, you may want to do that kind of thing, right? So the point is is like okay, I've got my business, it's great, it's moving in the direction I wanted to move in, but what am I sacrificing? What am I doing to make money and make it grow for me, and how am I treating it? Like? How do I think of money? I hear a lot of people, especially women, talk about money, talk about negotiation, talk about contracts in a really negative light, like in a very heavy way. They are either fearing it, they don't want to talk about money.  18:30 - Anne (Host) I think most of it is fear absolutely Based in fear, and most of it is fear right.  18:34 It's kind of like I don't want to go there, I don't want to talk about it, I want to kind of just go back to something we were talking about in terms of investing and kind of making sure that you have the money to invest in that next piece of equipment, or do I need that new microphone? Do I need? I'm going to give you an analogy and I'm going to be very frank. I have in my clothes closet. I have these little cubby holes for my shoes.  18:59 Now I bought them gosh a long time ago and I think I I don't know if I got them in IKEA, but they're great. They're little cubby holes and you can fit a pair of shoes in each cubby hole, and so I bought a series of them to put around. We have a walk-in closet to put on the floor and my husband has one of the boxes which holds 12, right, and I literally have probably eight. I have 70 cubby holes Okay, 70. Now I made a deal with myself that I would never buy more shoes than could fit in that cubby hole, and so if I wanted to purchase a new pair of shoes, I had to give up another pair of shoes or donate it or sell it on Poshmark or what.  19:34 - Lau (Co-host) Wait a second, annie, I just did some math. Are you saying you have 98 pairs? If you have 12 and you have eight of those right, or 90,? What is that? 96? All right, so I say 70. Should I call?  19:49 - Anne (Host) you a melda now.  19:50 - Lau (Co-host) Should I really name you a melda?  19:51 - Anne (Host) I'm going to say it's 70. I don't know how many boxes there are, so, whatever right, 70. I have 70 holes. I have 70 cubbies.  19:57 - Lau (Co-host) You just have to stay in that denial, stay at 70. Stay at 70.  20:01 - Anne (Host) Now I can't purchase a new pair of shoes until I decide that I'm going to let another pair of shoes go. And if I can't, I'm going to try to sell those shoes. But if I can't, I'm going to donate them right so that they go to someplace. I'm that kind of person where I have to love my shoes right, do you wear?  20:17 - Lau (Co-host) all those shoes? Be honest, do you wear all?  20:19 - Intro (Announcement) Not anymore.  20:19 - Anne (Host) I don't no but I used to right and so, literally, as I've aged a little bit, I mean the heels got to come down a little bit.  20:27 - Intro (Announcement) I can't quite fit in those.  20:28 - Anne (Host) Well, I can't walk in those higher ones anymore, but I still love to look at them. But that is like I feel like your business needs to operate in that way, right, you cannot make an investment more than you have. Like, you should not spend more than you have. I should not have more shoes than cubby holes, right? Because then it starts to look cluttered, it starts to look like a big mess, and so, therefore, I have put myself on a plan, right, where this helps me to. This helps me to manage my shoes, like I would say, manage your finances in the same way, right, you don't want to make investments with money you don't have, right, and you want to make sure that, if you have, how many microphones do you have? Like, you should not have more microphones than places to put those microphones right, okay, all right, I have a term for that.  21:14 - Lau (Co-host) This is from my husband, jeremy, who is actually a controller CFO type accountant his whole life.  21:19 He says listen, and I always hated this, it always made me cringe, it was cringe worthy, but he's so right. And that is don't live above your means. Absolutely Don't live above your means. And he's not only talking about financially, he's also talking about emotionally and spiritually as well. So I have taught myself. My father, who's an entrepreneur, taught me this too. He said buy something, get rid of something. Yes, oh my God, buy something, yes, yes, and not just kick it to the curve, but give it to the right place.  21:47 Give it to the right place, give it to the right place and boy, did that save my day learning how to do that and really learning to let go and learning to move around it. That's really good.  21:57 - Anne (Host) That's really good, for I mean being frugal and being wise financially and also like mentally, like I feel like you can't have too much clutter, because physical clutter turns to be clutter in your head. And I actually took a feng shui course many, many years ago. It was like a six month course. I mean, it was intense.  22:15 - Intro (Announcement) I love it, I love it, you should never put things under your bed.  22:19 - Anne (Host) Don't store things under your bed. Don't store things because it's kind of like clutter anywhere, really like clear out your corners.  22:26 - Lau (Co-host) Clutter anywhere physically means clutter in your head, right so when it comes to your money, you need to compartmentalize it Absolutely. How do you call that when you label it like we would give away key?  22:38 - Anne (Host) Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. What do you call that? We label it. We're Maria Condoing, right Condoing, but that's what it is.  22:44 - Lau (Co-host) It's like knowing what you want to do with each piece of your life financially. Yeah, it's very freeing. There's a very openness to it, there's a breath in there, you know. Yeah, absolutely I love that. I love clearing the financial space.  22:58 - Anne (Host) That's what I like.  22:59 - Intro (Announcement) Clear the financial space.  23:01 - Anne (Host) Especially in the beginning of the year. It's always a great time to do that, to really sit back, and it may be hard. Right To sit back and take a look at where is the money going. How much are you spending? Are you spending more than you're bringing in? But again, like no more shoes than you have cubby holds.  23:18 - Lau (Co-host) And also test yourself, like once you give it away, like let a month go by and test yourself, say what did I give away? Do I even remember what?  23:26 - Intro (Announcement) it was, and I never remember.  23:28 - Lau (Co-host) I never remember the clothes or whatever.  23:31 - Anne (Host) If I haven't thought about it or used it in a year, it's good to go right.  23:35 - Intro (Announcement) It's good to go right. As much as I love it, that's most things.  23:37 - Anne (Host) I'll kiss it and I'll give it away and I'll say this deserves to go to someone. I'll donate it. This deserves to go to someone who will love it as much as I did. Really.  23:46 - Lau (Co-host) And then you're very Native American about it. It reminds me like, take the shoes to the river and just write a note and let them float away. Absolutely you know To someone else's feet. But that's what we need to do, because it makes us open to what is coming, like if you're so cluttered in your financial portfolio you can't invite anything in and allow the money to flow to you like a river right?  24:10 - Intro (Announcement) Oh, I love that you don't want your river to stagnate.  24:12 - Anne (Host) You don't want to block your river Again. No more shoes than cubby holes. Don't block your river with twigs, Just say allow the river of money to flow, I mean we're out of all here. Let's just imagine that financial flow coming to you and manifesting that.  24:28 - Lau (Co-host) Hallelujah and manifesting that Amen. I feel like doing a song right now, but I mean it's like language. If you're scripting, be careful the language you use to describe your money and your financial status. Don't be cheap, don't be dumb, don't be unknowing.  24:46 - Anne (Host) You're not greedy. If you appreciate money and you invited it, you are not greedy. That's like an old one. People say, oh, you're greedy. Although rich people are greedy, they just want more. Honestly, people who are wealthy are some of the most philanthropic people that give.  25:00 - Intro (Announcement) And we've had that discussion before.  25:01 - Anne (Host) But I mean really being rich isn't rich right Money rich, financially rich and spiritually rich.  25:09 - Lau (Co-host) It's all about you allowing the flow and not blocking it right with clutter and paying attention to details, Don't ignore it and don't act like you don't know how to deal with it. It's like treat it as if it's a person and you have a relationship with it. Would you say some of the things you say about money, about the person like, oh, I don't know how to deal with that, I just ignore it and I just let someone else deal with it? I don't think that relationship would go very far. You know what I mean. It's like treat it like a person, in the sense that there's a lot of potential movement and liberation that can come with that and what it represents. It's just symbolic of the kind of life and lifestyle and mindset that you want to have.  25:52 - Anne (Host) Absolutely.  25:53 - Lau (Co-host) And I always say too, you know, someone says to me Law, why do you want to make a lot of money? I've had the executive coaches ask me that and I said the first thing that comes to my mind is because I want to have more money to pay my team members. Yeah, oh, I love that. Yeah, I think in terms of investment, I always think in terms of what can I do with this money? That empowers even more, versus, oh, I'll buy another thing or I'll have another, whatever, I don't really need it. I would rather see it move in directions that can make a lot of people happy and things going on and that can only help your business, because, honestly, I feel like you're in toys.  26:30 - Anne (Host) I think about myself in the corporate world. What does it makes us miserable in the corporate world? Oh God, we don't like our colleagues, we don't like our boss. We're boss. It's a toxic environment. I don't make enough money. Exactly Like, if you think about it, if you're treated well in your environment, if you have employees that you're paying and you treat them well and you appreciate them, they're only going to work that much harder for you and you have to incentivize them to want to work for your business, and that is one way to do that.  26:58 So I love this conversation. Again, it's probably something we could have. 20 episodes on Law, I think we will somehow. I think we will. But speaking of allowing yourself to allow that money to flow, if you have a local nonprofit that's close to your heart and you would like to keep the cycle and keep paying it forward, if you've ever wished you could do more to help them, you can visit 100voiceswhocareorg to learn how and big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl you too can connect and network like bosses, just like law and I. So you guys have an amazing week and let's keep that river flowing. All right, bye, have a great week, bye.  27:40 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, ann Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom 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 yeah.  28:07 - Anne (Host) Hey, hey everyone. I don't know why I wasn't ready for that. Take two, Take two, hey everyone. Welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Boss Superpower series. I am here with my super power.  28:26 - Lau (Co-host) Take three.  28:27 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss. Hey everyone, welcome. God, take five, yeah, take 105.   

Get set to embark on a riveting journey into the world of visual branding, specifically tailored for voice actors. In this enlightening discussion, the BOSSES will empower you with a comprehensive understanding of the critical role visuals play in effectively communicating your brand. We unravel the nuances of building a robust visual presence, which extends beyond just your attire and accessories and dives right into the realm of headshots and text titles for demos. Throughout the episode, we impart our own experiences and valuable insights, showing you how to leverage visuals to connect more deeply with your clientele. 00:01 - Introduction (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier 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.  00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I'm here with my lovely boss co-host, Lau Lapides. Oh, hey, Annie.  00:31 So good to see you, how are you Fabulous, how are you? I'm great, I have to tell you. All right. So I apologize for being late to our little recording this morning because I was trying to coordinate the outfit law. Now that we are a visual kind of a brand and we've got video, I'm like all right, so now am I going to wear silver jewelry? Which glasses shall I wear? I'm trying to get that visual brand out there and I've got a set of headshots coming up, oh gosh, in a couple of days. And so I have been literally making a list and coordinating outfits because it is such a big part of my brand and I thought, wow, we should really talk about this for voice actors out there. How important are visuals, how important is that branding and those visuals to your brand and your business?  01:19 - Lau (Co-host) I love that topic and I'm so glad we're going to talk about that today, but I have to bring up the fact that you're on the West Coast. I'm in the East Coast, 3,000 miles away, and yet the mental telepathy of like what you chose to wear today and the fact that it's kind of color coordinated with what I chose to wear is like same way.  01:39 They go great, same wave. Like I'm all over the visuals, I do do do think it's important these days, and you and I do remember the days when the voiceover would hide ourselves, we would not be seen we would never have a photo of us out there ever, because we would be worried about a potential client looking at us and saying, wow, they look like this, but they sound like this.  02:02 - Anne (Host) I'm not going to cast them, right, right it was a thing I mean I remember distinctly when I got into voice herers like you know what I don't want to be in a career that's based on what I look like, okay, and I want to be able to be creative, I want to be able to act, but I don't want it to be dependent on me being young looking or beautiful or anything like that or how I look, and so I was very much into the voice acting.  02:25 However, as I've evolved my business throughout the years, I've really kind of settled into the fact that, as people, we need to connect with other people, and so the visual I've changed my mindset so that I don't have to feel like I look perfect or a particular way. However, for my business and for my brand, I take a lot of care and I take a lot of pride in that, and so I actually strategize. I mean gosh if I tell you I literally been making a list, a list of the outfits, the colors, the props that I'm going to use for my headshots, because I'm envisioning my website right, representing me, who I am, knowing that my clients want to connect with the person. Yes, and I want to stress that it's not about necessarily what you look like. It's about conveying who you are as a person, who you are as a brand, who you are as a business Right.  03:20 - Lau (Co-host) Listen, we can't get out of the fact that we live in a world. A lot of it is visual, it's what we see. Most people are visual learners, so when they pick you up, they're picking you up in 10 seconds less than that visually. So when we're meeting a client, when we're meeting a talent, when we're meeting a prospect, they're going to look at you. If they see you, sure, if they visually see you, okay, what's the first thing we see? It may be a website, it may be a social media post. It may be something that is not physically you. So thinking about what that visual brand is from the start, I think is wise and necessary and important in a visual society.  03:57 - Anne (Host) And when you do have those photos right that are showcasing you in action in your studio and again mine aren't just gonna be your typical headshot, like I mean I will have those, but typical, like from here up they're gonna be like lifestyle shots, they're gonna be shots of me, literally law. I am bringing a desktop boom arm with my microphone, with the headphones, with the laptops and the cables by the way, and the cables.  04:23 And I am dragging that all to the studio where I'm going to get my headshots, because I want those shots to represent who I am in my business and how I interact right with clients in my business and showcasing that so that ultimately people get a sense, a visual sense, because if they do come to my website first, right before they connect with me either on the phone or on a video call or even just hear me, they're seeing me in action and they're seeing my business in action and I think it's so very important for voice talent to really understand that. And again, it's not all about like that typical, like headshot, which it can be, but I really want that to show more about who you are. How is that headshot going to reveal your personality, your business? Because, again, our voices are product right, but our visual brand can also showcase that product.  05:17 I always talk to people about their websites and make sure your demos are above the fold. But, like, when you're placing your demos above the fold, put a text title by the spots that you have in that demo, because otherwise they don't know what's in that demo, they can't see it right, they just see that. Oh, there's an audio file that I can click on and listen to, but three quarters of the way into that audio file I don't know that. You have a Toyota spot right, and so if you're listing those spots out visually right, really it's just text that also helps with your SEO, but that can really, at a glance, somebody seeing oh, she's done work for Toyota right, that can make an impression.  05:54 - Lau (Co-host) Now here's my question of the day. I'm seeing a lot more demos that are video-based demos, so I know the people that that's their real jobs. They have a right to show it. That's their actual jobs and they're utilizing that because it's been aired. Others are creating these visual elements to their demo. I wanted to run that by you and see how are you feeling about that these days. Do you like that trend that's happening? Is it fun and exciting, or do you feel like it's a little edgy showing those visuals that they haven't really been a part of? How?  06:27 - Anne (Host) do you look at that? I'm a big fan. I mean, I've read in the forums. Some people are like, well, are they really giving you a return on your investment? I'm here to say, look, our demo is a marketing product, right? And it's kind of the same question Do we put produced spots or do we put sound effects and music behind an e-learning spot? Because typically there isn't. I'm like, well, this is a showcase, this is a marketing piece, this is a demonstration. Yes, there are times that you'll have music behind your e-learning. You may or may not know that. You don't know what the client is doing with it, necessarily afterwards, and so they're very well-could be, and I've actually seen a lot of e-learning modules where it could be character-based, it could be storytelling, video-based, it can be a lot of different ways to get the interactivity or the engagement with the listener. So, yeah, why not? I mean, it is a marketing piece, and so I feel like a video demo is yet another way to showcase your product. It's not the only way, I feel the same way.  07:26 - Lau (Co-host) Yeah, I feel the same way. I think we're living in a day right now where your visuals mean a lot. I oftentimes say to talent listen your voice actors. So don't be surprised if you have people at a showcase that are a producer or an agent type or even just some corporate prospect, say hey, are you an on-camera actor? I would like to use you in a print ad along with your voice. I would like to use you in this and that, and be prepared for that answer whether you welcome doing on-camera commercial work on-camera TV, film work, print work.  07:58 I think that throws a lot of talent off who only identify as a voice over talent. And don't get me wrong, that's fine, you can just do voiceover and specialize that and don't do anything else. But there's a whole bunch of people that are really open to that idea of doing more. Like, if I get signed by an agency and they want to sign me across the board and they say, hey, we're going to submit you for everything theater, tv, film, voice over, whatever I say, why not if you're interested in pursuing that, yeah, I agree, I agree.  08:30 - Anne (Host) Now let me ask you what sort of tips would you give to people who are really trying to figure out their visual brand? Do you have any tips?  08:40 - Lau (Co-host) I love that and I'm so glad we're talking about that today. I just got out of a coaching session looking at a Vio Talent's first headshot shoot and we were talking about what happens in the face, what happens in the eyes, what people are reading very, very quickly out of that.  08:58 So I think that it's very important to talk to people that are specialists in particular areas. So, for instance, a stylist that's really good may wanna provide for you a look book before you go and take your photos of some fashion looks, some professional looks, some business looks, some whatever looks, so that you can start to mimic those looks that would be right for your styling and your branding. It's hard to come up with that yourself.  09:28 - Anne (Host) I don't think I could even come up with it myself. It's so funny that you mentioned that because literally I just spent a weekend with my very good friend. She's always been a style icon. I've always considered her a style icon. In the last year she's gone into the business and I'm gonna give her a plug. Styled by Gianni yes, gianni, g-i-a-n-a-i yes, styled by Gianni. She's amazing. She's got all different types of packages, but she's sustainably conscious. I mean, she's located in LA. She can work with you remotely. She can work with you in any capacity. She's got all sorts of cool things. If you're just open to a consult, she can chat with you and then discuss colors. If nothing else, right, what colors, what color palettes? What's your body type? She'll take your measurements into consideration. I love it. What type of clothing would be best suited for you? And again, it doesn't necessarily just have to be about you and your clothing and your look, but it can also be about colors, colors that reflect who you are.  10:23 Colors that reflect who you want to be or what you want your business to be. And again, I've got multiple colors. We all know that red and black is the color for VO Boss. However, ink and guza is blue, and I've got a different color for VO Peeps, which is a teal blue, and I love those colors and it's one way that the brand is separated. So think of me. Now I'm gonna go to my photographer, my head shot artist. I'm gonna call her and I'm gonna go over there with I've got three different brands to represent. Literally, if I could ever come to my house, you could just like take photos in my closet, because I've got all these options of clothing and all these options of colors.  10:59 And some of the colors may or may not even have to go with my brand, but they go with my personality, right, I also think too, people are not thinking about the fit of things, so your stylist needs to help you with.  11:11 - Lau (Co-host) I might love this color, but how does it fit my body? Is it showing my body off? I know women, especially younger women, have a tough time with this and oftentimes we'll have things that are too big and baggy or have things that are too tight or showing a mid drift or whatever. Whatever the case may be, that may not be appropriate for your particular branding. So you need someone who understands style but also understands the brand that you want in terms of your fit, your color. Are you trending? Are you moving forward? Do you want to do retro?  11:41 A lot of VO's are very retro. They like doing fifties, forties, voguing stuff. Absolutely, I would say you know what, annie, and this is something you do really well. I would have fun. So many people. It's such a drudgery to go through this kind of thing and I'd say wait a second, especially the talent who are animation artists who are having fun. They're being outrageous a little bit. What if you had one shot on your website under your cartoons where you have little bunny ears or you're doing cosplay, anything, right, right? Who am I thinking of?  12:14 - Anne (Host) Jessica Rabbit.  12:15 - Lau (Co-host) No, no, no, the famous singer piano man. He started out wearing costumes Elton John, Elton John.  12:22 - Anne (Host) Elton.  12:23 - Lau (Co-host) John. Who could be more prolific and serious now? Yeah, really serious about everything. Started out wearing bunny suits, oh my gosh.  12:31 - Anne (Host) And now, if you're going to talk about that, you can talk about Lady Gaga and all of her outfits, cher.  12:37 - Introduction (Announcement) It's endless. And all of her I just saw Cher who looks amazing.  12:40 - Anne (Host) By the way, Awesome she does not age, she does not age, she doesn't age at all, barry. Manilow. I just watched the.  12:45 - Lau (Co-host) Holiday Special of the Dream Lighting.  12:48 - Anne (Host) Yeah, all the icons.  12:50 - Lau (Co-host) I'm getting the clem to it that one, barry Manilow, but I was just thinking about, like an Elvis Costello. If anyone knows Elvis Costello, he was very forward thinking by retching back oh, david Bowie, in his cool black and white suits. You know, david Bowie. So the point is, you don't have to be a pop star, you just have to be authentic to you, your personality, the kind of work you do Absolutely, absolutely, and they work that into their brand.  13:15 - Anne (Host) I mean the way they dress, the way they style. I mean even rock bands, if you remember back in I'm showing them age, but you know, like Kiss, right Makeup and platforms, that kind of thing Anyhow, aren't they doing?  13:26 - Lau (Co-host) I just saw them on TV. They're doing their last. What is it? Madison Square Garden, their last concert? Yeah, their last tour and retiring. It's just pretty amazing. But the point yeah, they were in mask for how many years you never saw their real faces. So the point is is like get yourself to start out, wean yourself into it. Get a good headshot. Just start with a good headshot so that for your PR, if someone says hey, mike, susan, jay, I need you to send me a good photo, you have something and you're not going, let me go through my photo camera roll let's see if I have anything Like have something, and I also would have. You and I were talking about props earlier too. I love that idea. It could be your pet it could be your mic, absolutely.  14:07 - Anne (Host) What is it you're passionate about? Whatever, if, I could bring my cats. If I could put them in a car and drive them, I would bring my cats because yeah, Obviously, yeah.  14:16 - Lau (Co-host) So things that define you in your work day, but also in your personal life, that you love, you care about. Remember one of our favorites, betty White, who I love so much. She was known for the animals. Every time you thought of Betty White, you thought of the animals she was. I remember the PSA she did, annie, where she was surrounded by all the animals because she was helping save the animals. That was something she always had in her PR. Where she could was an animal, absolutely, absolutely.  14:43 - Anne (Host) So these are all visuals for you to be thinking about and not only can they go on your website but they can go in your social media campaigns and promotions. Youtube channel, I mean, again, if you are out there creating something visual, like if you are out there doing a podcast, right, I think today if you're doing a podcast and you don't have a video element to it and I'm not saying maybe the whole podcast has to be video, but honestly I mean everybody's kind of going that way, even though I also have an audio version, you and I have an audio version, but we have a YouTube channel right where we have videos, we do shorts, and so if you want to promote your business and you're doing any type of video or YouTube shorts, obviously you're on camera and there is branding to think about. I mean, if you've gone to all the trouble to create a logo, right, and figure out well what colors, what font, why not just extend it to your personal body, your personal self?  15:37 Because, again, our product is so very personal and I'm going to give a tip that gosh I got a long, long time ago when I worked with my business mentor, who was helping to brand me at the time, was that we created a private Pinterest board and she said to me I want you to just create a board and I want you to put everything on that board that's your favorite thing, like favorite places, favorite colors, favorite things, hobbies, activities, and when you put that board together, when you have your favorite since, she said, I'll include your favorite fonts, right? Well, that was a big mistake.  16:12 - Introduction (Announcement) Cause I have like a thousand favorite fonts.  16:14 - Anne (Host) But anyway, I put that board together and shared it with her and it was a great visual representation of who I am and from there she was able to create a website she was able to help me with branding and help me with marketing campaigns and that really came up with my Angangusa brand, because when I was doing it myself, it's so hard to brand yourself. I think we've had episodes where we've talked about branding. It is hard to brand yourself.  16:39 And even now I have ideas because I help people so much with it. But it's always nice to get that second set of eyes, that second set of ears. That is saying you know what I see you in this light, where you think maybe here's what I'm projecting out. But I need to know how do you see me, how do you see my business and what demographic am I speaking to and what does my look? Or what are the colors? What do the images on my website have to do? What feelings? I think you got to go so far as to what feelings are evoked when somebody looks at your website.  17:13 - Lau (Co-host) That's great Very pathos, very visceral. You got to revisit it too. I think that a lot of talent it evolves.  17:20 I don't know why they think, oh, I've done this, I made a demo, I'm done. I said you made a demo. Honey, you're starting, you're not done, you're going to make another thousand demos over your lifetime. Like, this is just the process. So if you choose a logo that may change in a year or two or three, if you've evolved, all companies rebrand. Yeah, I was just going to say I like to think of it. You've got an interior designer for your home, potentially.  17:44 - Anne (Host) Well, this is an exterior designer for the world and VO Boss has already rebranded once and it is a thing I mean. Rebranding is a thing you need to evolve. I know that my husband's company is going through a large rebranding right now and they're a well established company. So you need to evolve your brand. And we've all seen it with products that we buy, like Coca-Cola rebrand you know it's just people rebrand. When it's time to refresh, rebrand, yes, it's time for you to always revisit these things and I always say come at it from a perspective of where's your heart, where are your passions for where your company is going. And I'm evolving. My Anganguza brand will be evolving and broadening out to a larger audience. And even this podcast.  18:28 I've been always wanting to evolve this podcast to a larger audience so that it's not just voiceover artists. However, it's been voiceover for a good seven years. Now I've got a thought do I start a new podcast if I want to venture out of not that I'm venturing out of voice acting, but if I want to also explore right other avenues, like just podcasting in general, entrepreneurship? Like, do I keep this podcast and then add a new one, or do I rebrand this podcast and evolve? It's not something you do by tomorrow. It's something that takes some thought and sometimes the idea just has to sit with you for a while.  19:05 I remember a few years back, law, I went to rebrand and I was trying to consolidate VioPeeps and VioBoss and I had new designs. I actually had my VioPeeps bird and I made him edgy. So I changed the colors from the VioPeeps bird, from the blue, and I put him in black and red and he's like edgy. I had like a leather jacket, he had like some sunglasses and he was very cool and I got some really cool graphics out of that for a complete consolidation of a brand.  19:34 - Introduction (Announcement) And I decided not to do it after that, but it was something like I said.  19:38 - Anne (Host) It doesn't always have to happen. I mean, I decided against it only because my little bird was just too cute to give up and I loved him, and you know what I said. That's it. I'm going to keep a separate brand, but I think it's something that every year, and especially since we're in the beginning of the year now, right, it's something that people can think about. Right, what are you doing for this next year? What are you doing? Are you evolving? Are you growing? How are you doing that and how are you changing things up? I mean, gosh knows that if you change up your website, it can actually put your SEO into high gear, right? Especially?  20:12 - Introduction (Announcement) if you update content.  20:13 - Anne (Host) If you update pages, update looks, maybe update capabilities.  20:17 - Lau (Co-host) Yeah, and there's a functuary in that it's such a refreshment in doing that.  20:21 You know just when you think you know your favorite company's tagline or slogan. Just look it up. You're going to see sometimes hundreds of slogans that they've used over the years because they're reaching out to different demographics of people and they need to have different visuals right that appeal to those demographics. So I love that. I think you should stay really you know you don't want to change things every two seconds because then people get confused as to who you are but keep it fresh and trendy so that you give yourself flexibility and fluidity to say, um, that color scheme isn't me anymore, or it doesn't really represent the people I work with anymore, or the thing itself, the website itself or whatever, just doesn't look like me anymore. Here's one of the things that I discovered, annie, I know you already know this, but I discovered it only about a year ago and that is why was I in the box of thinking I just needed one website.  21:11 Oh yeah, right so people are having the discussion should I get a website? I'm having the discussion how many websites should I have? So now, for every event I have, I want to do? I'm driving my web people crazy because I'm like it's so inexpensive to get it. People don't have to fight through your website to find the thing you're looking for right.  21:33 To me, that's been my personal playground of visual branding and also ease of navigation for the client to say, oh, it's this particular project, it's a big one, I want to represent it visually aside from everything else we're doing. So when you talk about your different brands, in case people don't understand what that means, it could be something as simple yet sophisticated as having separate websites, absolutely, absolutely.  21:58 - Anne (Host) I mean, for years I've had medicalnarrationcom, I've had phonevoicecom and I've had, for each genre that I specialize in, of course, vopeaps and VOBOSS. I mean, I think at one point I owned like 13 domains and I still have domains. I have domains right now because I have ideas. How many sites do you have now? Though I probably have, I've got VOPEAPS, voboss in Gangusa, automotive, annie medical-narration phone-voicecom, e-learning-voicecom. Gosh, I've got a bunch.  22:31 - Lau (Co-host) And those are all actual websites right. Those are landing page websites that you can get to see what it is.  22:38 - Anne (Host) Yeah, I'm going to revisit and see what my SEO value is for those right now. But if you definitely are pointing people towards your website for promotions or for purchasing, it definitely can help to have it just go to a website. And of course I always, always, always recommend people say, and Gangusa or yournamecom, because you are a personal brand and that's the first and foremost domain I think anybody should get. But it's not expensive to purchase domains these days, unless of course you have a very common name or you want, like voiceactingcom, which that's already taken, but your first and lastnamecom. If not, then your first lastname, voicecom or voice acting or voice actor, those things all are viable.  23:22 - Lau (Co-host) I love it, I love it. And one more thing, Annie, I want to bring up. That's what my dad always called ATD attention to detail, which really makes a difference.  23:31 Now maybe more viable in a time where we were meeting people in person more than we are now, but I'm going to say it anyway because I personally like to get out and go to physical events. If you go anywhere to meet someone outside of your office, in your studio, not only worry about the way you look, but be concerned about if you drive watch your car. That's something that we always said oh, do I want to do the deal with this person? Their car is filthy. I just got inside of it. It's a mess, right?  24:02 Real estate agents used to talk about that a lot because they'd get inside other people's car to go look at properties or they'd get in the real estate agents car. So I know it may or may not like pertain to some of the listeners right now, but some that are going out physically to meetings, to networking, to this, to that like how you show up physically to the parking lot, come into the room, whatever, just it all kind of matters, it all matters. Don't think, oh, I'm offstage right now, no one sees me, no one cares. Until I enter the room, they do care, they look at you and they say is this the kind of person that I want to know Is it the person that I want to work with?  24:40 - Anne (Host) potentially, it's just never thought about that. Never thought about that.  24:44 - Lau (Co-host) Right, If you're meeting for a Zoom coffee or a real coffee, you're going to Starbucks or whatever. Like, just think about. Right, Bring your notebook, take notes. That's a visual right, good advice. Wow.  24:57 - Anne (Host) Well, this was a fun topic. I love it. Fun. We could go on and on, we could Bosses. As individuals, it can seem difficult to make a huge impact, but as a group, together we can contribute to the growth of our communities in ways that we never before thought possible. Visit 100voiceswhocareorg to learn how Big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. We love IPDTL because I love talking to law and I love connecting with other bosses. You can find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Awesome Bye.  25:34 - Lau (Co-host) See you next time. Bye.  25:37 - Introduction (Announcement) Yay. Join us next week for another edition of Vo Boss with your host and Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom 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.  26:08 - Anne (Host) Law you just had, like a series of fireworks.  26:15 - Lau (Co-host) I know what happened there. I should keep that in there. I don't know, I have no idea. Oh my goodness, I thought it might be something on your end. I don't know, I've never, but you and I, we are making fireworks together.  26:28 - Anne (Host) There you go, we are making fireworks.   

Prepare yourself to delve into the beautiful dance of giving and receiving - a balance, when maintained, that can have profound impacts on both your work and personal life. We’ll explore the joy of giving and the ripple effects it carries for both the giver and recipient, as well as the importance of receiving recognition in the business world. As we navigate this conversation, we'll also challenge the constant need for validation and discuss how rewarding achievements can foster healthier self-esteem. Join us as we explore the complexities of acknowledging one's worth and the importance of fair compensation. Essential listening for anyone who struggles with receiving, this episode promises to enlighten and inspire. 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a VEO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  00:19 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VEO Boss podcast and the Boss Superpower series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, along with my amazing, awesome, most wonderful boss, co -host Lau Lapides. Hey, Lau, hi, hi, Annie. Happy Saturday, yes, happy Saturday, Lau. You know, Lau, it's a new year and I am full of promise and full of motivation and inspiration and we've just come off the season of. I like to call it the season of giving, because I love to give gifts and I love to donate to my favorite charities. And you know what? I also like to receive gifts, but we don't always talk about that. We talk about giving, but what about receiving? And sometimes Lau those gifts, they're not in a box. So let's talk about the gift of receiving, shall we?  01:14 - Lau (Host) It's so interesting to me. I love this topic and because there's so many cultural differences of how we receive. There's gender differences, there's age and generational differences and I don't hear anyone really talking about how do we get something, receive something, take something, and how do we behaviorally deal with that. Yeah, like something is simple. I'll tell you what's in my brain right now. When someone comes into my home or my studio, the first thing I do and this was in my training was to offer them something. I offer them a hot drink.  01:51 - Anne (Host) I offer them a warm beverage.  01:52 - Lau (Host) I offer them a warm beverage of their choice, right, and that is definitely generational, but it's also cultural because that's the background Eastern European background. We are gift givers. We give a lot to others, right, and there's different schools of thought business-wise as to how you receive that, and how I train my clients is take it, take it. You don't have to drink it, you don't have to want it, but take it because it's giving a message to the person who's giving it to you that you are cordially receiving something that they're offering to you.  02:29 That's part of their protocol and they're etiquette right.  02:32 - Anne (Host) Well, I'll tell you one thing that's always been hard for me to receive and I think a lot of maybe women, maybe a lot of people share. This is a compliment I'm just saying that is so difficult for me, without downplaying it, and honestly, the best thing you can do to receive that compliment is to receive it with gratitude even if you don't feel it right.  02:55 I mean, how many times do people send a compliment your way and you're like, oh no, it was nothing. Or, and especially, though, when it comes to our businesses too though, isn't it funny. When it comes to our businesses, I am more than happy to take a compliment from a client. Do you know what I mean? If a client's like, oh my God, great job, right, I'm very happy about that. Inside, I'm bursting with pride and joy and hopefully that's every boss out there when they get a compliment or good feedback from their client, and I think that you must receive that. And if you receive that, that really speaks volumes to professionalism, right and courtesy, and understanding what it means to the other person when they're giving you something such as a compliment doesn't have to have monetary value, of course.  03:37 Well, like to have gifts of gold but in addition to that, gift of a kind word is really something I think that is truly like giving of the other person, and if you reject it, then that's a little insulting and hurtful.  03:53 - Lau (Host) I think you hit the nail on the head too when you said, especially with women, how we're not always in the mood to receive that or expecting that or even deserving of that. In our mindset, it's a little bit of that imposter syndrome that comes in when someone gives you that compliment and that moment of like oh, how do I take that? Do I deserve that? Oftentimes we'll say, oh no, I just got this dumb outfit.  04:19 - Anne (Host) You know it was on sale. Anyway, you look terrific, you look great and I throw it.  04:22 - Lau (Host) This old thing, yeah, this old thing, it's been hanging in my closet Doesn't mean but you look terrific, you look amazing. We'll throw it right back at the other person, which they don't realize oftentimes. That is a passive aggressive non accepting value, because it's not just a compliment, it's showcasing your value.  04:43 - Anne (Host) It's almost like when you throw it back and it's not that you don't mean it, but sometimes when you throw it back immediately, it's almost like you don't accept what they're giving to you and you're like, oh no, you look great. And so then it becomes that kind of a battle of maybe, well, who's giving here and who's the gracious receiver right?  05:00 - Intro (Announcement) There's gracious giving and there's gracious receiving.  05:03 - Anne (Host) And I truly believe that it needs to be within our boss superpowers to be able to receive and something that's we're talking a little more on maybe a loftier level in terms of nothing that has monetary value, but definitely has value like a compliment right, an act of kindness, that sort of thing. What about money Lau? I mean, how hard is it sometimes for us to accept for a job Well done, I'm happy to accept money, but thinking about, am I worth the money, am I asking for enough money? And what if I get more money? And is that hard for me to receive? Because, again, we have some of these mental issues sometimes with accepting money and that really kind of, I think, goes back to our value or our feelings of self worth.  05:47 - Lau (Host) Yes, yes, yes, yes. And you know what that money may be in money form and it may go towards an actual gift right. And I recently received. One of the gifts in the mail I literally just got within a week ago was from a client of mine who sent me one of those beautiful boxes for a holiday for. Thanksgiving that was chock full of coffee, beans and caramel and just everything under the sun.  06:09 - Anne (Host) And.  06:09 - Lau (Host) I was so surprised when I opened it up. I was so amazed that someone was thinking of me in that way, but how I reacted to it now, on retrospect, when I look at that, what did I do immediately? I thanked her, I loved it, and then I immediately started to give it away. I immediately started to offering to my clients coming through that.  06:29 - Anne (Host) I see to my family.  06:30 - Lau (Host) Oh, here, let me share, let me, here, let me give this to you. Let me share this to you. And I oftentimes wonder is a gift really meant for you when it's given to you, or is it meant for you to do what you see fit with that gift? So, if you get the monetary cash and you want to give it to charity, how would that person, how would the giver actually feel about that if they really wanted to give it to you? That's an interesting question.  06:56 - Anne (Host) Yeah, that is an interesting question. Well, you know what I think? That if a gift is given, it is because or at least for me, the person that is giving it wants to extend a gift for the other person to experience joy, I would think, and appreciation, and I feel like for me, whatever they choose to do with it, I mean, unless I feel like they secretly hate it and they gave it away and they're like, oh gosh, this is like what is it called?  07:21 - Intro (Announcement) An elephant gift. An elephant gift yes exactly.  07:24 - Anne (Host) And so then I would be a little hurt if I knew. But I think my intentions are to provide a token of appreciation, a token of here's how I feel about you. And if the other person doesn't accept it for themselves graciously at first, and then I realize, oh, maybe they've immediately given it away or something, then I would be hurt. I would be hurt by that Feeling like they've rejected my gift.  07:45 - Lau (Host) But, annie, let's be honest, we've all done that. Haven't we all gotten that scarf? Or those gloves that are just the ugliest thing in the world, do you think? Oh, they're itchy, they don't really fit me. Well, let me, elephant, gift that to someone who will appreciate it. And if not, you notice people are starting to say if you don't want it, it's okay, pass it on. I'm like a donate.  08:05 - Anne (Host) The other thing would be like here's one things that people have made for me. Now, this could be homemade food. This could be homemade gifts. This could be my grandmother knitting me a sweater, or my mother knitted me.  08:18 I'm gonna get me all teary, but my mother, she knitted me afghans and blankets, and my aunt used to so close for me, and it reminds me of the bunny suit on a Christmas story with Ralphie, and so you accept that and you're grateful for it, because there was thought and love put into the gift and so receiving that means that you're receiving that love. You're receiving that gift.  08:41 - Lau (Host) You're receiving it, you're suck it up. You do you do. You're totally, because it's not the color of your bedroom and it just is not the feel that you wanna put on your body, but you love it. You put it on display somewhere. You just have to appreciate that, right. What about this one? What about from a philosophical point of view? As we live our lives every day around the holiday season, how are we viewing gifts that are given by others or by the universe? Are we recognizing any gifts, gifts?  09:09 - Anne (Host) from the universe Locke. Let's delve deeper into that. So what gifts from the universe? What would be some examples? I like that.  09:16 - Lau (Host) Well, I'm a New Englander, so on the New England track. I think all of us can relate that come from cold weather climates and when I have more, temperate weather or. I have a winter where we're not like snowed in and killing ourselves with the slush. To me, I recognize that as an immense gift.  09:35 - Anne (Host) Nice and Californians are very grateful for rain.  09:38 - Lau (Host) Yes, oh yes, yes, yes, yes. How about the gift of looking in the mirror and seeing yourself for what you actually see, not for what you want to see? So that is, as you age, seeing the wrinkles, seeing the imperfections, seeing the scars, but then feeling like, wow, there's a gift in there for me of understanding.  10:02 - Anne (Host) That represents my life, my heart. Here I have to tell you because my own personal experience. I have lost a little bit of weight and so I look at my body, which is now kind of a wrinkly because I got some skin, and I look at that and I'm like, ok, that could be considered by some to not be attractive, but for me it's almost like it's a battle scar. It's like you know what I'm proud of?  10:23 my body I am proud, I am grateful. I am actually so grateful for my body, for being resilient and for the things that my body has been through, and I think that we can apply this to our businesses as well right, our journey as our businesses. But, like my body has been through a journey, my mentality, my entrepreneurship has been through a journey, and I'm grateful for all of it because I've survived it and I've been able to come out the other side more joyful and educated and more motivated to do even more. And so I really try to take a look at that and be grateful for that gift from the universe right that I have received. And I love that we kind of brought the gifts from the universe into this discussion, because I think we have them every day and we don't always recognize them for what they are and we aren't always receiving them or acknowledging them with the amount of gratitude or thought that I think we should.  11:23 - Lau (Host) Right, or even just mindfulness, conscientiousness of seeing it and observing. We talk about it from an actor's point of view, but from a human point of view, are you really seeing what is in front of you? What are you uncovering? And since we're diving deep, I'll go one deeper, because you're not only surviving and you're thriving in the gratefulness and recognition, in the gift of that, and that's what makes you so beautiful, both aesthetically but also inside. There's a beauty and a light that happens in you. To me that's very recognizable and I'm going to dive even deeper. I'm going to say I have someone very close to my family suffering from a very deadly illness and eating it and I watch it every day go into remission and I watch it turn around and I watch it Now, from the outside, this person is somewhat suffering and all of that. From the inside, I see that little soul, that little spirit winning and I'm like a gift a gift, a gift, a gift every day.  12:28 - Anne (Host) It's so true.  12:29 - Lau (Host) If I lose the job, if I don't look good one day, whatever, this is the gift that I'm going to keep coming back to, of course, and I totally identify with that.  12:38 - Anne (Host) I mean it is, and we've talked about this before.  12:41 I mean, yeah, when someone that you love or someone you're close to is going through a challenge mental challenge, health challenge, whatever that might be I mean, in reality, it really points us towards knowing and understanding what those gifts are. And I've said it before, when I was going through my own health challenge, I mean, once I got back in the studio, I was like gosh, what was I ever worried about? You know, here I was thinking, oh, my voice doesn't sound in a particular way or I'd worry about those things, and I'm like my gosh, I have just been given this immense gift and I'm here to be able to experience and here to be able to just do what I love in this booth and just be, just be and be grateful. And well, I'll tell you what that comes through in our voices, doesn't it? It emanates from us and, as performers, I think that it behooves us to be good receivers, right Of the gifts that are being given to us, because it just absorbs into our energy and just radiates out from our performances.  13:39 - Lau (Host) It so does, and I mean the gift of knowledge of how to give as well, so like, for instance, when it comes to philanthropy and charity. I love that. I'm big in that. I'll give a quick plug to our 100 voices who care.  13:54 - Intro (Announcement) We love.  13:54 - Lau (Host) Claire and the gang we love so much. I'm a member and to me it's such a relief, it's such a relief gift to me to figure out how to give in a very safe and impactful and thought away. And as long as I make money, I'm going to give forever because I don't have to think about it. It's one less thing I have to think about because I know it's vetted, I know it's legit and I know the people come from their heart and soul. Wow, to me that's a gift.  14:23 - Anne (Host) Exactly, and you know, the cool thing about 100 Voices who Care is, honestly, it does not take a lot of money, and that's really what the big thing is, and it's literally $100, four times a year, and that's it. And ultimately that, combined with the community, the togetherness that is also in kind, donating that, that is $10,000 that can be given to people in need or organizations in need, and I think that that's absolutely wonderful and I think, really, whatever giving charity that you want, again giving that and then expecting that the people who are in need are receiving that and they're grateful for it right, that's what makes the world go round and that's what I think really giving is so easy to talk about, because I love to give myself and I mean I consider the VoBoss we're giving of ourselves joyfully, because it's something that we both love to do, we love to share, we love to be a resource, we love to help if we can, and that's what we're here for.  15:19 But I really really also want bosses out there to understand the importance of being able to see and acknowledge and receive in kind and be okay, it is for you, it doesn't have to be for anybody else, you don't have to feel compelled to turn around and give it somewhere else.  15:36 I fully believe that if a gift is meant for you and you love it and you keep it for yourself, you give in other ways, right? I mean it doesn't have to be that you have to turn around and feel like, oh, I either need to give that gift or give a portion of that gift, or you can keep it. I mean it's okay, it was meant for you and love, and that is something that I think is really wonderful. And, of course, I mean let's make it more from a business perspective, right, being able to ask for the money that you deserve for a job that has been well done is, first of all, when you do that yes, do that but when you get that actual money and you receive that money, then you'll notice that I feel like the cycle or the circle has been completed.  16:18 - Lau (Host) Yes, absolutely. And here's another one that is amazing but can be tricky in how it's received. You and I, I know I'm grateful and fortunate that we're nominated.  16:27 You and I and our companies for SOVA's nominations, which I'm thrilled I'm over the moon. So when I learned that now you've been nominated for years now that was my first time around being nominated when I learned that it challenged me a little I'll be honest with you. It challenged me. I had to sit there and go, well, okay, do I deserve that? Is that okay, do I deserve that? Was there anyone that deserves it more than me? Or, like it challenged me in a way, I was over the moon, thrilled. I love to be a part of it, the community be recognized. But at the end of the day, you have to sit alone with yourself and say I did this, we did this, I did this and I accept the good things coming my way, along with the challenging things as well.  17:14 It's like you have to have a little conversation with yourself about that and I'm very careful, like I don't want my head to be big. I don't want to be gloaty about it, I don't want to hold it over anyone else. I want to be very humane about the recognition that I slash we as the company get because I feel so grateful for it. I don't feel like, oh, of course I deserved it, I'm the best. I feel like that's going in a direction of morality that is not of high integrity. The highest integrity people are people who are humble and they're modest and they have humility about themselves and their work. Those are the people that I always have admiration for yeah, absolutely, I love that.  17:54 - Anne (Host) And receiving acknowledgement right Receiving acknowledgement is absolutely another important, very important, I think, factor in really having fulfilling and successful entrepreneurial journeys and businesses right.  18:08 I think a lot of times what happens? We get a lot of people coming into this industry that are so unhappy and there are jobs, because I always tell people in the corporate world all we really want is love. All we want is love and acknowledgement right Like validation. It helps to make money right so you can pay the bills. Absolutely, I mean that's first and foremost.  18:26 But I think a lot of times when people are dissatisfied with their work, it's because they've really put their heart and soul into it and nobody's acknowledged that and nobody has really recognized that or given them a compliment or credited them for that, and so that, I think, is one source of people really wanting to come into business for themselves. And so now when we're entrepreneurs feedback that we get and it's rare that we get feedback from clients right, unless we go out and ask for it, which I'm the biggest fan of, going out and getting testimonials right Get yourself that acknowledgement. But also, when it comes unexpectedly, it's something that I think we need to be prepared to just receive it and be grateful for it and really know that you're worth it, because there's something to be said about people who are constantly degrading or downplaying or shunning those compliments or acknowledgments or awards, and we did a podcast on awards. There's just there's lots of different opinions about awards. Do people need an award to do their business? Not necessarily.  19:26 But I'll tell you sometimes that recognition very similar to being in a corporate job or whatever it might be getting a little bit of recognition can really help emotionally. Mental I mean. I feel like everything in life it all stems mentally and then it kind of I'm going to say, pushes out physically, right. Like I feel like everything is in our head, like that's what is controlling the earth, right? Our thoughts, right, I feel it's our thoughts and how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about others and how we treat it. It just directly affects the physical everything and I think that it's so important.  19:59 - Lau (Host) I just rambled off on this kind of tangent, but I think it's all related, right, it's all related because if think of any relationship we have, like I love acknowledging, I love validating, I love giving compliments, I love that it doesn't only make me feel good, it's necessary, it's like, okay, we're going to be tough on someone, we're going to give honest feedback, we're going to say no to someone, we're going to be harsh at times, but it's really important to have those moments where you go you know what, I'm really proud of you. Or hey, you did it, Nicely done. I'm so excited for you.  20:34 Because otherwise I find people in general get really down on themselves very fast and then lose steam, lose energy, lose motivation, because they ultimately start to want to please or be liked by the casting, producer, coach, whatever, and it becomes personalized in that way. So it's like a fine line. I of course, want to have that no-like and trust factor. Of course I want to have that in the business world. But there's a fine line Like we don't want to be motivated to only be liked and only be validated, right.  21:11 Otherwise you're seeking to receive things all the time which are not earned they're not always well earned. They're just that little honor, that little star, for no reason. I want to live in a meritocracy. Still, I want to be rewarded when I'm earned.  21:27 - Anne (Host) Yeah, I love that you brought that up because you're right, Seeking to receive all the time is not good either. Being able to receive is one thing, but seeking to always have likes or stuff like that is also not healthy and doesn't create for a healthy business either. Right, when you're constantly seeking approval and I think that really kind of stems from other issues, like when you're seeking approval all the time, and that could be a whole other podcast Lau.  21:51 - Lau (Host) That is a whole other podcast approval. Yeah, how do we respond to all of the things that happen in our world that are not what we want or not what we're expecting to come back to us? How do we respond to those things Like not being nominated, not getting the award, not getting? How do we respond to that?  22:13 - Anne (Host) That always is a little pain, oh, always a pain, even when you know better, like myself, and we know we've been on both sides right when we want that acknowledgement, we want that award, we want that feedback, and sometimes it just doesn't come back to us the way that we want. And so how do we deal with that right? Again, that's not necessarily a rejection right of something that you're receiving, it's that you haven't received it. And so now, what? Now, what do you do with that longing, that desire, that hope? How do you get yourself back in balance?  22:44 - Lau (Host) That's right. That's right. Balance is really the key because the more balanced we are, the more we can easily give and offer and receive and take. And not do it from an ego point of view, not do it from this heavy ego centric, really do it from a place that's very balanced and very open and very like. It's like a give and take of Feng Shui. You know what I mean. Like you're cleansing Every time you give something away. I find when I Feng Shui my office or my studio and I give things away, if it's received well, I feel cleansed right, and if I'm receiving something, well, I feel cleansed.  23:19 There's like a cathartic thing that happens, a purification that happens if it's not coming from pure ego which. I love. I think it's fabulous.  23:27 - Anne (Host) I can talk Clear the clutter, clear the clutter, clear the clutter, physically clear the clutter in your brain. I mean it can really do a lot to propel you and your business forward. Absolutely, absolutely. What a really cool conversation Lau. I love it, I love it Beautiful I love it, guys.  23:43 And, as we spoke about before, 100 Voices who Care, simple Mission, big Impact 100 Voices, 1 hour, $10,000,. Guys, you can really make an impact. Visit 100voiceswhocareorg to find out more and big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. Gosh, I love IPDTL, I just love IPDTL. They give us the opportunity to give and receive Lau at UNI back and forth for this podcast, and I absolutely love the fact that we can connect and do so. Find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Bye.  24:19 - Lau (Host) See you next time.  24:21 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VoBoss with your host, Ann Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom 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.   

Are you ready to become the architect of your own success? This episode is a catalyst for inspiring business transformations. Anne and Lau uncover exciting possibilities that come with starting something new, and guide you on how to kindle creativity for innovative ideas. Discover how the power of writing can become a game-changer for your creativity and personal development. Delve into how expressing your thoughts and ideas on paper encourages new, innovative ideas. Learn why feedback is crucial, and the profound impacts a business mentor can have on your business. The BOSSES emphasize patience, persistence, and maintaining an abundant mindset when investing in yourself and your business. From successful direct marketing strategies to the creation of tangible proofs of concept, we've got you covered. Let's level up your business together! Transcript 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier 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.  00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VEO Boss Podcast and the Boss Superpower Series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, along with my amazing special guest co-host Lau Laupides. 00:33 - Lau (Host) And how are you? Welcome to be back. I'm fabulous. How are you?  00:37 - Anne (Host) It's a brand new day. Lau, it's a brand new day. It's a new year. I am excited, Speaking of new. I think it's time for us to maybe talk about setting goals, starting something new. I always get a great thrill, a great anticipation and excitement when I start something new, and I think it's something that can really help bosses to grow their businesses, to be continually moving forward and progressing, and I think it's wonderful to challenge ourselves. What about you? I?  01:06 - Lau (Host) love it. I would love to do some tips on how we can start something new, because it's that feng shui of your soul, your spirit, your closet, your studio, your whatever, your car, your relationship. It's like how do I not only cleanse and clean things out, but how do I make the fire happen, how do I create it? And do it on a reguLaur basis as a soloprenor, as an entrepreneur? That's what our job is. It's really to constantly create things. Create, that's why we're creatives. That's why we're creatives.  01:37 - Anne (Host) Yes, and we really need to embrace. Embrace the creativeness, even if you feel that you're not creative, right, and you feel, and it's scary, I'll tell you a lot it's scary to start new things, because what if we fail? Right.  01:49 - Intro (Announcement) What if it doesn't work?  01:51 - Anne (Host) What are we going to do? And so I think that there's a lot of anguish that happens before we start something new, or goodness gracious knows that I can procrastinate along with the best of them right, but once I get a focus right.  02:04 I'm focused, but I'll tell you what. Getting started and starting something new A lot of times I know that bosses will be like I don't even know where to start. So what are some tips on? How can we generate new ideas right? I mean, some of them can come from within ourselves, but I'll tell you what. There's technology out there that can help us to maybe spur some new ideas for how to grow our business right.  02:26 - Lau (Host) I would have a little something, a little trinket, a mechanism, a toy or whatever. That is your reset button, that's your little thing that you go to. I used to have staples button.  02:35 - Anne (Host) When I worked with staples. Yes, that was easy.  02:37 - Lau (Host) I literally hit it on my desk and go boom, that was easy, so you need something physical in your environment whether it's a stuffed  02:46 animal, whether it's a little bell, a little bell or something. It sounds ridiculous, but I'm telling you your brain takes recording really well. Ironically, we're in the business of recording everything. We do, everything we say, every move we make. We're being recorded. So every time you do that little Pavlovian dog behavioral thing, your brain goes something good is coming, something new is happening. I'm going to accept it into the reality that I want safety, I want comfort and I want to know exactly what's coming up. So it's going to reset that for you, so that you've got a mindset focus reset before you do anything. I think that's really important.  03:26 - Anne (Host) I feel like we could do a search on Amazon or something and something like a reset button or a new button or something that will help us. So if you're looking for that physical thing, that button to push, or there's always the staple, that's easy button, which I love.  03:39 - Intro (Announcement) I had a bell and that kind of thing.  03:40 - Anne (Host) But, yeah, I like that. That's a good start now. So what? What are we going to do? That's new. How are we going to come up with ideas? I think a lot of us have ideas on what we'd like to do to move our business forward. Oh, build a new studio. Maybe there's roadblocks, right, but these roadblocks can actually, I think, motivate us to get started on something new, because we can then work towards achieving our goal, and I don't want this to necessarily turn into the goal achieving episode but it's very simiLaur.  04:07 Because what if? Okay, I want to start something new, I want to go into a different genre of voiceover, or I want to build a new studio, or I want to rearrange my office space right so it's more conducive to working more efficiently? Whatever it might be, I think it starts with the idea and it starts with that little thing. Here we go Right now. What are the steps that it's going to take to get there right, To start this, to actually accomplish this?  04:35 - Lau (Host) By the way, you could go very Eastern philosophy. You could do either a gong or you could do some chimes. I love the chimes. The chimes is really cool to my ear. I have tincture bells.  04:44 - Anne (Host) I don't know if those of you out there.  04:45 - Intro (Announcement) I love tincture bells.  04:47 - Anne (Host) Tincture bells are, I think, very good vibrations and good energy, and tincture bells are just a beautiful sounding bell.  04:53 - Lau (Host) All right, I have a really cool exercise, annie, that I use for a number of the soloprenore cLausses that I teach, that I myself love doing, and that is we put on some really cool music. My favorite is bonobo. We put on some fabulous music and we do like a timed brain dump, and the timed brain dump usually for me is six minutes, but it could be whatever you choose, and it's a time where we put on that music. We focus our pen or pencil on the paper. Now we are not allowed to pick the pen or pencil up for six minutes, meaning I don't allow critiquing, I don't allow editing, I don't allow review. It's not grammatically correct. It is a creative writing exercise for you to dump out everything in your brain, refocus. But, most importantly, Wait.  05:41 - Anne (Host) You don't pick up the pen until six minutes, and then, after six minutes, you pick up the pen.  05:46 - Lau (Host) No, it doesn't matter what you're writing. You're allowing your subconscious to drain itself. So that you and your intellect have nothing to do with it. It's really about so you're not writing. You're dumping, You're writing. You're actually writing what you're dumping.  06:00 - Anne (Host) Oh, I thought you said you don't pick up the pen.  06:02 - Lau (Host) Well meaning, you don't pick up the pen to stop writing, you keep your pen to the paper.  06:06 Oh, I see, I see, I see and you write and it can be tiring, it can be physically demanding for people who are not used to writing, but it's important because we get in the way so much of the ideas Like we got to get ideas out there before we can dissect them or critique them and sometimes nothing comes of it. But oftentimes there are things lodged in our brain that are either exciting us, bothering us, sticking, coming back, that we need to awaken and pay attention to, for that new idea.  06:37 - Anne (Host) Now, during this exercise, you're writing everything that's coming into your brain Everything, Even if it's not a new idea right, even if it's like oh my gosh. What are we going to have for dinner tonight? Or I'm hungry. Or okay, even that.  06:48 - Lau (Host) Okay, it's a total stream of consciousness. They used to use this in psychotherapy, where you would speak it out loud, but I like the privacy of being able to write it because you're not necessarily sharing it with anyone, absolutely Unless you choose to. It's really for your own purpose of writing everything out, so it might look like oh, I'm hot right now and I need a banana and that coffee hurts me. And he sucked. And why did he break?  07:12 - Anne (Host) up with me and I don't have money for a microphone. I need a banana. I need a banana right now.  07:18 - Lau (Host) Right, but see, notice that banana jumped out at you. That may be my next creative idea about the banana, about the banana.  07:26 - Anne (Host) I love it. No, I love that. Okay, and so after six minutes, then what happens? We've got a bunch of writings on our paper.  07:32 - Lau (Host) Well, that's up to us how we want to facilitate that. We can either leave it alone, put it in our corner where we put our writing and just feel like we've been drained a little bit, we've been fungshuated a little bit, or we can look at that in my coaching. I'll look at that a lot, circle and have people pick out yes. Emphasize the words, the ideas that resonate to them in that moment.  07:54 - Anne (Host) I love that.  07:55 - Lau (Host) And usually there's a couple in there. I love that. Usually there's like hate my mother oh, that's interesting. Hate your mother Okay. So let's look at that right. And then that can go in many, many directions. It could be anything. It could be comedy, sure. It could be absurd. It could be not even a reality in your mind. It could be a podcast on your mother Right. It could be something. It could be the evolution of a podcast on your mother.  08:17 - Anne (Host) It could be a film.  08:18 - Lau (Host) I saw that was called Hate my Mother, and I can't get it out of my head because I love how they shot something or I love the sound of the film.  08:26 - Anne (Host) See, as you go deeper into that, right, did you love about it? It sparked something creative, like you could do this. Yes, or we should do something like this, or, you know, it would be cool if this were developed. I have so many good ideas. How many times bosses out there have you had an idea and you're like, oh man, or you'll see a new thing that comes out, a new gadget, and you'd be like man, I had that idea, that was my idea, like years ago, right, and we never really kind of took action on it. And a lot of times it's because it is something new.  08:56 There's not a lot of things out there to reference it. We don't know quite how to wrap our heads around it. We don't know how to get started, we don't know how to maybe put it into action. And I'll tell you what. I think that those circled words or whatever those things that are in your brain. You can then start to say, all right, how can I make this happen?  09:15 And if this is going to be something, hopefully it's something that will move you ahead in your business. And I'm a big believer that if you're moving ahead in your personal development, you're also moving ahead in your business Because, again, our business is so much connected to who we are and ourselves and so really that can be motivational to really moving forward. So, yeah, you've got those ideas. Now what is it going to take to put those ideas in motion? What is it going to take? And a lot of times people might say, well, money, okay, all right, money might be what you consider to be your barrier, right, but we can figure out what are ways to overcome that barrier of money. How can we make more money? How can we put some money aside every month to be able to continually add to the budget to make this happen?  10:01 - Lau (Host) Mm-hmm. I also find, annie, that when you write something down, it becomes more real when you pull it out of your head. I agree it's not real in your head. I mean just because this is what neurosurgeon had famous talks. Just because you're thinking it doesn't mean it's real. It doesn't mean it's true right, like I need to hear that from a neurosurgeon. But it's true because when I think it, I think that it's actually true.  10:24 But when I put it on paper, all of a sudden I can clean that shop, I can decipher it differently, like what I want to be tackling, what I don't want to be tackling, right. So when I tackle it, when I say I'm gonna emphasize that I'm gonna tackle that I and this is just my process I like to start sharing that with confidence. I like to start coming together and colLauborating and brainstorming before I even get to money and budgets and all that stuff. I like to come with someone and say am I crazy? Am I sane? Is this worth time? What do you think? And if I hear this common response of ooh, that's interesting, yeah, that's cool.  11:00 - Anne (Host) It inspires me, or would you buy this, or would this be something that you would like, or that kind of thing?  11:06 - Lau (Host) Absolutely, absolutely cuz it's not real yet in my mind it's not even real if I believe in it yet. I want to see what our community response is. I don't share it with a million people, but I share with a few confidants to see what their gauges. I'm gonna tell you.  11:19 - Anne (Host) For years now for oh gosh, probably 15 years I have had a business mentor, somebody that I meet with, and I used to meet with her a whole lot more when I was first Initially starting in the business. But we could brainstorm together right, how can I grow my business, what do I see for myself in the future and what does it gonna take to get there? And we still do that to this day. It was, again, outside of my account and I always love my account, but one of the best investments I ever made in my business was hiring her to be that and she's not necessarily in the business, right, so somebody that can help me to figure out. Okay, what's new? Right, and we actively talk about things at the end of the year or at the beginning of the year like what's new. But I think, more importantly, it's not just end of year, beginning of year, it is every month. Right, I have a standing appointment with her every month and we talk about okay, what are we gonna do now? What are we heading towards? What are we evolving towards? And we talk about having a pLaun B for your business or a parallel paths of passive income. I love that parallel path of passive income. We've got a lot of peas in there, and good thing I'm not too close to my mic, but those things are always Evolved and developed during those monthly meetings.  12:29 Now I think it's something that you can absolutely start every month yourself or put yourself on.  12:34 I think every month is good to be able to come up with new ideas, come up with new things to try. It doesn't have to be an entirely new idea, but it can be a new offshoot Based upon, let's say, a long-term goal you have of oh, I want to be able to do animation, and so that may be a long term goal. So then, what's a new goal for next month? Well, let's decide on a coach, right, let's start working with a coach. Let's call a series of coaches and let's see who I click with, right, and then let's do one session with each coach and then really find out who I jive, who I meld with, and then we can then start training. So it can be something new every single month, and I think that really helps you to gosh. Stagnation for me is the worst. That is when I think nothing moves forward. Their businesses don't move forward, and then people end up maybe not being in business anymore, or quitting or being discouraged.  13:27 - Lau (Host) Exactly that's when you start getting down on yourself and you become a saboteur and you sabotage things. So yes, I'm all for that, and I'll even say to piggyback onto that find groups or find specific moments of events that you can sit in on or be a part of that. You can conjure ideas up as you listen to the group. Be careful of not spending your whole time, your whole week, in groups, because then that can confuse you because you're going to hear a lot of ideas and a lot of different thoughts.  13:55 A lot of opinions, but pick and choose yeah, pick and choose your group really, really well and wisely, so that what you hear, you know, is coming from a very high level and that will help inspire ideas. That, oh, I never thought of that. I never thought that they would view me in that way. I never thought of that kind of project that can be an inspirational force as well.  14:14 - Anne (Host) Now there can be times when I feel like you can have so many ideas that it's overwhelming right, and then it's like no ideas at all get developed right.  14:22 So you want to be careful of overwhelming yourself with new ideas, and I'm going to say that goals are wonderful.  14:28 I'm thinking ideas, they evolve into goals.  14:30 But I think ideas are wonderful because it's just a great like inspirational spot to start from and then I think it can turn into a goal based upon the market, based upon realism, based upon okay, I've got an idea for an extension of my business, but then maybe when you talk it over with some people, you find that maybe there isn't a ton of demand out there for it, because it can be a cool idea, but in order to turn a profit, it has to appeal to other people too. So there's got to be time spent in researching those ideas to make sure. Are you going to spend the time and effort in developing them further? And so try not to overwhelm. I love that you said be careful with being part of too many accountability groups or too many groups, because, yes, you can get too many opinions, you can get too many ideas. Here you should do it this way. Here you should work with this coach, here you should get this demo and then you're confused and then you're like, oh God, I just don't even know what to do.  15:26 I think, honestly, if we sit down, I love the brain dump on the paper. I think that is really amazing because that is starting with you. It's starting with your desires, your passions, whatever you're feeling, and I feel like, rather than somebody telling you this is what you should do, here's what you have a gut feeling about. I'm a big believer in your gut right. This is what I'm passionate about, and if you're passionate about it, you're going to have the motivation to go and get it.  15:52 - Lau (Host) Yes, and here's a role pLauy for you. I do this with myself all the time and it makes me feel so good, something neutralizing about it. I'll refer to myself as a creative agency or the idea person of an advertising agency. Those are the people who would sit around drinking soda, hitting hoops in their offices and just shooting the Dick Van Dyke ideas all night long.  16:17 - Intro (Announcement) Absolutely.  16:18 - Lau (Host) Being unafraid to do that, but I would structure it. I would say, okay, we can do this day and night. I know I can do a day and night structure. Say, listen, one week out of the month or three days out of the month are my idea days. Those are days that I'm brain dumping. I'm talking to people, I'm sitting in on groups and I'm coming up with my top three prioritized ideas so that it doesn't become but I have 50. What do I do with the 50?  16:43 No, let me see if I can come up with three and then choose the one that I actually might want to take action on so that I'm structuring my time and I'm structuring through priority as well, and then I'm also giving a deadline too and saying if this doesn't materialize in three months in some real way, I'm going to shelf it until Lauter.  17:03 - Anne (Host) I like that I kind of reLaute it to when people come to me and they say, well, I don't know what genre I should study voiceover, and we'll talk about okay. So what do you do now? Do you have a corporate job? Are you an actor? Do you have a side hustle? However, that is, and a lot of times it'll come down to okay, it'll be easy for you to step into this genre because you've got experience in it. Let's say I'm talking to a teacher. I'm like well, look, you already teach. You already have a concept of what it takes to be a good teacher. So stepping into the e-learning genre might work really well for you. However, you might have another loftier idea that you want to get into animation, right, Well, you can develop the one that you step into a little bit easier so that that will help you to then make some money while you're also pursuing the other goal, and I think that that usually works out really well.  17:49 And I like to equate the whole doing something new and the inspiration to my demo creation process, because for every student right, that end goal of a demo to me is a creative process. It is a creation, it's a song, it is something that is completely unique for each and every student, and for me the process is the same. To get there, there's a lot of work that is involved, but there's a lot of time where, yeah, I sit there and throw the crumpled paper into the basket because there's the creative inspiration that's happening to really just bring it all together and to make it amazing, and so I can really appreciate that part. And each and every time and each and every demo becomes like one of those new things that I'm accomplishing, and I cannot tell you how satisfying that is, because at the end, I'm like yes.  18:39 And I can see it. When I'm getting towards the end of creating the demo for the student, I'm like, oh, oh, oh, it's coming together. It's oh my God, yes, and now I'm going to do that. Oh, yes, oh, now, okay, now I'm seeing it come together and that, to me, is exhiLaurating. It's exhiLaurating.  18:53 It's kind of like the way I attribute starting something new in your business. Right, you get that idea, you're like this could be really cool and now, how am I going to get there? And then you do steps to work to get there, to get there, to get there, you sit there, you shoot a few crumpled pieces of paper and you think about it.  19:08 You sleep on it and then the next morning you get up and you go oh, let me try that Right. And then, when it starts to come together, that's the most amazing thing.  19:17 - Lau (Host) See, that's really the thing, because I find that, with creatives, one of the sticking points for most creatives, no matter how successful they are, is the execution of things. It's getting through what I call the theater days technical rehearsal.  19:31 That's the worst, dirtiest, muddiest, ugliest, disgusting. Like what have we worked on? It looks like yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, and then it just comes together, right. So you have to be able in your business, you can see it right. Yeah, you have to be able to move through that disgusting kind of uncomfortable kind of like, but I worked on this for months. Why does it look this way or feel this way? Right, I was going to give another tip too, annie. I was thinking you know, if you get together with that confidant, with that person, with that creative buddy, make use of that time by doing a structured business improv with them saying I'm going to take 20 minutes with you, 30 minutes, here's my goal. If you want to work on yours, work on yours. But I want to talk out. I want to talk out this idea I have, that I'm looking to execute, and you ask me questions and you shoot, you fire, you do things to make me think about it and give you more real response.  20:25 Cause it takes it off the paper and makes it even more real when you have to speak about it to someone.  20:31 - Anne (Host) Absolutely, absolutely. I mean it's not just on the paper and you looking at it, going okay, and then you don't look at the paper. That's kind of like when you do write things down right and you have goals. I'm a big believer in putting them somewhere where you can keep looking at them. I mean, they can't just stick in your brain.  20:46 If they stick in your brain. It's easy for them to just, oh, I lost it when to go and you can forget about it. But having those in front of you and also talking it out with somebody, like I said, when I come back to meet with my business mentor in another month, she'll be saying to me okay, so what did you do about this? Or how are we moving on? And I'm in the process of that right now. I'm making a shift to another cool part of the business that I want to open and I don't quite know what I'm doing, and it's one of those things where it's going to take me some time. But it's okay, I'm patient with myself because it's going to be kind of a cool path that I've not explored before.  21:20 - Lau (Host) So I'm patient with myself.  21:22 - Anne (Host) So I think you need to be patient with yourself. So many of us are not patient when it comes to oh my God, I want to be a voiceover actor and how come I'm not making money. All of a sudden, it becomes like well, okay. And the same thing with marketing. I'll tell you, I have people that we offer the boss. Bless. That we've talked about multiple times and and I always talked to people about direct marketing right, marketing yourself is one thing. Again, you're putting things out into the universe and again, when are you going to be able to collect on them? So I made an investment. It could be a financial investment, a time investment, whatever that is Well, all of a sudden. Well, it's been three months, why haven't I gotten anything? It's been 12 months, why haven't I gotten anything? And again, one of those things we know, I mean Lauw. We've talked about this. I did an audition two years ago and all of a sudden, I got a contact by the casting director saying hey, we think your voice would be great for this.  22:14 The same thing for your ideas, right your ideas to develop. Just don't give up and be patient. It is one of those things You're marketing. Direct marketing is huge in that convincing an actor to spend a certain amount of money or invest money on a reguLaur basis for marketing is, gosh, pretty much close to impossible, and I know you know that right. Everybody's like I don't have the money, I'm broke, I'm not getting a return on my investment. People are so quick to say that I am not getting a return on my investment. But well, they have to think about.  22:43 - Lau (Host) Are they coming from a full, rich, abundant pLauce? Are they coming from a cheap, overly frugal, not willing to invest pLauce? Because people want to invest in you if they see that you're willing to invest in yourself first. So in essence, you are the proof of concept If you're willing to invest, then you give someone else permission to invest in you, so that abundant versus a fearful, cheap pLauce is really, really important. There's one other thing I was going to say, annie too. Now, maybe this is pushing it a little too far, but I'm that kind of gal If you want to start something new, create something real. Upfront. I'll give you an idea. I used to teach in a very competitive entrepreneurial program in a business college and in the freshman year think about this, 18 years old the project was they take the whole first year, annie. They would create in teams a product that at the end of the year they pitch in a real way at the end of the year right, so it was whatever, it was a shirt a clock, this or that.  23:44 I never forgot, 18, 19 years old. I never forgot because they said we don't care if you make money or not. This is about making money. This is about you learning that when you create a process, there has to be something real and executionary about it, and something that you perform. It's performative. It's not in your head. So at the end of the year, they had to physically manufacture the product Sure absolutely.  24:06 Yeah, and then they'd have to pitch it to see if they could get money, I love that love. I think here's the thought. Here's the thought. We create something, whatever it is, it could be anything. Create something that is a sticker of it that makes it real. So, for instance, let's say you have an idea for a new service in your business, or I have an idea for a business, create a logo, pay money for that logo. It could be 50 bucks, it could be 200, whatever, but it becomes real in a different way.  24:35 - Anne (Host) Absolutely, I love that you said that because, honestly, like when I worked at the academies the Bergen academies, I mean every student had a year long project, literally where they formed a company, they created a product and they actually were all part of here's the marketing department.  24:48 Here's the engineering department and honestly, it gave them a reason to learn engineering. It gave them a reason to learn marketing. It gave them a reason to learn SAP software. It gave them a reason to learn they just had to create the prototype and then they had to, like, market it and sell it, and then they had to present it. And we're talking about ninth graders. Okay, back in the day. That's amazing. Now, if you start them at ninth grade thinking in that way, thinking in that entrepreneurial, corporate way, where they ultimately have to create something and then present it, they end up learning all of the things they need to learn in order to accomplish that goal, and that becomes a really wonderful education for the students as well, as I cannot tell you how many of those students are blossoming like amazing successes today.  25:34 - Lau (Host) Amazing.  25:35 - Anne (Host) They started off early knowing that and doing that, and so I think that's a wonderful idea for you bosses out there to go and create something, make your initial investment, something that doesn't have to take like a billion dolLaurs. No, but something that represents that and is part of your goal to getting there, and I think that that is amazing.  25:54 - Lau (Host) If someone says but Anne, I'm worried. What if I spend $100 on this and I don't like the way it looks or it doesn't come out the way I want? Here's my answer to that. You made an investment in your education, absolutely so. It's not the logo that you created, it's the educational process to know what do you want at the end of the day to represent your company. You don't know until it's actually happening. It can't sit in your head and come to perfection. It's got to be that like, done, done, done every moment in your process. Done. It's not about perfection, it's about done. Now move on. What did I learn?  26:30 - Anne (Host) Right, I'm going to tie that to the logo to even. You know, go further website, start a website. And so many people are like, yeah, but I shouldn't start it yet until I know what my brand is. Okay, yeah, here's a little piece of advice. Your brand evolves right. It's not like your website can't be changed.  26:42 It's not like your logo can't be changed or evolve along with you. As a matter of fact, I just went to the Way Back archive and I saw my very first website where I was Anne Speak. By the way, you guys can look at that, Anne Speak.  26:52 - Intro (Announcement) A&E Speak.  26:54 - Anne (Host) And you'll see that my logo was a microphone, right, with little flourishing things coming out of it, because I love flourishes right. And the thing is is that I've evolved, I mean, and our business has evolved, and so it's okay. Make that investment, the education you're going to get by hiring somebody to create a logo, forcing yourself to think about who am I, what does my logo represent? Or what does my website represent, what are my colors, what is my brand that education is going to be invaluable. Yes, love, what a wonderful conversation Yet again.  27:21 I say this at the end of every podcast. It doesn't seem like.  27:24 - Intro (Announcement) Anne is like a broken record but honestly we have such great conversations.  27:29 - Anne (Host) And you know what I just love, love, love having you as my co-host, and bosses love you too, and we love the bosses. And so, with that in mind, bosses, I want you to take a moment and imagine a world full of passionate and powered, diverse individuals, like we are, but we're giving collectively and intentionally to create the world that we want to see. You can make a difference. Visit 100voiceshoocareorg to learn more, and big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You, too, can connect and network like bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Have an amazing week, guys, and go start something new. We'll see you next week. See you next week. Bye.  28:09 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, Anne Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom 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.  28:31 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Boss Superpower series. I'm your host, anne Gangusa, along with my very awesome, amazing lost co-host, Lauw Laupita. Hello, happy Saturday. Uh oh.  28:57 - Lau (Host) Uh oh, Lauw, where'd you go? Lauw, you're frozen. I know you were frozen. So we lost transmission for a second Transmission lost. It might have been lost Alright.  29:06 - Anne (Host) Yes, it might have been lost. Alright, let's try that one more time. I'm going to stop it and pause for a bit.   

Get ready to redefine your understanding of the voiceover industry as host Anne Ganguzza and special guest co-host Tom Deere, pull back the curtain on the reality of the business and its inherent struggles. We dive deep into the pivotal SAG-AFTRA strike and how it's much more than just a Hollywood issue. It isn't about the glitz and glamour - it's about the hard truth of what it means to be a part of this industry, as a union or non-union voice actor. We'll tackle the misconception that all actors are high earners and shine a spotlight on the majority who are fighting for fair pay and intellectual property protection, especially with the advent of AI technology. 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier 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.  00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey, hey everyone. Welcome to the VO Boss Podcast and the Real Bosses series. I'm your host, Ann Gangusa, here with special guest co-host Mr Tom DHeere. Hello, Tom.  00:31 - Tom (Co-host) Hello Ann, so great to see you.  00:33 - Anne (Host) Yes, wonderful to be chatting with you again and you know, at the time of this recording we just had kind of a major industry event happen the SAG After Strike ended and I thought it would be a good time to talk about external factors that affect our industry and how we can prepare ourselves as bosses to really handle events that happen like that, that are sometimes not even within our control, and what do we do to sustain our businesses.  01:04 - Tom (Co-host) Yes, absolutely Off the top of my head. Keeping up with industry trends is extremely important, which is why, being subscribed to Hollywood Reporter, variety, backstage Magazine publications like that, our friend John Florian's VO Extra, which is sort of an online magazine just being aware of what's going on in the industry, because seeing the highlights on the nightly news can only get you so far, absolutely. Because just a little B-roll and a little this, that and the other thing is see Fran Drescher for five seconds blah and then like going on to the next subject.  01:36 - Anne (Host) Well, yeah, and we should know that Fran Drescher what her role.  01:39 - Tom (Co-host) Yes, as president of SAG After.  01:42 - Anne (Host) Yeah, know who the people are, know how it's impacting the industry and even if you are not a member, that was the whole thing. Even if you were not a member of SAG After and you felt that it didn't affect you, in reality it affected our entire industry as they were vying for fair pay and rights for creatives and actors and voice actors in regards to synthetic voices and AI out there Absolutely and streaming.  02:09 - Tom (Co-host) And streaming. Yeah, everything that SAG After does, all of their collectively bargained agreements and the rate structures and the minimums and all of that stuff, all of that has obviously a major impact on all the SAG After members. But it also has a huge effect on the non-union members, because non-union voice actors most tend to use SAG After CBAs collectively bargained agreements, if not a baseline, a guideline as to, in generally, how genres of voiceover charge, both in the structure of it and then the actual dollars and cents of it, and it will trickle down into the non-union world directly and indirectly. So, yeah, absolutely Everything affects everything in our industry.  02:48 - Anne (Host) And it's something to consider again I say this over and over again that it absolutely affects even though, as you mentioned, if you're not even a member, it affects the industry. It affects the perception of creatives and their value and their worth, and one of the reasons why we are in this as a business is to make money. In order to sustain our businesses and to do what we love for a living, we need to make money and we need to be able to pay the bills. We need to be able to have essential things like healthcare and, even if you're not a member of the union the perception of the market who has services or purchases our voice or hires us and pays us money. It's very important that that perception is one of value and one of worth, so that we can have this as a career, and have it as a sustainable career, so that we can survive.  03:44 - Tom (Co-host) It's interesting because most of the time when you watch the news or you're talking to people in other industries and there's a strike of some kind, it's usually we just want more money and then very things here and there. What was interesting about the SAG After Strike is that it was obviously nationally. Everybody was watching what was going on, because everybody who watches movies and television shows and streaming are impacted by this. This fall lineup and then in the spring we're really going to be feeling it because it's going to be rerun city. But what was interesting about this is that, yes, they wanted like a 7% increase and they wanted certain things, but the fact that they were talking about protection of our livelihood.  04:26 Ai has the potential to take away our intellectual property, our IP, for on camera actors for their image, voice actors for their voice and then in other industries, musicians for their music, artists for their art, writers for their writing those five image, voice, music, art and writing. Ai is causing a lot of disruption, some of it in a good way, but most of it in a not good way, because of lack of understanding of it, lack of regulation and oversight on a federal level, and which was a big part of the SAG After Strike is that AI wasn't really taken into consideration in any of the collectively bargained agreements, so all of that needs to get back in there to protect actors from their IP being stolen. I think a lot of people didn't understand that if you're an extra and you get scanned and you get paid one fee and then they use you your likeness forever in a movie you just destroyed your extra career and so on and so on and so forth.  05:26 So what was going on with AI in many ways is an existential threat to voice actors, so that's a big part of what this wasn't just about. Oh, those actors, they just want more money to be, to be movie stars. No, this was. If we don't do something about this, we won't be able to act anymore.  05:40 - Anne (Host) Well, yeah, and it brought awareness, I think, to the general public about our careers and the perception that, oh, they're just celebrities and more money and they're greedy. In reality, what was the percentage of people that make enough money, that are the high earners? There are only like 1% of actors in the union, and so the rest of them, the rest of us, the struggling actors, the starving artists, so to speak this is something that I think really was a good thing, so that we could have artists still pursuing this career feeling like, oh, I can possibly make it, I can possibly sustain this as a career, and so I think that's a good thing. Otherwise, you just end up with maybe just the high paid, high earning actors.  06:27 And what happens to the creative process? What happens to movies, what happens to voice, what happens to music, what happens to the writing, when you just don't have the wide I would say broad spectrum of people vying to do this because they're passionate and they love it and they're good at it, but yet they need to be able to make a living at it. So, I think, bringing public awareness to the craft, public awareness of just how much that creatives are dependent upon, especially I go back to the pandemic. When? What do we do during the pandemic?  07:02 We watch streaming, we watched movies, we listen to music and all of that was so important to help keep our I guess I want to say our- spirit and our sanity and our mental health that really was something that was crucial, I think, and of course, it goes back to support the arts, support the arts and our educational institutions, and really I think that this was just another wonderful example of bringing public awareness to what it is that we do and appreciation to it, yeah, I have a story with that in mind.  07:34 - Tom (Co-host) Just a week or two ago I live here in Midtown Manhattan. I went around the corner to the grocery store and I see some SAG Afterhab members striking and I noticed that the strike captain was an old friend of mine I've been friends with her for 30 years and actors hey, how are you doing? And we were talking and she explained to me that the reason why she's been able to keep her SAG After Health and pension benefits for the past few years is because of extra work. Not because starring or a supporting role or some Netflix thing, it was just being a New York working actor and just doing extra work. And she also does theater and other things. But like I don't think a lot of people realize that, just that relatively innocuous, almost unseen extra work pays her medical bills and goes towards her retirement. Because that's what the strike was about. It wasn't about the big movie stars. They're fine.  08:23 I mean protecting their intellectual property from predatory AI practices is obviously a very big deal, and we're seeing deep fakes and all that stuff all the time and video game actors getting their voices harvested. But yeah, this is a blue collar strike if that makes sense Not unlike the auto worker strike that has been recently. I think it's mostly over now, but yeah, it's not unlike that. It wasn't about the movie stars, yeah.  08:44 - Anne (Host) And during the strike, because it was a it was a fairly lengthy strike I know that there was lots of speculation. You know Hollywood is dead, that kind of stuff or is that going to happen? And in reality, I mean understanding the people that hire us and pay us for our services and understanding like what it is that we deserve as a contributing asset to their products, to large streaming companies. Of course, without movies and actors and actresses, the streaming companies won't have anything to stream. And so I think also it brought to life a little more of an understanding of corporate mentality and how it can be, and it was kind of a wake up call, I think, to a lot of voice actors understanding that there is a beast out there that ultimately, when you are contributing to a product with your voice or with your likeness or with your music or whatever that is, that there is a fair way to be compensated for that and that it should be compensated. And I think that that was a major win for the union and for us as an industry.  09:50 - Tom (Co-host) Absolutely. Sometimes it's hard to understand, to reconcile the fact that we're trying to be expressive artists but at the same time, we have volunteered to be commoditized. You know what I mean. You're commoditized for how you look, you're commoditized for how you sound, and so there's a literal contract and a social contract which is okay, based on how you sound, we will give you this money. We understand that.  10:11 Your training, your experience, your talent, all of those things the aggregate of that is you being able to do this Metro PCS commercial or be in this video game or narrate this audio book. So it's hard to sometimes separate the art from the commerce part of it. I like talking for money, but I'm an artist too and my AI voice is part of the commoditization. Commerce part over here. And then I go over here and I'm narrating this audio book or I'm being Inspector Gadget or I'm doing that sort of thing. It's complicated. It's very, very complicated. I think that the SAG After Strike brought to the surface exactly how complicated our industry is, and it's not just a matter of pretty face movie money or pretty voice radio spot money.  10:56 There's just a lot more to it, and our IP is what we are.  11:01 - Anne (Host) Exactly, that is who we are.  11:02 - Tom (Co-host) I mean, that is who we are and what we are.  11:04 - Anne (Host) Yeah, our product is our voice and who we are, and that really is different from a product. Here's my physical product and so protecting our personal product, I think, becomes paramount. In doing that Now, when the strike was happening, there was, I would say, a definite impact to the market, to the voice over market in certain genres, specifically broadcast, and I think there was a lot of people who originally purchased likeness, voice music that were really like, ooh, we're going to step back to see what happens, to see how this plays out. So, tom, what are your recommendations for, let's say, anybody in the creative industry when these things happen? Because I'm not going to say that every strike is different, but there are things that happen in industries that we really don't have a lot of control over, for example, the synthetic voice. Right, we don't have control over technology that's coming.  12:00 So, what do you suggest to voice actors and creatives when something impacts the industry, like this how to survive and how to maintain? What sort of tips or tricks do you have to encourage their business to continue growing? Or smart strategies to maybe pick alternate paths?  12:19 - Tom (Co-host) Well, in addition to my suggestion that I said earlier about reading the trades and understanding what's going on and I was witnessing this directly throughout the strike on social media there was a lot of hysteria, there was a lot of fear, there was a lot of judgment on various sizes, and you could see who didn't really understand what was going on, both union and non-union voice actors.  12:41 Why it was happening and then they were just putting everybody in a bucket and labeling that bucket, so it definitely had a cultural and psychics not the right word but a psychological impact. So one of my biggest tips is yes, the AI and other things and what the AMPTP were doing and their offers was posing, in various ways, existential threats to our industry. However, you need to keep your eyes open, you need to remain objective, you need to collect facts and you need to make thoughtful, informed decisions about what to do to move your business forward.  13:20 - Anne (Host) Yes, amen, amen. That was just wonderful advice. Yes, absolutely Education. Education is so, so important. I say it Gosh. I feel like I say it almost every podcast Like what do we do? How do we handle things? Educate yourself, educate yourself.  13:35 - Tom (Co-host) And be objective whilst educating yourself. Don't prejudge the information that you're getting. Don't bias yourself while you're doing your research by listening to the loudest jerk in the Facebook group you know, or listening to your own FOMO imposter syndrome whatever's going on in your head that could get in your way.  13:54 - Anne (Host) It's always sensible to have a plan B. We've spoken about this briefly before, but, like having multiple income paths, and passive income paths too. I think I'm a big fan of passive income.  14:06 I love having passive income and something that can help sustain you while maybe things are slow in your business and the market is reacting Again. We are slaves to the market in reality. If people don't value our product, they are not going to purchase our products. So therefore, we need to keep our eyes on the market and find out how we can provide a valuable product.  14:28 - Tom (Co-host) Yeah, developing voiceover adjacent skills, I think, is a really good way to do it. A lot of people develop their audio engineering skills because to be an effective voice actor, especially in the 21st century, you need to be competent when it comes to recording, editing and delivering audio files. Then there's other things that people do virtual assistants, proofreaders, translators if you're a bilingual voice talent virtual assistants, social media managers.  14:56 So I mean what I just named five or six or seven things. So like, if you're early in your voiceover journey and you want to do this for the long run but you still need to sustain yourself and you maybe don't want to or can't, for whatever reason, have that full-time job, developing skills that will ultimately help you and complement and enhance your voiceover career and make money at at the same time can be a really great way to go.  15:18 - Anne (Host) And I always recommend that. I think we all bring our real world experience to the voiceover career. Like, I mean, I had a previous experience in teaching and in engineering and so those things and working in the healthcare industry, so those things I could bring to my voiceover career. But I could also consult, I could also continue to do those things, and I don't think there's anything shameful in pursuing multiple paths for generating income, especially when this is such an entrepreneurial endeavor. I mean, it is one of the things that most people, if they come from the corporate world, they're just used to I'm going to work and I'm going to get paid. Well, this is a completely different flip the switch kind of thing where, oh gosh, where's my next job coming from? That's where, I think, a lot of people who are not necessarily prepared or have never experienced being an entrepreneur before or being a business owner before this is new to them.  16:14 So you need to really prepare yourself as much as you possibly can for fluctuations in the market.  16:20 - Tom (Co-host) One thing I teach my students is that your last gig isn't necessarily your lowest paying gig and your next gig isn't necessarily your highest paying gig, because people think it's this like vertical, incrementally thing that next big gig will be bigger, bigger, more money, bigger, bigger, more money, and that is not remotely true.  16:39 - Anne (Host) And I will ultimately make six figures. You know that I feel like they have climbed. I've made six figures. Now I'm going to make six figures for the rest of my career. That doesn't always happen. That does not always happen Again. Fluctuations in the market. There's a lot of factors in play. What are you investing in? What money is going out versus what money is coming in?  16:56 - Tom (Co-host) Also, is your voice trending, yeah?  16:58 - Anne (Host) Yeah, absolutely.  16:59 - Tom (Co-host) Oh gosh, yeah, I would like to think you're getting better and better at your craft, but if your voice becomes less and less demand I mean all the guys that sound like this when, 25 years ago, when I decided I wanted to be a voice actor and I was like hi, I want to be a voice actor. You know what I mean and you know all these basic bearded guys with Hawaiian shirts and you know what I mean.  17:19 And now I mean is there still a demand for that kind of voice actor? Yes, exponentially less of a demand for that type of voice actor. But if you didn't develop your abilities as a storyteller? And develop your genre awareness and the ability to do different things than just this one announcer read, then your income will go down.  17:38 - Anne (Host) I talked about this with Law in a previous episode about casting. When it comes down to demographics, right the company's product that they want to reach a particular demographic. So it may not be that you didn't perform or you didn't nail that audition. It just might be that you're in the wrong demographic for the effective sale. I mean, if they're targeting a younger audience and you have a more mature voice, that may not make sense and vice versa. So again, it really it has to do with understanding the market and understanding where your product fits in that market. I cannot stress that enough. I mean that just to me is like you must think of that.  18:17 - Tom (Co-host) And your product will change.  18:18 - Anne (Host) Yes, exactly. And so if you have, let's say, a mature voice right, understand where you can fit in the industry so that you can get in front of people who are going to purchase that sound, that more mature voice, versus, let's say, I have a really young, millennial voice, or I have maybe a voice that is very trending with, let's say, non-binary and other types of genres that people are looking to fill in those voids. So, and don't be put off or set back or feel like, oh my goodness, I don't know if I'm going to be successful in this industry. You just have to find your niche.  18:55 - Tom (Co-host) Yes, let the industry tell you. Listen to the industry. People come in oh, I want to do this, I want to sound like that. Sometimes that works, but usually it's watch your auditions. If you're on pay to plays, who's liking your auditions? Why are they liking your auditions? What are the keywords in those casting notices that you keep seeing over and over again? I did that exercise not too long ago and, for example, I found that my number one online casting site buzzword for me was upbeat.  19:21 I'm like oh because I kept getting booking and getting liking those it's like, oh okay, well then that's something I can put over here. But then I've also found out recently Ryan Reynolds is a keyword.  19:30 - Anne (Host) Oh yeah, I totally can hear that.  19:32 - Tom (Co-host) Yeah, that I've been getting. I literally just booked a commercial just last week because they wanted a Ryan Reynolds sound?  19:39 - Anne (Host) Absolutely, yeah, it's always good to know who your doppelganger is and who your sound of like is, and putting that as part of your marketing campaign can really help. Absolutely, seo keyword. Any other tips on what you can do when, let's say, the market is not necessarily looking for your particular product outside? Of education what else?  20:00 - Tom (Co-host) I was gonna say the easy one is get coaching. Talk to you, fabulous voiceover coach, but also talk to casting directors, talk to a Mary Lynn Wissner or someone else and say, okay, my sound seems to be out. Can you help me find a voice within my range and demographics that I can do and invest in some education, some training to kind of adapt, because your money voice isn't always gonna be your money voice? I know mine's definitely changed over the past few years. My Tom Plus has now gotten into more of this Ryan Reynolds, more sassy conversational kind of thing, and once I stopped fighting against that I started booking a lot more. Especially, I've been booking more commercial work.  20:42 Yes because I'm bringing a lot more just plain old Tom to it.  20:45 - Anne (Host) Well, isn't that funny Because?  20:47 as we progress and as my career advanced as well, becoming more of myself and understanding who I am and understanding my product and how I can bring more of who I am to the read always has gotten me more work. I mean it just progressively has gotten more work. So and again I say this on a lot of podcasts but it is so important more than ever now to be that actor, to bring your own unique point of view to the read, because that's what's gonna get you noticed and that's what's gonna get you hired.  21:16 - Tom (Co-host) As a demo producer, how many times have you worked with a student and you're talking before the demo record and they're just da-da-da, da-da-da-da, and you're like, okay, take one, and they go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah like how many times does that happen?  21:28 - Anne (Host) Oh, yeah, a lot of times, a lot of times, and it doesn't take much to put you out of the moment, in the acting moment, and go into a read. It really doesn't, and sometimes it just takes a note or a loss of focus for like one second and it brings you right out of the read. So if you are not consistently in that scene, acting, reacting, doing that, you can just lose the read, which is why in long format, like narration stuff that I specialize in, a lot of corporate and e-learning to just lose your focus for even just a second can take you right out of that, and that's noticeable to the ear, it's noticeable to casting directors, but it's also noticeable to the people that are listening and the intended audience, which is something that you just don't want. So if the market is slow or you're wondering, what can I do?  22:14 Yeah, education and coaching. I think, and again, I say that as an educator, I say that as a coach, but not just because I'm a coach. I mean, really, what else is there when you want to refine and upgrade and everybody's always trying to improve their products, right? Any company is trying to create a better product and that is not just a one step one and done process. I mean, that is something that if you're a company that wants to remain competitive and have competitive products, then you will continually evolve and improve that product.  22:44 - Tom (Co-host) Yes, marketing is also the thing to do when things are slow, always, always, always. The more you can demonstrate your humanity when it's slow, just to let people know that you're still here, you're still working in the voiceover realms and, even though you may not have a big gig to talk about, always be demonstrating your value and your progress.  23:05 - Anne (Host) I attended this conference.  23:07 - Tom (Co-host) I just got out of a session with this coach. I had such a wonderful time. I learned so much. Those are the things that are part of your longterm investment in your social media strategy, your online presence, your search engine optimization, and for people to know that, no matter what's going on, you are consistently there, you are consistently positive, you are consistently learning and you are consistently growing, and that helps keep you top of mind.  23:29 - Anne (Host) Absolutely top of mind is important. Well, what a great discussion, Tom. I feel like we could talk about this all day.  23:35 - Tom (Co-host) We could.  23:35 - Anne (Host) But I want to keep this top of mind because I think it's important. Bosses, here is your chance to use your voice, not only to get hired, but to make an immediate difference in our world and give back to the communities that give to you. You can visit 100voiceshoocareorg to commit and big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. I love IPDTL. Ipdtl gives me connections with wonderful bosses like Tom Deere here and many, many other clients. You can find out more at ipdtocom. Bosses, have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Bye.  24:10 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, ann Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom 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.   

Ready to confront the cold, hard truth about the financial investments necessary to forge a successful career in the voiceover industry? Tune into today's episode, where we pull back the curtain on the often glossed-over monetary aspects and break down the costs associated with making your voiceover dreams a reality. We tackle the burning question of how much it truly costs to get started in this competitive field, and underscore the commitment required to make it a sustainable career. Get ready for an honest exploration of the give and take required to make it in voiceover, including the virtue of frugality, the benefits of community involvement, and the necessity of budgeting for risks and technological advancements. Let's get real about the dolLaurs and sense of voiceover. 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier 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.  00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Boss Superpower 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier 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 Gangusa.  00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Boss Superpower series. I'm here with my amazing boss co-host, la La Peters. Hey La, hey Annie, welcome back, I'm excited. Yay, oh La, let's talk this week about money, money, money, money, money money. How much does voiceover cost? Oh, you mean, I get that question. How much is it going to cost me? How much do I have to invest? How much does it cost? I think we should have a discussion on the financial side of things, because that's something that most people don't want to think about it. They don't want to talk about it A lot of times. They don't want to spend it or invest it. Yes, yes, yes.  01:09 - Lau (Co-host) I like to liken it to any other profession out there, and preferably the most expensive professions to get into. For instance, if I want to be a financial advisor and I'm going to go through college and then graduate school, and then I'm going to invest my money, my tuition, in my education, and then I'm going to invest my money to purchase my tools, then I'm going to invest money to get my either brick and mortar or online presence. Guess what? I've spent a lot of money for that type of profession, and not just a few hundred bucks.  01:44 - Anne (Host) No.  01:45 - Lau (Co-host) Not just a few thousand either.  01:47 - Intro (Announcement) Exactly, exactly.  01:49 - Lau (Co-host) I always set it up that way and just to give perspective to people that this is really a profession, it's a viable career. But also the truth is and I can say this because I live this myself it's a drop in the bucket compared to becoming a doctor or becoming a banker or becoming even SCPA a drop in the bucket.  02:12 So just to kind of keep that in mind up front. It's not an overnight success career. It's not a I don't have to spend any money but I can make a ton of money out of it. It's not that kind of career at all, and it's good we kind of put it out there, annie, and be honest about it, right?  02:30 - Anne (Host) Okay, so what are the popular topics to talk about in voiceover? Well, how can I be a character actor? How can I get my demo and start making money? But, in reality, all the other aspects of being a voice actor and having a business are going to require financial investment one way or the other, and we really shouldn't expect that it's going to be cheap. I don't have a lot of money, but I want to be a voice actor, so can you help me? Well, I think that we really just need to sit back and have a dose of reality where, as you mentioned before, voice acting is a career, and for many other careers, we invest our money. We've invested our money in education, we invest our money in inventory, in storefronts, in product, whatever that is. We invest our money, and the same is true for voiceover. And so if you are coming into voiceover without any money to spend, I think you need to rethink that decision.  03:31 - Lau (Co-host) Yeah, I would say that money should go along, in your mind, with the other types of investment that you're going to be giving to this Family time. What is the time investment? What are the sacrifices that you will be making in order to launch your career and keep it viable and keep it sustainable? I mean, what are you investing into this? How about just energy? How about talking about energy investment? It all goes along with your money. So don't think, oh, if I throw 50,000 at this, I'm going to be rich and famous. No, it's not just about money. It's about my level of commitment and what commitment actually means. Money symbolizes my commitment and it also is a monetary dispensation for someone to give me a service.  04:20 - Anne (Host) I love that you said, oh, if I throw $50,000 into this, because I'll tell you what not one person that has approached me in the last year or so, ever probably that it could cost up to that. But I'll tell you what, over the years, law I mean in reality. I mean there are thousands of dollars that are invested in my career, in my equipment, in my studio, in coaching, just in running the business. I mean absolutely, and I love that you just said that off the top because I think it will hit our bosses like a little bit of reality.  04:49 I mean, if any of you bosses that are out there have been listening to the VEOBOSS podcast, we've been going for seven years and so if you think about what have you really spent in seven years and you looked at your accounting, you looked at your books, I'd like to know what that number is, because 50,000 is actually small compared to what I've invested for equipment and websites and subscriptions and coaching and demos and conferences and all of these things that I have invested my money into.  05:17 That is really nothing. And so I really want you to kind of take a hard look at your numbers and I know a lot of people don't like to do that because it's scary. It brings, I think, a reality to people's lives. That voiceover isn't just this oh, I can do it from home and it's so simple and I don't have to invest anything. And I love how you also mentioned it really is a time commitment as well. It's a commitment to really make this a serious commitment and a serious career, because if you're not serious about it, well then I don't know how much money will you be making. You know?  05:55 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, and I know for a fact you and I come from the same background, the same training methodology and work ethic and generation that you come into it. Not every happening or event is a monetary compensation, this idea that, oh, if I spend time doing this or that, I'm gonna get paid for it. It's just not always true. There is a building block time and even when you've built your studio or you've built your company over five years or seven years, you're still wanting to get to the next level. Well, how do you get to the next level? Well, you are doing sacrifice all the time. Look at you and I, like you're doing this incredible podcast for seven years. I've been in it with you for a year and a half. Right, and one could say, well, we're not sitting here having dollars flying at our head on a Saturday afternoon for taking two, three hours of our time unpaid relatively unpaid to do this.  06:52 - Anne (Host) then you have to pay an engineer and an editor, whatever, so what's?  06:57 - Lau (Co-host) the return then? Well, the return becomes the belief system that what we're offering is educational value to our people we love and adore and care about our client base, our audience, new people coming in and that of course, to some degree you're going to close a number of new clients that come in that hear your project, but guess what? You may not.  07:20 - Intro (Announcement) And if you may not, if you may not.  07:22 - Lau (Co-host) That's the risk reward that you take in saying I'm going to take every Saturday to record, I'm going to pay that editor, no matter what, I'm going to hire that engineer, no matter what. It's that sense of jumping off the cliff and saying my career is worth doing, that I may not always see a dollar per dollar of time spent and energy spent, so it's not a tit for tat that way. I think too many people are looking at it in that way, like, well, what am I going to get paid for? Every single moment I work and think about this, I said, well, nothing. You're going to get paid in education, in value, in relationship, whatever. You're not going to always get the dollar bills. Baby, right, just remember that payment is not always about Money. It's about different value of forces in your life that come together that sustain a whole career. We don't want jobs, we want a career. Yeah.  08:20 - Anne (Host) And I think a lot of assumptions come from the fact if this is the first time you are getting into voice, acting and creating a business, it is all about creating a business, which is different than working for people, where you do tasks and then you get paid for that. When you are setting up and creating a business, there are investments that you need to make, and this is a completely different mindset than oh, okay, I did work and I expect money for it. Now you're going to have to put work in. You're going to also invest money. You're going to have to invest money into it. So most people they have a job. They're not investing money in that job, they're just receiving money. But here you have to understand that this is now something that will require an investment of your money and of your time and of your commitment really to make it work, and it's not just a one-time thing. I don't want people to think that as well.  09:11 It's not like oh, I can sink in $10,000 and then I'll have my career. No, that is something that you need to maintain. You need to continually invest and reinvest in that business to have growth, to have any kind of growth, and I think if you sat there with your business and never invested another cent in it, you're probably not going to have a business for very long. Right? I like to think of it as gambling.  09:35 - Lau (Co-host) It is a gamble. It's a gamble we can do the research, we can do our homework, we can make ourselves knowledgeable and we can hone our skills and talent, but it's still a gamble because you're dealing with a lot of variables that are not in your control. So I like to say, all right, if you have a pocket and let's say you're going to stash in, you know you're going to Vegas or something you're going to stash in $1,000 in that pocket on the left-hand side, that $1,000, I'm willing to spend and lose, because I know I'm going to Vegas and I know I'm gambling it and I know that there's a good chance the house will win and I'll lose it. Then in my other pocket I've got like $5,000, I'm not spending that, I'm saving that. I have that as a safety net, I have that as my backup, okay, for my life.  10:22 Let's say that and I'm not going to spend it unless I absolutely am up against a wall and would have to. So, from a gambling perspective, your business is one big gamble. Sure is, you know, sure is, and I'm only using $1,000 as just a number. It could be $100,000, but I'm not using $1,000 as a number. I know I'm spending that, will I get it back into my right pocket? Sure, that's the question, right? That's the gamble, right.  10:49 - Anne (Host) That's the gamble. That's the gamble, that's the gamble.  10:52 And that's where I think the investment in commitment right, commitment to making that business a success right Really comes into play as well, because it's not just a one-shot deal Let me just do this because I can do this from home. No, you're going to make an investment and, of course, we hope that, as bosses, you enjoy that investment or you're enjoying that creation of a business and also enjoying the performance aspect of your voice, acting career. So it's not just performance, it is business, probably more so almost, than performance. However, performance affects your product, right. So it then becomes a business because people are buying your product. Well then, you need to invest in your product. Your product would be your voice, that would be your coaching, that'll be your demos, that'll be your marketing, that'll be your website, anything that's going to get your product out in front of prospective clients. And again, that becomes investment and money that needs to be spent by you.  11:48 I'm not quite sure where it's coming from If it doesn't come. Oh, maybe it could come from other people. If you're lucky enough to have somebody invest in your business, that is wonderful, but it's still going to take some cold, hard cash and a lot of you that are just getting into this need to take a look at your investments and need to start tracking your finances. And again, I've always said that the best thing that I've always ever done for my business was to hire an accountant to help me do that on a day to day basis. So every bit of money that goes out is accounted for and all the money that comes in is accounted for, so I can do a P&L statement and then find out how is my business doing. Do I need to cut back spending on certain things? Do I need to? Maybe I don't need that new mic, even though I might want it.  12:34 You don't need that other color pair of headphones, although that's an investment.  12:38 - Lau (Co-host) I did you one better, annie, I actually married one.  12:44 - Anne (Host) There you go, but you got to have a great accountant.  12:46 - Lau (Co-host) An in-house accountant on your side. You have to have it, it's so important to say have a great attorney, have a great doctor have a great accountant.  12:55 It's really important, I would say. Wouldn't you say it's fair to to say that every year of your business, for however long you own your business, you are going to have fixed costs always and you are going to have variable costs always. And to just kind of understand the difference between the two, so that I hear a lot of talent get very upset about the fact that their fixed costs are not doable for them. And I said, well, I can't even talk about the variable cost to you yet, because you haven't understood and been honest about your mortgage or your rent or your food or your car, whatever that fixed every month cost is for you. That's unavoidable. You must deal with that.  13:40 Then you can deal with the microphones and the demos and all of that stuff and you're going to have a very peaceful state of mind to know the most important things are taken care of. Like you and I have a team, so we hire people all the time, so we have to be able to pay those people right, absolutely. So if we can't pay those people, then we can't talk about the upgrade of the microphone or taking a trip around the world or whatever, because we've got a certain fixed cost that we are responsible for and that's really the ownership of a business is really understanding what your financial, fiscal, health and responsibilities are of your business on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis really are?  14:24 - Anne (Host) Absolutely, absolutely. It really comes down to knowing those numbers and then understanding are you able to handle those numbers? And if you cannot handle those numbers with the voice of a career, yet there's nothing wrong. We did a whole episode on side hustles. There is nothing wrong with a side hustle, or even a full-time job, until you can get yourself to the point where you are able to support those fixed costs on a voiceover income and that is getting increasingly difficult to do in these times, I'm going to say but not impossible, not impossible. Number one I'm encouraged by the strike being over and encouraged that I feel that there's now life being breathed back into the career and the recognition that we're getting to be compensated fairly for what we do, and so I'm very encouraged by that.  15:13 And I think that for a while there there was some people that were scared in the business that we didn't have the influx of newbies that we typically do for a few months because of it, and I think what's nice about it is that the cream rises to the top right, because it's so important now, more than ever that our product right is something viable and something amazing that people will pay us for, and so you must, for your business, make that investment.  15:40 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, you do. You know, one thing that comes to mind I had conversation with a couple of colleagues of mine recently kind of an argument, a friendly argument, about this and it kind of is all in this mix, annie, of what we're talking about, and that is because there is so much for free now. Everything is so much accessible on the internet for free right now. Sometimes talent can fall into the spiraling rabbit hole, slippery slope of I'm going to spend my whole day going to free webinars, free zooms, free this, free funnels, free that, free this, free that, and not get to my work, not get to actually my business.  16:17 And so I think that when it comes to how you're spending your money, how you're investing your money, again that goes directly with your time. Your time is valuable, time is money, time is money. So be very careful not to over satiate yourself with oh, I'll just sit and be a professional student and get knowledge all day long and do the, but not really get to the hard, dirty part of running the business. Right, I see that is a problem for a lot of people. They spend every day in accountability groups. They spend every day in webinars.  16:51 They spend every day because it's so easy, it's so accessible and it's kind of fun too. You know you're learning and it's fun, but then their day is blown. Their day is blown and they never really get to the actual and they don't get to that marketing.  17:05 - Anne (Host) I'm going to say that's the biggest thing. People like they don't get to the direct marketing.  17:09 They don't get to their marketing, and marketing encompasses so much. Marketing is so darn important. In law it's everything, and I wish that it really is everything. I wish that everybody could really just appreciate that from the get-go. I mean, I would say that probably the majority of people that come into this industry and study for a little bit, get their demo and then don't succeed are because they have not been effective marketers, and that is really Like nobody can hire you if they don't know about you.  17:40 And so that marketing part which nobody likes. It's always the classes that nobody will take at a conference. They're like the last ones that are filled, because they're just not fun, right? I'd much rather take an animation class or one of those classes rather than figure out how can I run my business better. And it really is so, so important that you understand the marketing of your business, because you've got to be able to sell, you do. In order to be able to recoup and get a return on investment right you need to sell.  18:16 - Lau (Co-host) And let's be honest, especially as we get older. I can only speak for myself, but I know my colleagues feel the same way. I love sitting in on classes.  18:25 When I go to a conference and I'm a speaker all that other time I'm not speaking. I'm sitting in on classes and workshops and meeting and learning and growing and da-da-da, but it becomes addictive. You have to be careful. We are not a professional student. We are a professional voiceover, talent or voice over business owner, producer what have you? We can be studious, we can be educated and we can be in professional development, but we're not a professional full-time student.  18:54 - Anne (Host) Exactly. But again, I also don't want you guys out there to think that it's not important to be a student either.  19:00 No, we're always a student or a continual, always learning student just not one that spends their entire day sitting in on free webinars or I would say, investment in your demos, investment in your coaching because, again, something that's going to enhance your product okay is something that is always worthwhile. It's just that when you kind of are like, oh no, I'll just sit in on this and you're not really you're doing it more for the social aspect rather than the enhancement of your product, I would say, be careful of that.  19:32 - Lau (Co-host) And that gossipy water cooler let me be in the in-clicky group is listen, you're too old for that. I don't care if you're 25 or 55, you got to get past that. You want to have friends and colleagues? Of course you do, but it's really got to be. You are a solopreneur. Until you build your team, you're a solopreneur. The buck stops there. You know what I'm saying. You said it earlier. You said about tracking have a tracking system where everything you do, every webinar you take, every group you join, every membership what is the return on that?  20:04 - Anne (Host) at the end of a month or six months, what is?  20:07 - Lau (Co-host) the return. Are you getting return? I don't necessarily just mean a financial return. Are you getting an actual return of relationships that have been built, of connections that have been built, of producers that now know you, or is it just for fun, is it just for social value? Is it for oh, I'm learning some new tips and tricks, which I love, but is it applicable to what I'm doing? Is the question that's.  20:32 - Anne (Host) The fine line again. You and I both run online groups and we know the value and the power of having a group. There's a power in socializing with people with like minds, because we are solopreneurs and we need that. But also it's kind of like if you were in an office and you were socializing in your office the whole day, your boss probably wouldn't be very happy with you.  20:52 - Lau (Co-host) That's a great analogy.  20:55 - Anne (Host) There's no productive work being done, so just keep that in mind. I mean, I think every group has value. Accountability has value, watercooler has value. My VOPEAPs, my VIPs in your group as well the Inner Circle they all have their value, but just not necessarily 24-7, where you're now neglecting the fact that you probably need to market your business and get some jobs that will help you to get a return on your investment.  21:21 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, and understand your budget at the beginning of your quarter. Set up your budget, however, is comfortable for you, whether it's quarterly, annually, whatever it is. Set it up and have some advisory on that, based on what your fixed costs are, so that you don't feel like you're scrounging for under-the-seat cushions for the coins by the end of the month. You want to come from a place of abundance and wealth and fullness.  21:46 You don't want to come from a place of I'm scratching out of desperation and I'm on my last dollar. It's very hard to have a healthy, successful business coming from a mindset like that.  21:58 - Anne (Host) Oh gosh, yes, and I will say that my business didn't really fully take off I've said this before until I really started to feel comfortable having that little nest egg, that kind of savings account.  22:09 So when I was able to, I mean, I put away money every single month, right, and so it's just a consistent thing, so that I have a business savings account, and when that business savings account has a certain amount of money in it, I feel confident that I can take risks, that I can invest in coaching, I can spend money on things that will help me to get my business known better, and also I can take some chances and try new technologies.  22:33 I want to emphasize that it's important for bosses to evolve with the times and evolve with the technologies to help run their businesses faster and more efficient, because if you're just doing things still in an Excel spreadsheet or it really depends on what makes you the most efficient. But there's lots of wonderful technologies out there that can help you to run your business and market your business more effectively. And take some time, maybe learn those, maybe not. Let's not sit in the water cooler right now, but let's learn how to utilize new technologies that will help me automate my billing right, or how do I learn QuickBooks, or how do I learn a new CRM, that kind of a thing. So think of those things that will also help you to be more efficient in running your business as well as saving money, so that you're not having to spend maybe hiring somebody to do that. Maybe you can hire and, if you are hiring out, make those people more efficient.  23:28 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, and don't be cheap. Be frugal and economical, but don't be cheap. You know, when you have your circle considering you and thinking about you, and thinking about you as a person and also you as a brand, you want them to feel this richness that there's a giving to what you do, there isn't a holding back or a holding on to or being a miser. You have to be very careful of that, because if we always say this, annie, you and I say this the more you give, the more potential you have of getting back in return. Yeah, absolutely. So just give wisely, give wisely, invest wisely. There you go.  24:03 - Anne (Host) Wow, love it. All right, guys. Well, bosses, money. Take a cold hard, look at it and don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid to invest and strategize. I think the more that you can educate yourself, the easier it is to make those investments and the smarter and more efficient your business will be. So, love that, bosses. Take a moment and imagine a world full of passionate. Because we are passionate, right, empowered, diverse individuals giving collectively, as Law was just talking about, and intentionally to create the world that they want to see. You can make a difference. Visit 100voiceswhocareorg to learn more. Big shout out to IPDTL, our sponsor. We love IPDTL. You can learn more at IPDTLcom. Bosses, have an amazing week. We love you. We'll see you next week. Bye, bye, have a good break.  24:58 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, ann Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom 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.  25:26 - Lau (Co-host) How about this? You really, you really moved, that was interesting. I just need time to process that.  a series. I'm here with my amazing boss co-host, Lau Laupides. Hey Lau, hey Annie, welcome back, I'm excited. Yay, oh Lau, let's talk this week about money, money, money, money, money money. How much does voiceover cost? Oh, you mean, I get that question. How much is it going to cost me? How much do I have to invest? How much does it cost? I think we should have a discussion on the financial side of things, because that's something that most people don't want to think about it. They don't want to talk about it A lot of times. They don't want to spend it or invest it. Yes, yes, yes.  01:09 - Lau (Co-host) I like to liken it to any other profession out there, and preferably the most expensive professions to get into. For instance, if I want to be a financial advisor and I'm going to go through college and then graduate school, and then I'm going to invest my money, my tuition, in my education, and then I'm going to invest my money to purchase my tools, then I'm going to invest money to get my either brick and mortar or online presence. Guess what? I've spent a lot of money for that type of profession, and not just a few hundred bucks.  01:44 - Anne (Host) No.  01:45 - Lau (Co-host) Not just a few thousand either.  01:47 - Intro (Announcement) Exactly, exactly.  01:49 - Lau (Co-host) I always set it up that way and just to give perspective to people that this is really a profession, it's a viable career. But also the truth is and I can say this because I live this myself it's a drop in the bucket compared to becoming a doctor or becoming a banker or becoming even SCPA a drop in the bucket.  02:12 So just to kind of keep that in mind up front. It's not an overnight success career. It's not a I don't have to spend any money but I can make a ton of money out of it. It's not that kind of career at all, and it's good we kind of put it out there, annie, and be honest about it, right?  02:30 - Anne (Host) Okay, so what are the popuLaur topics to talk about in voiceover? Well, how can I be a character actor? How can I get my demo and start making money? But, in reality, all the other aspects of being a voice actor and having a business are going to require financial investment one way or the other, and we really shouldn't expect that it's going to be cheap. I don't have a lot of money, but I want to be a voice actor, so can you help me? Well, I think that we really just need to sit back and have a dose of reality where, as you mentioned before, voice acting is a career, and for many other careers, we invest our money. We've invested our money in education, we invest our money in inventory, in storefronts, in product, whatever that is. We invest our money, and the same is true for voiceover. And so if you are coming into voiceover without any money to spend, I think you need to rethink that decision.  03:31 - Lau (Co-host) Yeah, I would say that money should go along, in your mind, with the other types of investment that you're going to be giving to this Family time. What is the time investment? What are the sacrifices that you will be making in order to Launch your career and keep it viable and keep it sustainable? I mean, what are you investing into this? How about just energy? How about talking about energy investment? It all goes along with your money. So don't think, oh, if I throw 50,000 at this, I'm going to be rich and famous. No, it's not just about money. It's about my level of commitment and what commitment actually means. Money symbolizes my commitment and it also is a monetary dispensation for someone to give me a service.  04:20 - Anne (Host) I love that you said, oh, if I throw $50,000 into this, because I'll tell you what not one person that has approached me in the Laust year or so, ever probably that it could cost up to that. But I'll tell you what, over the years, Lauw I mean in reality. I mean there are thousands of dolLaurs that are invested in my career, in my equipment, in my studio, in coaching, just in running the business. I mean absolutely, and I love that you just said that off the top because I think it will hit our bosses like a little bit of reality.  04:49 I mean, if any of you bosses that are out there have been listening to the VEOBOSS podcast, we've been going for seven years and so if you think about what have you really spent in seven years and you looked at your accounting, you looked at your books, I'd like to know what that number is, because 50,000 is actually small compared to what I've invested for equipment and websites and subscriptions and coaching and demos and conferences and all of these things that I have invested my money into.  05:17 That is really nothing. And so I really want you to kind of take a hard look at your numbers and I know a lot of people don't like to do that because it's scary. It brings, I think, a reality to people's lives. That voiceover isn't just this oh, I can do it from home and it's so simple and I don't have to invest anything. And I love how you also mentioned it really is a time commitment as well. It's a commitment to really make this a serious commitment and a serious career, because if you're not serious about it, well then I don't know how much money will you be making. You know?  05:55 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, and I know for a fact you and I come from the same background, the same training methodology and work ethic and generation that you come into it. Not every happening or event is a monetary compensation, this idea that, oh, if I spend time doing this or that, I'm gonna get paid for it. It's just not always true. There is a building block time and even when you've built your studio or you've built your company over five years or seven years, you're still wanting to get to the next level. Well, how do you get to the next level? Well, you are doing sacrifice all the time. Look at you and I, like you're doing this incredible podcast for seven years. I've been in it with you for a year and a half. Right, and one could say, well, we're not sitting here having dolLaurs flying at our head on a Saturday afternoon for taking two, three hours of our time unpaid reLautively unpaid to do this.  06:52 - Anne (Host) then you have to pay an engineer and an editor, whatever, so what's?  06:57 - Lau (Co-host) the return then? Well, the return becomes the belief system that what we're offering is educational value to our people we love and adore and care about our client base, our audience, new people coming in and that of course, to some degree you're going to close a number of new clients that come in that hear your project, but guess what? You may not.  07:20 - Intro (Announcement) And if you may not, if you may not.  07:22 - Lau (Co-host) That's the risk reward that you take in saying I'm going to take every Saturday to record, I'm going to pay that editor, no matter what, I'm going to hire that engineer, no matter what. It's that sense of jumping off the cliff and saying my career is worth doing, that I may not always see a dolLaur per dolLaur of time spent and energy spent, so it's not a tit for tat that way. I think too many people are looking at it in that way, like, well, what am I going to get paid for? Every single moment I work and think about this, I said, well, nothing. You're going to get paid in education, in value, in reLautionship, whatever. You're not going to always get the dolLaur bills. Baby, right, just remember that payment is not always about Money. It's about different value of forces in your life that come together that sustain a whole career. We don't want jobs, we want a career. Yeah.  08:20 - Anne (Host) And I think a lot of assumptions come from the fact if this is the first time you are getting into voice, acting and creating a business, it is all about creating a business, which is different than working for people, where you do tasks and then you get paid for that. When you are setting up and creating a business, there are investments that you need to make, and this is a completely different mindset than oh, okay, I did work and I expect money for it. Now you're going to have to put work in. You're going to also invest money. You're going to have to invest money into it. So most people they have a job. They're not investing money in that job, they're just receiving money. But here you have to understand that this is now something that will require an investment of your money and of your time and of your commitment really to make it work, and it's not just a one-time thing. I don't want people to think that as well.  09:11 It's not like oh, I can sink in $10,000 and then I'll have my career. No, that is something that you need to maintain. You need to continually invest and reinvest in that business to have growth, to have any kind of growth, and I think if you sat there with your business and never invested another cent in it, you're probably not going to have a business for very long. Right? I like to think of it as gambling.  09:35 - Lau (Co-host) It is a gamble. It's a gamble we can do the research, we can do our homework, we can make ourselves knowledgeable and we can hone our skills and talent, but it's still a gamble because you're dealing with a lot of variables that are not in your control. So I like to say, all right, if you have a pocket and let's say you're going to stash in, you know you're going to Vegas or something you're going to stash in $1,000 in that pocket on the left-hand side, that $1,000, I'm willing to spend and lose, because I know I'm going to Vegas and I know I'm gambling it and I know that there's a good chance the house will win and I'll lose it. Then in my other pocket I've got like $5,000, I'm not spending that, I'm saving that. I have that as a safety net, I have that as my backup, okay, for my life.  10:22 Let's say that and I'm not going to spend it unless I absolutely am up against a wall and would have to. So, from a gambling perspective, your business is one big gamble. Sure is, you know, sure is, and I'm only using $1,000 as just a number. It could be $100,000, but I'm not using $1,000 as a number. I know I'm spending that, will I get it back into my right pocket? Sure, that's the question, right? That's the gamble, right.  10:49 - Anne (Host) That's the gamble. That's the gamble, that's the gamble.  10:52 And that's where I think the investment in commitment right, commitment to making that business a success right Really comes into pLauy as well, because it's not just a one-shot deal Let me just do this because I can do this from home. No, you're going to make an investment and, of course, we hope that, as bosses, you enjoy that investment or you're enjoying that creation of a business and also enjoying the performance aspect of your voice, acting career. So it's not just performance, it is business, probably more so almost, than performance. However, performance affects your product, right. So it then becomes a business because people are buying your product. Well then, you need to invest in your product. Your product would be your voice, that would be your coaching, that'll be your demos, that'll be your marketing, that'll be your website, anything that's going to get your product out in front of prospective clients. And again, that becomes investment and money that needs to be spent by you.  11:48 I'm not quite sure where it's coming from If it doesn't come. Oh, maybe it could come from other people. If you're lucky enough to have somebody invest in your business, that is wonderful, but it's still going to take some cold, hard cash and a lot of you that are just getting into this need to take a look at your investments and need to start tracking your finances. And again, I've always said that the best thing that I've always ever done for my business was to hire an accountant to help me do that on a day to day basis. So every bit of money that goes out is accounted for and all the money that comes in is accounted for, so I can do a P&L statement and then find out how is my business doing. Do I need to cut back spending on certain things? Do I need to? Maybe I don't need that new mic, even though I might want it.  12:34 You don't need that other color pair of headphones, although that's an investment.  12:38 - Lau (Co-host) I did you one better, annie, I actually married one.  12:44 - Anne (Host) There you go, but you got to have a great accountant.  12:46 - Lau (Co-host) An in-house accountant on your side. You have to have it, it's so important to say have a great attorney, have a great doctor have a great accountant.  12:55 It's really important, I would say. Wouldn't you say it's fair to to say that every year of your business, for however long you own your business, you are going to have fixed costs always and you are going to have variable costs always. And to just kind of understand the difference between the two, so that I hear a lot of talent get very upset about the fact that their fixed costs are not doable for them. And I said, well, I can't even talk about the variable cost to you yet, because you haven't understood and been honest about your mortgage or your rent or your food or your car, whatever that fixed every month cost is for you. That's unavoidable. You must deal with that.  13:40 Then you can deal with the microphones and the demos and all of that stuff and you're going to have a very peaceful state of mind to know the most important things are taken care of. Like you and I have a team, so we hire people all the time, so we have to be able to pay those people right, absolutely. So if we can't pay those people, then we can't talk about the upgrade of the microphone or taking a trip around the world or whatever, because we've got a certain fixed cost that we are responsible for and that's really the ownership of a business is really understanding what your financial, fiscal, health and responsibilities are of your business on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis really are?  14:24 - Anne (Host) Absolutely, absolutely. It really comes down to knowing those numbers and then understanding are you able to handle those numbers? And if you cannot handle those numbers with the voice of a career, yet there's nothing wrong. We did a whole episode on side hustles. There is nothing wrong with a side hustle, or even a full-time job, until you can get yourself to the point where you are able to support those fixed costs on a voiceover income and that is getting increasingly difficult to do in these times, I'm going to say but not impossible, not impossible. Number one I'm encouraged by the strike being over and encouraged that I feel that there's now life being breathed back into the career and the recognition that we're getting to be compensated fairly for what we do, and so I'm very encouraged by that.  15:13 And I think that for a while there there was some people that were scared in the business that we didn't have the influx of newbies that we typically do for a few months because of it, and I think what's nice about it is that the cream rises to the top right, because it's so important now, more than ever that our product right is something viable and something amazing that people will pay us for, and so you must, for your business, make that investment.  15:40 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, you do. You know, one thing that comes to mind I had conversation with a couple of colleagues of mine recently kind of an argument, a friendly argument, about this and it kind of is all in this mix, annie, of what we're talking about, and that is because there is so much for free now. Everything is so much accessible on the internet for free right now. Sometimes talent can fall into the spiraling rabbit hole, slippery slope of I'm going to spend my whole day going to free webinars, free zooms, free this, free funnels, free that, free this, free that, and not get to my work, not get to actually my business.  16:17 And so I think that when it comes to how you're spending your money, how you're investing your money, again that goes directly with your time. Your time is valuable, time is money, time is money. So be very careful not to over satiate yourself with oh, I'll just sit and be a professional student and get knowledge all day long and do the, but not really get to the hard, dirty part of running the business. Right, I see that is a problem for a lot of people. They spend every day in accountability groups. They spend every day in webinars.  16:51 They spend every day because it's so easy, it's so accessible and it's kind of fun too. You know you're learning and it's fun, but then their day is blown. Their day is blown and they never really get to the actual and they don't get to that marketing.  17:05 - Anne (Host) I'm going to say that's the biggest thing. People like they don't get to the direct marketing.  17:09 They don't get to their marketing, and marketing encompasses so much. Marketing is so darn important. In Lauw it's everything, and I wish that it really is everything. I wish that everybody could really just appreciate that from the get-go. I mean, I would say that probably the majority of people that come into this industry and study for a little bit, get their demo and then don't succeed are because they have not been effective marketers, and that is really Like nobody can hire you if they don't know about you.  17:40 And so that marketing part which nobody likes. It's always the cLausses that nobody will take at a conference. They're like the Laust ones that are filled, because they're just not fun, right? I'd much rather take an animation cLauss or one of those cLausses rather than figure out how can I run my business better. And it really is so, so important that you understand the marketing of your business, because you've got to be able to sell, you do. In order to be able to recoup and get a return on investment right you need to sell.  18:16 - Lau (Co-host) And let's be honest, especially as we get older. I can only speak for myself, but I know my colleagues feel the same way. I love sitting in on cLausses.  18:25 When I go to a conference and I'm a speaker all that other time I'm not speaking. I'm sitting in on cLausses and workshops and meeting and learning and growing and da-da-da, but it becomes addictive. You have to be careful. We are not a professional student. We are a professional voiceover, talent or voice over business owner, producer what have you? We can be studious, we can be educated and we can be in professional development, but we're not a professional full-time student.  18:54 - Anne (Host) Exactly. But again, I also don't want you guys out there to think that it's not important to be a student either.  19:00 No, we're always a student or a continual, always learning student just not one that spends their entire day sitting in on free webinars or I would say, investment in your demos, investment in your coaching because, again, something that's going to enhance your product okay is something that is always worthwhile. It's just that when you kind of are like, oh no, I'll just sit in on this and you're not really you're doing it more for the social aspect rather than the enhancement of your product, I would say, be careful of that.  19:32 - Lau (Co-host) And that gossipy water cooler let me be in the in-clicky group is listen, you're too old for that. I don't care if you're 25 or 55, you got to get past that. You want to have friends and colleagues? Of course you do, but it's really got to be. You are a solopreneur. Until you build your team, you're a solopreneur. The buck stops there. You know what I'm saying. You said it earlier. You said about tracking have a tracking system where everything you do, every webinar you take, every group you join, every membership what is the return on that?  20:04 - Anne (Host) at the end of a month or six months, what is?  20:07 - Lau (Co-host) the return. Are you getting return? I don't necessarily just mean a financial return. Are you getting an actual return of reLautionships that have been built, of connections that have been built, of producers that now know you, or is it just for fun, is it just for social value? Is it for oh, I'm learning some new tips and tricks, which I love, but is it applicable to what I'm doing? Is the question that's.  20:32 - Anne (Host) The fine line again. You and I both run online groups and we know the value and the power of having a group. There's a power in socializing with people with like minds, because we are solopreneurs and we need that. But also it's kind of like if you were in an office and you were socializing in your office the whole day, your boss probably wouldn't be very happy with you.  20:52 - Lau (Co-host) That's a great analogy.  20:55 - Anne (Host) There's no productive work being done, so just keep that in mind. I mean, I think every group has value. Accountability has value, watercooler has value. My VOPEAPs, my VIPs in your group as well the Inner Circle they all have their value, but just not necessarily 24-7, where you're now neglecting the fact that you probably need to market your business and get some jobs that will help you to get a return on your investment.  21:21 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, and understand your budget at the beginning of your quarter. Set up your budget, however, is comfortable for you, whether it's quarterly, annually, whatever it is. Set it up and have some advisory on that, based on what your fixed costs are, so that you don't feel like you're scrounging for under-the-seat cushions for the coins by the end of the month. You want to come from a pLauce of abundance and wealth and fullness.  21:46 You don't want to come from a pLauce of I'm scratching out of desperation and I'm on my Laust dolLaur. It's very hard to have a healthy, successful business coming from a mindset like that.  21:58 - Anne (Host) Oh gosh, yes, and I will say that my business didn't really fully take off I've said this before until I really started to feel comfortable having that little nest egg, that kind of savings account.  22:09 So when I was able to, I mean, I put away money every single month, right, and so it's just a consistent thing, so that I have a business savings account, and when that business savings account has a certain amount of money in it, I feel confident that I can take risks, that I can invest in coaching, I can spend money on things that will help me to get my business known better, and also I can take some chances and try new technologies.  22:33 I want to emphasize that it's important for bosses to evolve with the times and evolve with the technologies to help run their businesses faster and more efficient, because if you're just doing things still in an Excel spreadsheet or it really depends on what makes you the most efficient. But there's lots of wonderful technologies out there that can help you to run your business and market your business more effectively. And take some time, maybe learn those, maybe not. Let's not sit in the water cooler right now, but let's learn how to utilize new technologies that will help me automate my billing right, or how do I learn QuickBooks, or how do I learn a new CRM, that kind of a thing. So think of those things that will also help you to be more efficient in running your business as well as saving money, so that you're not having to spend maybe hiring somebody to do that. Maybe you can hire and, if you are hiring out, make those people more efficient.  23:28 - Lau (Co-host) Yes, and don't be cheap. Be frugal and economical, but don't be cheap. You know, when you have your circle considering you and thinking about you, and thinking about you as a person and also you as a brand, you want them to feel this richness that there's a giving to what you do, there isn't a holding back or a holding on to or being a miser. You have to be very careful of that, because if we always say this, annie, you and I say this the more you give, the more potential you have of getting back in return. Yeah, absolutely. So just give wisely, give wisely, invest wisely. There you go.  24:03 - Anne (Host) Wow, love it. All right, guys. Well, bosses, money. Take a cold hard, look at it and don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid to invest and strategize. I think the more that you can educate yourself, the easier it is to make those investments and the smarter and more efficient your business will be. So, love that, bosses. Take a moment and imagine a world full of passionate. Because we are passionate, right, empowered, diverse individuals giving collectively, as Lauw was just talking about, and intentionally to create the world that they want to see. You can make a difference. Visit 100voiceswhocareorg to learn more. Big shout out to IPDTL, our sponsor. We love IPDTL. You can learn more at IPDTLcom. Bosses, have an amazing week. We love you. We'll see you next week. Bye, bye, have a good break.  24:58 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, ann Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom 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.  25:26 - Lau (Co-host) How about this? You really, you really moved, that was interesting. I just need time to process that.   

Get set for an enlightening journey into the world of voice acting as we promise to help you crush confusion and self-doubt. Prepare to discover the significance of being in the present, letting your improvisation skills shine, and understanding how overthinking can interfere with your ability to take instructions and deliver exceptional performances for your clients. We also delve into the realm of imposter syndrome and how script comprehension can drastically boost your confidence. Listen closely as we walk you through techniques on warming up, shattering negative thought patterns, and building the courage to ask those essential questions that could transform your voice-acting career. 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a V-O boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the V-O Boss Podcast and the business superpower series. I am here with my wonderful, awesome bossy co-host, law Lapidus. Hey Lau, how are you?  00:33 - Lau (Host) Hey Annie, how are you?  00:35 - Anne (Host) I'm great, it's so good to be back chatting with you. I mean, I feel like it's been forever. It's been forever.  00:41 - Lau (Host) I know, before we start, I have to give you just a quick direction. I hope you don't mind. We're on Riverside right now Okay. I just need you to hit button one so I can hear you a little clearly which button.  00:53 - Anne (Host) I'm sorry, which button?  00:54 - Lau (Host) There's a button there and it says one. Could you just hit it One?  00:58 - Anne (Host) But wait, there's multiple buttons, there's like three buttons.  01:03 - Lau (Host) Okay, your sound confused, I know, but I'm asking for one. Okay, but why not?  01:07 - Anne (Host) So if you could find the one and hit it, that would be great. Okay, but two, isn't two supposed to be the one that starts it, are you sure?  01:13 - Lau (Host) you don't want two. What If you do two? You're going to find that it's not the right button.  01:18 - Anne (Host) So if you could hit one, that would be great, okay, so should I press it now? Anne, you sound really confused, I am.  01:27 - Lau (Host) Law. I know it sounds like you need to be a member of our new Confucius Club.  01:33 - Anne (Host) The Confucius Club. I love it. Oh Law, you know, I'll tell you what we should talk about the Confucius Club. And when, let's say, your clients or students kind of challenge your direction and ask you and are very confused and are not necessarily listening, I would say to direction from.  01:56 - Lau (Host) It's frustrating. It is, I'll tell you, it's very frustrating for the onlooker, the listener, the audience, the director, whoever you're working with is very frustrating process and I want to talk to you today about maybe some of the reasons behind why that is happening and how to troubleshoot that, and why some people seem confused all the time about everything.  02:17 - Anne (Host) Yes, let's talk about that. Let's talk about that. First of all, I want to talk about the confusion, and I'll also talk. Part of the confusion is when you've got somebody that you're directing and they'll say but that's not the way I hear it in the commercials, or I don't hear it that way online, and so therefore it turns into almost like a challenge to the director. And I think number one we are artists, we are actors and we are paid to do a job that essentially is for our client right, and the client is giving us direction, so why would we not follow direction?  02:55 - Lau (Host) Well, it brings us back to the old skill that we talk about incessantly, and that is the skill of improv, which is really the skill of living life moment to moment and being able to accept suggestion of stimuli around you that we don't always understand. Like we go into the natural world, we go into the technical world, we go into the human world. Do we always know what's happening around us?  03:21 - Anne (Host) No, of course not.  03:22 - Lau (Host) Right, but there's that element of moment to moment problem solving it, figuring it out, trying things, taking risks. So I think one of these areas that we're really hitting head on is, if you find you're that person that is confused constantly and just doesn't get it, are you stuck in your head? Analysis is paralysis zone.  03:46 - Anne (Host) That's a great point. Are you stuck in your head? Are you stuck with the sound that you hear in your head that you think it should sound like really, and not able to get that out of your ears so that you can be in the story and immersed in the story? And I will say that for a director or for a coach it's almost like but why? It's like those questions, but why? But I don't hear it that way and I think there's a whole scientific reason as to why we hear things differently.  04:17 When we're voicing something, then, let's say, the person that's directing us. Right, because we have to develop an ear. And what does that mean? To develop an ear for knowing when you're sounding the same or sounding like, you know, a commercial, or sounding not when you're immersed in a story. I think if you have the time to evaluate whether you sound a particular way, then you've spent way too much time thinking about your sound and not enough time thinking about the story that you're in or the character you're playing, or how you're going to be immersed in that, to story, tell or educate the listener.  04:50 - Lau (Host) Right and just basic biz 101 that we've covered a million times is who is this all about? Anyway, it's about your client, it's about your audience, it's about your target demographic, it's about the person you're speaking to. Thank you, the scenario that you're in is really about helping solve a problem, fill a need from an actor's point of view, but also from a business owner's point of view. If I'm stuck in my head and I'm in that confusion state, I'm literally not problem-solving for that client because I'm not actively listening, I'm not picking up cues and I'm not asking really important questions that need to be asked in order to serve them. It's really about who am I serving. Am I serving me? Am I serving my intellect, my ego, so I can understand what's going on, or am I serving you by clarifying it and giving you exactly what you?  05:45 - Anne (Host) want. And I think there comes a time too, when actors are in the moment they're being directed, live directed where they become so in their head determined to give a sound right that they can't get out of their head. How is it? Because I know my students have been like well, how do you get out of your head? How do you step outside of your head and get into the story? And I'm going to say, I'm going to ask you that question, but I'm going to preempt it with saying, from my point of view, you've got to do your research before. If you can research that script, analyze that copy, figure out who you are, who you're talking to, I think that's a good start. What sort of tips do you have? Law, when you're in the middle of a live session, how do you get out of the way? How do you get out of your head?  06:28 - Lau (Host) Yeah, it's so funny. It's reminding me about actor technique and having either an inside, locked in, psychological approach to the work or having more externalized, outside, communicative and oftentimes physicalized approach to the work. I find that both can work hand in hand. I don't think one is right or wrong, but I do think American actors it is a North American thing that we have been trained in the methodology of method for generations now to lock inside from here up and so all the stress, all the tension, all the worry, all the Confucius concern is here and really just not trusting the rest of your sphere that your brain is in your whole body, your heart is in your whole body, everything is flowing and connected. So if I'm locked in here then I'm shutting you out, but I'm also shutting out the lower hemisphere of my being.  07:25 - Anne (Host) Oh, I love that Law. That's wonderful. Your being is all a part of telling that story and being the actor and immersing yourself in that character I love that.  07:35 You're right, getting locked in your head. So are there some techniques that you have to? When you're in the middle of a session and I think you're right you're locked in your head and you get frantic. You're like, okay, this is not working, I'm not able to provide what the director is asking for. And then I think what happens is it just escalates, right, and then it just becomes worse. Until you can get yourself out of that. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Okay, that didn't work. Okay, so now what do I do? And so tips, techniques.  08:03 - Lau (Host) Law. Yes, one tip I have is a very old and dear broadcasting friend of mine, who did very well in the broadcasting field, who's a major newscaster, actually suffered from anxiety and depression for many years, especially after she retired, before she started her company. And one of the tips she talked about that seems so simple and yet to do it is magic is, she would say, when I wake up in the morning and I get out of bed and I'm a busy person, I always have things cooking and lined up I get up and I move and I physically do tasks. I don't stay in my head, I don't think about things, I don't sit in a chair, I get up and, whether it's making my bed or making my breakfast or showering, whatever, I physically move, and then somewhere in there I reach out to someone else. When I reach out to someone else, it breaks the negative energy that I have already recorded in my head, patterned after years and years and years of getting locked in my head, my brain. It breaks that energy and it forces me to think about the other person.  09:10 So one of the tips I have is get up and do tasks and then go connect to another person. It could be your mom or your best friend or your child or whoever it is, or your cat, and find out if they have. Or your cat, your dog? I was going to say that Do they have what they need? Do they have what they want? Are they happy? Did they have a walk? Did they get their bone? Has their water changed? Right, because it breaks that negative cycle of being locked in and getting confused, because then, all of a sudden, a lot of people talk about imposter syndrome and feeling like I don't know if I should be doing this. I'm all confused because you're locked in the negative recording pattern in your brain that is tricking you into thinking this is wrong, this is incorrect, You're not doing it right, you're not doing it right.  09:56 - Anne (Host) You're not good enough and all of that. Yeah, I love that.  09:59 Those are two tips I love that because that gives me a good excuse. I mean, lately I've been really working on it, but I've been working on getting up and as soon as I get up and just have oh, I have to have a couple of sips of coffee, but I try to get out and exercise for just 30 minutes to kind of just blow off the steam and to just get everything going and warmed up. And I think not only does that help me warm up my voice, because I think it's not just about your vocal cords, it's warming up your entire body, I mean every your head, your neck, your body, as you said, your whole being to allow that to flow. And I think, if you are just getting up and running into your studio and locking yourself into your head and then trying to deliver what you think the director wants and this is not easy bosses I mean we understand this that it's not easy to get out of your head sometimes it really really isn't, and it's just something that I think takes practice.  10:52 And again, it's one of those things that I think that sometimes we are just so impatient with ourselves and we think that it should just be easy, and it should, we should just be able to do it, and then, if we can't, we get frustrated and then we just keep that vicious cycle in our head, and so I think you just have to give yourself some grace as well to know that you're not going to be able to accomplish this by tomorrow.  11:14 I mean, if you're just starting out today, it is one of those things that evolves.  11:18 I mean, as humans, we are constantly growing, evolving and being, and I think that this is again one of those things where we have to allow ourselves to evolve, allow ourselves to really become the character, understand the scene and really just try to. If you're in the middle of a session, let's say, after you've gone out and I love the tips that you gave law got your body moving and then connected with somebody else and then came into the studio, and I think almost always well, I shouldn't say that, but a lot of times we do have the script a little bit in advance I think there's a lot you can do in five minutes with a script to really familiarize yourself and try to create a scene. Or even if you're not creating a scene, you're there and you're being live directed. You can certainly ask about the scene right, and that can help you to be in the scene versus to be in the sound. Like be in the scene, don't be in the sound. I love that.  12:16 - Lau (Host) I also would say too, when you're in those moments, give yourself one necessary question to ask If there's one necessary question that you cannot answer on your own. Your coach, your husband, whatever, cannot answer it for you. Give yourself the necessary question and write down the answer. When you hear what that answer is, but don't allow it to go into a slippery slope of questions. Allow it to sink in and, just like you would try any risk taking, move, like you would step off a cliff to go hair-sailing right. Well, you jump off the cliff and you float and you fly. Just understand. There is going to be that nuanced period for you of literally not understanding fully what someone is saying to you, but trying hard to problem solve it on your own. Yeah, yeah, because they're hiring you. They're hiring you to figure it out. They're not hiring you to have them figure it out for you. Yeah, absolutely, they really are, and I also think to.  13:15 - Anne (Host) I've had a few students that have said this. Where I'll be directing them. I'll say but I don't hear it that way. On TV when I watch the commercial, it doesn't sound like that. A lot of times I'll give references to, let's say, youtube videos of like real world, let's say corporate narration or real world commercials. And my student will say to me but I don't hear it that way.  13:37 And I always say to them well, that doesn't necessarily mean that I think it's well done or I think it's telling a story, or it really is how the director at the time wanted the piece to sound or to come out. And so it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to compare sounds and then say, well, because my sound doesn't equal that. Therefore, I don't understand what you're asking me to do. Why do I have to be in a scene I don't understand? Why do I have to ask questions? Why do I have to react? Well, essentially, because that's what's going to be giving your unique point of view, is going to be your interpretation on behalf of the company or the product. And again, as you mentioned before a lot, it's not about you or your sound, it's about how you're serving the listener and the client that you're also performing for.  14:22 - Lau (Host) Right, you're not an automaton, you're not an inanimate object. People want to work with you because they like you or you, they like your voice or they like what you're delivering. So they are running on assumption, a professional assumption that you know what you're doing. So the more you give it away that you are absolutely clueless yes, you're in the Confucius Club, you have no idea what you're doing the more they doubt your product and your value. You have to be careful. There's like a fine line there between investigating really smart questions to get the answers and then applying them and then just asking questions for attention or because you feel insecure, because you're unsure. You have to be really careful of that. They're hiring you for an expertise, of knowledge that they themselves oftentimes don't have. They don't have that craft. They're not an actor, they're not a voice talent, they're not oftentimes right.  15:16 - Anne (Host) You have to know what you're doing, and you certainly don't want those questions to be challenges to them. I mean, you're there to make their lives easier and to hopefully give them the performance that they're looking for, and maybe something that they don't even know that they want, right, exactly.  15:33 I think, if we start to really think that we're not being hired because of our voice and our sound and I keep going back to that, I feel like I'm harping on it but in reality they didn't hire us necessarily for the fact that we can sound a particular way, but mostly interpret the script and bring it to life yes, and that is really what we're being hired to do. So don't go in a session thinking that I want to make it sound a particular way. They're looking for a particular sound. No, you need to be immersed in the acting, to deliver the performance that makes it believable, authentic, and that is what you're being paid to do.  16:11 - Lau (Host) You took the words Annie out of my mouth, because how many times throughout the years that we've been in a session and we heard someone say something like I want you to sound like a rhinoceros, okay. And the talent says or maybe we're the talent, you and I were talent for many years and I'm thinking I have no idea what a rhinoceros sounds like. But instead of saying what does a rhinoceros sound like, I rely on my expertise and my vocabulary to say I don't know what that sounds like, but I know what they look like. I get a sense of them. So I'm gonna go with a really big animal. I'm gonna do my best elephant. See how they feel about that and they go. That's awesome, I love that great rhinoceros.  16:51 - Anne (Host) Yeah right, but you didn't tell them it was an elephant.  16:53 - Lau (Host) No, because right because they don't care about your process. They're not asking you for that. They're asking you for what you're outputting to them and they're gonna decide on that. But if I brought them in to my confusion, process of problem solving the difference between an elephant and rhinoceros, they'd be very irked by that. They'd be very annoyed by that. To say we're hiring you, we're paying you 500 bucks or 1,000 bucks or 2,000 bucks. You can't make it up, you can't figure it out right. So I mean, I'm using a simple example. But that could be a medical textbook, that could be an educational portal question that I've never heard before. That could be any kind of esoteric language that is not in my sphere. That I now have to quickly do my research, of course, do my research. But I'm not gonna learn a whole industry. I'm just gonna get some cues and clues and then I'm gonna create it, because that's what we do we create.  17:50 - Anne (Host) That's what they call us creatives.  17:52 - Lau (Host) We have to be creative in nature, right, In order to make people feel like that's what we're doing. And then one more tip I wanna give, and this is a toughie because it's a very non-PC tip. Sometimes you have to give in the old razzle dazzle. And that is you're an actor Act Exactly, act like you know what you're doing.  18:11 - Anne (Host) You may not know at all, but just try, just try.  18:15 What's the worst? That happens Absolutely. Now we've just spoken about okay, this is during a live session, right? And you're feeling like challenged and maybe panicked and not being able to deliver what they're asking for, and so how are you getting out of your own way? Now let's talk about you're in your studio and you're by yourself and nobody's live directing you and you are self-directing.  18:36 How do you get out of your own way when you're self-directing? Right, I have a lot of experience with that. I do a lot of non-broadcast, I do a lot of stuff that isn't directed and it's self-directed, and a lot of times I'll give my students homework, right, that is not live directed. So how are you, in your studio, all by yourself, getting out of your own way? That, I think, can sometimes be tougher. You're not necessarily under the gun, so much to do it under a certain amount of time, but now you might have all the time in the world and then you'll second guess yourself to death, right? So tips for when you are self-directing how to get out of your head and allow yourself your being to be.  19:14 - Lau (Host) Well, I got two right off the top of my head. The first one is like you, annie, are to me. I have a professional network of very close people that I love, adore, trust and work with. I don't want to drive them crazy and I don't want to call them every day because they don't want to hear from me every day, but when I get in that mode I can pick up the phone or jump on Zoom. I will have one of those people there who go Law. What are you talking about?  19:40 Just get out of your head try this, do this and I'm like thank you, that's all I needed. Thank you, that's all I needed. I also will jump on Google or Bing or DuckDuckGo whatever you're using and have some visual and soundscape inspiration. I like that, again, to get me out of what I think it is. I'm going to go to the library, go to the museum, go to the reservoir so that I can start choosing images visual, vocal that I can pull from. That'll help me get out of the paralysis that I'm in.  20:12 - Anne (Host) Absolutely Visual and audio. I love that Law because visual and audio external references are going to get you out of your head, because you'll be focused on something else other than just sitting there looking at your microphone and your head going oh my god, okay, I got it. Oh, that didn't sound good. And the soundscape, too, is very interesting, because a lot of times people can play music softly in their headphones and really get a different read depending on the type of music that's being played underneath, and so that, I think, is some really good hints. Go to Google research, research, research that product, that company, and you can get a lot of hints and clues from understanding what their brand is like and getting a visual look at their brand, because that might evoke oh, I'm a busy mom, or it's bright and happy, or maybe it's more serious, or whatever that is. It can get you into a different mood and that mood can affect your performance.  21:05 Right, going to be channeling a different character. I'm going to say I don't want to say voice. You're going to be channeling a different character, and as long as that character makes sense, right for the product and for the company, I think that that will give you that rather than let's make it a different sounding take. Let's make it a different take where you're in a different scene, you're in a different emotion, you're not busy and harried and hectic. You are now thoughtful and reflective. That can give you a couple of really different reads.  21:33 And then, ultimately, when you can showcase that to any casting director or talent agent that understands oh, there's an actor, that's what's going to get you hired. And then law I say this all the time you don't need me to teach you how to read pretty or to sound a particular way, because we all have that in our head. It's funny because I always say let me read it to you the way that everybody pretty much hears it in their head. And whenever I do that, my student will be like oh yeah, that's exactly how I recorded it. And I'm like good, I want you to give me something different, right? So how?  22:01 - Intro (Announcement) are you going to give me something different, right? I don't want it to be predictable.  22:05 - Anne (Host) I want you to bring your eating spin on it. And how is that going to happen? Change your scene, channel a different character. I love the whole getting out of your head and that was such a visual thing, law, that you did getting out of your head and allowing the whole being, because that just brings into play your whole body, getting into the character right, and that will have so much to do with a good performance.  22:27 - Lau (Host) Yeah, and what you're doing should be in a three dimensional sphere in your world. Unfortunately, it's all one dimensional if you're in a box and you're on a piece of paper. Hopefully, gone are not the days but when you had like actors, like Johnny Depp, who is trained in method technique, would go into the culture, into the scenario, into the environment, to live in the environment for a little while in order to figure out who the character is. Well, you may or may not have time to do it, but if you do have time to do it, go to the store and look at Play-Doh again. Get Play-Doh.  23:00 Go to the movies and remember what AMC is. Go to the company and see what the company culture is Like. It could only take you 30 minutes or an hour to enrich your whole reservoir to pull from when you're doing this kind of work and say, oh, I know what that is, I know what their attitude is, I know how they dress, I know how they talk to each other. I'm going to start to feel that and embody that so I can connect with you in a slightly more authentic way. Versus how do I sound.  23:29 Do I sound good? Do I sound like? One more thing, annie, I wanted to point out. This drives me crazy. This is one of my pet peeves that I've heard several clients say over and over and over again over the course of a long period of time Say I don't know what you're saying to me. I don't understand your feedback law. I'm not an actor. You're treating me as if I know what you're talking about in regards to acting or being a voiceover talent. I'm not really that and I said well, why are you standing here with a credit card asking me or others to work with you and become that? So this comes from my dear friend, joanne Yarrow. One of the great tips that she gives and exercises she does which I love is, even if you're just starting out, like just starting out, you're listening to this and you're going I haven't done anything. Call yourself what you envision yourself to be yes amen.  24:22 Today, say I am a business owner. Today, I am a voice over talent.  24:25 - Anne (Host) today, I am an actor. I am an actor, I am an entrepreneur and I run a voice over business.  24:31 - Lau (Host) Right, because it's not about making money or how many jobs you've had or who you know, yet it's about embodying the psychology of belief systems and manifesting you have limiting belief values. Yeah, if you're not manifesting an abundant belief system in yourself, then you're not playing in the sandbox yet. You're just not in the sandbox. You've got to get in there and play with the dolls and the trucks and the sand and figure out what it all is. But if you say, oh, I don't get dirty, I don't play in sand, I don't like trucks, I don't know why you're asking me about dolls. And I'll say, well then, why do you want to be a talent? Because talent loves getting dirty. Talent loves playing.  25:14 - Anne (Host) Yeah, I love that and I'm not even interested in that. I want to bring up a point that, no matter what genre you're studying these days so, so important these days no matter what genre, you need to be a voice actor. I don't care if you're doing e-learning, if you're doing like everybody that thinks well for corporate narration, you don't need to be an actor. I mean, oh my gosh, yes, even more so I think.  25:34 Because, corporate narration. You've got to hold somebody's attention for longer than a minute and so, literally no matter what you're doing, you need to be the actor and you need to study how you can be an actor in all different scenarios, all different pieces of copy. How can you bring those words, whether it's an e-learning module, a corporate manifesto or a medical pharmaceutical? How can you make those words sound authentic and believable and be in a world that can engage your listener? You have to, no matter what. So when you're studying with any coach, that's what you should be focusing on on the acting part of it, not just okay, I just want to get my demo and I want it to sound great so I can get work and that's it. In reality, no matter what genre you're studying, you should be studying to be an actor, and then those acting skills will carry over into every genre. Then you just have to the differences between the genres, understand the market, understand the nuances between the genres, but the acting is still acting, no matter what genre you're in.  26:40 - Lau (Host) And understanding that nothing you do is real, nothing. It's like I remember years ago when I was in the theater and the director would say you guys realize that you're standing in a box and people are paying a ticket to see you on a lifted stage and there's nothing that's real here and just that acknowledgement that, oh yeah, nothing in media is real. Nothing is real. It's the facsimile of life, but it is not actual real life. So what I'm doing is the old truth under imaginary circumstances it really is. I have to bring the authentic reservoir from my heart, my head, my body, my soul, my spirit, my history to a very artificial place. I can't mistake this artificial place as saying oh well, this is real, it's a real thing, I'm, I'm being. No, it's not a real thing. Right, the audience thinks it's real because they're suspending their disbelief. You're setting a really profound convention for them where they can believe it. But you know, it's technical, it's all technical, right, If you don't do that groundwork and you're confused all the time about it.  27:51 Then how can you bring any kind of truth into a technical, artificial, imaginary circumstance? Well said.  27:58 - Anne (Host) Well said, woo Woo, my bossy co -host. I love it, I'll tell you Good stuff.  28:04 - Lau (Host) I think we said it all and after all that, I'm still confused. Are you confused? Which button did you want me? To push, I think, a one. Can you press one? Yeah, you know what Law.  28:14 - Anne (Host) I'm going to push one now. After that, all right, awesome, yeah, just push one. Oh goodness, bosses, as individuals it can seem difficult to make a huge impact, but as a group and together, we can contribute to the growth of our communities in ways that we never thought possible. Get 100 VoicesWhoCareorg to find out more. Big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. I love IPDTL and the fact that I get to connect up with bosses like my awesome, amazing friend, law Lapitas, and all my clients. You guys can find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys, bosses, have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. See you next week, enjoy, bye.  28:59 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VoBoss with your host, ann Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Pre-distribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL.  29:48 - Lau (Host) That was interesting.   

Anne and Lau share a valuable discussion about the pivotal role websites play in any business, and how they can be a driving force behind attracting potential clients. In this episode, The Bosses discuss how a well-presented, professional, and easy-to-navigate website has a crucial role in enhancing online shopping experiences, increasing sales, and building trust with potential customers. Learn how to ensure your website is professional, easy to navigate, and trustworthy to drive potential customers to your content. Transcript: Anne Ganguzza: Hey, hey, everyone. Welcome to the V.O. Boss podcast and the V.O. Boss Superpower Series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I have today with me the effervescent, lovely, amazing Lau Lapides. Lau Lapides: Keep going Annie, keep going. You don't need to stop. Anne Ganguzza: She Lau Lapides: Ha ha Anne Ganguzza: is everything. She is everything, bosses. Lau Lapides: ha. Aw, thank you. Anne Ganguzza: And we love her, and we Lau Lapides: We Anne Ganguzza: love her. Lau Lapides: love you too. So awesome to be here, always. Anne Ganguzza: Well, it's awesome to have you as usual. So Lau Lapides: Thank you. Anne Ganguzza: today, or I shouldn't say today, but this week, Law, I had a very exciting thing happen to me. I got an email from a potential client that said they had been researching quietly in the background, looking for a new voice for their brand. And they found me. And they listened to my d- demos. They found me like on a Google search and found my website and listened to my demos. And then apparently narrowed down that search to about, I don't know, a handful of people. And they said that they would like me to audition for this very cool possibility for a major brand. And I was so ecstatic because... I didn't do a thing. Like they found me. They found me on a Google search and they found my website and they were able to listen to my demos and they were able to assess, right, my voice, obviously, and decide yes, she's going on a short list. All because I had a really great website that had things laid out easily, easy to find my demos, easily played. and easy to contact me. And so I thought it was important. I thought it would be an important topic to discuss websites. And I know I talk about it incessantly, but I thought let's dedicate an entire episode to websites and how they are so important to your business bosses. Lau Lapides: Oh, that's so fabulous. I'm so happy for you. Anne Ganguzza: Thank Lau Lapides: Congratulations. Anne Ganguzza: you. Yay, thank you. Lau Lapides: Big yay. I love that you got my jazz hands. Whoo. Anne Ganguzza: Thank Lau Lapides: It's really Anne Ganguzza: you. Lau Lapides: awesome. I do have to qualify one thing you said for Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: the listeners and that you said you did nothing. Anne Ganguzza: Oh, well. Lau Lapides: You actually have 25 years behind you that Anne Ganguzza: You're right. Lau Lapides: led up to that moment that made that prospect. clients life really fast and easy Anne Ganguzza: Yes. Lau Lapides: so that they didn't move on to the next person. Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: So I just wanted to catch you on Anne Ganguzza: Thank Lau Lapides: that because Anne Ganguzza: you, thank you Lau Lapides: you're Anne Ganguzza: for Lau Lapides: so Anne Ganguzza: that. Lau Lapides: used to Anne Ganguzza: Yes, Lau Lapides: being fabulous Anne Ganguzza: I know. Lau Lapides: that you think you're doing nothing when really you've done all the work leading Anne Ganguzza: Well, Lau Lapides: up to that moment. Anne Ganguzza: and I'll Lau Lapides: Right? Anne Ganguzza: tell you, and I did do the work on my website, my storefront that made that available, right? I'm always saying that you can have the best voice in the world, but it doesn't do you any good if people don't know about you. And one of the easiest Lau Lapides: That's right. Anne Ganguzza: and quickest ways that people can find out information about you and your product and contact you is that website. And so many people put that website on the back burner. Or they're like, I don't have the money to invest. Guys, I'm here to tell you, you have to do that. If you are a business in 2023 or for the past 10 years, if you've been a business, you really need to have that storefront. You need to have that website. It is critical. And I always tell people, don't skimp on it. We talk about investing in our business all the time. And it is one area I think you need to invest. And I've invested over the years, thousands of dollars. I don't want to say that it's super, super expensive. It can be. I'm a big believer in presentation. Really matters. Presentation matters. And so yes, can you do your own website? Sure. Are you a website designer by trade? Maybe not. So I tend to. try to make it as presentable and as professional as possible so that it really makes an impression. Lau Lapides: Yeah, it pops. Yours always pops and it just comes right out at you. So I'm not surprised that you have this huge brand that's looking at you now because you look like a huge brand. You have to you have to Anne Ganguzza: Mm. Lau Lapides: project exactly Anne Ganguzza: Yes. Lau Lapides: the karma and the boomerang that you want to get back. You have to really be honest about that. And when someone says what you just said, Annie, like, oh, I don't have the money for that. Well, make the money. Go Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: go Anne Ganguzza: Oh, Lau Lapides: do Anne Ganguzza: please. Lau Lapides: whatever you need. Wash cars. take care of puppies and Anne Ganguzza: Yes, Lau Lapides: flip pancakes Anne Ganguzza: yes, Lau Lapides: to make the money Anne Ganguzza: wash Lau Lapides: so that you Anne Ganguzza: cars, Lau Lapides: look Anne Ganguzza: clean Lau Lapides: like Anne Ganguzza: houses, Lau Lapides: that. Anne Ganguzza: do whatever you gotta Lau Lapides: Whatever, Anne Ganguzza: do, but get Lau Lapides: we all Anne Ganguzza: that Lau Lapides: did Anne Ganguzza: money, Lau Lapides: it. Yeah. Anne Ganguzza: right? Yes, exactly, and I love that you said that because again, we all did that, right? I mean, Lau Lapides: We all did that. Anne Ganguzza: you'd be amazed at what I do for money, but that's another topic. But, Lau Lapides: By Anne Ganguzza: but. Lau Lapides: the way, websites are cheaper and quicker and Anne Ganguzza: Hmm Lau Lapides: easier to create now than ever. Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: I remember the days Anne Ganguzza: and Lau Lapides: where it would take $10,000, Anne Ganguzza: yeah Lau Lapides: $15,000 Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: to make a website. Anne Ganguzza: and well, and I'm gonna mention this I'm gonna qualify this because I have a website that's very functional Okay, I have multiple websites number one I don't think you need to be held to just one website. Although, you know for my voiceover, right? I've got one website, but remember I've got multiple multiple divisions of my business, right? I've got the VO Boss, that's a completely different brand. I've got the VO Peeps, that's a different brand. I've got Nganguza Coaching, that's a different brand. I've got my Studio Cats, that's a different brand. So literally, for each of my brands, I have a separate website. And I, for, depending on what you wanna do with that website, especially because I sell products, I sell physical products, I sell digital products, I sell memberships. And so because of the extensive selling that I do on my website, and I think, hey, every VO needs to be able to sell on their website. You have to make it easy for people to pay you, right? Who wants to step through hoops to make a payment? I mean, Lau Lapides: No Anne Ganguzza: just Lau Lapides: friction. Anne Ganguzza: click, click and pay. Yeah, and same thing with all aspects of your website, right? People should be able to find what they need and buy as quick as possible. Right? Lau Lapides: Yes. Anne Ganguzza: So my websites, and you know you were talking about, they used to cost a whole lot more money. You're right. Any voice actor can get a one page website, and I'm gonna talk a little bit more about that Lau Lapides: Hmm. Anne Ganguzza: a little later, but for not a tremendous amount of money. And I think there are templates out there that can make it look very professional. Lots of great people out there as well. For my websites, because of the extensive functionality, I have memberships, I have multiple ways to pay me, I have calendar appointments, scheduling going on, then that's gonna cost you a little bit more on the back end, but again, it is an investment in your business. Lau Lapides: Mm hmm. Yes. And I want to caution listeners, too, that as much as you want one and need one and eventually will have one, if not more than one, be careful of doing it prematurely. Because I know, Anne Ganguzza: Mm. Lau Lapides: Annie, you go through this. I go through this as on the coaching end. that will get a lot of newbie starters, like within the first month or Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: two, they're just literally investigating VO, they're just starting training, and already they're thinking about, oh, I need a website, I need Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: marketing, I need this. I'm like, wait a second, you don't even know if you like it. Anne Ganguzza: Well, Lau Lapides: You Anne Ganguzza: wait, Lau Lapides: don't even know if you wanna Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: do it yet. Anne Ganguzza: And wait till you get the product to market first, right? Because the whole idea of a website is that you have, well, I should say the whole idea of a voiceover website is that you have a product that you can market. Well, you want to make sure that you have the product first. That means get your coaching. Get your demo, because the demo's going to showcase that product, right? Make sure that you've got those things in place. But I would say it's never too late to start thinking about your website. Start thinking about a brand. But again, that's something that you'll discover as you go. And so I think a lot of times, if you start too early with that website, your branding is not quite finalized. And then that could be costly for you later on, because you could be thinking, oh, I really like this way to brand me. I'm going to use this tagline, or I'm going to use these colors. And then as you evolve in developing your voiceover product, you might say, oh, well, maybe that doesn't fit me as well as this one does. And then you're going to have to rebrand, and that's going to probably cost you more money. So absolutely start planning for it. But there's lots of development work you can do on the back end before it is out there and present on the web, on the interwebs, where people go to your website and they say, but I don't have, there's no demos. How do I hear you? Right? Lau Lapides: And be careful too, that once you do this, or at least the beginning stages of doing this, of saying, I see this all the time. Well, I have my website is up and out, I got my demos on there, I've got some training, I'm ready to go. I'm ready for the jobs, where's my work? Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: Be careful of that way of thinking, because on average, a business that's a startup business in any industry, takes a good three to five years to get Anne Ganguzza: Oh Lau Lapides: off Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: the ground, it just does. Anne Ganguzza: Oh yeah. Lau Lapides: So be careful of this, I'm ready to go. Where's my work kind Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: of mentality? Like you have to work at getting work. You have to earn it. You have Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: to reach out. You have to do the hard work labor of directing traffic to the website. Anne Ganguzza: Yes, Lau Lapides: The Anne Ganguzza: yes. Lau Lapides: website doesn't necessarily do it for you. You Anne Ganguzza: Exactly, Lau Lapides: have to direct Anne Ganguzza: exactly. Lau Lapides: people to the website, right? And... Anne Ganguzza: Exactly. Your content, right, that's out there is what helps to generate the SEO where people are searching for a specific, you know, product or a specific voice that hopefully, you know, it's getting increasingly. difficult that you show up on those pages, right? So if you're not getting good SEO with people finding you through the search engines, you can absolutely put content out there that is of interest to your potential clients. And that can mean social media. You can be entertaining on social media. You can put out blog articles on social media or on your website. You can then drive people to that website so that they can then have access to your demos, to a button where they can click and contact you and say, hey, I have this script, how much would it cost? And of course, I always like to make it easy Lau Lapides: Right. Anne Ganguzza: to pay as well. So absolutely driving. Lau Lapides: I always love to, I'll tell you, speaking as an agent, one of the big things that I'm asked is, how do I deal with driving someone to see my website? I say, easy, give me one link. It should be one link Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: navigation and drive me exactly, point me in exactly what you want me to see. Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: right away. So Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: let's say I'm an agent. I am an agent. I don't want to go through all your pages. I don't want to scroll way down. I don't want to find the Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm, Lau Lapides: demos. Anne Ganguzza: mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: For me, it's the commercial demo. Send me exactly to where the commercial demo Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: is. And then Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: if I have time and I want to scroll down, and oftentimes I do, I'll scroll, I'll Anne Ganguzza: Right. Lau Lapides: see what it looks like. It's kind of cool. But I'm not frustrated trying to find that particular item that I'm looking for. So really point. the people that you're driving in exactly Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: where they need to go so they're not kind of looking around figuring Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: it out, having trouble with navigation. Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Having trouble with navigation. Yeah, that's a big plus, is to be able to have concise information quickly available to the shopper. Now, I always make this comparison that when I shop online, and I love to shop online, I'm a shopper, okay? Lau Lapides: You're a shopaholic. Anne Ganguzza: So the free I kind of am so the first thing I do think about when you shop online, right? What is it that makes you click and buy right Lau Lapides: Mmm, Anne Ganguzza: number one? Lau Lapides: I Anne Ganguzza: It Lau Lapides: like Anne Ganguzza: has Lau Lapides: that. Anne Ganguzza: to be right for me. It has to be a professional looking website It has to really speak to me that this is what okay old Navy sells clothing and accessories And so therefore I was used old Navy, but it could be anything Nordstrom rag It could be all of my favorite places, Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza: right? They have to absolutely when I get to that first page have to look professional. They can't be, you know, they have to be with the Lau Lapides: Right. Anne Ganguzza: current, they kind of have to be current trends, you know. It can't be like anything screaming, you know, blinking graphics like from the 90s or, you know, when websites were first made. It can't just be one big long, long page. It has to look professional. I have to be able to access the products that I want right away. I need to be able to find out information right away and I need to be able to maybe read, get more information, or look at pictures of it. Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza: And so for a voiceover, I listen to demos, listen to samples, maybe watch videos. And then I need to be able to do, OK, if I have questions, how am I going to get those questions answered? Is there an FAQ? Is there somebody I can contact that I can talk to? Is there a phone number, believe it or not? There are people who still like to talk on the phone, just saying. You know, I like to talk on the phone. When I need to find out information, like I literally. I bought a pair of glasses, there's a big surprise, and I needed to return them so that I could get a new pair of lenses, and I went to the website, they're like, well, we're sorry, we don't make those anymore, right? So you're gonna have to pick out new lenses, or you're gonna have to pick out new glasses, and I'm like, wait a minute, okay, now this is getting complex. So I literally was like, where's the phone number, right? So I got the phone number, I called customer service. So. Things like that, right? So for me, when I buy, what's important for you when you buy, when you go to a website? It looks professional, it's trustworthy, I feel as though I could put my credit card information in there and it wouldn't be stolen or compromised. And so you have to work on creating a business storefront on that website that is trustworthy, professional. and just easy to access and navigate. Lau Lapides: I love that word easy. Easy is the word we wanna keep in mind because as creatives, we wanna go into a lot of content, a lot of information, a lot of different directions because it's a nature of a lot of what we do, but yet the audience does not want that. The audience wants super quick, 10 second, find what I need, look it over fast, Anne Ganguzza: Or Lau Lapides: or, Anne Ganguzza: after that, if they Lau Lapides: or. Anne Ganguzza: want to find out more information, like how experienced are they? How have they been doing this a long time? Now I'm gonna ask you a lot as an agent, and for me also for casting people, a lot of times I will go to their website because it tells me a bunch about their brand. Just like when I research companies, when I'm researching companies so that I can voice their brand more effectively, I look at what is their website saying to me? What is their brand? Who is their audience? Do you, when it comes time to deciding who you might want to put on your roster, let's say, okay, you hear the commercial demo, but don't you also, if you've got, maybe you've got a similar voice, or maybe you're trying to find out if they have versatility in maybe another area, do you not continue to go through their website and or even their social media, right? I think your social media links got to be on there as well to kind of find out more about the person because before I let you speak, we always buy from people we know, like and trust. And that website is going to be the storefront of that in providing that information. Lau Lapides: Yes, I would say yes, and yes, and be Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: careful. Anything that's leading you to anything else, you've got the tentacles out there. So whatever you put on your website may lead you to other places, Anne Ganguzza: Sure. Lau Lapides: whether they're socials or articles or stories, whatever. I would just be careful. Just go through all of that. So play the role of someone who is landing on you and maybe looking at you for a job. Just put yourself Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: in their shoes and say, okay. Joe Smith, great. Let me go and investigate Joe Smith because Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: maybe I want to represent them. What are all the places that I'm led to? Anne Ganguzza: Sure. Lau Lapides: And are they good places? Are they Anne Ganguzza: Sure, Lau Lapides: not Anne Ganguzza: absolutely. Lau Lapides: good places? How do they represent you? Like, you have to be really careful about that. The panel that I was on at the conference that we just attended, one of the agents brought up, one of the casting brought up, you know, be careful of what's on your social media. Anne Ganguzza: Oh, gosh Lau Lapides: Be very Anne Ganguzza: yes. Lau Lapides: careful, Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: right? You may need a You may need, well, you can control that yourself, but you may need a reputation defender type Anne Ganguzza: Absolutely, Lau Lapides: of a service Anne Ganguzza: absolutely. Lau Lapides: to wipe out all your crap that you've done for 10 years, pay Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: him a thousand bucks or whatever it is, and clean your slate. Just like you and Anne Ganguzza: Well... Lau Lapides: I clean our closets and our, right? Clean your online Anne Ganguzza: Wait, Lau Lapides: slate, right? Anne Ganguzza: we are, look, we are celebrities, okay? I'm just saying, right? First of all, I'm manifesting, I'm manifesting. We are celebrities, right? We are Lau Lapides: Yes. Anne Ganguzza: celebrities. And how many celebrities do you know have tarnished their brand, right, by something they've said or something that's gotten out on social media, right, that wasn't appropriate, okay? And so when a brand is going to hire you, a company's going to hire you to represent them, That is of concern to them, right? They don't wanna Lau Lapides: Yes. Anne Ganguzza: be hiring people that are talking, talking badly or poorly Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza: on social media or representing themselves poorly because then it's gonna represent the brand poorly. So it starts with your website, because again, if people don't know how to hire you, if they can't find you Lau Lapides: Yep. Anne Ganguzza: and they don't know, it's never going to happen. So that website is... a very, very worthwhile investment. And I'm gonna say, I wouldn't go for the cheapest website developer out there. I just wouldn't. There are some reasonably priced websites that you can, and so I guess the question to me would be, okay, is it good enough? Lau Lapides: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Anne Ganguzza: Well, okay, so for me, right, I don't know. Look at my websites. I spend the money. And I'm just saying, I'm not saying that my websites are the. well, I'm very proud of my websites. I made sure, it took me a long time to find my website designer, and I make sure that I'm refreshing, and I'm trying to update them, so that it is a professional-looking website, and I constantly get complimented on it. And I'm thinking to myself, well, I think that's wonderful, but you could have it too, right? It really comes down to Lau Lapides: Yeah. Anne Ganguzza: researching. you know, a good website designer, understanding who you are, what your brand is, what you want to put out there, right, in your storefront. And that requires a lot of work, guys. It's not a, oh, let's do this overnight. Let's get this, and let's just write a quick paragraph bio. Lau Lapides: No. Anne Ganguzza: No, this is something that really has to evolve. And like I said, if you can plan and you can start that planning sooner, I would recommend that, right? Because there's a lot of thought that goes into how you present yourself. Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza: And again, I am that type, I will spend the money, I will make the investment to present myself in the very best light possible, right? I wanna be better than every other website out there because I want there to be that little something that people say, you know what, I just, I'm gonna go with her. And again, I cannot tell you how many people who have found me on my website and said, wow, you are so impressed, and they go on about, you are so impressed, and I'm thinking to myself, okay, I'm in. And you know, I've been doing this for a while, thank you. And but in my head, I'm going, okay, but they're going on about it because of the presence, right, that I project. And every one of you can project that presence and manifest that celebrity, right, on your website, because that is going to make such a statement about who you are and what kind of work you're going to be doing for that company. And of course, I am a celebrity, so I manifest it. I'm just saying, Lau Lapides: I'm all Anne Ganguzza: right? Lau Lapides: over that. Anne Ganguzza: Right, Lau Lapides: And Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: I do think there is something to you get what you pay for. Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: I think, Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: you know, but be careful in Anne Ganguzza: Yes. Lau Lapides: who you pay and who you entrust. Like you really have to look at their work, look at their portfolio, see Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: if they're someone that you want to trust with your brand and are they capable? Are they competent? Are they fast, the designer? Are they someone who's gonna stay with you? Or are they just wham bam, done, here, pay Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: me, I'm gone and you never Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: find them again? I would suggest you go with someone who, to some degree, can help you manage it, even though Anne Ganguzza: Yes, Lau Lapides: you're gonna manage Anne Ganguzza: I Lau Lapides: your Anne Ganguzza: agree. Lau Lapides: own site. You Anne Ganguzza: I agree. Lau Lapides: do need an assistant Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: manager, someone who you can connect with, who has that artist mentality and say, Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: yeah, I'm gonna be available to you for help with plugins or help with the backend Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm, Lau Lapides: or Anne Ganguzza: mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: help with stuff that you're just not. capable or competent to do. I also wanted to make mention to any that in regards to like your different websites Be Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: be aware that if you're doing more than one website or even on your one website Don't confuse us that you're in different careers Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: different vocations So what you're talking about is all under the umbrella of your company. Anne Ganguzza: A voiceover. Lau Lapides: It all Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: works hand-in-hand It all is services that make sense to being a voiceover coach and on Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: and on. But don't tell me you're a nurse, don't tell Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: me you're a Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: landscaper, and Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm, Lau Lapides: be careful Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: of talking about your bartending site. Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: Because that Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: side hustles that are quiet and Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: underground and for you to have. And I see that a lot with talent actually. Sometimes on the same website, they'll be telling me something that confuses me. Like, I'm like, hmm, are they career? Is this Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: something Anne Ganguzza: Is this Lau Lapides: that Anne Ganguzza: their Lau Lapides: they're Anne Ganguzza: full Lau Lapides: serious Anne Ganguzza: time? Lau Lapides: about? Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, exactly. That's Lau Lapides: Right? Anne Ganguzza: a really wonderful point. Yeah. So you want to make it, you want to make it, you know, that this is your... professional, this is your vocation, this is what you do. Even if you're doing it part time, right? You don't necessarily have to mention that you're doing it part time, but what you showcase to the world is that you are a professional and that you can turn things around within a certain amount of time and that there is no question about that, right? So Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza: if you're going to put content on your website that makes us question that, then I might go to another talent. Now, if I had to choose, right? from one talent and I like their voices and I'm like, oh, I like, I love this voice and I love this voice. What's the next thing you're gonna do? Law, look at social media, look at websites, see what they've done before, right? Do they Lau Lapides: Yep. Anne Ganguzza: have other experience that might be, especially if you don't know, right? When I don't know a product and I've never purchased from a store before, I'm looking at testimonials. I am looking at reviews. And of course, that's something that I think is super helpful to have on your website, right? Testimonials, reviews, you know, of your work, because how do I trust, right? And not just reviews on the website. Oh, I think that's a great place to start, because I think a lot of people can actually, you know, put reviews and make them up. But I certainly don't. I don't, but I'm a testimonial. I don't even know what the word is for it, but I am constantly asking for testimonials. But not just putting it on my website, but putting them in blog articles, putting them out there on social media so that they kind of just become all over the place where it becomes a good word of mouth. And also I want to back that up, right, with performance so that people are actually talking about me. And talking about me, that's probably the best, I think one of the best things. that you can do for your career is get people talking about you in a good way, of course. Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza: And talking about, God, she's so talented, or I love her voice, she just executed for me and I would hire her again and again and again. And that is people talking, right? In groups and forums, you know, good word of mouth, I'm going to say word of mouth. But to get to the word of mouth, people have to know you, right? And so you have to put yourself out there. first and foremost on a website, right? And then social media, and then back that up with good performance, with reliable, solid work. And then, then after a certain amount of time, hopefully people start talking about you, right? And then that becomes one of the best referrals and best ways of getting the gig ever. Lau Lapides: I love that. I love that. I mean, as an agent, the first thing I'm going to go to Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: on your website are jobs. Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm, Lau Lapides: So Anne Ganguzza: mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: if I see visuals, I'll always go to the visuals first. Actually, before your Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: demo, sometimes I'm a very visual person. So if I see videos, I'm going to run on the assumption those are actual jobs of some kind. I'm going to poke on one or two videos and see if they look like they're professionally produced. Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: If they do, then I'm like, oh, this guy, he's selling to you. OK, all right, perfect. Then I Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: kind of listen to the demo, but I already know. He's a top pro, he's already Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: in the Anne Ganguzza: yeah, Lau Lapides: market, on the national market, and he's Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: doing stuff. I just think that's the nature of what we do, moving fast, Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: working at a business level, and working with top notch Anne Ganguzza: And visuals. Lau Lapides: customers and clients, and visuals, yes, Anne Ganguzza: I love that you said Lau Lapides: visuals Anne Ganguzza: visuals because, Lau Lapides: are really important. Cleanliness, Anne Ganguzza: yeah, yes. Lau Lapides: space, structure. A lot of times I'll see the designer put the content in, but it looks messy. It looks... Anne Ganguzza: Mm. Lau Lapides: it looks like it's not formatted well, it looks like it's hard to read, Anne Ganguzza: Mm. Lau Lapides: the font is too small or the colors are wrong. Things like that sort of get in the way of the messaging. So Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: I think one of the more important things is, yes, visuals, but keep it clean, keep it fresh, keep it streamlined, keep it open, keep it easy to read. Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: Above the fold is good. It doesn't mean I won't scroll, I'll scroll, but keep the most important stuff. boom Anne Ganguzza: above Lau Lapides: when I Anne Ganguzza: the Lau Lapides: land Anne Ganguzza: fold. Lau Lapides: on it, it's right there. Your Toyota commercial is right there. Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm, Lau Lapides: I Anne Ganguzza: mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: don't have to look for it, you Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: know? Anne Ganguzza: And again, I like the, like you said, visual. I think visual is so important these days, because again, most of Lau Lapides: Yeah. Anne Ganguzza: us have less than a seven second attention span, and that Lau Lapides: Yeah. Anne Ganguzza: includes people who are looking for people to hire. And so if you can put the most important stuff above the fold, make it visual. If you just have commercial demo and it's a one, gosh, I'm a big fan of breaking up your demos into each spot and then labeling those spots with, let's say, Ford F-150, Lau Lapides: Yeah. Anne Ganguzza: powerful, motivational, that kind of thing. Hogue Hospital, compassionate, warm. So putting those descriptors on the individual spots as well, because people don't click to listen. Sometimes we're not in a spot where we can listen, although you hope that people that are hiring you are going to be listening. But sometimes visually, right? Or they'll see a video of a Ford commercial that you did. And so that alone, and then they'll click and go to the YouTube of it, right? And then maybe on your YouTube channel, you'll have a playlist of all of the work that you've completed. So that kind of just helps and lends itself to your professional credibility. And visual, visual. And Lau Lapides: Peace Anne Ganguzza: again, Lau Lapides: out. Anne Ganguzza: visual, not just in visual videos, but also visual words saying, Ford F-150. They know, oh, she does automotive, right? Or a Hogue hospital, oh, she does health care. Or, you know, I don't know, Dominion Energy. You know, oh, there's an energy spot. I'm an energy company, so I'm gonna click and listen to that spot. Or Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza: fast food, right? So people can just get to what they need to quicker, and visually it's there, boom, when it shows up. And then also, you've got the media behind it. And absolutely, I'd say, put everything above the fold that's important, and yeah, make it clean. And I'm gonna say that... Oh gosh, you can think that you can do it yourself. I don't know how many people are like, well, I'm just gonna do it myself because I don't have the money. I'm gonna Lau Lapides: Right. Anne Ganguzza: do it, I'm gonna make my own website. There's a template, I can, you know, Wix has got time. First of all, I'm just gonna say, like, okay, so if you are a website designer, then I would say yes, go ahead and do it yourself. However, you know, there are people trained, and this is what we talk about all the time, like I am Lau Lapides: Yeah. Anne Ganguzza: a trained voice actor, why would you hire someone? that, you know what I mean? I've got Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm. Anne Ganguzza: the experience. I'm a Lau Lapides: Right. Anne Ganguzza: demo producer. It's what I do eight hours a day. So if you want something, you get what you pay for. If you want something awesome, pay somebody that does it. That's their job. So why do you have to do it yourself? Why? Lau Lapides: Exactly, Anne Ganguzza: I mean, Lau Lapides: exactly. Anne Ganguzza: yeah, OK, maybe you're proud. I mean, I tried to do mine myself, because I actually did websites a long time back in the day. But I know enough. to be dangerous. And I know that I may know the back end of things, but I am not a graphic designer. Lau Lapides: Great. Anne Ganguzza: So if you're not a graphic designer, please don't. Please Lau Lapides: And I Anne Ganguzza: don't. Lau Lapides: would say, Anne Ganguzza: Do Lau Lapides: I Anne Ganguzza: it. Lau Lapides: know Anne Ganguzza: I do Lau Lapides: how to Anne Ganguzza: it Lau Lapides: clean my teeth every day. I do it Anne Ganguzza: every Lau Lapides: several times a day, Anne Ganguzza: day. Lau Lapides: but I'm not a dentist. Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: Do Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: you know what I mean? I know how to figure out if my heartbeat and my respiratory system is moving fast, but I'm not a doctor. Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: So Anne Ganguzza: yeah, Lau Lapides: I think understanding Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: the difference between something that's a layman and a practical Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: matter and something that's a professional and a really learned trade are Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: two Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: very Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: different things. I wanted to say too, this is a creative choice. But I see this more and more and I get a lot of questions, should I show my photo? Because gone are the days where, no, you shouldn't show your photo, don't show your photo. Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: Now, a lot of times, companies wanna see who you are. They Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: wanna see what you look Anne Ganguzza: yeah, Lau Lapides: like. And Anne Ganguzza: they Lau Lapides: they might Anne Ganguzza: do. Lau Lapides: even want to reach Anne Ganguzza: They Lau Lapides: out to Anne Ganguzza: do. Lau Lapides: you for on-camera work as well. Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: So Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: if you're Anne Ganguzza: And. Lau Lapides: a voiceover interested in on-camera work, or if you do on-camera work, you really have to have the photos of yourself on Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: that website. You really are the face of your voice. Anne Ganguzza: Now, even if you're a character, that's my question. Even if you're a character, do you want to, should you show your face? Lau Lapides: Again, I think it's a creative choice. I don't Anne Ganguzza: I Lau Lapides: think Anne Ganguzza: think Lau Lapides: it's Anne Ganguzza: so Lau Lapides: a Anne Ganguzza: too. Lau Lapides: yes or no, do or don't, but I'll tell you, and this is just me, I'm getting sick of avatars. Anne Ganguzza: Me Lau Lapides: I'm Anne Ganguzza: too, Lau Lapides: getting tired Anne Ganguzza: me too. Lau Lapides: of characters Anne Ganguzza: I'm Lau Lapides: and Anne Ganguzza: getting tired of connecting Lau Lapides: those little Anne Ganguzza: with Lau Lapides: animations. Anne Ganguzza: microphones and Lau Lapides: I'm tired Anne Ganguzza: yeah, Lau Lapides: of Anne Ganguzza: mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: it. And it's not that you shouldn't do it. You Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm. Lau Lapides: should do it, especially if you're an animation actor, Anne Ganguzza: But Lau Lapides: of course, Anne Ganguzza: put a picture Lau Lapides: but Anne Ganguzza: of yourself with Lau Lapides: it Anne Ganguzza: all the Lau Lapides: doesn't, Anne Ganguzza: animated characters that you Lau Lapides: yes. Anne Ganguzza: do, right? Lau Lapides: Think about all the top notch A-listers. Anne Ganguzza: Yes. Lau Lapides: You see Rob Paulson, you see Debbie Derryberry, Anne Ganguzza: Yep, Lau Lapides: you see Anne Ganguzza: yep, Lau Lapides: them as Anne Ganguzza: you see Lau Lapides: a person Anne Ganguzza: Christina Milizia, Lau Lapides: smiling, Anne Ganguzza: you see Bob Bergen, and you see Lau Lapides: right? Anne Ganguzza: them with all Lau Lapides: Warm, Anne Ganguzza: the characters they've done. Lau Lapides: coming out to you, and then Anne Ganguzza: Yep, Lau Lapides: you see all the characters they've done. Anne Ganguzza: yep, absolutely. Lau Lapides: Because their Anne Ganguzza: And they're Lau Lapides: PR, Anne Ganguzza: gonna do videos. Lau Lapides: their manager says you need to be seen. This is your name and your Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: brand. Anne Ganguzza: yeah, Lau Lapides: So that's all I'll say, it's up to you, but that's Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: all I'll say, you know? Anne Ganguzza: I am a big believer in that, you know, that Lau Lapides: Me Anne Ganguzza: oh, I've Lau Lapides: too. Anne Ganguzza: got a face for radio kind of thing. Lau Lapides: No. Anne Ganguzza: Gone are those days. People Lau Lapides: No. Anne Ganguzza: want to connect with people, guys. Lau Lapides: Yeah. Anne Ganguzza: They just do. Lau Lapides: And the more real you are, the better. I don't think Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: they're looking for a supermodel. They're Anne Ganguzza: No, Lau Lapides: not looking Anne Ganguzza: no. Lau Lapides: for an untouchable. They're looking for someone who looks like them that's doing incredible and miraculous things. Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: That's what they're looking Anne Ganguzza: yeah, Lau Lapides: at, you know. So I think that that's fantastic. And Anne Ganguzza: yeah. Lau Lapides: so, you know, your website is you and it's changeable and it's manageable Anne Ganguzza: Yeah. Lau Lapides: and you can shift it. It's not written in stone. It's Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, Lau Lapides: a work. Anne Ganguzza: as you Lau Lapides: It's Anne Ganguzza: evolve, Lau Lapides: a work in progress. Anne Ganguzza: as you evolve, your website evolves. So guys, bosses, get that website. And really, it is an important, really start thinking about it. It is an important part of your business, super important part of your business. So, Law, thank you again for an amazing discussion. I could Lau Lapides: incredible. Anne Ganguzza: go on and on and on about websites. But we do want to let you guys listen to our next episode. We're going to have you consume all of our episodes. And so I am going to ask you, bosses, if you have a local nonprofit that's close to your heart, do you ever wish that you could do more to help them? Well, you certainly can. Visit 100VoicesWhoCare.org to learn how. And big shout out to our sponsor, IPDTL. We love them, IPDTL. You too can connect and network like bosses. Find out more at IPDTL.com. Law, I love you. Lau Lapides: I love Anne Ganguzza: That's Lau Lapides: you Anne Ganguzza: it. Lau Lapides: too. Anne Ganguzza: That's Lau Lapides: I Anne Ganguzza: all, Lau Lapides: love Anne Ganguzza: bosses. Lau Lapides: everything about you. Anne Ganguzza: And bosses, we love you too. So we hope you'll join us next week and you guys have an amazing week We'll talk to you soon. Lau Lapides: Talk Anne Ganguzza: Bye Lau Lapides: to you soon.

In part 2 of our Mythbusters series, we delve deep into why investing in a professional demo producer and voice coach makes a significant difference in your VO success. We highlight the essence of genre proficiency, self-direction, and social media, and why it's a better choice to develop these skills with professional guidance rather than attempting to do it yourself. We also dive into the nitty-gritty of essential voiceover artist's tools, shedding light on the need for a quality home recording set-up and a good noise floor over splurging on an expensive microphone.  0:00:01 - Intro It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a VEO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza  0:00:20 - Anne Hey, hey everyone, welcome to the VEO Boss podcast and the real boss series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, along with my real boss co -host, Mr. Tom Dheere. Hey, tom, welcome to the show.  0:00:32 - TOm Hello Ann, Thanks for having me back.  0:00:34 - Anne Oh, Tom, we had the best episode last week on mythbusters busting the myths about voiceover and telling the real truth. So we did part one, we're back for part two, and boy do we have a lot of great stuff to talk about. Yeah, I would like to start off with oh gosh, it's just such a big topic these days Social media and voice seekers. Is it going to get us work by posting on social media, Tom? What do you think?  0:01:05 - TOm Okay, there's like 15 qualifiers I gotta have when I'm gonna say this. I hear you. So at the beginning, I'm gonna say that, for the most part, voice seekers are paying absolutely no attention to anything that any of us are doing on social media. Now, with that in mind, that's a very broad brush stroke and for the most part, they are not paying attention to your hey listen, check out this explainer video I just did. Aren't I awesome? They're not paying attention to any of that stuff. For the most part, if a voice seeker is vetting you via your social media presence, it's to either see if you're an NDA violator, to see if you're a client basher oh, can you believe this stupid sentence they made me pronounce, which I see every day on social media or if you're some form of political or religious whack job that has the potential to damage their reputation. Yes, exactly.  0:01:58 - Anne Oh, absolutely, tom. And I'm gonna say, first of all, why don't we step back and say how do you engage on social media? Like, for me, it's all about entertainment, right? Yes, at this point there's so much out there. If I'm going to social media, it's going to be looking for an influencer that might be showing me about the brand that I'm interested in. I might be looking at clothes or makeup or curling irons and I want to find out how they work and if they work great.  Now, I'm not saying that a voice actor can't be on social media and demonstrate that you have a great voice. However, I think that whole direct sale method which doesn't work for voiceover, right, whenever it's supposed to be sellier or an answery also pertains to social media. So that means just provide entertainment and as a hashtag maybe, or in the notes maybe, throw in that you're a voice actor, because people buy from people they know, like and trust, and that, I think, is what you use social media for and so entertain people, give them something of value, and then they'll pay attention and then maybe they'll say, oh, you know what she's got? A great voice. I love her personality. I bet you sound great doing this campaign.  0:03:07 - TOm Yeah, so there's my social media presence as a voice actor and there's my social media presence as the video strategist. So, putting the video strategist over there, which is a different animal, as a voice actor, I feel that my job is to just to demonstrate my humanity.  I like that because I always tell my students be a good human, collect good humans, demonstrate your humanity online, which has a lot of virtue on multiple fronts. Well, one right now and this is something we could talk about is that I think more and more voice aegers are going to look to see that, when someone submits an audition, that they're actually not an AI, that they're an actual human being.  0:03:39 - Anne Oh, I agree.  0:03:39 - TOm So looking around and going okay, this person is a human. Okay, cool. Yeah, that's a small percentage, but I think that percentage will grow.  0:03:45 - Anne That's how I've met my clients actually right and are they real? Now see, I've got another idea for an episode. It's like have you ever not gotten paid right? Well, I've met my clients in a lot of ways and that's one way make sure they're human. I might actually pick up a phone. Just saying I might pick up a phone to see if there's a human on the other end of it.  0:04:02 - TOm Right. So demonstrating my humanity as a voice actor is just people work with people that they like people work with people that they trust people work with people that aren't putting on airs.  0:04:14 - Anne And are authentic.  0:04:15 - TOm Yeah, so I'm a geek. I like comic books. I talk about comic books and superheroes. I like comic book movies and stuff. So a lot of my content is talking about that. I live in New York City, I walk around New York City with my wife, I take pictures of interesting things I see in New York City and, yes, I do occasionally do a social media post pertaining to some voiceover work that I've done, but it's never about me. It's always about the product or the service, the client or whatever. So, for example, I got a one voice award nomination. Didn't win, but that's okay. I was in honor to be nominated about it's a public service announcement I did for the Humane Society of America that talked about the 4000 Beagles they rescued from that lab in Virginia last year.  This PSA announced that all 4000 Beagles got adopted, so I got cast to do that and what I said in social media is that I have owned two Beagles. I'm a dog lover, I've owned two Beagles, so being given the honor and privilege of narrating that spot meant a lot for me as Tom Dheere human being Not about don't I sound wonderful in this and I got engagement through that. I got positive responses through both voice seekers and fellow voice actors, and just friends and family that are also following me on social media. So that's a way to do it.  0:05:32 - Anne I think it just is not one of those things where you're going to create an ad that says, hey, I'm a voice actor, let me voice your copy and then run that out on social media. It doesn't work that way. I think there's more of the relationship. I mean. To me, social media has become all about relationship building and really just entertainment, because we are just inundated with content and chaos, online material, and so I think, for me, I go to social media to kind of just get away from it all in a way, and I seek out those things that entertain me or provide value for what I'm looking for.  Again, for me, I'm a big shopper, I'm a big online shopper, so now I'm looking for influencers and I'm looking for video of influencers, and I will say that my example of somebody who's so effective at really creating business for himself is Stefan Johnson, who does a series on TikTok and Instagram where he talks about food and he does like food reviews and he's funny as hell and just the fact that he's entertaining he's funny as hell.  He's got maybe that hashtag voice actor. Everybody has come to know and love him because he's sent thousands of videos and he's got like a billion followers, and so, yes, that works amazingly well. And, tom, I know that we had discussed this earlier, but let's say you are the voice in a video game or the voice of a national brand, and the other thing, you want to make sure that you are on social media, that you're being careful that you're not, like crazy, bashing other people or doing something that would risk the brand integrity of the company that you work for. I mean, one of those famous cases back in the day when I think the first thing was, oh gosh, it was the Aflac. Was that the Aflac commercial?  the duck and people that just in a minute you can ruin a brand by saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing on social media. So I think you have to be very careful.  0:07:27 - TOm I'll give you a name. Dropy example, because I'm very excited about it, is that in a few weeks the Inspector Gadget video game releases and I am Inspector Gadget.  0:07:35 - Anne Yeah, you congrats which.  0:07:36 - TOm I'm very thank you. I'm very excited about that and I had been talking to my business.  0:07:40 - Anne You are such an Inspector Gadget, I can totally, totally see that Go go Gadget roller skates. Well cast, well cast.  0:07:48 - TOm Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and so, as I was trying to plot out a marketing campaign, I quickly realized it's not a good idea, because I don't want to interfere with the brand that is, inspector gadget and I don't want to interfere with the video game production company that did it and I don't want to cause any potential issues with my manager got me that audition that cast me so I will piggyback retweet.  Yes, yes, absolutely, whatever they do very smart and say, and again, it won't be about me, it'll be. I watched inspector gadget when I was a kid and it was such an honor to be able to be the voice of a character that I loved listening.  0:08:29 - Anne Tom, that's so awesome. I'm so happy for you. I mean thank you. They don't call you the strategist for nothing. I'm just saying that's a really wise strategy to retreat, retreat. Well, it is a treat reacts now, I think yeah, reax what is it?  0:08:42 - TOm yeah, what is that? Or?  0:08:43 - Anne thread, re, thread it forward, that repost, all that stuff is really wonderful, okay. So now I've got another myth. Okay, that I hear all the time. Okay, coaches and demo producers, can we just make our own demos? Can we just DIY? I can do it. You don't have to spend all the money. Don't fall prey to the predators and look full disclaimer here. I am a coach and I am a demo producer, so we are talking about this. However, I do want to address that you know a lot of people Will be crucified for doing their own demo. I can certainly throw in my opinion as to why. I think maybe that's for some people, maybe that's okay, but I'm gonna say the vast majority. There's a good reason why we are out here producing demos right.  0:09:28 - TOm So most of the time when a person decides they're gonna record their own demos because they can't afford to hire somebody to do yes Percentage of those it's out of just arrogance. I can just do this myself. I'll just go in my bathroom and close the door and just do it, and I will have no training and I will be recording in a not good environment and I'm just gonna direct myself because I can do this.  0:09:49 - Anne Yeah, I have the technology.  0:09:54 - TOm This is what I tell my students and when I do speaking engagements and conferences. The virtue of a demo producer is the virtue of a demo producer like an Is not necessarily the finished product of the shiny demo in your hand. I think it's three things. Number one and or other quality demo producers is going to teach you genre proficiency, how to narrate e-learning as opposed to video games, as opposed to audio books as opposed to medical. So what muscles do you need to flex to be able to do this particular genre well? And there are always tips and tricks and nuances and subtleties for every genre, and an experience coach and demo producer like and can teach you that.  The second thing and this is a big reason why you shouldn't record your own is what I call ism detection. Everybody has their own ism. Some people talk fast, some people talk slow, some people upward and flex, some downward and flex. Some have regionalism and has not your ears so she can hear your isms, identify your isms, talk to you about why do you have those isms and is it a problem that you need to eliminate? Is it something that you need to learn how to toggle on and off like a switch, or is it something that you can use to enhance your performance and possibly enhance your brand. Sure, good demo coach like and, can do that.  And the third one is the art and science of self direction. Yes, oh yes, you have to learn how to self direct. It is practically impossible to teach yourself how to self direct in a vacuum. Yeah, and and other quality demo producers can teach you how to do that. So it's not the finished product, it's all the things that you learn. That gets you to that finished product or makes working with a demo producer important.  save your money, be patient. That's another thing, ann, about most voice actors coming into the industry is that they are distressingly impatient and they make big mistakes by spending all this money on products and services and coaches that will not move their voiceover business for because they're so desperate to do it.  0:11:51 - Anne Or I'm going to say they come in and they don't have any money to spend and I don't look. I'm not here to shame people who are financially you know what I mean looking for a new resource or revenue stream. But like in any good business, tom and I say this over and over again you do have to invest, and one of the reasons why you would save to make an investment, tom, you said everything so eloquently and so well that really you don't have ears yet, and so while technically you may be able to go, even if you had a nice studio and you bought the best equipment and you have a good sound and you're a musician right and you have the capability to put things together, you know the software you don't necessarily have the ear and you don't necessarily have the experience or understand what content is driving this demo. How are you telling that story? How is that being put together to really showcase your acting in its very best light?  Because if you're new to the industry, you don't know right, you don't know what that is yet, and it's hard for you to hear that or have an ear for that, and so that's one of the best reasons to hire a professional. It's kind of like look, I worked in technology and I worked in computers and running our computer department and I did a website for years for the school district that I worked for. But do I make pretty websites? I know functionally what I want to do, but I cannot do the graphics. It's not what I was trained to do and so, therefore, hire somebody that's trained and then that's what they do all day, every day.  They work in the industry. They know what's trending, they know what's current, and that's why it really helps to have a vetted coach and demo producer, not just one that's going to take your money and give you a demo after a weekend. Again, that's the big misnomer is that I can do a couple of sessions and then get a great demo after a weekend. Well, if you've not spent any time actually studying and practicing to be a professional voiceover actor, you really don't have any business making a demo, because that demo, as Cliff Zelman always likes to say I always like to quote Cliff is a promise right that you're going to be able to recreate that sound any given day or night when you're being requested to. And so, if? Well, I guess if you do your own, you could probably reproduce that sound, but still I feel like without the coaching you're not going to be able to get to the sound. That is probably what most clients want without the work without the work involved.  right, you got to spend more than four hours of your life on voiceover to be professional, right, I'm just saying Nobody thinks they can pick up a violin immediately and start playing at a concert level.  0:14:25 - TOm But everybody that has an interesting voice thinks they can start doing voiceovers professionally immediately.  0:14:30 - Anne And the other thing is self-study right, like coaching. Like you can buy these online workshops and programs and I'm all for online education. I have a VO peeps group. I have my own introduction to voiceover kind of web series. I know, tom, you've got videos that you sell and I'm not saying that you cannot do that to just buy that and learn voiceover on your own. However, I'm going to say there's great value in having a coach, work with you one-on-one, so that they can really assess your voice vocally, brand your voice and have that set of ears that can tell you oh I hear this regionalism here. Oh, I hear this, I don't believe you. I need you to make that script more believable. So there's a lot to be said for having a valuable extra set of ears on the other end of that and to help coach you through the things that you don't know yet.  0:15:18 - Tom Yeah.  0:15:19 - Anne All right, and speaking of which, when we want to sell ourselves, right Tom, there's something called a website which, for most people, most of my students, is like an afterthought. They're like, oh yeah, I got to get a website. Well, I can make my own website. I can do a template on, I don't know, weebly or Wix or whatever that is. What are your?  0:15:36 - TOm thoughts. Well, it's funny because people have these assumptions coming into the industry I need an agent, I need to join the union and for many of them, it's I need a website, or it's I don't need a website because I'm going to get a big honking agent immediately and they'll just do all the work for me. The problem is is that most voice actors don't understand why they need a website.  0:15:59 - Anne And why a voice actor needs a website is for a couple of reasons.  0:16:03 - TOm One is for just credibility. Just so if someone looks you up or if you market to them and there's a website to go to, it's like, oh okay, this is a human, possibly, hopefully, human being, and here's their website and here's their demos and here's their verbiage and there's a picture of them maybe or not, or a little about page or something, or something like that, and it's like, oh okay, this is who they are. So credibility is one thing. And then, if they get that website, there's another myth, which is people are going to find me through my website. They're just going to look stuff up on Google, bing, yahoo or whatever and find you. And that is, 99% of the time, patently false, because there are literally tens of thousands of voiceover websites out there. So your job as a voice actor is to build the website and then drive traffic to the website through your direct and indirect marketing strategy.  0:16:55 - Anne And make it functional so that people can actually find you, contact you and hire you and pay you. Yes, that's it, yes, and to that end your website.  0:17:05 - TOm The most important thing that your website needs to do is one thing have downloadable demos.  0:17:10 - Anne Yes, I'm the big believer in first impressions Really make a difference.  You know, if I go to a website and I feel like, oh God, this is just like every other website I've seen, and it's a little bit like antiquated or if I cannot access the information I need right away and functionally be able to navigate it easily, and also it has to be pleasant to look at For me. I mean, gosh, I worked in technology for so many years and I actually ran the web servers Back in the day. I knew Jumala and I used to put content into our websites, but I certainly am not a graphic designer by design at all. I mean, I didn't go to school for it. I know what I like, I know what looks pretty, and so for me to think that I could make it look beautiful, I'm gonna hire somebody that does that as a full-time gig and that I believe first impressions are everything, because when I go to a website, it immediately establishes an idea of the brand right, of who I'm dealing with, who I'm talking to. They're human, like you said, and I get a sense of who they are, and it also gives me a sense of trust. Will I trust this person to click the button to pay them or click the button to contact them? And that's what I want Because, again, I'm a big online shopper just saying God, people are gonna have this idea about me, but all I do?  I mean, gosh, the pandemic didn't help at all, right? So all I did was click, click, click, bye, bye, bye, because we weren't going anywhere, right? So online shopping is a big thing for people. And again, convenience, and also like, okay, should I? What do I feel about this product? How do I feel about this product? Is it good? Am I gonna buy something that's worth it, that's gonna be worth my money, and that is something that your website is a showcase of your brand, your value, your worth. And if you don't wanna invest in that, in that look, in that first impression, well, you might be losing business.  0:18:59 - TOm Right. Everything, ann, you said is 1,000% correct and I'm gonna give all you VO bosses out there a little bit of a break. So think about this the vast majority of the work that you're gonna get when you're early in your voiceover career is online casting sites. Right, you join online casting sites, you do auditions, which is short term. It's not short term because I'm still on them, but I'm saying is it's the easiest way to get casting opportunities is through online casting sites. While you are developing your auditioning abilities, your rate negotiation abilities, your DAW abilities, your project management skills on online casting sites, you can start with a Wix or a Weebly or a Squarespace free site. For starters, this is a basic, basic landing page and as you are slowly building your direct and indirect marketing skills, and evolving your brand and your brand and your portfolio.  Now you can start to take those gigs that you've booked, the brand that you have developed and slowly layer and build that website. So this isn't something that you should feel pressure to have perfectly right out of the gate, because once you get that shiny demo in your hand, you probably have no idea what your brand is and you have no idea what the industry is going to say to you I thought I needed to do commercials when I started the industry and then I found out that my niche is primarily e-learning, so it's okay.  Start with a basic website Wix and Weebly, squarespace, whatever and then, as you are developing yourself, do everything that Ann just said to get your website to a point. When you are ready to really hit the ground with direct and indirect marketing strategies and driving traffic to your website, it will be ready.  0:20:39 - Anne Yeah, totally agree, totally agree. And people always say, well, should I do my website? I'm just beginning voiceover. I always say it's a good idea to start thinking about it because a website evolves over time. I mean it's not like you're going to have a perfect website overnight. God, if I were to show you pictures of my initial websites, whew mine is the worst. And how it's evolved.  0:20:57 - TOm You know the Internet Archive. You can go to Internet Archive. Yes, yes, yes, yes, once in a while for fun, I'll go and look at mine, because tomdeercom was first created 2002. So my website is 20, it's going to be 21 years old in a couple of weeks and it is a dumpster fire.  0:21:11 - Anne I had a microphone. I had a microphone as a logo, of course, with a flourishy thing coming out of it, and I'm not saying hey look some people have microphones for logos or built into the logo. I'm not bashing it, but it was. Every other website that was a voice actor had that microphone.  And yeah but that's okay. I mean, we learn, we evolve, and we evolve along with our brand. So, yes, all right, here's another one, and the last one I think that we'll have time for, and that is I need a 416. I need a U87. I need a TLM 103. I need really good equipment. Now I am speaking on a 416, but I will tell you that it took me 10 years to get that. So do I need great equipment, especially now because everybody says, since the pandemic, our home studios have to be like perfect, we have to have good sound for our additions, otherwise we may not get cast. What are your thoughts, tom?  0:21:59 - TOm I think it's a parallel between developing that website and developing your home recording setup. I started home recording in 2006 and I'm only on my third microphone.  0:22:09 - Anne Oh my God, me too. Oh my God, oh my God, really that is crazy.  0:22:12 - TOm Wow, that's so weird, okay, okay.  0:22:14 - Anne Wow, at2020, rode NT1A and then TLM 103 and then 416.  0:22:20 - TOm My first one was a Samson something I don't even remember what it was. And then my second one. It's an AKG perception 420. It's in my closet because it's my backup mic. And then my third mic is the 416 I'm talking to right now, which I got this in 2016. So I've had this microphone for about seven and a half years. Yeah, so I worked up to it. It's crazy, because you can't spend too much money on a microphone. You want to spend $10,000 on a microphone. You can, but how many people?  0:22:50 - Anne need that no.  0:22:50 - TOm You can start with just a basic functional microphone.  0:22:54 - Anne I have recommendations on my video strategy, just your page.  0:22:56 - TOm And I know Ann has recommendations, so I suggest you check out both of them to check out some options, because there's a price range. But the other side of that is that, yes, when a voice seeker is listening to your audition, they're not just listening to your performance, they're listening to your home recording setup, because almost 90, almost 100% of the time these days you're going to be booking your gigs at home, so it's important to have a good sounding studio.  It's important to have a good standing, but your microphone is not as important as the treatment of where the microphone is, because if you buy a microphone, that's too good upfront and you have a lousy recording environment it's going to pick up every single flaw in your setup.  0:23:39 - Anne I like how you really specified that, because I completely agree with you. Your environment, I think is, even is the most important.  0:23:45 - TOm Absolutely, because your microphone is only as good or bad as the environment that the microphone is in.  0:23:50 - Anne So that could take a little pressure off you so invest in that first is what I said, because then you can get a cheap microphone and it'll sound great for the most part. Well, maybe not complete, but it'll sound a whole lot better. It'll work.  0:24:02 - TOm The output will be more comparable, because all you really need is just clean audio with a decent noise floor, no major buzzes or hums. And also, you know, on a sidebar, don't worry about EQ processing, mastering and all that stuff. I don't know what you do for your signal chain and stuff, ann, but I have almost nothing on mine. My clients want raw audio.  0:24:25 - Anne I have an Apollo and literally and just my 416.  0:24:29 - TOm Yeah, I got my 416 and my Mo2, m2 and that's it no crazy stuff.  0:24:33 - Anne I mean, I do have a stack. I think it's important to have you know a stack that you can run to kind of clean up your audio a little bit.  0:24:39 - TOm I do too.  0:24:40 - Anne But yeah, I mean absolutely. But I will say that in this studio, right, I love my studio, Tim Tippets, love, love, love, love my studio.  Custom built by Tim, custom built by Tim. I literally could bring any mic I have. As a matter of fact, I have a USB AT2020 in here that I use for other applications because it only works with a USB mic. It sounds great in here and so, like I'm saying, is that you don't want to have a completely cheap mic? I mean you can tell the difference, but I will say that it took me almost 10 years before I worked up to a TNL103, but I had to have the environment first and then I could hear the actual difference between my NT1A, which was great, which worked for me for six years. I made a lot of money with that microphone in a decent environment, and that's a really reasonable priced mic, as well as your audio interface, which I'm not a big fan of. The Scarlett Focusrite just because for a while they had cheap components, they were introducing hissing and weird noises. I love the UR22, it's 169 bucks.  0:25:40 - TOm That's the Steinberg.  0:25:41 - Anne The Steinberg yeah.  0:25:42 - TOm Yeah, I had the UR12, it was great.  0:25:44 - Anne It worked for years and then I just upgraded to an Apollo, which I love it, but it's also flighty and a little bit it's a little bit flighty with my operating system, but that's okay. I mean I love it. But I think that you can absolutely get away with a reasonably priced microphone, as long as your environment is good and other equipment.  0:26:03 - TOm Right, and as you get more work, you will be reinvesting in your training, you'll be reinvesting in your website and you'll be reinvesting in your gear and specifically your microphone. So, it's okay to start with a cost-effective microphone. You'll get better once down the road.  0:26:15 - Anne Absolutely, absolutely Well. And then, once you do have I've traded right you have a good microphone. It lasts for years. Like gosh, I've had my 416 for I don't know how many years and it goes traveling with me too. I mean, I pull it out, it goes traveling for years, so it's not like you need a new microphone every year, although if you're a tech geek, I mean.  0:26:35 - TOm Well, some people collect microphones just because it's fun, and if you wanna do that, you can afford it.  0:26:38 - Anne great it's like me, I have lipstick color clothes, boots, shoes, handbags. Yeah, I need the new handbag. I need the new mic.  0:26:45 - TOm You need two. Yeah, you need one to talk into and you need a backup in case something horrible happens Exactly backup's great, Some have more than one if there's genre reasons, but the majority of people only really need one microphone and then have one as a backup in case something goes wrong.  0:26:59 - Anne All right, I love this conversation, tom. Thank you again for busting the mists via bosses. Don't believe everything you hear and come to the source. Come to the real boss source. And that's with Tom and I for this series. You guys, as individuals, you can have a big impact, and as a group, you can have even more of an impact and contribute to the growth of our communities in ways never before possible. Find out more at 100voiceshoocareorg to learn how and big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl you too can connect and network like bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing week, be real and we'll see you next week. Bye.  0:27:44 - OUtro Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, ann Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom 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.  Transcribed by https://podium.page