Archives for February 2025

o, we’re live at the MAVO 2018 Conference on Sunday, towards the end, and I’m joined by Celia Siegel. Tell me about your business, and what brings you to a conference like this.
You know, I came here to talk about my favorite thing, branding. So I did a talk on branding, and how to use that to catapult your business as sort of a superpower, an extra thing on top of all of your other talents, how much it can put you on the map, voice over-wise. And then I’m doing a breakout session today with a group of 12 people, and we’re really going to dig in and try to really nail down each individual’s brand through some exercises that I do, and listening to people’s demos, and we’re going to workshop it as a group.
And people will walk away with a really good sense of how to platform themselves and talk about themselves.
Great. Now, what sessions have you attended other than your own? Have you gone into any rooms and poked your head in?
What’s impressed you so far?
Oh my gosh, everybody’s been so great. So I’ve never been to MAVO. It’s my first MAVO, so I was so excited Val asked me to come, and I didn’t know much about it.
Everything I’ve been to has been amazing. It’s very, a lot of great animation stuff here. So, Kari Wahlgren, it’s been so fun to meet her.
She’s actually at the agency that I worked at when I was in Los Angeles. So we just missed each other. So we have a lot of people in common, and she’s just fabulous and so giving.
All of the talent here are raving about how much she’s connecting with everybody and really sharing and giving. Sarah Sherman’s been a wealth of information from the casting director perspective. And they did something together from the talent perspective, casting director perspective.
I just came out of Rachel Naylor’s session on networking, and I feel personally jazzed. I love coming to these things as an entrepreneur just to learn for myself and get filled up for myself in my business. So hers was amazing.
I showed my schedule in front of me. I’ve been doing tons of great stuff and great talent here. People are sponging it up.
So what would you say is your biggest takeaway now that we’re two-thirds of the way through the conference? Well, I’ll give you an example. I just had JJ Surma here talking about it, and we talked about how the down-to-earthness of the presenters is so evident that people are really willing to share what they’ve learned and not in an aggressive way.
They’re really willing to have that communal aspect. That’s what I’ve been impressed with, and JJ thought that as well.
Yeah, no, I would agree. It’s a small conference, which I’ve been so excited. And I love the big, busy conferences are so exciting and stimulating, and you’re bouncing.
And I was like, oh, 104 people. I’m gonna get to meet everybody, talk to everybody. And it does, it feels like a really casual sort of cocktail party, office party, where everybody is connecting.
So there is a really nice, even plane. And the sessions are small. So yeah, it seems like everybody is talking to the presenters, and everybody’s being really sharing.
Johnny Heller last night was just saying, you know, I’m here to work. I want to connect with people, and give people what they came for. So yes, I would agree with that.
Yeah, I like that feeling as well. We both been to Rio Atlanta, and sometimes you get to the bed at night, or sometimes the next morning, and you think, it’s like Vegas. Your head is spinning, or WobbleCon right now is going on.
But here, I actually went home last night because I live nearby Baltimore, as we talked about, and brought my kids back for the program with Sarah.
Oh, fun!
Yeah, they’re having a great time. But I got home and fell right to sleep, and it was like a normal night, which sometimes is just nice.
Yeah, no, it’s got space between things, but you’re not bored. So there’s like a just enough, it’s a just about right. Now I feel the same way.
It’s fun to be overstimulated after talking to 700 people in a day, but it feels like your own wedding. I got like 45 seconds with everybody. So yeah, this has been great.
Tell our listeners where they can find you if they want to hire you for their branding.
Great. So I have a website, celiasiegel.com, and I have examples of a lot of the branding work that I’ve done, testimonials from people who’ve worked with me. And yeah, my email’s there.
You can connect. I do a free 15-minute consultation. I can help just kind of comb over your current branding, or if you’ve got questions about the business or branding or what that might mean to you, totally look me up and we can pop you in my calendar.
All right. Well, thanks so much for joining us and enjoy the rest of the show. Thank you.

We are back live on Sunday morning at MAVO 2018, and we are joined by Armin Hierstetter, first thing, and Ken is here as well. How are you, Armin?
Hi Paul, hi Ken. I’m great, thanks for having me.
So tell us why you come to a conference like MAVO.
I’m always looking forward to be interviewed by people like you, that’s why I’m here. No kidding. No, Val asked me if I would like to do a talk on MAVO, would like to get a sponsor for MAVO 2018.
And I thought, yeah, that’s a nice thing. And just to find out a week later that another conference booked exactly the same weekend, which I kind of…
Really? I hadn’t heard that.
Yeah, I haven’t heard of it either afterwards. No, what a shame, but it’s a different story. No, and of course, always connecting to the talent is very, very important.
There are many talents that are just about to start their career and to put them on the right tracks and to see what they’re up to, what their problems and issues are, how they approach online casting, and to teach them what to do, what to avoid in the online casting world. Again, inspiration from the vets. So many things why I always love to come here.
And I can get away of Europe for a few days, and then I use it as a little breakaway from the usual day-to-day business.
That’s great. So you’re here representing Vidalgo, obviously. Tell us how Vidalgo can benefit from the attendees at the conference, or how you can benefit the talent that’s here.
Well, the talents that have no clue about the online casting world whatsoever, because they’re just starting, for them it’s good to know, okay, how does online casting work, and what to do, and the tips and tricks in my talk that I gave about the online casting. So they can benefit from them. New talents, or talents, aspiring talents, can also learn how to use technology like Boudalga Call, where you can have a session over the internet in hi-fi quality, and you don’t have to pay for it, because it’s completely for free.
And still the people don’t use it, oh god, don’t.
I don’t understand that, it’s a phenomenal service, I really do not understand why people are…
I think it has to do with, because it’s also connected to Boudalga, studios might have an issue with, they don’t want to have their clients looking at a voice over casting website, because then the clients might not go to the studio anymore that is doing the session, but maybe casting the voices directly themselves on Boudalga. So it could alienate some people from using it, because it’s also an online casting service. But anyway, it works nice and…
You actually tried to help with that by offering a matchmaking service yourself, you still offer that?
I was trying to explain to Talens, if they are approached by somebody else that need a voice, and the Talens themselves cannot fulfill that role, they should tell their clients, well, use Boudalga, because it doesn’t hurt them. And if everybody does that, well, then there are much more jobs on Boudalga, which is kind of the ethical online casting website, and they’re not going to anybody like Fiverr, BDC, and so it’s good for everybody. But people did not really respond well to that, and maybe I was not selling it the right way.
Possibly not, because we couldn’t remember the name of it just now. Did it have an actual name? Was there a name for the service?
No, there was no name for the service. It was kind of like integrated in Boudalga, but I dropped it.
I see. So…
From a voice-seeker’s perspective, what is Boudalga to me? Does it cost me money if I have voice work and I want to find talent to do that? I’m just curious what the experience is from the other side.
The voice, the client doesn’t pay a dime. Of course he has to pay the winning talent, that’s for sure, but there is no commission to be paid to Boudalga. There is no premium membership fee that they would need to pay.
They just go on the website, post their job, and get the auditions in, and they select the voice, and it’s all very, very direct and transparent because the client can talk to the talent directly. Directly via email or whatever contact information the talent gave to the client. And I do that because in my opinion, the talent, the winning talent, owns this client.
And when the client, and they should build a relationship, so next time, let’s say Paul here does a job for BMW, and BMW was really, really happy. Well, next time they need the next spot or the next e-learning or whatever they need, they think, oh, Paul did a great job. Let’s not bother posting the job with Vidalgo.
Let’s contact Paul directly and say, hey Paul, are you up for the next job? And I think this is how it should work.
And it does, because I’ve had repeat…
Oh yeah, it happens all the time. And then people, of course, come to me and say, yeah, but Armin, then you have to constantly get new clients on board because the existing clients might give the jobs to the talents they already know. And that is true to some point, but they need a bigger variety of voices.
So if they then need a girl, with all due respect, Paul, you can’t do a girl’s voice. So they will post a job.
So it’s Sunday morning, we’re almost finished with the conference. Is there anything you’re still looking forward to?
I am definitely looking forward to the session of Joe Cipriano about promo. It’s a beginner’s session. I don’t want to go into promo, but I finally want to see Joe Cipriano showing how he approaches promo work.
And I’m really very much looking forward to that. Maybe giving a few of the girls running around here some hugs, and then I’m off home back to Germany.
Well, thanks for joining us this morning. Safe travels back home, and we’ll talk soon.
We’ll talk soon. Ken, Paul, thanks for having me.

Welcome back to MAVO 2018. Ken and I are now joined by Brigid Reale. Hey, how’s it going?
I’m going to shake your hand, even though no one can see me shaking your hand.
So, you are representing Gravy for the Brain here this weekend, correct? Tell us a little bit about that. What brings Gravy for the Brain, and you personally, to MAVO?
So, I’ve been with Gravy for the Brain for almost, well, for about a year now. And for those who don’t know what it is, it is the online educational and small business resources for voice actors. We have, I think, 20 online courses that people can get that give them the basics of voice over technique, home studio, things like that.
We have over 200 hours of content in webinars and VO mentoring. We do four webinars a month. One that is a voice over genre technique specific.
One that is studio tech. One that is business and marketing. And one that’s a wild card.
We do one Q&A, live mentoring a week. Again, two VO, one home studio tech, and one business and marketing. And all of that is uploaded onto our site.
We also have a CRM. We have contracts and templates for people. We have a career profile website, which you don’t have to be a member for, and everyone should have, because that puts you into our VO talent finder.
I call it the snapshot resume. So even, like, we all have websites, but on this, you put your up to six demos, your bio, your agents, all your contact information. You can break down all of your credits into on camera, off camera, singing, VO, and you can get into genre-specific VO, add your links, things like that.
That goes into the talent finder, but you can also put a footer in your signature or on your website, and if somebody hits it, it automatically pops it up, and when you look at it, it really does look like a snapshot resume. That’s really cool. You don’t have to be a member for that, so that’s free regardless.
So, we just like to share the love, and there’s so much information out there, and we’re just really trying to guide people and help them feel like they have some sort of a success and some sort of a path that they can follow to kind of get them up and running and get their businesses thriving.
So.
You gave your first presentation this morning, right? I gave my first live presentation. I did this webinar, the Beginner’s Roundtable, for Gravy for the Brain about five months ago, I think.
And it seemed to go over really well. And Val asked if we could do something else in addition to Hugh’s amazing presentation the other day. And Hugh said, hey, would you want to do it?
And I said, sure. Actually, I think originally he asked me to do something different, and I was like, no. And then he said, we do the Beginner’s Roundtable?
So that was a lot of fun.
I forgot about great reviews.
Yeah?
I was not able to attend because I was bringing the little guys down the Beltway, but I heard great things.
Good, I’m glad to hear that. I hope so. I hope it was valuable to people.
I mean, I tell people all the time, I’m not a coach, I’m not a mentor. I’m a voice actor, and I’ve been doing this for five years. So now my job is to send the elevator back down for the next person who’s coming up.
I’m trying to help people out, you know?
It’s a great analogy, paying it back.
Yeah, exactly. Pay it back, pay it forward, help the next person out.
So what’s your biggest takeaway from the weekend? Either as a presenter or as just a attendee wandering around poking your head in the rooms. Oh my gosh.
Biggest takeaway. I mean, I love coming to these events, and I’ve been very fortunate, especially with Grammy for the Brain, to be able to hit a lot of the events in the last year, like all the big ones, all the major ones. And I really love the intimacy of the smaller events.
Like this is, by comparison, smaller. So I like the connection. You know, I always like the connection.
Oh, I’m gonna walk away from this interview and there’s gonna be some major takeaway that I’m gonna go flying like, wait, I need this.
Well, IPDTL it in sometime.
There you go, yeah. Oh, Tom Deere. So I went to Tom Deere’s session last night on time management and money management.
And he said, time management is choice management. And I loved that. It was the first time I really had a chance to meet him.
But it’s so true. Because anybody who knows, I mean, I’m Fast Bunny and I am like all over the place. I really should be almost called Squirrel because I’m like, ADD kicks in real easy.
And it’s true. I mean, we can all get so lost in our distractions, right? So being able to recognize that, call that out, and say, it’s not a matter of your time management.
It’s your choice management.
Yeah, another way he described it in his earlier session was impulse control. But no, I don’t need to watch this cartoon right now. I should be focusing on marketing.
Yeah, exactly.
Being an adult.
As much as I love social media, and anybody who knows me knows I love to be on social media. It’s like, no, I don’t need to post another thing on Instagram right now. I really don’t.
I don’t need to come up with another hashtag. I need to be focusing on my marketing. I need to be focusing on my auditions, or that project, or whatever, the next chapter of my e-learning project, or whatever the case may be.
Well, Brigid, thanks for being here today, talking to us, and being at the conference in general, and representing Brave for the Brain. We really appreciate it.
Absolutely. You guys can have me back anytime. I’d love to hang and talk with you guys.
It’s gonna be awesome. Cool.

So welcome back live to The VO Meter here at MAVO 2018. I am with Dan Friedman. How are you doing, Dan?
I’m great, how are you?
I am fantastic. So tell us what, or tell me, I’m the only host right now. Tell me what brings you to a conference like this.
What brings me to a conference like this? Well, the people being, basically, as I always say, there’s only two kinds of people that spend their lives in dark padded rooms talking to themselves, and we’re the kinds you want to be around. So for me, it’s really just to get out there with colleagues and friends and just enjoy myself.
And here, besides doing my own thing and representing my own company, Sound 4 VO, I’m here with Sennheiser Microphones, and they provided all the PA systems for the rooms. So I’m here setting those up and making sure everybody has what they need and just kind of making it happen.
And we thank you for being here, and thanks Sennheiser for being the equipment provider again.
They are awesome.
Indeed. I use the Sennheiser Microphones myself. Yes, absolutely.
So what have you experienced so far? Have you been in any sessions? Have you poked your head into any of the rooms?
I’ve poked my head in here and there. So a little bit of Tom Deere doing the business stuff, Celia Siegel who is just always amazing with her branding stuff. And of course the opening session this morning.
And it’s all been great. Just totally a good time as always.
So you might have seen during Hugh’s session he had people raise their hand if it was their first time at a conference. As an engineer, what would you say is most important for someone just starting out to get from a conference like this?
Reaching out to people. Don’t be afraid to talk to anybody here that is mentoring. You know, we’re here because we want to be a part of the community and to help everybody and just make it better for everybody.
And if people are reluctant to reach out to us and talk to us, then they aren’t going to experience the full effect of what we are here to help them do.
And that’s really succeeding their career and also to just help the industry in general.
It’s so crazy right now as an industry.
So this is just a really great opportunity to learn how to do it right. Okay, great. And as a vet, someone who’s been here maybe to the conference before or they’ve been to other conferences.
What’s a good way to approach a conference as a vetting? Well, again, it’s really connecting, I think, with the other people.
All of us have our strengths and our weaknesses. So I know for me, even though I’ve been in this business 20 years, I’m always ready to learn from somebody else. I never think that I know everything.
There’s always something that one of my colleagues and friends has to offer that maybe I just… maybe it’s a weakness for me, either the business side or something like that. So I’m always excited to talk to them and to also see how they’ve developed over time.
Because a lot of us that I’ve been going to conferences now for probably at least 10 years maybe, to see how they’ve grown too in their own businesses. So it’s exciting, I think, for all of us to really kind of come up together in a lot of ways.
That’s awesome. So as you may know or may not know, we’re unapologetic gear heads. Sean Daeley, my normal host, who wasn’t able to join us here today.
We actually have a segment called Questionable Gear Purchase because we’re always buying things we don’t need.
Yeah.
So tell me some of your favorite pieces of equipment right now from Home Studio.
Yeah, absolutely. So my favorite interfaces are the Steinberg interfaces. I think that they are just super high quality, the preamps are really good, and they’re not terribly expensive.
So if you’re looking for a real good entry level interface especially that’s really simple to use, then the Steinberg interfaces I think are fantastic. I mean, I would be completely remiss if I didn’t mention Universal Audio as well. I know for those of us who are more advanced doing production and things like that, I love my Universal Audio Apollo Twin, obviously Sennheiser, everything.
I think the Sennheiser MK4 mic in particular, if you’re looking for a really good lower cost microphone that is as good as just about anything else out there, the Sennheiser MK4 cannot be beat.
I think it’s one of the best microphones in its price range available today.
So that’s the kind of stuff that I’m definitely excited about.
Cool. Well, I use an Apollo Twin at home. And right now we’re using an AGO6, which has the same Steinberg preamps.
And it’s fantastic. That’s what you’re hearing us on right now. And I have used an MK4.
I’m curious, have you ever tried the digital MK4?
I have, actually.
What are your feelings on that? I did a shootout with a bunch of digital mics, or USB microphones, and the Sennheiser MK4 digital beat them all, as far as I’m concerned.
It’s the closest thing to an XLR quality microphone that’s out there. To me, I’m not a big general advocate of USB mics in general, because I think they limit your flexibility more than anything. And typically, at least in my experience, the ones that I’ve had experience with, they just tend to not sound as good as the XLR type mics that we’ve been using for decades.
But the MK4 Digital, it’s as close as they come, and it’s just a fantastic microphone, both the digital model and the XLR model.
That’s great. All right, so the conference is about halfway done now, maybe a little bit less. What are you looking forward to the rest of the day and tomorrow?
Well, I’ll be doing a class tonight, so I’ll be leading that, and that’s always really fun for me to direct talent and to have them read some scripts, and hopefully they’ll learn a few things along the way. So I’m really looking forward to that. Kari will be talking here in just a bit.
I don’t actually know her that well, so I’m actually excited to get to know her a little bit by listening to her talk, and yeah, just continuing on with what we’re doing. Everybody’s just so wonderful, and yeah, I just love being here. Awesome.
So, thanks for being here and talking to us live. Where can folks find you if they want to hire you either as an engineer or a talent?
Absolutely. sound4vo.com. Dan at sound4vo.com.
That’s sound, the number four, VO. And yeah, please reach out. I do demo production, I’m a coach, I’m obviously a voice actor as well, and you know, just whatever you need, I’m here for you, and if you want, you can get a book, too.
Alright, well thanks, Dan. Good to see you.
My pleasure. Thanks so much.

Welcome back to MAVO 2018 on The VO Meter, and I’m now joined by Stanley or Stan Fisher. How are you doing, Stan?
I’m good, man, I’m having fun today.
Awesome. So tell me what brings you to MAVO, or what are you doing at a conference like this?
I do audio production on top of voice work, and one of the things I created a couple years ago during a transition in my life was called My Demo Dude, where I had, at the time, was doing a lot of demo work for a couple people in the industry, a couple companies, and I wanted to get away from that and just focus on my own control over how we were creating that content. And the bigger reason I did it is because I love the creative conversation, I love working with other artists, and I found more value there to sit with someone and serve their life by helping them create a portfolio that was going to serve their career, and maybe, along the way, build a healthy relationship with that person. And from there, I’ve scaled it back even more, where if the relationship isn’t right, then I won’t touch that either.
I want to make sure that on all ends of the spectrum, the experience is amazing for both of us. So I’m not a mass production house. This is not my meat and potatoes.
I do not live off of this. It’s just a sub-brand to what I do on a daily basis.
Awesome. I’m curious, because I know you’re based in my hometown of Baltimore. How is that as a home base for production in VO?
It actually has increased my workload because there’s not a lot of people in the area touching into it. And what a lot of people don’t know is there’s a lot of national brands out of Baltimore. A lot.
And I’ve networked recently with two or three brands that are now using my work for their companies. And I’ve also networked with a PR firm that is responsible for the creation of commercial content for 13 national brands. And I did not see that as much in the Carolinas.
They exist, but not as much as you would think. And so doing my research, a lot of the reason these national companies are in the area is because they were established in the early 1900s. And you’ve got the Inner Harbor, and you’ve got a city that’s trying to rebuild itself.
A lot of companies are coming out of the North. There’s a lot of people moving out of New York. They’re leaving New York State because of the taxes that they’re paying.
And so they’re coming a little bit more further South.
And Maryland’s that much better, really?
Well, for them…
It’s like a thing for the tax burden, too.
And it’s not as bad, though. So if you do your research, New York is pretty rough, New York State, because my family’s from there, and my uncle’s a truck driver. He spends far more in taxes to the point that he wants to leave, because it gets worse and worse each year.
And so more and more people have left those areas to come further south. And you also throw in the factor of the weather and stuff like that. Even though the weather isn’t the greatest up in the Baltimore area, it’s still better than going up further north.
And, but anyway, that’s just something I’ve noticed since I’ve been here for the last year and a half, if there was a need for the things that I do and supply to that area because of the riots, businesses that had to shut down for that particular area. And I’m right in the middle of the arts district, so Baltimore, and there’s a surgence of them recreating and breathing life into the city. And there’s a huge hole creatively for people like us to step into the equation to give clients a direct connection so they don’t have to outsource outside the city.
So bringing back to the conference, have you had a chance to attend any sessions, poke your head in for a little while?
I poke my head into Gravy for the Brain. Otherwise, I’ve been stuck at my post talking to people all day. So the Gravy for the Brain was actually a really good one.
And talking about the industry and where it’s headed and kind of where we are, I thought it was very interesting. Because I’ve heard it, but not the way that they positioned it. It was a little bit more elaborate.
Yeah, Hugh really distilled it down to manageable pieces, I would say.
Yeah, it was really good.
That we easily digest.
But I’ve been at my post most of the time talking to everyone. Because the end result that I wanted when I came here was to have very one-on-one conversations with people to continue to build trust amongst myself and the VO community. I think I have a very specific end result around that because you’ve got a lot of people that are in or around this industry that their integrity, in my opinion, may not be to that extent.
And I want to build trust with my clients and anybody I do business with. And I feel that the only way to do that is to spend quality time in that conversation.
That’s great. So tell me what you’re looking forward to the rest of the conference.
Honestly, I want to get rid of the headache that I have.
I had a nest of headache right now. Too much karaoke last night?
No, it’s not anything that I drank for the karaoke. It’s the coffee that I had this morning was just really powerful. So I just took something.
I’m hoping to get rid of it. But outside of that, I’m just being silly. I’m curious to hear more from these speakers on things that will improve my approach as a voice actor or how I do business.
What I can do when I supply an audio production for somebody, when we’re building a portfolio for someone. What can we do to angle to make their lives better? What is something that we’re not thinking?
Where is it headed that we can be more innovative in what we create to get a better reach in their marketing plan so they see a higher return on investment? You never know when someone says something that there’s something that we can tack on to or change or evolve that becomes more functional in what we’re trying to create every single day.
That’s great. Well, speaking of sessions, Kari Walgon is about to do her keynote address. Yeah, man.
We should probably get to that. But thanks for joining us, Dan.
Thank you so much, man. Thank you, I appreciate it.

Okay, we’re back live at Mavo 2018 with Anna and Joseph Stefano, who just got done the first ever kids program. So guys, what did you think of that?
Well, it was very long. It was pretty fun, though. We got to do a lot of script reading, and we did a table read, and we were able to criticize each other’s performances.
I should know that they’re both eating mince right now from the room, so if they don’t sound like they’re doing professional voiceover work, that’s why. All right, so Joseph, what did you think of the session?
I think it was really cool, and I learned a lot. I thought I did really well, but then the teachers like, try to do this, try to do this, so I learned a lot from that.
So you tried it, and then Sarah told you how to do it a little bit differently?
Yes.
Yeah, well, that’s how the job works for the most part. So hopefully we’ll do more of that. Any other things that you thought were cool, Anna, or were hard?
Yeah, I liked it a lot. I thought it would be more like just, you know, talking like I do at home. But it was a cartoon thing, so it was a lot like the drama camp.
It was kind of like a play, because at the end, we got scripts, and we got to read through them and do a table read. So I liked that. And I liked how we could give feedback on the person reading their lines and everything.
You liked giving other people feedback?
No, pretty much everybody gave feedback on every line that I said.
So do you guys think you could do cartoons?
With a lot more help?
I think I could. Just might need a little more help.
All right. Well, great job, guys. I’m glad you were able to come here and have some fun.
And we want to thank Val for setting up the kids program and Sarah Sherman for running it.