Paul Stefano

The VO Meter, Measuring Your Voice Over Progress. The VO Meter is brought to you by voiceactorwebsites.com, VocalBoot2Go, podcastdemos.com, Global Voice Acting Academy, and IPDTL. And now, your hosts, Paul Stefano and Sean Daeley.
Hi everybody, welcome to Episode 33 of the VO Meter.
Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
Today is a very special episode. No, I’m just kidding, holidays are coming up, but we are talking about the Mid-Atlantic Voice Over Conference, MAVO 2018, and our experiences there.
Well, your experiences there, I sadly was not able to attend this year, but I get to listen to all of the wonderful interviews that you and our good correspondent Ken Foster took. So, if you’re listening on the interwebs, Ken, thank you so much for being on the field for me.
Yeah, and we had a great time. Hopefully you’ve been listening to the content we’ve been releasing over the last couple of weeks. We’ve been putting out one of the full interviews each day over the last week and a half, and we have a few more to go before we release this full episode.
So hopefully you’ve been enjoying that content, and stay tuned a little bit later when we have a compilation of all the interviews we did at the show.
Awesome, I can’t wait. It’s always so much… I mean, these conventions are always such just a mind blast of just amazing VO nuggets, whether it be performance tips or home studio builds or marketing tips.
It’s just an overload of information. So luckily you recorded some of it.
And speaking of recording, we’re actually recording now using the services of our sponsor, IPDTL. If you’re not aware, IPDTL is the cost-effective ISDN replacement. It’s great for interviews, for outside broadcasts, and voice-over, recording live at conferences like we just did.
And the best part is there’s no special hardware or software required. It works anywhere with an internet connection, even in a hotel. Monthly or annual subscriptions are available, and it runs right in the Chrome web browser.
And the best thing is, it just works.
Thank you, IPDTL, for being a sponsor of our podcast. Meanwhile, current events. So like Paul said, we recently went to MAVO 2018, but we also had another exciting current event happen this week.
We’ve reached 12,000 downloads! That is amazing! Thank you all so much for listening to the podcast, for downloading, for sharing with your friends and having them download.
We really appreciate it, and we’re just so happy that so many of you are finding the podcast helpful. So keep listening. If you have any ideas or questions for future episodes, please let us know.
So just hit us up on Facebook at The VO Meter or on our website, vometer.com.
Yeah, we really do want to thank everybody for listening. As you’re fond of saying in the Mike Myers tradition as his character in Wayne’s World, we weren’t expecting a listener. So to have 12,000 is just completely humbling and overwhelming.
Absolutely. We weren’t expecting any listeners. It was truly a passion project.
So aside from the MAVO content, is there anything special you want to talk about this week in your voiceover business, Sean?
Well, let’s see. Actually, I am participating in a fun little voice acting competition by anime voice actor Chuck Huber. It’s called the Now Voice This Competition.
It’s like the third year doing it. I’ve actually made it to the quarterfinals, so I’m really happy about that.
Congratulations.
Woohoo! So if I win, they fly me out to their studio, and then I get to record an hour segment, or I get a one-hour studio recording, and then get featured in an anime. So that, like, life goal achieved.
So keeping my fingers crossed for that, I’m working on my second entry for round two, and yeah, hopefully we can make it work.
That’s really cool.
Yeah, so other than that, I got a new mic that I didn’t need, but…
Wow, that’s shocking, honestly.
Very, very shocking. I did so well for so long, and then I just found an incredible deal. You guys have heard me talking about or dreaming, fantasizing about the Gafel M930 for a very long time.
It’s basically like a TL… Excuse me, the Norman TLM103 in the body of a TLM102. It’s super, super tiny.
It fits in the palm of my hand, and it’s just an amazingly well-made, beautiful mic, and to go with it, I got the Rycote Envision USML, as pointed out by our good friend, Paul Strickverde, and it’s just… Strickverde. Do I just have to say it like that?
It gets my heart racing a little bit.
Yeah, ever since Pamela, Paul’s lovely wife, screamed that in my ear at Uncle Roy’s, I feel like I have to say it right, otherwise I feel guilty.
Oh wow, she was there too? Yeah, but what about you, Paul? I mean, pretty much other than that, it’s business as usual over here.
What about yourself?
Well, I had one of those valleys we talk about where it gets really scary because the phone’s not ringing, the emails aren’t coming in, and at least in my book I start to think about how am I going to pay the bills? And man, I’m just a hack, I have no idea what I’m doing. No one’s going to call me ever again.
But luckily, as the ebb and flow of the business goes, right after those little feelings, and then I actually landed a pretty exciting audiobook project. It’s a really popular author, an actual New York Times best-selling author named Richard Eyre. I looked up the sales figures of his previous books and was really excited when I saw this and luckily they accepted me.
So I’m pretty excited about that. It’s a royalty share book, but like I said, it being for a best-selling author, I think the prospects are good. And the interesting part about it is that it’s a simultaneous release.
And if you don’t know what that means, it’s where the print version of the book is not out yet. And they want to release the print and the audio version at the same time. So it’s actually a really tight deadline, and that scared me a bit, but once I read through the book and then contacted my trusty editing pal Andrew Bates, we decided we probably can pull it off.
I only have 34 days to do it, so with the holidays mixed in, it’s going to be interesting, but pretty confident we can get it done. So I’m really excited about how that’s going to go. And it just goes to show that when you have those valleys, if you hang in there and show some perseverance, it’ll all come back around eventually.
It’s always darkest before done. Very nice. I’m very happy for you, buddy.
Thank you.
Very cool.
So, we’re going to get to the fabulous content we have from MAVO 2018. But before that, we need to tell you about our sponsor Vocal Booth to Go. So, Vocal Booth to Go, as you may know by now, sells patented acoustic blankets that are an effective alternative to expensive soundproofing.
They’re often used by vocal and voiceover professionals, engineers and studios, as an affordable soundproofing solution. They make your environment quieter for less. Now, they were actually featured at MAVO by me because I was demoing their products for a lot of people.
It was kind of funny because I had the booth set up and I had the VOMO that I brought that they provided, the Voice Over Mobile Unit, to record the actual content from the show. And then I had some business cards of theirs, too. And what I found was that most people wanted to know about Vocal Booth To Go.
They weren’t asking me any questions about the podcast.
They were asking me for prices. Well, I’m sure, I mean, like, you kind of had a confusing appearance for them, I’m sure. Like, everyone was like, what is this podcast?
I thought you were a rep.
Yeah, in fairness, you’re right. It was a little confusing. But since they’ve been so good to us as a sponsor, I was happy to help with them as well.
And I know all the products. I knew the prices. I knew how to get them.
I knew where the company is. And since this was a local show, conference in the Mid-Atlantic, I was able to tell people exactly how close it was to where they lived and it worked out pretty well for both of us.
Man, Vocaboot to Go has no idea like the gold mine they found in Yupo.
I think they did. That’s why they supplied me with all the stuff and sent me down there and said, you guys take care of it, because they were there in 2016.
Hmm, very cool. No, absolutely. I thought, hey, save them money.
They didn’t have to have any other people out there. It’s good business.
Yeah, it was funny, though. Because then people from the conference, like the staff, our friend Bob Johnson, who is actually one of the interviews we did, he was sending people over and said, just go talk to Paul. He’ll tell you all about Vocaboot to Go.
So up next, we have a very special VO Meter Schtick. It’s the Door Prize winner from MAVO 2018, Doug Schuetz.
Hey, everybody, it’s time for the VO Meter Schtick.
What did he say?
It’s time for the VO… Oh, never mind.
The VO Meter Schtick?
Oh, got it. All right, welcome to the VO Meter Schtick, featuring our door prize winner from MAVO 2018, Doug Schuetz. How you doing, Doug?
Fine, I never win anything.
You know, I always say that too, and then I couldn’t have pulled that off at MAVO because I won something, and then both of my kids did too, so that was right out the window.
That’s amazing. We were sitting at a table, and we all won something. There’s like four of us, and there was one guy there who hadn’t won anything yet, and I said, it’s your time, it’s karma, and you’re gonna get it.
It’s gonna happen, and it didn’t happen, so I was really bummed. And it was really from the other corner, opposite corner from us, won their table. So that was pretty interesting, I don’t know.
I don’t know, so hey, cosmic justice here.
Very cool.
I was keeping my fingers crossed to win this, let me tell you.
Well, who wouldn’t be?
I know, there’s so much pedigree and fuzzazz.
Right, and I think this is my first podcast interview talkie thing, this is great.
Very cool, so why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, Doug, and why were you at MAVO?
Well, I was at MAVO, one, because I liked to attend something once a year. I went to Atlanta, I think, a couple years ago, but moving recently from Chicago to the Raleigh area to be closer to some family and grandchild, actually. And this was perfect, I kind of found it.
No, they had some great people on it, it was great. I got to be doing a little training with Johnny Heller and he was there and got to check out and Nailer was there and it was just great. So I wanted to get there and meet people that were closer to me and it was fun.
It was really a lot of fun. It was like right in my backyard. And it was small, too.
That’s what I really enjoyed about it. Compared to like Atlanta, which I guess has gotten huge. So nothing bad about that.
But it’s like the San Diego Comic Con of VO Cons pretty much. It’s pretty big.
Yeah, exactly. I know. And so I hope it gets bigger.
But she, you know, I was talking to her and she does keep it small. She puts a cap on it, which surprised me.
So yeah, it’s really to keep that intimacy. Like you said, and yeah, you can definitely feel the difference because when we took that picture at the end, for instance, you could look around and realize you had met probably everybody with the exception of maybe one or two people.
Right, right, exactly. I mean, I felt either I was better at, which I’m pretty good at meeting people I don’t know, but at Atlanta, it was a little daunting. And that was two years ago.
So I hate to be trashing them, but I mean, it was just easier, right? I think I met everybody, you know, I came across more people. I knew more people and felt comfortable about milling around than ever, than any other show I’ve been to.
Let’s put it that way.
Very nice. I mean, it’s just, like you said, it’s a very different experience. So like you might like the larger con experience, you might like the smaller one.
So, and like you said, it’s just so easy. Like there’s no distance between you and the other attendees. It’s only a couple of rooms, like chances are you’re gonna bump into someone.
Exactly, exactly.
As if you’re stalking them.
You’re not waiting. Yeah, you know what, you’re right. You know how you get those big ones and you’re kind of like, I really wanna talk, I don’t know, to Johnny Heller, but he’s got these six people deep and you’re kind of waiting there.
And this was much, much easier. I mean, it was much easier to approach people and you felt comfortable about it. And it was fun sort of not to be the newbie, you know?
Yeah, totally, totally.
I told everybody the things I screwed up on, but in my thing, but it was great to see, I said it was fun to help people and that’s what it’s all about, you know? And so I focused mostly on audio books. I do a lot of different things.
I narrate some stuff for the PGA and that kind of thing, but I’m really trying to get my audio book kind of corner together and it’s a little disorganized right now and I’m trying to fix that.
Did you go to Johnny Sessions?
Yeah, I went to two of the three and he’s a lot of fun. This is what I like about this industry and it was apparent at MAVO that everybody’s really nice.
Or pretending to be.
And that’s okay, I’m an actor, I can pretend to be nice too, but that’s what was great about it was… You can go to Scott Brick and talk to him, super nice guy. Johnny Heller, super nice guy.
Rachel Naylor, wonderful lady. It’s just really fun and every so… Let me help you.
Here, call me later or here’s the guy you need to talk to or no, yeah, call me up later. And it’s great. I mean, in actors, it’s kind of like you stand around and go, I have this secret place where I get all these acting jobs.
I really don’t want to share it with you.
It’s almost like we talked about this with… I can’t remember who it was. You have to listen back to the other content, but there’s somebody I mentioned it to.
It’s almost like you’re thinking, they have to be punking me, if you know that term. They can’t actually be seriously giving me the places where they find jobs.
Yeah, that came out a couple of times. Because we’re in Washington, DC., there’s a big government place where they need a lot of narration, voiceover stuff.
It’s a little tough to get in, but I had no idea. And people go, oh yeah, this is my bread and butter. Then I do this stuff, and I try to have some fun.
But yeah, that’s what’s funny about it.
So Doug, tell us, what was your biggest takeaway from the conference? Something you can put into action, or maybe you’ve already put into action, because it’s been a week and a half now.
Yeah, don’t make me laugh. No, I put it into action. I’ve gotten a couple things from Tom Deere that I’ve looked at.
I was trying to find a CRM that I could put stuff into. I keep finding them, and then I don’t do them because they’re so freaking complicated. And I’m not that stupid, but apparently I am.
I found a CRM that he mentioned, Close, C-L-O-Z-E, that works on your phone, works on your computer. I said, okay, I’ve got to implement this and get this to happen.
We were talking a little bit about, so now you’ve got all of this great information, you’ve got all of these tips and potential ideas for marketing your business. What are your goals for this year? What are you going to do with all that gold and knowledge?
Oh, my God. I can’t put this on tape. Then I’ll have to do it.
Yeah, I’m making you accountable.
Oh, God, you’re accountable. Everybody’s going to ask me now, how’s it going? No, what I want to accomplish this year is I’m going to get all my audio book samples, et cetera, up to, you know, the best they can be through professional guidance from folks I know.
And, you know, get my AHAB directory OK. I want to register with all the… My goal is to register with all the main book narration places and set up my marketing and my CRM so I can execute, you know, reminders and, hey, you know, I just did this sample.
Go listen to it. No, keep a system in which, you know, Tom Deere is just, you know, horribly organized about. And so it’s…
And get that all set and I’m going to go to APAC in May and, you know, the big publishers thing in New York for audio books and get my act together in that direction. And I think that’s enough for me right now.
Very cool. It sounds like a really kind of getting your ducks in a row kind of year. And like you said, preparing for those opportunities when they come up.
So I think you’ve got a great plan on… You’ve got a good head on your shoulders. You’ve got a good plan in place to stick to it.
And remember, there’s still lots of things, like you can still continue to grow your business in other ways while you try and reach for these plans.
Right, right.
Doug, thanks for being on The VO Meter today. We’re happy to have you on as our door prize winner from Mid-Atlantic Voice Over Conference 2018. And good luck with the rest of your VO year and beyond.
Tell us where folks can find you if they do want to hire you.
Well, yeah, if they want to find me, they could find me at www.dougschuetz, and Schuetz is spelled S-C-H-U-E-T-Z-V-O, so it’s dougschuetzVO, doug at dougschuetzvo.com.
Awesome. Thanks again, Doug, and we’ll talk to you soon.
Well, thank you so much, Doug, for being a guest on our podcast, and congratulations on winning our raffle. Speaking of podcasts, I’d like to thank our good friend and sponsor Tim Page of podcastdemos.com. Tim’s team has produced over 1,000 podcast intros for some of the biggest podcasts on the planet.
Each demo includes custom-written scripts and hand-selected music, and is guaranteed to showcase your voice and talent in the best light possible. With a finger on the pulse of what podcast producers want, you can be sure your podcast demo will sound professional, current, and competitive. And we’ve talked about this before, but Tim actually produced Paul’s and my podcast demos, and all we can say is that he and his team are fricking amazing.
His script writer created original scripts that were perfect for my voice and personality, as well as reflective of current popular podcast genres. I recorded in the comfort of my own home studio, and Tim worked his mastering magic. The whole process only took a couple of days, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result.
Tim is a consummate pro and so easy to work with, so thank you again, Tim, and podcastdemos.com.
So we’re gonna get to our fabulous MAVO content in just a second, right after a word from the GVAA.
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Because you like to have fun.
Hi everybody, we’re live from the Mid-Atlantic Voice Over Conference, MAVO 2018, with a very special episode of The VO Meter.
Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
I’m joined live, trying to fill in for Sean, but probably not as well as Sean could do, hopefully, by Ken Foster.
I’m gonna try my best.
So, Sean, we’re here at the conference, and last time it was you and I here, and we sort of winged it. Actually, we had this presentation to do a little bit later. Ken’s gonna join me on stage, or maybe just in front of a table, and I’m going to talk about how we really were sort of launching the podcast show when we came to the conference last time, and I’m gonna credit the conference with giving us the confidence to keep going forward, because I never thought anyone would talk to us, let alone some of the guests they had at the conference in 2016.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I find that people, everyone wants to feel like a celebrity, and nothing makes you feel more like one than being interviewed, both the presenters and the attendees. But you’re absolutely right.
I feel like that really is where we kind of hit our stride and kind of solidified our idea with what we were trying to accomplish with the podcast, with just trying to be genuine and helpful for people like where we’re at in before and after.
Yeah, it was really great. We got to talk to Nicola Richards, Sunday Muse, among others. Who am I missing?
Like you said, it was Jason Lanier-White and Sunday Muse and lovely Nicola Richards. And I believe Sunday and Nicola are gonna be there, are both there this year, right?
They are as well. So that brings up a good point. Ken, who are you most excited to meet or talk to?
Kari Waldron. I’m signed up for her breakout session. I’m really excited about that.
Joe Cipriano.
Nice.
Seeing Herb Moore again, that’s always inspiring for me.
And for people who don’t know who Herb Moore is, could you tell us a little bit more about that, Ken?
He is an animator on Disney Animation, and usually his session involves him creating some kind of a visual and people kind of chiming in with different voices and characters that they would take to bring that character to life. It’s a lot of fun.
Yeah, it’s really cool to think about it from an animator’s perspective.
Yeah, it’s an angle you probably wouldn’t think of, but obviously that’s where our work is going. Sometimes in reverse order, sometimes the voice is first, sometimes the animation is first, but if you’re working in animation, it’s good to know where your voice is being used and how.
Well, speaking of alternative insights, I know that Sarah Jane Sherman, Casting Director for projects like Disney and Warner Brothers, is going to be there again this year. She’s actually one of our new animation coaches over at GVAA, Global Voice Acting Academy. And so if you’re at MAVO, definitely go to her workshops, just listen to her say hi.
She’s an amazingly talented director, and hopefully you can do a session with her. She’s really great.
Yeah, I’m excited about that because I’m actually bringing my kids to the special kids program on Sunday, and they get to work with Sarah all day.
That’s awesome. That’s so cool. So I think now is as good as time as any to talk about how to sort of approach being at a voice over conference because a lot of people are curious about it.
They don’t know if it’s a worthwhile investment or not. Is it okay if you’re a complete beginner? Do you really need to have some experience?
So what do you guys think? What do you think is the overall ROI or return on investment ongoing to a conference like this?
Well, I can start. For me, it’s all about the people. The reason we’re doing this right now is because I met Ken at MAVO 2016.
So did I.
That’s true. I think I knew him from social media, but when I walked in and saw the purple hair, I was like, hey, I know that guy.
So did I.
He walked up and had a chat, and now two years later, he’s here helping us at MAVO 2018. So, and that’s not the only person I met at that day that sort of helped me solidify the relationships I had. But for me, that’s really what it’s all about is meeting the people and learning more about them, not only for their business, but personally, and getting to hang out with them and sort of peel back that veil that hangs over the relationship of social media and getting to know somebody in real life.
Absolutely, I would agree. It’s about the people and about the handshakes you make and the conversations you have. Making yourself available, being open, being social.
The ROI may not be as tangible because you’re meeting peers and you’re establishing initial contact with people face to face instead of online through a like or a friend request. So you’re gonna put a face with a name, shake a hand, maybe share a drink and have a conversation about something that’s not voice over.
I’m so glad that you brought that up, Ken, that it’s not necessarily a tangible or a financial return on investment because you don’t go to these things to get hired. Like it’s much more about professional development and networking with the people in the field that you are pursuing or want to pursue. And like, so like I said, you don’t want to go there with the mindset of like, here’s my business card, hire me, please.
Because you’re talking to your colleagues, not voice casters, right? These are fellow talent, not casters of talent. But even then, if you make a good impression, if you build strong connections, it might come back to help you in other ways.
Like fellow talent might refer you to a project that they’re not appropriate for, but they think you’d be a great fit for. Or any number of other things can happen, like you might start a podcast with someone you met at a conference. I don’t know.
I think what you’ll find is the returns are not immediately tangible, but you’ll see them down the line, especially if you stick with the business and you have staying power in the business. For instance, that same MAVO 2016, I met Jason White because I stuck a microphone in his face and we interviewed him. But then I did some coaching with him later on that year and found out that I really could do some character work.
And then what I found out was that I started to get opportunities from these people. I’ve received auditions from Sarah, I’ve received auditions from Jason because I made that relationship, even though it was two years ago, because we maintain that relationship, those opportunities present themselves and it all bears fruit down the line. You have to keep that in mind.
You’re not gonna see anything probably tomorrow. No one’s gonna call you on Monday and say, hey, remember we met 24 hours ago, I have a job for you. But it’ll bear fruit down the line.
And that’s wonderful. I remember two years ago, you actually taught me, like, man, I never thought I could do character work. You were just like, ah, audio book, narration, maybe commercial, but not character.
So I mean, it’s great. It really is a great way to experience different facets of voiceover that you might not be familiar with or not realize that you’re interested in. And so that kind of segueing from that, it really is a great place for beginner talent, I think, because it’s just a wonderful way to experience so many different things about the voiceover industry and to learn so much about it.
Yeah, like 500 or more might sound like a large investment, but considering how much you could be spending on training and equipment and setting up a home studio and all this other stuff, it might be a more worthwhile investment for you, even if you use that to realize that voiceover is not for you.
You can’t ask for a better way to get started if you are a beginner here at MAVO. We have Dan Friedman who can help you set up your studio, Tom Deere who can tell you how to market your business, as well as Celia Siegel.
Brigid Reel is doing the Veal for Newbies thing on Sunday morning, so that’s targeted right into that pocket.
It really is a place of good karma and just positivity and support of, nobody is judging anyone there and keeping like the presenters are all professionals, but they understand that the people who come to these are at varying levels of their career or maybe are not even officially professional voice talent yet. So, and they’re completely, like they’re so down to earth and they’re so like approachable, so you really should. And I know a lot of voice actors tend to be introverts, I know I am, but you really have to challenge yourself to break out of your shell a little bit.
And, cause I mean, this is your tribe, man. These are all kindred spirits. And even if you’re not talking about voice over, you’re sure, like, I mean, I have made dozens of like fast, lifelong friends from these kind of events.
So really, I can’t stress enough, you get out what you put in. So come from a place of giving when you attend.
Exactly, and speaking of great atmospheres, a couple people are blowing up my phone about not being at the bar. So Ken and I are gonna skedaddle and get down and mingle with some of the people and get ready for tomorrow.
I hate you guys so much.
So we’ll see everybody tomorrow morning when we get started with the presentations and the panels, and we’ll have another talk then.
All right, bye guys. Have a wonderful time, you two. Ken, thank you so much for contributing to our podcast.
And everyone else, have a wonderful day.
Okay, so welcome back to the floor here live at MAVO 2018. I’m now joined by Tom Deere. Tom, how’s it going so far?
It’s going good, man, how are you?
I am well. So I sat in your session this morning. Tell me what you’re looking to get out of a conference like this when you come to present.
I come to spare people of all the things that I screwed up. I really do, I really believe in that. The voiceover industry has been so good to me for such a long time.
I would not be a successful voice talent or coach without the amazing community of voice talent that have guided me and helped me and advised me and gave me hugs when I need them and smacks on the butt when I need them. So what I want to get out of it is knowing that I have been able to even just help one person avoid one mistake or to help one person look at themselves in a slightly different way, to be a little bit more forgiving of themselves because we’re all alone in these booths, we all think our problems are unique and we don’t know if we understand the industry or ourselves or what to do or what not to do or how often to do it or am I doing this right, am I doing this wrong, but if I can help validate or affirm even one person to help them know that they deserve to be successful, they’re on the right track, they’re gonna make mistakes, we all make mistakes, I make mistakes all the time and I’ve been doing this for a long time. If they realize that and they are just that much more set up for success, then I feel like that my time and my presence here has been worth it.
That’s great. I really resonated with that this morning when you said about your most popular response to your blog is when you talk about your screw ups and I found the exact same thing to be true. My most popular Instagram post, even though I haven’t done that many, was when I posted where I got rejected for an audition at 7.05 in the morning from Chicago.
7.05 Eastern Time, which means it was 6.05 there and I was so bad that the program director got back to me that quickly and said, no, no thanks. And that was hugely popular on Instagram.
It’s funny like that, isn’t it? Well, like I said in the class, we admire people for their flaws, not their virtues. And when you say, I made this mistake, especially someone like me or Johnny Heller or Joe Cipriani who’s been doing this forever, when we share, this is how I blew it, people can identify with that and they go, okay, so I’m not the only person.
They are not perfect.
Johnny Heller had a first audiobook, 700 audiobooks later. He did the first one and I bet you it wasn’t perfect.
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 the transition of 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 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.
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 ding for the tax burden, too.
Yeah, 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. But anyway, that’s just something I’ve noticed since I’ve been here for the last year and a half, that 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, the 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, welcome back live to MAVO 2018. We’re here with Rachel Naylor from The Voice Over Network. Tell me about your experience so far at the conference.
It’s been fantastic, so thank you for having me on to start with. And yeah, it’s lovely to be here. Really, really excited to be back in the States and to be at this wonderful conference, which is, Val’s done an amazing job.
It’s really, really great and lots of lovely people, so yeah.
I agree. So when you target your appearance at a conference like this, what are you hoping to get out of it?
When I come to things like this, I want to meet as many people in the industry. I want to help inspire people. And I love seeing people at the beginning of their journey and watching them grow and watching their careers flourish.
And yeah, the Voice Over Network, which is the company that I founded and that I run, is all about helping, supporting, and strengthening the voiceover industry. And it’s about bringing the industry together. Agents, producers, casting directors, voiceover artists.
From around the world. So we started in London and we’ve grown now. We have lots of members here in the States as well.
We’re going to start doing events over here. And yeah, it’s exciting.
You’re spending an awful lot of time in the state side, aren’t you?
I am, yeah. This is my third trip this year. And I love coming out here.
It’s just wonderful to come out to these events and surround yourself with other forward-thinking, proactive people in the voiceover community.
It really is a community, isn’t it? You get that feeling of camaraderie, of having somebody as your wingman, somebody by your side to go through it together. It’s really fantastic.
Definitely, definitely. And it’s very unique. I don’t think there are any other industries like the voiceover industry in terms of that sort of wonderful community.
And because we’re actors, most of us are, well, all voiceovers, I think, is acting. But it’s not the same as kind of on-screen and theatre actors who, you know, you have to think about your appearance. And there’s something lovely about voiceover artists because it’s about our personalities and successful voiceover artists.
You know, we are getting booked to interpret scripts, so you have to have quite a big personality to be able to do that. And it’s, yeah, I mean, it’s lovely, I think also because we spend a lot of time sitting on our own in a little black box talking to ourselves, that when we come to these events, you know, it’s just lovely, everybody’s so, so wonderful and share, you know, there’s a lot of sharing and a lot of kind of helping each other, so yeah, it’s wonderful.
You started out with an acting career before a voiceover.
Yes, yes I did, yeah.
What brought you to that transition?
Oh, I’m still an actor, but yeah, I mainly do voiceovers now. And I think for me, the big thing was feeling in control. I loved having a voiceover business, and I remember feeling like, also I wanted to start a family, and I could just see the structure of having a voiceover business.
Plus, the first time I got in front of a microphone, I just had that moment, you know, when I was like, I am home, this is where I’m meant to be. And I, like a lot of people, in my early days of my career, I really struggled. I mean, it was tough back then.
You had to have an agent, and I couldn’t get an agent. And I remember having to, like, make CDs and send them in the post and, you know, all that kind of stuff we don’t have these days. It’s so much easier.
And the fact that as much as you can, as long as you’ve got the kind of, the drive, you can get your own work. Whereas when I came into the industry, it was really hard to get your own work. You know, you didn’t have a home studio, you had to have an agent, and it was, I remember sort of pounding the streets, no, this is, I’m going to continue.
So I think that I’m in a good position with the Voice Over Network, because I totally understand that, I relate. And I want to share the information that wasn’t available when I started.
Welcome back live to MAVO 2018. I’m now joined by the fabulous Nicola Richards. How are you this morning?
Marvelous. How are you doing?
I am doing well. So you are a host on the opening night. Tell us what that experience was like.
First of all, I think I’m still recovering.
As am I, actually.
Well, it was a lot of fun because we hadn’t done something like that before. So to have the beginning, the intros, and then into the karaoke, it was a lot of fun. But as I said, I am still recovering.
But it was a lot of fun. A lot of singers. Yeah.
I tried to sing. I don’t know if you could call it singing.
A bit like My Sweet Caroline.
I did The Power of Love.
Yes, you did.
From Back to the Future and did not realize how high the key was. Halfway through, my voice started cracking. I had to bring it down here and completely change the song.
It was not pretty. There’s actually a video of it that I think Anna Clements tweeted out.
I think it got like… That went viral, didn’t it?
Probably. So tell me what you’ve enjoyed about the conference so far. Have you had a chance to go to any sessions?
I have, actually. This time has been really good for that because when I was here a few years ago, I was doing things at different times and it managed to see as much as I wanted to. So this time, I feel like I’ve seen most people, most of our guest speakers, and I’ve been to a couple of breakout sessions.
But for me, this conference is just… well, it’s getting inspired, so I found it massively inspiring once again. And got a few different tips.
I went to a gaming… for video games, which I’ve never sort of even looked into before, but I found that fascinating, so that could be something I would look more into maybe.
Yeah. Awesome. So, unfortunately, we’re almost done.
It’s Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon. Is there anything you’re still looking forward to this afternoon?
So, there’s a couple of things. I know Herb Moore has got a session today, and Mark Scott as well, so I’m looking forward to those. A bit more networking.
A bit more inspirational videos with people probably.
Have you done a lot of live videos here?
I’ve been doing a few. And sort of trying to get clips of people, like what’s been inspiring for them throughout the conference. It’s been quite interesting.
Lots of different answers.
So what’s your biggest takeaway? When you leave the conference, you go back… Are you going back home after this?
Back to England, and then I’m going literally a day later to Lisbon, because I’m going off on my travels again.
That sounds fun. So what’s the biggest thing you’re going to take away from the conference, you think?
I think, and this is something I’m quite passionate about anyway, but the importance of being true to yourself, especially in your voice career and things like that, because that seems to have been quite a theme. I know Kari Walgren, she spoke about that, about being authentic and genuine and following things that you are truly passionate about. I feel like I’m going to do more of that.
That’s great. I noticed that as well. Kari mentioned it, like you said.
I know Gabby Nistico mentioned it in her session. And even Joseph Riano in his promo session talked about not being all the time amped and up in the air, really amped up to do the promos that you think of that he does. He found a lot of his work recently with CBS by bringing it back and being more conversational.
Yeah, exactly. And that’s a theme that I’ll definitely, the biggest one I’ll probably take away.
Awesome. Well, thanks for being with us this morning. Thank you.
Enjoy what’s left of the show.
Thank you very much.
So welcome back to The VO Meter live at MAVO 2018. I am now joined by Mark Scott. Mark, how are you doing?
It’s been so long since we talked.
I know. It’s weird. It’s almost like we’re working together.
I missed you. But where’s Sean?
It just doesn’t feel the same.
You know, we actually thought about piping him in. We did it yesterday for a little pre-show, Ken and I did, but it’s a little difficult on the floor here. You get to wear headphones.
It would just be weird.
Yes, I understand.
So tell me about what you’re looking to get out of the conference.
You know, I love what’s going on this weekend in that I love that it’s been intentionally kept small. And it’s cool to walk down the hallway and be able to talk to people and spend a little bit of time with people. And it’s nice to have a smaller number of people in the session as well because it gives me more time to address personal questions.
You can’t always do that when there’s 50 or 60 or 100 people in your session, right? But when there’s only a dozen or 15, 20, whatever, it makes it a lot easier. So I think that’s really cool.
So I like that aspect of it.
Yeah, it’s small by design.
Yeah.
I think it really works well. This is my second year here, second year for the podcast. And just like 2016, I really love that intimate atmosphere.
You get to know everybody.
Yeah, it’s cool.
Yeah, you get to rub elbows and say hi, and you know, put your faces to names and all that.
For sure.
Much more than bigger ones, for sure.
Yeah, don’t feel like you’re getting lost in the crowd.
Yeah, so you’re doing some sessions here. Tell us about those.
Yeah, I’m doing a marketing fundamentals for voice actors. And the beautiful thing about that, actually, is once you learn the basic foundations of marketing, it really applies to anything. So, you know, it’s a really popular thing in 2018 now for people to have side hustles and stuff like that, too.
And so, not only are you going to draw value from that session in being able to step up your voice over business, but if you got something going on in the side as well, maybe some of the principles are going to apply to that. So I’m really looking forward to that session this afternoon. And then tomorrow, five essential goals for your voice over business and the one word that will kill it all, which I know I’ve done a good job on that title because a lot of people have been like, ooh.
So now, we’ll see whether that converts and they all show up for the session or not, but a lot of people are definitely intrigued by it, so I’m looking forward to that one too.
That’s awesome. So aside from your own sessions, what’s something you’re looking forward to for the rest of the conference, either today or tomorrow?
I’ll tell you what, actually. I sat in this morning on Tom Deere’s session about… Actually, we were all there….
more about the business. That should be required training. If you are going to do voice over, if you think you’re going to do voice over, his session that we sat in this morning, 100% should be a required training course for anybody before they even take the next step forward, because I think it’s one of the most overlooked aspects of it.
Voice actors tend to be creative by nature and by that side of the brain that they operate from. And so many fall short because they don’t think like a business owner and they don’t treat it like a business. And so getting that business foundation laid down before you dive in will make your life so much easier and I think it will help you grow your business a lot quicker with a lot less pain and heartache.
So I really wish that there was a way to make that required learning.
You can’t buy a microphone until…
Yeah, that’s it. We’re going to talk to all the manufacturers. Don’t sell this guy a microphone and an interface until he’s got a certificate from Tom saying, I took his course.
Tom did say he lives across the street now from the B&H headquarters. Or the B&H store in New York. He could do that.
Yeah, we got to work that out.
Stand at the revolving door and say, uh-uh.
No, not until you take this course.
Welcome back to live at MAVO 2018. We’re now joined by Lisa Leonard and Ken’s back, which is nice.
Hi, Paul.
How are you enjoying the conference so far?
Loving it. So glad I came. This is only the first day.
I’ve had, what, four sessions or so, and I feel like I’ve learned a ton already. And I’ve been doing this for a couple of decades, so I really… It’s a case where you can teach an old dog new tricks.
I’m just learning some really good, valuable, practical tools. And this is only day one, so I’m pretty happy to be here.
Have you been to this conference before?
No, I had attended other voiceover events in the past, years past, different one-day trainings as well, but this is my first MAVO.
And what was your expectations going in, or did you have any?
I talked to some people who recommended it, and they specifically mentioned the smaller group size, which appealed to me. So I am enjoying the fact that I’m seeing the same people, and already the bonding is happening, and a group of us just went to dinner together and had a great time, and I think that there’s some value in that small group dynamic.
What was your, before you came, since we’re halfway through, what was the highlight in your eyes coming here?
The expectation of what I was hoping?
Yeah, like you’re looking forward to the most, maybe a speaker or maybe a session.
Well, branding is something that I’m hearing a lot about, and I saw Celia speak years ago, Celia Siegel, and I feel that I’m at the stage now in my life where I want to get clear on my own branding so I can market myself better these days when everybody is trying to find their own niche, their own brand. So that’s what I’m hoping is really going to come out of this weekend, and I feel like I’m already off to a good start. I enjoyed Celia’s program this morning, and I’ll do the breakout with her tomorrow as well.
Excellent.
Unfair question, but what’s been your favorite thing so far?
That is totally unfair. I don’t think I can really answer that. No, but it’s so far so good.
I mean, I would be very honest and offer some valuable feedback if I feel like this was a bust or a waste of time or we just weren’t getting our needs met, but I’m very pleased so far with everything. And I’ve been speaking with a lot of experienced voice professionals as well as a lot of newbies are here, and it seems that we’re all getting value from being here. So I think that’s…
I don’t know how they’re finding something for everyone, but we’re all getting what we want. So there’s magic happening here at MAVO. MAVO magic.
So one thing that’s a highlight for me so far, the three of us are in Joseph Riano’s promo class.
Yes.
What did you think of that?
Oh, so good. Yeah, I mean, just to get mic time in front of a guy like Joe who’s so awesome, that was special. And for all of us, we all, you know, just to be working with one of the greats, it was a wonderful opportunity to get the kind of real-time feedback and to get his insights, like to just hear how he manages when he’s in a hotel room and the client needs him at, you know, all hours or two in the morning or something, and he has to wake up and sound really bright and happy and promo-y, and he does it well, and that’s just kind of a day in the life of this really famous voiceover guy.
That was kind of cool, just to see how he does it when he’s on the room.
Yeah, it was really cool that he actually brought this set up to let us execute, you know, reading promos. Instead of just talking about it, we were all doing it, and you killed it.
Oh, well, thank you.
And he directed, too, which surprised me. I mean, I guess he’s been doing it so long, he should be able to do that, but I guess I still don’t know, I should have asked him this, if it’s something he does regularly. But he was able to turn people’s performance on a dime in just a few directions, including me.
We all got something out of it.
Yeah, that was a great session.
So we’re through two days, well, if you came last night, it was mostly just partying, but we’re through the partying of the pre-show and now today. What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
Well, tomorrow, the breakout about the branding, that’s one thing, and then is on the schedule tomorrow. I’m just an open book. Whatever comes to me, whatever lessons I can learn, I’m going to be really open, soak it all in, absorb it all like a sponge.
Awesome, thanks for joining us. Glad you’re enjoying the conference. Happy to be here.
Thanks for having me.
We’ll see you tomorrow.
Okay, see you.
We’re back live at MAVO 2018 with Johnny Heller. How are you doing, Johnny?
Very well. Thanks for having me on your shindig here.
Thank you for appearing. We’re so glad to have you. Tell me, what brings you to a conference like MAVO?
Well, I’ll tell you what. I got contacted by Val Kelly, who runs this… Gosh, I can’t remember, earlier in the year, to see if I do this.
The Johnny Hillings Flynn Difference Workshop, the New England Narrative Treat. I’ve done a lot of stuff. She wanted, I guess, somebody to come out and talk about audio books, the genre for which I’m best known.
I welcome the opportunity. I love doing stuff. It’s fun to go share what you know and meet new people and give them a…
kind of open the door. There’s so many people who want to do what we do in the voice of the world. Some actually should do it, and some actually shouldn’t.
But it’s not for me to pick the wheat from the chaff, but to tell them what it’s all about and then let them take steps forward. So it’s a wonderful experience, and I enjoy hotels.
And I love the way you do it. I sat through your session in Beale, Atlanta last time, and I still use a quote I heard you say in that session about reading ahead. Somebody asked the question, do you read the book ahead?
And you said, the last person who should be surprised by the end of the book is you. I just love that quote.
Well, there’s real true stories about people who I know, I’m not going to name names, who have done books, and found out at the end that the character that they voiced with whatever accent they gave them was not the accent the author intended and the author didn’t reveal to the end.
I did that actually. One of my first audiobooks, I made that mistake before I trained with our friend Sean Pratt. It was a book about space aliens.
None of the character names were English. They were almost like Klingon. So I get to this general, and I selfishly assume it’s a man.
So I do the whole book, and then I get to Chapter 9, 9 of 10, and I see the general walks in with her troops, and I say, it’s a woman.
It ruins everything, and you simply have to redo it.
I did, yeah.
It’s a ton more work, only because you didn’t read ahead. There are other books. I did a book, Democracy’s Right and Democracy’s Mike.
There’s three books. I’ve done two so far. And I’ll tell you what, I started reading through them, and I kept on these wonderful characters.
You know, these space… It was like a Star Wars kind of thing. So you got these generals and pilots and stuff, and it begins with all the stuff about them, a huge backstory, and then they get blown up by three pages in.
Every single one. So I have all these character voices. So I realize they’re all getting killed.
I started doing any impersonation I felt like. You can have fun with it. But I had to read ahead to make sure that it’s men, women, or…
If they’re a space alien, then who cares what they sound like. But if they tell you that the guy’s Irish, you can’t be doing Scots. And you have to read the book to know that.
It’s the same as knowing the punchline to a joke. A joke with no punchline is no joke.
So you’ve had your session today. How did that go? What impressed you about the session?
Besides my personal self. I thought… I actually was really pleased that they had to bring in like 30 more chairs.
I don’t think they knew that people were really excited about audiobooks. I think audiobooks and video games are the two biggest… two fastest growth industries right now in the voiceover industry.
So being a part of that, people were really, really keen to know things. If you know a thing, and someone wants to know what you know, it’s kind of exciting. It’s like, oh my God, someone’s interested in my knowledge of cabinet making.
You know, so you share that. So they wanted to know about audiobooks.
They really loved me.
They liked me. I’m not a worthless guy. So that was kind of nice.
It was nice to see all the people who were interested, and they were absolutely interested. You know, lots of questions, lots of… You can just tell.
It was really neat. It was really a good experience.
Welcome back to MAVO 2018. We are now joined by John Florian from Voice Over Extra, who was our very first live guest on the show.
My gosh, was that in this century? When was it?
It was actually two years ago, right in this exact spot, actually where your table is now, across the hall at MAVO 2016.
You have come so fast, so far. It’s amazing. Congratulations.
I’ve got nothing to say, but we’re still fumbling like always. So this is four years for you or five years at MAVO?
I’ve been to every one.
So tell us what you’re looking for when you come to a conference like this.
What I look for is newcomers, people who are looking for answers, and well, at all levels of their career, because Voice Over Extra, it’s the online news and training resource for the voice over industry, and I want to help people, and we have something for everybody, so I want them to sign up for a free subscription mostly, and in that way, I keep in touch with them daily with new products, announcements, and then people can also sign up for our news alerts for new articles, and people have told me, they keep consistently telling me to shows like this, but I’ve helped their careers, and that just makes me feel good, so I want to meet more and more of these people.
Yeah, you’ve definitely helped our careers as well. You were kind enough to put our link to the podcast on your website, and we’ve definitely gotten a great response from that.
It’s still there, it’s still there, proudly there.
We haven’t done anything to make you drop it yet, good.
What is your goal? Let me reverse toe. What are you doing here?
My goal is to promote our podcast, to get more listeners, and expose some of the people that haven’t had as much experience to some of the things we’ve learned. Basically, the thrust of the whole podcast is to give back the knowledge we’ve learned from the kind folks like you at Voice Over Extra, all the coaches and sponsors that are here and back in 2016, and give back to the community. So help people like we’ve been helped.
We have similar intent here. That’s good. That’s like minds.
That’s very nice.
Yeah, it’s a common theme I’ve heard. I’ve heard Tom Deere in his presentation yesterday say basically the exact same thing, that he teaches because he wants to give back because of all the kindness he’s been shown over the years.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. It’s definitely a different industry than the competitive acting and some other industries that I’ve been associated with.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, very nice.
So have you had a chance to attend any sessions, and if so, what was your favorite so far?
I have attended a number of one, a number of them, and I’ve been kind of taking with the animation people. I’m not going to be doing character voices myself, but I just love the way they can just… Sunday Muse and Carrie Waldron can just kind of get into a character so quickly.
It is so fun to see the talent that they display. And of course, they’re here to share everything that they know too.
Yeah, they started on is amazing. We were just in that panel with Herb Moore, Carrie, Sarah Sherman, and Sunday. And my kids were there.
I sat behind them. They met the stars, their shows.
Yeah, and now they’re inside the session with Sarah who cast Finneas and Ferb, and they’re both on Cloud 9.
How wonderful, yeah.
So we’re almost done here, but is there anything you’re still looking forward to at the conference?
I’m looking forward to getting back home, inputting all the names that I’ve gathered here, and getting to working with people, getting to really helping them.
Well, that’s great. Thanks again for being on this morning, and enjoy the rest of the conference.
Here’s a silent handshake.
Thanks, all. Okay, everybody. So we are live at MAVO 2018 with the incomparable Joe Cipriano.
Incomparable. Thank you, Paul. I like that.
Wait, hold on. I’m just going to look that up.
Wait a minute. Thank you.
So thanks for joining us. My pleasure. My first question, and I’m thinking a lot of our listeners will have the same question.
As much as I love Val, and she does a great job, when I saw you were on the schedule, I thought, wow, they got Joe Cipriano. So tell us, what brings you to a conference like this?
Right. Well, and when we all got together last night, it was a great night last night, first evening, and they had all of us get up, the presenters to speak, and the sponsors and things like that. And what I said last night is true.
Val reached out to me over a year ago, you know. Maybe it was a year and a half ago, you know. And to put it on the schedule, and the reason why…
I love her energy, and I love what she’s doing, and I love the fact that it’s in this area in Washington, DC., and that it’s bringing kind of a big type voiceover conference, although in a smaller package, to the DC area. And for me, it’s where I started my voiceover career.
And that’s why I said to Val, listen, you got me from the letter go, you know, the word go.
You had me at hello.
Right, exactly. I started my career here in Washington, DC while working in radio. And so coming back here, I have so many great memories here.
We come here often because my wife’s family lives here. And I met my wife here in broadcasting at NBC. And we got married here.
And then together, two years after we got married, we moved to Los Angeles to pursue our voiceover, our broadcast career, her in television as a news writer, and me in radio to pay the bills, but to really now go after the type of voiceover career that I had hoped to get, and that was in network promos and things like that. So it’s great to be here because this is where it all started for me.
That’s fantastic. I knew some of those stories because I just got done listening to your fantastic audiobook.
Oh, thank you.
Living On Air. I highly recommend you download it because it’s done by Joe himself and produced by the amazing AJ. McKay.
AJ. McKay did all of the audio design on it, and it was directed by Maurice Tobias. And I asked Maurice to do it, and she agreed to do it, and I was so thrilled because I was concerned I’d never done a long form sort of thing before.
And I wanted her to be on me so that I wouldn’t fall into older habits of promo-type work, and I wanted to tell the story, and I wanted it to be more of a radio play with sound effects and original music by Greg Chun, who did some great original music. And so, yeah, it was really fun to do that. It was a thrill.
By the way, I started on my… For those of you who are into microphones and things like that, and by the way, I always say it ain’t about the mic, but I started on the 416 doing the audio book. And it was just a little too…
I wouldn’t say harsh, but it wasn’t warm enough for storytelling. So then I switched to a Neumann U87, which I’ve had forever, and I think it came out better, and it helped. I think it’s a warmer sound, and it really lends itself to storytelling.
I’ve done some books on the 416, and sometimes it works, but I found, especially a long-form book, it’s fatiguing as a listener. I was listening to a book Bob Sauer did a couple of years ago, and I’m so sorry to tell… I actually told him this, and it probably wasn’t the best choice of words, but I told him it was fatiguing on my ears, and he said, I’ve never had a problem with it before.
And he walked out in a huff.
No, he’s the second nicest guy in voiceover.
He is an awesome guy.
So did Maurice direct you in person, or did you do it remotely?
Yeah, no, we did most of it in person, and then some of it we did remotely, but most of the time she came to my home studio to do it, and then she was also on the line, AJ is in Kentucky, so she was on the line with AJ when they were doing the selects, you know, for that. I mean, it was really kind of a… it was a bigger production than it needed to be, but being the type of, you know, coming from what I come from, radio and wanting to make it sound more like a radio play, I think I needed to do that, and everybody did such a great job on it.
AJ worked endless hours on it, and that was way back in 2013, and we’ve been very good friends ever since.
I’ve heard that.
It never gets old.
We always give AJ a hard time.
I love AJ. I’ve worked with him myself. He did my last demo.
He’s a fantastic producer. So back to the conference. Have you been to any sessions yet?
Yeah, I was in this morning for Hugh Edwards’ opening. And you know, I always sit in on sessions. In fact, as I walked by you, I was just going to go in and sit.
But I always learn, whenever I come to these conferences. And one of the things I picked up from him, and I’ve heard it before, but it just reminded me of, and I was talking to my wife about it when I went back up to the room, in talking about negotiating with a buyer who wants to have something in perpetuity. And the way that he tells, teaches how to negotiate that, it’s like, okay, you can have it forever, and it’s an evergreen.
That’s going to cost this amount. Let’s say that it’s $2,500. But if you want to do a one-year usage for it, it’s going to cost you $750.
If you want two years, it’ll be $1,500. And he says, I guarantee you, they’ll look at what the evergreen is, and say, you know what, I’ll go for the one-year deal. And that’s the way it should be.
And then you calendar it, and after a year, check in with them, go, hey, how’s that video going? And yeah, it’s going well. Well, let’s talk about year two.
Let’s re-up it. Oftentimes they’ll say, you know what, we have new stuff. Let’s re-do it.
And I just think it’s those kind of things that are the business side of Voice Over that is so necessary for people who are coming in and who are already working in Voice Over, especially non-union, especially people who don’t have agents that are doing that for them. It’s so important to know the business side of that.
We’re back live on the floor at MAVO 2018. It’s Sunday, and I’m now joined by JJ Cerma.
Hey, Paul.
How are you doing this morning?
I’m going to be way better after I have this coffee, which we stocked out and now both… So, cheers. Both actually gotten ourselves to where we need to be, holding a nice cup of coffee on a Sunday morning.
Agreed. So, tell me what brings you to a conference like this. This is your first time at MAVO, right?
It is.
So, I actually met Val via email and phone a long time ago, in fact, and I take no credit for her success. Her success is all her own, but she actually sought me out. I’m the Creative Services Director of Cumulus DC, so I was a production director for local radio stations, and somehow we got connected.
She sought me out by email, and we ended up on the phone, and at the time, I think she was a French teacher, and she was…
She still is.
Yeah, she still is, okay. She had this voice, which when I heard it on the phone, kind of put her above the level of email exchanges I have with the basic question, how do I get into voiceover? Because I hear that a lot, and so I have sort of a stock answer that I give to people, and it’s a generous answer, but it’s a stock answer.
And then when I got on the phone with her, I was like, holy goodness, you do need to do animation. And it’s funny because I was actually trying to find a parking space at this school for my daughter’s dance recital, and there were no spaces. So as I drove around for like a half hour trying to wait for someone to leave so I could park and see my daughter’s dance recital, I had all this time to talk to Val.
And so we ended up on the phone for like, I don’t know, a half hour, and we had this great conversation. And then a couple years down the road, she was like, hey, I’m doing this conference. And I wasn’t in the best place with VO at the time.
I was in one of those valleys that Rachel Naylor just talked about, and I was kind of feeling negative, so I didn’t come. And Val, to her credit, had stuck with it. This event has grown, and finally I’ve gotten to be here, and I’m so excited, not only for the possibilities for myself, but for my friend, to see Val go from, hey, I’m a French teacher who wants to do animation, to putting together an awesome event like this.
I’m really happy for her.
Yeah, it really is fantastic. We were here recording in 2016, but it’s grown so exponentially, not by size because it’s designed to be small, but in stature and reputation, I think.
Well, I think it in value. You know, as someone who’s really only been to some smaller conferences, you know, sometimes the small is in the value as well. I mean, some of them are more valuable than others.
It’s just the nature of those things. And sometimes that depends on where you are in your career and also how you connect with the people that are there. But, you know, really the value of…
I can’t believe it’s only been a day and a half that I’ve been here because I’ve gotten so much information and so much encouragement and have made some great starts to a great relationship so far. It’s really, really appreciative of what she’s done and also the value of this conference.
I agree. So tell me what’s been your favorite part of either a session or something you heard on the floor?
Well, again, the relationships. And, you know, I had a great conversation the first night, just kind of… I don’t know if it’s God or the universe or whatever your belief system is, but I was in the right place at the right time to have a great conversation that really reaffirmed how I had kind of gotten through that valley that I had spoken about before.
And I didn’t really have a lot of the tools and terms to realize sort of emotionally what was going on, but I had put up a lot of resistance in my life to my own success. And now being in a position where I’m much more confident and taking responsibility for my own success, I just feel so much more encouraged. But I gotta say, the coolest thing, and you know what I’m gonna say, was being in Joseph Riano’s class yesterday and reading promo to video with him was just…
I mean, he’s a legend. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And to not have fallen on my face completely, I see as a raging success.
Welcome back to MAVO 2018. We are live with Gabby Nistico. How are you?
I’m good. How are you guys doing?
We are great. So tell us what you were expecting coming to MAVO this year.
What was I expecting?
What were you looking forward to?
Oh, gosh. So I think, you know, it’s a different group of speakers than some of the other conferences recently, so I was excited about that. Of course, Kerry is amazing, so I was like, gotta see what’s changed, at least, you know, does in the keynote.
And Herb’s here, and I really want to hear his stuff, which is coming up, I think, in like half an hour or so. Yep. He’s gonna be doing some things.
He’s on that panel tomorrow as well.
Yes, and I mean, it’s just been a great group. It’s been a very engaged bunch. I’m diggin it.
So what are you here promoting?
So I’m here on behalf of VO Boss, which is my podcast with Ann Canguzza. I know. Never, I know.
Just this tiny little thing nobody knows about us. And then, of course, my YouTube channel, Gift of Gab, and just myself as a coach and presenter and speaker and all that good stuff. I’ve got my books here with me, and it’s been a nice time.
Just getting to talk to some new people, and this is a really on-it group, very, very sharp. I was expecting, I think, more beginners, and we’ve got a nice intermediate crowd, which is really great. So we’ve been talking shop.
I think it’s probably about a third newbies or beginners I think I’m running into.
Yeah, but that’s not as much as usually. Usually it’s like twice that.
I think it might be a better educated group of newbies. Maybe thanks to you, maybe thanks to us. Who knows?
That’s pretty cool.
But I’ve talked to people who say they’re just getting started, but yet they have gone through training.
I know, that’s what I’m saying. I’m like, what? You guys are on top of it, which is amazing.
Well, it’s an investment, so I think you want to make sure you’ve got some groundwork laid before you come and spend the money and the time.
I would hope. And I feel like we’ve been saying that for years, and people are listening. It’s catching on.
I’m like, this is good, yeah.
So have you had a chance to attend any sessions yourself or at least poke your head in?
Just a couple. I caught Sunday Muse for about a half an hour. She’s amazing.
She was just thoroughly and completely entertaining. I don’t even know all of what I caught because I feel like I came in a little bit out of context on some of it, but it was great what I saw.
Was there dancing?
There was a little bit of dancing.
I attended the one she did in 2016.
Yeah, there was a lot of movement, and then Rachel Naylor, of course, I got to hear some of hers. I didn’t quite see it, but I heard it through the walls while I was presenting. And yeah, that was interesting.
I think we heard that as well, actually.
She had some people screaming, and I don’t know, there was wolf noises at one point.
It was like jungle-book, barky.
It was a whole thing. It was very animalistic. I don’t know, but everyone seemed to have a good time.
We’re two-thirds of the way through, I guess, now at this point. Would you answer the question?
I know.
It’s going fast.
No.
It’s going way too fast.
Is there anything specifically you’re looking forward to on Sunday?
Sunday, I think… No, because I hate the last day. I always hate the last day.
I don’t want to leave because my friends are here, my people, and then I have to go back to my booth all by myself.
All the teary hugs.
Yeah, so the last day always stinks. I hate that, but… There are prizes.
There are prizes. This is true. We’ll be giving some stuff away.
I donated a couple books to it. And it’s Veterans Day, so I think that’s the big thing I’m looking forward to, is thanking some vets and people who have dedicated time and service to the country. Yeah, I’m looking forward to giving them a little pat on the back.
Well, Gabby, thanks for joining us here and enjoying the rest of the conference.
Thank you.
So welcome back live to the VO Meter here at MAVO 2018. I am with Dan Freeman. How are you doing, Dan?
I’m great. How are you?
I am fantastic. So tell us what… You’re telling 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 thank Sennheiser for being the equipment provider again.
They are awesome.
Indeed. I used the Sennheiser microphone 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 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 We are 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.
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 veteran?
Well, again, it’s really connecting, I think, with the other people.
You know, 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 it’s a weakness for me, either the business side or something like that. So I’m always excited to talk to them and 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.
So 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 in 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. 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.
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.
They did something together from the talent perspective, casting director perspective. I just came out of Rachel Naylor’s session on networking. 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. 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.
What would you say is your biggest takeaway now that we’re two-thirds of the way through the conference? 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. I love the big, busy conferences are so exciting, and stimulating, and you’re bouncing, and I was like, oh, 104 people.
I’m going to get to meet everybody, talk to everybody, and it does. It feels like a really casual sort of cocktail party, you know, 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, 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 VO 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 near Baltimore, as we talked about, and brought my kids back for the program with Sarah. Yeah, they’re having a great time. But I got home and felt 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, like not… You know, it’s fun to be overstimulated after talking to 700 people in a day, but it feels like your own wedding.
Exactly.
I got like 45 seconds with everybody. So yeah, this has been great.
Welcome back to MAVO 2018. Ken and I are now joined by Bridget Meal.
I’m going to shake your hand even though no one can see me shaking your hand.
So you’re representing Gravy for the Brain here this weekend, correct?
Yes.
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 a… Well, for about a year now. And it isn’t…
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 voiceover 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 voiceover genre technique specific. One that is studio tech.
One that is business and marketing. And one that is 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. That’s awesome.
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, would you do the Beginner’s Roundtable? So that was a lot of fun.
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.
Welcome back to MAVO 2018. We are live now with Bob Johnson, who I met last time I was… No, I didn’t meet you last time, I met you just after this conference, and we said next time we have MAVO, we have to get together.
So welcome, thanks for being on.
It was 2016, and I was saying, you were at MAVO? I didn’t see you there.
Yeah, I was kind of a whirlwind that day, as I was talking about during our intro last night. It was our third episode ever, and Sean and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off because we had no earthly idea what we were doing, and just trying to get things organized. We’re a little bit better now, marginally.
So good to see you again.
This is my fourth MAVO. I’ve been here since 2014. 14, 15, did 16, and then this one.
Awesome. So, as a veteran of the conference, what are you looking to accomplish this year?
For this particular conference, it’s the level of presenters that they have. And again, from year to year, this conference just continues to grow and get bigger, both in participants, but also the presenters as well. And so, you know, getting ready to hear Orman talk about Bedalgo, to hear Gabby talk about conversational reads, to Johnny Heller in audiobooks.
I mean, across the board, whatever level you are as a voice actor or whatever genre you want, you have some element of it here at MAVO. So that’s what makes this conference great.
Yeah, I agree. I would agree that the caliber of presenters is just amazing. I sat right here with Joe Cipriano this morning.
Joe Cip, I didn’t even mention him.
I said to him, as much as I admire what Bal’s done, when I saw he was on the schedule, too, I said, what?
Right, right. It’s going to be exciting. Yeah, it just kept coming, and I’m like, wow, this is getting huge.
Uh-huh, I agree. So what have you done so far today? Have you had any sessions that you were sitting in on?
The only… I have a session coming up with Johnny Heller, and I have another one tomorrow with Johnny Heller, I think, as well. I did one with Gabby with Conversational Reads, which is always interesting.
I did one with Tom Deere today, talking about the strategy behind this, and you’re all reminded that this is a business first. And you’re always scratching down notes and saying, all right, mission plan, goals, and vision statements and that thing. But yeah, overall, yeah, it’s been great.
I’ve met a lot of people who have been here before. What struck me this year when we were talking is the number of new people here, and specific to folks in the Mid-Atlantic region. Folks that have been doing voice overs, but others who, quite frankly, haven’t done anything in the voice over world but want to come here and try to get involved in it in some way.
Yeah, I noticed that as well. This morning when Hugh Edwards at the opening sessions asked everybody how long they’ve been doing this, he said, show of hands, who’s never been to a voice over conference? And almost half the room raised their hands.
Right, yeah.
And I was amazed at the sheer amount of talent in this area, because I don’t often see it. You know, we lock ourselves in our little boxes, or you’re about to lock yourself in your new little box.
How about that, huh? I like that.
And you just don’t see those people very often, unless you’re at a conference like this.
And that’s the beauty of the conferences, is that you get out, you get to meet people, you can talk about room tone and actually have an interesting conversation about it. But at the same time, you realize, wow, you know, we’re only a few miles apart. And even if you’re half hour to an hour, DC area being maybe two hours away, you’re really not that far away from people.
So there is a good, rich community here to get together with. And it’s nice that VAL puts this stuff together for all of us to sort of come out, as opposed to, I usually do APAC as well, and that’s always a good one. And I’m doing Voice Over Atlanta this year as well.
I’ll be there as well.
All right, good.
We are back live on Sunday morning at MAVO 2018, and we are joined by Armin Hirstetter, 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.
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. Just to find out a week later that another conference booked exactly the same weekend, which I…
Really? I hadn’t heard that.
Yeah, I haven’t heard of it either afterwards. What a shame, but it’s a different story. 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 aspiring talents can also learn how to use technology like Vidalgo 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.
I don’t understand that. It’s a phenomenal service. I really do not understand why people aren’t…
I think it has to do with… Because it’s also connected to Vidalgo, 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 Vidalgo.
So it could alienate some people from using it because it’s also an online casting service. But anyway, it works nice.
You actually tried to help with that by offering a matchmaking service yourself. Do you still offer that?
I was trying to explain to Talents if they are approached by somebody else that need a voice and the Talents themselves cannot fulfill that role, they should tell their clients, well, use Vidalgo because it doesn’t hurt them. And if everybody does that, well, there are much more jobs on Vidalgo, which is kind of the ethical online casting website. And they are not going to anybody like Fiverr, VDC, and so it’s good for everybody.
Sort of a related question for Kari and Sundae. Do either of you have a home studio? And if you do, how much do you use it?
I go into auditions, I sell tape, and then as far as recording on shows, I’m in Toronto at the actual studio.
I have a home studio, but I do find that most of the work that I do ends up being out at a studio as well.
If you are more interested in promo, if you are more interested in network branding, like for radio stations and things like that, you’ve got to have a home studio. That is broadcast quality. Because with my friends I know that do promo, they’re kind of a call almost.
It’s very lucrative, but they’re on call all day long so that the second that Fox calls them and says, we need tonight at nine, that they can record that from their house and send it to them immediately. I did one radio branding campaign for a radio station in Arizona for a couple of years. And actually for me it was really stressful because the turnover was so fast and then if I was out doing three sessions during the day for animation studios, there would be this crunch to try to get that stuff to them on time.
And for people that are interested in the radio brand, 98.1 or whatever, if you’re interested in that, one of the cool things I’ve learned is that it’s about quantity, because those places will pay you, a lot of times, like a retainer fee and stuff. So a lot of people that do that, they represent like 40 different stations. So they’re just constantly, constantly, constantly doing it.
So, you know, I was the tool, I was like just doing it for one place. But it’s, in those cases, your home studio, you’ve got to be aware that that’s going to be broadcast.
That’s what they’re going to use.
Every once in a while, it’s good enough quality to use for, you know, for use on a TV commercial demo or for the radio network branding. So you just kind of have to look at what your goals are. If you’re mostly auditioning for just TV and radio, VO and animation things, just make sure that it’s audition quality.
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 note that they’re both eating mints right now from the room, so if they don’t sound like they’re doing professional voiceover work, that’s why. Alright, 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 teacher was 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 and or were hard?
Yeah, I liked it a lot. I thought it would be more like just talking like I do at home, but it was cartoon things, 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.
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.
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All right, so what did you think, Sean? That was pretty cool, huh?
It was amazing. Oh, man, I just… Last couple of weeks, I’ve just been so jealous between WOVO and MAVO and SOVAS and so many abbreviations.
Yeah, I was pretty jealous myself about SOVAS, especially the people who went straight from MAVO out there.
Oh, I know.
So, yeah, like Joe Cipriano, for instance. We talked to him at MAVO, and then I just saw pictures of them over the weekend at SOVAS.
Man, that’s so… It’s got to be exhausting going to so many cons, but it’s amazing that people at the top of their field, like Joe Cipriano or Sarah Sherman and Kari Wahlgren, are willing to be so generous with their time and make these appearances at these conventions so people can kind of help out aspiring talent or those who are aspiring to reach a new level of talent in their careers. So thank you Joe and Kari and Wahl and all of the wonderful people who put these events together and just get such dynamite guests to appear.
So thank you all so much.
Yeah, what we found was that, although it is an impressive list of characters, so to speak, that were at MAVO presenting or as sponsors, everybody sort of had the same theme when we were talking to them that they really enjoyed being part of the community, giving back to the community. Tom Deere talked about the whole reason he teaches is because he feels like he needs to give back to the community that helped him get started. And you and I have talked about how that’s the entire thrust of this show basically.
And Joe Cipriano said how he just loves being communal. He sits down and talks to people, not just during his sessions, but at lunch, at dinner, he will actually engage people and purposely dress up is something he mentioned, which I thought was pretty cool, because he wants to seem like it’s an important event. And because people have paid money or given up their time to be there, he feels like he should reciprocate by treating it as a professional event.
That’s wonderful. Making sure they get their money’s worth. And I’m sure you talked with him at the event.
Yeah, I may have mentioned his name like 27 times during the other interviews. I was being teased by AJ McKay about that because I used to get on him about doing that. And here I am saying, Hey, did you hear we talked to Joseph Brown?
I’m a friend of a friend of Joseph’s.
But for someone at that level of success, he’s so humble and so friendly and approachable and just a charming gentleman.
He actually came to lunch, sat down, and my kids were there with me because they were part of the program with Sarah Sherman, the kids’ program. I actually dragged them over to meet the kids earlier in the morning. And he came to lunch and called them both out by name and said, Hey, how was your session?
And they were kind of blown away by that because on the drive down I had said, He’s the guy that used to introduce The Simpsons. Or still does, I guess. Yeah, he still introduces The Simpsons.
Yeah, very cool.
But he wasn’t the only one who was so generous with their time. Hugh Edwards was there to do the opening ceremony, the opening session, and then flew to Vegas immediately after that to finish up at WobbleCon. So if you saw pictures of him in DC and also WobbleCon in Vegas, those weren’t cardboard cutouts.
He actually did go to both.
Now that’s commitment. That’s amazing.
And Rachel Naylor was so generous with her time. Kari, again, so approachable and easy to talk to. I met her within like five minutes of being in the hotel.
Gabby Nistico, also very friendly, talking on the floor with everybody. She was there with the Exhibers booth as well. Not with the podcast, though, because we were the official podcast partner.
Gabby’s great, though. I’ve done some radio imaging workshops with her in the past through GVA, and she’s just a hoot. I mean, she’s so much fun to work with.
Yeah, and someone else who I had a lot of fun with was Stanley Fisher. He runs the company My Demo Dude, as well as Stanley Fisher Creative. We talked to him.
That’s the interview that you probably have heard by now if you’re listening to this show. But he’s a local guy based here in Baltimore, and that was really cool to hear because there’s not a whole lot of voiceover talent or especially no demo producers that I’m aware of in this area. Stanley’s only been here for about a year, so he’s the first one I’m aware of that really produces demo specifically for voiceover in the Baltimore city area.
Excellent.
But all in all, it was a great show. We thank you for joining us through our sponsor, IPDTL, even as short as it was. That was fun.
And we want to thank Ken for being our wingman on the floor and helping out with some of the interviews.
I had this interesting moment because I reached out to Paul Stracquerda after I got the Gafel, and I was just like, for me, this is more than just an expensive mic. It’s a symbol of the level of talent and professionalism that I aspire to.
And he said, well, you’re not there yet, kiddo.
Even I was like, I don’t even know if I’m there yet. But I want to earn that. And if there was anything that I can do for him, because he’s always been a source of inspiration and aspiration over the years, please let me know.
And he’s like, all I ask is that you give back and pay it forward. And you guys already are with your podcast and all of your helpful posts online. So that was really touching to hear from a very respected mentor.
So if you’re listening, Paul, thank you so much for that. And we’ll just keep trying to give back, just like you asked.
He’s become really a big advocate for us. He’s always liking and retweeting our posts, always talking us up in social media. So I really appreciate his support too.
All right, so we’ve got some exciting episodes coming up. Next time, we have some guests from the VOC, the Voice Over Collective. And we’re going to talk about the importance of accountability groups and educational groups and inspiring a sense of community within the VO community.
Stay tuned for that. Thanks for listening to this one. And we hope to see you on the next VO Meter.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the VO Meter. To follow along, visit us at www.vometer.com. VO Meter is powered by IPDTL.

Welcome back live to MAVO 2018. I’m now joined by the fabulous Nicola Richards. How are you this morning?
Marvelous.
I am doing well. So you are a host on the opening night. Tell us what that experience was like.
First of all, I think I’m still recovering.
As am I, actually.
Well, it was a lot of fun, because we hadn’t done something like that before. So to have the beginning, the intros, and then into the karaoke, it was a lot of fun. But as I said, I am still recovering.
But it was a lot of fun, a lot of singers. Yeah.
I tried to sing. I don’t know if you could call it singing.
A bit like My Sweet Caroline.
I did The Power of Love from Back to the Future, and did not realize how high the key was. So about halfway through, my voice started cracking. I had to bring it down here and completely change the song.
It was not pretty. There’s actually a video of it that I think Anna Clements tweeted out.
I think it got like… That went viral, didn’t it?
Probably. So tell me what you’ve enjoyed about the conference so far. Have you had a chance to go to any sessions?
I have, actually. This time has been really good for that because when I was here a few years ago, I was doing things at different times. I didn’t manage to see as much as I wanted to.
So this time, I feel like I’ve seen most people, most of our guest speakers. And I’ve been to a couple of breakout sessions. But for me, this conference is just, well, it’s getting inspired.
So I found it massively inspiring once again. And got a few different tips. I went to a gaming, for video games, which I’ve never sort of even looked into before.
But I found that fascinating. So that could be something I would look more into maybe.
Yeah. So unfortunately we’re almost done. It’s Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon.
Is there anything you’re still looking forward to this afternoon?
So there’s a couple of things. I know Herb Moore has got a session today, and Mark Scott as well. So I’m looking forward to those.
Bit more networking, bit more inspirational videos with people probably.
Have you done a lot of live videos here?
I’ve been doing a few. And sort of trying to get clips of people, like what’s been inspiring for them throughout the conference. It’s been quite interesting.
Lots of different answers.
So what’s your biggest takeaway? When you leave the conference, you go back, are you going back home after this?
Back to England, and then I’m going literally a day later to Lisbon, because I’m going off on my travels again.
That sounds fun. So what’s the biggest thing you’re going to take away from the conference, you think?
I think, and this is something I’m quite passionate about anyway, but the importance of being true to yourself, especially in your voice career and things like that, because that seems to have been quite a theme. I know Kari Walgren, she spoke about that, about being authentic and genuine and following things that you are truly passionate about. I feel like I’m going to do more of that.
That’s great. I noticed that as well. Kari mentioned it, like you said.
I know Gabby Nistico mentioned it in her session. And even Joseph Riano in his promo session talked about not being all the time amped up to do the promos that you think of that he does. He found a lot of his work recently with CBS by bringing it back and being more conversational.
Yeah, exactly.
And that’s a, I think that, yeah, that’s a theme that I’ll definitely, the biggest one I’ll probably take away.
Awesome. Well, thanks for being with us this morning and enjoy much stuff for the show.
Thank you very much.

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.