Paul Stefano

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, that 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, let me reverse to 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 VoiceOver 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.
It’s definitely a different industry than the competitive, the acting, and some other industries that I’ve been associated with. 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 taken 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, it’s a nice aspect.
The way they started on is amazing.
Yeah.
We were just in that panel with Herb Moore, Kari, Sarah, Sherman, and Sunday.
Yep.
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 casts Finneas and Ferb, and they’re both on Cloud 9, so it was a really great thing to see.
Oh, 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 and putting 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.
Thank you. Now here’s a silent handshake. Thanks all.

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 voice over 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?
You’re looking forward to the most…
Maybe a speaker or maybe a session.
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 so far, so good.
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 Josef Riano’s promo class. 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, 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 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 voice over guy. That was kind of cool just to see how he does it when he’s on the road.
It was really cool that he actually brought the setup to let us execute, you know, reading promos. Instead of just talking about it, we were 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, maybe most of you are 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, what else?
Is on the schedule tomorrow. I’m just an open book. So, whatever comes to me, whatever lessons I can learn, I’m gonna be really open and soak it all in, absorb it all like a sponge.
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. Bye

So, 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. So, 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’d do this, and I’ve done… I do my own workshops, Johnny Heller’s Blend Difference Workshop, and the New England Narrator Treat, and I’ve done a lot of stuff.
And she wanted, I guess, somebody to come out and talk about audiobooks, the genre for which I’m best known, and I welcome the opportunity, and I love doing stuff. It’s fun to go share what you know, and meet new people, and give them a… Kind of give them the…
Open the doors. There’s so many people who want to do what we do, in the voice of the world, and 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 gonna name names, who have done books, and found 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.
So none of the character names were English, they were almost like Klingon. So I get to this general, and I selfishly assume it’s your man. So I do the whole book, and then I get to chapter nine, nine of 10, and I see the general walks in with her troops, and I said, oh no, yes.
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 came to these wonderful characters, you know, these space kids, like a Star Wars kind of thing.
So you’ve 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 said, screw it. After I realized they’re all getting killed, I started doing any impersonation I felt like. You can have fun with it, but I had to read the head to make sure they, that it’s men, women, or…
If they’re a space alien, then who cares what they sound like.
Of course.
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 know I 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.
It’s, 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, and people were really, really keen to know things. And that’s always, 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. So you share that. So they wanted to know about audiobooks.
They like 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. Lots of questions, lots of… You can just tell.
It was really neat. It was really a good experience.
That’s awesome. How about the rest of the day or tomorrow? What are you looking forward to?
Right now, I’m looking forward to dinner.
Me too.
And then tonight, I’ve got a 8.30 till 10 is a workshop on self-direction, which is super important now because as the industry grows with audiobooks, there aren’t directors working with people all the time anymore. You’re doing it by yourself. You need to know.
You need to make some choices and you need to be informed choices. We’ll talk about that. And then tomorrow afternoon, what am I on about?
I think I’ve already forgotten, but it’s something. It’ll be great.
It’ll be splendid for us.
It’ll be splendid. It’ll be swell. Yeah, I’m sure I’ll figure it out before the morning.
Yeah. But it’s not till afternoon anyway.
So you should be fine.
Yeah.
Well, Johnny, thanks so much for coming on with us today and enjoy the rest of the conference.
My pleasure, my friend. Thanks for having me.
Alright.

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 gonna 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 of 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 when I said to Val, listen, you got me from the, you know, the letter go, you know, the word go.
You had me at hello, excuse me.
Right, exactly, I, you know, 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, you know, 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 programs.
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. Thank you.
And produced by the amazing AJ.
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 and 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 agree. 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 think so.
A book Bob Sauer did a couple of years ago and I’m so sorry to tell, I actually told him this and probably wasn’t the best choice of words, but I told him it was fatiguing on my ears and he said, oh, 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 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, 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.
Have you from AJ?
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.
Oh, that’s great.
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 love… I always sit in on sessions.
In fact, as I walk by you, I was just gonna go in and sit.
Oh, I’m sorry.
That’s okay. But I always learn, you know, 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, you know, it 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 gonna cost this amount. Let’s say that it’s $2,500.
But if you wanna do a one-year usage for it, it’s gonna cost you $750. If you want two years, it’ll be, you know, $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, you know, how’s that video going? And yeah, it’s going well.
Well, let’s talk about year two. Let’s re-up it, you know? Oftentimes they’ll say, you know what, we have new stuff, let’s redo it.
And I just think it’s those kind of things that are the business side of voiceover that is so necessary for people who are coming in and who are already working in voiceover, 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 and how to negotiate.
Yeah, and he broke that down so perfectly. He did. And he gave the concrete example is that you can just walk away from and even just write down what he posted on the projector and be good to go with the negotiation.
Absolutely, yeah, yeah. So that’s the first one I sat in and I plan on doing more throughout the day and I’m doing my promo mini master class later this afternoon with 15 participants.
I’m one of them.
And you’re one of them. Want to get everybody up. I’d love to get everybody up twice.
We’re gonna read the picture. We’re gonna do it as if we’re at the network and actually seeing picture. We’ll do some like we’re on Source Connect, but we’re still reading to the video, which we can’t see the video now and how that changes the read.
And how important it is to have a good director there on site that can tell you what the visuals are. And not to be afraid to ask, by the way, what’s going on here when I say this? So that they can explain it to it.
We’ll do some radio promos, syndicated promos, just kind of an overall of what promo is.
I’m really looking forward to that. So as a conference overall, what do you look to get out of coming to an event like this?
Mostly it’s the interaction with the participants. I mean, it’s always fun to see the coaches, the mentors, the people who are presenting, who are my peers, and getting to see them and hang with them for the weekend. There’s that part of it.
But I think it’s really important to… I don’t want to be the type of person that gets together with the presenters and is like, hey, let’s go over here in the corner and have our own little chat. I want to be out where I encourage anybody who’s participating to come up and ask questions or just let’s have a laugh and get to know one another.
Again, I learned so much from just about every aspect of a conference. And I try to… I think that when people are coming to a conference like this, they’re making a commitment, they’re laying down a good deal of money and carving out time out of their lives, away from their family and all of that.
And I like to dress up a little bit. I like to show respect for the people that are here to learn, that are paying to be here. And that’s my way of showing my respect to them as well.
Well, you’ve always been completely affable, you and Anne both. Even though AJ introduced me to you, I think you would have talked to me anyway.
Of course I would, yes.
We appreciate your generosity of spirit.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate it. Thank you for talking to us today.
My pleasure, all right. I’ll see you in class.
Yes, I will be there, I will be there, Professor.

So, welcome back live to MAVO 2018. We’re here with Rachael 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 just, 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 voice over industry. And it’s about bringing the industry together. Agents, producers, casting directors, voice over 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. And 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 do, I love coming out here.
It’s, yeah, it’s just wonderful to come out to these events and surround yourself with other forward-thinking, you know, 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 VoiceOver. Yes, yes, I did, yeah. And what brought you to that transition?
Oh, I’m still an actor, but yeah, I mainly do VoiceOver 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 make CDs and send them in the post, and all that kind of stuff that 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 drive, you can get your own work. Whereas when I came into the industry, it was really hard to get your own work.
You didn’t have a home studio. You had to have an agent. And I remember sort of pounding the streets.
No, I’m going to continue. So 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. And The Voice Over Network is about… It’s providing a safe place for voice over professionals to come together to help and support each other, to train, to raise the bar, to talk about issues in the industry, and really to strengthen the industry.
That’s the driving force behind everything we do.
You’ve got a teaming with entrepreneurial spirit, so it shows. What is the buzz about The Buzz?
The Buzz Magazine. The Buzz Magazine is the only magazine in the world dedicated to the voice over industry. I’m like, yes.
And actually, the idea for The Buzz Magazine came before the voice over network, and it was years ago when I was learning about PR, and I started writing to magazines and newspapers, and I started getting interviews. And PR is a fantastic way to get your brand out there and to get work. Yes, there we go.
Here we are. We’re doing PR now. And I remember trying to look for a magazine that was to do with voice overs so that I could try and get myself in it and realizing there wasn’t.
It’s like, why do we not have our own magazine? And I remember initially coming up with the magazine idea and I went and spoke to a friend of mine who works in PR. And I said, I’ve got this great idea.
I’m going to start a magazine. And she was like, oh, no, it would be a nightmare. And she kind of pulled it all apart.
And I ended up leaving that meeting going, oh, yeah, I’m not going to do a magazine that sounds like far too much work. And then when I decided to launch The Voice Over Network as a membership, I thought, I’ll do a magazine. How hard can that be?
You just pull together a few articles, stick it in a thing and get it printed. Well, it takes quite a lot more than that. But I am incredibly proud.
So we’ve just had the 15th edition. We’re working on the 16th edition at the moment. 15th or 16th.
But yes, it’s a quarterly magazine. It’s global. So you can subscribe and you can get it anywhere in the world.
It used to be that you could only get it if you were a member of The Voice Over Network. And it is part of the membership. So when you join The Voice Over Network, you get The Buzz Magazine.
But you can subscribe to The Buzz Magazine on its own now. And it is only printed. So I’m kind of old school.
I love the printer. There’s something about having it printed. There’s a feel.
And it’s jam-packed with interviews, with useful information, with reviews, with inspiring stories. And yeah, it’s popular. So yeah, proud of that.
Very proud of that.
That’s great. Congratulations. It sounds like a similar story to our podcast.
We initially started as a podcast for newbies, because my normal co-host Sean was about three years into the time, and I was one year in. And I had a similar discussion with a lot of people. I said, do you want to do this podcast with me?
And most people said, are you insane? No one wants to listen to that. No one wants to hear a bunch of idiots learn their way through the business.
And then Sean was the only one who really sort of believed in it, too. And here we are 33 episodes later and 11,000 downloads. So it’s an entrepreneurial spirit that you talked about that really helps push through your goals.
Yeah, and it’s also sharing, isn’t it? I think it’s so important. The information that we all learn and the experiences that we have, to share that with others, to help them on their journey, it’s so important, and it’s something that I really, I really kind of try to encourage, you know, whenever I meet people at all these events and at The Voice Over Network.
You know, it’s all about sharing, it’s about helping other people, and, you know, yeah, just reaching out and sharing your contacts or sharing some information, and yeah, it does come back, I believe.
Sean had a great statement at VO Atlanta. We were in the podcast room at VO Atlanta doing our show, and Sean said, the voiceover community is the only one where, instead of stepping over you to climb the ladder, the voiceover community will actually put you on their shoulders and say, come on, I’ll help you up.
Yeah, definitely, definitely, and it’s really, really special and very unique, and yeah, I feel very lucky to be in this industry, and yeah, and every day, you know, when scripts come through, I mean, we never know what’s coming, do we? We never know what’s happening. It keeps us on our toes, but it’s, yeah, it’s the best job in the world, to be honest.
So bring it back to the conference. What’s something you’re looking forward to over the next 16 hours?
Okay, so I am doing a workshop this afternoon on video games, so breakout workshop on video games. I’m really excited about that. I’ve got some fun things up my sleeve for that session, because I love video games.
Video games is such an exciting area of our industry, and I’ve been lucky to work on some pretty exciting games. So that, and then tomorrow, I’m doing a general session, The Power of Networking, because networking is…
You know something about that? I do.
I know a little bit. Yes. And I love networking, and it’s a funny one that I think, you know, lots of people struggle with just that word.
It’s, you know, we associate a lot of things with words. You know, we just like networking. I have to be interesting.
So, yes, my session tomorrow will be good fun. And I’m just, yeah, I just love kind of connecting with people and, you know, just walking around and networking. That’s what I love about these events.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to meeting lots of people and hearing their stories and seeing how I and The Voice Over Network and The Buzz Magazine and how we can help people. So, yeah. Well, great.
We look forward to seeing you at the rest of the conference. Thanks for being here right now. Tell people how they can join The Voice Over Network if they want.
So, yes, so come and join The Voice Over Network. It is the voiceovernetwork.co.uk. You can come to the page and subscribe.
And you can also, there’s a page on our website about The Buzz Magazine, so you can go in there and find out how to subscribe that way. So, yes, wonderful.
Rachael, thanks for being here.
Excellent. Well, thank you so much for having me. Fantastic.

We’re back live on the floor at MAVO 2018. It’s Sunday, and I’m now joined by JJ Surma.
Hey, Paul.
How are you doing this morning?
I’m gonna 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 in the voiceover? Because I hear that a lot, and so I have a 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 Voice Over 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, and 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. I’m just 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 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 in 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.
So it was really something. I thought you did one of the best jobs in there.
Oh, that’s so generous. Thank you so much. And yeah, it was just, God, my heart was pounding.
Was your heart not pounding?
It actually wasn’t, because I had spoken to Joe right here earlier that morning and gotten to know him the night before.
I thought you said you’d smoked to Jay. You said spoken to Joe. I thought you’d done a little pre-gaming.
No, I didn’t know what your…
We’re not in the district.
What is your method? I don’t know.
You’ve spoken to Joe, go ahead. And sort of knew his disarming personality like we talked about. He’s so great about just making everybody feel at home and comfortable.
So I wasn’t nervous. I was excited to get it done.
So down to earth, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that’s so, I’ve seen that with some of the other people that I’ve met that are, I don’t know about at his level, but have reached a certain level of success. One of the patterns that I’ve seen with those people is their pattern of generosity and their humility and you know, I mean, not everyone’s perfect, but good Lord.
He is such a giving person. And I think that’s sort of the hallmark of people that have reached that level. They sort of look around and go, oh my gosh, you know, I know I’m just me.
I see these opportunities that I’ve been blessed to have and oh my gosh, let me share with other people. Let me give, let me be generous. And I think Joe is definitely an example of that kind of attitude.
Yeah, I think it’s a hallmark of the industry, which is unique to this industry from what I’ve experienced over the years, not only in this business, but other businesses. Voice Over really is its own sort of communal thing. And I really love that about it.
Yeah, I definitely agree. And what’s amazing is, you know, I come from a radio background, broadcasting, and so we all live our lives in these little booths, but there’s a lot of looking over your shoulder in radio. Like, someone wants my job, someone wants my shift, someone thinks they can do a better job on the morning show than me.
I grew up really in radio. Since I was 17 years old, almost 30 years now, being in radio and that sort of paranoia seeps into your bones, that competition, that unhealthy spirit of competition, and that sort of, I gotta protect my thing. And what amazed me about being part of conferences like this one and also in Atlanta, I went to this one called VO Intensity.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I met some of the most generous people, encouraging, honest, sharing, you know what I mean? And it was the opposite of my radio experience and I was really shocked by it.
I was like, oh my god. Everyone hears on my team.
It can’t be real. It can’t be real.
There’s punking me.
Well, yeah.
I mean, like last night, I did this thing with Johnny Heller on audiobooks. I was actually, I actually sort of misbooked this thing. I’ve never done an audiobook.
I’ve never considered doing an audiobook. It’s like a marathon compared to my sprints of 15 second ads or whatever. But I was in the class and everyone did a reading and when it was my turn to do a reading, I’m like, god, I suck in audiobooks.
And Johnny Heller, look at this guy. And what am I gonna do? And I did it.
And afterwards, people were so kind and generous. And I, like my instinct was, they’re lying. I was like, you can’t think that that was good.
No, no, it really wasn’t. I’m like, oh my gosh. And it just reminded me that this is a really encouraging community where people do really try to just kind of come alongside and form relationships and boost each other up.
And that’s so needed for me, especially.
Right, that’s why Val says the slogan is get inspired. And I think that we all feel that way.
Yeah, for sure. It’s been an inspiring time.
Thanks for joining me this morning. Enjoy the rest of the conference.
I really appreciate it, thanks.
Thanks.