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

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

So, welcome back to The VO Meter live at MAVO 2018. I am now joined by Marc Scott. Marc, 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 we’re 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 have to wear headphones.
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 know, 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.
Yeah, you get to rub elbows and say hi and put your faces to names and all that.
For sure.
Much more than the 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 houses 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 more about the business. That should be required training.
If you are going to do voiceover, if you think you’re going to do voiceover, 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 can 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.
I’m taking your marketing webinar at least twice. I have taken Tom’s online things a couple of times. You guys should team up for a buddy cop movie.
I think there’s some legs here.
We’re going to take over and teach everybody everything they need to know about the business side. You know what? Every time I go to a conference, I sit on a panel, whatever I get asked, what’s the best piece of advice that you can give?
And I always say, study entrepreneurship. Study entrepreneurship. Everybody wants to study promo with Joe and commercial with Mary Lynn and narration with Anne Gangusa and video games with Dave Finoy.
They all want to do that stuff, but you’ve got to study entrepreneurship. It needs to be at least as important, if not more so, than all of that performance training that you’re doing, because if you don’t know how to be an entrepreneur and run a business, all that other training isn’t going to do you any good.
Well, Marc, I know we just talked to you like a week ago, but you’re our latest episode on the website, but always happy to have you. Thanks for joining us this morning or this afternoon.
I’m oversaturating the market now.
Hey, that’s one way to do it.
There you go.
Alright, thanks again.
Thank you.

Welcome back to MAVO 2018. We are live now with Bob Johnson, who I met last time, 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.
Yeah, because 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. We were 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. Wow.
2014, 2015, 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, getting ready to hear Armand 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. And I would agree that the Calibre presenter is just amazing. I sat right here with Joe Cipriano this morning.
And I said…
Joe Cip, I didn’t even mention him.
I said to him, as much as I admire what Val’s done, when I saw he was on the schedule too, I said, what?
Right, right, yeah. It’s gonna be exciting. Yeah, it just kept coming, and I’m like, wow, this is getting huge.
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. 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 of that thing. So, 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 voiceover 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 voiceover conference. And almost half the room raised their hands.
And I was amazed at the sheer amount of talent in this area because I don’t often see it. 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, 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.
So I want to report on something that we talked about a couple of months ago. Some of our listeners may remember Bob was on as a guest due to my booth snafu, where I was going to sell him the booth and then renege on the deal, and Bob was left out to dry. I want to report on a happy ending.
Tell us about that.
Well, I don’t know that I was left out of the box, so to speak, but I appreciate you feeling guilty enough that you didn’t sell me your booth and in fact stayed on the lookout for me and actually found one through Craigslist, gave me a heads up about one that was actually right here in Vienna, Virginia, about five miles from where I live, bid on it through Craigslist and actually picked it up last week. So it’s still sitting in my sister’s garage, but I will put that together next week, and I appreciate you looking out for me.
No problem. Like you said, I really wanted to clear my conscience.
I like that, though.
That’s awesome. Well, Bob, thanks for coming on today and enjoy the rest of the conference.
No, I appreciate what you guys do with VO Meter. Listen to every episode that comes out, and always appreciate what you guys do for the community.
Thanks, appreciate it.

Okay, so welcome back to The Floor here live at MAVO 2018. I’m now joined by Tom Dheere. 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 going to 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, you know, someone like me or a 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, OK, so I’m not the only person. They are not perfect. You know, Johnny Heller had a first audiobook, 700 audiobooks later.
He did the first one. And I bet you it wasn’t perfect. And I bet you they’re not all perfect.
You know what I mean? Because he’s a human being. We’re all human beings.
So, no, I’m glad that resonated with you.
Yeah, that’s what’s great about meeting people at a conference like this. It does humanize the business, especially if it’s someone who’s just getting started, or they may not have even started yet. Maybe they’re just researching, and they’re brave enough to come here.
Seeing you humanize yourself, Johnny, Joe, like we talked about, I think it really helps to get you on the right track.
Absolutely. And that’s the thing about this, is that there’s no set way to become a successful voice talent. For most people, this is a second, third, fourth career.
They’ve been fired, laid off, retired. They may have been a DJ, or a nurse, or a pastor. There’s a pastor in there.
There’s a marine in there. There’s an Air Force pilot in there. And there’s no one way to do this right.
There’s more than one way to be a successful voice talent. So the more that you can find your track or your path, and understand that it’s not going to be a straight line. It’s going to be all over the place.
It’ll be circuitous, and sometimes it’ll have a dead end. And sometimes you’ve got to walk back and start over again, and that’s okay. But knowing that, you know, you can find more than one way to be effective at this.
Because the way I became successful voice talent isn’t necessarily going to work for you. And the way that you became a successful voice talent isn’t necessarily going to work for me.
Well, whether I become a successful voice talent is still up for debate. But we’re working on it. So, you mentioned the pastor.
Would you agree that it makes sense to bring your past lives or your past experiences to your voice over business?
I don’t see how you can’t. You know, you are who you are, your experiences. You’re the aggregate of everything that’s happened to you up to now.
So, and almost every vocation that you have, there’s some kind of voice over for it. You know, I mean, if you were in the Marines or in the Air Force, like two of our attendees here today, do you have any idea how many Department of Defense videos are produced every year? Tons of them, tons of them.
If you’re a pastor and you have an inclination for audiobooks, I mean, there are entire publishing companies like E-Christian that do nothing but religious and spiritual audiobooks. If you’re the nurse, the medical narration and pharma industry is massive. There’s tons of content that you make every day.
So I almost guarantee that whatever you did before you decided to become a voice talent will inform your voiceover career.
Yeah, I agree. I actually did an audiobook for a pastor in our local church. He’d written a novel.
It was doing really well on Amazon and print. And I asked him to come over and he did it. He came over last summer and we did the whole audiobook and it’s been very successful on Audible as well.
And I said to him, actually I interviewed him on the show as well, and I said to him, you know what, this priest thing doesn’t work out. You could probably be an audiobook narrator full time.
That’s a good transition.
Yeah, exactly. Cool. So let’s talk about the rest of the conference.
What are you looking forward to coming up?
Oh, well, Kari Wahlgren is going to speak in about 35 minutes or so. She’s our keynote speaker today. She’s going to talk about animation.
And it’s great. She has one of those composite pictures with all the cartoons that she’s done. I’m like, oh, she’s been Wonder Woman.
Oh, she’s been Enchantress. So I know some of the characters. So I’m excited about that.
I’m excited about every single class I’m going to pop my head into, because I learn something every conference that I go to, whether I’m an attendee or whether I’m a speaker. So I’m looking forward to everything that Johnny Heller is doing, that Celia Siegel is doing. Joe Cipriano has got a promo workshop coming up.
I’m in that, coming up.
Yeah, I mean, I’ve only had one promo under my belt. I’m the voice of Horson Country TV, US. Edition, so I’d love to do more stuff like that.
That was so much fun. And Rachel Naylor is doing a video game workshop. So I was just in Red Dead Redemption 2.
I heard that.
Oh, yes.
Congratulations.
That’s because I marketed the crap out of it. So I’d love to get more work on that level. So that’s a great thing.
And you’re allowing us as presenters to kind of pop in almost any session. So I’m looking forward to everything. I’m going to try to get to as many of them as I can.
Well, great. Well, thanks for being here today and talking to us, and I’m looking forward to seeing you at the rest of the conference. Cool.
Looking forward to seeing you too.

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.