The VO Meter… Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Episode 3 of The VO Meter. We have a very special episode coming up where Sean and I are live at Mavo2016, the Mid Atlantic Voice Over Conference in Herndon, Virginia, just outside of DC. We’re going to play you some great interviews from the presenters there, some of the attendees, and some of the things that we got out of the conference.
So Sean, how did you enjoy Mavo2016?
I thought it was an amazing conference. It’s a smaller one, absolutely, but that’s one of its strengths. There were less than 100 people there.
There was a lot of… You were able to talk to the presenters. They were very accessible, and everyone had a really intimate, informative experience together, and I really enjoyed myself.
What about you, Paul? What did you get out of it?
Yeah, the same thing. It was my first conference, as I think I mentioned in one of the segments, and I really enjoyed it. I got to meet a lot of great people, some people I knew from online, some people I didn’t know at all, and I had some great interactions with the presenters.
It was really just a fantastic experience.
And I think it’s ideal for a first conference because some of them get so large. They have upwards of 500 to 1,000 attendees, so it can be a very impersonal experience or a very superficial one if you don’t go in there with a plan. The only other conference I can compare it to is VO Atlanta, which was a fantastic conference.
I don’t fault it in any way, but I did really enjoy this. It was a different atmosphere, it was a different experience. I think if you have something like either Mavo itself or a similar conference that you can go to locally, I definitely recommend it because these things can be very reinvigorating for your career.
Yeah, and the local angle is a great point. I actually came locally because I lived just outside of Baltimore, I think we’ve mentioned. So I was able to drive down in the morning and sort of try it on the conference.
And the other great thing about that was that if I had nothing to talk about or if I was nervous in any way with meeting people, we could always just talk about DC traffic because most of us have that in common, it was a perfect icebreaker.
And that’s a huge, like that’s an interesting networking point because yeah, we all come here because of a similar interest, but sometimes you don’t want to talk shop. So, people love being asked questions about their family and their other hobbies and stuff like that. And you can make some great friends here as well.
Yeah, I spoke a lot about the soccer team I was coaching. I only went the second day and everybody asked me, why haven’t you been here? And actually, I think I stumbled onto a great marketing idea.
If you can, come to the second day of a conference and make sure that your badge is out. There’s obviously no way to do this, but what happened in my case was they left all the badges out for people to pick up. And the people that didn’t pick up, it was readily apparent that they were not there.
So when I did show up on Sunday, nearly half a dozen people said to me, oh, you’re Paul. We saw your name tag yesterday. We’re so glad you’re finally here.
And I was like, thanks. I wasn’t expecting a big welcome, but this is fantastic.
And that’s another benefit of a smaller conference like that is you get noticed. I can’t guarantee that thing would happen in like a $500,000 attendee conference. But that’s awesome and a great point.
Yeah, exactly. And one thing we want to do is thank the people from vocalbooth2go.com. They supplied us with one of their carry-on vocal booths.
And it was fantastic. It worked great for the interviews. And we really want to thank them for letting us demo the unit and use it throughout the conference for our interviews.
Yeah, it was incredibly generous of them. I actually ran into the representatives during a quiet time at the conference and asked if I could review their carry-on vocal booth. So it’s similar to, say, like the Harlan Hogan Porta Booth Plus or the Kaatika Eyeball.
Like same kind of niche, a portable booth of some kind. But I think it sounds the most natural and it’s the most effective at cutting down those reflections. And it’s so spacious.
You can fit whatever either your own travel setup or they have a number of accessories included with it, like a mic stand and a copy stand and a pop filter. It’s a really well thought out set.
Yeah, so when you’re listening to the interviews, know that we did that right in the middle of the hallway of the hotel while the conference was going on in most cases. And it sounds great inside that vocal booth to go.
It sounds fantastic. I mean, granted, we had pretty high quality gear going into it as well, but that could just as easily be a detriment and show all of the inadequacies in an acoustic solution like that.
Right, you had a 416 in there, right?
Yeah, so it was a 416 and then the Audient ID 4, which is a newer unit, but sounds fantastic, and couldn’t be happier with how this sounded.
Yeah, it really was great. And then lastly, we need to thank Val Kelly one more time, the founder and organizer of Mid Atlantic Voice Over LLC, and she was a great host and once again pulled off a fantastic event.
Yes, and I can’t wait till the next one.
Indeed. So with that, we’ll get to the interviews, sit back, enjoy, and maybe you’ll learn something.
I know we did.
So now we’re here at Mavo2016. Let’s talk about some of the things we hope to get out of the conference. Sean, why don’t you start with what you were hoping to get out of the conference, both personally and maybe for the GVAA.
Well, something that I was really looking forward to, like you were saying, for GVAA, is really to get our name out there and to promote ourselves to as many people as possible. And so far, the reaction has been really great. A lot of people have been really happy about the services that we offer, and it seems like we might have a lot of new students, which is wonderful.
I’m really happy about that. But as far as workshops and stuff like that, one person that I was really looking forward to was actually Sean Pratt in doing his audiobook narrators workshop, and he specializes in nonfiction narration. And that’s an avenue that I feel like a lot of people don’t really know or to explore because when we think audiobooks, we tend to think epic fantasy or science fiction or romance or young adult literature.
But really, there’s far more nonfiction literature out there than fiction. And if you know how to read it in an interesting and believable way, it could be a really lucrative avenue for your voice over business.
Yeah, there’s a real art to it. Excuse the pun, but yeah, it really is a genre all to itself. And Sean has some phenomenal strategies on how to approach it.
I actually train with him personally as well. And the insight is invaluable. So that should be a great session.
Very cool.
Anyone else that you’re looking forward to seeing?
Honestly, what I’m looking forward to mostly is just networking. This will be my first in-person VO conference. And I’m excited to just meet some of the faces that I know from online media or social media or their online presence.
And just meeting some faces and shaking some hands and kissing some babies, as they say.
No, it works. It definitely works. I mean, my whole relationship with the Global Voice Acting Academy arose out of my first conference experience over at VO Atlanta.
And that was just because I kind of put myself out there. I was trying to interview people for my own sake, just to kind of increase my own online presence and fill up my YouTube channel because it had almost nothing on there. And if you get involved with Voice Over, it can be a little insular because there are numerous Facebook groups out now.
There’s maybe almost a dozen that I can think of. I mean, there’s Voice Over Universe. There’s VO Direction with Stevie Valance.
She’s a Canadian voice actress and coach. And then there’s our very… There’s our own Facebook group, GVA Community.
There’s Voice Over Camp. There’s Voice Over Bros.
There’s all the audiobook-specific ones, the audiobook narrators, the ACX narrators groups.
Yeah.
There’s a ton out there.
And then there’s one for almost every audio software. Like there’s an Audacity VO users group. There’s a Twisted Wave users group.
There’s a Studio One and Reaper Voice Over users group.
That’s a great way to meet people. But as we talked about, sometimes the online persona can be drastically different than the in-person persona, both good and bad. So I really like to connect the dots and meet people in person to see what they’re really like.
And it depends. I mean, some people are more comfortable online than in-person. So I mean, like you said, you get a better view of them as a whole.
But the point I was trying to make is that we know these people, we know each other through these groups, but not a lot of people know who these people are outside of voice over. So I figure if I do an interview, if I put it on YouTube or on my website and stuff like that, or a podcast, then that’s more promotion for everybody. I mean, it’s not even completely selfish because you’re trying to help someone else while you do it too.
So hopefully we’ll have some people come through as the days go on and do some interviews and they can promote themselves and talk about what they’re getting out of the conference.
Absolutely. So we’ll be checking in throughout the conference and we hope you guys enjoy it. We are at Mavo2016.
So we’re back at The VO Meter podcast live at the Mid Atlantic Voice Conference, Mavo. We’re here with John Grossman. How are you doing, John?
I’m doing fabulous.
So what have you enjoyed about the conference so far?
The variety, the attention to detail in different tracks, whether it be animation, audio books, the ability to be immersed totally, getting up out of your seat, not just lectures. The only challenge with that is you can’t be everywhere at once.
I was just talking to another gentleman, and I wanted to be here, and I wanted to be there, and even for a micro conference like this, it was still a challenge. I had to make decisions as I bought my ticket to be two places in the box.
Bit of a challenge.
Which sessions have you attended so far?
A lot of the general sessions. I signed up late, so I did miss some of the breakouts, but I believe I was to Sean Pratt. I saw him.
I’m looking forward to seeing Dan Friedman in a little bit, and Kara Edwards I saw too.
So what’s your main niche, or how do you mark yourself as a voice actor?
I do a lot of narration, but I also run a voice over studio for Division of Yellow Book.
So if you think about your phone book, I’ll take them and make 30 second internet commercials out of it.
Just your local phone book. Something your cousin sits on or your baby sits on.
Or usually sits in my mailbox and doesn’t pick up for a week.
Nobody uses it anymore. We are a website company, and we make videos to go on those customers’ websites. We do about 1,000 to 2,000 videos a week.
Before that, I need professional voice over artists to write copy, voice it, and send it out to the website people so it can get embedded on a site. We do that all day long, all week long, and I run that team. That’s my responsibility.
In addition to me being professional voice over artist on the outside, I also manage this team.
So how has the conference helped your business so far?
It confirmed a lot of the stuff we’re doing right. Efficiency, the 2 to 1 ratio, if it’s a 5 minute recording, is it going to take you 10 minutes or is it going to take you an hour? So things like, especially with the long form narration, most of the stuff we do is 30 second internet spots.
But we have a lot of them that pays our bills, so I can’t complain.
Great. One of the questions I want to ask everybody is, where are you from?
I’m just outside of Philadelphia.
Oh really?
Yeah, and I’ve done a lot of work, thankfully for the medical corridor that’s up and down 95. I’ve been able to do a lot of medical, continuing medical education, narration, a lot of documentary work on the Voice of Valley Forge National Historical Park. So if you like the National Park Service and you like history, Valley Forge, you get to listen to me when you go.
Awesome.
Next time I go, I’ll listen. I actually grew up right outside of Philadelphia as well. I’ve been to Valley Forge dozens of times.
Great. Thanks for joining us. Good luck with the rest of the conference.
Take care, gentlemen. And cut.
All right, I am here with Rama, and we’re just kind of… It’s kind of a quiet time right now. Most people are in either a general session or a breakout session.
The breakout sessions are ones that you have to pay an additional fee for outside of the general registration fee in order to get some more intimate one-on-one time with some of the presenters here. We have animation panels or commercial panels or audio book trainings with some of the guest speakers. And I am here with Rama.
So why don’t you tell me about your experience here at Mavo?
Well, it’s been pretty awesome actually. I mean it’s great to be around a whole lot of people that are basically just wanting to get inspired and learn as much as they can from those who have been there before. And it’s great that they are sharing all this knowledge.
And yeah, it’s been a great experience.
So is this your first voice over conference?
No, actually, I was at the last year’s.
Oh, so you were at Mavo last year too?
Yes.
Very cool. And what’s been your favorite part of this weekend?
Well, doing the… let me see, when we were… David Goldberg last night, we were just reading a script and he was…
Dissecting and picking apart everyone.
Exactly.
That was so impressive, like I didn’t actually perform myself, but I was in the back watching and I took pages of notes, because he’s a very good coach and he’s so efficient with his direction and he’s really quick about turning people around, I think.
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing.
Very cool. And so is there anything that you’re really excited about today?
No, I mean, I’m just like…
I’m not excited at all.
No, no, I’m in a general state of excitement, actually.
It’s equally good.
Yes. Exactly. Me, I just…
I’m taking it all in and it’s not like, oh, I want to be here, here, no, no, no, no. I just… I am loving all of it.
Yeah, me too. I think it’s really well organized. I’ve been in some of the larger conferences and there are times where I’m like, God, I have to pick and choose, but here I feel like everyone really can have an individual experience, but you don’t feel like you’re missing anything.
Exactly. Yeah.
So that’s great. So I’m Sean Daeley. I’m here with Rama.
Thank you very much for doing this little interview with us.
Hey, my pleasure.
Take it easy, man. You too.
So we’re back on The VO Meter with John Florian, the host of Voice Over Extra. You’re the founder and creator, correct?
Glad to be here.
So tell us what you were hoping to get out of the conference.
Networking a lot. I love to meet new people and for my business, I’m always looking for people getting into the business and they want the advice that Voice Over Extra can give them. And also I’m looking for people who will be writing articles for me, producing videos, and I’m learning for myself, for my own Voice Over career.
And that’s quite a load.
Definitely. So you’ve been here since the beginning, right, as a sponsor?
I was here last year. Now there’s been three now, right? I was here last year and proud to be here again this year.
Great. And what have you gained so far in the first day and a half?
Well, I’ve accomplished a lot of the goals. I’ve got a lot of people, new subscribers. It’s all free subscriptions.
And so I got a lot of new subscribers to our newsletters. And that gets people interested in the webinars and everything. And I’ve networked with people and met a lot of friends.
And I’ve learned some things about the voiceover career and about being a creative person.
So you and I were in the session with Dan Friedman. I’m sure you’ve been to a couple of the other breakout sessions. What was the most valuable piece of information you’ve gotten from a presenter so far?
Well, I got to take it to me personally where I am in my career. This morning it was Sunday Muse’s general session where she got us in touch with ourselves, our creativity.
That was a lot of fun.
And that reminded me of some of the mindfulness stuff that I was doing. Raising your hands above your head. What do you call it?
I don’t know, mind-body being in the moment and that kind of a thing. That really helped.
Yeah, that was fun. And I think it’s the most dancing I’ve done since my wedding.
So that was a lot of fun as well. Were you the one who was dancing around with punching everybody?
Punching physically? No, punching the air.
Well, that was a lot of fun.
Well, John, thanks so much for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of the conference.
Thank you very much. Thanks for asking me to join you.
Thanks so much. I appreciate it.
Thank you.
I’m feeling pretty blessed right now because I actually kind of lassoed one of the presenters to come and speak with us today, and we just finished an incredibly powerful session with her this morning, and that is former keynote speaker, current guest speaker, and winner of this year’s Muse Award, Ms. Sunday Muse. How are you doing, Sunday?
Thank you. It’s nice to see you.
So what I loved about your presentation, and like we were saying before, is we have this expectation of how a presentation is supposed to sound. There tends to be a distance between the presenter and the audience. I mean, that makes sense.
You’re in a large room. It can be really difficult to address it to a specific person or people within the room, but I didn’t feel that wall at all. I mean, you came to us from a space of vulnerability, of uncertainty, and it was beautiful.
It was so charming and so endearing, and I’m really grateful that I got to be a part of it.
Thank you, Sean.
Of course. Thank you.
I’m grateful that you were there.
And in case you don’t know, Sunday is a voice actress and coach. I feel one of the greatest benefits of having a coach is through our own devices, we tend to build up armor. Some of that’s societal, some of it’s like, don’t do this.
Like, I had an acting instructor who once talked to me, like he was actually a movement instructor, like we talked about today. He’s like, what do you do when you’re a kid, and you have to go to the bathroom? He’s like, you’re dancing like everybody, you’re crossing your legs, you’re like raising your hand, and you’re going, oh, oh, Mrs. Jones, will you please let me go to the bathroom?
And you’re going all, but what happens when you become a college student, and you go to the bathroom, and then he just kind of sat there quietly and raised his hand? And like, you don’t think about all of the layers of restriction that’s there, but it’s expected. And you just gave us a…
You just told everyone to just be like, hey, how are you guys feeling? Are you tired? Like, we’ve all been…
I mean, these conferences seem like sort of the passive absorption of information, but even that can be really exhausting. So, is there anything else that you want to talk about on that in that regard?
I think the most important thing that I wanted to address was showing up to where you are at in any given circumstance, particularly at this conference, because it is about the creative, it’s about voice over. So, to be able to show up with all of who you are and not lie to yourself about what’s going on with you, not sort of pushing that uncomfortable stuff away, but showing up to all these aspects of ourselves that actually create, help us create not only happier and healthier lives for ourselves, but also really fine art. So whether that’s voice acting or painting or singing or dancing or whatever your art is, there’s a need in my opinion, my humble opinion, based on my own experience of being in touch with that inner part, that truthful stuff, the stuff that’s going on underneath all the armor.
Mm-hmm. And I feel, because when we hear, like, you could call it mantra or a motto or whatever, when you do any kind of acting, you hear you need to be present, you need to be honest, you need to be true. And it sounds silly, but sometimes you’re like, what does that even mean?
And it’s like you’re saying, we have this idea that… I mean, you were talking about this earlier. It’s just like, we have to always be on.
We have to always be strong. We have to always be happy. We have to be good.
And it’s just not true. We all have bad days. We’re all tired sometimes.
It’s an exhausting existence to live that way. And just to hear, because we can rarely tell ourselves that, that it’s okay to not feel 100%. And then what I love is that once you, like once you, just being aware of that, you can still use that energy for something productive, for something creative.
Yes. Yes. Yes, like by showing up to it and by acknowledging it.
And truly by acknowledging it, you’re setting a little piece of it free. So you’re not walking around in your day or in your work with the energy of pushing it down. So when you acknowledge it and you say it out loud to yourself or in the mirror and you sort of just say, this is, you know, I feel like this or this is going on, you’re setting a little piece of that free.
It’s like taking the cap off something and opening it up so it can breathe.
Absolutely. And voicing is a very, I’d like to think, like expelling activity. Like things are coming out of you from within.
And we talk about like pushing emotions aside or pushing things down. And it does. It weighs down.
It’s like putting rocks in your pockets. And you’re just being like, or so often would be like, oh, I can’t deal with this now. I did like, I got to put it away.
No, just even you might not be able to solve a problem at that moment, but being aware of it is the first step to solving it. And I mean, both of us are just kind of like, we just look so drained and happy. But it’s, I mean, it’s really true.
I mean, we can’t, we all like, we sang, we danced, we laughed, we cried a little bit in this conference hall. And it was, it’s so, it’s liberating is definitely the way to put it, because you have this word in theater circles of happening, something that just was so spontaneous and true and beautiful. And like, and that’s what I love, is it just like, people just talking in a room, yeah, it’s a presentation, it’s this formal event, like I said, we’ve got all these expectations and structure, but that wasn’t there.
We just told stories and shared experiences and songs and happy times and sad times.
Yeah, so there’s the, you know, oftentimes the presence is focused on in the work only. If you’ve noticed, I grew up doing theater. The presence was always about being present as an actor, but what about being present as a person first and foremost, right?
Because if you’re present in your own experience, then you naturally bring that to your craft. If you’re always trying to get present within your work, in some ways it’s like you’re making it a lot harder for yourself. Because just to get present in the work is not giving you permission to also be present in your life.
Why don’t you, I mean, in the world we’re living in today with everything that’s going on in this world, don’t we all want to be present with each other and with what’s happening and with the vulnerability of the election coming up? It’s a pretty big time.
Absolutely. And some people might want to check out. They’re like, no, I don’t want to be present.
I want to escape. But I like what you’re saying, being present with yourself versus present in the work, because a lot of us are striving to define ourselves as voice actors. And I feel like this happens a lot with sort of this artistic burnout, because you’re working so hard to be this thing, to do the work that you want, to act, to paint, to sing, to do music.
But then in the same vein, you’re like, that’s not all I am. I’m not just an actor. I’m a son.
I’m a friend. I have all of these other… I like comic books.
I have all these other aspects of my personality that get thrown under the bus, because I spent all of that time working towards one thing.
Right. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s that if you’re feeling the burnout of it…
See, it’s when the body starts to speak up. It’s when you’re feeling the burnout, or you’re not enjoying it, or you’re quite freaking miserable about life. Those are the times when you want to investigate and look at what is missing, because we get so often involved in doing and doing and doing and doing and doing, and doing and doing and doing and doing, and even saying it, I feel tired.
And so we have to nurture the soul.
You have to rest and reflect.
And that requires vulnerability. And vulnerability as strength, as I believe it’s strength. And the practice of being vulnerable, because the discomfort for a lot of people is what holds them back.
The idea that it means you’re weak, or that the idea that it means that, the idea that it’s unsafe is where we shut it down. And then the vulnerability is the growing. It’s the new, it’s the change, it’s the transformation that wants to happen.
And so the practice of it, some people practice by taking a dance class because they are terrified to dance and they want to experience what that means to face their fear. So that’s vulnerable. And other people, it’s a totally different thing.
It may be confronting something in their lives that’s very uncomfortable. So that’s vulnerable. But all of those, or singing in front of people, and that’s uncomfortable.
So it’s all of these things that strengthen the vulnerability and show us it’s okay.
I love that, strengthening the vulnerability. It sounds contradicting, but like we were just saying, it’s not…
I don’t know, like we were going back a little bit, it’s just like we have this idea that we have to be jack of all trades, good at everything, and that’s never going to happen. We’re not going to be… someone’s going to be better at us at something, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be better at both our strengths and weaknesses.
So, Sunday, thank you so much for talking with me. Yeah, I mean, I’ve been telling her before, but just that the experience that we shared, that she brought of herself with us was just… it was a very beautiful thing, and it was a very empowering thing that resonates deep within my chest and my spiritual chest, that inner being, whatever you want to call it.
And if you ever have a chance to meet her, I think both of you would benefit from the experience. So thank you so much, Sean. You’re welcome.
So, we’re back at The VO Meter, live at Mavo2016. I have the very talented Sean Pratt with me. Sean, how are you doing?
I’m very good, thanks.
Tell me a little bit about why you come to Mavo and what you’re hoping to get out of it.
You know, this is my second year here. Last year, I sort of talked my way into having Val invite me in because I was going to be the only audiobook guy, and I thought that would be a nice sort of addition to what she was doing for the event. And it went over so well, I just had to say yes when she invited me back.
And, you know, I think a lot of these… What’s nice now at more and more of these video conferences, they’re including audiobooks. You know, people like Scott Brick and Carol Monda and Pat Fraley or Paul Rubin come to different video conferences around the country to give a different perspective on this particular little universe that we call audiobooks.
Okay, so how’s the response been so far this time?
Oh, really wonderful. You know, I came in Friday night early and I held one of my own technique classes here at the hotel and it went over very well. And we did the Maltese Falcon piece, which you very well know.
And then yesterday I did sort of a general welcome to… This is what audiobooks are like. And I had about, I don’t know, 40, 50 people in that room.
I had a lot of people. And then today I sort of dove into some technique, the four voices of non-fiction.
I am familiar with that as well.
Yeah, and no, the response has been really lovely. You know, it opens a lot of eyes as to what it takes to do an audiobook and the level of commitment and… That it’s just a different style of VO and it takes a different kind of training, you know?
Yeah, definitely. Do you have a feel for how many people in your session or even the general audience are actually doing audiobooks?
You know, the people in my session, like I said, I want to guess maybe about 40 people. I’d say half of them raised their hands when I said how many of you are doing audiobooks, but the number they had done individually was pretty small. You know, in general, I would think it was between 10 and 20.
There were a couple of people who had gone up, you know, 60, 70, 100 books or so, but they were just a handful of people. So they’re working on ACX. They’re making all the mistakes you make as a newbie, and they’re struggling and trying to figure out how to make it pay for their time commitment, but they really do love it.
Hopefully, at this point, they’re looking to do more with a coach.
That’s where you come in. Well, it’s funny you should say that. Yes.
I have to say, just from a purely business standpoint, coming to these conferences is always a chance to gain new students and sell some books and some t-shirts and coffee mugs as well, but mainly to see about finding that right person who’s ready to start training and focusing on non-fiction because that’s my bailiwick. It’s just non-fiction only, as you know. And so, yes, I’ve already fielded half a dozen, can I follow up with you conversations?
I’m very happy about that.
Awesome. Well, for those that are looking to reach out to you, tell us the sort of 30,000 foot sales pitch for your coaching and how people can contact you.
Well, what I focus on is non-fiction audiobook narration. My feeling is there’s plenty of really good fiction coaches out there. But in non-fiction, it takes a different kind of training.
For my money, non-fiction narration is just more difficult than fiction. Not to say that fiction is easy. Fiction can be difficult with accents and dialogue.
But non-fiction, to make it entertaining for the listener, is just a whole new level of complexity and difficulty. And so that’s what I focus on. Because it constitutes a quarter of the industry.
25% of audiobook sales are non-fiction. And yet, I hear time and again from publishers and producers how they’re always looking for good non-fiction narrators who can turn that text on calculus or PTSD.
Stop trading.
Yes, exactly. How to make that entertaining? And if you can do that as a narrator, if you can learn to do that, the work will come.
It really will. And I always tell my students jokingly that when you have a non-fiction title that someone contacts you privately for, that entrepreneur has money. As opposed to the guy who’s written his 100,000 word polemic in his mom’s basement on sci-fi, whatever.
The entrepreneur knows that they’re using it as a marketing tool or a sales idea, and they have the money to get it produced, which means that the narrator can get paid for their time.
Yeah, and I found that to be the case myself in my short audiobook career. My best-selling title so far is a book on sales techniques.
Yes, absolutely.
Well, see, there it is. Brips into pudding. And that’s why you drove your Bentley here.
So tell people how they can contact you if they want to reach out for coaching.
You can find me on the web at seanprattpresents.com. You can follow me on Twitter at sppresents. And on Facebook, Sean Pratt Presents as well.
My email address is all over the place. But you can also contact me directly at seanpratt.comcast.net. And I’ll send you some information about what I do.
All right. Thanks so much for coming by and enjoy the rest of the conference.
Thanks, Paul.
So we’re back live with the VO Meter podcast at Mavo2016. We are joined by Jason L. White, who is one of the presenters.
Jason, how are you doing?
I’m doing great. Thank you for having me.
So tell me what you were hoping to get out of the conference.
Well, my expectations were pretty high because there’s a lot of talented people that I’ve been able to meet and just talk to over the course of the year on Facebook and whatnot. But actually meeting everyone is so cool because people are into different genres. They have different talent skills.
They bring different flavors to what it is that we do. And it just rejuvenates you and reminds you why you love this work. And what I was hoping to get out of it was a lot of learning.
And I always take away more than what I thought I would learn from these type of things.
So, do you think you learn from the participants?
Yes. What I love about these things, if you work them right, you don’t just learn from the guest speakers and the presenters. You learn from everyone you meet.
Because everyone has these cool little quirks and nuances and tidbits that they do. And as long as you’re social and you talk to people, you soak it up like a sponge and you can reiterate and rebuttal and help people learn things also.
So what was the one, either tidbit you took away that was your favorite, or what was the best performance by a student, or not student, but an attendee that you took away?
Oh, awesome. I think I can only really truly speak from the sessions that I did that I presented because I was there and there were others going over. But so many people are talented.
And it’s funny that when you, as actors, when we feel and we know that we’re free, all this other type of experience and life experience and talent just comes out. I feel that we attack auditions at 40%, sometimes 60%, and there’s a dormant 30% or 40% just hanging out there. And when we feel that that’s all I need to do is clock in, act, and clock out.
All the weight is off my shoulders and I can just 100% attack this. And to single out anybody, I don’t know, there were so many really, really good reads that came out that I was even in awe of, wow, I would totally listen to that character in a cartoon or play that video game and I hope this character wouldn’t die. Or later on, I’d go back and kill them as a gamer, you know, it’s very cool.
Awesome, that’s what we all want to hear. Thanks so much for being a presenter and see you next year, maybe?
Thank you, Paul. Definitely. If I’m invited back, either way, I’m coming.
All right, thanks. Let’s go try and win some prizes.
Yeah!
All right, thanks, man.
Thank you.
This is Sean Daeley and I’m here with Nicola Richards from all the way from the UK. She was one of our presenters on… She’s our little positivity princess and our social media expert.
So, can you tell us a little bit about what you did here at the conference?
Well, in my general session, I sort of wanted to get everyone going, get the inspiration out there for the beginning of the conference.
It was great, yeah. It certainly… I felt much more positive afterwards.
I just wanted to, at the beginning, spread the message that you can get to where you want to be, to smash those goals, make things happen, but take small steps to get there.
Absolutely, and I feel like… I don’t know how closely you’re interacting with some of the attendees, but throughout the conference, I had people constantly saying like, ah, you should have asked for what I wanted, like Nicola said, or like they were definitely taking some of the nuggets that you were dishing out, like I was just saying before, never be afraid to say yes, never be afraid to ask for what you want, because otherwise, how are people going to know?
Exactly, that was one of my big things, let people know that you exist, because I sound stupid, but in this industry, you need to know what you want, and then share it with people, let them know you’re there.
Very cool, and you’ve had quite an interesting experience yourself, I understand you spent quite a lot of time working on cruise ships?
Yes, I did, as a chipmunk.
That was a joy.
So was that… did you use your normal voice for that, or did you have to do a character?
I wasn’t allowed to speak in that character. I was just literally in the suit, going out. Because I think if I was able to speak, it would have been a problem, because the kids attack you a little bit.
So maybe if I was allowed to talk, it might not have been pretty, so it’s probably better.
They don’t assume there’s anyone in there.
They’re just like, mascot!
Attack, attack, attack! But that’s awesome. I saw you attending some of the panels yourself.
What were some of the highlights for you?
I personally don’t know much, or anything really, about anime. So I was really enthralled at Kara’s session, just how much goes into actually doing a recording for that. I had no idea, so that was enthralled by that.
And obviously Sarah as well, Sarah Sherman.
Yeah, she’s an institution.
And it’s so interesting hearing it from different perspectives as well, as voice actors, to hear it from a casting director’s perspective. I found that really interesting as well.
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for coming here. I hope you would come to hear or to Mavo or one of our lovely voice over conferences that we have.
Thanks again so much for coming here on our podcast.
Thank you.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in the States.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Alright, so we have just finished up another amazing Mavo2016 and we are really lucky because we are able to pull Val Kelly, the coordinator of this fantastic event. Val, thank you so much.
How are you doing right now?
I’m doing great. It was such a great weekend. I think at a certain point you kind of work on adrenaline from the excitement of the whole thing.
So, yeah, I felt like it was a really successful event.
What were some of the highlights for you?
Well, Sarah Sherman’s keynote address was just, I mean, it was kind of epic actually. It was such a dream come true for me to hear her speak and to get advice from her. And that was definitely one of the highlights.
I also loved Sunday Muse’s session where she had everyone dancing and up around the room and singing. She did a great job.
Well, I mean, we didn’t have karaoke here, so I had to do something.
Yeah, I mean, everything was so great. It’s hard to pick the highlights, but those are two that stand out to me. And then, of course, her Morris session was amazing.
And the animation panel was so great. So yeah, everything was, everyone was great. Nicola Richards all the way from London.
So amazing.
I thought it was fantastic. And I know that you sort of market this as a smaller or micro conference, but there’s really nothing small about it. You’ve done, you’ve worked so hard to bring such paragons of the industry as voice actors and coaches and industry leaders like Sarah Sherman, like you mentioned.
And basically I just want to take this time to thank you on behalf of The Voice Over Community for bringing this incredible event and for working so hard over the last three years to continue to improve. And I know that if there is a Mavo 2017, that I will be here. And I’m sure everyone who was here will come again because it’s that beneficial.
And it was that, I mean, Jason Linere White was just talking. It’s such an invigorating, reinvigorating experience. So thank you so much, Val.
It was such a pleasure to be here and I hope there are many more to come.
Thank you so much, Sean. It was a pleasure.
And thank you so much to you and to GVA for supporting the event and being exhibitors and just for being here.
It was a great event.
Absolutely. I think we get along well together. So I’m Sean Daeley with Paul Stefano and Val Kelly for The VO Meter podcast, the GVAA, and Mavo2016.
So if you ever have the opportunity to come to one of these incredible conferences, I highly recommend it. You will not be sorry. So on behalf of The VO Meter, I’m Sean Daeley.
Take it easy, everyone, and have a great day. Thanks for listening to The VO Meter. Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
To follow along, please visit www.vometer.com.