 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop. How's everybody doing out there this week? Our guest tonight is Mark Cashman. Hey, Mark How are you doing guys? We're doing great. We're gonna talk about your 10 at least 10 tips to better your voice over career and your performance Yeah, yeah, yeah, 10 tips 10 tips I you know when Dan when you asked me the other day to do this. I just grabbed the first 10 For those of you who aren't familiar with with my tips I post a voiceover tip every day one a day on LinkedIn Facebook Twitter and Instagram and I post one every single day for 365 days in the entire year. So all right. Are you guys ready for this? Can you take 10 tips and if you got a question throw it in the chat room? We'll get to that as well. Absolutely voiceover body shop. Yeah Yeah, what I was gonna do was was do a tip and then we just discuss right, but we got to do the intro to the show first That's right. Okay. Oh, okay, right now. Oh, okay Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials calm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements the folks who bring you source connect JMC demos when quality matters The oh heroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training Voice actor websites.com where your voice actor website shouldn't be a pain in the butt voiceover extra your daily resource for voiceover success and by world voices the industry association of freelance voice talent and Now here's your hosts Dan and George Well, hello there, I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whidham and this is voiceover body shop or VO Bs All right, well Mark Cashman is gonna join us and we're gonna have a great time If again, if you have a question for our guest Throw it in the chat room. I know Jeff Holman is sitting in there writing it down Typing it yet is with his little stenographer thing and we're gonna get all those questions Right to us in just a little bit, but we got ten tips who want to cover with with mark But let me introduce our guest mark cashman is an award-winning radio and TV commercial producer as well as a working voice actor I've seen him work and as voice president of cashman commercials He's won over 150 advertising awards and it's a veteran voice actor with experience in radio TV commercials film Animated series video games and over 200 audiobooks I didn't take a breath at the beginning of that and he authored one of the best-selling books on voice actor Vo tips tricks tools and techniques to start and sustain your voiceover career Let's welcome back to our show our good friend mark cashman mark welcome back Thank you gentlemen, and I do use that term loosely. Yeah Anyway, so you we were we were talking about the fact that you have these ten tips And I have 365 Well, we're gonna talk about that Yeah, yeah, okay one one for every day of the week. Yeah, 52 weeks of the year every day of the year Yeah, every day of the year right every day of the week every day of the year. Absolutely Do you have 366 during a leap year? Yes, absolutely. I did 366. Absolutely. I was in Way back in 2020 that was a leap year. So which tip did you have to leave out for the next year? No, it wasn't I didn't have to leave Oh, you know, that's that's that's a good question. So it's what tip did I add as on 366 and I can't remember The hardest the hardest thing of coming up with 365 different tips Was to make sure I wasn't duplicating and that's not easy. That's not easy You know not easy at all I had a couple of editors to go back and and couple of people said, oh, yeah, you kind of said this Nevermind Editors I'd help okay. All right, so let's start off here. Let's start off. All right number one Yes, don't race through the first sentence in any well-written copy and by the way not all that is The first sentence usually sets up the whole rest of the story explain Again the first sentence in any well-written story sets up the whole rest of the story So if you race through the first sentence the listener is gonna say what what what what was that say? What what did you say? What what? Don't race through the first sentence of any story you tell whether it's a commercial Narration audio book. I don't care what it is. Don't race through the first sentence It just people people do that though You know, it's like there's a hurry to finish up. Maybe they're in a hurry or they don't think they're gonna get done But still the bottom line no matter what kind of story you're telling Don't race through the first sentence When does a voice actor have to be really worried about speed? So like you know commercial Well, the only time is when they're doing a commercial commercials are the only part of voice acting It's timed to the second 5s 10s 15s 30s 45 60s and every variation there You're timed to the second because advertisers buy time on the air. That's the only part of voice work That's timed everything else is not So go no going in if you don't mind the pressure the added pressure of timing in addition to everything else You got to do if you don't mind that commercials are for you Do you recommend a having a visible timer an actual counting timer on? Screen no Crazy no because that's artificial. It's it's kind of like they're watching your waveform as you're recording Which is just a little bit mind-boggling. So Unless you have this perfect synthesis of left brain and right brain, which most people don't have that said that said No, but what you do is and first of all if you're in a directed session the other people at the other end They're gonna have the stopwatch You have to prepare you just have to get your timing down before you have to know what 30 seconds is what 30 seconds Feels like and you just have to I call it getting in touch with your inner stop watch Time your time yourself practice time yourself Practice feeling what 15 feels like 30 feels like 60 feels like After a while, you'll get it. You'll you'll get in touch with that inner stop watch And so when you do a take and they say, okay George you that came out to 56 We we need we need you to be out of 59 and a half You say, oh, okay. Okay. Got it. And then you do another and then Dan does take and they say Good take Dan, but that came out to 67 Shave off eight seconds off that next read. How about saving off seven seconds of copy? Well, that's the other thing too is it Overwritten but we'll get into that another time For tip number one don't race through the first sentence just don't because it sets up the whole rest of the story Okay, that said number two George you want to take number two You got the list or is Dan up? Absolutely. I have it on the screen right here. I just have to scroll up to it There we go. The next one is reformat commercial copy make each sentence flush left He's here to read plus you don't have to deal with big paragraphs or line breaks That's why God invented word processing It's because so what do you do is when you get any kind of a script that's in a justified graph a Block of what I call a cluster fuck of text in a box Yeah, when you get that I want you to take your word processor And I want you to reformat the copy so that one every line is flush left every line starts a new thought And you also make sure that that font is minimally 14-point font. Here's a little trick Here's another little tip that I didn't even put down here the larger the font the less mistakes you make Hmm, that's a tip you can take to the bank the larger the font the less mistakes you make Because the larger the font the easier it is for your brain to read and the less mistakes you make Just think of the very first sentence you ever read when we're in kindergarten See dick run. It was in 20 point Times new Roman. It was monstrous. It was huge That's how he learned to read the larger the font the less mistakes you make and of course The larger the font the less mistakes you make when you're getting older and your eyes are getting Tends to be a problem. It's like Lake miss stretch it out on the iPad there and make it a little bigger now Here's the reason I want you to do every line flush left because when you do that what happens at the end of the day At the end of the story you have a lot of white space White space on your page Our brains love white space. It allows us to pick out all the black symbols On that page and really understand them well with white space our brains love it I can get that's a Again, that's proven over and over again if you flip through a magazine and you just flip through pages Just randomly your eyes will linger on two things one faces because we're hardwired for faces and to white space The more open a thing is our brains go. Oh, thank you So the more open your script is your brain will navigate through that copy so much more easily In particular if you're anywhere on the dyslexic spectrum If you have any problems with dyslexia or anything related to that the larger the font the more white space the easier It is to read every line flush left guaranteed. It's guaranteed Just break up that block break up that brick break up that justified graph of copy into something that's manageable Easily digestible. Let your brain let it be just be easy on your brain Right. Yeah, if it's a PDF you can just select you can usually select the text. Yeah, and copy and paste it into Absolutely, absolutely takes a little bit longer, but the prep is worth it because your performance will be so much better Yeah, you know or as my wife says get trifocals Which I finally relented to do and now everything perfectly remember the first time I hadn't done voiceover for a long time about about 22 years ago and Stepped up to a podium to read some stuff for a demo and I'm like what that That's what I knew I needed glasses Anyway, all right number three number three don't read when the copy is short You can memorize a short line without reading. You'll sound authentic and conversational. So for example starts thursday Yeah, of course that's it. Have you ever seen an actor go on stage in a play holding a script? No, have you ever seen an actor in a movie go on camera holding a script? No, they're all off book That's what actors do actors get off book actors memorize their lines because that is part of their job Now you might say well mark memorizing Vo copy that's kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? I mean come on But the thing is why are actors on stage and on camera so believable because they're not So whenever you have the opportunity to not read Take advantage You in most voice work you don't have the opportunity to not read in most voice work The copy is so dense that taking your eyes off the page. Good luck finding your way back But commercial copy is one of the few areas Where you can get your eyes off the page and you don't have to read There are only two other areas where you have that ability animation Where you're doing all these different sides and different lines like hey bobby give me that ball You don't need to read that and video games as well Where you have individual lines single lines where you can look at the line and then say the line without reading And that's the thing with with most commercial copy 30 seconds of copy It's only gotten you know, maybe 20 25 seconds of I mean 30 second spots only got 20 to 25 seconds of words And they're all short short phrases Do you really need to read them? Starts thursday. Do you need to read that if that's an announcement what i'm talking about just any other thing right So whenever you have the opportunity to get off the page Get off the page because it answers the age old question. How do you sound like you're not reading? Memorize yeah, don't read so could you possibly just like read the line several times As you're recording it and that way you're you're not only are you memorizing it, but you're going back and you You're saying it several different ways that way all i'm saying is look at the first line of tip number three. What's it say? Don't read when the copy is short. Do you need to read that now now? You can look at me and say don't read when the copy is short Don't read when the copy is short right don't read when the copy is short again You don't need to read that line. You've now memorized that line your short-term memory is intact Exactly I always say look unless you've got mild cognitive impairment Or you just drank a half a bottle of jack daniels or you just took a huge bong rip You can remember don't read when the copy is short. I'm sorry, but you again There are many instances in commercial copy when you just don't need to read Stop reading and be an actor your voice actor Be an actor I think number four before Adlib a short backstory before you perform commercial copy It helps you frame the story And warms you up before you dive in Of course, absolutely I always make a distinction between voice over and voice acting voice over is 2.9 APR financing for 60 months on all vehicles in stock. There's no acting involved in that Your voice actor An actor Does Understands who they are and where they are and who they're talking to that's what all believable acting is all Is is all about it has been about from the very beginning So you need to know who you are where you are and who you're talking to you need to know why you're saying what you're saying You need to give yourself a reason To say what you're saying and that reason isn't i'm a voice actor behind a microphone doing an audition to send it to my agent That's off the table That's that's that's just artificial You have to be an actor an actor understands who they are where they are and who they're talking to the definition of acting If you boil down to its essence Is what stella adler and sanford meisner said it's behaving truthfully in an imaginary situation Acting is all about So therefore we have to understand That when we are telling a story We are actors and we have to figure out who we are in that story where we are and who we're talking to Once you can understand those three questions you understand the story and you have every right to tell But if you don't understand those three questions You don't understand the story and you have no right to tell it So you can like imagine i'm somebody that's going to be talking to this class about this and so So have you ever been in class before and you know that sort of thing? That's exactly right. All right That's exactly right understand who you are where you are and who you're talking to what was your pre-life Why are you saying what you're saying? Frame the story and then you can tell anything to anyone anywhere anytime Alrighty, uh, if you're just joining us We're with mark cashman and we're going over tips Simple tips to just better your career and better your performance style and all the things that go with it If you have a question for mark You can throw it in the chat room of wherever it is you're watching it Whether you're watching it on facebook live, whether you're watching it on youtube Whether it's just sort of snowing down outside your house and you're hearing little bits and pieces through the ether Write a question down and put it in the chat room and jeff holman will get that to us Number five another on our top ten this week uh Who is it your me george your turn my turn okay number five Take a few minutes to warm up your voice Stretch your facial muscles Or your facial muscles do tongue twisters Sing to oxygen 8 and hydrate all the things you just did not do before you started before I started saying that exactly No, I'm only kidding. I'm all warmed up. We've been doing this show for another. Yeah. Yeah, but then this is just the This is the most practical thing again. You want to Before you go running you're gonna stretch before you go to work out You're gonna stretch before you do anything uh that where you're in a performance mode You're going to stretch And your facial muscles are are definitely one of them and um and that's and and and adjunct a corollary to this is just is also The opposite When you after you've done your performance and you're in front of your computer your monitor and you're doing your editing and stuff like that Get up every 20 Minutes and get your eyes off the screen Off the screen off the screen and get up also and start walking around and get and start sitting because you're sitting to death So those three things warm up before you perform, but after you perform Just keep in mind Don't be in front of that monitor for more than 20 minutes at a time get up and get your give your eyes a rest and break And get up and give your hips a break And your back a break and everything else like that Okay, it's all physical things to do before and after Your performance To keep just to keep mindful Yeah, uh, what what's what's your favorite warm-up exercise mark the nbc announcer test um And anybody can find the nbc announcer test by going online just right in the nbc announcer test and it was one duck Two to swan three that it has four squawking geese. Yeah. No, no, no, that's that's another song But um, but the nbc announcer test was a test that they gave announcers back in the in the 40s in the 50s To see if they were good enough to be announcers for on national nbc tv the nbc announcer test I see george's is checking it out right now And and george, what do they give you there? This was a test that they gave all announcers who wanted to apply to be announcers on nbc and um, um, and then after and then of course all the other stations all the other um stations that Did the same test and so george, what does it say? What's what's the copy say? one hen two ducks three squawking geese four limerick oysters five corpulent porpoises six pairs of don alverizos tweezers 7 000 mastodonians in full battle battle array eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of egypt nine apathetic sympathetic diabetic old man on roller skates with a marked propensity toward prastic procrastination And sloth And lastly 10 lyrical spherical diabolical denizens of the deep who all stall around the corner of the quo and the quay of the quivery all at the same Time now now, so those are the 10 things that they go But the thing is you have to do one then one two then one two three then one two three four Then one two three four five then one two three four five six and and and so so that's basically what you have to do If you could pass that test and you could articulate every single word they said, okay That's the baseline now Read this and then they give you news, you know the ap ap Wire things and all sorts of stuff that they that they had there But the but the nbc announcer test was the baseline for any if you couldn't get through that you're out You're not even being considered NBC announcer test great great warm-up and um And then of course there's another Unbelievable one that'll completely blow your mind. It's called the chaos the chaos chaos And it is an exercise that a nightmare exercise in english and all the different English words that you weren't even sure you knew If you could get through that you can get through Anything All righty chaos So that said so let's see we think uh, so number six number six. I think that's george george your turn Uh mark your copy and pencil not pen and keep the mark simple so you can navigate through the text easily And consistently and of course this has been updated because that was written in the 21st and 20th century And now we have the 21st century. So we have Tablets with styluses. We have entire monitors that you can write on And of course a lot of people are very very adept at editing on the fly with let's say google doc or something like that So it's whatever is most convenient for you Whatever is whatever format that you can mark your copy easily and quickly. That's the key That's the key. You have to be able to mark your copy Your mark the marks on your copy are navigational marks Always mark. I always liken marks the navigational marks on copy to buoys in the water when we're doing we're driving a motorboat when you're driving a motorboat You add these buoys in the water that tell you where you can drive the boat that's safe to drive the boat If you go outside the buoys, what's going to happen? You're going to run the boat aground Same thing with marking on your copy. You ignore the marks on your copy. You run the performance the story aground So you mark your copy to remind you and the marks are very very simple extraordinarily simple They need to tell you just two basic basic things and all the rest are frills two basic things are emphasis and timing Emphasis in that you have to make sure that you emphasize the correct words in the story that you're telling You have to understand what the subject is and obviously emphasize that Points you're trying to make you emphasize things so emphasis is extraordinarily important And all you need is a simple underline To underline the word you want to emphasize very very simple You're going to take that same shape line, which is now horizontal and you're going to turn it this way diagonal And that's going to tell you where to take a beat You need to take a beat you got to find places to take a beat I always joke that I never met an actor who didn't like to take a dramatic beat But you always have to want to try to find a beat You always want to give the listener a rest if you don't find to take a beat The listen you're just going to be talking on and on and on and on and on Do you know that there's a 12 step program for people who talk incessantly? There is I know a bunch of people who should take that take a damn breath already It's a 12 step program. It's called on and on and on Thank you So that said you got to mark your copy to remind you where to take where to where to stress We're to emphasize and where to take a beat everything else is Extra it's it's embellishment. It's your hieroglyphics. However, you want to do it You want to remind yourself to to lift a particular word and you'll put an arrow If you wanted to send out another word, you'll put a downward arrow You'll make your own hieroglyphics, but your marks are really really extraordinarily important because your marks keep you consistent from take to take to take And if you are inconsistent from take to take to take the listen the director is going to tear what little hair they have left out of their head Alrighty, all right. So mark your copy mark mark mark your copy. By the way, if you say my name three times fast I'll you'll sound like a hairlip dog That was my dog all the time. Yeah, um, yeah, I was doing it last night with mishka. I'm like very tasty Ah, she was like what? God only knows what I was saying to her Anyway, number seven Number seven. I think that's yours dad. It is. Yeah your smile Is the promise of a good experience when people hear you smile they think They'll enjoy it too Absolutely every advertiser the smart advertisers Leave the listener want to leave the listener Their goal is to leave the listener with what they call a positive emotional response A positive emotional response So when you're smiling you're telling the listener you had a good experience with it They will assume that they will too, but if they don't hear a smile They will assume that you didn't have a good experience with it and they probably won't either So that's why I say your smile is the promise of a good experience when you're smiling about talking about the benefits of a product or service When you're smiling their listener is basically saying, oh, maybe y'all have a good experience with this too All right, and if you don't have a smile, they'll think that way too All right number eight mr. Whittom Yeah, every spot is an invitation to try a specific product or service Always invite folks in particularly on the tagline at the end Absolutely, particularly on at the tagline on the tagline at the end So every single time at particularly on that tag You're always saying to the listener come on in you like it here. Good to see you come on in You're always welcoming. You're always inviting them in that is the that's what's underneath everything you say Everything you say You're inviting them to try the product inviting them to listen inviting them to see inviting them in And it's got to be sincere It has to be sincere as they say in hollywood always be sincere. Even if you don't mean it Thank you What's what's a good way to sound sincere? What's a what's a good technique for that? Be sincere. Yeah, even if you're not sincere, you know Fred allen Also said if you took all the sincerity in hollywood and you jammed it into a fleas naval You'd still have enough room for two caraway seeds and an agent's heart Thank you That said now again, how do you sound sincere be sincere? I'm sorry, but but but that's I know it sounds very facile, but It's just that simple be sincere don't sound phony already and and and Penny abshar had a wonderful wonderful tip Classic the most classic tip in the world in voice work and everybody's heard it. Tell me don't sell me Absolutely. Just tell me just tell me that's all you got to do and be sincere Number nine number nine. I think that's george is number nine. No, it's mine. Actually. Oh, oh, that's right That's right. We're going. Yeah, right This is a great one because I I actually do this one Uh Ask three story related questions to understand what you're talking about Who am I? Where am I and see who am I talking to and then I usually add When am I talking to them and that sort of thing? Does it really matter when? Can and you know, maybe it's the middle of the night It might be the middle of the night, but is that normally is that nor is that does that normally happen? No, it doesn't most of when unless it's very story specific when is is just one thing you don't have to worry about But who where and what? Yes, absolutely, and you can always find out what you're talking about if you just find the subject I always remind my students the formal subject of any story is the name of the product the name of the company That's the formal subject find the subject Once you find the subject then you can tell the story. You know what exactly what it is you're talking about If the spot's for colonial life, but they talk about employee benefits, then the subject is employee benefit Know what you're talking about and you'll be able to understand and tell the story But again actors on stage and on camera They have a process Where they're in rehearsal for their play or their movie and it's a process that they call that's called discovery They discover everything about their character that they're portraying They discover why their character says says what they say What their their character's relationship is to the other characters in the story The story arc the character goes through from the beginning of the play to the end of the play or film They understand they've discovered everything about their character. They understand why they're saying what they're saying Voice actors think that they don't have to go do that do that process You do if you call yourself an actor you have to do discovery Absolutely Once again, we're with mark cashman if you have a question for mark throw it in the chat room Jeff holman's there. He's writing them all down and getting them to us and we'll be able to ask them that one Yeah, that's right Uh And george you have number 10 you do A lot of copies sings Find the music the key in the cadence In copy and you'll hit all the right notes. That's right find the music in copy I find that a lot of my super successful students are musical They learned they were singing in the choir. They were singing in the car. They were they played piano They learned how to play guitar. They are musical Now does that mean that you have to be musical to be successful in this business? No But you still have to have a goddamn good ear And you have to at least be well, I guess not tone deaf Right, so bottom line is if you are musical you have an advantage in this business if you're not musical And then you're going to be doing more what I call left brain stuff. You're going to be doing more directional Knowledge as opposed to Musical knowledge that you that you can apply But if you're musical Everything in music is in copy with one exception Everything in music keys sharps flats whole notes half notes quarter notes dotted notes rests pianissimo forte Legato staccato Everything in music is in copy with one exception and that is time signature We do not talk in a steady beat We talk in a cadence. We talk in an ebb and a flow We get fast. We get slow. We stutter. We stammer. We do all sorts of things, but we don't talk in a rhythm But everything else in in music is in copy and if you're musical Find it find the keys find the notes find the cadence If you're not musical listen Remember what you guys were talking about with the q&a before how do I develop my ear? Listen listen listen listen to people you admire listen to people you respect listen to people You look up to and say oh my god if I could be one fraction as good as this person. I'd be happy listen Be inspired Listen and listen to the music because some of the most amazing voice actors you you hear and say wow Micro perfect example. Everyone loves micro dirty jobs micro beautiful voice beautiful baritone Everyone says wow what an amazing narrator. He was an opera singer He was an opera singer before he got into narration That's what i'm saying if you're a singer if you're musical You're going to be able to do you're going to have you have a leg up you have an advantage over those who are non Absolutely, we're with mar cashman. We're going to take a quick break We're going to get to your questions. You can still throw them in the chat room So throw them in there right now. So uh, stay tuned We'll be right back and we'll talk a little bit more about good performance technique with mar cashman here in voiceover body shop Don't go away This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you? This is virgin radio Well, okay. We're not that innocent. 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In fact, it's limited time This week is the only week throughout the entire year That my huge Vio heroes pro training program Is available the whole rest of the year. It's not so if you want in if you want me to help you create a satisfying and profitable and Successful voiceover practice. I can't wait to help you the bonuses are amazing You get equipment you get training if you're here to figure out how to do better at your current voiceover Practice or build a brand new one. I'd love to help you All you have to do is go to vio heroes dot com slash go That's vio heroes dot com slash go do so before the end of the week And I will see you inside the program Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great Welcome back. We're talking with mark cashman author of v o tips tricks tools and techniques to start and sustain your voiceover career and uh Great book. I mean, I've been reading this one for since you first wrote it Because I got to read the galleys for it. So that's right. You did because you you were you were kind enough to to give me a Really nice testimonial and um, I'm actually I'm working on the sequel um, I I took a sabbatical this this summer and uh, just so I could start to try to finish this book by the end of the year and um, the the title for the second book, I'm gonna Give it to you now. Nobody. This is the this is a first This is an exclusive have to sign an nda or anything. No, not at all v obs But the uh, uh, the title of my second book is v hyphen omg I like that. Yeah, so that's the that's the second book. Uh, hopefully it'll um I'll finish it by the end of the year and it'll be out Next year and um, and then I'll also be doing the audiobooks of both my books So, uh, so 2023 is going to be a real banner here I've been working hard at it and and so I'll be debuting a lot of things next year Excellent. Alrighty. Well, you're ready for some questions from our vast Worldwide audience that is tuned in tonight. Oh, yes, absolutely. I'll start with jeffrey headquist he says, uh Jeff Tips for delivering the Hey the guy next door conversational read. Yeah um You know What's funny is is that a lot of writers want the guy next door conversational read and the copy is not guy next door conversational copy Unfortunately so That is a matter of just Really working with a great acting coach who's going to be able to show you how to Throw away A lot of copy When we first got into this, uh, we were constantly talking to billboard this and billboard that and stuff like that and and highlight this Part of the this is benefit and that and and all these copy points that they were doing But uh, a lot of it now is thrown away and when I say thrown away, it's it's just not again Again, not overly stressed or emphasized and there's a lot of upspeak and a lot of copy depends upon again Who's doing it? So overall, how do you get the conversational guy next door read? You listen and rehearse and listen and rehearse and listen and rehearse And work with a great great acting coach an acting coach Who's going to be able to give you and help you get To be competitive with current reads that are on the air now guys who have Beautiful deep resonant voices like jeff and jeff is a colleague and jeff and I've known each other a long time and I've I've worked with jeff and he's On air and all just beautiful beautiful speaking voice A lot of people in our business have to learn how to just relax and not sound as Answers they used to Yep, it's not easy. It's not i'm not saying it's easy. Yeah, especially if you were an announcer George you get the questions one question from brad avenue. You get number one He says hey guys here are a handful of questions remarked one The first based on your 25 years as voice talent and producer Yeah, what observations do you have about clients and producers? You are working with both the good and the You know, it's interesting I've been doing this for over 44 years and I can literally count on one hand The number of assholes I've met in the industry and worked with literally even maybe even less than one hand First virtually everybody I work with in the business is smart Got a great sense of humor super creative and easy to work with why because they Have a career and they want to continue working So they want to make sure that they are easy to work with and that they're not assholes. So The great thing about our business is is that You see we we don't work for a boss. We don't have somebody dangling a paycheck over our heads every single week And we can't tell the boss screw you But we're freelance talent and if anybody disrespects us or anybody acts like an ass always fuck you I don't want to work with you. That's it. And you just drop them as a as a client So the bottom line is we get to pick and choose who we the people who we want to work with We want to work with smart creative people who are respectful Organized a professional and and aren't wasting our time and are going to pay us what we're worth That's the people we want to work with the other people who don't want to do that. We cut them out of our lives We don't work with them Is that kind of answer your question? Yeah, that answers that one. Okay Um, what was the other ones? There were a couple of others. Yeah brad's second question the gva a rate Has a great rate guide. Do you spend time explaining business basics to clients? i.e broadcast tv digital radio project versus lower non I mean when I talk to people, I mean I give them a whole lecture like, you know, there's there's this tradition in Judaism It's like if someone wants to convert a rabbi has to say three times Are you sure you want to do this? It's like a vampire inviting you in that's dead that said um rates Look, there are after rates. There are gva a rates of which a lot of people use for a lot of non union Rates, which which are terrific. So it's always I'm I'm glad that there are union rates because that sets a minimum Here's what I want people to remember voice actors to remember when they're Putting a quote together and they're giving a client a price as to how much it's going to cost They're not just buying you They're not just buying your voice and your talent and your performance They're buying three things They're buying your voice talent slash performance. That's one thing They're buying your studio time which you put together your entire studio and all the equipment inside of it They're renting that that's the second thing they're buying and the third thing they're buying is you as a producer director and editor They're buying your editing time your producing time your production time talent Studio production they're buying three things. So when you give them a quote You itemize the three things let them know they're buying three things rather than one Alrighty you get number three there hooray In preparation lifts slash edit slash versions question mark Do you have a strategy for educating those clients and forgetting them to consider consulting the gvaa when setting up a voice budget Yeah, that's that that's a boy when you that's really getting into the weeds in terms of negotiations and that's something that you need to get straightened out ahead of time before you even get into the studio and That's why sometimes it's always good to have an agent because your agent can take care of that All that stuff is technically what your agent's supposed to do is negotiate on your behalf If you have to negotiate on your own behalf, you better be armed And ready to answer any questions and justify Everything there and make it as clear as possible if it's too complicated. Sometimes it's just worth it. Just just walk away sometimes Dealing with people who are difficult to work with Sometimes it's just better to say you know what it's not worth my time all this Stuff going back and forth with the case maybe If it is worth your time you got to figure out a way to make it clear and simple and stick to your guns Absolutely Grace newton has a great question here Uh, Mark, I remember you have specific thoughts on not punching the word and Will you share that with us and and and she continues this is I see a lot of copy where a sentence begins with a conjunction like But always always always how would you approach that I see no I I see the word but and I immediately change it to the word and Oh, no, but and it's not a button a but it's not an ant But no a but a but is an exception a but is a transition a but is a you're telling a story But and that's a transition point. So don't confuse ands and buts but here Is what you do with ands, okay And is not an important word And is a preposition this this this and this so and A and is going to be placed in two places in a sentence inside of a sentence Which is a bridge this this this and this and it becomes an ampersand or an n or an an you don't hear the and And when and starts a sentence You use and as a springboard And this and that and those and them and these Not and those and those and these and them And this it's a springboard Inside of a sentence. It's a bridge the beginning of a sentence. It's a springboard the exception if the writer Decides and asks you to hit the amp With or either with italics bold underline or caps my pet peeve that said If the writer makes and important You hit the and if the writer doesn't make and important You don't hit the end because and is not important And most conjunctions and prepositions are not important and to but of With so from it. I mean it goes on and on and on not so but that said It's not important and is not an important word unless the writer makes it important Yeah, and a lot of times people just you know when we're talking we just throw and away And you rarely hear the d on the end of it. That's exactly what i'm saying Yeah And when you do say an and it don't hit the d I rarely do and i'm like good. I sometimes i gotta add the d in which is Sometimes fun fun fun thing is a lot and they'll be people who say can you please articulate the word and Okay, fine. All right Question from debobo George He says hi everyone mark. Are you the voice of menards? No, somebody else asked me that a couple of months ago and it's um, it's my doppelganger and And and it's interesting as scientists have been comparing doppelgangers and seeing that they actually have some similar dna Even though they're not related. How do you like that? well All right. Ivan sherry asks mark. Would you please address how voicing auditions Differs from voicing bookings Well, they really shouldn't should they No, because well, here's the thing. Okay, you do your audition when you do your audition if you are picked That's what i call demo love. They fell in love with the demo They fell in love with your audition and all you have to do is reprise What you did in the audition. That's what they're expecting. That's why they picked you So it's the easiest thing in the world to do the directed session because they picked you based on the audition No pressure nothing unless The night before the session they say hey dan uh We've had big changes in the copy and just a whole different set of directions on the story gone in another direction um We still want you but uh, but uh, can you come on uh, you know, maybe a half an hour early so we can discuss All right, that's rare. That's rare most of the time 99 of the time you do an audition They pick you you're going to reprise what you did in the audition and they're going to be so happy Yeah, or even better. They use your audition That's the best and still pay you for an audition. That's right They do you do an audition and they say hey no need to do a directed session We're going to use what you did on the audition. Yay. Fine. Great. Just make sure you spell my name right on the check Linda joy smiter Uh, I let's see here. Uh, George. How are you doing? She says i've been in your classes when doing commercials talk to a person Or to a group she says in quotes hardly any copy is ever written talking one on one Hardly any copy in the world is written well enough to be considered realistically talking to one person The overwhelming majority of all commercial copy you are talking to a group of people You're talking to a large audience of people and you're just explaining Everything about your product and service. It's that simple It's that simple anybody who says to you just pretend like you're talking to one person I'm sorry. They don't know what they're talking about The overwhelming majority of all commercial copy can be framed as Presentational you're presenting in front of a group always always Got to keep that in mind. You're not talking to one person. You're hardly ever talking to one person Once in a blue moon once in a blood red moon. Will you ever have copy? That you could realistically say I could see talk telling this to one person Because any other copy you'd say to one person they look at you like you're off your meds And some of us are Uh j. Horace black has the last question. Mr. Black. How are you two at all? Hey mark dan in george You mentioned having a welcome or tried this mindset What's the general approach for the announcer of radio tv spots? Approach for fast tags other than saying that boy, there's a lot here other than saying them clearly and quickly Is there a general approach for legal fast tags? I've been getting a few auditions for these lately and these specs Real guy with great legal skills No pressure Just be cool come collected and glide through with a brisk upbeat matter of fact vitality talk to Yeah, that's all you have to do is just do what they asked you to do and then you'll be fine You know, no, there's no, you know other other than uh, then post and and doing a little uh, you know Little you know time compression For a legal tag, um, you're just going to go as quickly as you can possibly go and And and and hope you don't go over Live announce live that anybody who's on on the air is People it's funny this snobs in our business say oh, you're from radio Oh, you'll never make any voiceover. That's bullshit everybody who's on on the air knows more in their pinky than most Voice actors knowing their whole body about articulation and projection and timing and and understanding what this you're talking about And and page everything they understand everything and on top of it They're in live live in front of millions of people millions of people Well, no way. Yes. Oh, we don't have that kind of pressure when we're doing stuff. We have e-learning stuff. We're in our little Studios live announcers people are on the air. They they are they they are killing it man They're doing so many millions of they're multitasking beyond that microphone. So No, there's no trick for speaking a legal tag faster other than practicing And just again the nbc announcer test if you can get through the nbc announcer test really really quickly It's like saying giggity, you know the seth mcfarlane can say giggity 10 times in a row 10 times in a row flawlessly You have that kind of vocal control you can get through a legal tag quickly All righty mark cashman author of vo Thanks for being with us if people want to get a hold of you I know if people want where's your website? Let's see. Uh, sue. Where's his website? It should be right there somewhere There it is Commercials.com. There it is right there and and mark at cashman commercials.com Marc is my email address people can contact me anytime. I'm around like a doughnut and um What else what else what else? Again, I'm planning on having my book out next year so anticipate that I can You guys how many years now? Have you been at 11 and a half 11 and a half years? It is right now. It is such a well oiled machine It's scary But it is so entertaining you guys put together so much stuff and so in such a short amount of time And you give everybody a reason to keep on Contributing which is great. Thanks mark. We appreciate it. Good work. Congratulations. Congratulations And thank you. I'm honored to be on your show anytime And we're always honored to have you Alrighty, we'll be right back and wrap things up into a nice tight little ball right after take care guys and thanks for your questions Before time began there was v obs dot tv watch or else In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites dot com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept to Live online in a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites dot com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites dot com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voice over career flourish Don't try it yourself go with the pros voice actor websites dot com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what It's that time of the show where we talk about source elements the creators of source connect which is a tool for pros Who want to record voice actors all around the world that can't be in the studio And of course that's been a big part of life the last couple of years Not being able to be physically in the studio The beauty of this technology now is that a lot of the work that could have only been done by actors locally In the city or where the studio is can now be cast and and could be performed By actors any place and that's a huge Huge pro of having tools that are this well respected this reliable And sound this good, you know the fact that now voice actors Can do the kind of work that traditionally had to be cast and and done in this in the local city Can now be done remotely and that's source connect enables that if you want to get Into using source connect if you want to be familiar with it You want to start playing around with it head over to source dash elements dot com And sign up get your account started get the 15 day free trial watch the tutorials Absorb all the learning content there And get started so that you understand how it works and uh, You'll be ready when that next job comes along that says must have source connect Thanks for listening. Thanks for sponsoring us and we'll be back to wrap up right after this This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice of our body show all righty well That was a rush hour of voiceover tips. It's always a fire hose with mark. Yeah fires of knowledge Absolutely, uh, let's see here next week on this very show. We'll have tech talk number 86 Which is an hour of just amazing stuff all the stuff that we know Make sure you tune in for that. We'll have that out next week the promo. I'm not sure which one i'm gonna use but we'll see You've got a webinar coming up for twisted wave tomorrow Yeah, it's tomorrow. Um, if you do miss it, don't worry. It's all always recorded and available for pay Uh video on demand um that you can catch later But either way whether you watch it live and show up tomorrow at 3 p.m Pacific time that's september 6th or if you missed it and you want to catch it and reruns They're always going to be at the same place george the dot tech slash webinars And that one's going to be on audiobook narrating using twisted wave Excellent twist wave great for long format narration great program for that Uh, we need to thank our donors of the week of which there are many many like 949 designs jonathan grant kasey clack christopher epperson sarah borges philips appear tom pinto Shelly abaleno brian page patty gibbons rob rider greg thomas a doctor voice ant land productions shanna pennington baird martha con don griffith shrey mosley diana birdsall and saundra minne willer Alrighty, uh, thanks to our sponsors harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements vio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com jmc demos and world voices Dot org the industry association of freelance voice talent Uh, thanks to jeff holman lots of questions tonight. We love it. We love it when people are Tuning in when we do it live and give us those live, you know in real-time questions Uh, so thanks to jeff for doing all that great work there sumer lino Hopefully things were a little cooler where she is our technical director Uh, let's say it's down. Oh, it's down to 100 here in my backyard. So it's cooling off Just a little bit. Thanks sue for a great job tonight and of course lee penny just for bn lee penny Well, you know the voiceover business ain't easy But we're here to help you at your home studio and bringing you the people that can give you all the great tips And making sure you are the best you can be as a voice actor Uh, in the meantime It really comes down to this if you're if it sounds good It is good. I'm dan lennard and i'm george widdum and this is voiceover body sean or vio B s have a great week everybody. We'll see you next time. Stay cool. Bye