 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop We got a great show tonight because we have our guest Shelly Avellino who's supposed to be here somewhere Say something Shelly Where's her picture I have my camera locked on cuz I am clever do tonight. No, I'm just kidding. Okay, here's Shelly There's Shelly, she's our guest tonight. No, she's over here. All right We're gonna talk about all sorts of fun stuff We'd love your questions here on voiceover body shop So if you're on Facebook or on our chat room and our website ask questions so we can ask Shelly those questions or ask George and I and So why don't we just get the show on the road since George is on the road anyway? I Am right now in Seattle tonight From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional video studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional-sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world Bringing you talks with the biggest names in the voice of a world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voice over business Welcome to voice over body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials.com home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with a word-winning voice over training J. Michael Collins demos when quality matters and Voice over extra your daily resource for VO success and now Live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys and here we are. I'm Dan Leonard And I'm George Wittem and this is voice over body shop or VO BS Alrighty Well, well well well well a busy week here at the voice over body shop busy here busy and you are Here we have to show the space needle here. You're in Seattle That's right. If I stand in the right place out out on the street here I can just about see that that space needle. Yeah, I'm staying in friends at home in Capitol Hill It's a great neighborhood. You're not far from much of anything and Just getting to enjoy some time with my daughter up here. She's actually upstairs playing with her friends who live in this house Which is really cool. So it's been it's been a really cool visit so far But uh, I'm in my Seattle finest wearing a hoodie sweatshirt So, I hope you like it 90 degrees in the backyard here at the body shop Had an interesting thing happen to me this week a friend of my back in Buffalo sent me a picture of this guy I don't know how well you can see that But does he look familiar? Yeah, this is the tad bit. Yeah Anyway, it's this guy apparently gave lots of money as a philanthropic thing many many years ago like a hundred years ago And my friends now the executive director there and he's like hey Can you read like his bequest to our annual dinner and I didn't want better and I you know I did the video is him. I found Warren g. Harding's office behind me did the whole thing in sepia tone And it should be it's really cool and they're loving it back in Buffalo. Anyway, that's the fun stuff we get to do When you got a green screen Yeah, exactly. I I can be in Seattle. You can be in said I can be in Seattle, too I know you know, it's funny a lot of shows have kind of moved on quote-unquote from the green screen And I think it is just It's just one of those fun things that just makes you know when you see our show You get a CS on the backdrop of something Oftentimes we'd like to see your booth. Yeah. Yeah, we'd like it's fun to show a little weird locations that I happen to be So this is true. Well, I'd like to introduce our guests. This is a young lady. We've known for many many years and We know her as a voice actor and As this wild woman we run into at voiceover conferences with the bright red hair But she's doing some really interesting stuff and we want to talk about that. Let's welcome to voice of her body shop Shelly Avelino Shelly welcome So weird to see you on the screen and not see you in person. Yeah, well, you'll you'll see me in a couple weeks That's fine. I know I know I'll get my damn fix. So your that's right There is a legendary picture of you when I smoking cigars though that just appalled both of our spouses, but Anyhow, but I mean, I've talked to you and met you many many times and you know We've seen each other so many but I don't know a lot about you except that you occasionally drag people off and say Let's go smoke a cigar Tell me where you're obviously not from this continent. Tell me a little bit about your background. Oh my gosh You mean you can't hear my Texan accent. No, not Now I'm originally from Wales actually I was born in Germany funny enough really horses and I lived in Germany till I was six Move to England for a few years And then I moved to Wales when I was nine and I lived there ever since and ever since until I left and to do my degree And what you don't know about me probably is my degree. There's gonna be something Naughty about this. I know my degree is in ceramics and glass blowing Don't even silence Silence, there's a degree. Well, I can see it's ceramics, but in glass blowing Yeah, and I got that in Birmingham in in England and about seven years after that I've always wanted to live in Hong Kong and so I moved to Hong Kong when I was able you just wanted to live in Hong Kong Ever since I was about six years old my father was stationed out there and He used to send back how the house this first storytelling you used to send back tapes of Him telling us stories about this beautiful country the food the people all of that stuff And I fell in love with Hong Kong through his storytelling and I've always wanted to live there ever since So when I was old enough, I thought well sort this I'm just gonna rent my house out and off I go So I did I just went with a suitcase and stayed with a friend Got my teaching English as a foreign language. I was already musical I've played many musical instruments and sing so I talked music and English for years and I met my husband there who's a pilot from the US from Utah funnily enough and Yeah, we moved around a lot lived all over the world very lucky lived in Thailand Hawaii Then Singapore for a year. I'm on Singapore. We moved to Vegas because that's where my husband's Part of his family was from Vegas. So we've moved here about Eight years ago nine years and that's what I found voiceover. Yeah, and I've been doing voiceover ever since Living in all the slummy places, you know, you haven't been in Greenland or anything like that No, thank heavens, but it is on my bucket list actually Greenland supposed to be lovely Depending on where you are Anyway, so how did you drift into our wonderful world of voiceover? Oh Actually, that's a really funny story. So I was actually looking I was actually looking I was actually looking for a singing teacher at the time And I was on meet-up to do. Let's have a look on meet-up. There's got to be a singing teacher here and I found Melissa moats who used to be a singing teacher on cruise ships years and years and years ago and She was running a voiceover workshop for my home at the time And I thought oh voiceover What's all that about then? So she basically said come for your first lesson and bring a book that you're reading and I was actually reading Harry Potter at the time How stereotypical is that I was like how embarrassing so I was sat in this room with like 15 to 20 people Who all seemed to know what they were doing and I just felt oh, I have no clue. I was shaking I was just terrified terrified and I went into the booth and I read, you know a paragraph From this book and I just never wanted to leave. I thought yep This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And then there was no stopping me I was literally like, you know car on a fast track. That was it for me. Wow. How long ago was that? That was eight years ago. Oh, holy cow. Yeah. Yeah, good time goes fast. That's amazing since you're only 25 Oh, I thank you. I paid you so much money to say that beforehand I Use smooth talk of you. I pride myself in my smoothality. Anyway So we wanted to talk about this this thing that you're doing now. It's called Bridging the VO gap Which I mean, is that like something knowledge thing or is it a geographical thing? It's kind of both. Okay, so I'll tell you when it started because I actually have Tom test to thank I don't know, you know Tom test lovely guy And he was in fact my very first faff con. Oh my god. When was my first faff con? 2013 maybe I forget I was really naive. I was really, you know, not long in in my voice over career and Tom test came running over to me and faff con and said hey shell you do marketing at different countries I'm doing a breakout session. Why don't you just come in and just have a chat with people and tell them what you do? I'm like, yeah, sure. So I went in, you know Just being me and I just sat there and chatted to all these people for about 15 20 minutes. It might have been longer than that Just going through what I do every day and being British in the US. I am I don't get as many Auditions as people who are on US agents. I've got a lot of US agents, but I don't get that many British auditions They're few and far between I do a little bit of the pay-to-plays, but I'll go Obviously back then I did more But I find most of my own work I'm non-union and I find most of my own work through marketing and I market like a boss Like I really enjoy marketing. A lot of people don't I really enjoy it. So I literally just talked through how I marketed internationally and Everybody seemed to be like, oh my god, that's a thing like you can market outside the US Uh, I you know, a lot of people didn't even think about that So it's something that I've always done and when I started working at the voice actor studio here in Vegas as a coach and I Started teaching international marketing and marketing in general here and it just kind of I've been doing it for years And then I just suddenly thought well, you know, I go to all these conferences There's lots of voice-over people that can benefit from this, you know, we all want to increase our client base, right? So I thought well, why don't I just come up with a name that's you're not only bridging the distance But you're bridging that gap of knowledge between marketing in the country that you live in and also marketing Outside of the country that you live in because there are differences. Yeah. So yeah, you know, that's that's kind of how it came came About really no, I've done a lot of work all over the world And I think that's one of the great things about our business is that our marketplace because a lot of people like well Do I go to a local radio station like no your market place is Everywhere because we have the internet and I remember early on when I started doing it, you know online it was a lot of a lot of international work and my one of my biggest clients was in India and I was doing work in China and Finland and places like that I won't say where I got them from but You know that company has changed its spots since then But I did seem to get a lot of work from pray to place in in in Europe and various other places And it really wasn't a whole lot of marketing. It was generally, you know, just answering auditions and People will hire me because right, you know, we're we're better than everybody else But now because there's so much competition, I imagine that Seeing as you really enjoy Doing the marketing you've probably got some very interesting strategies for doing that. So Let me ask you this. Is there a difference between international marketing and marketing locally and you know here in the US and What is the difference? Yeah, I think I definitely think there is and I think the main difference is when you market outside your own country You may very well be marketing to countries that English isn't their first language number one That's the big one, right? I mean obviously Australia and Canada another place to the speak English But if you go outside of that, you know, there's a big difference of contacting production companies Or advertising agencies when the English is limited Even if they can speak English quite well into business, you know, you have to Make sure that your emails are a little simpler in the grammar that you use and also be aware of You know their culture There's a lot of different cultures ways of doing business in different cultures, you know You don't want to approach Let's say an Eastern European client in Russia the same way as you would contact somebody in the US because that's not You know, it's not the same language that you use, you know The Eastern Europeans don't want the what I call the fluffy email. I kind of use the word fluffy, you know Like oh, it was so nice to see your website and I really like this video that you did No, the Russian people they don't respond well to that once you've got to know them they do But for the most part, they just want to know who are you what you do? How much is going to cost and when can you do it, you know, they're a little bit more direct So it's just getting to know like the countries that you're approaching what their rates are how they do business Knowing when their holidays are knowing what times they work and the biggest one for me I think is if you're doing a lot of email marketing, which is what I do a lot of internationally is Knowing and getting the time difference, right? So that you contacting them on their time zone not yours You know, that's a big that's a big game changer. It is yeah and it's something I run into all the time because I do work with with agencies in London and Recently I had one in Norway And I think it's like a nine-hour difference from here in California, right? And they're like well, you know, can you do it like at 6 a.m. And I'm like Bring coffee and I'll be fine What was really weird about it was doing this session Where the engineer could speak most could speak English very well, but everybody else was talking in Norwegian So you're you're like you read the line and you're you're hearing this jabbering in Norwegian in the background Yes, and we're not for like five minutes and then the guy says they want you to do it a little faster Yes, there's a lot of that so you have to be aware of that You know that goes on a lot special on my French clients do that So you do have to be aware that you might be doing live sessions at two o'clock in the morning You know, you have to be prepared that if you want to market internationally and get international clients That might be a thing you have to be okay with that There's a great website that I want to put you guys on to which will really help you kind of you know Have a look at different cultures and different business practices And it's called I'm gonna spell it because it's really weird Commissio is C O M M I S C E O dash global GLOBAL.com and it's a free business guide and it tells you everything different business cultures It even has I think a currency exchange on there I use XE.com, but it's a really really great place just to go and just find out a little bit about the country You're going to be marketing to it's a bit like there's a best analogy I can describe the differences When you have a piece of copy in front of you as a voice actor, you know, you ask yourself the question Who's your audience? You know, who am I who am I talking to? What's the message I want to get across and more importantly, how do you want some? How do you want them to feel when they hear your voice and it's exactly the same in marketing? You know, who's your audience who you're marketing to you know What do you want them to feel like when they open your email? Do they want them to go? Oh God somebody else trying to get their voice in my business or is it, you know Oh, this is really interesting. Oh, okay. I like what they're saying, you know You just got to kind of be really real aware and the best advice I can give when you're when you're marketing in general Yes, you want to make it personal, but you want to go a bit deeper than that I spend a lot of time on research and I really really find out something that I'm very interested in in that client I'm interviewing them as well. I want to know whether I want to work with these people So I really do take my time and I'm very genuine I want to find out something genuine that I want to talk about So I always end my emails with an open question Something I've seen on their website or if I've looked up the creative director on LinkedIn and he has a hobby that I'm interested in It's really genuine I don't just like do the template of the email and take out two lines and put in something, you know Or I like that video, you know because it has to be genuine and that's what that's how I've had So you could rate on email marketing. So I'm just genuine. Yeah I it's always fun meeting people from other places and then and then you know, and then if you have some cultural literacy which clearly you do since you've lived in all these places and And that gives you cultural literacy, you know, and I and I you know I tend to know a lot about different cultures and stuff. You throw something out there that perhaps they didn't think you would know Right, you know, like some Indian festival or exactly, you know things like that and they're they're like Yeah, just be knowledgeable and professional and come across like an expert like you've done your research and I go even further than that even And sometimes we were having a bit of laugh about this so sometimes I will just say hello in their language and Goodbye in their language or I'll put a little line in there, you know looking forward to hearing from you in their language Do not use Google translate people I'm going to big trouble with that. I use a couple of apps. I use that I translate Converse, which is really great They just come out with a new one. I translate voice three, which is really good So, you know little little tiny things like that really really make the difference Yeah, if you're just joining us here on voiceover body shop our guest tonight is Shelley Avellino and we're talking about international marketing because Crimes, there's a lot of countries out there And they all seem to they all seem to have broadcasting systems and the internet and they got to advertise their stuff And a lot of actually a lot of agencies in Europe Work for American companies Yeah, they do and you'll and you'll find that sort of thing which which is absolutely fascinating Of course this last one I did in Norway. They were saying, you know Can you do it in a southern accent and they paid and played me a scratch track of this Norwegian guy doing a southern accent? And I am like Norwegians should not try to do Which got a good laugh in the other end You know and and of course as you were saying, you know, don't use Google translate I might use it say how do you say hello and goodbye and things like that? But they they generally speak English, although some of them just not as good as others Yeah, most of them do and sometimes, you know, if um, if you get a website that's Predominantly in their language and there's no translate button and there's not a lot of English Then maybe, you know, that that will give you a clue about whether they work with a lot of British or US or Australian people So just be aware of that and you know, how they write back to you, you know Be Conscious of that, you know, if they write back and they're interested, okay, then fine reciprocating the same way It's just you know, it's like their conversation if they come back and they're kind of nice and chatty then you can be chatty back It's it's the same it's the same deal is when you market here If any of you out there who are watching the show live on Facebook or on our website And you'd like to ask Shelley a question, which I'm sure many of you do you can put it in our chat room either on Facebook or in our on our website and We'll be happy to answer that question. We'll present that to Shelly in our next segment. So stay tuned for that Where do you start looking for international clients? I mean, we we know who the big companies are here That's a big question. Where do you where do you start trying to find who's going to look for voice talent in various other places? Well for me, what's worked for me? Over the years is production companies are huge and I mean they're huge here, too But they kind of work a little bit like agents in the rest of the world Especially in Europe. So I contact predominantly advertising agencies and production agencies, especially production companies and Google is your friend, but not only Google Google in different countries Google.com.hk for Hong Kong.com.sg for Singapore DE for Germany You know, make sure you use a local search engine. Otherwise, you're just going to get your look, you know, your US Results come up and if you're not sure what the country's best search engine to use go to searchenginecolossus.com That's a great place to start and it'll give you lots of Local search engines that you may not know about and they will give slightly different results I also use a lot of directories, too. And directories are a great place to find listings of things Hotfrog.com.au for Australia is a really good one. I kind of like that KFTV is a good one. There's so many. So directories are a really great way and then just do your research, you know It's I spend longer actually doing my research Than I do sending my emails and it should be that way around You know, I may only send 10, 15 or even sometimes five emails in a day, but it's all about quality Not honesty. Yeah, yeah Once again, if you've got a question for Shelley throw it in our chat room right now because we really want to We want your participation to show and you know, especially those of you All over the world because we know there's people watching in Australia and New Zealand and You know in the canary because it's lunchtime over there. That's right. Yeah They're on the beach like drinking cocktails right now On a on a Monday. Well, it's probably tuesday there It's lunchtime. Yeah Tuesday five o'clock somewhere Um What do you have any interesting stories? You know, what's what's some of the weirdest stuff that you've come across in in working with some foreign foreign clients I think I told this a vio north This is one of the funny stories. So I was researching Um, there's actually I didn't tell this at vio north. I told a different one This one I was trying to contact get a get a contact with this guy In a production company in Bulgaria They did children's books and I was really into children's books at the time and Um, I really wanted to get on this company's roster. So I thought right I need to really kind of see what this this company is about. So I did lots of research I found the creative director on LinkedIn And I am facebook and I I looked at this guy and and realized right at the very bottom of his hobbies You're gonna know exactly what i'm going to say now because I just gave the game away earlier on That he also did glassblowing So I swear you not I kid you not so Really marked into me is opening up a dialogue to create a relationship Isn't it of course you're selling something or promoting something But initially your goal should be to start a conversation. So I thought right, okay I'm gonna Talk to him about glassblowing and we talked about glassblowing for about six months But then as soon as he had a british Job come up I did over 80 children's book for this guy. Whoa Yeah Yeah, honest to god and it's just from literally just chatting about bloody glassblowing Like Yeah, so I mean that's what I talk about being genuine find something that you really Really want to talk about and when you want to talk about it and you're fascinated Another one somebody had a parrot in their studio and I wrote back saying oh my god How would you keep the power bloody quiet, you know, I have enough trouble with my cat snoring Right and they come back and we talked about their parrot for like three weeks. I mean You know, that's great. Once again, our guest is shelly evalina. We're talking about international marketing as she calls it Bridging the vo gap and again, if you've got a question throw it in our chat room We're gonna take a break right now and we'll be right back with shelly after these important messages Before time began there was vobs.tv watch Or else 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. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smartphone But it's so much more. It's the files already. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song. It's the end of the road for rig This is your mirror when hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's j michael collins. Bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email. It's j michael at jmc voiceover dot com Now if damel stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show So you've thought deeply about it You've discussed it with friends and family and you've decided that it is your future audiobook narration and the doors to that future swung wide open for you this morning registration for the upcoming acx masterclass is now open and there's a happy twist Register right now and david and dan will pay the first 300 of you tuition No strings attached that offer is only good through tuesday night at 9 p.m. Pacific time So you have to act right now if building an amazing audiobook narration career is what you dream of Or if your current audiobook narration career isn't all you want it to be This is your shot go to acx masterclass.com to register for the 2019 acx masterclass That's acx masterclass dot com class begins this coming monday The 300 dollar tuition payment special offers only good for the next day or so Take that step walk through those doors and register for this amazing four week class Visit acx masterclass dot com. That's acx masterclass dot com As a voice talent you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do They break or don't look right on mobile devices. They're not built for marketing and seo. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time go to voice actor websites dot com Like our name implies voice actor websites dot com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control. No need to hire someone every time you want to make a change And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as 700 dollars So if you want your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites dot com where your vio website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what? This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice of our buddy shaw And we're back Yay, we're shelly avalino Shelly George you've been pretty quiet back there, but then again you're far away Well, I'm I'm keeping an eye on a lot of different windows at the same time making sure i'm not missing questions and And all that but um listening closely and enjoying the conversation Yeah, now you don't do any marketing any foreign marketing. Do you think you should? um, yeah, I mean I certainly have reasons to because as of course I don't Sadly don't speak any other languages, but english is spoken around the world and um, there's a lot more people I could be helping out there If they uh knew about me, so yeah, I mean I I think I'm at that point where there's only one me and Um, I've luckily this time of year. I'm as about as busy right now as I can handle but It would be a smart thing to do as the as the year winds down, you know And business starts to wane as it always does Just to come up with a campaign for more of an international audience now hitting australia new zealand england even japan and there's a lot of expats in china and A lot of americans and english and english speakers all over the world So it would be it would be a wise move. Yeah, interesting. Where would george? Where should george start their show? Oh my god, I mean the list is endless, but yeah, you're right. There's expats is a whole other thing too You know, there's expats all over the shop and there's voiceover. I mean china Hong Kong japan like you said singapore There's that big voiceover community in all of those places, you know, india as we know to australia I mean, yeah, it's just a case of starting and seeing what's out there and just dipping your toe in the water And you'll be surprised at how many people out there will need help. Yeah I'm curious. I mean i've you know my experience with a lot of foreign clients is that they tend to not Pay as well as american clients And and I our friend remesh in the canary islands talks about how you know the farther north in europe You go the better they pay in the farther south you go the worst thing Yeah, yeah, it's it's definitely a thing. I mean um usage and worldwide rates is a discussion that's been going to be Going on forever. I think and you know, there's a really great way to act there with gvaa and uh, maybe for the brain and all of that and Use fee dot tv is a great one. But when it comes to countries outside of those Yeah, it's it's pretty tough. Um, you've got to know that the country And the way that I find rates for the countries that I work in Is I actually talk to the local Voice actors that work in those countries because they're the ones that are going to know what the rates are Right who speak to production companies? They want to try and get rates off you first So you never really know what to go in in on unless you ask for budgets Which you should be doing but it's really tough and there's no real kind of hard and fast rule I think for a lot of countries in europe anyway You know, netherlands and switzerland tend to have a bit more money as do germany You go to poland and some of the eastern european countries not so much So you do have to know You know where you're going to start marketing if you don't want to work the rates of those countries if you're union And um, you're not doing any marketing because you're with an agent and you're in a big major city Then that's great, but you should still be marketing because we don't know where the history of agents are going to go So still market yourself. Um, but market countries that you know, we'll pay your rate So it's it's tough out there. You've got to kind of know your stuff before you start even picking up the You know google and searching So yeah, do you get approached by foreign companies? I mean i'm i'm always getting solicited by a chinese company here and then they offer these rates that are like Are you kidding me? Yeah, yeah all the time All the time and I say no far more than I say yes, I do um, and china's a a funny one um china don't have a union, you know, it's illegal for them to have a union. Um in hong kong they have a kind of like a um Groups that not really union so they don't have standard rates and stuff like that and they don't really do usage So it's it's it's completely different So india is the same well, they do have usage on some of their cable channel tv's stuff Um stars has an engine channel So it's it's just again knowing your audience knowing what's out there and doing a bit of research before you start marketing to know What their rates are and finding rates. I just go to the voice actors and I I uh I source talent to so um, I cast a lot of talent through sweet rush who I work with and so while i'm looking for talent International talent. I will gather Great sheets. So when I get approached by the certain country, I go. Oh, what's the standard that the voice actors are charging these days? Let's take a look and that gives me really good grounding To go in once again if you've got a question for shelly Throw in the chat room right now. We'd be glad to entertain it. George. We got some questions starting with the Mr. Dagoli out there in the desert Jack yes We do First one I see is from jack and he wrote in a little bit ago He says how do you deal with the cultural differences that affect how clients? approach business as an example How do you deal with uh, what for us is prolonged and drawn out price negotiation or Differences and what clients are willing to pay outside north america and western europe Yeah, I mean It's it's definitely tough, you know to navigate again. It's knowing what you're prepared to do work for You know, if you're not prepared to work for a certain rate, then you wouldn't probably go and look for work in poland You know, you'd have to be be sure that you're approaching a country that has the Money to pay the rates that you want to charge. So again, it's all about going to that Website that I mentioned earlier doing a bit of research on the country's economy See him, you know talking to production companies and seeing what their rates are Um, it is tough knowing the culture of different businesses too And this website is great. It gives you a little bit of an insight on how Different countries like to be approached. For instance, india Love to do everything over skype. They will just chat over skype. They won't use email Everything skype. Ta ta ta typing skype. They want to chat to you before you do a project China, Hong Kong and japan. They use whatsapp. They do business over whatsapp So it's just knowing how they like to be contacted even, you know, email is good But sometimes they don't like email. Sometimes they want something a little bit more instant So it's it's just knowing How that country likes to work and you know that by just doing research Did that answer his question? I think so maybe it did. Well, it's he's also asking, you know You know, how do you deal with what What is it prolonged and drawn out price negotiating for differences and what clients are willing to pay outside of North america and western europe, I mean How how how do you deal with that? I like you said you'd say no sometimes But do I do say no, but I do educate them too. You know, I educate them Yeah, I do educate them too as much as I as much as I can Um, you know, I point them to various, um rate cards that I use other rate cards But what you got to understand is these these some of these countries outside of north america They will not have the budget that the us has because their economy is different So if you are expecting the same rates as the us in certain countries, you're never going to get it No matter how much you negotiate. So that's about knowing your audience before you market So there's a lot of that out there. Um, but also the drawn out thing I nipped that in the bud right up front and I'll say this is my rate This is what I charge if I know that it's the country that will have like switzerland, for instance, they they're a pretty wealthy country and They like creativity and they usually have a good budget. So I have no problem going in with my rate I'll educate them about usage Um from north america in the uk point them in some directions if I can't get them But I'll usually be very standard up front is look, this is what we expect This is what I I charge as a full-time voice actor and I have like a template that I send out saying, you know This is how we do usage. Dada, but sometimes it's different and you you know, you you can't work with somebody sometimes No matter how much you educate them, but I educate as much as I can Try and bring those prices up, you know Right and you do it without insulting them. It's like, you know, this is this is the rate that we work with here I mean, can we meet in the middle somewhere or at least two three And I always want to be educated by them too. So I always say look, this is how we do it I'd love to know how you do it so we can educate each other You know, I cast talent I would love to, you know, because some of these production houses They might have talent that I can use so I want to know Their processes and their rates too because it's going to benefit me So it's like a two-way thing for me. I'm getting something out of it as well So they like they like that a lot knowing that I could possibly be getting talent from them So that kind of helps me absolutely There's one here from get freds voice george Yeah, he asks, uh, do you find the need to correct poorly translated scripts and it's so Yes That's a great question Yes, I get that a lot as you can imagine with uh, non-english speaking I do get scripts that are poorly written But you know what guys charge for it. I charge for it. It's an extra thing that I charge for Hey, you know, I really like the script. It's not written quite right grammar wise I actually offer a service to to do that for you because sometimes they and they literally jump on it Oh, gosh, yes, please could you do that? That would be great because they struggle with it You know, some companies will struggle with it. So I do as an extra add-on service Yeah, yeah, I I deal with that all the time especially say uh on auditions from from foreign foreign companies, uh And they send you these scripts and it's like Do they really understand what it is? They're trying to say here And well most of the time Yeah, who are they trying to communicate with? I mean those are relevant questions too Well, a lot of these companies sadly, you know, they may not have anybody that has good enough English So they'll just throw it into google translate and you can tell sometimes you can tell it's just been thrown in So I'll write politely back and say, you know, if it's an audition obviously I'm not going to charge I mean if it's something little I'll just correct as I go And if I can't get hold of the client because of the time difference, I usually just give them two little takes It's usually um plurals and you know Female or male, you know, they get that mixed up quite a lot So it's usually these little things but sometimes I have no clue what they're trying to say in that case I'll go, you know, I can't really make this out. You know, we need to you need some help here Absolutely. All right Got another one from laura schreiber How often does shelly recommend following up with international clients once they offered to add you to a roster? Does it vary by culture? I'm curious if it's different than you know protocol for u.s clients That's a really good question laura to be honest with you They haven't seen much difference on the follow-up some clients don't like you to bug them quite as often Um, again, it goes back to the eastern european, you know, they don't like to be bugged that much You know, they uh, they're not quite as forthcoming with uh Staying on their radar. So yeah, I suppose it does change a little bit for most of my clients Around the world, you know, it's usually a three every three months Once I've after the initial follow-up of two weeks if I haven't heard from them once I'm on their roster I'll get back to them, you know, once a quarter sometimes more than that But I never ever get in touch with them unless I've actually got something genuine to say or to share You know, they still know that you're getting in touch to stay top of mind But I'll find an article that I think they would like or I'll go on their website and see what they've been up to on twitter You know, I make it really relevant and And I think that really helps but no that's not really that much difference by culture really Alrighty once again, if you got a question throw it in the chat room I got one texted to me because someone couldn't see how to get to the chat and uh The question is now in another window. So I got to go find it This is joseph and joseph asks Um, do you coach? That's the question view coach shelly I do I do I do coaching. Um, I do coaching through the voice actor studio website Um, uh the voice actor studio dot com Um over skype there or you can go to bridging the vo gap and you can schedule me there too Um, I do our sessions and you know, whatever you need. Yeah I do coach ha ha fantastic so By finishing up here What is the overwhelming theme that you would like to get across to people who are thinking I need to break out of you know Wherever it is. I am and really pursue the rest of the world Oh, that's a good one You know with any kind of marketing consistency is key. So when you're starting an adventure like this You know be realistic with yourself and just start small but do a little bit every day So my advice would be when you start to conquer because it's huge mountain It could be really scary to know where to start right so it might be something as simple as okay I'm going to pick One town in one country and you might even do it alphabetically but start Like that start slow and then literally start on your google searches or your other local search engines Get the companies that you want to contact and just slowly go through really researching and just do it do it slow And just you know, and I use email marketing a lot. That's my thing for international marketing Some people like to do In person if you've got the money and the travel points. Hello I like to do that too. When I went to Hong Kong. I did loads of marketing while I was there and it was great Some people like to use the phone and international it's not that pricey if you use skype You can add Money to skype and on your account and you can phone anywhere in the world But you have to remember you want to phone them on their time zone So but if you're really great at cold calling, why not? You know do what feels right for you, but just take it slow take one little chunk at a time Yeah, and yeah, do you I think the question is do you offer coaching in this particular marketing about international I do I offer international marketing coaching I offer general marketing coaching and I also do performance coaching too International and here. So I let you go through whatever whatever you're dealing with I go through how to you know Email templates if you want some help with that, you know, how where to start on search engines Not only that, you know, there's lots of differences being paid International as well, you know, know the conversion rates when you're giving rates and quotes Do it in both currencies guys because you know, they don't want to have to look at the US currency and go Well, what the hell does that mean in rubles? I don't know What is that right? So There's there's lots of other little things that you need to think about when you're starting to market internationally Um And how to get paid some countries pay in 90 days some pay in two weeks some pay You know, there's all these little differences that you need to kind of Learn to know so I go through all of that kind of stuff too and it's you know, I coach beginners and veterans So it really doesn't matter, you know, everybody's got to start marketing somewhere or they continually marketing You always have to feed that pipe. You never stop. Otherwise, nothing's going to come out the other end. Yeah Yeah, I find it fascinating. I've never gotten stiffed by an international client. Me neither ever It's funny, right? They respect us amazing. They do. They do. They're pretty good Yeah, so if someone wants to get in touch with you about this, where would they go? Ah, you can find me at www jolt bridging the vo gap dot com or shelly avalena dot com you also find me on twitter at bridging vo gaps Uh, shelly avalena on instagram. I'm everywhere just type shelly avalena in you find me You've you've been everywhere and you're still everywhere. I know this one's slipping in under the wire I'm more question here This could be a quickie From focus locus. Are there any technical aspects to keeping it to keep in mind? When working with international clients, I know you've touched on, you know, india like skype for example Yeah, good question. Yeah, good question a lot of these clients that um, if you're working out to the country that you're in unless it's um Australia or the uk actually even the uk. Um, istn is not used very much because of the cost So a lot of companies will just use skype to do live recordings Um, so that they can just hear you a new record on your end ipdtl seems to be the preferred choice in the uk these days um You know, I mean it depends whether you have an ipdtl account, but it's it's a really great tool and you can use that There's so many streaming options source connect pro is a real love um in germany and netherlands and places like that. So It's kind of interesting. You know, they do have the different quirks um Yeah, did I answer that I guess yeah, they all have their own they have their own way that they like to work and yeah, yeah Yeah, and keep keep a list I've got a list and you know, sometimes they use their own software too Sometimes they'll send you a link and they'll have this software you've never heard of and you'll be like What's that and they'll just send you a link and it'll connect you and it's all good. So You know, I get that a lot too. Yeah, it's very good. Well, shelly always a pleasure to be anywhere near you Well, thank you dan you too. Uh looking forward to seeing you uh next week in uovo con and Yes, we're gonna have a great time at there, but thanks for being with us tonight and uh and imparting your knowledge Well, thank you for having me. I've been wanting to come on your show for years So I'm really glad I made it. Well, you've made another thing off your bucket. Yes, exactly Thank you guys. Thank you. All right. Shelly out of time, right? Yeah, I'm so glad we got shelly on. Thanks for doing it Kelly and I'm I'm not I'm not gonna see here at will will con nor you but I will I did get to see her at via north. So That ain't so bad. Yeah, that's good. All right. Well, George and I'll be right back to wrap things up Right after this so don't go away just now This is Anthony Mendez and you're watching voiceover body shop Hey, we're here at dan's workstation to talk about voiceover essentials dot com That's harlan hogan's place to you because they have a great deal for this week on the amazing centrance mic port pro 2l The mic port pro 2l is the all-new usb mic preamp That makes it easy to record on the go and at home with professional quality the state of the art mic port pro 2 turns your phone tablet laptop or desktop Into a professional recording studio smaller the most microphones It's feature rich easy to use and travel friendly Now you can record directly to your phone or tablet and leave that laptop behind And for a limited time get a free vo cap with the purchase of a mic port pro 2l Just add both to your cart and your discount will be automatically deducted a built-in rechargeable battery sets the mic port pro 2l apart from the other portable audio interfaces making it your ideal companion for the road Get a free vo cap with your order of a mic port pro 2l for a limited time only free shipping in the usa Thanks harlan Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books Auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com Hey everybody, it's that time of the show where we get to talk about source connect You just heard shelly mention it that there's a lot of clients in new europe Northern europe a lot as well that use source connect standard in pro So if you're watching the show tonight and you're looking to work with international clients Clearly, this is a platform that should be you know one of the tools in your toolbox to be ready for working with those international clients Um, it is it is really used all around the world. It's heavily used in the us It's definitely taking over for the popular in terms of popularity over uh the technologies that are waning like i s d n And uh, you should just get it set up and get it running on your computer right now You can run it on windows or mac And you can get it up to speed without buying a thing because you can go to source dash elements dot com Get yourself a 15 day free trial, but source connect standards license on your mac or pc You don't need the iLok key dongle thingamajig to do it And just have it all ready to go and that way when a client asks do you have source connect or agent asks You can say yes, I do and if that you just have to activate your license and off you go So go get a trial right away get up to speed with source connect be ready to work with clients around the world It's the tool you got to have just got to have it. I'll be right back I think I heard the voice of a body shot I did I did hear the voice of a body shot Another technological miracle Seattle as vegas southern california We do it every week somehow It always works one way or another The comcast gods are with us tonight. Thank goodness Uh Next week on this very show it'll be tech talk number 19 Which you and I will be recording next So don't go anywhere in case you want to watch it live or if you want to ask some questions Uh, and then in two weeks Joe davis will be here for his annual visit after wovo con And uh, so if you got questions about websites Eat a man Oh, yeah, I got to chat with him a bit via north He knows as they say he probably has forgotten more about this than most of us will ever know so He's quite You can be here to ask your questions. Absolutely. We have a great time whenever he's here. Uh, who are our donors of the week? Looks like we got a couple of men there as these are names that if you guys listen regularly You'll probably recognize but there might be a couple new ones as well as swatches as such as a dwayne de salvo valerie burgess Stephanie sutherland shanna pennington baird antlamp productions Don griffith And harlow rodriguez. Yeah, thanks so much for the those contributions to keeping our show Uh happening with the technology running and dealing with all the little hurdles that we have to do all that little extra Income to the show really does help. Yeah pays for some of the resources we need You know, unfortunately, we didn't get to go to uncle royce barbecue this weekend Which is something you and I always like to go to but sounds like it was a good time Indeed it always is I always have that horrible fomo This time of the year is the worst because not only is it like the busiest in terms of work But the most stuff is happening. It feels like there's so many cool things to do And so the fomo foams up This time of year Well, just mop that up. That'll be fine Uh, yeah, we'd love to get you on our mailing list as well I'm sure you probably get some tweets about that every now and again But if you're on our mailing list, you'll know exactly what's going to be coming up on our show every week And and get the inside scoop and it makes it easier for us to communicate with you. So, uh There's a spot right on our website voiceover by v obs dot tv and it says subscribe Makes it a lot easier Hey, show us your booths while the space needle is kind of cool We'd really like to see what your studios look like. Don't be shy Uh, send us a good Landscape picture not portrait of your studio Uh, and show us what a fine creative person you are and how you've built your voiceover shrine and have it highlighted Here on voiceover body shop. You can send that to the guys at v obs dot tv Uh, george and iFix studios you do that george Yeah, i'm known to do that from time to time and you can find me over at george v dot tech To get me, uh lined up with you for your support needs. I can do Um, if you can grab me occasionally, I'll do emergency support a lot of it's scheduled Um, and some of it's on site but a lot of it's remote So you can do all that do all that over george detect dot com or george the dot tech Dan also does that over at his place on the web Home voiceover studio dot com make sure you go over there and uh, if you want to learn more about How to record properly in your home voiceover studio in a one-on-one situation Glad to help you out. You can contact me there or drop off a specimen of your audio At the specimen collection cup at the bottom of the home page I'm also offering now audition direction If it's always good to have an extra ear To listen to you doing your auditions in real time because it's amazing how You don't hear the mistakes you're making or how you're not connecting with the copy And uh, it helps to have someone like me who can listen and go You're getting it or do it a little bit more like this a little bit more like that because self-direction is really really hard And my new website the vo director.com will be The easiest place to go and you'll be able to schedule your time with me, which is really really kind of cool Uh, want to be in our studio? I guess being at five o'clock we haven't had a lot of people come in to watch the show live But we would love to have you here if you're in the greater los angeles area Uh to sit in on the show and ask questions and interact with our guests Uh, again, write to us at the guys at v obs dot tv And uh, tell us when you're available and when you can be here and we'll We'll send you the secret address of our secret clubhouse You can come in here and do that. Uh, well, that's going to do it for us this week. Uh Tech talk is coming up next so stay tuned for that. Don't go away. Um, I think our sponsors too, right? Oh, absolutely. We have to thank harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements bio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com And j. Michael collins demos. Alrighty, also the dan and marcy lennard foundation for the betterment of live and recorded webcasting Uh, mike marlina wasn't here, but his mom Sue is our amazing technical director and she is on the ball tonight As she usually is without coffee Uh doing a great job and we really appreciate that and of course lee penny simply for being lee penny Well, that's going to do it for us right now. Uh You gotta This is not an easy business. Cripes. I've been doing it for years and years And it still amazes me how much we need to learn and how much we can change with the times and stay up to date with it And we'll help you out here on voiceover body shop. I'm dan lennard And i'm george widdum and this is voiceover Body shop or vio Yes