 Hey, it's Monday night. Once again, it comes around Every time this time of the week. That's what it says. Alrighty, and it's time for voiceover body shop And our guest tonight is gonna be a guy who used to own a pharmacy Was a mayor of a small town in upstate New York in Saratoga Springs and is now a voice talent and a podcaster Mike Lenz is gonna be with us. He's on Mike Lenz 4.0. I guess that's right And then we've got some tech and I thought a little add a little product to help you stay cool in the booth And it's very low tech. You'll like it. All right coming up next on voiceover body shop two men twin sons from different mothers with a passion for voiceover recording technology and The desire to make recording easy for voice actors everywhere together in one place George Whidham the home studio engineer to the stars a Virginia tech grad with an unmatched knowledge of all the latest gear and technology in voiceover today Dan Leonard the home studio master a voice actor with over 30 years experience in broadcasting and recording and a no holds barred myth-busting attitude for teaching you how easy it is together To bring you all the latest technology today's voiceover superstars and Leaving the discussion on how to make the most of your voiceover business This is voiceover body shop Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote connections made even easier Vio to go go.com everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist J. Michael Collins demos award-winning demo production voice actor websites.com where your voiceover website won't be a pain in the butt and voiceover extra your daily resource for Vio success And now live from their super secret multimedia studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are George Wittem and Dan Leonard Good evening. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Wittem and this is voiceover body shop or Vio BS That's right And there'll be no BS tonight because we got a great show a lot of drop. I know Mike Lenz is gonna be our guest and talking about his fascinating career and some really cool stuff about Podcasting I'm really here for the air conditioning. Well, I mean, that's the only reason I came tonight might mean for crying out 121 degrees in my backyard on Friday Fried some of the plants. I mean, it's scary cuz it's like yeah, it's gonna kill all the vegetation if it keeps getting this warm Yeah, but finally it's cooling off to 95 and you must feel very balmy right now It was I could actually walk out of my porch, you know, it's it used to be, you know It was it was pleasant all spring and now we're living in the suburbs of hell Yeah, you know, of course now the suburbs of hell it you know, some people think of Hollywood is hell It sounds like a B movie. It is, you know, but it's not it is sort of like hell only with Starbucks I have a little bit of show and tell no goody Went even though it was about a hundred and five degrees. Yeah, get the far extinguisher and about about You know in Pasadena went to the Rose Bowl flea market. You know anything about the Rose Bowl flea market. It's Huge and very hot Anyway, I like to collect old radio. I go right to the tarmac. Yeah in the summer whenever possible Yeah, and and and I'm I'm knowing a lot about old radios and I found this thing It's a 1941 feta desktop radio with a handle on it and and the guys like 25 bucks No, I've seen these things for you know, well over a hundred bucks on eBay FAD a feta feta feta big big Oh, you know radio and television manufacturer that went out of business. I think probably just before the war Yeah, it sounds like a pre-war thing pre-war or two company California Yeah, the tubes have to warm up and he's a little he's a little it's kind of like it, you know getting out of bed I gotta clean up it works right out of the box You know, I forgot I thought that a M radio is really you know old analog a M radios really didn't work that well anymore And they don't but they still suck. That's right Yeah, I mean, do you remember when portable and radios meant you could shove a battery inside that thing and it would weigh about That's why I don't understand why there's a handle on this thing. It's not a portable It's I love it my parents had a TV like a 20 inch Panasonic that was you know 70 pounds. I had a handle on it. It was a portable television. That's right. I still had to plug it in All right enough of this nonsense. It's now time for And here is the voiceover extra news for July 9th 2018 and we'll talk about voice over gender Do consumers really care whether a voice talent is male or female? Well, obviously male and female characters need those definitive voices But otherwise, what's the big deal in recent? Of all of this in a recent voiceover extra webinar on specific boy, oh genres Vio boy, oh Vio genre. Yeah, our good friend J. Michael Collins points out trends for type voice types and He says that female voices are gaining in casting choices in many areas, especially e-learning and commercial advertising Amid this change in an article now in voice over extra longtime voice actor Kim Handyside's research is a bit of the history of gender in voiceovers and gives us an insight into what's changing and what's not Kim notes that in the 1980s when she worked in broadcasting The staff ratio of men and women on air was something like six to one in the DJ and voice over world It in news and talk shows male voices dominated by about five to one today She says the tradition of seeking male voice over or male over female voice artists is still alive and well But there is a change a recent industry trend report shows a 24 percent increase in demands for female voice artists While demands for male artists increased only 16 percent. It's small, but it is a noticeable shift Also, Kim says online casting sites and casting directors for all forms of voice over currently see a two-to-one ratio of hiring male over female voices and That's an improvement over hiring from just 20 years ago. Of course advertisers want voices that are best suited for their messages in studies the ad industry finds the male voice to be more persuasive in genres like automotive and appliance retail But the studies also reveal that the female voice invokes more trust Female voices are prominent in beauty and health and have infiltrated the sound the sound of financial Advertisements and female voices in the lower pitch range tend to be perceived as powerful and so are the best to gain access to Traditional male roles and of course the ad world is always looking to mix things up to gain attention So women's voices are making an upsurge in car retail Especially on the national level and we might add that women are increasingly the voices of televised award shows Let's just ask our good friend Randy Thomas for a peek at her VO date book Kim's article and hundreds more awaits you now at voiceoverrector.com your daily resource for voice over Success, that's right. Yeah, there's a Volvo commercial. It runs a lot on Was it CBSN? Yeah Female voice on that one. I mean, you know, it is still the rarity comparison, but it you know, they're they're coming in Yeah, considering how many women are in our business. It should be the ratio should be 50-50. Yeah, it's balancing Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, you don't find a lot of female voices on beer commercials Right, but you know what if you're casting a beer commercial, wouldn't you want to be the one that does something different? Absolutely reminds me of the old days when Donald Fontaine was on everything Mm-hmm. He eventually started losing work because All of a sudden they realized wait a minute that guy's on everything We need a different voice, you know, because like branding and all that stuff So, you know, who knows it would be interesting to mix it up once in a while the Simpsons on Fox Yeah So what's up in tech this week? Well, I've got something decidedly low-tech to start off with and that is I was getting ready To go for a bike ride Sunday morning I do this thing called the coaster brake challenge where we do the most idiotic thing ever which is ride bikes with coaster brakes Yes, like your beach cruiser with a big scratch on your knees. No, that was not from coaster brain I was another ride. I did last week, but um But I realized it was gonna be one of those really hot days We just had I was like I was concerned about overheating and I was talking to Maxine And she was like don't you have one of those towels that keeps you cool? You know it absorbs moisture and you can throw it in the fridge and all this stuff and I was like boy That would be handy. Well, all of a sudden I realized wait a minute that thing's hanging on my wall I got it from somewhere. I don't remember but anyway, I have this towel It's called Velo cool So you're thinking Velo for bicycle, but this could I mean I tried it I used it very for the very first time on this ride on Sunday drape Soaked it in water. You have to saturate it and just let it soak in water for a while Just plain ordinary water plain ordinary water and when you bring the towel out of the package, it's really weird It's like feel this thing. It's like stiff and almost like plasticy cardboard. It's very weird But what's amazing this they call it a hyper evaporative PVA Which holds 20 times its weight in water like a diaper Yeah, maybe So you soak this in water you just drink you just hang it over your shoulder Actually drench it in water you wring it out. It says right on the package Snap it three times like this, you know snap the thing. Yeah, and then you just drape it over your shoulder and you're good So I thought it was pretty cool because it's not sopping wet Yeah, it's not like having a washcloth or something right not a good idea of moisture in your equipment You actually soak it and then you wring it out And so the water that remains trapped inside these little cells is what keeps you cool Evaporating very yeah, it's evaporating and it's doing it very gradually and it's not gonna drip on anything and I thought these look really interesting So if you're looking for a different way to stay cool in your VO booth Other than working completely without clothing on and still dripping in sweat or whatever you do to get through it This could be something you could try it I don't even know if the company is frankly still in business But if you want to go look for them the website is bike 99 dot bike I was looking for a way to tie my hobby of biking into voiceover. This is the only way so far. I figured out how to do it That's this towel. Okay, but anyway, that's that In terms of like something far more boring audio drivers There was a store recently on all the audience website. We were Being a little critical of audience as of late, you know, some folks with the ID 22 are having some issues with stability and things like that but that one thing that they're known for is really being up-to-date on drivers and They have a whole story on their website. I won't recap it. I don't need to you can go find it at audience com slash tutorial Audio dash drivers and you can check out their story about drivers and it really explains what the heck these things do Why they're so important and why you should always be up-to-date on drivers But my thought on drivers and updates and upgrades, you know, because we talked about upgrade or not upgrade last week Is and this was also triggered by a post. I think I saw in a twisted wave form from Sean daily He was saying I'm using an old version of twisted wave 1.17. Is it okay to update it now? Thing is it's like if you're on an old version of your software That's fine. If it's the version that was designed to run on your OS So if you have OS For example, 10.11 something a few years old You should probably be running software that was designed to run on that version If you're running a brand new OS, which in this case Sean was he was using the most up-to-date version of Mac You should almost always be running the most up-to-date version of software that will guarantee the most trouble-free Versus the other way around if you're on an if you're on an older version of Mac or older version of Windows You don't want to be necessarily running the newest versions sometimes They don't jive and definitely not the other way around if you're on a brand new OS You don't want to run old versions of software. They just tend to not jive so well Same goes for drivers and things like that if you're gonna upgrade your OS Make sure drivers are updated as well They need to stay in lockstep with what version of OS that you're on for the most trouble-free operation On the Mac side of things we enjoy the fact that many of the things that we use are just plug-and-play You plug them in and they work Yeah, like the scarlets and all that stuff there their driver is kind of built into the USB codec Spec, I don't completely understand all of it, but it's generally just it works It just generally works on the Windows side There are some devices that are plug-and-play now more than there used to be but Windows is still very Touchy about drivers. So Focus right in general has been something that's come up a lot lately in terms of stability and what really almost always clears up The problem is being on the latest driver update. So Keep your drivers up-to-date. You'll generally have fewer problems with your audio interfaces less Glitchiness less flakiness that kind of thing. Alrighty. Well, Mike Lenz is standing by we'll have him in just a little bit Again, if you got a tech question for us to run in the chat room and we'll be happy to answer that But we have a topic to talk about and we'll get to that right after these incredibly important messages. Don't go away And now we return to those thrilling days of yesteryear and we find our heroes Sheriff Dan and Marshall George On a dusty stakeout at voiceover Gulch. Let's see what drama is about to take place This is the Latin Lover narrator from Jane the Virgin Anthony Mendez and you're enjoying Dan and George on the voiceover buddy shop Hey You want to be an audiobook narrator? But you don't know where to turn for the best training and the truth about working successfully with ACX Well, here's your golden ticket registration for the 2018 ACX home study audiobook masterclass is now open for a limited time at ACX masterclass.com forward slash Forward slash. Thank you register. You'll get four weeks of absolutely transformational training via audio video and online with support every step of the way because you'll be led by David H. Lawrence the 17th and the amazing Dan O'Day whose past students have narrated and produced close to 3000 audiobooks on the ACX platform go to ACX masterclass.com forward slash Register and when you register before 9 p.m. Pacific on Tuesday July 19th David and Dan will pay your first $500 of tuition. So act fast ACX masterclass.com forward slash register do what you've dreamed of doing Narrating audiobooks as part of your VO portfolio. Go to ACX masterclass.com forward slash register that's ACX masterclass.com forward slash register 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.com like our name implies voice actor websites.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 so if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites.com where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what? Now we're back here on voice over body shop. We've been doing this show for Over seven years or some variation thereof and we have a podcast version of it, too That's right So if you can't watch you know on live or you want to watch the replay or you can't watch it because you're driving You can listen to the podcast. Don't watch it while you're driving. You can listen to us Unless you have one of those amazing self-driving cars. Oh, yeah, you know like the uber ones that seem to be just running into things everywhere I know Technology yeah, it'll catch up speaking speaking of technology this is a somewhat technological business that we're in voice over if you If you're intimidated by the technology if you're really not sure what it is. It's supposed to work You got guys that can help it's us too And if you want some help all you have to do is contact us because I think chances are between the two of us we have created and Maintained and tuned more home voiceover studios than anybody that anybody can claim they may say well I've got a lot of students and I told them you know turn my gun You know or or you've got some audio guy whose actual job is installing speakers from usac You need someone who knows the unique environment that is a home voice over studio It didn't exist 15 years ago. No and for the last 15 years. That's what we've been doing We've been doing that kind of stuff if you want to work with George and he'll tell you all about the stuff He does go over to George the tech comm or George the dot tech for you people that like short URLs All my services are on there. There's a services menu. You can book services pay for the service It's all organized in a way that most people can understand But there's also a lot of self-service items on there like sound checks and Stacks and racks and all that kind of stuff Dan What's your home on the web? You can go to home voice over studio.com go to my site You'll see all the things that I do some of the things that I've done a lot of my videos are on there And I know some of your videos are on your site too. And of course I have the specimen collection cup You know click on the specimen collection cup audio specimen audio specimen collection cup And it's a drop box and for 25 bucks I will analyze your audio and see if perhaps there are certain things you could be doing better Or if it's fabulous, I'll be honest. It's great. Don't worry about it. That's the most important thing when you mentioned the AV company doing your your microphone or your voiceover booth Mm-hmm. Just for trigger bit memory of a really really funny point landia episode I found on Netflix Oh, the one where with all the microphones and all the equipment. Well, they do a lot of different stuff But this one was about a speaker company Speakers of the house And it was the two of them, you know the two right a couple doing speaker installing by by the time they were done Every shot every space in the house had a round black speaker grill including the pillow It was freaking it was so damn funny, but it was just the whole The whole banter between them and the and the customer right and they're the inconvenience of them being in the home and Drilling and stapling things that they you know right in the middle There's a wire going across the kitchen counter, and they're stapling it down and the owners like It's really freaking funny and then they had a sketch on the same episode that was the self-employed union And it was a bunch of people like at home that work at home Yeah, you know and complaining about being interrupted while they're at work, you know It was a great episode. I think it's season 6 episode 9 or something like that. That's a funny show on Netflix. Check it out Right great. All right. Well, one of the things that we talked about last week was soundproofing Mm-hmm, and you know because someone had a problem with the door to their booth Yes, sound was just coming in. It's right, especially the sound of A dog. It was a dog on a wooden floor But you know, I've been reading a lot a lot of people have been you know in some of the chats and stuff like that are talking about noise reduction software mm-hmm Plug-ins and all plug-ins. Yeah, and now there's some there's some really good ones that are really amazing. Yeah like Isotope Rx and that's one from waves is popular, you know and an adobe audition has it Audacity has yes people. It's pretty good. Yeah. Here's the thing though All of these strategies all of this technology Really shouldn't have to be used Not at the talent end. No, absolutely not. I mean, oh, it's used in posts sometimes, right? If if clean up a mix, right? But most of these things if you don't use them right are gonna cause you problems and It may cost you work because it's gonna it's gonna create digital Artifacts and you're going to lose some frequencies and stuff like that Trust me engineers know what noise reduction sounds like right if it's used too heavily They they hear it in it. They they don't like it exactly. So if you don't know how to use something Don't use it. I mean, it's as simple as that But I think people need to understand that these noise reduction strategies and plug-ins We're not designed for dry voice over It doesn't make any sense because your voice should be pristine in the environment in which you record so the majority of The problem is is that a lot of people aren't really creating enough isolation for themselves So that there is exterior noise the sound of a highway or air movement. I Believe because you and I have created literally over a thousand studios. We've heard audio from everywhere We know every single problem that there can be which is why you listen for two seconds. Oh, it's that. Oh, it's that We just had the experience at it. Yeah If you can create the right acoustical environment Number one most important thing in your home voiceover studio. It's got to be well isolated. You've got to understand Isolating yourself from exterior noise doesn't necessarily mean sound proofing because that's really hard at a home studio Unless you have a booth or something like that but if you've got air movement noise or the sound of people walking or planes going overhead or any of that stuff You know, I think it's a lot easier to just wait to let stuff goes by Then to try and deal with it in some technological way These filters are not there to perform miracles on stuff that should be easy to do in the first place So it's my firm belief that do everything you can physically before you use one of these Strategies these things were really designed for filmmakers documentary makers radio interviewers If you're doing an interview with a really important person or it's there's really good stuff And there's the sound of I would say typewriters. Yeah, but who uses those anymore or phones or a train going back You need to save that interview. Yeah. Yeah, you can use it for that But for your home voiceover studio, you have a home voiceover studio to create a quiet space Yeah, I mean putting a band-aid on everything that you send out is not a good precedent I mean, okay, let's say you're getting totally starting from scratch Yeah, all you got is a USB mic or something in a walk-in closet. You're doing your best If it's set up correctly, you can use noise reduction tools But they have to be set dialed in absolutely correctly And that's something that we do like when I set up a rack or a stack if noise reduction is used It's not like just a single thing that's thrown in and then it's it's a part of a scheme of different things I use it in conjunction with a high-pass filter and maybe a downward expense. I'm using a Recipe it's like a recipe right you need to just throw a piece of fish on the grill Or you can season it and get it tasting just right. This is what I do with these tools So you can make use of it in the right amounts, but just the wrong amount and it sounds it's not It's not great. So yeah, there are better ways to deal with most noise issues Then just using a plug-in like that. I think right and a lot of people have problems with Non-physical noise, which is electronic noise electronic noise or if I or if I or perhaps white noise and pink noise Yeah, those things are totally preventable though. Yeah a lot depends on the mic you're using if your game staging is proper Those things also need to be dealt with physically with a dial Just before you start using other strategies to do that I've been working on putting together a quote for what I actually did put together a quote for a big ad it had Add agency in San Francisco who wants to put in two studios for their talent and what it came down to was I Gave them a quote to build a studio that can be used any time The talents booked at three if there's a jackhammer outside if there's a gardener, whatever they can still do the session Well, the bottom line was when they realized what it would actually cost to have a studio that could actually be doing that They were like actually, you know what I'm talking to like one of the heads of the agency They're like we can just stop recording for a minute if there's a gardener or something I'm like, are you sure and he said yeah, I think we I was like, all right Well, that saved you about fifteen or thousand dollars give or take you know because that that lasts five or ten percent of noise You're trying to eliminate that Helicopter hovering or whatever is so expensive to deal with it's so costly the time factor is not as critical as Everybody thinks it's only the very very small niche of the voiceover world Which is like the affiliate stuff the promos the thing that's like really time sensitive where that matters the most Yeah, and if you're getting directed on live commercials in your home studio National commercials that's pretty rare But maybe that's a situation where it again. This is a tiny percentage of tiny little sliver. It really is So don't use that stuff Unless you know how unless we set it up for you and it's like it's kind of like Think of it like this. It's like an opioid Don't use it yourself. Let us show you the right amount and then we'll keep you from getting addicted to it Is that timely? All right moving on my cleanse is standing by of east so you can say out east when you're way west That's right So what we'll be talking to him about an amazing career that he's had and some of the cool stuff that he's doing Especially in podcasting which is going to become a popular subject here. All right, stay tuned for that coming up next here on voiceover body shop Are you confused about how to set up and maintain a professional quality voiceover studio? No wonder the information out there is mostly Mythology this is the best microphone to use you'll have to have a preamp. You need a soundproof booth This software is the best your audio must be broadcast quality Consult with someone who knows the truth someone who's been there in the trenches doing voiceover for over 30 years Someone with unparalleled experience with voiceover studios Who's worked with hundreds of voice actors and designed hundreds of personal studios? He knows how to teach and cares about your success in one of the harshest environments known to voiceover your home Dan Leonard the home studio master Separate myth from fact and get a handle on your personal voiceover studio Contact the home studio master at home voiceover studio.com drop off a specimen of your dry audio for a free analysis Hey, everybody. Well, let's say you've put all that work in you've soundproofed your studio You're ready to play with the big boys and girls start doing commercials live-directed reads But ISDN is out of reach. It's too expensive. It's just not being used in your world What tools being used to connect you to other studios around the entire globe? That's probably the one that's going to be what you're looking for It's probably going to be source connect source connect is made by source elements and it is rapidly becoming the standard for Audio direction live recording live remote recording for the voiceover business and beyond and if you want to give it a try You can go to source dash elements comm and you can get a 15-day free trial of source connect standard You need standard folks. That's the one that you connects you to all the other major studios They also have source connect now which you can get right now and start playing with it immediately You can even use it for you know letting a client listen in it's totally free But if you want to connect with the big studios out there source connect standard is the tool to get and you can get a trial Right now. You don't even need to have a little iLock thingy. You just have to have an iLock account So give it a try and tell them that we sent you that way They'll want to keep sending us money and we'd really appreciate it and we'll be right back with Dan and Mike after this This is the Latin Lover narrator from Jane the Virgin Anthony Mendez and you're enjoying Dan and George on the voiceover body shop This is the Latin Lover narrator from Jane the Virgin Anthony Mendez and you're enjoying Dan and George on the voiceover body shop And now we return to those thrilling days of yesteryear and we find our heroes sheriff dan and marshal george On a dusty stakeout at voiceover gulch Let's see what drama is about to take place All right, it's time to introduce our guest Formerly a pharmacy owner and merit mayor of saratoga springs in upstate new york Mike lens is now a full-time professional voice talent and podcast producer For more than 10 years mike has worked with clients on e-learning projects corporate and web-based videos audiobooks brand imaging And commercials and mike is also a voice arts award nominated podcast producer creator and host of the mike lens v o podcast and creator of podcast snap podcast snap dot com a concierge Podcasting service helping his clients with every step of their podcast creation and production mike lives in saratoga springs new york with his wife and four children and let's welcome him to voiceover body shop Hey, guys mike. How you doing? I'm wonderful. How are you guys? I we're just great here and it's uh, I hear it's been pretty sticky back east It's been pretty warm. You know my california out here these ghosts Yeah, no, but it's humid here. It's dry heat 121 feels like 110 it's Well, we're 97 and muggy Lovely 97 and muggy in upstate new york. I think you need a velo cool towel my friend. I saw that I was liking that. Yeah Anyway, so, you know saratoga springs is is a beautiful place and you know, it's as we like to say It's the other end of the throughway from buffalo where i'm originally from right and uh, it's that place So you either make you either go straight and you go into albany or you make a left in urin saratoga springs in a little while And it's you're getting sort of in the into the wilds there But tell us a little bit about uh, you know your life there because you started off as a An owner of a pharmacy. Was that a family business of some sort? Yeah, my we had a family pharmacy, which it's still In existence, uh for my father owned it since 1960. I took over in 1999 So, um, you know, I I'm sure I I look much too young to have owned a pharmacy for 30 years But you know, I did and it was it was wonderful and I enjoyed doing it for for almost 30 years But in addition to that I had a lot of other interests as you guys had mentioned that I've uh been involved in over the years one of them being politics Which I was involved in for about 10 years. Now, how did you become I mean, obviously you were elected But what prompted you to get involved in in local politics like that? You know, it's it saratoga springs is my hometown and as far back as I can remember I wanted to be mayor kind of one of those weird things growing up You know, I just always thought I wanted to be on the city council and I wanted to be the mayor of my hometown And I got the opportunity to run in my early 30s for a seat on the city council as finance commissioner And I won Unexpectedly people didn't expect us to win but I won and served in that capacity for Three terms and then served as mayor for a term and was elected At the age of 39. I was one of the youngest mayors In saratoga springs history So I did that for a couple of years and one of the cool things about being mayor of saratoga That i'll share with you was that you may or may not know this but down in disney world down in orlando There's actually a resort Called the saratoga springs resort. Do you guys know that? I know i've been to disney world in a while Yeah, so check it out. So it's patterned after our city And so I was the mayor when they opened it So I got invited to go down to disney And I got to hang out with mickey and mini and be in a parade and I got to bring down some saratoga water We poured it into the pool and there was a huge fountain and all this it was unbelievable I got feted by disney Just because I was the mayor of saratoga and one of the things at one of the events They said all these people were all coming around asking for autographs and they would walk up to me and they'd say So are you the mayor of the saratoga springs resort? Is that like your job? I said man, I wish it was but i'm actually the mayor of the real place way up You know way up north, but that was a pretty cool experience. Was it like not was it supposed to be like small town usa Turned into a I mean, why did they pick that city? I guess they did a nationwide search They were looking for a new resort They wanted to pattern it after some type of american city and saratoga springs has a lot of history We have the oldest thurman racetrack in the nation Beautiful downtown a lot of victorian architecture battle of saratoga was big time in the revolution Saratoga right nearby. So you know a lot of history and uh, I'm not sure why they picked us, but I'm glad they did That's really cool. Yeah, that is cool. It was a neat experience. Yeah, so you served as mayor for four years And then I guess you made this transition from that I and you still own the pharmacy too. I take it That's right. I mean it was kind of a crazy time because I was running the city I was running uh our pharmacy. We were having children. We were building a new home So it was insane. But when I got out of politics, I kind of Suddenly had a lot of free time on my hands You know, you don't realize how much pressure you're under until you get out right of the pressure cooker And then you when you get out, you're like, wow, I mean I have all this time And I started to kind of unpack this creative side of me which had always been there But I kind of kept it under wraps because you know, I'm a pharmacist and a mayor that's kind of a button down kind of image that you have and People wouldn't expect me to necessarily have this creative bent But I did and I started getting involved in screenwriting believe it or not So I started looking on the internet researching screenwriting and I was kind of embarrassed to even be doing it Because I had ingrained in me this image of this pharmacist mayor But I you know, I would literally be at night on my computer kind of searching out You know internet sites for screenwriting and I wouldn't even tell my wife Surprisingly when I came clean with her and told her that I've been up at night looking at screenwriting sites on the internet She was somewhat relieved. I'm not sure why but She was very she was very supportive and and I did some amateur screenwriting Was finalist and a couple of competitions got selected to be Part of the new york state writers institute one of eight people in new york state to get chosen To work on their screenplays. So I had some amateur success But that led me to going to a filmmakers group and at one of these meetings a local voice talent agency came And was handing out flyers and I looked at them and the light bulb kind of went on and I'm like, wait a minute One of the things I missed about being mayor was using my voice to communicate I loved speaking to groups speaking on the radio and television and I'm like, hold on a minute. I can get trained People will pay me to talk. I can use my voice to communicate And I don't have to run for office to do it and man, I was hooked I was in and had looked back since that that's great And and and you've found this world that we inhabit which is voiceover in the community Just an amazing community. Yeah, and and and I can't remember if we've met I certainly know your name, but we've we've met at fafcon or No, we've never officially met at the first fafcon that I went to was this past year. So I got it under the wire Yeah, that's right into all the others, but I happened to miss that one two ships in the night Yes, absolutely But I certainly was familiar with your name when kathryn told us that we're having mike lens on A story about you being mayor and stuff like that. So that was really cool Uh, so what kind of work have you been doing? Well, probably I'd love to say that I you know, I'm the new voice of home depot But I can't tell you that not yet. Anyway, I know the hope. I know the voice of home depot when it's that Yeah, so it's a good gig. That's a good gig But I do primarily e-learning work A lot of e-learning work corporate narration some some image branding for some companies in europe A lot of audiobook work as well So that that's the bulk of my work and I've gotten one commercial gig since I got an agent About a year and a half ago But commercial work is not a big part of what I do Primarily it's e-learning corporate narration and and audiobook work for me. That's kind of That that forms the bulk of what I do and what I've been doing more recently, which I really enjoy is real estate videos I've been working with some clients for that as well kind of building up that because I love doing those. So i'm working with uh with south the bees now and I've done some videos for them So that's an area that i'm starting to expand into now, which i'm really excited about Yeah, that's fun stuff, you know, because it's like it has a portico shea It has a roman whirlpool tub You know and you know wood cabinets all around. I know that's i love it And you know, they they they're never gonna stop having houses for sale, right? It's like any other the car industry. They're always we will we assume they're always going to be making cars They're always going to be selling houses, right? So there's always another video out there to do Um, it's not easy to break into the real estate video market But i've been fortunate to have uh have gotten some work Locally with with as I said south the bees here locally and uh hoping to do more of that Yeah, what do you think is your formula for a success in getting the work that you do? How do you do your marketing? Well, you know the interesting thing in my path because it was probably 10 years in the margins, right? Because remember I was running a pharmacy and had we have four children So everything I did was outside of this 45 to 50 hour a week box Which was tricky right to do and and building it up in the margins, but it wasn't until I launched the My vio podcast that I really started to see my vio career start to escalate And I attribute that to the relationships that I developed and to the focus that it brought to me because you guys know You do this every single week when I'm interviewing people People that I otherwise may not have ever known And I it's like a master class every two weeks for me from these amazing people in the vio world So i'm learning things from them. I'm developing relationships with them There's a lot of the people that have been guests on my podcasts that have referred work to me And I've referred work to them and so you develop this network and it's a way for you to create a brand And establish yourself out there on things like social media and your web presence. So the the podcast which I never Did for purposes of making money Ultimately, you know, because you never know until you look back how these things all kind of connect But it was really the creation the thought process of the mic lens vio podcast That led me to start really focusing more on my vio career and led to more work coming my way. So The podcast was kind of the linchpin for me. Anyway, interesting Yeah, if you're just joining us our guest is mike lens who is a voice actor and he's going to talk a little bit about podcasting here too If you have a question for mike that might pop up while we're in the course of our discussion Throw it in the chat room jack daniel will get that to us and we will Answer that question I have a feeling people are going to have a lot of questions as we get back into A little bit more meat of what we're talking about here. So what Daniels has an awesome voice though, doesn't he? He's going to be a guest on my podcast soon. Yeah What are we going to be on? Maybe after jack, okay Yes, what led you to want to create a podcast? I mean podcasting's been around Legitimately for about 12 years And it's an interesting form of communication. But what led you to want to do that? Yeah, and I had no idea what I was doing three years ago when I started the mike lens vio podcast I The thought process was this I had started blogging about 10 years ago when I first Start made 12 years ago now when I first started in the vio industry because I just wanted to Be able to help people that were a little bit farther behind on their journey than me So when blogging was all the rage, I started blogging and then somebody said, hey, you should you should write a little e-book You should take all of your blog posts and create an e-book. I'm like, well, I don't know how to do that so I taught myself how to create an e-book on create space on amazon and I Wrote an e-book And then somebody said to me Well, you should have a podcast and I'm like what the heck's a podcast I didn't even know what it was and a good vio friend of mine said you should do it You'd be good at interviewing people So you should think about doing it. So I started to do some research And I'm somewhat of a goal oriented person. So I remember it was about february or march three years ago And I set my goal of launching on june 1st And I had no idea what I was doing So in three months I had to figure everything out Which I did and we officially launched on on june 1 and my whole purpose was to again just like I talk about on the podcast is to interview amazing people from all areas of the vio world to help aspiring actors Realize their dream of becoming a professional voice actor and that was why I created it But in the back of my mind I also knew that it would provide me an opportunity to expand my network and get to no other voice actors Which I desperately wanted to do So that was the reason that I created it But I had no idea that it would develop Into what has developed and and ultimately That it's led me to a they kind of a parallel career path With the podcasting and the vio because now in addition to doing vio and hosting a vio podcast It ultimately led to the creation of podcast snap and actually helping other clients Produce and in some cases co-hosts their podcast. So if you asked me three years ago Whether that's what I would be sitting here talking to you guys about right now Never would have guessed it, but it's been it's been an amazing journey. Yeah, you know seven years ago Sounds awful familiar doesn't it? I know I know we we we didn't really I mean I don't remember us thinking this is going to be a video show when we first started right We knew we wanted to be more radio more live. We wanted to be live We wanted to not edit the show So that was you know a little bit of a departure from I guess traditional podcast production But um that was you know a funny thing for us to just turn on the camera and go hey, we're on camera and We're still here. So so When you started your podcast What was uh because we had role models or or or some models of our show one was car talk And one was uh twit.tv, which is a big time You know show a network on podcast and all that stuff What was like a show that influenced you that you kind of helped model your show after when you started Yeah, I mean I didn't have any specific vo podcast because at the time There weren't a whole lot of vo podcasts that were out there were that were specifically podcasts um Louis howe school of greatness was one that that I that I remember watching and Kind of patterned my intro after his intro because I I liked the way he did it But for me it literally was just this Learning experience just putting one foot in front of the other and you know, I remember I took a I took a an online course by Marie Forleo called B school and She had recommended and I do give her credit for even giving me giving me the idea the impetus to create the podcast but I remember she said you should You should reach out to somebody who's knowledgeable in the area that you want to be knowledgeable about and if they're local You know buy them a cup of coffee and you know take them out to lunch and talk with them, right? So I was thinking well, who do I know That's pretty well known in the voiceover industry And at the time I was thinking well Rodney Salisbury is about as big as I can think of and so I literally Wrote a cold email And I remember saying a prayer and hitting the send button asking him if you'd be entrusted in being a guest on my Not yet created podcast. That's a good way to get it launched So I sent him an email at three o'clock in the afternoon at six o'clock At night I got home from the pharmacy and my cell phone rings and I look at it It says somewhere near Beverly Hills, California And I'm like, no, you know, so I pick up the phone and I'm like I go, hello, and it's like I can't do his voice any Properly, but he's like, hello, this is Rodney Salisbury his mic lens available and I'm like Hold the phone away. I'm like, oh And then I'm like, hey Rodney, this is Mike Talking for like an hour. He was asking me about how I how I Self created my e-book because he was looking to self publish. We we ended up talking and And he ultimately was a guest on the podcast And we've developed a friendship. He's been a mentor to me and we probably talk once or twice a month now Um, and that's just a perfect example of what I was saying earlier in that you are using this podcast to As a vehicle, which I never really thought It would happen this way But I hope that it might would be allow me to develop this network of fellow vo professionals And that's really what it has developed into and it's been like I said before an amazing experience But you know that that was kind of the impetus behind it was Taking this online course saying if you really want to launch something then you need to just go You need to just start and find somebody who's like the best in the business and what you want to do and Reach out to them. So I did and it worked That's Eureka It's it's a show. It's See now podcasting to me now I used to be in radio many years ago at the dawn of time and uh I was a public service director and my job was to make public service programs which were those Programs that you would hear it's six o'clock in the morning on a sunday morning and like I'm getting What on earth are they talking about? But it was radio production. It was this You know, it was guys talking, but you you know, I had to record them I had to put the intro and the outro on it and make that happen And that's essentially what for the most part what podcasting is So it's the democratization of public service broadcasting is anybody can have their own show Well, you know and we talk about this all the time in the vio industry, right? Because anybody who has a microphone and a computer is like, oh, I'm a voice actor I can I can do this. Why not, you know, and uh, and I think to a certain extent, you know The podcast and we talked about it before we went on is that the expectation of the quality level isn't nearly as great In the podcast world as it is in in our vio world But but it's getting better and the expectations are getting greater in terms of the the production of Podcasts and you know, so I'm I pay attention to the podcast world and it is without question, you know I don't coin this phrase, but it's the wild wild west right now in the podcast world in terms of There are so much Interest in it the growth, you know, one statistic if I can remember it correctly I posted it on linkedin was I think a 2017 42 or 47 million people Watch or I'm sorry listen to podcasts weekly And by comparison during the football season the most popular Rated show is sunday night football and that gets about 22 million viewers per week So that's a pretty impressive number, but yet Overall as a as a you know in the united states. Anyway, only about 25 percent of people actually listen to podcasts So the upside is huge And I've always said, you know, I said it at fafcon I did it I did a presentation at fafcon that the opportunity for voice actors because you know, we know our way around the editing software We understand microphones. We understand recording So we could be a nice resource for people who are out there looking to create their own podcasts not only individuals but also organizations And companies and I've had the opportunity to speak at a couple of conferences About not only the role of the voice actor in e-learning, but also The role of podcasting in corporate learning and the not only external podcasts Which is what mine are and what most people listen to on itunes, right? But internal podcasting within organizations so that they can better train their workforce. So if you're trying to Get information disseminate information out to your in the lnd world or into the sales enablement world in corporate america You have an opportunity to get into the earbuds of millennials because that's how they get their information Right these days is through podcasting. So on their commute to work on their way home from work When they're out walking the dog when they're jogging on their treadmill They can listen To not only an external podcast, but an internal podcast that's proprietary information related to that organization so several of my clients now are I'm helping them create actually internal podcasts that the world will never hear You're only going to hear them if you work for that particular corporation So I really think the sky's the limit and then there's a whole topic of Audio dramas which are these fiction podcasts where now these voice actor chops can really come to play Because if you have creativity If you want to start creating characters come up with different scenarios Different shows you can do it and the world wants it and companies are looking for New content all the time especially in the fiction audio drama world. Yeah, that's all time radio Exactly only if you have more Yeah, you know you have fully stuff you can plug in there and it could post production wise you could do some really cool stuff Exactly. I mean it the sky's the limit. It really is and it's an exciting it's an exciting for me to be to be part of it Because I think it's a natural extension of what we do As voice actors and podcast snap has allowed me to kind of take that to the next to the next level if you will For myself personally. Yeah, well, tell us a little bit about podcast snap. What exactly are what kind of services are you providing? Yeah, I mean it started it started initially because as I mentioned earlier, I went to speak at a conference About the role of the voice actor in e-learning. So it was at a learning conference and there was a lot of fortune 500 companies there and People came to my presentation and we learned about how important it was from my perspective and our perspective certainly Of using professional voice actors for your corporate e-learning So as a result of that conference an executive from xerox reached out to me and said, hey, I want to start a podcast I know you have your own podcast. I know you're a voice actor I've never produced a podcast and I need somebody to co-host can I pay you? I said, yes, sure You can and that really was the beginning of podcast snap before I even came up with the idea So that was my first client and I then I had to really force myself to systematize How I would teach somebody else To go through the whole creative process and the pre-production and the production and the post-production process so it forced me to systematize everything for that client and then Came the kind of the idea That maybe there might be a role for me In creating some type of service that helps people who want to create podcasts But essentially don't know where to start and that was what where podcast snap came from So essentially what we do is we can do everything from the creative all the way to production post-production editing Uploading and getting it out to the world. I've got a web designer that's on our virtual team I've got a a graphic designer that's had over six years of experience creating podcast artwork certainly you have me and I have Myself and others that can provide editing services. So Anything from creation to launch everything in between and beyond we are able to help our clients with From really from soup to nuts. So it's a full That's why I called the concierge service because we want to be able to help our clients and pay a lot of attention to them And it's really designed for the person who or the organization that has the resources to implement A podcast but they don't have the time Or maybe the desire To go through that steep learning curve and they want to be able to have us help them every step of the way And that's what we do And that's what being an entrepreneur is That's right solving a need filling filling you saw something and you filled that need and that's but it's fun too I mean that's an important piece, you know because I because you know I don't want to I don't want to dive into something that i'm not really passionate about but I love v.o I love podcasting and be able to combine those two loves and create a business out of it You know, it doesn't get much better than that beat selling drugs, doesn't it Sometimes you know, I saw your reference about opioids. It was just making my head shake All right, our guest here on voiceover body shop tonight is mike lens And we're talking about podcasting and voiceover and how they relate and all that kind of stuff If you have a question for mike throw it in the chat room right now And I'm sure you all sorts of questions are raised in your head about what he's been talking about Throughout the chat room jack daniel will get that to us and we will get to those questions right after this break. So don't go away Style the all-new iphone reserve your disney world season past now through all the runny noses Three in the morning coughs An all-new american crime story tonight on fx this week only it's pasta fest at all of garden heart rate prime blood pressure Perfect. I grew up with the classics and now with stop hub. I can get authentic tickets to the best shows the all-new chevy cruise From 16 995 Be inspired then get the beauty that's uniquely yours at sephora this week at home depot It's our garden fest sale with up to 30 off all garden tools sod and seeds Hi, it's j michael collins and these are just a few examples of the first class demos My team and I are producing if you'd like to have something similar Visit jmc voiceover.com and click on the demo production tab to find out more Well, you know right now voiceover essentials is doing their annual 10 dollars off on their portabouth plus carry-on travel bag sale Along with the same $10 discount on the purchase of a travel bag both How do you like that? Isn't it We're laughing at the perspective of this fine star right now. Yeah, it is kind of weird Anyway The plus meets all the major airline size and weight requirements for carry-on luggage It fits so you don't have to check it carry it on It zips right you have your portabouth plus fits right in there it zips right up and you Take the strap And you put it over your shoulder and you are gone And as long as your microphone isn't that big you can probably fit it in there too Like you never know Anyway, $10 off on the bag and the $10 off on the portabouth plus And as you can see I travel with it when I fly out of lax So $10 off on the portabouth plus and $10 off the bag Boy, you can't beat this this thing has everything it will take Everything you can shove in there including your clothes your computer This is how you can travel light go over to voice over essentials Dot com best way to go there go to the bottom of the page down on our home page here Click on the picture of harland hogan talking into his portabouth pro on that amazing rack that it comes on And that you can you can you can buy for that And it will take you right there and you'll see all the other fabulous stuff that harland has at voiceover essentials dot com And you can order it you can get just about anything like the vo1a microphone The harland hogan signature series headphones There they are right there And all the other cool stuff. Thanks harland for being our sponsor here for the entire run of voice over body shop Long may he and mail long may us reign You are watching vobs dot tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here I think i'm gonna go somewhere else and have a cheese coming back And we're back here on voice over body shop. Mike lenses our guests fascinating talking about all these different things I think most people in voice over Have a lot of other things that they have to do unless irons in the fire. Oh, it's like I'm doing this. No, wait. I'm collecting radios. It you know selling amway I mean you name it amway. Are they still in business? Maybe uh herbal life, you know Absolutely Well, we got a bunch of questions from our amazing audience all over the fruited plane and let's start off with Brent allen higgle All right, uh, Brent says he was a guest on my podcast Hey, what do you know? And now we have a new viewer. All right I actually know that name. Um, who else besides vo actors has mike interviewed? That's the first question. There's a few others, but we'll start there. I mean basically professionals producers creatives Yeah, it's primarily voice actors. I've had on a talent agent And actually the my most recent podcast guest the one that's up right now He was a producer for espn for uh for quite some time and then he changed career paths How about that and he felt that he needed to go into a different a different direction And um and his faith was kind of leading him in that direction and he ended up doing He Produces and hosts a podcast. How about that about christian athletes? So that I I knew that I was going to be kind of off topic on the whole vo world But I love the fact that he was have been doing something for a long long time that people just assumed he'd do forever But he felt called to do something else and went in a different direction And obviously, you know, my life has sort of taken a little bit similar path in that respect. So Primarily it's vo people but every once in a while. I'll try to get somebody like a producer or Perhaps a talent agent to give somebody a little bit different Give the vo community a little bit different perspective On on some of the other areas in the vo world, but 99 of it is other voice actors We also mentioned this earlier, but um podcast that you're currently listening to what's in what's in your list Yeah Well, the uh hardcore history is really cool by dan carlin. He but this guy's insane I mean he his podcast episodes are like five hours long Wow Yeah, so I mean if you're in the car driving for a while and we're mowing the lawn You know, you don't we're out to worry about changing tracks at all But if you're driving across la at rush hour, you're gonna get five hours easily. It's no problem But it's really he's really good. He's really good. I like that. Um the uh, there you must remember this Which is about hollywood from the 1900 to 2000 She does a wonderful job. Um christ christina longworth And she could Katrina longworth and she does a great job of just going through different The different actors from that hollywood era and all their backstories And then uh, I I've really I like lore which is a fiction podcast, which is kind of spooky scary stories That's a lot of fun. I you know, it's hard to listen to that when you're walking in the dark, but I really do like that one as well. So those are kind of the three my three Primary ones that I'm listening to Um, I don't unfortunately have a lot of time to listen to them because I'm so busy Making them producing. Yeah. Yeah, but anyway, those are those are three that I really enjoy All righty, uh, Fred North asked do you have a booth at the pharmacy? No, you sold the pharmacy Now, I think about that I did contemplate that because we own the building That the pharmacy located in so I still own the building and so over the over the years. I did contemplate Uh, possibly putting a a booth Into the pharmacy because one of the things that was difficult obviously was I wasn't available to audition Until after I got home. So, you know, that's really Kind of constrained you sometimes. Yeah, yeah, by job. Yeah, it's a full-time job thing. Yeah Full-time gig paying those bills Absolutely Well, let's dip our toes into the production side a little bit Yeah, some technical stuff because dvox wants to know, you know preparing recording and editing podcasts. It's time consuming stuff Um, what are a couple unusual things that you've learned to streamline the process? He uses the word unusual. I guess he's not looking for well, I you know, I use a stack or something but um Any things any like one like golden nugget thing that you've discovered along the way that like maybe a lot of people hadn't heard about Uh, not really golden nugget. I mean from I started with the interview based obviously my for the video podcast is interview based and the um I interviewed via skype which was uh cumbersome to say the least and I Didn't have that wasn't we know Yeah, you guys would know I wasn't hardwired in if my guests weren't hardwired in it was just lagging a drop in and it was There was a couple of really awful episodes um, but I found uh ip d t l which I now use exclusively for the podcasts so Which I come to love uh and the You know having uh in some cases for some of the podcasts that I produced Because the podcast the vo podcast I use ip d t l and I record and it automatically downloads it saves it to a download file And then I can dump it into I use audacity to to um edit But uh for several of my other podcast clients that i'm co-hosting because there's a couple others that I co-host I'll have them record on their end And that makes life a lot easier because then I just have them send me a clean file So if by chance one of my co-hosts one of the clients that I that I record I keep telling him to get hardwired in but he hasn't yet. So when I'm listening to him on ip d t l He's dropping. He's lagging. There's a lot of stuff going on But I don't worry about that because I know he's recording on his end So having having the the person on the other end record is a huge time saver obviously and then you know having the ability to um Understand the software enough whatever you're using to be able to record on two tracks So you being able to split ip d ip d t l by Taking that little those little circles and moving them in opposite directions That gets me a split track So i'm not trying to edit on one track. So editing on one track is again You guys know When you have somebody else coming in the volumes are all can be messed up and it's just a little harder To edit so being able to have them on separate tracks And I'll say that a lot to my clients is just trying to make sure that you you skit yourself set up So that you're able to record on separate tracks makes a big difference Yeah, we always I people occasionally hire me to help them with their podcast workflow It always you know because I I always come at it from my perspective right and again We don't host a traditional podcast We're Live to tape and if it's not the greatest mix we're married to it and we've accepted that and people are aware of that They know that's the format. It's familiar But for traditional podcasts that ability to post mix after the fact obviously it's huge when the levels go Arrive they do oh yeah I was literally on the phone today with a client and he was talking about and he had just He was it was a consultation So he's not a client that i'm not producing it for him But he he we offer consultations as well So he wanted an hour consultation to just kind of understand what it was that maybe he's doing wrong So he had he had recorded for he launched this past Just yesterday his first podcast and he is kind of backtracking saying i'm having trouble editing. Can you help me? He uses audacity, but he's recording with a blue yeti in a room With the guests coming in and they're sitting there and they're changing their setting on their blue yeti and they're recording So he's getting one track because he's only using one microphone So I said maybe you might want to invest in another one Best case scenario you could be recording up But different you know different microphones and have different tracks because he's having to edit Number one, he doesn't know how to edit and he's trying to so not knowing how to edit and trying to edit One track with two voices Can be a nightmare Yeah, what we do a little I do another show it's called the pro audio suite And it really is a voiceover geek not voiceover geek, but more audio geek podcast And we do that double ender method as well and that works for the producer We all four of us record on our ends and then we send over a wave files I it's a time-consuming problem. I mean i'm lucky that on that show. I am strictly the talent I just get to send my file and i'm done So I feel very lucky for that, but you know one guy mixes it and then the the head honcho Edits the mix so it's mixed then edited Which is really interesting. I mean it takes me for you know a half hour episode Which is what most the ones that I co-host and the b.o. Podcast is You know 30 to 40 minutes But it's you know, it's a good hour and a half worth of work for a half hour episode So, you know, it does take time You know people think well it's a half hour episode It's going to take you a half hour to edit it But if you want to do it correctly if you want to make sure that It's done where the volumes are correct and you've tried to eliminate as much ambient noise as you can And you want to get your intro and outro mixed correctly It takes time and it's a skill set that you get better at the more you do it But uh, you know, especially for people that don't Do this for a living like we do It can be daunting the number one hurdle that I have heard in my Travels in the podcast world that prevents people From creating a podcast is the technical side of it. They might have a great idea But they Don't have any idea how to record And even if they figure that part out, they don't know how to edit. They don't know how to mix They don't know how to upload So again, you know, you find a need and fill it, but that's where we come in we can help How much of the ipdiddle tool set do you make take advantage of right because it's yeah Like you were saying how you can change the mix and do you take it's got a pretty elaborate mixer How much do you take advantage of I don't use a lot primarily it's there's volume settings Obviously, you got the little you know the little knobs you can move up and down and then When and I discovered it actually at fafcon. I just got ipdiddle before I went to fafcon nine and one of my Goals of going to fafcon nine was to figure out how to do Record into tracks and they just I think they just kind of created that that capability And so I went there. I asked the question. He answered it for me and as long as you know my my Dial is all the way to the left and my the person I'm recording is all the way to the right It magically records and downloads in two separate files So that primarily the two tools that I'm using for ipdiddle and just of course the the quality The you know kilobytes per second rate is Is wonderful and it sounds like the person's literally standing right next to you compared to skype So taking advantage of that has been a big difference in terms of the quality Of the podcast that I'm able to produce sort of like what this sounds like We try we try there's a lot of live processing going on here folks I mean you have no idea how much there's a ton of processing going on between this microphone and what you hear out there to make it sound Decent. Yeah As as an interviewer myself as someone who's over 300 episodes of this show and been a talk show host What are some of the unusual interviewing techniques you've learned to get better? You know or create more interesting conversation out of the people you interview Well, I think to be a good interviewer I thought that's a great question, but I think to be a good Good interviewer you have to have an inherent Interest in other people And not every and that's not a bad quality if you don't but you have to really genuinely want to Learn more about the person that you're interviewing. So I also host a local tv talk show So I have an opportunity to to engage with My my interviewees Face to face right which adds a whole nother dynamic as you guys know with your show So that that creates a whole nother dynamic, but the the I think it's harder in some respects to Have that connection with somebody that you're not physically next to right so you don't have that ability to to have those facial interactions and and hand interactions and and You know interacting with them on that level, but I always try my goal with every interview Is and I can I know when when it happens is you start to talk to your guests And there may be a little bit nervous right everybody's a little bit nervous when they start first start going And then you ask a question Or you delve into some topic And you sense that the person has forgotten that they're being interviewed Suddenly you're just two people Having a conversation and that Is magic and you can tell as the interviewer when that happens and boy when that happens you're like Ah because now the listener is just a fly on the wall and that the listener perspective is Gold because you get to hear two people just having a conversation And that's what I strive for. I don't always get it But that's what I strive for in every interview and it takes just takes time I've done almost 90 interviews on on my vio podcast And multiple other interviews on the other podcasts that I host and my talk show so I've gotten pretty good at it But I think one of the most important things And you guys are doing such a good job of it right now Is to listen is to make sure that you give your interviewee enough time to talk I thought you were gonna say stay awake Because But ask the question and get out of the way, you know It's kind of the way I kind of shorten it down ask the question and get out of the way Don't overrun your guests ask the question and get out of the way and let them say what they need to say Yeah, and with that said it's now time for our weekly jack attack Jack daniel has a question. I like that. All right. Hey, mike. How's it going jack? I love that voice. Oh, thank you Thank you. I love you for loving it. Oh, thank you. Um Let's see. Oh, by the way, dan carlin. Yes, I've been listening for many years. He is the best I just love his show Mike, you've no doubt picked up many great tips about technical and performance matters during your journey podcasts Which I love But you also get to know your interviewees during the show So my question is have you also picked up any good life tips along the way and do any in particular come to mind? Uh Oh my gosh. Yes. I mean just just in short. I mean Incredible life tips. I mean the friendships that I have made the the lessons that I have learned the The advice that I've been given on the podcast like I'm just like everybody who listens You know you just because I'm interviewing people doesn't mean I don't have my notebook out and I'm like writing stuff down Because people are giving me, you know, amazing tidbits but but I what I what I More than just the vio part, right because what people and I say this on the podcast people will hear similar things Over and over and over again because I always finish the podcast by saying if you could give one Golden nugget to an aspiring voice actor What would it be and if you listen through all 90 podcast episodes you'll find a consistency whereas Certain guests will will say the same thing as other guests and pay attention to that because if multiple people are saying it then You probably should Listen things like getting make sure you get trained make sure you're ready to don't do your demo before You're ready to do your demo right things like that. We all kind of know But if you're aspiring voice actor, you don't but more than that Has been the personal connections that I have. I mean my faith is important to me And people that know me understand that and what I found amazing is that I've connected with so many people On a on a faith base that is developed into friendships that that's much more meaningful to me than any technical tidbit that I may have picked up on the podcast So those are the things that I carry with me is the friendships that I've developed And the relationships that mean much more to me than any kind of technical Things that I might pick up if that makes sense. Yeah question from dug Yes, the announcer and he says the announcer. I need to Annunciate that. Um, has your podcast replaced other vio marketing for you at this point? Well, it's led to More vio marketing and what I mean by that is the creation of the podcast three years ago forced me to Create a logo and it forced me to really pay attention to my branding And if you go to miclensvoice.com if you go to my website if you go to my podcast website If you go to my vio online course if you go to podcast snap You'll see a consistency Of branding and that didn't happen by accident and it took a long time to get to that point and it all started with the podcast so the podcast was the impetus for Everything and I love the the logo that I created and I've been able to kind of take that across all my social media channels and everywhere and finally about six months ago, I Hired a wonderful web designer who's actually on my virtual team for podcast snap and she Combined all of my websites into one, but they're separate but combined So you'll understand what I mean when you go to miclensvoice Everything that you need to find out about me is there and they're all kind of unique in their own way But there's a consistency across them. So It didn't replace marketing It caused me to focus More on my marketing and in particular On my branding which I think has helped me in terms of my presence out there on social media and ultimately Leading me to connect with clients on places like linkedin who are hiring me either do vio work Or hiring me to do podcasting work. So it's definitely made a huge difference. All right We have time for one more question and I like yours. Oh, okay. Thank you I appreciate it. Is there actually there's we're getting a few more and that means we're gonna have to have you come back I love it because we're getting more and more questions, but Um, my question is the big thing right now in the podcasting world google podcasts Is it a big deal? Is it really a big deal or is it just another google experiment like they they tend to do You know, this this could this could be a whole another a whole no, I know episode But google yes google google is huge right now because what what happens is that people have to If I put on my social media Go listen to my podcast. You've got to go somewhere else. You've got to leave The website you've got to leave facebook You've got to leave instagram and go somewhere else and if you don't Have an itunes if you don't belong to itunes or stitcher, then you've got to go create an account You've got to go find me and you got to get into itunes. It's it's the barrier to entry They're trying to to to eliminate the barrier to entry and google has decided that they're going to do that So now when you search you can actually they're creating this technology where you can actually Click and listen instantly and what they're ultimately going to do is what I think is going to happen Um, unless somebody does it before them is create ultimately an app that people will be able to simply Click and play and not have to go anywhere else But google and now the google's in the picture again Pay attention to the to the flags right like you've got you've got google playing swimming in the pool It's time to pay attention podcasting is going to become ubiquitous. It's not there yet But it's it's on the way And i'm just happy to be you know to be on my surfboard and riding it. Yeah, no doubt Okay, google Listen to the voice over body shop podcast Okay, i'll continue playing voice over body shop v obs voice over body shop anthony mendez episode 128 of 7 to 2018 18th And it brings up the podcast player Yeah, I mean it's a game changer. It's the game microphone simultaneously through it. Yeah, I mean it's just It's just there. Yeah, there's no barrier. Yep. Absolutely. I did not rehearse that Actually, it actually worked cool Aren't you and if I'd rehearsed it it would have worked and then when we did it wouldn't work I'm just glad I knew what you were talking about because if I didn't you know, you know, you wouldn't have been like Well, why doesn't he know by google? It's very I mean, I just it just was announced recently. So I heard about it on twitter something Yeah, well mike it has been a pleasure having you on the show interesting information Icy podcasting is in everybody's future. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So again Help give me a call. All right. And once again, what's the address? Well, the best place to find me is mike lens voice dot com all things mike lens They're there. All righty fabulous. Alrighty. Thanks for being with us. Alrighty We'll be right back and we'll wrap things up right after this incredibly important message Your dynamic voice over career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voice over industry has to offer that place is voice over extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voice over 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 Voice over 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 voice over success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voice over audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com Alrighty Well, thanks again to mike lens Learned something new every day. Yeah, I could have kept going down. We would never have gone home because I once you get on that subject I I can yeah not a problem. I'm already home Alrighty, oh, that's a good one. Thank you. Who's on next week a good friend of ours a great guy Who owns a big recording studio down in cypress, california about About half an hour down. I used to see him at the city of cypress fair every year right a great guy tim keenan from creative media recording and uh, he's gonna talk to us about What it's like on the other side of the glass and how you're supposed to act And you know in a studio and how to get the attention of a studio owner That's great. That'll be great. Yeah, we need to thank our donors of the week who are Donors of the week. We've got a whole bunch that I've said to you so many times You know what folks? These are intelligent people that Donate to the show because we get to stay their names every week tracy h tracy h reynolds I'll keep scrolling Juliet julia julia gray shows up in there. Yeah um We got one from Eric erigone. We know his name. Well, thank you. Eric's really nice andrew kaufman say his name every week as well And we've also got cam cornelius our buddy. He's over at voiceoverdude.com And that's the that's the new one since last week and a lot of these are names I'm saying every week So if you want to be have your name right on the air I will thank you right here no matter what you donate no matter how small Now how are no matter how often we really appreciate the support it helps it really does v obs dot tv Look for the donation button somewhere on that website. It's a new website. I can't remember the buttons up. It's still up there It is already. Hey if you need help with your home studio, that's why we're here and why we do this show by the way You can go to george the tech dot com or you can go to home studio home voiceover studio dot com And we'll be happy to help you out Let's see. What else show logs jack de goalie. I don't think I think he's out of town this week, but The show log will get there somewhere Uh, and uh, we already talked about my podcast, right? You know about the pro audio suite Yeah, and uh, if you want to be here live for the show It's fun when we have some big time person here It is, you know, you can be in the actual audience here. Let us know if you're in the greater los angeles area And uh, write to us at the guys at v obs dot tv subject line audience And uh, we'll give you the secret handshake and let you come into the clubhouse, which is kind of fun Uh, let's put the dogs in the house. Yes at first. Yes. By the way, show us your booths Isn't this cool? This is where I think a lot of you record. This is someone's mother's closet. It's uh, Sean pennington baird's Mother or mother-in-law's closet. He was traveling. There was another picture with it with a mattress and all sorts of other stuff But he was just in the closet. We were trying to name that mic I think that's an audio technical 40 50 or a 40 40 Yeah, it's hard to say it's got that long basket So it could be a 50 could be and then he's got this little mic plugged into an iphone right next to it I guess for for a backup or just to show us the mic. I don't remember I can't remember if that's made by blue or who makes that one. That might be a zoom Actually, I think that's a zoom microphone. Yeah plugs right into the phone nifty. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, send us your pictures of your studio in Landscape not in portrait. That's right No, okay, that'll help us all out a whole lot. Um Let's see. We need to thank our sponsors. Of course harland hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements Vio to go go voice actor websites.com and j michael collins demos All righty. Well, we need to thank of course the dan mrc lennard foundation for the betterment of love Webcasting that's right and voiceover. Yes our producer Jack Daniel is here with us tonight in the flesh manning the chat room keeping our youtube channel sparkly Thanks jack our amazing technical directors sumer leno for doing an upstanding job tonight nailed it Great program by the way watch nails Is it the cooking the baking show? Yes, it's nailed it. Hilarious Watch that it's on netflix Um, of course the goalie for the show notes we mentioned him and of course lee pennie simply for being lee pennie What more needs to be said? Uh, that's going to do it for us. We'll be back next week, of course with uh with tim kinan and we know this isn't an easy business folks That's why we're here to help you out with those technical issues and bringing you the best people in voiceover To help you with your business. You got a friend out there wanting to get in a voiceover or you're with You know telling the tune into v obs dot tv check out the archive of our shows the podcast the youtube channel massive free Avalanche of information. It's a bible. It is voice over. I tell anyone but I get every couple of weeks Not as much as voice actors, but I get the Thinking about getting the voice over i'm like v obs dot tv start learning. That's the place get back to me in a month All right. Well, that's gonna do it for us this week. Have a great week everybody stay cool Depending on where you are unless you're in australia in which case warm up I'm dan lennard. I'm george woodham and this is voice over body shop or v o b s Take care. Bye