 Hey there, guess what? It's time for voiceover body shop and George and I already have some great stuff to talk about but better. We have a great guest Sean Dailey is with us. There you are Sean. Wave and say hi You never fail with that impression And that's not easy to do welcome to the show. All right Well, if you've got a question for Sean like how the heck did he just do that throw it in our chat room I know Hollywood Jeff Holman is in there Monitoring the chat room tonight and get those questions to us, but we got lots of questions for Sean He probably has a few questions for us and you probably have a few questions for us, especially now. It's Trying to remember what campaign that was from anyway Voiceover body shop is coming up right now. Don't go away 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 JMC demos when quality matters and voiceover 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 Good evening I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Wittem and this is voice over body shop or VO B s Wow Another virtual production tonight, mr. Wittem. We're somehow we're getting it done Despite the fact that we're all by ourselves at least I know I My fear is that I'm getting too comfortable With the setup now you gotta come back. I have this like control room. Everything's at the right height I can you know, it's just like I've gotten used to this control surface, but I'll tell you we We it's definitely not the same as when we can be in the same place at the same time So yeah, I know I mean work toward that goal everybody and wear your damn That's right. Exactly. This couch has become basically a storage area This things start to pile up. That's the only reason Dan has to clean up the studio is exactly we come in there It's right. I know how it goes. Well, it's like, you know, it's my wife has her mahjong club over It's like we got a totally clean the house. They're only gonna be in the living room for crying out loud But hey, we don't want them to know exactly how big of a slob we really are Yes, just getting a little punchy here at the voice over body shop happens you know, hi you guys all doing out there and hopefully things are going well and you're staying healthy and staying safe and We're here to help you out with your voice over career Which right now could be either very good or very bad depending on where you are and kind of stuff you do But I would say yeah Anyway, we have a great guest tonight. Here's a guy that we know really well We we've met at conferences and we talked to each other online and we see him on Facebook And he always has a lot to say That is probably correct because it's usually pretty right. That's right because as he told me today I learned it all from you guys So anyway, let's introduce our guest joining us from somewhere between Seattle and Portland Sean Dailey Hey guys, it's great to be here. Great to see you again. Welcome back to the show So we're exactly name the town and maybe just told you I can't It's I'm old port orchard port because there's a port and I assume there's an orchard somewhere But yeah, it's five times fast for torture for torture for torture torture torture. Maybe a sixth time I guess is when you live there. It's easy. Yeah, it's po so that's where all the washing your voice over All the Washington apples have to go out from somewhere as well be from Port Orchard Anyway, Wala Wala Where now where is walla walla So it's almost the opposite of where I am I'm kind of on the Northwest hence Pacific Northwest, but that's in the southeast of Washington like right above Oregon So is it's apparently drier and Sunny or there because they're in the rain shadow and all that ah as opposed to right on the coast where it's like being in The Northwest it's perpetually gray like my soul Which is why I moved from Buffalo to Southern California where it's perpetually sunny Anyway, now the seasonal effectiveness order is real Yeah, we had one month of summer this year. Well, you still got a whole summer to go ahead of you then Indeed anyway, so where are you from? Originally, or are you originally from there? Well, the majority of where I was from is actually Washington. It was born here Lived in California for like early childhood and then moved back to Washington Then spent several years in Japan in Okinawa because my folks were military and back to Washington And then school more school a little bit more school and then back to Japan to teach English and study the webulous world of voice over What what did you do in Japan? Were you teaching English or yeah? Yeah, so I was part of the the jet program or a Japanese exchange teaching It's interesting because it says teaching but we're kind of more like cultural representatives than anything So there was some incidental teaching going on, but they kind of just wanted to Experience people from other countries, I guess and and kind of improve cultural relations that way And the Japanese love having foreigners in there and like we must borrow your culture So we send them Sean daily great He's so friendly and approach So how did you how did you get in the voiceover and how long you've been doing that I? Think it's almost eight years cheese. So I'm like 26 now I'm actually 34 and So I started doing it after like my first year of teaching after I got my bearings and Nagasaki I was teaching over there and I had some this thing called disposable income for the first time in my life And so I started investing in training and equipment and worked with Terry Daniel to start with a friend of the show I know and then other than that just kind of Spent a lot of time just so for those of you who don't know Japan has some of the most amazing like transportation systems anywhere between the buses and the trains and all that and Unfortunately, my work was like an hour to an hour half away and then all the other cities were like two hours away So I just kind of spent all that time listening to podcasts reading voiceover extra like reading Paul Stracharita's blog and Corvo's blog and all that stuff So just kind of using my downtime to really dive headfirst and immerse myself in the world the VO Yeah, yeah, I remember I remember that's what you were in Japan when you and I started talking like what are you doing in Japan? Yeah, and an audio console. Yeah, that's right. Let's get this right Yeah, now the training in Japan the way they train people on the trains is amazing And there was something I saw there that changed the way I drive Which is they they have this thing called the pointing system It's like when you do this you got to just set the brake You've got to do this, you know do this and every time you do it you point I've done this I've done that Which makes a lot of sense when I'm pulling out of the car out of the garage You're out into the alley and I have to close the gate, you know, did I close the gate? No, cuz I go gate closed Never forget kinesthetic reinforcement. I dig it. That's what it's called kinesthetic reinforcement Outstanding if it's not it is now. Yeah So what what type of what type of stuff have you been working on? What what's what are your primary genres? Definitely the e-learning corporate narration stuff, but I've done a little bit of everything I've done some video game stuff What are my favorite ones was I did a lot of like Prince charming The characters for this kind of mobile game app and I get to kind of inspire and make Teenage girls feel good about themselves by saying you're the most beautiful princess tonight I'm convinced Everyone's hearts just melted just a little bit, but um, but yeah, that that was a wonderful gig. I did multiple Projects for and then Got to be in a couple cartoons last year. That was really fun and then but yeah other kind of dipping my toe in audiobooks George recently helped me with a getting an audiobook stack set up for that and Um if this quarantine continues I have enough time to work on that So yeah, like I said just kind of take whatever they'll give me really Well, that's and that's voiceover by the way guys. Yeah, it ain't glamorous, but better than ditch digging Where's a friend of mine used to say better new sharp stick in the eye. Oh Things are better than that. That's that's true Yeah, voiceover is an interesting place to be because you there are so many genres and choices of things to pick and choose from and Generally, it's you find your niche. How did you find what you really were getting hired for? Well, I think a lot of that comes from like I said my my teaching background So and one of my first clients was actually a former teacher in Japan that I met Like right at that time where I had some training out like I think the demos were being made and then I met him at like an Oktoberfest event in Japan of all things and I was at that time. I was confident enough. I'm like hi, Sean I'm Sean. I'm a voiceover artist and he's like, oh, really Is this guy is a friend of mine named Drew Badger He had a company called English Anyone and he was like, you know, I'm actually trying to delegate the audio work away from myself so How would you like to do it? And then we work together for seven years after that? And so it was kind of great because we are both like both of our businesses kind of grew organically together and we both kind of Definitely a case of iron sharpening iron in that regard. Yeah, what's what are you working on right now? Right now. Um, lots lots more e-learning stuff a couple of things for like Amazon training Zoho Let's see lots of Did a very riveting like 16-page thing on corning steel pipe not model numbers and like fiber optic cable sizes and gauges Somebody's got to do it someone does and at least I can sound pretty cheerful and not patronizing when I do it Yeah, well, how do you approach copy like that? I mean everybody has their own way of, you know, to me It's like well, I'm a teacher. I'm teaching in a classroom or depending on how it is. How do you how do you present yourself with that stuff? What's your technique? Exactly. Well, I mean you you kind of balance it between wanting to be sound casual and conversational because that's the big thing but also being slow enough and mindful of what like it are there any graphics that are going up What is the order of information being presented? Do I need to add space in between these bullet points and stuff like that and How do I make lists sound interesting when they're like eight or ten items long? You know So I don't lose them by the fifth point stuff like that Yeah, so and and again it's just kind of being sympathetic to the final listener because I don't envy them for having to learn this stuff So I just want to try and make it enjoyable For them it's like well at least I got to hang out with Sean for a little bit. He seems like a nice guy You know, we've been doing this show a long time. I've never heard anybody say that and it makes total sense like Yeah, good on you. That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah, I I always decide I used to sell life insurance back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and You know cuz that was back in the day would like okay You're gonna watch another you know, would there be in the brokerage and they would show a training film like, you know How to break out of a sales slump? And and I'm like, oh god How who is doing these and I could do so much a much better job So after insurance and after teaching, I'm like, okay now I get to actually do these and I've done so many of those How many you think you've done? I mean, you know, how many different types of things have you think you've done? Oh God I don't want to think about that It turns into hundreds and hundreds of hours of stuff Mm-hmm. I mean like I said in these projects are like I'd say the minimum is 15 minutes per project So it's just like that that the number of hours you spend but if nothing else it really Like that that client that I mentioned before working for English anyone was just so helpful because that was long form as well And he got me early on saying like hey, we don't want avoid like we don't want a VO guy We want just like a friendly like we don't want a VO or we don't want a teacher We just want a friendly guy to kind of represent what this language sounds like, right? and and so that kind of that got beaten out of me fairly quickly and And it was a great exercise and endurance and cold reading all that stuff That's great. If you're just joining us our guest is Sean Daly who does everything And if you've got a question for him throw it in the chat room He would be more than happy to answer your questions about the stuff that he does How do you market yourself? I mean In the early days when we were first online there was a lot of you know You get on the pay-to-plays you get all these auditions of course There weren't 10 million people trying to get into voiceover back that you know And it was a little easier to get some of these jobs now. You really have to go out and get them How do you do that? um a couple of different sources like I'm still um I Get a lot of work through botolgo as well at least the one online casting site that I'm happy to recommend The Germans they love. Yeah, it's David Hasselhoff or something But but yeah, so that's a great one and then a lot of Like personal networking from fellow voice talent who just refer me when they know they're like Hey, we want a smart young male sound and they're like hey Sean's really good at that and Some of my connections through global voice acting Academy like David Rosenthal was the one who helped lead me for that those Prince charming video game roles and then another one of our animation coaches MJ Lallow helped me get my first cartoon and so yeah, just kind of working with Just kind of putting my name out there and like showing some Modic or like some modicum of effort and knowledge and expertise and then people are like I think I could trust him with a project and then of course email marketing LinkedIn that stuff as well Yeah, and that's the thing about e-learning is you try to make at least make it sound like you know what you're talking about Oh that that that hold that steel pipe gauge thing like my eyes glazed over a couple times like I need to get out of the booth for a second Man, I forgot what words mean Yeah, but it I think it probably helps to have good general cultural literacy of a lot of different things Like if you if you know a lot of trivial things if you know Metallurgy for example, which my father wanted me to be a metallurgist like interesting. Yes I did not it heed his advice on that Sometimes I'm like well, maybe he had something there but But it helps to to you know, you study the stuff I mean you or or do you just read it cold ago? I can figure this out. I mean I'm kind of throwing myself under the bus It depends on how much time I have to do that But I at least try to do a cold read at the desk beforehand because I just noticed I mean the mistakes come far less and I can kind of experiment with things and then I have a lot less to edit in the final thing But you're absolutely right. I mean this is especially with e-learning stuff I try to tell people that you have to come from a place of draw from your background Right because a lot of people think there's like such a set path and not just for e-learning but voiceover in general like Oh, I had to go to Juilliard or I had to do that as like, you know These people come from all walks of life like they might not have had that training to start But at some point they either did trial by fire or they did some classes, you know So I don't like people to get discouraged if they don't have a background in acting But you do need to learn a little bit about it and and like I said, don't don't throw away your prior knowledge away It's gonna come up somewhere someone is gonna have a script like even if it's the most niche thing that you're interested in That's your time to shine, right? So you never know don't throw it away. Yeah, exactly prior knowledge That's a term. I haven't heard since I was studying for my teaching degree Exactly These are all pedagogical terms that we're using here. It never leaves you. I know It helps when you're teaching people how to set up their home studios like Let me give you a little tip here about something anyway, once again, we're talking with Sean Daly and Tell us a little bit about your studio there. I can you know, I I see you You know, you've got your bed there So when you get tired doing your voiceover, you can just flop over. Tell us what you go naps all time or all the time but um, so yeah, it's actually slimmed down quite a bit over the years because um, Let me say something right now. I have spent thousands on equipment of various mics interfaces portable acoustic solutions and all I really learned from that is that I didn't have to spend that much to Get the quality of sound I was looking for So I encourage you guys to do the same like I mean, it's but but back to your question So right now we'll start with this guy. That's the It's the gefell M930. Oh, it's a it's a lovely German Mike's that I love very very much and Once I read Paul's to queried his blog about it. I was like, that's the Mike That that's the aspirational one that you are going to work your ass off for and now you sound like Paul It's amazing. Yeah, I know just without the accent That's the highest comfort but and then Since the shock mound for that Mike was another $300 I just decided to go with a rite coat because I've got a lot of experience with that Like I was trying to say or one of my first Mike's was actually the road NT one And I think I sent you a comparison track George and you're like I think you're like man That sounds a lot like a 416. So I claim that I was the first person that made you say that patent pending patent pending No, I still believe it. We did another shoot out. Oh, yeah on the audio suite. Absolutely. We came with the same conclusion It's pretty damn. It's so weird. I was like, they're not even the same diaphragms. I don't understand how that works, but But it's great. I'm all for I know if people listen to the podcast the vio meter podcast we get a lot of flak for just being total gear, you know, and But it's it's calmed down a lot, you know, it like we just had high hopes and we just wanted to try out all the things But anyways, so in addition to that purchase is definitely my favorite It was like it's like it happens to everyone, but nobody talks about it You know, nobody's like willing to throw themselves under the bus about it Now we actually have to have people submit their stories because we've actually settled on some things And we're not really changing it, you know Good for you. Yeah, we'll see. I mean don't get me wrong There's a lot of things that I still lust after these days like I'd love I'd love an Apollo unit at some point The the new Austrian auto Mike seemed really nice or Austrian audio Mike seemed really nice for the prize But there's a time and a place for that, you know, so But in addition to that let's take you on the little journey. Sure Alright, so we've got my favorite interface. This is from SPL. It's called the Creon it's very similar to the audience ID 22 in in its form factor and its routing capabilities, but Honestly, the only real difference for me is that it's got Kind of a warmer internal preamp than the audience like still those are great But I mean it is kind of transparent a little bassy and it just sounded a little less clear on my voice like a little less warm and Then it's also got like a really handy like 70 Hertz high-pass filter right on it So that's like well below my voice. So it's kind of and it doesn't really natively affect the audio if I decide to have it on So I tend to do that a lot And then let's see do that one more time. Sorry guys Because that Mike. Yeah, like any super high quality condenser Mike it picks up low frequency like a You know like a like a Yeah, yeah, and so you guys saw for a minute my little vocal booth to go There's actually one of their earlier models the the hanging acoustic booth again, okay Those of you listening the podcast he's now showing us his Yeah, I installed one of those one time for somebody mmm, and I admit like I talked to To a deal about that I was like, you know, it's really hard to hang that thing So I it's actually got like a custom-built PVC frame in it and we were actually really smart My dad helped me build it and we're like, oh wait if we do the math, right? We literally made all of the support beams the exact same length So it doesn't matter where it goes when we disassemble or reassemble. We don't have to like label it or anything Schmott Schmott we can spot upper left upper right No, no, no codes But then in addition to that just for my own Like I didn't even really need it, but I just kind of wanted some I wanted to look a little bit nicer in there So I got some like steel gray colored autumn mute absorption sheets So and then I kind of just hung them up on the PVC ceiling with some really strong zip ties So so yeah and George it's got this sort or the seal of approval from George. So good enough for me It was a good it's a good design of install one of those it was it was a little more difficult to put it up than I thought Just kind of like the whole idea is like there's nothing on the floor So it seems like I mean it seems very clever and that it's kind of a minimalistic kind of idea But in the end of the day just having it standing on the floor might actually be just more practical You need a really tall ceiling for this to work And it's surprisingly heavy too. I had to try and assemble it myself and my old Japanese shoebox apartment. It was not fun Once again, we're talking with Sean daily You got a question for him throw it in the Facebook chat room and Jeff Holman will get that question to us in a little bit No, one of the things that you have Because I you know when I was thinking about what I wanted to have you on the show is I see on Facebook an awful lot I'm on it way too much. Yeah, I Think these days. We're all on it too much. Although. I'm sure some people are like enough You know, my wife is like, you know watching every video that has ever come out by anybody. It's gotta see this I've got other things to do right now but This is You've got this this document I guess because you you've you've answered somebody I see you and you know in VO tech talk in there a bunch of times And there's what are some of the other groups you're in because I it's like all of them I Don't I don't follow them all as frequently as I used to because I mean I do have to help manage two of the ones for for global place acting Academy But but yeah, I mean, it's if you've been to enough of them, but there's a lot of the same questions No And we're and now it's like it's daily It's so like we were we were just talking about before the show that was like within 24 hours three people asked What's the best mic for voiceover? And I was like, I literally just like to scroll just a little bit, please Yes, you're a beautiful snowflake, but so is everyone else That's the problem with the Facebook groups is they don't really highlight the search feature. It is there is one there It's just kind of relegated up to the side It's not that obvious. No and in a lot of these, you know more classic forums There's kind of like you have to kind of be vetted sometimes to even join them and you have to actually, you know Read a fact and say I've read it, you know, and that's the stuff that's in there So then people explain like I can't access it. I was like, it's not on the mobile version. Use your desktop, please Anyway, sorry sidebar like no, no, absolutely. No, why can't that get them to read? So what so so what I hear is you you you've answered every question that's ever been asked there or what? No, well, I mean, it's it's a compulsion I have like it's just you know and then it used to be so if you guys don't mind I can change my screen Sure, actually show I can't tell you how many times you've answered a question. So I didn't have to do it Yeah Sean took care of this click like Hey paying it forward my man, you guys have helped me more times than I can count but but anyways like About a year or two ago a couple members from the GVA membership program Becky and Michelle they asked me hi guys they asked me to do a workshop on kind of Finding and vetting a coach for voiceover and then I was like I kind of wrote down a list of all the coaches I'd worked with over the years at that point and it was like 30 at that point Because I like to learn And so that became its own like that that was the spine of the document because I just wanted to show I'm like, here's all these people. I I learned something from them Hopefully you can too and I was like well if they don't know anything about coaches They probably don't know anything about home studio. So here's some things about that Here's all the mics that I've seen people use like yours and That's the thing is it's like people are so Eager to find What's the best insert something for me? I like that from my website Yes, please absolutely because I have an FAQ on my site and it is quite old Not that a lot of it's still not relevant, but it's it's pretty dated. You nice to have a new resource like that I just haven't had the energy it's not fancy like I didn't format I mean like it's formatted, but I didn't add like pictures or anything like that But it's just kind of like a bunch of the resources that I found helpful Like there's a whole bunch of free and inexpensive resources at the end because I'm like as like you are already Asking the wrong question. If you don't know anything else about voiceover Learn about the industry first like get a lay of the land. I mean there's There's D Bradley Baker site. There's I want to be a voice actor calm. He's does an amazing job Bob Bergen has a wonderful FAQ as well Stacey Stahl from him in both years has get started in VO and Peter O'Connell has one too. Oh, yeah, that's right. Like the the voiceover exam, right? Yeah, and that's in the document as well But but that's they like I think George called me the king of let me Google that for you. I was like But but the thing is is like I will provide you with the information But I'm not gonna hold your hand through it And I'm not gonna tell you by this specific thing because I don't want you to come back to me and like hey It was wrong. I was like, well, maybe you didn't do enough research, you know, um and so Part of what I'm trying to show people is that there is no It's like the old Reese's commercial. There's no wrong way to be a voiceover, right? Like there's different like We can all start from the most humble of beginnings, but how about fiverr. Can I use fiverr? No, don't do that. Actually, there is a wrong way. Sorry. Sorry. There is a wrong way Thank you except five. There's no wrong way except what but And But again, it's just like what kind of like I said learn the lay of the land and for me I admit I this was there were not as many resources available when I started But all it took was changing my search from voice acting to voiceover For that to change, right? I was like, oh, I I asked the wrong question Right, and so that kind of sent me down the rabbit hole of all of those resources that I mentioned before like voiceover extra voiceover body shop or e-webs back in the day um and and something that I try to encourage people is to just Like research is free for the most part, right? I mean like you there's so many free resources available from so many Generous and knowledgeable voice talent in just about any Genre you could be interested in like I mean you want to do more e-learning stuff kim handy sides has a great blog about that You want to do more audiobook stuff and richardson and uh, oh god, I can't remember her name But narrators roadmap have wonderful sites about that But um and which are included in the document. I believe so um, so as you can see there's just so The information is out there and a lot of people think It's more valuable to go direct to the source But honestly, I find that that's inconsiderate of people's time And it shows you're shooting yourself in the foot because you're showing that you're not willing to put in any effort to pursue this And that's why so many like The voiceover elite Get upset when they see the same questions again and again because it's accessible Like it's out there. Right. Just find my resource doc Yeah, well, and of course we've seen the answer so many times. It's like What this isn't common knowledge and exactly and but how does that apply to me dan? That's right. That's right All right. Hey, if you're just joining us once again, we're talking with shon daily about You know everyday voiceover stuff I mean we talk to celebrities and we talk to the people that are doing the big time stuff Sean is a You are a lunch pail voice actor, which is the best kind because you work all the time As opposed to what's the next big commercial that's going to come along Uh, and we really appreciate your insight on all this and if you've got a question for shon Please throw it in the facebook chat room right this minute because we're going to get to those in just a couple of seconds But we're going to take a quick break right now and we'll be back with shon daily and more stuff Right after these messages You're watching v obs 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 sandwich 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 stick around? You don't want to miss this Power 1039 at target. We want you to come as you are be comfortable Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer and aisle floor, please Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on Well, that's it guys time is up Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop if you're demo ready or looking to get there Check out jmc demos dot com and see a sample of our work. Now. Let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom What question do we get most often far and away? It's how do I even get started in voiceover? And we have a great answer to that question. Take the vo heroes dot com free getting started in vo course You heard right it's free and it's available online 24 7 at getting started in vo dot com That's getting started in vo dot com If you've been watching v obs and thinking that you need to get in gear and start your own voiceover career This is the course you should start with You'll learn about the vocal skills you need the storytelling skills you need the equipment you need The business skills you need and the mindset you need to have All in one single comprehensive online course taught by vo heroes david h. Lawrence the 17th This course won the backstage readers choice award four years in a row and again, there's no charge. It's absolutely free Want to take it? Of course you do getting started in vo dot com. That's getting started in vo dot com So our good friend harlin hogan is on vacation in main. Isn't it gorgeous? Anyway, he wanted me to tell you that he hasn't missed doing any work while he's on vacation hanging out on somebody's yacht Because he's got he has poured a booth with him. This is a great unit It makes it easy for you to travel on the road and it's easy to take apart and put together All you have to do is zip it up or unzip it in this particular case And it all just folds up into a nice neat carrying case The port-a-booth plus Plus the port-a-booth pro which you see right here the port-a-booth pro the bigger model is 369 99 The plus 199 99 and the bag is on sale for 49 95 But you can get it in a combo for 248 95 go over to voiceover essentials dot com right now And get your port-a-booth plus or pro. This is ariana rattner and you're listening to voiceover body shop v. OBS dot tv Ah the wonder of editing anyway, uh, we're talking with shon daily here on voiceover body shop And uh, you know this is this is the good stuff because this is the stuff That voice actors, you know people who are trying to get into the business really need to hear Because everybody thinks it's show business. It's not show business It's work But it's business business. It's business business, but it's but it's fun business At least the fun stuff is fun Uh, anyway Let me ask you this because we got a bunch of questions from our our voluminous audience here What do you think? You would have liked to have known when you started Back then because obviously you've all written them down in that document. This is all that stuff now I wish I could just give the document to myself Have that document Come on man. Um golden ticket. But anyways, um Just to be patient and I mean I I'm honestly like people who know me say that like I've got the patience of a saint and all of that but it's just like even so Even if you got all the talent in the world There are no guarantees, right? Like there's always There's so many arbitrary reasons why you might or might not be booking and it just frankly it just takes time Like and I equate it to to learning a language or like fitness games or whatever You don't really notice any real results until six months a year or two years down the line So so many people who are trying to like make money as quickly as possible I remember somebody was commenting on I think my either my road nt1 or steinberg review video on youtube and They're like, can you recommend a good mic? And I was like, all right They're probably coming in in a budget So I stuck to like the hundred and 150 ones and they're like that's too expensive I was like, well then you gotta wait Wait and save And then I was like and do you have any training like should you even be investing in this right now? and That's the step that everyone wants to skip and I'm just like I think part of it is because they don't want to be told that they're not good And that it's going to take them longer to do this When I was just like, I mean I I've done Workshops and stuff like that for for teaching people about this and I've worked with people who've come from Like say radio backgrounds and I was like, well, maybe you should book a session with a coach. She's like, why I've done this for years I was like, it's not the same thing And there are applicable skills, but it's not the same and And like it's like I said, I feel like people once they reach a certain point they're afraid to learn new stuff And Like what I was saying before the whole six months to one or two years thing Spends six months to one or two years on your performance. All right, that's great Now you got to spend about six months learning the tech Then you got to spend about six months learning how to market yourself Right. So it's such an it's an iterative process, right? No shortcuts No shortcuts. Thank you. It's like I'm an I'm an eight year overnight success You know, it takes time And there's of course, there are ways to save money and to invest wisely and honestly, that's what I also wish I did is that I Like earlier on I said you have to kind of immerse yourself in the world but you Also have to not drop the other like the mental physical like health balances of life, right? You can't get so in the weeds of whatever you're pursuing that you forget to live Because acting is all about the representation of life. And if you don't have a life, you can't represent it So so don't forget to to go outside to to spend time with friends and what digitally as it is now but to do those things that feed your soul and take care of yourself because Yes, like show biz or biz biz is not easy And you have to make a lot of sacrifices. You have to work long hours and for many Um for many months or years with no real guarantee of making it And you have to be okay with that You have to be okay with the risk. You have to be okay with failure and You have to be like we were saying before like sort of off camera It's just like so many people are looking for other people to tell them and to guide them step by step Well mentorship is important and you should be very selective with your mentors and your support group but At some point You need to take autonomy of your career of your dream because no one is going to fight for you as hard as you will right So you have to Sorry, no, it's an excellent point. I your your your reverence ship. Uh, it's um Yeah, no, I I think you're right on with that People don't have the patience. They they think I gotta get you know I got to take the find the the short way in to do in this And I think the problem that people don't understand is that The key to it is you have to be unique and you don't follow everybody else's path You've got to find the way that's gonna work for you And so you can take you. I mean you you had lots of choices and stuff. I appreciate that Uh, we got lots of questions from our our audience here. Would you like to tackle some of those? Yes, please? Let's do it. Mr. Whitham All right, first one in the queue. Thanks to Jeff Holman in the chat room Who's keeping it all flowing? Bradley T. Bosley says hey, Sean. I'm an amateur voice actor looking to get much deeper into it Well, you definitely have a document to read there Yes, you do. I was gonna say that might be answered by that No, uh, how do you keep your how do you keep your confidence up and How do you stay positive when you just don't get the role? Well, very often you don't even know that right unless something airs that you Um that you auditioned for right? I actually happened the other day. I was listening then the radio I was like, oh I auditioned for that. That's what they wanted. Okay And you can't take it personally because like I said so much of this is arbitrary, right and um, And I admit I have a very unique sound like I'm in my mid 30s, but I could play a 14 year old pretty easily Um, you know, and if you listen to a lot of commercials, there's not a lot of intelligent teen voiceovers, right? So maybe that's not the area that I'm best suited for but but again the confidence comes from knowledge and practice and That's why training is so important because When we start out we have no idea Of what like of so many things like I believe it or not I was a total neophyte when it came to audio tech like when I when uh Like dan gave me my first audio consult. I was using a blue yeti pro in a harlan hogan portabouth plus And the first thing he told me is like I can hear your refrigerator behind you. I was like well, shit But Well, thank you for not making me feel like an idiot. He was just a matter of fact about it And it's just like But it like the more I learned the more I researched the more I became comfortable with that because I I learned all the usual culprits I learned a system that worked for me like like I really had a kind of shotgun approach where I tried a lot of different things And like for example, I have pretty much like I have studio one reaper audacity osan audio twisted wave and audition on my computer I use two of them Right, but I like knowing enough about them that I can help someone else If if necessary, right or at least understand what people are talking about or if a client for whatever reason asks for that I can provide that and the two that you use are Oh, that would be twisted wave for the bulk of it and then occasionally if I need multi track studio one So gotcha. All right. I tried reaper and even after working with like mike delgadio just He's just like scares the crap out of me. I'm not gonna lie. It's just There's so much in the weird Yeah, I mean he did a webinar for us recently. I was like it can do that face melt arc of the covenant style Um All right, but we had two more questions. Yeah, we got one from rich brennan Attorney at law. Uh, yeah, do you work with a studio or from a home studio? Well, clearly you work from your home studio there home studio. Yeah exclusively and honestly like right now Um, I think everyone needs a competitive setup. Like it does not have to be Well Expensive is relative But I think if you spend between $500 and $1,000 on everything to start You'll be okay. Like if but you you have to be very selective in the in the mike in the interface and Um, the acoustic setup you have and ideally if you have a good closet, that would be a great place to start Yeah, close but In the clock Um But it so many jokes about that. Sorry flash Use my mom's walk-in closet for a year and there is so it's like it's he in the closet again That boy just can't go in and out every time he wants to you know, it's like but um Again, don't fear the tech and don't fear what you don't know Right, so if you don't know how to do an accent Talk with an accent coach if you don't know how to set this up talk to someone like dan and george You will save so much time So much effort and so much anguish if you just invest in expert opinions rather than trying to rely on the wisdom of the crowd because I see it over and over again Too many options everyone and there's so many contradictory opinions like That's why long ago. I was just like, you know, there there is no best option. There's a crap ton of good options So figure out your budget and then go from there research and make an informed decision Like I was saying before people need to have confidence in their own choices Because so much of what we do I mean in acting they call it making choices for a reason Like you have to be decisive and confident about how you approach company Because if you're not we can hear that So be confident be competent and work with people who will get you there more quickly That makes a lot of sense and by the way, here's the here's a 20 for you Sounds like you've said Next question this one's a kind of interesting tilt kind of personal From dean t moody. Hey, sean. I think you and I met when you and your dad were coming to old radio show Recre or recreations Is that a genre of vo that you grew up with did your dad get you into it? Oh, that's an issue. Yeah. Uh, so dean we've we've done a couple of workshops together Uh, I I guess I just always liked the idea of audio dramas and he we would actually listen once we got serious Um when we would go on long drives together He would show me some old like Sherlock shows or murder mysteries and stuff like that And um, and honestly it's something that I'd like to do is more of as well Um, so I don't know. I just like like as someone who had a theater background in school and college Um That that idea was always fascinating to me and getting to see people actually play with those noise making props on stage It was really it was really special Yeah, fold fully is is is a lost art. I think people need to relearn that one um It's a question here from scott chambers Uh, as many of us have been quarantined for an extended period of time How are you staying sane when you're not working? Some days I feel like I need to add extra padding to my booth and not for acoustic treatment any personal tips Easy, I'm not But absolute and and I think It happens to all of us like we all have our good weeks or good days and our dark days, right? And Sometimes it's the same day So it's been very stressful for for me like um, some of you guys know like I hadn't seen my girlfriend in like four months because like we we live in separate houses and we just didn't want to Have that risk and um, we did actually see each other last weekend though, which was great It was a little weird It was bittersweet because we were socially distancing. We wore masks and gloves and kind of brought our own snacks and drinks Um, but it was better than nothing Right. It's just kind of you adapt and We actually did something through gvaa for a while and we're probably going to do it again in a month Where we actually did these weekly fireside chats for just an opportunity for people to come in And just chat and vent. Maybe we talk about vio stuff. Maybe we don't but that wasn't the point It was just to be like, hey, hello fellow humans. How are you like, you know check in um And like and share our our share of successes share our concerns Um and just enjoy each other's company, you know, yeah, we've been doing yeah We've been doing that with world voices too. We have a weekly lounge actually twice a week And that's it's important for everybody to stay in touch I'm like, I can't believe well. Yes. I can believe zoom happy hours or a thing because people are alcoholics, but anyways But it's that you're right. It's that social thing that we all really strive for I mean like I believe it or not. I'm a bit of an introvert. So I felt like I kind of adjusted to this fairly well Um, but I have my bad days too And like I said, you just try to maintain contact with other people in whatever format you can't Like I try to I try to talk with my girlfriend on facebook or zoom like once a day and then we play We're big nerd. So we play weekly dungeon and dragon sessions over zoom is great Um Which is hey and that's another great tip is like if you want to mix community theater and improv d&d guys I mean the whole process is called creating a character and they literally give you everything you need What is this person's flaws their ideals? What are like their background? It's amazing It's pretty brilliant. Yeah, really. All right. We got time for one more question here. Let's uh, Tremaine Kendrick mostly has a great question here. Trey. How you doing me? Yeah, it's just who are your vio inspirations if any? Why do you love to do what you do? awesome, um Well, first off, I'm really glad you gave me a segue because I actually wrote a list of my mentors Because I think it's so important like Because I mean a lot of people wonder like shawn. Why the heck are you give all this knowledge out and stuff like that as like This is my giving back to the industry that has been so kind to me and So I just want to do a quick shout out to uh to christina militia and david rosenthal who took me under their wing over at global voice acting academy Um carol manda bryan summer and steven reisberg and joice castiano some of the coaches that we've worked with over there Who just taught me so many things about about commercial and animation and audiobook and video game voiceover and of course pat fraily, um, you know fellow steatolite He's come up here many times and I was really flattered when someone saw a picture of us together And he's like loot you look like you could be his son. I was like only I can only dream but um But then people like tray who've just been who've inspired me with their generosity and my good buddy david towback who just Shows me just how Really kind of got me to wrap my hand head around the business side and kind of sticking up for my own rates and how to fight for those and tim page who's just like Knocking it out of the park with with whatever genre he sets his mind to and then also he Both sold me his booth. So that has that has been a big help um and then uh people like aliza jane snider and aliza simpson some of my favorite accent coaches to work with and And then just kind of going back to like actual stars and stuff like that Um, I'm a big fan of superheroes. I can't tell if you can see it, but that's like my whole nerd wall behind me so it's kind of a combination of a spider man bat man and he man for the masters of the universe and And that was something like those are the stories that I grew up with and people who just do Who have the strong these strong ideals and good for goodness sake and Like having great power and doing good things with it, right? And so and of course skeletor is fun to do, right? I mean, who knew? Um, but it's like I those people inspired me because I just want to be a part of those stories Like I want to inspire people the way that I was inspired And so I hope that I hope that answered. I think that answers it pretty well. Sean. This has been fabulous It's always great to talk to other voice actors who you know Who really are doing the job and doing the stuff day in and day out And we really appreciate all the stuff that you've been throwing out there and and helping other people with and Getting that information out and good luck with your career and everything you do Likewise and same to you guys if you have any tech questions if you need help setting it up George has a home studio now com. They both do audio consults. Whatever you need Talk to an expert, right? It'll save you the time the headache and you won't have to filter through the wisdom of the crowd Okay, because it doesn't exist Every voice is different. Every studio is different. Thanks for being with us Sean Real pleasure guys. Thank you. Alrighty. All right. Well, george and i'll be right back to wrap this up right after these important messages This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan Leonard and george widham v obs dot tv 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 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.com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what 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 audiobooks 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 Well, it's time to talk about one of our lovely sponsors And that is source elements Maybe you've heard of them Maybe you've just been dabbling in voice over and you've already been told you have to have source connect Maybe that's happened to you. I don't know but man, I'll tell you everybody is using source connect to do remote recordings Of voice over all over the world. It's been a tool that's been in use for well over 10 years But now due to covet and working from home It has never been more important and so many genres of voice over are using this tool now from From what we you know normally we expect which are like the high budget commercial National ad campaigns things like that But even audiobooks are being produced this way now So, um, you definitely want to have that ready to go The best thing to do is to get signed up with a free trial. You can get a 15 day free trial And what you essentially want to do is kind of get it on get all the setup going on There's quite a few things to set up to get it working But once it is set up it is very very easy to use. I mean it is just as easy as Skype and zoom to connect to another studio, but it is the devil's in the detail So if you want to get set up easily There's f aqs and videos and all kinds of stuff that i've compiled on my site at george the tech dot com check out the source connect resource page on there and Get yourself up and running. So when you're asked do you have source connect? Even if you haven't taken the plunge and bought the license or subscribed You'll be able to say yes, because you've gotten it running and you've gone through the setup Anyway, source connect get it have it be ready Don't say no to that next big job or opportunity when it comes up We'll be right back to wrap up right after this Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky the voice of Rocco, and you're watching voiceover body shop And we're back to say goodbye for now. Uh Sean was great. You know, it's always great to talk to people that know the business Of this business and to realize it's not show business. It's business business. Anyway, uh Next week on this very show. We've got tech talk number 37 Which we're going to get to in just a couple of minutes here. So stay tuned for that if you're watching it live Uh, and we'd love your tech questions for that, but, um That's what we do next week, and then we'll have another great guest And one of the other great things we have is donors people who have been contributing to the show Aside from our sponsors who understand that it's important to support the work that we do And who are those people this particular week? The names that are lit up in green today are uncle roi at antlamp productions He may have heard of him. Maybe grand spicer. Hey grand christy burns michael kerns Mike gordon harlow rodriguez martha con lee pennie lee and don Griffith Alrighty names that I have read over and over and over and over on this show, which is why they keep contributing something We really appreciate hopefully that but we really appreciate them. Um subscribing. I mean you can literally donate a buck Uh on there every month on a subscription and we're going to read your name. So It's a no-brainer. Um, anyway, but we appreciate it and it really, uh, it's really just shows that There's just long ongoing support of of fans that we just It just I don't know. It just feels good. We really appreciate it. Thank you. We love you guys. Alrighty Uh, we need to thank our sponsors too because they're really important like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements co heroes.com voice actor websites.com And jmc demos and jeff holman for doing a great job in the chat room tonight Our magnificent technical director sitting there in her garage out there in burbank, california Sue marlino getting it done tonight and of course lee pennie for being lee pennie Lee pennie. All right. Well tech talks coming up next We appreciate you joining us here and uh, and we Love your comments. We love your participation, but mostly we just love you guys Thanks for being with us all these years and we'll continue to do it as long as you're out there and want to listen Uh, that's going to do it for us on this segment. I'm dan Leonard I'm george widdum. I'm glad you remembered that and this is voiceover Body shop or v.o.b Yes See it a bit. Was that pause too pregnant?