 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop. How's everybody doing out there and our guest tonight is Dave Walsh Superstar Vio coach. How you doing? Good. How are you? I'm doing okay. How you doing George? I'm doing great All right, I get to have both of you like right here. You know, you're right. You're not far away That's I'm glad you're close. It's a very close. So nice to have guests in the office in the in the room Have you had other guests in the room at all that much a few times this year? That's it Much more fun this way. I like you like this. Yes, especially with this huge audience that we have anyway We're gonna talk with Dave and and his true tell method and talk a little bit about AI and a bunch of other stuff if you have any questions All you got to do is go into the chat room in Facebook live or YouTube live If by some strange reason you're watching on LinkedIn even though nobody knows it's there but you can try go into the chat room and Write your question and Jeff Holman is sitting somewhere Writing it all down and he will transfer it all to us. Hey, Ethan Salazar is in LinkedIn. He's in that. He's he's in their comment All right, Ethan see that We welcome Ethan. That's right. We got a great hour coming up. So don't go away It's time for voiceover body shop right now Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials calm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements the folks who bring you source connect Bo heroes comm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training Voice actor comm your voice over website ready in minutes Voice over extra your daily resource for voice over success and by world voices the industry Association of freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts Dan and George Hey, I'm Dan Leonard. I'm George Woodham, and this is voice over body shop or vio tuned right in our guest tonight is Dave Walsh and Dave's enjoyed a truly multifaceted career on both sides of the Hollywood Glasses is successful artist coach and director as well as an ex-studio executive boy. You've been busy. I'm busy Yeah, he's also spent the better part of the last decade coaching and cultivating the voiceover careers of some of Established artists in the United States Canada and Latin America. Yes Some reason the other parts of the world I have not been to so I've been to Chile. It's really cool I've not been to Chile. I've not been to South America. Yeah, really No, I've coached people in Latin America coach people in Europe. I mean that should be added to this too Right and people now in in South Korea to I've clients and in Seoul. Yeah, so am I not Just to swing us over just swing us over. Yeah, yeah, yeah No, so I think that the and again It's indicative of just kind of the world since the last time I was here Which I think was we were we were online Probably during the pandemic. Yeah, and then in studio was like 2018 or 2017 or something like that But unreal it's changed, you know again so much of the conversation we have now is about how International how global this is and the fact that I travel I sit and I coach clients I'll pass the time zones one after another after another after another every day and it's it's pretty incredible how we've got so many You know so many clients all over the world, you know and one voice UK is doing what it's doing The other conference is coming up in Africa. Oh, that was that was on Saturday. That was Saturday. I was I was That's what you were yeah, you and Tim were both on that Yeah, no, of course they were on Tim and Mark Cashman were on an hour late any cashman as well Yeah, so I immediately wrote to them said how can you poops get get an extra hour asleep? I had to be up at 515 to be on this so I could address these was it in Nairobi It was in Lagos, Nigeria in Lagos, Nigeria. Okay. It was a lot of fun It was is it is international because there's more international business because there's more out of us Projects needing American voice It's a combination. I think what's happened with particularly some of the managers and some of the agents Voices become so global that it's not just American voices I think one of the things that I've said this to both Joan Baker and Rudy Gaskins is that one of the things that the Sova Awards did when they when they a couple of years ago is they started to bring more global voices To the public and people start to know that there was so much for global voices. I remember what there was one year I think it was right before the pandemic that there was a there was a huge amount of Eastern Europe and South-American actors that won Sova Awards and it put those countries on the map when it came to voiceover People didn't even realize where the opportunities were so even managers silly seagull is one of those managers who? Reps a lot of international clients She's tuned in she really is tuned in she really really gets that she gets that part of it Yeah, so I mean think that it's not just American voices although I have a client in Seoul who When I started working with her her voice was what they wanted in Korea was very old-school American They wanted it hard. They wanted it Articulated everything had to be that and so when she started working with me. I needed to Un-Koreanize the voice. Okay, so now but now she's able to shoot her work is spread out around the around the world So it's pretty interesting. Yeah, well, we had Wobblecon last weekend. Yeah in in Orlando We had somebody we had a couple people from the UK. Yeah, Colin McLean was there wonderful guy and then I You know, I took a lift ride back to the airport on Monday morning with Bill Williamson who lives in Japan. Yeah, so are these American expats? Yes. Okay, got it Well, no Colin McLean is the world William Williamson is yeah He's in Japan. He's in Japan and I was surprised by that as I'm like you're going Yeah, I'm going back to LA but then I got to go to Tokyo. Yeah, well, that's another kind of international Totally. Yeah, we have American expats in China and Japan and Australia and yeah, Canary Islands Yeah, whatever and Barry Severus is my client the client in Seoul, South Korea She came to view Atlanta from Seoul. She flew from Seoul directly to Atlanta and Came to that it was the first time she'd been so too big. We had 87 at Wobblecon It was a nice Co-god, that's great. Good for you. How was it? Did you enjoy it was fabulous? We had a great time. It was well-planned Instead of giving out lots of swag. Yeah, we gave people embroidered sweatshirts. Oh, nice. Very nice and portfolios and And we had a silent disco and it I saw the pictures of that it was a lot of fun I saw Emma O'Neill at the silent disco. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and then we also announced that next year Amy Snively has agreed to let us be the torch bearers of Fafcon next year and She's actually going to train us on how to do it. Wow. Awesome. It's nice that that's official And yeah, it's official that that's coming back. I was a very well-loved conference for you And there wasn't a Fafcon. No one person doesn't just kind of lament over it that it was just so except maybe Amy Well, yeah, she's like I've had enough maybe Anyway, let's get into the meat of the matter here Yeah, you know now how did your career start and how did you make all these transitions from? Producer executive to voiceover to coach Honestly, if I had a kind of pain to trajectory it just I don't know how it all just kind of evolved one thing after another I started years ago as a talent agent assistant and it was the best opportunity I had to learn the business And it didn't matter what type of agenting it was. This was literary, right? So ironically I got this job in the writer strike of 1988 So they kept me on through the entire strike But what I learned so much of was about contract writing. I understood I learned the whole relationship between actors and agents and so I And I understood that when agents would have their weekly meetings They would you know talk about the clients this one's doing this this one's not doing that Why is he painting the side of his house? He's supposed to have the book written, right? But you started to realize where I that was an actual conversation So one of the things I realized was that you really your agents are talking about you What you're doing and what you're not doing and so I started to learn really quite frankly how Hollywood worked and we've learned how the town operated what a deal memo was how you structure how you pitch all that kind of stuff and then it went into publicity for quite a while and When it's indicated television and went to Paramount and when I was there I was director of research. So I started to be able to package TV shows and I understood how to create research Presentations and learned how to sell shows domestically internationally. So you learn that side of the business and at the same time I was taking voice over workshops I told the story before that I found a book called word of mouth by Molly and Mullen and Sue blue at the Samuel French bookstore and that became my Bible that became the thing that really gave me inspiration to work in voice over and So first agent was a 95 with Abrams artists and then kind of worked my way up there and Really really soaked in the whole business because I felt like you know people like Phil Tanzini Phil Tanzini's been Been working in voice over since he was a kid I mean he's worked as a camera actor at CESD for years And so when people like that who I've known for so many years. I see these child actors that have been doing this for years I said I got a friggin catch up to these people, you know, I came from a television production degree So I immersed myself in coaching. I truly did And had some of the greatest coaches in the world Tom Pinto and Nick Omano were my first I owe an enormous amount of my career to Maurice Tobias Incredible amounts of my career to Maurice And agents and managers that were just incredible for me in my career Took a little time to take off But when it finally did I just I just had immersed myself in so much of coaching and I still value that as you know Obviously for what I do now But again, as you guys know some of you know the story or not But I did have a vocal injury that caused me to really have to stop doing what I did in voice over and have to learn That I had a I had a disorder called spasmodic dysphonia Which was the which was the name for the strangled voice syndrome I did so much promo so much trailer so much narration. I was speaking from a voice that was down here So I was pushing my voice into my throat and it was causing my vocal cords to bend When you do that kind of a thing vocal cords are they they have so much space around them they're circular and when you compress the voice down it actually causes them to swell and Found a way to strangle them Hmm and so I ended up going to the speech pathology department of UCLA and they told me I had a disorder called spasmodic dysphonia There was no disc there was no cure and they said the only cure was putting Botox in a cure But treatment was to put Botox into the vocal cords because they said this was neurological So when they said it was neurological They said your brain is sending involuntary spasms to your vocal cords now. I'm the one that's in this body And I'm going wait a minute. What do you mean? It's involuntary spasms And I knew that there was something off with the diagnosis So I opted out of the Botox and I found a doctor in West LA who was the only doctor in the entire world that didn't treat This with Botox his belief and it's the belief I still hold is that we all have a vocal identity parents husbands partners, you know, you know business owners whatever you are and You walk through life with that particular identity You will chameleonize your voice to fit that particular moray or that particular part of your life He said your problem is that you spent so much time making a voice I was classically trained as an actor But then I put a voice on top of it to add more for Trailer for promo or whatever else and it worked until it didn't work anymore Right, so I had to go back to school to learn how to speak and as I did I started working with people all over the world He they all came to LA because he was the only doctor that didn't use Botox. So we had Pardon me. We had executives from Johannesburg we had singers from Tokyo. We had entrepreneurs from Oslo They came from everywhere and I looked at this and they said wait a minute He's not an actor. She's not an actor and they all have the same thing I have so this isn't an acting problem. This is a global communications problem. It's a cultural It's a cultural thing and it actually crossed this is I'm glad you brought that up because it crossed cultures It wasn't an American thing because of a certain masculinity femininity thing It was part of that but that's how how men and women It was believed, you know want to sound more feminine act more masculine, whatever it is And so what I started to do was to be honest with you guys. I thought I thought I was over I really did because I Couldn't not trust my voice anymore. I couldn't come in and sit with you guys I couldn't go I couldn't tell my agents I had people saying to me don't tell your agent your career is over if you say anything So I didn't and I started to coach actors just to kind of make some extra money After having had this incredibly successful career, but what I started to do was to get actors to not Pardon me Speak inauthentically that they were understanding what the hell they were talking about and it started to shift the careers They started to book and book and book and people would say to me This is so easy. How have I been killing myself all this time? so I realized it was more of an effortless thing for them and So over time the program came it just came I didn't at the time I was coaching and I haven't really said this to you guys ever I Didn't tell anyone that I was coaching that I had a vocal problem. No one knew the reason I was coaching Oh, I didn't know if people thought well Dave's washed up Dave couldn't work in my bed These things go through your head. Oh that old inferiority. Exactly. People posture syndrome right imposter syndrome people that do do those That don't teach and I'm going right great. This is how people are gonna think and Eventually, I will say this publicly Celia Siegel speaking of we went to have lunch after that's voiceover in 2015 and we sat at lunch and she said to me I Told her the story. Nobody knew the story at that point and she said Dave. That's the thing that makes you you I Want that guy not because you're better than anybody else But because that's what you have to offer her thing is branding and really it is and she actually gave me permission To be able to step forward and say look I'm I'm damaged like everybody else But now we use it in a different way, right? So the true tell which is the name of the program that it became over the last Eight years since I actually named it something It's really it's really caught on and I've been so appreciative of the people that have used it people that continue to use it Because it really is about getting you to to speak from your often your authentic self your 100% authentic self You know and that to me Over time really became my purpose that became the thing that I really I Mean even since I had last time I talked to you guys I've even I'm even framing it differently the way I feel about it, you know, so it's It's I've been very lucky in that in that respect Well the pandemic allowed people to think about it fall. All right. What am I gonna do today and oh my god You know and and of course you were doing almost everything virtually by then too. I was already doing it So I didn't really I didn't move from my house Literally was in the same place. I'd had sessions with you because I was setting things up in my house And we were doing things virtually he couldn't travel you couldn't travel. Nobody could go anywhere And so people learned how to put together their home studios you two know only too well But it really changed Not for me personally, but it changed the whole industry around us and how I mean eight the first agency to close There was an agency to close Paradigm closed its voice over department the day after the Utah Jazz tested positive That's when the whole nation went insane right that was on Thursday on Friday Paradigm closed its doors to voice over they closed the entire voice over department in one day and I remember all of us going who's next because that was because Paradigm had really a lot of their money was based in their live act their live Event department that was a huge part of param of paramount of paradigms bottom line and when that went away They showed up like in five seconds. It was crazy how that happened Really, so yeah, but I mean again like you said the whole pandemic Really brought home the whole idea of the home studio. It brought the whole idea as I said to actors You're gonna have to self-direct Enough with this be more self-sufficient totally more versatile. Yep freaked a lot of people out Yeah, and George and I experienced that Whole day after day the people that did like a certain thing. Yep, especially in here in Hollywood I do this one thing I could book three times a year for this voice What do I do? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I had some of this client. Yeah I mean, you know Bob Bergen has been very vocal about the fact that he needed to you know Up his upgraded studio to broadcast quality and now he doesn't want to go to you know We now he loves being at home. Yeah, and it was never part of His world, you know, so it was you know, it wasn't as much of a part of his world But yeah, it was crazy how it changed just dealing with people like I don't know how to do any of this And we had to calm them down and say, okay, look, we're gonna make it super duper simple for you And which is what George and I do I can't believe I can't imagine how you guys, you know The deluge of people That just must have been knocking on the door saying help me. I don't know what I'm doing Or is Mark Cashman described it. We were busier than the one-legged guy in an ass-kicking So twenty twenty-one for whatever reason that was the real peak. That was it. Yeah. Yeah, we were very I think it was there was a delay. You had the initial people going. I gotta get my act together Yeah, then he had like six to eight months later Taylor in the twenty twenty beginning twenty twenty-one people are like, oh, this isn't going away. Is it? Yeah, this is we're still here. All right. I gotta do this now totally and things really like picked up But then there was no equipment available. Yeah, because they couldn't keep up with I mean, you know, they couldn't keep up with the demand Right. Yeah, we got creative. Oh, yeah, we really did Which I can imagine I like being creative you guys you guys were the you guys really really Were the savers of this industry because you know, you and tim tippets and tim freedlander And you know, they're in jordan reynolds. I mean you guys all I mean Really saved us. So collectively as a group you really did honestly, honestly, honestly totally Yeah, so I'm so you're you're coaching all these different people and all these different lands across the across the globe Yep What are some of the kind of problems that many voice talent Need to overcome. What are some of the most common problems because I we have a lot of people who are just starting out out there and We can perhaps help them avoid these problems before they start. But what do you see? Well, here's the thing Now after we've just I've just praised these gentlemen. I am going to say one thing I think that people are putting studios together too fast If you're new Okay, if you're new to this I think the whole thing is I've got an entire studio put together. I'm ready to go No, you're not And I say to people I would rather you invest and I want you to invest in these guys But I want you to invest in your career first. You need to invest in your coaching your talent Your storytelling. I could not believe when I saw the polar opposite advice just on youtube the other day. Oh my god, first of all, who are you? Secondly, I literally put like in the comments little, uh, you know motor cons. Yeah, I had a horse No, I had a cart and then I had a horse That was my comment. That's awesome. I love that you have this all wrong. Yeah I've used that that icon in a number of presentations like it. You're not ready yet. You're not ready. No But I think that it means but should they have a practice mic? Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. You should absolutely have a practice mic. You should definitely And definitely start practicing on editing using editing software learning how to do those things Your mic doesn't have to be broadcast quality when you're starting But also you don't want to spend a lot of money on a practice mic You want to like learning photography, you know, you don't need to go buy a $10,000 camera to learn how to take a photo No, not at all You know hold, you know frame an image. You have to learn how to just do the basics Totally, that's where you start one correction though. We no longer call it broadcast quality That's a term from the 60s. What it means is it doesn't sound bad That's about it. We don't have a slick Yeah, I mean no, that's true because actually we have one it's whistle whistle what it's supposed to sound like it's supposed to sound like whistle Yeah, we know what whistle is and whistle is why you hire us to make sure that what you give them is whistle So whistle takes a place of there we go a broadcast quality, right? I think though what's crazy is people have auditioned for things and booked jobs on on mics Literally taking their mics into cars. They're you know or their phone into their closet, right? David k had a picture one time I have it somewhere. He took a picture of him in the bathroom lax Doing a session I remember this and he actually put the picture somewhere David if you're if you ever hear watch this I'll nag him about I think there's a picture somewhere. I'll in fact, I should email I see him almost every month. So yeah, I'll ask him about it. Yeah, and then we'll go I didn't do that Um, but yeah, I mean, I think that spending the time on really on your read spending time on Understanding who you are as a talent You know what you do coming in, you know when you're talking to somebody like Celia You're talking to somebody about branding your agents if you have agents or even on your pay to plays In your own marketing Your own marketing has become the such a huge part of this business Where getting your website se seo optimized Getting a crm program talking to people like and ganguza and mark scott about how to create a marketing program And it's a huge part of this right and people are just you know, they they need to really Get an understanding of who they are first again. They're true tell understanding who they are as an actor You know, yeah, yeah, if you're just joining us our guest is dave walsh He's very eloquent at all this if you have a question about how we coach is or some suggestions about how to help your delivery Put him in the chat room in facebook uh facebook live or youtube live And we will get to those questions in just a little bit. So make sure you do that. Yep Um AI I mean you and I have talked about this a little bit wish I had spiked my water before I came Holy crap. I mean people are some people are in in a the sky is falling panic And then you have people who are like adds a nothing burger And but it seems that the it's somewhere in the middle. Yes. It's yeah I mean, what are your what are your thoughts about this new technology that some are embracing another Screaming and running down the hall with well first of all, it's scary as hell I mean, it's it's brilliant in and of itself as a technology But for our business as we've all talked about it's it's it's scary as hell because Of what the possibilities are what they what it's already done to a certain part of the business um the thing that I will say is I think people Need to spend I'm going to go back to the the s word again the storytelling that I think personally This industry is about to experience a shift because There's going to be a tipping point because so many people Are either in it Or want to get in voice over that the business is not going to be able to sustain It just can't too many people the number of people It just it's eventually going to create some form of a tip Where the people that remain Are the ones that are the storytellers because yeah, I is going to start from the bottom And take businesses like telephony and start moving its way up Our ability is actors. I say to actors all the time Slow the tide and what what nava is doing right now with the You know with the mission statement the pledge that they put out last week and but that what that board is really doing You know caron gilfrey and tim and the whole board and what people are doing really to to to really Turn the tides on this are huge. However Technology is technology and it finds its way But the truth is the people That will survive and i'm going to call it a nuclear winter a vo nuclear winter You want to be a cockroach? You want to be the cockroach or voice over? You want to be able to still be the storyteller to survive it right that the business itself can't sustain You know the number of people people are saying to me. I want to be with an la or new york agent. I get it But how many slots do you think they have? You know, I mean, I don't I'm not saying that to dissuade anybody From from being a part of this business needs to be realistic about it. There's still humans casting people Yeah, it's not ai's casting humans. No, right. It's humans casting humans. No, yeah, they they want human Aspects right most totally. There's no computer that can make the thousands of decisions that I have to make Looking at a phrase or a line of copy where I'm going to go up where I'm going to go I'm going to cry. I'm going to do this. It can't do it Even if even yet even if it could do it Someone would have to sit there and program it and direct the computer to do all those things And can they do all of those things faster than the actual actor can perform With real human emotion. I don't think so. No, I think you know figure that out after over time They're going to figure out right that yeah, we can get a convincing human speech. We can make it sound like anybody we want But it's still the uncanny valley. It's still not going to sound human Right, it's going to sound Like a facsimile there's there but there is you know, even there's something now where they're talking about When you get spam calls if you pick up the phone That what they're doing is recording your voice On the other end and using that voice to then go to use it with AI and be able to You know the whole thing about hunting down. I'm I'm caught in Guatemala and I can't get out. I've been kidnapped You know all that kind of thing. Yeah, but when it comes to this particular business, I think Again, it's the people that are the consummate storytellers now when you're talking like you said the nuance Of a story, you know, are you the nuance and the reaction? Yeah, like how you can immediately react to direction Make a change make an adjustment That's that's On top of the storytelling right top of the acting that just just the mechanics of that It's not something a computer is going to be able to do it's kind of fast But I think telephony I think telephony has already started being attacked not attacked by it's kind of a strong word But it is telephony is the first level where where it's going to where it's going to really get He's going to penetrate. Yeah, I mean it just it only makes sense You know, but again, I think that I want people to Absolutely fight for this. I think people absolutely should be active and proactive But at the same time, please focus on story Please focus on your on your craft because It's the only way you're going to slow the tide Right because it won't be able to figure it out as fast as you get to your point, George It won't be able to figure things out as fast as you will right. So yeah, okay Well, we're talking with Dave Walsh again if you have a question throw it in the chat room right now so we can get to it in the next segment and We also might have a little fun with what we always do fun with words fun with words and he'll direct me through Some copy and so you can see just wait. Okay. We'll be right back at voiceover body shop So don't go away. This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez And you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shop As voice actors we need to hear the clear transparent and honest sound of our voices Harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones 2.0 provide both that accurate transparent sound with enhanced midrange audio Less bass and the creature comforts voice workers deserve Clearly different from traditional studio headphones the upper mids and highs are clear as a bell No muffling or cross bleeding between frequencies like a pair of studio monitors The low is there, but at the same level as the rest of the spectrum They're comfortable like no other phones. 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Especially those commercials. They're going to look to see if you have source connect It's a tool that is considered to be the industry standard for a lot of how the voiceover business operates in this modern age We recommend you guys get familiar with it. So head over to source dash elements dot com Get yourself a free 15 day trial over there and get yourself started If you need help they have a lot of training and we also at george the tech can help you out with the more advanced technical Setup in your home studio Anyway, let's go on to the next part of the show and listen to this next sponsor. So we can get back to dave right after this Hey, do you know this guy? 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Here's the link audition psych 101 dot com forward slash join This is bill radner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv And we're back here at voiceover body shop. Thanks for being with us tonight Or if you're watching this later this week, george, sorry, uh, what's so sorry? It's like, you know, it's good to watch the show live Which is why i'm glad to see there's so many people watching the show live because they can ask questions of you Otherwise, they're like i'd like to ask him this but oh, it's not live and then that makes them sorry and sad So that's okay. We don't we don't want people sorry and sad That's right. So what do we got in questions george? All right. Does anybody care? Yeah, of course we do. Yeah, we definitely got some questions Good up here. Awesome. Let me jump into that. So first one. I see in the list from grace grace newton. Hi grace Hi grace is a wonderful regular on the show Um aside from good acting chops What is an important skill set to develop for video game voiceover? Um That looks like the question. Yeah besides acting uh I think definitely if you can couple things one is definitely improv If you've ever taken improv, uh, which I know is a form of acting itself But improv especially for every area of voiceover Particularly commercial. I think it really helps you to loosen up Uh, but you know, especially if you're going to be going into something like motion capture If you happen to be doing a video game that includes mo i'm c. Excuse me. Um that You need to have that flexibility in that that that physical aspect of being free of doing that Uh with regards to motion capture itself is learning motion capture I think that's another part of this that which has become a massive part of video games that You know when we started doing video games when I started doing video games You know motion capture is not part of it at all. We didn't do that But now it's become almost a given as part of um, you've seen so many talent That have posted on insta and on tiktok, etc From their motion capture sessions from their motion capture workshops So get into if you can grace get into Both of those areas and if you're not in la or new york, there are there are plenty of workshops. Obviously you can take Um, particularly for uh improv um To really kind of expand those chops Yeah, good question. It's very physical. It's very incredibly physical. Yeah, it is Definitely, but again because of the pandemic we go back to what we're talking about Places like second city places like the ground least places like up's upright citizens brigade You know, there are a lot of places that started to create their online presence in improv and a lot of their classes You never were able to do these kinds of things if you didn't live in la or new york So now you have that ability and it's uh, it's a real bonus. It's a real bonus. Yeah, yeah Max goldberg asks. Hey max. Yeah, given your busy coaching schedule. Do you ever do any voiceover work still? Uh, I do actually I actually um, I don't do a lot of it Um, I had an audition today as a matter of fact before I came here Uh, I don't I really find max that because I went back to acting after I Rehabbed my voice and even when I was coaching, you know so much But I then really realized that my purpose was really helping people to overcome Whatever their insecurities were whatever their authenticity issues were Uh, and so that became my focus. So I will audition Pardon me. Um, every once in a while But for me the core of the work is really helping people like you. Uh, that's really what I focus on Yeah, cool. Let's let's talk about true tell for just a couple of minutes here Before we do that, there's a quick plug about true tell there is yeah, this is from beachers ryan She says grateful to dave after the 2021 remote vo atlanta x session. He led on true tell He gave me additional tools to get out of my head and get real So, that's awesome beachers and I actually remember you in that in that workshop too I do remember that thank you for that and i'm really glad that You know that's to ant go back to max's question. That's the reason for things like that That's why I really do it every day. I love that. Thank you for sharing that appreciate it So now I've worked with you and I understand what it is. Yeah, uh, you know, I created my my uh arsenal of of uh, essence words Well, no the people I know my other people, you know, yeah my arsenal of acquaintances. There you go Yeah, which I referred to whenever I'm like, all right. I don't know what this stuff is about But I know somebody who does So really what what? That imitate them. But how would they say how would they say that? Yeah, right? Well, go ahead. No, no, go ahead You explain it a little bit more in our detail Those of you that don't know what the program is the name of the program is the true tell as I said and the definition of the true Tell is your 100 authentic opinion about every single thing you talk about in this world It is your authenticity of how you see it, right? So we know how it feels if you guys are going to have a conversation with somebody There's an effortlessness even if it's a conversation that's I don't know heated But you'd still feel authentic you feel that the conversation is focused You're not scattered unless you had a really tough day and we know how that happens when people are talking But normally we all know we understand why we're having a conversation with somebody first and foremost We understand what we're talking about Then we understand the person we're talking to and the big one is why why am I having this conversation? with this person In the first place other than the fact that I have a script in front of me And I have to book a job and I say to actors all the time. That's not a good reason So the actors that will go into a studio or they're going to their their home studio And you'll read a piece of copy if you don't understand What it is you're reading and understanding who you're talking to and why you know that feeling of like especially when you're really You're kind of Discombobling a conversation you meant I'd be prepared that pull In your stomach and gurgling. Yeah Yeah, you're about to open your mouth and you're not really sure you're not really sure That's called being out of true tell that called that's called not speaking authentically The problem that actors have is they go well, I got a book that I got to do it anyway So I push I push through the inauthenticity and it feels like pardon me shit It feels like it's not real. Right. That's what you're that's what we're going for here There isn't this program isn't about You know playing nice nice. It's not about, you know, your voice is beautiful Therefore you should be able to tell a good story. Absolutely not In fact, your voice is so sensitive that it's going to rat you out so fast when you're not connected I don't know you may have someone that actually would say to you. Are you listening to me? Are we Are you here? Yeah? Yeah You know that kind of thing when you're like that you're not in true tell Yeah, and that and so the whole principle of the program goes back to Every day communication how it feels when you're connected and how it feels when you're not right That's the foundation of it. Yeah, I mean there's many a time when you'll do an audition and it's like This was written for me. I can understand it And and I can feel very very confident and then there'll be something talking about something I know nothing about right, which is very few things by the way Cultural literacy is really important really important in the voiceover business But and when you can't you pull out your list, right and we're going to talk about what that is So what dan's referring to Is when we work together we talked about who are the people in your world that can tell the story You're about to tell if you can't tell it So that's when you bring out your characters and I say To actors all the time. This is how on camera and stage actors create subtext for the characters they create So the actor then lives inside of the character and it isn't about imitating a voice Right It's about living inside of the skin basically of that of that character and that character could be somebody you know It could be Somebody you know professionally or personally it could be an actor. It could be a character from a film Could be a you know a sports star It could be anybody that you think would be appropriate to tell the story and you speak through that person The big challenge is the vulnerability of an actor actually living like a voice actor living inside of the skin of an actor Right of a character video games and animation. That's where everybody loves it because it's play But people Time and time again will say to me my biggest problem is when I see a and n o u n c e r announcer for those of you that's The the word announcer that that's the word that literally sets people into orbit. They're like, I have no idea why I'm here If I were a character in a video game, I know why I'm there I've got characters, but if I'm the voice of chipotle I don't have a clue why I'm doing it So that's what the key to this is it's really about Zeroing in on that specificity. Oh big time. Yeah, and it works in and you and by doing that you feel a lot more comfortable As you're reading the copy. That's it. It is all about the effortlessness of of the story. It really is Yeah, we got a question from Ethan Salazar go for like two is very before him if you're anything like yeah, we'll get there. Okay Uh, when we read that one? Yeah Ethan says hey first. Thanks Dave for such highlights on voice Risks. You're welcome. Also I want to get into real vio business. I won't I want both knowledge and tools, but Haven't made it into the real biz Okay, how should I get or look up for an agent? So he's It's the question of the hard way Yeah, where's your visual george? The horse the cart you got to get them in the right order. So Dave Where does he need to go first before the agent part comes to play the so the fact that you were saying that You weren't even you weren't uh, you really weren't in the biz yet It really depends on what you determine that to be when you say in the biz Do you mean auditioning at all? Do you mean auditioning on a pay-to-play auditioning because you've gotten the work yourself? Uh, if you're doing any of those things you are in the biz that you are in the craft itself and so part of that to move your way up is to Continue to coach to and again it really is and believe me. I know that this is A business where all of us that are coaches. Yes. I know it. There's a monetary exchange For this type of work It isn't about trying to build up the business my business at any higher. It is a reality of The arts it doesn't matter whether it's music whether it's camera whether it's voiceover whether it's whatever It's like sports. It doesn't matter what industry Where a craft is involved? It is not the kind of business where you can come in and expect to Just fly through it and get in it get in it quickly because there are so many other people Ethan who have been in this for a long time What I will say to you which is a great educational tool is Go to the websites of agencies such as atlas cesd dpn spv Um k mr Um, there's I mean there's so many others obviously but these agencies Buckwalled in new york A3 these agencies are the tops in the business and I know there were plenty of my other friends We've left out so I apologize But there are these are the people who are at the top echelon of the business Those are the people who are your chief competitors So I think for a lot of people to get kind of the sobering reality of how it is Go to those websites. Listen to the demos that are there. Listen to the competition That will give you inspiration. I swear. It's not meant to Dissuade you or to deflate you. It's meant to inspire you That these people are doing what they do because they are the best Right, so yeah, but keep at it. Ethan. Don't ever don't feel like you're not in it Just don't don't rush yourself for the agent the agent will come right in time Yeah, if you're making money, they're gonna come find you. Yeah, exactly. Just make sure that they can find you That's the other thing if you if you're making money make sure you have a website Make sure you have a way for them to find you that's k. Yeah, absolutely Okay question from Mike Cunningham. What is the best way to understand who you are Without cutting yourself off at the knees like limiting yourself the interesting question How to find out who you are without cutting yourself off at the knees You know, and yeah, if you're so if I guess if you know, you're trying to be somebody else Yeah, and how can you still be be you? Oh god, I got it. Okay. So the big that's a really Mike That's a really good question I think when you're being another character and this is where actors play This goes back to vulnerability that I talked about a couple minutes ago that when you step into a character It's I use the word all the time immersive. Okay, which means that you are living in the values and the morals of the character The vulnerability I talked about a couple minutes ago is letting go of and this goes back to sound This is why I started doing what I do It is absolutely none of your business how you sound Because we hear our voices one one thousandth of a second faster than anybody else So I'm hearing my voice If I'm talking to george and dan, I can hear my voice one one thousandth of a second faster I think my voice sounds slightly different than they hear it Right because the bone is illogical physiological passing through the jaw the totally the bones in your face It vibrates differently. So when you're when you're performing It's when you're trying to kind of Lean It's not that you're doing this really but you're leaning out Something you're leaning out the window to listen to your voice like you're trying to lean even with you if you have cans on get rid of them um, thank you, you're leaning Leaning out the window to hear your voice. You can't rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time Some people are brilliant. They can Um, but when you're trying to tell the story and listen to yourself at the same time That's when you compromise Actually, Mike, you compromise the story by trying to be yourself and the character You have to let go of you and let the character take over and the big word is trust trusting that the voice Will turn itself exactly where it needs to go To tell the story because it does that all day every day. It's all of a sudden when you step in front of this thing And you suddenly you suddenly become so insecure that all of a sudden it's like your voice is going to fail you Which it really is not And it's the trusting believe me when I tell you after losing your voice And thinking that it's literally gone to crap and only to come back from that I really try to try to strongly encourage people that have any kind of vocal problem To seek help for that but people that are insecure about their own voice one woman said to me I hate the sound of my voice You're in the wrong business Well, yeah, but then I was also in a workshop recently um This great voice actor jp. Karliak has a group called queer vox Um, he and uh another great uh talent and one of my clients lindsay russo They're at the the head of this organization And when I asked people in that group what they thought of their voices The first person said revolutionary Hmm. So the difference between the woman that didn't love her voice and the person that said they they were their voice was revolutionary Hell yeah So that's the kind of thing that you want to get inspiration for your voice Is always going to be changing because your life is always going to be changing right that makes sense. It does Yeah, good question. We got a little bit of time. Let's run through a script here and And show and show everybody how this system works. Okay, so I've prepared a script for mr. Leonard If you so choose to accept this script is for you. It's a 15 second spot. Don't worry about the time um So this is for a product called crylon Which is a rust protector Here's a plug. Um, okay So we're gonna give dana a little bit of time to look at and this is what everybody else should do When you look at the script now this script Intentionally does not have specs on it. It doesn't have any direction So dan has absolutely no idea who he's supposed to be What he's supposed to say how he's supposed to sound Okay, so i'm just gonna give you that Okay, so you've got you do your thing. Yeah, it's someone who uses this product though. It makes it a lot easier Okay Okay, let me stop for a second. Okay When people say that to me they go this will be easier and the problem with that is what? um I'm not like everybody else and there's you know, um Well, the other thing was since when the hell does it have to be hard for you to book a job Right, if it's good if it's gonna help you if you use the product. Mm-hmm. I say hell. Yeah, right But it's also knowing who am I telling this to and convincing them of such thing So remember it's not a convincing right. It's having the conversation Right, but we also want to go back to we talked earlier about the why why are you telling the story at all? Right other than the fact that just handed you a script Okay, all right. Well, let me read through it once and let's see. Okay Why does crylon's new rust protector dry in only eight minutes and not two hours like the leading rust competitor? Because a lot can happen in two hours For performance you don't have to wait for choose crylon. Okay. First of all, how did it feel? fairly comfortable Okay, I mean there are For one just running through it and just saying it. It's you know, it's like, okay. This is how I would say it but Who else, you know might might do it differently or How would I do it differently and how would I try to connect with somebody who? Doesn't understand why crylon is such a great product. Well, let me ask you a question before even go there What what does the copy actually mean? um That it makes, uh There's a lot going on in your life. So I have to worry about paint drying And so this prevents you from doing that right Now the question is What's your true tell about now true tell again is your 100 authentic opinion about everything you're talking about? Do you agree with that? Yeah For the most part. Okay. So when you say something like yeah for the most part Do you think that the creative director of the agency or if the company's going to want to pay you a session fee plus 10? um If sometimes 20 and you say yeah, well, all right So your true tell about it is It's okay Like it's true But who cares right right? So that's your attitude going into it versus everything in advertising is a good thing Everything is that so the question is You have a couple of choices when you're telling the story I'm giving you kind of this some extra This is gift with purchase In addition to telling the story as you You also can tell the story to the camera Right Or somebody else but because you use crylon, we're not going to have you tell the story as another character Why why waste good, you know Leonard time? We've got some Leonard skin in the game. We don't want you to go to somebody else right so If you're going to tell the story to camera You've obviously got your own kind of Side part of the house set up for Tools and everything else right all right. So if you're going to tell that story We know there's a hell of a lot you got going on in two hours, right? Right all right So we're going to we're going to put the story in your backyard or we're going to put it wherever Where do you usually normally store the crylon? Right behind this curtain So right behind this curtain is where it is So it's a story you tell to camera and you're the on-camera spokesperson now. Oh, okay. All right now tell the story Why does crylon's new rust protector dry in only eight minutes? And not two hours like the leading rust competitor Because a lot can happen in two hours For performance, you don't have to wait for choose crylon. Yes. Yes. Yes. So The camera the camera becomes such a great part of this because you put anybody in front of the camera us anybody else and The red light goes on all of a sudden every single thing they say suddenly gets elevated in value Everything just sits up. So the shift in that read We heard it in sound right? I didn't say to you make sure you say the leading rust competitor This time it actually you found the nuggets of where to hit the words Versus well, I've been taught in voice over 101 that I'm supposed to hit the words and do what I do with the product You naturally find the intonations because the reality of the relationship you have for the product is real Right. Does that make sense? It makes total sense. Yeah, and it's a matter and true So that's it in two takes When you if you decide to do it to camera because you couldn't think of anybody to tell it to right camera always works beautifully because it just all of a sudden it's It just all of a sudden sits up right and is a head more impact. How did it feel? felt great Yeah, and that's and again That's the goal of every audition for it to feel great. That is all that matters. Thank god. We hit a camera Good job on that. Thank you. Really good. I really appreciate that. That's awesome being with us Thank you so much appreciate it always fun to have we talked our way all the way out of this Yeah, pretty much pretty much. All right We'll be right back and wrap things up in a nice tight little ball and uh get ready for tech talk right after this You're still watching v obs Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead There's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer That place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions Bringing you the most current information on topics like audio blouse auditioning home studio setup and equipment Marketing performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports. It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voiceover x t r a dot com all right About 10 years ago Good friend of mine said i want to do something for the voiceover business. Maybe you know his name joe davis Everybody knows joe davis if more people know him than know me. It's amazing. The guy's amazing But as a webmaster, he wanted to find something that could help the voiceover world and I said Make a templated website so people can get their website up Quickly not in six months and pay a fortune to a webmaster to do it Well, he started voice actor websites dot com which now employs like 30 people So, you know, and I apologize to him every day about that uh, but Finally the technology came around where you could create a website yourself easily Using a lot of different templates and you can customize them you can Uh, change, you know change the wording in them. You can put whatever graphics you want in it But it gives you a real easy basic platform to create your voiceover website And you can start For free I mean how many places can you do that and there are some other plans 20 dollars a month to maintain your site But it's easy to change things update your demos update your bio Maybe you don't like a picture of yourself in there. You can take that off and you can do it really really fast And you know, george and I tried it out We got our kids online In no time go over to voice actor dot com. That's voice actor dot com And check it out and get your website up really quick right now We are the world voices organization Also known as wovo We're the not-for-profit industry association of freelance voice talent voiceover is a complex entrepreneurial business Wovo is there to promote the professional nature of voice work to the public to those already established in their voiceover practice And to those who want to pursue voiceover as a career membership benefits include a supportive and creative community A profile and demos on voiceover dot biz our searchable directory of vetted professional voice talent our exclusive demo player for your personal website Our mentoring program business resources and our video library our annual wovo con conference A fun and educational weekend with other members with the chance to learn and network Webinars and great speakers and weekly social chats with other members around the world If your world is voiceover make wovo part of it World voice is organization. We speak for those who speak for a living Yeah, hi, this is carlos ellis rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop All right, we're back Getting ready for tech talk, which is oh, yeah always a lot of fun Um But we have lots of people to thank Dave walsh for starters. What a great hour with him. Dave was amazing Yeah, um always a crowd pleaser. That's right Um Also, uh, remember that george and I do the voiceover home studio thing So we'll tell you more about that in a little bit But we do have to uh, we do have to thank our donors of the week All right, let's see. Let's see how good my vision is from here. I think I can blow it up real good Okay, there you go. That helps. Okay. So grace newton Robert leadham steven chandler casey clack jonathan grant Thomas pinto greg thomas a doctor voice ant land productions. I was wearing his t-shirt earlier today martha con 949 designs christopher opperson sarah borges philips appear A brian page great actor patty gibbons rob rider shona pennington bairdon griffith Trey moseley another great actor. Yeah, and diana bird salt and sandra manweller. Yes. All right Well, all right, we need to thank our fantastic sponsors who have been with us For millennia a long time. That's right. Uh, like, uh, harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements vo heroes dot com voice actor dot com and world voices dot org the industry association of freelance Voice talent. Yes. I am the president not only a client um We need to thank jeff holman in the chat room doing a fabulous job tonight And sumer lino At home Sitting there going They're in there that shot this shot. They're in their safety pods. That's right All right, where we have coming on next time next time take a couple. We're going to take off. Um memorial day memorial day We'll take next week. We have tech talk number 103 103 Which we're going to do right now. So don't go anywhere Don't go no way if you're watching us live so you can ask your questions and be totally fascinated by what we do Um, but in three weeks we have debber when coming on Hey, all right. All right, and uh, she's like, I haven't been on your show 12 years and we're close friends. It's like, okay All right, we'll put you in on them. You know after memorial day Anyway, this is a very difficult business as davis alluding to but From george's in my point of view if it sounds good, it is good I'm dan lennard and i'm george widham and this is voiceover body shop or vo bs See you in a bit. See you