 Hey, it's Monday once again, and we've got great guests tonight Jay Preston Tim Greenlander check us out. Yeah, we've got lots of cool stuff to talk about with the voice over collective and Why it's important to be involved in the voiceover community and stuff And we've got tech stuff if you've got questions for Tim or Jay or George and I on technical stuff send it in now to the chat room and We'll have some fun with it. And what else we got tonight, George. We're gonna talk tech and some of the new features and twisted wave and Maybe a new application that's gonna save your life if you use Dropbox Cool. All right, coming up next on voiceover body shop two men Twin sons from different mothers with a passion for voiceover recording technology and the desire to make recording easy for voice actors everywhere together in one place George Whidham the home studio engineer to the stars a Virginia tech grad with an unmatched knowledge of all the latest gear and technology in voiceover today Dan Leonard the home studio master a voice actor with over 30 years experience in broadcasting and recording and a no holds barred myth-busting attitude for teaching you how easy it is together to bring you all the latest technology today's voiceover superstars and Leading the discussion on how to make the most of your voiceover business This is voiceover body shop Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote connections made even easier Vio to go go dot com everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist J. Michael Collins demos award-winning demo production voice actor websites dot com where your voiceover website won't be a pain in the butt and voiceover extra your daily resource for Vio success And now live from their super secret multimedia studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are George Whidham and Dan Leonard Good evening. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whidham and this is voiceover body shop or Vio BDS We got a crowd tonight Whoo, great to great to have you here and thanks for joining us. It's always about it in When it's the small a little more crowded in here than usual right out, but let me introduce our guest tonight Let's see here. I'll get this right here. Okay, right. No, no like that Jay Preston created the voiceover collective in 2011 as a private Facebook group in order to keep in touch with his classmates From Vio workshops or workshops around LA you realize the importance and trust worthy collective of friends and valuable information And his friend Tim Friedlander here Oh, yeah Also an accomplished voice talent musician and recording engineer began the collectives weekly work out a few years ago Featuring great voiceover coaches and directors evaluating participants performances And is now one of the most respected weekly workshops in LA and around the country because you guys do it all over the place We'll talk about the value of this incredible voiceover community and how we can help each other succeed and your big thing is We rise we rise together Great to have you gone guys. It's nice to be here. You've been here before Jay You've shown up in out before yeah, yeah, you know fun stuff, but Since you since you've been on the show before we'll talk to you second Tell us a little bit about yourself and and you know how you get where you're from originally and and how you got in the voice over Well, I am from Boston area I am about 30 minutes south of Boston a little place called Norton Norton and then every other weekend was in Newton Norton Newton and I grew up doing theater and I Did theater since I was in high school and all the way in through college And I worked in Boston doing theater at the medieval manor, which is sadly gone Um And then I did two years touring children's theater across the country my first time in california was during that tour Uh, and then I got in I came out here for on-camera mostly almost like 12 years ago And then fell into voice over about six years After I got real jaded on the on-camera world Yeah, I was mostly getting cast as pirate and hipster and and homeless guy a homeless guy Number one can you come in like a little extra dirty and so I was like now I gotta go so I was about to leave and then I randomly found the vo bug and Realized I could do everything that I always wanted to do just no one sees my face, which is perfectly fine Well, it's not like you have a face for radio But yeah, yeah, Tim Uh, same question. I've been I mean I've been here before Yeah, so I can make up make I can make up something for this time around Well, watch it watch it tell us what's going on lately. I mean we gotta make it up to you This is the first time you've actually been here So it's always it's always been it's been Dan and I doing our thing. Um, well, actually, um I guess Jay and I met through voice over and we met at Vio dojo Fight club one night, and I think we bonded over hats or something hats and wine more than likely Oh, yeah, whoops, okay Sorry, um And we just kind of started I kind of started hanging out in the vo collective and I had started actually In 2014 I had started the gardener street workout group, which is my weekly Um group that I do actually and yesterday was the five-year anniversary of the gardener street workout group Which is crazy and uh Denny The angle happens to be here right now was one of the first members of that group And five years later. We're still going strong and about a year after I started that or actually after I met Jay I kind of opened it up to the vo collective people and I was like hey Why don't we invite some more people vo people be interested in coming to this thing and we started doing a wednesday workout And then we started doing every wednesday and then we started getting guest directors every wednesday and That was that's been three years for that or four years since that thing started And then eventually we branched out into doing an online workout, which is the vo weekly workout When the industry dramatically changed when certain companies disappeared and other companies merged and all that good stuff We I knew we couldn't compete with them on the voiceover casting side of things But I knew we could for education that we could bring something to the education Front of this and so we launched the vo weekly workout online, which has been Going on two years now. I think That's kind of what's happening now And then the wednesday or the thursday thursday sunday gardener street group is now actually two days a week So we do thursday and sunday Because we have so many people in it that can't make it necessarily on thursday and traffic as everybody knows is always fun At six o'clock seven o'clock on a thursday night coming from the valley to get to hollywood How's voc and gardener street fit together? We we partner on this But we definitely maintain Our our separation in you know the voc is jay's thing gardeners that gardener street is my thing And they're like brothers. Yeah, they're brothers You know, but when it comes out to it, you know, jay has a final say in the voiceover collective And then I have the final say in the gardener street group Though we definitely, you know confer and and we share a lot of the same ideals anyway, so yeah Yeah, well, let's talk a little bit about about the voiceover community I mean It I was at like one of the first conferences back in 2007 and we discovered. Oh, we all have this stuff in common Like we should all hang out together for whatever reason But it seems like you put people in a room who are all voice actors and you can't get us out of the room Right. Yeah, even if you want to leave you can't But let's talk about what you think is important about the voiceover community jay I mean because you started your own here. So yeah, I did but you know, again It was it start I didn't know it was going to become what it kind of has become and it's sometimes gets out of hand We george and I know that so you all know And anyone who is like listen who's part of it all is like, yeah But you know, I started it just to keep in touch with people who were like minded for my You know, you're in a group of 10 people in a workshop and there's two that you're like Man, they're talented. They are going places and they we jive well, you know Like I get along with like when I met tim at that workshop I did two years of just training in la went to workshop at the workshop group after group and I just I was going to so many that There was I can't keep track of who's who and what their names are and then you'd see them again in some other workshop and I was like, how do I keep track of these people because business cards suck So I I did this thing where I started a little tiny group. It was 10 of us then 20 and then 40 and I think you were you were definitely within the first 50. I think and uh Yeah, and so then we just it was all like minded and it was so controllable that way and it was like Whenever we we got to get together everyone came out and it was a get together and what I've noticed over the last however years that this is going going on is it ebbs and flows with community so There was a core group and that was the core group and we always did these things and then As a hundred more people showed up 30 50 dropped out and a new core group kind of came on board and and I tried to keep it where it was like just just my types of mindsets people, you know and It's pretty wide range like the bad eggs There's not that many of them, but I did try to keep it just a nice tight group and the bigger it got And the more people I allowed to let people in the more little things snuck in that we had to like deal with And so it's been more dealing with problems these days than is about like the fun that it used to be like your management Now I do yeah customer service and And I wasn't I wasn't as busy as I am now Back then so I had so much time to to put into just running a community in a group and everyone You know I knew everybody so like if a client had some casting and they were like You know could you get us some quick voices? I knew everyone's voice very well And especially when we started doing the workshops together then everyone every wednesday I heard all of us or in most of your top of mind So I was able to just quickly within like two people get something cast for somebody and uh or help out a client of mine and so that's It's weird how it just changes. It's just it's not what it used to be and that's why I was like if I could just do it I would just start a whole new one And then start again from where I am now What would you do differently? Well, I would do this Thing is is when I started I started it not knowing a lot so anyone who came in they brought information And now I know A lot and now I'm still learning but but it's not the same because it's not that organic like all this That oh how cool What there's a microphone called a TLM 103 What let's try it like that's gone like all that's good and now I think it's gone But I know still seeing it people are people are coming up into it So I I always say create your own group doesn't mean you're not gonna be Invited into whatever we do together event wise or just make your own It's not that hard to just put something together and make something happen every week And then and then reach out and invite people like there's a lot of groups out there And just make a new one because it has this cool thing when they start it's just Unexplainable and I can't get it back. I've tried But it had that thing when it started and I it's not there anymore every now and then it is You know, it's like a maybe christmas time now It's like that's when it feels like most it grew it grew it grew And and it takes on a life of its own and it takes on a personality of its own and it takes on You know, I think it changes It changes the The need of the group changes. Yeah, and so that kind of it does it adds it flows and you know, I think part of it is Seeing what what needs to be handled at any given moment and what's important to the community at that You know that time which you know, isn't always drinking wine and partying, you know, which Most of the time it's every other thursday it is You know, but yeah, I mean it becomes It I think I think part of that too is like the professional the level of the people has has increased throughout the group So you get people who are like who are less hobbyists or Less getting into this and they're on the professional level and they want they're here because they want to get more information about working Yeah, and sometimes they're not always interested in coming to the parties except when we give away christmas prizes Yeah, and then everybody's well The christmas parties with this group I the first one I went to I guess I think it was the first guys first one you guys did at bow No, no, it was the year after that I walked in there and I'm like Jesus I was having these deja vu flashbacks of fraternity house parties Because there was just so many people and everybody's got a beer and I'm like, you know being an older guy I don't see that very much anymore. I was like, let's go to a dinner party. And I'm like, we don't see that very much Did it make you feel young? I took 20 years off of me. It was great Yeah, but we you know, you meet so many people in those types of gatherings You know, and you know, and there are people you make friends with and you know when you see them in another social situation Or you run into them, you know in a studio somewhere where you're you're auditioning for something that they're auditioning for and I'm like Oh, great. They're here Or they happen to be the yeah, they're the casting director or they're the you know, they're the booth director Or they're you know, you walk in you're like, oh, hey, how's it go? I just saw you last week How's that? Yeah, absolutely. You never know who's going to be who and who's going to be where No, this is now we're talking just generally here in Los Angeles But the the voiceover collective is nationwide because you're on facebook So we've got you've got members from all over the place all over the place Yeah, we got members everywhere and we now and then I built the website that connects them even more in a way Um, so we have and he's even got the gardener street. What is it? We have a group in philadelphia philadelphia That runs in philadelphia garden gardener street philly Yeah, what's the name of the studio owner there? Uh, jay jay memuffet jay memuffet runs out. Yeah, jay me's awesome. So he does he put together like voice actors of philadelphia Um, and I reached out to him like, you know to offer up just say, I see what you're doing and offer some help Like I ran through, you know, we spent an hour on the phone I'm like, here's all the things that I learned in the first two years of how to do this And I laid out all the you know the things that I learned and what what I found that worked and what didn't Give me, you know gave him some advice and we try and help You know, um help help them run something Um, that is going to be that at least kind of help with some of the pitfalls that I ran into which is going to be You know, nobody's going to show up for the first six months And then first year is going to be slow, but you keep doing it and you keep doing it And people hear about it and they find that something is there and they start to show up And now we're trying to integrate them into the la group Um, we're going to start bringing them in and have them, you know The first part of our groups is like a chat for the first half hour or so We're going to start inviting the Philly Philly group to join us for that and hopefully, you know, kind of Bring them and make them feel a part of the group no matter where they are Right. Well, that's the great thing about the technology and the fact that we can do this show Even though we've been doing it for eight years Uh, that we're really a global village now And that you can bring people in virtually like that and and it's almost like having them in the room And uh, so there's there's a lot of value in doing that and I think it's great that You know, there's a lot of communities that, you know, local communities that have started their own meet-up groups And I've I've always envisioned making them all chapters of one big organization You know, sort of like Hadassah But uh Just like that. Yeah, so just to raise money for you know the central organization But What is it about voiceover though? I mean, there's a lot of other professions Where you know, there are professional associations and we have our own industry association and and we won't talk about the other stuff here, but What is it about voiceover specifically? that People really enjoy getting together because actors don't like doing that I mean when you get together with actors and so like, oh, it's you and you know, you know what I I think I've been noticing more and more about that is When you come to a meet-up get together Wine about vio night or whatever almost no one is talking about voiceover Almost they're just they're talking about themselves The other stuff they do because we have time to do more than just But if you go to an act like a on-camera act not all of them I'm sure somebody people be like not mine, but uh, if you go to an on-camera place for networking it's everyone's out to Like if you're not important enough It kind of gets shunned on to the next thing and like it's all about each person individually like in a selfish way But it just doesn't I don't know if i'm explaining it right, but it just we aren't we're just hanging out And I think and we're having a good time and no one's trying to get another job really from anybody And because there's so much work out there and it's all individual based on how we sound and what we can do That is not as cutthroat that I think I think people just jive with that more Yeah, I don't I've been trying to figure that out myself and I don't know why I mean, I think part of it is that you know, it's it's a very isolated businesses and you know, in and of itself And just the fact that you get to get out of your booth and go and just hang out people You know, I made it when you're You know, I played did music and I came through education and and you see all the same people at the same rehearsals in the same auditions You're like, you know, I don't want to hang out with you I've been stood like five hours rehearsals with you and I saw you at that rehearsal on that rehearsal And in you know, in this you're like you do all your work you get done you get to leave you get to go and see people Which is I think is just the very basic of it is like you get out of your booth, you know And then I was thinking you probably don't really want to be like so I was talking today about mitochondria And how like it like we're not going to explain our daily work because it's boring mostly But that's half the fun, but I did one last week on nematodes I don't know why there's a this is something I never thought I would talk about But that you're right. That's the fun part, you know, I was doing this great script about rectal polyps Said no one ever But sometimes that's the fun part though It look what weird crap that you do this way. Yep. Anyway If you're just joining us our guests are tim friedlander and j. Preston We're talking about the voiceover collective if you've got a question for j and tim about the voiceover collective And I know you're all out there. So ask your questions as silly as they may be Uh, put them in the chat room because mike merlino Susan is out there taking down all the notes and making sure that we get those questions to tell and ask to these two who are great guys and uh We have a great time when we hang out with them too. The funny thing about the parties is though I go in there And I never get to talk to everybody. I want to one because you can't move Yeah, uh and two everybody's grabbing me. Yeah, I gotta ask you about this Let me ask you about that and I I gotta talk to this print. No, and then you get dragged over somewhere else Yeah, fun parties. There you go It's a great group of people and I think it's just great. Like you said just to have some adult conversation Yeah Uh or some conversation And you can make some really really solid like some of my best friends are I came out of out of the group, you know And it's just People who have your back and the you know if I could if I need to turn to anybody It's I'm mostly gonna turn to if I don't turn to my family first or you know, my fiance I'm gonna turn to the group and I'm mostly just turning to tim a lot And I think everyone does that but you know, we should you should talk on because I could too But how everyone turns to you to solve their problems Which is a thing. It's uh, you know groups are fun, but I think you know, it's not just there's so much So much in there, you know And don't people just turn to you all the time. I I get a lot of questions. Um, you know, I I guess I mean All my friends are in my all my friends really voice over now. I actually ditched everybody I did in in 20 In 24 2014 2014 2015 about the time I started pursuing voiceover. I got rid of everybody else in my life and I It was people and I I was thinking about on the ride right over here because I was doing a lot of stuff that I wanted to do I was playing in in playing music. I wanted to play. I was doing orchestra music. I was doing session work I was playing guitar. I was playing clarinet. I was doing was writing Yeah, master's degree, but I'm a doctor. It's never gonna happen But I hated it all because I didn't like who I was doing it with So the stuff could have been fun But I didn't like the people I was playing with I didn't like people I was working with Not not wholesale everybody, but for the most part the people that I was really close with and really working with I just didn't like them and there was nothing invested. I wasn't invested in them personally They weren't invested in me personally and it just wasn't fun. It wasn't enjoyable And I literally I mean I ditched I got rid of everybody I like maybe two or three people that I was friends with In 2014 I'm friends with now and everybody I'm friends with is in voiceover and That goes on. It's Jay. That's Carson Beck who's sitting over here who he and I I think we met We got introduced in February And by June of that year he was running my studio And we were just like like he came over one day and I'm like, oh, what's happening And he's like, hey, I'm Carson. I'm like, cool. You're from Washington, cool. Okay. Here take over And that's and it just kind of everybody is just like I think I think he wanted to take him I think he wanted to take over. Yeah, that's a possibility. It's a gorgeous studio He might have a baby face But he is cut throat the baby face success. Yeah Um, I you know, I think I think part of it is Is that I'm in the middle of so much stuff that at least if I don't if I don't have an answer I at least know where to send people. I mean, I send people to Carson. I send people to Jordan I send people to Dan. I send people to you because I know Who can answer these questions and who's going to be a reliable person to ask And I think that really is more is more than anything You know, it's I just I I remember what people do and I remember who was good at what things And if I don't know the answer I can find somebody who can And I think that is You know, it's just kind of coming out of education come out of teaching It's like, you know, well, you know, it's a good question. I don't know the answer But let me go find out you come back tomorrow and you know everything about it Um And so that I think really really is a big big part of that um Just being able to trust everybody is a big thing because I can trust everyone You know, and we that's who we try to yeah You try to populate everyone around just you don't have to be on edge and be worried. You just want to Just relax and have a good time, especially after sitting or standing and talking all day long The last thing I want to do when I go hang out is like stress and talk about stress and drama I just want to have fun when I'm done with the day and just say things I want to say Once again, our guests are Jay Preston and Tim Friedlander We're talking about the voiceover collective again If you've got a question throw it in the chat room because we'll ask them those questions in our next segment So stay tuned. We'll be right back after these incredibly important messages Yep, this is v obs proven anybody can have a show these days Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you? This is virgin radio. Well, okay. We're not that innocent There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smartphone But it's so much more. It's a the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song. It's the end of the road for ring This is your near it when hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's j michael collins. Bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? 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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 watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voicehactor websites.com where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what V.O.B.S is still on And we're back With jay and tim talked about the voiceover collective We got a few questions that we'll get to in a couple a couple minutes here Again, if you've got a question throw it in the chat room throw it and uh, we'll throw it at them and see if it sticks It causes bodily harm that's right. You know, we can have a little game of catch here with it to see what happens Um now you started the the weekly workouts and that's sort of evolved a little bit because I remember going to those When I when I first arrived in LA and that was a lot of fun And you know met people and it was great. What was the what was the impetus to start that and how is it going right now? I mean, it's He's always been doing workout groups. Yeah, I've been doing I started that in 2014 um basically because because I I was failing at this I was failing in voice. I was I was failing at it and I actually went to Voice 2014 and met a bunch of people who were in the same boat that I was and I was I've talked about before I was I was that was the day that I quit voiceover. It was the day that I met everybody In in Anaheim and decided to keep doing voiceover But I had a space I had a studio That I had been using for music. I've been doing you know session work I've been it was you know, those who've been there it was it was plywood floors and plywood walls and Um, I was like, well, hey, I got I have a booth and I have a microphone Why don't I invite some people over we can all get on the microphone and see what it's like to actually be on a microphone For those who would never actually been in the studio and started inviting people out and for the first six months. I had nobody And eventually the word got around that it was there I saw somebody post about it on facebook looking for workout group I'm said hey come on over and and join you know join this group and that that was the gardener street workout group which now runs G street, which is wednesday and sunday or thursday and sunday and then j and i emerged to form the Gardener collective workout group, which is the wednesday one and then out of that We then started the voiceover weekly workout, which is the online one. Yeah, right And they're all They're all you know the one that we formed together and the reason I thought it was a good idea was because I had like I said, I did two years of just study when I because I I went to an agency and I did the audition and they said basically You're you're a horrible at voiceover, but you're a really good actor But I would take some classes and um, I just started taking classes and I was like I wanted to get better No, but it came from like a really solid place and it came from a truthful and and I really wanted like lit the fire again So I just did classes and I spent all of the money that I had had on classes because they're so expensive Especially some really good ones that you want to take and you don't want to miss the opportunity And you don't want to miss the learning from this icon or this amazing director And so you just spend it and then when we started to talk about it I was like well I would love to bring something to to the to the community that that maxed at 50 Because I almost always was able to just do a $50 workshop, you know But the hundred and fifties the three seventy five that's six hundred and eighty for six weeks Like I can't always do that and I don't want to really selected that Yeah, you gotta had to be really selective So we wanted to just do it and the way we did it was because it's private groups So it wasn't like everyone in the world knew how much it was going to be and we weren't advertising for It was really just so this director could I mean they weren't making what they usually would make On on our workshop But they they knew that they were going to get solid people to come in And really teach them something and they really want to learn because we have a wait list on on our things And that was a great idea and it was a great idea and people like it really took off And then out of the voice over weekly workout Coolest thing about that and it's unlike anything That's out there is That you can Listen to a hundred people's auditions from their home Their best one take you can listen to them then you can Read all the feedback they got individually So if you did one and you didn't get the feedback you wanted You could go look for the feedback you wanted hear what that sounded like and you can start to I mean you can really spend more time Learning after the workshops over. Yeah, so everybody everybody's reads are available to everybody On the via weekly workout. Yeah on that one if you participated you can read everyone's feedback and hear all their stuff And I think it's really invaluable like in for ten dollars a pop It's like it's like a masterclass if you can if you sit there and do it the right way and Use it to your advantage See if you can copy what that person did and see what what was it? What little minimal things do they do that made it stick out to the director's ear Yeah, so if somebody wants to participate in these or get involved with the the collective Where can they go? Well, the via weekly workout is online. That's open anybody. That's a via weekly workout.com Work at dot com. Just say it like that. Yeah And that's that's open. We've written we've got We're we're about a little over 1100 members on the site And that's the dot com site the dot com site. Yeah And out of you know out of that we average about 60 to 75 Per workout that we do and we have people all over the world. We've got people in I think last time I looked We had somebody in austria. We have bunch of people in alaska Um a bunch of people in south america who are doing it or at least who are who are signed up And people who don't have access if you're the only person in your town doing voiceover You're the only person in your area. You don't have access to the places. I think it's a great opportunity to To you know read maybe copy that you never would would get a chance to see or For a director or coach you would never get a chance to work with Though most coaches are available online a lot of coaches do online work Now in a way that they didn't do even a couple or three or four years ago um and as far as like, you know the gardener straight workout group is It's one of those things that like we don't talk about it Apparently we don't we we talk about it now. Um no and we always we we talk about it But it's one of those things like you know, it's it's hidden It's private if you if you meet somebody and they tell you about it and you get invited to the group You can welcome to come in as I my studio. I always say is open to everybody if you want to come in and Join our group and see what's happening and try voiceover and be a part of the scoop You need a place to go my place is on my door is always open. Um at my studio and um I think it's important for You know, I it was important for me. I did it more for myself It's the selfish reason I did it more for myself But I didn't I was just the opposite of jay. I didn't go to any of the classes. I didn't know I didn't have a Anybody I trusted well enough to say cool Where do I spend my 200 bucks an hour? Where what class should I go do a workout? Should what workshop should I do so I didn't do anything? I did exactly the opposite. I did nothing um Hence the reason why I would I was failing at it. I didn't practice. I didn't study. I didn't coach. I didn't Explore current trends. I didn't read copy. I didn't do any of the thing that you should be doing But you didn't go to that one, but I went to the one and where we met. Yeah Look what that did and there you go And the rest is history. Um, I mean, and that's why I met, you know, I met I met karson at a Before that we met. Is that what we met? Yeah, so karson back over here Yeah, we met at gardener street came into my studio And that's where we met my door. Yeah, so someone referred to him and that's how he found about it And then he said I'm going to run this place. Yeah when I was like, hey, I'm leaving on tour and jr He went takeovers. I guess you're you're on the place. So I didn't burn it to the ground. He didn't burn it to the ground and my dog was still there when I got back So that was all I was doing Yeah, and we all know cho is the most important part of the show is the most important part. Yeah, yeah Well, we got a bunch of questions from our, um, worldwide audience from whiz over body shop george. What do we got? We got the first one is from get freds voice And uh, this one's probably maybe maybe all of us can chime in on this. It's not specifically about voc He says I want to dump go daddy But I still want to build my own site Uh, what are some good alternatives? Well, I mean, I'll start with what did you build your platform? What platform did you guys build yourself? I'm I'm at wix. I mean I I swear by it now. I mean, it's You know if it does for me, it does everything that I want to do and We built the the video weekly workout is is built off of that. It lets us do Um, you know, all the all the let us sell the tickets. Let's us do Things directly to that site integrations and a lot of integrates. Yeah, that's really the biggest thing It's got a lot of integration and it's got a lot of Looks good, you know, I mean they're keeping up with that. I mean, they're always Whatever's new they get and they make it available to you to just drag and drop Yeah, and it's easy. I mean I did I started in like HTML and I went to dream weaver and then went to like wordpress and a bunch of the stuff and you know I've been on wix for a long time and it's great Dan I mean, um wordpress is the 800 pound gorilla these days Well, I mean, are you is your current site on wordpress my everything's on wordpress You know, I'm with voice actor websites and web stuff with our good friend joe davis and he maintains it all instead of You know and or he at least lets us maintain it like you guys are you know, you're able to do with wix You know, we are well our first I mean v obs was on wix for a long time Right because like when we decided to change the name and start with actually is before before v obs, right? Yeah, I think when we first decided to start the show that was the web host I found that was easy that I could understand. Yeah um You know great. I mean He's telling about go daddy go daddy as a host They also have a whizzy wig editor like yeah, not the best thing. Yeah. Um, I've seen it I know that it works, but not the greatest one good thing you can do with wix is it's Free to just start making the site So you can just make it and if it doesn't turn out you why you just don't publish it, you know You know what I mean? You just make it just go have fun. You can just try it right now for free And a dozen of those that just didn't work out. They're just sitting there I'm still running on squarespace. I think it's five or six and I think they're over eight It's about seven or eight years old um And I keep wanting to go to a new host or a new system and every time I do it I'm like, oh, but then I have to and then I'm gonna have to Forget oh my son. Jacob just started it redid his website all in html The ground up. Yeah from the ground up. He had a friend that would do it Check out lendstar productions.com. It's it's actually pretty amazing site I mean if you're gonna build it from scratch on the ground, I think my cousin's in the web design I think blue host was one he would always talk about as a solid hosting Yeah, your site's some scratch cars and site Most of you are not gonna want to start your site No, no, no, I used dream weaver way back in the day to build pages from scratch. Yeah, man was that hard What's the second question there? Um, his follow-up is um This is more about the group now When you started the group, uh, were you the moderator mentor coach or what so I'll start with j I was the what? I started that I was the moderator because I made the group and then um, but I was just I was still learning in those learning phases of everything. So I wasn't a coach. I never claimed to be then and Um, now I don't even claim to be but I will coach every now and then I do Little audition coaching and stuff like that when I have time and um And now tim's my moderator I have Yeah, I still run it as the what is it called? The poison. I don't know that it wasn't on there. Oh, I'm I still run it as the what the one He's the moderator Yeah, because people I really really trust too and they know exactly The kinds of people I I know and like and they they meet them a lot more than I do now because I usually meet people and bring them in And that's how I did it and I might be going back to that Yeah, very soon. Okay. Here's this word trust Coming up over and over. It's yeah, it's um, I don't know I mean to answer that question for for the the gardener sugar I I I just have always considered myself to be a facilitator and I just try and um Give people opportunities and You know at least provide some kind of advice and then let them make their choice on you know on on where to go from there Um, I tend to be the the moderator I happen to have the talk back button during the workout groups. Um, but you know, I try try and facilitate Everybody participating in that as much as possible Coaching do you do any coaching do you dip your toe in that? I mean, there's there's enough there's there's enough people to do it and people I get asked every once in a while My my response is like always No, I don't want to do that. It's pretty much my response, you know, it's I mean because that's a big It's a good response. Yeah, there's enough people. I mean there not there's enough people I think there are people who are Better suited to do that correctly than I am Yeah Comment question from scott parking on facebook He says when you guys promised you guys promised a new veo collective secret handshakes Jack Tim Who are your top three? Tim, who are your top three pirates? He says my top three pirates Man What it's captain crunch count Um, he's more of a jay. Yeah, he's a captain. Yeah, jay jay jay's a young he's a young prospector With the new hand, I mean we're we're sticking with the old handshake for now because it's so well known. We'll show him the secret one Yeah, yeah All right, see we'll teach you that later Oh Yeah, that was totally inappropriate Uh, here's one from paula fey Are your workouts in a formal studio or is it more of an informal setting because I'm I'm asking because I organize a new veo meetup or she's doing it and I would like to do something similar. So Do you need a studio to do this? No, you don't need a studio. Um, I think it's Uh, it's it's about getting the people there and getting the feedback and getting getting hurting getting somebody to to People to bounce off bounce your reeds off of and that can be in any space. Um, I just happen to have a studio But you'd by no means do you have I mean, they have a big, you know, a big space you could do something, you know In in this space, you don't need a microphone to do it. Um, it's nice if you wanted to go that next step And provide people who've never been in a studio and show them what the experience is like, you know We walk in don't touch the microphone if you need to adjust the stand need to adjust something Run them through the process of what that would be like. Yeah in in that type of setting Um, but no, I mean, you don't need you need a space you go to go to a park go to like, you mean, you know I don't go sit I find a find a patio at starbucks and do it if you're you know If you get people who are there and want to do it you can do it anywhere um Yeah, there's virtual now a bunch of like gvaa does virtual and um And then we do virtual with the veo weekly workout Yeah, I think that you know, I think the the secret to all that is just to keep doing it And if nobody shows up you do it next week and then don't show that week you do it the week after that And you get one person and you get two people and I think when when denny came in there were 10 of us in the group And now we're close to 400 In the gardener street out of that we have a solid we've had a solid crew Of about 20 that rotate around there there regularly um And everybody you know people participate It's a very it's an interesting thing because it's it's one of the few groups I'm in that interacts more off facebook than the new on facebook um And like I try and get the facebook page to do i'm like you ask that question post on the facebook page and people are like Yeah, let's go. I'll just ask it in person. Um, which is kind of it was kind of interesting. It's pretty special Yeah, that's someone would bring in cookies and then you'd be eating chocolate People bring in cookies and then you're like I gotta do my student might read him. Yeah It's like cookies and beer I think is apparently that's the secret. That's what it is. You know, it's gonna be totally informal. It's cookies and beer That's what you need You still doing your podcast yet? Or did you give that one up or are you still recording things here in there? All that little talking thing. Yeah, I don't know I thought that was gonna be a good idea and then I realized I don't have time to do it So but it was fun I have like three of them Yeah Yeah, but that's but that's acting, you know, you take a chance and you don't what against wall see in your time is I don't he can make time up out of the blue. I don't know how he does it But I don't know how he has the time to even be here today because every time I hear anything. What's new Oh Diatribe of all the things he's doing and yet he's still doing two or three workshops a week and And I see him all the time I don't because I had a lot of time and I used it into the group and then I ran out of time And then I got busier and then I fell in love and then so now it's all with traveling everywhere and it's I'm like Man, that's why I had to have them help me moderate And so but don't be afraid when you'd build these groups and stuff of going on your life Life's journey, you know, I didn't think the group would be along this I didn't think it would get to where it is. So but now it's a part of my life So it's not going to go anywhere It's I'm always going to make sure we get a monthly meeting together if I can You know, I'm thinking of new ways to do monthly meetings because like You got to change and do some new stuff. So we're going to do some fancy fancy get together sometime soon Right. So if someone wants to get involved, where do they go? Um, I haven't told anyone this yet, but you can now go to the v o community dot com And the links to the voice of a collective website is an easier thing to And it was available So the v o community dot com get to the mailing list any of those events I try to do at least a couple times a year an event that anyone can come to You know, we did one up in pass a robles at the winery and uh, that was a lot of fun I almost went there was a good handful of And and his band was playing and it was so much fun But it was like our first actual getaway that people could come to and many people do you have for that? We had like a dozen. I think that's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And uh, the voiceovers Voiceovers dot com. He was there. Yes, right. Matt. Yeah, he was there and he had a great time And I got to talk to him about all the upcoming goodies so But yeah, that's where you can pretty much get involved at the moment because I still want to meet people before they jump on board So and then to meet to meet us Come out to an event in la or if we happen to be an event or or talking at something like vio atlanta or whatever then meet us there and And we'll uh, we'll let you know if we are type of person. We're gonna mark you on the back Yeah, I think at least I think meeting a person or coming from You know somebody that we know and trust especially at least for the you know, like the in-person workouts are at my house And so it's try it's you know, it's it's slightly different to just give somebody here. Yeah, sure Just come on in here's how you get in the door and walk upstairs and come on in Um, you know, we've had a lot of new people coming in and everybody who's come in almost everybody who's come in This year has been referred from somebody or heard about it from somebody You know that I know and they called and said can I get in and I said sure come on out and join us And you know, I I do a little bit of everybody has to join on the facebook group So I do a little bit of background and see who they are Um, and just you know, just kind of see if it's something, you know, are they are the end of voice server They starting out in voice over, um And it's kind of get a feel for where you know where they are with that and then You know any every every week we do Thursday and sunday and you get on the invite list and you buy a ticket and you come out before you go I just wanted to also give you a chance to explain quickly and plug sound box So Yeah, yeah, yeah, um, so sound box sound box la is the studio um where Where I started the other work at groups in my main studio at my place, um, which actually Is now Branching out we're going to be launching the sound box group Um, which actually going to encompass all of the things that we do because sound box Studio group now has five studios in los angeles. So we've got sound box la which is really going to be should be sound box hollywood So sound box la, um, sound box studio city, which carson is carson studio Got sound box german oaks, which is jack daniel studio. We just Opened about a month ago on the west side with, um Paula Tio and I never get her name right. Um, I should find out since she's part of the group And paul mercier, um, they have their studio, um for venice boulevard and 405 Which is great to have something on the west side. There's nothing. There's no other studios on the west side Okay, um, and i'm the overflow and you're the overflow. Yeah, I sent somebody here Last weekend and then now actually we're down in redonda beach. Also. We have a studio in redonda beach And they're just you know, they're very just they're similar places like this Where people who are full-time voiceover and you can go and do an audition you can go We all offer the same services you can go you need an isd n session whatever you need you can go and do that there Um We have actor rates and we just try and help people out. I mean it's really that whole thing grew because of the community Studio kind of became I grew the studio based on what people needed somebody would come in and said Well, do you guys do isd n and I was like, no, but let me explore next week I had isd n before it became a thousand dollars a month Um, you know, oh, you know, hey, I you know, man, I want to go to the studio But I record on the 416 last time. Do you have a 416? No, I don't but give me, you know A few weeks later you get a 416 Um So it built it was it's kind of it kind of was based on people's need Yeah, based on people need and good business does yeah um Well gentlemen, it's been wonderful watching this group grow since you know since I arrived and you know There was a few of us and now there's a lot of us But it's also been great watching your careers grow in the last couple of years and it's always a pleasure to see Oh, you know this stuff is you're not only helping the community, but you've also been you know succeeding yourselves and that's great So but it's great having you on the show. Thanks for being with us. Thank you. Thank you Thanks for having us Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, we're gonna take a break and we'll be right back after this It's time to talk about our good friend Harlan Hogan and his fantastic website voiceoveressentials.com and this week We got something we're gonna let you in on a little bit early tomorrow You're gonna see an ad in voiceover extra for voiceover essentials where you can get $15 off Their pop screen for the vo1a microphone fits it perfectly and The Harlan Hogan signature series headphones Believe it or not, and these are great headphones. They are made for voiceover. They're made of the best materials Memory foam the twist deflects headband, which is comfortable and you can wear it for hours and uh, and it comes with the disconnecting Piece on here as opposed to ripping it out and then having to solder it back in because soldering and back headphones Not an easy job Also, I hear it that the portabouth plus may be coming back too So if you want to take advantage of these great savings $15 off if you do it before tomorrow Go over to voiceover essentials.com best way to go there go to the bottom of our home page here You'll see the the the little icon of Harlan He's just this little tiny guy in front of his portabouth pro and click on that and that will take you right to voiceover essentials dot com Where you can buy all his stuff and he guarantees it if you don't like it you can send it back But what's not to like? Thanks Harlan for being our sponsor for eight years Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders When you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voiceover x t r a dot com Well, it's time to mention our wonderful sponsors source elements Those are the creators of source connect and it's a software package That voice actors who are ready to kind of step up to be doing higher level work Specifically or even more so union work. They're working with agents. You're going to hear this A lot which is you need to have source connect and if you want to go check it out Head over to source dash elements calm and get a free trial This is what you should do. First go get your iLock account i o l i l o k dot com that is totally free get it set up Then head over to source dash elements calm Get your account set up over there Get yourself going with a 15 day free trial Get it running on your machine. Get it get familiar with it Get through the learning curve of how it works how it's set up all that get it rocking and rolling Then now you're ready to go next you can tell your clients. I've got source connect Okay, they don't have to know it's on trial right now. It's just there and you know it works That job comes through boom you you pull the trigger You go back to your account and at that point you can buy the license outright Or you can sign up for a subscription base, which a lot of people choose to do It's much less expensive to get up and running But go give it a try. It's a really really great package and this year Hopefully we we've got a new version on in development for the last I think five years Uh that when it comes out, it's going to be revolutionary. So stay tuned for that But anyway source dash elements calm. Thanks for your support of our great show your voice over body shop This is bill radner and you're enjoying voice over body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv well Uh, we're splitting a show. What's that? We're gonna wrap it up because it's time to wrap it up. Uh Next week our guests. We're not sure who our guest is going to be But we would love it if you would first take our survey on the website and tell us what you think about the show What you would like to see what we could improve upon you like what we changed this year We changed things up for the 2019. Yeah, clearly somebody likes it because a lot more people seem to be watching It's true. It was great views and listens are going up way up way up And uh, but if there's a guest you'd like to see on the show, let us know You know, it might be somebody we can get might not be but we'll see but write to us at the guys at v obs Dot tv and uh, give us a suggestion. We'd really like that Yeah, and the survey on the website also does have a section on there about suggesting Guests, so we're happy to take that suggestion there as well Now, of course, you can donate to our show to keep us going which we really appreciate and who are our donors of the week We do have some some of these and many of these actually are subscribers that donate regularly such as sarah borges CJ ring wall michelle blinker. Hey, michelle. Didn't she win the unicorn award at vio. Atlanta? I believe so Congratulations um, dr. Nathan Carlson cool guy Uh ant land productions all right graham spicer bryan roush and joseph harrison Christy burns and tracy h reynolds. All right a lot of familiar names in there. All right. Thank you so much Appreciate it. Well, we're in a nice Studio bricks uh boost tonight. It is virtually anyway. This one was a recent addition. This one is joe suprianos Oh current home. Oh studio setup that legendary Set up by the actual owners of the company who came in and set it up for them. This one was assembled by the owners of studio break That was amazing timing the fact that his booth was delivered and it was the day before nam Yeah And those guys drove up from an eye to help us put a thing out of great Now somebody did send in a picture this week, but we make it very clear send it in landscape Not portrait because we're this is a 16 by 9 picture and another little uh side note on that as well Don't have yourself right in the center I mean, it's kind of funny. It might be literally weird having you in the background dead center between dan and i the whole show Just saying You know, but I think we got another one from that same ours the same contributors the next week we can fly it Yeah, we will we will mic. Thanks mic excellent. So show us your booths All right, uh George the tech How do you get a voice over studio? We talked about it. It's a dot com. Just calm that thing and you're in there. You're fine. You're fine. All right Hey, you want to be in our studio? Write to us at the guys at v obs dot tv. We actually have an audience night. Get shoot the audience cam there One of them was a guest is yeah, but he's on the couch and that counts as a guest during this show So that that's important Let's see now we're we're live alternate mondays like so we won't be live until For another two weeks. So let us know it's monday of april april. Yeah, and uh, but you know, we do it We're doing the show live. We tape it live. So It's totally spontaneous and we don't have to edit it too much And then uh, we'll we'll do the tech talk next week But our interview all this week with our guest will be on all this week. Uh, let's see We need to thank our sponsors because without them We wouldn't have a show like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra Source elements view to go go voice actor websites dot com j mc collins demos All righty, and of course, uh, the dan and marcy lennard foundation for the betterment of webcasting Live webcasting you live webcast. Thank you. Uh, our producer catherine curtain who's out because of some family issues She does a great job Mike merlino Sus son on the chat room duty tonight and of course our amazing technical director who's just got it down to a tea Sue merlino at least she likes to think fix it. Yeah. Well, exactly. So, uh, thanks to them, uh Let's see. What else we got to talk about here. Um, oh, we got to say good night. Oh, we got to say good night And especially lee penny for oh, yeah, don't forget me but never forget Well, all right, hopefully we gave you enough information on our show this week to uh To better your career just a little bit and we appreciate you watching. It's not an easy business book George and I are here to help you and we're here every week on voiceover body shop. So, uh, Thanks for joining us tonight. I'm dan lennard and i'm george winnow and this is voiceover body shop or vo bs That was real enthusiastic. Hello. All right off floris. We'll see you next time. Thanks for joining us tonight Ha ha ha ha