 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop and tonight. We've got a great guest a lovely actress and voice actor and all sorts of stuff and coach So we're gonna talk all about that Elise Bergreen. Hi Elise. How you doing? Hi doing? Well, thank you all for having me today I appreciate it and we you know if you've got a question for throw it in the chat room I know Jeff Holman's hiding out in there somewhere and he will reload those questions to us and we will get those two Elise and a little bit And You ready George? Yeah, you're gonna tell if that are tripped at your friend to France or what? Oh, yeah Yes, yes, I'm gonna talk about my trip to France. So Voiceover body shop right now From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe, they bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world bringing you talks with the biggest names in the voice of our world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voice over business Welcome to voiceover body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training JMC demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and now Live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, hello there. I'm Dan Leonard And I'm George Wittem muting my speakers And this is voiceover body shop or VO BS All right. Well, it is good to be back. Thank you for coming back You know as we're doing this show live tonight. I was in France for two weeks So you're in another time zone right now I adjusted if you start spacing out. No, no, I'll be fine I you know, I I I stayed up late when I got home Saturday and woke up at 7. I'm like back on Pacific time So that was great, but it was fabulous if you get the chance to go to France go The funny thing was is that I kept running into people You know, I the people I wanted to run into I didn't you know Rebecca Davis was also in Paris at the same time that I run into her. No, I ran into all sorts of other people But I will relate one quick funny story I was we were on a Viking cruise and if you know Viking at all It's they're small, you know, they're they call them longships and my wife and I were having dinner on the patio And on the front of the boat and it got windy. So we went when went inside saw somebody sitting at a table Hey, can we sit with you? Oh, sure sit down because this is what goes on on Viking It's like you're meeting people because it's not like 3,000 people. It's like, you know, 125 and Somebody had told me there was somebody on the ship from Buffalo, which I'm from originally and So we're talking like, oh, you're the guy from Buffalo. Yeah, really. What do you do while I'm a lawyer? Oh, that's fabulous What do you do? I'm a voice actor. He goes. Oh, do you know Dan Leonard? He's like, this is Dan Leonard. Yeah, I haven't said that he was my lawyer 28 years ago I did not recognize him. He did not recognize me, but we're on a boat on the Rhone River somewhere between Avignon and Leon and I run into this guy But it was like that the whole time we were running into people here and there but but did one run into Rebecca Davis Oh, so back with your back. We got to get together anyway Compare notes about France. The food was fabulous. Everybody says they love Paris I had no idea why until I went to Paris and now I understand Congrats. Well, you had a great time. He came back healthy. Sorry that your sons are not so healthy, right? Yeah, well, no, they're fine now the second I get home. It's like, you know, it's coming back to the Petri dish here Here have some germs But that's why we're not there physically with otherwise we would have been there with you Yes, that's right. So but enough of that because we have a great guest tonight and we want to talk to her Elise Bergeron is an actor voice artist and producer based in Los Angeles in Atlanta She's got a lot of recent crevice like she was on shameless and the mysterious Benedict Society But she can also be heard worldwide as the voice of American Express Ross for dress for less. Well, we all see those Sonic smart clinic cleaning clear as Daisy and the colorful young adult fill a series Finn and Daisy and many more and as a UCLA producing program alumnus Elise coaches and mentors actors and navigating and understanding The entertainment business, which is what we want to talk about tonight Her curriculum is a comprehensive educational program supporting working actors to gain knowledge Skills network and find resources to level up manage success and become I love this the CEO of their own Career, let's welcome to voiceover body shop Elise Bergeron Elise. Welcome to the show Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. We're happy to have you It's we've been you know, it's like I'm we're gonna get as a guest and George said, oh, we gotta get a Lisa So it's like, okay, great. Now just from the introduction I can see you do a lot of stuff and we can get into that But you can't give us a little bit about your background. How do you get into acting? Did you like start young and just keep on going or what? Well, it's actually a small world. I George and I have been connected for a while on the voiceover side of things But when I first started out, I was in theater and I didn't realize I have always Loved film and television. I've loved voiceover and you know everything from Pixar movies to commercials I used to narrate things for fun and I thought that that just wasn't a viable career path I don't know why it appeared to me that like going to do theater was as a kid and like being a movie star was out of touch But or whatever other facet of that and when I was in college I was studying theater and I was doing advertising journalism I was one of those little nuts that got a couple of degrees and I had this epiphany There was a voiceover class that was offered for the first time in my college And it was like this big thing that they weren't just gonna focus on radio because they thought that like radio was dying And they're like we're gonna teach you guys like audio Narration and also how to read for commercials because that's like the new big thing and in college like colleges You know, I only graduated a little over five years ago So that was like a really big new thing and I said, okay, I'm gonna do it. I was a singer I was doing theater and we did a radio drama that ended up going to NPR And I signed with an agent about a month after I graduated because of it and They said well, you already sing you do theater you narrate for all these other things Why haven't you thought of doing voiceover? And I said, I don't know. I just I guess it sounded so It's like a secret society that you couldn't get into unless you knew the right people and it you know It does sometimes feel like that but once you get more into it and you meet lovely people like yourselves I'm learned and met so many people through your program through George. It's been such a gift So I got into this kind of by falling into it a little by accident Thinking that performing was the gate and then then finding this was an option Yeah, well, I went to college. It was learning computer language with punch cards It was the gate and then then finding this was some but some of these guys would be me. That was you George. I Is a professional. Yeah, blew a perfect joke about you know the fact that I learned computer programming on punch cards So I learned live stream producing while live stream Streaming Well, it's great that you know, so you went to school You know when this was becoming popular and it's great that they're teaching that now and And I'm sure a lot of a lot of the people that are watching tonight probably got the same the start the same way What are you up to right now? I mean, it's yeah, I mean you've been on shameless You've been on a lot of stuff and anything that you're working on right now that you can tell us about or that's gonna be coming out soon Yeah, so season 11 the last season of shameless just aired on Netflix. So if you guys haven't caught that I'm on season 11 playing Zofia Milkovich. So if you guys know those the Milkoviches and the Gallipers That's why you look familiar. Okay, there it is. I also coming up in the fall I am on a Disney plus show called the mysterious Benedict society with Tony Hale and Kristen Shaw So that'll be coming out this fall and it's been a really exciting time voiceover has been picking up I just recently became one of the voices of sonic the drive-thru not the hedgehog So I get to talk about delicious food all day It's been really incredible Yeah, so how did you get you were said a little bit about how you got into voiceover? But you know what really you pushed you into that I mean we find that there's a lot of actors Especially when the pandemic had a lot of voice actor a lot of on-screen actors had his shift to voiceover Which made us busier than you know a one-armed paper hanger Getting people to you get their studio set up and stuff But how did you initially get into it and what was some of the first stuff you did? To be honest so my I come from a family of doctors and they were very logical They didn't think that the arts was always a reliable career even though they supported me to do it And they said just in case it ever doesn't go your way or You know the income's not there or the jobs dry up for a little while because it is such an ebb and a flow You should study some more practical things that will give you some stability in life and One of those was advertising the other was journalism So I started off by working for NBC and Fox and college and writing advertising copy and Doing the advertising side of things so I got an honors degree in that and I started understanding voiceover From the other side from the creative agency side So I'm sort of maybe a more unique case, but honestly the more people I meet in Voiceover many of them have worked on the advertising and marketing and public relations side of things Because they are the ones writing the copy creating the commercials the jingles the whatever else and they say hey I can do that So I kind of had a very similar epiphany where I said I'm already singing. I'm doing theater I have a degree in advertising. I'm working at you know 30 Rockefeller There's no reason that I couldn't be the voice on this commercial instead of this other person Why am I not doing it and I started getting into classes? Hmm Taking classes people got to remember take the classes from the good coaches With that have successful clientele and that's that's definitely gonna help you move on a little bit I don't know how did you pick a coach actually? To be honest, I think that journey is a little unique for everybody But I actually learned a fair amount from picking some of the wrong coaches And I don't mean wrong as in they were terrible or they're bad. They just weren't the right fit and you know People are unique. It's like we choose our friends sometimes you find the right coach and you click But I've learned an immense amount from taking across the spectrum with many different coaches and all of them have Incredibly different coaching styles and if I found one and I said, you know It's really good to know how to work with this kind of coaching because you never know what kind of voiceover director or Booth director you're gonna get you never know what kind of created agency feedback you're gonna get I mean, I've worked with clients over source connect and in the studio that are like just do less I'm sorry. Can you quantify what do less means, right? So like the idea of like how to find a coach I mean, of course talking to people like yourselves and finding out, you know If somebody is really that great usually a lot of people will recommend them in their name We'll keep coming up and then you try them out and if you don't love it you move on to the next But my greatest growth has been coming from studying with lots of people and talking to lots of people as opposed to just sticking with One thing because you learn how to interact with everybody. Yeah, it's sort of like dating. You got to find the right fit for you You know when I think we all go through that once again our guest is Elise Burgreen and if you have a question for Elise and I'm sure as we discuss things along here Things are gonna pop into your mind soon as you do write them down in the chat room whether you're watching on Facebook or on YouTube There's a chat room in there and Jeff Holman is sitting there Writing down everything that you say and relaying it to us and then we will ask Elise that question when when the time comes So get those questions in so you you do a lot of crossover stuff I mean, you're you're doing voiceover and you're doing the on-screen stuff Successfully on both sides here. How do you how do you work it all together out? He is you know, I mean do you have an agent for on-screen and for voiceover and Do they talk to each other or what? It's a little unique for everybody, but I will say in my specific case I do have reps for both. They don't really interact sometimes they do When I was first starting off I had one rep that was across the board for everything and each department was all under the same umbrella And then as my career shifted and grown I have reps in different regions for different purposes and I Personally really enjoy that they are somewhat separate now because it can get very confusing And but it just depends on the reps you're with Some teams they're great and they'll say this department handles this this department handles that and you'll be separate And you know, they don't really cross-pollinate some communicate. It just depends on the specific team I've I've tried a few at this point and kind of found what works for me I definitely have reps in different regions, which is really helpful. That way they kind of just focus on their pocket of focus I've definitely seen for myself that it's been more helpful to have people that focus on One or two particular things as opposed to try to be everything for everyone Because it's just really hard to do that and I even had to choose that for myself It does seem like I do everything But even the things I do have been limited and narrowed down and funneled down almost, you know There are a lot of on-camera actors that choose to focus on on-camera commercials I personally really enjoy voiceover a lot more So I chose to you know kind of eliminate on-camera commercials for the most part You know, it's not something I focus on if they come up all I'll entertain it But I really decided to focus because it does feel at times like I have more than one career And they really don't overlap as much as I originally anticipated And I think if somebody had told me that when I graduated at 22 and said hey Just so you know, you're gonna pursue two different careers at the same time. They really don't talk a lot. Good luck. I Probably would have done this a lot differently or honestly I probably would have just pursued one and I'm so grateful that I'm where I'm at now But you know, it's kind of like the saying goes if somebody had explained to you how hard it was gonna be in full Then you probably wouldn't have done what you did to get there It's been the same journey with this it really is learning on the fly Learning as you go Adjusting pivoting and figuring it out But my greatest advice and the reason that I encourage people to understand the business side of it and Understand their own approach is there are only two things you really need to be successful Talent is really not one of them. There are lots of people that are not considered the most talented people in the business that are working It doesn't mean they're not talented at all. But like you don't have to be the reincarnation of you know Anybody or anything to be working in this industry You have to understand how to keep yourself motivated and be a self-starter and you have to understand how to pivot when things go wrong and Or don't go perfectly or need to be shifted because there are lots of people that just lose motivation And they're not working not because of their talent I know people that went to Juilliard who aren't working both on camera and in voiceover and it has nothing to do with their talent It has solely to do with the fact that unlike an office setting This is a career in which no one's checking in on you all the time No one's telling you you have to get your auditions in if you don't turn your auditions and you get dropped It's as simple as that like you get to inspire yourself to do it And if you don't you don't you know and a lot of the progress you will make in this career Has to be you going to educate yourself. It's not like a master's program where they educate you They connect you to the right connections. There's a networking circle like thank God for programs like yours educational platforms I was just telling George when we linked up this last week that your platform was one of the first things I discovered when I became a voice actor And really started focusing on this especially determining like what city to live in who to train with what kind of gear to have I mean I'm fairly tech savvy And I would have not been able to feasibly do any of this without educational platforms like your guys's so thank you for doing this Oh, well, you're quite welcome So you were saying that you know you you enjoyed voice-over a lot more than than doing the on-camera commercials and stuff Yeah, what is it that you really enjoy about voice-over that that attracted you to be you know to really specialize in that There's so much more freedom Then the rest of the business I love on camera, and I will always do on camera It's something that I feel a different kind of freedom You get to escape into a character by physically looking like them feeling like them all that that extra stuff the hair The makeup the scenery that etc, but voice-over there's nothing holding you back You're in a box and nobody gives an f what you look like and you step into that box and You get to be whatever you are capable of being Most of the voices I do are not my normal speaking voice and it is an incredible gift that Whether you're in the studio and you're in jeans and a t-shirt and you get to be all these things that are in your head Or if I'm in my pajamas and I get to walk down my hallway to go do my job every day There's no one stopping me from being whoever I need to be and there are so many other Limitations when it comes to other aspects of performance like theater on camera all these other things you you know Your height your weight your eye color your speaking tone your the way you move your body your physical movements These are all things that matter for other aspects of performance That just don't matter the same way and voiceover I mean they affect your performance maybe but no one's it's not a make-or-break thing if I'm 57 versus 510 or if I'm brunette and I've shaved my head You know none of that matters and that's such a cool thing like yeah I get to be whoever I want and if something if I break my leg I still get to go to work every day And there are a lot of other aspects of performance where you're down for the count if you're physically not at the peak performance Which as humans it is really reassuring that knowing if I ever have a human moment Where I'm not physically maybe at the bit the best you know space or something happens or I can always still have a Home and voiceover it's accepting of so many people no matter where you are or what you're doing or what you look like or what? You're doing it's just amazing. Yeah, as we like to say no one needs to see how the sausage is made Yeah, I mean cuz yeah, you can you know you can be Jessica rabbit for all we know and it's and as long as you do the voice Right, that's the most important thing acting and I it's really important for people in voiceover to understand that it is acting It's it's not reading. It's not like oh here's copy and you read it It's what do you bring to it? What what is it that's unique about you? That works there and it sounds like What's what's unique with you is you can be just about anybody because you're you're a well-accomplished and well-trained actress Well, that's very kind of you. I don't know about anybody. We're still It is a really freeing thing that there are fewer boxes is maybe a better way to phrase it And there's just fewer people telling you what you can't be they're just open to hearing what you can be And there are so many opportunities I mean in one week I'll read for a baby a toddler a teenage boy a young female in college Young mom and like a grandma all in the same week And then also like do medical copy and then a commercial and then animation and then some warrior Badass in a video game and I get to be so many people and so many characters and I get to put on different voices that are so Separate for me as a person Which is really freeing because there are a lot of arts careers that you know It's so attached to you as a person your identity as opposed to what you can create Yeah, well, that's great if you go ahead george Yeah, I just know that you I wanted to make sure we got in some time for you to talk about Producing and why do you do it because you have you're doing obviously enough What seems like enough stuff, right? so why did you add producing to your quiver of skills and What does it do for you as the actor? Producing opens doors that just would not have otherwise opened to be very frank about it The power is a lot of times in a few different areas. It's usually in producing executive producing directing Sometimes writing but even that's sort of its own hurdle And if you are one of the creative decision makers You hold the cards and I got to a point in my career where I've always done Production work both on camera and the voiceover side with my background and like advertising and marketing and creation I've always done that side of things But I didn't directly tie it to creating my own work just for me Or just for the people I know or trying to sell that content until I realized that there was this limiting belief In my own head that actually was pretty accurate In which all the control that I had in my career is being given to other people And I didn't really love that That you know, it's up to other people. It's up to the casting director the director They decide what happens to your career You know, all you do is you bring your gift to the table and the end of the day they decide if you're right or not and it is a really incredible thing To be able to say actually you may not see the full picture of who I am or what I'm capable of And I'm gonna do this thing anyway Whether or not you can see that I'm capable of doing it and a lot of doors have opened for me that would not have otherwise because whether your five two and a you know fiery Anything or you know, whatever your ethnicity is your background your skin tone your voice quality, whatever it is You get to decide what you're capable of and then you get to go make it if you have the skills to do so And coming from a family of doctors always always led to find ways to take charge of my career and to create my own opportunities and As incredible as acting is it just doesn't those decisions are left to the people that are financing it and creating it And that's usually not the you know, not always and you see like George and I have spoken about the other day That is more often becoming The actor that is being in charge of those creative decisions But you know more than 20 years ago. That was not very common And I think I'd rather be in charge of telling stories that I feel really connected to if this is the path I chose At least more often Right. Well, what does producing involve and people hear the word producer? And they don't necessarily know what that means, you know Sometimes if somebody's been on a show for a while suddenly you see associate producer executive producer executive producer They just sort of lend their names to it I get the impression that perhaps you really are active when you do the producing What does that involve? It's different depending on what field you're in so it's different for on camera versus voiceover And again, it's different for television versus film So the the role of producer can consist of you know, just like everyone can say they're a voice actor But whether you do everything or do you do video games? Do you do animation? Do you do commercials? Do you do narration? There are so many definitions of what truly a producer does and can do and who gets that credit and why But the best summary of it without you know sending everybody through a small college course in this uh chat that we have today Is if you are one of the decision makers that is making the project possible Not you're helping it along usually if you're helping it along But you're not one of the main decision makers that's doing the legwork getting the bicycle going That usually would consist of more of like an associate producer Or if you're helping finance maybe an executive producer position, but again, that's different for television versus film But you know everything from paperwork to getting financing to getting the actor signed on to getting contracts deals Getting distribution making the day-to-day happen whether you're in the studio or you're on set Um making all of the stuff that maybe doesn't always seem so glamorous But those are the big decisions That make a project happen and then of course the fun stuff is getting to be on set or getting to be in the booth Of course, absolutely So you've been you've started coaching people. How did you get into coaching and what what it sounds like you've got You're taking all of this information that you're telling us right now And you've created your philosophy of what people need to learn and as I We introduced that you at the beginning of the show you say become the ceo of your own career And what do you mean by that? to be honest it developed over time I Love giving back and I've always helped with like programs, but I've never thought to start my own and I was working a decent amount and I was very lucky and fortunate to do so But also I worked really hard to get there and I had more and more people reach out to me one on one saying like How did you do this? How did you get there? How did you create this? And I was like, well, I don't really know I just did it and then I started really thinking about like wait How did I get here and what were the key elements that got me to where I am now Or helped other friends of mine that I've helped along the way or they've helped me To pivot along this journey to make the decisions that really were so so vital And once I started to really figure that out over the pandemic. I started saying hey For any friends who are interested I'm just gonna get on zoom for an hour or two and you guys can just like ask me whatever and I'll just do my best You know, I'm like at the time. I was like what 26 and I'm like I have no idea what I'm doing other than the fact that I had gone to the UCLA producing program You know, I graduated a couple degrees. I've been produced. I've been doing the work But I didn't really know how to give that back to other people And I kind of got a crash course during the pandemic of how to be a more decent coach. So Uh students be really nice to your coaches. It's not easy And it's it takes a lot of time effort stamina Tenacity as a coach to figure out and I'm still learning from my coaches how to do that best Of what to share and what to not and what's helpful when and how do you share things with your Clients or students that will help them without overwhelming them And how do you share for where they're at right now so that you don't necessarily let them get in their own way? Because I know that I sometimes was in the pursuit of knowledge so much so that I got overwhelmed with too much information at once So learning kind of how to break that down in a more digestible way just based on people asking me for advice And then it kind of turned into this whole Coaching business and now it's like wow This is I can help people and my tagline has kind of become with my my coaching students and clients I hope that me doing it the hard way can save you a couple of Days months years or whatever else time energy tears Sadness heartbreak me doing it the hard way can save that for you But you and I interacting hopefully you can learn from my mistakes And you can take the shortcut that I didn't have because I wish I had had some of those shortcuts But even then some of the shortcuts just maybe weren't for me or maybe I work figured out how they can work for other people And you guys have been great coaches along the way for me in that regard Yeah, it's all this sound familiar george Yeah, I mean The whole be a mini ceo and talk about that all the time I tell myself that all the time In my myself, I don't need to do everything and then The the yeah, there's a lot of a lot of commonalities that ring true for sure Yeah, and it's important to bring that what you have You know, what is it that you bring to the table from your life experience from all the different things that we've done And apply it, you know, I was in life insurance. I taught for a while You know and I was in broadcasting it all came together for for voice over and you and I taught for a while too I just forgot I almost forgot that I taught I taught kids and when I was in high school and middle school I taught little kids. Yeah, I didn't realize that later in life that was going to be so valuable And then now I teach people all the time. It's just part of What we have to do every single day We're not just telling people plug this thing into this hole And turn the knob here and then it's no it's teaching it's coaching Absolutely, that's all part of it. Yeah, so if you're doing all this different stuff I imagine that, you know, if you're like on location You know, I I always say, you know, you know, you want voice work, you know, make plane reservations It's it it never it never never fails. Exactly. Exactly, you know Uh, yeah, I I'm sitting there in Paris and someone says can you get this to me tonight? I'm like, no It's like it's not happening. I I'm going on Sorry, I'm on a Viking ship. Yeah, exactly. You know, but uh, and it's noisy here. So it's not gonna do it on your phone No, I'm not doing that. It's not gonna happen Have anything interesting happened to you while you're on location there where you get a job and and how did you What did you do? Yes, uh, I definitely resonate with that. Uh, you know, France is pretty cool. I'll have to have that experience in France I need a beret too. Yeah, the food was great. Yeah. Oh god. It sounds amazing I have had a very interesting time as I kind of mentioned before It really does feel like I have two very separate careers that I'm Kind of chasing down veering lanes at times in more of a y direction than a parallel and it can be really tough because In the film on camera world I mean my days start at 12 hours a day And there are times where you're on location, especially depending on if you work in film and television And it's all over the place and one of the projects that I was so grateful to work on recently I went straight from a couple weeks in Atlanta right to this project in montana And I got a call. There's a small time change In montana and so I get a call from my reps in a tech saying, hey, we know it's late at night It's about 8 30 8 45 p.m. We need this in an hour And I'm filming a period piece that said in medieval times. I'm wearing like a burlap sack As a wardrobe and I'm in the middle of the mountain your voiceover suit. Yeah, exactly, right And I'm thinking but we had a later call time that day. We didn't start until super late It was close enough to the end of the business hours of the day that I was like I can get away with not bringing my whole voiceover travel setup to leave in my trailer You know if who's gonna call me at 8 or 9 p.m. Wrong So I'm on set and I get this this message and they're like, we need an hour So I go to my first ad in the director and I said, is there any chance we can like move some stuff around? I just need like 15 minutes like that's it. Just just imagine that I'm you know, I need a minute or something and they're like Yeah, that's fine. So they were amazing an amazing team They completely kind of rearranged two of the scenes that we were going to shoot so I could have a moment And I go back to my trailer and I realized that we are so deep in the mountains of montana We're out in prey montana, which is past Any town by an hour and it's in this small valley that's known for like wildlife that will eat you Called paradise valley montana ironically enough because I'm from paradise valley, arizona So I am texting my mom the irony of this because I have one bar of service And I come out of my trailer and I'm like, okay, what do we do? I don't have enough service to do this I don't have my computer with me or anything That can get service because I don't my hot spot's not working because I don't have enough cell service So I asked the whole crew and one person has a cell carrier that has two bars I'm like, great. That's all we need. We need two bars of service. That's it. So uh my trailer There's a generator hooked up to it and generators if anybody's ever been on said they make noise or if you've ever Yeah, exactly So I'm like, well darn it like it's really cold. So they can't turn the generators off or else the trailers will get too cold And the wall freeze So they're like, well if you want one of the crew guys that has like a big like gmc forward type truck You can go sit in their truck and it's far enough away from the noise But it's still on set, you know near set that you can go sit in there and record it and I go, okay Cool. So one of the pa is kind of that's like, I don't know has like a bear whistle or something I still obviously I'm from arizona. I'm not used to bears And he's like, yeah, I got you. I got you. So he walks me over the truck He get me all set up and I'm recording on my phone with my little attachments And he walks back and he comes back over and he says With like no audible words and I'm like recording this thing for a brand. I can't mention right now And it's like this commercial spot that requires that I'd be kind of upbeat and like very chill millennial read and I'm like Yeah, and this and that and this and that and I look at him and he's going Like and this guy does not look like you get panicked. He's got a bear whistle, right? Like he understands what he's doing and he just points and he goes And I look over and about maybe A hundred yards or less away in a tree. There's a full-size cougar In the tree Yeah And then he texts me with the one bar of service I have and he says you see the cougar Yeah, down the road. There's a bear right now I'm like, this is not real. This can't be real. This is not a real thing. This is not happening I'm like, ha ha very funny and he goes, no, I'm serious. Don't leave the car Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my And I'm like, okay. Well, this is due in 30 minutes And he's like, do you want to die? And I was like, cool, cool, cool. I'll stay here So I contact a Again, the reason that community in this industry is so important Get to know your coaches get to know friends make friends get to know people in this industry With the one bar of service I have and one of my crew members phones that has two I call one of my buddies in the industry and I go You'll never believe what I'm dealing with right now and he goes I can only imagine And he, you know, I tell him about the cougar and the bear and whatever and I say I can't leave the car So I have no way to get this audition edited because my computer is in my trailer Which is like 50 feet away from me right now But I can't get it in by 9 9 30 when they wanted it and he goes, okay I got you so I use the two bars of cell service and wi-fi from my crew members phone Send it through that he edits it and turns it in for me because he's just a lifesaver And reasons to make friends in the industry but the things that you will have to do in your career Hopefully there will be no cougars or bears But like being in france You have to do some crazy stuff to keep up with the demands of this industry And you've got to make it happen on the fly no matter what you got to be ready Absolutely And on that note, we're going to take a quick break. We're talking with alice burgreen About oh by the way, did you book the job? I got a call back. Oh, okay. All right. Well, that's so waiting All righty, if you've got a question for alice, uh, throw it in the chat room Whether you're on facebook or on youtube and we will get to those questions right after this break So we'll be right back with alice burgreen here on voiceover body shop. Don't go away 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 smart phone 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 Oh, it's your favorite when hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's j michael collins. Bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email. It's j michael at jmc voiceover dot com Now if dan will stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show Hey, is there a perfect voiceover gift? Well, you're looking at it right now the voiceover essentials gift card You know the challenge the voiceover performer in your life wants or needs some gear for recording from home or on the road Well, that part is easy, but you're not sure just what you want to what you want to what? 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We show you how to add that whole process To your voiceover Weaponry right to your quiver if you'd like to join us for the summer class We're making it even easier on your cash flow to do it We've set up a free two payment plan with no fees no interest You pay half this month and then half next month just before the class starts and you are in like flin The orl is right here. It's acx masterclass.com slash 2 p.m. T pop on over to that link and join us for class. We can't wait to see you there This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shop And we're back with elise burr green and uh, we're gonna get to your questions right now uh, george Go for it start out. This is this we got a lot. So we're gonna see how many we can get through excellent team minutes Jim mcnicholas says I noticed from elise's imdb She started working on a set as a pa and other stuff nine credits pre pandemic and 16 cents. Wow What preparation did you have to go to do from behind the camera to on camera? I think you talked about that a good deal, but what's what's what's something that comes to mind The quickest answer for me is I didn't for me personally I didn't believe that I could do my best job and my best work as an actor If I didn't fully understand what all the people who are supporting me did or what they do or how they do it So I tried to pick up as many production jobs as I could and I've done almost every job on a set that you can do Other than camera team, uh, really admire camera team But I really wanted to understand firsthand like what those people they're supporting me to shine And I wanted to understand how they do it and have that experience so that I can be The most educated and humble version of myself to show up fully for them Great, uh terry briscoe asks and I was gonna ask this too What was it like to go on and conic an iconic show like shameless, which I loved, you know all 11 seasons and you know Uh having done so many different areas of entertainment and having a business focused person What would you say is the most effective method of networking that you've done? This is a question that I get a ton from my students because a lot of people think that networking is You know smarmy and fake and it's all of these things that it doesn't have to be and it can be those things Sometimes networking can feel very like what can I get from you? And so I try really hard to and this is how I had to rephrase it for myself Especially after having worked in advertising You're always asking yourself like what can I get from the customer and what can I give to them? So they give something back to us, but then I started to rephrase that as and what can I give What can I give to someone else and hopefully we can foster a relationship from that as opposed to what can I get? And that has completely changed every relationship I have in the business and how I approach my life my career my friendships If you can think about what you can give even in an audition, what can I give to this client? So they can get what they need What can I give to my coach so that they can give me the best experience possible or they can feel fulfilled as a coach? How can I give to them so that I can learn and then we can become successful together? And asking what I can give as opposed to what I can get has really changed things for me Yeah, so what did you do to audition for shameless? Because that Just a great show and and you know, I'm sure it was wonderful working with the cast there because it was all an amazing cast Um, it was one of those shows that when I signed with my manager when I first got to la and I was really You know, I came here fortunately enough I worked in New Orleans and Atlanta a lot to build my resume before I came out to la And I signed with my manager and I said there's one of three shows that before they end I have to be on That's all I want. I have to be on one of these three shows They are like live breathe and die shows for me. They are the dream They are why I got in this business and one of them was shameless and my amazing management team at Apollo management helped me do that and They finally got me an audition at the very last season And I get an audition that is I've seen every episode like at least once or twice And I'm truly I love the show. I was a real fan And I had this moment where I kind of like just screamed and fell into a puddle on my floor When I saw that the audition was for shameless And they sent the sides over which any of you guys know for on camera They give you like no turnaround time And I said, you know what this is ballsy But I'm going to try something a little different And I did the audition scene but before it I improv'd and if you guys have ever seen the show they do this Intro like every show has an intro and they do this intro While all the main characters are essentially saying profanities Into the camera telling them to like the cameraman like get out of my face f off Like all this because that's just the style of show that shameless is And I said Okay I'm either going to book this because this is exactly what they're looking for or this casting director is never Going to call me in again And in the beginning of my audition I essentially told the camera slash casting to f off and gave them the middle finger in character And said Yo, like my name's alise burgreen and like get the f out of my face Are you f and kidding me? And I went off and I mean the number of profanities I put in like a slate in the beginning of my audition And I sent it in and I went oh my god. What have I just done? Oh my god, and I called my mom and I went I think I either just made the best decision of my career Or i'm never going to work again And luckily enough I ended up booking it and one of the showrunners ended up making a mention about how nobody That they had seen recently had been creative enough to make an audition that included the vibe of the show And they could tell I really was a fan Um, which is really cool But there is definitely a moment where my manager was like You better hope this works because you just told casting to f off while looking them in the eye Yeah, well that's and those are the choices you make Absolutely, but you know if you're gonna lean in lean in right and uh, you know try to do it wisely I I really tried to stick to the intro of the show exactly in the style that they do it I didn't just you know make it up, but yeah It was one of the bigger risks. I've taken to my career to get that outstanding crazy Brent cantor on youtube says how much should we be paying for coaching? So I guess he wants to know it's fair How much is it worth it? Yeah, you know, there have been coaches where depending on what I'm getting like that's worth it to me when I need it Uh, there have been other coaches where it depends where you're at and like what you're you're needing from that person It's almost like If you're just starving and you need to eat anything you can just eat anywhere And you just need a sandwich versus if you were in the mood for a really satisfying culinary experience It's the same thing with coaching if you feel that you are in a point in your career or a turning point Or a really big shift and you need a certain coach to get you there And only this coach or one of these few coaches can do it Then invest in yourself and make a wise investment But also if it doesn't feel right Then there might be a reason to that and there might be some substance as to why you're feeling some resistance for that All right, uh, matthew king on youtube Asks do you find it difficult to delegate work time from free time? I'm concerned that all the time spent with auditioning managing emails might mean a sacrifice of Days off. Clearly you have some time to be with us right now. So Um, I will say I'm not probably the best person to ask about that I do know a lot of people in this industry that do have a work life balance I will be very frank. I don't but also it's because I love what I do And a lot of people spend their social time doing things that are sort of a Distraction from their regular life or something to get away from their job You know a lot of people with jobs that they don't Really totally love and this isn't everybody but they they go to the happy hour to like sweat off the day to Relax to get off you get it off their chest and I just I love what I do So I don't feel that same lull or need to sometimes take the same Kind of escape away from my career that I think a lot of people do but there's also nothing wrong with that So I think you have to remember that your body is your career your vessel This is your vessel if your voice doesn't work. You don't work if your body doesn't work You don't work So take care of yourself and make sure to give your body the the rest the recuperation that also means mentally Take care of yourself But also know that if you really love to do you're gonna energy that you just didn't have for other stuff that will keep you motivated Awesome, that's great great advice. There's another one. You're gonna have a good answer to I'm sure Chris Robin says Elise I love what you have to say about taking charge of your own career What was the last what was the thing that stuck out to you? With the voiceover community once you became more immersed in it Oh easily at the people There's a cut-throatness to on-camera That people are willing to do a lot of things that are always the best. I'll just phrase it like that But voiceover people, I mean god that you could be like direct competition for a role and they're like, how can I help you be better So that just one of us gets it And like what a cool gift that we are all so centric and helping one another succeed because we know that there's more than enough to go around We know this community is there for us We know that our time will come or the right spot or the right moment will be there for us And that's just a home in a community. I haven't found anywhere else Is that everyone that I've met genuinely wants me to succeed no matter how well or how little they know me And they and they want me to do the same for them. And we all just want to thrive together and like god, that's so cool Yeah, because there's no casting room. We're not staring each other down, you know and and and We're all snowflakes and there's work for everybody and and I think that's one of the more important things about our community is that You know a rising tide floats all boats and that's the best way to look at that separate question from from chris robbins What production would you love to take on? and bring to life One that already exists or one that has yet to be created. I guess one to question Um my ideal goal would be to kind of do this sort of Mila Kunis meets Kristen Bell You know sort of thing where they get to do voiceover animation commercial they get to do on camera They get to do tv and film like my dream goal would be not to be limited by what people think I should be doing And get to do what I want to do and get to create so much that I never feel boxed into A character or a role or a type? Um, it's just so freeing as a performer to get to to bounce from thing to thing Excellent. Wow Charles Mitchell Littman asks who are your coaches? Who are the people you currently get your coaching from? Um, well george, you guys you guys are my coaches right now Tech coaches. Yeah. Hey tech coaches sometimes if not most of the time I've had more freak out tech moments that I have talent moments So, you know, keep that in mind when you're picking your tech coaches and make sure you have people that you can rely on and talk to because Especially with so much being recording from home You need tech people that can support you because I'm extremely tech savvy and I still have had panic moments where I need somebody to save my buns at the end of the day And I'm so glad that I have this community of people that I can call when I have those moments Um, a make or break coach for me recently because I have used him for on camera and also for voiceover has been PJ Auckland Uh, dr. Dialect He has been the reason I've been put on avail 12 times in the last year for major network and studio projects on camera And even another five plus times for voiceover jobs that would be life changing jobs I do a lot of accents. That's something that I have a strong home and accent work I have an ear for it and the main reason I've kind of soared up in that direction is entirely because of PJ Auckland recently Good to know Final question from terry briscoe Yeah, I can relate to this. Is it weird when you coach older people considering that you are still very young yourself I think the first time I got nervous because I just looked at them like there was this one Incredible guy and he was like, you know older than my dad and I was like Well, there's no way that I have information to give to him like he's you know, he's crushing it and everything he's doing and I had this epiphany that Age does not denote what you can share with another person and then asking myself again What can I give to this person as opposed to what can I get? And I kind of let all that go and now it doesn't matter. I I have coaches coaching clients that are Teenagers and kids. I have other ones that are in their 20s 30s 70s I have one woman that's in her 80s that just got into this and I don't think that the one of the beautiful things about voiceover in particular, but even on camera is Nobody cares. You can work. They just want to see people and they want to see you and what's unique about you And you know, they have stuff to teach me all my students and clients teach me things So what do I get to learn from them? And then what do I get to help them with? Oh, yeah, I'm the most experienced talent in the world Sorry The most experienced talent in the world needs a coach Even if the coach doesn't technically have the experience That the student has like my dad was a trumpet teacher Teaching kids trumpet mostly kids teenagers and a fella came to him. Who's my dad's Contemporary and said I want you to coach me or you know be my teacher my dad's like Telling me he's telling me this is like, I don't I don't know. I mean he went to this university He has all this he played in this orchestra, but he hasn't played in 40 years So I'm like dad. He clearly has stuff to learn from you. Don't worry about it And then he now he's coaching somebody who Maybe on paper Is a better musician in my dad's mind maybe or just because of his pedigree But he has something to share So it's great that he's been able to bust through that You know that that concern that oh, I I don't have anything to teach this man He went to your point of view matters, right? Like it's not always about where you went to school or what you know like I have students and clients of mine that Graduated way before me from Ivy League schools and I went to Loyola University in New Orleans And I'm so grateful for it, but it's definitely not Princeton Or anything and I have Students of mine that went to those Ivy League schools that didn't get the business training that I got in school And even outside of school So you never know just having a different perspective no matter what your background is and how you can give that back to other people It's not necessarily about who you trained with or where you trained or when you trained or Who you know, you know, those are all aspects of it But it's about your point of view and what's unique about you that you can share with someone Yeah, and that ends the lightning round That's that's where I was going for the Anyway, great job. Now you Nicely done. Yeah, Elise. It has been an absolute pleasure having you with us tonight and answering all those questions and You know if they want to get a hold of you for coaching, where would they go? Um, yeah, I always Instagram is something I check pretty regularly at Elise bergrain And you get through my website lease bergrain.com. You can email me Elise bergrain at gmail.com And happy to get in touch with anybody. I try and check them pretty regularly in this day and age You have to check social media at least every once in a while. So I'm on there and I'm happy to help However, I can't whomever I can and if I can't help I hope to help you find the person that can be that person That you need right now. So hopefully we can all rise up together. That's what we need supportive community All right. Thanks so much for being with us Thank you guys. It's been a pleasure. All right. Thank you for having me All right. Well, we're gonna take a quick break here and re-rack for tech talk. So Stay tuned. We'll be right back here on 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 In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites dot com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept to live online In a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites dot com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites dot com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voice over career flourish They'll try it yourself go with the pros voice actor websites dot com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what Well, it's the first time in a while. I've got to thank source elements for their support of source Of well, they're creating source connect and supporting our show over here at voice over body shop Um boy, that's that's a source connect has come up a lot. I mean, I mean the pandemic certainly Made it a voice over household word for sure and there's a reason for that it They've been creating this software supporting it and developing it and Supporting it and supporting and supporting it For quite a long time and it it's a great tool because and i'm going to show you guys on the tech talk later There's a shelf full of obsolete equipment right up over here And i'm going to really show you how much of this obsolete gear there is That is dead because the technology no longer exists to support it. That was isdn Source connect came along when isdn was still flourishing and found a way to give you that same kind of real time Communication with the studio Seamless high quality audio with low latency Over the internet and because they were there early on and in so many studios Plugged directly into pro tools. It is now the reason it is demanded by so many productions and uh You should probably be at least familiar with it If not owning it if you want to get familiar with it get it set up a trial You'd need to just go to the website source dash elements dot com And set up your your your account set up your trial go through the process of setting it up and learning and orienting yourself And then you'll be ready to book a job with a little bit of experience and testing Which you can do through their website and you can do also with george the dot tech Anyway, thanks for listening and we really appreciate your support. We'll be back to wrap it up after this You're still watching vlbs Yeah, well marcia, of course is still in italy With their friends and somebody is like, where's mom? Where's mom barking and growling and doing all those things and you know, she's been very clingy, but That's okay. Yes. Anyway, uh, we're gonna rack it up for a tech talk, but we need to Thank people and we also need to thank people who donate to our show and who do we have this week? Donors of the week include jonathan grant christopher epperson sarah borges phillips apyr thomas pinto shelly avilino My dad george wittem brian page patty gibbons rob writer greg thomas a doctor voice ant land productions shana pennington baird martha con don griffith Trey moseley diana birdsall. Hi diana and sounder man willer. Alrighty Boy, that was great having a lee son. She was That was that was really something that was a good information. Yeah, absolutely But you can you take it at a time here? Uh, you've got a discount code on your for your stuff Yeah, if you book any of the uh bookable services on our site that you can schedule with myself for any of our team You can type in v obs fan 2022 for 20 off And uh, that also works For any of the webinars that we do in fact, we are doing one. That's tomorrow. It's the ados audacity advanced for voiceover webinars So this one's unique where we're gonna answer anything that everybody wants to know so that's uh everything Everything a form that's like on my site like fill this out because whatever you guys want to learn is what I'm going to teach You know, I don't want this to be pre-programmed. So anyway, that is happening You can still sneak in there. There's definitely room left in that one. That's uh at 3 p.m On tuesday, that's tomorrow if you're interested just go to uh, george the dot tech slash Webinars to sign up and you can use that code v obs fan 2022 Alrighty and we need to thank our sponsors like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra Source elements v o heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and jmc devos Big thanks to jeff holman for holding the fort down in the chat rooms tonight doing a great job with that And of course our amazing technical director. We're all get together soon But she keeps it nice and tight Sumer lino and of course Leap any just for being leap any Uh, we're we're gonna re-rock it for a tech talk here If you got tech questions, get sure make sure you put them in the chat rooms right now because george and I love questions About v. O. Tech. That's why we're here and uh, that's gonna do it for us this week Yeah, not an easy business, but we bring you great people like alice burgreen. She Gotta be a big star and uh That's why we're here in the meantime Look if it sounds good It is good. I'm tan lennard and i'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shop or v o b s