 Hey, guess what? It's time for Voice Over Body Shop one more time and our guest tonight is Harlan Hogan. You can wave Harlan. There you go. Okay, good. We got lots of great stuff. We got, we can talk about the great stuff he does with Voice Over Essentials. If you've got a question, throw it in the chat room. Mike Merlino is in there and he's going to relay those questions to us a little bit later on. As Harlan speaks, you're going to come up with that stuff. So stay tuned. We got Voice Over Body Shop coming up right now. Two men, twin sons from different mothers with a passion for Voice Over Recording technology and the desire to make recording easy for voice actors everywhere. Together in one place, George Wittem, the home studio engineer to the stars, a Virginia Tech grad with an unmatched knowledge of all the latest gear and technology in Voice Over 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 Voice Over superstars, and leading the discussion on how to make the most of your Voice Over business. This is Voice Over Body Shop. Voice Over Body Shop is brought to you by VoiceOverEssentials.com, poem of Harlan Hogan's signature products, source elements, remote connections made even easier, ViotubeGoGo.com, everything you need to be a successful voice over artist, J. Michael Collins' demos, award-winning demo production, VoiceActorWebsites.com, where your Voice Over website won't be a pain in the butt, and Voice Over Extra, your daily resource for VO success. And now, live from their super secret multimedia studio in Sherman Oaks, California, here are George Wittem and Dan Leonard. Hey there, I'm Dan Leonard. And I'm George Wittem. And this is Voice Over Body Shop, or VOBS. All right. It's my echo of convincing. Every week I do that. Convincing. Echo of it. B-D-N-S, like that. Is anybody gonna notice? They may. Is anybody out there? Is there anybody out there? Anyway, oh, what a great weekend I had in San Francisco. Oh man, the minicon. It was great. I was swinging in the cloud. Ah, look it up. I was hanging with friends I hadn't seen in a long time. And it was great. It was a great time. You get to go to a WoW minicon, do it. Lots of fun. How many people? What did you get? I think we had like 50 people there. And some fairly prominent people. 50 people, everybody pretty much gets to talk to each other. That's the whole point. It's more intimate than say one of these 1,000-member conferences. Do they purposely limit it? Is it like a cut off 50? Yes. Yeah, pretty much. And we do them regionally, so it makes it easier for people to attend. I would totally have gone when I'm going to Maker Faire. I know. Three weeks. It's safe San Francisco. I just want to go with you. Anyway, one of these years I'll go with you. Anyway, tonight on our show, we have a great guest. Harlan Hogan will get to him in just a second. And also, again, if you've got a question for Harlan, because you know who he is, ask it in the chat room or on our Facebook page if you happen to be watching there. And of course, if you have a home studio tech question, George and I would also like to get those as well. We would please send them in because we have lots of time to dedicate to that. That's right. But we also got topics that we want to talk about too. So anyway, let me introduce our guest because without him, this show wouldn't be here. Honestly, truly. He's been our sponsor since show number one, which if you were watching last week, you saw with that. He saw a clip of that. Yeah. Anyway, he is a legend in our business because he's been in the voiceover business a long time. He hates it when you say that. I know. That's why I said it. And he is in the town of Great Barrington, Illinois, which is Chicago. Welcome to our show, Harlan Hogan. Hey, there he is. Hey, Harlan. Legend. Yes, you're just about to check out. That's why I said legend. Anyway, you know, it's really nice. What's that iconic? Iconic is really nice. Okay. Let me know you're already one of the iconic iconic. All right. That works for me. Anyway, welcome to the show. You've been with us before. It's always great talking to you and, you know, we only get to meet personally every now and again. Like, how often do I get to Chicago? How often do you get to Chicago? Not nearly enough. Okay. So, you need to come out here and be on the set with us. I know. I know. I should have come out last week when it was snowing. It was perfect. If that wasn't motivation enough, I mean, come on. I know. Yeah. But, you know, we know you from, you know, from VoiceOverEssentials.com and some of your voiceover work and stuff. But you're a pre-home studio voice actor. I mean, you were doing this before all this home studio stuff. What was the early part of your career like? How did you get started in it? In the business at all? Yeah. Probably or the home studio end of it. No, no. Pre-home studio. Oh, pre-home studio. Okay. Well, I mean, I put myself basically through college working in a radio station and got a BFA in theater. And so I was really a theater rat, you know, from the time I was about nine or 10 years old. You had the radio and the theater. I mean, that's a really good basis for voice acting. Actually, you know, if you could plan stuff off down the road, it was a pretty good idea. But I don't know. I was waiting like a buck. And, you know, I like being on the air. I like the microphones and stuff. And then I left there and I worked on radio a little bit, got bored like most people and realized they're like three people in the world that make a buck at it. In that manner. You know, all my friends who went to college were actually working like with real jobs rather than if you get the other viewer work radio, you know, you don't get paid much. No. But you had these perks like your tire trades and gas trades. And I'm trying to get a raise at this radio station one time. And I said, station manager, I was leaving going to Peoria, which is much bigger town than Bloomington. And he said, well, okay, we don't want you to leave. You got a tire trade? Yeah. Hey, you like pizzas? Yeah, I get you one every night. I said, John, I like pizzas. I don't want to become one. But it did. You know, I did some radio down in Indiana and I thought I got to get a real job. So I tried several. I'm the world's worst computer salesman who ever lived. I wouldn't know Fortran from Coball, but I got a job trying to sell computers. That was terrible. Worked in advertising for a while. Pretty bad. Finally, I was about 28, 29. I thought I was doing community theater all over the place, which I loved. Which pays well too, doesn't it? Oh, I pays well too. We guys absolutely love interesting people. And it finally did, you know, you do that epiphany at some point in your life when you say, okay, it's not a dress rehearsal. I got to give this a shot. I've got to try. And then when I worked with J.Walter Thompson in advertising, I did see people that came in and did voice stuff. And I did a lot of scratch tracks there because they knew I'd been a radio. So that was kind of intriguing. But when I started it, it was not like I'm going to do voiceover. I just want to be an actor. And you know, one thing led to another. And of course, I also figured out pretty quickly. It was a really busy time here. And you could do 10 or 12 jobs in a day. You couldn't do an on-camera job, 12 old men a day. And you had to have wardrobe and memorized stuff and all of that. And you could show up with a piece of paper, reading a microphone and make some money. So even in the depths of my ignorance, I figured, I like this voiceover stuff. So that's, you know, I just concentrated on that. And it was a great crowd of people here. We had so much fun. Well, it's a smaller group. You dealt directly with the clients. We didn't go through agents or anything, the voiceover people. And, you know, really, the first professional real voiceover gig I had, I got from another voiceover actor who called me up and he said, Jim Dolan is producing some stuff at Streeterville Studios. And he needs another young guy. And I recommended you. I mean, that's how the business was then. It was fun. That's how it works. So you were called into studios and that's pretty much it. Till about when? When did that really change? I want to say, you know, that's in it. I really have not tied that in very well in my mind. But, you know, 12 years ago, 15, somewhere in there, I started recording stuff at home kind of by accident. A guy called me up. His name was George Little. And I was doing some political stuff already then. And he introduced himself on the phone. He said, I know your work. You have no internet or anything, guys. I mean, this is a phone call, right? He said, I would love to use you, Harlan. And I can afford to pay the union rates, but I just can't afford the studio costs in Chicago. It's just out of my budget. So I end up using these jockeys down here. And it just, is there any way we could work together? And I said, yeah. Hey, I got a real to real tape recorder. Maybe, you know, we're now for the younger people watching, that's a big plastic thing with tape that goes around. And I had, I don't know, a sure microphone of some kind. And I started recording from home. And I would, you know, we would do FedEx. And then eventually it went to digital audio tape. And then eventually it went to cutting CDs. So kind of did that before and very many people did. And as I did more political stuff, it was on the road more. And remember being in L.A. with my first book, and there was a book signing and everybody that had a voice over book was there. And it was, yeah, it was fun. It was exciting. Steve Shatsberg became a friend of mine said, hey, Harlan show your studio that you take on the road. And there's about 150 people. They're mainly from L.A. And I had the Sony digital audio tape and a little microphone and little adapter ear headphones. And so I said, I think I can do auditions with this, you know, out here in my hotel room. And I've got a few clients I can do stuff for. And I think we're all going to go to the point where we're certainly doing our auditions at home. And I got a laughter, seriously laughter. So once in a while you're right, not often, but I was right. You were a visionary. What can we say? I mean, the internet came along and now we could just send MP3s. And it just, as you all know, it just completely changed. I love the fact I can go in my little whisper room here and do stuff, but I really do miss the people because they were all characters with the exception of myself. But everybody involved in voice seemed like they were nuts and fun. And it was like a club, you know, it was a great time. And advertising here was huge. That was a lot of package goods. So you had places like Leo Burnett and J. Walter Thompson and Footcone and Building cranking out stuff for Secret Deodorant and Reed and Head and Shoulders. And, you know, all of that commercial stuff was being done here. Well, you had Sears. You had Spiegel catalogs in Chicago. All those things were there. I mean, that was really the big retail center for the country. You had SC Johnson wax up in the Milwaukee area and it was really going down. It was just, you know, who knew. So, you know, I was lucky. I just happened to hit it at the right time because voices, the guys who were working when I was getting into business, first of all, were very nice to me because they didn't consider me a threat. And because we're young, you know, we're young and that they were shifting from the big deep level of Lewis voices, you know, to somebody who maybe sounded like a real person. And it was just dumb luck timing on my part, honestly. Well, some of us, you know, sometimes it's all in the timing. It's always in the timing. Yeah, yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, I know. I mean, how many times have we heard the story? I just happened to come into the studio for an audition and they're like, oh, we've got this thing. Can you do this? Get the opportunity? You got to deliver. I was in the studio and Quincy Jones came in. The second engineer was sick that day. Here you have it. Yeah, exactly. The story of every great engineer I've ever read. It does. It definitely does happen. It's happened to be there. Hey, you. Come here. That's right. Hey, if you're just joining us, our guest is the one and only Harlan Hogan from VoiceOverEssentials.com. If you've got a question for him, throw it in the chat room right now. We'd love to get that question to him because he has the answers to everything. So what prompted you? It's not my iconic. There you go. Or ironic. Go ahead. Or both or ironically iconic. Anyhow, what prompted you? I mean, now this is there's a good span of time here. I mean, you had when did you start VoiceOverEssentials.com and what prompted you to start retailing that way? That's about, I'm going to say about seven years ago. How long have you guys been on? Eight. Eight. You were already doing it by that time. Let's say 10. I'm terrible at using it. Without, thank God I have two sons because then I have some anchors where I can go and let's say Jamie was eight. Right? That's what kids are for. Yeah, milestones. That's what kids are for, exactly. Because that's about it. So say 10 years ago or so, that came along. It came about totally by accident. And I don't want to disparage actors in any way because I consider myself an actor. And I have been kind of proud of the fact that with the exception when I first started out, I went back and I worked part-time on a radio station, mainly to get access to the studio so I could make demos because it was a good move. And did that for a couple of years under a slightly different name. And other than that, I've never really had to have a second job, a real job. In particular, I haven't had to work retail. So 30-odd years into that wonderful feeling of, you know, I'm damn lucky and I've never had to work retail, I decide to open an online store. Makes complete sense. And then retail, you know, go figure. But that happened because, mainly because it goes back to being able to record either at home or on the road. And as my political business grew, and that's, as you guys know, is very quick turnaround. And you don't want to not be available because it's not that they're mean or cruel, but if you're not available, there's 15 other guys they can go to. And once you're on a campaign, particularly a big campaign, you want to stay on it. And they're inclined to keep you. I've noticed with most political producers, they're very, very, very superstitious. It's a very interesting thing. So they don't want to shift. And if the client isn't saying, you know, I really hate that guy, they want to keep that guy or that girl on it. So the biggest one that really struck me, I came out to Vegas with Jeff Fisher, who's my co-author on the two studio books. And sure as heck, I get the call, hey, Harlan, we need to get out of the road. And I could do it, but I had to go to that studio. I can't remember the name of it in Vegas, but just 45 minutes from downtown, at least if you can even get out of downtown there. Because I think George and I have been in a car in Vegas for like an hour and a half trying to get to a restaurant years back. Oh yeah. George picked this up and we're like, are we going to get there? What the hell? The traffic is crazy. So I went all the way out to the studio. And I've always felt that if you are out of town, it's not really kosher to say to the client, I want you to pay for the studio because I'm out of town. It's like you're on vacation or you're out doing a book signing or something and she should pick that up. Some will insist on paying it, but those two go, oh, okay, I understand. So I get there and Bill was outrageous. I was five or 600 bucks more than I'm making on the spots, but I did make my client happy. And I mentioned to Jeff Fisher, and I got to find a way to record on the road. And I tried the pillows and stuff and said, oh, oh, you should take a look at Douglas Spotted Eagle's box. I said, what's that? He said, oh, I got a video of this thing. Douglas is a very good singer, acoustic guitar player. And he was on some kind of a video shoot and he needed to do some tracks. And the soundstage was no good. So I went to his hotel room. That sounded terrible. But there was some acoustic foam around and there was some foam pour. So he made a box with duct tape. He had this idea. If I put the microphone in there, it'll hear the acoustic foam. And he said, that sounded great. I said, oh, that's cool. I said, I got to play with that idea. I talked to Douglas. They said, hey, you know, I think I might want to develop this, or at least write up an article or something. You have any patent audit or are you going to? Oh, no, no, no, no. I had no interest in anything other than, yeah, it really works well, Harlan. You just, you know, trick the microphone into hearing an acoustic space. It doesn't have to be human sized. So that's really where it started. And I wrote up an article, how to record on the road on the cheap. Just for fun, because I was fiddling around with various boxes I could find at the container store and then got some acoustic foam, sent it out. No intention of ever doing it. Pretty quickly he had a lot of people say, where can I buy one of these things? And I said, you can't. I taught you how to make them. Right. Isn't that funny? You give it away and then they want to pay for it. That's right. People are insane. Well, and part of it was, as you guys know, good acoustic foam is expensive. And you got to buy a pretty big sheet of it. So you could make four or five of these things out of sheet. And that was part of it. And finally, you know, finally at dawns, I mean, you know, these people really want to buy one of these, maybe I ought to make some. So I made 10, sold them in a day. I'm serious. Gone. And I, hi, hi. Who came in? Acoustical treatment. Walking human, walking acoustic treatment. Boy. Okay. Stay. You can stay. So anyway, that was, that was the genesis of it. And then when people started buying them, I wanted to make them more professionally. And I found a company that would do that. And then kind of looked at it and thought, well, what, what else? Well, people always ask about microphones. What should I choose? Hi, Jack. You know, that's the second question. You get this. The first question is, can you, can you give me an agent? And the second one is what microphone should I use? Yeah, we get, we get that one a lot. What's the best microphone for voice over? I've heard that one. Yeah, we, we, we heard like maybe three, four times a day. But, you know, but what went into, I mean, so we're talking about the V01A, Harlan Hogan signature series microphone. What went into the development of that? Because it's really the only voice over specific microphone. The rest of them were all designed for Celine Dion and, and Quincy Jones and the rest of them. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I, I love descriptions of microphones like sounds great on piano, drums, and voice. No. Yeah, right. No, it does not. But I had the same thing like, what do I recommend or whatever? And I, again, with Jeff Fisher's advice, I said, you have to get develop a mic. And that's been the philosophy for me on this stuff. If I can't find a way to make it in some way different or better, I'm not going to do it because there's plenty of gear out there. And that, that's what I always look for. If I can't find some way to make it more specific, more usable to voice over people or podcasters, if people are voice workers. And by the way, I have sold a number of portables to people in the telephone sex business. Hey, whatever works. Well, you know, it's got to be pretty, if you think about it, I'm not going to do a demonstration, but if you. Seven or eight people all talking into headsets, pretending to be excited about some event, you really don't want leads through that. No, yeah, make, make sense. That's actually a market. But with the mic, you know, I thought, okay, well, what's who's you? First of all, there's a little question of who's using this microphone? Is it a professional recording engineer or someone at home? It's someone at home. What's their experience level? Oftentimes, because of how the business changed, I've met a lot of people who've never been in a recording studio in their life. There have been no training that never worked around a microphone. They don't know what part of it to talk into. They're recovering accountants, essentially. Yeah. And so I'm thinking, okay, what are some of the problems? Some of the problems are if the microphone is complicated, it's got roll off switches and high pad, low pad, all this stuff that a pro can do, you know, knows what it is. Things like that. I wanted to keep the cost really reasonable. I wanted to make sure I could, if I could get them to get a microphone with a good mic cable, because as you guys know, so often people buy a nice expensive microphone and put a crappy cable on it. You can't understand why it doesn't sound good. So there were a bunch of little things they had, and Jeff knew somebody at MXL, so I talked to them. I also talked to three other microphone companies, very well-known mics, and explained what I did, and I wanted to create this microphone. The other three big guys said, just pick out one of our mics you like and we'll put your name on it. Right, right. And I said, no, that's not what I'm trying to do here. I mean, I could take a felt pen and write my name, but that doesn't make it my mic. So MXL was great. I mean, they were just coming out of kind of a reputation of being, you know, okay. And they wanted, and they were very, very cooperative with me and worked with it. It's wired with Megami. It's got great big pets at it. I wanted to soften to a degree the proximity effect, because if you don't know what it is, you can misuse it right away, right? And you've never had, and one of the reasons I like you guys so much is you're supplanting the great gift I had, and people my age had, of having recording engineers who taught us how to work the mics. I know Dan's done some great stuff with the Port of McPro and like a 416. And most people don't have you guys, and we don't, you walked into the studio and they say, hey, our, hey, our back up here and I'm going to angle the mic here and you know, you learn from them. And unfortunately, most people don't have that anymore. So that was the major thing is, is to just make this a voice over design microphone from the get go with really good quality components. It comes with the mic cable, comes with a shock mount, comes with every damn thing, including little replacements for those little rubber things that you can never find, you know, on the shock mount. Absolutely. And you know, then the headphones came and other things came and I've had, I've had a ball. It's been great. It's been great fun and kind of think through and see what we could do to make it better, make it interesting. All right. Well, if you're just joining us once again, our guest is Harlan Hogan from voiceoveressentials.com and we're talking about some of the stuff that, you know, that he created for there and for retail at voiceover essentials. And again, if you've got a question for Harlan, now would be a really good time to get it into our chat room and we can ask him in the next segment. Plus, he has some stuff that he wants to talk about us, talk to us about in just a couple of minutes. So stay tuned. We'll be right back with Harlan Hogan here on VoiceOver Bodyshop. In a world of audio, two men knew what they were doing or at least they have you convinced they put the BS and VOBS.TV. Hey, you've heard about the amazing ACX Masterclass and here's David H. Lawrence the 17th with an amazing offer for VOBS viewers. Thank you so much, sir. I'm David H. Lawrence the 17th and I teach a class called the ACX Masterclass. Now, if you're a regular VOBS viewer, you probably would love to make audio books, right? But you don't know how to get started. Maybe you've created a profile on ACX but never really did anything with it or maybe you tried but you saw all these low pay or no pay projects you knew you weren't going to make money with. I get it and I can help you. The ACX Masterclass is a four-week intensive training course that shows you how to produce audio books efficiently and elegantly and also how to manage ACX projects and deal with rights holders. It's been really, really effective for our students. They are over the last four years or so responsible for nearly 3,000 books on Audible that are on sale right now on audible.com having been made via ACX. That's one out of every 30 books on Audible, right? So we're going to be teaching the ACX Masterclass this summer in a home study format where, you know, we know you've got things to do in life. You can take it at your own pace. It's going to be across four weeks but you can take as much or as little time as you want and we'll show you how to build a successful and profitable audiobook narration business on ACX. And we're going to make VoiceOver Body Shop viewers a very special offer and it's just for you. You don't tell anybody about it. Right on the front page of the site on ACXMasterclass.com we're offering a special two-payment plan to make it easier on your cash flow and a special price. Two payments, one this month, one next month and then we start the class in June. No finance charges, no extra fees. Just click on the link on the front page. You will pay the lowest price anyone will pay for the class this year. We guarantee that. Don't wait. Do it now. Take advantage of this exclusive offer and get all the tools that you need to create that amazing audiobook practice you want. We'll show you how. This is a limited time offer. We're going to take this link down this coming Friday night. Go to ACXMasterclass.com. That's ACXMasterclass.com and click on the link that says for VOBS viewers only to take advantage of this two payment, no finance charge, no extra fee offered. Just for you. That's ACXMasterclass.com. Thank you, guys. Thanks, David. Go to ACXMasterclass.com now as the two payment offer ends this Friday, May 3rd. So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voiceactorwebsites.com. Like our name implies, voiceactorwebsites.com just does websites for voice actors. We believe in creating fast, mobile-friendly, responsive, highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use. You have full control. No need to hire someone every time you want to make a change. And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time. You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700. So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity in dealing with too many options, go to voiceactorwebsites.com where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the, you know what? 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 jeans for wearing and there's jeans 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 Rick. This is your knee, Rick. When hope is lost. It's the I-8 from BMW. Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's J. Michael Collins. Bet you think I'm going to try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves. But I will give you my email. It's jmichael at jmcoysover.com. Now, if Dan will stop waxing his mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show. V.O.B.S. is still on? Seriously? And we are back with Harlan Hogan. What are you drinking? I'm drinking water out of this fabulous Canada cup. There's a story there, but you don't want to hear it. Okay. Does it take long to get a cup shipped from Canada to Chicago? No, I picked it up out of here. You're going to get the story. Anyway, I did a motorcycle trip. When you go all the way around Lake Superior, you came through Thunder Bay and I hadn't bought anything. It's on a motorcycle for six days. So I stopped and I picked this up. I've come through customs at Thunder Bay and a nice lady came out of the bike and I got my helmet and all that stuff. She says, hi. How long have you been gone? Six days. What did you do? I rode around Lake Superior, went through all these places in Canada. Oh, good for you. Yeah, we had a lot of people here that do that. Are you bringing anything back? I said, no. Nothing at all. I said, well, just this Canadian coffee cup. I said, oh, are you married? I said, yeah, you are in such. It was the best. Anyway, you wanted to tell all our viewers about a big deal you got coming up at voiceoveressentials.com. Do tell. I do. I do. Due to all kinds of crazy things with tariffs and inventory control and everything else, we ran out of Port-A-Bouth pluses. For those of you who don't know the line, there's the Port-A-Bouth Pro, which is the larger one, and also the Port-A-Bouth plus, which is the smaller one. And the pluses are very popular, easy to travel with, and we simply ran out of them, which just killed me. And then you deal with getting them manufactured and then trying to get them before Lunar Christmas because all of China takes off for like a month. And so we went through all this drill. We've been waiting, waiting, waiting. We have a lot of people saying, when will the pluses be back? So we started a waiting list. We have a number of people on there who were nice enough to say, yeah, you want a deposit? It's not a deposit. I'll put your name here. So they just arrived, and we of course got them up to the people on the waiting list immediately. And decided, we're kind of like reintroducing it. It's Port-A-Bouth plus 4.0. I always make, I think most manufacturers do, you make incremental little changes based on feedback. So certain little things, minor stuff, that you say, okay, I'll make that strap a little tighter, change the geometry a little bit, but essentially it's unchanged. And I thought it would be nice to reward people who were waiting for one or who wanted to get one with something that was unprecedented for me, but I think it's fun. So first of all, there's the Port-A-Bouth. Let's get that on the video. Okay. Plus, if you're not familiar with it, this is, it's hard to do that on cam, but because it is, isn't it? Yeah. See myself. But anyway, this is the device. It folds up. It takes about six to eight seconds to put it together. It's one of the things we need. It can take 10 or 15 seconds. Yeah. Yeah. And we added something, you know, it's funny that you do. You say, yeah, this is a little tight. So you got a little gusset to it. You make a few changes. So we have those. And it's, despite economic trade things with China, the price stays the same. It's 189. We ship it free and anywhere in the contiguous United States. But oh, okay. What can, well, we could knock something off. And I thought, you know, what would be really neat is to give something away. And one of the other items we have that I love is this. Oh, the bag's great. Is the bag, is the Port-A-Bouth Plus bag. The people who make this for us, I mean, this is their business, is luggage and travel things. When you go through O'Hare or whatever and you see all these little things that, you know, the neck things you can put your head on and all these various travel items, this company makes 99% of those things under various brands. So when I said, oh, you know, a bag developed, they, too, this thing is just killer. And, you know, and hold your booth in the center section. The, because it is a true carry-on bag designed so that these pouches on the outside can be opened without opening the bag where you've got your booth or your clothes, for that matter, and your microphone and all that. And then also had these outer pouches, and there's two zippered pouches here, and then these outer pouches. I have observed many times while traveling that, you know, it's, it's dicey when you open up the overhead to get something out of your carry-on bag. I mean, I've seen people get hit on the head. Oh, I almost did it yesterday. But it is funny. So I thought, okay, okay. So if we got this thing up in that, in that area, if you have those outside pouches, you can get it the things you know you're going to need while you're on the trip and not disturb the stuff in the center. So they did a great job with these. They're $59.99. What we're doing is, for the first 50 people, and by the way, VLBS viewers, you're the first to know about this. The only other people who know about it are the people who have already are receiving, the people who are on the waiting list receive their booth with the travel bag as a gift. Ooh. So we've got a limit of 50, you're limiting it to two per customer. Because if I don't do that, somebody will buy 50 and go into competition with me, which I don't need. Trust me. People be scalping these things. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So then that's very simple. That's it. Tomorrow, John Florian is going to send out a mailer. I think they'll go pretty fast. So if you're interested, I would do it. If you go to voiceoveressentials.com, now we're not doing it on Amazon or any other site. There's a little button to click. Both items will come, but you just pay for one of them. Yeah. So I'll tell you, that bag, twice, once in Boston and once in San Francisco, I've had people walk up to me and say, Hi, what's a track? What's a what's a port-a-booth? And I'd say, well, I'll make a little portable audio thing. Well, I like the bag. Can I buy just the bag? Well, you know me. I said, sure, no problem. There's my number. Right off your shoulder? I know. Underwear and all, you know. I use it. You know what? I'm a sailor. You guys know that. I've got, Leslie hasn't thrown all of them away. I've probably got 25 duffel bags, embroidered with races or sailing trips. I've been on or whatever. And when I go on a sailing trip, that's the bag I take. I mean, it's so well done. And I didn't design it. So I'm not bragging about me. These people really do what they were doing. And really, it's got every little feature you'd want. So, and it weighs nothing and it's bulletproof. So what's the special that you're doing with this once again? Here's the special. If you buy a port-a-booth plus, you will get the travel bag for free. And then that's the advantage of watching our show live. Exactly. Because you'll be watching live. And you've got first dibs on this thing. There's no promo code. If you just go to voiceoveressentials.time, click on it and it'll come ship off. Outstanding. And of course, those of you who are watching. I think it's kind of fun. Right. If you're watching the replay, oh well. But maybe there'll still be some left. You never know. I think I'll go fast. Obviously post it when they're gone, but yeah. All right. We got some questions from our audience, which is watching live. And they've all already gone to your website and bought the port-a-booth and the bag. Pilar Yerebs with us tonight, joining us from Miami. She's to SEMSB and LA. And she has a question for you. Hi, Harlan. Can you see me? Hi. Hi. Yeah. Hi. So I was at WovoCon, the mini-conference, this past weekend with Dan. And J.S. Gilbert was giving away your port-a-booth and my friend and roommate Natasha Marchefka won it. And I had major port-a-booth envy. I like that. Write that one down. Because I was just, I was like, oh my gosh, it's perfect. I mean, the whole pillows and the fort thing, it's okay. Except that it just, I mean, the other day I was basically under an ironing board and I have the quilts and I was, I was like this and I was like this. It was just, it was horrendous. And I thought about the port-a-booth. So my question to you is where does, like when you're hanging up your microphone, where would you like, would you have the tripod? Would you have a ninja? And did with the ninja, a chatch to the port-a-booth? That's my question. What's the easiest way to put the, put the microphone, place the microphone inside the port-a-booth? Okay. I'm using, you talked about. And I have a Sennheiser. Sorry, I didn't interrupt. I have a Sennheiser 416. So my idea is to go. Oh, I got you. Okay. Okay. Here, here you go. This is, this is what you use. The Sennheiser 416. Yeah. Which I happen to have here right now. A desk stand, preferably with a round bottom desk stand. Okay. I don't like the tripods because you try to balance that on foam. It'll fall over. Which is not a good idea. On the pro and the plus, both of them have a zipper, a double zipper on the back. So you can take the aft ending, back end of the Sennheiser 416, where the XLR connector is out through there in the cable. We've really designed it around the idea of a shotgun mic. So a desk stand is really stable. The other thing we do in both the boots, the bottom foam is pre-slit for you. And what enables you to do, and I'll pick this up, is take this base and slide it through that slit. So now the base is fitting, it's sitting on a solid surface, not on the foam, because on the foam it can fall over. Which is not, not good. Right. So yeah, it's, it's really simple. Any desk stand that's round like that will work. Worked very well actually, and it's very stable for that. And 416 sound terrific in the boots. Yeah. It was really designed for that too. I mean, we... It was originally, because I, at home, I mean the 416 to me can be harsh. And you know, it's got an edgy sound to it. It's great for political stuff for me. I sometimes don't like it on some female voices because it can get a little muddy. But it just depends on the person. But for travel and for noise reduction, it's hard to beat this thing. I mean, and they, God, they're bulletproof. Oh yeah. You know, the only time I've ever had a problem traveling is when you occasionally get someone in TSA who thinks it's some kind of a weapon or it's some strange device. You know, because they make microphones as like, you know, PA microphones. And they go, whoa, whoa, what's this? And I was like, what's this? I said, it's a microphone. He started singing into it. People do the weirdest things around microphones. Sorry, no one's listening. Yeah. I'll have one. I'll take one. $100 microphone. Don't spin in it. Stop. We got a question for you. Harlan, I will, I'll have what he's having. Okay. So please save one for me. Okay, you got it. All right. Question from Hugh Murrow. Yes. Hugh Murrow says from Facebook, Harlan, what's the biggest up and coming markets in voiceover? And you know, he's got two questions. That's the first one. Wish I knew. If we all knew. Yeah, sure. Let's get out our crystal ball. I don't know. I've had a few good guesses over the years, but not many. I know I'm just learning about more about the, you know, the game thing. And the going to, if you're a known game voice, going to these shows and making money, you know, signing autographs. And I thought, God, it's right back to media when you got a pizza trade. It's the same. It's the same thing, you know, like, we're not going to pay you, but you can go to this conference and make some money. You know, I honestly, honestly, I know the union has, has got a new contract proposed that actually, I think they really have realized that the advertising has changed. It's not disappeared. It's just changed. And we all know that the delivery systems change radically and prices have to change too. It just does. Books seem to, recorded books are, you know, through the roof in terms of success. I just wish they were more lucrative for the amount of time that you put in. Yeah. An Amazon influence there. And when they bought audio, a lot of audible, either kind of young thing, okay, you're going to be an audio engineer now after you've read for 12 hours. Right. You spent 36 hours editing this thing. Yeah. And that's why I honestly don't do them. I'd love to do books. Have you done anything with VR? That was another thing you said, um, medical VR, which would be virtual reality problem. Yeah. Ooh, that would be cool. I haven't done that. Yeah. I did the motorcycle course the other day, but don't kill yourself. Thank you for visiting. Yeah. And the artificial intelligence combined with voice is going to happen well. If you've gone up to the Amazon site and listened to some of the stuff that they've done, it is extraordinarily good. Because they really have sampled humans and they've put mouth noises in. You know, things we work to try to get rid of? They're putting them in, yeah. They put them in. It's in breaths, which is one of my complaints about, please don't breathe breath stuff. People talk. And the breath just said, I'm thinking, didn't it? Say, and you don't take that out. Otherwise you look like an idiot if you go up. Yeah. But their algorithms put breaths in, mouth noises, you know, slight little things. It reminds me very much of when synthesized music first came on the scene and oh, there's not going to be any musicians anymore. And the music was too perfect. If you'll recall, it didn't sound right. And so I don't see it as a major threat, but I think that you would see a time when a lot of the nonfiction narrative will be done by computers. Oh well. Jack Daniel has a question. We miss you, Jack. Yeah, I love Jack Daniel. Yeah, really. This is Harlan first. Thank you for supporting this show and voiceover people everywhere. We truly appreciate it. His question is about your sound in a changing market. You're well known for politicals, among them much else. And I'm wondering whether you find that the buyers for your sound change over time, as opposed to you chasing the trends. I mean, do you find that different buyers are finding different uses for your style than was the case in the past? Oh, absolutely. And one of the things I've seen, because I've been at this since... Well, my union card is 1976, so 42 plus years, is that you can't don't chase a style. I had a very good friend. I studied me still in front, but he really went after a very popular sound at the time. And that was Hal Reini. And he did Hal Reini great. And he did well for a while. But you know, Hal Reini died, first of all. But aside from that, then the style changed. And despite this guy's talent, real talent, he really did get typecast in an odd way. And he had some very difficult years. I mean, he's done much better since then. But all anybody thought of is, oh, he does a great Hal Reini. You want to do a great you. That's your brand. That's what you sound like. So it definitely don't chase it. I think that's a huge mistake. But change, yes. Always look down the road. You know, what's coming? And how are you changing? And my voice is way different than it was when I started at 29. I couldn't begin to do some of the things I can do now. And I like that. And I'm just thrilled when they say, senior citizen, about 45. Yeah, most of them think we died 10 years ago. I mean, I just love that. We want a weathered voice, one that's been around a long time. Maybe a little bit of Texas in it. He's seen everything there is. One tough cookie. No, no, you'd have to smoke a lot of Marlboro's. You can't do that. It is funny, though. You see that, like, what are you, 12? Yes, you're 12. OK, that's fine. But just ignore that stuff. And I think it's important to embrace when you are young, that you will not be young forever. And that's not a bad thing. I saw so many of my competitors and friends who were in the general same age range honestly kind of just disappear from the business. They really didn't change. And say, OK, well, I've been the young dad or the young salesman. Now I've got to think about being the father and then the grandfather and then Lazarus. And then Methuselah. And then Methuselah. Right, exactly. But I think that's smart. I think, you know, you've got to embrace that. And, you know, if you just sit and go, well, yeah, but I do this, you know, this great 30-year-old and you're now 60, come on. Even if you can sound like you're 30, you don't think like you're 30. No, that's totally different. Totally different. George has the last question. Yeah, this kind of dovetails into the tech side of things a little bit more. But how did you decide on the sound of the new cans, the new headphones that I'm wearing? Because they're quite different from the other ones. These compare a lot more closely to a lot of the other headphones that I use regularly. So they're more familiar. So what kind of feedback did you get? And then did you use others as a reference? How did you land on them? When there's a gajillion freaking ways a headphone sound? I know, I know, I know. And I like what we did originally, but I like these even better. I mean, what you were doing with the original one was to reinvent the sound of a headphone, which has pros and cons, right? Pros and cons voiced really well for voice over. I think we've gone a little overboard in the first time. What a real truth tellers. I don't want to be really here every single flaw, but a lot of really, it's off-putting for too much. In a way, we went too much video. And that's in versus fell. And as Mike King, who was the dean of recording engineers here in Chicago, and we're talking about about two microphones, and specifically the U-47s. And he said, you know, the U-47 is flawed. It's really flawed. It's not as accurate as any of the microphones of today. But like film, we like the flaw. We like the softness. We like that little sound. So I kind of backed off being quite so harsh with it. And it's said, but feedback's been terrific. I think people like them a little bit more. And then we also added, you know, the jack here, which was a great idea. Yeah. When you step on the cord and you will, this will pull out and not ruin your headphones. Yeah. Yeah, that does happen. That is nice. I think you guys stepped on a cord and pulled. I have a couple times. And they weren't mine, which is embarrassing. Yeah. It's not easy to solder. But I think that that... I mean, I'll say, like, if you're used to using some of the other usual suspects and headphones, the big ones, Sony Audio-Technica, these are going to be more familiar. I mean, because again, I use all of them. These you can put on. They're going to sound a little more familiar to you, be easier to adapt to them. And yeah, they're super comfortable. And having a little... Aren't they? Yeah, I've got to wear these for hours and hours and hours, which I like. And the leather's nice. And we did... Now we're able to, because that was one thing. Leather will wear out faster than vinyl, obviously. Well, the vinyl wears out eventually, too. Have you ever been on a plane and I had some bows, noise cancelers, back to the bathroom, or came back out and my wife, Leslie, said, what's all over your face? Bunch of lovely women do stuff like, you're going to wear that? Yeah. Yeah. You're going to wear... Well, yeah, you're... No, no. I just put it on to see, you know, hey, I'm not... But I still go black stuff all over, but the vinyl degrades after time. Yeah. Leather will go faster. So now we do have replacement. Great, great. Fantastic. They won't flake out on you. That's the important... There you go. Just a point. Replacement cords, too. That's right. Fabulous. Well, Harlan, it is always a pleasure to talk to you, whether in person or on our show here. And thanks for the great deal. Once again, what's the big deal that you're doing with the porta booths? If you order the porta booth plus 4.0, the new one, because we have none of the old ones the late man got like one, you will get free to carry on travel booth bang. You can't beat that deal. All right. Harlan, thanks for being with us. Hey, thank you. You guys are great. All right. We appreciate you and you. And thank you for being our sponsor for all these years. May you continue to do so for another eight to 10 years. That would be great. All right. Harlan Hogan, everybody. 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 voiceoverextra.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 voiceoverextra.com. That's voiceoverextra.com. Well, it's that time of the show where we get to talk about our great sponsors, Source Elements. Yep, you've heard of them. Source Elements, they make Source Connect. And that's a tool you need to have in your toolbox if you're a voice actor who's really working at home, you're making a living now. It's starting to go, you're transitioning from being a part-time to full-time. Maybe you've landed an agent. Maybe you're joining the union. All these things, kind of stuff that says, I'm working at a higher level. Source Connect is definitely something you should have ready to go. What's cool with Source Connect is you don't have to make any investment right now. You can go sign up, go through the hoops of setting it up. There's a few things to deal with with using an iLok account. You don't need the iLok key, but you have to have the account set up. Just a few things to jump through and get it up and running. But once you do, just get the demo going. You can get a 15-day free trial. Once you have it ready to go, it's sitting on your machine. It's installed. You know it works. You're comfortable with it. Then when the client comes and says, you need to have Source Connect, activate the license right on the spot. You can do it online. You can do a buyout license for one fee, or you can do a monthly subscription type pay. Subscription means you get ongoing support and upgrades for the entire time you are a subscriber. So it's a pretty smart way to go. Anyway, if you want to go check them out, go to source-elements.com. Sign up with Source Connect. It's the best, most solid, most reliable and best-sounding way to connect your studio to other studios around the world. You should give them a try. Are you confused about how to set up and maintain a professional quality voiceover studio? No wonder. The information out there is mostly mythology. This is the best microphone to use. You'll have to have a preamp. You need a soundproof booth. This software is the best. Your audio must be broadcast quality. Consult with someone who knows the truth, someone who's been there in the trenches, doing voiceover for over 30 years, someone with unparalleled experience with voiceover studios, who's worked with hundreds of voice actors and designed hundreds of personal studios. He knows how to teach and cares about your success. In one of the harshest environments known to voiceover, your home, Dan Leonard, the home studio master. Separate myth from fact and get a handle on your personal voiceover studio. Contact the home studio master at homevoiceoverstudio.com. Oh, I think I heard the voiceover body shop. I did. I did hear the voiceover body shop. Little body shop. Okay, who are our donors of the week? Alrighty, donors of the week. I made a ballista right here. We've got donations from Antland Productions. Uncle Roy. Shawna Pennington-Baird. Joseph Vallatinetti. Vallatinetti. Sorry, Joseph. Stephanie Sutherland. Diana Burtzall. Petty Gibbons. Petty. Petty? Did I say Petty? Patty Gibbons. Patty Gibbons. Amanda Fellows. George Whidham. That's my dad. Shelly Avellino voiceovers. Thanks, Shelly. Great seeing Shelly this weekend in San Francisco. Oh, cool. She's the life of the party. She goes way back with us. Thomas Pinto. Brian Page. Tremaine Mosley. Phillip Sapir. CJ Ringwulf. Voiceovers. Sarah Borges. Michelle Blanker. Wasn't she the winner of the Unicorn Award? Yes, she was. She was. At VO Atlanta. And A Doctor Voice. Thank you very much. A Doctor Voice. A Doctor Voice. Yes, that's Nathan Carlson. I figured it was Dr. Carlson. Hey, show us your booths. Yeah. Who is this? This was Jim Hawthorne? Mike Hawthorne. Mike Hawthorne. Send it to us in landscape. It's a perfect example of what we look for for the show. We want to see what your booths look like. Yeah. Twisted Wave, it looks like. Yeah. No, that's Audition. Oh, no, I'm sorry. That's Audition. I'm looking at the big screen now. Yeah, that's Audition. He's got the spectral view. Yep. What else is there? And lots of foam. Mackie. Which looks like an Iron Maiden. Mackie monitors. I can't quite see the mic. But yeah. Okay, cool. Very nice. All right. Once again, you want to work with George. You go too. GeorgeTheTech.com. And if you want to work with me, go over to homevoiceoverstudio.com. But yeah, we talk to each other every now and again. Do we dare announce who's on next week? We do. Because, well, not next week, next week, but in two weeks. The next live show. We will have David H. Lawrence, the 17th will be joining us. And he has lots of cool stuff to talk about. He's an entertaining guy. Entertaining, great actor. A little scary looking. And that's the guys he plays on TV. I love you, David. That's right. Let's see. Remember, we're on alternate Mondays. Now we'll be on in two weeks, but we'll have Tech Talk on next week. The interview with Harlan all this week. And that's important. If you want to be in our studio, like lovely Pilar here is, just write to us at the guys at vobs.tv and tell us so. There she is. Okay, good. Look how comfortable she is. I know. All right, we need to thank our sponsors, of course. Harlan Hogan's voiceover essentials. And voiceover extra. Source elements. B.O. to go go. Voice actor websites.com. And J. Michael Collins demos. All right. Still sending us money. Because they like what we like what he does. He likes what we do. And you guys all love what he does. You guys must be telling them, you guys must be telling them where they're coming from. Because if that's what you're doing, we appreciate it. That really helps our sponsors stick around. I know. I just cut a new demo with Michael. Awesome. And it sounds awesome. What kind? What type? And it's an announcer demo. Way. Coming back to your roots. They keep saying it's out. Well, then it's a niche. So I might as well try and fill the niche. That's a very good point. And that was kind of like I think what Harlan was talking about. Jack asked him about. If you stick around long enough and be good at something. It all comes back around. Alrighty. We also need to thank the Dan and Marcy Leonard Foundation for the betterment of live webcasting. Our producer, Katherine Curtin, who's out for a little while. But you know, we're making due for the time being. Mike Merlino on chatroom duty did a great job tonight. And of course his mom, who is our director, Sue Merlino, are doing a great job of making it all perfect tonight. And of course, Lee Penny for being Lee Penny. Well, that's going to do it for us this week. Join us every Monday or whatever you want, because you can watch any episode, any time on our Facebook page, on YouTube, on just go to our homepage. And the podcast version. And of course, which is now. Many of you listen on podcast. Which is now on Spotify. We stuck it on there. I haven't even searched yet, but supposedly it's there. Okay. Look on your phone. While you wrap up the show, I'm going to look and search right now. All right. Well, that's going to do it for us here on Voice Over Body Shop. Thanks for joining us. And Rora, this isn't an easy business. The technical part of it, we want to help it make it. We want to help make it seamless. So you just hit record because when it sounds good. It is good. All right. Have a great week, everybody. We'll see you next time here on Voice Over Body Shop. I'm Dan Leonard. And I'm George Woodham. And this is Voice Over. Body Shop. Or VOBS. Bye. See you later.