 Hey, we're back because it's time for voiceover body shop or V.O. BS and our guests this week David H. Lawrence the 17th wave to them David. There you go We got lots of great stuff tonight. We're gonna talk with David We're gonna talk a little bit of tech and we're just gonna have a great time Thanks for joining us here on our show. We'll be right with you right now two men twin sons from different mothers with a passion for voiceover recording technology and The desire to make recording easy for voice actors everywhere together in one place George Whittem the home studio engineer to the stars a Virginia Tech grad with an unmatched knowledge of all the latest gear and technology in voiceover today Dan Leonard the home studio master a voice actor with over 30 years experience in Broadcasting and recording and a no-holds-barred myth-busting attitude for teaching you how easy it is together To bring you all the latest technology today's voiceover superstars and Leading the discussion on how to make the most of your voiceover business This is voiceover body shop Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials calm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements Remote connections made even easier Vio to go go calm Everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist J. Michael Collins demos award-winning demo production voice actor websites calm Where your voiceover website won't be a pain in the butt and voiceover extra your daily resource for Vio success And now live from their super secret multimedia studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are George Whittem and Dan Leonard Hey there, I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whittem and this is voiceover body shop or Vio Yes, although we said that earlier didn't we let me doing it again remix. Well, that's what you got to do Well, I got new glasses. Oh, no, and it's like, you know immediately. I sent you a mr. Magoo gift. Yes, that would be so many. Oh my good. You've done it again But yeah, but tonight we've got all sorts of cool stuff David H. Lawrence will be joining us in just a sec and if you've got a question for him or A tech question for us throw it in the chat room right now as opposed to a half hour from now Because then we'll probably just miss it somewhere along the line Yeah, because David's coming up here in just a second. Now's the time to get your questions in right And we've got lots of cool tech stuff to talk about as well So without further ado, we need to introduce our guest Actor voice talent internet entrepreneur podcaster demo producer teacher and author best known for his role as the puppet master on NBC's sci-fi series heroes David H. Lawrence is always a pleasure to have on our show He's been preaching the gospel of how to have a successful voiceover career with his voiceover training company Vo to go go dot com. Let's take a little bit of look a look at some of the stuff that he does voice wise The heroes season finale next on NBC tonight on CBS news at 11. It's a dangerous job guarding the worst of the worst Hardcore convicts in an overcrowded prison and it's even tougher if you're a woman Now in a CBS 2 news exclusive Laura Diaz takes you inside this maximum security facility to show you the incredible Courage of these guards as they watch over the state's most dangerous criminals Female prison guards tonight at 11 Warning The following will freak your mind How many times can you cheat death And survive An all-new season Crisangel mind freak premieres Tuesday June 5th at 10 on A&E This is it David H. Lawrence the 17th everybody. Hey, how's it going? I took my glasses off because I can't see anything now Perfect. It's perfect because we're seeing that close to us. It's really no And I'm gonna apologize for the the omelet I had for lunch right now. Don't worry about it because this is Uncomfortably close. This is very cozy. This is very mannish. Yes Well, we used to used to be a little wider shot, but yeah, this is it's better this way That's good. It's doing great. Well, all right. Well, how are you doing? I'm doing great I'm doing great. I was on set all day today and in studio for part of the day. It was fun. It's a great, you know if you told me when I was a kid and Really really really wanted to be a fireman mm-hmm and an astronaut and sheriff That this is what I was gonna be doing. I'd be like what I don't want to do that, you know But now man, I'm so happy. I didn't become a sheriff for a fireman or an astronaut I get to play the montage. Exactly. Exactly. That's right. Well, great And so and you're doing a lot of different stuff, which is really really cool But let me start off with this because George and I get this question all the time Like maybe two three times a day and you probably do as well and especially as a trainer You know, we get the how do you start in voiceover question from people? So how do you answer that simply? So I think the biggest hurdle that people have in getting started is actually not deciding that they want to get started But taking that first Tiny step to doing it and then once they've done that take another the other the next one That's second step is the hardest the first one's like. Oh, I've decided this was I'm gonna Let me check that off the the bucket list, right, right? But and and I also think people take the step in the wrong direction most of the time they go What do I need for equipment? They go right to what do I need for equipment? They write us Yeah, and then they spend like eight thousand dollars that they shouldn't have spent to begin with over and yeah But you know at some point, you know, you could spend that kind of money if you want to do that I think it's deciding that storytelling is something you want to spend your life doing and Some people can't really put that into words so You know the the getting started part because there's so much low-hanging fruit in our business There's so many changes that have happened over the years where you don't have to worry about Somebody else deciding that you can do this you can do this on your own. You're an entrepreneur Yeah business person. It's not the same as like my agent to call my agents exactly But a lot of people think that's where they want to end up, right, you know, so But I think getting started is just making the decision that this is something that really appeals to you this is something you want to do this something that's going to make you happy and then going about the process of getting the right training for it and getting a reasonable quality first mic and Taking it to that point and then after that deciding whether or not this is really and truly what you want to do Reminds me of an old thing from a live from off-center, which was this awesome PBS Series that was on at night. It was all really odd Short videos and there was one about how do I know if I have an aptitude for photography? Anyway, it's very funny. So how does you know how do you know you have an aptitude an aptitude? Maybe that's the first step. You should be able to say aptitude and you should be able to know what aptitude Yes, how do you know you have an aptitude for you have any talent? I think yeah, how long does it take to decide that? How do you know? I you know, I don't know that you can actually Quantify that you know because that's like a yes. I do or no I don't question and you know, we know Among the the people that have been doing this for a while we know plenty of people who if they were isolated from the voiceover population and Somebody said to some disinterested third party. Is this person somebody who could do voiceover? I'm looking at you Wally Cox You know the answer would be no no, but the thing is Voices across the spectrum are Usually in demand, right? It isn't you know, most people go well, you know I've been told I have a very very lovely voice on the phone heard that a lot on that's great That's great Or my kids really like the character voices I come up with I think I'm gonna do animation By the way, my kid hates it when I do that She's like dad do your own voice exactly so, you know, I don't I think it's kind of hard to predict Whether or not you're you have an aptitude for voiceover based on What you know in the beginning it's kind of the knowledge that you acquire over time That tells you whether or not you have maybe not the just the aptitude for it But the stomach for it, right because it is a hard business To try and sell to your friends and family. Oh, really? You're a voiceover talent. I'm still trying to do that. Yeah And then the idea I just I just did a video on this the other day I'm doing this this challenge this year where I'm doing a new video every day And I just did a video the other day that I'm is gonna air in a couple of days on The Equivalent of what you could have done if you went to work on an hourly basis like what? What makes sense for an entrepreneur now? Do you know what that is? That's all that's a harsh So reality for every hundred thousand dollars at a 33% tax rate because you got corporate tax to pay if you're an entrepreneur or anything You got to make thirty five dollars an hour To make a hundred thousand dollars and a full in a full work week And yeah, and this is thirty five dollars an hour not just doing the work But finding the work training for the work getting the tools to do the work Collecting for the work billing for the work promoting the work finding a team to help you do the work better You know like all of these things that you usually don't have to do when you go work for a company that will pay for all that for you I mean, it just becomes this math problem. That's hard to solve. Yeah, so yeah aptitude I don't know. Yeah, my wife gives me that one every day Yeah, I gotta work be time management work smarter not harder Absolutely those those sorts of things yeah, and some people just aren't cut out for it You know, that's why a lot of people that come out of radio and go into voiceover Have a learning curve because in radio you're kind of coddled right you get free food You get to go to all the concerts. I'm free food. Yeah, sure all the time free food You know you were you yeah, you know But the thing is it a lot of it's done for you I mean, I don't know what big companies you work for I work for ABC cap cities I work for clear channel. I work for nationwide back in the day. I work for you know Cox and You're you're working for a big company And so you have benefits and you have you know a union and work hours and all this stuff And it's like it's very different from being on your own And so when you leave that lovely cocoon of radio and you decide you're gonna go off and and form your own Voiceover company. It's a it's a an eye-opening experience sometimes. Yeah, and I get that all the time I actually heard from the guy who is the engineer of my old talk show 35 years ago who doesn't look any different, but he sounds exactly the same And he's like, well, how do I set up the studio? I'm like, what are you talking about? You're an engineer set up the studio Take all that equipment that you brought home when you replaced it with new stuff at the station You know how it never actually got recycled It ended up in your basement or in your shed and just set up a studio for yourself, right? That's essentially what I told him. Yeah, but he was like somewhere. Yeah, although I always know who comes from radio immediately when they tell me they're Gearless, you know, it always includes an RE20 or an SM7B. Absolutely, which we'll talk about as a metrics 520 80 Ah, yes, I only had seven of those in my studio I did I had seven mics around my eye of it when I worked on CNET, which was oh, yeah CNET You know and we were on Sirius and XM in my condo in Burbank I had a beautiful setup that CBS paid for that had seven stations I could have a whole music group in my second bedroom if I wanted to and every one of the mics ran into a You know 520 520 80. Yeah, and it was great and it sounded awesome. So yeah, you can always tell right That that rack unit right now is being used as a bookcase Yeah, it's awesome. They're actually they're very good for that. Yeah, if you're just joining us our guest is David H. Lawrence the 17th We don't need to tell the story why you're the 17th. We've only told that about a hundred times on this show But I apologize in advance. I know but it's a great story. Anyway, it's yeah If anybody wants to know ask in the chat room, just send me an email and I'll send you back the lovely five paragraph long explanation Isn't a hotkey on his key. It's it's it's actually no it's text expander Xvii story That's what I tell you. You're not kidding. I'm not kidding. I am. Oh, I'm gonna tell you Expander is like the best productivity tool ever. Yeah, it is. Oh my gosh All my tech support I do with text expander expanded messages. If you don't know what I'm talking about. It's okay Let me Google that for you. Yeah Look it up. It's always on Google if you've got a question for David throw it in the chat room as well and Because I'm sure he'd love to answer your question. I was that's all he does all day You know, it doesn't have time for acting or all this stuff. He's just answering questions all the time One of the things that we talked about earlier today was that you want to talk about how do you have a? 45 year career, how do you have an extended career in this business? So I look at if I was just starting I'd you know my 45 year career would be and when I was a hundred and seven And a lot of people do that. I've if they you know their second act in life They were salesperson or they were a manager and they decided, you know, I have a really nice voice on the telephone, right? So so how how what what you what's your formula for having a good long career at this? I think absolutely You have to be adaptable. You have to be ready to accept when The world changes. I mean, I've seen the business. I started in the 70s And I worked both in nightclubs and on the radio and I've seen both of those businesses change a great deal in terms of Who did what? The idea that uh, you know I used to have three turntables and a mixer and a whole bunch of 12 inch vinyl And now, you know, when I go to the golden state warriors games and I see dj d d sharp Playing with a box about this big and you know, he just needs it to be that big so that he can go And um, but you have to move around a lot. Yeah. Yeah, plus yeah right here Yeah, but your body is moving exactly and you're moving the the the one fader in the middle because you're like you're you're you're Like sneaking and stuff. It's just like everything changes and radio. I don't think there's a station left that does carts Cards, you know or or reel-to-reel tape or anything But um, you know, it's all automated now and and also categories of work I mean when I first started there was no IVR There was no audiobooks There was no, you know digital anything It was reel-to-reel on a disc, right and the categories of work were were Commercials period right unless you were in Los Angeles, then you could have animation But there were no video games. There were no like and now, you know, I just again Did a story on this the other day a big category that's going to start happening over the years Is for voice over talent and now's the time to get ready for it And now's the time to understand the gear and the nomenclature and the way things are produced Is smart speakers and voice assistants Alexa and google home and siri and all that right now the voices are automated But if you use alexa do you use alexa's skills? But occasionally with two learning a few so some of them are actually voiced by real people And that whole space you talk about creating your own content I've got like a million ideas in my head about what to do with these things because currently the proliferation into the marketplace is like five or ten percent Oh my gosh the growth that's going to happen there So I think to answer your original question It's being open and aware of what's going on around you that's going to change over time And being willing to adjust what you've done and what you know That can make that possible To to take advantage of that. I mean, you know, my first big job in ivr was for this little company called america online You know, I mentioned them briefly on the air in washington dc when I was doing mornings And at 1002 when I got off the air Steve case was on the phone and he's like I almost drove off the dullest toll road when you when you said america online Did you do you want a free account? I'm like no, I already have an account I don't you know because it was something really brief like my screen name was I was working for q107 I said my screen name was like david q107 if you want to send me a message on america online My program director's like what are you talking? It's mac only who cares, you know So but that started a 28 year relationship that had I not answered the phone that day and You know, he said, you know, we have we have this thing where we want somebody to record these messages for us Could you do that and thank god? I said yes Yeah, not the you've got mail though Uh, no, no, you've got mail was a really sweet guy by the name of elwood edwards And elwood was the general manager at channel 50 in washington dc His wife was working at what was then called quantum computing. You've got mail didn't start with america online You've got mail started with quantum, which was a Company about four years earlier than aol that connected cometer 64 is together And they figured out they could download these very short little pieces four of them of audio That would play every so often when people would check their mail when they would download a file When they would show up on the service and when they would leave the service and that was it Do you know here's a trivia court. Okay, do you know what the fifth? prompt was for america online because they added one more about 15 years into their existence Goodbye No, no that was one of the original four. I'll give you a hint and it's something that's near and dear to your heart. Okay codac Uh codac Something to do with a picture obviously you've got pictures. You got pictures. Oh, that's right. Yeah, really? Yeah, that was the fifth and final they finally stopped because nobody cared Right, right, and it's course and codac went out of business. Yeah. Uh, yeah Much to the chagrin of the people in rochester exactly um Once again, our guest is david h. Lawrence the 17th Uh, not only is he a great actor and and and all the other great things he does But he also teaches with his picture obviously when you've got picked You know, you've got pictures. Okay. Yeah In case you missed it the first time we're going to play back the entire show for you 15 seconds after we say it entertaining. Yeah, and that was probably my fault. Yeah, uh, you you have your company vo to gogo.com Which you've been kind enough to be sponsoring our show. Yeah, really appreciate it. Well, I love your show I think this is one of those things when people say what should I listen to what should I watch? What should I how you know what and usually it's included in the word in that sentence is what what's available for free That I can Take advantage of and I go oh vo body shop vo BS. Absolutely, you know, so yeah, I love it. Yeah How many different things do you offer at vo to gogo.com? I mean this we've got apps. You've got all sorts of well Yeah, so what we have currently is we have um, uh, full curriculum 36 classes, uh, we do demo production We do private coaching And we do uh workouts, but the workouts are for people that take the classes We're we're beta testing a booth a sound booth um Nothing spectacularly different about our sound booths than others But at least I can control the quality on it, you know and make sure that it's right. I one of my coaches max smart It's actually his name. Uh, he uh, has done a really great job of of helping me shape this I'm achieving noise floors of like minus 75 minus 80 With the air turned on. Wow. Yeah, that's pretty excellent. Yeah, that's really good. It's it's good to know. That's not pretty good That's damn impressive. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, and you still you still have rehearsal app Yeah, that's not part of vo to gogo, but we certainly have rehearsal pro and then um You know the other thing that I do is I act and I do voice work And you somehow find time to do all of this. Yeah, how do you manage your time? So I think one of the biggest, uh, you know, sort of Falsities of our business is that people who are successful are busy all the time And they're fending off work You know, I have a friend michael kostroff who has does a great Uh, uh seminar called audition psych 101. You take it. I take it's awesome great seminar, you know This guy works all the time. He's got a more button at the bottom of his imdb page And he has a more button on the second page So he's been around for a while. He does really great stuff and everybody thinks Oh, how do you have time to do any of this stuff because I got him doing videos now You know, he's doing one a week and we we're going to take his class and put it online and that's going to be available soon And people like, how do you you're always on television? How do you do? Is he really always on television? No, not always, but you catch him all the time and there are times when I feel like I'm a little, you know Overbooked and then I have to remember. Okay. There's only 24 hours in a day and um, you know, I pull back a little bit, but I think that people have a a false impression of What kind of time professional people? I I think the corporate Executives are far more busy than than I or anybody else who's working on a regular basis is, you know I mean, you remember I see the picture of don la fontaine over here His big goal was to get done with his work every day by 11. Right. So he could be on the golf course by 12 Right. So, you know, I mean working smarter and working harder Is better than working a lot quantity doesn't necessarily equal quality. So Uh, I got plenty of time to do this. Well, it's good to know when you when you get really busy What falls off the Bottom actually what happens is things get pushed back, you know, I've been I've been talking Yeah, I've been talking about this package I've been developing for a while that for on-camera work What I do for vio called camera ready you and I've been working on it now for like three years So, uh, it was supposed to be out like two and a half years ago, but you know other things have happened Same thing with rehearsal pro. Um, you know, we're adding this community to rehearsal pro So that people who use it can offer their services as readers to other people who use it And that too I've been working on for years. It's a long tail. Yeah, exactly. And so I I don't I don't Usually let things fall off. I just kind of push them back. Yeah, right. Yeah Once again, we're talking with David H. Lawrence the 17th And if you've got a question throw it in the chat room right now because we're gonna get to those in just a couple of minutes But right now we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be back with David right after these incredibly important messages Don't go away Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice 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 rig 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 What question do we get most often? Well far and away? It's how do I even get started in voiceover? And we have a great answer to that question. Take vo to go goes free Getting started in vo class. You heard right. It's free and it's available online 24 7 at getting started in vo Dot com that's getting started in vo dot com if you've been watching vo bs And thinking that you need to get in gear and start your own voiceover career This is the class you should start with you'll learn about the vocal skills you need the storytelling skills you need The equipment you need and the business skills you need All in one single comprehensive online class talked by vo to go goes david h laurence the 17th This class won the backstage readers choice award four years in a row and again, there's no charge It's absolutely free Want to take it? Sure you do Go to getting started in vo dot com that's getting started in vo dot com As a voice talent you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do They break or don't look right on mobile devices. They're not built for marketing and seo. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voice actor websites dot com like our name implies voice actor websites dot com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as 700 dollars So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voicehactor websites dot com where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what And we're back Like the old days remember the echo we used to get yeah, I brought it back. All right. Thank you. It's you're welcome It's retro vo bs. Don't thank me That's good. Uh, once again, we're talking with david hlice the 17th got a question for him throw it in the chat room because He doesn't just like answering questions from us. He wants to hear from you guys So that's the really important thing here. Wait, I think the reason they're not asking questions is I don't look studious enough. There you go Now he looks like a man. Now we're good. Can I answer questions? Okay. Yeah I think one of the fascinating things about Actors in hollywood because I I've had the chance to do a little bit of on-screen auditioning and being in the casting rooms and stuff like that But I watch a lot of tv All the streaming shows my wife and I just binge watch them all the time and I start to notice the same people Playing similar roles and everything but the people who are doing that. They're not the stars of the show They're the guest stars They've got to be the best actors Because they've got to come up with a a new character each time for like a couple of scenes in a show And they're really the talented actors. Okay, you know guys like you. Oh, thanks Yes, I agree with you 100 percent You know, they're but they're coming up with types, right, you know, it's like uh creepy evil big fat villain There you go Or or wacky nutty neighbor frat boy that never grew up, right, you know, there's there's certain brands and you know, just like there are Characters in every category you know the idea that Some people you see on television all the time you have no idea what their name is right, right? And then there are people whose name you might be familiar with but you can't quite Place their face. Yes, you know, there's a couple different ways of doing that But what was your question about that? Well, it's just I'm yes, Dan. We are awesome. Yes I know But what does it take to really be an actor in Hollywood because I meet people all the time and they're like I haven't worked in a couple of years and oh You know, I mean to do this As I like to say it's got to be in your gallbladder. You have to want to be an actor You know, there's a treatment for that they have new drugs. It's good that the FDA is currently testing for that gallbladder issue um, you know You have to know That This has got to be something you can't help but do right because there's an extraordinarily good chance that you will never get a chance to do it on television or in film You'll get a chance to do it in some dinky black box theater in north hollywood Where you're like trying to avoid the cockroaches no offense to black, you know black box theaters in north hollywood But you know you could call work Um You know you you we might be making your I mean now it's it's really easy. You don't need somebody else's permission You can create your own web series. That's right like like this old body shop. Yeah um But you know, you can you can do scripted stuff too and you can do funny stuff and you can I have a friend Who's got uh a uh a show that she created and it just won a webby award And it's like well, you know 10 years ago when they started. What did that mean? But today it's really a big deal casting directors look at this and go wait a minute She's written and produced something that won a webby award. Huh, oh, it's good. You know or or when somebody has when somebody has uh, um, you know a lot of following on social media, you know that that that helps but You know, you have to just have a joy for it and a love for it and you know the civilians The civilians are always it's hard to talk with civilians about this because they're like So how long are you gonna do this before you realize it's just not working? You know it seems to take a while with some people pretty much forever. I mean, you know and you know, there are people that uh You know do it as a second act in life. You know, I didn't get The part that I'm best known for uh and the part that I was on television for three years on the same show with Until I was 50 50 You know and so that kind of blows out of water the whole thing about there are no parts for anybody over the age of 25 Right, which is what they often will say um Well leading roles anyway. Well, I mean Mine wasn't this is mint is very good Dan. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, you know I was in a guest leading role I wasn't in a a series lead role But I was regularly on the show and so So That same thing that you talked about where you see these people all the time You'll notice that the same people that are in series as regulars end up being regulars in other shows as well, right, right? So, um, you know casting people and producers and so on They want to go with known quantities. They want to go with people that they can trust on set that have not proven themselves to Delay the production of things because time is money. They're not hanging out at the craft table You know hitting up the the the team at the craft table for a date So, you know, there are people that have proven themselves and if you've ever been in front of a television or in a movie theater and you've said How in the world did that person get that job? I could do that better than that person I'll tell you how they got that job. They know how to get things done They know how to do they may not be the best actors in the world I mean, we all know actors That nobody's ever seen before but they're amazing And we all know people that you know kind of suck but They're on television all the time Because they get the job done and they do it in a serviceable way, you know, there's a phrase that There you know, it's not the best actor that gets the job It's the right actor that gets the job and the right actor is a phrase that could mean any number of different things Yeah, I mean so they they're there to serve the people who they're working for they're there to serve the story Right and the money that is generated by that story and if you don't believe that You shouldn't try to be a professional actor. Yeah. Oh, absolutely Once again, we're talking with david h. Lawrence again If you got a question for him throw it in the chat room because we'd like to hear from you as well And that also applies to video games. It applies to audio books I mean to bring it back to voiceover If you wonder why, you know, some people get tons of tons of audio books It's because they can get in and out of the the studio And get the job done faster without, you know, they that means they can bring another book in sooner At the studios that have lots of different spaces in them. So So it's a good skill to have sorry for interrupting. No, no, that's fine But I nothing is more thrilling to me than when i'm watching some of these series and say I see A guy who's working in the morgue pushing a cart down the hall in the basement of a hospital Hey, there's david h. Lawrence 17th Love that or when I see scott park and do it or kiff vandenhoof. It's like The the great guys you guys are all great and it's just so wonderful. I'm like, hey, he's working. I love that too So much so that it drives my girlfriend absolutely up the wall I'll be like, oh look cliff got work and she's like who's cliff right Oh, that's the guy standing right there. He's the he's the assistant md, you know And it's like or or i'll see a commercial come on right and somebody that I worked with on a web series is in the Oh, that's the guy that I worked that subway web series for I don't care I just want to watch the show Okay, I know. Yeah, it drives it drives her a little movies and tv with anybody. It's worked in the business Yeah, it's it's it's a torture tough thing to do especially if you're if you're a civilian It's it's like, you know when I when I got booked on this disney show and I and I said to betsey She she was in san francisco at the time you want to fly down here for the taping? It's a sitcom. She was like Yeah, that would be awesome. She said And then when she got here and it was eight hours in the studio at like 52 degrees in the studio And she was bundled up with her coat my manager's coat my coat and she was miserable She's like, I will never ever do this again ever me I'm having the greatest time right in my life because I'm booked on a show Yeah, it it could be 20 degrees in there and it's like we're gonna do a beach scene. Okay, sure Who cares but man it was hard on her. It was really hard Yeah, it's hard to be a civilian in this business. I absolutely, you know trying to get this the spouse to Or partner to get involved. It's like really sure thing Yeah, but every so often when when something really cool happens She'll say well, maybe I should do commercials And then I remind her of those eight hours at 52 degrees and she's like, oh, yeah Oh, yeah, maybe I'll just stick with high-end corporate consulting. Well, there you go. Yeah, let's talk a little bit about tech for a second Yeah, what do you say? Absolutely. Good. What do you yeah? So we talked a little bit about the gear you had Back in the day. Yeah, what is your daily driver equipment these days? You know, you guys are gonna hate me We already do this is This is the this is the same argument that George and I would have Every time sag would book us to come in and talk about equipment He'd go first and he would talk about all these lovely mics and processors and consoles and you know Sound equipment, you know, and then I would come on and I would say that's all bull crap What you need is an 80 20 20 usb plus. That's it Start with that. The only thing that's changed since then is the plus the plus exactly Which by the way is a significant improvement. Yeah. Yeah, it's a much improved version of the old Yeah, and I use it all the time and people like what? I mean, I have this lovely little oak box sitting on My shelf that has a little gold latch on it and you open up that box and inside Is this microphone called a neumann u87? And it's balanced And it's been uh refurbished twice because I've had it for about 20 years And every you know, it's one of these mics that after a while the dust gets at the driver And you gotta you gotta take it to the mic or send it in It's in the box because I don't want to have to send it in even though I haven't used it So it's in the box. I don't use it because I don't need it. You know what I do Requires a certain level of of gear I don't I I mean I I have a I have a sennheiser. I have a shotgun for doing video work. I rarely use it Um, you know, I don't I don't spend a lot of I mean my computer Is a mac book not a mac book pro not a mac book air A mac book because a mac book has no fan Right and so in the middle of long form narration. I don't have to worry about the fact What is that noise that I'm hearing? Oh, it's the fan from the computer. When did that start? So when you're done, you have to go back and find where the fan noise started And then if you do any noise reduction, it's going to change how that section sounds And so I don't have to worry about that and the mac book is the cheapest of the mac book line The mac book the plain mac book. Yeah, so, you know, I use audacity. I use the at 2020 Um, practice what you preach. Absolutely. I I eat my own dog food I mean, there's there's no doubt about it. It's really good dog. It's really good dog food. Yeah At one time you're using a headset mic. Were you experimenting with that for narration? Not for narration I was using it for audiobooks. No, not for audiobooks. I would I used it when I was on the air Yeah, because I had like six screens around me like you do like I had my my my radio automation stuff and I had my my uh My console was was, you know, maybe like yeah, exactly. And it's hard to be on mic Yeah, and so I didn't want to be playing the mic like this, you know, I watch Howard Stern do it all the time trying to do it Right now. Yeah, exactly here and yeah, he's always grabbing it and like turning his head and stuff and it's I hate being like Howard Stern. Yeah um So anyway, that's that's that's what I use. I don't you know, I mean But it's good that you're teaching people to keep it simple, which is what we can teach people Absolutely. There's lots of shiny things out there, but oh my god And you make the mistake of thinking the throwing money at a problem is going to solve it Right You make the mistake of thinking the reason I'm not successful as a voiceover talent is I don't have good enough equipment You know what if Joe Cipriano wants to use a crappy mic He's gonna sound great because he's Joe Cipriano because he's Joe Cipriano and he concentrates on the storytelling Not the equipment, right? Well, exactly. And the thing is is it's not the equipment that gets you the work Right. It's oh good an actor. We got a couple of questions. You do our amazing audience get out of here They heated the call. Yes. We have one from paula line Weber paula line Weber. Hey paula George go ahead. Oh Hi question for david of all the different genres or categories you do Which is your favorite and why? Uh, well for the longest time my favorite was IVR because I made the most money at it and it was like this kind of hidden gem You know, I when I first got back in the union in the early 2000s I was like, why are you only charging X? For IVR when I'm making 40 X for IVR because of the way I charge and they looked at me like a dog Listening to a whistle I'm like, yeah, you're leaving all this money on the table I'm making this and you're only, you know union rates are only this You know, I was in a very unique position and it's easy work. I mean literally You you You voice it and then you give it to your client, you know, there's it's you know Once you're into the process of it, but now I really love audiobooks You know, I'm talking about off-camera, you know, just on my on my voiceover stuff. Um, I really love audiobooks. I feel like I learned so much And they're so centering and I feel like I'm creating a legacy for my kids my family Um, you know at one point I I went to my daughter's graduation. I have two two daughters I went to my younger one's graduation From uh, university of central florida my older one was there and my older says to me just like very matter of fact She goes hey, did I tell you I did an audiobook It's I think it's coming out next week. I'm like, what? You did what even keeping from this and so I go I go to the hotel that night It's not coming out next week. It came out last week and I'm listening to it and I'm crying I bet she is and I'm like and this is the one I for those of you that are watching my daily videos I just did a video that came out last weekend. My daughter's a session singer in nashville. Oh, wow. She's amazing She's been on america's got talent. She's been on the voice. She's been on american idol Right up to the point where she goes to hollywood. Yeah, and the reason she doesn't get that far is she Doesn't have a sob story to tell right. She grew up kind of happy in an upper middle-class family Nobody's got cancer that she's gonna cure by her singing You know, I'm not a woman trapped in a man's body And the only thing that makes me happy is when my daughter sings me some share song You know, whatever the story is that gets you on the show Exactly the damn show exactly so she does this book and I'm listening to it and I'm like Oh my god, and I had given her My mic she uses the h22020 usb plus I'd given her access to all the classes and totally without me knowing She's now got eight books That's so for big publishers like harper collins and and like what do you wait wait what that's so great. So I love it Yeah, well a lot of your books it's storytelling and if you love being a storyteller you can't you can't beat that Yeah when somebody else is writing Yeah, you can see her singing in a del song If you go to vio to go go.com and look for look for that video where she she's just amazing. Anyway, yes Question from blair sebert blair sebert. Yes. See you at the at the meet-up on thursday. Yes Up you'll see me. I'll be there. Awesome. I'll see you there dan. We'll be there. We'll see you there Blair all of all it comes to the same exact uh david I came in late today So if you haven't answered this you made this amazing commitment to daily video, which you were talking about earlier What has surprised you and delighted you about that effort? Oh, I'm so sorry. We did answer that earlier Good night everybody. Bye. Bye. Bye No, uh, what surprised and delighted me about this is all the stuff that I'm learning on the side Like how it's like honed and refined like here's the thing I'm going in for shoulder shoulder surgery next tuesday And so I'm gonna be down for a good week week and a half two weeks. Who knows? So I'm trying to get ahead in the videos Um, and I and I and I yesterday I did seven videos in one day and the only reason I didn't do more Is because for a five minute video It takes my macbook about an hour to export The 19 you know the 1080p file and then upload it to youtube. Yeah, and then I can get some, you know My my video editor back and I can do another one Otherwise I'd be cranking them out like crazy and I couldn't do that at the beginning of the year Because I was still thinking, you know, how do I do this? What's like I I've I've been on the show probably half dozen times Maybe yeah Every time I come here There's something new and different before they were over there and they had a thing over here And they had a guy over there and you know, you know things change over time and what I've found is I've been able to hone and refine what I'm doing and I've learned an awful lot about the subject matter that I've been talking about Mostly about productivity and about the business and you know, I'm about to rant and rave about this apple supreme court ruling Because you guys should be careful what you wish for You really should if you don't think apple's protecting you from jerks out there who want to hack into your iphone By having their own silo. Okay. I'm off on a tangent So I've learned tons of stuff about what I'm doing and tons of stuff about content creation YouTube You know video editing Being agile and ready to go when the muse strikes It's been amazing. It's been so great. So Fabulous. Well, David, it's always a pleasure. Thank you. Join us here. Okay. Thank you for sponsoring our show my pleasure And continued success and good luck on the shoulder surgery. Oh, yeah, thanks You should be at get to be on drugs for a couple of days I am gonna be on I'm gonna be on a pain pump and that sounds awesome. That sounds pretty intense, man Is it bluetooth controlled? I believe so They do Anyway If people want to get a hold of you, of course, they go to vio to go go dot com That's vio the numeral two go go dot com and I'm gonna tell you something that I haven't told anybody yet That's all gonna go away in about four months Because I have to have this conversation Whenever I tell people my URL, right, I have to say it's vio the numeral two go go Dot cut two goes not vio to go but vio to go go Well, that's gonna change and same great stuff But a new brand new branding. All right, David H. Lawrence everybody. Thanks for being with us. Thank you All right, stay tuned Hey everybody, this is the time of the show We're get to thank our wonderful sponsor source elements the creators of source connect Which is the premium way to connect your studio to other studios around the world with low latency and sample rate lock Sink everything you send and stream over source connect will absolutely Reach the other studio at the same time every time with no shifts in latency Or anything weird going on with time stretching and things like this This is an issue that happens with a lot of the other systems at work on web browsers Source connect is its own standalone application. It's rock solid. It's proven and again It's going to be requested by the top studios Around the world So if you want to play at that level and be ready to work with those big big jobs that are using these studios Have source connect in your arsenal. Go get a 15 day free trial at source dash elements dot com Get your iLock going get everything ready to go and then when that session comes in you can say I've got source connect You can buy your license activate it and you're ready to go Tell me sent you and we appreciate the support from source elements. We'll see you back here in just a second Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions Bringing you the most current information on topics like audiobooks auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment Marketing performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com Hey everybody, it's time to talk about our great friend harlan hogan and his fabulous website voiceover essentials dot com And harlan wanted me to tell you that this month. He's got a great feature going on on voiceover essentials dot com He's going to be answering a question a week about voiceover Whether he gives you the right answer or not is a whole nother deal But it's going to be followed by a review Entitled crap. I bought on the internet And he's starting off with an item which is a shotgun a shotgun mic mount for two dollars and sixty cents for free delivery Okay, that's interesting and then in june harlan will present his annual top 10 Recorded on the road tips like if you're in a hotel go out in the hallway and unplug the coke machine Anyway harlan knows more about voiceover than just about anybody and he has more stuff made for voiceover than anybody in the business So go on over to voiceover essentials dot com where you'll find great stuff like the harlan hogan v o one a Voice optimized mic for voiceover. It's the only microphone really made for voiceover Designed by harlan hogan himself and you can get it there and at a great price It's at a great price point the best place to go to go to voiceover essentials dot com Is to go to the bottom of our home page find the picture of harlan hogan talking into his portabouth pro Click on it. It will take you there It'll let him know that you saw this message on voiceover body shop and he'll be thrilled to tears Anyway, go to voiceover essentials dot com to get all your voiceover stuff. Thanks for being our sponsor for eight years harlan Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop And we are back here on voiceover body shop uh Next week You know we do tech talk, but next week we have Memorial day you guys want to be eating hot dogs. Well, maybe not you but uh There's a pretty good vegan hot dog. I have to admit. Yeah, you know field roast. Look it up. It's pretty good. Okay, cool uh We're taking memorial day off which means we'll be off for a couple of weeks And and then i'm going to alaska in june, but on june 10th Laurie allen will be here who's always a riot. Oh, yeah, because she loves holding my dogs And she's a she's an animal lover extraordinary. Hey, she is she and super talented and funny and uh, she'll be fun So stay tuned for that. Uh, but who are our donors of the week? Donors of the week we've got on the list here debbie erwin brian roush joseph harrison christie berns Gary gary. He just said gary. Yeah, I like the name gary. All right. Uh, I got a cousin named gary don griffith Uncle roy at ant land productions. Those are our our freshest donors and we thank you very much Most of those are subscribers. They they're doing it on an auto donation basis Right and if you want to donate to the show, there's a donate button right here on our home page So just click on the button one that says Donate you can do a buck. You can do a buck a month. You can do it And you can we'll do 100 will whatever amount you're willing to send it helps us keep this show technically amazing Alrighty By the way, show us your booth. Somebody actually sent in a booth this week this this week. It's there and sat legit Voice over booths. Yeah, as you can tell Clothes make great sound absorption material and in in closets. We now know what he wears But how he set up The mic could be in a better position, but you know, but it there we go Yeah, see he's he's got the mic upright. What is he using there? Is that oh my gosh, I think that's an audio tecnica atr 2100 Which is a great podcasting mic, right? So if you're learning for you, he says it's a newbie booth. So he's looking no I mean no move up. He made a minimal investment He's recording in a closet and if he's got his mic placement dialed in I bet he's getting some pretty decent audio out of that spot cool So so if you want your booth on here any booth is any booth is cool If as long as it doesn't have to be crazy, we love showing like a This is what real voice actor booths often look like right and people make money In a closet like this some people making good money unless it's like this Just remember people don't need to see how the sausage is made. It's only what it sounds like Okay, you have to eat it Okay, it's about that one for a second Uh, I know, uh If you need help with your home studio, you want to help from george, they go to georgethetech.com And then you can also visit dan for a different flavor of sausage over here I'm not going anywhere with that Homevoiceoverstudio.com is the place you can find me. What's in the coffee? Just coffee. Okay, trust me. Uh, hey if you want to be in our audience We're on opposite mondays Right to us and uh You can be in the audience here with us put audience in the subject line Wait a minute How did oh, that's right. It came back I love how we did on this show. It's just magic That's right So if you want to be in the audience write to us at the guys at v obs.tv if you're here in los angeles Or going to be in the greater los angeles area Uh, write to us tell us when you want to come and we'll give you the secret handshake and let you through the gate maybe Uh, okay. We need to thank our sponsors, of course. Arlen hogan's voiceover essentials.com voiceover extra source elements v o 2 that's the numeral 2 go go Of voice actor websites.com and j michael collins demos. All right. Just did a demo with j michael an announcer demo Going against the grain. That's great. Great. Can't wait. It sounds fabulous. I'm I'm never happy with my demos I like this one. It was really good Uh, we need to thank of course the dan and marcy lennard foundation for the betterment of live webcasting Uh, our producer catherine curden who will be back eventually We gotta get a hold of her again mic merlino sus son in the chat room and his man his mom our director sue merlino For doing a great job tonight and of course lee pennie for being lee pennie. Well, that's gonna do it for us this week Uh, again, we'll be back on Well tech talk we have tech talk this week and then We'll be back on june 10th with lori alan. So Uh, that's gonna do it for us tonight. Not an easy business guys You need help with your home studio Tune into our show because we know what it's supposed to sound like because when it sounds good whistle It is good. I'm dan lennard George woodham and this is voiceover body shop or v o B s have a great week everybody