 Hi there, it's time for voice over body shop once again We're here. We have a great guest tonight. Catherine Vasillopoulos is here. Catherine. Where are you? Where's where's her picture? We know she's here somewhere. Anyway, she's gonna be there. She is wave. Hi. Hi everybody. All right Yeah, she's the new incoming president for world voices and we're gonna talk all about world voices tonight And we'd love your questions so throw them in the chat room in on Facebook Jeff Holman's in there and he will relay those questions to us and we will relay those questions to Catherine and then we can like Do a TV show like we do every week. Anyway, we got lots of cool stuff to talk about tonight, George Yes, we do as always lots of tech. All right. Hey, it's voice over body shop right now from the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional video studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voice over home studio master professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world Bringing you talks with the biggest names in the voice of a world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voice over business Welcome to voice over body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials calm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website Isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes dot-com become a hero to your clients with a word winning voice over training JMC demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and now Live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, good evening. Good afternoon. Good morning. Wherever on the planet you are I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Wittem and this is voice over body shop or VO BS All right. Well, Sue is actually in the studio with us tonight our director. Yeah, yeah Hey, only because we were having trouble having it doing it from Burbank But she's got a mask on so we're all safe But it was actually kind of interesting being the only one in the studio for the last four months You know, but now I have to worry about do I have bad breath and Or underwear on right and I can't have Mexican food for lunch. So it's Anyway, how's the house isolation going for you? Oh, I'm perfectly sane Um It's been going fine. Honestly, I I do go out and ride my bike and ride with a few people here and there and so I've not been Hold up too badly and the last month or so. I have been visiting clients again I had one little scare at the bike bike away bike shop There was somebody who initially was tested positive one of our members and all of us had to get tested and Kind of put our schedule on hold for a while At least our onsite schedule and then he turned out to be negative. So That was a huge relief and annoying, but it was kind of like a drill and Everybody that got tested was negative and I've been tested four times so far just to be sure because I have been out Circulating a bit and so I just want to be safe. So yeah, all's all's well though. Yeah, yeah, we got a new dog Ray Mishka Mishka Mishka. Yeah, it was an instant dog It was amazing didn't have to deal with puppy stuff. No chewing house-trained and incredibly lovable Instant dog instant dog. You can't beat that go to your local shelter and find a dog That's right for you because that's important because they want us and they're so happy This dog is the luckiest dog on the face of the earth You know, what was he said about Jewish households and dogs? Oh, yeah If you if you you want to come back, you know, if you ever want to come back is something when you're reincarnated come back It's a dog in a Jewish house. It's You know, you're you're set. You've got it. Good. Maybe not an orthodox house. They don't particularly like dogs Anyway, it's time to talk with our guest As many of you know, I am one of the founding members of world voices The industry association of freelance voice talent, which you should all be members of But we have a new president the fourth president in the eight years We've been we've been doing this and her name is Catherine Vazalopoulos and she now joins us From Montreal, Canada or somewhere around there Catherine, how are you darling? Nice to see you nice to see you too, Dan and George. Thanks for having me on the show today Pleasure and hi to all the audience members. Yes. So Are you're not in Montreal proper? Where exactly are you? I'm on the south shore of Montreal the south shore on the south and the south shore of the St. Lawrence River That's right. Montreal is an island in the St. Lawrence and I'm on the south shore. Ah, very good. Yeah Wonderful town. I haven't been there in like 50 years, but it's a wonderful town. I loved it I was there in the fall last year for view north. I made it stop in Montreal first then went to Toronto So that was yeah, it was really I would love to go back because it's a cycling city and you know, I like bike With a nice big hill in the middle of it. Mm-hmm an amazing pizza. Yes. Well, that's amazing pizza everywhere except Los Angeles We have the best pizza of course Those in Buffalo may argue with that anyway Tell us a little bit about yourself before we get to talking about Wovo and you know How you got into voiceover and stuff like that like where you're from and That kind of stuff. I'm born and raised in Montreal and I'm Greek as you can tell by my last name No, but I do speak multiple languages and I've been a voice talent since 2004 and I've been running my business since 2009. So that's now almost 11 years I can't believe how the time has just flown by I do voiceovers in French and English and I do work for many international clients I run my own professional home studio and it's been a wonderful ride I cannot tell you how many interesting projects I've been involved in and one of the most significant ones has been Serving on the on the executive board of the world voices organization and it's thanks to People like Dan who took the initiative to start this amazing organization helped many many hundreds of people Get a strong foothold on their voiceover career Get some information on how to run their business We also had so many Conferences that we were able to attend and meet members face-to-face. So those are all very valuable Opportunities I think that this organization has offered many many people around the world. Yeah, and so I Am also a medical writer and my first job was to be a scientist I've interviewed over I guess 3000 physicians in my career working as a writer and Attending advisory boards and writing reports and that's another part of my business and so merged together I offer editorial translation and audio visual services. Wow, my back. You're a technical writer Those those are the fun people They're the ones that write all the e-learning scripts and all of the the the technical stuff for you know for something that is like describing some medical thing and You've got to make it sound like English or French I guess in some cases too exactly not at the alphabet soup that some medical terms could look like So yeah, it's important to be able to say Ankylos and spondylitis without really thinking about it And that's how you can succeed in medical narration You know, isn't that just a quick thing a medical narration? Do they really want people to talk really dull and slow? Like your family doctor No, not necessarily it depends what role you want to play especially if it's an e-learning because so many Roles are being written for e-learning programs. So you have the nurse you can be the pharmacist You can be another patient you can be just the narrator voice of God type of thing and Depending on what your client wants you to what role they want you to play then you have to make it fun You have to make it accessible and it also depends who the audience is if you're speaking to other physicians Then you have to maybe tone it down and make it sound a bit more Clinical if you're speaking to other patients, then maybe you want to make it a bit more exciting and less doom and gloom just so that they can connect with the content and understand what they're you know listening and Talking about yeah. Yeah, so let's let's get into talking about world voices now I know all about it and you know all about it because now you're president. How long have you been president now a Few months when we inherited a pandemic. I also inherited the presidency just around the same time It really didn't happen at the same time. Yeah, they really weren't related though. I know no one did not cause the other I promise But yeah, the I've been president since March of this year And I've been on the board since 2014 So I've been either a secretary or a vice president to any and all of the presidents that came before me So yeah, yeah, so what what does Wovo mean to you? Let's start there I mean everybody has this different idea of what this organization is now that you're at the top of the pyramid What does it mean to you? It really means Connecting with a community of people who do the same thing that I do We all know those of us who have been in this industry and in this career for a while that it gets to be isolating It is a lonely career. We are all living inside of a booth recording in the dark or in some form of light And only we understand what we do when you try to explain it to a family and friends who just aren't in it They're just like oh, yeah, you do voices you just read what's on a paper And it really is a lot more than that But when you connect with other people especially on a face-to-face context when you see people either at a regional or at a International conference You really see that there are other people out there who do exactly what you do and they speak the same language that you do technically and business-wise so this Organization has the it offers the gift of connection. It offers the gift of knowledge And also the the feeling that once you go back home after a conference or after some form of webinar You know that you're not alone in this You know that you can pick up the phone or call somebody or have a zoom session with one or many people Who can answer a question about anything that has to do with business technical your studio? You know anything that has to do with this So you're not alone in this and our industry is somewhat fragmented in that people don't all work at the same place Like you know either working at a hospital or in an office. We all work individually So I think that this is an opportunity for people to really see that there are others out there who do what they do And to help each other. Yeah, and as an industry association, it's it's important that we relate to all the people that hire us Absolutely and what world voices offers to the professional members So first of all, there are three levels of membership in this organization We have our associate members who are the beginners who haven't yet booked any jobs But would like to learn more about the industry and how to do this We have our professionals who have already been hired to do work and have been doing this for either a few months or a few years And we have industry partners and what we offer our professional members is a place on our member roster Which is a voiceover dot biz. It's a member directory and it allows voice seekers or hires to come to the site and listen to the different Demos and they can connect with people directly. So woevo doesn't take a cut It's not a pay-to-play. It is really a directory and it's a wonderful place to showcase your demos your profile And it is a window to the world on what you can do for certain clients, right? Yeah, it's a totally searchable directory I mean if someone goes in there and I want somebody who speaks Spanish or I want someone who can, you know Do a Midwestern accent or does e-learning or any one of those things And it's just totally searchable that way and it's a it's a member benefit for for our professional members And that's right. It's searchable by genre by by demo by language by Gender it's it's very comprehensive all those things. Yeah, and of course now We're not promoting this I mean people hear about it but the the idea is to promote it again to the people who hire us and So we have a project going on with that right now Right, so we have a committee now that is forming and we're in the beginning phases of really beefing up our digital marketing Campaign so that multiple people around the world in different markets can hear about us and know about voiceover dot biz And also to provide a stronger presence on all social media and Different avenues advertising agencies etc casting directors. We really want people to know about voiceover dot biz So this will be one of the focus Focus points for world world voices in the next in the next year. Yeah, it's it's important for the people who hire us to know That there are vetted professionals out there that it's not a crap shoot When you're if you hire somebody from world voices Who's a professional member you can be guaranteed that they actually know what they're doing? Correct, which is when people join the organization. They have to fill out a A form that indicates their level of Experience and they are vetted as members and when they are accepted into the organization Then as a professional member you end up on the directory then the people know that these are vetted members They're not just people who do this as a hobby and they're not people who have You know a studio that it consists of maybe a usb mic and not a treated room. And so there's this Um, I should say guarantee not a guarantee necessarily, but there is a definitely um an understanding that the pros that are on this directory are Vetted and they are trustworthy and they will do the job right because they are so talented Just have to go on the site and listen to people's demos Yep, right. I'm I'm now being inundated with dogs in here Come on Mishka. Come here. We wanted to show Mishka off is She's our new doggy Oh cute isn't she cute? Yes, okay, we'll give her back to mom. Uh, anyway Yes, we we still love you Ari uh, anyway, uh If you have a question for kathryn or for me or the two of us about world voices Put it in the chat room. I know jeff holman is sitting in there right now going Give us some questions so we can ask her hurt those questions a little bit later in the show. So, uh She said to give them a little zets in the butt to get them out the door Uh, anyway zets. Yes, you know what a zets is never mind, uh If you have a question Ask us now or put it in the chat room right now because it'll be very interesting I know there's a lot of people who have a lot of questions about wovo out there You know, there's some people are like, well, why should I join all those other things? We know it's a good organization. We know it's it's important It was founded on the idea of being an industry association that we are Here to work together To promote ourselves to again to the people who hire us and raise the the professional Or the professional standing of people in voiceover because what have we done we've Invested in equipment. We've invested in our careers and training and all those other things And we're not paving contractors Not that there's anything wrong to being a paving contractor But we don't like to go for the lowest bidder. We're professionals. We like to be paid. Well, uh, Again, you got a question for catherine or for for us about this throw it in the chat room right now Now that you're president and of course, you know, if you if anyone's ever served on a board They they know that you know, there's politics and people have to agree and there's got to be compromise and all that Every president has I wouldn't say an agenda But certainly has a style and a culture that they probably want to you know Put on everybody else that's going to be their management style What are your priorities as as incoming president one of the things that you you want to accomplish and and want to move us towards So as we said before really promoting voiceover dot biz To people who hire us. I think is a very strong point. It's important It's important for us to offer that benefit and continue to promote that for our members The second thing is the Overhaul of our website. Uh, we're slowly moving to a wordpress Uh platform in order to offer our members stronger Benefits and and features so that it's more searchable so that we can put more resources and videos And more content on there that will allow people to go in and quickly find what they're looking for Whether it's about mentorship, whether it is contract samples, whether Any other resource that we have on our website? It'll be easy to find it'll be Easily modifiable so as we progress as an organization then we have this ability to also Modify the website and have it more flexible than what we currently have And one of my other priorities as well is to continue to promote our mentorship program our mentorship program is amazing because Any organization and especially one that is member driven and volunteer based The biggest strength is its members. I'll keep saying that and when we look to our members and ask them to Provide their knowledge and provide Their skills to other members who may not have as much experience That's when we see everyone shine people are learning people are sharing And so our mentorship program is there just for that reason It's there to allow people to go in and search for a mentor Find a topic that they are specifically looking for whether it's in performance whether it's in Studio technical issues whether it's in business or even just a sanity check You just want someone to bounce ideas off of once a month That's what it's there for and it's there to connect people the connection of people in this industry is is One of the most important things you You definitely learn by watching other people work you learn by listening to how other people think And it just makes you a better business person all around we all know that voice over is not the only thing that we do We do stand behind a microphone and we do provide a service to our clients But when we step out of the booth, then we put on our many other hats We have our business and marketing and we have our technical support and we have our Accounting and we have a billion other things that we do Administrative wise and so we know that it's important to learn how to do things the proper way Especially in the country or region that we live in Tax issues could be a different thing from one part of the country to another There could be insurance issues. There could be so many other things And I know we spend a lot of time learning the rules, but in business most the time you're trying to understand the exceptions And that's I think what the mentorship program and all of the community at Wovo is there for we're there to just help each other Find other people like us in our area and then really discuss what the issues are and help each other Yeah, I think what's fascinating about you know when we formed this and we and people were joining and we're talking to people And we now know everybody uh It's fascinating the different skill sets that people have And of course that they're willing to share to help everybody else. I I think our overall philosophy has always been a rising tide floats all boats Uh, it's important that we have uh You know an attitude of you know, we're not competition We're all snowflakes. There's plenty of there's plenty of business out there for everybody And we take the words out of my mouth. Yeah, well, it's it's my job. We're collaborators. We're not competitors No one else has your voice. No one else has my voice. So we can we're there to help each other in Not just the diversity that's out there, but to promote each other. We're there to Support each other. That's the one beautiful thing about this industry. I've never seen this in any other industry Where how many people are there being cheerleaders and champions for each other as opposed to cutting people down and You know that we've all seen it um at conferences on on zoom chats on our Weekly we have Karen O'Brien who hosts twice a week our uh cafe and lounge How everybody comes on to these calls. It's a zoom call and people come in and ask questions They get to know each other. It's almost like being uh, you know at a lounge or a cafe and just you know Getting to know the people in in the industry and when you know people I hate to say it. It's not what you know. It's who you know sometimes Yeah Yeah, uh, and it does it does help to know people it really does Yeah, I I would agree. I mean it's it's always been about the community Uh and being able to You know meet all these other people who have all these wonderful talents and really see how somebody else approaches their business Uh and make chris. I think that's one of the most important things that we try to get across to people as an industry Association is that voiceover is a business and we are all entrepreneurs And that it's it's not about well if I get an agent. I'll just gonna have I'll be I'll I'll be an easy street Well, good luck with that one You know, but we do have agents who are members and uh, we we do have a lot of Industry support people who are you know who are involved with us My life and they share yeah, go ahead No, they they also share their expertise and knowledge during conferences and during webinars and uh and calls They're they're a fantastic resource because when they share with us how they operate It really helps shape the way that you approach your auditions your communications When you book a job, what has to happen there the ethics behind it I remember my very first job that I booked with my first first agent. I went out to a studio Um, the man, uh told me here's the script I sat I read and then afterwards he said do you have a business card and I said sure he goes well, maybe next time We can you know work just the two of us and circumvent the agent And that was just a red flag because to me that was a no no I said well, I met you through my agent and I'm not willing to bypass that And so simple things like that are The kinds of conversations that we should be having and understanding what the ethical Um perspective is on on running your business and how to conduct yourself in a studio in your business with other Colleagues, that's what's important. Yeah, I mean we actually have documents about that. I mean we've got best practices Uh best practices for voice actors best practices for coaches Um best practices for demo producers And things like that and we'd like people to adhere to those or that's not like we're the voice over police But there are certain things that we all agreed were we're smart things to have Uh and certain good practices to have as voice actors and and the industry itself And we've gotten the industry involved to our our industry partners Who are You know they're individual members, but they they have companies and they service, you know, they have service to the voiceover community But the idea is always not so they can promote their products so much But as part of the industry They can have an impact on You know the discussion and And finding out what is best for everybody. So they're learning from us We're learning from them and it works out really great And we really appreciate their support because they are in line with our mission And that's why they chose to join and they get it they understand And they are part of that industry as well. We don't all live in a vacuum. We do not live in a bubble We're all interconnected And so anyone who joins and wants to help they are very welcome to do so Yeah Once again, our guest is catherine vasalopoulos and she is the new president of world voices organization What's the web address? for world Voices org World voices dot org World dash voices dot org Yeah, yeah, type that in we'll put that in a little bit later on if you've got a question for catherine about about wovo Or for me or for us Uh, throw it in the chat room right now We'd love to talk to you because I know a lot of people have a lot of questions and we get mail from our members and You know, we want to make sure the people understand that we're not just this ivory tower of people on the board trying to do things that We really want people to get involved. Don't we? What are some of the ways people can get involved? Well, we are always asking for people to volunteer in committees. We have so many committees that you can come in and volunteer Okay, so back in the day where we're allowed to have face-to-face conferences Many people volunteered their time in promoting our conference our annual great job called lovo con So many people over the years have participated. I can't even tell you how many and i'm so thankful for them because without them We have no conference Because yeah, we're all volunteers everybody on the board and in the committees So it's it's important to have those volunteers come in and give their input We are soon going to be producing more content and so people who would like to write content can volunteer people who want to become either You know any any small jobs or small things that we need from them Whether it's graphic design or you know to proofread something or in the newsletter We're constantly asking if you have an idea if you have an idea for an initiative that you'd like to provide the membership For example a webinar. We have a very very cool Show that we have called members helping members. It's hosted by dave croissier and it is Featuring about a 10 minute webinar from any of our members who have an expertise outside of voiceover And they come in they all everybody had a previous life before voiceover in many cases So what we do is we get them to discuss things like you know motion graphics or online security issues And they come in and they really help provide a topic that is connected to what we do in our businesses And I think those are also wonderful places to volunteer So if you have more questions, you can always email us at the board The address is eb at world-voices.org Or the info email address, which is info at world-voices.org So we're always happy to hear from you. We are we try as much as possible to answer in a timely manner, but You know, there's only just a few of us answering. So please be patient with us while we do that and we thank you for your patience Yeah Yeah, I think one of the things that we we get a lot from people is Well, what's in it for me? You know now now I have a bit of an attitude on that because you know as one of the founders It's like you got to get it that it is We're stronger as as a as a whole as a community as opposed to a bunch of individuals um, you know not not so much as a collective but You really get out of it what you put into it And you know the people who who've stepped up and stepped forward and said I can do this and I can do that They make a huge difference and they're the people who who are on our board and they're the people that that make it happen And uh, you know if people are interested and really want to get active if they have a lot of experience with with boards and stuff like that By all means let us know you're out there join the organization, of course and uh Be part of it. I mean it's been one of the most rewarding things that I've done in my life And something I'm really proud of you know that we've accomplished Uh and starting from you know four guys Who wanted to get this done me and chris mezzalesta and dave crevasse and dustin eba And when we started it back in 2012 Can't believe it uh that we and that we have this many active members now It's absolutely fascinating. It's been great meeting all these people And it's totally worldwide, isn't it? It is worldwide. We have members in practically every continent except maybe Antarctica if anyone lives there I know but we do have many members in in different countries and uh, just want to say hi hi to everybody We're really happy you're with us Uh and for those watching from other countries outside of uh, north america We hope you'll join us and consider joining The organization and help be active in your region and help us understand what the challenges are With within the voiceover industry in your area in your country In your language, uh, there are always so many questions that we have in terms of how different markets operate and that is one of the Categories that we offer to our our members in the mentorship program It'd be interesting to see and have conversations with people who are in different markets and different countries Um and to see how things work and what are the uh the protocols? What are the uh challenges? It's always very interesting to hear from other members. Um, what's in it for other people? I would say that it's it's mostly the the formation of the the community the international professional community It's to maintain professionalism Within your industry, I mean it's easy to say well, I work in a booth all day and I'm I live alone and whatever It's not just that like everybody's affected if if you're Um charging less than what the market is charging than what you're doing is you're creating a situation where there's Lowballing and if you get information on that and you get educated on what the rates are Then this also helps everyone else in the industry maintain those professional rates Yeah Once again, we're talking with kathryn vasalopoulos who is the president of world voices again If you got a question throw it in the chat room We're gonna take a quick break here And we'll be back with your questions and more questions and all sorts of cool stuff right after these messages You're watching v obs dot tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here I think I'm gonna go somewhere else and have a cheese sandwich 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? Stick around you don't want to miss this So Power 1039 at target we want you to come as you are be comfortable Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer on aisle four, please Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices Sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on Well, that's it guys Time is up. Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop If you're demo ready or looking to get there check out jmc demos dot com and see a sample of our work Now let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom What question do we get most often far and away? It's how do I even get started in voiceover and we have a great answer to that question Take the vo heroes dot com free getting started in vo course 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 v obs and thinking that you need to get in gear and start your own voiceover career This is the course you should start with You'll learn about the vocal skills you need the storytelling skills you need the equipment you need the business skills you need And the mindset you need to have all in one single comprehensive online course taught by vo heroes David h. Lawrence the 17th This course 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? Of course you do Getting started in vo dot com. That's getting started in vo dot com Hey, you know, it's not often we get to hang out in the voiceover body shop office Home of the voiceover body shop broadcast museum and time wasting hobby museum Anyway, we're here to talk about harlin hogan and voiceover essentials Right now the harlin hogan voice optimized headphones together with the wonderful led full color voiceover recording sign Are on special right now at 20 bucks off No promo code required just put both items in your voiceover essential shopping card The headphones they're specially designed for voiceover with a nice flat response that allows you to hear you as you exist And the led voiceover recording sign is the perfect way to keep everyone around you quiet while you ply your craft That's 20 bucks off when you buy both No promo code required just put both items in your voiceover essential shopping card Go over to voiceover essentials right now and see all the great stuff they have Thanks harlin. This is ariana rattner and you're listening to voiceover body shop v lbs dot tv And we're back here on voiceover body shop and our guest is kathryn vasillopoulos Who is the president of world voices? No, I don't a lot of people out there like perhaps you've heard of it. Perhaps you haven't we've been around a while Uh, if you're new to the industry It might be interesting for you to check us out and see how we can help you because we're not a voiceover school We're not a an academy. We are an industry association And kathryn is now taking the reins of it and she gets to describe all this stuff now I've only been doing it for the last eight years That's right. Uh, we got a lot of questions from our vast worldwide audience here who is fascinated with with woevo Uh, george you want to take some of those? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Let's start at the top. Um, the first one I see is from eric michaels and he says is there A cost to join How do you join woevo? What's the cost? Thanks for your question, eric. Um, so yes, there is a cost to join the the fee is the same for Doesn't matter what um, what level of membership you join in at it's 99 us per year And you join on our website at world dash voices dot org You just hit the join us button and it'll take you to the application page There is a vetting process that takes place So you do have to fill out an application form and it is a manual Process so it takes a few days. It's not an automatic you're in The board reviews your application and they determine whether or not the level that you chose for For membership is the correct one for you and then you'll get an email Stating that you've been accepted. So we we do welcome everyone But we do want to put you in the right category in order for you to Benefit from all of the features that we offer Yeah, and it's a matter pretty much of how much professional work have you done? You know, if you we want you we want everyone to become a professional member Uh, but we want to see, you know, how many paid jobs have you had? Do you have a web presence things like that things that show that you're a professional voice actor? And and we vet that and we really want to make sure that if you become a professional member That you're you're representing all of us as a professional. So that's really important And if you do apply at the associate level meaning the beginner level and you haven't booked any work That's okay what you do is you take your time and you Learn from other people within the industry and in our organization And then when you're you've booked a few jobs the the minimum is five jobs At a market fair market rate for the last 13 months Once you've achieved that then you can just email us and tell us. Hey, I booked five jobs now. I'd like to Move on to becoming an upgrade to a professional level and we'll be very very happy to upgrade you to professional And we encourage that and we celebrate it when it happens Yes, all right actually making this business Next question from Jim Edgar George Oh, this one is regarding voice over forum.com. Oh, yes. Is it happening as I'm moving forward? So Jim Edgar Yeah right Yeah, good. You want you can take this one. I can take it Okay, so we're currently reviewing all of our online platforms And we are reviewing our website first and foremost. So that's what we are Focusing on and then if we are able to we will integrate it Because I think that is it is a good thing to have the voice over forum For people to go on to type in their questions to have it searchable and archivable and all that So I think that it is definitely something that's on the radar But we are currently working on upgrading our website and because it's going to be a wordpress Website then we will also have an opportunity to put in the plugins necessary and connect everything So we will keep you posted on that. Thanks. It's good to hear from you Jim. Yeah, always great to hear from him A real good technical expert also voice over forum Is is something that will allow anybody to you know, not only ask questions but also have Discussion and searchable discussion searchable threads and stuff like that about voice over about the business about issues in the business and By making by creating searchable content. It also helps You know the organization it also helps the industry because we'd like it to be the the central focal point for For discussion because anyone who's ever searched for a topic on facebook groups knows that that's very fragment And it's all over the place and yeah, you don't know where to search for things And maybe the same topic has come up 15 times before you ever showed up and everybody's like Oh this topic again Because if everything is centralized in one place then people know where to go and find that information So yes, that would be a very fantastic resource to have. Sorry about that. Yeah. Yeah, and what's the number one question? What's the best microphone? And it's usually the one you got um Something from transfusionist al lebron That's a fest name. That's a great name. Um, it's fusionist. Um Hello, I have been told I have a good voice for this industry the second most asked question Yeah What do you recommend my first step should be? Catherine no, it's a great question and I know the answer to this you need to determine Who you want to be in this industry the way I've broken it down is three things there's three categories You can either be an educator you can be an entertainer Oh my god, what's the third one? producer No In terms of and a sales person. Ah, yes Because you have commercials and things that you sell. So some people have a salesy Voice to them and it's something they're born with. I'm not born with that. I'm not good at selling I'm good at educating so I'm I've considered classified myself as an educator You have entertainers who are really good at doing voices and characters and emotions and they're good in theatrical things and video game voices And you have the other people who as I said are good in commercial work You can do all of these things, but I think that in general You can't be everything to everybody. You do have to decide what you're going to specialize in once you've determined that Then you can start focusing on Your training and how you want to develop that so that eventually with the training You'll be able to develop a demo your demo is your number one Calling card to the world. It's it's the way people Hear you and understand who you're what you're about what you can do and whether or not they want to hire you for a job So I think those are the things or the questions that you need to ask yourself First and then determine a career path that goes with that and we're happy to have A chat with you at woeville if you're interested in talking with us Yeah, that's that's a and that's a great thing, you know part of our mentoring program is really helping people establish. Well, what's your niche? You know, what is it that you know, what is it you're good at? Uh, you know, are you very conversational? You know, do you have a but wait? There's more of a type of voice which everybody thinks they can do but Not exactly easy to get to um Yeah, so the question would also be what kind of clients are you looking for who are your clients? Are they going to be Schools universities. Is it going to be ad agencies? Telephone companies video game producers app developers? Those are also questions that you need to um Start thinking about to develop a potential client list and who you're going to market yourself to right You know, what what do you that have expertise in? You know, I was once talking to somebody and I was helping him set up a studio I said, well, and he was retired. I said, what did you do? He goes I was a priest Do you realize the opportunity you have as a former priest? Uh, you know, you know, do you have an msw? Can you can you talk the language of social work? Uh, you can talk religious. He was in the military all these different things And he's like I hadn't thought about those things and now he's building a career on those certain things So really what's your background? What are you an expert in those sorts of things? So and it's especially great for people who do audiobooks and e-learning Because when you have an expertise that comes before the voiceover You sound like an expert when you're reading it And you don't sound like you're making it up as you're going along you get a script and everything looks familiar to you And therefore you're more comfortable with the content I know someone who does audiobooks and was in the military before and knows how to pronounce all the acronyms and the The terms that are used in military and actually has the tone for the military Work. So when he reads audiobooks, you know, it sounds credible same thing for people Like myself who have been in science and medicine before All the medical terminology comes very easily and it's easy to pronounce and therefore you sound more credible And you sound like a professor Talking to peers as opposed to a person who just showed up in the booth Doesn't understand how to read something and then the people listening to this are going to say well, this person's not an expert Why should I believe them? So there is a psychological component to Being a credible voice behind the microphone Absolutely Another question from jim edgar who's paying very close attention tonight George he sure is um He said uh pre pandemic there was a focus upon more regional regional mini sessions to increase woe-woe visibility and membership But obviously the game has changed for in-person events Um, what can we doing to continue to expand the woe-woe-vian? Awareness or generally. Yeah, I uh, I know what you mean. It was such a We were looking forward to starting to produce our mini cons or regional conferences To bring together smaller groups of people but in more concentrated regions so that you actually know Who's in your region who's in your area and a great way to You know have maybe 40 to 50 people as opposed to humongous conferences where it's very difficult to connect with everyone The connection that you get from being in a room or a weekend With 40 people chances are you're probably going to talk to every single person and walk out of there with You know a future of talking to these people So we were very much looking forward to that and unfortunately that the plans were kind of put on pause But what we've decided to do instead was to hold Twice a week zoom sessions for our members wednesday around noon Um central time or pacific time We have our woe-woe cafe that is hosted by caron o' bryte. Um on a weekly basis time. Yeah, oh, sorry 11 Thank you. So it's 2 p.m. Eastern. I'm on eastern and also sunday nights We have the woe-woe lounge which takes place at 7 p.m. Eastern So it is 4 p.m. Pacific heavily And so you can join into those zoom chats. I mean, that's the closest thing that we can Produce right now in our limited, you know social distancing and we cannot have real conferences face to face. So we're doing a virtual Conference often and so it's better than just meeting once a year or twice a year. We're meeting twice a week So feel free we have our if you're a member of woe-woe, we send out an email every time the day before with the zoom link And letting you know what time and what place and you just click on the link you come in and go as you please It's very informal. You can talk about anything you want you have questions and then other members are there to Help you to just chit chat about what it is that you're drinking that day or what your dog has been doing Or or any question about voiceover and I think that's been very successful so far and people have appreciated that And we're getting great feedback because people are isolated. Some people cannot leave their their area or their town Other people are, you know, they did get sick and they got better So I think that's one of the main ways we're still connecting with community And it's working out really really well and it's frequent and it is consistent And I think people have really enjoyed that Yeah, I can't wait till we can get back to the mini cons though and we can all get back together and do these because Really it works best When it's it's personal Conversations in the lounge or on the hallway or but you make friends I mean, maybe you remember, you know, they say the friends you make in college are the friends you have for a lifetime Uh, I think the friends you make in voiceover are the friends you have for a lifetime and Those conferences, I mean Wovo con is is really great. It's a big conference Uh, I don't think we'll do it in vegas again. I think we'll probably move it to another another venue Uh, but the mini cons were especially nice because People could come from a certain region didn't have to travel a long way And you know, it was a short conference But we we accomplished a lot and we met people and became friends with people and I think that's the best part about it Is you you really establish relationships with people that you might normally not get the chance to do and You finally meet people who are in the same region that can Help you answer some questions around accounting around tax laws around Anything that has to do with what's really happening in your own backyard because in many cases, you know, some Many people are not in the u.s. Or in canada and so they are located elsewhere And so they would like to have answers to questions that are related to their own country So that's where the value of having regional conferences comes in and meeting the people who are in your own Area as opposed to flying across the world. Yes, it's fun and it's exciting and you do meet people elsewhere That's fantastic But there's a lot of value to having people who are in your area And to maintain a closer relationship with those people Who are very much in line with what's happening in your day-to-day business Yeah Question from tom machen he asks, uh, hi tom. Yeah mentoring for members is something i'm looking forward to I haven't seen any actual offerings yet, and I'd like to take advantage. How would I do that as a member? Okay, so as a member a couple of weeks ago We sent out an email if you had joined After that and i'm happy to send it to you again But we did send out an email indicating what the uh purpose of the mentorship program is and how to get involved And it's just very easy you go into your wovo profile And there's a box at the bottom that says do you want to mentor and you click? Yes, and when you click yes Next box opens up and you type in your biography and you click the categories that you want to be a mentor in And you click save and then boom your profile ends up in the mentorship page And then if people are interested in the topics that you are specialized in Then they will go into the mentorship page search the topic and your name will pop up If you're looking to learn from other people then you just go into our find a mentor page on our website once you've logged in And right there you can search the directory And find someone who is qualified and interested in talking to you about the topic that you're looking for And if you can't find anything just shoot us an email at the executive board and we'll try to help you out as much as we can Yeah, hope that answers your question. I'm sure it will Uh from j. Horace black Hello, I'm a sag after member Thankfully had been working a lot in the last few months What would be the advantage of wovo for union members? I am very active in union meetings, etc Something we've talked about a lot, isn't it? Yes, it is. Uh, I'm not particularly I'm not in sag after and therefore I do not know Uh, the workings of it. It's and I'm also in canada. So we have actra up here But definitely you're in actra. Then therefore you could become a voice for people who are interested in joining the union You could be an advocate for wovo within the union and vice versa You can definitely be part of the conversation and seeing how voiceover can become At the forefront of union business There are many many things that you can do and it's basically as date as dan said earlier You get what you put into it and if you want to become a key player within that And of course we'd like to have that dialogue with you And the more people we have in the union who want to have that dialogue Then the better it is for all the people who are in the union as well, right? And we're not a union. This is an industry association. It's a very different concept and You know, even if you're in the union, you're still a freelance voice talent And that's really what we talk about and really what we try to serve is that freelance community And so we're not like negotiating contracts and all the other things that the union does We're doing all the things that the union won't do like advocate and activate and be activists for the issues that are going on that are affecting voice actors and The industry as a whole as opposed to just the union members. So that's interesting and we use our facebook group It's a private member group. Uh, so if you're not a member, you don't have access to those discussions But we have used the facebook group as a place Where people can go in and type in a question or a comment and start a discussion going and it's very Uh, it's very fruitful because you have multiple opinions and points of view that come in And it helps you shape your perspective on a certain topic But there are points of view from others other professional professionals in the business for the most part, right? There are other professional members within woevo who can answer the question Who may have a different perspective or more experience on a topic or they've gone through Something that you've just gone through for the first time It really does help to get somebody else's experience and perspective because then it may potentially help you Avoid certain pitfalls or certain mistakes that they've already gone through so you can learn from them as well Yeah, you need to be really careful with facebook groups that you find stumble on on for the voiceover business We know there's a lot of them and so when you're in an organization like woevo And you ask questions in a private group like that It's far more fruitful and it's a really much better place to ask those questions by far Yeah, I agree with george. Yeah, also do I but I agree with him most of the time most diana romel fey As she has a few questions, but I think this one's you know, something that's easy to answer Well, the first one really easy one is after covet whenever post covet is or what that is Are you going to keep doing those zoom? chats You think Hmm. That's a good question. I'm glad you asked it dian I don't know. We haven't thought that far ahead. We're just taking it as it comes I guess like most of us We're just waiting to see what the next step is the next step is so we'll keep doing them as long as members want them There's no simpler answer than that and You know if it means that we have to go down to maybe once a week or every two weeks Because there's maybe less need for it. We will modify But for now, I think it's working out really nicely to do twice a week It offers people An option to either join during business hours on a wednesday or on a sunday night when you have a lot more free time So I think um, I think we'll we'll take it as it comes because we don't know what the future holds Alrighty, well catherine. Thank you so much for joining us tonight I am so looking forward to you being president and us working together on all these issues and And making these things happen and I wish you a lot of luck Thank you so much for Thanks for having me as a guest on your show and george for fielding all the questions and to all the audience members for listening and and being very Uh, participative and to your crew at v obs. I really appreciate it and Thank you so much for the opportunity Alrighty, thanks for being here. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Yeah, all right We'll be right back to wrap things up right after this Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great 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 a 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 voiceactor websites.com like our name implies voice actor websites.com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as 700 dollars So if you want your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voiceactor websites.com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what Sover cover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com All right Well, it's the time of the show when we get to talk about source elements the creators of source connect And tons of other Interesting features and I thought maybe tonight. Let's type into the browser source dash elements dot com Look at the products link and they don't just make source connect folks They make source connect. They make source live source nexus Source rtl source net source zip source talk back Source vc the volume controller source ltc virtual isdn the risdn bridge source connect now and source elements meet They make a lot Of products and so if if you're already a user of source elements is source connect or have been exploring Take a look in this menu once in a while. You might be blown away They're they're launching things sometimes under the radar Just to as a service to the community and I would say for sure one of those is source elements meet um source elements meet was designed clearly as an alternative to zoom When people want something it feels and works a little bit like zoom But has better audio and video quality the I've I've experimented with it a bit and I found that the sound quality Apparently is the same as source connect now, which is very high quality Audio and the video is also quite impressive as well. I might add um, so it's if for if you're working with people who are Zoom sensitive, um, you know studios that are not, you know, they don't want to trust using zoom right now For whatever reason, um, it's a great alternative and uh, it's free If you have an account and it just runs on chrome And it works, of course with source nexus so you can send video you can send audio to and from A multi-track doll for the producer So a pretty cool way to collaborate on projects as an alternative to To zoom so just so you know, there's a lot of things that source elements makes not just source connect That you should explore on their site and there is some really exciting news coming We've been teasing it for a while that source connect four is in alpha state I'm going to be testing it soon And they're going to have a version that runs on Certain mobile devices. So that's going to be cool to try out. So we'll definitely have more news about that soon Anyway, we're appreciate the sponsorship, of course for a long time now And we'll be right back to wrap it up right after this This is Anthony Mendes. You're watching voiceover body shop Yeah, important to mention. I think that uh, if you want to join world voices, it's world dash veo world dash voices Dot org You know, I think we probably have if you type in it, it'll probably go there But world voices dot org and clack and click on uh join today And you know, you get you into the process Uh, hey, you know, we've got uh A lot of people, you know watching the show and they're contributing but first we got to tell you what's coming up Like next week. We've got tech talk number 39 Mm-hmm And then the following week the lovely and talented elaine clark one of the top coaches in the business Is going to be joining us from the bay area on the twenty brilliant Brilliant woman wonderful lady wonderful lady. So anyway, who are our donors of the week? Yes, there's a couple new names. It's awesome to see. Um, we have shana pennington baird martha con 949 designs. That's actually our buddy. Lee penny Rob Ryder Michael kennedy gave us a nice healthy donation. I see a couple dollar signs there next to his name Thank you Valerie Burgess Mike gordon and michael curns and uh, some of those names you've heard many many many times before Probably because They subscribe and you can do that on the website if you want to give us a buck a month Whatever it is that feels good for you to just be just to have your name be read and just feel connected to what we do that we We really appreciate it or just a one-time donation if you heard something that was life changing On the show you can do that too. We appreciate it right on the website at v obs dot tv, right Also, you can join our mailing list Uh, which is easy to do just click on join our mailing list on our website v obs dot tv And what do we do with that mailing list dan? I I send out. I tell people what's on what's coming on. It's right So that's it's important. That's it. We're not spamming you. No, we will not another way to find out What's going on with the show? We will not spam. We hate getting spammed We don't want to spam you but we do want to tell you what's going on because you join And I think we're almost up to about 700 members on that So that's that's great for a mailing list these days and age day and age. That's pretty good. Absolutely Uh, we need to thank our sponsors like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements veo heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com n j m c demos All right, thanks to jeff holman for running the chat room tonight from wherever it is and of course Our technical director sumer lino who got in her car and came over here And yes got it done In the flesh. We appreciate in the mask. Absolutely. And of course lee pennie for being lee pennie. Well This is this is always fun talking to everybody great great guest tonight and uh, we got tech talk coming up So stay tuned for that and uh, but we'll leave you with this right now if it sounds good It is good. All right I'm dan lennard. I'm george widdum. And this is voiceover body shop or veo bs