 Hey, it's time for a voice-over body shop and our guest tonight is me I'm a guest in my own studio. I know Yeah, so why are you the guest? Well, you explain it to him because you're interviewing me tonight. That's right I'll be interviewing Dan and the primary reason is to tell you about what he'll be doing as the new president of world voices org and all the Well, all the things wrapped up in and what that means because that's a big it's a big responsibility It's just a lot of you sure you mean to do this. I Question myself every morning. Anyway, it's time for 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 a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional-sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world bringing you talks with the biggest names in the voice of our world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voice-over business Welcome to voice-over body shop Voice-over body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with a word-winning voice-over training JMC demos when quality matters and voice-over 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. I mean, we've been doing a long time. Yeah, I'd see my cousin. Are we on Hey, we're back. What happened to you? You're on watching the 10-second delay Hey everybody, don't do that. Hi there. I'm Jan Larry George Woodham. This is voice-over body shop or VO be us Especially tonight this extra BSE yes for you. Yes, we'll fix that in post good anyway So that's why you come here live folks. You want to see the warts and all of doing this show live We have a great time. That's true. So you get to take the helm tonight. I do. This is so weird We're gonna rehearse right here live on the show. No, this is totally unscripted and always unrehearsed Well, you know it World Voices is something I've been involved with since near the beginning. Thanks to you. Yeah and Dan tell us What makes you uniquely suited to fall into this position of president of world voices I maybe she even go back a step. It's just introduce world voices Well, they reintroduce what it actually is. Well world voices the The initial thought of it came in 2007 Way back when at the first voice conference at the now legendary palestation Casino in las vegas 2007 I think that's the year the twisted wave came out. Was it really that's how I marked that year Yeah, no, we were there was the first voice conference. It was the first time that voice actors Actually got you know since the online Advent of voice-over happened And we got together at the palestation and they threw us into Uh a reception room the opening night and they couldn't get us out because we discovered that voice actors Just keep talking Yeah, um, they're so used to having to read everybody else's script really mean I can talk extemporaneously now. This is awesome Yeah, well, it was a lot of hey I know I've seen read your stuff online and I know you and I've heard of you and stuff like that It was you know, somewhat the earlier days of social media Yeah, uh, but one of the discussions that we had was well, we need an industry association. We really need to Uh, this is a unique You know vocation voice acting and voice over And we should be able to be represented or at least work together to improve What the industry is all about it's changed a whole lot since then Yeah, uh, but this is something that's meant to replace the union supplement the union or no no no The the union is it has its place. I mean clearly and I know we have a lot of union members that watch Yeah, and some union members who are also members of woevo. Absolutely. Um The union is really responsible for you know making sure that Work sites are safe that compensation sticks to the contract Uh, you know certain working conditions all the things that go into the contract What world voices is is an industry association and an industry association's job is to Represent the common interests of everybody who is in the same industry Uh, I I think because we are freelance artists as voice actors Uh, we forget that it's an entrepreneurial business. We are all individual business people And it's important that you have the resources to maintain the quality of your business Uh, you know knowing what's going on out in the industry Uh, you know, what should you be charging? But no, no, we can't that would be collusion. Oh that you can't actually We can't do that. You can't set rates. We cannot set rates. Gotcha. Okay, you know, we can say look You know this person charges this much this person charges that much, you know, that sort of thing Uh, but that's not really what we're for got you what the mission of woevo is And it's always and it has been since the advent and it was really started with four guys in a car In ventura, california. That could be confused with five men in a limo. No, no this this was This was four guys in dustin eba's car On the parking lot of uh of a faff con if any of you have ever been to faff con We haven't had one for a long time But they were yes, but you were at that one because you and i drove to that one is ventura sure one. Yes Only one i ever got to go to yeah, yeah, and uh So we we came out of being in that car together It did well We had a dinner with a bunch of people that night in an italian restaurant in ventura and people were saying We need to be able to communicate with each other and so We sat there in that car and we're like well, how do we create an association and i'm like Let's just do it. Yeah, you know and we we brought in ron siglampaglia the uh our voiceover legal eagle and uh We talked about creating a corporate charter and we went through all that stuff and and as i recall i announced the beginning of woevo on this very show talking about the need for for a Uh an industry association But the mission has always been in my mind to promote the professionalism Of voice acting to the people who hire us. Yeah Uh that it's important that people understand that we've invested in our businesses and equipment and training um, you know also in you know Bookkeeping software Yeah, uh all those sorts of things and that we have to learn how to use all those things And that we have talent To interpret the copy that clients are giving us and that we're not a dime a dozen I know i've been told a few times. Ah your voice actors. You're a dime a dozen Well, I've spent more than a dime on all my stuff And and and what it takes for me to become a successful voice actor and having a private entrepreneurial business We'll tell us a little bit about your journey to where you are now Like it's a short version and how that's really put you in this position to be president now You've been with world voices from the beginning. Yeah How has your career led you to that point? Well, I was uh, I I have been up until now I have been vice president and chair of the technical standards committee One of the things we did early on and you were involved with this too an uncle roi and cliff and uh We had joe van ripper and uh one other person who escapes my mind at the time because it was you know nine years ago We we decided that nobody had come up with actual standards for audio for voiceover in a home studio of which you and I You know we're the guys that know this stuff because we've been doing the show all these years um So we sat down and probably within 45 minutes We came up with what it's supposed to be Prior to that the audio standards were really based on analog standards Yeah, and we wanted to bring them up into uh You know into the 21st century standards and broadcast quality standards. No don't ever use that word Yeah, because there's no such thing as broadcast especially now I mean we were just talking about podcast microphones and stuff right and there's no voiceover industry It's many many industries. It is many many many industries you know Dave crevasse are our you know one of our one of our former presidents is always talking No, it's not called the voiceover industry. It just reminds me of smokestacks Yeah, well, but we are an industry because it as you said, it's a very multifaceted industry But you know that was one of the things that we wanted to do was to establish uh audio standards, which we did and uh but the the other things are you know along with Promoting the professionalism of voiceover. Yeah Not and especially to the people who hire us. I think a lot of people say well, we've got to get more members Well, yeah, but we'll get more members by Influencing the people that hire us and doing public relations and letting people know that you know, we're in You know, we are independent business people and please respect us as such right The other thing that you know, we instantaneously realized was community Uh, I mean when you and I started doing this show, we recognized that early on that You know, there's community people people wanted to hang out with other voice actors Uh, we learned from each other. We you know, we can't commiserate with each other Uh, so one of the one of the first things we did after about a year or so was have a convention And uh, we did it in Henderson, Nevada just outside of Las Vegas And we had just a fabulous time. I mean, it was a very it was a very intimate, you know, uh, sort of uh, you know conference, but It worked really really well and it really set in motion a lot of the other things that we wanted to do Not getting people involved in committees and and things along those lines. Yeah, and but we realized that Together, you know, we're very strong of the rising tide Float to all boats, right? There's really there's really no competition in the voiceover business notion of like everybody's Out for each other or right? I want to be the best in this. I mean, there's always going to be competitive personalities. Oh, yeah, but Yeah, there's there's it. This is a never expanding Field there's an ever expanding pool of work. Absolutely and an ever expanding number of media outlets the web Absolutely nothing else. Yeah, but your question was why am I qualified to do? I know you've enjoyed being on boards in the past Yeah, something about being on a board you enjoy No, you know, it's it's one of those things I was president of a of a community board back in buffalo and I learned a lot about how to deal with You know community funding and all these other things but also how to deal with the board and get things done Yeah, um I didn't have ideas. It's another thing that executed on it. Well, exactly. I mean, we have a lot of ideas. Yeah, uh Of things that we want to do But I I've always I I've watched not so much from the sidelines because I'm on the board and I make suggestions And I you know, there's things that I've wanted to get done and we've gotten them done But uh, it was time for me to become president We always had this tradition that one of the the four guys in the car gets to be president. Well One of the one of our one of our one of the four chris metzalesta Yeah, you know You know left the group Because he's a comedy songwriter and he just sort of left voice over and yeah, it happens. Yeah, so it was my turn and uh, so I I'm like I'm ready for this. I had time to prepare Uh, there are plans that I want to you know, there's things that I want to do the vision for what you want to do Well, I I always talk about the vision and the mission What is the mission of our organization? Yeah, and how do we get that word out there? Uh, we have the resources to do it One of the other things that we wanted to do was to be able to promote The uh the professional members and I'll I'll talk a little bit about the different levels of membership If you're a professional member you get to be on voiceover.biz, which is our searchable directory of our professional membership Which has your profile all your demos to your marketplace It's a marketplace Not so much a casting site as it is if somebody wants to go in there And instead of paying a fee to a casting site buyers guide It's like a voice over at voice actor buyers guide You want to go look through that one down voice actors and see who's out there and check them out exactly So, uh, we have that and uh, you know, it's it's a it's a good secure site And if somebody goes in there, they and they can type in anything they want, you know irish accent a southern accent Uh southern ira southern ira southern iran person over 65 But it's it's got a really strong search engine in it and it will Randomly bring up the professionals and these to become a member You have to be a vetted professional and we have a vetted system for doing well besides the getting the You know the cert the the audio quality standards. Yeah getting getting that ball rolling What are what are some other things you guys you feel that well voices has actually accomplished? It's existence. Well, there's the industry. There's been a lot of issues that have come up over the years uh, one of the first ones we took on was Uh, ISDN. Oh, wow. And this was about yeah, probably about eight years ago When everybody was still thinking is this thing going to go away or what? I mean, you and I have been talking for 10 years. This thing's not going to last another couple of years Hung on until recently right and what happened was that There was this economic disparity that was created by ISDN because certain markets charged a whole lot more for ISDN than other markets, right and so I'm I wrote we called it the the emancipation from ISDN proclamation Used to be a social studies teacher. I had a write it up like I'm like, you know But that apparently riled up a couple of people Uh, you know including peter bishop who eventually became president. We had an argument about it He joined the board and we became good friends and now we agree on everything. So Uh, you know peter, you know, what a what a great guy he is. Yeah But there's That was a that was a really important thing because a lot of people notice that we took a stand on it and told the studios Look, you really need to start using some of these other technologies like source connect and ipttl And some of the other ones that were coming online Some people would say they weren't ready for prime time Well, they were and the time was right because it was a lot less expensive for people to do that Which would expose the studios to a lot more talent all over the country and all over the world They were just reluctant to adapt it and open up the open up the right pool of talent Right, and it was and it was slowly happening over the years, but the pandemic came along And our friend robert marshal at source elements I mean, it just they just took off. Yeah So it it's i source connect went like this and ISD went like this like Yeah, like that. Well, the f the FCC had said they wanted to get rid of copper wire communication stuff and they really was coming but yeah having the the pandemic Essentially closing all the commercial studios the ones that actually had ISD in lines That was definitely I'd say the nail in the coffin. Yeah, so that yeah that that helped a lot and so that was an issue that we took on Another one was a particular website whose name will remain nameless Voldemort, is that what you guys called it? That's not go there we uh They changed their business model They used to be a really good site with really good customer service and you know someone would post a job You could just audition for it Then they raised their prices which they're entitled to do Yeah And then they changed their business model to something called A managed accounts. Yeah, where they were basically cherry picking high Budget jobs and saying look we'll cast this for you. Just give us the money And we will we'll cast it for you. We will produce it for you and we will give you The uh the finished product for your budget That's not so bad. Well, but say it was a budget of a thousand dollars Which was intended for The talent. Yeah, that was supposed to go to the talent right and they were lopping off like 80% of it along with taking 10 on On the pay system they had interesting And I remember because they were their offices in london, ontario Still not mentioning their name Uh, and I went and had lunch with the the couple that owns this company And I said you're gonna have a revolt on your hands. You can't do this You can't take your customers and treat them as a commodity for you to make money on Going both ways because it's not fair and the money that these People who are hiring talent Intend for the talent not for you guys to go. Okay. Let's take this guy who's really good and do this Where you've got where they're you know, they're basically saying they have a hundred thousand subscribers Which I think is nonsense But we came out very very strong against that and that's when we launched a voiceover.biz instead of Telling them what to do. I mean we said look, we don't like this. It's not that we we're not the voiceover police We can't tell them what to do But we came up with our own site to challenge them to show the world that look We were able to build a site like this by ourselves and we didn't invest millions of dollars in this We had some help fortunately, well, you know, we we know a really good webmaster who was able to figure it out And we created voiceover.biz and you know put our professional members on there Took a lot of work. You know, I know joe davis and I spent a lot of time On that and it took a toll on relationships and because that was about the time that we moved out here to california Oh, yeah Five six years ago Yeah, so it was but once we did it people started to join in droves because they wanted to be on on our website Uh got an email this morning from somebody saying hey, I got a job with the company and you know in europe Because I was on voiceover.biz. So people are getting hired off of it Well, you're not you guys aren't as an organization like monitoring it or trying to figure out some way to monetize it or Anything well, we're you were thinking about, you know, maybe selling advertising on it. Yeah But just like banner ads kind of yeah, exactly. Yeah, we're not gonna have like commercials on it. Yeah. No, just banner ads that sort of thing Uh, that's that's the deal we have with the with the web and no way taking any money from the sale from the transaction No percentages. We're not acting as a middle man. We're it's simply a marketplace. It's just a buyer's guide Exactly exactly. So, you know and and you know for people joining wovo if they join us a professional member Then uh, they can be on that site. Yeah What I mean, that's obviously a big issue is is is the sort of some of these pay-to-plays that become a little You know, I wouldn't say predatory is fair to say but or a little disingenuous with the fees What are some other problems? Would you say well voices is trying to aim it? Well, hi, what's what are your what's your big visions for? Well, but my vision is to really again to push the idea that voiceover is a profession Yeah, there's a lot of people out there that say they are voice talent And you and I talk to them every day because they're sending us their audio and saying it's my audio good enough and a lot of times it's like You have a long way to go. Yeah but Those who are very good People need to know if you hire these people, they're gonna be good Yeah, you know, we have very we have a very strict standard by which someone becomes a professional member One dimension that we have Two levels of membership. We have professionals to qualify to be a professional You have to have had five paid jobs in the last 13 months Not from a relative Um You know, so if you do your grandmother's answering machine that doesn't count if she gives you 20 bucks to do that But that that's one of the the you you have to have that qualification so five paying jobs in 13 months Yes, okay. Oh why we came up with 13 months seems very liberal very fair. Yeah Well, I mean how much work is out there? There's so much work and so many people going after it But if you are actually You know being paid at a reasonable rate for that Then then you can qualify also you have to have a web presence You have to have a web footprint meaning you have to have a website. Yeah, not a facebook page You have to a web presence of brands shows that you just that you're running a business It's kind of like having a calling card, you know, it's like I am in business. Exactly. We want we want people to understand that it's Important to show that you're a professional by having a really good website or at least a website And you know and that there are links that are taking people back and forth. So you are you exist You have an actual footprint out there Uh, you're not just somebody saying I have a I have a yeti and I'm a voice actor now It's you know, it's a lot. It's a lot more complex than that Well, you check audio quality you guys do you guys give reviews on websites? We do it on the show But yeah, do you guys do it as an organization? Uh people with that kind of stuff. Well not with websites. I mean Not designing it but like saying hey, I see you have a website But it can use a little work Does that fall under like the mentorship that would that would really fall under the mentorship thing Which is something that we've been developing over the last few years George washington the third not the president the Voice actor the voice actor opera singer and really deep voice guy He's he's heading our mentorship program whereas People can sign up to be a mentor or to be a mentee When they join the organization, what are you an expert in is there's something you could spend half an hour a month Helping somebody else learn these skills. Do you have to be To to be a mentee. Do you also have to be a mentor? Uh, no, you come into the organization. You only have to you don't have to be you don't have to do either Okay, got you, you know, it's not mandatory. We're looking for people who are interested in doing it, right? Um, and if they feel they have something to offer on, you know, technical stuff Or, you know, bookkeeping business practices marketing Uh performance All these things that go into being a voice actor. It's it's not easy. I mean you and I sit here every week and go It's not an easy business There's so many things you need to understand and we want the people to become professional And represent themselves as professional because When they don't it's bad. It makes the rest of us Look bad. Yeah So one of the other things that we added in uh early on was best practices Best practices as a freelance voice actor Best practices for coaches Yeah, and demo producers You know making sure that You know, it's not that we were again, we're not the voice over police But we wanted to set a standard out there that coaches and demo producers Would not take advantage of people simply because they wanted to become voice actors Um that they're actually critically looking at somebody's talent and saying You have a lot of work to do. Yeah, or You're you know, you've got a lot of you've got a lot of skill. You have a lot of talent. Let's develop that and uh You know and make and show what's unique about you. I find that a lot of coaches tend to try to Create people in their own image. Yeah, sure and uh So that's a common issue with a lot of Consulting. Yeah, so we we have those best practices, you know, and they're and they're listed on our website Which is by the way world voices world dash voices dot org You can put that up there. So anytime um So we want people to Adhere to those those types of standards Um and if someone is violating that and somebody complains that these people, you know, they're members or they're There's there's an organization that is sort of not doing the best practices We can talk to them and say look is this fair You write a letter or an email. Yeah a lot of stuff and this is one of the things, you know That i've always been involved in there's a lot of stuff that can go on in the background. Yeah Uh, you know talking to publicly tweet or shame anybody publicly in any way. No, and that's that's the thing You can act on an advisory level Exactly, you know, I mean because it's it's not good to go out there and shame people I mean, it's bad enough with the cancel culture that we have that goes on in this country right now and around the world Uh, we really just wanted to be fair about things And explain to people look you're doing this Are you you'd be a lot more profitable if you were respectable? And we're being good to people as opposed to just being a demo mill or you know, it's like Yeah, I'll teach you how to be a voice actor Do you feel like you have some success stories in that area? There we I mean, we've got a lot of members who've gone through it and You know, they haven't had a lot of complaints. Yeah about certain certain entities Uh, of course, there there was that one particular Uh, you pay-to-pay site that everybody was complaining about. Yeah, uh, but But it's it's been it's been it's there as a tool the more people we have as members The more influence we have with these organizations. I mean a lot of industry associations Uh, are big organizations. They're from big manufacturers. They charge a lot for membership And they have lobbying groups in washington. Now, there's not a lot to lobby about when it comes to voice acting Uh, so our we're trying to the influence. We're trying to have is with The voiceover industry itself agents producers creative directors Uh All the people who are involved From that particular part of the industry on the other side of the glass so to speak And so that's that's the most important thing we do and you may not notice what we're doing But we're doing it and That's what an industry association is supposed to do when there is a big issue though We will issue a statement about it and make sure that certain media outlets hear what we're saying And you know and forward that information to the uh, to the the uh, the parties involved Uh, yeah, what we were talking about voiceover dot biz one of the things we also want to do is promote that And we have the resources now and we are Starting a campaign to talk to production companies to talk to producers to talk to the people at higher talent say look Here is a roster For the for the choosing it's a free roster. I mean, we're not free for hiring but uh, but you can pick and choose Amongst these voices that fit into your particular project and you can negotiate with that particular person or You know or that that sort of thing and it works really really well They know they're gonna get professionals They that that's the whole thing that these are vetted professionals. Their studio is good They're you know, they've got they're talented with their voice. They can interpret a script And they're a professional and they're and they're worthy of being paid as a profession Awesome. Well, I think we should take a break because there's a couple more questions And then we got questions coming in from fabulous the audience So should we break it off have a couple minutes and come back. We're gonna take a break. How's that sound? All right Before time began there was v obs dot tv watch or else Let's base it if you're a voice talent Not everyone in your family or close friends really understands what you need for your home voiceover studio You want a what? 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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 rent 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.com now if dan will stop waxing this mustache for a minute. We'll get back to the show When i speak with actors about adding audiobooks To their voiceover quiver And doing so through my class the one i teach with dan oday called the acx master class They say look, we know it's a valuable class. It's it's got all the things we need. It's really expensive Do you have a payment plan? I usually have to say no, we don't But now I can say yes, we do because we're going to do a special Four month payment plan that reduces your four monthly payments Down to an amount that would fit in anybody's budget and then on your fourth payment We start the class right the beginning of 2022 So you don't even have to remember that we're opening the doors on this on december 20th All you have to do is go now To acx masterclass.com take a moment do it now Join our alert list and we'll let you know when the door is open on this special four month payment plan for the acx masterclass That's acx masterclass.com This is bill radner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lenard and george widham v obs dot tv Well, we are back from the break and We'll continue our interview with dan lenard our very own dan lenard as he shares his experience and knowledge about Working with world voices As as you go into your president's presidency With world voices your prior role was with the audio standards committee. Are you gonna try to are you gonna still? Continue to try to keep out a role in that area. Well, we're gonna kind of let somebody else kind of deal with it. Um You know, it's it's one of those things that it's it hasn't been a real burden. No, it hasn't been lately. Yeah Uh One of the things we have is the um studio approval. Yeah, $50 and it goes to our committee Uh and based on the standards that we set Uh, we'll give people we approve of your studio. We can't like certify a studio. We're not technically an educational Entity, uh, so we can't give like, you know certifications. You're careful not to throw that word around certification, right? So we just say studio approval. Yeah, uh, but if it's not right If there is a problem you get notes, right? You get we we get people notes on it and we try to get people up to that standard again We want people to sound professional because If somebody doesn't it makes the rest of us look bad. I mean the site clearly communicates What those requirements are well, what yeah when you go in the audio, right? It talks about the standards, you know in the uh, you know when it says, you know studio approval You go into there, you know, if you're a member and it's only for professional members Um, you know the associate members are all like, well, I want to learn how to do all this We didn't have the time to sit down with everybody and go through the college course that it takes to really do this Uh, super properly so but there are the the basics that you and I always talk about about Environment mic technique and setting proper levels and stuff like that I think what we're going to do is we're going to create a webinar That gives everybody these standards and these basics so they understand them. Yeah, and then You know that should improve their audio and that would be something that every Every professional member could access and watch absolutely. Well any member associate members Yeah, so you can join as an associate member failed to mention that before you can join if you if you qualify It's professional you become a professional member you get on voiceover.biz So everybody starts as an associate and then upgrades. Oh, they can they can come straight in as a pro I mean, you know people who are in the business know that they're a professional and they and they want to join the industry association Yeah, uh, but people can join as an associate and we have the mentoring program and we have, you know The standards and and those sorts of things plus we had the conferences and as you know, you go to a conference You're gonna learn stuff. Yeah, and you're going to meet people who know stuff And you're going to make friends And uh, you know We are going to have conferences again. Yes, we are. I know somebody's asking about that. So So what are the questions we got here? You got it. Uh, let's look at the first one of my cue and if you're trying to get my attention I'm going to be I'm also looking at your questions. So be patient I'll I'll click back and forth and and vo and youtube and facebook But if you want your questions answered if you didn't realize it you can Post your questions in the youtube comment area or the facebook comment area depending on where you're You're watching please put a cue in front so it gets my attention first one Is from our friend jim edgar and he says um Our regional mini cons still a priority obviously within the health constraints But so you guys have done the larger national cons people fly in right and then some regional mini cons We've been doing coming back. We are definitely going to be doing that again Uh, we found that it's very economical to run those Uh, you get to meet people from your area one of the things that I've always tried to push and I think that's going to be another project Of ours is to create I wouldn't call them local chapters, but at least local meet-up groups Uh, there are a lot of great meet-up groups around the country I know peter o'Connell and I started a herd around buffalo when we were in in buffalo and that was a great group You know you read scripts to each other You just discuss stuff There's this camaraderie amongst voice actors and if you can do it in your own Community where you can go one night a month and and talk voice over with other people It's really beneficial and we'd like to have some of those groups affiliated with us and uh and and become part of part of world voices um so The the mini cons we did one up in the bay area. I wanted to ask you real quick What differentiates the mini con? From the con oh from the regular con the from the regular conference. Well the national conference Uh, I mean we've been doing it in las vegas the last last few years and a lot of people are like We don't like the smoke the venue is too big. So we're we're Probably early 2023 Or maybe later this year in 2022 depending on What the regulations are out there or what the the health situation is We're gonna probably go to Orlando Uh and not nothing huge. Does that consider a that'll be con? No, that'll be that'll that will be the national conference this year So national conference meaning that we want everybody who wants to be there to come And in mini con you limit the participants to a much smaller Yeah, and we do it at a very small hotel and uh and get people together and You know so they can drive there is the content at the mini con Locally or regionally focused. It's both. It's both. You know, usually someone from the board will show up So we can ask questions of you know the higher ups Uh, I know i'm gonna want to go to those because I just love going to con You know, I I missed that terribly because of the pandemic. Yeah, um, but you know, we're going to be You know, we're gonna start off in Orlando If we can get a couple of mini cons off the ground for this year We're certainly going to try and if if we have members in certain places that would like to see a mini con in their location Let us know if they're willing to organize it because if you've ever put a conference together You know What's involved you guys should have a crib sheet on how to do it. Oh, we do. We guys have a pay fine numbers How to run a conference. We have a playbook You know, but we'll send it to you as a pdf. That's right No, we easy payments. We will give you the the assistance you need to to put something like that together You know, at least organize where the hotel will be we can help negotiate with the hotel Give a good idea. What's what it's going to take before you have no idea first, you know, I mean I've I've put myself headfirst into Planning something for 2023 And you have no idea. I mean it's talking to hotel brokers and planners And what can we do ourselves? You know, it's kind of like ted x Yeah, exactly. It's like it's under the brand of the house But it's a smaller budget smaller organization. Exactly Exactly for if you if you were putting on a mini con. Yeah Is there backing other than is there financial backing from actual the organization itself? Oh, absolutely I mean produce that's one of the things is, you know This is probably one of the most important points and I probably should have mentioned this earlier We are not for profit. Yeah, if you look at all of the entities that are putting together conferences They're all for profit. They're all for making money for the people organizing it. Yeah We do it so It's even steven, you know that we're not doing it to make a profit we're doing it To keep the cost down so people can't attend. Yeah, and uh, you know, and they know that You know, we can you know, we can uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Supplement we can you know, we can make sure that we have that a conference is going to have the backing That you know, if we're running a little bit short, we can afford To keep the price where it is That's great. You know, and and that's really the most important point is that we're not for profit We're not out here to make a lot of money for You know X person we're here to help the community and make something that's really important For the community, right? And that's so we're gonna we're gonna do as many conferences as we can You know regionally, but I think we'll probably do a national conference every other year That's good. Yeah, that'd be that'd be enough of a schedule with all the other events going on I think that's a fair You know, not not not an over it's not an over commitment No, no, you know, and there's things that we can do that say other organizations can't like when it comes to av We bring our own stuff. We don't want to have to spend a lot of money on an av Uh contract any clue what a hotel charges or use their av stuff unbelievable How about their internet? That's right. It's insane. Yeah, I mean we have microphones We have speakers we can do all this stuff people and know how to run this You know and you and I have Remember being the av guy at the last one. I didn't get to go to anything because I was okay. Just this projector Okay, all right. Make sure the why doesn't my computer work with that? So there was a lot of that small conferences are better for the reason. Oh, absolutely Ben Matthew Wake asks with Wovo pretty established in the u.s. What is the plan for making it more established in other countries? Uh the uk for example being that it is world voices We are world voices and and we have a lot of foreign members Uh, my vice president is remesh matani Who lives in the canary islands? Actually when you said that I immediately thought of canary islands. That's that's what we that's what we relate remesh to And if you know remesh, you know what an amazing guy he is, uh, you know, he's he's really an expert on the european market Uh, and he's you know, he's done webinars on it and he does presentations at our conferences You know and the big conferences too about here's how you work with You know in the uk and here's how you work in spain and here's how you work in this country and that country And that's really important stuff. Um And and but he also understands the market here as well Uh, he's our vice president our former president katharine vasalopoulos whose name I actually know how to pronounce Uh She is from montreal And the president before that was peter bishop who while he is an american citizen is a brit Uh, so We've really kept an international presence. Uh, we have members in the philippines. We have members in israel We had members in saudi arabia. We have members. Certainly. We have members in the uk. I talked to them all the time Uh, and even canada even canada I know we had members in canada Having lived on the canadian border for a long time lots of friends. Absolutely. Absolutely. So we truly are an international organization Uh, we've been you know working with Central and south america The thing is the the voice over culture around the world is very very different Each country is very different the pay structures are very different in some countries You have to be certified as a voice talent and have a certificate that says i have many voice talents. Uh, So it's interesting working with all of those those different entities. Yeah, uh, and uh It's it's sometimes the language barrier can be difficult. Yeah, uh But you know, there's google translate and we we had a we we had a program We tried to start wovo span which would be for you know for for latin america and uh You know There's been shifts in leadership and amongst that group and we'd we'd like to remind that a lot of it comes down to the leadership If someone joins the organization who's highly motivated bilingual Maybe natively spanish speaking right and that's going to probably become more of a priority It is and as long as by the membership, right exactly and that they understand our mission Yeah, you know of all those things that i mentioned, you know professionalism community Mentoring all those sorts of things and and integrating those things into you know, their programs a couple more questions Grace newton says are there any volunteer or slash? Committee opportunities if you're just still only an associate member heck. Yeah Being an associate member means you can get involved I mean if you want to learn how to be in the voiceover business Work with other people who are in the voiceover business You know the people who are the chairs of these committees and they understand Their area, uh, you know karen o bryant works on our outreach committee You know, she's been working, you know talking to people all over the place and you know We do one of the things we do we have twice a week. We have Uh cafes lunch cafes Virtual I mean it came out of a pandemic, but people really liked it you log in to a zoom to a zoom And there are people from all over the place And you know someone will throw out a question And you know and that's what yeah, and if you've ever been to a voice conference Or you've ever been one of these types of things Somebody always has something to say and it's but you get to meet other people in other places In how they do what they do gets rid of that isolation. Absolutely. That just felt pretty isolated. Yeah, especially working Yeah, so we we are you know, we definitely are an international organization we one one of the cafes we have is is Uh, it's a world one So we try to attract people from europe and from asia and stuff and do it at some strange hour so that Especially since remesh can do it Might be eight o'clock in that year or it might be two in the morning there. Yeah, absolutely Dan alper and ask um any upcoming woevo events in so cal or in the western region? I guess we talked about that. Yeah, well, we certainly would like to do a mini con You know, we did one in the bay area a couple years ago. That was fabulous that Pam Lawrence put together and a few other people up there And uh, we had a great time. Uh, it was you know, not at a big hotel And You know the program was really good. There was a great party beforehand And and everybody got something out of it. Yeah, uh, that was that was really good So, you know, maybe you know if you're in sacramento or if you're in portland or in seattle Or, you know, I suppose we could do one here in LA Miami dallas Atlanta, Atlanta, definitely. Yeah, I mean, you know, and then the the philadelphia philadelphia buffalo niagra falls boston Boston no question. Yeah, so if you're you know, if you're a member and you want to get involved in Uh, a committee, you know, and we have a bunch of we have the mentoring committee We have now we we have the conference committee. We have the finance committee, which is strictly for for board members Um, but if there is a particular area that you have some skill or expertise in We wouldn't you we we want you as as as the poster says, um, you know Especially if uh, you're good at public relations or marketing or you know, if you have a connection somewhere Uh, something that would benefit the mission of the organization by all means join in if it's something that involves a lot of work We are talking about creating stipends for people Who do that extra work for us and so a little bit of motivation if if you've ever been in an organization That's all volunteer. You know, it takes a long time to get things done Yeah, uh, people have you know, their businesses their families all the other things are going on in their life You have to have a commitment to You know your own life But you also have to commitment to a commitment to our mission and what we're doing with with world voices and And what we look for is we look for leadership, you know People say, you know, can I be on your board? That's always a a red flag of no If they disappear from nowhere, yeah, exactly on your board. Yeah, no if We pick people for the board for our board of directors From the people that show up and do the work and show a commitment and the professionalism And the skills necessary and most important the leadership to get other people to do To follow you, you know, I'm for a while, uh, one of the things that I always believed in I probably still do In any organization like this It's the person that says i'm gonna do this we should do this who's with me And that's what you're looking for that's what we're looking for and who's and who's I have an idea. Anybody want to do it? Yeah, no, no, if you speak up, it's You gotta you got to make it happen. That's exactly exactly don harby s Are you going to be doing anything about the encroachment of a i? Is there any official Official talks about how to address this yet, you know, there's a lot of opinions about it. Yeah And in various opinions about it. Yeah, we're you know, I don't think we would issue a statement about it per se I mean, I have my own ideas about it. I know, uh, j monger collins wrote a really good article about it last year talking about It's gonna be bad for some You know people who do I mean, like, you know, there's there's audio description stuff That's all gonna go AI Even though a lot of people getting into that and people who are very skilled at it, you know, like, you know, he steps into the room He turns around, you know for people who are Yeah, you know who have site problems in there that the audio Directions or that that's probably gonna go to AI Uh crappy e-learning stuff that some cheap company was like, well, we're just gonna pay AI to do this Yeah, fine. If they're that cheap, they're you don't really want to work for them Yeah, you don't want to make seven dollars an hour. No or less. Exactly. If that's what they want to do, that's fine I have listened to these AI voices You know, there's still the uncanny valley there as far as I'm concerned a long time before is truly convincing You can't I mean we're directable, right? They can't change the way a robot breathes I I've listened to one. It's like, you know, they keep putting the same breath in there It's like a yeah, it's like you copy pasted Yeah, it's you know, it's a pocket there would be a committee. Is there a place for a committee about this thing? Well, certainly it's worth discussion Yeah, you know, and I think that's one of the things that you know When you go to a conference or you go to one of the mini cons Someone's gonna bring that up and that's one of the things we do at these conferences is Uh, it's not necessarily a bunch of speakers that you want to go here and just sit and listen That's right. It's it is an interactive discussion. Someone will lead a discussion. Well, how do you do this? Well, what do you think about that? Yeah, and it's a much more powerful type of conference because of that We don't want to be like the typical, you know with lots of big sponsors and all that kind of stuff we can we can We can make sure that people get a really good experience Meet the other people in the organization Uh, and it's the networking really that helps you get work in the long run So that's one of the reasons that we really promote that two more questions. Okay, uh, Jim Edgar Says again, uh, would love to see a meet the mentor connection focused session And any of the next conventions? That's interesting. I will discuss that with mr. Washington the third Uh, yeah, that's a really good idea jim. Uh, yeah, I mean we definitely will talk about the mentor mentorship program Jim, do you want to meet mentors or you do you want to be a mentor as a mentor? Which one you could do both mentor or mentee? Uh, and one last one from rob and we talked about this already. So you may not be able to give him a good answer But um, he says Um regarding studio approval. Do you have any ballpark figure? How much a studio owner ought to charge for via work in ohio? So it definitely doesn't fall under the studio approval Umbrella no guys are really careful not to discuss Directly discuss rates. You're an independent business person. You decide what you think you're worth Uh, just don't undervalue yourself. Uh, I think there's some resources though I mean, you've probably had to use some resources Of course. Well, there's you know, there's the gvaa rate guide, which everybody uses And some have stolen It's reprinted exactly, but you know if you go to gvaa.com they go to their rate guided It really sets it and they update it, which which really helps But it's not collusion. It's just like this is the range of what you should be charging for this You know, uh, you know ears and eyeballs. Who's going to see it? How many people are going to see it? What markets those sorts of things and here's how much? Traditionally, here's the range what people can charge and where where do you fit? so anyway Well, I think that was really helpful. I I still learned some stuff about what voices and what you guys have plans. Yeah Congratulations. Well, thank you. If you want to join Get that address up there. So it's world dash voices dot org And there's a tab there. It says join today and that will get you, uh You know into our process and there is a vetting process And our our amazing membership vice president mike mcgonagall is great job It's all fairly automated, but still he goes through every application. Okay. This person is an associate This person is a professional or if somebody is an associate and they meet the criteria for professional and they let us know Hey, I did such such. Yeah, we vote them up to professional level, which is which is really great But it's it's a it's $99 a year Which compared to some other professional associations is dirt cheap It's very on par with others that I've joined. Yeah, and and yes, exactly about the same price, you know, and and it all goes to benefit Everybody, you know, we're like I said, we're the rising tide is is floating all boats. We're promoting Voice over and by with voice over that biz promoting helping promote you. We're not going to find you work You still got to be good enough to get it your demos have to speak for themselves Right anyway, awesome. Yeah, well now we can wrap up the show and get on the tech talk. Absolutely right after this This is ariana rattner and you're enjoying voice over body shop with dan lennard and george wittem v obs dot tv In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites dot com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept To live online in a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites dot com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites dot com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voice over career flourish Don't try it yourself. Go with the pros voice actor websites dot com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the You know what? It's time to talk about source connect Actually source elements. They're actually the sponsor that they make source connect. Yes, they do And a ton of other tools Which I think would make source connect unique and we've we've been dealing with all of these remote technologies Is the way it works on the studio end? So you as talent You know, you're just connecting into a system, right? But you don't realize what happens on the other end And I think you already want to yeah You don't want to have to know how the sausage is made. Trust me. These sessions are complex But it's nice for the producers because On the producer end or the engineers end your audio is being fed right into the timeline right into typically pro tools But it could be new endo or any other pro level multi-track DAW and it Plugs right in and that's one of its just, you know distinguishing features that among others and That's why it's going to stick around. That's why it's been around as long as it has been And that's why the best paying arguably I think it's you know, you have to be careful to say this but The better paying gigs are the ones going to ask to use source connect Well, and you'll see that in in specs most have paid version of source connect And there's a paid version, right? There's a paid version. That's what source connect standard And there's a still a free version called source connect now Which works great, but it is not a part of the normal source connect system that can plugs into pro tools So there are two different things, but you should become familiar and at least get yourself an account So head over to source dash elements calm get a 15 day free trial Get yourself up and running so you can feel confident and understand What it means to be a source connect voice talent anybody will be right back and wrap things up right after this You're still watching vlbs Let's wrap it up. Dan. Yeah We're done We're back. We're back to say goodbye. Should we uh, What should we do? Should we say goodbye and talk about tech talk? Are we doing tech talk next? We're gonna do tech talk next I think it's important that we We honor and mention the folks that have been donate whores to our wonderful show here Absolutely. We have quite a nice list of names Almost all of which I've read before and may still screw them up. So let's start with rob rider patty gibbons Greg thomas Shawna painton baird. Yes icon productions. That's martha con. Yay don griffith steven chandler saundra manwheeler robert leadham And our buddy uncle roid ant land productions Alrighty, they've all clicked the subscribe or the donate button not subscribed but donate You can make a one-time donation or you can you can do a recurring A subscription if you liked it on on goingly support the show and on goingly have your name read right now next week on this very show We will be doing tech talk number 69 Which are we're about to tape we're about to so live if you're here live right now Hang out because we're gonna we're gonna take us a quick little break here And then we're gonna re-rack it and do tech talk if you've got tech and technical questions Join us for that. We'd like to love to talk, you know, uh about tech because that's what george and i do Specifically studio for vio, but you know, it's a little bit tangentially related podcasting or video stuff Yeah, exactly. We've probably dealt with it. Exactly. So, um Can I mention that I have a new blog you have a new blog? What I have you have time for that. I have a new old blog I've dusted off the blog So I I recently got fed up with posting lots of lengthy answers on facebook groups and finally decided I'm just gonna each time these questions come up write a blog post so If you want to see all of my most my recent answers to facebook questions I show the question where it came from and my answer So that's how i'm generating blog content now and I'll post that stuff back on facebook Anyway, so the blog lives again Excellent george the dot-tech. It's great because you can copy and paste old stuff and just Because it's all the same now. I do that sometimes I want to give the right information, but I don't I want to make sure that Got to date and I want them to come back to george. Exactly Uh, let's see here. We need to thank our sponsors like carlin hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra Source elements the makers of source connect Vio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and jmc demos All right, uh Well, you did all the chat room stuff tonight jeff holman is at some red carpet thing because he was in some movie Good for him and uh Sue marlino for doing a great job directing tonight and all the room at the same time I know it's like the old days like it's been years Literally it's been like two years Uh, and of course lee pennie for being lee pennie. We know you're out there lee. Thanks so much All right tech talk coming up next live if you're watching live And but that's gonna do it for us this week. Thanks for joining us. I'm dan Leonard and i'm george widow And this is voiceover body shop or vio b