 Well, somehow we've managed to do it again and come to you on VoiceOver Body Shop. And our guest this week is talent agent, Lisa Risto. You can wave now, there you go, that's good. All right, we'll be talking to her. We'd love your questions on agency stuff and what you expect from an agent and that sort of thing. Yeah, this is a good time to ask all those questions of an agent you've always wanted to ask. That's right. Stay tuned, it's time for VoiceOver Body Shop right now. From the outer reaches, they came, bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your VoiceOver audio. And together, from the center of the VO universe, they bring it to you now. George Whitom, the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build, set up and maintain the professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today. And you, Dan Leonard, the VoiceOver Home Studio Master, a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio. And each week they allow you into their world, bringing you talks with the biggest names in the VoiceOver world today, letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your VoiceOver business. Welcome to VoiceOver Body Shop. VoiceOver Body Shop is brought to you by VoiceOverEssentials.com, home of Harlan Hogan signature products, source elements, remote studio connections for everyone, VoiceActorWebsites.com, where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt. VOHeroes.com, become a hero to your clients with award-winning VoiceOver training, J. Michael Collins 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. There, I'm Dan Leonard. And I'm George Whittem. And this is VoiceOver Body Shop, or VO B.S. Our guest tonight, Lisa Ristel, she can be joining us in a minute, for those of you wondering, we are not all like totally on fire here in Southern California, I mean. We dodged another bullet of red flag warnings. Yeah, really. It was a scary week last week. It was, well, you're up in the hills there, so it can rush in there, but here, we live in the flats. No floods, no fires. We can see it all happening around us. Yes, you can. Yes, now there was a fire very close by the other day of Sucan pop up that picture. This was the Sepulveda Basin, and the sky suddenly turned orange, so I ran up into the roof and took this picture and- That's the beauty. Yeah, you can actually see where George lives, just on the other side of that ridge over there. But yeah, and suddenly my phone, I'm on the roof and the phone goes off, so I was just, be prepared to evacuate. I'm like, there's nothing happening here. This neighborhood doesn't burn. Burn a lot of houses to get to you. Yeah, but- That's how it was for me. It was very far away from the Getty fire, down the road from this fire, but it's one of those things where if it got over this canyon and then the next canyon- Then you were gonna be trapped. Then they were like, oh, that, because we had a red flag warning on Wednesday, which if you guys don't know what that means, extremely high winds, very, very dry temperatures, dry humidity, like single digits, and warm temperatures, and it was like, I don't need to get into it, but it was scary. I didn't go back to my house for the entire week. I just stayed away. It was nerve-wracking. That's over for now. Yeah, for now. We'll see what happens. It's still high-fire season here, but it burns off the fuel and then that place doesn't burn again for another two years. Panga hasn't burned in a long time. Remind me to avoid your place for a while. Anyway, let's not avoid our guest anymore because we wanna talk about the most important thing we have, one of the most important things we have is voice actors, is a good agent. And I'd like to bring on one of my agents, lady who's really wonderful. She is in Bethesda, Maryland, I believe. And she is the head of Impressive Talent and she is an impressive agent and her name is Lisa Ristow. Welcome to our show, Lisa Ristow. Thank you. Good to have you with us. I take it it's starting to get a little cooler, more almost more fall-like out your way. Yeah, that's why my heat decided to die this weekend. Oh, that's not how it always works. Yeah. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya. Yeah, really. Warranty goes out just right then. Anyway, welcome to the show. You are a voice talent agent and so I guess I should lead off by asking, how'd you get, where are you from and how'd you get into this wacky business? I'm from Maryland. I got into this, well, my daughter, when she was little, she did acting and a lot of the agencies around here were with and then as she got older, the schools wouldn't excuse her for acting. There was unexcused absences. So we got into voiceover. So then I dove into that, cause she left, that's my dog. Doing some voiceover, thank goodness. Cause that's not your daughter. We'd be worried. So then I learned that, we worked into that, started out recording on the iPad, learned more, took classes with Larry, got coaching around and now she's been doing voiceover for eight years. I started the agency because a lot of agents, managers around here take advantage of talent. They charge them for representation directly or indirectly. You have to pay to be in my website. You have to pay, oh, one guy, I'll make your voiceover demo. It was junk, I heard one. You have to pay for headshots. And I said, that's not how it should be done. So we left to her, my daughter's manager a few years ago. And this, I knew I wanted to do this and it just came to me one day. I'm like, well, let's just try it. So I got all these actors on board. And if you voice talent, and then I found out you can't get actors on the database until a year after you started. So this was right when Voice Bank announced they're gonna sell out to voices. So all my daughter's agents were bailing. So I'm like, well, I have to get references. So I joined Voice Bank then. And then I had to find all these talent. I'm just looking all around. I really needed New York talent at the time. So I found some and we booked jobs. And I stayed with them a month or two when they rolled into voices, then I left. And then we got on the database later for acting and now we're moving forward. So how many people do you represent now? Over 500. Wow, excellent. Yeah, but you're an independent agent. And so people aren't tied to you with exclusive contracts, right? I'm very anti-exclusive. I don't want to limit the actor. That's good. Well, it's fascinating to, there are a lot of agents out there, and I have a few in various places. And they send you these auditions and you fire them back out and it's like into this black hole vortex of nothing. You know, it's like gone. You don't hear anything back. But no, Lisa at least writes back if you do a good job and say, that was really good. Feedback, it's an actual feedback. That's never happens. I know, it's kind of. But with Lisa does, that's pretty cool. She does. And she does it with a smile and we really appreciate that. And you know, and it helps your confidence, it makes you want to audition again. Even for something you're not even appropriate for, which is okay. But so what can people do if, you know, if someone's looking for an agent or someone is working with an agent, what do talent need to do to impress you? Well, let's start with, if they're already with me, it's good to offer multiple reads. It's good to try to sound like how you think no one else is going to sound. Cause everyone has the same sheet saying, here's the direction, here's what to do. And then 30 people will start out saying, this is how you start. Whatever the script is, most people start out the same way. And then it slightly fluctuates. So try to think how would most people say this and try not to sound like that. If you do multiple reads, which I like, you gotta really put the time to make them sound completely different. Not just speed, not just whether you're quiet or loud, but completely different voices or personalities or something. So if you're with me, do that. Know that if you're with me, I submit you unless there's the rare occasion where they only send me your five best. And if that's the case, which I don't tell you cause it's not right in my mind, just do your best to make it unique. So like typically if a guy has to sound like a dragon, they all like to do this. And then there's a few who don't and they come up with their own voice. It works the same with girls too. So I like things to be different so I can offer variety cause you never know who's going to be selected. That's true. If you're just looking for an agent, for me, I wanna know you're a voice talent. I don't wanna know you're also do singing, you're also an actor and you're also a TV host. Show your dedication. I wanna know your studio setup. I wanna hear good demos, not homemade, not just tracks with music in the background. I want them professionally engineered. I wanna know you have a good website. Invest in presenting yourself cause that's what you're doing. That's why you get demos made is to market yourself. Not just to me, but across the board. I wanna hear you have a good studio. I wanna know what you do, how you edit, who taught you how to edit. Who made your demos? Who taught you how to edit? Hopefully it was me. That's important stuff because most people try to get into this business and they think, oh, I'm just gonna have great equipment, not necessarily knowing how to use it because it's not the equipment that gets you work, it's your ability to use it properly, which is what Mr. Wittem and I try to teach people on a daily basis. That's good to know. What else impresses you? I like to see resumes if you have them. A lot of voice talent don't do resumes. I don't wanna hear, I know this person or I know this person and that's why you should have me join your agency. I know people too, but I like to know people are not exclusive with an agent. I get a lot of my jobs from LA and that's hard when I have LA talent. Yet, majority of the video games are out of LA. We just booked one today and we booked two last week. So if you are assigned with an exclusive agent, it limits you. And also sometimes these agents double dip on the commissions. I'm a straight 10% union, 15% anything else. If the job says I'll pay you 5,000 plus 20%, great. You book the job, you get 5,000 plus a quarter of the commission because I only take 15%. So you make more than 5,000 dollars. Nice. If you're just joining us, our guest is Lisa Ristow. She is a voice talent agent out of Bethesda, Maryland. And if you've got a question for her, throw it in the chat room because we'll get a chance to ask her your questions in our next segment. So we wanna hear from you either on Facebook or in our interactive chat room at vobs.tv depending on where you're watching from. If you're watching live, if you're watching this not live, it's not gonna help you. Well, we do want your comments in the YouTube video though. Absolutely. Because that we can come back and address later. Absolutely, absolutely. So, all right. I think the big mystery to a lot of people is how do you go about finding this work? Now you were saying originally you were at Voice Bank which has been taken over by Voldemort and now there are some competitors which is the great thing about it. Everybody says, oh, the world's gonna end when Voice Bank was bought out but it created opportunity for other people to create alternatives to it which of course some people have and some people are continuing to at least attempt to do. But how do you go about finding these different auditions and how do you determine who to send them to? Well, I'm on a database that I pay for a monthly that I get auditions from. But with that, I've been on that since they started out and a lot of the clients now email me direct they don't even use that anymore. And then because I'm on the East Coast I get some voiceover projects on my side that come from the acting portion of my business. So those are not the typical ones that you see that might come from four or five of your agents at one time. Sometimes, but usually not. And sometimes people will just happen to say, oh, do you have a voice talent agency or division? I say yes and we talk and either it's up to them or it doesn't. So I submit the voice talent to a variety of places. And I'm always looking for more. I've tried the marketing and stuff. That's kind of hard. But I think the word of mouth is good. I've got great talent, award-winning talent. And I'm quite particular about who I take in as a voice talent. And that's important. And that is why you're impressive talent. Especially if you have impressive talent to impress people with. Once again, our guest is Lisa Ristow and make sure you give your questions in right now. So when we are getting questions. And we are getting questions. So submit yours now and get in line. So what determines who you send it to and do you think about who your talent is? Oh, this would be great for so-and-so. And are you selective about how you send that out or do you just send it out wide to everybody and let us all determine for ourselves what needs to be done? If it's a one-of-a-kind type thing, I will reach out directly to talent. If it's just target needs of voice for a Christmas ad that goes to everyone who's there. If I feel someone would be a great fit, I will reach out to them. The main thing I have to do is send out the auditions as quickly as possible. Because I don't know who else has these auditions and the voiceover is so competitive lately that I can't take the time to say, oh, he's good, he's not, oh, she should do it. Cause by the time I go through that list, six other agents have already sent the job out. I gotta get it out quickly. And my talent, hopefully read my emails, which I always send out and say, look, if you book this, I'm not gonna take advantage of your commission. If they pay studio fees, I get no portion of that. That's your job, that's your money. But it's a case by case situation. So, where was I going with this? I knew I had a question and I was just, it just, off the top of my head. Cause I was thinking in five different directions. And when we get an audition, and oh, now I remember. When we get an audition and it's, you're in Maryland. Some people forget that there's this time lag that happens with auditions because you've got agents in New York and along the East Coast. And then there's, there's one in Texas. And then there's one in Mountain Time that I know of. And then there's a pile out here. Big pile out here. And out in LA. So I might get something at noon from you and something at one o'clock from somebody else. And then somebody here in LA at another time. It's like an echo. It is. It's like, I could have swore I was saying this one. Now I could ask, how do we determine who to send it to? But you're gonna say, well, send it to me, of course. First, that's gonna be the most, I see the easiest way to look at that. But, you know, or as my mom used to say, go home with the guy that brought you. You know, and then there are people say, oh no, no, no, who's gonna treat you, who's gonna book you the work? Well, I know, if I get something from you first, it's going out there first. And then you don't submit it to anybody else. Do you have, have you seen examples where people are submitting it to several different agents? Oh yeah. Sometimes they'll name it with the wrong agency on it. Now I make everyone put impressive talent on it and they'll send it to me with some other agent. I'm like, well, I'm not sending that. I'm not gonna double submit. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense, yeah. So how can, what can we do to help you help us? Now you've given us some things about what impresses you, but when we send you stuff, when anybody sends anything to their agent, what's going to help you sell them? Dive right into the read. Don't do the slate and stuff. Nobody ever asks for slates. Sorry. Don't say impressive talent. It's on the file name. Your name and impressive talent should be on your audio. So no matter what agent you have, they should have a format that you name it and you should stick to that. Jump right into character. You know, there's a rumor that they only listen to your first 10 seconds. Is that true? I don't know. But make your first 10 seconds big. Don't sit there. Oh, this is my third read for this project. Take one. That's wasting six seconds. Burn it. They're ready. Got ready. You've hit the wrong file already. And they haven't listened to the right show either. That's right. Yeah. I mean, there's been many a times where it's like, okay, first read. Hey, are you listening to me? And then going into the read, might catch their attention. And sometimes it's really a matter of doing something really weird and totally different. Cause you may not hit the mark with what they're trying to look for. Especially if you think you have no chance in hell of getting kicked. That's right. You might as well go for it. You're something really out there. Start off with an expletive. You know. I mean, you do whatever you can to try and, you know, raise your voice above the crowd. But that's good advice. Because a lot of people have been asking, do I slate? Do I not slate? Some agency. Make sure you slate this. Others like, we know who you are. It says so, so right on your file. So what are you listening to the auditions on when you play them back? My computer. The way most people listen to auditions at most agencies, I think. And most casting directors. I mean like, literally from the speakers on your Mac? That kind of thing? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I keep it kind of loud. And you know, I did catch with Larry Hudson. And if I hear any clicks or breaths, I do get on the talent. I'm very anti-breath, anti-click. If you can't take the time to listen to your file before you send it to me and it's that crappy, I'll just throw it away. But I try to realize everyone can have a bad day. One guy sent me a file, it was completely blank, like this. Oops. And I said, oh, I forgot to do something. Yeah, you did. Because I've never done that with my eight years of editing. So, and I think that's another thing is people don't realize, I know what they're doing. I do the editing. And so don't just think I'm just some person listening. I can get in there and say, at 33.9, you're going to fix this right here because there's a problem. And then a lot of people say, no, there's not. Yeah, there is. So. Yeah, I would say if your agent points out something, listen to them. Yeah. That's all they do day in, day out is listen to you guys record and send these things in. They're the ones that are, that's your last line, your last judgment call, your last line of defense between you and possibly getting this. Is that the right way of saying it? Not defense, but you're making an important judgment call of that quality that you're taking the time. You've actually bothered to listen to it 39 seconds in to find that error. Take it, you know, as talent, you better listen to your agent. Right. Well, she's not the gatekeeper, but she's the one walking along the sidewalk picking out people who go to the gate. Yeah, and that's really important. How's that for a listed metaphor? I know a lot of people feel like they're talking into the void a lot of the time. So yeah, if your agent goes through that much work to help you along, you should definitely take their advice. Absolutely. Now there's another area that I'd love to get into you into with you. And that's regarding some controversy we've had in the last couple of weeks. Regarding some different models of representation and specifically with a particular firm, maybe a couple of different ones that are trying what they call management of voice talent as opposed to just representation. What's the difference and what are your thoughts on that? And feel free to mention any names. Management to me is a manager in the entertainment industry should represent a small group of talent and work to promote them and provide them unique one-of-a-kind opportunities. Like, oh, you're perfect for Betty Boop, Becky Boop, whatever her name is. You're perfect. You're just right. I got this from this person. And here, please send an audition. To me, a manager does not go on a database just like I do and just send the same stuff out I do. That's an agent. Managers take typically 10% of everything you earn. I take nothing of what you earn unless it's a commission. And I'm upfront with my commission rates. I never knew there were managers in voiceover because I didn't think there was such one-of-a-kind opportunities that you could find. But apparently, there are. But if you have a manager, you need to know are they sending out the same stuff everyone else is sending out? If they are, they're not a manager. They're an agent. And why are you paying them 10% of everything you earn? I just don't know exactly why a voiceover manager exists. Because if you're that big, you have just a whole entertainment manager in L.A. or New York. Why do you need something like this that's just taking your money? So. Right. Are they charging a fee upfront for that, along with taking 10% of everything you earn, whether you book through them or not? I know there's a manager. Some of my talent have told me they do pay a monthly fee. I don't know what they pay. But some have told me they do pay a monthly fee. I can't prove that and prove that. But it was said like they're kind of regretting it. Others who are with a manager have said they love it. They've got fabulous opportunities. They understand things are controversial, but they feel in the long run it's worthwhile. That's great. If it works for them, it works for them. But I don't feel you should ever have to pay to get an audition, not with an agent. No, certainly not with an agent. They're working for you. And they're earning their commission by working for you, right? Yeah. Makes total sense to me. Yeah, I've always been of the opinion. I mean, there's the pay-to-play sites. But you have to know how to play them. And some of them are acting as an agent. And there's so many different models out there. But people really need to be a little bit more savvy about how they find their work through an agency situation where somebody else is representing you or someone else is trying to find work for you and actually actively working for you. Hey, can I throw something out there? Please. OK. Today, a talent in LA said to me, I sent out a job that I'm not getting a lot of auditions for because I'll get some, but I won't get a lot. And they said, is there any advantage to me submitting to you compared to submitting to my LA agent? I said, well, maybe. I got a talent who's booked three projects for me. And they live in LA for various, various different things. And they're booking through me, but yet they submit similar jobs to their exclusive agent in LA. And they haven't booked any of those. It's only been with me and not with them for the same comparable type of job. So I told this talent. I said, maybe Impressive Talent is making its name. I don't know. But they know who we are. We're booking. And I'm not double dipping on the commission. So send me more. You can see what happens. I don't know if you're LA agent. I don't know if they're submitting them at all. I submit every talent who submits to me unless something horrible goes wrong with their audition or they're too late or the job is closed. Are you building real? I mean, I'm coming at this from someone who doesn't have an agent never will because it's not what I do. But to be understanding, you're building on some level relationships in this process. You're branding yourself. You're marketing. You're so busy or even getting calls during the show. That's how busy I am. I'm impressed. From LA. From LA. They're casting right now. I mean, you're building relationships. So that means that you're out there marketing impressive talent as a great place to come for talent. And so it seems that by that little story you told us, what you're doing seems to be working. I mean, because they're booking through you or they didn't book through. Could be a big shiny agent here in LA. And they're not looking through them. So that says a lot right there. Alrighty. Well, we have a ton of questions. Yeah, we do. From our vast worldwide audience that is tuning us in live. And we want to get to those questions. I'm telling you, Lisa, we have more live engagement in the chat room than we have had in a long time for you. Glad to see that. I am not kidding. I know why. All right, well, we're going to take a quick break. And we'll be back with Lisa Ristow from Impressive Talent and your questions right after this. This is Anthony Mendez. And you're watching Voice Over Body Shop. Well, hello there. I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice denouncer guy on your new orientation training for Snapchat, were you? This is Virgin Radio. Well, OK, we're not that innocent. There's jeans for wearing and there's jeans for working. Dickies, because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values, a leader for California, and a voice for America. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smartphone. But it's so much more. It's the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song. It's the end of the road for Rick. This is your knee, Rick. When hope is lost. The I-8 from BMW. Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's J. Michael Collins. Bet you think I'm going to try and sell you a demo now. I think they speak for themselves. But I will give you my email. It's jmichaelatjmcoysover.com. Now, if Dan will stop waxing his mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show. 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 voheroes.com free Getting Started in VO course. You heard right, it's free. And it's available online 24-7 at gettingstartedinvo.com. That's gettingstartedinvo.com. If you've been watching VOBS 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 hero's 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. Gettingstartedinvo.com. That's gettingstartedinvo.com. As a voice talent, you have to have a website. But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you. And when they finally do, they break or don't look right on mobile devices. They're not built for marketing and SEO. They're expensive. They 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 voiceactorwebsites.com. Like our name implies, voiceactorwebsites.com just does websites for voice actors. We believe in creating fast, mobile-friendly, responsive, highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use. You have full control. No need to hire someone every time you want to make a change. And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time. You can get your voiceover website going for as little as $700. So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options, go to voiceactorwebsites.com, where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the, you know what. And we're back with Lisa Ristow from Impressive Talent, joining us from Bethesda, Maryland tonight. And she's a busy lady. You're in a break. She's on the phone. She's talking to people. That's right. She's making deals. That's right. Got a lot of money. She's making my talent to New York. It's important. Absolutely. All right, well, we got a pile, a large pile of questions. Mr. Rittham, will you lead off, please? OK. First one comes from Kathy Cervata. We know of her. If you remember me, I'm a web designer for voice websites. Voice actors, actually. She says, and she has a question or two for you about your views on voice talent websites. Can you tell us any do's and don'ts for voice actor websites from an agent's perspective? So when you land on that website, what's something that turns you off immediately on a website if you end up on one? I want to see professionalism. I want to see demos. I don't think you need to have a picture of your dog. Sorry, as I'm holding mine. I think you just need to state it. Keep it. If you do multiple things, just have a voiceover website. Demos on top. Tell us about your studio. Tell us about some of your bookings. State how you connect. SourceConnect.usdn, IPDTL, whatever it may be. And lay it out. So that's easy to read. Catchy, but yet tells it like it is. I just see so many homemade sites that just they're really poor quality. I guess one thing that kind of turns me off is seeing SoundCloud links on your page. Come on. No matter who you make your website, if you do your own website, you can upgrade it so that you have an actual play button for your demos. So SoundCloud links kind of reek of amateurism is what you're saying? Yes. OK. At least to me. Well, to you matters. Whatever you say. Your opinion counts tonight. Yeah, I just think show people what you've got. Show range. Have more than one demo up there. Don't have just a video demo. I'm not a fan of those. I can see where they serve for marketing, but not for me. And buy stock photos after making three different websites. Stock photos from Shutterstock or somewhere to the equivalent are well worth it. You can get like five photos for like $50. It's worth it. Just have a nice design. Clean. Yeah, nice design, but more tell like it is. Tell about your studio. Show your demos. Have some videos that you've voiced, not just some videos about who you are. Do you want to know how much do you want to know about the studio? Like you want to know how to get a hold of you, what systems you have, whether you have IPTEL, Source Connect, da-da-da. How much further do you need your phone number on there? Phone number needs to be on there, but I mean. I have a studio and you can call me. I mean, is it like, I have these seven different microphones. I have these three preamps. Does that a lot of stuff matter? Do you need to know all that? Yeah, I'd rather know you have that than just know you have a good voice. Call me. Yeah. I'd rather hear that you have, you've invested in good quality equipment. I mean, I see some people listing the first interface that I had, which was a piece of junk. And I see so many people I even have us tell now are using that thing. I'm like, how can you still be using that? For me, it was a total piece of junk. But yeah, I guess not for everybody. We got a question here from Gerard Maguire, which I have to deliver like Gerard Maguire. Thanks, Lisa, for being here and enlightening us. There are many of us here who do not work in the big cities. Many of us have regional accents. Do all of the regional agents get the same casting notices through some centralized casting service? I realize there will be regional job opportunities. So should those of us outside the big cities try to have multiple agents? Yeah, everybody should have multiple agents. Because this is you. This is your income. This is your career. Get as many as you can, as long as they don't lock you into something ridiculous. For example, my daughter has got a new agent in Georgia. They said, all right, it's exclusive for the state of Georgia. I'm OK with that. Because I really don't know any other agents in Georgia. But yet, there's a place in California and Virginia Beach that's exclusive nationwide. And it's kind of a scam anyway. Yeah, I would say that would be a red flag, wouldn't you say a small market agent who's exclusive nationwide? That seems like a red flag. Yeah, so I think the more agents you can get them, because even if you are just that you're located in Arkansas and you have an accent, just say, it's still needed from time to time. You never know what the description is going to be on the job. So it doesn't matter where you're located as long as you spread yourself out. So you're balanced. You want to try to have an LA agent, but that's a problem. A lot of them are exclusive, which I think is ridiculous. You can get New York, you can get Mid-Atlantic, you can get Northeast, you can get Colorado and Minnesota. Those are great places. Texas has a lot of agents. But that's the thing, a lot of them may send out the same jobs. Then you're going to deal with who you're going to send it to and when. But yeah, spread yourself out, go to Canada. There's a great agent in New Zealand. Do your research and see what they have. I figure as long as your demos are being showcased and you're not paying to have that done, that's good. As long as they pay a fair rate. Right. Yeah. Moving on to Paul Stefano, who asked a real simple one, do you ever plan to cap your roster? I guess he's maybe wondering, is there a limit to the roster? Paul's been with me from day one. Paul's amazing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I do. See, Paul, as I'm taking more people on, I'm getting rid of more people who don't audition. If you're with my roster and you haven't auditioned for 10 or 12 months, I got you. Because why am I sending auditions to you when I got all these new people who want to come in with me and they're willing to audition? They're hungry. Yeah, they're hard workers. Paul's great. Paul definitely is a hard worker. Yeah, harder than most, actually. Jason Leach asks, are there any trends that you see in people winning auditions, or is there really such a thing right now? And by that, he means, are millennial reads trending? Is it still the conversational read that's getting the most attention? What are your thoughts? No, I've gotten more character reads lately. Character for commercial, character for this, character for that, especially people who can do multiple characters. So my daughter and I sometimes play a game while we're driving. I'll say, how would you think the stop sign would talk? Come up with a voice. How do you think the traffic light would talk? And it's good if you want to be able to have versatility to come up with these voices. Because you never know when you can use them. I remember when she used to train with people, one lady taught her how to sound like a very princess. And you just don't think, you have to whisper. So practice your voices to see what you can come up with. Imitate people you see on TV. Try it. How old is your daughter since you mentioned her again? 15. And she's been doing it how long? Eight years. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. Wow. Good that she helps pay the rent. That's always good. Yeah. I wouldn't say that. She can buy her own sneakers. Nathan D. Kalksa from Facebook says, what if you have lots of talent doing animation and cartoon, video game voices, and even commercial? But you're just getting started. So, oh, I'm sorry. I think I didn't read that right. What if you have lots of talent doing all of these different things? So if you're a voice actor with all these different skills, but you're just getting started, should you start on pay to play sites and get a few jobs and work your way up to getting a demo and then an agent? Sorry for the long question. And badly read. And poorly read. One little word changed the entire meaning of that sentence. Well, if you're on a pay to play, you still have to have a demo. No matter what pay to play you're on, you have to have some sort of demo. So I would say coaching comes first. For sure. Commercial demo is kind of the standard go-to for doing it first. But some people are really into the characters. If you're going to do that, they clearly say David Rosenthal, GVAA, you can't do, he's the best. He's the best of the best for characters. You need to have a demo that you can easily duplicate everything on that. Yeah. And if you go on a pay to play, that's great. But you need to, some of the new wave voiceover sites that are not agents are having you cut up your demos. So if you have 10 spots on a demo, they're having you cut it up into each little piece of, no, six, 10, 15 seconds. And you can label each one. This one, I'm a cowboy. And this one, I'm a priest or whatever you may be. And that sometimes that helps showcase you more if you don't have a lot is cut your demo up if you're good at editing. If you're not, don't do it. Note to self, make a demo with a character who's a cowboy priest on it. Thomas Matchin says, Mechan, I'm sorry, Thomas, I've known you forever and I'm still saying your last name wrong. I fail. I hear that some agents might specialize would be better suited to find or provide specific types of VO. Is this true? Yes. Okay. For example, I don't get radio imaging. I'd love to get it, but I'm not at that point where I get it yet. I get some animation, not much, but everything I don't get, I'd love to get. Love to get political, that'd be really cool. So, yeah, like if you, a lot of ones in LA, they're key for animation. So in New York, they have their specialty. So it's good to investigate and see what their specialties are before you approach them. Alrighty. Laura Domen asks, what's your split percentage between union and non-union? Or what's that mean? I guess she's referring to talent. Yeah. The bookings that you book, I'm not sure which. Yeah. Are you booking mostly union jobs or non-union jobs? Yeah, we book more non-union. We book some union, but it's clearly more non-union. I am a FICOR fan. I said it. In the industry, a lot of the commercials go in non-union nowadays. Not all of it, but a lot of it. And apparently if you're FICOR, even if you are still union, you have to turn in your card. If someone goes to do a check on you to see if you're up paid up to date, no one ever says if you were FICOR or not. So I feel I don't offer by union talent quite as much as I could. But if they're FICOR, I offer them a lot of stuff because it's a good mix. Alrighty. Kira asks, love to know what grabs your attention on a demo. What is it that's going to, when you suddenly get something from somebody, what's gonna grab your attention? I want to hear it professionally produced. Every second is accounted for. I know the more basic demos they have like a sad, pathetic one, like someone sick in the hospital, I want to hear more than that. It's got to be entertaining. It's got to be funny. I like it to showcase a variety of voices, but as long as it is within the theme, if you're doing a commercial demo stick to commercial. Don't throw a narration in your commercial. Don't throw an IVR in your commercial. Your demo is your marketing tool, not just for agents for everything. Talk to Mark Scott about that. That's what you got to use that demo for. So make it, invest to get a good one. All right. Well, we are running out of time rapidly because there's a million questions which we expected. We love. I'll try to talk quicker. I'll go quicker. That's okay. We prefer that you think about every word before you say it because that means you're not, you're not just like, you're not a fast talker, you're a straight talker. I like that. Anna-Marie Paluso, or this will be our last question of the night. Paluso, sorry, because there's a microphone company called Paluso. See, can I get one right tonight, folks? Okay, how much experience do you need before you should consider having an agent? You should have a studio set up. You should be profession in editing. You should have the flexibility to be there to record, to edit, to do whatever you can whenever needed. I have talent who book jobs and they're up at two or four in the morning to do bookings for people around the world. You need to have that kind of dedication, commitment, but you have to be proficient and know what you're doing so that you can handle any situation because just because you connect with a client, just say in Scotland, something goes wrong and you gotta suddenly fix this file and get it to them in 15 minutes. You need to know what you're doing and get it to them because they got a deadline on their end and it's happening quick. So just make sure you're completely trained in all facets of what you're doing before you go and do that and then your agent can count on you because things do happen. And that's our job. We're the ones that help you do that. Yeah, you have to be able to turn it around on demand and quickly and not have to spend a lot of time spinning wheels doing it. So that's really, really crucial. Anyway, all right, now the last question and of course, it invites the avalanche. How does one get in touch with you? Please don't call. No, don't call your agent. Email. No, because people do call me with the strangest things. One lady cussed me out. Oh my gosh. And I just said, I have to block her. Email me your best presentation. Tell me about your studio. Tell me, send me your demos. Send me a resume. Do you get pitch letters? Send me a, oh yeah. Send me everything that, you know, I don't care who you know. It's what you can do. That's when it comes down to. Tell me, I really want to know who you, who made your demos? Who you coach with for editing? And sometimes I do question people. I'll make them send a sample. I just have them lately. If I'm suspicious and I just don't go with the gut feeling. So email me. At the moment, I've added a bunch of talent. So I'm not rushing to add more talent, but I do have a folder I put people in and I do eventually review them. I've got other plans right now for voiceover and I've got to dive into that. So I'm going to kind of halt where I'm at for the time being, but know if you're there, you will be looked at. You don't need to email me every week. So it's going to go in the same place. And I don't respond if I don't think you're right because I just don't have the time because I'm still managing my acting and print department. Oh wow. Yeah. Alrighty. Well, Lisa, thanks so much for taking the time out of your incredibly busy schedule to come and speak with us. And we'll have you on again sometime and hopefully we'll run into each other soon. Yeah. Now go out there and find me work. Okay. Thanks so much for being with us. Get to work. Alrighty. Alrighty. All right, George and I'll be right back to wrap things up right after this. This is Anthony Mendez and you're watching VoiceOver Body Shop. Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead. Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer. That place is voiceoverextra.com. Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level, stay in touch with market trends, coaching, products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls. VoiceOverextra has hundreds of articles, free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed. Learn from the most respected talents, coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books, auditioning, casting, home studio setup and equipment, marketing, performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one stop daily resource for voiceover success. Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition. It's all here at voiceoverextra.com. That's voiceoverextra.com. Hey there. VoiceOver Essentials has put together two bundle deals featuring some of their most popular products at special pricing. No matter your budget, you can't go wrong, whichever one you choose. And now get interest free credit for six months when you check out with PayPal. First, there's the plus bundle. Save a hundred bucks and free shipping. You get a Portabooth Plus, the V01A microphone, the Micport Pro 2 mobile preamp and interface with limiter, the voice optimized headphones, adjustable desktop microphone stand and the Vox Pop filter. But separately, you'd pay $986.89, but the bundle price is a hundred bucks less, $886.89. Now, the pro bundle, you'll save $150 with free shipping. You get the Portabooth Pro, the V01A microphone, the mixer face, portable mixer and mobile recording interface, the Harlan Hogan voice optimized headphones, the adjustable desktop microphone stand, the Vox Pop filter, the voiceover recording sign, all that. But separately, you'd pay $1276.84, but the bundle price is $150 off at $1126.84. Go over to voiceoveressentials.com and pick up these great bundles and get yourself a Portabooth Plus or Pro with all these other great additions. Thanks, Harlan. Source elements, remember these people? This amazing company, they make this great software called Source Connect. You should have it. You should already have it. If you're thinking that you should have it, you already by now should have it. And it's very easy to do this. Get Source Connect by going to source-elements.com. Get a 15-day free trial. Get your iLock account signed up for, doesn't cost a cent, don't need to buy an iLock. Get all this thing up, get it all up and running. Get all that installed. Get and go through the hoops of getting it working with your interface. Have yourself ready to go because when that time comes where the agent or a client says must have Source Connect, you wanna be able to say yes. And you don't have to spend a dime to do it. You can have all this up and running. Have it in a demo. The second they say, do you have Source Connect? You say yes. Go to source-elements.com. Activate your license. You can do it for the lifetime of your ownership for one fee or you can do it monthly. It's up to you. But you can get Source Connect right now. So go over there and give it a try. Tell them we sent you and be ready. Be ready when that agent or that client says we need Source Connect because I'm telling you they're gonna. So go check it out. We'll be right back. Oh, I think I heard the voice of a body shop. I did. I did hear the voice of a body shop. Little body shop. All right, thanks again to Lisa Risto from Impressive Talent. Some great answers there. Stuff that people don't really think about. Yeah, that was a huge amount of information. We don't get a lot of agents on the show. It's hard for them to make the time. They're busy. Their schedules are crazy. In her case, she's also got a talent living in the house with her. And a dog. And a daughter. And a very busy dog. So anyway, it was wonderful. Alrighty. Who's on next week? It's Tech Talk number 20. Or is it 21 coming up? Where are we at now? I'm losing track. 20. Tech Talk coming up. It might be 21. We'll look at the numbers and figure it out later. Doesn't matter. All we know is there's more Tech Talk coming next week. And then in a couple of weeks, my wife and I are taking a cruise down the Danube. Da, da, da, da, da. Love you. Go see Vienna and Budapest. And so we'll have some repeats on for a couple of weeks. But you guys want to watch those because I'm going to pick some really good ones. Good. All right. Who are our donors of the week? I'm looking at the list right now. Lots of familiar names. Don Griffith. Scroll back down. Oh, sorry. It's easier to see over there. There you go. Don Griffith, Martha Kahn, Ant-Land Productions. Diana Birdsall. Patty Gibbons. George A. Wittem. That's my dad. And Puffy Lustig. Who I met at WoWoCon. From Austria. From Austria. Puffy Lustig. It might be the way you say it. And he's an audio engineer. I had a great talk with him. Oh, cool. Thanks so much for your support. Absolutely. Hey, join our mailing list, which you send out notices on Twitter all the time. I tweet on Twitter that we won't spam you. That's right. But I tweet it all the time, so I'm spamming you. Well, just spamming you to say join the list and then you will stop spamming you. Hey, show us your booths. Whose booth is this? This is Jack Daniels' booth. It is. And beautiful booth. It's a beaut. It is. He has a really nice speed. Send it to us. Send us your particular booth in Landscape. Landscape and portrait. And try to send it in a higher resolution. Sometimes folks will snap a shot with their iPhone. And when they email it, they won't choose high quality. Sends it over in postage stamp size, which looks real crappy at 1080p. I'm telling you. So really, send them over in good quality and we'll use them. Absolutely. Well, we also need to thank our sponsors like Harlan Hogan's Voice Over Essentials. Voice Over Extra. Source Elements. Voheroes.com. Voigtatvoicehactorwebsites.com. And J. Michael Collins demos. Alrighty. Also the Dan and Marcy Leonard Foundation for the betterment of live webcasting. Mike Merlino, who actually was helping us in the chat room tonight. J. Mike. And his mom, Sumerlino, who is our magnificent technical director. You too. Doing a bang up job tonight. And of course, Lee Penny, who I know is watching tonight, simply for being Lee Penny. Well, that's going to do it for us this week. Tech Talk is coming up next. So stay tuned for that. And I'm Dan Leonard. I'm George Wynnum. And this is Voice Over. Body Shot. Or VOBS. See you later, guys. Bye.