 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop. And our special guest tonight is Paul Castro, Jr., who just dragged himself out from New York to join us here in LA. Just to be on the show. Just to be on our show. You got any questions for him or some tech questions for George and I? Send them into the chat room, primarily on Facebook, because the other one's going away. It's a whole other story. Anyway, Paul Castro, Jr., your questions, our questions, all sorts of voiceover stuff coming up right now on VoiceOver Body Shop. 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 Wittem, the engineer to the VO Stars, a 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. Well, hi there. I'm Dan Leonard. And I'm George Whitton. And this is VoiceOver Body Shop or VOBS. There we go. We got a crowd tonight. For once. Guys, you guys could be here in the studio if you wanted to. Just let us know if you're in the Greater Los Angeles area. And you can see this show being done live. You could laugh at how small this place really is. Really? We fit it all in here. It's amazing, isn't it? Yeah. So another exciting week in Hollywood, the Oscars are gone. So we'll stop seeing all the billboards and the stuff on the buses. Quite a shocking result, I have to say. Now I have to go see Parasite. That's going to have a massive bump to their viewership, right? Millions of people, just that movie just popped up on their radar. I know. So good for them. Yeah, everybody was talking about how good it was. I thought 1917 was going to win, but, you know, this is called Hollywood Talk. Well, I saw the night before the Oscars, I went and saw Ford versus Ferrari, finally. I want to go see that. And that was a hell of a lot of fun. Oh, okay. Well, now I know I have to see it. They actually had to re-dub the sound of all the cars. Really? Because you're seeing what looked like the real cars. Right. And they certainly drive like the real cars, but the engines in them are like modern engines. Right. So they had to go get, they had to source sounds of the original old engines. Right. Do all that, then re-dub all that back in. And won an Oscar for doing it. They should have. They did. And they did. They did for best sound mixing. Freaking awesome. It was awesome. All right. Well, speaking of Hollywood, it's time to introduce our guest for tonight. A young man, I met a couple of weeks ago because I worked on a studio and he's got a great story because he's a successful actor. And he's made the decision to come out here to LA to seek his fortune. You know, so. It's right over there. It's in the next backyard, actually. Anyway, let's welcome to voiceover body shop, Paul Castro Jr. Paul, come on up here. Thank you. You are too kind. Oh, no, we're real kind. Okay. We're kind of something we're not exactly sure what. But anyway, welcome to the show. Clearly you've watched us before, so. Yes. All right. Well, it's good to know. So here you are now living here in Los Angeles. But tell us about yourself. You're originally from Brooklyn. Yes. I grew up in Brooklyn till I was like seven, then family moved to Jersey as most people from Brooklyn do. And then I came back to New York for school or for college. So went to NYU. And then I've been there. Yeah. Yeah. The Tisch School of the Arts, as they call it. And I was there for almost, I feel like it's eight years, almost nine years. I lived in New York since then. And yeah, it's been like in Lower Manhattan or all over. I lived in Chinatown, Soho. I mostly lived in Harlem. I lived on 125th, then moved to 135th, then to 145th. And I was either going to Washington Heights or to LA. So we chose the way uptown. Yes. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. So you're you've been doing acting on stage on screen. Tell us some of the stuff you've been working on. Yeah, done. I've, well, I've TV wise been on shows like Limitless and Blue Bloods, Law and Order. Well, if you live in New York, it's like you have to, you have to have been on Law and Order. Yes. I was on Law and Order, but they cut my character, my character out because I have like two lines. So they cut me out of that, but I was still on it and I still get the residuals from it. So it's still Law and Order in my book. So I did that. A bunch of films like The Skeleton Twins with Bill Hader and Kristen Williams. Which was a fairly, you know, a critically acclaimed film. It was an amazing film. It's, I was so lucky to have such a small part in it, but they're amazing. And the film is just them at their best, I feel like, because they get to not only be funny, but show off their chops. And they do have great chops, Kristen and Bill and Ty Burrell, too, as well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what got you into acting? So it's, the way I got into acting was kind of backwards, I think, to the way most people do is I loved video games and anime and all cartoons. And I was in college studying premed. And I was like, this is miserable. There's no way I can spend my life doing, doing biology and chemistry. And so I joined like an improv group, just making YouTube videos. And I was like, Oh, wait a second, I can do this and have fun and potentially make money at it. So I started doing that, got involved in the theater. And because I wanted to do the anime and all that stuff, I joined like a one on one acting class they had there, like for non majors. And Bill Timony knew my who does a lot of voices on Pokemon and a lot of other many amazing things. I got in touch with him. He's like, you got to learn how to act first. You can't just get into voice acting if you don't know how to act. But you were doing theater. Well, after his advice to get involved in the theater after the improv group. And so I was doing acting training. I was like, I actually kind of like doing this, applied to NYU said if I got in, I'll take it seriously. I got in miraculously. And then it just kind of steamrolled from there doing theater and on camera and TV and commercials. And I came backwards to doing voiceover a little later because I just kept being a thing that I was booking commercially. My commercial agents are like, you just keep booking. And I was working with like Nickelodeon a ton, which I still do. And I was like, what type of work are you doing with Nick? I did the problem. Well, I done some of their cartoons. I did this one show called Nell, The Princess Knight. I do a large portion of their YouTube content. So like videos like The History of SpongeBob. They're like the lip-dubs that they do for all their shows. And I do the promos for Nick Sports. The company house, like when you start booking work in there, they start, hey, we could fit him over here. Yes, fit him in over there. Yeah. It's it's very integral to all the the departments that they do that with the casting team over there. They've been great to me. And they like to use the same people. It's just you have to hope that what you're doing sticks around. It's like I was doing stuff. And then those shows got cancelled. And I'm like, all right, well, can we get another show? Yeah. But you were in New York doing this. Yeah. That's this is all in New York. Yeah. So you were working for Nickelodeon and all this other stuff. And you're doing that out of your studio in New York. Well, starting off, I didn't so my studio, which I think I'm seeing a picture of, but it's it was this is your new studio. This is my new studio now here. But it was in my closet, basically. And but I was going into production studios, there are studios in New York all over to have me record there offsite. Yeah. Okay. So what made you decide it was time to pick up states and stakes from the from the Empire State, although you were actually you were in the Garden State. You were in Jay-Z. So what made you decide to come out here and what were what were some of the determining factors? A lot of our audience are people are like, I want to come to LA. Yeah. And is it something they should do? And when is the right time to do it? At least one was it for you? Yeah. I mean, I know so many people who just kind of pack up their bags and come here and then they went up staying for a year and then going back because they didn't really have a plan and there wasn't it this can be as I know an unforgiving city if you don't have your ducks in a row. So I've been trying to come here for probably three years, I would say, like I said, me and my girlfriend said, we're going to come to LA and then work for me just kept coming up and we're trying to save up money and really kind of figure out stability in some way financially. So I was producing a movie in New York and I was like, all right, I'm going to finish this out and then we'll move. And that was supposed to be June. And then another job came up like, all right, August. And then I was like, okay, wait, then something else came up and it wound up being we got out of our place in New York in December, we spent that month in Jersey with family and then we moved. And the reason we did it for me primarily was voiceover. I mean, obviously I'm doing on camera stuff too. But if you want to do at a high level because New York is great commercially, it is still, I would say the mecca of commercial voiceover. A lot of most animation that's union, video games, interactive mo cap, that's here from everything. Yeah, so that was the biggest incentive for me. I knew I was still doing commercials in New York. I could carry a lot of that stuff over, but I wanted to do more animation video games and interactive. I just knew that that's what my passion was like my five year plan of where I see my career going and I can still do on camera and everything else I'm doing. If you want to do Broadway staying in New York, let's say you didn't feel like you were taking a massive risk losing client. It didn't, it didn't. Small some things were, I guess some things were, yeah, it was a risk. Yes, it was, it was tricky because I think I had a lot of insecurity as it was getting closer. I'm like, what did I do? What am I doing here? I had to buy a car and do all this. It costs a lot of money to move here and that's what I think people don't realize is if you don't have a bank. You've got to have the resources in order to come here and do it. I'm just to get into voiceover. You've got to have resources. You're going to be living on ramen noodles and, you know, catch up. Yeah, and that's why I came here a month beforehand. I came here here, I came out here December 4th for two weeks and I met with all the agents that I knew that I could get meetings without here because I have New York rep and I just knew that I wanted to be taken care of in LA and now I'm working with Dean Panera, who's been amazing thus far, but I took all my meetings and I said, I want to see what happens before I make that huge commitment and then finding a place too, finding a place I could build my studio in. All these conditions I had to meet in order to make this work out and if I didn't have the money to do that, there's just, you know, I'd be living in my car. Yeah, take note of that. Important to note, our guest right now is Paul Castro Jr., who's talking to us about his transition out here to LA. If you have a question for him, you can throw it in our Facebook chat room and Jeff Holman is running our chat room tonight, so he'll be greeting you there and ask your question of Paul and we'll get to it in just a little bit. So you packed up the car and your cats, four cats, and your girlfriend who had the priority. Yeah, well, the cats are the girlfriend, you mean? Yeah. Yeah, she had to go into the cat crate and the cat's got the front seat now. It was four cats just running rampant all in the car. Yeah. And how long did it take you to get out here? We saw, I don't recommend doing this. It was a nightmare. We did it in four days. We stopped three times and we had like a pseudo trip in Sedona, which was like just a three hour hike that we did. Right. Like the cats in the car? We got an Airbnb. We just left them there, so that's the only way that worked out. Yeah. But I don't recommend doing that. If you're going to go across country, take your time. Don't get four cats. And yeah, it was a nightmare. We did it with two dogs. It took 10 days and stayed at hotels that were friendly to dogs. Good. Yeah. Which was nice. Yeah. And we got to see a lot of America and took our time. But you weren't a hurry to get out here. I was. I felt like every second I was not in LA, I was like, this is money wasted. Yeah. So, but it was good. It was good. I think the trip across country was like shedding the New York skin and rebirthing in LA kind of, even though I'm still going back to New York. Well, yeah. But no, but it's like you're shutting the door behind you. Yes. You know, we decided like, you know, the house closed, we passed stuff was piled up on the front lawn and we're like, let's go. Yeah. We said goodbye to our friends, we got in the car, boom, we're out of there. And it was like, see you. Yeah. And it was, it's a transition. It's, you know, I'm making a shift in my life. So, that was probably a hard thing to do. But once you got here. Yeah. I mean, it was like 70 degrees and New York, it was raining and 20 degrees. So, I said it's so worth it. Even for this alone. You'll never miss it. Trust me. Yeah. It's, I don't, I, after being in New York for that long, I'm like, what are, I mean, actually, I guess it makes sense if you think I'm going to beat myself up in New York until I have no more pride or humility. I'm just going to be completely raw and at my lowest and then come to LA, you'll have perspective and you won't be jaded. There you go. You missed the smell of slightly burnt hot dogs, cigarettes, piss and everything. 40 second and Broadway. Absolutely. You can get that here for sure. Let me know where to go. Just walk under any viaduct here. You can get that sort of thing. So did you do any recording while you were on the road? I had auditions I had to do. How did you do that? The, my Sennheiser MKH 416 and we just called a 416. You don't have to throw the MKH. Sennheiser? No. So yeah, the 416 and my audience, I do one for my laptop and in the car. Great place to do it. Yep. When we were in the Airbnb's, I went back into the car, I recorded or if it was something that was like a rush audition, it was like, can we just pull over and pray the cats stay asleep right now? And then one went back, like, all right, I gotta do it again. That was my life in New York, quite frankly, not having, and that was the biggest inspiration for getting a room was in New York, it's so noisy and you're just at the mercy of whatever the beast wants. So if it sirens going by every five minutes, I'd have to turn off my fridge. I'd have to put the cats in the room. I'd have to like, everything had to be in order. Like my girlfriend couldn't breathe there. I would be like, she's right on top of me. So it was just like, this is, this is such a hard way to live and pursue this in New York. Not that it's not right for everybody, but it's just really difficult. It's a tough place to live. Yeah. Well, we have a lot of friends in New York and they're always, they've adjusted. They've been doing it for a long time and they come and visit out here every now and again, but they go back. Yeah. So anyway, once again, we're talking with Paul Castro Jr. If you've got a question for him, again, throw it in the chat room. If you're curious about what it's going to take to pick yourself up and move from wherever you are and come to LA, he's the guy to ask. Well, you can ask me too. Yeah. George, you've been out here for what? How long? 20 years? Well, gosh, 2004, January. I drove about the same time of year you did. Yeah. Had to get off the road in New Mexico, black ice, find a place in a hotel room at a Native American resort, sneak a dog into a hotel room. Yeah. I know, I know what you went through. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you're here. You found a really nice place in Lake Belboa, I guess, is technically what they call that neighborhood. Yes. And you moved in there. So now you're here, you want to pursue, obviously voiceover and you're getting that work and you're still doing the ongoing work with the clients you have, but you also want to pursue the on camera stuff. Have you been able to get anything since you dropped in? Well, the funniest thing is I got here like January 5th, I think January 9th, I found out I booked like a guest spot on a show in New York and I had to fly back within four days of being here. Okay. And I was like, oh, wow, this is very serendipitous of saying New York's like, you think you're leaving, you're bringing it back. And that's so I flew back for like a week and a half for that. And you want to get you book a trip. Yeah, exactly. In this case, you're moving, but yeah, the whole thing still works back to the freezing cold, though it was bitter cold when I went and and then I have to do again another gig tomorrow and flying back out. But I've been able to also pursue at the same time. But I do feel the strain that if it was way busier than it is now for me on camera wise, there would be, I think a sacrifice or some sort of negotiation to be had to do voiceover at the rate at which it demands if you want to take it as seriously as you do, like it can be seven to 10 auditions a day sometimes on a good, like a good day. And some of those are due that day. And it's about, you know, taking care of your body and going to the gym and making sure you're eating and also doing good auditions because that's I think a lot of people, they neglect that part because there's things that are due like, all right, two hours, get this promo in or something and they don't do the work on it. And they just get behind the mic and they just read it. And it's like, all right, well, you're just throwing darts at the dartboard. Mechanically, just doing it. Yeah. And I totally, there's a lot of successful voice actors I've heard that are even on shows and doing animes or video games or cartoons. It's like, they feel like sometimes they're phoning an inks. They don't get to get the backstory or do the homework on it. And I totally get that because there's such a rush demand for this stuff. So you have to figure out ways to work at the quantity that your agents and the clients are asking you, but also feel like you're doing the work you want as a performer. That's a hard negotiation sometimes. Right. And you're represented for voiceover and on camera from the same agency? Yes. So my New York agents in New York or Stuart, they rep me on camera and commercial across the board. But in LA only, I'm with Dean Panera here. Okay. So yeah, that's that's gotta be challenging. You know, they're leading you to be on avail for something. And yeah, yeah, it's, it's been tricky. It's been very tricky, just like scheduling wise, like having to know my manager has to be on top of knowing like, all right, what are the book updates for this? What like, is it worth me even pursuing some things? Because they never want to be in a situation where like, Oh, Paul is not available. Because he's the guy is not available. Yes. And it looks, they look bad to the the producers or the casting director. And so it's, that's just been something I'm, it's like, that's brand new for me. So I'm just figuring it out right now and the way to deal with it. Well, how do you think you're going to prioritize it? Is it simply what pays more or what's going to create the best opportunity or? It's tough. I think I want to do the on camera. And there's a lot of people who do both successfully, but I would say that I've as getting older and realizing you got a long way to go to your older, my friend. Yeah. Yeah. Well, gaining levels at a rate, I am realizing bills need to be paid and following the thing. Sometimes you get lucky and something says it keeps answering. And that was voiceover for me. And as much as I wanted to be, you know, the next Leonardo DiCaprio at, you know, 24, I realized, well, voiceover is something I'm extremely passionate about. I love it to death and it's paying my bills. It's something that people. It's giving back to you. It has. And it's, it's very, there's a, it's a very select group of people that are successful in the business. And the thing I always say is that you have to be a way better actor to be a voice actor. Because if I go into audition for something on camera, I'm going up against people who look like me in my age. They have a similar type. Right. As a voice actor, you're going up against the best of the best for these big profile things. So you're going up against the James Arnold Taylor's, the Rob Paulson's, all these people. So you have to be that good to break through all the, the noise. Interesting. Years and years and years of experience in this town and they're like part of the fabric. Exactly. And I heard you say manager. When did the manager come into play for you getting management? So I guess that's a good thing to talk about is when I, I got started acting before I went to NYU, I had a, like a youth manager and they're still, I'm still considered a youth crazy enough, even though I'm creeping on 30. Because I look like I'm, you know, early 20s, 18s, college age. Yes. Yes. So I had a youth manager and they, the, and this is a great, I guess, uh, thing for anybody who's trying to pursue at a young age, voice acting is a lot of the commercial casting or commercial agencies are sending out talent, even if you're not a voice actor for the voice acting gigs, because they just need actors at that young age and no one's at, you know, 15 or 14. Like I want to be a voice actor largely. So everyone who's in a commercial agency is getting a lot of the times, at least it was for me in New York getting all those voiceover breakdowns. So I had them right as I was getting into college and then they've been with me since then getting me with my agents when I was with Abrams for a long time and then my agents moved to Stuart and I went with them. So, um, they, but she's been very integral into like helping me figure out this whole thing and keeping it like in check for me. Um, Stephanie Artuso at Shirley Grant. Yeah. Outstanding. Once again, our guest is Paul Castro, Jr. If you got a question, now's a really good time to ask it in our chat room and Jeff Holman is standing by waiting for your questions and we'll get to those. So we're going to take a little break right now and we'll get to your questions and more stuff with Paul right after these incredibly important messages. This is the Latin lover narrator from Jane the Virgin, Anthony Mendes and you're enjoying Dan and George on the voiceover buddy shop. Well, hello there. I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for Snapchat, were you? This is Virgin Radio. Well, okay, we're not that innocent. There's jeans for wearing and there's jeans for working. Dickies, because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values, a leader for California and a voice for America. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smartphone, but it's so much more. It's a the files are ready. 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The first class is Friday, January 17th, and they'll continue for the next week. To be able to watch these classes, just let us know you're interested. Visit ACXMasterclass.com. That's ACXMasterclass.com. As a voice talent, you have to have a website, but what a hassle getting someone to do it for you. And when they finally do, they break or don't look right on mobile devices. They're not built for marketing and SEO. They're expensive. You have limited or no control. And it takes forever to get one built and go live. So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voiceactorwebsites.com. Like our name implies, voiceactorwebsites.com just does websites for voice actors. We believe in creating fast, mobile-friendly, responsive, highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use. You have full control. No need to hire someone every time you want to make a change. And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time. You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700. So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity in dealing with too many options, go to voiceactorwebsites.com where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the, you know what. This is Bill Ratner and you're enjoying Voice Over Body Shop with Dan Leonard and George Wittem, vobs.tv. And we're back here on Voice Over Body Shop with Paul Castro Jr. We're talking about his trek from the East Coast out here to the left coast and West Coast, West Coast. And in the winter, which is the best time to do it, because the contrast is so stark. But if you want winter, you move up to Rightwood in front of Larry. And you can still shovel snow up there if you want. I'm good. I have not done that since I moved here from Buffalo four and a half years ago. But maybe this winter I'll get up there and just go. Well, Larry, you can pay Larry to go shovel his snow form. That's true. Yeah, it's an attraction. That's true. I've seen it on Facebook. The little bobsled run up there. Be fun. So you've got a very young voice, unlike some of us old geezers. How do you brand yourself? I mean, how did you do it in New York and are you trying to apply the same sort of branding here? Have you changed the strategy at all? A little bit. I think I still am very aware and I think everybody needs to know what their brand is and figuring that out can be probably the most beneficial thing to you in your career. Because you got to know your own voice and you have to know how to differentiate yourself. Because that's the only thing that's unique to you is the thing that you were given and the thing that you should learn to harness and become the best at. Because everybody nowadays is trying to become the person of a thousand voices or an impressionist and do their... That worked that way, yeah. And even I remember I sat down with my agent and Dean, he was like, there's so much money to be made with just your voice. Let's work on that first. And not that I don't do different character voices, but I often feel that there's a lot of times when people are casting these specs, they don't really know what they want just yet. And I feel like why not give them the best thing if it's within the parameters, I mean, to give them what you need to you and color it with the different, you know, circumstances, do the acting work. So give them what's unique to you. And they'll probably be like, Oh, that was really good. And I've never heard that before. Let's try that. Because so often, there's an oversaturation of the same type of voices and the same voice actors. People want difference. So why not just start with what you've been God given? Your question was branding though, right? Yes. Okay, so... But you're getting there. Yeah, yes. But branding wise, I just knew that I had this young, I mean, the way I walked into the room kind of how I'm dressed in my haircut was this young, energetic, a lot of skateboard type style punk things. So I was working a lot with Nickelodeon on those high energetic things were like next time on Nick. And I was like, Oh, wait a second, that's something I can capitalize on branding wise and all these younger things instead of trying to do the older, like young dad 25 year old, where there's a ton of work, mind you. But I said, I knew I'm going to get more of my return on my investments. If I target those younger, Gen Y targeted brands in terms of commercials and even animation wise, not that I don't go out for the 25 to 35 or even 40 sometimes stuff. But I just know it's like, I have to do what's best for me instead of trying to put on the dad voice. It's like, there's just no point in doing that. Yeah, I do what's my interpretation of that. Maybe I and it's more about performance with cadence and intonation and the how who I'm talking to rather than trying to put on something that I'm not the good people who can do that. They're doing it for a reason. They still are. James Arnold Taylor is very good at what he does. And there's a reason why he can do everything. He can do everything. Yeah. And I've seen him do it all in one sentence, which is pretty impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Are you taking any? Are you taking any classes? Have you signed up for any classes working with anybody out here? And because I know a lot of people say you've got to keep studying to make yourself competitive. I yes. So I haven't I've been taking actually I've been focusing more on business stuff. I just did a like a consultation with Maria Pendolino. So just a nice buffalo gal. Yes, exactly. So really for me at this point, just transitioning is maximizing my marketing and ways to attract more clients so that I can make use of my investment on my home studio, like figuring out the best way to get to that next pay gap because I'm making money, but it's about now building upon that. So I've been doing a lot of business focused things. That's been my target, but taking classes and meeting with people and networking is it's on the priority list. And I already know people I want to train with and like Richard Horowitz, I'd love to, you know, maybe take a class with him. It's just about priority, not enough hours in the day at this point just yet because I'm still like getting furniture. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta take care of those things. Yes. But you know, if somebody's going to hire you to do something, you're going to get a chance to work with somebody. Yes. That couch can wait. You can still sit on the floor. Yes. Yes. Mick Winger is another person who I've already talked to you about doing work with. You know, these are people that are successful voice actors who I know that I want to work with. But I do think that there is a culture that is done not just probably less in the voice acting world, more on camera, where people become like professional students in a way. And not that you shouldn't always be learning, but you have to learn to utilize both like know when the classes are right for you and not that you shouldn't stop training, but also pursuing the financial return or figuring out ways to market yourself and investing in those things rather than just always being in the class. Right. Well, we got a couple of questions from our vast audience, which by the way is worldwide. They're watching in Australia. They're watching in Switzerland. They're asleep there, but they're still watching. And if you've got a question, again, throw it in the Facebook chat room and we'll get it right to Paul in just a minute. Who do we have there, Mr. Witte? Let's go back and look at the right questions. Here we go. Thomas Machin says, you were hit with sticker shock with the move. Were you hit with it? In terms of... We prepared for what it was going to cost you. So I was and I wasn't because I had friends who'd done the move already and I'd seen them come back just as soon as they got here. And I knew that financially I had to have my money, like I said in order. And then buying a car was a whole process in itself. And you're changing your expenses from the metro rides to insurance and the car payment and all that other stuff. Have you registered your car in California yet? See, like I still have those things to do. I did do my TSA pre-check thing though. So now going back and forth will be less hassle. But that's still on the list, transferring over my insurance, which I haven't done yet, and all that stuff. Yeah, I'll get to it. If I get pulled over or else, you know, I'll deal with that. I waited a year. Is it like a month or are you supposed to do a month? Yeah, so we'll see how... Just don't get caught. Yeah, exactly, yes. But I took those three years and I didn't go... As much as I wanted to go last year, I was so ready. I just knew that it didn't make sense. My mental health was definitely being affected because me and my girl, I'm always just saying, I can't wait to move, I can't wait to move. That was the majority of our conversations. I can't wait till we get past this point of we're stuck in limbo kind of. We wanted it so bad. We did what we had to do. We did the hard work. We put in time with our families. We made sure we worked really hard to get our finances in order and we wouldn't have done it if we didn't have the means to do it. And I wouldn't recommend people do it if they don't. Examples I mean by that, I came out here two weeks earlier, I stayed with a friend of mine and I saved money on terms of getting a hotel and Airbnb, whatever that was. Figuring out ways because I guarantee you so many people know people in LA. And if you've never been here, stay with somebody who you know and see how you like it first because it may not be for everybody. It's different. Yes, it's vastly different. But for me, animation-wise, video games, all that stuff. It was so high on my priority list. It was just a no-brainer. What's your girlfriend in the biz? Yeah, she's an actress and writer. She's working on a novel right now. So it's two careers you were in. Yeah, that was in negotiation too. Two careers you're messing with. Yeah, yeah. But and I'll tell you what though, because I had her, I don't think if we, if I didn't have her, I don't think I could have done it. Yeah, you have to have support. Yeah, no question about it. Yeah, absolutely. You do it by yourself and you're really like reaching in the dark. It's good to have an extra pair of hands to feel around and see what's going on. And feed the four cats too, that's helpful. Leave them out food, I thought. Yeah. They'll eventually eat it. Well, they'll eat me sooner than they'll eat the dry food. That's right. Don't die at your place. Yeah. Nasty. This thing's got muddling really fast. Rob Ryder says, question for Paul, are you getting all your additions from your agents or some other avenues? So is it all traditionally agents? Mostly it's agents. I've been lucky and returned people I've worked with, just talking with Marie and recently. I've been looking at like things like Voice 123 and ways of seeing how I can apply them with a Paymaster. If there are jobs that come through to apply for my health and pension, because that's the next really difficult adult thing that you start dealing with as you start making this a full-time career is how am I going to get my health insurance and making those pension points and all of those things. So really figuring out ways I can, because there's so much work that is non-union right now, it is there's so much and there's a lot of work for SAG to do to start figuring out ways to bring more work to people. There's reasons why these pay to plays and other avenues exist and have a place within the market because people need to pay their bills. So I've been very fortunate. I've had people I've worked with recurring and that's not common for a lot of people who were trying to get into this business as far as I'm concerned to get clients that are repeat clients. And that's I think the biggest goal for me and I think for people is figuring out ways to nurture relationships that you make. Because if you can get a return client, that can be something that pays your bills for a whole year if you work in consistently with them. Have you been doing any industrial work? Like e-learning and because some of the stuff that is really like the basis for a lot of people's business is not doing national flight commercials and things like that. They have a constant flow of business type work. Have you tried any of that? That's so I haven't that's I've been doing mostly promo commercial and animation but now realizing that I'm making this more of my full-time life. That's the things I'm looking at to start getting into that next pay gap that I want the next milestone financially because that's there's so much money and work to be had there. But then the question becomes are you going to do that through your pay master or are you going to consider going FICOR? You know what is the contract you're dealing with with those jobs? So there's a lot of questions to you have to figure out what you want. And for me knowing that I want to do a lot of on-camera stuff and there's a lot of I think taboonists around FICOR but it's a very realistic option for a lot of people who want to do everything and have the freedom to do it while also doing union stuff because there's just so much non-union work right now. Do I hope that that's the case going forward? I hope not and that's why I have not done that yet. Where do you go when you want to get advice on that kind of stuff? You got your manager or? My manager and like people like Maria and just like you know different podcasts I think you know between you guys and V.O. Buzz and there's V.O. Boss there's a lot of stuff but a lot of it too is just I've done a really large amount of homework in terms of my networking so I knew when I was coming out here meet as many people that I have some sort of like Kevin Bacon-less separation to degrees of separation or four degrees. It's not six that's for sure. Yes so finding people and I've been very lucky to speak with people who are doing this at the highest level because I did my diligence of reaching out to people and that's the best thing about the voiceover business different than the on-camera business is the people are so amazing and bright and helpful and they want to be supportive of a new talent let's say if you know you try to reach out to an on-camera person there's probably a much difficult more difficult way to even get in touch with that person. Many voice actors you can go to their website and just click contact and say hey I know so and so I'm good friends like I would move to LA would love to buy you lunch or whatever just nurture a relationship that way because- Never say it's safer to be. It's safer to be a voice actor right? It's safer. It is quite frankly it is. Yeah yeah. Abigail Wall. An old apparently a fan or friend or- Very good friends. Yes and very talented voice actors. Yes. What's your typical day like? It probably varies from week to week but what time do you wake up and go to sleep? Miss you in New York City. Miss you too Abby. Right now it's been different because I'm it's either I'm still on New York time and you're flipping fluff and- Jet lag wise but I would say I'm getting up at 5.30 right now I'm getting to the gym by six and I'm getting home by seven and then that's like shower 7.30 I'm in the room recording whatever it is I have to do I'm doing my homework on things like I literally spent all day today this morning just working on a Boston accent for something I'm doing and that's like that's one of those things where there's those small- Just watch the Super Bowl that man. Yeah exactly. Fuck a guy. You learn it in 30 seconds. Smack back. Yeah so you know doing being being authentic like doing things like that which I have the skills to do but knowing that there are certain intricacies in the the accent that you can make a mistake and someone's going to know if they're a native. It's between doing an impression versus- Exactly. Being the guy. And being able to do it from a relaxed state that takes work for me to do I don't want to just throw garbage out there so I spent a lot of time doing that but pretty much from 7.30 to like 12.30 I'm doing preps and auditions I'll get lunch at that point and then it's usually another influx of things coming in so I try to stop working at like four at this point now then decompress get food and then it usually does happen where something will come in later and I'm back in the booth at like 8 or 9 o'clock and I'm trying to be in bed by 10 and then everything else that comes in with life too like I said driving around LA on Facebook Marketplace getting different furniture is still part of it and doing on-camera auditions and business stuff I'm trying to dedicate at least an hour within the day to just focus on my marketing and my business and giving myself that homework to say do outreach do marketing connect with people on LinkedIn I recommend OfferUp too OfferUp oh that's another like Marketplace Yeah so yeah but all these other different things that go into running a business because people think that when you're a voice actor that's all you do but you're running a business you're the CEO of Excellent point of your own business Yeah you're a successful actor but you understand that you're an entrepreneur You're entering an entrepreneurial pursuit Yes yeah and that's not something anybody teaches you in acting school and that's I've gone back to like my alma mater and I talked with students about that and just talking about getting a website and doing your diligence to get it your real and how to connect with managers and about taking classes or going to the grad schools and working with students and that's ways that you can build your relationships and portfolio and I remember talking with the whole class of like first years at acting school and they were all like I feel very overwhelmed right now and I'm like well that's because this needs to be a class there needs to be business the business of acting because remember it's show business It's show and there's no business Yeah like show business Yes Question from Wes Hey Paul how do you feel about recording in different locations like not in your studio do you prefer really only recording in your own personal setup or You know what that's a good question I love recording in my own studio and I think that's something that a lot of people who've been doing this for a while they always really love being on site I love doing like pre-lay with a group of actors on an animated project I think that's the most rewarding experience you'll get Pre-lay is before production starts at all Yes you're doing the voices No that's like when you're doing the voices and then just the scripts and then they'll animate towards the voices Oh okay So doing that for a show has been the most rewarding but uh auditioning wise I love doing home records so much better because I just know at my age the people I'm going against aren't going to have nearly the quality that I'm putting out there they're not going to have nearly the skill and that's where I am so much more beneficial because my stuff sounds top quality and it sounds like to them probably I'm trying to bring in 15 or 16 year olds why does this guy sound like he's going to the studio every day to record like well that's my bedroom Exactly Well we're actually looking at your studio if you turn a little bit you can actually see what your studio looks like turn turn turn this way there you go you can actually see what you've got set up there Yes so I have got I've got my 416 and a AKG C414 the XL2 I know there's like the different versions of them It's a microphone for the panel and that's not the important part and I've got my I mirror my DAW I use Adobe Audition and then my sides are here and that's pretty much how I do it and I haven't I've done it a couple of times I know we talked about this when we set it up the place having the two microphones has been increased my workflow tremendously because if I'm doing something that has a lot of efforts or screams I'll just run multi-track put one gained for my efforts and shouts and the other one gained for just normal speaking voice and so it's like an animation trick yeah which has been something I've never heard anyone do I was just like I have two good microphones why don't I do that Yeah cool Have you had any success getting into animation or anime or some of the things that you want to try and get out here in LA? Yeah I've already been go I've had already callbacks for fairly large things and I'm going out for a large majority of the big high-profile stuff that's you know the Netflix shows the cartoon network stuff and again it's like there's definitely gonna be a period where again like Abigail Wall we took a class with Andrea Toyas who does Blizzard Entertainment You've had her on the show She's an amazing, so talented and so giving as a person her class is phenomenal you should take it if she's going to be in your area just like the realistic logistics of people especially younger talent if you're not here it's hard for you to work on the things that are here so as much as you might want to do Blizzard from New York or wherever you might be it's going to have to be so specific and at the end of the day you'll probably have to fly here on your own dime anyway so it for as a production company or agency or casting office they're not going to waste their time with people who aren't here already I literally read a spec sheet today or yesterday that said prefer LA first but we'll consider other areas if they are that good so that was a huge influence for me for me moving and you know I'm at this That's a common question we get on this show Really? Really common because our audience is everywhere Yeah Every show must somebody ask that question Do I have to be in LA to book this stuff? And it's like not a have to but if you want to increase your odds dramatically probably need to be here Yeah Yeah and if you've been here for a while and you've been established you can actually move away if Yeah It's true You know if you've got the facility to do it Put your ears in Yeah And half of these casting directors here in LA don't even know me because they're not sending they weren't sending those breakdowns I think that's changing a little bit now I think that there's a lot of New York agencies like my New York agency was doing their diligence to make relationships in LA but a lot of people or a lot of agencies in New York don't have that connection The casting offices don't really want to have New York talent come in for a majority of things because it creates a headache especially for younger talent So like if I'm going in for DreamWorks type of things their assumption is I'm somewhere between 14 to 21 years old That whole logistics of getting me from wherever I am to there to work for one day that's just a headache they don't want to deal with I assume So just meeting the new casting directors here that I've never been in for is expanding my market and I'm going in for a lot more than I ever did in New York Yeah Got to have a couple minutes here What would be your like standard advice to people who are trying to decide whether they want to come out here If you're just want to come out here to be an actor and you don't have a whole lot of experience this is not the place for you Yeah yeah Probably No I would say get into an acting class wherever you are get really really really really good I mean the amount of time I've spent in my closet when I was in New York just working on copy like making my own demos let's say but never doing anything with them it was just the practice of learning how to become your own engineer learning how to like hearing the difference between different reads and learning to talk to actual people when you're acting and not just saying words because you know when you're in the booth a lot of things are taken away from you you don't have the props in front of you the other actors to work off of you you have to really create that environment in yourself almost like green screen acting in a way So I would say getting classes get really really good see if you can establish work in the market that you're in I'm so glad I got to make so many mistakes in New York doing like dubbing in New York on the you know small projects that I did and working on the promos and the commercials and now going in for animations where now you're building like a a personality career where people are gonna you know want to eventually at some point you know go to see you at a convention or something if that's the career pursuing you have the chops now it's take I've been doing this like really doing this I would say eight years and the first years I probably took for granted and voiceover but I'm just now feeling like okay I can start it wasn't like I just woke up the next day and I just was I felt like I can do this I wanted to harness being a good actor and that's the top priority get your get your money straight and see if you can visit and just see if you like this area but anywhere you are you're gonna have to be content with like working from the ground up let's say so if you're in New York living with roommates figuring out that dynamic if you're just starting out moving to LA living with roommates or figuring out a way to to survive live frugal and just stretch your dollars very very very far yeah Facebook Marketplace has been great new couches for 200 bucks we're not new but you know they look new very nice couches yeah what eventually happens you'll find in this neighborhood is someone will leave one on the front line that too yeah and you can just like oh okay we've we've exchanged entire you know furniture sets entire rooms but hey that desk would work great in shake-ups rooms perfect you know and then put ours out and then someone takes that it's like like a blending line yeah you know it's kind of interesting got one last question here from Thomas Machen do you prefer directed sessions or directing yourself self-direction a really tough thing to do it is it's very tough I think because I've done I've produced films and I've directed films I know how to and I even doing self-tapes with my friends I think I'm good at directing and so hearing myself back I know if something is fulfilling the job in terms of the story I feel like okay I'm hitting that beat I'm hitting that joke I feel like I am a decent self-director but I did I was doing self-direction on a project that I'm doing in New York still and then they had me because I was still setting up my studio here they had me go to an LA studio to do work and I was working with a director here and just even like on one note he had me do things I'm like I wouldn't have thought of that I wouldn't have thought of that it was just being removed definitely gives you the freedom or somebody else the freedom to see things from a different angle so I probably I like working in my own booth because I get to be in my underwear if I want to and do my job but if I'm working in a studio with somebody else I think that there's that the collaboration I love to I think you'll get a better product at the end of the day no question Paul thank you so much oh my pleasure great to have you out here yes thank you feel free to come by anytime yes you guys have given me a wealth of knowledge I was watching the show and I would say do that watch all the podcast information that you can that these guys have because it's helped me so much I mean my studio is a product of his help I was literally recording even in the wrong direction but we figured that one out yeah all ready Paul Castro ladies and gentlemen thanks for being with us all right George and I'll be right back to wrap things up into a nice tight little ball right after this this is Anthony Mendes you're watching Voice 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 audiobooks auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more it's time to hit your one stop daily resource for voiceover success sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition it's all here at voiceoverextra.com that's voiceoverxtra.com Hey you know what this thing is this is a Harlan Hogan porta booth plus and this is the carry bag that it comes in you know spring break is coming up and if you're going to be on the road you're going to want to have one of these to make sure that you can record nice and quiet and with no echo on the road and right now our viewers can save 10 dollars on the porta booth plus travel bag and five dollars on their three-way adjustable desktop stand both exclusive voiceover essential exclusive products spring break is coming up so make sure you have one of these this is a must-have for your traveling studio thanks voiceover essentials and Harlan Hogan for being our sponsor for almost nine years go get one of these babies Hey everybody it's time to talk about source elements you know who they are the creators of source connect that tool that you don't have what you don't have it you should have it it's that tool that allows you to connect your studio to other studios around the world so they can record you from your booth it's a tool you should have because even if you're not being asked for it now you might be asked for it tomorrow or in a month or in a year you want to have it ready to go and know how to use it it's really the air apparent to ISDN technology and it is definitely what the pros are using you can go ahead and sign up for a 15-day free trial of source connect over at SourceElements.com get it up and running get your iLock account in order there's a little video on there I'll teach you how to do it by yours truly and it'll help you get up and running so you can understand how it all works then that day that you get the gig you can activate the license it's a no-brainer give it a try thanks for your support SourceElements and we'll see you right after this break ooh I think I heard the voice of a body shop I did I did hear the voice of a body shop little body shop and we're back to say goodbye primarily but we have lots of people to thank but most most importantly we need to thank people who have been contributing financially to the success of this show no more every week at Zappalo 13 it's rock solid because of you guys even with Larry here yeah surprisingly some of the names these are definitely familiar names for the most part so many people repeatedly subscribe I guess on PayPal Christy Burns Michael Kearns Mike Gordon Harlow Rodriguez 949 Designs that's that Lee Penny guy by the way oh that's who that is yes thanks thanks Lee Martha Kahn our friend and Shana Pennington Baird thank you everyone for those little helps to our expenses absolutely appreciate it also get on our mailing list so you know what's coming up I'm sure a lot of you get the email right before the show so you know who's gonna be on that you gotta ask your questions and that you know you get out of the show what you put into it like the people who ask questions tonight or the people that suggest guests to us as well exactly valuable always a big help and the name of their agent and their email address that's right uh and their phone yeah if you happen to have in their address right uh hey show us your boots now this this is this happens to be Paul Castro's boot but uh but you can see it's perfectly laid out and we want to see what your booth looks like it'd be like George and I would be in your studio what could the greatest thing you could never fee fun yeah look how fun this is I love it when people like put our logo on their screen and we're like oh and now thanks to like everybody watching on like little screens sometimes they didn't even know this is fake that's right it's it is I've actually heard people say how did did you know it's green screen what well that's right uh let's see here you want to be in our studio we got people in the studio tonight by the way we got us there's the camera hey wave everybody oh okay it's kind of all right but it's great to be here live it makes the show a little bit more interesting and you get to see how we do it and if I know you I get to I might get to make crack jokes about you that's right like Larry that's right all right uh we need to thank our amazing sponsors like uh Harlan Hogan's Voiceover Essentials Voiceover Extra Soros Elements voheroes.com voiceactor websites.com and J. Michael Collins demos and of course the Dan and Marci Leonard Foundation for the Betterment of Live and recorded podcasting and webcasting Jeff Holman right here in person in the flush helping us with the chat room all right Jeff excellent job first time out awesome yeah jump right into it and of course our amazing technical director Sue Merlino who gets it done week after week after week say something Sue I hooked up your microphone you ready three two one hey great to be here that was your big moment bad mic technique always myself on delay so it's a weird ass oh it's pretty awful isn't it sorry all righty well look as you know this is not an easy business just look at what Paul Castro Jr. was telling us this evening there's a lot of things you got to consider and uh but we're here to help give you advice talk to the people who are doing it with the people that guessed on this show for one exactly that's what I meant and uh so keep here every week we bring you fresh content every week here on voiceover body shop so make sure you're by all right make sure you drop by and see what we're doing and listen to what George and I say because if it sounds good it is good all righty well I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Widow and this is voiceover body shop or vio be ass wow have a great week everybody will be tech talk coming up yeah get your questions in right now