 Hey, it's Monday night and once again time for a voiceover body shop. Mm-hmm. We did it Yes, I'm somehow it gets on there and we're right on time this week. You gotta love it tonight We have a recorded interview with Jonathan Tilly Mm-hmm, but don't go away because it's actually a really good interview He gives us some really great information on marketing yourself in voiceover solid content Yes, lots of tech stuff as well if you got a question throw it in the chat room and Jack Daniels there and we've got we're gonna have a little discussion about microphones tonight So stay tuned voiceover body shop coming right up two men Twin sons from different mothers with a passion for voiceover recording technology and the desire to make recording easy for voice actors everywhere together in one place George Whidham the home studio engineer to the stars a Virginia tech grad with an unmatched knowledge of all the latest gear and technology in voiceover today Dan Leonard the home studio master a voice actor with over 30 years experience in Broadcasting and recording and a no-holds-barred myth-busting attitude for teaching you how easy it is together to bring you all the latest technology today's voiceover superstars and Leading the discussion on how to make the most of your voiceover business This is voiceover body shop Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote connections made even easier Vio to go go dot com everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist J. Michael Collins demos award-winning demo production voice actor websites dot com where your voiceover website won't be a pain in the butt and voiceover extra your daily resource for Vio success And now live from their super secret multimedia studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are George Wittem and Dan Leonard Good evening. I'm Dan Leonard, and I'm George Wittem and this is voiceover body shop or V.O Bs All right a huge crowd in the studio tonight massive massive for the second night of Hanukkah You know No, you never blow out the candles. They all got through the velvet ropes and they're here and there they are Yeah, it's a second night of Hanukkah I remember Katherine Curran our producer was like are you guys taking off on Hanukkah? I'm like it's a festival, right? It's not like Easter or so I've learned after doing the show with you Seven years. I know it's it's just a festival eight crazy nights And hopefully you don't burn the house down in that price by the eighth night. It's like, you know blaze of glory Anyway tonight Jonathan Tilley is gonna be on because we did an interview with him a couple weeks ago when he was in town Yeah, very interesting talking about marketing your voiceover business and You got some interesting tech stuff. Yeah, I got a couple tech things that come up come across the transom Right. Is that how they say it? Across the transom or across the bow. No actually you'd be a shot across the bow and then something could be on the Transom got it. Whatever that is one of those. That's what we have some of these maritime terms and we're gonna talk about microphones Again again. Well, it hasn't all been said if we were artists It would be about paintbrushes, but we're voice actors. So we're gonna talk about Microphones, right? So it's gonna be an interesting discussion and if you've got a voiceover home studio tech question Now would be a great time to throw it in the chat room So George and I can get to it in the next segment also and if you found any cool deals Oh, yeah, I'll do a little show and tell tell us in the chat room if you found anything When that cyber week last week anything you found let us know we'll tell everybody what you found, you know, Mike I got an Apple watch for Yeah, but Marci and I bought them for our anniversaries. You know, it's like I'll get you when you get me one finish the rings I know it's like, you know, I'll be sitting there watching says congratulations. You've got your stand-up Goal for the day What is this for you? I got it. I got a poor man's version. I have a Garmin Vivo sport Oh, okay, doesn't some of that cool stuff. All right so much stuff to cover tonight. So let's get started first off with Voice over body shop presents the beyond BS voice over extra news All the information you need for a successful voice over career And Here is the voice over extra news for December 3rd the holiday magic CD You know as sure as there's a Santa Claus either make believe or for real this month Thousands upon thousands of children who are stuck in hospitals over the holidays worldwide will be smiling singing laughing coloring and playing when Geoffrey the reindeer returns with the 16th annual holiday magic CD and activity book If you've been in voice over a while You probably know that Geoffrey the reindeer is the creative invention of Jeff Gelder a voice actor and producer based in San Diego His dream years ago of cheering up kids in hospitals during the holidays has snowballed into an annual Worldwide phenomenon involving many voice actors and professional talent who donate their time and talents to make it all happen now Geoff reports that this year nearly 10,000 downloadable CDs and color coloring activity books will reach hospitals in more than 71 cities Three countries and more as funds allow Speaking of funds if you would like to help Jeff spread the smiles even further you can donate at holiday magic CD org Every year since 2003 Jeff and his volunteers ask for submissions of song stories and storytellers to create a Different tale that is produced like a radio show In fact, this year's production is called the holiday magic gift for children of all ages 2018 CD radio show Here's some oxygen Plats the plot changes from year to year and this year's tale titled a sugar plum fairy Christmas Tells what happens when Santa gets sick and can't deliver the toys and gifts on Christmas Eve Well that launches Geoffrey the reindeer and his pals on an adventure Told through funny stories and inspirational and traditional songs behind the scenes the real-life crew also hosts fundraising events and some even Stage performances for the kids when delivering CDs to their local hospitals Also behind the scenes generous donations of studio and production time are made by jim all burger of voice acting dot com Tim keenin of creative media recording dot com and david goldberg at edge studio There's lots more to read about all of this in the article tomorrow at voiceover extra dot com and keep in mind That more money will lead to more cheer for those kids Please consider donating at holiday magic cd.org And always remember to visit voice over extra dot com for voice over industry news and how-to articles It's your daily resource for voice over success Well, it's assuming you didn't over give on giving tuesday last week. Yeah, no we gave anyway But it's important to give things to give I gave a little bit of money towards the fire relief You know from the woozy fire. Yeah, you know a little bit here a little bit there That's you know, there's been a lot of things to give money towards this year with all the strategies tragedies we've had Yeah, but it's important to give I think you know when you when you you learned that it's important to give back to the community It makes you feel good. I've seen the kids now have three jars. They have the spend jar the save jar and a give jar I need to work on that with my kid. I haven't done that yet with her, but that's a great idea I that's something you ought to do cool. Absolutely. So what do we got in tech this week tech stuff? Well, I was gonna say Last week was giving tuesday and there's also cyber monday. There's probably cyber week for a lot of people Yeah, so if you found anything really cool that you want to share with us or the community Just put it in the chat room and jack will grab it and throw it in there And dan and I can chat about it the second after the break, you know, all you guys think about that Upgrading to mojave. I just did this for a client's computer recently like well very recently today because there was This is one of those things that apple does they the computer will be fine The operating system will be fine But if you want to complete a certain task in this particular case have a book printed of your photos From a trip that he had taken It wouldn't allow him to make that last step of printing the book It said you must upgrade your system to do that. Oh, so since this was his wife's computer Not the studio production computer. I said, okay Let's pull the trigger on the mojave upgrade and let's go ahead and do it Three and a half hours later. It was finished. So what I'm saying is Just make sure you're not doing it in the middle of your production day your whole day Not a good idea. Wait till the weekend wait till the end of the day If you're on an older mac Especially a mac that has a spinning hard drive inside not something a solid state It's gonna take a long time to install mojave. It's it's very time consuming Um, and then once you do launch it it takes a while for the machine to boot up Everything just seems like molasses for a while until it kind of gets its bearings again Which i'm waiting to find out that the computer is fine Last I saw it was but anyway It's it does seem to be running fine again I wouldn't use it on your production computers yet But if you have a second one that's sort of like your kick around the house, you know My office computer you're probably okay to run mojave. It seems to have been by most reports Pretty darn solid. So it's probably not too bad um Speaking of breathing life into older computers Another thing you might want to consider if you're on an older iMac or a mac mini with thunderbolt Which some of them had I might think my mind does yeah, so you might consider Upgrading to the internal hard drive to an ssd. We talk about this a lot. I know I do I had one of the first ones in mind. It really wow. It is such a huge improvement But if you're not tech savvy The mac mini upgrade it's not that terrible the iMac a little bit more intimidating You actually have to take the entire piece of glass off the front of the iMac and remove it no To to change the hard drive. So for a lot of you that's probably not gonna happen But if you have a thunderbolt mac You can actually get an ssd Thunderbolt drive So it's going to be a solid state It's going to look you know kind of like your typical little portable laptop drive Usually a little thinner and lighter with a thunderbolt connection If you have an available thunderbolt port on your mac You can plug this in and now what you're going to do is take what's on the drive on your current machine And clone it to the thunderbolt drive So ideally that thunderbolt drive would be large as large or larger than what's already in there for some of you That may be very expensive But once that's cloned over now you can boot up and by the way carbon copy carbon copy cloner Is a really good utility for doing that Once that's been cloned over now you can boot up the computer off of the ssd And even though it's external you're probably thinking it can't be fast But thunderbolt is basically the equivalent of an internal drive in terms of speed. It's very very fast So this is a great stopgap measure so that you know if you want to get another couple of years out of your Out of your iMac or even the iMacs that have a thunderbolt. I'm sorry not thunderbolt, but a uh fusion drive Uh one of our friends watching the show right now with us jack daniel He's got an iMac with a thunderbolt. Uh, I keep saying thunderbolt fusion drive and he was actually experiencing Some audio dropouts and glitches and um in adobe audition And I surmised that must be what's going on that internal hard drive Gets clogged and it kind of gets fragmented and it gets slower and slower with time And I recommended that idea to him so I'm waiting to find out if indeed he got a chance to Try it out and if he did then I'm sure he'll let us know if that really helped him out But that's an alternative to the expensive or maybe really cost Complicated upgrade process for you taking the screen out. Just doesn't sound like a good idea You know, what's the killer tool? There's a killer tool for removing the glass of an iMac. What's that hardware store plumbing section Plunger Yes, it's true You could get a sink plunger one of the small ones And stick it on the glass and use that to to pull the glass off the face face of the iMac Does it go back in easily? I hope so It's beyond it's it's not an upgrade that I wouldn't want to attempt but uh, it's possible But try this external thing see if it works out for you. All right. Well, that's exciting Uh Might make for a very interesting afternoon. Do it on camera anybody got an iMac you want to donate to us so we can Let's check it out. I'm taking it apart Alrighty well, we've got more tech stuff coming up You got a question throw it the chat room jack dan you will get it to us because we love answering Your home voiceover studio tech questions And then we've got that interview with jonathan tilly coming up in just a minute. So stay tuned We'll be right back here on voiceover body shop Yep, this is v obs proven anybody can have a show these days You're still watching v lbs You know with the voiceover business like anything in life Sometimes the simplest tiniest changes in how you do something make all the difference in the world And making those changes can instantly change the outcome of what you're doing and lead to success Now david h. Lawrence the 17th is one of our great friends here on voiceover body shop And there's a reason for that aside from just being a nice guy He's also one of the best teachers when it comes to helping you with your voiceover career And that's what we experience whenever he's connecting here with us He has tons of simple strategies and tactics that make those massive changes a snap And that's why you should know exactly what the pros and voiceover are doing to dramatically increase their booking rates So you should put what they do to work for you So if you're ready to claim your piece of the voiceover pie, he has a 100 Free content video that reveals in detail Exactly what to do So go there right now. It's vo to go go dot com forward slash 2019 forward slash little r forward slash 31 Simple tweaks a change in habit a slightly different approach What if these things made the difference between not booking and hell? Yeah Get the secrets in this video right now. That's vo to go go dot com forward slash 2019 forward slash little r forward slash 31 As a voice talent you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do They break or don't look right on mobile devices. They're not built for marketing and seo They're expensive you have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time go to voice actor websites dot com Like our name implies voice actor websites dot com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as 700 dollars So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voicehactor websites dot com where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what There's one in the woodpile probably. Oh, hey everybody. Hey, we're one in the woodpile. Well, that's not where the mice live That's true We have a couple running around the backyard every now and again Anyway, so we're back here on voiceover body shop and uh, we have a question from our studio audience Yay, you know, you could be here in the studio audience But our good friend denny has joined us tonight and he has a question for us. He does he does Danny, what do you got a question? It's not a question. It's a statement. I've actually uh worked on I max before and um, you can use a suction cup and that's held on with a magnet The screen is held on with the entire the entire glass front of an iMac You can get them at harbor freight. Yeah, we're like you say a plunger Yeah, and put it on there on one of those things that you put you put on your ticary glass Yeah, and you and you work my mother's shower We pull it straight off and and when you then you change your you know, whatever days you're working on Then you take the entire glass and put it back on and magnets Pulled it right in. Do you know how far back that like how many generations? Okay, this goes back pretty far I don't think I'd want to upgrade anything older than that Anything older than that would not probably work the expense. No, I just use it as a tv Thanks, man. I didn't really hate that. I didn't realize that While we're at it Anybody else in the room have anything they want to talk about in terms of what they're doing in their home studio? Or if they have any questions Shoot it at us and we're getting questions from the chat room right now. I think I just saw one from It was actually T-man said Question is the standard vo setup on adobe audition sufficient or are there any other mods You can suggest Do you ever mod adobe audition? Modify it. What what what is there to modify? It's perfect the way it is You know, it has I mean you've got maybe she's talking about adding plugins and things along those lines um Because I there's one mod I've ever seen and that was for a punch and roll function right and I played around with it I think I got it to work and that was that. I mean, I had no personal need for it Right beyond that. I can't think of any of the mods. No, they're really I mean, there's probably some scripting you can do. I know our friend durin gleaves at adobe will probably say No, it's not you can do it. That's our job Don't start praying around with the programming in there. You know, don't go into the back end at adobe audition No, there really isn't and of course It would help if we know what type of mods they were talking about right I mean, is it like we want it to become, you know a 38 chevy. I mean, I mean come on now It's be specific. That's one of the most important things I think when people ask questions is they lack specificity Like what about can I do something with this? Well, like what? Yeah, you know Be be succinct be specific. Yes. Yeah helps a lot directly answer your question Yeah, well if you haven't guessed by now, if you haven't watched this show before You've missed You know probably over 300 episodes and you got a lot of catching up to 50 hours of content Probably just go more than that actually, you know, we've written the book on home voiceover studios But george and I work on home voiceover studios. We design them We build them We fix them when you break it which you guys apparently do an awful lot And you can cry on our shoulders from time to time. That's necessary in this position Somebody call me the other day that strictly just wanted to vent for maybe a half an hour And then he said at the end of the call, I'll book another call next week Which cracked me off But he was dead serious. It was great But yeah, doesn't matter if you book the time. We're there for you. We're good at it And we're especially good at people crying on our shoulders all the time Uh, so we've gotten actually very good at that and I actually have I'm actually certified as a therapist Well, then you got a leg up on me, man. I do And I know how to get these things fixed But if you want to work with us you can work with us All you have to do if you want to talk to george and have him do all the magic that he does and designing your studio You where would you go? Yeah, you can go over to george the tech dot com or george the dot tech I like short URLs. Do you? Um, it's very efficient. Um, you can book time on there You can uh book a flat rate service like getting some processing done for you or studio design Or just get a sound check, you know If you just want to make sure the sound you're already producing is up to snuff then send in a sound check Dan's version of a sound check you can get over on his website at all you have to do is uh Go into home voiceover studio dot com. Click on the specimen collection cup Uh, and that opens up a drop box where you can send me some of your dry raw audio So I can hear what your studio sounds like. Mm-hmm Which is something we'll get into a little bit in a minute here, but uh, don't send your demos No, I mean, I don't care about your demos. We get the demos occasionally and that's that's a whole different deal Yeah, that's analyzing the production and how and that's not your studio We want to hear what your studio sounds like. Yeah, uh, so, uh, go on over there and check that out And especially if you are utterly clueless about what you're doing Give me a buzz. Let's uh, let's see if we can get you going properly. Yeah And speaking of getting going properly. Yeah, a lot of weird stuff on facebook today and uh Our good friend Dave crevasse posted an article I wrote as his blog today I was his guest blogger talking about and we talked about this a couple weeks ago after we got back from WoWoCon about how it's not the mic and that the discussions about microphones on facebook or all of these Uh forums Is utterly ridiculous. You know, I mean it's it's kind of silly that you know Here's a typical dynamic mic You know, it it it doesn't sound as good as say A condenser mic, which probably just drove everybody's ears. I love doing that just to piss you off Let's say never do that do as we say not as we do. That's right um But the fact of the matter is We did a mic shoot out at at WoWoCon and You know, we used a an identical acoustical environment Six distinct microphones And if you watch the video of people reading this copy, which was completely innocuous You know, we wanted to hear them readings. Yeah, we wanted to hear what if they had to say not how they performed the copy Yeah, uh and and everybody's like well, what mic did I sound the best on? The fact of the matter is if you're watching the video As you know, if you're watching video of somebody narrating something, you don't actually see them The mic really doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of difference Yeah, we found that where the mic was was really more important than what mic was was there Like if the mic wasn't in the right spot that completely changed your opinion Which mic sounded the best but most mics even even if you were a little off axis still sounded okay And probably would pass in any any you know If you're if you're doing an actual production if you're doing an aeration it would probably sound fine I just find this obsession with Trying to find the right mic for you It'd be a little Putting a little bit of the cart before the horse there Yeah, that's something that you develop an ear for and a budget for you know years several years into this process Okay, fine If you're if you're an audio hobbyist if you have a background in audio engineering and you geek out on this stuff You know more power to you just don't be out Don't get that in the way of what you need to be doing which is you know, obviously studying voice actor voice acting But every mic in that test and we're gonna make that available to people at some point Yeah, we have to get everybody to sign a Release there was like 23 different people from that but once we do that If you want to check it out, you'll you'll you'll notice that there are mics in this test that range from $150 To what was the top of the lane thousand. Yeah, and you know, it's very difficult to just Sumerially say this one sounds more expensive than that one right very I mean I you couldn't you wouldn't know right now The other thing is is that almost any good mic over 250 bucks You can it can be modified to sound to just sound like anything You know anything you want it to sound like why 250 dollars though. Is that kind of an arbitrary price? No, it's not an arbitrary. What do you think that it just seems that most microphones that the manufacturers make over that price point All have a frequency response that is pretty good pretty smooth. Yeah, that doesn't have any lumpy Yeah, it's not like there's a real deficit there at 10k. It's It's it's really smooth across and and usually they're all like that others. There's slightly different colorations Absolutely, but once you learn how to manipulate that or ask an expert like mr. Whitmer myself Uh, we can make sure your mic sounds the way it's supposed to sound Maybe it's a little a little hot on the low end. Maybe it's a little you know a little too bright You can make adjustments and make it sound like almost any other mic And so don't obsess about what mic you have especially the way one looks because nobody cares We won't talk about these cycle acoustic cycle acoustical effects of having certain pieces of gear and all that stuff We understand that there's something behind that but generally it doesn't make that big of a difference As long as there's not anything technically wrong with the mic If it's not it doesn't have an extremely high noise floor or you're banging on it with a microphone You know, it's distorted or it was dropped or something, you know, it's it's pretty amazing Devox in the chat room says actually half my work is cranked out on a dynamic mic And he said vio needs a decent cheap dynamic mic for the road. Well, I'll name you a decent dynamic mic for the road Honestly the at 2100. I think it is our atr 2100. It's from audio technica 60 bucks, I think for one of these things and it's uh, it's not only a dynamic mic with an xLR jack It's also got a built-in usb adapter. Right if you're really in a pinch The built-in usb It's pretty noisy. It's not great, but it's sort of a podcasters mic Yeah, that's really intended for podcasting But if you plug the dynamic jack into a good interface like the mixer face or something like that You get some good sound out of it. It's pretty good. If you use it, right? Yeah by far the most important thing that You know, we've broken it down to three important things the acoustics of the room Proper mic technique. Yeah, and then proper recording levels if you follow those three things no matter what mic you have Especially, you know, and I we use recording levels in there because that's really important to getting the best signal out of your microphone Yeah, that's going to be the difference between Something that's like, you know, somebody listening going, yeah, that doesn't sound that great and oh, I like the way they read that Here's another thing like the sound quality This is very very like esoteric But the sound quality should be good enough That the listener isn't in any way drawn any and drawn attention There's no attention drawn to The sound quality right right and not in a positive or negative way like it shouldn't sound amazingly bright and Loud and sparkly And it shouldn't sound cruddy like it shouldn't it just should be your voice and it should sound familiar You know and that's something that we can't write we can't describe that on paper what that is There's no spec that will explain how to achieve that That's achieved through experience. Right period. I mean and We know when we've heard it and we can help you very quickly get get dialed into that good place Yeah, mike e says her level later is a sweet plugin. That's great If you don't know what it does or how it does it Don't use it that thing is like voodoo, man. That's a crazy. I mean, yeah I've actually seen people finish audiobooks using a level later like drag and drop and if book gets approved by acx I'm I don't that doesn't mean it kind of blows my mind But it's level later is like a is like a black box You drag audio in it goes And then it spits out in a file on the other end and it just does its thing All right, it makes it louder basically is what it does. So it's kind of a crapshoot And then mike a also says what about the mxl bcd one. I think that's a dynamic mic I haven't used it. It could be it could be great. I frankly have never I just had so few Reasons to experiment with dynamic mics in general. So I haven't done a big dynamic mic shoot out But uh and excel, you know, bank for the buck. They don't make anything too junky You maybe avoid a lot of the usb stuff, but they're They're pro mics with the xlr's generally pretty darn good. I have to say especially the harlan hogan's vo1a The one we're talking to this very moment. Yeah, maybe talk about it a little bit later Well, jonathan tilley was here a couple of weeks ago and uh, I taped an interview with him It's he's got a lot of information in here So stay tuned for that you won't be able to ask any questions But you're want to you're gonna want to hear everything he says because he is the master Of online marketing for your voiceover business. So stay tuned for that. We'll be right back Right after this And you're listening to voiceover body shop v obs dot tv Before time began there was v obs dot tv. Hello everybody. This is george now i'm going to talk about I never introduced a commercial like that. Why don't i know george with him with a commercial for source elements Anyway time for me to talk about source elements like I do every single week completely improvised. Thank you Um source connect is a fantastic tool for Bringing audio from your studio into other studios all around the world in real time like for being directed and recorded remotely That's the tool that is really taking over ISDN even is fading in the background as source connect takes over and it's for a good reason I mean the sound quality is Fantastic. It really is very very good. Um, it's Very easy to use There's a few steps involved to set it up and that's the kind of thing that I do They also will guide you through the process of getting it online and running But it's once it's up and running it is just rock solid reliable and the sound quality again Really really great You can get a uh demo over at source elements that's source dash Elements.com get a 15 day free trial of the the source connect standard version. That's the one you want to have They also have source connect Now that's a free version. It's still a beta But once that goes full online, you'll be able to connect between source connect now and regular source connect That's something that's coming in the future for now source connect is the tool for you Go check it out and let them know that we sent you so they know where their ad dollars go. That's important to us Anyway, thanks. We'll be right back with that interview with jonathan tilly Are you confused about how to set up and maintain a professional quality voiceover studio? No wonder the information out there is mostly mythology This is the best microphone to use. You'll have to have a preamp. You need a soundproof booth This software is the best your audio must be broad cast quality Consult with someone who knows the truth someone who's been there in the trenches doing voiceover for over 30 years Someone with unparalleled experience with voiceover studios Who's worked with hundreds of voice actors and designed hundreds of personal studios? He knows how to teach and cares about your success In one of the harshest environments known to voiceover your home Dan Leonard the home studio master Separate myth from fact and get a handle on your personal voiceover studio Contact the home studio master at home voiceover studio dot com I'm to introduce our guest jonathan tilly is an accomplished actor dancer and voice actor based in germany with Great success in vio in europe in the us and all over the world jonathan is also CEO and founder of jonathan tilly dot com A brilliant name a coaching company teaching creative freelancers How to shine online and share their talent with the world with courses like league of list builders My content calendar and books like voiceover garden and embrace the f word failure Jonathan welcome to voiceover body shop. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's an absolute pleasure to be here Uh, what brings you to the united states right now? Well, currently I am on tour Doing the jt tour where i'm talking about my content calendar and how to build your brand on instagram and doing one day workshops All over the world. So we started in London then we went to manchester uk then to boston then to new york city then to st. Francisco And now i am in la For the last stop of the jt tour and i'm staying with a friend of mine diana birdsall and we love diana video right now And um, and yeah, and it's just been an amazing whirlwind tour going through The uk and the us helping people with instagram and helping them understand what it is what it isn't And how they can leverage it into a networking powerhouse Wow, all right. Well, I mean, let's let's get into the meat of the matter here first Well, let's a little bit about you. I mean clearly you're you're very successful in voiceover and acting, but how did you end up in germany? I think I need to do like a blog post or a video on on that because everybody asked me this question so, um, I got to um I got to new york after After graduating, uh college from ithica college with musical theater I moved to new york city the day after graduation And I thought I'd be on broadway by the weekend And the weekend came and went and I still wasn't on broadway And I was like something something's funky here I got to maybe go to more auditions and market myself a little bit more And I had the the wonderful opportunity to do a six month tour of 42nd street tap dancing through germany and switzerland and austria and I thought that was pretty cool. And then, uh, I realized oh, wow the musical theater scene in germany Is it what it's like in the uk or the us where You're fighting to get an audition for those big awesome shows in new york city In germany, they're lifting the broadway shows up out of out of the the broadway circuit And planting them into germany They have the the stars of the shows because they're all famous pop singers and famous people But they didn't have the ensemble members To fill the backing of the actual musical theater shows. So they were looking for Americans and british people that had done musical theater training or had musical theater experience to be in the ensemble Jammed like shove so much german phonetics down our throats We have no clue what we were saying on stage every night, but at least we sounded normal and natural like native german speakers and um Yeah, so so I was in the whole musical theater the german musical theater scene for eight years straight doing Productions of mama mia cats another production of 42nd street Um dance to the vampires a chorus line like all of these shows that I couldn't get not even get an audition for in New york city They were they were saying just come to the audition be seen in germany and you have a gig So I was like I'd be stupid not to Not to stay So I would be doing shows uh monday doing shows tuesday through friday Um during the evening and then double show on sunday double show on saturday But I had my days off to rest and you know hang out with friends and stuff like that and from There I think within four or five years of doing the musical theater scene in germany On the call board where they would sign in every day to let stage management know that you were in the building Before the show started There was a sign that said we're looking for native speakers. I'm like what's a native speaker They call it native speakers in germany, but in america. They call it voiceover So I gave them a call and I said, you know, hey, um, you're looking for native u.s speakers I'm from the states, you know, uh, what does this entail and they said well, we're recording a Uh a book for german children to learn english like a cd um With sentences like c jane cross the street watch joey play Football and all these simple sentences just spoken as a native Would you like come would you like to come in and record for an hour? I'm like, okay great and I did not take it seriously at all. I was like Okay, uh c jane cross the street watch Jacob play football and I did not take it seriously because I thought I'm an american in germany Who needs these services you can just go to the states to get them Why do you need why do you need somebody like me? So after That session they called me back three months later for another cd They called me back two months later for another job. They called me a month later back And I'm just like why I did not take it seriously dana and it I feel so so embarrassed to say to say this And I was like, why do you need me this makes no sense. They said well, you have acting experience You know how to can use your voice. You have a young sound um We'd like to use you for other projects And I finally said, you know, is there even like a a market here and they said, oh, yeah Oh, yeah, it's only like oh, I'm sure there is There's only four other us voiceover artists in germany that speak german That can get directed by the client in german and you can respond back and you know say Say yes, okay. I got it or what about this, but then you deliver the script in in um in english And he said do you want to make a demo? Do you want to maybe build your voiceover business? And I'm like, okay I had no clue what I was getting myself into but I just Went with it and then lo and behold like I created in a voiceover business like matt There's only four other people in in germany for their native us speakers male us speakers that are male voiceover artists we call them us speakers in germany and all four of them have the deep bassy Hollywood movie trailer sound and i'm the only one that has like the geeky explainer video Um, I sound like i'm 25 So you're you were able to create a niche for yourself. I created a niche for myself without even knowing it, right? So whenever the the the four guys that have like the don lafontaine voice Whenever they get a get a job for like an explainer video where they have to sound like a like a millennial They'll say, uh, I think you have a wrong person Do you want to call jonathan tilly and then the it's the opposite works works for me as well Whenever I get a voiceover job with like we're looking for the big hollywood sounding like that is not me I've been miscast called these four guys. They will sort you out. They'll sound awesome But you I try and put it on and it's it's just embarrassing. So it's A little network that we have and I created this little niche for myself without even knowing it. So yeah, that's Into voiceover. How long have you been doing it over there? I've been doing voiceover for um full time since 2006 2007 Yeah, so you are writing the first wave of really doing this online and You know, because you know anybody that started this like 2003 uh, or or later Really, it was a totally different world and how does it let me ask you this How is the european market different from the american market? Of course aside from the language stuff That's true. I mean there's there's a lot every new client that I get in germany Um, they always ask, you know, they start speaking english with me and then then I say, oh, we can speak german That's totally fine. And you just hear their shoulders drop. They're like, oh, thank god because My english is so bad, you know, and of course, you know europeans english is they they say that their english is so bad But it's really really good Um, but they just are out of practice, you know, so um So i'm pleased that I can that I can help help them and make their experience with me doing a session Um a little bit easier because I can speak their language. Um, but I think the the um The difference is most definitely uh A cultural thing. I think it's it's um The the the things that that we in the american market take for granted like no, you you say it like this You know, you you don't you don't overthink it. You just say, oh, no, this is how it's how it's spoken In a non english speaking country, they're So concerned about did you say this word right because I can't I can't tell what's the right way to do it or not Um, or they're always like, can you just look at the script once more and make sure that everything is spelled correctly? Or that it makes grammatical sense or if you have any feedback On the translation, please let us know because they just want to make sure that they're saying That the text is that the copy is is right, but it has the right sound for um for a native native ear um, so there's that extra level of Just wanting to get it right, you know of The extra level of um for germans, especially They're very they love understatement. So for somebody like me that's like, yeah, let's go for it They're always going to say Can you tone it down? Can you can you make it a little bit more? Understated, you know, so when I when I do a do a voiceover and they're like, yeah He's some young and fresh and really really up up tempo and and and excitable Um, even the way that I'm speaking now is almost too much for them, you know, right, right To when when I come over to the states and I'm listening to like the radio or I'm listening to to tv commercials where it's like So much energy, you know, um, I just go oh wow that that is um That's the other that that's the other side of it, you know So it's the the difference that I see in the in the european market to the to the american market Is that in the states we're allowed to have a bit more? Dynamic a little bit more range. You can be a little bit more free with it in breadth of of emotion Right, Europe. It's just a little bit more contained. Um, and I know for me trying to understand what they meant Um, was was a little bit difficult, but then I was like, oh, you just want me to just to tone it down a bit Instead of being super excited, but hey, I'm super excited and that's fine. Right. Oh, absolutely Yeah, I've always found that when you know, you'll I do a lot of things for for german companies and they'll send you a video and go Okay, can you match? I mean you're dubbing it in english and you've got to match the german and it's like, uh Sometimes the sentences are a little bit longer. It's like, uh, you know, it's you know, it's sort of like dubbing a japanese film And you know, you gotta you gotta keep it in sync and they're like you're most do is it like this? Yeah Yeah They love their efficiency. They love like like numbers and making sure that it's in the time code So usually the german sentences are a little bit longer than the english sentences But sometimes the translator just really loves their words and you're like, wow, this English sentence is much longer than the german sentence. We've got to make this work, you know, so So writers are writers everywhere That's 90 seconds a copy into 10 seconds Yeah Anyway, if you're just joining us, we're talking with jonathan tilley, uh, and we're going to be talking about all the stuff that he does and uh, it's fascinating because Aside from your acting which you obviously are very accomplished at and uh, you know in the theater and and stuff you've also started to get into training people in positive attitude and Things along those lines and in proper marketing. Yeah, how did you get into this type of uh, this type of Additional work with your with your voiceover work, you know, it just sort of came naturally. It was it was people It was friends actually asking, you know Hey jonathan, how did you transition from musical theater to to voiceover? Hey jonathan, how did you build your your voice over a career? Hey jonathan, how did you create? How did how did you market yourself? You know, hey jonathan, wow your your instagram is really awesome Uh, how did you do that? Hey jonathan, how do you get gigs from instagram? Hey jonathan, like all these questions and I have a rule of thumb, you know, touch it once You know, if if somebody's asking me a random question Great, and I just touched it once perfect, but if people keep asking the same question and I'm touching it multiple times I'm like, okay. This is a question that's in a lot of other people's minds as well. I might as well create An online course or I might as well create a video or I might as well do a facebook live on this. This sounds all so familiar Ended up in the same situation Hey dan, how did like how do do I have a good audio setup? Hey dan, can you check my booth? Right, so whenever whenever you start to hear the same questions and you're repeating yourself And you're just going on autopilot. It's like well, maybe I can create like a coaching or a consulting business out of this And I remember I used to I used to do voiceover coaching and keep teaching people how to you know Do a good read and all this stuff and that was fun But I remember when I was in those one-on-one sessions. I was like Yeah, you can read well, but like let's talk about marketing. I would get really excited about it Like super excited about it and um and people would be like, yeah, but I don't I don't get it Why is marketing so difficult? It's not like it's really easy. It's just creating a conversation and not being a jerk, you know and uh And just giving people permission to say hey, this is who I am This is what I do and I'd like to help you, you know, instead of like you'd be stupid not to hire me I said it's not about that. Um, so that's when I started to realize oh, I think I'm And there's there's tons of voiceover coaches telling you how to do the proper read and all that stuff What I really enjoy doing is helping people build their business what I really enjoy seeing Is seeing people go hey Jonathan I did that trick that you told me or I reached out to that person or I reached out to 30,000 people and Now I have now I'm a full-time voiceover artist or now I'm a full-time photographer or now I'm a full-time whatever Um, so I started focusing teaching Voiceover artists how to build their business and market themselves properly and then I just thought wait a minute This this strategy works for photographers works for graphic designers works for actors It's the same thing. It's the freelance economy gig thing The right gig economy where I just go. Oh, it's just all about building your network and building your client list So why don't I create an online course on it called league of list builders how to build your your um, how to structure and strategize your Networking outreach to book the big gigs with the big wings. So so that's that's how it all just came to be It wasn't um, it wasn't something that I woke up one day and I said, oh, I'm gonna do this It just I was becoming inundated with the same questions and I wanted to help as many people as possible And I just thought oh, why don't I turn this into an online course? Why don't I turn what I've learned and what I teach and when I'm telling my friends Into an online course and help as many people as I can right once again, we're talking with Jonathan Tilly and we're talking about Is stuff which is marketing and and how it relates to voiceover and all sorts of success actually So let's really get into the meat of the matter here. Um For example, what what are your without giving out too much information? What is what are your keys to success when it comes to marketing and not just with voiceover But with overall marketing strategies for freelancers like us. Yeah, it's not about you. It's all about them And there's a lot of people that are that are like, I'm gonna be aggressive with my marketing. I'm gonna and I think there's a difference between aggressive in the sense of I'm going to be aggressive with myself Sit down behind a computer for a couple hours a day and reach out to people and aggressive with my time management But not with other people, right? I think there's a lot of people that are like, I'm gonna be aggressive I'm gonna crush it and they reach out to people whether it be on instagram or facebook or at a cocktail party or on online or Via email and they do the thing of like I'm a voiceover artist I I I'm awesome. So-and-so said this about me. Are we all? People not to hire me, you know where I just go Like it just just imagine just imagine if somebody came up to you and I mean we're in LA right now We took a nice walk and we saw somebody, you know digging in his garden pulling up weeds If somebody knocked on your door Dan and said I'm a gardener. I'm gonna pull up your weeds You'd be stupid not to hire me I'm gonna make your garden look amazing How would you feel? Show me Show me and don't don't Like you don't need to need to be so so much of a of a jerk You know, and and then I just thought you know I I take it from the from the other other direction, you know, where it's more about how can I help you? So for example, just going on to somebody a perfect example at stay with the gardening thing, you know Same person knocks on your door and says hey Dan like I live in the area. I walk by your your house every second day I see your garden. You're doing an amazing job I'm sure that you're crazy busy and you don't like getting up five hours earlier on a sunday just to take care of your garden I know how much meet it means to you because I've been seeing the actual literal growth in your garden But you know, sometimes does life does get in the way especially you doing what you do I just want to be a resource to you, you know, if you need if you need any help. I'm here Here's my business card. I'd love to pull up your weeds for one hour on a sunday. So you can sleep in one hour That makes you feel so much different, right? Solve their problem in other words. So he's about solving the other person's problem See their problem be the be the resource to their problem Don't be aggressive be like, hey, I'm just a normal person And a lot of people when they're marketing themselves They feel like they have to put on a three-piece suit that they have to be a jerk that they have to You know, be aggressive when really it's just about being a nice person Saying, hey, I see you. I hear you. It's not about me. It's all about you. How can I help? How can I show up for you, right? Right and and also not being Especially now with with social media and we're just so used to instant gratification When you send out an email when you reach out to somebody and they don't get back in touch Don't take it personally. You know follow up with them in a month and say, hey, just touching base with you again I want to let you know that I've had this amazing experience where I Voiced for whatever. Here's to Lang just a little demo of what I've done. I'm sure that you've been super busy as well With all the amazing things that you're doing. I saw on facebook that you had this amazing ad campaign congratulations Whenever it I'd love to meet with you for a 20 minute coffee my treats Whenever you have time Not being pushy not being a jerk just being like i'm busy. You're busy. Let's Let's make it happen sometime down the line Right now and and it's it's it's a lot and especially the voiceover which is which is such a quick turnaround rapid thing When you're marketing yourself that it takes time, you know, it takes time and people are Expecting things to be immediate and yes, you can book a job immediately, which is fantastic But I mean how often have you with with that same person knocking on your door to help you with your garden help you with your weeds There's time that needs to be invested. There's trust that needs to be established You know, right a lot of people forget that you have to establish that trust and establish that relationship Before you even get to the to the gate being given to you right now One of the things that you talk about is one of those things that I so old guys Of a somewhat later generation Uh, don't really get it's with all these youngins are using and that's uh social media and specifically the most popular one right now, which is Instagram and you talk a lot about instagram. Why why is instagram so important? And and what are some of your what some of your advice about how to use it? I think instagram is the only platform right now. It's 2018 October 2018 right now The only platform right now that is for the creative person That helps the creative person reach out to other creative people, whether if you add agencies, production houses voiceover agents talent agents casting directors animation houses. It's a creative hub where Unlike on facebook where you have to do a friend request and wait for them to get back in touch with you to then reach out to them um it's Like a mini website like your instagram profile is like a mini website With a picture every day and not always, you know in my booth in my booth behind my mic behind my mic There's so many other awesome things around you, you know, like i'm just looking at diana's workstation right now She's got her keyboard here. There's a picture right there for speaker and her and her headphones are right there There's there's pictures on the wall like that's that's another picture as well Just showing showing up every day and giving us a little piece of micro content a little image On instagram showing us your process Documenting your lifelong learning documenting your creative process, but it's not just the pictures It's the captions. That's where we fall in love with you, but it's not just the captions It's the marketing opportunity that is instagram that is on no other platform Here's the perfect example. I was um, do you know molly shannon the actress that was on From saturday night live and yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. I put my fingers underneath my armpits. I smell them like this Like she's and she's a superstar right so she has that That thing from saturday night live and now she's gone over to do um to do The the series divorce with star Jessica parker and all these other amazing right she she started a lot of she's She's played an extra and and and supporting roles and lots of stuff now Yeah, exactly. So you even if we even if we say molly shannon and you're like, oh, I don't know her when you see her He's like, oh, that's her right. So she's she's a pretty big career So, um, i'm a big molly shannon fan and um, and I was just like, you know, let me try out this instagram thing and see See how it really works So I followed molly shannon and I liked a picture and I commented on a picture That she posted where she was doing the red red carpet at the emi's a year or two ago or something like that And she commented back. She said, thank you so much And I was like, won't she commented back molly shannon commented back. So then I kept, you know Touching base and checking in and seeing her things that would come up on her on her feed And I'm like, wow, like you're amazing and da da da da da da and then slowly but surely we got into the Direct messages, which is like facebook messenger where you're messaging each other And uh, and I'm I'm communicating with molly shannon on my phone, right? And so I just go I'm so sorry. I don't want to bug bug you anymore But you're so I'm such a fan you you're a superstar thing like like that was huge for me growing up Thank you so much your inspiration. Oh, thank you so much I really need a lot to me like please stop stop writing me back Like I know you're busy like filming on set with with sarah jessica parker on the on the series divorce And then she wrote back to the yeah, I'm filming. I'm sitting right next to her Um on a break. I'm like, oh my god, like give her a high five for me It's high. So I'm like speak. I'm chatting direct messaging with molly shannon And she gives sarah jessica parker a high five for me. I'm just like This is crazy, right? So the power of instagram is that we don't have The gate the gatekeeper From the agency that says no, you can't get in touch with molly shannon because she's she's under our agency molly shannon Yeah, of course. She's molly shannon. I'm in touch with molly shannon So this opportunity to be myself not to span people but to be in the direct messages and reach out to these people Imagine if molly shannon was a talent agent a casting director a production house an animation house an e-learning company you are One click away one direct message away To communicate with these people. Yes, it might be the intern. Yes, it might be the social media person that works in that agency But you are on the phone on their phone Communicating with them through instagram and there is no other platform like it that is for the creative person Run by creative people where we're in contact with each other. Yes, we can email each other But how long does it take to get back in touch with somebody via email, right? And if you aren't going to email people that cover letter needs to be awesome Instagram that's the conversation starter. That's where people go. I found this person on instagram Oh, yeah, send me your uh, send me a cover letter send me your demos Instagram's the conversation started that we've all been waiting for Wow, yeah Once again, we're talking with jonathan tilly and we're talking about your marketing as a voice actor or as a freelancer or as anything Uh getting your your your face and your voice and what it is you do out there And we really appreciate you coming on and telling us about this stuff because I just don't get this instagram stuff It's just You know, it's another thing you have to do But if you want to be successful in marketing yourself, it's the tool du jour. I guess it's the best way to put it I mean, I think we're on it's we're on social media anyway Right, so if we're on social media anyway Why not invest 15 minutes a day of those hours that you're spending on social media that you really shouldn't be if you spend 15 minutes a day and reached out to commented on liked Followed the ad agencies the talent agents the casting directors the animation houses All those places and start to just show up on their feed Comment without being spamming without being like you'd be stupid not to hire me That's not what it's about like I said before it's not about you it's all about them saying Oh, congratulations on that on that latest ad campaign. It looks great or congratulations on the new on the upgrade to your to your production house that Reception desk looks amazing. You know, whatever they're posting every single day You can comment on and give them a compliment. How often do we post something on social media and we go? Oh, I wonder if anybody sees it or and then somebody comments on it and you go. Oh, wow. Thank you so much That's instagram instagram is full of Graciousness kindness the whole political rant and the and the screaming at each other in the comments that we do on facebook That's not allowed on instagram Like it's not even reported because you just don't do it It's this beautiful place where people are Excited about your creative endeavors. They support you whenever somebody writes a comment on your on your On your picture people write back. Thank you Because it's sort of like a given if somebody took the time to write a comment on your picture You can take the time to write a quick. Thank you. So there's this beautiful community on instagram That I like to say remember facebook five to ten years ago and how much fun it was That fun. We're having over on instagram Wow, and your mother can get on it too, which is your mother can get on it You can pay your mother some compliments and she can pay you those things as well Anyway, we're talking with jonathan tilly. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back talking more about the stuff he does marketing for voiceover and we'll talk a little bit about Having a positive attitude in getting over some fears you might have we'll be right back on voiceover body shop improvement on the new Signature series two headphones from harlan hogan at voiceover essentials.com and trying them on They actually sound even better. They sounded great before but now they sound You could probably listen to pink floyd on these and it'll sound great So check these out over at voiceover essentials.com. It's got a new more comfortable headband George says the headband is actually more comfortable than the old one and the old one was great But now with the improvements now, it just pops right out and you don't break as many Uh headphones and you're going to get your left and right side perfect But the most important thing about the harlan hogan signature series 2.0 headphones is that they are Improved and that they are a very flat response meaning that You'll hear exactly what you recorded in true time And in true fidelity as opposed to coloration you get with other headphones So check out the harlan hogan 2.0 series headphones Over at voiceover essentials.com the best way to get there is to just go down to the bottom of our home page And there's a picture of harlan hogan down there and if you click on that It's to his back actually but you click on he's talking into his portabouth pro And what that does is it takes you right to the website Let's him know that you watch voiceover body shop and that you like his products and that you want to buy them at His store voiceover essentials.com. He's been our sponsor for almost Seven years because he knows you guys like to hear about his stuff So go on over there voiceover essentials.com right now or right after the show and buy a pair of these harlan hogan signature series 2.0 headphones. We'll be right back Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you? This is virgin radio. Well, okay. We're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smart phone But it's so much more. It's a the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song It's the end of the road for rig When hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish Hey, it's j michael collins. Bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email It's j michael at jmc voiceover dot com now if they will stop waxing this mustache for a minute We'll get back to the show This is john bailey the epic voice and you're watching v obs dot tv Monday nights at 6 p.m. Pacific 9 30 newfoundland And we're back here on voiceover body shop and we're talking with jonathan tilly jonathan great to have you on Great to be here. Thank you for having me. Alrighty. Well, we're gonna talk a little bit about something a little bit different uh from the the social media stuff and that is you also speak a great deal to to groups and uh and and private webinars and seminars on Having the right attitude about your career and again It doesn't necessarily pertain specifically to voiceover, but you know in an ego business like this. I suppose it's pretty important uh We all think you know, it's important to have a positive attitude. How do you how do you get that across to people? Geez, you know When I was a kid or even even now people are like, oh, you're so upbeat. You're so positive and I just think it's how I am um And I didn't realize that everybody wasn't like this and I don't know I think it had to do with with you know, just who I am my dna is just you know I'm a happy go looking kind of guy, but I think it also has to do with um, how I was raised um, we didn't have that much uh, but we what we didn't have was you know, we had each other and um, it was all about saying, you know, we're grateful for what we have and I'm really just being ourselves and helping other helping other people, you know um, and and I say this all the time whenever I'm I'm launching a product or whenever I'm doing a facebook live or doing an interview or Whatever or doing a motivational talk or whatever 99 of the work that I do Is just shaping other people's mentality to be more Positive more open more open to abundance mentality just giving them permission to do what they want to do and the one percent is saying oh This is the course or these are the steps that you need to do or buy my book and read it from here and you'll understand The majority of the work that I do is helping people shift their mentality to a place where it's like, oh, okay I'm ready to to take it to the next level and then here are the steps to do it, right? So the importance of having a positive attitude and I don't and I don't mean like My dad died. So just smile like no What I mean, you know, right? I think a lot of the a lot of the time people are like Can I do this? Can can I say something to? Can I reach out to this this friend that has a friend that works at this amazing talent agency? I just go Yeah, permission slip granted, you know, or um, I was in San Francisco a couple days ago. There was a uh Friend of mine that he that he has this huge connection to this theater group And he's a photographer and I just go, you know, you could do like a headshotathon You know go in once every four months in the theater for two days set up your lights and just in one hour like Packets like photo boom a boom a boom a boom and just create this huge portfolio for yourself Give other people headshots and charge a really cheap rate because you're in one space and just it's like a conveyor belt He's like, I never thought thought of that, you know And how and it's not about you the more value that you give to people It's very ego less, you know Um, and it makes you feel good, you know When you give somebody a compliment when you help somebody else out You're helping them, but actually it makes you feel really good. So, um That's my take on it, you know, it's it's Yes, you know, if you've had a tragedy in your life, please mourn that but There's there's something to be said about having a positive attitude on marketing and not making about you and sharing your talent with the world Helping other people get to their goals from the talents that you have and giving them value, right? Once again, we're talking with Jonathan Tilly, you know, no, I used to be in the insurance business Um, and and one of the things they would teach us was you got to have a rhino skin Yeah, you got to let this stuff bounce off of you and uh, you know, don't don't you know Rejection is not what it's all about. It's as we used to say, you know If you take every 20 knows you're going to get a yes once in a while You got to go out and do that you have a book called embrace the f word Failure, uh, tell us about that Yeah, so, um, this is this is a perfect segue to with the with the nose and I have a in the book I talk about, um You know the three the three steps to embrace the food failure, which which are and the first one is to ask, you know, um We're so petrified of asking so scared, right asking for directions asking for a job asking can I send you my demos, right? Um, and it feels like we are surrounded like we're in the middle And we're surrounded by nose, right just surrounded by them But then once we get a yes, we break through that circle and we have the yes up here So it's just like oh step forward step forward How often do we wait a day a month a year? A decade to ask somebody for something whether it be a job whether it be, you know, how are you whether it be, you know How petrified are we to ask the question? But then It takes less than 30 seconds to do the asking and get the knowledge, right? So I know that I'm gonna get the knowledge much quicker if I just Get uncomfortable and awkward with myself for 30 seconds And then and then just say hey, are you accepting demos right now? And they go yes where I go. Oh great. Okay So I got the answer and the knowledge that I needed or if they say no get back in touch in six months It's like okay great at this they have the knowledge I'm making note of my calendar to reach back to them in six months and ask again, you know So the the the fear of asking the fewer failure the fear of rejection the fear of success whatever it is That's going to be normal having rhinoskin most definitely But I think people take it so personally, you know Oh, oh, they're too busy. Oh, no when it's like there's there's seven billion people on on this planet There's going to be a couple people that are going to say yes to you You just just have to find out who those yeses are and lean into the vulnerability Take it to the next level find that yes and follow through with that All right, and you just have to have the stick to itiveness to keep doing it And you know, I mean it's always a matter of you know, you do it day after day after day and you can burn out at it How do you maintain? Doing that even though you're you perhaps you're not getting the success you want I think it's the thing of just being consistent following up Um not taking it personal, you know in the beginning when I would first market myself I'm like so and so didn't get back in touch with me. Oh my god And and not following up and then I just go Then I see that person five years later and I go you never replied back and they said I never got your email So I'm thinking like for five years. I've been having this sad story in my head and they never got the email Crazy, right? So sometimes you have to follow up sometimes you landed people's spam folders sometimes people are just busy Sometimes you're just not to their liking right now. It's not personal. It's not personal at all It's it's a thing. It's down to like taste some people like broccoli. Some people don't That's all it is, right? So somebody not like broccoli. I don't quite get that one. I know, right? um, but uh, but it's it's just the thing of maybe you're not To their taste right now maybe in six months you will be But there's so many more fish in the sea like don't take it personally Sit down for one or two hours a day Reach out to people be of value You know, don't do the thing of like you'd be stupid not to hire me That's wrong. Be like, how can I help you? The majority of the work that I've gotten especially in the beginning I've said, how can I be of service to you? Oh, not right now. Okay. Cool. Great. I'm here when you're ready when you are ready not when I'm Trying to figure out how I'm going to pay my mortgage that it that doesn't it's not how it how it works, right? I'm here when you're ready. Yeah, my job to get as many people on board to Book me for the gigs that my mortgage is a thing in the past that I don't have to worry about it Because I've reached out to so many people and asked Broken through the the circle of no to get to the yes within a 30 second ask Right. Well, I think it's great that you you've taken these concepts and are now offering it back out to You know, not only just the voiceover community, but the you know, the freelance community at large Being a freelancer is tough work. And I think a lot of people get into this business Not realizing what's really involved. It's like, oh, I'm a voice actor I'm just going to be able to go out there and talk for a living and it's it's not like that It's all as I'm sure most of our viewers have probably figured out by now um, but You know being able to take the the rejection and not realize that it's not rejection Uh, I guess it's a matter of it's all in your head and you've got to be able to reframe it that way Totally totally. I mean, I've I've discovered while on tour, you know, this is the end of the tour right now Um, and I keep saying it and I never thought of it before I keep saying it at every at every location that we're in Yes, this is this is hard work marketing yourself, right? It's work because we would love to be behind the mic 100% of the time, but it's that just doesn't happen, right? You have to sleep you have to eat you have all these different things that that are throughout your day And yes, you're you're working behind the mic Part of your day, but not the entire day But you also need to make sure that you're working behind the mic as much as you can every single day And yes, it's uncomfortable. Yes, there's rejection, but I would rather invest two hours every day Working on my business then investing eight hours in a cubicle working for some big conglomerate company like I can't even fathom that I would On the on my first day working at a cubicle during my lunch break I would probably jump out the window because I would just go crazy, you know, so I would rather Work two hours make it a little bit uncomfortable for me, but realize, you know I'm building my business versus building somebody else's business and dying inside, you know So, um, that's that's for me like what what what suffering do I want to choose suffering in a cubicle? which is soul destroying or Suffering being vulnerable out of my comfort zone reaching out to other people and being like hey I want to be a value to you right and and that's and that's the thing getting outside of your comfort zone, which is a matter of You know letting yourself be vulnerable and and having self-confidence even if you don't Or is tony robbins once said, uh, you know if you can't you must Once again, we're talking with jonathan tilley and uh marketing your voiceover business and What really matters in trying to get yourself out there? I mean, yeah, it's about having Is it necessarily about having a great voice and it's about being you And and you've got to get that across to people that hey, this is who I am. This is what I do And uh, you know take it or leave it, but if you like what I do Here's here's my number. Here's my contact information that sort of thing Uh, one of the other things another book you wrote was uh called my content calendar. Tell us a little bit about that So my content calendar is an actual calendar and an online course Cool and I have it So this is one of the four uh four colors that we have we have pink orange blue and green And it's one it's actually 16 months worth of prompts for instagram With some fun quotes and a proper calendar as well um Just and some pictures giving you an idea of all the different things that you can post on instagram So I know a lot of people that are like, yeah instagram is great But I wake up in the morning and I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to post I'm going to freak out and then they don't do anything at all But what if you could wake up in the morning and know that you have a whole month? Planned photographed and scheduled in advance What if you had fun captions? That showed a little bit of your personal side and also your business instead of photographing your dog And your coffee and your breakfast and your weekends but also Photographing, you know micro content of who you are and documenting your creative process as a voice-over artist What if you had all that planned out? What if you could post it and make it really awesome? But why if you could party on instagram? Just like how I was saying with uh with molly shannon. Oh my god I'm in the direct messages with her. This is amazing There's a whole section after learning how to plan and post I teach you how to party on instagram And giving you a couple different strategies on how to reach out to those dream clients without feeling like a spammer or without feeling like a stalker building a relationship with them starting a conversation and Bringing everything over to the direct messages where they go. Hey, do you know what dan send us your information? That would be great And where they go, you'll never believe but I discovered dan on uh on instagram Just a couple weeks ago when really you discover them Here's the thing about instagram they whenever somebody's like, oh, I discovered somebody on instagram That's bs it's I was in a conversation with them or we just started a conversation I don't know who started or what the conversation was about But this person's a really nice person and they have something of value that I need right Who has ever been to the dance of the gym in high school or in junior high and everybody's standing Like around and everybody's petrified of asking somebody to dance, right? So with my content calendar, I have prompts I have all these different things that you can say. Oh, I'm going to share this with with instagram I'm going to reach out with reach out to this person to this ad agency on instagram And start a conversation ask that person to dance, right and it's just a dance It's a conversation starter nobody really remembers How the conversation got started nobody remembers what the conversation starter was what the topic was All they remember is how you made them feel and how they go I need somebody just like you and then they tell their friends. You'll never believe who I discovered on instagram So that's what it's about, you know, that's what my content calendar is about I had a plan post and party on instagram. I had to build your brand on instagram one day at a time Once again, we're talking with jonathan telly. This is this is fascinating stuff because I now get the idea because I've resisted using instagram and I mean, I have an account I'm like, okay, I've got other things to do but It's I guess what you're gonna say is it's not too late because just like with voiceover It's your uniqueness and here's something new that suddenly can come in so, you know, they're everything like, oh, yeah I got this instagram brand. I got this instagram contact. Oh, here's somebody new, right? Yeah, totally and especially for the voiceover world. I mean instagram is a very visual platform So us as voiceover artists we go, but we're an auditory. Like we're a sound platform, you know So instagram is almost oversaturated with photographers But the instagram Like realm for voiceover actors. It's untapped like It's it's crazy. So especially as a voiceover actor going on over to instagram. It's like it's the wild west There's so much uncharted territory. However, there's so many e-learning companies animation houses production houses ad agencies all these different people and types of of People that give the voiceover artists the job and there's not that many voiceover artists on instagram where it's just like Guys, it's time to come over and there's almost zero competition and it's awesome. It's an awesome place for you to Start to take pictures because we're so petrified of showing our face We're so petrified of showing anything other than our demos. It's like we need to start showing a little bit more We need to start start showing up a little bit more Microcontent showing a picture of your of your computer screen showing the picture of your speaker system Not just you behind the mic but showing your process That's what we want to see just because you see it every single day doesn't mean that that the world is bored with it on the contrary I go on to arabian b Not to book a vacation that comes secondary. I go on to arabian b to look inside people's homes I just go this is fascinating. They designed their home like this. Oh, wow. That's beautiful. I'm gonna go there I went to marrakech Not because I wanted to go to marrakech. I went to marrakech to stay in this beautiful home for a week I'm like I need vacation time. I'm gonna take a week off. Let me find a place that I want to hang out in Somewhere in the world I found this beautiful home in marrakech and I stayed there for a week. It was fantastic. So what we see Every single day is boring to us But with other people see Is eye-opening they get to they have a peek inside your creative process They've learned so much more about you and they want to work with you Yeah, once again, we're talking with jonathan tilly. This is great stuff. This is stuff. I think people just You know, it's like, how do I know this? Well, you've got this stuff And of course, this is what we do here on voiceover body shop It's the original content or the original idea was Shingless promotion So if people want to get in touch with you and uh, you know buy your book take a course of you How would they go about doing that? Well, we are currently in launch mode for my content calendar So if you go to my content calendar dot com all the information is going to be there The vip waitlist is going to be up there. The launch mode is going to be on We'll be super excited to answer all of your questions or uh, if you have a question email me at info at jonathan tilly dot com All the information about my content calendar is on the website Shopping card is only open for a couple of weeks So I can't wait to answer any questions that you have and welcome you on the other side to help you build your brand on instagram One day at a time And how does one find you on instagram? You can find me on instagram by going to jonathan tilly dot com all spelled out No period. So it's j o n a t h a n t i l l e y d o t c o m Jonathan it's always a pleasure to talk to you when we meet it at conferences And and we get to talk about these things and and you're doing great stuff with the voiceover community And we really appreciate it and thanks for being on voiceover body shop. This is great stuff. Thank you so much It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders When you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books Auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voiceover x t r a dot com Well, that was fascinating. Yeah, I mean that's That's why we had him on I mean we knew we were gonna get a lot of content and uh, that'll make you hopefully rethink How to use some of these resources. I'm still trying to get the hang of this instagram thing, you know, it's like You gotta teach me how weird the thing about instagram is there's not an official Sharing or reposting function right where with facebook you can go share that to my page That doesn't have it's a tool like that. It's it's different. I don't know it's it's It seems like a hack. Does it have a sharing thing now? You can repost But it's an app see it's an add-on it's a it's a it's a plug you on it's not natively built into it That's what's odd about the instagram. Yeah. Well, thanks for hanging out with us tonight Yeah, you know that was a long interview but so much interesting information that he throws out there a lot of ground cover You can learn that fascinating how the candles have burnt down Isn't that fascinating? That's amazing. It is Anyway, uh I'm so glad you pointed that I'm glad I just thought I'm like my goodness. They've been just burning along Um next week on this show. We have a another fascinating guest isa Lopez Mm-hmm. We'll be joining us from Denver call alive. Yeah, uh, and uh, she does radio imaging and one of Savoia's award for best imaging demo Far out. So yeah, so uh, that'll be an interesting Talk because I think a lot of people were like I'd love to do promo and imaging and stuff because there's a lot of that Type of work out there. Yeah, it's not something we've talked about that much on the show Actually, we really had to shed some light on that. Absolutely. Uh, then uh, Hopefully we're gonna be in see you're gonna be in Seattle and we're gonna be at a a a workout group Some something like that. We're working on the details, but I will be coming from a studio In Seattle two weeks from now. I do know that much. All right So shana penned or shana penned and barrett is working on getting the details together She's a longtime viewer of the show. Excellent. All right. So that'll that'll be different, you know Guys should have workout groups. It's really important. Absolutely. Uh, and then we're gonna be off for two weeks because That the next monday is christmas eve. The following monday is new year's eve new year's eve, so Yeah, I mean we had a new year's day party last year, but This year. No, we're just gonna take some time off And then we're gonna make some big changes to the show. Thanks to your suggestions and uh, And us sitting around going why don't we change things just for the hell of it? Shake it up. Let's see what see what happens to it And uh, I think you'll like the changes that we make it'll be some good stuff a lot more tech The best interviews those sorts of things so starting january 7th We'll actually start off with randy morrison Who is has a new thing called connection open? It's not that new But it's working really well the newest incarnation of which it's sort of, you know That's a studio to studio communication thing for doing remote stuff Uh, let's see. Uh, we have a few donors in the week We tend to every week. We got a few regulars here. We got tracy h reynolds, andrew kaufman Eric aragone and then moving down the list. We've got a few more here that I always had to dig for we got martha con martha. Okay, don griffith Thank you don um antlion productions our buddy uncle roy Shana pennington baird. Thank you as I just mentioned. She's a regular subscriber joseph valentine t and that looks like he's uh subscribing as well and stephanie southerland And dino birdsall. All right. So thank you so much. You don't have to subscribe You can just if you see a topic on the show that you just thought was really great And you've got a lot of value you could just send a little bit money at that time You don't have to send anything It's just a little extra way to keep the show going and Try to spur forward what we do with some better production values as absolutely Yes, so and we're going to do some really cool stuff starting in 2019 not that we're not doing cool stuff now Uh, even cooler. It's gonna be even cooler stretching the limits of voice You know voice over webcasting technology. All right, don't oversell it. All right, sorry. Um Let's see here, uh show us your booths. I mean Tonight we have you know, it's conica, but uh, it could be a booth. It could be a booth, you know Very really loves honica. Yeah, I mean and what's not to love but we'd like to see your booths show Send us a picture of your booth In landscape not portrait Uh, and your your booth could be on our show. That'd be really cool. Uh, let's see what else, uh Get on our mailing list easy to do just on the website says subscribe And you'll get you'll see all the cool stuff that we're going to be doing here And you'll know before everybody else Uh, dan are you on instagram? I have an instagram account Beginning january 1 with all the new things that we're going to do. I am going to be jamming me hammer What are you on instagram? What's your instagram name beats the crap out? I know what it is Dan dot Leonard at dan dot Leonard. I just found it. Thank you And i'm george the tech on instagram the new hot thing the kids are all doing And the grown-ups. Yeah, my mom's probably on it now, too Uh, let's see here. I have a podcast you got a podcast Mine's called the pro audio suite and it is a pure podcast no video nothing live We just release this every week or two Depending on what content we have and we get to really talk tech on the show We interview folks in the recording industry and the voiceover business and uh, we really dive deep Deep really deep. Yeah, you know and we're also going to start doing webinars here You know, so if you want some great content specifically about a specific topic with home voiceover studios You're going to be able to get it right here. Um, directly from v obs directly from v obs So make sure you get on the mailing list that will help you a lot to to see what we're up to Uh, let's see. What else uh, you want to be live in our studio? Let's see if we can get a shot of our studio audience tonight illustrious crowd Yeah, yeah everybody wave All right, got lots of people here If you want to be in our studio write to us at the guys at v obs.tv and tell us when you're in town Or if you're in town if you actually live here, uh, and it's going to be a monday night when we're on Let us know we'll give you the secret handshake and let you come in and uh, watch the show live guys having a good time Yeah, that's that was a ringing endorsement guys. Thank you. All right Well, we need to thank our sponsors like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials dot com voice over extra Source elements go to go go voice actor websites dot com and j muckl collins demos And of course the dan and marcie lennard foundation for the betterment of live webcasting Our producer catherine curden for getting us great guests like jonathan tillie jack daniel on limited chat room duty tonight I don't know where did he go a whole lot to do? Yeah, you know our technical director tonight Mike merlino because his mom is But if anything he's just as good he learned from the best All right, and lee penny simply for being lee penny. Well, that's gonna do it for us tonight Uh, thanks to our studio audience for being here and thank you for joining us here in voiceover body shop Uh, and you know, it's not an easy business There is so much to learn to be successful at voiceover jonathan tillie gave us some stuff Yeah, but we're here to help you with the technical stuff and uh, so just remember if it sounds good It is good. That's gonna do it for us. I'm tan lennard. I'm george wimm and this is voiceover body shop or vio BS happy hanukah everybody See you next monday a crazy night