 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop and we got a great show tonight if you gotta understand voiceover is a business and We have a great guest tonight. Our good friend Jody Cragle is joining us from the great white north Which apparently is quite white and very much in the north And so we're gonna talk a little bit about audio branding and good business practices and what it takes to really succeed, right Jody? Say hi Okay, you all set George, right? I'm ready to go. Okay voiceover body shop is coming up right now From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional video studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the 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 voice of a world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voice over business Welcome to voice over body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training JMC demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and now Live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, hello everyone. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whidham and this is voiceover body shop or VO Yes, it is yes coming from the championship city of Los Angeles where most people are like the Rams. Yay Hey Hey, I I'm I think the the halftime show has was for a target audience certainly one Los Angeles nose. Yes to Millennials Yeah, that's or Gen X is to and that definitely was me. I I enjoyed the halftime show. I have to yeah System cranking I couldn't understand the word they were saying. Oh, well, you know, it's that's the yeah It was a target audience Fascinating to note that, you know, it was Marysi was like have you ever noticed that the that most of the Super Bowl Entertainer halftime entertainer are all over 40 It's interesting to this time. Oh, is that gin general or is that just I think in general? I mean think about some of the people a minute anyway. Yeah, we're gonna talk about voiceover tonight We got other things to talk about we are looking forward to getting back here in the studio all together pretty soon because I Miss being able to look up the nostrils of a lot of prominent voice actors I Think things a little bit more interesting Yeah, but we're gonna talk about the voiceover business tonight If you've got a question for our guest or for George and I for tech talk a little bit later on throw it in the chat room Supposedly Jeff Holman is back there. He is typing everything out and right. I find the fact that he is here I'm glad to hear that and So why don't we introduce our guest as Mishka apparently wants to get into the studio here Uh Providing voiceovers for TV and radio commercials corporate and industrial narrations documentaries and in-show narrations political ads and anything else Jody Jody Crangle has voiced national international commercial campaigns for companies like Bissell craft Capri Sun and Visitor Orlando Narrated documentaries corporate and web explainer videos for Fortune 500 companies and has and has been the narration voice for shows on both Slice Network in Canada and HGTV here in the US So if you're ever buying stuff for no HGTV is like the Discovery Channel HG is home and garden. I think home and garden, right? Yeah, that's where you had all the home improvement shows She's also she also has a new podcast that she's really been making a lot of on audio branding the hidden gem of marketing and How do you get all that work? Let's talk to her about it. Let's welcome Jody Crangle. Hey there. How you doing? Hello, I'm doing good. It's good to see you guys. It's good to see you It's been a long time. Yes You know, I'm great and so glad we can have you on because we've really been trying to concentrate in getting people to understand that voiceover is An entrepreneurial business. This is not show business and you know where everybody's like, oh, I'm gonna be in voiceover I'm gonna get an agent and they're like that's that's not how you do it, you know people making the big big big bucks their movie stars and You know, you can move up there, but you got to start somewhere but Anyway, your journey into voiceover started doing narration for the blind and now it seems you do everything Why don't you tell us a little bit about how you you know how you drifted into voiceover back in the 90s How you got where you are today? Well, I first heard about voiceover in 95 96 when I was Volunteering my time to read. I guess they were magazine articles at the time on to reel-to-reel tape It was actually reel-to-reel tape. Yeah And I enjoyed the tech almost as much as I did the voicing so it was a nice challenge and I did that for around a year It percolated a little while because I was actually self-employed doing SEO and internet marketing SEO search engine optimization just for those who are unfamiliar like it like in the late 90s or yeah Yeah way out of the curve. Yeah. Yeah, I was doing that from 95 until 2007 when I started doing full-time voiceover. So yeah, it's been a while and and yeah It was a nice progression because I think it helped me understand the business end of things before I even got into the voiceover world Because I was already self-employed for me. It was just a focus switch. Oh, okay. Yeah Okay, see now that makes sense and I think a lot of people again don't get that that This is a business. You've got to be able to do all these different things in order to get people to Hire you. Yeah, and it's not it's no one's responsibility except yours This is very true. Yes, and you you better be responsible about that at the very least remember to invoice You don't get paid unless you invoice Do it quickly. Yes, you don't do it two months later. Yeah, something like that So clearly success in voiceover requires a good business sense But how have you moved your career along using good business practices? What are some examples of that aside from invoicing immediately? Yeah I think being efficient in my work One of the ways that I have differentiated myself in what I do is I tend to work on projects that are five minutes of finished audio or less so what that means is that I can very quickly get to a Potential client or a client's project really quickly. I can get it done in a half an hour often for them So, you know, there's a combination of that It takes coaching in order to be able to get there that quickly But also you need to not be putting out fires every second of the day Right, so if you're ahead of the curve and you have your day If you make sure that the projects that you do are Small enough. This is just how I've done it. I'm not saying this is the best for everybody But for me if I make sure that those projects are small enough that it means that I don't have this huge 100-hour e-learning project looming over my shoulder when someone comes to me for a commercial project and I mean for me it it just it made total sense because I really enjoy having many different projects in a day Because that to me is more exciting Lots of people have different things that they enjoy lots of people enjoy e-learning lots of people love audiobooks All the power to them they can have all mine I Give all of that away But I really love the corporate narration anthem videos and the commercial stuff That's really my bread and butter and I love doing it. What does that really involve? I mean, I I've done a few of them But you know, what have you experienced in doing the the corporate narrations and the anthem stuff and Yeah, I think it depends on what the company is obviously Different companies have different feelings. For instance, you're gonna sound different with health care than you would with finance but a lot of them have that same kind of Approachability, but gravitas just a little bit of oomph behind the voice and so that is something that I I Accelerate that's really where my happy place is So I do a lot of health care. I do a lot of finance. I do some tech And I can do a lot of the the happy Retail as well I do a lot of that and the luxury stuff which I really love doing as well So there's a whole lot of really interesting work in those different genres that I like playing in How do you go about getting that kind of work though? I think most people don't understand Well, I'm gonna be a voice actor. How do I go out and find that stuff? Cuz it's generally not agents finding that for you No, not usually and in the beginning agents aren't really going to help you get where you need to go in order to have regular Clients because they're not gonna look at you until they know you can make money Right. I mean, they're interested in It's a partnership, right? They're interested in making money from you because otherwise why be an agent? So If you are going out and getting your own work and that can mean a whole bunch of different ways these days I mean back in the day and Dan you will probably remember this when Back in the day. Yeah voices comm used to be the place to go, right voices comm voice one two three Bedal go a little slightly more recently than that, but we built our businesses on those exactly Yeah, so when voices comm used to allow us to contact the client directly That was a lot easier voice one two three does allow that to happen I will say that a lot of my early career started on those platforms and I Made those clients my own clients and brought them off the platforms. That was exactly. Yeah Just by giving them good service I mean, that's you know making sure that it was easy for them to just call me and have it done Like no must no fuss. It's done. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to call anyone else I'm the one you need Yeah, that's what I would say too. It's like, you know, I'm going to make your job easy You know, you're gonna take this audio and it's you're not gonna have to do anything to it It'll just be just plug it into whatever it is. You're making. Yeah, exactly Presentation or something make it easy for them. Yeah. What's again, our guest is Jodi Krangel. We're talking about Business practices for voiceover, but we're also going to talk a little bit about audio branding and what that means So if you've got any questions for Jodi again, throw them in the chat room Jeff Holman is sitting back There's somewhere and he's going to relay those questions to us a little bit later on in this show So make sure you're you're if you got a question I mean, I think once we start talking about the the audio branding thing that may trigger a few questions in a couple of people's minds So when we say audio branding because you've got it's what your podcast is about and you've been you've been you know Putting out a lot of broad podcasts and talking on a lot of podcasts Can you explain a little about what you mean by audio branding? Sure I'll give you the definition that the International Sound Awards uses And they call it a a brand sound that represents the identity and values of a brand in a distinctive manner The audio logo branded functional sounds brand music or the brand voice are characteristic elements of audio branding so it's a big umbrella of sound that is associated specifically with a company's DNA and This can mean a whole bunch of different things. It can mean a combo of music of voice of sounds of the It could be like the sound that your GE Kettle makes when it's ready like it It could be the sound of luxury car door slamming like there's all sorts of different things that this could mean and It's all part and parcel of who that company is and it lets people know in seconds Exactly who they are. That's how powerful audio branding really is because it gets that message across emotionally deeply and quickly Hmm, so how do you get that across to your potential clients and your existing clients? What do you I make a podcast about it? That's what I do the point we always talk about you just because you can doesn't mean you should make a podcast Unless it's something to say or in Jesus case something to learn. Yeah, well, I'm learning at the same time I mean the people that I have on the show all are really Knowledgeable about the various different parts of this and there are so many different parts and when I talk about audio branding It's only it's not only about brand sounds. It's also about how it Heals us I talk about the power of sound in in the podcast So not only am I talking about the advertising and the marketing but I'm also talking about how sound affects us in our daily lives and a lot of that is healing a lot of that is What music does to our moods? There's how you can influence what you taste by what you hear It's a really bunch of interesting things and how important is sound in our lives that I mean without it I'm gonna I say this a few times on some other podcasts If you're talking about movies for instance in in film if you turn off that sound and you don't listen to the sound You're gonna know what's going on in that movie, but you're not really going to care about it That's the thing the sound gives you emotional context the music the sound effects Everything that you are hearing is giving you the emotional context of that movie So you're not gonna be moved to tears just by watching something on a screen You're gonna be moved to tears when you hear the music that goes along with that scene and the sound design that goes along with that scene And those spoken words that go along with it. It's so much an Emotional landscape that we just unconsciously use in our lives and experience in our lives and when it's gone Then we realize Yeah, I just heard that on the news I just heard that I was watching some random sort of viral YouTube video Explainer today, and it was they mentioned how one of the reasons why airline food tastes relatively bad to the passengers It's because of the noise levels on the airplane Effects the way you taste the food. Yeah, it's so true. That was like whoa I mean I thought I knew about stuff to our senses all work together. Our brains are weird They say if you want it to taste better put on noise-canceling headphones, and you'll have a better tasting meal or listen to certain Sounds or certain music, you know if you're if you're in a French restaurant, and you're listening to top 40 music for some strange reason It makes you think like you're in a hole in the wall kind of like Place that doesn't care right if you're in a French restaurant And they're playing French music the type of music that you would hear if you're sitting in a cafe in Paris That makes you just taste the food better. It just makes everything better I'll remember that when I'm sitting in a cafe in Paris this spring Enjoy thank you. I'm looking really looking forward to it. We're doing a cruise from Leon to Paris. Wow That'll be fun. Yeah, be a lot of fun. Anyway, once again, we're talking with Jody Craglin We're talking about audio branding and good voiceover practices. So I Think people need to understand that it's not necessarily our job to do that now You you talked about a lot of different things that you know that what an audio brand sounds like to a particular client Generally, it's not the voice actor that does that. It's usually a good sound designer I mean you watch a movie, you know, we're talking about sound effects and all the things that that go into it Not really our job to the most part But how as voice actors do we affect that and how do we get that across to our clients as to what it is that they want? Well, we are hired usually because we have a certain voice type and we fit that type and that is what they hear as being the voice of their brand and We have to understand that we are a part of their audio brand that Once we get into a certain rhythm with them once we become that voice for them that it's going to be something that we are Very aware of And that and that they need to be aware of because it's important if you know God forbid they want to change their audio brand Then that voice changes as well or the tone changes But we are a part of that we're not the audio brand and it's not necessarily for us to make an audio brand It's it's for us to be a part of theirs So it's it's more for them to understand that their audio is important and the voice is a part of that Yeah, and that's so that's always been an important thing It's like yeah, they may change you you might be the voice of a brand for many many years And and then they write to you and say we're going in another direction. It happens. It happens all the time Totally, I understand and yeah, I I get why they would do that But yeah, it's it's something that we just need to be aware of as a profession that we are adding to their audio brand and we are helping to Let people know who they are in a very quick amount of time and that's why we were chosen So whoever you know whatever job you're doing for whatever client you're doing that job for it's because they decided that your voice fit their brand and That was a conscious decision Usually it's a conscious Client then at least from someone in the chain So someone in the casting in the office is like that's what we're looking for. Yeah, that's what they do professionally That's their job to do that and not necessarily our job is to be ourselves Yeah, you know and then do we fit into that particular brand? Again, if you got a question for Jody throw it in the chat room right now Now you you're doing this podcast. Tell us a little bit about how you started that and what's kind of stuff is on there And why people should listen Well, you know, I started another podcast before it in the summer of 2019 I was doing something called Jody's silver linings with which Bev standing came up with that name And it was just some common wisdom stuff because I'm older and there are some things that I wanted to say and I did that and then I was a part of a business mastermind and they were telling all of us that really we should have a podcast that this was Something you needed to do and so I jumped in whole hog without even really You know stopping to think about what I wanted the end result to be and The end result was that I started getting people asking me to be a life coach Not what I was hoping That was really not my plan So I stopped that podcast in October of 2019 and in November of 2019 I started up audio branding and It was really from a conversation that I had in this business mastermind there's a fellow that I was talking with his name is Vincent Piglisi and he has a Mastermind a group. They're called that it's total life freedom is what it is So it's really for entrepreneurs and people who are trying to quit their nine-to-five job and live You know a life of time and and you know time freedom basically And location freedom as well, which is something that most voiceover people already have but improving where you are at in that in that business process was kind of what I was after and He suggested that I talk about something. I was passionate about and I'm passionate about sound I've been a singer. I I had a songwriting website for years and years I Love everything about voiceover. It's so much fun and and I just enjoy Using my voice in a way that affects people So for me, it was kind of a no-brainer to sort of explore where audio goes And and on a more broad spectrum than just the advertising marketing It's called audio branding, but really I talk about the general power of sound So I talk about all sorts of different things and and I have clubhouse discussions on them as well So it's it's really become very fulfilling and it's been a little well It's been over two years, and I just hit the fifty thousand download mark. So like just a couple of days ago You know take you all to catch us, but yeah, we're up to 350,000. Yeah I have a little ways to go Well, it's where audio goes. Yeah, this is something that you wouldn't notice possibly dirty because you're monitoring us, but not Not yourself. Mm-hmm when your phone receives a message and vibrates that vibration is transmitted through your desktop through the Microphone arm into the microphone. Oh, nice, and we hear it. Okay. Yeah, handsomely I Didn't get my apology. I'm listening on these huge bar dynamic You know, that's that's me, right? I'm still vibrates, but it should not be on the table anymore That's one of those things at least you're busy before the show. I wanted to add I was before the show We're talking about animation now automation automation automation. Yeah, okay and How much of how much of what you do in your operations? I get a little obsessed about the operations of a business having done this for so long myself running my own business and How did when you add people versus software versus tools? How what are some things that you? Rely on being automated and things that you would not dare completely allow to automation and you want to be more involved with manually Well, I do not automate my invoicing So I keep track of that and I send out my invoice when I Submit the audio to the client. So I know how would you actually yeah automate Invoicing I guess I could have someone else do it for me. Oh, I see. I mean technically I guess I could but you want to feel You feel like you want to that's comes from you from the desk of Jodi Yeah, exactly I want to be involved in that and I want to make sure that it goes out the minute that I deliver the audio So I don't forget basically. Yeah, that's the idea. So it just goes out immediately they know it's coming immediately and and That's the end of that. What sort of things do you automate that? I use Gmail for my Email and I will occasionally snooze things that I don't need in that exact moment because I'm very Picky about what is left in my inbox I'm one of those people who starts to like my shoulders start to weigh down when I get too many things in my inbox Yeah, which is kind of why I do the five minutes of finished finished audio or less Projects because then I know I can get them out of my inbox quickly I mean it all feeds into my own neuroses Yeah Which we all have we which we all have exactly But I I know that for myself. I'm very much an introvert and I Need that time to replenish my energy. So if there's too much weighing down on me I feel like I can't replenish and It's something that I fight against on a regular basis so I make sure that I have space in between my Jobs that I have space in between my podcast interviews either being on a podcast or interviewing someone else I Make sure that I have that little built-in time of peace and quiet because otherwise I can't do anything else Yeah So that's just me. I mean lots of people operate in a completely different way, but yeah automating that Snooze button Thinking about it for that two seconds that I need to know when am I gonna need to see this? Yeah, and then just getting rid of it and knowing that it'll pop up when I need it again You ever use this send later button? You know, I haven't I'm not I don't know why really. I love that one. Yeah. Oh, I use it a lot Only you would think of that. Yeah If you're sitting up, I mean, it's if you're sitting up at like 11 o'clock at some weird hour Answering a whole bunch of emails. Yeah, sometimes. I don't want my clients to think I'm available That is a really good Important yeah another way. I'll use it. I'm saying right here folks So, you know if you send an email and I reply if you send another one You will not hear reply for me unless it's really like super time critical You probably won't hear for me for a few more hours. It's not cuz it didn't reply It's cuz I replied later I Did a send it later because I don't want to create an email conversation Mm-hmm, which Jen so when you're trying to mill through your your inbox if you have this one that keeps new new men Yes, unread under you're like no stop you got to stop it a little You can snooze later. That's fine, too You just snooze it and answer it later and that yeah fine, too That's what I do because I don't even want to deal with it until exactly right that day. No, it's the same idea Yeah, it's just a different tool to do this for the same to the same end. Yeah, but I generally answer my email in like seconds Yeah, I'm the same way. Yeah, I can't stop myself It'd be midnight. Oh, okay. Wife's like, where are you writing to it? It's awful. Yeah, have you ever done the same thing? He's like, what are you doing? I Heard I've never heard of a technique if it do you do you ever go on real vacations, Jodi? Like not take my gear with me. Yeah, or no, you know, I have I have It's hard I have done it. There's there used to be before in the before times There used to be a Music convention that I would go to in Atlanta and I would take off two weeks so we would be driving and We'd be driving from Toronto all the way to Athens, Alabama and then Athens, Alabama to Atlanta and And then back home. So a lot of that is in the car and I'm not gonna be doing work in the car I probably could But I really don't want to yeah, you know, I mean eight hours in the car I don't I don't know if I want to do that. So when I'm doing that two-week trip Usually I will be available on certain days during that vacation, but I will not be available at other days Like my driving days, I just take off and say I am not available and then when I'm in a hotel And I'm staying there for five days. I'm okay with doing auditions or whatever Emergency might come up, but you know, my clients understand that it's for emergency use only And like to think that well, yeah, most of them do most of them do so Yeah, it's it just it varies. Yeah, I try I try The boundaries thing is such a it's a very delicate thing because you really do want your clients to feel like they're there that you value them Yeah, I mean and you always want to make them feel like their their knees are gonna be met And but you also know you're one person serving, you know hundreds of people Yeah Auto reply is a good thing and in Gmail as well and what I say in the auto reply is that I'm available for emergencies But if I get my vacation I come back refreshed and do better work for everyone So, yeah, once again, we're talking with Jodi Kragle about audio branding and good business practices For all of you freelance voice actors out there Watching voiceover body shop because that's what we talk about Anyway, we're gonna take a quick little break right now Again, if you've got a question for Jodi about all the stuff that we're talking about throw it in the chat room Whether you're in Facebook or on YouTube or wherever it is that you're watching this show live And you get the chance to interact with our guest Throw it in there right now and we'll get to those questions in just a little bit in the meantime We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back after these important messages This is Bill Radner, and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with Dan Leonard and George Whidham V obs dot TV Well, hello there. I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat This is virgin radio. Well, okay. We're not that innocent. There's jeans for wearing and there's jeans for working Dickies cuz 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. 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 red It's your mirror 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 now at voiceover essentials It's the legend reimagined the mic port pro 3.0 brings incredible new features all in the handheld Self-powered package the mic port pro has always been known for like a new mic preamp with 65 db of crystal clear gain USB C jacks and a stunning headphone amplifier with a super convenient game switch You've no doubt heard of or recorded with the mic port pro the mic port pro breakthrough audio interface connected any studio quality Microphone to a micro digital interface this newest iteration of the legendary USB mic port pro turns your phone Tablet laptop or desktop into a professional recording studio smaller the most microphones It's feature rich easy to use and travel friendly and right now Voiceover essentials is paying the shipping in the continental us and they're including one of their ever popular Vo caps for a limited time get it now at voiceover essentials calm Hey, it's David H. Lawrence the 17th and we talk a lot in this business about moving forward with our career Getting more information We often don't talk about Simply getting started. It can be one of the most immovable objects In in our life getting out of our own way and just simply taking the first step And if you're watching this podcast voiceover body shop For some tips on how to get started in voiceover or to change something about your voiceover career or to increase your knowledge in a certain area Check out view heroes comms getting started in voiceover If you go to view heroes comm slash start you'll get all the information it's really cheap and I give you a lot to get started in the business But you might also learn something if you've been in the voiceover business for a while View heroes comm slash start. That's view heroes comm slash start Yeah, hi, this is Carlos. I was rocking the voice of Rocco and you're watching voiceover body shop And we're back with Jody and Crangle and we're talking about Audio branding and good voiceover business practices because Jody has you've been doing this Yeah, you said you started doing voiceover really in 2007 when you know when the wave of Everybody trying to get into voiceover got into it. What do you think they're always a wave? There's a wave now It's a rising tide. Yeah, yes, and of course we believe that a rising tide floats all boats We want we want people to be good at what they do because when they you know They act on professional or they really don't sound professional or don't use those practices. It makes all of us look bad You know, it's how many times well, I don't want to work with the you know freelance people I got to go to the studio. It's like listen You're there are so many good people out in the world that can do this stuff that aren't necessarily You know, you know in in LA or in New York or Houston or or Dallas or Chicago or something like that Yeah, or Canada. Yeah, we know a lot of very fine talents up I was trying to like thumb my booth I'm mirrored I know and we're like I want to look at Dan so I have to go the I have to use every ounce of the the reverse I'm like, I know I want to look this way I'm always doing the opposite Yeah So what what you were pointing to your booth there? What do you use? Yeah, Miss techie. We want to know about gear now My gear is really really simple. I Steinberg Steinberg you are 22 C and a sign Sennheiser 416 and That's pretty much it. I mean, I don't have anything in between it or you know, it all hooks into the computer in a Way I go in the booth. Yeah. Yeah, what's your software doll? I'm using Adobe audition the newest version in the cloud. So it took a while actually I just replaced my computer at the end of 2020 and How long were you using it before that? Oh, I was still on Windows 7 So I am too. I have a Windows 7 in parallels on my Mac. I refused to upgrade I really liked Windows 7. I loved I loved it But it was it was about a five-year-old computer And and at that point it just got slow and unwieldy and I was using Adobe audition 3.0 Oh, yeah, and was that hard for you to make that because I know people that cling on to 3.0 even now Was it a hard transition? You know what it was a lot Less difficult than I thought it was going to be actually and the first thing that I did was I paid for that two-hour session with Uncle Roy. Oh, yeah Because that oh my god all of the the shortcuts and all of the little stuff that he told me. Oh my god life saving So if you are at all not sure about your adobe audition By all means talk to to Roy Yolkelson and he will set you straight Yeah, yeah Roy is one of those guys that you know, he's an audio designer. It's what he does Yeah, and he's really good at it. Yeah, see as voice actors. We generally don't have to do a whole lot Adobe audition of course has lots of features and lots of things that you know that you can you can automate and and things like that But if you got a few hotkeys And you can roll through it really really quick. Yeah, it just takes two seconds really. Yeah Yeah, well, I'm glad to hear that you're keeping it simple Yeah, George and I are always you know preaching about that And the fact of the matter is is people keep hiring you and you're not using all this others Outboard gear and things like that because It's not meant for boys over. Well, yeah, I mean when I give my project Audio over to someone generally they're going to be working with it on their end They don't need me to be working with it right as long as I give them clean audio. They're fine And they prefer it that way. They don't want me to ruin in post, you know before they even get their hands on it So I do very minimal stuff even for my auditions these days actually So, yeah Here's an interesting one. Do you use paper or a screen to read? I use a screen generally Yeah, yeah inside the booth. I have a a screen That's around 22 inches. I guess something like that. Okay, open up your booth. Let's see what goes on in there Yeah, well, I'd have to turn on the the light that you can See in there. Yeah, you can sort of see so so do you read off of a mirrored screen is an exact mirror of what's on your desk What's out here? Yeah, exactly. And I have a usb Hub in there that's sort of from this computer And and the the monitor is right up against this wall in the corner there And I'm using a knee chair. You can sort of see the chair on the kneeling chair, right? Yeah There's a came came and go. I mean they seem to have come and gone it essentially I've been using for years those that love them will always love them, right? I just find it easier. I find it easier. It uh, it keeps me stable over a long period of time And most of what I do I do sitting so Yeah, I mean that wouldn't work for someone in animation maybe or video games Yeah, but that's not something I do. So I don't worry about it Once again, we're talking with jody krangel. If you got a question We got a few questions coming in here throw it in the chat room because we want to hear from you We like knowing you're out there. George. What's the first question we got here from jim mc nicolas Jim asked and he's on youtube. He says, uh, so yeah back in the day those sites were great. Were you Were uh, where would you find them today? I'm he's referring to the sites that you were mentioning your voice tone two three Yeah What do you find them today? I like less than I also like the five minute jobs too I do a few a day, but love to be doing more Yeah, it's you know, it depends on what your personality wants you to do So a lot of people like reaching out They like looking on linkedin and finding people who are creative directors or at ad agencies or video production companies or The like and reaching out to them directly people do that with e-learning all the time as well The linkedin edge I believe is tracy lindley's course. Oh, yeah, well worth paying for just to let you know And yeah, linkedin is a great place to find a lot of these people and you can What I say about linkedin is it's not a way to reach out immediately. It's a way to Stock people a little bit Just like in a polite way So what you what you do is you follow someone without connecting with them necessarily You watch what they post you comment on what they post because when you comment you lift up their algorithm and you help them and you sort of get on their radar by Being involved in what they're doing And then eventually they get used to you they respond to your comments You have a discussion And then it's a warm lead instead of a cold Hi, I'm trying to sell you something thing which can get very annoying and I'm sure a lot of these people get it all the time So I end up finding a lot of my guests for the podcast that way Actually, because there are a lot of audio branding professionals on linkedin Who are all talking in the same vein about the same stuff? And so when I comment on one of their Posts I end up reaching a whole bunch of other people who are also discussing this and want to discuss more so Yeah, it's just a great way to to reach out to people. So yeah, I would highly recommend linkedin and you can Do the research on linkedin and then reach out to them through their own website if you wanted to but again I would say follow them on linkedin find out more about them before you do that Just because it's it becomes a little more of a warm lead than a cold one Um, I know people do reach out on the phone, but these days you never know who's actually going to be in their office so You know, I I I don't know how well that'll work Um, but some people swear by it. So it really depends mark scott has some great tips on Reaching out and direct marketing. So I highly recommend anything from him Yeah, go back and watch the episode he was on. Yeah, I'm sure he had a lot to say about that Tom Deere is another person who knows a lot about this kind of stuff. So Yeah, you could also reach out to him But yeah, there are many different ways to do it But I would say the if you can prevent yourself from just reaching out and saying hi, I'm a voice actor hire me I I think you should do that because there are other ways to do it And um and other ways that I think will Put you in better stead with the people you're reaching out to Excellent, uh question from andrea ens It says what was your first voiceover job? How did you get it and what did you learn from it? Oh my goodness, uh, my very first job was actually a documentary believe it or not. Um, it was a documentary on world war two and it was a Kind of a photo collage of this fellow who was producing it. His father was stationed in, um Saipan During the second world war and he was taking kodachrome film Photographs that were in color at the time and The island of Saipan was honoring his father for and you know, they were going over to Saipan to actually um give over the uh photographs or copies of them for their um like a museum over there and There was a photograph that his father caught that was of a plane On the end of a dock And someone out in front of it And they think that it might have been and I mean it might have been disproven by now But they thought it might have been Amelia Earhart's um navigator So they were sort of like it was really it was an interesting really interesting documentary and I mean It's I don't know where it is now. I mean this was like 15 years ago, right? so, uh, yeah, it was a lot of fun. I learned a ton and Uh, actually you also learned that you like five minute chops. Yes. Yeah. Well You know, I didn't mind that one because it wasn't overly long It wasn't hugely long, but you learn these as you go along. Yeah in that one, I actually had a song that I had done for um Like a collaboration of a friend with a friend of mine in the uk and we'd done a version of I'll be seeing you And so that actually ended up playing at the end credits of that documentary So they ended up using that uh that song for the end credits. So it was yeah, it was a lot of fun I mean it just it totally got me hooked Yeah, if you don't know jody's also a very fine singer I mean then you professionally you you sing I've heard you sing. It's absolutely great. Thank you. Uh, george Grace newton asks and I know you covered this a bit, but you could expound maybe a little bit Um, do you have a favorite or go-to way to market your business and what has worked best and What wasn't so fruitful and maybe pick one more special Special thought because we talked about that quite a bit, you know, I sent out packages at one point um for uh national chocolate cake day And I had um, well this was before I changed my branding. Oh, okay. Yeah, so uh, I had um, I had pens and I had notebooks and I had a Recipe and all of this stuff and I sent it out and heard absolutely nothing back So a lot of money spent and absolutely no results as far as I know I know that's going. Yeah, I was just it was pretty awful. Um, and I think I know why I don't think that there was enough personalization in it because I didn't actually get to sign it because it was being sent from the us and Most of my clients are in the us. That's that so I was sending it to a lot of my clients and I just really I don't think it really hit them As being very personal And I think that might have been the problem. I think if we keep it personal and real that When you reach out to people that they'll be much more likely to respond like it was a little too gimmicky in hindsight I don't know gimmicky necessarily but the card included had like, uh, A simulated signature. Do you know what I mean? Like it didn't actually have my Because it was manufactured elsewhere and I couldn't sign it. So Yeah, so Lesson learned right personal is better Yeah, so do your homework before you send stuff out by yourself and make sure you know who you're writing to I mean, I did do my homework. It was through someone else. Like it wasn't It wasn't just me but at the same time I'm Yeah, it I think it just needed that one personal touch and I think it would like if it had looked like it actually came from me I think it would have made more of an impact Yeah, yeah, I I've been using an email service to send important emails from brad newman's upper-level crm And when you send those emails, they do come from you. Yeah And they look like they come from you and they do get opened. Yes. It's pretty amazing Yeah, and brad's amazing too. Yeah, his service is fantastic. So, yeah, yeah We have a question here apparently from Somebody who's anonymous is what was the audio innovators award you mentioned before the show you were we were talking about Oh, that was me. That was you. Oh, you wrote this question. Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned something about audio Yeah, what was the audio innovators? Yeah, um the uh international sound awards Oh, yeah are put out by the audio branding academy in germany. Oh, wow. Yeah It's just totally off my radar. That's why I was like really curious about yeah The fellow who is on my podcast his name is cornelius ringer. It's r-i-n-g-e He has a audio branding company called we sound and they're in uh berlin and humberg and he and his Music director, I believe I think that's what lars does uh lars olandorf, uh, they were on my podcast together And he talked all about it and yeah, it was really enlightening cool Thanks. Yeah, so what what's the name of the podcast again so people can actually go hear that one? Sure. It's called audio branding And there it is right there. Yeah, audio branding podcast dot com Uh, you get the question from j. Horace black there george Yeah, he's asking. Well, he says you have lovely presence and energy. I would agree with that. Well, thank you Yeah There was a few comments about your voice and your demeanor In the chat. Did you find yourself testing out many other microphones before hanging, you know going with the 416? Yeah, well, I was um using Oh my goodness. Can I remember what this is? I started with an nt1a when I first started in the business And I found that it was just too cold for my voice. I didn't like how I sounded on it I used it for a number of years, but uh, I it was okay. It just wasn't really You know, I think it's okay on a lot of people You know, it's okay on a lot of people and sometimes it's great and most of the time is just okay Yeah, yeah And I have a tlm 103 in there as well that I use for singing if I need that So that Works well too. And of course the u 87 is brilliant But I don't live in a pristine environment even though I have the booth So u 87 is way overkill and on I live in a townhouse complex So I can get rid of most everything when I go into that booth. It's fine, but it's not sound proofed. It's it's sound treated So I can't get rid of everything and the 416 really helps with that first of all because it's very directional But also I find that with the deeper voices It really adds a little bit of presence and I I like that I like that little bit of oomph that it gives my voice on on a production. So Yeah, do you find yourself having trouble? Feeling comfortable singing in a very small Dead booth Actually, no Oh, okay. I don't I mean I've done the on on stage performances as well But and that's a completely different environment and a completely different reason for singing really when you're doing studio stuff I I really enjoy it actually because it's very detail oriented You know you can and you can go back, you know, you don't have to record it all in one sequential thing You can go back and redo little parts if you want as long as you know how to edit Do you monitor yourself? You know totally totally flat dry sound in your headphones while you're singing Do you not monitor? I actually don't use headphones while I'm singing usually if Okay, when I'm when I'm doing my work when I'm doing my work I do not use headphones when I am singing and I need to hear a backing track. I do use headphones Yeah, so so there's a difference. So, um, yeah, I guess it depends on how far up you turn the volume Um, I want to turn it up enough that I can hear the nuances of my voice But I don't want to turn it too far down that I have to be screaming Right, right. Yeah, no, there's a delicate nuance there. It's like a really delicate balance It's either right or don't do it like take them off because if it's not quite right It's gonna drive you nuts. Well, I need them if I'm listening to a backing track, right? Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, so I have to I just have to make sure I'm very conscious of how loud my Your phones are well, you're one reason that you are you are 22 is really is good And why I wreck why I'm very picky about what interfaces I recommend Is that I want them to have a monitor mix and that knob has that that unit has that knob That lets you monitor mix your monitoring so you can control exactly how loud You sound to the music or whatever you're listening to Yeah, I feel like that's an important feature that really helps I can mix an adobe audition too like I can make a mix when I'm hearing the My volume of audio and and the music So if I'm multi-tracking in adobe audition, I can just mix it however I want it. So yeah, yeah Either or Well, jody, it's been way too long since we've seen each other Is there's one thing I miss about that in the going to conventions? No hugs Yeah, yeah, we must be together. Yeah, and I'm looking forward to the next time we can get together But we really want to thank you for coming on and talking with us tonight About stuff that perhaps people didn't really think about so. Thank you so much for inviting me Yeah, once again. What's the podcast again? Audio branding. It's an audio branding podcast.com I have clubhouse rooms that talk about the power of sound 2 p.m. Eastern wednesdays So it's a club called the power of sound if you look for it, you'll find it There's a whole bunch of stuff scheduled in there and actually um on 2 p.m 2 p.m on thursdays I have a room with sharyl hauling in anganguza and we talk about voices in podcasting So basically the mix of those two things and one or the other it's called vip And uh, that's also under the club the power of sound Very good. I'm gonna sign up right now. Yeah, that's the power of sound like like you don't have anything else to do Jody thanks again so much for being with us. Thank you so much for having me. It's been fun. Alrighty All right. Well, we're gonna we're gonna take a quick break here and then we're gonna re-rack it for For tech talk make sure you're wrong for that And if you got questions make sure you get them in there, but we'll rewrite back to wrap this hour up right after this You're still watching v obs In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites.com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept to live online In a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites.com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites.com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voiceover career flourish Don't try it yourself go with the pros voice actor websites.com where your vio website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what Hey everybody it's time to talk about source elements the creators of source connect lots of other really innovative tools for collaborating between different locations different studios bringing talent into the studio virtually and having communication with the client Also remotely and virtually which is another big part of it. You know, it's not just about you as the performer It's also how do we bring the clients in to hear that performance And not just you the whole mix The orchestra whatever is in that mix for that spot you're working on For the client to sign off on it and spend the top dollar they're spending For you your talent the engineers the production the music the the composing The the writing the direction there's a lot that goes into it They want to have an instant approval and hear exactly what it is That the final production will sound like so that's another part of it. They're listening in On a web browser and hearing you through source live It's it's just an incredible array of tools and it's just the reason they continue to be A very well regarded tool in production for voiceover and really in anything audio But you know the one you're going to look for as talent is going to be source connect standard If you hear somebody saying you need the pro version of source connect Yeah, there is a source connect pro But you're looking for as a talent source connect standard and that's going to give you Uh, the tool you need to connect with the big budget jobs and you're you're going to see it asked for by name And that's what they're asking for sign up for a free trial go to source dash elements.com And get up and running with it. So you're ready to go when that opportunity strikes Thanks source elements. Let's get back and wrap it up This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shop Hi, jody. Yeah That was it was great having her on i haven't talked to jody in a long time And she is a master at what she does. She's a very very successful business lady and and voice talent So next week on this very show if you tune in if you watch like watching our show, it'll be tech talk number 73 So uh, make sure that uh, you tune in for that and that'll be uh next sunday morning I'll get that out to you But if you want to watch live if you want to interact with george and I Stick around we'll be we'll bring it. We record that right after this. So uh, We would love to have your questions uh for that Who are our donors of the week? And if you by the way, I don't know if we've mentioned it for a while But if you want to watch live we are live at 5 p.m. Pacific time every other day every other monday So Tune in to the website go to v obs dot tv Look and see when we're taping our next show And uh and jump in and join us because uh, it's it's it's we really have fun having your Questions here live with us donors We've got them philips appear Thomas pinto Shelly avilino george wittem. You're dead the senior one brian page patty gibbons rob raider greg thomas A doctor voice ant land productions shana pennington baird martha con don griffith and Trey mostly All righty Uh, we need to thank our sponsors, of course harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements bio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and jmc demos Uh, thanks to jeff holman in the chat room tonight getting all those questions to us Uh, also our amazing Sumer lino our technical director who gets it done every week And of course thanks to jody krankl for joining us again and most definitely Lee pinney for just being lee pinney Uh, that's gonna do it for voiceover body shop this week. Uh, stay tuned live for tech talk It's coming up. We want your questions. We got lots to talk about so stay tuned for that I'm dan lennard. I'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shop or vio See ya have a good week