Dec 14, 2021
Do you have the courage to invest in yourself? In this episode, Anne and Laya share how they built their dream booths and how you can too! From soundproofing to equipment, they cover picking the right recording space, investing in quality materials & technology, and taking that financial leap of faith to up your bookability + professionalism like a #VOBOSS!
Transcript
>> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry’s top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let’s welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.
Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and today, and for the last few sessions, I have been so happy to be co-hosting with special guest Laya Hoffman. Laya! How are you?
Laya: Hi. I'm so good, Anne. Loving this, and we've got more cool stuff to talk about. I feel like I could talk to you for hours and hours.
Anne: I know. Right? Well, speaking of which, you know, I met you, Laya, when I first met you, I actually didn't meet you. I saw an amazing booth tour of your new booth.
Laya: Oh yeah.
Anne: Now I think you had just moved, and you built a booth -- is it downstairs?
Laya: Yes, I would -- I would like to say it's an entire studio, if I may, because --
Anne: Yes, you built an entire studio. Yes, you did.
Laya: It was a dream come true. Let me tell you, and it's because I came out of a booth, but we can go even further back then.
Anne: I was so impressed.
Laya: Thank you.
Anne: I was so impressed with your booth tour that I thought, oh my gosh, that is like the coolest video booth tour I've ever seen.
Laya: Thank you.
Anne: And I absolutely loved your space. And you were sharing that space also with your daughter doing your podcast. And I just, I reached out to you, and that's basically how we met. And I'm so glad that we did, because now here we are doing a podcast series, so I'm absolutely loving it. And I thought let's talk about our booths because we've had some really wonderful experiences in building our booths. And I'll tell you what, my booth experiences, they've just been an evolution of my business, and coming from, you know, being in the closet -- and there's nothing wrong with recording in your closet. It's all about, you know, the sound that you're getting, but I'll tell you what, there's something to be said for graduating to a booth that's kind of like a custom beautiful place that you can sit --
Laya: It's a big girl booth.
Anne: Yeah, a big girl booth, I love it -- when you can sit and just do what you love. And I just absolutely love my new booth. Let's talk about our booths 'cause we're booth babes. Let's do it.
Laya: Booth babes. I love it. Yes. The modern mindset is to create space that you feel good in.
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: And so to be, whether it is your closet or your you've created a new studio, or you've got a custom booth or a Whisper Room or any one of those things, a Studio Bricks, there's so many beautiful options out there. No matter what space you're working in, I think it's important to just feel good in this space. So like you said.
Anne: Agreed.
Laya: You know, no matter where you are in the stage of your career or your journey, as long as you feel good there, and there's something that connects you to your surroundings and your atmosphere, that's when you're going to feel your best and to deliver your best. Exactly.
Anne: And you know what's so interesting is I've been through a few booths. I don't mean that to like, oh, I got one booth after the next, after the next, but one of my first actual booth-booths instead of being in my closet was built by my dad. And there's something to be said --
Laya: That's awesome.
Anne: -- about being in a space that you feel good about. My dad built me that booth out of love.
Laya: Yes!
Anne: I mean, my dad has always supported me, never once asked me a question about what I was doing. He didn't necessarily understand voiceover, but when I said, Dad, I need to build a booth. That gives me some good sound. And so my dad was like, okay, let's do it. And my dad bought me this booth. And every time I stepped in that booth, and I'm going to get a little bit like probably teary because I just felt his love every single time.
Laya: Yes.
Anne: And I, I used that for years.
Laya: That's so beautiful.
Anne: I used that booth for years and every time I stepped in there, I felt my dad's love and confidence in me and just his support. And it was a wonderful, wonderful thing. And I'll tell you about --
Laya: What a beautiful experience for you.
Anne: Yeah. And with my new booth, I also made sure because now he's older, I also made sure that he was involved in the booth, and he was here for the building of this booth too, which I'm so, so proud of.
Laya: I bet he took great pride in that, you know, so doing something with his hands that he could create to give his daughter this gift is so beautiful, Anne. Good for you. What a nice story.
Anne: It is, it is awesome.
Laya: I have a different story, but --
Anne: That's what -- let's hear it. Let's hear it. I'm ready.
Laya: We moved into a new house a few years ago, and we're in the northwest suburbs here of Atlanta. And, uh, the basement was unfinished. So, you know, when basements are unfinished and weird, there's like cement, dusty floors and two by fours and insulation that's just like rotting off the walls? Yeah. It's just full of probably terrible pollutants. Well, that was my first booth. Um, we call it Skid Row studios. I used a bunch of mattresses.
Anne: I love it. Oh my gosh, you had mattresses. I love it.
Laya: It was a mattress factory booth. It was disgusting. I'm not proud of the mites and the weirdness that I was probably consuming in that box. But you know, that just goes to show you work with what you got, you know, and if you really love this work, and you can get through that, you can carry on through and have a pretty solid career, I'm pretty sure. If that didn't break me, that mattress factory Skid Row studio.
Anne: Skid Row studio.
Laya: It really was. That was my first studio. And then after that, I invested in a custom booth, and I won't even give the brand because unfortunately this situation was a super negative one for me, and the booth arrived on a pallet. You know, you can imagine how excited you are. You invested --
Anne: Oh yeah.
Laya: -- this giant chunk of change in your business. It was like my last dollar, but I knew that the space was not secure --
Anne: Yeah, sure.
Laya: -- and it wasn't healthy to be in that space for me. And my daughter was working with me at the time. So, you know, she's six years old. I didn't want to breathing her all of that and making the experience less than enjoyable. So I invested, and this thing came on a pallet as they do broken into a million pieces.
Anne: Oh man.
Laya: And so it was really, I can't even tell you how my heart sunk into my stomach.
Anne: Yeah, I bet.
Laya: Like, was this a bad decision for my business? I mean, we, uh, gosh, it really almost broke me, but it was that learning experience of building it back together, dealing with the manufacturer, who's not kind, and it was really unfortunate to make me realize, like, I do really want this, and I'm going to work towards creating space one day that I can achieve that feels good.
Anne: Oh yeah, and that you are deserving of.
Laya: And is every bit the essence.
Anne: Right? You absolutely -- that was my big thing is when I built the studio, what well, both studios, it was, it was a space that I was deserving of, you know, and a space that I needed, and I needed to be able to feel good to perform well. And that was a huge part.
Laya: And making the investment sometimes, while it seems like a bit of a gut punch, especially if you don't have it, it all goes back to the mindset of building your voiceover business, right?
Anne: Oh yeah.
Laya: You have to invest and you have to spend the money to make the money.
Anne: True.
Laya: And in a way that was my brick and mortar investment, right? Which, I didn't have a storefront and didn't have to create a shop, buy a bunch of merchandise. My business was that space. And so making that investment, while I just knew it would pay off eventually, but it had to feel right around me to get there.
Anne: Oh yes.
Laya: And that gave me the confidence to continue on. And now here we are, we're in a custom-made studio, and I couldn't be more proud of this space. So, and feel, feel, I couldn't feel more amazing in here too.
Anne: Oh yeah, yeah.
Laya: So yeah, let's get into that.
Anne: Well, so I'll tell you about, I'll go back to my first built booth. I mean, because I, you know, I, myself was in -- I was in a closet, and it was a, it was a closet that was like a storage closet. And what I didn't realize, I thought, well, everybody, you know, everybody starts in their closet. It wasn't a clothes closet. Right? So there were a lot of hard surfaces. And in my early years, I don't know anything about sound or, you know, creating a good space for, for my recording. And so, no matter what I did, had carpet in there, I tried to hang blankets, no matter what I did, it sounded horrible. And so ultimately that was when I talked to my dad and I said, Dad, I need a space. And he built it. And it just was wonderful. And I will, I'm going to give a big plug for George Whittam, who was an amazing help, who helped us really kick that up another notch and make it sound amazing. And that was just, it was a homemade booth. You know, we went and got lumber and drywall, and at the time we had installation. We didn't use Rockwool, but George was able to help us really add panels that had Rockwool in it and make things sound really amazing and also give me a set of filters, you know, that always helps.
Laya: Presets, yeah.
Anne: I always recommend presets, get those stacks to, to really just make that sound amazing. And it was a wonderful thing. I've got it all documented. I'll put links, you know, on our page so you guys can see it links with the materials we used. But this past couple of years, when I moved, I had an extra office space, and I too had almost come to the decision where I was going to order a pre-built booth. And it was going to be very expensive. It was going to take a long time to get to me. And I, you know, was kind of going back and forth between, should I get this pre-built booth because I want to make sure my house is, you know, resale, I'm already thinking resale, even though I haven't moved into it yet, but I'm thinking --
Laya: Yeah, you have to think about that, for sure.
Anne: -- I don't want to build a booth in my house because it might affect resale value. So I'm thinking pre-built booth. And then by the time --
Laya: And you can take it with you, right, if you, if you were to move. You could break it down, you know, and that's great, great theory.
Anne: But I was floored, I was floored by the expense --
Laya: Yes.
Anne: -- of the booths.
Laya: Yes.
Anne: And then I thought, gosh, I'm going to have to hire somebody to install it for me. And then, and then I came to find out that yet you needed to add stuff on the inside of the booth. And I'm like -- for voiceover, then there was a whole other thing where, oh, okay. So then I've got to treat it. And I think that's the case with a lot of prebuilt booths where people don't always realize that you, sometimes you do have to add to the inside of that booth --
Laya: Oh yes, oh yes.
Anne: -- to make it an acoustic space that is, you know, worthy. And then I ended up just looking around thinking, what else can I do? Because this just seems, there's no guaranteed date as to when it's going to get there. And I need to be able to continue my work. You know, in the meantime, I'm in an apartment or a rental, you know, until my house, my house was being built, until it was ready. And I thought, I just, there's no way to guarantee the delivery on a certain day without having to wait a whole long time. And I said, let's look into a custom built booth.
Laya: Yeah.
Anne: And I contacted a good friend of mine. And I think someone that you also know, and --
Laya: Drumroll, please.
Anne: -- everybody loves, Mr. Tim Tippets, who --
Laya: Tim Tippets.
Anne: -- was just an amazing, amazing instrument in creating the space that I have now. And I absolutely love it. From start to finish, he helped me design it. He actually came here and literally he left the day or the day before lockdown in California.
Laya: I remember that. I remember watching that unfold on social media --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: -- and thought, I mean, he's my audio angel also.
Anne: Isn't he, right?
Laya: I have a heart for, for Tim.
Anne: Yep.
Laya: And the fact that he kind of brought us together.
Anne: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Laya: I watched that whole build go down. You guys did an amazing job --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: -- of tracking it in real time.
Anne: Yup.
Laya: And just how many hands were involved in the process --
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: -- and the complexity of building a studio into the walls, into the fabric of your home. It really takes it to a different level. And there are so many nuances, right?
Anne: Well, yeah, absolutely.
Laya: So it was fascinating to see your process. I loved it.
Anne: And you know, what's really cool is that it's not really built into the room. It's actually a booth within the room.
Laya: Okay, cool.
Anne: So it just looks like it's a part of the room, which is really a really cool thing. So if I ever moved from here, all I've got to do is take down a couple of the walls, and I've not really destroyed. I mean, the walls that he's put up around this booth.
Laya: Oh, that's so cool. I didn't realize that.
Anne: So, yeah, so I haven't destroyed, yeah, I haven't destroyed any of the original construction, which is --
Laya: Very cool.
Anne: -- really cool. And you, again, I've got an extensive blog on that creation and how wonderful it was. We -- it did take at least three to five people on a day-to-day basis, and it is perfectly custom built, and it actually ended up being more efficient cost-wise than a prebuilt. Believe it or not.
Laya: It's kind of -- no, I believe it. I believe it wholeheartedly in fact.
Anne: Yeah, yeah.
Laya: I had a similar experience with mine, so it's nice to hear that you felt the same way too, because I think the misconception can be, if you build a studio space in your home or a booth within a room situation like you did, oh, it's gotta be totally crazy expensive. Or you get all these crazy quotes from contractors --
Anne: Exactly.
Laya: -- who might be considering what it takes to build a theater room, which is acoustically very different --
Anne: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Laya: -- than a voiceover specific room.
Anne: And I'm not saying that in all instances, is it going to be cheaper than this or -- that really depends on what booths you're looking at, but I will say --
Laya: Know what you're using, yeah.
Anne: -- completely customized to me.
Laya: Yeah.
Anne: I don't think I could have gotten a pre-built booth that was custom the way this is. Like, literally they measured like how tall I was to where to mount the monitor, the height of the desk, where to put the electrical, understanding where I'm putting lighting, just amazing. I have two mics in here and the third mic outside of the booth, just connecting everything. There's no way I could have gotten something equivalent with a prebuilt situation.
Laya: Yeah, yeah.
Anne: And for that, I am eternally grateful, and I just, I come in this booth and I love it. I love it. And my father, he's so funny because my father, it -- this actually has -- it's double-walled, right? Green-glued, Rockwool everywhere and Rockwool panels.
Laya: Same, same.
Anne: And it's got two doors. So not just one. I'm all proud of the fact that I have two doors to get into this booth. And my father, love him, love him, love him. He was like, okay, it's -- their actual, you know, like doors that you would use --
Laya: Solid core doors, solid core.
Anne: -- like solid core doors. And they have a lock on them. And my father's like, no, you will take that lock out because we don't want Anne to ever, you know, possibly lock herself in, or, you know, God forbid, somebody, you know what I mean? God forbid somebody breaks in the house in --
Laya: Yeah, you gotta think about the safetiness. Sure.
Anne: Oh, he's all about my safety. And he was just adamant. So we --
Laya: I love your dad.
Anne: I know! We had to remove the locks.
Laya: Never met him, I love him.
Anne: So there's no way I can lock myself in the booth. And I have had that issue. I've read other people who've had the issue where they've locked them -- what if something happened? I mean, God forbid, I, you know, faint in the booth, and you know, nobody can get to me because it's locked. So, you know, my dad was stickler for that. And really it was lovely having him here the whole time with the crew and overseeing things. It was really lovely.
Laya: Awesome.
Anne: And I just, I cannot say enough wonderful things about Tim and Tim's crew who helped me to build this amazing, completely custom booth. So.
Laya: Well, I had a similar experience, but very different, and of course a different outcome, but I have the same sentiment. I walk into this space every day, and I get to share it with my daughter --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: -- which is also a gift. And it just pulls out this most creative, amazing feeling of love and excitement and pride for the work that we do and how far we've come doing this work. And yes, it was an investment and yes, I had that booth, but the booth always, because of how the situation was handled, always had this air of negativity --
Anne: Oh yeah.
Laya: -- a bit of regret and resentment. And I could feel that energetically. And so I knew that when we remodeled our, when we finished our basement rather, that we had always planned to create space where I could work. And while I also thought about resell value and things like that, the way we built it will be ideal for the next person to create their studio or their office or their gym in, um, that kind of keeps the sound contained. As you know, there's so much work from home now.
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: This will create the perfect space for someone else to create their office in, in the future. But we have no plans to do that for a long time. But we worked with our general contractor who initially, like I said, had the thought that, oh, you just build it like a movie theater. You know, we'll throw up some, uh, audio seal sound barrier on the wall --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: -- and then we'll, you know, play over it. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Anne: And they always want that, that soundproof drywall, which is not what you want actually.
Laya: Right, not what you want.
Anne: There's that -- the stuff they sell at Lowe's. And I think they call it soundproof or I forget what kind of drywall they call it, but it's very heavy --
Laya: Yup.
Anne: -- and it's not what you need for a booth.
Laya: And so of course, I got my audio angel involved in --
Anne: Yes, Tim.
Laya: -- again, this is in the height of the pandemic. And so Tim Tippets, we consulted virtually. We did an initial run through, and this was new for him. Of course he wanted to be hands on like he was for yours.
Anne: Oh, he's so passionate.
Laya: And you got to love that.
Anne: Gosh.
Laya: This was on the heels of your booth. We think we built in November. And so we were doing some consults, and I would show him the schematics. And luckily I was working with a designer on the entire basement space. So this was just a portion of it, which, and it was twofold positive because I got to write off a portion of our construction bill --
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: -- and supplies on the studio and roll that into the cost of, of the overall build and renovation. So that was a plus, but Tim really worked with us to make sure my contractor knew --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: -- firsthand what the right supplies were, you know, using Rockwool --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: -- using Green Glue --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: -- making sure to create that space in between the dry wall --
Anne: Absolutely.
Laya: -- double layered walls, et cetera. The ceiling is even double layered. We were very clear about, I even have a solid core wood door, just one, but it's doing the trick, and a triple-paned glass window.
Anne: Oh yes, nice.
Laya: So I don't feel claustrophobic in here. I can see from a safety perspective, et cetera. And so that's been a blessing, but then we took it a bunch of steps further just because I had supplies, and we were creating the space for a multitude of reasons. We were of course doing voiceover work. So there's a specific corner in the room that has our yellow tack mic and boom arms. And I can sit at the desk and have this dead dead sound in the corner. And then the other side, which is the podcasting based, more of a lounge, it's able to be both acoustically and aesthetically sound so that I can film the show on camera.
Anne: Yup, yup.
Laya: And it's a beautiful lounge.
Anne: Beautiful.
Laya: Thank you so much and colorful --
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: -- so it invokes creativity and sparks joy. And, uh, my daughter feels like this is just as much her space. In fact, she had a hand in picking everything from the colors of the acoustic panels to the couch and the Dalmatian print floor.
Anne: So let's -- let's talk a bit about the famous acoustic panels that are Tim Tippets'.
Laya: Yes!
Anne: He's got that amazing DYI, YouTube videos --
Laya: He does.
Anne: -- and I'll tell you what, and I've purchased acoustic panels before, and they're expensive.
Laya: They are.
Anne: And the way that Tim makes these panels, it's amazing, number one. I have throughout my booth and my room, I have 27 of Tim's custom panels.
Laya: Yup.
Anne: 27. Which is --
Laya: That is an obscene amount.
Anne: It's obscene.
Laya: But I feel like I have a lot as well.
Anne: But I have a big room too.
Laya: I love them. Yeah. Well pad -- padded rooms, you know, I feel safe in here. It's kind of nice. And I love his build. I, before I knew about Tim's build, I had -- and in here in our backyard in Atlanta, GIK Acoustics is in our neck of the woods, and I had purchased six panels for my four by six standalone booth. Because as you mentioned earlier, it's not good enough to have this double wall expensive custom booth. You also got to get the panels in there --
Anne: Yup, yup.
Laya: -- and the foam, if you like.
Anne: Exactly.
Laya: I mean, whatever. So we put all that back in the room, and then I was also got really lucky. Otherwise I too would have built Tim's panels, but a good friend of mine that owns a nearby studio here was offloading some Wenger acoustic panels. They're huge. I mean, I think I have a two on the ceiling, two cloud floats. They're six foot by three foot, to give you some idea.
Anne: Wow, that's great.
Laya: And they are huge. Um, we recovered them, made them our own, and popped them up on the wall for fairly inexpensive because --
Anne: Excellent.
Laya: -- I bought them used, you know, so you gotta do what you can do, but I love those resources Tim's made available.
Anne: We, we were like a panel making shop out in the garage.
Laya: Yes. Oh yeah.
Anne: And you know, one thing that I'll -- I'll mention that I did not realize is that Tim is such a stickler for detail. I mean, every single part, like you could just see him on a day-to-day basis. Like just everything going on in his head, like calculating the most perfect sound to come out of --
Laya: The guy's a machine. Totally.
Anne: He is -- he -- now, and I never realized this, but I have four inch thick panels.
Laya: Yeah, same here.
Anne: Now when I purchased my panels, yeah, when I purchased my panels before I had just purchased two inches, not thinking anything of it, like, do I need thicker? But he explained so very nicely to me why the four inches and plus he, he puts them --
Laya: Right, the air flow in the back. Right? You gotta have that.
Anne: Exactly. He's got air flow in the back, which I never realized. And all of these little tiny details, which really make a huge, huge difference when you're in my booth.
Laya: And it defines the sound, right? And so when we all -- we like to talk about having broadcast quality sound. Sure, sure. Here. Who knows what the barometer for that really is when it comes to home studios or your noise floor, but he was able to, and again, he wasn't onsite, but because of the way I was able to generate the 3d cads --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: -- we actually had the design team take the size specs of my acoustic panels. I was very concerned about it because I was like, these things are huge.
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: If we put them in the walls and mount them up or I get the placement wrong --
Anne: You've lost all this space.
Laya: Oh my gosh. Right. And then how do you configure furniture? I must have racked my brain about that for forever. But Tim explained it in very simple terms as he does --
Anne: Yes.
Laya: -- um, for the acoustically challenged and, um, help you really maximize the space. And it sounds pristine because of it. And so I'm so grateful for that knowledge --
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: -- and his support. Yeah.
Anne: And I will say again, this podcast is been renamed to the Tim Tippets love fest.
Laya: So he does not need to be -- how does he go anywhere?
Anne: Honestly, he is probably one of the best teachers, right? Not only is he amazing at creating an acoustic space, but he also can teach you, like you said, he explains it to you in layman's terms --
Laya: Yes.
Anne: -- so that it makes it easy to understand. And I really had such an education watching this booth go up with Tim and just understanding. And so I just, again, you know, kudos and, and just so grateful for Tim and his help for this booth. And I don't ever need another booth. I mean, unless of course I'm going to move again.
Laya: I'm not going anywhere.
Anne: But I am so happy. I am so happy in this space. And there's so much to be said for being happy in this space. You know, my father had a hand in it and Tim was just wonderful. And that just makes a huge difference because we spend a lot of time here. So you, you know, one of the modern mindset is that you, as a talent, as a creative, as an artist, you deserve a space in which you feel amazing in.
Laya: Yeah, so you can give the best possible performance.
Anne: Make that investment, you know, and it's, and it may be hard. I understand. There's so many people that get into this industry and they're like, yeah, but this is so expensive. Or this, that is so expensive. I think, you know, BOSSes, we need to keep in mind that this is a business, there are investments to be made. And they're not necessarily like while you can get away with a pillow fort and an ironing board and a, and a comforter, you know, ultimately in the long run you make a good investment. Had I realized, you know, so many years ago when we were talking about our VO-to-go travel rigs, that I should have just gotten a 416. I spent so much money on all those cute little other mics that I couldn't make sound good. Same thing. I think I graduated into this custom built booth, but I absolutely, it was the right time for me. And I had come to a point in my business where I said, you know what? I deserve. I deserve a --
Laya: Yeah.
Anne: -- an amazing booth. I deserve that. And why have I not thought about that before? I don't need to cram myself into a little space --
Laya: No.
Anne: -- or, you know, into a closet if I can reinvest that money. And I think it takes courage to invest a significant amount of money into your studio. And --
Laya: It does.
Anne: You know? And this pandemic of course has heightened, right, the fact that we need good spaces.
Laya: Yeah. And your audio imprint is again, your brand. It is everything. So why not make it sound the best?
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: I've said before in a previous podcast, but my modern mindset always goes back to the fact that I'm not trying to break the bank. I'm very frugal and very aware of the spending in the investments that I'm making. For sure. However, I don't want to spend twice. And it's --
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: -- if I get it right the first time, then that sets me up for success as far as my brand, my accountability, my audio imprint. Because if you send out crap audio in this day and age, you won't get a second listen, and you can tell the difference. And so what I do, even with the studio, even having the presets dialed in, having worked with Tim often, I will often check back in with producers that I'm close with --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: -- and people I've worked for before and say, hey, give me an audio check real quick. I'm always tweaking.
Anne: Great idea.
Laya: I'm always making sure, like I am audibly standing up to the competition. And nine times out of ten, I hear your audio stands up better than most, for sure. And definitely is a clear definitive -- you can hear it. You can hear the difference. You can hear that you're a pro by the audio you deliver. And so if that is your first impression, and that's all you got, I mean, your performance could be amazing. But if the acoustics and the sound don't have the utmost clarity, then your professionalism just kind of got knocked down a notch unfortunately.
Anne: Yeah, yeah.
Laya: So it is something to consider when approaching where your next steps are going --
Anne: Sure.
Laya: -- in your business or where you are today.
Anne: It is a package. And I, and I think, yeah, I like to bring in the modern mindset philosophy here is that, you know, you are a package of your audio, your sound, the way you present yourself online, the whole thing is a package. And the whole thing makes a difference. If you are set with putting forth your brand in a very professional way. So.
Laya: Yeah, it definitely affects your bookability for sure. And one of the reasons, just going back to your how we met, the reason I created -- I hired a film company that normally does tours for homes as they go to market --
Anne: Yup.
Laya: You know, if you can, you can hire somebody like that. And that's exactly what I did because I knew the cost would be more effective that way.
Anne: Oh my gosh. The marketing was amazing.
Laya: Yeah, thank you. And then that using that video on my website, on YouTube as part of my signature --
Anne: Part of your market. Yeah.
Laya: It's the audio nerds that love that stuff. It's the engineers who book you, the creatives, that book you that see that. And they're like, oh my God, this chick knows what's up.
Anne: Yeah.
Laya: How cool is that?
Anne: Yes!
Laya: And I got a lot of work just from that video.
Anne: Just from that video. And the cool thing is, is that you're not necessarily like saying, hire me, hire me, voiceover. You're not doing like, hey, this is Laya. You know, this is my voice. You're actually showcasing your, your studio, and you're passionate about it and your personality. So it becomes like, you know, we talk about our podcast, right? It's like a side benefit. People get to know you through your podcast. People get to know you through your studio tour, and they get to see that personality. And they say, you know what? I want to work with her.
Laya: Yeah.
Anne: She knows what's going on.
Laya: And your level of commitment.
Anne: Yeah, exactly.
Laya: Yeah, right?
Anne: And so it really becomes, it becomes that whole modern mindset. The package, here I am, the deal. I'm the real deal here. So.
Laya: I'm the pro with a modern minded BOSS. Right Anne?
Anne: Absolutely.
Laya: I love it. Thank you. Good talk.
Anne: Well, this has been so much fun talking about our booths, 'cause we love them.
Laya: I hope to come to your booth one day --
Anne: That's right.
Laya: and I hope you can come to mine.
Anne: Me too.
Laya: You know, one day we'll BOSS up that way --
Anne: Me too.
Laya: -- when the world opens.
Anne: So BOSSes, remember you deserve, you deserve a good space. You deserve a good space. You deserve to feel --
Laya: Feel good in it.
Anne: Yeah. You deserve to feel amazing in this space where you are creating and performing and being the artist that you are. So big shout-out to ipDTL who is in the booth today. You can find out more at ipdtl.com, and you guys, have an amazing week. Laya, it's been amazing as always. Thank you.
Laya: Thank you for having me, Anne. Thanks, BOSSes, for listening. It was good to be back.
Anne: All right, guys. See you next week. Bye-bye.
Laya: See you. Bye-Bye.
>> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voboss.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.