Nov 21, 2023
How do you turn a lifelong passion for music, radio, and video
games into a successful career in voice acting? Join me as I chat
with Jim Fronk, a seasoned radio veteran who transitioned into
voice acting, entertaining people with his dynamic performances and
engaging characters. But that's not all, Jim’s talents extend
beyond the microphone. He's also a whizz in website development,
skills he's utilized to build successful websites for fellow voice
actors. He delves deep into the magic of website creation,
including the critical elements of a voiceover website and how you
can create a one-page website in record time. Get ready to be
inspired, entertained, and better yet, educated by Jim's wealth of
knowledge and experience in the voice acting industry. Don't miss
out!
About Jim
00:01 - Intro (Other)
It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level.
These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being
utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business
like a boss, a V-O boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne
Ganguzza.
00:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey everyone, welcome to the V-O Boss podcast. I'm your host, Anne
Ganguzza, and today I am very excited to be here with a very
special guest, our 20-plus year radio vet turned voice actor, Jim
Fronk. Oh, thanks for having me. Oh, jim, jim, jim, let me just
tell the listeners a little bit about you, oh by all
means.
00:40
I'm glad that you were so excited. Thank you for being here, jim.
Let me tell our listeners a little bit about you. You've been
behind the microphone in your happy place since you were 10, the
tender age of 10. And since then, jim has been acting and singing
his way into our hearts, doing improv, stand-up comedy, live,
announcing, djing on air, and now he's in his very own 5x8 padded
closet capturing our hearts. So, jim, thank you, thank you, thank
you for being here with us today.
01:10 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Well, thank you, I'm glad that I'm padded, because the funny thing
is I got out of radio because it got so impersonal. I started voice
tracking and I was on nine different stations, six different
states, at the same time, and I was just in a 10x10 room recording
and I'm sick of that, so I ended up in a 5x8 room.
01:28 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Now a 5x8. Yeah, somehow that's smaller, so okay, but it's padded,
so that's better.
01:33 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
And this is my happy place. I love being here, I love playing
behind the microphone. So I started at 10 years old singing. My dad
always said that I would either be a politician or a radio disc
jockey. Because of my gift of gab and the way that I like to spin
the truth now and then, what would you sing?
01:50 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
That's my question. What genre would you sing? Jazz, you sing in
classic rock.
01:54 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Classic rock for the most part.
01:56 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Classic rock yeah.
01:58 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Actually back in 2000,. I was Ed McMahon's nextbigstarcom winner of
the rock category. What did you sing? I sang Better Roses by Bon
Jovi.
02:07 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Oh, my God. Of course, at least she sang Bon Jovi. I was just going
to say I'm thinking, bob Seeger, I don't know why. I've done some
Bob. Yeah, I've done some Bob Seeger, I like the doors,
yeah.
02:16 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I like the doors, my go-to when the bands are playing and they're
like hey, come on up and sing. My go-to is Roadhouse
Blues.
02:22 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Oh God, if we are lucky bosses, we might get to hear, I don't know,
a bar or two.
02:27 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Maybe if you go to Uncle Roy's this year or maybe actually if you
went to Uncle. Roy's next year. I'll talk to them.
02:33 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Next year. Oh yeah, hey, I personally have never heard you sing and
I would absolutely love to hear you sing.
02:39 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
You might be able to YouTube something Just saying there might be
some poison out there.
02:44 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Before we talk a little bit more about your journey into voiceover,
because you've had such a long history behind the mic, I need to
ask you about the 7.36 pounds of shelled blue peanut M&Ms that
you requested from me in my little inquiry into hey, you want to be
a podcast guest? What do you require? And so you asked me for
shelled blue peanut M&Ms, and I could only find the brown
ones.
03:08 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
And yet they're still not here.
03:10 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Somehow, oh, but they're virtually here.
03:11 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Oh, virtually Okay, great, I don't know. I was just trying to think
of something weird to put on there that I need, because I really
don't need anything.
03:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I'm actually kind of hungry for some M&Ms. But, Jim, it's
already been a wonderful five minutes chatting with you. I can't
wait to dive deeper into your journey. So share with our listeners
how your journey kind of got to be 20 plus years behind the mic
doing radio. How did you get there? As a small child you were
singing, right. Were you singing classic rock at the age of
10?
03:43 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Well, I was singing what was considered just normal pop music, I
guess, yeah, and then classic rock was just music, but I did that.
But when I got into school I really got into mixing things and I
was making mixtapes before mixtapes were a thing.
03:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I made mixtapes. I remember them.
04:01 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I was scratching records so things would skip at a certain point
and you put a quarter on top, make a knot skip. No-transcript, Mr
Jaws, Dr Demento.
04:11 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Oh God, yes, I might be dating myself here, but I listen to Dr
Demento every Sunday evening. Love Dr.
04:16 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Demento oh my God my favorite show. But they always had Mr Jaws. It
was kind of like Mr Jaws, so why are you here? Right now, and then
it'd be a song, so I used to try to do those myself.
04:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And Delilah. I listened to Delilah too. Delilah yes, yeah,
delilah's on the air forever. But then I got into radio.
04:33 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
When I was in high school, I was at a party.
04:35 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Okay.
04:36 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I was a senior, it was a junior's party. He was trying to be class
president and I was just there being me. I mean, I am your
extrovert, you know I talk to everybody, I say hi to everybody. It
gets me in trouble sometimes, but whatever. But I was just being me
and this guy walked up and said hey, listen, I'm the lawyer of this
small little cable radio station downtown Woburn, which is my
hometown. He goes do you want to try out? Okay, so I went home the
next day. I got my Peter Brady tape recorder. We have to hold down
the record and you know what I'm talking about.
05:04 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I know exactly. I used one of those in college when I was recording
textbooks on tape. Oh, there you go. I know the realistic. Or it
was a Panasonic, I can't remember.
05:13 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I think it was realistic because I did have a radio shack within
walking distance and my transistor was in there. Everybody
did.
05:19 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Wait, I'm sorry, but we're just going all over the place. So my
brothers are very much into Heath Kits, heath Kits, heath Kits.
Yeah, building electronics Like we did that from Radio Show. Oh my
God, they would just build their own little like transistor radios
and stuff.
05:29 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I never got into that but I mean, as I got into radio I did get my
engineering junior engineering badge from the engineering people,
but whatever. So I went home the next day I had my Peter Brady tape
recorder and I had my Precorp eight track player, my stereo system
at home, and yes, I'm name dropping here. With Precorp I put in Led
Zeppelin and you know I talked out of a Led Zeppelin song and I had
to wait because you couldn't rewind eight tracks so you only had
one take. Well, you had to wait for the next song. It took me all
afternoon to get like three intros and three outros and I ended up
getting the gig, which was kind of cool. They made me change my
name. They didn't want anybody to know that a high school kid was
working at school, but yet they gave me like one of those shiny,
flashy 80s type of radio jackets with my name on it and the call
letters and I did J at all the high school functions and things. So
everybody knew.
06:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Can I ask what name they gave you? I was Jumping.
06:23 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Jim Jacobs.
06:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
All right, Jumping Jim. This just came to me. Jumping
Jim.
06:27 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Jacobs, 935-3378, wlhg. Wow, larry Habar Enterprises. I love it.
Larry lives two towns away from me right now. We had lunch about a
month ago. The owner of the station.
06:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Now explain to me. So you just were fascinated. Did you listen to
the radio all the time? I loved radio. And then you were just
mimicking all the DJs because the DJs got all the chicks.
Apparently that's what it was back in the 80s anyways.
06:51 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Yeah, have you heard of Dale Dorman? He's a Boston guy from KISS,
but Dale Dorman and one other guy I forget his name, but they
invented top 40 radio. They were at a bar one night and they
watched people put quarters in to hear the same 15, 20 songs all
night long Sure.
07:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
That makes sense, so they made that format.
07:07 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
And Dale Dorman was also on the local TV station as hey, kiddies,
that after school type of thing, and I just loved the guy and I
just wanted to be him, I wanted to do what he did and I just set
focus on it and I ended up doing it. I met Dale Dorman. The program
director of the small station I worked for was the assistant PD of
KISS 108 Boston and that's where Dale Dorman was, and she brought
us in for a program meeting and God, my mind was just blown at that
point and I said this is what I need to do. Got out of high school,
I went to college for it, went to school for it, interned, did
many, many years, and it was like here.
07:43
I am learning from these people that I think are phenomenal but,
they're teaching because they can't make ends meet. So I got out of
radio for about 10 years 15 years, and I did stand up comedy and I
always talked about getting on the air again, because if I'm doing
morning radio, I can't hear them not laughing when. I tell jokes, I
just play a soundtrack. So I turned 35 and I said, you know, what
Everybody laughs then yeah, exactly.
08:08
I turned 35 and said I have to do this, so I just put everything
else aside and I did it.
08:14 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Now let me ask you, because you said most of the people couldn't
afford working in radio, so they were teachers. Is that always been
the case in radio? Is it always been? Maybe not the best paying
gig, but the people in radio love radio. I mean, it's
just.
08:27 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
It's like being in an abusive relationship. It really is.
08:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It slaps you around and I'll tell you. It's like podcasting I'm
gonna say because for me, I'm gonna tell you that podcasting is my
radio show. In a way it really is.
08:41 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
The only difference is I was waking up at 2.30 quarter of 3 every
morning to get my butt whipped every day.
08:46 - Intro (Other)
But yeah, it's definitely a passion.
08:48 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
You hear that word passion with VO. It's the same thing with radio.
It was just something that I needed to do. I needed to have that
live interaction and as far as the money goes, it's kind of like
VO.
08:58 - Intro (Other)
It depends what market that you're being planned in.
09:01 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I was doing mornings in Nashua, new Hampshire, which is about 30
miles away from Boston, as the crow flies, about a 40 minute trip.
My salary compared to somebody doing the exact same thing on the
exact same type of station, they probably were about five or six
times more than I was making Just the average guy. Now if you
became a star then you're up in the quarter of a million dollars in
Boston market but not in Nashua. But I loved it and you got the
perks I mean I'd go to concerts, I'd be backstage, at
concerts.
09:30
My favorite thing was going on stage and throwing t-shirts out at
people and saying, hey, I'm frog from Frank 106 or from 104.9 the
Hawk, and people scream and they know me and I just love that. I
really love that.
09:43
Just being a part of the community. I was very fortunate that the
morning show I did for 106, 3 Frank FM I was part of the community.
I would announce football games. My daughter did cheerleading but I
would announce the popcorn of football games and I would go and
people would know who I was. But I was very active in the community
and I'd love that. I love being known.
10:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
You were like a local celebrity.
10:03 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Yeah, but I was able to take that celebrityism and put it to good
work as opposed to evil Like I did back in the 90s. Oh
sorry.
10:12 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And that's another podcast.
10:14 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Yeah, I don't think the ever straining owners are up yet for that
one, so we really can't talk about it.
10:18 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, now 20 years in radio, 20 years 20 plus, yeah Now did you say
you were doing synonyms, that you were doing radio, and then you
went into comedy, or how did that work?
10:28 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I was doing comedy. First I was a wedding DJ, function DJ, when
karaoke was all the buzz. I got my own karaoke company. I had like
35 shows.
10:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Look at you being a boss entrepreneur at a young age. I mean
bosses, and why you to listen to this? All of the people that come
on the show, I mean they're entrepreneurs in so many ways, and that
was so creative. I mean, jim, first of all, just being in high
school right, and going after your dreams and having the bravery to
go try out for the radio station and get the gig right At such a
young age. And then you've got to be brave. Did you stand up
comedy? That's for sure.
11:03 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
You know stand up comedy. Five minutes can seem like 20 minutes.
Yes, 20 minutes can seem like five minutes. It all depends on the
energy of the crowd. But I tell you that first time I got up on
stage, the very first time I was hosting a pretty big deal. It was
at Berkeley, 5,000 seats. I was hosting it Not really hosting
telling jokes, just kind of introducing people.
11:24 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
But I had a couple of jokes. I'm seeing kind of, yeah, I had a
couple of jokes.
11:26 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
That first joke I told, and when they laughed, that wave that hit
me, that became my drug.
11:33 - Intro (Other)
That became what I craved.
11:35 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
That became what I had to accomplish on a Monday night up in
Vermont for a slice of pizza, or a Tuesday doing an open mic night
at the KFC in Volrica Mass. I mean, it's just, you did what you had
to do, but it was again a passion for it.
11:49 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Now okay. So, passion aside, I'm sure there were some jokes that
probably didn't make it, and so did you experience like imposter
syndrome. I mean I can only imagine Like I think stand up comedy's
got to be one of the hardest skills. I mean it's like improv too. I
feel like we all need it and it just really builds our character,
because there's just so many things we have to be quick on our feet
about. I'm sure that all of this is leading up to a really fabulous
career in voiceover, because all of those skills have led up to who
you are as an actor today.
12:21 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
And as far as jokes bombing, I'm looking for a reaction. You can oh
or boo or yeah. Hey, I got a reaction, and if something just didn't
work, I really didn't care you laughed at it.
12:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Oh well, that didn't work.
12:32 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Pretty much, yeah, I mean sometimes I'd make a joke about it and
take a paper out of my pocket and say our fake paper and say okay,
scratch that one off the list.
12:40
Yeah, that didn't work, whatever, yeah, okay, that doesn't work in
Poughkeepsie, all right, fine. But yes, everything I've done coming
up to this has helped me in VO. You know, the radio, yeah, has
contributed the live stuff, the comedy, the improv and all that. I
got out of radio back in 2018 because it was just impersonal to me.
I wasn't doing mornings, I wasn't doing a talk show. I craved that
interaction. I didn't like just talking up 15 seconds of a song
coming out, absolutely. I mean, I'm great at trivia, music trivia.
You know, you give me 10 seconds of any song from 1960 to 1992 and
I can probably tell you what it is, but it just wasn't fulfilling.
It wasn't satisfying. I did get into flying drones for a bit
believe it or not, a friend of mine, that's random, it really is,
but it was a passion, I flew a drone.
13:28 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Radio VO drones.
13:29 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Yeah, well, I flew the drones and I loved it. I got a passion for
it. I was making some great money doing cell tower inspections and
infrared. At one point I had more money invested in drones than I
did in Harley-Davidson's.
13:42
Or in your microphone maybe, or in my microphones. I'm even close.
I'm completely. You know how many U87s Like. I sold one of my
drones in two cameras and I bought my daughter a brand new Jeep.
They were up there but it just wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted
to be behind the microphone. Okay, and a buddy of mine, AJ Duquette
Actually I think you were on the show, a buddy of mine, aj
Duquette, a radio guy. He's doing VO, and he told me about J
Michael Collins and I was driving home year ago, april. I was
driving home from New York City on Clubhouse and I think you were
on it, j Michael, and I want to say Liz Atherton.
14:18 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Oh, we've done yeah, we've done a bunch of yeah. And I asked the
question.
14:21 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I just got my demos back and I was like, well, how do I know if I
have a good demo? Yeah, and J Michael we talked afterwards and he
went over it and gave me the good, the bad and the ugly and that
just got me on the path of okay. So I'm going to talk to these
people. I'm not going to be afraid to approach anybody. I'm very
approachable and I'm going to approach as many people in this
business that are where I want to be and it's been great. And
that's my advice to everybody Don't be afraid to approach anybody,
because if somebody's not approachable to you or if somebody
doesn't want you to approach them, you don't want them in your
circle. Why would you want them in your circle? You know, I like
going to Dallas and seeing Ann Ganguza from down the hall and going
Ann, and she's like jam. I mean, that's what it's all about Making
connections, having some fun.
15:09 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It's all about the relationships, really Absolutely about the
relationships. So let's kind of continue on with the voice acting.
So you got into voice acting around. You're saying around
2018?.
15:21 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Oh, no, no, no, I got into drones in 2018. Oh okay, excuse me, I
actually celebrated two years in VO from when I started in
September this past September. So it's been about two years, a
month or two, but I got into it. I got some training. I did about
five or six months with the training with a great coach, tim
Powers, you've met.
15:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Tim, actually I know Tim absolutely.
15:40 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Tim has become a great mentor and even a better friend. But from
there I got my demos and, like I said, how do I know they're good?
And I just started doing the marketing thing. I've since redone my
demos. I'm a different animal now, different everything. I kind of
went feet first and I thank my wife so much for that. We talk about
not making money in radio.
16:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
We all know the struggles that actors have, and we are actors Not
making money in voiceover.
16:06 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Yeah, I mean just acting alone.
16:08
God bless my wife. She's very successful in the pharmaceutical
business. So when the time came, we sat down and talked and she
said, when we first met, I was making $5,000 a year less than you
and you were in radio. And I'm like I know, but we have flipped the
switch. She's gone so far. So she said do what you want to do.
Invest what you need to invest. Get the right equipment. You know
what you need. You've been in the business. You can build radio
stations. Get what you need. So I did. And here I am two years
later and I'm getting clients, I'm booking gigs, I'm doing
animation, video games, e-learning. It's been great.
16:42 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
What would you say your favorite genre to work in is Because I'm
always a big proponent of people bring their experience to behind
the mic and I feel like maybe your stand-up comedy, your DJing,
your networking I feel like that all works for you in specific
genres Well, animation, I love.
17:01 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I love playing in animation. Right now I've got the allergies going
on so my voice is kind of right now, but I love being able to just
pop into a character and be like my mind is now melted, I'm with
3.0 and I will reveal the world. I mean, just have some fun. Word,
of course I will. I am the evil. I am Ludo the evil one. I just
love having fun with that. Video games I love the acting.
17:23 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I love the cinematography and the acting.
17:26 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I trained with Dave.
17:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Fornoy yes he's amazing.
17:29 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Yes, and once again people say how'd you train with Dave Fornoy?
Yeah, I asked, I asked, I went to his website and I booked some
sessions. And there we are. Dave's a great friend now, I mean he's
become such a great mentor.
17:43
So I love video games. You know what I really love doing and I hate
to say it because I have spent, I'm gonna say, $10,000 in training,
maybe over the past couple of years, maybe even more. I hate to
look at the numbers, but to beat the DJ out of me Every time that I
step back into that DJ voice, my coach would say and now up here's
the dealbies, just to snap me back. But I love doing tier three
automotive.
18:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, yeah, tier three, automotive, yeah, and tier of DJ, it's
radio DJ delivery.
18:07 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
It's what I do in my sleep, so I'm really loving doing that.
Absolutely. I've been training with Chris Zellman. He's been
great.
18:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, tier three, automotive. I do a little bit of that myself, and
it's not as easy as we want it to be, because they're really trying
to cram a lot of words.
18:22 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
But I was also production director of a six station cluster for
many years. I was given the commercials away, so you know, so I
know, and most of those were that type of delivery, yeah absolutely
that sales delivery that hype. You know, no money down and you can.
You know it's. Which is so 80s DJ. It's just ingrained in me so I
do love that.
18:43 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And so now we all have to be authentic, and maybe not for tier
three auto still. However, talk to me about authenticity and how.
Maybe your background having a radio show I feel like having a
radio show, you know, maybe not by just announcing commercials or
announcing what the next song is, but I think if you're doing like
talk radio and you're really getting down in personal with your
listeners, I feel like that helps you to be authentic and you can
kind of call upon that experience to really help you be authentic
in your commercial delivery or even narration delivery or
e-learning delivery.
19:16 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Before I was doing morning radio it was just that hype. Morning
radio was kind of hype but it was a lot more comedy. We did bits.
It was always like Frank's place with Jim and so-and-so or you know
the Jim and so-and-so morning show. So it was always my animal to
drive my vehicle and just to have that interaction was very
conversational. And I did talk radio for the last three or four
years of my career with radio and that became very conversational.
That's just raw me. So when I was able to unlock that again,
because we all know talking conversational and just talking like
we're talking now is natural.
19:54
You should be able to do that. It's easy. Yeah, it's
easy.
19:57 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
But it's not easy when there's a piece of paper.
19:59 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Yeah, when it's a piece of paper in front of you and it's somebody
else's words. You have to learn how to do that Absolutely. One of
the things that helped and hindered me was my ability for live
read. I love being the first guy in workshops. I love reading stuff
cold. I can't tell you how many times I'd be on the air and
somebody would give me a piece of paper and say, read
this.
20:18
And I have the ability to read about five or six seconds ahead of
what I'm saying, which was good for that, but I was disconnected
from my words. I was on autopilot.
20:28 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Any cold read is you're executing from left to right and you don't
know what the story is.
20:33 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
But even after I read it once or twice, I would still be reading
ahead which hindered me to get that connectivity with the listener,
with the client, with the audience. So when I learned to put that
behind me and I'm gonna say live in the moment but read in the
moment, be in the moment, my conversational game went up
considerably and I think that I have a very conversational read
when it is asked for that.
20:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
No sales, no announcers. That's right, no announcers. And that's
getting the DJ and getting the radio beaten out of you.
21:05 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Yeah, but then I get to go back to tier three and have some fun
with it. Yeah, and have your fun. Then, exactly, come on down. The
price is really.
21:12 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And I have roles in telephony that I can be as. Thank you for
calling your call's important to us. I can be that fun, smooth,
promo-y sound.
21:22 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
That's a lot of fun, sometimes absolutely.
21:24 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, for the most part, we're all about the authenticity. Speaking
of authenticity, from a few of the things that you've already
talked about, you were so into drones, you were into, like, video
games I get this feeling, and from talking to you previously, that
you are kind of a geek. You are a tech geek, and so that kind of
leads you into yet another talent of yours, which is websites, and
I wanna make sure that we have time to get into websites for voice
actors and talk to us a little bit about your expertise number one
and what got you into web development first of all. Then let's talk
about what's important in a voice actor website.
22:02 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Well, for the most part with the radio stations. You wear many hats
and I was brand manager and web guru and graphic artist. I know
enough about Photoshop to get you and I in a lot of trouble, but
not enough to really make any money at it. As far as-.
22:16 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Except nobody uses Photoshop anymore. It's all Canva, Both yes. But
yeah, no, I get it Photoshop was definitely a skill, I mean for
sure, and when I was deciding.
22:26 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
When I was getting out of the drones, I was actually going back and
forth between VO and maybe going to school for graphic
arts.
22:33
I really enjoy that. But I was thinking to myself you know, it's a
three-year program, $36,000. I'll be 58 when I graduate. Do I
really want to enter that type of field where I'm so far behind
technology wise than the kids are these days? I said, you know, my
happy place is behind the microphone. So that's what I did. Gotcha,
every business that I've had, I've designed my own websites. I've
used Wix my whole life. So when I say I'm a website builder, I'm a
Wix master, is what I go by. There's just so much that's come along
with website development. It's actually very user-friendly, but
people need to be taught how to use it.
23:10 - Intro (Other)
So when you say I'm a website developer.
23:12 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I'm more of a website instructor.
23:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
What.
23:15 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I like to do is I have something. It's a three-hour website. Do it
yourself, learn by doing creation class, where we'll sit down
together, you'll watch me on the screen and you'll mimic what I'm
doing. I'll show you where I'm getting things. I'll teach you how
to do things. So by the end of the three hours you should have a
one-page voiceover specific website ready to go, ready to be
hosted, and I'll go in there afterwards, because I'm always like an
admin and I'll go in and I'll tighten things up and I'll put a
little couple extra spinny effects and different things to make
them happy. But I found that so many people didn't have the crucial
items for a website, for a VO website and other people are charging
15, 16, $1,700 to build a website.
24:01
We're in a business. We're not making any money, but you have to
have your online you know.
24:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
so Sure, absolutely, that's who you're marketing to.
24:07 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Exactly so. I try to help people learn how to do that so that they
don't come back to me and say, hey, can you upload my new demos?
No, they're gonna know how to upload their own demos. If they have
a problem, I'm always here. I will build a website for somebody.
It's twice the money, and when I'm done, if you need help, there'll
be an hourly stipend to be your web guy.
24:30
I'd rather give you something that's cheaper, that takes me more
time, but to teach you something. So that's what I'm doing. You can
find that at websitesforvocom. It's very easy. I've designed other
sites and gotten really deep, like Dave Fanoy, for instance. Dave
has become a great friend, but his website was terrible no
downloadable demos granted, he's Dave Fanoy, but still links that
went to things that were expired event page that the latest event
was 2019, it just wasn't conducive for somebody that's in the
business. So I kind of owed him a favor. Dave became a really good
friend. He helped me out. We started off by coaching. He helped me
out directing my demo. He's helped me out with a lot of coaching.
That was unexpected. So instead of sending him a bottle, what's a
friend of mine said? Just send him a bottle and say thank you. I
decided to a deep dive into his website and I completely revamped
it. On Wix all of his scheduling You're a Wix person, I am a Wix
person.
25:26 - Intro (Other)
I've seen your schedule.
25:28 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I see, don't you love how it's all in the back?
25:30 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
door there. I love my Wix website your scheduling your payments,
your tickets your events everything.
25:35 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
So, Dave being a techie guy, a web guy, when I went to book my
first gig with Dave it took me about 20 minutes to figure out and
it was like email me.
25:44 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
There are some coaches out there that like well, email me for
pricing or email me to get set up, and that to me is like why would
you do that?
25:51 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Go to Venmo and do this here, and then I'll send you my Calendly
link.
25:54 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, exactly.
25:56 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
So I went in, I took care of Dave's and I taught him how to do it.
He's now putting on his own events and he's doing all the ticketing
and all the ticket sales and all the marketing, all the social
marketing, all in the back door of Wix. So I taught him that. I try
to teach everybody that, because there are things you need of your
website.
26:12 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yes, what are those things? Let's talk about those critical
things.
26:16 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Number one downloadable demos Above the fold. Everything I'm
talking about right now is above the fold. I've talked to a lot of
agents, casting directors. They don't want to click, they don't
want to scroll.
26:29
They don't want to look so right there, front and center,
downloadable demos, ready to go. Your name, obviously, something
that shows your personality. It's a logo, a picture, something that
shows who you are and if we have some fun with it, have some fun
with it. Your contact info should always be in the header so when
they scroll, if they scroll, your contact info is always
there.
26:52 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It stays there it stays there.
26:54 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
One of the main things that a lot of people don't have is a call to
action button. Okay, I'm on your website, I'm the customer. Look at
your website as a customer. I'm a customer, I found your website. I
like your demos. What do I do? Now? There's a button there that
says request a free audition. What's that all about? I mean, you
and I, we all know auditions are free, of course. Well, all
audition. You know we're not paying to audition. We're not getting
paid to audition, but they don't know that.
27:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, sometimes we do, sometimes we do, but they don't know
that.
27:23 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
But they're getting a complimentary free audition. Send me a
30-second snippet of your script and I'll send you back an audio
sample of what it will sound like, performed by me, and I can't
tell you six. I've gotten six jobs off of that, so far.
27:39
Contact me is not a call to action. Maybe you offer some other
service. I think it was Mark Scott said something about. These are
six ways to book me. You know, give them something, something that
has some information, whether it's directly related to booking you
or VO related, but have that call to action button. Those are the
basic things. Everything else after that is fluff. You go to my
website. I probably have 15, 16 pages.
28:05 - Intro (Other)
I have some people actually write the SEO for me.
28:07 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It's all fluff. It really is. There's nothing there. Let's talk
about SEO.
28:12 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
It's for SEO. What about SEO lately?
28:14 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Is SEO worth anything at this point? Still, because of, let's say,
generative AI, which is generating content in seconds. Now, all of
a sudden, it used to mean something with our websites. Right, that
we had identifying words and words that could be found, but I feel
like that whole SEO pony might be changing a little bit as things
start to evolve.
28:35 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
It is changing, it's getting simpler for people.
28:38 - Intro (Other)
And with a program like Wix.
28:39 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
They actually have an SEO and, by the way, I don't get paid by Wix.
I'm not endorsed by Wix, it's just what I know. I've tried
Squarespace play buttons, a play button, rewinds, rewind, pictures,
picture, but I just didn't like how the whole system worked
together. Wix was very user friendly. If you can do Canva, you can
create a website.
29:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Canva changed the game.
29:01 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
They really did. They made it.
29:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Wix is changing the game and some people might say well, what in VO
is changing the game? I mean, we could talk about that if we wanted
to.
29:11 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
How about that? So much in VO has changed the game.
29:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Tell me about a VO actor. How can they change the game to make it
successfully in voiceover and what can they do to change their game
to make it and not be so afraid of all this technology that people
are just, oh my God, the robots are gonna take our jobs away. Let's
talk about-.
29:30 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
No, they're not. The robots can't act, the robots can't change.
What can we do there?
29:34 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
you go. We need to act right. They can't improv, they can't crack a
good joke. Well, sometimes they crack dad jokes.
29:40 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Yeah, well.
29:41 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
But yeah.
29:43 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
All right, so I got a lot of my dad jokes from chat. No, I'm just
kidding.
29:46
What you can do is be authentic. Be human, show your range, show
your emotion when you show up for a gig. Be the person that they
wanna work with. Don't be the person that they're waiting on. Be
fun, be happy. Don't be a nuisance to anybody that is hiring you or
that you're working with, because you never know who's going to
say, hey, Jim was here two months ago, He'd be great for this spot.
You know, it could be the engineer you never know.
30:11
You have to have your online inline, which I try to help people do,
because your website may not generate any business for you right
off the bat, but you have to have that presence.
30:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yes, you absolutely have. It has to be something that's not
wixitecom.
30:24 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Backslash, jimfrong55, it has to be Jimfrongcom. Jimfrongvocom,
your name vocom. Sure and keep it simple. Keep those domain names
simple so you're easily found Exactly.
30:36
I was gonna be Frank the voice. I had all these domain names that I
was going to do. Jimfrong was available for the first time in a
long time, cause I looked for it back when I was doing standup
comedy. Jimfrong was available and I said you know what that's it?
That's it. So I'm Jim and Jimfrong, so it's so easy to remember.
You're double branding your name Absolutely. And as far as changing
the game, talk to people, make friends, go to conferences. A lot of
people in this business are introverts, but a lot are extroverts.
You know, you get your naked gents, your Anganguza's, you get your
Jim Fronks. We're out there saying hi to people. You know, kissing
babies, shaking hands, whatever the case is. Get out there and say
hi to people and if you're not that type of person, find someone
that is, find me, make friends with me. I'm very approachable. You
hate me or love me, but hopefully you love me and I'll introduce
you to people, I don't care.
31:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
There you go, it's absolutely fun. Words of wisdom. Jim, Thank you
for that. And actually, Jim, you have offered the bosses a little
deal for your website creation class that you have.
31:40 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Oh, I have.
31:40 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yes, you have. Remember you wrote it down.
31:43 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Well, I was kind of upset about the PNNM's not being
made.
31:46 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
But you're going to give our bosses 10% off the website creation
class.
31:50 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
I am absolutely without a doubt. What kind of coupon do you want to
get?
31:53 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
We've got that promo called, called VEOBOSS10 at Chicago
VEOBOSS10,. Okay, and we'll be putting that on our show notes
pages, guys, so when you look up this episode, we will have that
code available. Jim, thank you so much. It's been so exciting
talking to you. I mean, you have such an amazing history. Yeah, I
mean we're actually kind of 10 minutes over. See how time flies
when you just have so much fun.
32:15 - Intro (Other)
We're going to have to have you come back.
32:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
We're going to have to have you come back, jim. It's really been
amazing and thank you for sharing your wisdom, your wonderful
personality, your fun, amazing, just the fun. Amazing who you
are.
32:28 - Intro (Other)
Jim Fong with us.
32:30 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yes bosses, I want you to take a moment and imagine a world full of
passionate, empowered, diverse individuals that are giving
collectively and intentionally to create the world that they want
to see. You can make a difference. Visit 100voiceswhocareorg to
learn more. And a big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You too can
network and connect like bosses like Jim and myself, just like Jim
has been talking about all episode. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Jim,
thanks again. You've been amazing Bosses, have an amazing week and
we'll see you next week.
33:05 - Jim Fronk (Guest)
Bye, guys, bye, thanks Ann.
33:07 - Intro (Other)
Thank you so much Thank you Join us next week for another edition
of VO Boss with your host, Ann Gangusa, and take your business to
the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and
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Redistribution with permission. Coast to Coast connectivity via
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