Jul 23, 2024
00:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey, bosses want to be that well-rounded talent that's always in
demand. I offer coaching in a variety of genres, including
commercials that grab attention, medical narrations that educate,
corporate scripts that inspire and e-learning modules that engage.
Find out more at anganguzacom.
00:24 - Intro (Host)
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 VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, anne
Ganguza.
00:43 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss Podcast. I'm your host, Anne
Ganguzza, and I am so excited to have a very special guest in the
studio with me today Epic voice guy of the four-time Emmy-nominated
Honest Trailers, the sixth voice of Optimus Prime and over 20 other
Transformer characters and voices for Marvel, disney and many, many
more and the credit list just goes on and on, but this is a finite
amount of time that I have with you, so I am going to let you talk.
Welcome, Jon Bailey.
01:17 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Thank you. It's good to see you again after 100 years. I said
500.
01:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
So, yes, we go way back. At least we were just discussing it like
16 years it is. I said 500. So, yes, we go way back. At least we
were just discussing it like 16 years, gosh, when you first got
into voiceover and I have watched you over the years become this
incredible success. Bosses I mean, this is the VO Boss podcast. We
are talking very boss-like. We are talking very boss-like
strategies and hard work. Jon, I am so, so happy for all of your
successes and so proud of you, my gosh, because I know in the
beginning it was a struggle for you. So maybe for the bosses I
don't know anybody that probably doesn't know who you are, but in
case they don't, tell us a little bit about how you got into the
world of voice acting, it's good to be back.
02:06 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Thank you for having me back on. It's been a hot second. Yeah, it
was all kind of accidental. I had background in performance from
school, all the way from, I would say, kindergarten, through
college and public speaking and improv and things like
that.
02:23 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
In fact, I think that's how we met is through Rebecca's love. That,
oh, yes, that's right. Oh my gosh, I feel like that had something
to do with it.
02:27 - Jon Bailey (Host)
It's been so long ago I don't 100% remember, but I feel like that
may have been how we connected. So that was back in my R&D
days, which was two years before I even did anything professionally
and, like you had said, before, we started the show. Seriously, I
would go in, for my first manager kind of found me on the Internet
by accident because I'd started YouTube out of boredom.
02:47 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
really, Little did you know?
02:49 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Yeah well, the main reason why I did it was because I saw other
people taking old cartoons and dubbing over them and making funny
things out of them. I was like, well, that's what I wanted to do.
If they can do it, then why can't I do that? And I had this small
following just based off the comedy stuff that I put together
involving Transformers and the movie trailer voice, the inner world
guy and my first manager, family from that video. And then I ran
into the problem with him, like he pitched me to Sony because I
would feel like we've heard your voice before and something. I'm
like, oh, cool. I was like, well, I did this little tiny thing
online and caught on his trailers and they, oh, because you're not
a real voice actor, you're a YouTube voice actor. And I was like
there's a difference.
03:30
And it's so funny how much just changed in a decade, because now
that's considered a major platform.
03:36 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
That is what is so impressive, Jon. You just forged through,
because I remember that they're like oh yeah, honest Australia's.
You're not a real voice. I remember that and I remember your
struggles and your frustration with that, and you have like a
trillion followers. I mean literally.
03:50 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Not that I'm inflating.
03:51 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
But you got what?
03:52 - Jon Bailey (Host)
over a million, over a million, yeah, combined across all
platforms, which is impressive. For voice actors, yeah, who haven't
been the main character in some major popular anime or cartoon or
whatever game? I kind of coined the phrase recently where it's like
I'm the guy everyone's heard but no one's heard of,
right.
04:10
Because I'm so in everything like my manager, my agents, whoever,
or sometimes just directly from the clients. They just throw
everything at me and I'm just willing to give everything a shot. I
know that can't hurt to try, so as long as it doesn't violate my
personal faith. There's some things I'm just like no. And other
things I'm like well, I'll check it out, but I can't make any
promises and some stuff. I'm just like you know, don't bother me
with this stuff because I'm not going to work on it.
04:35 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, so you've worked on such a wide range of projects. I mean,
what would you say, say I mean outside of? I know in the beginnings
were really like getting started and getting your feet wet and
getting known. Talk about some of the biggest challenges that
you've had as a voice actor, because, gosh, we all run into what we
think are challenges. But I feel like just with the amount of
exposure and the amount that you've grown over the years, I mean
your challenges I feel must equal almost sometimes your follower
size.
05:04 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I think my challenge is there's been a lot of them, but I'd say if
I had to narrow it down for an interview with you, I would say that
you really need to have some organization to your personal life,
because if you don't have the availability for this job, you're
wasting your time because you really can't do anything
else.
05:24
You have to find a way to work around their schedule instead of
your own and be available for them, and that often leads to that
thing between voice actors where it's like why did they get the job
instead of me? Well, it might've been because they had a home
studio and you didn't, and they had immediate availability and you
didn't. Or they might've decided to move to a town like Los Angeles
rather than the middle of nowhere, because sometimes it doesn't
matter how great you are for the job, it really doesn't. For some
reason, some people out here are just too scared of change and they
would rather have a real human person that can show up at their
studio at a specific time and day and record the thing. And
unfortunately, you have to sacrifice a lot. I mean, you have to
kind of give up your freedom, so to speak, and I'm thankful that
technology has changed, where there's mobile options now, where I
don't feel like I'm stuck in this particular physical space
24-7.
06:18 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, I was just going to ask how much do you actually go in studio
now?
06:21 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Still probably more than me, I would say it's more than it used to
be only because I'm booking more, but I would still say, you know,
90% of the time it's still here. In fact a good percentage is. Just
to look at the bookings for this coming week, I have four bookings
the first week of June and half of those are in studio and half of
those are home studio. So it sometimes varies, but I would say the
majority of the time I still feel like the majority of it is here.
But certain projects they really want to work with just the studios
that they've already recording all their other actors at, because
they want the quality to sound the same. It makes sense to me, but
at the same time people's home technology has gotten so good they
don't really need it anymore.
06:58 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
COVID kind of proved that. Yeah, exactly Now. Did you have to do
any upgrade? I'm sure you probably had a great studio already, but
did you have to do any upgrading to your studio?
07:08 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I mean it's still the same booth. It always was this one I've had,
for I would say I've had this one for at least five or six years.
Todd Haberkorn's misfortune was my fortune. He got this booth for
his place, which is not too far from here, and he moved here from
West Hollywood, which it fit perfectly fine in his old place, but
it just happened to be a few inches too big for his new place. So
he had to sell it for a third of what they normally run and I'm
like well, I can make payments.
07:36 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And he was cool with that.
07:36 - Jon Bailey (Host)
He just wanted to get rid of it because it takes up so much space
and it's so heavy and so bulky and big. It's bigger than I need.
It's an 8x4 and I don't recommend anything bigger than 4x4. But the
truth is you really don't have to have a booth that looks like
yours, no offense, but it looks beautiful on camera. That's
great.
07:52
That's one of the main reasons why I had it, because if I want to
make content and look like a pro, it needs to look like a pro. And
no matter how great the audio quality is, no matter how many
studios or clients that you've worked for, when it looks like the
inside of a closet you don't look like a very good pro and I
guarantee people out there it sounds better in that ugly closet
than it does in that fancy studio of yours. Even the guys from
VoiceOver Body Shop they recommend you don't have to have a whisper
room, you can just have that freaking closet. But I figure that
half my career is content creation. Freaking closet, but I figure
that half my career is content creation. Half my career has been
voiceover, so it might as well upgrade that because the opportunity
presented itself for such a low price.
08:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, and I agree with you that image, I mean, it's how you present
yourself really.
08:36 - Jon Bailey (Host)
They don't teach you about how much branding is
important.
08:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Back in our day, when we first started.
08:40 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Branding was not part of the education. It was all about the
voiceover, the career. They never really talked about, like your
social media presence or having a color scheme. Well, you were
developing that. We were still figuring it out.
08:51 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
We were, and I remember like first time physically meeting you at a
VO Peeps meetup. We were talking about how important it is to start
branding and things were just getting popular on the internet. They
were starting gosh. We're talking back in our day when we walked to
school 10 miles. I know it's funny, that was only 10 years ago I
know, I know, and it's incredible how it's grown.
09:12
And you know, you mentioned content creation, which, wow, I mean,
like I said, you were ahead of your time back in the day on
YouTube, and so I concur, yeah, you were ahead of your time, and I
like to think of myself as being a little ahead of my time because
I was broadcasting from my living room back when people weren't
broadcasting on the Internet.
09:31
My VOP's made up and, that being said, I feel like we're kind of
pioneers together, forging our own little paths in our business,
which is why I'm so excited that we're talking today and you
mentioned content creation. So let's talk a little bit about
content creation and what it takes for you on a day-to-day basis,
creating the content that you do, because, gosh, I've been
following you for the longest time. And then I have another
question that I'm going to talk about in a minute, because you have
transformed. Not only have you voiced transformers, but you have
transformed yourself. But let's talk a little bit about content
creation and how important it is for bosses today and people
wanting to build a successful business. What does content creation
mean for that business?
10:11 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Well, the one thing I learned and I have always been a trial and
error person People always ask me every freaking day. I would have
said you need to find reliable, trustworthy coaches that are
affordable and just get coaching, instead of trying to do this the
cheap, free way and learning it all the hard way through trial and
error and just free research on the internet.
10:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It can be done.
10:39 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I'm proof that it could be done, because I didn't get any coaching
until I'd already been at this job for like almost a decade and I
just didn't see the point because I'd been. Unfortunately, a few
not so great coaches can ruin it for everybody else. I'm like I
don't hear anything here that I couldn't find on the
internet.
10:55
I personally have a theory that when we got started, people were
gatekeeping the information. I think people were only telling they
were so insecure in their own careers they were afraid if they
shared this information, this is going to create more competition,
which is going to screw me out of work, and I don't think that this
is the kind of career where you should have to worry about that
because it's so freaking huge. There is enough room for everybody
in this job.
11:19
And if you're great at the job and you do a good job and you take
the time to grow your brand and create content, do all the things
that you need to do in order to be able to show what you're capable
of, you'll be able to get work. There's no doubt in my mind. I've
always been kind of ahead of my time, but I've been that guy that
like I'll do it and until some huge voice actor does the same exact
thing after they've seen me do it, then all of a sudden it becomes
popular. I was one of the first voice actors to stream my own video
games on Twitch. It didn't really go anywhere and I was like you
know what and I told a few other voice actors about it. I said this
is a great idea. Now all of them are actually making a separate
income from doing the same thing I was doing, but nobody even
showed up for me.
11:57
I was also one of the few people out there like I should create
content about what I do, or just do career centered content. That's
entertaining slash, maybe a little informational way to show what I
do, just to promote myself. Because the thing, like I started off,
the thing that I learned by making content, was that your
representation. They will never represent you as well as you can
represent yourself. And when I found out that my agents only just
get the auditions and sometimes they'll have some relationship with
clients and they'll pitch you to somebody they're never going to
know you until you get out there and show them who you are. So take
whatever thing that you do and just formulate your content around
what you're best at, whether you're best at creating creatures or
you're best at doing impressions. Whatever Impressions won't get
you anywhere in professional voice of a career.
12:48 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
but they're fantastic for content.
12:48 - Jon Bailey (Host)
That's not the advice I got 12 years ago. I was told you will never
get anywhere in this business doing impressions. That's not true,
because you can grow a brand and all of a sudden you're so popular
Clients can't do anything except they can't ignore you once you
have millions of followers and you're like, oh man, we should hire
this guy because people will buy our brand or at least consider our
product or service or whatever, just because this guy has so many
people.
13:08 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Absolutely. I love that.
13:15 - Jon Bailey (Host)
So growing your brand and making content is a way for you to
represent yourself and not just sit back and sit on your hands and
wait for your agents to do it, because they're not. Your
representation's primary job is to make you look good and let
people know what you're booking even if they didn't book it for
you, and get you auditions and opportunities. They're not out there
promoting you specifically, they're not putting out visual audio
demos of you doing stuff and working on things, and everything is
content Everything.
13:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Now question for you because you create so much content and now
that you have so many followers, I would imagine yes, of course.
Now you're getting sponsorships. You're getting people who want you
to talk about their things, because you do have a big follower
base. Do your agents have control over the type of content? How
careful do you have to be now creating your content?
14:00 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I think that agents representatives have to be careful depending on
their talent. I think if their talent is smart and they're wise,
obviously they're going to hit me up and say you can't post that,
you need to take that and sometimes I just have to kind of self
regulate.
14:15
I'll give you a perfect example of that. There was a project that
was coming out and I thought it would be funny to make a prank
video because it's a project that I have been known to work for in
the past. So for an April Fool's joke, I created a fake thing for
this thing and posted it on the Internet and all of a sudden it
reached a point because my content has gotten so big and my career
has grown so much that people were using that as a potential news
leak of some nondisclosure stuff. I'm like oh crap, I've reached
the point where I can't just be regular Joe fan that makes funny
stuff for the internet. And then they're like oh, that's
so.
14:54
I had to be way more thoughtful and because of, like I said, I
learned everything the hard way because of some NDA scares and
because of some reprimands from some agents in the past. Over the
last decade and a half I've learned like what is okay and what's
not, and I'm just always very careful because it does help. I've
been working for Hasbro for eight years. Eight years I've been
doing voices for the same company, for the same franchise, and only
within the last couple of years? Did they even know I was working
for them?
15:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Wow.
15:15 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Because when you have a massive corporation they drop down all
those little jobs down to other companies that are lower on the
pole. So they can just like look, we're just going to license this
brand out to you. You tell us what you're going to make, you do the
entire production, We'll approve, and then you know it's got our
official stamp on it. They have no idea who's working for them. So
when I get out there and I start making content, I'm really
starting to push something like Transformers, for example, because
I remember that.
15:39
I do remember that, so they'll send me products or they'll send me
news, information or images, digital assets whatever to repost
because it makes sense for me, and the more that I do that, the
more that people are associating me with my favorite brands that I
already work for or it's making other companies go wow, he does a
really good job for them. As long as there's no conflict between
clients, maybe we should get them to check out our stuff or
whatever. So, for example, for Transformers specifically, I have
probably four different companies that send me stuff that I don't
have to pay for, that I can make content with, or I can resell or
give away. There's a lot of different ideas that you can do. You
just have to think outside the box.
16:37
It's all about thinking outside the box and doing the best you can
to represent yourself in a way where your reps don't have to worry
about what you make because they're afraid that you're like oh my
gosh, you said you're not a chub on that, I mean, I even had to
think about that whenever it came to anything marvel related,
because when I started booking sound likes for some of these actors
for marvel, I'm like does that mean I can't make comedy, marvel
content or whatever, because that might be a spoiler for something
that I don't even know about because I'm not working on a project.
But I feel like anything I'm doing to help it boils down to this.
This is the very, very important part. It boils down to only doing
positive things about the clients, brands, products, whatever that
you want to work with or that you're a fan of, whatever Because
let's just say you like.
17:18
Snickers. If you like Snickers, you don't want to do negative
Snickers things. You want to show yourself eating a Snickers, show
yourself talking about Snickers, making funny things based on
Snickers, and eventually you get enough followers and enough people
are like this is really funny, this is really entertaining. This
makes me like Snickers. This makes me want to support you by
getting whatever. Eventually, snickers is like hey, you know what,
we'll send you some free Snickers, send you money in a brand deal.
The important part is to do it positive. Don't do anything negative
about a brand that you like.
17:46 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I was just going to ask you. There's the other side of the coin,
where any publicity is good publicity, so sometimes
negative.
17:52 - Jon Bailey (Host)
True, but I feel like you're playing it safe and smart if you just
stick to only things that, for example, if something comes out,
that's not that great, but it's for a company that I like. That's
the truth. But it's also about growing your brand, about being seen
by enough people to be considered like, oh, and it's also about
showing all the things that you do, whether it's your skill set,
whether it's your sense of humor, whether it's just your perfect,
whatever it is that you're doing it helps them understand like this
person has all these positive traits that we like. We would like to
continue to work with them, or we'd like to start working with
them.
18:33 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I like that. I like that a lot.
18:34 - Jon Bailey (Host)
The whole Mint Mobile ad with Ryan Reynolds. It did not come from
my voiceover stuff, it came directly as a result of social media
stuff. I was one of the first people out there doing an impression
of Ryan Reynolds, because I've seen people out there doing
impressions for decades. They started doing it on YouTube when it
was first brand new a thing. People were trying to do it as some
kind of bit where it's like here's this tiny little cartoon picture
in the corner and here's one second of me doing this character.
Like I could do 500 cartoon characters in three minutes. And I was
like, okay, I see what you're doing, but it's also terrible. It
doesn't mean you're a good voice actor, it just means you've made
clever content that a lot of people watched.
19:09
But wouldn't it be better, instead of doing those impressions, to
just take your skill set and promote yourself in a different way
and do something nobody else is doing? So I started looking. It's
like man, my gosh. All these voices are old. These characters are
ridiculously ancient. It's always Mickey Mouse and Kermit the Frog
and stuff that anybody pretty much could do, because the guys who
came up with those characters they didn't want to stray so far from
their own voices. They were just doing whatever. So I was like you
know what? I should just look at who's popular right now, who's the
number one top dogs right now? So I started looking at the
A-listers. I'm like nobody's doing Chris Hemsworth Nobody's doing
Ryan Reynolds.
19:43
Nobody's doing.
19:51 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
All of a sudden.
19:51 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Now everybody's copying that pattern. It's just one of the first
out there and because I did such a good job with Ryan Reynolds'
voice and I made positive, funny, entertaining content, it
eventually got the attention of Maximum Effort who reached out to
my agents, said we really like Jon, we have this funny idea. We
don't really know what we're going to do yet, but we'd them on
commercial. There's a good paycheck for it involved, also good
social media. Because he's smart enough to know, because Maximum
Effort is very good about this. They think like I do. They're like
there's a potential for this stuff. It's all in the internet and
how you present this More people to see that than you can by
throwing this up on a television commercial. So, yeah, it just kind
of became that formulation of is it positive? Does it show off my
skill set well, does it make me look like we should work with this
guy and want to work with this brand? Would this brand be like?
This is a unique or entertainer insert thing here of a way to
promote our product. We'd like to work with this guy more or
continue to work with him. So, yeah, it's going to be, became the
whole mindset and the main goal was always not to make money
from.
20:49
I make hardly any money from social media, just next to nothing,
because the primary goal was not to make money. If I wanted to
monetize, there's a very particular set of rules that you have to
follow in order to make money from social media. My goal was to get
more eyeballs on it, get more followers, because at some point you
want to be indispensable, you want to be invaluable to people and
like well with me. Not only do you get 16 years of professional
experience, all these credits, all these working with all these
great companies or clients or studios or whatever. You also get
somebody with over a million followers on social media who will
promote your project and make content about it for no extra money,
just because that's what he already does, because that also helps.
It's a cycle. It helps me get bigger, which helps me book more jobs
which helps me get bigger, which helps me get more jobs.
21:32
It all works together and it does kind of feel like you're working
half your time for free, but that's why you should do things you
enjoy. Make your content something that you enjoy, based on things
that you like. Just build it around your skillset around your
talent.
21:44 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Sure, I love that and I love the whole positive spin that you put
on things, as well as authenticity. To take a moment to talk about
authenticity you have been very authentic, having known you for so
many years now, about things like in your personal life, like your
transformation right In your family, and so let's talk a little bit
about what authenticity means as well in terms of I feel as though
it's not a put on to get more followers. I just really identify
with you through your stories. I think you and I have a similar
story about, let's say, our body change, our health. We've
transformed a little bit in that way, and I've seen a lot of posts
from you about that and also stuff about personal struggles that
you've had. Let's talk for a moment about the authenticity and how
important that is.
22:30 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Well, I think you should keep the majority of your personal life
offline. Nobody needs to know all your personal business. But I do
feel like, when people have been supporting you for so long, they
feel an attachment to your story and to you and they want to root
for you. They want to be in your corner, they want to see you
succeed. Some of them even live vicariously through you. But a lot
of people are just looking for inspiration. They're looking for
somebody else to give them justification for whatever it is that
they're going to decide to do, and when they see somebody like me
give up, it makes them want to give up. When they see somebody like
me keeping on and pushing on and just never quitting, it makes them
not want to give up.
23:09
I inspire other people and, as a person of faith, that's kind of
half the reason why I do what I do, because I feel like it's better
to be genuine and be yourself, because if you have to mask,
eventually it'll all fall apart. You won't be able to keep that up
for forever because it's not really you. Jim Carrey's talked about
this a lot because he used to be that guy. He thought he had to be
like this all the time. That was a persona that he created. It was
just a different version of himself where he literally was not Jim
Carrey, he was whatever character he was portraying.
23:38
That was Jim Carrey. And when he finally dropped the mask and
started being himself, he felt better. And yeah, he's not a super
energetic I mean, he's still funny, but he's not that crazy,
energetic, over-the-top, ridiculous guy all the time. He's actually
just a normal human being who happens to have a very clever mind
and sense of humor, et cetera, et cetera. And he talks all the time
about how the word depressed has the words deep rest in it and how
our brains can't keep up with that fake facade.
24:05
And I know exactly what he's talking about, because my personal
life is not rainbows and skittles all the time. I don't go into
great detail about it, but people do know. They know that I'm on
the spectrum. They know that my son is very much on the spectrum
and he's had a lot of issues. They know that my home life has not
always been a hundred percent fun. And they also know that
financial struggles and all I go through the same thing everybody
else does.
24:29
There's a really great interview with Larry King, with the actor
who played Abed in Community, which is one of my favorite TV shows
and I did promos for it, which is how I became a fan and he was
being interviewed.
24:40
Larry King's like give me a luxury that you can't live without.
He's like cup of coffee. He's like no, no, no, a luxury. He's like
a warm pair of socks. He's like no, a luxury, you know. Like a
private place, like I work on duck tails, larry. It's like people
don't get that. We're struggling just as much as I don't think,
until the strike came forward. This feels like the first time ever
that a strike has actually finally got people to realize we don't
make a lot of money, we're not sitting around floating in a pool of
money and everything is fancy and expensive.
25:09
I literally live from paycheck to paycheck. I don't know how I get
from point A to point B except through faith and hard work. That's
all there is to it. And you have to find things that work with your
schedule in order to stay in this career, because you can't just go
get a grocery store job or whatever and be able to make it. You'll
only be able to work when you're free. These clients don't care
when you're free, they only care when they're free. So so you have
to make yourself available until you get to the point where you've
reached the career level, we're like no, no, no, we'll wait for
you, we can reschedule for you, don't worry. That didn't used to be
the case when you first start off like next, because they have a
million other people that can do what you do. No-transcript, how
fast they can get it done, reliability, all these different things
that are factors they're going to succeed. They see that, they can
just tell, and part of it is that I am a really hard freaking
worker and I'm very genuine and open about.
26:09
I'm just always going and doing stuff, but it's gotten a little
better with content creation wise, because while I'm still just
being me, I do take the time to like look ahead and see, okay,
what's coming out. What am I working on? What am I allowed to talk
about? What am I not allowed to talk about? What's trending right
now? Since right now, I only have this free time on Saturday, and
that's it. I'm going to make a whole bunch of stuff that week, and
then I'm just going to drop it online whenever I have time, rather
than so.
26:34
it's not like I'm making stuff all day long, every day. I can't do
that. I can't keep working for free because people don't realize if
they're not sending gifts or they're donating to your social media
you're doing it out of the goodness of your heart on what little
spare free time you've got. I don't have all day long to stream and
et cetera. Content creation is. I absolutely agree with you, it's
no small feat it is a full-time job that does not pay.
26:59
No small task at all, but it does pay off in jobs, in
exposure.
27:02 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yes, absolutely, and that's interesting. My next question was going
to be what's your best tips for people starting out in the
business? You just gave it to me in that last Well, I got a lot
more tips than that, but I loved it because hard work and I'm going
to say determination, and especially now that the industry has
shifted, I mean and evolved and I think you, more than anyone,
really understand how to roll with the changes and to really
evolve.
27:23 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Well, you've brought up challenges, and that's what the challenge
is that this job has become far more public. It's gotten much
bigger. It was already big, but the career itself is already bigger
and we have all these factors to be concerned about now, like AI
replacing jobs like ADR.
27:50
And the competition has increased by a ton because now people
understand technology is caught up, where you can pretty much do
this anywhere with a decent Internet connection, which makes a big
chunk of the industry going to be much tougher. But if you do all
those things in conjunction, if you get training, get training from
good, reliable coaches that are honest, trustworthy and affordable,
you'll spare yourself years of research and development. Start
creating a brand. I say this to people when I coach and all of a
sudden it's like people realize all this stuff is just common sense
stuff.
28:06
Make your profile picture Be the same. Make your bio Be the same
across all your platforms. Just be consistent with making
something. Find free time, bank up a bunch of free stuff. Post it
when you don't have time, because you may not have time to make
stuff later, but be showing what. Like I said, everything is
content. If all I have time to do is be in the booth doing my job,
then I'm going to record myself in the booth doing the
job.
28:29
Add some different audio to it, so I don't break non-disclosure
agreement when I'm recording auditions and just post something else
over that and make that into a video to show people like I'm
freaking, working, I'm doing this stuff here, I am in my booth, or
just take a picture, do something, but make content and keep
something going out there. Yes, it helps if you stay up with
current trends, if you have a particular genre. I'll give you a
couple of examples, because people probably think that this is just
confined to well, you work in cartoons and movies. It's easy for
you because you have all this stuff. That's not necessarily true.
You never know which horse is going to win the race.
29:00
I would have thought that Mad Max would have been a great thing to
post content about, but it's not doing as well as I thought it
would do. So all the other stuff that I do content for is like
okay, well, I can keep making that, but you just kind of have to
keep an eye on it. But you have inspirational stuff, you have
creepypastas, scary stories. There's just so many things that you
can do and it be your brand, as long as you keep consistent and
keep making something. And in the meantime you're doing auditions,
you're out there, whatever, and as you're growing you can start
adding that to like oh well, if you book me, you also get
this.
29:30
I have a protege. I would love for you to interview her sometime.
Her name is Hunter and she did not know what a voiceover was before
she met me, but she did have performance experience. She used to be
a haunter in haunts and let me tell you something it is harder to
be a haunter in a haunt than it is to do stand-up comedy, Because
you have an infinite amount of time that you're going to be doing
this little performance. You've got about 10 minutes In a haunt.
You're in there for hours coming up with characters, terrifying
people, improvising, doing all the makeup and stuff yourself too.
So there's on-camera stuff as well and you develop crazy skill sets
that she didn't even know was a valuable skill set. She can create
creature sounds that I've never heard a woman do before.
30:10 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I've only heard Dee Bradley Baker, do what she's done.
30:13 - Jon Bailey (Host)
And, like you, have any idea how special that skill is in this
industry.
30:17
You need to make content and show people what you do, and
especially if it's something that you can do that they cannot do
and all of a sudden, within three months of just doing a little
voiceover coaching with me showing you the stuff that I know after
16 years, she was booking work, which proves that you don't have to
have two years to 16 years to book that kind of stuff. If you have
the information and you work hard and you supply the stuff that you
learn, you can book stuff right away. This industry is easy to get
into. My biggest problem and I'm going to hurt a lot of people's
feelings right now my biggest problem is that people come to me
with their hands out and that's all they ever do hey, what can I do
to blah, blah, blah.
30:52
And I tell them they're like that doesn't sound like I'm just going
to be able to do it without you giving it to me. So I'm like if you
don't want it, if you're not willing to work for it, then don't
ask. It's not a job where you can just go get an answer and I give
you a key and you go open the door and you receive the rewards for
it. It took 16 years to do that, yes, yes, it can be condensed down
to shorter amount of time. When you find somebody like me who
coaches and I've made all those mistakes already in 16 years' time
I've gone through every version of how not to do the job, then
finally figured out the right way to do the job wouldn't it make
sense to invest a little bit of money and save yourself a lot of
years to get that information and actually use it and apply it and
just work hard at the job? It's kind of like Shawshank Redemption
All it takes is time and patience.
31:33 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Absolutely Well, before we go, I do want to talk to you about your
transformation.
31:42 - Jon Bailey (Host)
You look amazing.
31:43 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I imagine you must feel great. I feel a lot better today, not so
much because I injured my shoulder.
31:45 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I'm sorry, that's right, but again, like I said, everything is
content and I'm like you know what. A lot of people are already
supportive. They want to see me succeed and I wanted to show them
that if I can do something, anybody, if you just put your mind to
something and you're just consistent at whether it's your health or
your career or whatever, if you're just consistent at it, that's
all it is. People just fall out of it because they go too hard, too
fast. Whether it's your physical health or whether it's the career,
they think that, okay, all I have to do is this one thing and then
when it doesn't work out in a couple of months, people just quit.
Or a couple of weeks, they just don't give it enough time. You
don't get healthy in just a couple of weeks.
32:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It took years of back and forth and bouncing up and down, you and I
both know, because we both been there.
32:25 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I remember, I remember.
32:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
You look like a different person too.
32:29 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I've lost an entire person at this point I'm down 145
pounds.
32:33 - Intro (Host)
I haven't had my biggest, I was 335.
32:36 - Jon Bailey (Host)
That was around the time when you and I met I was literally
that.
32:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
No neck guy and my overall goal was 170 pounds, but still is
wonderful.
32:42 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Thank you. I've only got 25 pounds left to go.
32:45 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Good for you. I still have some to go too, and it's funny People
are like what? But I need to continually have that challenge. I
feel like I'm like you in that way.
32:53 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I'll give everybody something that really helped me, and it's going
to seem like a silly thing, but if your health is important to you
and you have people that depend on you and need you to be around,
then you should make it a primary thing. Number one. Everything is
content. You can film and take pictures of your progress. My
progress stuff gets more traction than my professional career stuff
does Mine did too my picture of me shrinking. Those are just
pictures not even a video.
33:20
Those pictures had over 3,000 likes and I don't even have that many
followers on Instagram. People want to see you succeed and it also
inspires them and makes them want to do better for themselves,
which is great. So you can literally make that as part of your
journey, and I remember incorporating it into my routine. I'm like
you know what, instead of it feeling like it's a job and that I
have to go lose weight and I have to go hike and I have to go to,
I'll make content while I'm out there. I'm make videos of me doing
the thing, or make I did different celebrities going to the gym,
you know, or working out or exercising, and it became where it was
fun and eventually I'm multitasking. At that point, I'm making
content and I'm working out.
33:57
At the same exact time, I'm also finding cool locations while I'm
out doing whatever that like you know what. This would be a cool
place to make a thing. There's so many different cool factors
involved in just doing things better for yourself. The gym that I
got for the backyard I was like you know what this would make great
if I want to do gym videos because they have a very strict policy
about making content inside of a gym, so having a gym in my
backyard makes it a lot easier for me.
34:21
But it also I got it from another voice actor. Dave Fennoy got rid
of his old gym because his studio flooded and he did not feel like
putting it back in there.
34:30 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
So I got a great deal on it. Oh, that's awesome. I didn't realize
that was Dave Fennoy. It helped me network more with yeah it helped
me network with Dave Fennoy who's?
34:37 - Jon Bailey (Host)
also a local to Memphis, which you know, I've only known two or
three other voice actors that came from where I came from. So
there's so many positive things about. Everything is
interconnected, everything's all part of one big giant thing and it
does sometimes feel a little bit like a video game because you're
just like this doesn't feel real, but it's just all the parts
working together and just looking for opportunities. I'll put it to
you this way there's a movie I hate to bring up Jim Carrey again,
but the movie yes man. I don't live quite that strictly to that
kind of policy, but I do feel like you should say yes to every
opportunity that comes your way. Unless you have a very solid like
there, unless you have a very solid like, there's just no way I
can. If it feels like there's resistance, then don't do it, but
unless there's just something that instantly red flags, I'm just
trying to be like yeah, I'll, absolutely. I'll do my best. I'll
give it my best freaking shot, whether it's my health, whether it's
my content, whether it's a voiceover job.
35:29 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And I've been shocked at how many times that has worked out for
me.
35:31 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Just give it a chance. So many people are not confident in
themselves. They don't have security in themselves. I don't think
people understand the term fake it till you make it. It's talking
about acting. It's literally talking about pretending to be okay
and pretending to be fine and acting like you're good even if
you're not good, even if you are nervous. This will change your
entire life and I'm only going to give this one, and this is just
an example of what you get when you coach with me. By the way, if
you can pretend to be another person when you go into an audition,
it completely changes things, because when you're already acting
like you already got the job, you're going to do a better job
performing the job. So, whether it comes to in-person auditions or
whatever, or social situations or networking situations, you can
literally just get comfortable acting like the person who is
confident and who is a success until you are that's what faking it
do to make it move.
36:22
People on the spectrum and voice actors and actors and performers.
We're all very good at masking, and does that make us an
exceptional liars? Probably All of us are not like that in our
personal lives.
36:33 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
But when?
36:34 - Jon Bailey (Host)
you're very good at pretending to be someone else. You can make
that into a viable career and it works for your content. It works
for your overall brand. It works for your auditions. It also works
for your booking. When you actually get the job, People will like
you better, when you act like you belong there. In other words,
when you go into a session, don't sit there and go. I'm sorry, let
me do it again. I'm sorry.
36:53 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I messed up.
36:55 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Hang on. I messed up. Hang on. I'm sorry you shut your mouth. Just
say let me try that one more time.
36:59
I got a better one in me Change your mindset, change the way you
speak, change the way you act. You're faking it till you make it,
because eventually you'll start booking those jobs and it's just. I
hate to keep using nerd references, but I am one it he could do it
because he saw himself do it, and this is exactly. There was a life
changing moment for me when I went into record Bumblebee for the
third time and it's one of my favorite movies that I've ever worked
on. It's my favorite franchise, my two favorite characters that I
got to voice. I had no idea who I was working with in that studio.
I didn't have a clue. Nobody told me that anybody from the movie
was going to be there. The only people that I saw that were famous
were some of the other voice actors that were working. So on the
third session I was like I wonder who the director of this film is.
And I looked it up and it was the guy I'd been working with for
three sessions.
37:48
I didn't even know he was the director of the movie. I thought he
was just the engineer at Paramount and it was like dude. I was
nailing it, not even knowing I should be nervous. So why even be
nervous? The next chance I got to work with another director, it
was Michael freaking Bay. I wasn't even concerned anymore.
Everybody was warning me. He's hard to work with. He's difficulty
blah, blah, blah. I'm like dude. I worked with Travis Knight,
didn't even know I was working with Travis Knight. I'm fine Because
I can just act like I belong there and and people will believe it
because I'm being very confident. Even though it's fake confidence,
it's still confidence and eventually you'll start to believe your
own confidence.
38:22 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It's kind of manifesting.
38:24 - Intro (Host)
Manifesting that it's faking it till you, make it I didn't
understand.
38:27 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I heard people say that for years and years and years until I
realizing it's just faking confidence until you're actually doing
that job, because you really kind of need to prove to everybody
else and yourself that, yeah, you can do this, and once you can do
it you don't need to worry about it anymore.
38:40 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And what I love is knowing you for so long Like I've seen this
happen. I've actually watched you become this incredible success,
confident, and it's. I love it. I'm just so, so happy for
you.
38:54 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I appreciate that it really is just about kind of like learning all
the cheat codes. It takes me a little longer than most. I had
friends tell me like it takes 10 years to get into cartoons. I
booked an anime in eight and thought I was doing good, but then it
was just crickets for another four years. So you just never really
know. But then when I started realizing it really is all about
faking that confidence and just believing in yourself, even if you
don't believe in yourself. If you can fake it, other people will
believe it.
39:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I'm signing up to coach with you, but actually this is a great
segue into, first of all, how can people follow you If they don't
know they should know because you're all over the place and then
how can people work with you.
39:29 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I recently. I won't say it's finished yet because I'm trying to add
a couple more pages to it, but I recently overhauled my website
thanks to my awesome mentor who also does website design. So if you
need a voiceover website, I know somebody and the contact page.
There's a section on coaching. My rates are all there. I've
expanded from when I first started. You probably remember this.
There was a long time I did not want to coach because I didn't feel
like I had enough experience for it, because I was like I've only
been at this five years. Even though I'm doing great, I don't feel
like I've got anything to say to anybody. Brand new, because I'm
brand new Now. I don't feel I've got a decade and a half plus two
years of research and development.
40:01
I've worked for the biggest studios out there. I have gone through
every version of how to do this job wrong, just like Thomas Edison
inventing the light bulb wrong 99 times. I figured out the right
way to do it by doing it wrong so many different ways. So I haven't
named it yet, but it's kind of like the gamer's guide to
voiceover.
40:17 - Intro (Host)
It's a little cheat code magazine.
40:18 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Love it. So, yeah, I'm really easy to find Epic Voice Guy on every
major platform and you can contact me via my website page or any
DMs across any of the social media. I'll probably still sling you
over to my website because it goes straight to my email address,
but my coaching rates are ridiculously affordable compared to most
people and you won't have to keep coming back for more coaching
sessions unless you want to, because I didn't like that when I got
started. I think we had this conversation before. I was very
against the overall coaching community because I felt like so much
of it was predatory. They were giving some of the same information
over and over that you can find on the Internet for free. And now
they have a website. D Bradley Baker God bless his soul created
Iwanttobeavoiceactorcom, and now I don't even have to like look, if
you don't want to pay me, spend a few weeks on this free website.
No skin off my teeth, you don't have to pay me a dime.
41:07 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
If they're not willing to look at that website for a couple of
weeks because there's a lot of information there, then they don't
really want to do this job and that's my number one go-to
thing.
41:12 - Jon Bailey (Host)
But yeah, I coach and I also do other stuff too. I also offer, if
they want, fan stuff, a little bit of everything Awesome.
41:19 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yes, you do. I remember that you were doing that back 16 years ago
too.
41:23 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Yeah, I try to look at the industry and see where the gaps were and
see where is something missing. It's like, oh, I started realizing
these brands that reached out to me like, oh, we realize, you make
a lot of Transformers content. I was like, well, you know, as a
voice actor and having a professional page, I should freaking have
a shop page.
41:39
And then call those companies and say hey, would you like to
advertise for free on my website? Duh Three or four, I'm like,
yeah, we'll give you some free ads and we'll even throw you a
commission if they buy some stuff through the way I mean.
41:49 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
there's so much opportunity.
41:51 - Jon Bailey (Host)
We just don't. Nobody really takes the time to think they're just
looking at insert job here in the voiceover business and they don't
think about all this other stuff.
41:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It's the business mind too.
42:01 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Yeah, the simplest way I can put it, because I know your time is
valuable too. The simplest way I can put it is if you're going to
fish because you're starving to death and it's your only option,
you have plenty of opportunities to fish, but you have a boat and
you have a place to fish Do you put one hook in the water or do you
put them all in if you have the opportunity, to put them all in
there If you have a chance to catch more fish? Look for every
single chance, every single opportunity, whether it's a YouTube and
a TikTok and a Twitch and a whatever. If you're a gamer, game, if
you're a reactor, react but do something. Build it around your
skill set, make content on every platform out there. Look for every
opportunity networking opportunities, voiceover meetups like what
Anne and I used to go to the coaching sessions from people that are
reliable free website resources.
42:47
There's a ton out there If you just put in the freaking effort.
That's where you guys make me angry. Put in the freaking
effort.
42:52 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
This podcast is a resource.
42:55 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Exactly, I've been doing this podcast for eight years, eight years
weekly. So yeah, I just celebrated my eight year and you guys are
not paying for it. This is free resources that are extremely
helpful, Jon.
43:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Bailey, john Bailey. Oh my gosh, it has been so wonderful. We
should have like five more, no, 15 more episodes.
43:11 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I mean I would if I didn't have a game to record I know
right.
43:14 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I could go on and on and on and I have a session I got to get to
myself. I take that back. Five sessions.
43:19 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I forgot one. I just booked another one today. Five sessions and
two out of five are at home. That's not normal though.
43:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
But I did want to be fair and honest. That means you got to drive
three out of the five too, so that's time involved as well. Knowing
this area.
43:32 - Jon Bailey (Host)
Oh, that's aed. There you go, there you go, oh my gosh.
43:46 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
John, it's been amazing. Thank you so, so much for this. Bosses out
there, follow John and coach with John. I'm telling you, you were
like a fountain. You're a fountain of wisdom and information and
again, thank you I keep telling people they should go to
me.
43:54 - Jon Bailey (Host)
I've got living proof. If you want living proof of how far you can
come with a little information for me, if you are properly
motivated and you work hard, go to VoxyDitch on any of the social
medias. That's my mentee. I'm mentoring her and look how quickly
she has people coming to her asking her for voiceover advice.
Awesome, only being in this job for a few months.
44:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Awesome. Well, John, thanks again. Bosses, I'm going to give a
great big shout out to our sponsor, IPDTL. You too can network and
connect like bosses like John and myself. Find out more at
IPDTLcom. Everyone have an amazing week and we will see you next
week. Bye.
44:33 - Intro (Host)
Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host,
Anne Ganguza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for
our mailing list at vobosscom 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.