Dec 3, 2024
00:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey bosses, real Boss, Tom Dheere and myself have a very special
deal for you guys. Tom, tell them what it is.
00:08 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
All right, anne. If you use the promo code BOSSVOSS that's B-O-S-S
as in V-O-BOSS and V-O-S as in V-O-STRATEGIST, and the number 24,
so that's BOSSVOS24, you get 10% off my 30-minute check-in, my
one-hour strategy session and my one-hour diagnostic.
00:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And you'll get 10% off all coaching packages and demos on the Anne
Ganguzza website. So, guys, black Friday starts now and runs till
the end of the year. So everybody, get yourselves on that site and
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00:43 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
BOSS, VOS 24. BOSS. VOS, BOSS, VOS, 24. BOSS, VOS, 24.
00:47 - Intro (Announcement)
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
Ganguzza.
01:06 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss Podcast and the Real Boss
Series with the one and only Tom Dheere. Tom Dheere, yay, hi, anne,
tom, I get to see you like. I just saw you at MAVO, which was so
wonderful. We have to just meet each other at conferences, I feel
like there needs to be a change to that.
01:27 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
You live in LA, I live in New York City, so you know we have some
logistical challenges.
01:32 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I know, but I feel like we should be seeing each other more,
because what a great time.
01:36 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Well then, they need to produce more conferences so we can hang out
more, right.
01:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, I don't know. Well, I don't know. There might be some people
that disagree with that, I'm not sure. Some people are saying that
there's more conferences than are needed in this industry. But you
know, I like people to have a choice.
01:51 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Yes, and different conferences meet different needs. Some of them
are different sizes, like Mavo is very boutique, like under 100
people, as opposed to VO Atlanta, which is wonderful in its own
way, but that has 1,000 people and that can freak out a lot of
people. And then one voice is like somewhere in the middle with
attendance and there's different focuses. Some have a bilingual
track or a Spanish track, some have an audio book track and some
have a children's track, like Mavo did. So you just got to find one
that's right for you, based on your budget, your professional needs
and just your social comfort level.
02:24 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Sure, let's do a recap about Mavo, then, because it was my first
year at Mavo, oh, and I truly, truly enjoyed it. It was, it was my
first year speaking at Mavo and I loved it. It was small, it was
intimate, and she had a boatload of great speakers there, and I
really felt as though she worked her tail off to make it a nice
experience for everyone.
02:50 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
I agree, this was my fourth 2018, 2020, 22, which was virtual, and
then 2024 now. So, like most conference presenters, they like to
have people come every other year so they can mix up the speakers
and the content, and I always have a lovely time there. Val Kelly,
who's the producer of the Mid-Atlantic Voice Over Conference MAVO
for short always does a lovely job and, like you said, she puts
together a fantastic group of speakers. Like, considering the size
of the conference, it's like, quality-wise, a disproportionate
quality. Like the quality of speakers, considering the size of the
conference, it's just such really high-end.
03:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Oh my gosh, Really high-end people. It was incredible high-end
speakers, especially because you and I were there. Well, no, I'm
sorry, I love it. I think her theme in the beginning was more
character-based animation, because that's what she did, and she
mentioned to me this is the first time she was going to have
somebody coming in that was really talking about things other than
character animation, and, of course, I did a general session on
corporate, and then I did two mastery sessions which actually were
oversold, which I loved on e-learning, and the other one was on
acting for narration oversold, which I loved on e-learning, and the
other one was on acting for narration, and I just loved the
response of the attendees that were there to my classes, and so I
had a great time while I was there, but I worked hard, and I will
say, though, that the speakers that she had were amazing.
04:18
You were there, I mean, jessica Blue was there, everett Oliver was
there I mean I'm just going on and I met some people that I had
never met before in person, which was there. Everett Oliver was
there. I mean I'm just going on, and I met some people that I had
never met before in person, which was great Casting directors, andy
Ross. I mean, I just had such a good time meeting new people and
now I've got new resources.
04:35 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Yeah, I had a fantastic time too. What did I teach? I did a
breakout session or I don't remember what the name of it was. The
term, but it was make taxes less. Taxing had a great turnout, with
people trying to figure out how to file their taxes. As a voice
actor, that was fun.
04:48 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, that's important.
04:49 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
It is important. I'm noticing a slight uptick in people going to
conferences and wanting to get a little bit more understanding of
the business side of voiceover, which and considering that's what I
do as the VO strategist obviously I'm thrilled that people are
expressing more of an interest to complement all the great
performance training that they want to get and that they know that
they need. But I also did one on smaller voiceover market mastery
how to, if you live in a suburban or rural area, how you can thrive
both online and in person.
05:15
But the one that was extra interesting is and we talked about this
before we started recording is that I was the moderator for the AI
panel.
05:23 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah.
05:24 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
And you were in the audience and you participated I was. It was
very, very interesting and we had the board of the National
Association of Voice Actors, or NAVA, as the panelists president,
vice president, director of operations and a member at large and
the conversation was very interesting. What I thought was
interesting is that I read the room at the beginning, if you
remember, and I said who here doesn't know the first thing about AI
as it pertains to voiceover? And not a single person raised their
hand. Now, maybe they were shy and didn't want to admit they didn't
know anything, but I think a lot of them are now that it's been a
few years that the voiceover industry has just become aware at all
that AI has been permeating the industry long before we understood
what was going on. People are making a point to educate themselves,
and you have been a huge contributor to that with your VO Boss
series. When you interviewed, was it 30 or 35 companies
At?
06:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
least At least 35 CEOs of companies, of AI companies Some are of
companies that don't exist anymore and some that do. So, yeah, and
that was back. I think I started two and a half years, maybe three
years ago, doing that and talking about how do you create a voice,
are you ethical, are you, you know, how are you utilizing the
voices and how do you feel about voice actors and treating them
fairly and giving them compensation for that voice? And so it was
something that I really have been on a journey to do, to research
and educate myself, because I think, I mean, we're both educators,
tom, and it's so important for voice actors to educate themselves
about the industry, about the business and how they can run their
business to coexist with disruptive technologies like AI.
07:04 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Right, right Were you in the room when J Michael Collins did his
presentation.
07:08 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I actually was finishing up a mastery session and he was talking
about trends in commercial, I believe, or trends in performance,
since the new administration or the upcoming administration
change.
07:22 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Yes, that's why I brought it up, because I sat in on that and took
a page of notes. He did a fascinating history of how you can line
up who's president of the United States with trends in commercials
and tone and what affects us as casting specifications.
07:39
So he made a lot of interesting points about those who voted for
the winner and what kind of reads are maybe called for, and those
who did not vote for the winner of the election and the type of
reads that are going to resonate with them for the next few years.
So I bring this up, bosses, because this is part of the value that
you get out of attending any voiceover conference, much less going
to MAVO. It's education, it's networking, it's the opportunity to
meet great coaches like Anne, or get to know a casting director or
someone like that. But also industry trends what's going on in the
industry right now and how you need to adjust or adapt your
understanding of the voiceover industry and how you can adjust your
business model to adapt to what may change in the coming
years.
08:29 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
One thing that I like to think about in regards to trends is
trends. You have to keep your eyes and ears open and assess what
you feel is happening in the industry, as well as what your clients
are saying. And so, while I would never say this is the trend in
black and white, this is what it's going to be or this is what's
calling for, and then say that's it, I'm only going to practice
that trend. I say be the actor, because when you're the actor, you
can be versatile and you can cover any trend and so just know which
ones seem to be resonating along with culture and the current
status and the current flow of advertising. But also be that actor.
Take that coaching, training that allows you to be the actor that
can be versatile, that can follow direction, no matter what they
want, because there can be trends all over the place.
09:19
So, for example, after the Super Bowl last year, there was the
Poppy read. Right, there was that read. I was not asked for that
poppy read very often, even though that was spouted as the latest
and greatest big trend. So, again, my customers had their own
specific direction for what I do. Also, it depends on genre right,
genres that you're working on, and I feel that if you are a
well-versed actor, you're gonna be able to adjust yourself to any
trend. However, it is important that we all educate ourselves on
what's current and relevant out there, because you probably don't
want to be out there doing that old announcer read, although that's
one of the reads that could potentially come back, or it can be a
read that one of your clients wants, and a lot of times we get the
gig with one read and then they direct us to something completely
different, and so keeping your ears out and eyes out for trends is
great, but also that age old advice that sage, wise advice to just
get your acting skills in order, I think is absolutely still
relevant.
10:20 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Oh, 100, 100%. And this is why you want to have good coaches that
can help guide you through the voiceover industry, teach you the
basics of voiceover, that are the evergreen content, like breath
control or microphone techniques, script interpretation, and then
obviously layering that with the genre training, like what you do
with your e-learning and your narration training. And this is where
the advantage of going to a voiceover conference is, for both
attendees and for speakers and presenters like you and me, is that
we can have conversations with speakers, other coaches, other
casting directors. What's going on, what trends are you noticing,
how have you had to adjust your teaching or coaching style to adapt
with what's going on in the industry and how we can prepare for
what's going on next.
11:06
And if there's one thing I noticed is that, yes, you are
technically J Michael Collins' competitor and he is technically
Everett Oliver's competitor and he is technically Nancy Wolfson's
competitor. But like the level of camaraderie and the very from
what I've noticed over many years free-flowing exchange of
information. Well, you know the old thing the rising tide lifts all
boats. So we're all happy to exchange information, Like if I go to
the same conference that a Mark Scott does or a Paul Schmidt does,
and Paul Schmidt. He was hanging out at the bar for this
conference. He wasn't an actual attendee.
11:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
He was there he was living in the.
11:41 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
he lives in the area, so he's like yeah, let me go hang out with my
friends, and it was. It was awesome to see him.
11:45
There was a couple of people that just showed up and just like,
hey, what's going on? A couple of people that just came to hang
out. We all are in these little booths talking to ourselves all the
time in a vacuum and we have to build characters and connect and
engage, but just to be able to stop wearing sweatpants all day, get
out of the booth and just go, just hang out and get dressed
up.
12:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I love getting dressed up.
12:18 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Yes, and look fabulous, fabulous every day, and I actually got the
chance to wear a suit which I haven't done in so long.
12:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I had costume changes, Tom. I had costume changes you know, I call
them costume changes, but I love it.
12:31 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Like you're hosting an Oscar.
12:33 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I had a few of them, which is pretty cool.
12:35
Yeah, Right, Okay, and now it's hand-wearing and a lot of it is
just the energy, right, the energy at a conference and the energy
especially at a smaller-sized conference too. The energy at, let's
say, a larger conference can be overwhelming, right, it's great and
it's exhilarating, but it can also be overwhelming and stressful
For something for a much smaller venue. I really enjoyed the energy
because it wasn't like we couldn't hear each other over the loud
din of thousands of people. We were all a close group that kind of
gathered in the restaurant slash bar area every night and
ultimately had a great time talking to one another, and I
absolutely love it. And we did fun, crazy things, Like I actually
have a little video that will be coming out. We all had everybody
say the same line and be the actors that they are, and so I
literally recorded multiple people saying the same line with their
drinks in hand and that should be a cute little video coming out in
a few days. Everybody just had a blast. Whether you normally do
that type of a thing, it was just nice to see the improv and the
acting and the laughter and just so much fun hanging out after
hours or after the classes are done, and typically when I'm at a
conference.
13:51
I know that for myself I don't know, Tom, if this happens to you
too the more conferences I'm presenting, I'm very, very
hyper-focused on my presentations because I want to make sure I'm
ready and I've got the energy to teach a three or four-hour class,
which some of these ended up being, and so I'm not always
socializing late in the late hours because I'm like well, I got to
get up early, but I noticed that none of it was overwhelming for
me, so I was able to hang out and really visit with people later on
in the evenings. That I typically do at larger conferences. Just
because I find that there's so much noise at the bigger
conferences, I get a little more stressed out quicker and I'm like
well, I got to go to bed now because I got to make sure I'm up and
I can do my class in the morning. I don't know what did you feel
about that, Tom?
14:35 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Yeah, I noticed the same thing because we were both at VO Atlanta
this spring and, like I said, there's 1,000 attendees and probably
what 50 or 60 speakers plus a couple of dozen staff. So it's an
amazing, wonderful experience, but it can be a little overwhelming
Canva presentations and making sure my outlines are just so and
timing it a little bit to make sure I have time for Q&A and
sidebars and stories and stuff like that.
15:05
So, I found myself staying. I was at the bar for a little while. I
think I turned into a pumpkin around sometime between 10.30 and 11
o'clock at night, which I think is a yeah that was me.
15:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
That's a long time for me. Oh, really At home I'm usually in bed by
nine, so I mean oh yeah, I'm like I'm a wimp.
15:22 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Back in the day. I'd be at the bar until two, three, four in the
morning, but I just don't have the battery power for that anymore.
Also, I'm hitting the gym in the morning, so like I was in the gym,
Me too. Friday, saturday morning and Sunday morning I was in the
gym at 7.30. Oh.
15:37 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I missed you those. I missed you those times because I was prepping
for a nine o'clock class.
15:43 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Well, yeah, I didn't have any nine o'clock classes this time, so I
had a little time to be able to go down. I just did like a half
hour on the treadmill just to kind of get my steps in and get my
circulation going, have a nice breakfast and then get some tea and
make my way down. But I was wondering, Anne I'm sure there's a lot
of bosses here who have never been to a conference before what
would you suggest as some like voiceover conference strategies for
someone that's never been to one?
16:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Ah, yes, for me I really like to get the most out of, and I'm like,
probably sometimes the worst, I'm the worst offender because I'm so
busy and I'm not looking at the schedule. But I would say look at
the schedule, decide ahead of time, right, what classes look good
for you, and and really kind of create your schedule before you get
there. It's nice you can make last minute changes, you know, once
you get there, depending on, like maybe somebody says, oh no, no,
no, you really have to go see this talk or this presentation or
I've seen this person before and they're really great and you might
make changes then. But I think, really having a plan and of course,
old school, I'm either a notepad to jot things down or I like to do
notes on my phone a lot in order to get things from the
presentation. I know that for me, because I've lost my talent to
write, tom, I mean, I don't know like, do people like I can barely
sign my name these days because I'm typing so much. So a lot of
times what I'll do is I'll take a picture, like a screenshot, of
the presenters or the screen, if they've got a display, and then
I'll just jot down notes while I'm talking in my notes on my phone,
or I'll just create right a note on my phone and I'll take pictures
while I'm doing it as well. So now I've got the notes and I can
take pictures and then I have that across all my platforms, and so
that's kind of the way that I take notes for that and I also make
sure nowadays to get people's contacts.
17:28
And, tom, I'm the old school. You probably saw my cards on the
table because I purchased them for one other conference and I'm
like you know what? I'm just going to leave them on the table. On
the back of it I made sure that I had a QR code that basically,
when you scan it, I'm right in your contacts in your phone. So it's
got my name, yeah, it's got my name, my address. So it's no longer
just like oh, it's a card that just has your email, your phone. It
has a QR code that you can scan so that it automatically goes into
contacts, and I find that that is super beneficial. Like all the
contacts that I made, we basically just touched each other's phones
or we called each other and then filled out information so that it
went right into our contacts. Not so much exchanging cards these
days, but I say always have some for backup. What about
you?
18:11 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Well, for those of you who are listening to this, I just flashed my
VO Strategist business card, which also has a QR code on the back.
I also have I think it's hopbio, h-o-p-pbio, where you can kind of
make a little mini type of website, and I have one for Tom Deere,
voice actor, and I have one for VO Strategist. It's a QR code also,
so people scan it and then they can see it's also linked, so it has
all your contact information on there. You can even hyperlink your
blog to it. So it's just kind of like everything that you are in
like one little place. It's like one-stop shopping for marketing.
As to note-taking, I have to let everybody know that Anne took a
picture of some of my notes at a class at a workshop that she
wanted to go to but she couldn't make it to, which is
perfect.
18:55 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yep, I absolutely did, and I love it. I mean, it's now it's in my
phone so I can refer to it at any time, which is great.
19:01 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
I'll deal with your one of two things. I'll use Google Keep, which
is a Google note-taking app. But what I've been doing more and more
lately is that before I go to a conference and I pretty much know I
mean I've got all my presentations, but then I look and see when
I'm not presenting and what workshops I have time to attend and be
a student of is that I'll set up in Google Drive. I'll set up a
Google Doc and it'll just say, like 2014, mavo. So if you go into
my Google Doc for those of you who have broken in you see I've got
the year that I attend the conference and the name of the
conference, so I can just see, in chronological order, every set of
notes I've taken for every conference that I presented at or
attended. So I'll often bring my tablet and I'll just be typing
directly into the Google Drive doc that I had already set up. So
when I get home it's already there. I don't have to do
anything.
19:48
But I do take pictures of screenshots, like you do pictures of
slides and what I'll often do is, I'll take a picture of the slide
and then I will just copy and paste that picture into that Google
Drive doc. So I don't have to transpose it either.
20:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Exactly that way, you've got your notes and your photos. Yeah, it's
all together, so it's all together.
20:07 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
One bit of advice I will give our bosses who do attend a voiceover
conference is find a note-taking buddy that looks like they're
going to be presentations that you want to go to as like the
primary ones you know, like if you want to go to all the ones about
cartoons and video games.
20:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Like you were my note-taking buddy, yeah. Yeah, be a note-taking
buddy, you were my note-taking buddy for Jay Michael's presentation
Right.
20:33 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Because you're just like click there, you go, so like, but based on
what you want to do. If you have a friend who wants to focus on
business and marketing and tech and you want to focus the
performance ones, they go to all the other ones and you just take
notes and you just swap, yeah.
20:45 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, I'd like to really like give props to the business classes in
the conferences, and I know because I used to teach business
classes Sometimes I mean it used to be that they were the hard sell
right.
20:56
And the funny thing is is I think what people need the most is
business sometimes, because it's so easy to take performance after
performance after performance classes. But your performance is
wonderful in your studio by yourself. If you're not selling, if you
don't have the business savvy, you don't have the marketing savvy
and you're not selling yourself, well then nobody's going to see
your beautiful performance. So I do want to give a big push for
those of you that go to conferences, give yourself I mean I know
you might hate business or you might hate marketing but do yourself
a favor and sign up for a marketing session so that you can
understand, like, how marketing has trends have changed or new
ideas. I mean you could come out with one, just one new golden
nugget for how to market yourself and that can make all the
difference to get you seen or in front of a casting director, or in
front of a talent agent, or in front of a new client and then,
boom, it's been able to grow your business.
21:51 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
Well as the person who teaches all the business and marketing
breakouts and workshops and mastery sessions at all of these
voiceover conferences. Obviously, I have a vested interest and I
want all of you to attend my classes and take my content. But Anne
is 100% right attend my classes and take my content. But Anne is
100% right. There is and I've noticed it over the oh geez, 13 years
or so that I've been attending and speaking at voiceover
conferences is that they tend to be populated by a lot of
professional students. They just keep taking performance class
after performance class. They don't take any business and marketing
class and they never pull the trigger. They never go for
it.
22:26
Now I can't speak to why any one of them can't or won't pull the
trigger. It may be financial they can't leave their day job. It may
be psychological they just have certain emotional mental blocks
that are preventing them from pulling the trigger. But I say this
in almost everything that I speak at is that your talent will get
you your first gig with a client. Your project management skills
will get you the next gig with the same client. Project management
is all the stuff you have to do between the moment that the email
hits your inbox and the moment that the check clears. So if you're
able to use your talent to get an audition and book it, if you
don't know what to do when it's time to press the red button and
I'm not talking on a performance level, I'm talking on a technical
and a business level you're useless as a voice actor and they're
not going to come back.
23:11
So I speak at a lot of these and there's a lot of other great
business and marketing coaches that presented a lot of these. I
think it's really important for you to take the time yes, if
there's a certain casting director that you want to meet, if
there's a certain coach you'd like to connect with to see if you'd
be a good fit for getting coached for them and booking a demo,
which I know Anne experiences that all the time make it a point to
go to one or two business or marketing related things, because it's
not even just being about a well-rounded voice actor, it's about
being effective at all, because if you don't know that stuff,
you're not going to get anywhere. All the best video game and
cartoon coaching in the world isn't going to get you anywhere if
you don't know how to demonstrate your value, to get you those
casting opportunities and if you don't have the business savvy to
capitalize on those opportunities, yeah, I mean, I agree, a
thousand percent, a thousand percent really.
23:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I mean, and I've seen it conference after conference and I used to
teach the business classes early, early on, before I knew Tom, I
used to do like social media classes, business classes, and it was
interesting because people were just so drawn to like the character
and the animation classes and those performance classes and I think
you really just need to have I mean, this is one of the reasons why
I started the VO Boss. It was really about the business strategies
for voiceover artists and really that's what this podcast was all
about to hopefully help educate in the business sense of it,
business and marketing sense of things, because you can have the
best voice in the world but if nobody knows about it, there you
sit, there you sit, wow. So some good tips and tricks, guys. I
highly recommend the Mabel conference. I know Val, she just works
so hard at it and it really was a lovely conference and I hope I
get asked to go back next year.
24:53 - Tom Dheere (Co-host)
I hope you do too, and I had a wonderful time and I always look
forward to it, and hopefully I will get asked again as well. Hint,
hint, val, if you're watching this.
25:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yes, Val, we love you Val. So yeah, I'm going to give a great big
shout out to our sponsor, IPDTL. You too can connect and network
like bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Bosses, have an amazing
week and we'll see you next week. Bye.
25:17 - Intro (Announcement)
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
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