Sep 30, 2025
BOSSes, Anne Ganguzza is joined by Tom Dheere to discuss a foundational topic for every voiceover career: coaching. The hosts assert that every voice actor, from beginner to veteran, needs a coach. The Bosses explore why continuous learning is a necessity in today's saturated market, how to avoid being overwhelmed by industry information, and the combined importance of mastering both performance and business skills.
00:00 - Anne (Host)
Hey Boss listeners. Are you ready to turn your voiceover career
goals into achievements? With my personalized coaching and demo
production, I'm here to help you reach new milestones. You know
you're already part of a Boss community that strives for the very
best. Let's elevate that. Your success is my next project. Find out
more at anneganguzza.com.
00:25 - Speaker 2 (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.
00:44 - Anne (Host)
Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Real Bosses
series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I'm delighted to be here
with Mr Tom Dheere. Yay, yay, hello Anne, hi Tom, yes, guess what,
tom, it's that time of year again.
01:01 - Speaker 2 (Announcement)
It is you?
01:01 - Anne (Host)
know when everybody's going back to school.
01:05 - Tom (Guest)
Back to school. Oh yeah, I already bought my trapper
keeper.
01:09 - Anne (Host)
Oh my gosh, I used to love those. You know that was one of my
favorite things about going back to school is buying office
supplies and getting ready, and I was one of those rare. I don't
know, tom, if you were one of those students, but I loved school.
Love, tom, if you were one of those students, but I loved school.
Love, love, love school. And it was always exciting to me to,
number one, go back for the social component of things and then to
go back and like I don't know. I always wanted to like advance in
my subjects, and so I was always excited about learning.
01:37 - Tom (Guest)
Yeah, me too. I do love school supplies, like if anyone who knows
me as just me, or me as the vo strategist like?
01:47 - Anne (Host)
of course he loves school supplies right, you know, sharpened
pencils and rulers and everything being organized, paper clips and
clothes, clothes, my new school clothes.
01:54 - Tom (Guest)
You know, hey, oh, love the school clothes. Gotta get the new
school clothes.
01:58 - Anne (Host)
Well then, speaking of school, you know. I mean maybe it's time
that we have a chat about coaching, coaching in this industry. And
does it matter, tom, does it? There's so much information out
there. Does it matter? Is it beneficial?
02:15 - Tom (Guest)
let's, let's, let's chat about that well, one at first. It's funny
that we actually haven't talked about this in the few years that
we've done the real bosses podcast and two. You know there's an old
saying which is never ask an encyclopedia salesman if you need an
encyclopedia.
02:28 - Anne (Host)
Yes, exactly so you asking?
02:29 - Tom (Guest)
me a voiceover coach. If voice actors need voiceover coaching,
we'll say well, of course, the answer is yes.
02:34 - Anne (Host)
I know and for me to say do we need coaching? As a coach and demo
producer.
02:45 - Tom (Guest)
Of course. Of course we're gonna say so. Yes, full disclosure. Of
course, we as coaches, yes. But here's the thing about it is that I
know ann does not accept everybody that that wants to work with
her, and I know that not. I don't accept everybody that wants to
work with me for all kind, for all kinds of uh, all kinds of
reasons. But every voice, regardless of where they are in their
journey, needs coaching. You always need to be learning. The
greatest baseball players and musicians everyone has a coach. Tiger
Woods has a swing coach. Aaron Judge has a baseball bat swing coach
as opposed to a golf swing coach. All the greatest artists and
athletes have coaching. Do they know more than most? Can they do it
better than most? Of course, that's why they are in the positions
that they are in doing what they're doing, making what they're
making, being as famous as they are, but it's a constant, constant
sort of you know all the arts. There needs to be a constant level
of education re-education, continuous learning, as they say,
absolutely.
03:49 - Anne (Host)
And if you're just starting out in the industry, you have to have a
fundamental base. And there is, you know, hey, I am the biggest you
know. And Google and gangoozle, and gangoozle, and gangoozle,
whatever, I am the biggest lover of you know. Search the internet,
find the answers. Because I mean, gosh, back in the day, you
remember when we used to have to do research, we'd have to actually
go to the library and then you would write, like I'd have to write
notes for my term paper on like, on like index cards.
04:17 - Tom (Guest)
What is this library? What is?
04:19 - Anne (Host)
this library. What is this library? Well, our, I mean the library
is at our fingertips and so we can. I mean, there's so much out
there and, tom, both you and I put out a lot of content in regards
to this industry and you know the business of the industry and
performance. I give out performance tips and so I think a lot of
times when you're first starting out, it can be really
overwhelming, and so having a source, a coach, to go to, to kind of
make it less overwhelming, can be an actual advantage as
well.
04:52
As for me, what was I saying the other day? Oh, in my Pilates class
I was like, yeah, I pay to go to this Pilates class so I can do the
stretching on the foam roller that I have here at home and I just
don't do Right, so I go and use the foam roller that's at the
Pilates studio. But there's something to be said in being in a
classroom and and actually saying I am dedicating this time for me
to learn something or to, you know, to, to, to grow myself, and
coaching is a big part of that grow myself, and coaching is a big
part of that.
05:30 - Tom (Guest)
I agree, the ability to take time and money to commit to a process
that you know in. To a certain degree, you could do some of it on
your own, but a lot of people most people, I would say like the
reason why I have so many mentorship students that I have is that
they're like I just need you.
05:48
I just need to have someone to talk to once a month, bounce ideas
off of and hold me accountable for it and when you have, and I love
accountability and I love stand up groups and meet up groups, but
when they actually have to fork money over to me to basically be a
paid accountability buddy, there's something to that, something to
that I mean. And also, you know, when you're in an accountability
buddy group with an accountability buddy or a mastermind group or
standup group, that's all great, but most of them are
peers.
06:19
Yes, absolutely With the same level of experience and knowledge as
you as opposed to working with you or me or another coach who is
just have you know, scads of knowledge and experience and the
ability to disseminate that knowledge effectively. And also, I know
you and I know you keep up with industry trends on a performance
and technology and business and marketing level. So do I. We have
to do that to be relevant and effective. We have our means. We read
the same blogs and watch the same podcasts as everybody else, but
I'm sure I know I have my own little secret methods of how I'm
keeping up with things, and I'm sure you do too that we're able to
aggregate and have, in a concise Anne, to say this is what's going
on in the industry, this is how it applies to you. These are the
decisions that you could make based on who you are, your talent
level, your experience level, the time you have, the money you have
that could get you where you want to go.
07:15 - Anne (Host)
Well, and the accountability it doesn't just stop with the student.
I mean, the coach is accountable. And that is, I think, where the
difference is between peer accountability groups, because peer
accountability groups, yeah, we can say, yeah, you were supposed to
do this last week, or you, this is, this is on your goal sheet, but
the stakes are not as high. I don't believe in a peer
accountability group as a coach, because coaches are judged on
their effectiveness, right, and they they get business based upon
their effectiveness and word of mouth. So when you want to go work
with someone where that is a factor, you're going to get
education.
07:54
That, I think, really counts and is really intentional and
therefore, I believe the quality of that is going to be better and
it's going to be directly customized, especially if it's one-on-one
coaching, and I do both group coaching and one-on-one coaching. But
really, when you get that one-on-one time with a coach, there's
nothing better than that, because I mean, I look, I offer group
coaching as well, but that one-on-one time is precious. That is
where it is all about you. It's customized just for you, your
career, your growth. And that is where I think coaching really
shines and why it still matters and I think, actually, I think it
matters more today than it did in years past, because there's so
much more competition out there, tom and there's, of course, you
know, the synthetic competition out there there, tom, and there's,
of course, you know, the synthetic competition out there and we
need to really create something, a footprint for ourselves or a
voice print, really for ourselves, that is unique and that is
competitive and that can actually connect with our audience, which
is what our clients are paying us for.
08:59 - Tom (Guest)
Yeah, there are more voiceover opportunities for voice actors of
all experience levels than ever ever before. There's more genres
than ever. There are more voiceover opportunities for voice actors
of all experience levels than ever ever before. There's more genres
than ever. There are more casting sites than ever, you know,
because when I just started, you know there was radio commercials
and TV commercials and you know not that much. I mean there was
e-learning, reel-to-reel kind of stuff. You know there wasn't that
much more.
09:24
Now there's app narration, explainer videos, you know, audio
description. There's just so many other ways to get work. But the
flip side of that, Anne, is that it's so complicated because
there's almost like there's too many choices and there's too many
coaches and there's too many casting sites and there's too many
blogs and too many podcasts and too many DAWs and too many CRMs and
the ability to navigate that and make sure that their time and
money is well spent. It's a huge challenge. I mean, I'm on Reddit
pretty regularly hanging out on the voiceover related subreddits
and listening and watching and, you know, giving advice and stuff
like that, and they all say the same thing I don't know where to
find a good coach. I don't know how to vet a good coach. I got
ripped off by this coach, isn't?
10:15 - Anne (Host)
that funny? That's always the question. That's always the question
because I think everybody's overwhelmed with that information. You
know, I don't think it's unlike just because it's you know the
online world today. I don't think it's unlike choices that you have
in most everything, right, where can you find a good one? And so
what do we do? We rely on word of mouth, we rely on recommendations
from our peers who have had a good coach and can recommend a good
coach, and so I think that it's good that we have the community and
coaches that are out there. You know, hopefully you have a good
reputation and if you don't, and if you're just kind of a fly by
night coach, well, people will find that out too. So I think that
it's, in a way, it's good that there is lots of talk and
communication and I always tell you know people, testimonials are
always, they're so worthwhile, and word of mouth and communication,
and I always tell you know people, testimonials are always, they're
so worthwhile and and word of mouth and recommendations. It really
is kind of the way, I think, to get work, to get a good coach to do
all of that. But I'm talking for me. I'm involved in the
performance aspect of the coaching.
11:19
But you right, first of all, you can have the best voice, you can
do the best audition, you can be, have the best performance skills
ever, but if somebody doesn't know how to find you, or you're not
marketing yourself properly, or you don't have your business set up
properly guess what? You're not you're gonna sit there and not get
hired. I just spoke to a new student the other day who I literally
said he's got four demos. And I and he said, like he's been in the
business for six years. And he's like well, I don't have an aging
yet and I haven't had a VO job yet. And I'm like well, why have you
not had a VO job yet? I mean, he's not like he hasn't spent his
money. You know what I mean, and so he needs right.
12:00
And then I went and looked at his website. There's absolutely no.
And I said, well, you have no examples of work that you've done.
You have, you know, and you can't expect to get it all with just an
agent, depending on the genre you're in. And he, basically, I said
you can have the best voice in the world, but it's not going to do
you any good if nobody can find you. So that's where your business
coaching comes into play. So it's not just performance coaching
that I think is necessary and business coaching is the non-sexy.
It's kind of like I do corporate voiceover and it's like the
non-sexy part of voiceover. I think business coaching sometimes
gets that same stigma and in fact, it's something that I think
people need more than ever, more than ever today. Right, and of
course, talk about that, tom, of course as the VO strategist, I
always say that everybody should get a business coach.
12:44 - Tom (Guest)
But to your point is that you could work with me for years and have
the best business model, have the best marketing strategies, but if
you're not an effective performer, it's not going to
matter.
12:58
Yeah, yeah, just like you said, you could be the best performer in
the world, but if nobody knows you exist, it's not going to matter
either. So it's this synergistic relationship of developing your
what I call your storytelling skills, your VO-101 skills, breath
control, microphone technique, your genre skills, you know, to be
able to be demo ready, to make that shiny demo, and then you can do
the things with the demo, which is what I, as the VO strategist,
helps everybody with, and everybody has their own journey.
Everybody has their own relationship with themselves internally,
which it's our job as coaches to be like. Ok, you know, how does
this person tick, how does this person respond? How does this
person respond to criticism? How does this person respond to
praise? How does this person respond to data? You know, and
everybody has their own ideas of what success is for them. And
these, you know, these people love these social media platforms and
these people hate social media and these people hate all social
media, and you know.
14:00
And these people hate social media, and these people hate all
social media, and you know. And these people hate online casting
sites and so on and so forth. So everybody has their own biases and
tendencies and, as effective coaches, on both a performance level
and a business and marketing level, you know it's our job to be
able to navigate that, and that's why the single most important
skill that every voiceover coach performance, business, marketing,
tech or otherwise has to have is the ability to listen, which also
is the same exact skill that every voice actor needs to be a
successful, effective, relevant voice actor. So, if you're having a
conversation with someone you're considering coaching with and you
can't get a word in because they're talking about themselves or
that one cartoon they did 30 years ago, or if it's all sell, sell,
sell, that tells you something, because they are not asking you
what your pain points are Sure.
14:53 - Anne (Host)
Every good marketer Help you solve them.
14:55 - Tom (Guest)
Exactly Every good marketer, whether it's a a commercial, tired of
using this old mop this way. You know. That's identifying the pain
point. If I used to use, I use this mop. This mop stinks. Go use
this mop. This mop's great. If there isn't any kind of centered
likes, any kind of back and forth, reciprocal. You know what are,
what are you going through, what are what challenges have you? What
are your struggles? Oh okay, well, based on this, this and this, I
can help you with this, this and this, as opposed to some. You know
old hack, who's just going to throw these stock scripts at you and
you know in three lessons. And then you get your demo using the
same scripts that everybody uses or a new hack, who you
know?
15:32 - Anne (Host)
there are new hacks we've seen a lot of those out there.
15:35 - Tom (Guest)
I have noticed quite a few new hacks lately both in the performance
and business and marketing categories.
15:42 - Anne (Host)
I think also, when you talk about an industry that has evolved and
changed so much and especially, you know, this year's been an
interesting year I mean you've got changes in things outside of the
industry that are affecting, you know, corporations and affecting
people who advertise, and affecting the climate of what we do, and
so that makes people scared to advertise Sometimes, it makes people
scared to spend money. It makes, you know there's all sorts of
things happening outside of our industry that affect our industry
as well as you know. I mean what's happening in your own personal
life as well as you know. I mean what's happening in your own
personal life. So we talk about the necessity of performance
coaching and business coaching, but there's also, believe it or
not, there's something to be said for, you know, coaching of the
mind and coaching to be a confident performer, a confident business
person, somebody who can be competitive and negotiate in these
times where it seems like everybody's vying for the same job, and
so there's also mindset skills, I think, that are also valuable to
be coached. I think, like you said it in the beginning, like a
lifelong learner, I think we always have to be learning. We always
have to be learning, and do we have to spend tons and tons of money
doing it. No, not necessarily, but I do think that there's an
investment there and I think it's something that you need to
revisit.
17:08
If you did get coaching prior to your demo, maybe five years ago,
and now maybe you need a new demo.
17:15
I personally think that everything needs a refresh and, you know,
if you haven't coached in a while, I feel like having someone
else's ears listen to you. If you haven't been booking why, why is
that? Go to a trusted coach and have them listen to you and see if
maybe you've fallen into some sort of a rut where maybe you're not
delivering performance-wise I don't know a rut where maybe you're
not delivering performance wise. Or, for example, when I spoke to
the student yesterday who's like well, I haven't gotten a job yet,
and I'm like OK, first of all, I'm looking at your website and you
don't have downloadable demos. Your website, your demos, are five
years old. You know there's lots of things that can contribute to
not getting hired, and so I think that the coaching can. Yes, it's
definitely investment, but again, remember, any business, you have
investments and I think that again, more than ever, it is important
to be educated and understand how you can evolve with the changing
VO industry of today.
18:15 - Tom (Guest)
I think what I agree with everything that you said wholeheartedly,
on top of all, that all voice actors need to invest in empowerment.
That is one of the biggest deficiencies that most aspiring voice
actors have coming into the industry. They immediately, you know,
disempower themselves. They immediately devalue themselves because
they have this and this is a system of thought thing that I talk
about all the time, Anne is that most people coming into the voice
industry think that the industry is vertical, it's a ladder or a
mountain and you have to climb it and as you climb it, you kick
people in the face and knock them off the ladder or the mountain
like it's some reality show and you go ha ha, I take your videos
now.
19:01
Haha, I narrate them. You don't blah, blah. That's not how it
works. I've always talked about how the voiceover industry is
spherical and you're the center of your sphere and your job is to
expand your sphere and empower yourself by including as many good
humans in it as possible, both agents and managers and audio
engineers and coaches and fellow voice actors and your accountant
and your lawyer and your graphic designer or your social media
manager or whoever to empower you so you can make the best
decisions possible to expand that sphere and move your voiceover
business forward.
19:36
So to work with an effective coach to be or just to be, just to be
educating yourself in general is to empower you you know, on both a
personal and a professional level, and the more that you can do
that, the better chance you have of making those voiceover dreams
come true.
19:55 - Anne (Host)
I mean, and and speaking of, we always talk about, what are the red
flags? What are the red flags right? How do we know a coach is
worthy of my investment? Right, a coach, a business coach or
performance coach? You know, I like to start with. First of all,
let's let's talk about what it takes to get a good coach. I mean,
what are the? What are the green flags Right? What? What do you
look for in a good coach? What are some properties of a good coach?
Would you?
20:22 - Tom (Guest)
say you touched on this earlier. Reputation is definitely one. I
mean there's the reputation of someone like a Jennifer Hale who
holds the Guinness World Record for the most amount of video game
characters ever recorded by a female. So there's a level of
something that comes with that.
20:42
Jen also happens to be a great articulator and a great coach, but
then there's other coaches that have done one character decades ago
hasn't done much work since, and then that's the only thing that
they hang their shingle and their reputation on this one character
that they played a very, very long time ago. Shingle and their
reputation on this one character that they played a very, very long
time ago. Jennifer, like you and me and a bunch of our other
coaching and voiceover friends are boots on the ground day to day,
dare I say, in the trenches. Voice actors. We are working, we are
auditioning and marketing and booking regularly. So I always say
the first green flag for a good voiceover coach is to go to their
voice actor website and go check that out.
21:26
See what they've got, see what they have done recently, see if
their demos and YouTube Anne and playlists have been updated
recently, check their IMDB profiles and see what work they have
done. And layered on top of that, you know, as a voice actor,
reputation, obviously, as a voiceover, coach, reputation,
testimonials on the website, testimonials on social media
platforms, conversations that people are having behind our back on
various social media platforms or in subreddits or Discord servers
or or facebook groups, like though that's some of the major. Those
are two of the biggest green flags is the. You know, because you
never know and there is no guarantee of any voice actor achieving
any level of success, but you know your chances of empowerment will
increase if you work with someone who knows what they're doing, has
been doing it for a long time and is doing it today.
22:19 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, exactly. So they have evolved over the evolution of the
voiceover industry and so they know. They know what agents are
looking for, they know what casting directors are looking for, they
know what is relevant and current in the industry. So red flags on
the other side.
22:38 - Tom (Guest)
Well, the red flags are if they just started. There's a lot of
voice actors or aspiring voice actors who do a couple of gigs and
all of a sudden they hang out their shingle as a voiceover business
coach and marketing coach, or performance coach. You and I see it
all the time.
22:55 - Anne (Host)
I think there has to be some longevity to it.
22:57 - Tom (Guest)
Yeah, there needs to be some longevity to it. Yeah, there needs to
be some longevity. Now. Everybody has to start somewhere, and you
know someone who may turn out to be the greatest performance or
business coach ever has to start somewhere, and start with one
student.
23:12
And you know what I mean, but for those that haven't been in the
industry for very long, that have little or no IMDB credits or have
little or no samples on their voiceover website, all of a sudden
they're a coach. Well, that's telling you something, and I've seen
it from personal experience. People working, for example, with me
get some business coaching from me and then a couple months later
they're all of a sudden a business coach. And I'm like wait a
minute, wait a minute, they never last.
23:38 - Anne (Host)
Well, I always think they never last, though.
23:41
You know, for me it's always like and people say this all the time,
right, you know the quick success, right, and I see it in. You know
ads, in ads like, hey, you don't need expensive equipment or
training to be a voice actor. And you know those are designed to
sell the dream. And again we have to say it, you know, and it
sounds like a broken record, but just if we reach just one person
right and I always tell people like, honestly, it's a skill You're
becoming an actor. I mean, that doesn't happen overnight. It is a
marathon, not a sprint. It really is a marathon, and the people who
are truly successful in this industry know that. And marathon by
marathon, I'm not talking six months, I'm not talking three months,
I'm not talking, I'm talking years, years of working in this
industry and putting in the work, doing the auditions, getting the
training. Those are the ones that become successful.
24:38 - Tom (Guest)
Absolutely. This is a long-term investment. It's just like going to
college, going to medical school, going to trade school going to
vocational school.
24:49
It takes a long time to develop the skills and collect the tools,
both literal, physical, microphone headphones, daw and the other
business and marketing tools understanding how to write a business
plan, how to create a marketing strategy, how to make long-term
investments through blogging and social media, how to make
short-term investments through auditioning on free casting sites
and then developing your skills, and then maybe moving to
pay-to-play casting sites which have higher quality, higher paying
auditions and then using that to develop your skills to maybe then
you're ready to submit to agents. There are things that have to
happen in order. You know, a tomato can't grow until you plant the
seed, water it and wait.
25:37 - Anne (Host)
Right, exactly. Well, I love that because so many people are like
well, I can't invest in another demo or more coaching until I make
money in the industry. So, oh gosh, I wish I had a nickel for every
time. Somebody said that to me and I'm like but it doesn't quite
work like that In reality. You do have to make an initial upfront
investment and it may take you a minute before you make that money
back. And so you've got to get the skills developed in both running
your business, establishing that you know, hanging out the shingle
on your online website. There's money involved in that. There's
money involved in you know setting up your business or getting you
know good business coaching, advertising yourself. And there's, of
course, money in performance wise being, you know, coached so that
you're competitive.
26:26
In today's industry, you're competitive and doing well, and even
the people who do, who are great performers. It's not always an
immediate return on investment. I mean, gosh, I mean I've spoken to
veterans out there. I mean you have to understand. You have to be
in it long enough to understand that you're not going to get a
commercial a day necessarily. I mean I don't know anybody that ever
has, and that dream can't be sold to you. You really just have to
be. I think you have to think what Malcolm? I always go back to
Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours, really 10,000 hours of effort and
you know to really start to see effective success. And then you
evolve into growing into a better performer, a better actor, a
better business person. Tom, if somebody's interested in it, how
much would you say is when is a good time to invest? When do they
take that step and say plunk down my money, here's my money, coach
me.
27:37 - Tom (Guest)
I would say what has to happen. I think the first thing that has to
happen is that they have to invest in storytelling training first.
Theater training, on-camera training, singing training, improv
training, stand-up comedy training. Pick one of those
disciplines.
27:52 - Anne (Host)
But does that mean they have to spend money and go to an acting
class? Not necessarily.
27:55 - Tom (Guest)
I mean improv troops are free. You know open mic night is free. You
know there's community theater is free. There's lots of places
where they can develop that skill, because first they need to find
out if they have that skill they don't want to be on
stage.
28:09 - Anne (Host)
That's why they're right. That's why they're doing it behind the
mic. That's why right.
28:13 - Tom (Guest)
So for those people. Right, and the thing about that is they need
to find out if they have the ability, through the power of their
voice, to engage and be engaging. If you can do that through those,
then you can. Then that's when I think is a good time to start your
VO training. Here's the other thing, Anne, is that you know. You
mentioned briefly AI at the beginning of it. If you are better than
AI when you're, you know when you're starting to invest in your
training, you're not going to get anywhere.
28:42 - Anne (Host)
And what's going to make the difference? And AI reads really well.
So if you're nothing but a really pretty reader, yeah, you got no
shot.
28:48 - Tom (Guest)
You're not going to advance. That's why getting acting, theater,
improv, stand up or singing training is going to already you're
hitting the ground running by already being better than AI when
you're, once you're ready for your VO training. That's why I think
you should really start that way.
29:02 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, One thing I do want to stress is that my coaching has gone.
It was always been acting based. I mean it starts with acting
based. So for those people who've never taken acting course, I
always I always recommend that they take an acting course anyway,
because there's a subtle difference between acting in front of
other people or acting with people and then acting behind the mic,
and it's nice to have that 360 degree view of all the aspects of
the acting. And a good coach will teach you voice acting and not
just here's a script, here's how and direct you to a sound that
would sound good on a demo, really, and that's why I concentrate.
I'm almost obsessed with personally training people to be good
actors, because that's going to last them so much longer than just
a directed demo. Right, Because if any good director can direct you
to a good demo, really it's.
29:55
You know they can give you the read that people are looking for and
then you can have a great demo. But then, all of a sudden, when
you're asked to produce that or you're trying to audition and
you're wondering why you're not booking the jobs, that's because
you haven't established the basic skills, the basic acting skills
required. Definitely, investment is not just in a voice acting
coach, but, yes, in, I think, acting classes, improv classes. All
of that can help. All of that can help.
30:21 - Tom (Guest)
Absolutely. It's just going to make you that much better, that much
faster and that much better of a decision maker than AI, because
the real skill, when it comes to true performance, is not about
what impressions you can do is can you make strong acting choices
quickly, right, right, right. And if you can do that when the
client says, hey, abc. That for me, and you can do is can you make
strong acting choices quickly, right, right, right. And if you can
do that when the client says, hey, abc that for me, and you can
give them three takes with different emphasis and different
motivations and different levels of engagement.
30:47
That's what's going to get you ahead of the pack.
30:50 - Anne (Host)
And honestly, it's one of those things that you have to understand
that if you're looking, if you happen to just be getting in this
industry and you watch social media, be careful with that, because
a lot of what happens on social media is all the positive things,
all the hey I booked the gig but I can't tell you about it, or the
illusion that you know people are successful, because you know it
takes a very special person to be on social media and say, oh gosh,
I didn't nail it and I'm so upset Because a lot of times, well,
first of all, if it's something that's under NDA, we can't really
talk about it anyways.
31:28
But if you give the illusion or you're looking at other people that
are giving the illusion that they're successful and making tons of
money and they just started or they didn't do it this way, there's
multiple ways to be successful in voiceover and there are some
people that would say you don't necessarily need coaching.
Honestly, I don't buy into that, but I think at some point
everybody needs to have that extra ear, hearing them or giving them
some sort of education about it, whether it could be a manager, it
could be a talent agent. It doesn't have to be an actual voiceover
coach, but somebody that's giving you feedback so that you can then
take that feedback and improve. Do what you need to educate and
improve yourself.
32:12 - Tom (Guest)
I think you touched upon something very critical which is one of
the most important skills is the ability to self-direct and with
COVID wiping out all in-person auditions, at least here in New York
City, and for most voice actors, almost 100% of their actual
bookings are going to be taking place at home, not being directed.
Then you need to learn how to listen to yourself objectively when
it comes to pace and tone and inflection and sibilance and
regionalisms and mic placement and breath control and, obviously,
performance choices. That you should be able to learn how to hear
yourself and adjust accordingly, because if you can't do that, you
can't be an effective voice actor.
32:58 - Anne (Host)
That's a process being able to self-direct, it's being able to
develop an ear. An ear doesn't happen overnight, typically, it just
doesn't. It's hard for people to actually hear themselves without
actually hearing how they sound and to evaluate themselves as an
actor. So it is tough. Themselves as an actor. So it is tough. And
it does take, I think, a lot of I'm going to say a lot of practice,
a lot of you know, auditions, a lot of failing, a lot of just going
oh shoot, what could I have done wrong? Or maybe feedback, and so,
yeah, there's a lot to that. I mean, gosh, we could just go on all
day. But guys, again, you know we're both coaches. Of course we'd
love it if you coach with us, but just know that it's valuable.
It's valuable in today's voiceover industry to have another set of
ears, to have a trusted coach, somebody. That's what they do.
They've been established in the business that is guiding you along
this career, which, again, is a marathon not a sprint. Good
discussion, tom, yeah.
33:57 - Speaker 2 (Announcement)
Good discussion All right, tom.
33:58 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, good discussion. All right guys. I'm going to give a great
big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You too can network and
connect like bosses, like real bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom.
Have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Bye.
34:13 - Speaker 2 (Announcement)
Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host,
Anne Ganguzza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up
for our mailing list at 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.