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- [00:00]
A
Hello and welcome to Avio's Journey podcast. My name is Anthony and I do have Gabby with me, although she's not really with me because we did our live session and I'm going to be adding that to today's podcast. So please enjoy. I hope you like it. We're talking about your money voice, which, you know, very important. And I'm really excited because we have a couple different episodes and this one is actually from yesterday. I'll be posting today's episode and of course we go live again tomorrow on the YouTube channel, which you can always find us there. But if you just like listening to the podcast, I'm gonna put it up here for everybody for popular demand, because people keeps talking to me about and asking me. So here we go. Let's do it. This is Vo's Journey. With your host, the incomparable Anthony Pika. We are live. Even now, I still. I'm like. Because sometimes it delays going live and I'm like, live? Is it live? We are live.
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B
Hi.
- [01:19]
A
Yes, my name is Anthony. I'm Gabby and we are coffee drinking voice actors. Indeed. So it is good to see everybody. Happy Wednesday. Can you believe it's Wednesday.
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B
It is Wednesday.
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A
We had two snow days in a row, like I said. And we had three though, because we had the. And then we're. They're calling for another snow day or they're calling Sunday. It's supposed to snow.
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B
I don't understand how you're getting all this snow. This is weird.
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A
This is so weird. Supposed to get down to 18 degrees on Sunday night and then not get above freezing at all on Monday.
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B
Please don't go outside.
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A
And then what the craziest thing is, is that Friday is the last day.
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B
Of school before these kids are just gonna be off. They're just.
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A
I mean, because I remember, you know, because I taught for 12 years and during this time of the year, it really literally is. Yeah. Like, people like, why do you have. Like, why do you let. Why are they doing worksheets and stuff? Trust me, there is. Or like, why are they drawing? Yeah. They're so ready for break. Yeah.
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B
They're like.
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A
But anyway, sorry. It's good to talk to you all and see you. Well, Gabby, please give us an update on your dog.
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B
Oh, Mr. Willie. Yeah, he's. He's home. He's home. That's the good news. He was discharged. He is 75% back to normal. Is. Is what I would say something still definitely not 100%. But we're no longer in like, Dange own, you know.
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A
Right, Right.
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B
So he's here, he's resting, and we're monitoring and fingers crossed it is not super serious and he's gonna bounce back fine.
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A
Well, that is good news. That's where I'm at something. I know it's still.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Wild and strange.
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B
A little bit.
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A
A little bit thinking about him. But I'm glad that. Yeah, hopefully he's gonna bounce back.
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B
Yeah. Thank you.
- [03:11]
A
All right, so now moving on to our topic today. I posted a video earlier and I was like, you, Gabby, we should talk about this. And I want to talk about what I called. I don't know if someone else started. I just know I thought I came up. It's called your money voice. And the reason why I came up with this, or I started saying it a while ago was because I did not have a voice or at least at the time where I was booking any work. And I spent a summer, I told a story here on this channel before, you know, working really hard trying to figure out how to come up with something that would get me bookings, some sort of voice style, you know. So I spent a summer just researching what other people were doing and, and getting, you know, seeing what other men my age and and so forth are being hired for.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And I manip. I will say, manipulated or worked on my voice to create a style that I put out there. And I'm not kidding you, it became apparent very quickly. I mean, almost overnight where it was turned around, where people were all of a sudden interested in my voice and my voiceovers. And then when I. Then when I eventually changed my demo using that voice and put that out there, then everything changed. And we had a wonderful conversation about it last night in our Acting 201 class for VO Journey Academy and which, by the way, on a side note, is opening so all of our classes, including our 201s and then we have a 301 and stuff for our advanced stuff as well as our one on ones. They're all reopening again for, you know, January of our new semester. So super excited. So if you're looking to join. Sorry, I got a shameless plug here. If you're looking to join time, this is a great time to join. We get a new semester coming up and it's. It's really, really exciting. So anyway, so we were talking about that and I thought it'd be a good topic for us to discuss because if you are right now having trouble booking work, you know, there's. And we. There's a marketing component to all this, of course. And then there's your actual component. And I kind of want to talk about the acting component today. And that's the money voice is what I'm talking about. So I'll get to. When I get your thoughts on this, Gabby, in a second here. But the. The idea, again, behind this is your money voice is the voice that makes you money. That's how.
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B
Yeah. I mean.
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A
Right. So. And that's. So I. I used to. And I know people are gonna laugh, but when I first started, I was very forward in my voice style, so a lot of what I talked was like this. It was very forward, and it was. This is how I spoke forward in my voice. And. And I was excited. And you can hear it. It's almost. It makes me annoyed now listening to it. But. So what I did is I worked really hard to put it in the back or back of my throat, like I was having more of a conversation. Relaxed.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Not. Not pushing and being really excited, you know, and forward. But I was always trying to be excited because I was like, I'm a voice actor, and I got to try real hard and, you know, do all kinds of stuff. So I. And it was interesting. I had to go through a whole, like, I don't know, a whole journey of months of just trying to explore that little forward and in the back, I mean, and. And understanding that delivery was what people were looking or what at least potential clients wanted from people like me. And. And so all of us have to find that money.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Your thoughts on. On. On that, Gavin?
- [06:53]
B
I think you got lucky. I don't think most people are able to boil it down to something so precise. I think there's a lot of factors that go into finding the money. Read the signature sound, you know, for most of us. And. And it does take. The first thing is letting go of that, you know, that expectation that we all hold on to, of what we're supposed to sound like, because that truly is the thing that, for many of us, is what holds us back. When I listen back to some of my old stuff, I always feel like I was trying to be too pronounced. I was trying to be too proper. Right. My diction was too perfect. I was. Was, you know, unwilling to relax, basically. It was just. I took it too seriously. And that can be a problem for some people now. Other people make a. Make their living being too serious. Right.
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A
Right.
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B
This is where there is no one right answer. And it's so broad and it's so varied for each of us. You know, I think about Steve. Zern Kelton is a voice actor I've known for years, and Steve is the law and order guy. Whenever you hear the introduction to any of the law and orders, that's Steve. Right? So he made a living doing this, right. And he found that place of, you know, eerie and sinister, but still somehow a little bit approachable. And, you know, and it's what he does. That is what he does. And he is phenomenal at it. And there's other people, right, who think like, I want to be that guy. But then they do that and it just doesn't work.
- [08:50]
A
No, absolutely. So, yeah, yeah, I, I agree completely with that. And so, so for me, and this is because I, we. I was talking to Gabby again before we started about the money voice. And you know, I was telling her about like my money voice I found to be different, complete, almost completely different than what I was doing at the time. Meaning, like the delivery, the feel, the style, it was completely different.
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B
Yeah.
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A
At the beginning of my journey, I was very announcery. I was very shiny, I call it shiny and shimmering. It was. I was speaking too darn good, if you ever heard that, you know, like Gabby was just trying to say about. Yeah, articulate, you know. And then as, as I went through, I started to hear. I started to identify a couple things. So let's talk about that at least for me, and maybe people can relate. Okay. Is that okay? So some of the things I started to identify just. But in any time, Gabby, is that one thing I. People my age, or at least men my age or a little older than me. I noticed that a lot of the, the people that were getting booked and I heard and stuff on a lot of stuff, had first a little glottal in their voice. So they had this little rattle, like this wisdom, like they've been through hell and back and they're just beat down and Right. Because that's all give them this, you know, it's just this kind of.
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B
Right.
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A
So there was that. Then I started feeling that at the time I was talking excited. So I had a higher pitch voice like this. And they did not. People wanted a lower pitch voice from, From. From me. They wanted lower. I mean, again from. From a male my age. So. Okay, so now I have a couple things. I've noticed that we want a lower voice. They want this goddle. Then I noticed too that I was actually doing opposite. I was going slow in my reads, but then not pausing. So I was slow. I was, I was minimizing the Pauses, but okay. Slow. Otherwise, okay. I realized what they really wanted was me to speed up, more like a conversation. But don't be afraid to take the moments to pause to let the idea sink in. Right. So I started to identify all of these little things and piece them together to create this money voice. Right. And then literally, I came out of my shell and said, I'm going to improv a spot for my demo. I'm not even gonna write a script, Right. Improv. So I get in my booth, I close my eyes, and I'm. Imagine I'm on top of this hill, coming out of my house, looking over the pasture, watching a Ford truck drive. Right. And I got a cup of coffee in my hand. And this created my. I. I call it my personal iconic. I call it my iconic read because it has been the staple of my demo, all the demos. I've changed. I've never changed it, because wherever I go, wherever I put it, people to this day say, I want you to do that. That spot, that voice. Right. And it all came from this idea of, you know, that was, I hear people being booked by doing that. I hear people being booked by doing that. And remember, I'm a character actor.
- [11:56]
B
Yep.
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A
So there's another thing about. I will admit in all fairness, I've been an actor my whole life, and I studied acting, so I've been trained to work on imitation. And how do I do those kinds of things and change my character? So it became a character for me.
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B
Well, Gabby, you're like, I believe they're all characters. So this goes back to the conversation of how sometimes clients go, just be yourself.
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A
Yeah. What is that? You don't know me.
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B
You don't want that.
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A
You don't know.
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B
That's my answer. No, it's my answer every time I'm like, you don't want that.
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A
Exactly.
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B
If I bring me to the table, if I actually told you or. Or reacted the way I truly feel about whatever this performance is, you're gonna hate it. Okay.
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A
Right.
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B
So we're never us. That is the. You know, so that misnomer, that idea of just be yourself, it's total bs, in my opinion.
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A
Oh, yeah.
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B
And I do think, yes. Even our best reads, the reads that are supposed to sound the most natural, the most like us, they're characters.
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A
Yeah.
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B
But it's also ascertaining the fact that what they are saying, though, is we do want someone who sounds natural and who sounds you. So. So something I've done with people. And it's funny that you Kind of did the same thing. And I do this a lot with people on their demos is sometimes I will do a piece on people's demos scriptless for the exact same reason, to capture something a bit more raw and a bit more real. And so what I will do is I will have the person I'm working with, the voice actor, pick a product, right. Pick something that they bought, that they really like, they really enjoy, and just. Just tell me about it.
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A
Right?
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B
Just tell me about it. No script, no nothing. Just riff. And honestly, for so many people, they find that natural timber and tone that way. So, yes, go off script, spend time on your microphone just talking, just being human and see what happens. Because I would venture to say you're going to find that one of, if not your ultimate right. Money read is in that somewhere.
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A
Oh, absolutely. Another thing, too, that I noticed during this time, I also started my podcast. And one thing that became very evident to me is that I was having problems. And I know this is. This is nuts. If anybody, okay, if anybody has this problem, please put in the chat that you have this problem. I literally was. I was still scared, basically, to speak into nothingness because there's this thing, microphone here. Like, I was scared. Had to death.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And. And I still got up to. And I'm like, I'm now in front of the microphone, you know, And I don't know where that came from. You know, I always made the joke, you know, we all do it, right? You'd be on stage, and somebody walks out, says, you know, they go on stage, be like, I'm on stage. And then they walk off stage, like, hey, how'd I do? Was I okay? And you're like, what in the world was that?
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B
It's not any different than the same thing happens to people in front of a camera. Like, right. We all have that one family photo where everybody's going to.
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A
Right.
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B
There's some really, like, unnatural smile. I love the people. Yeah.
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A
You can just like, yeah.
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B
And you're like, you don't smile like that. Why are you doing that? And it's. It's the same thing. The minute the camera. Right. The device, the technology comes into the picture, we overthink it. We overthink. It's why for so many people, their best photographs are always candid.
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A
Oh, yeah.
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B
Because they're unaware. And that. That lack of awareness actually makes for the best product. It's. It is wild.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And for a lot of performers, I'll be honest, Anthony, I've. For years, I've called It. The it factor. That's. That's what I call it. It's.
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A
It's.
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B
Yeah, it's because you get to a point where you just go, it. I don't care. I don't care.
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A
Okay, so I love that you brought that up because I remember clearly. I remember it was my first house when I first started. Right? I remember clearly when I got that feeling. I would. It was the feeling that I'm exhausted. Coming. Getting in front of my microphone and feeling uncomfortable, narrating. I wanted to just. I wanted to feel. Because I felt that everyone else didn't feel this way. It was just me. All right. Which is stupid. I know. Now I know. But I felt like, why do I feel uncomfortable every time I start to narrate? Like, I felt that I was trying to find my voice. Does anybody ever have anybody else done this where you. I. There was a period of time where I was like. Every time I started to narrate, I was trying to find.
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B
Yeah, yeah.
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A
Trying to find how I was going to do.
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B
It was a placement issue. Yeah, absolutely.
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A
Yeah. So that was exhausting. And then finally I was like, screw it. I don't care how this sounds. I went through this where I'm just going to narrate. And then that was where, you know, is like the whole. Say it or what is it? Tell me. Don't sell me.
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B
Right?
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A
Which.
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B
Right.
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A
I heard it from what's her name, you know, the acting coach out in la. Anyways.
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B
Oh, there's many of those.
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A
Nancy Wilson. So I read Nancy. I'd seen one of her videos, and she was like, tell me. Don't sell me for these, like, short ads. And that kind of stuck with me, right? Just say it. But then I got this weird feeling, like, well, if I just say it, no one's gonna want. I mean, I'm. They're paying me. I got a deuce. I gotta dance in this thing here, you know? And then it was the absolute opposite. So I like what you said. The effort, right? Because it's so funny, because then you're saying people actually want you to do less. It feels less sometimes, right?
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B
My. So one of my mentees that I worked with for a number of years, she was here in my office. She was an assistant for me, and I trained her in voice acting. And her very, very first voiceover, her first paid job. I will never forget this. Right? She went in and she had all these expectations and all the. These ideas of what it was going to be, and the client kept going, pull it Back, Shelly. Do less. Pull it back. Do less, do less, do less. She walked out of the booth 20 minutes later. Right. Literally, she had this blank expression on her face. And I was like, hey, you did it. Like, you know, you get first job. And she was like, I didn't do anything.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And I was like, what are you talking about? And she's like, I didn't do anything. They kept asking me to do less and less and less. She's like, I really feel like I didn't do anything. And I'm like, congratulations. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
- [18:56]
A
And, yeah. And this is where the whole idea of your money voice comes in. It's our discovery of what we in particular, because it's going to be unique to every single person, what we in particular do. Right. That other people enjoy, they want to hear, they want to hire us for. It's going to be different. It's going to be different. I know some people in the comments section saying, like, someone said, I had an issue with their current audiobook gig. They're doing a stellar accent. And then they finally said, f it, I'm just gonna do it. And the rights holder loves it. Who knew? I remember, too. This is an interesting thing because I started doing this. Have you ever tried this, Gabby, where try to narrate something or do something, like, with some extreme, extreme emotions, but not an extreme delivery. So what I mean by that is to say, all right, be. Be a little angry.
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B
Oh, yeah. So.
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A
So. And when you. And then what's wild is when you listen to. Sometimes you'll be like, holy crap, that was amazing. And you're like, I didn't get the angry feel, but yet it came across like you had a purpose, you know, like, it's interesting how we, like, in our minds, something. That's why I like to do. Work with. With voice actors to say, what are you trying to do? And now do it for me. And let me hear if what I think, you know, what I think you're doing is they match up.
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B
If they match up. Absolutely, Absolutely.
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A
And a lot of times it does not.
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B
They don't. They don't.
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A
A lot of times, most voice actors are literally the same.
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B
Yes. And that's a big learning, learning moment for a lot of us. Other things that I tell people to do, I'm like, first of all, if you've never done it, you know, have a couple of beers, have a drink.
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A
And then go, love it.
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B
Yeah. For the people who are like, I get on the mic and everything, warm.
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A
Ups are great, too, Gabby. Warm ups work really well.
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B
Like, if you're really, really feeling like you're struggling with a stiffness. Yes. You know, get, get into a slightly altered state and then approach the mic. You'll be amazed. Another thing to do. And this is something fun that a lot of voice actors have never played around with. Listen to voicemail messages that you leave other people, like after the fact, like maybe your spouse or your kids literally go, can you play me that voicemail I left you? Because you're going to hear. You'll hear how different you are in that. In that, that a place where, again, there's no expectation. You're just talking, you're just, you know, and that's.
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A
You know what.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You know, that made me think of Gabby. That made me think of. That's probably why we're so taken back. When we hear those boys. Think about the actors over here over time, over the last 20 years, right. Where we get to get some really famous ones who. They played their voicemails and how, like we were all taken back. Like, what they sound like that. And then also they're. That, you know, they're that way. They're totally, completely different, you know, and we're just real. Yeah, we're just taken back. I like that idea. It was kind of similar to the idea when I was for. On a tech side when I was like, take your audio into your car and, and, and use Bluetooth and play your work through your car radio to hear, like, how does it sound on a radio, like on a device instead of just right in your studio. And you'll be like, holy crap. That was a big aha moment for me. On a side note, for sure, I sounded like there was so much bass because I wasn't rolling off. And I was like, you know, you find all these things. That was another huge reason why I wasn't being hired, I'm sure.
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B
Yeah, there's so much. There's a lot of factors, but, you know, the sooner we start to explore it, the sooner we get feedback on it, the better. You know, this is one of the things I do in my commercial classes with, with actors too. And I do it somewhat in marketing and is having the group peer lead. Hey, tell me what this person sounds like right here. Read this piece of copy. And now the collective gives you a description of your voice, tells you what age range you sound, you know, where they would place you. And it can really, really be eye opening for people.
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A
Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, it really is. And just like, just like in acting, when I say to actors, you want to be a better actor? Go watch acting. Right. Go watch plays. Yeah, Watch acting. Analyze. The same thing with voice actors. If you want to be a better voice actor, you want to find your money voice.
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B
Absolutely.
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A
You got to go listen to voice actors. And then you need to listen to them and you've got to do. You've got to compare and contrast. You know, one of the hardest things teaching actors and acting in general is it we. We are. This is a subjective type of field. Right. Because what I like might be different than what Gabby likes.
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B
Right.
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A
So you know, when you're. And vice versa, same thing with you as a voice actor. So it's important for you to be able to work through that. Compare and contrast with yourself versus other voices. So like what I was saying in the beginning about, I found these like three or four different things that were seemingly the same across the board that I saw men getting hired for from my age. And then I listen to what I do and I, I would recognize that that is not how I sound. Okay. And you know, and I go back, I, if I, I really do wish I could go back and get some of those early commercial spots and play them here, I would be happy to play them for every. Because I can, I can't even sound. Because it used to be like, you want a Nike ad? Like, I used to sound like a little. I don't even know how to. I mean, it wasn't. And that would. That sounds actually kind of good. If I was doing a character. It, it sounded like that, but very scared.
- [24:39]
B
So.
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A
So, you know, I mean, I think.
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B
Tomorrow if we, if we continue this topic, I think tomorrow we could talk about competitive analysis. How to do a deep dive into other voice actors and figure out where you fit in like you're talking about. I think that that's a great idea.
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A
This is such an under taught and undervalued skill.
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B
For sure.
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A
We. And we do this, the critiquing. I mean, I spent so much time as an actor critiquing myself and other actors. It was a constant thing because that's how you can learn how to do it yourself. I love that idea. All right, everybody, thank you so much. We had a wonderful audience today. You guys are amazing. Super excited. We'll be back tomorrow at noon. See you all then. Check out VO Journey. Bye, everybody.
- [25:28]
B
Goodbye.
- [25:29]
A
See you later. Adios.