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What It Takes to Voice and Produce 2,000+ Commercials a Year with Jenna Birmingham
01:03:47
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- [00:00]
Host
Death, taxes and sales at the car dealership.
- [00:04]
Jenna Birmingham
My whole career has been trial by fire.
- [00:05]
Host
I found something here. I've unlocked something. Let me figure this out so that I can continue.
- [00:10]
Jenna Birmingham
If I burn myself out, I'm not going to be able to do this week after week after week.
- [00:14]
Host
It's the gift that keeps on giving all year long.
- [00:16]
Jenna Birmingham
The copy tells you what it wants to be.
- [00:18]
Host
So first of all, are you some kind of cyborg?
- [00:21]
Jenna Birmingham
I voice and produce over 2000 commercials a year.
- [00:24]
Host
As I continue to work to grow the Everyday Veopreneur podcast, there are a couple of things that you can do to help me make that happen. First and foremost, what? Wherever you are enjoying this podcast right now, subscribe, Apple, Spotify, whatever. That way you're gonna get notified every time a new episode drops. You'll never miss another one. Secondly, would you leave a review wherever you are listening? Again, Apple, Spotify, doesn't matter. But leave that review and let people know that you are enjoying the Everyday Veopreneur podcast. Thanks so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode with Jenna Birmingham. Jenna Birmingham. Every once in a while, I get the opportunity to survey my audience and say, who do I need to get on the show? And I get a list. People always respond and your name has come up several times. You got to get Jen on the show. She'll be so good. I'm like, okay, so try to do a little bit of research, obviously find out a little bit about you. And one of the very first things that I read was that you were OG Cool Edit. And I was like, well, that's it. That seals the deal. Then she gets to. She gets to come on the podcast. We're going to talk about Cool Edit. We're going to reminisce about the days when you could buy software and own it.
- [01:37]
Jenna Birmingham
I miss that. I mean, subscription models are great, but just owning it outright, knowing you don't have to be connected, you could just open the program and your life will work and you can just do your thing. I miss that. I miss that.
- [01:50]
Host
One of the saddest and most tragic days of my life was I had been a Cool edit guy for a really, really long time. And it was what we used when I worked in radio, right? So this is prior to Adobe Audition and everything. But I had gotten a Mac and I think by that point Cool Edit had been bought and it was Adobe, but it wasn't available for Mac and so I had to use pro tools for.
- [02:17]
Jenna Birmingham
That's such overkill.
- [02:18]
Host
Okay, oh my gosh. I had to use Pro Tools for like, I don't know, three sad and miserable years waiting and waiting for Adobe to. I think Apple and Adobe were kind of. Steve Jobs didn't. He was pretty mad at Adobe about some stuff and they were fighting over Flash and all this sort of stuff. But yeah, so I suffered through Pro Tools and I was like, this is like the most ridiculous thing to be using for voiceover. There weren't a lot of options at the time. But yeah, man, cool edit and owning software. Yeah, well, those were the good old days.
- [02:51]
Jenna Birmingham
And I mean, I used Cool it. I mean 2006, 2007, I mean it was one of the ones I learned on. And I would actually record my voiceover in soundforge and then I would move that audio over to Cool Edit and then do my production in Cool Edit. So it's still kind of multi stepped for whatever reason. I think it was because they had better EQ on soundforge at that time available. I.
- [03:16]
Host
When did you start?
- [03:17]
Jenna Birmingham
I can't completely remember. So I started. I got into the station around end of 2006.
- [03:24]
Host
Okay.
- [03:25]
Jenna Birmingham
Because I wanted to do voiceover and I was broke and. But they have microphones at a radio
- [03:31]
Host
station and you thought radio was where you were gonna go to make money.
- [03:33]
Jenna Birmingham
They have. This is never about making money. But that, you know, that was where they had microphones. And I had marketing and promotions experience so I could, I got to the station, you know, building a street team and doing all that marketing and. Well, not marketing, but the promotion side of things.
- [03:50]
Host
Sure.
- [03:51]
Jenna Birmingham
And if you're available, you know, the production director will come and find voices sometimes if he needs them. And I had a DJ that was teaching me basic beginning production in terms of like how to kind of edit and record myself and that kind of stuff. So I already had that little bit of education going on within the radio station station group.
- [04:12]
Host
Okay.
- [04:13]
Jenna Birmingham
And then, you know, the pd, sorry, the production director, he had come up to me one day and he's like, can you read? And I was like, you know, it's been a minute, but yes, I, I feel like I could still read. And so I did a 10 second sweeper for the return of the Tarot Pie. I was in Hawaii. The return of the tarot pie at McDonald's. And then the PDs for the five stations wound up hearing it and they're like, whoever she is, use her more. So then it was I. I learned production and voiceover, especially on the mic and stuff. That was all Very trial by fire experience for me. So I never. I didn't really become a dj. I didn't go into radio to become a dj. It was just an opportunity where they have microphones. And, you know, I was friends with this DJ and he was really cool and he thought I had a good voice and he saw something in me. And then same with the production director saw something in me and. And they. They fed that for me. So that was. I actually started doing voiceover production about 2007. And I didn't mean to do production, but I fell in love with it because I'm voicing stuff, I'm playing with music, I'm playing with sound effects. Like, I get to do all of it. And I didn't know that was not an intended thing for me to fall in love with. So, yeah, so I've, you know, I did that for a little while and then I. If you had 2008 happened.
- [05:40]
Host
Oh, yeah, 2008. I was gonna say, if you'd started in radio a few years earlier, you might not have fallen in love with production. I remember when I started in. So my first radio gig was 95, and everything was still manual at that point. So production.
- [05:55]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah, you were doing the cutting and.
- [05:56]
Host
Yeah, yeah, well, often it was live. You live to tape, so to speak. Right. Because you didn't want to have to cut if you didn't have to. And so you got a wall of CD players, you got a wall of cart machines, you're recording to the reel to reel, you're trying to read the spot while you're trying to push the carts to fire sound effects and play the background music, and you're doing this whole thing live to tape. And I remember my first job was. Well, job was as a co op student in high school. And when I went in for the interview, I said to the pd, he asked me, what do you want to get out of this co op? And I said, well, before my semester is done, I want to get on the air. And he said, well, I'll tell you right now, we don't ever put co op students on the air. It just doesn't happen. So, you know, I just want to give you realistic expectations. I think I was there probably about three weeks maybe before I was starting to do commercials. And it's small radio station, need voices. Okay, this guy's eager, right?
- [06:50]
Jenna Birmingham
Exactly.
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Host
And.
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Jenna Birmingham
And before long, and you always say yes. You always say yes, yes in radio to anything. Whether you can do it or not, you say yes.
- [06:58]
Host
I became as a Co op student. I mean, it's great for them because I was working for free, but I literally became one of the primary commercial voices on the station, and it was just because it was a different voice that they were able to use and I was willing to learn how to produce my own stuff. And, and so, you know, while I'm there during the morning show and the production studio is open, nobody's there. I can go in and do the whole thing.
- [07:19]
Jenna Birmingham
Do it.
- [07:19]
Host
Yeah, but, yeah, but I actually, there's a part of me that's like, I'm glad that I got to experience that, that side of production, but there's a part of me that's like, dang. Yeah, like Adobe or whatever you were using at the time. Once digital came along, it made life so much easier.
- [07:34]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah, it, it, it made it easier. And then it just opened up so much more possibility as well. Just. And not just ease, but creativity. I think it just opened up so many more effects and sounds and just all the title, edit and all that. Like, just. I don't know. There's so much more that you can do digitally than if you're. Well, I guess if you're really good with tape. I got to do it. One moment, right? Well, I, I'm like. Because I did miss that, and there's moments where my boss is currently. They're like. Because I care what my commercials sound like. They're like, you should have. You're about 10 years. Like, you should have been here 10 years ago. Like this. They. Because a lot of the time, good enough for air was something that I had to learn. It was a painful lesson.
- [08:20]
Host
Yeah.
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Jenna Birmingham
Because I want every. I know that there's no credits on a, On a commercial, but I know I made it. My name is on that in my mind. And I don't want it to be good enough. I want it to be good. I want it to be entertaining. I want it to be fun. I want it to be impactful and memorable and sometimes you just have to get it out and that. There's nothing wrong with that.
- [08:41]
Host
That was my thing.
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Jenna Birmingham
As someone who's creative, it does kind of suck.
- [08:44]
Host
I was, you know, I'm trying to prove myself as a co op student. Right. So I'm so massively over producing. Like every, Every other commercial on the air is like, you know, voice and music better, whatever. Right? And I'm like, voice music, bed and sound effects and this and that and, And Right. Because I'm trying to. I'm trying to prove myself. But yeah, kids, these Days will never know what it's like to sit down and go through the 3 inch thick binder of 50,000 sound effects and trying to figure out which CD in the sound effects library and getting that queued up and getting that queued up and yeah, doing that whole thing. So there's, there's a part of me that was grateful for that experience. But yeah, that was, it was digital. Really blew my mind when it finally came along and I was like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe we did this for so long. Leads, leads, leads. We all need leads. I need more leads. You need more leads. More leads means more opportunities, more auditions, more bookings, more money. That is why in April, I am running a leads challenge. 100 leads in 15 days. I want you to sign up for this challenge because I'm going to teach you how to look for these leads. We're going to talk about ways to vet these leads. You're going to get accountability to make sure you get these leads. And at the end of the challenge, if you do what you're supposed to do, you're going to have 100 new leads for your voiceover pipeline. Check out the 100 leads challenge now@veopreneur.com just click on the store button. It starts in April. Theopreneur.com click on the store button. Look for the 100 leads challenge. Now back to our show. It's interesting that you found yourself more drawn to the production side because that's not the typical story. Right. The typical story is you want to. Everybody wants to be on the air. They want to be a jock or whatever. So you go in there not with the intention of ending up in production.
- [10:32]
Jenna Birmingham
Correct.
- [10:32]
Host
But falling in love with production.
- [10:34]
Jenna Birmingham
Absolutely.
- [10:35]
Host
Is that where you stayed then throughout the rest of your. I know you're still doing production now, but for all your radio stations that you went through, were you always doing production or did you do on air?
- [10:46]
Jenna Birmingham
Well, I did do on air. I had gone to, I think it was 2017, I can't remember. See, this is why I need to look at my LinkedIn once in a while. It was that radio station. When I got on it, I had contacted them about a potential production, commercial production job. And it's a publicly owned station and they have different rules about advertising. They can, you can do live reads, but you can't do pre produced commercials. And I was like, well, you know, thank you for the opportunity. And the PD is like, no, no, no, no, no, no, Wait, wait a moment. He's like, I really like your voice. Would you be interested in an air shift? I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. So if you're okay with that, then yeah, I'm, I'm down to do it because, you know, I didn't have, you know, a full time production job at that time. And this is, you know, one more thing, you know, if I do have experience being on air, that can hopefully get me back into a new radio station group. Because if there's some reason that they got to pull someone in from another room to do an air shift, I can technically do it. That was my perspective. And so he was like, yeah, no, that's, that's fine. He's like, I can teach you. You're, you're great. And it was, it was all tracked out for me. Cause I had, you know, the beginning air shift of, you know, either midnight to 4am or 2am to 6am because that's where you get to learn. And I wrote out every break. I am such a bad dj and I, like, I had to google every band that we would be talk or that I would be talking about beforehand. So yeah, I was still doing voiceover even though I was on the air because I'm literally reading copy for my breaks, which it was kind of cool because it did help me really get good at my commerce or at my conversational read. Because you really can't sound like you're reading.
- [12:34]
Host
Yeah, even as a DJ or announcer, you still have to sound different from when you're doing the radio spots.
- [12:41]
Jenna Birmingham
Correct. Exactly. So I, I mean, I, I, I played, I played with voiceover stuff and continued doing voiceover stuff through the years. Not full time after, you know, 2008 happened and they were laying off everybody in radio and apparently other. Everywhere.
- [13:00]
Host
Everybody, everywhere.
- [13:01]
Jenna Birmingham
Everyone, everywhere is getting laid off. But, you know, I just, I always wanted to get back into production and I would do little things, you know, every once in a while just, and I would play every once in a while just, you know, like, I feel like I'm, you know, I'll like a song on the radio. And so, you know, like, oh, sorry, here's one. My son, he, it was, I think it was Intis and he hated part of the song and I misunderstood him. So I edited out most of the song part and kept the chorus version of it and just kind of looped it and just made a fun thing out of that existing song. And I played it for him and I was like, this is awesome. And he's like, this is the part that I hated the most. And I was like, my bad. You know, I went back and then I made a version for him. Or, you know, there was a couple times where, you know, like in Disney's Moana later on, you know, she has her Moana's main character song. She's got three different versions of it. Or I can take the MP3 play with them in audition and make it one nice big track so I can just listen to that one in my car. So, you know, I did. I just, you know, it's. You have that skill, why not play with it once in a while?
- [14:16]
Host
Yep.
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Jenna Birmingham
Yeah. And, you know, there was a little while where I did pageant music routine things like for. Oh, God, like Toddlers and Tiaras kinds of.
- [14:26]
Host
Oh, my gosh, are we talking Honey Boo Boo here?
- [14:28]
Jenna Birmingham
Well, it wasn't for any Boo Boo, but yeah. Yes, those pageants, because they have. For a glitz pageant, you've got a routine that you do with your little outfit. And so you need about a minute and a half of music. So I would take songs and I would edit that for the girls. So, you know, there's some random production experience that I've had over the years. And, you know, it was. There was always that desire to get back into radio, but I loved voiceover stuff, so that was the nice constant that I had. But there was still that part of me that just missed being able to really create something from start to finish.
- [15:06]
Host
So much of what you did then early was the commercials that you were doing from the radio station. When did you start doing stuff outside of radio? When did you realize, oh, wait a minute, there's a whole world of this outside of the station? And I can do corporate videos or explainers or elearnings or whatever.
- [15:26]
Jenna Birmingham
I was already aware that that was there. I knew I wasn't ready for it.
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Host
Okay.
- [15:32]
Jenna Birmingham
Which is why I went to the radio stations, because I did have a lot of acting experience. Theater, drama, acting coaching. Just. I had a lot of that from my youth as well as music. And, you know, I was a band geek and choirs. Like, I had. I had all that already in my back pocket. But microphone mic technique and that kind of stuff, I had none of that. And, you know, voiceover is different than being on a stage. I mean, yes, there's skills that overlap, but it is different. So I was aware that there were like, voices.com was a thing at the time. And you could get. You could work on the site with a free account, your listing. Your audition wouldn't Be posted early. But I still got jobs. When I finally did, I think it was about six months after I started doing commercials at the station that I did, you know, get on voices.com and I. I think there was. It wasn't Craigslist, but there was some other kind of online thing like that where I found a couple of auditions. And then the nice thing about being at the radio station, you know, there's TV stations in the same area. So there was a couple of times where one of the production guys from the TV station called over to the radio station, was like, hey, we need a couple reads. Do you guys have anyone there that we could use? Because it was like, we need this in an hour. Can they come over? So I did get a chance to do a couple of billboards for some of the TV stations, just because of being in radio and having them being aware of me there to shuffle me off to do some place.
- [17:13]
Host
Right time.
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Jenna Birmingham
Exactly.
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Host
Very much willingness to just do whatever, say yes. I feel like there's a recurring theme here, my willingness to say yes.
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Jenna Birmingham
My whole career has been trial by fire every step of the way. Why change now? It's worked for me so far, and it's a great way to learn.
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Host
I think it's so important, though, too, because I think it's really easy to get into a comfort zone.
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Jenna Birmingham
And the fails are good to learn from, too.
- [17:40]
Host
Yeah, they're not really fails.
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Jenna Birmingham
They're just opportunities to learn. But.
- [17:45]
Host
Well, I mean, whether or not they become a fail really depends a lot in how you respond to it ultimately. Right. And do you just let it defeat you or do you like, oh, okay, well, that was a learning experience and move on. But I think there's that willingness to say yes, that willingness to try new things. I think it's so important because that could be where you discover the next genre or the next great client or the next great opportunity. Just stepping out of that comfort zone, Being willing to say yes to some things.
- [18:10]
Jenna Birmingham
With automotive. I had done some automotive before COVID not much, but Covid really gave women in general a huge push into automotive because they didn't really have cars. So you sold services that the dealerships had, and women are good at selling that. And then they're like, oh, wait, they can't. They can. They can still sell. So, you know, we got to stay in with the dealerships after they did have cars. But I am not a car person. Like, when I buy a car, I want to know about cup holders. Am I going to be able to get on the freeway. What's the stock sound system? Like? Those are my priorities. Yeah.
- [18:48]
Host
I, I don't know in this thing.
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Jenna Birmingham
Exactly.
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Host
Yeah. It probably doesn't matter as much in,
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Jenna Birmingham
In, In Texas, but we had that freeze. We always have a freeze. So the butt warmer one freeze where
- [18:59]
Host
you're like, man, I really need a butt warmer in my car.
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Jenna Birmingham
Yeah, we did. But that's the thing. Like, if you had told me 10 years ago that automotive would be a big genre in my, in my career, I would have been like, you're mistaken. That's. I'm not a car. Not a car person. And you don't have to be to. To say if you can, It's. Can you sell it? Can you connect with your audience? That's the part that matters. Whether you really know what the benefits of the different size liter engines and stuff and how that. I don't know. That's. That's. I'm. I'm not your girl if you want to talk about cars, but if you want me to sell it, I. I am your girl.
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Host
So I'll get in it and drive it. And if you need anything beyond that, I.
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Jenna Birmingham
Exactly. I'll be. I'll be performing the concert down the freeway. That's. That's me.
- [19:45]
Host
So how did those early automotive opportunities come then? Was that through the production work that you were doing through the radio station or one dealer leads to another or where did that start?
- [19:57]
Jenna Birmingham
I had, I had gotten one through a casting site and then my big one that I had gotten. I had gotten through my day job with they doing the production work, and this salesperson wound up giving away a little bit more to the client so that way I could. So they could make the sale, which was cool. I can say that I did it. Like, I love that I can say that I did it. I did not get paid for a significant job because of it, but I can say that I was the. In the voice, like when you go inside of a car and it tells you the details of the vehicle. I, I have one of those. I, I've done that. So I mean, at least I can, you know, mark it off on my things that I've done.
- [20:46]
Host
But any of us that have worked in radio have somewhere that one story of that one job that we did. Yeah, because you're an announcer or because you're on staff, and a lot of
- [21:00]
Jenna Birmingham
us do this too. So we could make the sale. Yeah, yeah, everybody does.
- [21:05]
Host
Some of us. It depends. Right. Like when I, I was not for a good portion of my radio Career. I was not doing voiceover, and I wasn't even really aware of voiceover. And so it's not until after the fact when the voiceover career starts, and then you look back and you're like, gosh darn it, they really screwed me on some of those deals.
- [21:21]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah.
- [21:22]
Host
Once you get a little bit more knowledge about what was going on there. But, yeah, so I think we've all got those stories.
- [21:27]
Jenna Birmingham
And that was the thing, you know, Again, back in 2006, 2008, if I was requested as a voice, I got an additional little fee that, you know, I was paid.
- [21:38]
Host
Yep.
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Jenna Birmingham
And I don't. I don't get that now. That's not a thing anymore.
- [21:45]
Host
Nice while it lasted.
- [21:47]
Jenna Birmingham
It was. It was nice for the. For the while. But yeah. So visiting back to the earlier automotive stuff, it. Most of it was through work, and again, it was just a couple. And then about a month, six weeks into the COVID situation, that's when I started getting more. And I. And then. Then they kept coming back and again getting more, and I was just like, I don't know what I'm doing. Right. Which is why I eventually went to. I took Cliff Selman's class at the. Once the conferences opened back up, but specifically for automotive, it's like, yep, I'm doing it, but I don't know why it's working or what I'm doing Right. And I just needed that little bit of clarity, confidence, something like that is. Is what I. I guess I really had needed. But it was just something that came to me that I was good at. And so then I just kept doing it. And then I'm also on some rosters. And again, at that same time, it was, you know, whoever the client was, they're looking for women to do automotive, and they found my voice. And again, same thing. They just. I did it and then they kept me. So I just got lucky with that stuff.
- [23:06]
Host
That's the thing, I think. I think that's one of the things that we misunderstand about this industry is so often there's this assumption that you have to have. You have to have an understanding of this genre or you have to have had formal training in this genre or whatever. Do those things help? Absolutely, 100% sometimes. Sometimes if you're just the right voice that the client hears in their head. Like, nobody has. I've never booked a job or not booked a job where a client said, before they hired me or didn't hire me, have you done this particular kind of thing in the Past or have you done these types? Right. Like they don't.
- [23:44]
Jenna Birmingham
Have you done this before?
- [23:45]
Host
Yeah.
- [23:47]
Jenna Birmingham
How many automotive dealers have you previously?
- [23:49]
Host
They're like, they, they don't care. They're just like, yep, she sounds good. He sounds good. That sounded great.
- [23:54]
Jenna Birmingham
Can they do the job?
- [23:55]
Host
Can they, can they do the job? Can they do it repeatedly? Can they do it in a timely fashion? Are they easy to work with?
- [24:01]
Jenna Birmingham
Like matters.
- [24:02]
Host
Right. It's, it's, it's not always about having that deep seated experience. But good on you for recognizing. I want to. I'm okay. I've found something here. I've unlocked something. Let me figure this out so that I can continue.
- [24:16]
Jenna Birmingham
Exactly.
- [24:17]
Host
To keep going down that road and unlock even more of it.
- [24:19]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah. And I didn't know about direct marketing at that point. Even though you can direct market regular commercial stuff, I, it just not something that ever registered in my brain. But then again, you know, with automotive, especially tier three, which is where I live, it's, it's, it's very much dependent on what you put into it in terms of those touches and those relationships. And I didn't know that. Which was where the, you know, the training portion of things came in and, and really helped because I would have just been happy just doing the stuff that, that I got from work. But it's like. Or I can, I can do more and I can, yeah, I can do a lot more of it because I'll take us, I'll take a slow dime over a fast nickel. I have, I have no problem with that at all. I'd much rather have a relationship with a client for years. Yeah. They're not paying me huge amounts of money to do their stuff. But I know that every month that has a holiday and months that don't have holidays, they're going to be having sales and they're going to be coming to me for those and I value that.
- [25:26]
Host
Death, taxes and sales at the car
- [25:29]
Jenna Birmingham
dealership, you can count on it. You can bank on it.
- [25:32]
Host
These are, these are the things.
- [25:34]
Jenna Birmingham
Yes.
- [25:34]
Host
Just to clarify, tier three, you're talking local.
- [25:38]
Jenna Birmingham
Local automotive. Automotive, yeah. Where you're selling the dealership versus selling the vehicle or brand, which is tier one.
- [25:45]
Host
And that is, I mean I've had, I mean I've talked to Cliff obviously on the show before Bobby Maxwell and she talked to me about it really is if you get in with the, the, if you get the right dealers and the right opportunities, it's the gift that keeps on giving all year long. Right. Like there's there's every month, like Bobby has said, like every month, like clockwork. Like, I know these few days I don't book vacations, Like, I don't do anything these few days at the beginning of the month because I know they're going to need me.
- [26:11]
Jenna Birmingham
And if I don't, like, I have a couple, if I don't hear from them on them like the 8th or like the 6th, if it's, you know, if it's not the weekend, I'm like, I want to be like, you guys. Okay, you're normal, you're supposed to be, supposed to hear from you by now. Where you guys, where y' all at? Like. But yeah, I mean, there's definitely specific days of the month where I can pretty much count on hearing from this specific dealerships. I've got one that's just really kind of loosey goosey and I don't again, they're coming. I, I don't care when they reach out to me in the month, sometimes it's in the middle, sometimes it's at the end, sometimes it's in the beginning. I, they will come at some point in the month, but all the rest of them, I pretty much know when to expect their recordings and like, for the conference that's coming up, it's towards the end of the month and I did reach out to a couple of of my dealers who. Dealerships, clients that generally are the last week of the month. And it's just like, hey, just little heads up if we can get those scripts a little bit ahead of time or if you don't mind being in a rush on the production side, I can knock them out when I get back. But again, you know, I've had this relationship with them for several years for all these, all the ones I reached out to a couple weeks ago. I've, I've been working with them for years and this isn't the first time I've been like, hey, I'm gonna be out of the studio for a few days. And they've always been very accommodating and we've always made it work. But yeah, you can absolutely count on holidays and your clients when, when they're going to be. Especially for automotive.
- [27:40]
Host
You said that Covid really kind of unlocked the genre for females.
- [27:46]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah, it definitely gave us a push. We were, we were making some progress, but that really pushed us, I feel.
- [27:52]
Host
What are you doing? Or are you doing everything? Are there certain brands that are more likely to lean in or certain styles or types of vehicles? Or is it just across the board now, females are getting access to all of those, all of those opportunities.
- [28:08]
Jenna Birmingham
Well, I, I know we aren't in terms of like for the big game and a lot of the big events on television. I know that our numbers in terms of how represented we are in, in terms of selling automotive, yeah, we're like 8%.
- [28:29]
Host
Okay.
- [28:30]
Jenna Birmingham
Up for there. But in a local market I'd say that we're somewhere between 40 and 46% of the time. Dealerships are voiced by women now. And that's not just my experience and my numbers. I mean just that's with me consuming media as well as making it and also speaking to other women. And yeah, it's definitely. And again, everyone that I've spoken to who is doing automotive and being successful in it, they all, they can, they can recognize. And even if for people that just consume TV and advertising, you can't not have noticed there's more women selling local automotive. Like you're going to like for the news station, if you're watching the news, every commercial break you're going to get multiple car commercials just because they put them in there as much as they can. And one, you will hear one that's a guy and you will most likely hear one that is a girl also in that commercial break. Whereas 10 years ago you wouldn't. So I, I would definitely. I don't feel like it's a made up thing that we're doing as well as we are in tier three. I think it's just going to take a little bit more time for national to catch on to be like, oh well they are, you know, women are selling vehicles locally. We should be using them more to sell our vehicle, not just the dealership. So I think just, you know, it's a little bit slower for the tier one stuff, but it's, it's definitely still improving.
- [30:02]
Host
I did a couple of dealerships for a number of years and it's been a couple years since I did them now they sold off and moved in a different direction. But at that point I was doing truck spots but it was a female voice that was doing all of the SUVs. CUVs. Right. So they, they had split it up that way. Do you see that or do you, are you just doing the dealer and you're doing whatever they're selling? It's a truck, it's a car, it's a whatever.
- [30:26]
Jenna Birmingham
I will sell whatever they send me. There's several that I really just do the comparative read and it's a male that does the rest of the commercial. So, I mean, the nice thing is, is, I mean, there's one client, they have had the same body of that commercial for about a year and a half. But they are the comparative read changes every month. And so, like, that first voice got paid once. I'm still getting paid every month, every month for the, for the comparative rate of, you know, the vehicles that they're showcasing that month. So, yeah, so there's some where I'm just doing the comparative read. There's some where I'm doing top to bottom. The brands that I voice the most are BMW and Subaru, and I do a lot of others. I don't do trucks very often. I've made truck commercials or commercials for trucks.
- [31:17]
Host
Yep.
- [31:18]
Jenna Birmingham
But, yeah, for voicing, I think I'm at 27 automotive brands at this point. So I, I, I, I've lost track. I have it written somewhere. But, yeah, I'm at 26 or 27 brands. And I. If I were to keep up with models of vehicles, I, I don't think I'd get anything done just in terms of, like, the stacks of records and stuff that I would have.
- [31:46]
Host
Cliff talks about his map. Right. Where you get the map and you put the, of all the, the locations where you work. You're gonna have to print out a chart with all of the brands so that you can start putting check marks beside all the brands so you could figure out which ones are left to get which.
- [31:59]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah. Oh, yeah, no, I'm, I'm playing automotive bingo. I am 100 in it for that game. Absolutely. And, you know, the map and the push pins is a fantastic idea because then you just kind of go. Got a glance at it.
- [32:10]
Host
Yep.
- [32:10]
Jenna Birmingham
And, you know, I, I, I, I know that Bobby does that. I and I know Cliff's the one that told her that everybody that is
- [32:20]
Host
a disciple of Cliff at this point is, yeah.
- [32:22]
Jenna Birmingham
We all have the map with the push pins.
- [32:23]
Host
They've all got the map and the push pins.
- [32:25]
Jenna Birmingham
Mine's. Mine's behind that curtain.
- [32:28]
Host
There you go. That constant visual reminder.
- [32:31]
Jenna Birmingham
Yep.
- [32:31]
Host
I read somewhere that you're voicing, like, a thousand commercials a year.
- [32:37]
Jenna Birmingham
It's more than that.
- [32:39]
Host
It's more than that.
- [32:40]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah.
- [32:41]
Host
Over a thousand commercials a year.
- [32:43]
Jenna Birmingham
I, I voice and produce over 2,000 commercials a year.
- [32:46]
Host
Over 2,000. Okay. So I found, I found dated information, clearly.
- [32:50]
Jenna Birmingham
Well, I also, I do lie about it a lot because I, I undersell how much I make. And my boss, because I, I told him before I had said it publicly last time, he's like, you make a lot more than that. And then he looks it up and gives me the real number. I'm like, I am absolutely not saying that number because everyone, people already think that I lie about the volume that I work. So if I were to tell them for the production side of things, for work, you know, we're producing DJ endorsements, we're trimming audio that comes in that's too long or too short. Sometimes we're adding beds. Sometimes there's just so many little things that don't really take much time. But technically you're producing and you get a credit for that. Not, not that your numbers matter. Beyond that, they, they use it more for their own metrics to know what's coming in.
- [33:43]
Host
Right?
- [33:44]
Jenna Birmingham
Not a. Well, this one's really. This producer is way more productive than this producer. And we don't all make the same stuff and we don't all edit the same number of things. But yeah, my active number of production is insane. But in terms of, well, I guess my voiceover in production stuff isn't insane too, for most people. But yes, I, I generally voice a little over 2,000 commercials a year.
- [34:09]
Host
Voice over 2,000 commercial, voice and produce.
- [34:11]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah.
- [34:12]
Host
So first of all, are you some kind of cyborg?
- [34:16]
Jenna Birmingham
You get really fast.
- [34:17]
Host
Am I talking to an AI right now? Like, I'm sitting here doing the math and I'm like, there's 365 days in the year, but then you take out all of the weekends and then you take 2000 and you divide and I'm like, that's a crap ton of commercials you're doing.
- [34:28]
Jenna Birmingham
Well, you know, November's the last week of October to the first week of December. I don't coach anybody. I don't do interviews, I don't do demos. I don't do anything for that.
- [34:42]
Host
Because eating, no breathing, no sleeping, I,
- [34:45]
Jenna Birmingham
we just, I get food thrown at me at the end of those days because my brain is jello. Because we're making. And it's not just me. I mean, we have a production hub, there's several producers, and, you know, we're all making over 25 commercials a day.
- [34:59]
Host
Oh my gosh.
- [34:59]
Jenna Birmingham
And it's the brain is jello. I am, I am of no use to anybody in anybody.
- [35:06]
Host
Thank God for Adobe Audition at that point. Can you imagine doing 25 spots old school?
- [35:10]
Jenna Birmingham
You can't. You can.
- [35:12]
Host
I don't need.
- [35:13]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah, yeah, but, but that's the thing. I mean, in November alone, you know, you're making 25 spots a day and that doesn't count my freelance voiceover stuff that I'm doing in between, stuff that I'm making, stuff that I'm voicing and as well as if I'm voicing before work or after work. So, yeah, it's. It's literally, there's a lot of doordash that gets ordered in November, and I'm. Yeah, my. I'm not the best conversationalist. At the end of the day, it's entertaining because I can't speak.
- [35:43]
Host
Yeah.
- [35:43]
Jenna Birmingham
At all. I'm messing up words. It's ridiculous. But at the same time, you absolutely get a rush because you have so much coming at you. And you know the nice thing? Because I've had this job for over six years, and again, a lot of these clients, they may be annual buys. So a lot of the times, like, we love what you did last year. We just need to change the dates. So, you know, that commercial is not going to take me very long. It'd just be a matter of voice matching my read from last year or the year before, whatever it was, matching that, and then, you know, remixing it down and popping it back out and moving on to the next one. And, yeah, it picks up the last week of October, and then by the first week of December, it's slowed down. Then January is a little slower in February, so it's like you kind of have a chance to recover. The first year that I did this job, I. I didn't know that you can hit a creative wall. I. And I got so scared because I had only been working here a few months, and it was. I was in the middle of making something, and all of a sudden I just. I couldn't hear. My ears just. It was. I was glazed over, and I couldn't hear levels. And I was like, I'm not going to be able to do this job. Like, I can't. Like, I didn't know that that was not the volume that it would be from then on. I. I didn't know. None of us did because the production hubs were a new thing at that point. But, yeah, I was just done. And I went to one of the other producers and I sat in there and I was like, I don't know what's going on. Like, I can't hear. And she's like, you're okay. You're okay. And I said, I'm like, I'm just going to sit in here for a second. And I sat on the floor and I was just like, okay. And then I watched it hit her she just glazed over and she's like, contagious. Yeah. I can't hear because she, she was just finishing one too.
- [37:40]
Host
Yep.
- [37:40]
Jenna Birmingham
And she's like, oh, this is so weird. And then, you know, another producer from across the hall comes in. He's like, I'm done for the day. And we're like, what do you mean you're done? He's like, I can't hear anymore. We're like. And he's been producing for like 20 years on, like a mass sale. And I was just like, oh, thank God. Like, it's not just. And then again, a little bit later, another producer came in. He's like, well, I guess I'm finished. And her boss happened to walk by and he saw all four of us just like a bunch of glazed donuts in there. And he's like, you go home, Go home. Take care of yourself. Rest. Clearly we had nothing left to give at that point. But the nice thing was, is after having hit that wall every season, year coming up since then, you know it's coming. I haven't hit that since then. I've definitely been overwhelmed. But sure, just knowing that that's something that's possible and that that's coming, it makes it better. It doesn't freak you out when all of a sudden you can't hear things. You're just like, I'm going to get up, I'm going to go play with the dogs. Going to go outside for a second and then come back in and hopefully your ears reset.
- [38:45]
Host
Yep. And got to have a way to just break it up for a second there. Let's just, let's just go back for a second. Just so people are clear.
- [38:53]
Jenna Birmingham
Yes.
- [38:53]
Host
This is not all you. In your freelance voiceover business, you are working for a company that is producing commercials.
- [39:01]
Jenna Birmingham
Correct.
- [39:02]
Host
Which you do voiceover for, but then you also have your freelance voiceover and your clients.
- [39:08]
Jenna Birmingham
Yes.
- [39:09]
Host
Outside of that.
- [39:10]
Jenna Birmingham
Yes.
- [39:10]
Host
I do just want to clarify for people. Oh, my gosh, how does she do that?
- [39:16]
Jenna Birmingham
It's a lot of juggling.
- [39:19]
Host
Well, let's get into that. Talk about your workflow a little bit. How do you manage that?
- [39:22]
Jenna Birmingham
Okay, so I'm normally checking emails before I even get out of bed. And then it's, you know, start replying, seeing what stuff I may have to do in terms of. For freelance side of stuff. And then for work itself, I start around 8 o' clock and I'll sit there and I'll knock out the fastest stuff first just to get it out of the way, off the plate. And. And then it's. Then the juggling starts happening. At that point, one of the rosters that I'm on, they will email and basically I have a couple hours to turn that around and get that back to them. There's no auditioning. I don't even have to deal with billing, nothing. Like it's right. I pay them a significant percentage, but it's easy. I don't have to. I literally read it, send it back and that is the extent of my participation with that. So it's kind of worth the percentage that they take. So I have that. That'll be bouncing. If I get an email notification about an audition that I've been selected for, I'll do that. But while I get those email notifications, I've got. We use VCreative. I work with Odyssey and we use VCreative. And you, I mean, you can tell at a glance just because of the color coding, that system that we have. Like, I can see how much stuff that I've actively got to produce or edit or trim or whatever. And you know, that's obviously the most. Like that's my primary job, that's my salary, that's my medical benefits. That's all the things. So that's definitely the priority. And then it's just a matter of if I have downtime with that. That's when I try to do, you know, some social media stuff, maybe, you know, sharing some work that I've produced or voice lately, trying to do something. My social media game is not what it should be in terms of any consistency, but it's pretty much just for me to share what I do and what I can do and what I'm proud of and that kind of stuff, versus actually providing content for people to potentially learn from other than maybe get an idea or hear a different way to do something, I don't know. But I do try to balance some of the social media stuff in there. And again, as the day's workflow allows and you know, some days I get lots of stuff from my rosters that I'm on. Some days I don't get anything. It's just the way that I think. Today I had one. Last Thursday I think I had seven. So you don't.
- [42:01]
Host
You never know.
- [42:01]
Jenna Birmingham
It's a roster. You don't know. I don't. I'm not currently on any pay to plays, not because I'm against them. I think they're a great way to get clients and to push yourself and have access to auditions. I don't really have the time. Currently I haven't figured out a way to really be able to factor in the time to audition and sift through, through you know, a pay to play site to do that. But again, if anytime I have someone or like a past client that reaches out, I'm always very quick to respond to, hopefully work with them again. So yeah, it's just, it's the whole day is just bouncing. I've got, hold on. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 tabs open on one on my Chrome and then on Firefox I've got four tabs. So that's all different. You know, messengers, contacts, emails. Right, all the things. So I'm constantly just clicking back and forth while making commercials and voicing stuff. And the cool thing with this job, the, the salary job, there's I think we have 26 commercial producers and four different hubs and you know, we have multi voice spots. So there's times or they'll be like, I'll have a spot that I'm making and they want a male and female version. But since I've got the session, I'll go ahead and just cast the male version. So I'll send that off to one of the guys, they'll send me back the audio and then I'll, you know, mix it down, make the spot and load it. Same thing for them. They may have a male and female version and I'll get the voice request. I do it, kick it back. Usually I give three takes. Whether it's my, one of my clients or one of the people that I work with just out of habit anymore. It's just you have, you get three. If I'm really in a crunch, you're going to get one. But yeah, it's just, it's just that bouncy, bouncy stuff. If I have a directed session, I will not be taking lunch that day for, for the salary job. I do still make time at some point. Normally when things are slow, I will again duck out, take a moment for myself, play with my dogs, just kind of etch a sketch myself. And then at the end of the day it's generally that's when I will do stuff like this with you or I will coach somebody or I'll be working with someone on their demo. I've been a part of a voiceover program in Ghana, so that's been really cool. And that's, that's via Zoom. Obviously I can't make that trip quickly. I can't make that trip and be Back in a day. But yeah, so the evening is normally when I have to do that kind of stuff. I do make a point to not work on Sundays. If I can avoid working on Sunday at all costs, I will because I need to.
- [45:00]
Host
Everybody's got to have a day, right?
- [45:01]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah, I can't. I try not to work on Saturdays, but sometimes it happens. But for the most part, like Sundays are my vocal day off. I, it's my Etch a Sketch day because if I burn myself out, I'm not going to be able to do this week after week after week. You can't be constantly creative. You can't be constantly balancing just in terms of like the commercials that you voice in a day. You know, I'll go from reading a college spot to, you know, some cancer PSA to a restaurant to a sex shop or gentleman's club. Like, I'm all, It's, you know, and they're all back to back to back to back. So, you know, getting in the headspace to do all those and be those different people and have those different conversations in rapid succession. If I can't reset, I'm not going to be able to bounce and do all those things every day of the week. So I, I really do make sure to give myself that sanity and, and I don't beat myself up for it. And if I do nothing but lay on the couch and watch murder shows on that day, that's fine if I wind up going out and doing something awesome. But it's whatever I need to do for me, because I need that for my own mental health. I need that for my own creativity. And I, I do understand the golden handcuff situation for, for voiceover stuff, but even people that are really tied with, you know, doing promo or things like that, I mean, automotive is a little bit of a golden handcuff situation, but again, you get a routine. But generally speaking, you know, everybody has everyone who's successful in their life, not just their career. They do have some boundaries for self care and that's important. And I, and I understand the drive. It's almost like an addiction. Like, especially if you're on vacation to be like, oh, I'm missing, I'm missing this opportunity, I'm missing this audition and you. That's okay. And I admit there have been people that have gone on vacation and I wound up getting the client because they liked me and they switched. I know I have gone on vacation and the client wound up with a different voice. And that's, it's fine. It's okay. It's nothing personal. It has nothing to do with my abilities. Me and my life are valuable and important.
- [47:24]
Host
100.
- [47:25]
Jenna Birmingham
And, you know, if. If you're not experiencing life and having a life, you're not really going to have anything to draw from when it
- [47:31]
Host
comes time to perform anyway. What's the point of it all anyway?
- [47:35]
Jenna Birmingham
Exactly.
- [47:35]
Host
I'd really love to hear how
- [47:39]
Jenna Birmingham
you
- [47:39]
Host
touched on, you know, I could be doing a, you know, furniture spot, and then I could be doing a sex club, and then I could be doing a psa, and then I could be doing a cancer thing. And one of the things that I think that we are often very good at as voice actors on the whole is massively overthinking auditions and trying to, you know, we read the specs over and over and over. We try to find that, you know, who. Who is this? What's my point of view? You know, all the things that we learn in coaching, and not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's really easy to massively overthink that and then mess with your own head when you have to do that many spots in a day. You do not have the luxury of sitting around and massively overthinking these.
- [48:18]
Jenna Birmingham
No, I don't.
- [48:19]
Host
What are some of the things that you. What are some of the creative tips or tricks that you have that help you to just. Okay, here's a spot. Look it over. Here's where I'm going with it. And okay, you gotta be. I mean, I don't want to use the word rip and read because I know it's so dirty, but that's fine.
- [48:33]
Jenna Birmingham
I do do a fair portion of that. That is fair. That is part of the job.
- [48:37]
Host
Yep.
- [48:39]
Jenna Birmingham
But it's not all of my job.
- [48:41]
Host
But every spot's not exactly the same, right? Correct. So you're still having to sit down and look at the spot and figure out, where am I going with this? How do you do that? How do you manage to do that so quickly? What are some of the things that you're leaning into that help you to just identify? Okay, this one, I'm going here. This one, I'm going there.
- [48:57]
Jenna Birmingham
The nice thing is for, like, if I'm doing a billboard for an alt station, you know, like one of those where this hour of music is brought to you by Whataburger alt 1037. Again, the session's already created. All I'm doing is really doing that line. So for that one, it's going to be easy because I just remember it's my alt voice. So it's just. It's. It's a character. It's not really a character, but it's a character.
- [49:20]
Host
Yeah. Yep.
- [49:21]
Jenna Birmingham
And I'm. I don't have to voice match the name because I engineered that commercial so that whatever I sound like that day for my alt voice doesn't matter. The Alt 1 of 37 is always still there. So for the. For something like that, I just go back to my. I know that that's my old voice. If I get a college spot, I'll take a peek at it and it's. What's my perspective? And if. If it's. If I'm just. If I'm a student. Okay. I'm pitching my voice up. Like, I already know. Like, I just. I have a backpack basically full of a lot of default people. And, you know, like I said, for if it's college, okay, is it the student? Am I faculty or am I just someone talking about the school? Okay. Right there. I've got three different vocal choices, and I'm pretty used. The copy tells you what it wants to be. And similarly with the gentleman's clubs,
- [50:13]
Host
there's an implied.
- [50:15]
Jenna Birmingham
There's an implied read there. And the challenging part about those is, you know, there's 900 number, there's sultry, there's sexy. And I mean, you've got about this much space out of a spectrum. And it's like finding the right level of sexy, sultry, not inappropriate, like in that little spot. And again, once you've done it for a while, you just know where it is. You know where it lives in your voice and that kind of thing. And sometimes they'll be like. Like there was. There's one market, I have three. I have two gentlemen's clubs and a burlesque show. So they're all in the same market. And I have a different. A slightly different sexy read for all of them. The burlesque one is a higher pitched, sexy. One of the gentleman's clubs is more breathy than the other one, and they're a little bit different pitches. And the one that's less breathy has more attitude. So little nuanced differences, but I don't run into that very often. I try to respect that, but I mean, that was a work situation where it's like they all requested you. They know that you're doing the other stuff. So. But again, it's a lot of it is just knowing who you are and who the character is and when you have. When you're seeing so many scripts, you do know, you. They. It. To me, it just feels like they know what they want to be. And if I'm coming at it, you know, there's sometimes where I'll be halfway through it and it's like, you know what? That doesn't. That just doesn't quite feel right. And I'll make some little tweak and then I'll, you know, do it again. But generally, I just. I go with what feels right. So it's not that I don't look at the script and do the who am I talking to? And all that kind of stuff, but once you've been like, if you've done 15 colleges, you, you know.
- [52:12]
Host
Yeah.
- [52:13]
Jenna Birmingham
Who you're talking to, like, some of start to find.
- [52:15]
Host
So you've recognized the patterns or how exactly. Say, characters that you can tap into.
- [52:19]
Jenna Birmingham
Exactly. So for me, that's. That's how I. I deal with it. And I do approach, you know, scripts sometimes where it's like, okay, this, you know, normally with the more serious ones, because those. Those are, you know, you have to dig a little deeper inside for those.
- [52:37]
Host
Yep.
- [52:38]
Jenna Birmingham
But that's when I'll sit there and it's like, who exactly am I talking to about this particular program? You know, that I'm. I'm advertising, stuff like that. So there are times where I am doing the who am I talking to? You know, what's my role in this? Am I someone that has suffered this situation and I'm trying to be a cautionary, or am I someone that helps someone in this situation? And I'm trying to let you know that this is not like. So, I mean, I still do the homework for scripts sometimes. I mean, if I have time, I absolutely do.
- [53:13]
Host
Yep.
- [53:13]
Jenna Birmingham
But, yeah, it's. Again, you. You get used to what your voice can do. You get familiar with your instrument and things like that. So a lot of the times you eventually can get to a point where you can kind of skip some of the mind stuff that goes through it. And when I am doing an audition, I kind of glance at the specs, but I'm gonna do what feels right for me, and, you know, I'm gonna read the copy and what I get from that, I may be totally wrong.
- [53:43]
Host
I don't know.
- [53:44]
Jenna Birmingham
But at least I'm gonna feel good about what I do.
- [53:46]
Host
Yeah.
- [53:47]
Jenna Birmingham
And if I hit the specs and it. Okay, cool. If I don't hit the specs, you're getting an honest performance out of me. What I feel like the script deserves from me. So I Which is.
- [53:58]
Host
That's genuine and authentic that everybody's asking for anyway, right?
- [54:01]
Jenna Birmingham
Like, exactly.
- [54:03]
Host
That's what we're supposed to be doing. Yeah, I agree. Sometimes it doesn't always feel like that's what they actually want, but no. And that's what they're asking for.
- [54:10]
Jenna Birmingham
And that's the other side of it is like I've made so many commercials where I have given the client exactly what they wanted. And we want a creative spot. We want this, we want this. And I do all the things and I have a great time. And they're like, okay, we know we asked for that, but can we just get like a regular.
- [54:27]
Host
We just go back to what we've always done?
- [54:29]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah, can you just do a rip and read? And it's like, yeah, I'll be happy to make your stuff sound like everything else that's on the air. It would be my pleasure. As long as you're happy.
- [54:36]
Host
And I think we've all been in that spot where booked a session and we've gone in and. And you're sitting in the studio and you got five people on the other side of the glass and everybody's got to have an opinion and everybody's got to be able to justify why they're there.
- [54:49]
Jenna Birmingham
Yep.
- [54:50]
Host
And where the spot ends up after that, you know, two hours to record a 30 second commercial where it ends up versus where it started and what they asked for. And by the time you walk out, you're like, I just want to go and drink.
- [55:04]
Jenna Birmingham
I will say I. I've had. There's. There's one client that I have worked with a few times and they have, you know, it's. It's the firing squad and it's so funny. They'll start with, okay, can we just do a rough. Just. Just to get it on, you know, just to get it recorded. What you would do. Okay, I do my thing and then I get all the feedback and then we start doing line by lines and all that kind of stuff. And then it's completely taken away from what I delivered. And again, I at. They're happy I'm doing all the things. And then this particular client, they always wind up. You know what can you. Just to see what happens, knowing we have all these changes. Can you do what you think, like a mixture of that and the first thing that you did? Sure. And I do. And it's the same, almost the same read that I gave them.
- [55:57]
Host
Circle back to where we started an hour ago.
- [55:58]
Jenna Birmingham
Exactly. And it's almost always the same. And they love it. And it's just like that's happened too many times on the production side of things for me that, you know, they'll come back for revisions later. And I will admit, with permission, there's been a couple times where I sent the first copy back after all their revisions and they're like, oh, my God, this is perfect. And it's just like, of course, that is so. I mean, there are moments where you kind of have to laugh at some of the absurdity of everyone trying to. In a directed session like that. Everyone trying to make. Make their presence, you know, valid and that they have something to offer. And there have been some really great sessions that I've been in that they've come up with some fantastic ideas and then they undercut each other and it's just like, oh, but I really like that third take with that idea. I'm not producing that one.
- [56:50]
Host
My worst was an in studio session. I think the script was 13 words. I was there for almost four hours.
- [56:57]
Jenna Birmingham
Oh, my. Okay.
- [56:58]
Host
Yeah, there was like eight people in the room. We recorded. I don't know, we. We spent. Of the four hours, I think we spent about six minutes recording.
- [57:08]
Jenna Birmingham
That sounds about right.
- [57:10]
Host
And then the rest of it was them just talking amongst themselves. Well, I'm literally just sitting there. I felt like a zoo exhibit. I'm just sitting on the other side of the glass. Right.
- [57:17]
Jenna Birmingham
They're debating.
- [57:18]
Host
They're probably going, they ordered lunch. They did. They ordered lunch. And they're sitting there eating their lunch. And I'm just sitting there looking back at them and 13 words. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. This is why commercial budgets are so expensive. Because you've got. Every single one of these people are in the room now who are getting paid to sit here. Thirteen words. But I'm whatever. I'm getting my check. At the end of the day, I'm getting paid.
- [57:40]
Jenna Birmingham
If that's what you guys really want me to sit here.
- [57:42]
Host
You want me to pay. You want to pay me to just sit here, then I guess, then. And. But yeah, you end up, you know, the final spot that runs is like the very first one you recorded.
- [57:50]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah, it. It happens way more than it should.
- [57:53]
Host
Oh, yeah. Well, I know that you do offer some coaching and doing thousands of commercials in a year. I would think that you would certainly have something to offer a little bit of insight into that space. So tell us a little bit about what you. What you have to offer. If somebody's interested in getting in contact with you or learning a Little bit more about your services and it sounds like limited.
- [58:16]
Jenna Birmingham
They are. That is a factor. I'm not as available as I would love to be. Sure. But I'm also doing what I love. So, I mean, yeah, I do coach automotive commercials and I have taught commercial when people have asked me to. And if you are interested, you just, you know, check out jennabirmingham.com you can email me directly. I will say Facebook messenger is my quickest response time just because that one's always up because that's where family reaches out to me and everything. And I. My kids don't write me as often as. As I would like. So when they do respond, it's like, oh, I got a live one. So, yeah, so. So Facebook Messenger, I am a bit faster, but yeah, I'm pretty easy to get a hold of. So just dropping me an email and I am. It's a Yahoo at this point because that's what is working for me. And it's Here the number two voiceahoo.com and I do do demos. I limited number of them. And the demos I do are commercial demos. I'm only starting to do automotive demos just because. Just because it's a little bit different than a regular commercial demo. So, you know, I'm taking that very cautiously and carefully and you really have to be ready for that automotive demo. And I want to make sure that it's awesome. But yeah, so, yeah, I do do commercial demos and it's again, same way to contact me. And it's most the time when I do work with people again, like I mentioned, it'll be on the evenings and it'll probably be Saturdays. That's really my availability. So that part again, is limited. And I. It's not because I don't love being there for the voiceover community because I totally do. I love being able to help people and share my experiences when it's helpful, that kind of stuff. So.
- [60:16]
Host
Well, Jenna, this has been great. It's been. It's been fun to talk to you. I, yeah, I can't. I'm still trying to wrap my head around those numbers.
- [60:22]
Jenna Birmingham
The numbers are insane. If you had told me, that's like,
- [60:26]
Host
I want to know. I want to know what that's like. And then there's a part of me that's like, yeah, no, I got four kids. I don't know what that's like.
- [60:31]
Jenna Birmingham
You know what a workload is. Like, that's. You've got that. Well, and the thing about the numbers is, you know, since I've had this job. We've had a couple. We've had a couple of producers that have left, and we've, you know, then there's new ones that have come in, and they've both been voiceover people that could do production. And I knew them, and I did not tell them what the numbers are like. And it's not like when you get hired, you know, you get. You start getting to, you know, to that number. You get built, you get. Once you get comfortable, your numbers will slowly start to grow in terms of how many you make a week, a month, and that kind of stuff.
- [61:08]
Host
If you survive your first November.
- [61:10]
Jenna Birmingham
Exactly.
- [61:11]
Host
That's how we know that you've got what it takes to do this job. That's kind of what it sounds like.
- [61:15]
Jenna Birmingham
Well, and I mean, but that's the thing is like, you know, for. For the women that wound up getting these jobs, you know, afterwards, I'm like. Because I told them, you know, they asked me ahead of time. One of them. I approached her, I was like, listen, we've got an opening, and I would love for you to try. Like, I don't know what your job situation is. I don't even know if this is something you want, but I want you to be part of this so that I can work with you. And the other one, you know, she straight up asked me before she applied, you know, what's the workload really like, what's. What's the job really like? And, you know, and I told her. I just didn't tell her the number so much because I wanted to busy,
- [61:57]
Host
but it'd be fine.
- [61:58]
Jenna Birmingham
Yeah, it's. And that's the thing. Thing is, you know, when I. On day one, when I started, I didn't start make. I didn't make 10 commercials that day. I think I made sure two, you know, y. But yeah, it's the. The numbers are ridiculous. And I have. I have honestly had people that have accused me of lying several times. The keyboard warriors, they're. They're very good about that. And it's like, well, you can call me a liar. I could show you the folder of everything that I've made this year. Last, you know, I started in September, so the first, you know, in 19. I didn't make 2,000 commercials that year, but every year since then, it's been a thing. So, yeah. Yeah, it's. It's crazy. It's a lot of fun. And if I had to choose between doing only voiceover and doing production and voiceover, I pray that I don't ever really have to make that decision as much as I would love to just, just be full time voiceover. And similarly, when I've had my work up for an award, it was like, well, I voiced this one but I maiden voice this one. Like this one's my baby and this one was a team effort, baby. So it's, it's, it's difficult choosing.
- [63:08]
Host
You need that creative side.
- [63:10]
Jenna Birmingham
I do, I do. I really, I love the creative side.
- [63:13]
Host
Well, Jenna, this has been great. Thank you so much for your time and sharing from your experience. And we'll make sure to put everything in the show notes, all the links, social media, all that sort of stuff. So if anybody wants to reach out and get connected, they'll be able to find everything there. Thank you. Are you looking to register a new domain to set up your voiceover website on or are you looking for a reliable place where you can host your voiceover website? Itrustupperlevelhosting.com it's where I get my domains, it's where I get my hosting because it works. Check it out for yourself and get signed up at upper level hosting dot com.