VOCS 074 | Coffee with Luke Trusty

Summary

The Voice Over Coffee Shop: Episode VOCS 074 | Coffee with Luke Trusty

Release Date: April 27, 2024

In Episode 74 of The Voice Over Coffee Shop, host Andrew Morrison delves deep into the dynamic world of voiceover artistry with his esteemed colleague and friend, Luke Trusty. This engaging conversation explores Luke's journey in the voiceover industry, his ventures into YouTube narration, the creation of his acclaimed audio drama For Goodness Sake, and his insightful perspectives on the evolving landscape of voiceover work, including the role of artificial intelligence (AI).

1. Introduction: Meeting Luke Trusty

The episode kicks off with a warm introduction where Andrew highlights Luke’s significant contributions to the industry, notably his acclaimed YouTube audio drama, For Goodness Sake, which has garnered multiple award nominations. Andrew commends Luke as one of the most "savvy entrepreneurs" in the voiceover space, setting the stage for an insightful discussion on niche finding, storytelling, and YouTube narration.

2. Navigating the Voiceover Industry and Finding a Niche

Luke shares his origins in the voiceover field, detailing how the COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst for his transition from private education to voiceover work. He explains,

“When you’re an in-person tutor and suddenly you can’t do in-person tutoring anymore, what do you do? You do everything remote, you do everything online.” [09:22]

This pivot not only allowed him to explore voiceover roles but also served as a means for personal growth and self-discovery. Luke emphasizes the importance of carving out a unique niche in the crowded voiceover market, particularly through platforms like YouTube.

3. Embracing YouTube Narration

Despite industry skepticism towards YouTube as a legitimacy platform for voiceover work, Luke boldly asserts its potential. He recounts overcoming negative perceptions from traditional industry veterans who viewed YouTube work as the "Wild West" of voiceover:

“It’s unregulated and there ain’t no rules and there’s bandits and outlaws and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” [14:18]

Luke's determination led him to manage over 200 YouTube channels, refuting the notion that YouTube narration undermines a voice actor's career. He highlights how YouTube's algorithm effectively connects creators with their target audiences, making it a viable and sustainable avenue for voiceover professionals.

4. Building and Scaling a Voiceover Business on YouTube

Luke delves into the technical and strategic aspects of running a successful YouTube voiceover business. He underscores the necessity of investing in quality tools, such as iZotope RX10 for audio cleanup and D Clicker for enhanced recording efficiency:

“It’s really that simple. Because here’s the deal... YouTube is run by entrepreneurs.” [22:08]

He discusses how these tools have streamlined his workflow, allowing him to produce high-quality narrations rapidly, thereby increasing his output without compromising on quality. Luke also shares his approach to managing relationships with clients, emphasizing reciprocity and value addition:

“That's money in my pocket. That's not being wasted on AI and that's a connection that I’m building with another entrepreneur who has connections with other entrepreneurs.” [25:43]

5. Creating "For Goodness Sake" and Collaborative Endeavors

Luke recounts the inception of For Goodness Sake, an audio drama that began as a spontaneous Halloween project with his friend Morgan Elgarten. What started as a short skit evolved into a full-fledged season, showcasing Luke’s ability to collaborate and create compelling narratives:

“We went nuts, dude... It was that kind of notion of like, if you're not booking work, make your work.” [47:35]

This project not only expanded his creative horizons but also reinforced the importance of stepping beyond traditional voiceover roles to develop original content.

6. Managing Workload and Enhancing Productivity

Addressing the challenges of scaling his business, Luke emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries and optimizing workflows. By implementing efficient systems using digital audio workstations like Reaper, he reduced the time spent on each narration:

“I use Reaper and I built out a system in Reaper. So my eight-minute narration takes me eight minutes and 30 seconds and it's done.” [38:18]

Luke advocates for a balanced work-life approach, ensuring that productivity does not come at the expense of personal well-being. He advises voice actors to focus on high-quality performances rather than getting bogged down by excessive preparation.

7. The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Voiceover

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around AI’s impact on the voiceover industry. Luke expresses a critical stance towards AI-generated voices, arguing that they lack the emotional depth and authenticity of human performances:

“AI will never have that ability. It will never have the finesse... AI is always cold, right? It's always very cold.” [60:27]

While acknowledging that AI can serve practical purposes in specific niches, Luke maintains that the creative and artistic aspects of voiceover work are irreplaceable by machines. He stresses the importance of maintaining human connections and delivering soulful performances that resonate with audiences.

8. Advice for Aspiring Voiceover Artists

Luke offers invaluable advice for newcomers to the voiceover industry, emphasizing the need for dedication, continuous self-improvement, and embracing opportunities to create original work:

“Just do it. Just do it.” [67:40]

He encourages voice actors to take on diverse projects, invest in quality tools, and cultivate meaningful relationships within the industry. Luke also highlights the significance of receiving and leveraging constructive criticism to refine one’s craft.

9. Conclusion: Continuing the Journey

As the conversation wraps up, Luke reflects on his journey and outlines his future aspirations, including expanding his audio drama projects and further integrating his entrepreneurial ventures with his voiceover work. Andrew concludes by inviting listeners to explore Luke's work and connect with him through his website.

“For more information on guests, new episodes and more, be sure to visit veocoffeeshop.com and our YouTube channel or your favorite podcast streaming platform.” [76:20]

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Luke Trusty [09:22]: "When you’re an in-person tutor and suddenly you can’t do in-person tutoring anymore, what do you do? You do everything remote, you do everything online."

• Luke Trusty [14:18]: "It’s unregulated and there ain’t no rules and there’s bandits and outlaws and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

• Luke Trusty [22:08]: “It’s really that simple. Because here’s the deal... YouTube is run by entrepreneurs.”

• Luke Trusty [25:43]: “That’s money in my pocket. That’s not being wasted on AI and that’s a connection that I’m building with another entrepreneur who has connections with other entrepreneurs.”

• Luke Trusty [38:18]: “I use Reaper and I built out a system in Reaper. So my eight-minute narration takes me eight minutes and 30 seconds and it’s done.”

• Luke Trusty [60:27]: “AI will never have that ability. It will never have the finesse... AI is always cold, right? It’s always very cold.”

• Luke Trusty [67:40]: “Just do it. Just do it.”

Final Thoughts

Episode VOCS 074 offers a profound exploration of the voiceover landscape through Luke Trusty’s experiences and insights. It underscores the importance of adaptability, entrepreneurial spirit, and the irreplaceable value of human emotion and connection in voiceover artistry. Whether you're an aspiring voice actor or an industry veteran, Luke's journey serves as both inspiration and a roadmap for navigating the complexities of modern voiceover work.

For more of Luke Trusty’s exceptional work, including the award-nominated audio drama For Goodness Sake, visit www.luketrusty.com.

Transcript

[Andrew Morrison]

Voiceover Coffee Shop, episode 74.

[Luke Trusty]

Welcome to the Voiceover Coffee Shop where we give you a glimpse into the world of the biggest voice actors in the industry over a delicious cup of coffee. And now, here's your host, voice actor Andrew Morrison.

[Andrew Morrison]

Hi there. My name is Andrew Morrison and welcome to the Voiceover Coffee Shop where we start our day with some of the finest names in voiceover. If you'd like to get to know more about me, feel free to check out my [e-mail] in this episode we have one of my best buddies in the industry, the amazing Luke. Trusty Luke has absolutely come into the voiceover industry swinging like he's paved a vast road in the world of YouTube. He's created one of the greatest audio drama productions I've heard to date called For Goodness Sake, which was nominated for multiple awards and is one of the savviest entrepreneurs I know. And in this episode we're gonna chat a little. Finding your VO niche, creating your own stories and the world of YouTube narration. You were adjusting the camera, the thing and this stuff and. Hold on, let me adjust my hair. I didn't, I didn't even do my makeup for this interview.

[Luke Trusty]

My God, we're supposed to have hair.

[Andrew Morrison]

No, no, no. Hair is optional. I mean, I originally had hair as a stipulation, but you'd be surprised how many bald bearded men there are in the voiceover industry.

[Luke Trusty]

I have not. I'm not super surprised. Have you met Hugh?

[Andrew Morrison]

That's the gravy guy, right? Fantastic. Beautiful. Awesome. So this interview has already started and actually that's lovely. See, I had to start pressing record like right out the gate. Started when I interviewed Mark Scott. I forgot to press the record button. And then halfway through the interview I told him I got so tunnel visioned into interviewing you that I forgot. And you can hear it at the beginning of the interview. I'm like, so how do you take your copy? He's like in the form of a Dr. Pepper. Like he was so sweet and he graciously just jumped back into it and re answered all my questions like a champ.

[Luke Trusty]

But God bless, it's us and we're just a couple of goofballs anytime we're around each other anyway.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah. Oh yeah. We've worked together and lived and loved and were able to hold hands through Source Connect.

[Luke Trusty]

April of May of 2021.

[Andrew Morrison]

April of May, April or April. I was like, is that a adding a new month?

[Luke Trusty]

Just keep dragging them on, right? You know, cuz a leap year what was that theory?

[Andrew Morrison]

If we keep everything to like 30 day months and we wouldn't have leap years.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah, there's. There's some way to do it where it'd be like perfectly balanced and there'd be like the same number of days every month and all the calendars would magically align and everything would be great and easy to keep track of.

[Andrew Morrison]

You think we can get Nava to add that to their lobbying calendar?

[Luke Trusty]

You know, that would be great. They're killing it, man. They're doing great right now.

[Andrew Morrison]

They are. They're doing amazing. God, I love K and Tim. The whole freaking team.

[Luke Trusty]

The whole team. They're great people.

[Andrew Morrison]

Like, oh, you guys are the silent freaking military, right?

[Luke Trusty]

You're the specialist. Right?

[Andrew Morrison]

They're all voiceover talent. So they're doing like all of this fighting for us and then they're managing their careers.

[Luke Trusty]

Right. And there's. Yeah, they're still. They're doing the work and putting in the time like everybody else and then some. Oh, man. You know what you need? You need a nice dose of humility. That's what you need, humbility.

[Andrew Morrison]

I'm the most humbility person on the planet.

[Luke Trusty]

So am I. My humble. Yeah, my humble. I am so more humble than you are. I had to create humble.

[Andrew Morrison]

Wish you were humble with your award winning productions and all this snazz that you throw out in the ether.

[Luke Trusty]

I don't know about that. I mean, I put a couple of nice things out.

[Andrew Morrison]

A couple of humble things.

[Luke Trusty]

A couple of humble things. Yeah. I put out so much humility into the universe. Nobody has put more humble into the universe than I have. I'm so humble.

[Andrew Morrison]

All right, enough of our nonsense. Let's get to the actual interview. So how do you take your coffee in the morning, Luke Trustee? Let's actually start like this thing properly.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah, right. Because we've been all over the place so far. No, it's. I kind of like, you know, it's like you put two rappers together and it's like, you know, game recognized game. Well, manic. Recognize, manic. Whenever we're talking to each other.

[Andrew Morrison]

Well, I mean, we've known each other for a ridiculously long time.

[Luke Trusty]

Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Andrew Morrison]

You're the Jason Bateman to my Will Arnett.

[Luke Trusty]

I'll take it there. I've been called worse. So I. Well, coffee now is. Is. Is dunking because I went out with the wife and we did stuff so.

[Andrew Morrison]

Well, when you're making it at home, how do you usually take it? Like, well, or you're Dunking, like once you're dunking order. I've never asked somebody like their outside of home order.

[Luke Trusty]

Oh, it's always like caramel mocha. Always sucker. Yeah, caramel mocha. I'm a sucker. It's like, it's just sweet. Got enough fat to get. Get you going a little bit. Right? Just like that. Going through the day. Right. But no, home stuff is usually just like, I'll do like chock full of nuts and a little bit of hot cocoa powder just. Just because it's a nice little touch. When I first got started in voiceover, everybody's like, you don't drink coffee. You don't do the milk. You don't do this, you don't do the that. And I did. I tried for like two weeks.

[Andrew Morrison]

I'm like, okay, there's maybe like 15 of the voice actors that I know that don't drink coffee.

[Luke Trusty]

I know. Right, Right. Because I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna do the milk, I'm not gonna do the dairy, I'm not gonna do the caffeine. I'm just gonna do the liquid water and I'm gonna try it. And I was a monster, dude.

[Andrew Morrison]

Well, I take my black, but I get. I got these like, what is it called? These element electrolyte things that I add to my water and they kind of help like counter anything the. The coffee is damaging, I guess.

[Luke Trusty]

Well, for me, what I discovered and this, this was fun for me was my face makes the exact same sounds no matter what I do. So I was not drinking coffee to avoid, like, you know, all those really fun delectable clicks and pops and. Oh, they're my favorite sounds that we all get right on a day to day basis, regardless of what we do. And I'm like, you know, the coffee actually helps me. The coffee is my warmup process. That's my, that's my warmup. Like, I have my coffee and I'm like, cool, bam. Let's get all this work done for the day. So it's like. Yeah, I just, I don't understand. Yeah, if you like your coffee, drink your coffee. Coffee, good.

[Andrew Morrison]

Do you do any, like, vocal exercises before you hop into the booth?

[Luke Trusty]

Don't have to. That's what the coffee's for.

[Andrew Morrison]

Okay.

[Luke Trusty]

That was, that was. The other thing I noticed is like when I have my, my morning cup of coffee, hot coffee clears everything out and I'm just, I'm good to go. Whether I'm hopping in the booth for an hour worth of work or like six. So that's what I need. Gets me in the pocket. Gets me in the zone. I'm good.

[Andrew Morrison]

So you don't. You don't have to scream Air Supply at the top of your lungs in order to.

[Luke Trusty]

Not unless I really want to. I mean, I don't think anybody really has to scream Air Supply at the top of their lungs. I think that's always a personal choice. You know, for me, it's gonna be like, you know, scorpions or something else anyway. I don't know if I would scream Air Supply.

[Andrew Morrison]

So you can rock the booth like a hurricane.

[Luke Trusty]

Exactly.

[Andrew Morrison]

You get it legitimately. Making love out of nothing at all by Air Supply while I'm in the shower. Like, that's not my whole vocal routine. Like, I do the trills, and I do, like, the scales and stuff like that because I. I do, like, a range of things, but, like, that song is always, like, in my shower repertoire because it goes up and down and up.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. Now go ahead.

[Andrew Morrison]

No, no, you go ahead. You go ahead.

[Luke Trusty]

Okay. Okay. What I was going to say is that back when I was doing vocal routines, because, again, you know, everybody's like, you got to do the thing. It's what you do. Until I kind of just started to realize I don't have to, because, you know, either I'm lucky, I'm fortunate, or my voice just works that way. What I would do would be, like, orchestrated theme songs from TV shows like Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Like, those are my go to, because one is heavier and bassy, and one is lighter and much more, like, brassy.

[Andrew Morrison]

So you're just acapella in a score.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah, exactly. And you pick two contrasting ones. So you work out your higher range and your lower range. And then eventually, I just kind of discovered that coffee does the exact same thing, and I get to save 30 minutes every day.

[Andrew Morrison]

Okay. How did you get started in voiceover? Like, we. Like, I met you, like, through a voiceover group based off of a voiceover class by the amazing Steve Blum. But, like, how did you find voiceover before for our little origin era together? I. I don't know the term for that. For our. Our journey. I guess our origins is good.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah.

[Andrew Morrison]

There's another word. Like, there's another word synonymous with pilgrimage that I was looking for, but.

[Luke Trusty]

Oh, I'll find it later. Just thesaurus and just overdub it in. You'll be good. Well, for me, like, I always. I. I knew when I was a kid that I wanted to be a voice actor, but you Know, I was born in 85, like, I'm an 80s baby. And I grew up in what Andy Barnett lovingly calls flyover country, which is the middle of nowhere in Missouri. And so there's only so many options that you have when you live in places like that. And voiceover was never on the radar. It was never a thing. So fast forward, I meet my wife, I'm on the east coast, we do the tutoring thing. And then, like so many other people, Covid hit. Right? Yeah, that did the tutoring thing. Was a private educator for. Oh, my God, we did that for 12 or 13 years where I was teaching creative writing and English language art specifically. So translated perfectly into this. But Covid hit and when you're an in person tutor and suddenly you can't do in person tutoring anymore, what do you do? You do everything remote, you do everything online. And the kind of big impetus for me really was my wife and I were fighting a lot, as a lot of couples did during COVID because Covid stress was huge. It was real. And throughout Covid, I was like, you know, she asked me one day, it's like, why are you acting like that? And I didn't have an answer for her. I legitimately didn't have an answer for why I was being kind of, you know, kind of a doofus and kind of being a jerk. I was like, you know what? Maybe it's time to stop and think and kind of figure out this. This problem a little bit. And it just happened to be around that time that Steve was like, hardcore marketing, all of his classes on Facebook. Right, Right. So I'm like, he's like, yeah, come and do this. And I watched like one or two of his little, you know, free explainer videos. And his approach to it was a lot more about, like, that sense of self discovery as you went. I'm like, this might be a really good way for me to, you know, approach voiceover. Like, I've always wanted to, but maybe also a really good opportunity for me to work on myself as a person at the same time and just kind of like, really just kind of killed two birds with one stone. So.

[Andrew Morrison]

So. So when people ask you when. When you land that big Disney or Bethesda or whatever role, you're going to tell them that Spike Spiegel became your marriage wrestler, kind of.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. Yeah. Really? Really. And, you know, there. There are so many good people that Steve worked, you know, that Steve works with for Bloomberg. Ray Ronnie is amazing because she's all about spiritualism and Self discovery. And he puts out the voice Monkey dispatch every month. And she had an article in one of them that really talked about, like, whenever you're reacting to a situation or you're talking in any moment, it's important to recognize whose voice you're using. And I think that's really what kind of hit me and started changing things around is my wife was like, you know, she. She's like, this is what you do all the time. And so I thought about that, and I thought about that reaction, and I said, okay, so who's. Who's really doing that? Who. Who has that kind of reaction? Who does that sound like? And it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm like, holy crap. That's how my dad would talk to my mom when my mom interrupted him. So I'm like, oh, wow. So it's my dadism that's flaring up in that moment. That's not how I normally talk. That's how my dad would talk. And it was that. That little bit just kind of unraveled everything else and kind of got me to where I am today. So, yeah, that one moment, that one thing.

[Andrew Morrison]

That's cool. So the bulk of. The bulk of your work is YouTube work, right?

[Luke Trusty]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew Morrison]

How did you get into, like, the YouTube sphere of voiceover, and how has that been sustainable? Tell me about YouTube work, because that's frowned upon in a lot of places for unnecessary reasons. You know what I mean?

[Luke Trusty]

You know what? When our tutoring work started drying up around this time last year, around March of last year, and I had been, you know, like so many other people been, you know, pursuing or chasing or whatever term you want to use for voiceover work when you're first starting, but you're selective about what you're doing when you first start.

[Andrew Morrison]

Right?

[Luke Trusty]

And YouTube work was always there, but so many people had always said, don't do it. It's a hamster wheel. I love this phrase. I see it all the time. It's the Wild west, the voiceover. I see that all the time.

[Andrew Morrison]

How is it correlated to the Wild West?

[Luke Trusty]

It's the Wild west of voiceover, son. Because it's unregulated and there ain't no rules and there's bandits and outlaws and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[Andrew Morrison]

I'm pretty sure if somebody called any genre of Voice over the Wild west, that would just kind of entice me to do it.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah, right.

[Andrew Morrison]

I want to be a BO Pirate, right?

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. Right. So what happened was so many people we're talking so much trash on doing YouTube work that I stayed away from it because, you know, there's this, this whole conception about we all have, I don't know, some magical voiceover fairy that keeps track of every single little job we ever do or we've ever. That's what I call. It's my voiceover fairy. And my voiceover fairy has, has this beautiful organized ledger with hyperlinks to everything I've ever put out. And anytime I submit myself to a new person, that ferry is right there and says, here's a catalog of Luke Trusty and everything he's ever done and anything and everything he's ever said. So you look at that when you decide if you want to work with him. And people said you're not going to get agents, you're not going to get cast, you're not going to get this work, you're not going to get that work. You can't do this or you can't do that if you do YouTube content. And these were like very old guardish people that have been in the industry for 20, 30 plus years. And so as you know, a covo, that's how I identify. I'm a Covid voiceover. That's what I am. That's when I got started. And yeah, and when you're coming into it and everybody you grew up listening to as a kid or a young adult is like, no, don't do it, don't do it. It's bad. I believe somebody once said it erodes the foundation of the industry about YouTube. And so that really kind of gave me a really hyper negative view of content. And for me what happened was tutoring was drying up. I had an opportunity to start doing YouTube content. And it was either that or I could go and work at a Costco or try to get a job at a shoprite or try to get a survival job someplace else. You know, a sold shriveling 9 to 5 somewhere. That probably would have been one of the last jobs I ever worked in my life. Or I could get over all of these, these, you know, inhibitions and fears and feels that I had over YouTube content. That was all secondhand and third hand information anyway.

[Andrew Morrison]

Why was your first thought to go to a 9 to 5 and not go back to tutoring?

[Luke Trusty]

Because our work had all dried up because we.

[Andrew Morrison]

You didn't think about like creating your own.

[Luke Trusty]

We, we thought about it, but we had already built up ourselves and a reputation in Brooklyn because that's where we live prior to moving back to Jersey. Because of the pandemic. So we had, we man, we taught three generations worth of students. And the time that we were teaching and a lot of it was all word of mouth. We didn't have to advertise, we didn't have to go looking for work. It was friends and friends and cousins and family members and everything else because we work specifically with English as second language learners. So ESL learners or ELL or people that had recently immigrated or like first generation American born Chinese whose parents only spoke Chinese at home. And so we were already kind of a very niche market anyway. And a lot of our business was word of mouth. And when we moved to New Jersey, that was a much smaller market that we moved into with that niche. And it was already, it was already dominated by people locally. So there really wouldn't have been a way to break into that. So it, for me, it really was like, okay, cool. I can either I can try to turn voiceover into my survival job or I can go and find a survival job. And I elected to make voiceover my survival job because if you're going to have a survival job, make sure it's in the field you want to work in. Right? And so it started off with. It was bad. The first one I did, it was terrible. I listened to it the other day. It was God awful, dude. I spent like four hours on this thing because I, I, you know, I tinker with audio engineering, you know that I tinker with like mixing. I, I wear a lot of different hats and this thing was like, it was Chef's kiss. I was like, this is, this is one of the things I've, I've ever engineered, ever. It sounds amazing. And they listen to it for like three seconds and they're like, no, we're now. Your voice just doesn't fit this niche. That's good. That's fine.

[Andrew Morrison]

No, throw that in the baby book.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. And it was, it was an instant one too. But what happened is I'm like, okay, cool. I could have just been like instantly deflated and given up and walked away and muttered and said, well, this is just bad, as everybody said. But instead I'm like, hey, I've got technical knowledge. I can do a couple different styles of delivery. I have a few different microphones. I can change up my sound and space as you need. And they're like, oh, you really know like all this stuff about voiceover. I'm like, yeah, because I have, I'm one of those guys where I over prepare for something because I believe in the the notion of value. Right. So if I'm going to propose myself to a person, it's because I know what value I'm bringing to the table. I don't ever want to be undervalued in a situation, basically. Right. And so I'm like, yeah, I can do this and I can do that. And they're like, well, you want to hop on a zoom call with us, you know, in a couple days and talk to us? Because we just, you know, we, we organize stuff, we produce stuff, we. We've hired voice actors. We don't have the same level of knowledge you do. Well, yeah, sure. And then a couple days later, I followed up. And so I went from a no on one YouTube video to then becoming a voiceover manager for a startup YouTube production company. And then we started with, I think we had seven teams when I started around March of last year. And as of today, we have over 200 teams that I'm managing all the voice actors for.

[Andrew Morrison]

Jesus.

[Luke Trusty]

And it's a lot. But that's enabled me to move into learning the ropes as a casting director, learning the ropes into doing live directed sessions with some of my people. Most of my voice actors that I have on my roster I handpicked and I've been training and working with for the last year. And so that's on top of doing all these YouTube narrations every month as well. And so what started as a Don't do it. It's awful. It's bad for you because your VO fairy is going to ruin your career. To. I am helping people jumpstart their careers. I'm helping people find work and voiceover. And everything that I'm doing is YouTube related. And it's either for our production company or it's for new clients that I've made through my editors or through my writers, right? So this whole conception about it's like evil, it's bad, it's just wrong. Because what YouTube really is, what it. The way it works fundamentally is all suspension of disbelief. When you watch a YouTube channel, right, you kind of get. You get pulled into it and your first thought is, usually this person's doing a great job, right? Do you think of a voice actor that's doing that? Do you think of the writer that's doing that? Do you think of the video editor that's doing that? Or do you think the person who owns the channel is doing that? It's the channel owner. 99% of people who watch YouTube think the person who uploaded that video did all of the work.

[Andrew Morrison]

Right.

[Luke Trusty]

That's. That's the magic of YouTube. That's the suspension of disbelief. The real fact of the matter is this. Entrepreneurs run YouTube. Full stop. Entrepreneurs run YouTube.

[Andrew Morrison]

Second biggest search engine in the world and more views than any streaming service on the planet. Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. Daily. The statistics are crazy. If you were to spend the rest of your life, just the rest of your life, doing nothing but watching YouTube. You don't eat, you don't sleep, you do Nothing but watch YouTube from now until the day you die. From the moment we started this interview until now, more content has been uploaded to YouTube than you would be able to watch in that entire lifetime of only watching that content that was uploaded in such a short period of time. YouTube is run by entrepreneurs. These are their moms, their dads. It's husbands, it's wives, it's brothers, it's sisters, it's nine to five workers, it's PE, it's CEOs of private companies. It is anybody and anybody across the globe who wants to establish a new revenue stream. So as a.

[Andrew Morrison]

As a channel manager, with such fierce competition within that space, how are you guys finding your audiences?

[Luke Trusty]

Because you. The thing is, is that YouTube finds your audiences for you. That's what the algorithm is for. If you know how to custom tailor your results. YouTube is nothing but a glorified placement engine. That's what it is. That's all it is.

[Andrew Morrison]

Right?

[Luke Trusty]

There's. There's this whole misconception about. It's. It's this glorious beast, and there's all these rules, and there's these ends and there's these outs, and it's all this other bazillion things you got to worry about. It's a sorting engine. Yeah. That's all it is. I like to think of it as the sorting hat from Harry Potter. That's what it does. It'll analyze your data. It will put it out there into random spheres. It'll combine all of that to figure out what your target audience is. It'll test that audience. It'll start pushing. It takes two to four weeks, usually, sometimes a month and a half, maybe more. But once it figures out your target demographic and it pushes to that demographic, then you've got two choices. You either run with that demographic or you stop uploading for a month or two. You let it all clear out and you try again, or you try with a different channel. That's the way YouTube works, but it's run by entrepreneurs. So anytime somebody, like, sees a casting call, right? I saw one guy on A Facebook group was like, yeah, I just got done on upwork, sorting through all the YouTube trash like YouTube trash like Buddy.

[Andrew Morrison]

With certain freelancer sites, there is the abundance of five dollar YouTube jobs.

[Luke Trusty]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Andrew Morrison]

That can be defended to an extent.

[Luke Trusty]

To an extent. But these are also platforms where you have the ability to approach these people specifically, like, individually. Like, If I'm on YouTube and I'm looking at a channel and I see. And I'm like, wow, this is. The concept is cool, but that voice acting is, oh, that's God awful. AI. That's bad. Oh, I've got five people that can do that better in their sleep. I'll reach out to that person. I'll reach out to the person running that channel. I'll say, hey, this is my name. This is what I do. I have a roster of people. If you get to a point where you're making enough money on your channel to afford real voice actors, this is how you contact me. Right, because that's just it. Everybody assumes that everybody's using AI because they want to. Again, entrepreneurs, not everybody has a ton of money and a ton of capital to sink into a new startup.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah, sometimes you can pay two cents for a thousand words for an AI.

[Luke Trusty]

Right, exactly. And so what'll happen? Like, I've got one client now where he started doing that and I worked with him last year and I touch up with my clients every once in a while. Like, hey, how you doing? It's been a minute. How are things going? Are you still doing YouTube stuff? If you need a narrator, let me know. He's like, yeah, I have to use AI right now because one of my channels got taken down and I'm kind of restarting and I don't have the money to afford a real narrator right now. He's like, but as soon as that picks up, I'll contact you. And like two months later he did. And I'm doing like a ton of work for that guy right now. So it's this whole concept of like, it's the badlands. Don't do it. It's awful. It's going to be too. I'm in a studio bricks. This is 100% paid for. This is a triple wall VO edition studio bricks. This is the last studio I am ever going to need. Every single penny of this thing paid for by YouTube work. And it wasn't like scummy, trashy getting taken advantage of YouTube work. This is honest to God, people. Hardworking entrepreneurs that are trying to make another revenue stream. And the Other thing to know about YouTube is that as a narrator, it is zero risk for you. YouTube is 100% zero risk. You tell people, I don't want to be credited, they don't want to credit you anyway. Again, it would ruin that suspension of disbelief. Right. I have come up with so many new niche voices by doing YouTube work over the last year that I have from any and every workout group put together that I've done since I started voice acting.

[Andrew Morrison]

And you got paid for it.

[Luke Trusty]

And I got paid for it. It was all zero risk. It was all zero risk to me. I lost nothing. Somebody could listen to that. The. The one thing I lost was ego. That's the one thing I lost was when somebody came to me and said, can you try it this way instead? I don't know, maybe it's not going to work the way you want it to. Eh, it might be really bad. I didn't say that. I said, sure, let's try it that way. And I discovered so many new voices and delivery styles. So that first video I did, that was awful, right? Listen to it for three seconds. That was in the disaster niche. And this is just kind of like to go full circle. I'm a very cyclical kind of guy. The more you talk to me, everybody will realize that over time.

[Andrew Morrison]

Right.

[Luke Trusty]

So most of the money that I generate through YouTube now is doing disaster content. It's crazy, right? That one thing that I was so bad at when I first started that they said no after three seconds. I had an upload recently that did over, I think, 800k views. That was just like a diving disaster thing. And it took me like a whole six or seven minutes to record it. Now, did I get a fair shake out of the revenue generated from that? No. But did I lose any money by videos that didn't succeed also? No. So the information and the knowledge that you get from doing all of this for other people then enables you to literally flip the script and become your own entrepreneur. Like, I'm starting up channels now. That's not going to cost me anything. Why? Because I know who my good writer is, I know who my good editors are, and they know I'm a good voice actor. And so we decide, let's work for each other instead of for other people. So instead of somebody else making, you know, 15 or $20,000 off of a really successful video, we're going to make that for ourselves instead. And so you really kind of start to look at it in a different light. And that's the big thing. It is run by entrepreneurs. Just keep that in mind. So when you see a person on upwork or Facebook or social media and they're like, yeah, I'm looking for this kind of a narrator for this kind of video, reach out to that person. Because a lot of times that price they're going to quote is what their buddy told them to or is the price they're going to see on, like, fiverr. Right. I've actually had clients that have come to me and be like, yeah, so I really love it. I want to pay you twice as much. I'm not going to complain. Absolutely. Right, let's do it. Absolutely. You know, I've got. It's really. It's really. I was talking to one of my former clients the other day. Apparently I've started developing a fan base in the Netherlands and didn't even know it.

[Andrew Morrison]

That's cool.

[Luke Trusty]

It is really cool. And it's just because of the energy that you put out, right? Because so many people have a tendency to look down on YouTube content, full spectrum. So they're, like, really douchey towards the people who are trying to make the content, too. So it's one thing if you're just like, oh, I'm going to look down on you because you're a voice actor doing YouTube content. Gross. It transcends to, why are you trying to do YouTube content? Why are you paying people to make content for you? Why are you trying to do that? That's such a waste of time. It's a waste of money. Don't do that. And these are, like, friends and family members of these people that are hearing that. Because there's so many people in the world that just don't understand what YouTube is like. I love my mom. I love my mom to pieces. My mom is a baby boomer. I have tried three separate times to explain my job to my mom. She doesn't get it. She just can't comprehend it.

[Andrew Morrison]

That's like the trope of every voice actor. The parents going, you're making money doing what?

[Luke Trusty]

Exactly. Exactly. She's like, okay. She's like, okay, Luke, are you happy? I'm like, yes, mom, I'm very happy. She's like, good. It sounds like you're happy. Is it legal? Yes. Illegal. It is 100% legal. It is above board. She's like, okay. Do you feel like your moral compass is compromised? I'm like, no, mom. My moral compass.

[Andrew Morrison]

What sides of YouTube has your mom been on? Jesus. You might need to put the kids.

[Luke Trusty]

Filter on her browser and I'll tell you this. She's like, okay, good. Because that's always been my mom's thing. My mom has always been super supportive. She's like, you know what? If you're happy, it's legal and you don't feel like you're compromising yourself to do it, and you love your work. It's all that matters.

[Andrew Morrison]

And so you talked about being like, over prepared and making sure that you add value. So now that you're running like 200 channels and you kind of have like an overall scope of what to look for, what are those unique value propositions for a voiceover artist that are trying to get within the YouTube space?

[Luke Trusty]

Rx10. Get it. I'm serious.

[Andrew Morrison]

That's it.

[Luke Trusty]

All you need is. Yes, really? Literally all you need is. Okay, a couple things. Number one, obviously, don't suck as a voice actor. Don't suck as a human being, and for the love of all that is holy, get Isotope.

[Andrew Morrison]

Can you write this as a book, please? So first step to getting into YouTube, don't suck. Second of all, get a plugin and you're good to go.

[Luke Trusty]

It's really that simple. Because here's, here's the deal. You and I, you and I were both nominated for a One Voice award last year, right? And I, I will. I. I feel so bad because I never.

[Andrew Morrison]

Well, I still think I suck. So I don't.

[Luke Trusty]

I can never remember the correlates. I can, I can. I feel so bad. I'm very terrible with names. I always have been. The guy who actually won the award last year at One Voice.

[Andrew Morrison]

Oh, John Melville.

[Luke Trusty]

Thank you. I remember we were talking to him outside and he was really surprised that he won. And so I was kind of talking to him. Just had like a quick 5 or 10 minute conversation with John and that's. That's the amazing level of people that you can run with at some point in voiceover. He's like, yeah. One of the things that he learned from somebody was you have to keep in mind who you're talking to and how your voice is being conveyed. And he's like, most people are listening through headphones. And that stuck with me. That stuck with me for every performance I've ever done since then was that one little nugget from John because I'm like, that. That changed my career trajectory because instead of, like trying to be big and boomy and loudy and stuff, when I'm doing narration, now I'm making it more personal because if I'm in a person's Ear. I want it. I want a certain sound. So, yeah, when I say isotope and D clicker, for the love of God, I mean it. Because if you're in somebody's head and it doesn't matter how good your voice is, it doesn't matter how great the narration is, that is going to get really distracting after a while.

[Andrew Morrison]

So in layman's terms, understand how to clean up your sound so that way you can bring out who you authentically are to the table.

[Luke Trusty]

Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. Because here's the thing with. With YouTube, right? Especially, people's attention spans are at like 3.5 seconds.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

It's crazy. So what that means is that there's. There's always that need, that thing tugging at their attention strains in the back of their head. So what's going to happen is they're going to look for reasons to click away, Right? It was like, oh, God, this is this person gargling saltwater while they're reading. Like, is this Aquaman trying to tell me a story under the sea? This is so terrible. They're gonna.

[Andrew Morrison]

Unless it's asmr.

[Luke Trusty]

Unless. Yeah, unless it's asmr. Exactly. Which is so weird. Yeah, if it's asmr. But here's the thing with asmr, they know what they're signing up for, right? But for like a YouTube narration, nobody wants to hear smacking lips and all that stuff. Now, there are some people that it's very minor and it's not that big of a deal because there's a certain level of masking that takes place because of background music and effects and stuff like that. But no, get. Get it. You really want to do any kind of narration isotope. It's. If you don't catch it on sale, it's the best two or three hundred dollars you'll ever spend. That. That was my. That is my number one requirement for all my voice actors. After a certain point, I'm like, look, guys, I've been nice. I've been really gentle about it. Go to Sweetwater, go to this, go to that. You can get the full standard edition for, like 100 bucks right now. Do it so that you won't. So you don't have to worry about it.

[Andrew Morrison]

So once you get into YouTube narration, how do you scale it?

[Luke Trusty]

It's volume. It's 100% by volume. It's just. Just volume. I sat down the other day and I calculated everything because I was curious. You know, I was like. I was seeing people posting like, it's your Fault, actually, it's my fault. Yeah, it's your fault. You posted that video on, on Facebook and LinkedIn where your, your footage finally came out.

[Andrew Morrison]

Animation thing.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah, the animation stuff that came out. Right. And that got me thinking. I'm like, you know, I'm actually like a very quiet guy and I don't ever really say, like, I did a thing. I'm like, I'm inspired by Drew. Like, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I would. I just want to kind of calculate.

[Andrew Morrison]

That's been a thing.

[Luke Trusty]

Right.

[Andrew Morrison]

That's super recent because I did like a sports promo a couple of months back.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah.

[Andrew Morrison]

And like, I was like, I never post my work. And so I decided, I'm like, you know what? I do a lot of sports announcer stuff and I do promo stuff and I do a lot of commercial stuff and I never post it. I should start posting it. And so I posted a sports thing that I did and it was Oklahoma versus Arizona for the Valero Alamo Bowl. And then I went to go direct market to a client on link. I went to message somebody on LinkedIn and they told me, your voice is perfect for this, but I hate Arizona State so we're gonna go with somebody else. And so that's why for months I didn't post anything but like.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah.

[Andrew Morrison]

But I got over it.

[Luke Trusty]

Well. And. Yeah. And so for me, I sat down, I calculated. I'm like, yeah. Up until at the point of that posting, I had done over 2, 700 narrations in a little over a year's time. That's a lot of narrations for one person to do.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

When, when you, when you average anywhere between like 8 to 10 minutes per narration. Right.

[Andrew Morrison]

And that's in addition to your audio production work for your audio drama stuff and your managing of all the channels and.

[Luke Trusty]

Exactly. And everything else. Yeah, that's. That was on top of everything else that I'm doing on a day to day basis.

[Andrew Morrison]

Right.

[Luke Trusty]

So, yeah, it really is. It's about technical skill, it's about microphone technique, it's about knowing how to connect to your audience. Because here's the thing, I've got people, I love all my voice actors on roster. They are just amazing human beings. I've cultivated so many awesome relationships. One of my guys proposed recently and his girlfriend said yes. And he's like, look, I want you to come to the wedding whenever it is. I'm like, I will be there. I was like, it's so sweet of you. I will absolutely be there. Because that's the kind of relationships that I cultivate with the people that I work with. And for me, there are some of my voice actors that will sit and they'll do a 10 minute narration in an hour. That's a lot of time to spend on a 10 minute narration.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

That means that there's some insecurity somewhere or there's a technical issue or they don't have isotope. Or they don't have isotope. So I really sat down and I'm like, okay. I had that conversation with myself. I said, okay. It takes me like an hour to do one of these narrations. It's like eight or 10 minutes. At the rate I'm getting paid, it's not worth it. I can make more money at McDonald's. Something's gotta change. What can I do in my process? What can I streamline? What can I fix? And so I sat down and I use Reaper and I built out a system in reaper. So my eight minute narration takes me eight minutes and 30 seconds and it's done. I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to worry about cuts. I don't have to worry about edits. I don't have to worry about removing breaths. I don't have to worry about anything. The system I have is bam, bam. Done. Boop. Render upload next. So I can get through on on average. It's amazing. You're gonna have to find out I'm eventually gonna put a video out on it.

[Andrew Morrison]

Okay.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. That I've. I've learned enough as a covo and experienced enough like secondhand and third hand nonsense that I'm like, you know, there's not a lot of openly accessible free information to people just starting. Everything is paywalled at one point or another. Right. So I want to start taking what the stuff I've learned and I'm going to start putting out a series soon, probably in the next month or two. It's just like, hey, this is, this is who I am. Let's talk about, you know, let's talk about voiceover. Let's talk about the stuff I've learned that I've had to pay to learn. So you don't have to. Because I, I came into voiceover in this, I love this booth and I am so grateful for this thing every single day. Because I started in a closet with an AT 2020 microphone that I got on sale for like 50 bucks. It was the XLR. I started on a Scarlet that I got the whole package on sale for a hundred bucks and just a Bunch of pass me down stuff. I had like curtain rods and blackout curtains from Amazon that were like $7 each. I had old carpet that I cut into squares for the floor in the closet. So I, I started just about as jank as you could possibly start and voice acting. And my promise to myself was I will not invest any money in my business unless it comes from my business. Because if I'm going to be truly successful in voice acting, I need it to be self sustainable. So this, this thing, like a lot of people could look at that and go, oh, this guy's bragging he's doing this. I'm like, no, this is, this for me is a constant reminder of what it means to fund your business with your business.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

Because if you fund your business with your business, you know where your money's coming from, you know where your money's going and you know how to build your business. One of the things that we, we learned from Tom Deer last year at One Voice, if you've never worked with Tom Deere and you really want to figure out how to run your business, work with Tom Deere.

[Andrew Morrison]

Oh, I love Tom.

[Luke Trusty]

Oh, he's an amazing.

[Andrew Morrison]

Tom Deer's awesome.

[Luke Trusty]

One of the things that he talked about was like, imagine your business. The perfect day in your business. What do you want it to look like? I'm like, okay, cool. My perfect day would look like this. I would wake up, I have a set amount of work that I don't have to source. That's my steady income stream. That's my revenue stream. I don't have to worry about it. I know how much money I'm going to make roughly every month without having to do auditions or find work. That was the first key element. I'm there now after a year I have that. I don't have to source work, I don't have to go hunting for it. I don't have to audition. I know what my monthly income is going to be, plus or minus maybe three or four hundred dollars. Because I've built my business specifically for that. The second part would be the auditions I get to do and the third aspect would be the stuff that I get booked for. That's a lot of fun to do. Right. So I'm already at that first key step. So now I'm starting to hit all the coaching and stuff for video games super hard. Because my next goal, career wise, over the next year, work into video games consistently. So I'm at that point where I'm getting the auditions, I'm doing the Auditions, I'm booking the work. But here's a beautiful thing. I don't have to worry about the dollar sign associated with the work. That was the single biggest lesson that I learned when I started making money. I can look at my invoices from last year. And when I started getting a lot more work was when I started making more money. Because when I was making money, I was no longer looking at it as, oh, man. Like, who? Wouldn't it be nice to have that much work? Wouldn't it be great to make that much money in a month? It gets to a point where you're like, okay, cool. I'm not worried about the money aspect of it now. I'm worried about the performance aspect of it. It goes from I want to get paid to I want to make sure that this buyer is happy, and I want to keep this person buying from me for a long period of time. And then that's when the longer relationship started building out. This really just. We do it.

[Andrew Morrison]

So at what point did you start creating audio drama work? AKA For Goodness Sake.

[Luke Trusty]

The AKA For Goodness Sake, one of.

[Andrew Morrison]

The greatest audio dramas ever written ever.

[Luke Trusty]

It.

[Andrew Morrison]

So what was that child birthing? Like, that.

[Luke Trusty]

That was painful. It was painful. Basically. Morgan Elgarten is my VO bff. He's an amazing guy. He is just hands down, one of the reasons that I still do voiceover to this day, because not a lot of people really, outside of voiceover understand the lows and how bad the lows can be in voice acting. And he was there. Amy Martin was there. I love Amy so much. You know, I had some really good, amazing people that really helped me through the rough patches and the dark spots. And there's this period of time where we weren't booking anything. And towards the end of 2022, and so Morgan and I, we tried to do a podcast. We tried to do a weekly thing, and we had a lot of fun. Never took off because we didn't know our heads from our butts with any of that stuff. And we didn't really care because it was practice for us, and we had a good time. So he contacts me, and I think the start of October of 2022, he's like, hey, we should do, like, a Halloween thing for the show. I'm like, yeah, that would be great. And I had. I just came up with this, like, really random, ridiculous log line for it. It's like, yeah, kids find out that they're on the naughty list and they get pissed and they're going to go to The South Pole, the North Pole, and take it out on Santa. He's like, yes, I love it. Perfectly. And it went from what should have been like a two minute skit to a full blown season of an audio drama. But it just, it was, that was the first time he and I had ever worked on anything to that degree beyond workout rooms. So that, thanks to Morgan, that's where I really cut my teeth and learned how to step out of my ego. Because prior to going into that, I was very egotistical, especially with my writing. And so working with him, I was able to kind of shed that. And then we went. We did too much. We did too much too fast. We did the full production. We started in the end of October of 2022, and the last episode was uploaded on December 31st of 2022.

[Andrew Morrison]

You guys did really good. In a very short timeline.

[Luke Trusty]

We went nuts, dude.

[Andrew Morrison]

Oh, I know. Every time I'd be like, hey, Luke, you want to like, do an accountability meeting? You'd be like, no, click, click, click, click, click.

[Luke Trusty]

I'm busy. Yeah. And we were, you know, I, I, Because I got you in on it. You know, I got Chris King, I got him in on it. Just basically pulled together all my really close friends because we, you know, I think at that time you were the only person I knew that was those booking regular work, you know, that's changed for all of us since. But yeah, it was that kind of notion of like, if you're not, if you're not booking work, make your work. Yeah, like this. And this is the kind of stuff I wanted to do with the range of. Yeah, exactly. With, with a. Yeah, exactly.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

And so, yeah, like, I did all the music for it. Morgan was my sound guy. I did all the engineering for it, I wrote it, he was my editor, we assembled it, we put it all together. There's this huge, beautiful thing. Until we revisited it like four or five months later. Now I can listen to it and I'm like, okay, yeah, it's really good for what it is, but there's so much more I could have done if we didn't have a timeline. Which is why we've been working on season two for a year now, which is crazy. Bugs me because I want it out now because so far it's that good. But yeah, like, if you can't, if you're really struggling finding work, make your own. Talk to the people that are closest to you and say, hey, let's just do something nuts. Let's do something crazy. Let's do something fun. Amy and I, we have worked out every Sunday for like, the last two years. And it's shenanigans, it's fun. We're hanging out sometimes. We're working on auditions and stuff.

[Andrew Morrison]

So that's why you don't have time for me anymore.

[Luke Trusty]

Not on Sundays, anyway. Yeah, I was. I always joke about it. I'm like, I really. I should record these sessions because they're just so fun. And Amy has some of the best improv voices that just. Dude, I love the sounds that come out of Amy's face. They're just amazing. And so I sat down with her a few weeks ago and I'm like, look, why don't we just start a podcast where it's just us actually recording these and then just posting it and putting it out. So now we're working on that as well. So even though we're still.

[Andrew Morrison]

That's cool.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. And it's just. It really is just us kind of like shooting the breeze and about various topics. Like, we've talked about, like, hexing on a budget. We've talked about, like, Bond Boys. Like, we've talked about all kinds of really, really fun stuff. And we're going to start posting in a couple of weeks. But take the people that are closest to you, that are your support network, that are end voiceover. And if you're not booking, make your own work. Do shorts. Like, we did an audio drama, and it stood up against all of these other animated features. That's what we were. Drew and I were both nominated for work on the show, and it wasn't even a show. It was an audio drama. Everything else in that category for, I think it was like Best Male Performance. Right.

[Andrew Morrison]

Best Male Character Performance.

[Luke Trusty]

Character performance. Right. Everything else in that category was animated. Ours was not. It was an audio only medium. And we were nominated for an award that was predominantly animation based. So, like, if you. I guarantee, you know, that guy who wants to be an audio engineer, pull him into it. You know, that person who wants to make music or learn how to make music, pull them into it. Right. Because you never know where it's going to go. I still get people. And that, that for whatever reason, I love the show. Don't get me wrong, it was fun. It's still gaining views every month.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

And we don't.

[Andrew Morrison]

I mean, a lot of those might be me.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah, I know, right? I usually discount, like, you know, plus or minus 5% just for the amount of times that, that I listen to it. Because, again, that tendency to be over prepared to have value by reminding myself of that was the value I had then, this is the value I have now. This is how I'm going to do it differently for season two and make it better. That's how you improve not just yourself and your career, but also your business end over end. It's that constant reevaluation of what value you bring to the table and also makes it a lot easier to negotiate your work rates too. So when you know your value, people will, people say, well that's too much, that's fine. When you can afford me, I'll be here.

[Andrew Morrison]

Right?

[Luke Trusty]

And there's nothing wrong with saying that. When you can afford me, I'll be here. And I've had so many clients come back to me and say, hey, I can afford you now. Let's give this a shot. Yeah, perfect. I love hearing that because it means that they were successful in their entrepreneurship and they're ready for the level of value that I offer at the price that I offer. And then boom. That's how you make the money. That's how you make the relationships.

[Andrew Morrison]

That's how.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah.

[Andrew Morrison]

And speaking of growing entrepreneurship, I remember those days when you were working like 10 hours a day on for goodness sake and you were running yourself raggedy it. But now it seems like you've been able to build that muscle and work 10 hour days on multiple different things under high stress and you've been able to manage it a lot better. How were you able to kind of slowly build that over time?

[Luke Trusty]

So I, I set limits for myself, right? I get a monthly salary for all the management work that I do. So it got to a point where I was doing three or four hours worth of admin stuff a day and I'm like, okay, that's taken away too much time from my other work. So I sat down, I said, okay, cool, let's have that conversation. What's your value? What are you worth? How much is this translating out to on a per hour, per daily basis? I was like, woo hoo. Whoa. I am worth way more than that. And the company can't afford to pay me more than what they're paying me because we're a startup. Cool. So I'm a dial that back. This, this is the amount of time that, that, that I have for this level of work every day. And I'm honest and I'm transparent. And I told my partners, I'm like, look, this, this is the amount of work I can do for this every day until the company can pay. Can, can you know, afford to pay me more, at which point I'll scale that up as necessary. And they're like, it was perfect. They're actually, actually, we felt you've been doing too much and the other production managers weren't. So you handle your part, they're going to handle theirs. I'm like, okay, cool. So that worked out. But a large part of it is just like anything else. I had one of my guys, he's like, yeah, I'm doing like this eight page narration and it's killing me. He's a newer voice actor. It's not surprising. He like lost his voice for like a day or two because he was just, he's a new guy and he was making some mistakes. I follow the same advice that I told him. Step away sometimes, right? Just take a step out, take a walk out. Give yourself 10 or 15 minutes. Go eat a cookie, have a milkshake, right? Go eat a cookie, right? Go eat a cookie. Go eat a cookie. Give yourself a little bit of a break. Because here's the deal. When all of your work is done, they're not going to know how much time you spent doing it, right? They're not. If you do it the right way, they're not going to be able to tell that you did that over a two hour period with a bunch of family stuff in between. I've had that happen, right, Where I've had to walk away and deal family stuff and then come back, you know, but really, it just, it's just, here's, here's the thing. It really boils down to one simple phrase. I've never had an opportunity to work with Charlie Adler. I would love to. This is my go to phrase for everything in life, especially with business. This is Charlie Adler's approach as a voice director. When somebody's struggling, getting close. You listening? You hear me, right? Loud and clear. Okay, cool. Yeah, just fucking do it. That those four words have gotten me through so much, it is ridiculous. And has helped out with all of my new people so much too. You just do it, right? Because why do we procrastinate? Procrastination comes from some. We got hurt doing something at some point in the past where our feelings got hurt. So we try to drag it out to avoid it. No, just, just do it. Well, get it done. Yeah, you know, there's also.

[Andrew Morrison]

Well, yeah, no, there's the avoidance of discomfort. Like when, when you've got like a list of auditions and voiceover work to do and then you also have the dishes to do and you pick whichever one that you feel will be more comfortable, which is generally doing the dishes, and then you just.

[Luke Trusty]

Exactly as productivity exact. Exactly. That's what I'm talking about. Right. So you've got a laundry list of auditions to do. Just do them. You've got audio work you got to do. Just do it. Because the amount of time you're going to spend dodging the work, you could have had it done and you don't have to worry about it and you move on and you've got all that time to do other stuff. And that was one of the lessons I had to learn the hard way. Because I'm like, okay, realistically, with what I'm making, should I be working 12 hours a day? And the answer to that was no. I was like, okay, based on how much I'm making, how much should I be working in a day? And the answer is about four hours. So my work day, I'm. It's usually four or five hours. I usually flip it. What's what.

[Andrew Morrison]

See, I flip it. So if I'm, if I notice, like I have a kind of gauge, I like to spend half of my day marketing and half of my day voicing. And so, you know, I mean, it varies day to day, but I do an audit every month. And so if I find that I'm doing more voice work than marketing, then generally that's where I go to some of my clients and I raise my prices. Because, you know, I mean, if you like extreme scenario, you lose half your clients at double, you're still making the same amount. But then if I'm doing more marketing than voicing, then that means I need to change something in my marketing because it's not working as well.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. And it's. And it's different per business model.

[Andrew Morrison]

Right?

[Luke Trusty]

Right. Yeah.

[Andrew Morrison]

Everyone's business is different.

[Luke Trusty]

Every business is different. Right. Like, I built mine specifically so that the time I spend working, it's paid work. Right. It's not. I don't chase auditions, I don't chase work. I don't have to do marketing because I'm lazy. I'm lazy like that. I just, that I decided when I was going to build out my business, I don't want to have to waste all my time doing that because it could you get a really good return on investment in that time. Sure. But the amount of no's or the amount of silences and you know this as a big marketer.

[Andrew Morrison]

Oh, yeah. No, I'm a guy. I love marketing.

[Luke Trusty]

Huge marketing guy. I know very few People in life that are as passionate about marketing as you are.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah, dude. Because it's not a task. It's a scavenger hunt towards my next opportunity.

[Luke Trusty]

There you go.

[Andrew Morrison]

I love marketing, which.

[Luke Trusty]

Which is great because it's about mentality. Right. It's about approach.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

I was the same way with my work. Like, I really want my body of work and the experiences that I've built with all my buyers to speak for me so that, I mean, daily I've got people coming to me that I've never talked to before, and they're like, oh, I know this person or this person and they recommended you. I'm like, wonderful. That's. That's great to hear because that's a great person. I love working with that person. Let me give you, like, my, you know, my referral discount. Let me save you a little bit of money because we both know a really awesome person. And then that. Could I be missing out on a couple bucks per narration? Sure. Would that add up over the course of a year? Absolutely. But you know what? That's money in my pocket. That's not going to somebody else's. That's money in my pocket. That's not being wasted on AI and that's a connection that I'm building with another entrepreneur who has connections with other entrepreneurs.

[Andrew Morrison]

Why are you so against AI? I mean, no, I. I get, I get the problems with AI. I do. But I also do recognize the. The slim purposes that it serves. But you're just no AI ever. Don't touch me with that. And like, what, like, what does that stem from?

[Luke Trusty]

So I think a lot of it stems from, number one, being an educator.

[Andrew Morrison]

Okay.

[Luke Trusty]

Right. Being an educator. I am a very. I'm a very pattern oriented kind of guy.

[Andrew Morrison]

Okay.

[Luke Trusty]

Where patterns are just insanely easy for me to pick up and see. Always have been. Probably played a few too many RTSs as a kid. Blame it on command of comic, blame it on Starcraft, whatever you want to blame it on. But I notice patterns and I pick up on patterns a lot faster than other people do. I have a very finely tuned BSMeter or a BS radar. One of the reasons that I don't personally care for AI is it's just garbage. It's just not good.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah. But like, the few times where it does serve a purpose, like for me, I have.

[Luke Trusty]

No, no, no, no. Don't get me wrong. It serves a purpose. Yeah, it serves a purpose. I agree. I will not trash talk AI for serving a purpose. Yeah. AI does not belong in Arkansas.

[Andrew Morrison]

No, I agree.

[Luke Trusty]

I should be specific with that. There are so many people that look at English and they forget that it's English language arts. It's an art form. The way we speak, the way we write, the way we communicate. It's an art form. Right. AI will never have that ability. It will never have the finesse. I had to explain this to somebody the other day. I can give you far better work on a really crappy script written by a person than I will be able to give you by a grammatically perfected script written by AI and that's because there's. AI is good for certain things. There's no spark to it. There's no soul. There's. There's no anything to it that says that was done by a person. To me, AI is always cold, right? It's always very cold. It's always very cold. It's very direct. There's no hidden meanings. There's no anything human to it. And again, this is my ability to pick up on patterns. Most people can't tell the difference because they don't care to. Same thing for voiceover. There's that one voice that sounds like this that's out there for all the voiceovers that people use AI for. I'm like, I. That's bad. That is so hard to listen to. Again, I understand why people do it as entrepreneurs have to spend money to make money after a certain point, and they're spending what they have, which is why I always encourage them, make your money on the AI and then upgrade to a human and see how much better you can do when you can afford it. I get that. But. Oh, man. No, AI should be doing things like mowing the lawn. Should be doing, like, all the menial.

[Andrew Morrison]

No, see, the one license that I have, I use it for a newspaper company because I know you make sense for me to read a newspaper every single morning for the amount that a newspaper company would pay me. But they want the blind to be able to, like, read here, the newspaper.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah, Well, I mean, there's always fringe cases, right? Yeah, there's always, like, fringe cases where it could serve a purpose. Is that going to be the exact same as you reading the newspaper? No, but we're also talking about a very specific niche demographic that wouldn't really be able to get that news content any other way, as opposed to, we've got millions, hundreds of millions of hours of AI voices out there right now. Right. And a lot of it is, again, because people are trying to get to a point where they can Afford real people, you know, but it's just kind of like why, why are we increasing menial labor for people and letting AI do all the artistic stuff?

[Andrew Morrison]

Man. I read that earlier. It was like I was hoping that the future of AI would do my dishes and laundry so I could do art, not do my art so I could do my dishes and laundry. Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

Right now I will use AI art every once in a while. Like mid journey for concepts, but I take those concepts to artists.

[Andrew Morrison]

Right? Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

Where I'm like, hey, this is. It's 100% AI. Yes. I am not an artist. I have like five left feet when it comes to writing or drawing rather. It is not good. It's awful. This is kind of a rough concept of what I was thinking of. But obviously whatever your style is, I'm approaching you because I like your style.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

But this is kind of like different elements of these five or six images is kind of what I'm looking for. Because it's kind of like storyboarding. You like to be able to give people a rough idea of what you're looking for. So I think of like, if you're going to use AI in an artistic sense, then using it as a roadmap for what you're looking for, performance wise, that's fine. I've had clients that have come back to me and said, yeah, your guy's not really getting it. Here's something from 11 labs. This is what I'm. This is what I'm talking about. And I'll listen to it. I'll go, okay, cool. That voice. Super jank. Super jank.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

It's a reference. Exactly. It's a reference. Because a lot of times people don't know how to. We joke about it all the time, but it really is true. People don't know what they want until you give it to them. Right. So many times. And people don't have the ability to communicate what they're looking for specifically. Like. Yeah, like that, that guy, that Attenborough guy. Do you have anybody that can do a delivery like that? Yeah. You're just looking for a documentary style. I've got like four or five people that can do that, hands down. Yeah. So it's just so many people will, I think, go to AI to articulate what they're looking for, which is fine. I have no problems against that because that to me is when it's being used the right way. Right. But you're not going to be able to get machines that can capture the human spark for art better than People ever can. I don't care how trained it is. I don't care who's modeling it. I don't care. Any worker advancement it gets, there's going to be people out there that can tell the difference, and the people that can tell the difference are the same people that are going to pay other people at the end of every single day. That's who you want to market to. That's who you want to work with. So that when the time comes, an AI is infinitely cheaper than voiceover, which it will be. It will be. We're getting closer to that than not. You're going to want to have that connection ahead of time. You're going to want to be that. That human, that person that they can have a conversation with, that they have something in common with, because that's what's going to keep you on the roster. That's what's going to keep you. Getting paid. As opposed to an 11 lab subscription is like dirt cheap every month, right? It's dirt cheap. Now, AI is already dirt cheap. But some people, they just, they can hear the difference. They don't like AI. So if it's, if it's outside of arts or it's to kind of help illustrate, sure, but this is not the future of AI I signed up for, man. Like new don't do the jobs that we don't want to do, right? Because there's so many things in, in society that could be automated by AI to make quality of living for everybody better, but we're not doing that right because that's. It's not economically beneficial to people to do it that way. So now keep your, Keep your dirty AI clause out of my art forms. That's. That's my message.

[Andrew Morrison]

So if you were to go and write yourself a letter and send it back to little baby Kofo Luke, what would you tell your past self now that you know all of these amazing career things and stuff? And just imagine I said something more profound than that.

[Luke Trusty]

Same thing I told you before. Look at this very carefully. Read these words in your head as I say them on paper. Just do it. Just do it. That. That would be. That would be the one thing I would say to myself because I've asked myself that question before and it really does fall back. Just do it. You know, Paul Schmidt, another big marketing guy.

[Andrew Morrison]

Love Paul.

[Luke Trusty]

Paul says something very similar. And this, this is a great piece of advice to everybody. If you, if you have an opportunity to work and you're not right, start out by doing the shit that nobody else wants to do. And it's not just Paul Schmidt. Nancy Cartwright also says the same thing. Do whatever you can get your grubby little hands on. When you're first starting out, do everything you can do because that's how you're going to get the experience. So that when an opportunity comes along to do something great, you're ready for it and you have that value proposition as opposed to somebody saying, I really like your voice. How long you been doing this? Two months. I'm part of a discord group. We work out once every five weeks. No, no, no. That's. That's. No, no, no, no, no. Because here's. Here's the big thing as a casting director. Right?

[Andrew Morrison]

Right.

[Luke Trusty]

It's not just about Isotope. The other thing is I can tell by listening to a person how much self investment they've done. So I would tell myself, just do it. Keep investing in yourself.

[Andrew Morrison]

And get Isotope.

[Luke Trusty]

And get Isotope. For the love of God, dude, get Isotope. You need it yesterday. Because I gotta tell you, this episode.

[Andrew Morrison]

Of the Voiceover Coffee Shop was Sponsored by Isotope RX10.

[Luke Trusty]

I got it. I. I don't even think twice about it anymore. I will. I'll come in here on my coffee, I'll warm up, I'll start recording. D clicker goes on.

[Andrew Morrison]

Which is it? You just say you don't warm up. Now you said you do warm up. Do you mean.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. Is that what you're talking about? Okay. Okay. Yeah. A lot of contradicting information. Good man. Nah, the coffee is the warm up. It is the warm up. Okay. So no, like I. I throw D clicker on everything. There's so much confidence that comes from not having to worry about it. Right? Like, I don't sit here and go, oh, let me just redo that. I'm like, acetope. Get it, get it. Go get a boy. You got this, man. I trust you, dog. You got this. Yeah, because it. It really just automate the stuff that you can't automate. That gets you in your head and gets you all worried about it. Right? Just really focus on the performance. Because once you can focus on the performance, it's like everything else clicks into place. But that's where it starts. It starts with being able to focus on the performance. And that's what everybody says when I'm like, the audition is the job. What does that mean? It means that when you're proficient at auditioning, you don't worry about the audition. Right? That's what it means. You don't worry about the audition. While you do the audition, you do the audition because it's fun. And then if you get work out of that, perfect. But if you don't, it's not going to ruin your year, it's not going to ruin your bank, it's not going to ruin your ego because it was fun to do, right? And that's. That's when I think a lot of people really got to change their attitude in the way they approach voiceover. Like Bill deweese. Great guy.

[Andrew Morrison]

Oh, yeah, I love Bill. He's super sweet.

[Luke Trusty]

He is super nice guy. He does voiceover as a business, not because he wants to pursue it as an art form. And there's nothing wrong with that, but you really gotta. You have to have your mindset figured out for what you want your voiceover business to be.

[Andrew Morrison]

Right.

[Luke Trusty]

Is it a pursuit of art that you might get paid for or is it strictly as a business model? Both are valid, but you got to figure out which one it is because you can't worry about both at the same time. Right? Yeah.

[Andrew Morrison]

Well, where can people find Luke Trusty and all of his demos and all of his amazing work and for goodness sake, Christmas adventure audio drama. That's the best audio drama ever written on the face of the planet. And where are.

[Luke Trusty]

I only have to pay him $5 every time he says that. This guy's great at marketing.

[Andrew Morrison]

It's in my top 10. It's in my top. Oh, okay. It's in my top three. I will say Magus Elgar is what got me started on audio dramas. I love Philip. He is an amazing human being, an amazing Foley artist, an amazing writer. He created some amazing stuff with Mega Selga. But, but, but for goodness sake. It's amazing.

[Luke Trusty]

It was fun. You can find me here on this amazing interview on Demand anytime. Hear me? I'm right here, babe. Right here for you. You need me, I'm here. Or you can go to my website, I guess, luketrusty.com just whatever, you know.

[Andrew Morrison]

Who does that? Who cares for you?

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah, it's got, like backlinks on my socials and, you know, couple demo things on there and, you know, there's a little fun section that's got links to. For goodness sake. And yeah, now that I'm saying this, I'm like, nah, I probably need to revamp that website now, so thanks for that.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah, no, I want everybody to flood your website and tell you how much it sucks.

[Luke Trusty]

Listen, one of the most valuable things I've learned last year, right? One of the most valuable Things I've learned in the last year is the value of criticism.

[Andrew Morrison]

Oh, yeah.

[Luke Trusty]

Because it will chip away at your ego until your ego is gone and you are bare ass naked against the world.

[Andrew Morrison]

Oh, if you need somebody to criticize you, just call me dude. I'll tell you how much you suck.

[Luke Trusty]

You have. You know what? Surround yourself with people that love you and trust you and will not be afraid to rate you and strip away your ego when it gets in the way. That is so many times people say you're judged by the company you keep. That is. That is so true on voiceover. That is so true. Because when you surround yourself with amazing, loving people, like, you know, Drew, for example, I didn't even pay you to say. Yeah, I know. I'll invoice. I'll invoice you later. Don't worry.

[Andrew Morrison]

I'm only. I'm only the most humble human being on the face of the planet.

[Luke Trusty]

Second most humble. I mean, humbility.

[Andrew Morrison]

Nope. Nope.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah. If I was a trans, I'd be humbility prime. Humbility.

[Andrew Morrison]

If I was a bug, I'd be a humblebee.

[Luke Trusty]

And the sad thing is that we actually could sit here and go back and forth.

[Andrew Morrison]

We could.

[Luke Trusty]

Okay, yeah.

[Andrew Morrison]

Even. Well, we're just saying. We're not just saying that because we didn't think of anymore. We're not just.

[Luke Trusty]

No, no, we're not. We're not wasting. No, we're not wasting time at all.

[Andrew Morrison]

We wouldn't do that. What was that whole thing?

[Luke Trusty]

The.

[Andrew Morrison]

The illusion of something that you talked about in the YouTube.

[Luke Trusty]

The suspension. This is belief.

[Andrew Morrison]

The suspicion of suspension of disbelief.

[Luke Trusty]

There you go. Cool.

[Andrew Morrison]

And humility and being the most humble people you never work with.

[Luke Trusty]

Absolutely. Absolutely. If you look. Humbility and humbleness. It's synonymous with Andrew Morrison and Luke Trustee award nominated voice actors. Look us up.

[Andrew Morrison]

Oh my God.

[Luke Trusty]

At our websites. Or just look up the word humble on Google.

[Andrew Morrison]

We'll be there on our websites. But don't look me up on my name. That's. That domain is owned by some real estate agent.

[Luke Trusty]

Ew.

[Andrew Morrison]

That's why I had to put the middle initial in there. That's why it's Andrew D. Morrison, not Andrew Morrison. Because some real estate agent out of Milwaukee owns Andrew Morrison dot com. But that's also why I bought Atlanta Voiceover dot com.

[Luke Trusty]

Oh. So career goals. We make enough and we buy that real estate.

[Andrew Morrison]

We buy that real. No, no, I don't. I mean, I probably could. He doesn't look like he's put anything on there in like the past decade.

[Luke Trusty]

Oh, there you go.

[Andrew Morrison]

I think. I think he was a real estate agent during the 2008 crash.

[Luke Trusty]

Ah, I don't know that that explains it then.

[Andrew Morrison]

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for coming on, Luke. This has been.

[Luke Trusty]

Yeah, it's been fun times.

[Andrew Morrison]

I really hope you enjoy Luke's incredible insight into the other side of the industry, where he finds underserved markets and dedicates himself to leaving a lasting impression or finding the stories that he wants to see in the world and creating them himself. If you'd like to hear some of his amazing work, you can visit www.luketruste.com. thank you for listening and I'll see you in the next one.

[Luke Trusty]

Thank you for listening to the Voiceover Coffee Shop. For more information on guests, new episodes and more, be sure to visit veocoffeeshop.com and our YouTube channel or your favorite podcast streaming platform. You know you want to.