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Voice Coaches Radio #416 – Voice Acting Websites – Complementary or Personal?
Voice Coaches Radio. Everything voiceover. And welcome to this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. I am Josh Heller, he is Sam Buti. We are delighted to have you joining us as per usual. Sam, how we doing? Doing great, Josh. How are you doing? I'm doing fine. I thought I was doing great. Everything alright there?
Choking a little bit over here, but I'll survive, I imagine. You're gonna have to take the lead on this one. It's been a while since I've been trained on the Heimlich, so I hope we don't have to go there. I think we're good. That was just coffee. It's just coffee getting the caffeine up inside me. Yeah, you gotta.
Gots to. Gots to. Need it. Need it. Um, so, uh, welcome into this week's edition and, um, this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. We have implored you, we have asked and, uh, and, and basically belittled ourselves, uh, in order to, uh, to have you become a part of this show too. Uh, we've already had a few guests on.
We have a few guests lined up, former students, uh, current professional voice actors, uh, success stories to be sure. Uh, we, uh, we talked about a, a, a, a listener, uh, last, uh, week, or a couple weeks ago, I guess, when, uh, when talking about, uh, our, our goals for the month of March, and, uh, and Stephanie Toro, who has reached out to us to give us her goals for the month of March, that we will keep her on task, or at least try to.
We're not very good at, uh, at staying on task, as is clearly evidenced by this show, but we'll do the best we can, uh, but, uh, we, we have been, uh, reached out to as well by another listener, so there's at least two, and, uh, and, and she had a question. She had a, uh, a comment and something that she wanted us to discuss, which I think is a, uh, a great topic and one that, uh, uh, that I think will help out a lot of people.
So, uh, so Sam, you actually have the, uh, the question itself. So what is, What, uh, what did Wendy want to talk about? Yeah, so Wendy wrote in, which is, we're super grateful. If anyone else has questions, please send them our way. We'd love to answer these questions. That's what we're here for. We are here to help you grow as a professional voice actor.
But Wendy wrote in with this question. So, and this is what she said. Would the two of you please do a podcast on the benefits of using the voice coach's URL versus masking it with something like, and then she used her own example, her own name. wendybattles. com or wendybattlesconvoice. com, whatever you want to do, she said we mentioned it at one point in the past, but we never really dived into the benefits or the virtues or what's better or what to do.
So what do we do with that? That's a great question. Wendy, thank you so much for asking that question. And so for clarification for those who maybe did not go through this program, one of the things that you get at the end of the program is a website, a mini site. It's a one page website and it basically is titled your name dot I can voice dot com.
So mine is josh heller dot. I can voice dot com. Sam, yours would be Sam booty dot. I can voice dot com and Wendy's would be Wendy battles dot. I can voice dot com. Now, not everybody uses our site. Most do not. Everybody does. And there's something that you can do as well, which is to change. The name of the site to mask it as, as you said, to have it be something like wendybattles.
com, if that's available, which I don't know if it is, um, but, you know, finding a, an, an available domain and using that and whether or not you use our actual physical site or you make your own site, that name, that URL will remain consistent. So there, there's something to be said for that. There, there really is.
And, and the reason why is a lot of people. Want to have their, their own site. They want to have a little bit more creative control over it, maybe a little bit more, um You know, uh, uh, branding on it, uh, the sites that we provide are, are a little bit simpler, they're based off templates, uh, so if you do, you know, and, and, and, and what happens is, you know, we'll be talking to people about this, and they'll be like, you know, I'll use your site for, for a little while, and then, and then maybe I'll make my own.
And that's fantastic, that's a great idea, except if you have just used our URL for, you know, six months, it's, And given people collateral with that URL and now suddenly you change it and all those people that you worked so hard to get your information to now have bad information and I can be tell you this for for for sure if someone tries to go to your website because it's on your business card and the website isn't there anymore.
They're not going to waste their time calling you to try to find out what your website is. They're going to assume that you aren't doing this anymore, and they're going to move right on. So we do want to be careful of that. So if someone is thinking about creating their own site, if they have the technology, if they have the wherewithal, if they have the interest, you know, then you might want to look at You know, a, a, at least at the beginning, at masking it with your own URL.
So that way you can keep it consistent, whether you're using our site, or whether you're creating your own. Yeah, and what I hear in this question, too, is something I hear from a lot of our students. And if I were to take a step back from the question and be like, Wendy, what do you, what's, what might you actually be asking here?
What might be a distillation of this? What I actually see in the question is putting yourself out there. And I think that's really kind of what's going on here. It's like, is it better to have one, or is it better to have the other? The answer is Well, there isn't an absolute answer. Yes, the answer. The answer is yes.
The answer is yes. However, however, my, my firm belief on marketing, my firm beliefs, belief on confidence, put yourself out there sooner rather than later. Work with what you've got right now, what you have right now, that mini website. is enough. If there's someone else listening who just has the mini website, that is enough.
Don't let that stop you. There is no reason. There's nothing to be ashamed of. That's what you have down the line. If you want to explore rebranding, if you want to develop more material, if you want to redo everything. And to Josh's point, yeah, if you're going to then eventually update to like from something like Wendy battle site, I can voice.
com to a Wendy battles. com specific site. Sure. You have to re do all of your other collateral material. That's fine, but be that as it may. You can do that. It's not, don't think of your business card as your only business card. Don't think of your website as your only website. This is your business card right now.
This is your website right now. These are your materials right now. And while, while there is that, I think the main point I was trying to pull out there is you can change your, your collateral at any time you want. Absolutely. But you have to make sure that those people who you've reached out to. Get your new information.
Yeah. And the good news is too. It's a great opportunity. Hey, by the way, George, you know, we haven't talked in a while. Just want to let you know, I have a brand new website, brand new aesthetic, brand new demo. Check it out. Love to hear your thoughts. Hope you're doing well. Good excuse to follow up.
Absolutely. Wonderful opportunity. I don't want to bother you. I know you probably aren't hiring right now, but, uh, you know, I just wanted to touch base. Hey, change my website. Uh, you know, here it is. Hope to talk to you soon. See you later. They are a great reason, wonderful reason. But what that does show is that you need to stay extremely consistent and you need to stay organized.
Because if you stay organized with who you've contacted, when you've contacted, how you've contacted, you should have an idea of who you need to follow up with. At any given time. All right, I'm going to follow up with this company, you know, next month, I'm going to follow up with this company in a couple months.
And by having that information, you know who you've given your information to and who you need to update your information to. If you're just willy nilly doing it, then we can get a little tricky situation where someone does not have the updated information. So just something to be cognizant of, not to shy away from it, not to say don't do it by any stretch of the imagination, but just to make sure that when you do, you are, you know, being mindful of that.
Yeah, but And I wouldn't let that stop you either too. So all of that, yes, be consistent, be fastidious with your records, but put yourself out there. You have nothing to be afraid of. You've made a demo. The demo is the bar to entry. The demo is your resume, but it's also a suggestion. It's a suggestion of what you can do.
And we want to do is direct people to that demo as easily as possible. And that's what Josh is saying to me. Like, you don't want to lose people in the shuffle. You don't want to want, you don't want to change everything up and then. Someone go looking for you and the I can voice website has expired.
That's really the challenge. But for everyone who's listening, I implore you don't be shy. Put yourself out there. Think of it this way. You are the solution to somebody's problem and don't wait until it's perfect. So, so one of the things I think is, is good to kind of look at here is, is what's, what is necessary?
Like, what do you, like, there are so many things you can do, and we've talked about, you know, how we have a graphic designer here, Anna, who can, you know, make you a logo, can get you business cards, and, and postcards, and email signatures, and, uh, uh, letterhead, and, and all sorts of, all sorts of stuff, and all of that stuff is Awesome.
It really is. And if you're interested in that, please do let us know. But, all of that stuff is awesome. Is it necessary? The answer? No. No, not at all. Is it helpful? Absolutely. Sure. Is it necessary? No. So, you know, people who are starting out, you know, you don't want to hold off on getting your stuff out there because, well, I don't have all my collateral yet.
Who cares? Yeah. Here's what you need. You need two things. You need, well, you need three things. You need a demo, obviously. You need a website. You need a business card. That's it. And the business card is, I'd say, of those three, the one that, you know, you maybe don't need quite as much because you can still send your information out to people, you can still call people and get that information to them, um, but if you're going to be meeting people, if you're going to be going to meetings, you're going to be, you know, um, meeting people in person, then you absolutely want something.
Uh, so for me personally, right now, I have a business card and I have a, uh, a little business Postcard slash thank you note that I send out. Those are the two things that I have the postcard That was not necessary. I kind of decided I wanted to do that. I thought it was nice and decided to go for it Was that necessary?
Uh the business card was that necessary? Absolutely Absolutely. So I think when you're looking at it, the things you need, demo, website, and business card and that website, it can be as simple as, as, as the one we provide. Yeah. It doesn't have to be complicated. I would add in the mix what you said was so great because I would say it's that order of importance.
What's the first thing you need? The demo. What's the second thing you need? A website. What's the third thing? A business card. Those three things. And on the business card front, like I tell people to like, yes, we have Anna, we have our in house graphic designer who is. Very talented and very good at what she does.
But if that's not a good fit for you right now, if you just want a business card, something really simple, there are resources where you can do that. And having a business card is better than not having a business card. As I, as I talked about in a past podcast, right? When I did, I had that story where I ran into a guy and he asked me for a business card and I'm like, Oh, shoot.
I don't have one and that was a failure on my part, but this is why the business card is so important. So have one having one is better than not what Anna can do. If you are interested in exploring that Anna, what Anna really does is branding. It's cross platform branding where she could tie all of that collateral together.
It can be the same business card or the same website, the same postcard, the same letterhead, all cohesively. So when you're interested in developing a brand, which you can do, you do not have to do it. You can do it. That's what Anna does, but there are other resources like moo. com that I'm a huge fan of.
For those of you who don't know, it's moo. com, great printing site. It's kind of like Vista prints, but even a little bit more souped up and they make really beautiful, unique designs. It won't be a cross platform, but you can still get a cool business card and that. That is the third step, as we have Josh so eloquently articulated.
Mmm, that's what I do. That's what I do. Eloquence. Eloquence. So I'd say number one, demo. Demo. Yes. Number two, website to send people to. Hands down. Number three. Uh, would be the business card number four, be the podcast. Oh, no, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You don't need a podcast. You can get one, get one can.
They're great. They're honestly, they're terrible. I wouldn't do it. Oh, I love it. I disagree. I love having a podcast. Everyone, everyone make your own podcast. It's a blast. I have, I have so much fun in here. I can do this all day. Uh, so yeah, I mean, and, and so going back to, to Wendy's original question, you know, um, does it behoove you to, to have that, that's really up to you.
Um, you know. It can't hurt, uh, certainly. And there are absolutely benefits to it. Is it necessary? No. No. Should it stop you or stall you from You know, uh, getting out there right now, that's a big negative. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That's the one thing I think I want to get across. Do you want to ultimately have a really cool website with super branding and great cards and letterhead and all that other stuff?
That's great. Sure. And I mean, and, and down the line, yeah, you might want to, and that absolutely is going to be helpful. But should you hold off on, you know, on, on starting your marketing, on starting getting out there because you don't have that? No. The answer is absolutely hard. No, get out there is you have your demo.
If it's done being, being produced, if you have that website, whatever it might be. And if you have that business card, you get out there and you get out there now. Yeah. What is branding? What does, what is the virtue of branding across platforms? Simply what you, with all of your branding, with all of your, even if we take a step away from that, even if it's just a business card, what is the purpose of all this to go back to that first collateral item, your demo.
All of that is in service of getting people to listen to your sound. So the beauty of cross platform branding is that it's a redirect always here and there. It's a consistency. It's a visual identity. And I think that's a great point because, you know, you could have amazing business cards. You could have just a tremendous website.
And if you have a crappy demo, it doesn't matter because all the, all the, all these other things, they're window dressing. Yes. It's window dressing to get people to listen to your material. It's different ways to get them to give them a business card, which has your website on it. So now they have your business card.
They have something in hand, something they can remember, something they can touch. Then it shows them how to get to your website. Now they have something they can see. Then it allows them to listen to your demo. They are not going to hire you based on your business cards. They're not going to hire you.
based on your website. They're not going to hire you based on anything but your voice. That is it. That's what we do. That is all that's important, which is why it is number one on our list of things that are necessary. Obviously you need to have that and that needs to be the one that really shines because everything else is great.
It is helpful. I highly recommend all of those things and they can absolutely be a boon to you and to your career, but they are all a means to an end. end is that demo. That end is your voice and that end is what's ultimately going to get you or not get you that job. Many years ago I worked for a greeting card company and they had a saying that the cover of the card, the picture, is what got people to pick it up.
That's what the picture on a card was for. The words on the inside, that's what sold the card. That's a good point. Same idea with this whole like branding, your logo is the picture to get people to look at your demo. The demo is the sales. You have a cute puppy or kitty on your cart? I'm gonna pick it up, I'm gonna look at it.
I love dogs. And then I'm gonna open it up and be like, Nah, it's dumb, I'm gonna put it down. Speaking of animals, I have one last thing that Wendy added to the mix, Josh, that I wanted to share with you, and she said this. The title of her email, which is the main reason I opened it, let's be honest, it said, Say hi to Baby Bear for me.
Whoa, what up, Baby Bear? I love the podcast that you're doing. You and baby bear are doing fun and informative and baby bear So I owe wendy now a lot a lot of money for saying the baby bear thing and it sticks You're dead to me wendy Anyways had I known that going into this I would not have discussed this question Keep that card in my back pocket till the very end Thank you.
Thank you for that. I appreciate that. Uh, anything else you'd like to add there, Sam, before I turn your mic off? No, no, no. I think that I'm surprised you haven't already. I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it. I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. It was a challenge. I wanted to see how far I could push this.
No, put yourself out there. More than anything, you have a demo. If you've gone through our program, you have a demo. Don't be shy. Put yourself out there. And don't be afraid to send us your stuff. Yeah! We'd love to see it! Yeah, you have a website that you've created on your own that you want to show us.
take a look at, you want to have us talk about, you want to have us, you know, critique. We'd absolutely love to do anything like that. You can always reach out to us at any time. Best way to reach out to us is by sending an email to Sam, Sam at voicecoaches. com. You can, uh, apparently if you put baby bear in the subject, he's definitely going to open it and probably respond to it.
And we'll probably talk about it. Uh, but, uh, but anything you want to discuss, anything you want to talk about, any questions you have, any. goals you've set. Let us know. Let us know if you know if something on this show has has sparked an interest for you or has helped you in any way or has hindered your progress in any way.
We should probably know that too. Hopefully that hasn't. But again, you know, we always want to hear from you guys because it is just as much your show as it is ours. So yeah, that's about it from here. Sam, any any last words? No, that was great. Alright, well thanks so much for tuning in this week. Of course we will talk to you next week.
For Sam, I'm Double B, Baby Bear. But you can call me Josh. Yes! Yes! So long, everyone. Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
To view upcoming sessions of our live, web-based introductory sessions, visit voicecoaches.com/enroll.
Choking a little bit over here, but I'll survive, I imagine. You're gonna have to take the lead on this one. It's been a while since I've been trained on the Heimlich, so I hope we don't have to go there. I think we're good. That was just coffee. It's just coffee getting the caffeine up inside me. Yeah, you gotta.
Gots to. Gots to. Need it. Need it. Um, so, uh, welcome into this week's edition and, um, this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. We have implored you, we have asked and, uh, and, and basically belittled ourselves, uh, in order to, uh, to have you become a part of this show too. Uh, we've already had a few guests on.
We have a few guests lined up, former students, uh, current professional voice actors, uh, success stories to be sure. Uh, we, uh, we talked about a, a, a, a listener, uh, last, uh, week, or a couple weeks ago, I guess, when, uh, when talking about, uh, our, our goals for the month of March, and, uh, and Stephanie Toro, who has reached out to us to give us her goals for the month of March, that we will keep her on task, or at least try to.
We're not very good at, uh, at staying on task, as is clearly evidenced by this show, but we'll do the best we can, uh, but, uh, we, we have been, uh, reached out to as well by another listener, so there's at least two, and, uh, and, and she had a question. She had a, uh, a comment and something that she wanted us to discuss, which I think is a, uh, a great topic and one that, uh, uh, that I think will help out a lot of people.
So, uh, so Sam, you actually have the, uh, the question itself. So what is, What, uh, what did Wendy want to talk about? Yeah, so Wendy wrote in, which is, we're super grateful. If anyone else has questions, please send them our way. We'd love to answer these questions. That's what we're here for. We are here to help you grow as a professional voice actor.
But Wendy wrote in with this question. So, and this is what she said. Would the two of you please do a podcast on the benefits of using the voice coach's URL versus masking it with something like, and then she used her own example, her own name. wendybattles. com or wendybattlesconvoice. com, whatever you want to do, she said we mentioned it at one point in the past, but we never really dived into the benefits or the virtues or what's better or what to do.
So what do we do with that? That's a great question. Wendy, thank you so much for asking that question. And so for clarification for those who maybe did not go through this program, one of the things that you get at the end of the program is a website, a mini site. It's a one page website and it basically is titled your name dot I can voice dot com.
So mine is josh heller dot. I can voice dot com. Sam, yours would be Sam booty dot. I can voice dot com and Wendy's would be Wendy battles dot. I can voice dot com. Now, not everybody uses our site. Most do not. Everybody does. And there's something that you can do as well, which is to change. The name of the site to mask it as, as you said, to have it be something like wendybattles.
com, if that's available, which I don't know if it is, um, but, you know, finding a, an, an available domain and using that and whether or not you use our actual physical site or you make your own site, that name, that URL will remain consistent. So there, there's something to be said for that. There, there really is.
And, and the reason why is a lot of people. Want to have their, their own site. They want to have a little bit more creative control over it, maybe a little bit more, um You know, uh, uh, branding on it, uh, the sites that we provide are, are a little bit simpler, they're based off templates, uh, so if you do, you know, and, and, and, and what happens is, you know, we'll be talking to people about this, and they'll be like, you know, I'll use your site for, for a little while, and then, and then maybe I'll make my own.
And that's fantastic, that's a great idea, except if you have just used our URL for, you know, six months, it's, And given people collateral with that URL and now suddenly you change it and all those people that you worked so hard to get your information to now have bad information and I can be tell you this for for for sure if someone tries to go to your website because it's on your business card and the website isn't there anymore.
They're not going to waste their time calling you to try to find out what your website is. They're going to assume that you aren't doing this anymore, and they're going to move right on. So we do want to be careful of that. So if someone is thinking about creating their own site, if they have the technology, if they have the wherewithal, if they have the interest, you know, then you might want to look at You know, a, a, at least at the beginning, at masking it with your own URL.
So that way you can keep it consistent, whether you're using our site, or whether you're creating your own. Yeah, and what I hear in this question, too, is something I hear from a lot of our students. And if I were to take a step back from the question and be like, Wendy, what do you, what's, what might you actually be asking here?
What might be a distillation of this? What I actually see in the question is putting yourself out there. And I think that's really kind of what's going on here. It's like, is it better to have one, or is it better to have the other? The answer is Well, there isn't an absolute answer. Yes, the answer. The answer is yes.
The answer is yes. However, however, my, my firm belief on marketing, my firm beliefs, belief on confidence, put yourself out there sooner rather than later. Work with what you've got right now, what you have right now, that mini website. is enough. If there's someone else listening who just has the mini website, that is enough.
Don't let that stop you. There is no reason. There's nothing to be ashamed of. That's what you have down the line. If you want to explore rebranding, if you want to develop more material, if you want to redo everything. And to Josh's point, yeah, if you're going to then eventually update to like from something like Wendy battle site, I can voice.
com to a Wendy battles. com specific site. Sure. You have to re do all of your other collateral material. That's fine, but be that as it may. You can do that. It's not, don't think of your business card as your only business card. Don't think of your website as your only website. This is your business card right now.
This is your website right now. These are your materials right now. And while, while there is that, I think the main point I was trying to pull out there is you can change your, your collateral at any time you want. Absolutely. But you have to make sure that those people who you've reached out to. Get your new information.
Yeah. And the good news is too. It's a great opportunity. Hey, by the way, George, you know, we haven't talked in a while. Just want to let you know, I have a brand new website, brand new aesthetic, brand new demo. Check it out. Love to hear your thoughts. Hope you're doing well. Good excuse to follow up.
Absolutely. Wonderful opportunity. I don't want to bother you. I know you probably aren't hiring right now, but, uh, you know, I just wanted to touch base. Hey, change my website. Uh, you know, here it is. Hope to talk to you soon. See you later. They are a great reason, wonderful reason. But what that does show is that you need to stay extremely consistent and you need to stay organized.
Because if you stay organized with who you've contacted, when you've contacted, how you've contacted, you should have an idea of who you need to follow up with. At any given time. All right, I'm going to follow up with this company, you know, next month, I'm going to follow up with this company in a couple months.
And by having that information, you know who you've given your information to and who you need to update your information to. If you're just willy nilly doing it, then we can get a little tricky situation where someone does not have the updated information. So just something to be cognizant of, not to shy away from it, not to say don't do it by any stretch of the imagination, but just to make sure that when you do, you are, you know, being mindful of that.
Yeah, but And I wouldn't let that stop you either too. So all of that, yes, be consistent, be fastidious with your records, but put yourself out there. You have nothing to be afraid of. You've made a demo. The demo is the bar to entry. The demo is your resume, but it's also a suggestion. It's a suggestion of what you can do.
And we want to do is direct people to that demo as easily as possible. And that's what Josh is saying to me. Like, you don't want to lose people in the shuffle. You don't want to want, you don't want to change everything up and then. Someone go looking for you and the I can voice website has expired.
That's really the challenge. But for everyone who's listening, I implore you don't be shy. Put yourself out there. Think of it this way. You are the solution to somebody's problem and don't wait until it's perfect. So, so one of the things I think is, is good to kind of look at here is, is what's, what is necessary?
Like, what do you, like, there are so many things you can do, and we've talked about, you know, how we have a graphic designer here, Anna, who can, you know, make you a logo, can get you business cards, and, and postcards, and email signatures, and, uh, uh, letterhead, and, and all sorts of, all sorts of stuff, and all of that stuff is Awesome.
It really is. And if you're interested in that, please do let us know. But, all of that stuff is awesome. Is it necessary? The answer? No. No, not at all. Is it helpful? Absolutely. Sure. Is it necessary? No. So, you know, people who are starting out, you know, you don't want to hold off on getting your stuff out there because, well, I don't have all my collateral yet.
Who cares? Yeah. Here's what you need. You need two things. You need, well, you need three things. You need a demo, obviously. You need a website. You need a business card. That's it. And the business card is, I'd say, of those three, the one that, you know, you maybe don't need quite as much because you can still send your information out to people, you can still call people and get that information to them, um, but if you're going to be meeting people, if you're going to be going to meetings, you're going to be, you know, um, meeting people in person, then you absolutely want something.
Uh, so for me personally, right now, I have a business card and I have a, uh, a little business Postcard slash thank you note that I send out. Those are the two things that I have the postcard That was not necessary. I kind of decided I wanted to do that. I thought it was nice and decided to go for it Was that necessary?
Uh the business card was that necessary? Absolutely Absolutely. So I think when you're looking at it, the things you need, demo, website, and business card and that website, it can be as simple as, as, as the one we provide. Yeah. It doesn't have to be complicated. I would add in the mix what you said was so great because I would say it's that order of importance.
What's the first thing you need? The demo. What's the second thing you need? A website. What's the third thing? A business card. Those three things. And on the business card front, like I tell people to like, yes, we have Anna, we have our in house graphic designer who is. Very talented and very good at what she does.
But if that's not a good fit for you right now, if you just want a business card, something really simple, there are resources where you can do that. And having a business card is better than not having a business card. As I, as I talked about in a past podcast, right? When I did, I had that story where I ran into a guy and he asked me for a business card and I'm like, Oh, shoot.
I don't have one and that was a failure on my part, but this is why the business card is so important. So have one having one is better than not what Anna can do. If you are interested in exploring that Anna, what Anna really does is branding. It's cross platform branding where she could tie all of that collateral together.
It can be the same business card or the same website, the same postcard, the same letterhead, all cohesively. So when you're interested in developing a brand, which you can do, you do not have to do it. You can do it. That's what Anna does, but there are other resources like moo. com that I'm a huge fan of.
For those of you who don't know, it's moo. com, great printing site. It's kind of like Vista prints, but even a little bit more souped up and they make really beautiful, unique designs. It won't be a cross platform, but you can still get a cool business card and that. That is the third step, as we have Josh so eloquently articulated.
Mmm, that's what I do. That's what I do. Eloquence. Eloquence. So I'd say number one, demo. Demo. Yes. Number two, website to send people to. Hands down. Number three. Uh, would be the business card number four, be the podcast. Oh, no, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You don't need a podcast. You can get one, get one can.
They're great. They're honestly, they're terrible. I wouldn't do it. Oh, I love it. I disagree. I love having a podcast. Everyone, everyone make your own podcast. It's a blast. I have, I have so much fun in here. I can do this all day. Uh, so yeah, I mean, and, and so going back to, to Wendy's original question, you know, um, does it behoove you to, to have that, that's really up to you.
Um, you know. It can't hurt, uh, certainly. And there are absolutely benefits to it. Is it necessary? No. No. Should it stop you or stall you from You know, uh, getting out there right now, that's a big negative. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That's the one thing I think I want to get across. Do you want to ultimately have a really cool website with super branding and great cards and letterhead and all that other stuff?
That's great. Sure. And I mean, and, and down the line, yeah, you might want to, and that absolutely is going to be helpful. But should you hold off on, you know, on, on starting your marketing, on starting getting out there because you don't have that? No. The answer is absolutely hard. No, get out there is you have your demo.
If it's done being, being produced, if you have that website, whatever it might be. And if you have that business card, you get out there and you get out there now. Yeah. What is branding? What does, what is the virtue of branding across platforms? Simply what you, with all of your branding, with all of your, even if we take a step away from that, even if it's just a business card, what is the purpose of all this to go back to that first collateral item, your demo.
All of that is in service of getting people to listen to your sound. So the beauty of cross platform branding is that it's a redirect always here and there. It's a consistency. It's a visual identity. And I think that's a great point because, you know, you could have amazing business cards. You could have just a tremendous website.
And if you have a crappy demo, it doesn't matter because all the, all the, all these other things, they're window dressing. Yes. It's window dressing to get people to listen to your material. It's different ways to get them to give them a business card, which has your website on it. So now they have your business card.
They have something in hand, something they can remember, something they can touch. Then it shows them how to get to your website. Now they have something they can see. Then it allows them to listen to your demo. They are not going to hire you based on your business cards. They're not going to hire you.
based on your website. They're not going to hire you based on anything but your voice. That is it. That's what we do. That is all that's important, which is why it is number one on our list of things that are necessary. Obviously you need to have that and that needs to be the one that really shines because everything else is great.
It is helpful. I highly recommend all of those things and they can absolutely be a boon to you and to your career, but they are all a means to an end. end is that demo. That end is your voice and that end is what's ultimately going to get you or not get you that job. Many years ago I worked for a greeting card company and they had a saying that the cover of the card, the picture, is what got people to pick it up.
That's what the picture on a card was for. The words on the inside, that's what sold the card. That's a good point. Same idea with this whole like branding, your logo is the picture to get people to look at your demo. The demo is the sales. You have a cute puppy or kitty on your cart? I'm gonna pick it up, I'm gonna look at it.
I love dogs. And then I'm gonna open it up and be like, Nah, it's dumb, I'm gonna put it down. Speaking of animals, I have one last thing that Wendy added to the mix, Josh, that I wanted to share with you, and she said this. The title of her email, which is the main reason I opened it, let's be honest, it said, Say hi to Baby Bear for me.
Whoa, what up, Baby Bear? I love the podcast that you're doing. You and baby bear are doing fun and informative and baby bear So I owe wendy now a lot a lot of money for saying the baby bear thing and it sticks You're dead to me wendy Anyways had I known that going into this I would not have discussed this question Keep that card in my back pocket till the very end Thank you.
Thank you for that. I appreciate that. Uh, anything else you'd like to add there, Sam, before I turn your mic off? No, no, no. I think that I'm surprised you haven't already. I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it. I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. It was a challenge. I wanted to see how far I could push this.
No, put yourself out there. More than anything, you have a demo. If you've gone through our program, you have a demo. Don't be shy. Put yourself out there. And don't be afraid to send us your stuff. Yeah! We'd love to see it! Yeah, you have a website that you've created on your own that you want to show us.
take a look at, you want to have us talk about, you want to have us, you know, critique. We'd absolutely love to do anything like that. You can always reach out to us at any time. Best way to reach out to us is by sending an email to Sam, Sam at voicecoaches. com. You can, uh, apparently if you put baby bear in the subject, he's definitely going to open it and probably respond to it.
And we'll probably talk about it. Uh, but, uh, but anything you want to discuss, anything you want to talk about, any questions you have, any. goals you've set. Let us know. Let us know if you know if something on this show has has sparked an interest for you or has helped you in any way or has hindered your progress in any way.
We should probably know that too. Hopefully that hasn't. But again, you know, we always want to hear from you guys because it is just as much your show as it is ours. So yeah, that's about it from here. Sam, any any last words? No, that was great. Alright, well thanks so much for tuning in this week. Of course we will talk to you next week.
For Sam, I'm Double B, Baby Bear. But you can call me Josh. Yes! Yes! So long, everyone. Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
To view upcoming sessions of our live, web-based introductory sessions, visit voicecoaches.com/enroll.
The hosts discuss the pros and cons of using a voice acting URL that contains another website for promotion, as opposed to a free-standing URL.
