VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #428 – Gaelle, greetings from South Africa!
Voice coaches radio, everything. Voiceover and welcome into this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. I am Josh. He is Sam. As always, we are de delight to have you joining us. Sam, how are we doing this? Fine morning. Doing great, Josh. And you know, I'm so glad that you. saying our title again because I've been thinking that we really need to redo our intro and outro.
And I think I'm going to like just pull that clip one of these days and just be like, voice coaches radio and pull you doing that. It'll be perfect. That's it. That's the whole new intro outro right there. That honestly is, uh, that's all we need. terrible idea. Um, I feel, I feel like by men and like, really, that's all we got.
That's all we got. Now, that's all we got. Now you've just solidified the fact that it is going to happen. We just made me that much more interested. We have talented artists and singers who work here. Why are we wasting it on, on the likes of low budget? Simple. Straightforward. It's our aesthetic. It's got so much going for us.
Why not? I counter your argument with, why not? So, so cheap and good enough, basically why we're still doing this show, because you guys are here, we're already paying you, and eh, nobody's died yet, so might as well. Might as well. Why not? I think it's a great idea. Yeah, you know what? That encapsulates our show.
Like, is it good? No, but it's fine. It's fine. Actually, that's not true. Our show is so good. Oh, we are international. We are Mr. Mr. Mr. 305 to Mr. Worldwide. Yeah, that was a pitbull reference. I think I'm like 10 years too late for that, but that's okay. That was still beautiful to hear. Thank you. You're welcome.
Thank you. Um, but no, we, we, uh, we, we, we've gone mobile. We are international, which is bananas all over the place. We talk a lot about, you know, people who write into us or people who reach out to us. Um, and you know, we always like to get those people involved because I think that's important. For A, it helps our confidence, letting us know that some of you actually do listen, which is tremendous.
Which is also why we do this show, to boost our confidence. Of course, that's the main reason. Um, although I feel like I get humbled every time I'm on this show. Um, but. By me? Is that a, is that a, do I humble you? Yes, you humbly. Oh, man. I'm humbled in your presence. Oh, well, thank you. My presence is so profound, so I understand.
No, your words are cutting. They cut me down. I feel bad now. I feel like, oh, Josh, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. That was my intention. God, I'm so mean. That was my intention the entire time. I need to reflect some more, really. Do some internal searching and be like, why am I so mean to Josh? Why do I cut Josh?
It's, it's the baby bear thing. That's what we're talking about, isn't it? It is. It is. This is thinly veiled. It is. Oh Josh, I am so sorry. Although, I'll be honest, I'm starting to look more like a bear at this point, so it's, I guess it's kind of fitting. And you did purchase the, what do you call that, mustache wax?
I did, I got mustache wax. Yeah, there we are. Yeah, I haven't used it yet, but, uh, but I did get some. Yes, Brooklyn. Yes, hipster. To turn, turn my mustache into a, into a handlebar, but my beard is getting out of control. Turn that frown into Upside down into a handlebar mustache. It's getting intense, but where were we talking about?
Oh, yeah, right. People listening. International. So nobody's listening. Nobody's listening anymore. But if any of you are still listening, so we, we actually got, and this is probably one of the coolest things that, uh, that has come out of this show, is that we have gotten a correspondence, uh, uh, from a, a, a woman named Gail.
Uh, and Gail has been listening to our show since, I think she started about last October, November time, but kind of backtracked a little bit and listened to some of our Our older, our older hits are the golden oldies of, uh, of, of voice coaches, radio. And, uh, Gail is from Johannesburg, South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa.
She has been listening to our podcast. Hi, Gail. Hope you're listening into this one too. Um, we, we, we love you and, uh, and so much for listening. Um, and writing into us. She actually, this is, this is adorable, she actually, uh, wrote us an email and then was like, I'm actually going to, uh, give you a, a voicemail, uh, and she recorded a, like, 7 minute message, audio wise, that, that she's just like, I am a voice actor, I should probably give you audio, so she gave us like a 7 minute, like, voiced message, which was amazing, um.
And, uh, and, and talked about how, uh, how she has listened to the program. So, I, I guess we'll, uh, we'll let her introduce herself to you as we're gonna take some of, uh, that audio that, uh, that she, she sent us. Cause she has some really, uh, really cool things that, uh, you know, that, that she's been going through that I think can, can really help other people as well.
Gail learned so much from us. I mean, this is what she said in the thing. We'll play her in just a minute here. But I, yeah, I think we've got to introduce her because I think we need to let her speak for herself because even in the, uh, just a few months of listening, she has done so many things that so many of our listeners can start to employ.
They too, you too can be just like Gail. So Gail, thank you so much for sending in an email and a voice mail question mark newsletter thing. It's awesome. It's super, super cool. So what we want to do today is play some of the, not the whole audio, but pieces of it that we think are super relevant and kind of tell Gail's story because Gail's story is really unique.
And also it doesn't encompass a large amount of time. She has accomplished a great. deal in a very, very short amount of time, which it can be inspiration for all of us, myself included. So what do you, what do you say, Josh, you want to play, should we introduce Gail? Let's uh, let's have Gail introduce herself.
Beautiful. Hey, Sam and Josh, I've just listened to your podcast number 422, I think it was. My name is Gail and I'm in Johannesburg, South Africa. I started thinking about getting into voiceover in October last year. That's 2018 because way back when, when I was young, I did some narration on a fishing show and that didn't last very long, but.
It was fun and then I got kids and got a job and things like that and I always wanted to get back into it, but I didn't know how. Didn't know how We've heard that before, haven't we? I've definitely heard this before. People who wanna get into it before many times and, and you know, whether it's their first time trying to get into it or, or trying to get back into it.
Didn't know how. I love this for so many reasons because it's awesome. Awesome. Gail, thank you again for sending it in first of all, but second of all, it actually kind of reminds me of our recent episode, Josh, where we had Jeff write in about like, Hey, I, you know, I made a demo, I've kind of gone through some stuff and then life happens, right?
This happens to all of us. Things get in the way. And then he stalled and the question became, what do you do? What do you do now? And that's exactly where Gail's at. She's like, well, you know, uh, I have kids, I have a job. There's all this stuff going on. What do I do? Well, you do you keep going you do you keep doing so let's hear what Gail did.
What do you think? Yeah, I think that's a great idea. So Gail didn't just say, you know what maybe I won't be able to get back into it She actually was proactive She actually started doing small things and it started out as simply as this and last year I thought what can I do? What would really? make my heart beat and voiceover just voiceover I could do that.
How could I do that? So I googled it, how to get into voiceover, and all these websites just popped up. I carried on going through the websites, and one of the first and most important websites I would say it was voice coaches. com. I started listening to the voice coaches. com podcasts around November last year, and I would listen to several of them every day while I was working at my nine to five job.
You inspired me so much that I knew I have to do this. This is what I have to do. I don't care if I'm not earning enough to buy myself a microphone. I'm gonna do it anyway. There's only one way, and I've just gotta do it. Just gotta do it. I love that. Oh my gosh. You can hear the passionate voice, you know, in regards to it.
This is not just, you know, a, uh Yeah, I'd like to do it if I get a chance. It'd be fun. No, this is something that, that she clearly wants to do and, and, and, and honestly needs to do. Needs to do. And, uh, and that, that's how it all gets started. Yeah, she loved this. She is excited and she's been wanting to do this for a long time.
That's super important. And also, I love her determination. She's like, you know what? How do I do this? I don't know. I'm going to look up how and she Googled it. She did something so incredibly simple and found a ton of information and I'm flattered that she found our show and I'm flattered that she found our show helpful Josh.
I mean that is, it's one thing I was going to say, it's one thing I found the show, but it was terrible. It didn't help. I know she found the show and it helped. It's awesome. Get out of here. Yeah, and I also love that bit about the microphone. Like, there are so many, I feel like I hear this a lot from a lot of our clients on varying, varying things.
It's not always about a microphone. Sometimes it's about not knowing audio production, or not knowing where to look for work, or not knowing what to do next. These things in and of themselves. No, not knowing something is not a reason to stop. There's so many things that we don't know. There's so many things that I don't know.
I know that might surprise. Yeah, well, that's probably not too surprising to most people listening, but be that as it may, there are a lot of them that I don't know, but that shouldn't stop us. It's easy to let those things stop us from moving forward, but you can always find a way. And that's exactly what Gail did.
She doesn't have a microphone. That's not, that's, that's not a problem at this juncture, she's going to keep going anyway, she's going to figure it out. Love this. So, you know, something that's really interesting about Gail too, what we're going to hear, hear next is like, Oh, it's my favorite, it's my favorite.
Not only did she not let this, not having a microphone stop her, she keeps going. But she starts doing some profound things to change her life for the better. Let's listen to what those things might be. I remember listening to one of your podcasts about. Oral health. So the first thing I did was stop smoking.
I stopped smoking. That was the first thing I did. Thanks to you guys. Because I thought, well, if I'm smoking I can't do voiceover. So, you know, what do I want more? Do I want to do voiceover or do I want to smoke? It was a no brainer, so I stopped smoking. She literally stopped smoking because of us. Josh, we Saving lives.
We We Saving lives! We're not only helping people with voiceover, we are changing their lives. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're not just changing lives, we're saving lives. We are heroes. We are super. We are superheroes. And to be quite honest, I actually don't know if those are our episodes that she's referring to.
I don't remember us talking about smoking. You know what? I did. But when I do before this is before you came on, it was just me by myself because I had nothing else to talk about. And look what I've done. I've brought you nothing. I don't know. I don't know that. All I know is that I don't care whether it was our episodes or somebody else's.
I'm going to say it was ours because it makes you feel better. Love it. Um, but she, she stopped smoking, which is good for voice acting. Certainly. It doesn't mean you have to, but it certainly is helpful. Um, it's also good for you, but I don't think I'm breaking new ground here. Yeah, smoking is not great for you.
And that aside to be that as it may, like you can be a smoker and still do voiceover. That's no problem. But what I hear in this Commitment. Yeah, exactly. Voiceover was more important to her than something that, something else that priorities been doing for years. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's what it showed, it showed what her PRI priorities were because that's not an easy thing.
It's not at all. And it's funny 'cause she made it sound like it was super easy, like, uh oh yeah. So I, I decided which is worthwhile and I quit smoking, like obviously. probably a little more, uh, difficult than, than she just made it sound. And I, and I like how she was just kind of laissez faire about the whole thing.
Like, no, I had to make a choice and I didn't boom. And that more power to it for doing that. But let's, let's not, let's not forget that that's difficult to do. Like that is an addiction. And, and she was just like, no, I, uh, if I'm going to take this seriously, this is what I have to do. She made a choice. And, you know, that alone, regardless of the fact that, yeah, it's, it's definitely, definitely better for you overall for your health.
But I mean, that, that alone, that you're willing to, to do that kind of thing for this shows a ton about what your mindset is on it and what your commitment level is to it. And honestly, what your success is going to be to it. She committed to getting over an addiction to be a voice actor. Like what? Else are we all willing to give up in order to pursue our, our dreams, our jobs, our work.
Like, what do we really want to do? I think this is a wonderful, wonderful testament to what, to determination and as you said so well Josh, commitment. She committed to being a voice actor. She did. And then what she did was she got proactive again. Yep. And that's what we always say. She didn't know exactly where to start, but she knew to start.
And so she started with small things. She started with looking up things on, on Google and on, on YouTube and, you know, finding podcasts and hearing different things and then taking care of herself. And then she got proactive and. Started getting herself out there, which is the first thing that we always tell people to do say you're a voice actor So absolutely say it.
Yeah, say it say it again, and she kept also reinforcing it, too I don't know if we I can't I don't think we're playing this little clip But she talks about in what in the whole extended audio of it about cooking dinner for her kids and listening to podcasts during that Time and she is constantly learning and reinforcing and keeping herself up accountable through all these different means and some really interesting ones going forward.
And so she started in about November time frames and she started listening to this. So fast forward to a couple months ago to the beginning of February. So it had only been, you know, three or so months. And, uh, and, and, and that's when she started to, to really get herself out there. On the 4th of February this year, I signed up on Upwork.
And would you believe it? That same day I got hired for a job. I could not believe my eyes. Very same day, I got signed up for a job. It was a explainer video voiceover and I got paid peanuts, but it doesn't matter. I actually did a voiceover and got paid for it. So she found a place to put her stuff out there and we've talked about some of these, the, these online.
Platforms to do this and, um, You know, it, it, it worked for her. And it worked very quickly for her. That doesn't mean it's going to work that quickly for everybody. I wish it, I wish it did. That'd be amazing. But, again, she never would have gotten that far if she didn't just take a leap of faith. Which is really what it was.
It was a leap of faith. Uh, this also reminds me of that interview we did with Ellen and Fiverr, same idea, Upwork is a very similar platform, you can be a freelancer up there, you don't have to pay to have a profile, you can treat yourself like a small business, and it's an opportunity, they really allow you to showcase yourself really well, and this is awesome too, so again, if we remember it, back a little ways.
She was worried about, not worried. Actually, she was beyond worried. She was past that, but she was like, well, I don't have the money to buy a microphone, but that doesn't matter. I'm going to figure out a way. And she does slowly, but surely. And she starts doing little things. She gives up smoking, which is a big thing.
She listens to podcasts. She finds out all the information she can. She then starts investing in herself and invest. in her career and her business. Now she has a microphone. Now she has a profile where she can go out and do work. She is learning, and it's really not as difficult as it might seem. I am telling you and we can all do this.
We can all learn this. I know some of it might seem daunting, but it's not. Not impossible. No, it's definitely not. And, uh, you know, that was a first step. Wasn't the last step. It was the first step. And she continued to, to, to move on from that, right? We cannot sit on our laurels. We can't be like, Hey, I put something up there.
I got a job. Boom, I'm done. No, you're just getting started. You're just getting started. And she was just getting started. As you can see, she has continued to, uh, to try new things, get new opportunities and. Continued to see success. Yeah. And on the, on that front of the microphone, it's a sequence too. She didn't start with the microphone.
She started with learning. Then she learned more. Then she, uh, she started, you know, stop smoking. And then she got into finding more information, listening to podcasts. And then she got into the microphone side of things. So remember there are steps that you can take right now that are not as extensive as buying a microphone or investing in that.
Oh, and you can even see that at the beginning she didn't have one. She didn't need one. She didn't use one. She instead, Use something as simple as your cell phone. I've been doing a lot of work with Upwork, especially Upwork. Eventually I signed up with voice 123. com and I started getting audition requests every single day.
I would get half a dozen of them. So every single day I would, I would run down to my car, take my phone and use this Haiku app and record the audition on it and go back to my desk and edit it on Audacity. And with normalizing and noise reduction and compressing, it actually sounded fine. I'm laughing because I'm sure that a sound engineer out there and, you know, production People, they probably can tell, but it was okay to me.
I'm like, whatever, I am an amateur. I have been practicing a lot with all the auditions, and I know that everybody says, do not use auditions to practice. Well, guess what? That's exactly what I've done.
For the record, I don't think we've ever said that. And if we have, I take it back. Because I think, you know, practicing on auditions, it's fine. It's good. I love this one. I love it. In fact, I'm pretty sure you mentioned that you signed up for one of those websites and used the month of free trial to literally just do auditions.
And not just to practice, but to practice auditioning, which is very different than just I mean, we can all practice and that's fine, but practicing auditioning is something totally different. It's the same exact website she used as well. I signed up for Voice123. This is about nine years ago, ten years ago when I first started out and I auditioned 24 7.
I mean, not, not 24 7, but every single day you can audition as much as you want. There's thousands of opportunities there to work, to work. I didn't book any of those gigs, but it was a, it. trained me. It was definitely where I got, I started cutting my teeth on one of these platforms. So absolutely, yes, use auditions.
I am full, all for this. Everyone should do the same. Everyone should use every opportunity to work on microphone as more experience, as more training. Love this. Love it so much. No, absolutely. And again, it's all about that being proactive. It's not sitting back. We talked about it with some of these social media platforms, how they're great, but they are passive.
You can't be passive. You have to be aggressive. And not only was she aggressive in practicing and working on her voice, but also in her marketing platform. As you'll hear, she actually got really proactive in getting herself and getting her name out there, which is such an important part of this business.
With business cards in hand. This is what I'm gonna do. Every day at lunchtime. Okay, so maybe once a week. Because I am in a 9 to 5 job and that does take time. So I will go and visit all the studios in my city and hand them some business cards. Just meet the guys and so then they can associate the email with my face and then they'll have my business card and somewhere along the line.
That's networking. I'm very excited about this. So again, being proactive, getting out there. Maybe putting herself in some uncomfortable situations. Maybe she's not comfortable with that. I know I'm not. Well, too bad. You do that. You get out there. So she has a plan. She has an actionable plan. And she has the commitment to, to, to really do it.
She has that motivation to do it. I see no reason why Gayle isn't going to be super successful at this. And also, just for the record, she has a really nice voice. Yeah, she's got a great voice! She does! I, I, we haven't mentioned that, she's, I'm really glad she sent us that, that, that audio file, because she has a super awesome voice!
And look, the thing is, you don't need to be perfect. Having a great voice, it opens the door. It's not, it doesn't, it's not what walks you through it. You have to do that yourself. You've got to put yourself out there. You've got to market yourself. And I love in the clip before this, she talked about, uh, audio producers, maybe judging her, the sound quality as she's learning, honestly, most people don't care.
Good enough is good enough. Like you don't need to be perfect. You D it doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't never will be perfect. It never will be. I've had people, you know, that I've talked to be like, you know what, I'm going to, you know, Oh, I'm going to start telling people when I get more, when I get a little bit more polished, I'm going to start telling people when I, when I get a little bit more established.
It doesn't work that way because you never will, because you never will. It, you have to, again, take that, take that jump, take that leap. And that's what she did. What was her, you know, audition material perfect? Probably not. Could it have been better? I'm sure it could have, but that's not the point. Jump off.
That's not the point. Jump off cliffs and make your wings on the way down. Like that's the best way to build wings. It really is very helpful. Keep doing this over and over and over again and all of a sudden you're going to soar. The more you jump, the better off you're going to be. I would encourage everyone to take this strategy.
Keep going, keep putting yourself out there. Don't be perfect. In fact, I would argue that what makes you great as a voice actor, every, each and every one of you listening is your own unique humanity. imperfections. That's what colors your voice. That's what colors your character. That's what we need as voice actors.
Gail, that's awesome. I, I commend you on that. No, and, and, and, and again, Gail, we, we cannot thank you enough for, for reaching out to us. And, and I mean, I don't know. I don't know what else we can do to help. But if there is anything that we can do, you let us know. Please let us know. This is awesome. This has been probably like I said, one of the coolest experiences that we've had in this show from the podcast, which is full of cool experiences to be sure.
But this is this has definitely been one of the one of the highlights. Absolutely. And by the way, if anyone listening and has any questions for Gail, let us know. Yeah, or you know what they could do. Yeah. Go to Gail's website. Oh, then go to Gail's website. Go to Gail's website. Yeah. And maybe you take a listen and be like, oh damn, that's really good.
Like, yeah. So, check that out. Um, but, but if anyone does have any questions, uh, for Gail and doesn't want to reach out to her directly, reach out to us. Sam at voicecoaches. com is the best way to get in touch with us. That's us, sam at voicecoaches. com and we'd be more than happy to pass things along to Gail because we have every intention of staying in touch with her, um, you know, in regards to, uh, to her career moving forward, because this is, uh, this has been, this has been cool.
I feel personally invested now, uh, in, in Gail's career and when she does hit the, hit the big time and, and, you know, become huge and whatnot, uh, I'm going to absolutely call in some favors. Yeah. So that's gonna happen for sure, for sure. But again, Gail, um, I'm assuming you're listening. I'm hoping you're listening, but thank you so, so, so much for, for not only for listening in, but for, for reaching out to us and, uh, and, and you know what, for being an inspiration to, I think a lot of people listening in and, you know, maybe.
given Sam and I a little kick in the pants to, uh, to do stuff because I'm going to be honest with you. We've been trying to keep track of each month, what we've been doing, and we haven't been doing great. Not as much as we should be. Not at all. And Gail's only been doing this since November. Gail is literally shaming us.
A lot of our clients are, you know, they go through the program. The program's about, uh, often about five months, six months long at most, you know, so. Look what you can do in six months, right? November, December, January, you know, Gail has done that and she is already working. You too can do this. You absolutely can do this.
Put yourself out there before you're ready. You will, you will see so much more by doing that than you would by waiting. Make that commitment. If you have that passion. And give up smoking. I mean, you don't have to give up smoking. Please stop. But that is a cool, cool perk. For your, for your health. If anything else, um, but, uh, but yeah, just, just really cool.
Just really, really cool. So, you know what, I, I hope those listening and have enjoyed kind of hearing that, that different perspective, because I know Sam, I know you and I, we. It was a blast. This was this. I was looking forward to doing this one. Yeah, we've had been holding on to this because we just have so much that we've been doing recently.
But Gail, this has been a blast. Thank you. Yes, it has. And we look forward to hearing more from Gail. Maybe at some point we can actually get Gail on live. I don't know what the time difference is. Oh, that would be awesome. Africa. I was trying to do the math in my head. I don't know how we'll make that work, but I'd love to make that work at some point.
Actually have have Gail call in and have her on on the show live if I. She's still interested if she's not big time at us at that point, which she might be, which she might be at that point because she's such a big superstar in, uh, in South Africa, but, um, but again, thank you so much, Gail, and thanks to everyone for listening in again.
Hope hope this was a good one for you. We certainly enjoyed this one quite a bit. Um, Sam, anything to anything to add for for our listeners? I'll let Gail speak for herself. She did it. Yeah, be like Gail. That's all I got. Like, I agree. Be like Gail. Thank you. Be. Like. Gail. Alright, well, Sam, uh, uh, again, uh, it's been fun.
It always is. Josh, and my apologies for, you know, what you were saying at the beginning. I have not forgotten about that. Belittling me and, uh, and hurting my feelings is okay. It's alright, I'll get over it. I'll cry a little bit, but I'll get over it. Many, many apologies. Okay, that's alright. That's alright.
Uh, so, uh, thanks again for tuning in, everyone, uh, for this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. We'll be back next week. Hope you will be as well. Until then, so long, everyone. Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
And I think I'm going to like just pull that clip one of these days and just be like, voice coaches radio and pull you doing that. It'll be perfect. That's it. That's the whole new intro outro right there. That honestly is, uh, that's all we need. terrible idea. Um, I feel, I feel like by men and like, really, that's all we got.
That's all we got. Now, that's all we got. Now you've just solidified the fact that it is going to happen. We just made me that much more interested. We have talented artists and singers who work here. Why are we wasting it on, on the likes of low budget? Simple. Straightforward. It's our aesthetic. It's got so much going for us.
Why not? I counter your argument with, why not? So, so cheap and good enough, basically why we're still doing this show, because you guys are here, we're already paying you, and eh, nobody's died yet, so might as well. Might as well. Why not? I think it's a great idea. Yeah, you know what? That encapsulates our show.
Like, is it good? No, but it's fine. It's fine. Actually, that's not true. Our show is so good. Oh, we are international. We are Mr. Mr. Mr. 305 to Mr. Worldwide. Yeah, that was a pitbull reference. I think I'm like 10 years too late for that, but that's okay. That was still beautiful to hear. Thank you. You're welcome.
Thank you. Um, but no, we, we, uh, we, we, we've gone mobile. We are international, which is bananas all over the place. We talk a lot about, you know, people who write into us or people who reach out to us. Um, and you know, we always like to get those people involved because I think that's important. For A, it helps our confidence, letting us know that some of you actually do listen, which is tremendous.
Which is also why we do this show, to boost our confidence. Of course, that's the main reason. Um, although I feel like I get humbled every time I'm on this show. Um, but. By me? Is that a, is that a, do I humble you? Yes, you humbly. Oh, man. I'm humbled in your presence. Oh, well, thank you. My presence is so profound, so I understand.
No, your words are cutting. They cut me down. I feel bad now. I feel like, oh, Josh, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. That was my intention. God, I'm so mean. That was my intention the entire time. I need to reflect some more, really. Do some internal searching and be like, why am I so mean to Josh? Why do I cut Josh?
It's, it's the baby bear thing. That's what we're talking about, isn't it? It is. It is. This is thinly veiled. It is. Oh Josh, I am so sorry. Although, I'll be honest, I'm starting to look more like a bear at this point, so it's, I guess it's kind of fitting. And you did purchase the, what do you call that, mustache wax?
I did, I got mustache wax. Yeah, there we are. Yeah, I haven't used it yet, but, uh, but I did get some. Yes, Brooklyn. Yes, hipster. To turn, turn my mustache into a, into a handlebar, but my beard is getting out of control. Turn that frown into Upside down into a handlebar mustache. It's getting intense, but where were we talking about?
Oh, yeah, right. People listening. International. So nobody's listening. Nobody's listening anymore. But if any of you are still listening, so we, we actually got, and this is probably one of the coolest things that, uh, that has come out of this show, is that we have gotten a correspondence, uh, uh, from a, a, a woman named Gail.
Uh, and Gail has been listening to our show since, I think she started about last October, November time, but kind of backtracked a little bit and listened to some of our Our older, our older hits are the golden oldies of, uh, of, of voice coaches, radio. And, uh, Gail is from Johannesburg, South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa.
She has been listening to our podcast. Hi, Gail. Hope you're listening into this one too. Um, we, we, we love you and, uh, and so much for listening. Um, and writing into us. She actually, this is, this is adorable, she actually, uh, wrote us an email and then was like, I'm actually going to, uh, give you a, a voicemail, uh, and she recorded a, like, 7 minute message, audio wise, that, that she's just like, I am a voice actor, I should probably give you audio, so she gave us like a 7 minute, like, voiced message, which was amazing, um.
And, uh, and, and talked about how, uh, how she has listened to the program. So, I, I guess we'll, uh, we'll let her introduce herself to you as we're gonna take some of, uh, that audio that, uh, that she, she sent us. Cause she has some really, uh, really cool things that, uh, you know, that, that she's been going through that I think can, can really help other people as well.
Gail learned so much from us. I mean, this is what she said in the thing. We'll play her in just a minute here. But I, yeah, I think we've got to introduce her because I think we need to let her speak for herself because even in the, uh, just a few months of listening, she has done so many things that so many of our listeners can start to employ.
They too, you too can be just like Gail. So Gail, thank you so much for sending in an email and a voice mail question mark newsletter thing. It's awesome. It's super, super cool. So what we want to do today is play some of the, not the whole audio, but pieces of it that we think are super relevant and kind of tell Gail's story because Gail's story is really unique.
And also it doesn't encompass a large amount of time. She has accomplished a great. deal in a very, very short amount of time, which it can be inspiration for all of us, myself included. So what do you, what do you say, Josh, you want to play, should we introduce Gail? Let's uh, let's have Gail introduce herself.
Beautiful. Hey, Sam and Josh, I've just listened to your podcast number 422, I think it was. My name is Gail and I'm in Johannesburg, South Africa. I started thinking about getting into voiceover in October last year. That's 2018 because way back when, when I was young, I did some narration on a fishing show and that didn't last very long, but.
It was fun and then I got kids and got a job and things like that and I always wanted to get back into it, but I didn't know how. Didn't know how We've heard that before, haven't we? I've definitely heard this before. People who wanna get into it before many times and, and you know, whether it's their first time trying to get into it or, or trying to get back into it.
Didn't know how. I love this for so many reasons because it's awesome. Awesome. Gail, thank you again for sending it in first of all, but second of all, it actually kind of reminds me of our recent episode, Josh, where we had Jeff write in about like, Hey, I, you know, I made a demo, I've kind of gone through some stuff and then life happens, right?
This happens to all of us. Things get in the way. And then he stalled and the question became, what do you do? What do you do now? And that's exactly where Gail's at. She's like, well, you know, uh, I have kids, I have a job. There's all this stuff going on. What do I do? Well, you do you keep going you do you keep doing so let's hear what Gail did.
What do you think? Yeah, I think that's a great idea. So Gail didn't just say, you know what maybe I won't be able to get back into it She actually was proactive She actually started doing small things and it started out as simply as this and last year I thought what can I do? What would really? make my heart beat and voiceover just voiceover I could do that.
How could I do that? So I googled it, how to get into voiceover, and all these websites just popped up. I carried on going through the websites, and one of the first and most important websites I would say it was voice coaches. com. I started listening to the voice coaches. com podcasts around November last year, and I would listen to several of them every day while I was working at my nine to five job.
You inspired me so much that I knew I have to do this. This is what I have to do. I don't care if I'm not earning enough to buy myself a microphone. I'm gonna do it anyway. There's only one way, and I've just gotta do it. Just gotta do it. I love that. Oh my gosh. You can hear the passionate voice, you know, in regards to it.
This is not just, you know, a, uh Yeah, I'd like to do it if I get a chance. It'd be fun. No, this is something that, that she clearly wants to do and, and, and, and honestly needs to do. Needs to do. And, uh, and that, that's how it all gets started. Yeah, she loved this. She is excited and she's been wanting to do this for a long time.
That's super important. And also, I love her determination. She's like, you know what? How do I do this? I don't know. I'm going to look up how and she Googled it. She did something so incredibly simple and found a ton of information and I'm flattered that she found our show and I'm flattered that she found our show helpful Josh.
I mean that is, it's one thing I was going to say, it's one thing I found the show, but it was terrible. It didn't help. I know she found the show and it helped. It's awesome. Get out of here. Yeah, and I also love that bit about the microphone. Like, there are so many, I feel like I hear this a lot from a lot of our clients on varying, varying things.
It's not always about a microphone. Sometimes it's about not knowing audio production, or not knowing where to look for work, or not knowing what to do next. These things in and of themselves. No, not knowing something is not a reason to stop. There's so many things that we don't know. There's so many things that I don't know.
I know that might surprise. Yeah, well, that's probably not too surprising to most people listening, but be that as it may, there are a lot of them that I don't know, but that shouldn't stop us. It's easy to let those things stop us from moving forward, but you can always find a way. And that's exactly what Gail did.
She doesn't have a microphone. That's not, that's, that's not a problem at this juncture, she's going to keep going anyway, she's going to figure it out. Love this. So, you know, something that's really interesting about Gail too, what we're going to hear, hear next is like, Oh, it's my favorite, it's my favorite.
Not only did she not let this, not having a microphone stop her, she keeps going. But she starts doing some profound things to change her life for the better. Let's listen to what those things might be. I remember listening to one of your podcasts about. Oral health. So the first thing I did was stop smoking.
I stopped smoking. That was the first thing I did. Thanks to you guys. Because I thought, well, if I'm smoking I can't do voiceover. So, you know, what do I want more? Do I want to do voiceover or do I want to smoke? It was a no brainer, so I stopped smoking. She literally stopped smoking because of us. Josh, we Saving lives.
We We Saving lives! We're not only helping people with voiceover, we are changing their lives. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're not just changing lives, we're saving lives. We are heroes. We are super. We are superheroes. And to be quite honest, I actually don't know if those are our episodes that she's referring to.
I don't remember us talking about smoking. You know what? I did. But when I do before this is before you came on, it was just me by myself because I had nothing else to talk about. And look what I've done. I've brought you nothing. I don't know. I don't know that. All I know is that I don't care whether it was our episodes or somebody else's.
I'm going to say it was ours because it makes you feel better. Love it. Um, but she, she stopped smoking, which is good for voice acting. Certainly. It doesn't mean you have to, but it certainly is helpful. Um, it's also good for you, but I don't think I'm breaking new ground here. Yeah, smoking is not great for you.
And that aside to be that as it may, like you can be a smoker and still do voiceover. That's no problem. But what I hear in this Commitment. Yeah, exactly. Voiceover was more important to her than something that, something else that priorities been doing for years. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's what it showed, it showed what her PRI priorities were because that's not an easy thing.
It's not at all. And it's funny 'cause she made it sound like it was super easy, like, uh oh yeah. So I, I decided which is worthwhile and I quit smoking, like obviously. probably a little more, uh, difficult than, than she just made it sound. And I, and I like how she was just kind of laissez faire about the whole thing.
Like, no, I had to make a choice and I didn't boom. And that more power to it for doing that. But let's, let's not, let's not forget that that's difficult to do. Like that is an addiction. And, and she was just like, no, I, uh, if I'm going to take this seriously, this is what I have to do. She made a choice. And, you know, that alone, regardless of the fact that, yeah, it's, it's definitely, definitely better for you overall for your health.
But I mean, that, that alone, that you're willing to, to do that kind of thing for this shows a ton about what your mindset is on it and what your commitment level is to it. And honestly, what your success is going to be to it. She committed to getting over an addiction to be a voice actor. Like what? Else are we all willing to give up in order to pursue our, our dreams, our jobs, our work.
Like, what do we really want to do? I think this is a wonderful, wonderful testament to what, to determination and as you said so well Josh, commitment. She committed to being a voice actor. She did. And then what she did was she got proactive again. Yep. And that's what we always say. She didn't know exactly where to start, but she knew to start.
And so she started with small things. She started with looking up things on, on Google and on, on YouTube and, you know, finding podcasts and hearing different things and then taking care of herself. And then she got proactive and. Started getting herself out there, which is the first thing that we always tell people to do say you're a voice actor So absolutely say it.
Yeah, say it say it again, and she kept also reinforcing it, too I don't know if we I can't I don't think we're playing this little clip But she talks about in what in the whole extended audio of it about cooking dinner for her kids and listening to podcasts during that Time and she is constantly learning and reinforcing and keeping herself up accountable through all these different means and some really interesting ones going forward.
And so she started in about November time frames and she started listening to this. So fast forward to a couple months ago to the beginning of February. So it had only been, you know, three or so months. And, uh, and, and, and that's when she started to, to really get herself out there. On the 4th of February this year, I signed up on Upwork.
And would you believe it? That same day I got hired for a job. I could not believe my eyes. Very same day, I got signed up for a job. It was a explainer video voiceover and I got paid peanuts, but it doesn't matter. I actually did a voiceover and got paid for it. So she found a place to put her stuff out there and we've talked about some of these, the, these online.
Platforms to do this and, um, You know, it, it, it worked for her. And it worked very quickly for her. That doesn't mean it's going to work that quickly for everybody. I wish it, I wish it did. That'd be amazing. But, again, she never would have gotten that far if she didn't just take a leap of faith. Which is really what it was.
It was a leap of faith. Uh, this also reminds me of that interview we did with Ellen and Fiverr, same idea, Upwork is a very similar platform, you can be a freelancer up there, you don't have to pay to have a profile, you can treat yourself like a small business, and it's an opportunity, they really allow you to showcase yourself really well, and this is awesome too, so again, if we remember it, back a little ways.
She was worried about, not worried. Actually, she was beyond worried. She was past that, but she was like, well, I don't have the money to buy a microphone, but that doesn't matter. I'm going to figure out a way. And she does slowly, but surely. And she starts doing little things. She gives up smoking, which is a big thing.
She listens to podcasts. She finds out all the information she can. She then starts investing in herself and invest. in her career and her business. Now she has a microphone. Now she has a profile where she can go out and do work. She is learning, and it's really not as difficult as it might seem. I am telling you and we can all do this.
We can all learn this. I know some of it might seem daunting, but it's not. Not impossible. No, it's definitely not. And, uh, you know, that was a first step. Wasn't the last step. It was the first step. And she continued to, to, to move on from that, right? We cannot sit on our laurels. We can't be like, Hey, I put something up there.
I got a job. Boom, I'm done. No, you're just getting started. You're just getting started. And she was just getting started. As you can see, she has continued to, uh, to try new things, get new opportunities and. Continued to see success. Yeah. And on the, on that front of the microphone, it's a sequence too. She didn't start with the microphone.
She started with learning. Then she learned more. Then she, uh, she started, you know, stop smoking. And then she got into finding more information, listening to podcasts. And then she got into the microphone side of things. So remember there are steps that you can take right now that are not as extensive as buying a microphone or investing in that.
Oh, and you can even see that at the beginning she didn't have one. She didn't need one. She didn't use one. She instead, Use something as simple as your cell phone. I've been doing a lot of work with Upwork, especially Upwork. Eventually I signed up with voice 123. com and I started getting audition requests every single day.
I would get half a dozen of them. So every single day I would, I would run down to my car, take my phone and use this Haiku app and record the audition on it and go back to my desk and edit it on Audacity. And with normalizing and noise reduction and compressing, it actually sounded fine. I'm laughing because I'm sure that a sound engineer out there and, you know, production People, they probably can tell, but it was okay to me.
I'm like, whatever, I am an amateur. I have been practicing a lot with all the auditions, and I know that everybody says, do not use auditions to practice. Well, guess what? That's exactly what I've done.
For the record, I don't think we've ever said that. And if we have, I take it back. Because I think, you know, practicing on auditions, it's fine. It's good. I love this one. I love it. In fact, I'm pretty sure you mentioned that you signed up for one of those websites and used the month of free trial to literally just do auditions.
And not just to practice, but to practice auditioning, which is very different than just I mean, we can all practice and that's fine, but practicing auditioning is something totally different. It's the same exact website she used as well. I signed up for Voice123. This is about nine years ago, ten years ago when I first started out and I auditioned 24 7.
I mean, not, not 24 7, but every single day you can audition as much as you want. There's thousands of opportunities there to work, to work. I didn't book any of those gigs, but it was a, it. trained me. It was definitely where I got, I started cutting my teeth on one of these platforms. So absolutely, yes, use auditions.
I am full, all for this. Everyone should do the same. Everyone should use every opportunity to work on microphone as more experience, as more training. Love this. Love it so much. No, absolutely. And again, it's all about that being proactive. It's not sitting back. We talked about it with some of these social media platforms, how they're great, but they are passive.
You can't be passive. You have to be aggressive. And not only was she aggressive in practicing and working on her voice, but also in her marketing platform. As you'll hear, she actually got really proactive in getting herself and getting her name out there, which is such an important part of this business.
With business cards in hand. This is what I'm gonna do. Every day at lunchtime. Okay, so maybe once a week. Because I am in a 9 to 5 job and that does take time. So I will go and visit all the studios in my city and hand them some business cards. Just meet the guys and so then they can associate the email with my face and then they'll have my business card and somewhere along the line.
That's networking. I'm very excited about this. So again, being proactive, getting out there. Maybe putting herself in some uncomfortable situations. Maybe she's not comfortable with that. I know I'm not. Well, too bad. You do that. You get out there. So she has a plan. She has an actionable plan. And she has the commitment to, to, to really do it.
She has that motivation to do it. I see no reason why Gayle isn't going to be super successful at this. And also, just for the record, she has a really nice voice. Yeah, she's got a great voice! She does! I, I, we haven't mentioned that, she's, I'm really glad she sent us that, that, that audio file, because she has a super awesome voice!
And look, the thing is, you don't need to be perfect. Having a great voice, it opens the door. It's not, it doesn't, it's not what walks you through it. You have to do that yourself. You've got to put yourself out there. You've got to market yourself. And I love in the clip before this, she talked about, uh, audio producers, maybe judging her, the sound quality as she's learning, honestly, most people don't care.
Good enough is good enough. Like you don't need to be perfect. You D it doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't never will be perfect. It never will be. I've had people, you know, that I've talked to be like, you know what, I'm going to, you know, Oh, I'm going to start telling people when I get more, when I get a little bit more polished, I'm going to start telling people when I, when I get a little bit more established.
It doesn't work that way because you never will, because you never will. It, you have to, again, take that, take that jump, take that leap. And that's what she did. What was her, you know, audition material perfect? Probably not. Could it have been better? I'm sure it could have, but that's not the point. Jump off.
That's not the point. Jump off cliffs and make your wings on the way down. Like that's the best way to build wings. It really is very helpful. Keep doing this over and over and over again and all of a sudden you're going to soar. The more you jump, the better off you're going to be. I would encourage everyone to take this strategy.
Keep going, keep putting yourself out there. Don't be perfect. In fact, I would argue that what makes you great as a voice actor, every, each and every one of you listening is your own unique humanity. imperfections. That's what colors your voice. That's what colors your character. That's what we need as voice actors.
Gail, that's awesome. I, I commend you on that. No, and, and, and, and again, Gail, we, we cannot thank you enough for, for reaching out to us. And, and I mean, I don't know. I don't know what else we can do to help. But if there is anything that we can do, you let us know. Please let us know. This is awesome. This has been probably like I said, one of the coolest experiences that we've had in this show from the podcast, which is full of cool experiences to be sure.
But this is this has definitely been one of the one of the highlights. Absolutely. And by the way, if anyone listening and has any questions for Gail, let us know. Yeah, or you know what they could do. Yeah. Go to Gail's website. Oh, then go to Gail's website. Go to Gail's website. Yeah. And maybe you take a listen and be like, oh damn, that's really good.
Like, yeah. So, check that out. Um, but, but if anyone does have any questions, uh, for Gail and doesn't want to reach out to her directly, reach out to us. Sam at voicecoaches. com is the best way to get in touch with us. That's us, sam at voicecoaches. com and we'd be more than happy to pass things along to Gail because we have every intention of staying in touch with her, um, you know, in regards to, uh, to her career moving forward, because this is, uh, this has been, this has been cool.
I feel personally invested now, uh, in, in Gail's career and when she does hit the, hit the big time and, and, you know, become huge and whatnot, uh, I'm going to absolutely call in some favors. Yeah. So that's gonna happen for sure, for sure. But again, Gail, um, I'm assuming you're listening. I'm hoping you're listening, but thank you so, so, so much for, for not only for listening in, but for, for reaching out to us and, uh, and, and you know what, for being an inspiration to, I think a lot of people listening in and, you know, maybe.
given Sam and I a little kick in the pants to, uh, to do stuff because I'm going to be honest with you. We've been trying to keep track of each month, what we've been doing, and we haven't been doing great. Not as much as we should be. Not at all. And Gail's only been doing this since November. Gail is literally shaming us.
A lot of our clients are, you know, they go through the program. The program's about, uh, often about five months, six months long at most, you know, so. Look what you can do in six months, right? November, December, January, you know, Gail has done that and she is already working. You too can do this. You absolutely can do this.
Put yourself out there before you're ready. You will, you will see so much more by doing that than you would by waiting. Make that commitment. If you have that passion. And give up smoking. I mean, you don't have to give up smoking. Please stop. But that is a cool, cool perk. For your, for your health. If anything else, um, but, uh, but yeah, just, just really cool.
Just really, really cool. So, you know what, I, I hope those listening and have enjoyed kind of hearing that, that different perspective, because I know Sam, I know you and I, we. It was a blast. This was this. I was looking forward to doing this one. Yeah, we've had been holding on to this because we just have so much that we've been doing recently.
But Gail, this has been a blast. Thank you. Yes, it has. And we look forward to hearing more from Gail. Maybe at some point we can actually get Gail on live. I don't know what the time difference is. Oh, that would be awesome. Africa. I was trying to do the math in my head. I don't know how we'll make that work, but I'd love to make that work at some point.
Actually have have Gail call in and have her on on the show live if I. She's still interested if she's not big time at us at that point, which she might be, which she might be at that point because she's such a big superstar in, uh, in South Africa, but, um, but again, thank you so much, Gail, and thanks to everyone for listening in again.
Hope hope this was a good one for you. We certainly enjoyed this one quite a bit. Um, Sam, anything to anything to add for for our listeners? I'll let Gail speak for herself. She did it. Yeah, be like Gail. That's all I got. Like, I agree. Be like Gail. Thank you. Be. Like. Gail. Alright, well, Sam, uh, uh, again, uh, it's been fun.
It always is. Josh, and my apologies for, you know, what you were saying at the beginning. I have not forgotten about that. Belittling me and, uh, and hurting my feelings is okay. It's alright, I'll get over it. I'll cry a little bit, but I'll get over it. Many, many apologies. Okay, that's alright. That's alright.
Uh, so, uh, thanks again for tuning in, everyone, uh, for this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. We'll be back next week. Hope you will be as well. Until then, so long, everyone. Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
Josh and Sam say hey to Gaelle, a Voice Coaches Radio listener from South Africa.
