VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #448 – If at first you don’t succeed…
Voice Coaches Radio. Everything voiceover. And welcome to this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. I am Josh Heller, delighted to have you joining me as we are each and every week here at Voice Coaches. But what we've been doing recently and continue to do is taking a look, uh, a look back at the time that was, the way things were.
Step into the Wayback Machine. And, uh, and looking through the archives of Voice Coaches Radio, the over 10 years worth of archives of Voice Coaches Radio. And, uh, you know, really some, some great interviews that we've been able to listen to recently that have taken place. Uh, some great thoughts and, uh, and really some great topics that I understand most people who listen to Voice Coaches Radio don't have the time to go back through the archives or 10 years worth to, uh, to dig out those gems, but lucky for you, I do and I have and we continue to go through some of those and the one we're going to listen to this week is Is actually one I enjoyed very much.
Uh, it goes all the way back to 2010. It features Warren Garling and Mike Spring and basically it's about motivation staying motivated when you are out there in the real world and what they do is take a look at success stories.
But these are success stories for people that you most certainly know both in and out of the voice acting world. But their success stories that came only because these people persevere these people did not give up, they did not back down, even in the face of sometimes tremendous adversity.
Some of these are stories that you've probably heard before, others maybe not, but really they are inspiring in the fact that each and every one of them had every opportunity in the world to give up. Really, probably, was... Surprising that they didn't at that point. And I, I, uh, try to put myself in that situation and hope that, that I wouldn't as well.
But, you know, it's, it's hard to say because it can be tough sometimes to keep yourself motivated, to keep yourself going, to keep yourself accountable, even when things don't go your way right away, even when you don't get those successes early on, when you don't get those, you know, uh, job offers early on, when you get rejected, which...
All will happen, but that's okay. As long as you're willing to keep pushing forward, keep moving through. And just listening to some of these stories, you can hear, I mean, gosh, the pages of history are littered with stories like this of people who didn't give up, who did persevere, and who ultimately found success.
And in many cases, Change the world. Have a listen.
Well, Warren, I know that it's tough sometimes for people to stay motivated, so I'm always looking for ways to kind of just get people feeling inspired to go out there and succeed in voiceovers. So today I thought maybe we could share some stories with you of people who have built some really great success in all different types of fields, but who started off with some adversity in their lives first.
And I thought we'd kind of do a little tribute to Paul Harvey and the rest of the story and tell you a little bit about the people first and then tell you who they are. And you may guess some of these after we get a little deeper into each one, but there are some that you're going to be very surprised at, I think.
That's right. And if you guess, you win absolutely nothing.
Absolutely. You get to come back next week. You get to come back next week. There you go. Listen again. So let me, I'll start. Okay. Since, since it's your idea, I'll start. I don't know what that means. All right. This guy enlisted in the army, worked as an engineer for the army band and chorus.
Have you got it yet? After leaving the army, he began working at the National Recording Studios in New York City, where he worked as an engineer on radio spots for movies. Oh, now you may think in 1963, he went into business with a producer by the name of Floyd Peterson, and they were producing advertising exclusively for the movie industry.
So about 1964, he's working, um, on a Western gunfighters of Casa Grande. And he had to fill in because a voice actor didn't show up in order to have something to present to MGM. He just, you know, did it himself. After MGM bought the spots, he began a career as a voiceover artist and became perhaps the best known voiceover actor of all time for 40 years.
He did movie trailers. Of course, we're talking about our friend Don LaFontaine, who we miss very much, but what a great story and look at all he went through and had no idea about that left turn he was about to take. That's right. And, you know, I feel like, Warren, I should have done a little sound effect there.
Dun, dun, dun. Right before you said Don LaFontaine. So, you feel free to jump in. No, there's just no way I can even try to replicate what he did. I just, I just, in a world, no, it doesn't work for me. See, told you. Well, this next gentleman has also been pretty successful, I think you'll agree. He dropped out of high school in his sophomore year.
And when his parents convinced him to return, he was actually placed accidentally In a learning disabled class, so he dropped out again. Uh, eventually he finished and then he went on to apply for filmmaking school and was promptly rejected. So one summer he, uh, was visiting universal studios and he met with an executive named Chuck Silver, who, you know, kind of casually invited him to come back and this is a pretty well known story.
But, uh, it's still one worth sharing. He showed up the next day at Universal with a suit and a briefcase, uh, with nothing in it. And he kind of waved the security guard. The security guard let him walk in. And he proceeded to spend the entire summer on the backlot of Universal Studios. And sort of got to know all the executives and the filmmakers.
And a couple years later, he put out his first film. It was a little fishtail by the name of Jaws. And of course, this guy is Steven Spielberg. Well, this next person you may know as a writer. But she started out as a technical writer, not really what she's best known for. Now, when she told her business partner that she wanted to try writing more instead of doing the estimates and creating bills and doing all that back office stuff, he basically laughed at her.
So she quit. He later says I fired her, but she basically quit and struck out on her own sometimes writing technical materials for up to 90 hours a week where she found the time to do what she finally did is just amazing because during all this time where she's doing that to make a living, and she's working on her own and branching out into fiction. And she wrote her first book, which some of you may have heard by Amy Tan, the Joy Luck Club. Also made into a movie. The excellent, excellent movie as well. And she's gone on to become a bestselling author of numerous books. Well, this last one isn't quite so much of a mystery.
I'll tell you who it is right up front, but it's a story that I found to be quite enjoyable. And it's the story of the Wright brothers. And what's interesting about their story, though, that I think a lot of people don't know is that just a couple of months before they flew their plane, the New York Times published an article and it said, and I quote, the flying machine, which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from 1 million to 10 million years. So the New York Times thought it was going to take millions of years before we'd be able to fly.
And just two months later. Here you have the Wright brothers who went out and proved everyone wrong.
Unbelievable. And, and around that time, if I'm not mistaken, somebody was quoted as saying, I think somebody in the patent office said, Well, anything that's ever been invented till now, that's it. There's nothing left to be invented.
That's right.
You know, and, and you just think about the people that have gone against that adversity and have decided, No, I'm going to see this. through and, and where it's brought them. There are obviously hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions of stories like these, you have to keep people in mind. Like, uh, Michael Jordan, who was cut from his high school basketball team, right?
Or how about Beethoven? Whose music teacher told him he was a hopeless composer.
Oh, I like this one. Colonel Sanders, creator of Kentucky fried chicken. He was told no by over a thousand restaurants for more than a year while he lived in his car, trying to sell his chicken recipe.
And here's one that I think is particularly noteworthy. Walt Disney was turned down by over a hundred banks when he tried to get funding to develop Disneyland. Which just goes to show you that you really have to persevere and stay motivated even through some pretty amazing hardships that some of these people went through.
Set yourself some goals, tell your friends and your family about your goals so they can kind of hold your feet to the fire, and just go for it. That's, that's what it's about.
Our thanks to Warren Garling and Mike Spring, uh, for their chat earlier in the iteration of Voice Coaches Radio from all the way back in 2010, again, talking about the importance of perseverance, the importance of staying at it, sticking to it, staying accountable, right, holding your feet to the fire.
As, uh, as we heard Warren say. Uh, it's so, so important. You know, one of my favorite quotes, uh, is, is Thomas Edison. And it's, Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. I mean, think about it. We've all hit a point in our lives, whether it's in voice acting or anything else, where you're like, you know what?
This ain't gonna work out. Eh, it's alright. I tried. It's not gonna work out. You know, moving on. But don't. Don't, because you don't know how close you are to that success. Maybe just one more week. Maybe just two more weeks. Stick at it. Stick to it. Find out how close you actually are to that success. But the only way you're gonna find that out is if you keep at it.
As if you put your head down and continue to work. It's what all of those people in those examples did and countless others have done as well throughout the annals of history. Those are the people that make a difference in the world. Those are the people that are successful and you can be one of those people.
You can make that difference. You can become successful, be it in this or anything else, but you got to stick at it. You got to stick to it. Again, many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. You're close to success. You've made it this far.
You're putting in the work. Don't give up now. Don't give up now. You don't know how close success is. It may just be right around the corner. But the only way you're gonna find out is if you stick to it. So I certainly hope you do that, hopefully listening to, uh, you know, to, uh, to those stories and I'm sure you can think of many others of your own.
That can motivate you to stay with it, because that's what we need. We need that motivation to keep us going day in and day out. Yes, we know this industry can be tough, it can beat you down a little bit, it can get frustrating. Trust me, we know. We've been there. But we also know that success is not far away.
If you're willing to put in the work, and if you're willing to stick to it. Don't quit before you know how close you are to success. Find out. Work that extra week. Extra two weeks. Extra ten weeks. Who cares? In the greatest scheme of things, what is an extra month or two? It's nothing. It's nothing. Stick with it.
Find out how close that success really is. So again, hopefully this will help motivate you a little bit. I know we all need a little, a little motivation every now and again. So hopefully that provides it just a little bit for you. And I thank you so much as always for tuning in here to Voice Coaches Radio.
This week, obviously we'll be back next week as well. Hey, if you have a topic or an idea or discussion you'd like us to go over, Let us know. [email protected] is the best way to get in touch with me. The best way to get in touch with the podcast. Again, that's [email protected]. com. Send us a note.
Again, any ideas, discussions, topics, guests you'd like us to cover, you'd like us to get, let us know. We do have some guests lined up, coming up soon here on Voice Coaches Radio. So, you'll definitely want to stick around for that. We've got some good stuff coming up. But, as always, thank you so much for tuning in this week.
We look forward to talking to you next week. And until then, so long everyone. Visit voice coaches.com for more voiceover news and information.
Step into the Wayback Machine. And, uh, and looking through the archives of Voice Coaches Radio, the over 10 years worth of archives of Voice Coaches Radio. And, uh, you know, really some, some great interviews that we've been able to listen to recently that have taken place. Uh, some great thoughts and, uh, and really some great topics that I understand most people who listen to Voice Coaches Radio don't have the time to go back through the archives or 10 years worth to, uh, to dig out those gems, but lucky for you, I do and I have and we continue to go through some of those and the one we're going to listen to this week is Is actually one I enjoyed very much.
Uh, it goes all the way back to 2010. It features Warren Garling and Mike Spring and basically it's about motivation staying motivated when you are out there in the real world and what they do is take a look at success stories.
But these are success stories for people that you most certainly know both in and out of the voice acting world. But their success stories that came only because these people persevere these people did not give up, they did not back down, even in the face of sometimes tremendous adversity.
Some of these are stories that you've probably heard before, others maybe not, but really they are inspiring in the fact that each and every one of them had every opportunity in the world to give up. Really, probably, was... Surprising that they didn't at that point. And I, I, uh, try to put myself in that situation and hope that, that I wouldn't as well.
But, you know, it's, it's hard to say because it can be tough sometimes to keep yourself motivated, to keep yourself going, to keep yourself accountable, even when things don't go your way right away, even when you don't get those successes early on, when you don't get those, you know, uh, job offers early on, when you get rejected, which...
All will happen, but that's okay. As long as you're willing to keep pushing forward, keep moving through. And just listening to some of these stories, you can hear, I mean, gosh, the pages of history are littered with stories like this of people who didn't give up, who did persevere, and who ultimately found success.
And in many cases, Change the world. Have a listen.
Well, Warren, I know that it's tough sometimes for people to stay motivated, so I'm always looking for ways to kind of just get people feeling inspired to go out there and succeed in voiceovers. So today I thought maybe we could share some stories with you of people who have built some really great success in all different types of fields, but who started off with some adversity in their lives first.
And I thought we'd kind of do a little tribute to Paul Harvey and the rest of the story and tell you a little bit about the people first and then tell you who they are. And you may guess some of these after we get a little deeper into each one, but there are some that you're going to be very surprised at, I think.
That's right. And if you guess, you win absolutely nothing.
Absolutely. You get to come back next week. You get to come back next week. There you go. Listen again. So let me, I'll start. Okay. Since, since it's your idea, I'll start. I don't know what that means. All right. This guy enlisted in the army, worked as an engineer for the army band and chorus.
Have you got it yet? After leaving the army, he began working at the National Recording Studios in New York City, where he worked as an engineer on radio spots for movies. Oh, now you may think in 1963, he went into business with a producer by the name of Floyd Peterson, and they were producing advertising exclusively for the movie industry.
So about 1964, he's working, um, on a Western gunfighters of Casa Grande. And he had to fill in because a voice actor didn't show up in order to have something to present to MGM. He just, you know, did it himself. After MGM bought the spots, he began a career as a voiceover artist and became perhaps the best known voiceover actor of all time for 40 years.
He did movie trailers. Of course, we're talking about our friend Don LaFontaine, who we miss very much, but what a great story and look at all he went through and had no idea about that left turn he was about to take. That's right. And, you know, I feel like, Warren, I should have done a little sound effect there.
Dun, dun, dun. Right before you said Don LaFontaine. So, you feel free to jump in. No, there's just no way I can even try to replicate what he did. I just, I just, in a world, no, it doesn't work for me. See, told you. Well, this next gentleman has also been pretty successful, I think you'll agree. He dropped out of high school in his sophomore year.
And when his parents convinced him to return, he was actually placed accidentally In a learning disabled class, so he dropped out again. Uh, eventually he finished and then he went on to apply for filmmaking school and was promptly rejected. So one summer he, uh, was visiting universal studios and he met with an executive named Chuck Silver, who, you know, kind of casually invited him to come back and this is a pretty well known story.
But, uh, it's still one worth sharing. He showed up the next day at Universal with a suit and a briefcase, uh, with nothing in it. And he kind of waved the security guard. The security guard let him walk in. And he proceeded to spend the entire summer on the backlot of Universal Studios. And sort of got to know all the executives and the filmmakers.
And a couple years later, he put out his first film. It was a little fishtail by the name of Jaws. And of course, this guy is Steven Spielberg. Well, this next person you may know as a writer. But she started out as a technical writer, not really what she's best known for. Now, when she told her business partner that she wanted to try writing more instead of doing the estimates and creating bills and doing all that back office stuff, he basically laughed at her.
So she quit. He later says I fired her, but she basically quit and struck out on her own sometimes writing technical materials for up to 90 hours a week where she found the time to do what she finally did is just amazing because during all this time where she's doing that to make a living, and she's working on her own and branching out into fiction. And she wrote her first book, which some of you may have heard by Amy Tan, the Joy Luck Club. Also made into a movie. The excellent, excellent movie as well. And she's gone on to become a bestselling author of numerous books. Well, this last one isn't quite so much of a mystery.
I'll tell you who it is right up front, but it's a story that I found to be quite enjoyable. And it's the story of the Wright brothers. And what's interesting about their story, though, that I think a lot of people don't know is that just a couple of months before they flew their plane, the New York Times published an article and it said, and I quote, the flying machine, which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from 1 million to 10 million years. So the New York Times thought it was going to take millions of years before we'd be able to fly.
And just two months later. Here you have the Wright brothers who went out and proved everyone wrong.
Unbelievable. And, and around that time, if I'm not mistaken, somebody was quoted as saying, I think somebody in the patent office said, Well, anything that's ever been invented till now, that's it. There's nothing left to be invented.
That's right.
You know, and, and you just think about the people that have gone against that adversity and have decided, No, I'm going to see this. through and, and where it's brought them. There are obviously hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions of stories like these, you have to keep people in mind. Like, uh, Michael Jordan, who was cut from his high school basketball team, right?
Or how about Beethoven? Whose music teacher told him he was a hopeless composer.
Oh, I like this one. Colonel Sanders, creator of Kentucky fried chicken. He was told no by over a thousand restaurants for more than a year while he lived in his car, trying to sell his chicken recipe.
And here's one that I think is particularly noteworthy. Walt Disney was turned down by over a hundred banks when he tried to get funding to develop Disneyland. Which just goes to show you that you really have to persevere and stay motivated even through some pretty amazing hardships that some of these people went through.
Set yourself some goals, tell your friends and your family about your goals so they can kind of hold your feet to the fire, and just go for it. That's, that's what it's about.
Our thanks to Warren Garling and Mike Spring, uh, for their chat earlier in the iteration of Voice Coaches Radio from all the way back in 2010, again, talking about the importance of perseverance, the importance of staying at it, sticking to it, staying accountable, right, holding your feet to the fire.
As, uh, as we heard Warren say. Uh, it's so, so important. You know, one of my favorite quotes, uh, is, is Thomas Edison. And it's, Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. I mean, think about it. We've all hit a point in our lives, whether it's in voice acting or anything else, where you're like, you know what?
This ain't gonna work out. Eh, it's alright. I tried. It's not gonna work out. You know, moving on. But don't. Don't, because you don't know how close you are to that success. Maybe just one more week. Maybe just two more weeks. Stick at it. Stick to it. Find out how close you actually are to that success. But the only way you're gonna find that out is if you keep at it.
As if you put your head down and continue to work. It's what all of those people in those examples did and countless others have done as well throughout the annals of history. Those are the people that make a difference in the world. Those are the people that are successful and you can be one of those people.
You can make that difference. You can become successful, be it in this or anything else, but you got to stick at it. You got to stick to it. Again, many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. You're close to success. You've made it this far.
You're putting in the work. Don't give up now. Don't give up now. You don't know how close success is. It may just be right around the corner. But the only way you're gonna find out is if you stick to it. So I certainly hope you do that, hopefully listening to, uh, you know, to, uh, to those stories and I'm sure you can think of many others of your own.
That can motivate you to stay with it, because that's what we need. We need that motivation to keep us going day in and day out. Yes, we know this industry can be tough, it can beat you down a little bit, it can get frustrating. Trust me, we know. We've been there. But we also know that success is not far away.
If you're willing to put in the work, and if you're willing to stick to it. Don't quit before you know how close you are to success. Find out. Work that extra week. Extra two weeks. Extra ten weeks. Who cares? In the greatest scheme of things, what is an extra month or two? It's nothing. It's nothing. Stick with it.
Find out how close that success really is. So again, hopefully this will help motivate you a little bit. I know we all need a little, a little motivation every now and again. So hopefully that provides it just a little bit for you. And I thank you so much as always for tuning in here to Voice Coaches Radio.
This week, obviously we'll be back next week as well. Hey, if you have a topic or an idea or discussion you'd like us to go over, Let us know. [email protected] is the best way to get in touch with me. The best way to get in touch with the podcast. Again, that's [email protected]. com. Send us a note.
Again, any ideas, discussions, topics, guests you'd like us to cover, you'd like us to get, let us know. We do have some guests lined up, coming up soon here on Voice Coaches Radio. So, you'll definitely want to stick around for that. We've got some good stuff coming up. But, as always, thank you so much for tuning in this week.
We look forward to talking to you next week. And until then, so long everyone. Visit voice coaches.com for more voiceover news and information.
In a recap episode, Mike and Warren from our team reflect on the importance of perseverance to success (both in the voice over industry and in life more generally) through a series of touching anecdotes.
