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Voice Coaches Radio #488 – The New Kid(s) in Town…Part 2
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 I am each and every week here on The Pod from White Lake Music and Post. And I have another special guest here. And we mentioned it a bit ago when we talked to Janelle.
And we did have some new faces, some, some new blood here at, uh, here at Voice Coaches here at, uh, at White Lake Music and Post and, and I wanted to introduce, uh, you know, introduce our listeners to the, uh, You know, to the new faces here, and a new face is with me in the booth today, and, uh, and that is Katie Lembo.
Katie, first of all, welcome. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Absolutely. Glad to have you. Thank you for joining us here on Voice Coaches Radio. And, uh, I guess we'll start, uh, so, well, first we'll start with, uh, you, you started here, what, only a few weeks ago, yeah? It'll be... three weeks on Monday. Wow. Time flies.
I know. Time flies. And, uh, and so I guess we'll, we'll start with what, what is your official title here? My official title is communications director. So I'll be handling all of the PR, the different communications, language, verbiage, stuff like that. So when you see us on, uh, on the Book of Faces and the Twitters.
Oh, it's me. And the other, other various social medias, that's you. Yes, that's you. You're the social media maven. Yeah, about 99% of the time, that's gonna be me. Awesome, awesome. Well, uh, you know, so like I said, welcome obviously to the program, but um, you know, tell us about your background. What, uh, you know, where Where you're from, what you've been doing, and what brought you here.
Yeah, so I graduated from UAlbany in 2017, and then I went to Spotlight News, the Spot 518 in Del Mar. Wait, so you graduated in 2017? Yeah, I graduated high school in 2013, and then... Ew! Oh, dang. Yeah, I'm 26. Let's just get that out there. Ugh. I'm not. I'm not that anymore. So yeah, I did a couple of months at another newspaper, didn't like it.
I have a degree in journalism and then went to Spotlight, spent three and a half years there. I actually interned there in college and was engagement coordinator, so that was a position. That was a position made specifically for me. So I did social media, I did a lot of the post office communication. I was basically the right hand to the publisher there.
And I was there for three and a half years. And in May, David had reached out to me because I had been taking pretty much all of the Spot 518 coverage. I was doing that on my own. And David reached out to me and said, Hey, we'd be interested in having you come aboard. I came in, talked to David, we kind of like went over a bunch of stuff, did a bunch of negotiating and it happened within a week.
I came on board and it's been great. So, um. you know, humble brag here, I've won two NYPA awards, first place in the state for arts coverage. So the second one I actually won in March. So that was pretty cool. And yeah, I'm here. And I'm just really excited to use my skills to further the Voice Coaches White Lake brand and really excited to be working with the Bridge Road artists because that's It's super fun and I just like helping people's dreams come true.
And that's like the whole point of my career is just making people feel good. Well, and I think, you know, it's, I do talk with a lot of people, you know, who are, uh, getting their demo done, going on into that. And a big question that does come up is about social media and how to, to actively and, um, you know, most efficiently use it.
And I think it's a, it's a tremendous tool because it, it does have such an outreach that, you know, normally. Normally not the right word, but I mean, traditionally, we, you know, we, we never had before. Yeah. And I think the thing with social media that I've really learned is you have to be authentic. You have to be original.
When you're just sharing things and like just posting random things, a lot of times it social media almost thinks you're a bot in a lot of ways because you're just like generically like I like to share videos of. My animals and like videos of animals in general on my personal thing, because I'm such, I'm such an animal lover, but I've noticed that when I share that stuff, I don't get as much feedback from my friends, like a lot of people, it could be because they just don't want to see another video of like a raccoon.
I know, I can't believe that's not true. I know, but you don't get as much feedback. But when I make original authentic posts from me, I get so much more feedback. And it could be because it's resonating with people. But the other thing is, it very well could be that the algorithm is. It's kind of boosting.
The Facebook algorithm is something that I still don't 100% understand just because it changes so much. No one does. I mean, when I was in the news industry, we actually took all of our stuff off of Facebook and put it on the News Breakout because Facebook does such a weird thing with news and after the whole 2016 fiasco with you know, fake news and that whole thing.
It really changed the way, not only people consume news, but the way that news is disseminated because Facebook was like, we have a problem. And I think in a lot of ways, it really did change how people consume news, what they believe, how they're digesting things. So we actually moved to an app and I've noticed that It, um, it actually was received much better, but the thing with Facebook is if you're creating original authentic content from you or when we create original authentic contact content under the brand, people tend to digest it more because they realize that we're just human beings.
So I think that's the thing is you have to bring a sense of like a level of humanity to it. It does. It does humanize things, doesn't it? I mean, it's, you know, especially when it's coming from, you know, from a company or from a brand. Oh, yeah. Yeah. seems so cold sometimes that can seem so manufactured, but when it doesn't, it's, you know, it kind of creates a connection.
And I think that's what, you know, whether your business is as a voice actor or as a studio or whatever, that that kind of is, is the goal. And when you watch like TV, I'm huge, like TV nerd. I watch a lot of like Netflix when I'm home. And when you watch TV shows like Mad Men or White Gold is another one that I really love back when advertising was.
It's kind of in its like original heyday, people, it wasn't so much a personalized advertisement as it was coming from a brand. Like when I watch Mad Men, Mad Men wasn't as much on the people in the commercial as it was the commercial and the product itself. Like people were just a vehicle to sell the product.
But now when you look at, I mean, I can think of one, I think it's Kylena, which is like the weirdest thing to bring up. But there's a commercial out there about Kylena, which is a, uh, a contraceptive. And it's, it's just people dancing in a, in a square and this woman singing, but you're so focused on the woman and what she's expressing that you're not really so much thinking about the product until at the end when they're talking about it.
And you're like, Oh, so there's almost like this movement to humanize everything and kind of bring back that humanity to business because business is, can be such a cold, um, really, what's the word I'm looking for? Impersonal industry can be really ruthless that I think we're kind of changing the tide to be more human, be more authentic, be more original, be more imperfect because people don't.
Want to see perfection anymore. People want to see human beings. People want to resonate with who they're seeing. People want representation. People wanna see people like them. So to see this movement has actually been super interesting. And, and you know what's interesting, what you said is a lot of that actually has corollaries to, to voiceover itself.
Mm-hmm. , because the voiceover industry used to be, Cold, professional voice that was hawking a product and you bought it because it was the best and it was, you know, the only one and it gets your, you know, uh, your laundry the cleanest or whatever. And now it's, it's all about authenticity. It's all about that conversational tone.
We talk about it a ton in the program and we've also talked about a ton here on, on the podcast that, you know, people want to hear familial voices that they, you know, that, that sound like, you know, people don't want to be announced at, they want to be talked to. Right. They want to be talked to and so, you know, that doesn't just, you know, obviously that, that, you know, has connections both, you know, there as well as, you know, what we're trying to accomplish as voice actors being that, you know, every day, every person voice that just sounds like your friend, your neighbor, your family member.
Yeah. I think when my very first day here, right before I came on, David had, David Bourgeois, our president, had sent me the link because I had texted him a question. He sent me the link and he said, before you get here, just go over the website just so you kind of have an idea coming in. And then when you start your training, you kind of have a baseline.
So I'm studying that. I get here the first day and David had me actually take the course because he wanted me to have a an in depth understanding of what we were marketing, what we were talking about, and the, like, the first thing, I'll never forget this, the woman's name was Yvonne, and she's like, the very first thing that she had said was, you're already successful because you're trying something new.
And then voiceover now is not so much about finding you know, that one voice that's going to pertain to everything as it is finding the right voice for the right thing. So you could be a person that, you know, has a very specific voice, but if you can find a script or a part that pertains perfectly to your voice, you can be very successful.
And I think that's the beauty of entrepreneurship that I love is that with entrepreneurship, the world is really your oyster. When you're working at a typical nine to five, you're kind of pigeonholed into what Your job wants there, you know, there's room for growth, but at the same time your job is basically this but the thing I love about journalism The thing I love about doing this is that the world is really my oyster I have the ability to be creative to be different and that's what I love about Entrepreneurship in general is you have the ability to follow your dreams.
You have the ability to be innovative creative original Different and bring something different to the market. So that's what I love about this is that anybody can do this. Anybody can be successful at this. Anybody has the ability to do what they want with this if they're willing to work hard and put in the effort.
And that was just a really cool thing to see is that this really is about people and ethics and it's not about making as much money as you humanly can. The making money's good, too. But, uh, yes. No, I totally agree. So, I want to segue real quick before we wrap up, and I know that you had mentioned already, and I kind of knew just from having talked with you, you're a big animal lover.
Yes. And you have animals. Tell me about your pets. So, my first Briefly. Briefly. We only have another, like, half an hour. Uh, my parents are divorced, so at my mom's house, I have four cats and a golden retriever. Um, my cats names at my mom's are Oliver, Shadow, Piper, and Callie, and then my golden retriever is Sammy.
She's five. And then at my dad's house, we have one cat, Oreo, who is actually 16. So, yeah, she's, she's a granny, but we love her very much. And, um, if you look at my Instagram and stuff, it's literally just... pictures of them because I just, I love animals more than I love people. That will never change. No, that's, that's a fair, that's a fair.
Yeah. No, definitely. Animals are amazing. I mean, I'm the type of person who, I remember we were in DC once and I saw a raccoon, like in a dumpster at the bus stop while we were waiting to go back to our hotel. And I was like, Oh my God, I just want to pet it. I've actually been chased by geese before because I wanted to pet the babies.
I was a kid. I wanted to pet the babies. And then the mama goose like chased me down the beach. She hissed at you. She definitely hissed at you. Oh, no. She hissed and she, like, flapped her wings and she chased me down the beach. So, I'm one of those people. I learned my lesson. So, I will tell you, geese are mean, but my least favorite are seagulls.
Now, I don't know if you've had any interactions with seagulls, but I have. The only interaction I've had with a seagull is one time we were in Maine and my dad had a piece of pizza sitting on a table. He got up, the seagull flew down and grabbed the piece of pizza and flew away. And I was like, oh, and this piece of pizza was bigger than the seagull itself.
So, it was like, oh my god. So, when I was When I was in, uh, in college, I worked as a security guard and literally there were seagulls. I used to have to walk, um, walk a post and I'd have to go across a, uh, a garage, like a, uh, you know, at the top of the garage. And there were seagull nests because it was, it was in Boston and so there were tons of seagulls there.
I haven't pooped on by seagulls, but whatever. But there were, on either door. on top of the doors. And so when you'd walk across, when they were having babies, they got very defensive. And I don't know if you've ever been dive bombed by a seagull. They are big. And they're mean. And I don't like them. And that's all I have to say about seagulls.
I'm an animal lover. I do love the animals. I've got a couple cats. I desperately want to get a dog. I've never had one. I already have a five year old son, which is plenty at the moment. So when he's a little older, we're definitely going to get a dog, but There you go. Um, but, you know, uh, seagulls, no thank you.
I'll tell you what, seagulls I'm not a fan of. I don't mind most animals. Even like wild animals, I deal with them, except for snakes. No. I love snakes. No. Spiders. Stop it. Um. Spiders I'm okay with. I mean, up to a certain size. My parents love to watch Naked and Afraid, that like, survival show, and the snakes I see, like, there's a big one, there's like water moccasins and stuff like this, that I see them and I'm like, oh my god, look at those markings, they're beautiful.
And then a tarantula shows up and I run in the other room. I, like, I go into Benson's Pet Shop and I know there's a tarantula for sale and my legs will not let me go. Halfway past, like past halfway in the store because I'm terrified. Don't get me wrong, if there was a tarantula in my house, I'd freak out too, but, you know, spider, whatever, I, I, I deal with them, um, you know, when I have to.
The little ones are okay, it's these big hairy ones, and I, I want to set the record that I would never kill one because I know they have spines. such an important part of our ecosystem, and I understand that they have a purpose, but if I saw one, I, you know, I'm glad we don't live in Australia. Burn it with fire.
Yeah. No, you stay over there, I stay over here, we respect each other's boundaries, if you come near me, it's gonna be the end. It's funny, because we'll have, you know, we have ants that get in my house, uh, especially springtime, and my son will... freak out and be like, Oh, kill it. And, and he does that outside too.
He's like, kill it. And I'm like, buddy, this outside, this is where they live. This is their home. When they're in my home, it's a different story. Then we're like, they need to, they need to go. We're not leaving them alone. I try not to kill them. I usually, I try to, you know, put them in a cup and get them outside half the time.
I'm sure I killed them. No, the other day I went to grab a snack out of the cabinet and I saw an ant in there and I was like, Oh, I'm like ran in there and we had to get the ant, but I'm like, I don't want to eat this now. Well, so I was at the gym the other day. And there was a mouse running around the gym.
Oh my god. And so, just a little guy. And so we, we got a, uh, a container and we put it on top of it. And we tried to, like, put another container next to it to see if we could remove it, but that didn't work because it was the mouse. It ran away. Uh, so we got it under the, the container again and we were like, okay, we'll just kind of push the container along the floor and, you know, get it to the door, open the door, and then he'll be out.
Which is what we did. Uh, except that the mouse got dragged on the back of the container and died a Bad, bad, bad death. It wasn't good. It wasn't good. So I felt really bad about that. I did. I've had mice I don't like them, but that's fine. I used to live in the city in Boston when I was in college We've had rats.
I don't want them in my house, but I can live with them But snakes, no. Mm mm. Mm mm. Mm mm. Little ones, big ones, don't care. Don't like the way they look. I don't like the way they hiss. I don't like the way they move. I really don't like the way they move. They move really weird and it makes me uncomfortable.
Well, they got no legs. You would move weird too if you had no legs. I mean, again, I don't, I don't, but I wouldn't like me either at that point. That was like the worst. sentence structure. It's okay. They got no legs. They got no legs. They have no legs. They got no legs. I promise I write better than I speak.
I promise. But no, I'm, I'm, I'm an animal lover, except for, except for the snakes. Don't, can't, mmmmmmm. Noted for office pets. No snakes. No, please. Oh god, no. I wouldn't come in. I'd like, let's be honest, I would not come in to work. You'd be like, well, I guess I'm not coming to work anymore. I guess I'm unemployed.
Like, like, you bring a, you bring a spider in here, I'll be like, eh, just, you know, keep him over there. But, uh, I'll tell you what, if you bring a snake into work, I'm going to find a tarantula and bring it in. Okay, that's good to know, so that I know no snakes. Yeah, it's what we call mutually assured destruction.
Deal. It's the cold war going on here at Voice Coaches. Well, Katie, thank you so much for taking some time and, uh, and talking with us today and, uh, and telling us a little bit about you. And we're certainly super glad to have you here. Thank you. At Voice Coaches and, uh, and, and thankful that you took some time to chat with us.
And keep an eye out. Uh, on, uh, on the social medias, on the, the Twitters and the Facebooks. By the way, just for the record, I signed up for the Facebook when it was still called the Facebook. Oh my god. Yeah. I was in college. So I went to Northeastern in Boston. We were one of the first schools to get it.
Wow. Because it started at Harvard and then from Harvard it moved out to schools around the area and we were one of the first ones to get it. It was back in, uh, 2003 that I joined. I joined 2007 or, I just remember when I joined everybody had to put their middle name. in their name, which my parents were like, um, no, so we waited.
But yeah, so I, I remember when Facebook was getting big and that was to think now what it is now is just, I'd like I had a small part of that. But yeah, I still call it the Facebook because in my day back back in my day, it was the Facebook. And I still, when I type it in on my, on my browser, I still put it in the Facebook, just, just for posterity.
Oh, and just, I just want to set the record for one thing. For when Facebook and social media tends to be viewed as a highlight reel, just keep in mind that, you know, when it comes down to like, you know, our page and stuff, we're incredibly, you know, I can assure you that we're incredibly authentic. But when you're looking at social media in general, social media, it does tend to be a highlight reel.
So, you know, just, Just a healthy dose of skepticism when people are posting about their amazing vacations and stuff. Just a healthy dose of skepticism. Brain assault. Might be, you know. And listen, that's how I live my entire life. Same. You talk to me, I'm going to take it with a healthy dose of skepticism anyways.
That's probably not healthy. Probably not healthy. No, it's healthy. I'm very jaded. I'm very jaded. Ah, don't worry, you'll be broken like me soon. But Katie, thanks again for uh, for taking some time, we'll definitely have you back on the program and uh, and uh, and talk with us some more, but uh, but thanks again for joining us.
If you have any questions for Katie, uh, shoot us a note, joshatvoicecoaches. com, quickest way to get in touch with me. Uh, Katie, do you have an email here yet? Yeah, it's katieatvoicecoaches. com, K A T I E. That makes a ton of sense. Well, katieatvoicecoaches. com, that's Katie, joshatvoicecoaches. com, that's me.
Join us and uh, and uh, send us a note, we'd love to hear from you. Alright, thanks so much everyone for tuning in today, Katie thanks again for uh, for taking some time with us and uh, everyone will uh, yeah, we'll be back in uh, in next week, same bad time, same bad channel, so until then, so long everyone.
Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
And we did have some new faces, some, some new blood here at, uh, here at Voice Coaches here at, uh, at White Lake Music and Post and, and I wanted to introduce, uh, you know, introduce our listeners to the, uh, You know, to the new faces here, and a new face is with me in the booth today, and, uh, and that is Katie Lembo.
Katie, first of all, welcome. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Absolutely. Glad to have you. Thank you for joining us here on Voice Coaches Radio. And, uh, I guess we'll start, uh, so, well, first we'll start with, uh, you, you started here, what, only a few weeks ago, yeah? It'll be... three weeks on Monday. Wow. Time flies.
I know. Time flies. And, uh, and so I guess we'll, we'll start with what, what is your official title here? My official title is communications director. So I'll be handling all of the PR, the different communications, language, verbiage, stuff like that. So when you see us on, uh, on the Book of Faces and the Twitters.
Oh, it's me. And the other, other various social medias, that's you. Yes, that's you. You're the social media maven. Yeah, about 99% of the time, that's gonna be me. Awesome, awesome. Well, uh, you know, so like I said, welcome obviously to the program, but um, you know, tell us about your background. What, uh, you know, where Where you're from, what you've been doing, and what brought you here.
Yeah, so I graduated from UAlbany in 2017, and then I went to Spotlight News, the Spot 518 in Del Mar. Wait, so you graduated in 2017? Yeah, I graduated high school in 2013, and then... Ew! Oh, dang. Yeah, I'm 26. Let's just get that out there. Ugh. I'm not. I'm not that anymore. So yeah, I did a couple of months at another newspaper, didn't like it.
I have a degree in journalism and then went to Spotlight, spent three and a half years there. I actually interned there in college and was engagement coordinator, so that was a position. That was a position made specifically for me. So I did social media, I did a lot of the post office communication. I was basically the right hand to the publisher there.
And I was there for three and a half years. And in May, David had reached out to me because I had been taking pretty much all of the Spot 518 coverage. I was doing that on my own. And David reached out to me and said, Hey, we'd be interested in having you come aboard. I came in, talked to David, we kind of like went over a bunch of stuff, did a bunch of negotiating and it happened within a week.
I came on board and it's been great. So, um. you know, humble brag here, I've won two NYPA awards, first place in the state for arts coverage. So the second one I actually won in March. So that was pretty cool. And yeah, I'm here. And I'm just really excited to use my skills to further the Voice Coaches White Lake brand and really excited to be working with the Bridge Road artists because that's It's super fun and I just like helping people's dreams come true.
And that's like the whole point of my career is just making people feel good. Well, and I think, you know, it's, I do talk with a lot of people, you know, who are, uh, getting their demo done, going on into that. And a big question that does come up is about social media and how to, to actively and, um, you know, most efficiently use it.
And I think it's a, it's a tremendous tool because it, it does have such an outreach that, you know, normally. Normally not the right word, but I mean, traditionally, we, you know, we, we never had before. Yeah. And I think the thing with social media that I've really learned is you have to be authentic. You have to be original.
When you're just sharing things and like just posting random things, a lot of times it social media almost thinks you're a bot in a lot of ways because you're just like generically like I like to share videos of. My animals and like videos of animals in general on my personal thing, because I'm such, I'm such an animal lover, but I've noticed that when I share that stuff, I don't get as much feedback from my friends, like a lot of people, it could be because they just don't want to see another video of like a raccoon.
I know, I can't believe that's not true. I know, but you don't get as much feedback. But when I make original authentic posts from me, I get so much more feedback. And it could be because it's resonating with people. But the other thing is, it very well could be that the algorithm is. It's kind of boosting.
The Facebook algorithm is something that I still don't 100% understand just because it changes so much. No one does. I mean, when I was in the news industry, we actually took all of our stuff off of Facebook and put it on the News Breakout because Facebook does such a weird thing with news and after the whole 2016 fiasco with you know, fake news and that whole thing.
It really changed the way, not only people consume news, but the way that news is disseminated because Facebook was like, we have a problem. And I think in a lot of ways, it really did change how people consume news, what they believe, how they're digesting things. So we actually moved to an app and I've noticed that It, um, it actually was received much better, but the thing with Facebook is if you're creating original authentic content from you or when we create original authentic contact content under the brand, people tend to digest it more because they realize that we're just human beings.
So I think that's the thing is you have to bring a sense of like a level of humanity to it. It does. It does humanize things, doesn't it? I mean, it's, you know, especially when it's coming from, you know, from a company or from a brand. Oh, yeah. Yeah. seems so cold sometimes that can seem so manufactured, but when it doesn't, it's, you know, it kind of creates a connection.
And I think that's what, you know, whether your business is as a voice actor or as a studio or whatever, that that kind of is, is the goal. And when you watch like TV, I'm huge, like TV nerd. I watch a lot of like Netflix when I'm home. And when you watch TV shows like Mad Men or White Gold is another one that I really love back when advertising was.
It's kind of in its like original heyday, people, it wasn't so much a personalized advertisement as it was coming from a brand. Like when I watch Mad Men, Mad Men wasn't as much on the people in the commercial as it was the commercial and the product itself. Like people were just a vehicle to sell the product.
But now when you look at, I mean, I can think of one, I think it's Kylena, which is like the weirdest thing to bring up. But there's a commercial out there about Kylena, which is a, uh, a contraceptive. And it's, it's just people dancing in a, in a square and this woman singing, but you're so focused on the woman and what she's expressing that you're not really so much thinking about the product until at the end when they're talking about it.
And you're like, Oh, so there's almost like this movement to humanize everything and kind of bring back that humanity to business because business is, can be such a cold, um, really, what's the word I'm looking for? Impersonal industry can be really ruthless that I think we're kind of changing the tide to be more human, be more authentic, be more original, be more imperfect because people don't.
Want to see perfection anymore. People want to see human beings. People want to resonate with who they're seeing. People want representation. People wanna see people like them. So to see this movement has actually been super interesting. And, and you know what's interesting, what you said is a lot of that actually has corollaries to, to voiceover itself.
Mm-hmm. , because the voiceover industry used to be, Cold, professional voice that was hawking a product and you bought it because it was the best and it was, you know, the only one and it gets your, you know, uh, your laundry the cleanest or whatever. And now it's, it's all about authenticity. It's all about that conversational tone.
We talk about it a ton in the program and we've also talked about a ton here on, on the podcast that, you know, people want to hear familial voices that they, you know, that, that sound like, you know, people don't want to be announced at, they want to be talked to. Right. They want to be talked to and so, you know, that doesn't just, you know, obviously that, that, you know, has connections both, you know, there as well as, you know, what we're trying to accomplish as voice actors being that, you know, every day, every person voice that just sounds like your friend, your neighbor, your family member.
Yeah. I think when my very first day here, right before I came on, David had, David Bourgeois, our president, had sent me the link because I had texted him a question. He sent me the link and he said, before you get here, just go over the website just so you kind of have an idea coming in. And then when you start your training, you kind of have a baseline.
So I'm studying that. I get here the first day and David had me actually take the course because he wanted me to have a an in depth understanding of what we were marketing, what we were talking about, and the, like, the first thing, I'll never forget this, the woman's name was Yvonne, and she's like, the very first thing that she had said was, you're already successful because you're trying something new.
And then voiceover now is not so much about finding you know, that one voice that's going to pertain to everything as it is finding the right voice for the right thing. So you could be a person that, you know, has a very specific voice, but if you can find a script or a part that pertains perfectly to your voice, you can be very successful.
And I think that's the beauty of entrepreneurship that I love is that with entrepreneurship, the world is really your oyster. When you're working at a typical nine to five, you're kind of pigeonholed into what Your job wants there, you know, there's room for growth, but at the same time your job is basically this but the thing I love about journalism The thing I love about doing this is that the world is really my oyster I have the ability to be creative to be different and that's what I love about Entrepreneurship in general is you have the ability to follow your dreams.
You have the ability to be innovative creative original Different and bring something different to the market. So that's what I love about this is that anybody can do this. Anybody can be successful at this. Anybody has the ability to do what they want with this if they're willing to work hard and put in the effort.
And that was just a really cool thing to see is that this really is about people and ethics and it's not about making as much money as you humanly can. The making money's good, too. But, uh, yes. No, I totally agree. So, I want to segue real quick before we wrap up, and I know that you had mentioned already, and I kind of knew just from having talked with you, you're a big animal lover.
Yes. And you have animals. Tell me about your pets. So, my first Briefly. Briefly. We only have another, like, half an hour. Uh, my parents are divorced, so at my mom's house, I have four cats and a golden retriever. Um, my cats names at my mom's are Oliver, Shadow, Piper, and Callie, and then my golden retriever is Sammy.
She's five. And then at my dad's house, we have one cat, Oreo, who is actually 16. So, yeah, she's, she's a granny, but we love her very much. And, um, if you look at my Instagram and stuff, it's literally just... pictures of them because I just, I love animals more than I love people. That will never change. No, that's, that's a fair, that's a fair.
Yeah. No, definitely. Animals are amazing. I mean, I'm the type of person who, I remember we were in DC once and I saw a raccoon, like in a dumpster at the bus stop while we were waiting to go back to our hotel. And I was like, Oh my God, I just want to pet it. I've actually been chased by geese before because I wanted to pet the babies.
I was a kid. I wanted to pet the babies. And then the mama goose like chased me down the beach. She hissed at you. She definitely hissed at you. Oh, no. She hissed and she, like, flapped her wings and she chased me down the beach. So, I'm one of those people. I learned my lesson. So, I will tell you, geese are mean, but my least favorite are seagulls.
Now, I don't know if you've had any interactions with seagulls, but I have. The only interaction I've had with a seagull is one time we were in Maine and my dad had a piece of pizza sitting on a table. He got up, the seagull flew down and grabbed the piece of pizza and flew away. And I was like, oh, and this piece of pizza was bigger than the seagull itself.
So, it was like, oh my god. So, when I was When I was in, uh, in college, I worked as a security guard and literally there were seagulls. I used to have to walk, um, walk a post and I'd have to go across a, uh, a garage, like a, uh, you know, at the top of the garage. And there were seagull nests because it was, it was in Boston and so there were tons of seagulls there.
I haven't pooped on by seagulls, but whatever. But there were, on either door. on top of the doors. And so when you'd walk across, when they were having babies, they got very defensive. And I don't know if you've ever been dive bombed by a seagull. They are big. And they're mean. And I don't like them. And that's all I have to say about seagulls.
I'm an animal lover. I do love the animals. I've got a couple cats. I desperately want to get a dog. I've never had one. I already have a five year old son, which is plenty at the moment. So when he's a little older, we're definitely going to get a dog, but There you go. Um, but, you know, uh, seagulls, no thank you.
I'll tell you what, seagulls I'm not a fan of. I don't mind most animals. Even like wild animals, I deal with them, except for snakes. No. I love snakes. No. Spiders. Stop it. Um. Spiders I'm okay with. I mean, up to a certain size. My parents love to watch Naked and Afraid, that like, survival show, and the snakes I see, like, there's a big one, there's like water moccasins and stuff like this, that I see them and I'm like, oh my god, look at those markings, they're beautiful.
And then a tarantula shows up and I run in the other room. I, like, I go into Benson's Pet Shop and I know there's a tarantula for sale and my legs will not let me go. Halfway past, like past halfway in the store because I'm terrified. Don't get me wrong, if there was a tarantula in my house, I'd freak out too, but, you know, spider, whatever, I, I, I deal with them, um, you know, when I have to.
The little ones are okay, it's these big hairy ones, and I, I want to set the record that I would never kill one because I know they have spines. such an important part of our ecosystem, and I understand that they have a purpose, but if I saw one, I, you know, I'm glad we don't live in Australia. Burn it with fire.
Yeah. No, you stay over there, I stay over here, we respect each other's boundaries, if you come near me, it's gonna be the end. It's funny, because we'll have, you know, we have ants that get in my house, uh, especially springtime, and my son will... freak out and be like, Oh, kill it. And, and he does that outside too.
He's like, kill it. And I'm like, buddy, this outside, this is where they live. This is their home. When they're in my home, it's a different story. Then we're like, they need to, they need to go. We're not leaving them alone. I try not to kill them. I usually, I try to, you know, put them in a cup and get them outside half the time.
I'm sure I killed them. No, the other day I went to grab a snack out of the cabinet and I saw an ant in there and I was like, Oh, I'm like ran in there and we had to get the ant, but I'm like, I don't want to eat this now. Well, so I was at the gym the other day. And there was a mouse running around the gym.
Oh my god. And so, just a little guy. And so we, we got a, uh, a container and we put it on top of it. And we tried to, like, put another container next to it to see if we could remove it, but that didn't work because it was the mouse. It ran away. Uh, so we got it under the, the container again and we were like, okay, we'll just kind of push the container along the floor and, you know, get it to the door, open the door, and then he'll be out.
Which is what we did. Uh, except that the mouse got dragged on the back of the container and died a Bad, bad, bad death. It wasn't good. It wasn't good. So I felt really bad about that. I did. I've had mice I don't like them, but that's fine. I used to live in the city in Boston when I was in college We've had rats.
I don't want them in my house, but I can live with them But snakes, no. Mm mm. Mm mm. Mm mm. Little ones, big ones, don't care. Don't like the way they look. I don't like the way they hiss. I don't like the way they move. I really don't like the way they move. They move really weird and it makes me uncomfortable.
Well, they got no legs. You would move weird too if you had no legs. I mean, again, I don't, I don't, but I wouldn't like me either at that point. That was like the worst. sentence structure. It's okay. They got no legs. They got no legs. They have no legs. They got no legs. I promise I write better than I speak.
I promise. But no, I'm, I'm, I'm an animal lover, except for, except for the snakes. Don't, can't, mmmmmmm. Noted for office pets. No snakes. No, please. Oh god, no. I wouldn't come in. I'd like, let's be honest, I would not come in to work. You'd be like, well, I guess I'm not coming to work anymore. I guess I'm unemployed.
Like, like, you bring a, you bring a spider in here, I'll be like, eh, just, you know, keep him over there. But, uh, I'll tell you what, if you bring a snake into work, I'm going to find a tarantula and bring it in. Okay, that's good to know, so that I know no snakes. Yeah, it's what we call mutually assured destruction.
Deal. It's the cold war going on here at Voice Coaches. Well, Katie, thank you so much for taking some time and, uh, and talking with us today and, uh, and telling us a little bit about you. And we're certainly super glad to have you here. Thank you. At Voice Coaches and, uh, and, and thankful that you took some time to chat with us.
And keep an eye out. Uh, on, uh, on the social medias, on the, the Twitters and the Facebooks. By the way, just for the record, I signed up for the Facebook when it was still called the Facebook. Oh my god. Yeah. I was in college. So I went to Northeastern in Boston. We were one of the first schools to get it.
Wow. Because it started at Harvard and then from Harvard it moved out to schools around the area and we were one of the first ones to get it. It was back in, uh, 2003 that I joined. I joined 2007 or, I just remember when I joined everybody had to put their middle name. in their name, which my parents were like, um, no, so we waited.
But yeah, so I, I remember when Facebook was getting big and that was to think now what it is now is just, I'd like I had a small part of that. But yeah, I still call it the Facebook because in my day back back in my day, it was the Facebook. And I still, when I type it in on my, on my browser, I still put it in the Facebook, just, just for posterity.
Oh, and just, I just want to set the record for one thing. For when Facebook and social media tends to be viewed as a highlight reel, just keep in mind that, you know, when it comes down to like, you know, our page and stuff, we're incredibly, you know, I can assure you that we're incredibly authentic. But when you're looking at social media in general, social media, it does tend to be a highlight reel.
So, you know, just, Just a healthy dose of skepticism when people are posting about their amazing vacations and stuff. Just a healthy dose of skepticism. Brain assault. Might be, you know. And listen, that's how I live my entire life. Same. You talk to me, I'm going to take it with a healthy dose of skepticism anyways.
That's probably not healthy. Probably not healthy. No, it's healthy. I'm very jaded. I'm very jaded. Ah, don't worry, you'll be broken like me soon. But Katie, thanks again for uh, for taking some time, we'll definitely have you back on the program and uh, and uh, and talk with us some more, but uh, but thanks again for joining us.
If you have any questions for Katie, uh, shoot us a note, joshatvoicecoaches. com, quickest way to get in touch with me. Uh, Katie, do you have an email here yet? Yeah, it's katieatvoicecoaches. com, K A T I E. That makes a ton of sense. Well, katieatvoicecoaches. com, that's Katie, joshatvoicecoaches. com, that's me.
Join us and uh, and uh, send us a note, we'd love to hear from you. Alright, thanks so much everyone for tuning in today, Katie thanks again for uh, for taking some time with us and uh, everyone will uh, yeah, we'll be back in uh, in next week, same bad time, same bad channel, so until then, so long everyone.
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Continuing to introduce the newest members of the Voice Coaches team, Josh welcomes in Katie Lembo. Katie serves as the Communications Director here, but we find out much more about this animal lover in today’s episode.
