VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #502 – Website Question
Voice Coaches Radio. Everything voiceover. And welcome to this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. I am Josh Heller. She is Marissa Lanczak. We are delighted to have you joining us bright and early. Uh, Marissa, how are you feeling? I'm glad that you're mentioning that it's bright and early because...
Because I didn't get much sleep. Bright and early is a relative term. It's about, if you're curious, a peek behind the curtain. It's about 9. 30 in the early, okay? You hear singers when they're like, Yeah, I can't sing at 7am. I can't sing at 9am. I can't speak at 9am half the time. And honestly, this is my own fault.
Because I just, I had fun last night. How dare you! How dare I have fun! No, I went to a concert, and I've only gone to three since the pandemic has, you know, kind of, I mean, not stopped, but you know, gotten where I'm vaccinated. I use the word abated. What's that? I use the word abated. Sure. Um, so, you know, so I've only gone to a couple and last night, I mean, it ended up moving venues and there were only like 50 people there and it was like the coolest experience.
So my friend and I were just like being as fangirly as possible, but now I sound like this today. Sorry. That's okay. Hey, you know what? That's all right. Um, We're still glad to have you. Honestly, I gotta, I don't want to, I don't want to be the one to tell you this, but it's not as, it's not that much worse than usual.
No, I know. It's not that bad. It feels worse than it is, and it doesn't, like, I can always make it sound better on a microphone, you know, like, I know how to push it out, but if you're just talking to me, and all of a sudden, like, I'm not expecting you to want a response, and then I'm like, Hi! Like, that's when it, that's when...
Wow. Yeah, but I can also put that on and off too if I have to. Wow, that was tremendous. Yes, I know. That was, well, if it makes you feel better, I'm also falling apart. I know you are. You've got a heating pad on your back right now. It's a rice sock. Yes, I have a rice sock on my, uh, on my shoulder. Uh, I hurt myself yesterday at the gym because, you know, I'm old and that's what I do.
Um, so I, I, I was, I was on my way. To the gym yesterday, I, I, I worked and coached at a CrossFit gym, and I was on my way, and, and, I, there was, okay, for those of you who were, who, It was foggy. It was super foggy yesterday. Oh my god, it was awful yesterday. And so I get on the highway and traffic's backed up and I'm like, it's because it's foggy because people don't know how to drive.
Well, we also couldn't see five feet in front of us yesterday. It was crazy. Why would you need to? Why do you need to see? I know. And so I was like, okay, so there's traffic, that's fine, no big deal. But there was an accident and there were signs that were saying as much and I looked up on my little phone.
conglomerate thing and uh, and then found yeah, there was an accident up ahead. I was like great So it took me about just under an hour to get to the gym. It usually takes me 15 minutes and By the way, I don't want to come across as a bad person more than I usually do Do you? Do you ever come across as a bad person?
I mean, it's possible. I'm about to. Well, maybe this is the first time. Maybe this is our first glimpse at how Josh really is in traffic. We got to the point where the traffic, you know, abated and sped up, and I didn't see anything. There was nothing! And I was disappointed. I was disappointed I did not see the accident.
And that makes me kind of a... Like, I mean, I didn't want to see, like, carnage. I didn't want to see, like, bodies or anything. But show me some, like, like a bumper or a wheel hanging around or something. Give me something. Let me know that this was not in vain. Yeah, I can understand that, I guess. I was, I was actually angry, like, as, as the traffic just kind of randomly at some, you know, indistinct point, just some line of demarcation, it went from bumper to bumper to, oh, no, we're moving now, and I don't know why, I didn't even, it wasn't even like flares or something, let me know, like, this is where it happened, guys, nothing.
I got nothing. No rubble, no nothing. No debris. And I, I, I, I was, and, and I agree, I mean, I, that makes me not a great person, like, I'm not saying I want to see, like, that car on fire, uh, although I did see one a couple weeks ago, it was actually pretty, pretty cool, um, but, but I, I don't want to see, like, like, death, but I, I know I kind of want to see I was just waiting for an hour for this like I was waiting in line for an hour to see a show and the show Didn't happen.
Well, and that that was I mean, I hate dare say it was kind of disappointing You can send your hate emails to Josh at voice coaches. com. I do apologize, but that's I feel like we are a desensitized society like, you know, cuz The example I love to give about myself, it has nothing to do with an accident per se, uh, but like, I went and I watched the Conjuring 3 movie when it came out on HBO Max, and I fell asleep during the climax of the movie because apparently, I watch too much crime shows and movies and blood and guts because I can fall asleep during it now.
Reality is way better than fiction right now. I can't, like, I don't even... Yeah. So, anyway, so, uh, so... My, you know, moral fallings aside, um, I get to the gym, but I get, I'm there late, and because I'm late, I don't really get to warm up as much as I should, and I am in an age in my life, apparently, where I need to warm up a lot, otherwise, I fall apart, and I did, and I hurt my upper back, shoulder, neck area.
I hate to break it to you, but like, I have a feeling that even if you didn't, even if you warmed up as much as you possibly could, You may have still hurt yourself. It's possible. This wouldn't be the first time. I've gotten out of the shower, and I've gone to put the towel around my head, and all of a sudden, got a tweak in my neck, you know, cause, cause age.
But I will say that also happened when I was like 25, so that made me feel real old. You're an old soul. I've always been told that, so, it's just creeping into life in general here. So the funny thing was, so I, it was my upper shoulder, Um, upper back through my shoulder, but it like went up into my neck into like the, kind of the back of my neck.
And I had, I had mentioned that, that that's connected to the, and uh, yeah. And so one of our, of our, um, uh, one of the other, the other people taking the class with me, uh, she's a former owner of a, of a gym. She's super nice. And she was like, have you ever heard of your levator scapula? And I was like, of course not.
No. The answer is no. And, uh, and she's like, I think that's probably what it is. It, it runs from, you know, just behind your, your scapula, your shoulder and kind of up into Towards your skull and like attaches up at the base of your skull and that usually when you hurt your neck That's it. She's like, but that's my guess what it was and it was um But of course, I'd never heard of this before.
And so, when she left, I immediately Googled it. I was like, what is this, uh, this, uh, levator scapula? But what I heard was vader scapula, not levator scapula. So I looked up vader, as in V A D E R, as in Darth Vader, scapula, and it was a fun Google search. I'm not going to lie to you. I did not find what I was looking for, but it was a fun...
Listen, not all Google searches are fun, so I'm glad you got a fun one. Well, and so, when she was telling me about it, she was like, have you heard of the levator scapula? And she was telling me about it, and again, what I heard was Vader's scapula. I was about to make some snide comment about how, Oh yeah, I guess that kind of does, you know, look like, uh, like Darth Vader's helmet.
And I'm so glad I didn't say that, because she would have been like, What on earth are you talking about? Because it's levator, as in like elevator, because it like lifts up your shoulder. Which makes sense, it does make sense, but I didn't, uh, know that at the time. And, uh, and, uh, yeah, so now, uh, so now you know.
And now here we are. Now you know. So, uh, that's a little peek into my life as I have my Spider Man rice sock on my shoulder. And uh, you are, you know, basically inaudible. So welcome to the podcast guys. I'm audible. Yeah, for dogs. Woah, you're hilarious. I know, I know. So funny. I told you, I'm not a good person.
Yeah, you're awful today. I'm not a great person. Um, so, um, I, uh, speaking of good people, I got an email from a good person. Oh, I like that. Um, and, uh, her name is Jodel. And Jodel did her demo. I was last, I think I had Joe Dell. You did, you had her for, uh, for one of her earlier classes. Yeah. Yeah. And uh, and so I did her, I did her demo.
Um, Jo Dell is in, where is Joe Dell? I actually don't remember. Um, whereabouts, uh, in the, I can't remember offhand either. She is, uh, she's not in the New York area. I can tell you that. She's in Jersey. Right. She very well might be. Yeah. Know. Does she do music in Jersey? Does she Uh, yeah, she does music. I know that.
I think she's in New Jersey. Sure. Yeah. She's a, yeah. Jo del from Jersey. Of course, obviously. Um, Anywho, so she, uh, she sent me a message and she was like, Hey, I was looking at the, uh, at the web page, obviously one of the things that, and we've talked about it, it's in our marketing program, um, you know, it's, it's super important to have a web presence, at the very least a place to have your demo that you can send people to, or put on, say, a business card, like a website to Or yeah, directing people to where they can hear exactly exactly some place where they can go where you don't actually have to physically send it to them or hand it to them.
They can just, you know, go there. You can send them a link. You can, you know, whatever you need there. So, so obviously that's that's super important. We know that. So she was looking into that. Now, one of the things that that that voice coaches does for those who go through the program, they get a web page that we will host for, you know, for an amount of time.
And, you know, it's it's dedicated to that. It's it's one page just dedicated to. to your, your voiceover, to your demos, I has your demos, more about you, etc, etc. Now, she, as you mentioned, she, she does music amongst other things, and so she has a website already for her music. And she wanted to know, should I have something dedicated solely to voiceover, as far as the site is concerned, or should I have this as a page on, you know, the site that I already have?
Right. And it's a good question, and the answer is, It depends. There are definitely pros and cons to, to, to both, to having one that's just solely for this and having one that's kind of affiliated with other things. So, you know, uh, what I do personally, I had a website from, from a long time ago, from when I was doing broadcasting.
And, um, it's josh heller. com. I just want to go. Uh, anywho. Wow. Shameless. It's a plug right there. Get it in there. Get it in there. Go there. Check it out. It's great. Um, and so it had my, you know, it had all my, my broadcast stuff, my hockey stuff. Um, you know, uh, interviews, audio, uh, demos, TV stuff. So it, it, it had that.
It was fairly basic. Um, but it, it had that. And I was not sure if I wanted to put my voiceover stuff on there. Eventually I decided to, as that became kind of more of my. Um, my focus and the sports kind of as a catch as catch can type of thing. So what I did was I took the front page of that site and I turned that into basically my voiceover site, my voiceover page.
So when you go to that, you're immediately gonna fall on a page that has a little bit more about me, about my voiceover career, about other things I've done, and my demos. If you move ahead a page, you can get to my broadcast material. If you want to, um, and the reason why I did that was, was twofold. The first is, I was told by someone, and I told you this, Marissa, and you kind of scoffed, and I agree, I kind of scoffed also, but I was told by someone that, um, that they were told, so we obviously know it went through the grapevine a bit, that they were told that If, you know, if they went to, if they were sent a link to someone's website, to someone's voiceover website, and they clicked on that link, and the page that they landed on, i.
e. the landing page, uh, did not have the demo there, they would not look for it. They would not. But they would not go further, that would be over. And that's, I just feel like that's kind of awful because they're like, they're, they're potentially missing their opportunity for greatness. That's super aggressive.
I get that. And that's probably a very, very extreme case if it's even true at all. Well, and I will say this, like everybody's busy, right? Everybody's busy. I get it. But nobody's that busy where you can't just take an extra second to find the link. No. And I will agree with that. But on the other hand. Don't make them have to do work like flipping to a second page.
That's fine That takes two seconds, but don't make them have to do too much work. Don't make them have to look Oh, yeah, don't have a hidden But like, you know if you go to a landing page and it's got a list of links where it's like broadcast voiceover Blah blah blah, you know bio like click the voiceover, you know Cuz it's probably right there and it just took you two seconds, but you were too in your feels And, you know, there we are.
So, I, I, again, I, I, but I, but I do see, you know, from that perspective of, you know, you want to make it as easy and simple as possible. Yeah. And you wanna make it easier and simpler than you probably need to just in case. So while I'm not saying you necessarily have to have it on your landing page, you don't want it to be, you know, you, you don't want them to have to, don't want it hidden.
Exactly. That's it. It should not be hard to find. So, you know, so there, there's, there, there's, there's that part of it. So you, you do kind of want it. So that's kind of almost a vote in the. Well, maybe having a dedicated site to it is not a bad idea. On the other hand, the reason why I wanted to use the site that I had and I kept my broadcast stuff on there is because it's different, it's unique, and it's, you know, it's a bit more about me.
So, if you went to Jodell's site, you know, it doesn't have VoiceOver on it yet, her demo is not produced yet. Well, I mean, it's produced, it's not, it's not edited yet. Um, you know, if you went to her site, it has, you know, all about her. It has pictures, it has, um, you know, uh, uh, music stuff on there. It has stuff she's done on there.
It, you learn a lot about her specifically from going to that site. And it can add a bit of context. Am I going to say that, you know, knowing more about her and, and, and her personality? Am I going to say that seeing my broadcast, you know, material, is that going to, you know, convince someone to, to use me versus anyone else or use her versus anyone else?
No, probably not. But it is going to differentiate you a little bit. It is going to show a little bit of personality. And if, say, it's, you know, it's a close call between a couple different demos, that could make a difference. Oh yeah, that could make a difference. Is it, again, if, if, you know, if the demo's not good, is that gonna, is that gonna change things?
No, of course not. But if it's close and it's like, well, you know, This demo's awful, but I absolutely love the sweater she's wearing. Yeah, I mean, okay, so I think that's probably not gonna happen. Does that's probably not a great producer. Um, but, but again, you know, if, if they're like, you know, I like this demo, but I also like that demo and she looks nice.
I like his sports stuff. That was fun. Something different, right? Something unique, something to separate you a little bit. So, you know, I, I, I'm. That's why I have it on there. Now again, I put all my voiceover stuff on the front page, so if indeed I do run into this person who only does it on the landing page, which sounds absurd, um, fine.
But if they're on my page, if they've listened to my demo, and if they're like, oh, we kind of like this guy, that was pretty good, then they're going to spend a little bit more time there. And then they'd be willing to say like, oh, he has broadcast stuff on his next page. What was that about? Click on that and all of a sudden you can see me doing some TV stuff from 2000.
Um, where I did not have a beard, and I was very young and fresh faced. Gotta tell you, you showed me that picture with you and when your son was born, and I'm like, who the heck's this dude? Yeah, yeah. Cause you didn't have the beard, and I'm like, this is a totally different dude. Yeah, that dude was, uh, yeah, that's a thing.
But yeah, you've never seen me without a beard. No, I haven't. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Except for that picture, and I was like, that's not right. Yeah. That doesn't, that's not right. It's different. It's a different guy. It is. That's not even Josh. And, and I, I, I. Josh, who's holding your kid? I don't, yeah, I don't know.
It's a stranger. Stranger. Well, when I worked with the hockey team, I was not allowed to have facial hair. No one was allowed to have facial hair. Um, which was, it's a very strict policy with that team. And, um, and so I never did. And so I never did. It was run kind of militaristically a bit. Yeah. And for anyone who knows, uh, you know, the, the Lammarellos who, who own or who, uh, ran the team, that is not surprising.
That's the way they, they ran things, which was fine. Um, but yeah, so I kind of went the other direction. I was like, I don't work for you anymore. Um, I'm Gonna have as much hair on my face as possible. Yeah, pretty much. But I did, I shaved my, my beard, um, a few years ago, it was the last time I did, about three years ago.
And I felt like I had no identity. Like, I felt like I was just another dude. I don't want to be another dude. I want to be the dude with the beard. The beard dude. Bearded guy. You should. You should always be the beard dude. Um, though I will say the pandemic is not helping. The whole mask situation is really cramping my style.
Yeah. Um, because A, no one can see it, and that's a shame. B, wearing a mask is a nightmare. Um, and so I wear like the full neck gators. Yes. to like cover that and I'm pretty sure I wore that one day and um, and Laura who works at her front desk said it looked like I had a massive goiter. Which was not a goiter, it was my beater.
I can hear Laura say it. Yeah, yeah. She meant it. Hilarious. She meant it too. Um, so um, so yeah, so I mean, so that's kind of like, how do, what are we talking about here? How did that? I don't remember. Um, anyway, um, you know, so uh, uh, Websites. Websites. Yes. So, again, there's no wrong answer. If you have one that's dedicated to voiceover, that's great.
That's great. But if you have something else, it's not, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to have it separate. Now, you know, what can and can't be, you know, matched up? I thought my broadcast was close enough that it made sense. Uh, music. So, for like, Jodell, that would...
I had a gentleman who did a demo and he was a singer for renaissance fairs, did like renaissance music. That's interesting. It was super cool. And, um, and, and he was like, do you think that could put on there? I was like, you definitely could. It, it's not that far cry. No, I've also had people who have websites who have their own personal businesses of like attorneys.
Okay. Maybe. You want to keep those separate, right? Right. When it's something completely different. Exactly. That's separate. Yeah. And that doesn't mean you can't, you know, mention it. You can't say that that's what you do. You can't even have a link to that on there. If they want to know more about your, your other professional career, that's fine.
Does it make sense to have it on there? Probably not. And I'm going to be honest. It probably doesn't serve much of a purpose for either, you know, for, for either. You know, path you're going down for your, you know, jobs in voiceover as well as jobs in, you know, law, my guess, but I don't know. Um, so again, you know, you want it to be similar where you want it to have, you know, something in, you know, in the arts.
Something, you know, that, that makes, that makes sense. Yeah, when it's under that entertainment umbrella, that's when it's like, go for it. Yeah, then you can definitely do that. And again, the other thing is, if you do want to have... Uh, a, a site that is solely for that, solely for voiceover, put a link to your other site.
So, so for Jodell, if she was like, you know what, I guess I'm, I want something more. That's all they're going to have. And that's just what I'm going to focus on right now. Okay. Put a link to your other site in there. Because again, then at that point, if they're like, Oh, we really liked her. Let's check out more.
Boom. They can do that. They can do that. Again, if they listen to the demo and they're like, this is all garbage. Well, then it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter anything. But if they are interested in you and in your demo and in your work, then they will certainly, certainly, but probably be willing to spend a little bit more time and go to another site.
Look that up. Find out more about you and, uh, and you know, make sure that, uh, that, that you're someone they want to, they want to work with, that they want to use. Exactly. Which if they went to JoDell's site, they would because she's awesome. Exactly. So, so. They'd be using her for everything. Probably, probably.
When they weren't using you Marissa. Well, I mean they can't, nobody can use me right now. That's fair, that's fair. Gotta wake up. That's fair. Um, so, so yeah, so that's uh, I guess, uh, I guess that's it. I guess that's it. That's it? Yeah. That's the end? It's all I got. Alright. It's all I got. I'm gonna go make more coffee then.
That's probably a smart idea. It's definitely a smart idea. I mean, he says I scoff as if I'm not literally drinking a cup of coffee at the moment. Yeah, well, I've got a cup of coffee next to me, but I need to put more in it. You're drinking your coffee out of a, you're drinking it out of a stirring straw.
Yeah. That's weird. It's protecting the color of my teeth. Okay. Alright. Okay. Let's slow down there. And the enamel and all the things. Okay. Talk to your dentist. I, I, I will. I actually have a dentist appointment in a couple weeks. Okay. So bring it up. I, I'm. It's a thing. I will. You know what else I have in a, in a, in a couple weeks?
A dermatologist appointment. Wow. You are getting old, man. I know, right? Wow. It's on my calendar and I'm like, ugh. Yeah. When's the colonoscopy? Oh my goodness. We're not there yet. Look, you're older than me. How dare you, madam? How dare you? Um, uh, I don't know. Isn't that 40? I'm not 40 yet. I think 50, actually.
I could be wrong. I, um, somebody mentioned mammograms to me the other day, and I'm like, you, mammogram yourself, okay? Like, I'm not there. I don't wanna. It's fair, it's fair. I mean, I, I, I don't want to say anything right now because I feel like it's an HR nightmare any way I go. I'm just gonna, I'm just nodding.
I'm nodding. You can't hear it, but I'm nodding. I'm like, okay, sure. You do. I can witness it. I'm a witness. Yep. Okay. I've no, I definitely don't have any snide comments that I'm thinking right now. Uh, that I'm, that I'm not saying. That you're going to say off mic? Definitely not. There's no way. No. No. How? No.
Um, I would never. I told you, I'm not a good person, Marissa. I may be. Today. Well, yesterday, clearly. Well, yesterday. And today. Yeah. It's, uh, becoming a habit. Yesterday into today. It's starting to become a habit. Starting to become a habit. Um, so, uh, so, well, rest up. You rest up. You and your broken whatever over there.
I will try. It's my, my Darth Vader scapula. Um, I, I will, I will attempt to do that. Uh, uh, so if you have any questions, uh, like Jodell did, uh, reach out now, joshatforcecoaches. com. That's the way to do it. Um, and uh, you know, I'd be happy to answer any questions, comments, concerns you guys might have. We could talk about it on the air, or not, if you don't want us to talk about you on the air, that's fine too.
Um, We probably will. But, uh, but yeah. Anonymously. Yeah, but it's fair, yeah. We got a random email from a person, um, not gonna say who. From a person that's name rhymes with Jen. Ha! Um, Ben? Yeah, maybe. Anyway. Ken. So, uh, yeah. So that's thevoicecoaches. com. That's the way to get in touch with us. Uh, thanks so much for tuning in.
We are, uh, we are just, just barely in the infancy of the second half of, uh, of our 500 episodes. Um, and uh, it's pretty uh... It's pretty entertaining so far. Pretty good, yeah. I gotta say so myself. We're off to a rousing start. Oh my goodness. So, thanks so much for tuning in, Marissa. Thanks so much for joining us.
Only up from here. Yeah, I mean, thanks so much for staying up and, and, and, uh And partying all night long. And working with us. Um, and, uh, and thanks so much for tuning in each and every week. Always appreciated. We will talk to you all next week. Same bad time, same bad channel. Until then, voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
Because I didn't get much sleep. Bright and early is a relative term. It's about, if you're curious, a peek behind the curtain. It's about 9. 30 in the early, okay? You hear singers when they're like, Yeah, I can't sing at 7am. I can't sing at 9am. I can't speak at 9am half the time. And honestly, this is my own fault.
Because I just, I had fun last night. How dare you! How dare I have fun! No, I went to a concert, and I've only gone to three since the pandemic has, you know, kind of, I mean, not stopped, but you know, gotten where I'm vaccinated. I use the word abated. What's that? I use the word abated. Sure. Um, so, you know, so I've only gone to a couple and last night, I mean, it ended up moving venues and there were only like 50 people there and it was like the coolest experience.
So my friend and I were just like being as fangirly as possible, but now I sound like this today. Sorry. That's okay. Hey, you know what? That's all right. Um, We're still glad to have you. Honestly, I gotta, I don't want to, I don't want to be the one to tell you this, but it's not as, it's not that much worse than usual.
No, I know. It's not that bad. It feels worse than it is, and it doesn't, like, I can always make it sound better on a microphone, you know, like, I know how to push it out, but if you're just talking to me, and all of a sudden, like, I'm not expecting you to want a response, and then I'm like, Hi! Like, that's when it, that's when...
Wow. Yeah, but I can also put that on and off too if I have to. Wow, that was tremendous. Yes, I know. That was, well, if it makes you feel better, I'm also falling apart. I know you are. You've got a heating pad on your back right now. It's a rice sock. Yes, I have a rice sock on my, uh, on my shoulder. Uh, I hurt myself yesterday at the gym because, you know, I'm old and that's what I do.
Um, so I, I, I was, I was on my way. To the gym yesterday, I, I, I worked and coached at a CrossFit gym, and I was on my way, and, and, I, there was, okay, for those of you who were, who, It was foggy. It was super foggy yesterday. Oh my god, it was awful yesterday. And so I get on the highway and traffic's backed up and I'm like, it's because it's foggy because people don't know how to drive.
Well, we also couldn't see five feet in front of us yesterday. It was crazy. Why would you need to? Why do you need to see? I know. And so I was like, okay, so there's traffic, that's fine, no big deal. But there was an accident and there were signs that were saying as much and I looked up on my little phone.
conglomerate thing and uh, and then found yeah, there was an accident up ahead. I was like great So it took me about just under an hour to get to the gym. It usually takes me 15 minutes and By the way, I don't want to come across as a bad person more than I usually do Do you? Do you ever come across as a bad person?
I mean, it's possible. I'm about to. Well, maybe this is the first time. Maybe this is our first glimpse at how Josh really is in traffic. We got to the point where the traffic, you know, abated and sped up, and I didn't see anything. There was nothing! And I was disappointed. I was disappointed I did not see the accident.
And that makes me kind of a... Like, I mean, I didn't want to see, like, carnage. I didn't want to see, like, bodies or anything. But show me some, like, like a bumper or a wheel hanging around or something. Give me something. Let me know that this was not in vain. Yeah, I can understand that, I guess. I was, I was actually angry, like, as, as the traffic just kind of randomly at some, you know, indistinct point, just some line of demarcation, it went from bumper to bumper to, oh, no, we're moving now, and I don't know why, I didn't even, it wasn't even like flares or something, let me know, like, this is where it happened, guys, nothing.
I got nothing. No rubble, no nothing. No debris. And I, I, I, I was, and, and I agree, I mean, I, that makes me not a great person, like, I'm not saying I want to see, like, that car on fire, uh, although I did see one a couple weeks ago, it was actually pretty, pretty cool, um, but, but I, I don't want to see, like, like, death, but I, I know I kind of want to see I was just waiting for an hour for this like I was waiting in line for an hour to see a show and the show Didn't happen.
Well, and that that was I mean, I hate dare say it was kind of disappointing You can send your hate emails to Josh at voice coaches. com. I do apologize, but that's I feel like we are a desensitized society like, you know, cuz The example I love to give about myself, it has nothing to do with an accident per se, uh, but like, I went and I watched the Conjuring 3 movie when it came out on HBO Max, and I fell asleep during the climax of the movie because apparently, I watch too much crime shows and movies and blood and guts because I can fall asleep during it now.
Reality is way better than fiction right now. I can't, like, I don't even... Yeah. So, anyway, so, uh, so... My, you know, moral fallings aside, um, I get to the gym, but I get, I'm there late, and because I'm late, I don't really get to warm up as much as I should, and I am in an age in my life, apparently, where I need to warm up a lot, otherwise, I fall apart, and I did, and I hurt my upper back, shoulder, neck area.
I hate to break it to you, but like, I have a feeling that even if you didn't, even if you warmed up as much as you possibly could, You may have still hurt yourself. It's possible. This wouldn't be the first time. I've gotten out of the shower, and I've gone to put the towel around my head, and all of a sudden, got a tweak in my neck, you know, cause, cause age.
But I will say that also happened when I was like 25, so that made me feel real old. You're an old soul. I've always been told that, so, it's just creeping into life in general here. So the funny thing was, so I, it was my upper shoulder, Um, upper back through my shoulder, but it like went up into my neck into like the, kind of the back of my neck.
And I had, I had mentioned that, that that's connected to the, and uh, yeah. And so one of our, of our, um, uh, one of the other, the other people taking the class with me, uh, she's a former owner of a, of a gym. She's super nice. And she was like, have you ever heard of your levator scapula? And I was like, of course not.
No. The answer is no. And, uh, and she's like, I think that's probably what it is. It, it runs from, you know, just behind your, your scapula, your shoulder and kind of up into Towards your skull and like attaches up at the base of your skull and that usually when you hurt your neck That's it. She's like, but that's my guess what it was and it was um But of course, I'd never heard of this before.
And so, when she left, I immediately Googled it. I was like, what is this, uh, this, uh, levator scapula? But what I heard was vader scapula, not levator scapula. So I looked up vader, as in V A D E R, as in Darth Vader, scapula, and it was a fun Google search. I'm not going to lie to you. I did not find what I was looking for, but it was a fun...
Listen, not all Google searches are fun, so I'm glad you got a fun one. Well, and so, when she was telling me about it, she was like, have you heard of the levator scapula? And she was telling me about it, and again, what I heard was Vader's scapula. I was about to make some snide comment about how, Oh yeah, I guess that kind of does, you know, look like, uh, like Darth Vader's helmet.
And I'm so glad I didn't say that, because she would have been like, What on earth are you talking about? Because it's levator, as in like elevator, because it like lifts up your shoulder. Which makes sense, it does make sense, but I didn't, uh, know that at the time. And, uh, and, uh, yeah, so now, uh, so now you know.
And now here we are. Now you know. So, uh, that's a little peek into my life as I have my Spider Man rice sock on my shoulder. And uh, you are, you know, basically inaudible. So welcome to the podcast guys. I'm audible. Yeah, for dogs. Woah, you're hilarious. I know, I know. So funny. I told you, I'm not a good person.
Yeah, you're awful today. I'm not a great person. Um, so, um, I, uh, speaking of good people, I got an email from a good person. Oh, I like that. Um, and, uh, her name is Jodel. And Jodel did her demo. I was last, I think I had Joe Dell. You did, you had her for, uh, for one of her earlier classes. Yeah. Yeah. And uh, and so I did her, I did her demo.
Um, Jo Dell is in, where is Joe Dell? I actually don't remember. Um, whereabouts, uh, in the, I can't remember offhand either. She is, uh, she's not in the New York area. I can tell you that. She's in Jersey. Right. She very well might be. Yeah. Know. Does she do music in Jersey? Does she Uh, yeah, she does music. I know that.
I think she's in New Jersey. Sure. Yeah. She's a, yeah. Jo del from Jersey. Of course, obviously. Um, Anywho, so she, uh, she sent me a message and she was like, Hey, I was looking at the, uh, at the web page, obviously one of the things that, and we've talked about it, it's in our marketing program, um, you know, it's, it's super important to have a web presence, at the very least a place to have your demo that you can send people to, or put on, say, a business card, like a website to Or yeah, directing people to where they can hear exactly exactly some place where they can go where you don't actually have to physically send it to them or hand it to them.
They can just, you know, go there. You can send them a link. You can, you know, whatever you need there. So, so obviously that's that's super important. We know that. So she was looking into that. Now, one of the things that that that voice coaches does for those who go through the program, they get a web page that we will host for, you know, for an amount of time.
And, you know, it's it's dedicated to that. It's it's one page just dedicated to. to your, your voiceover, to your demos, I has your demos, more about you, etc, etc. Now, she, as you mentioned, she, she does music amongst other things, and so she has a website already for her music. And she wanted to know, should I have something dedicated solely to voiceover, as far as the site is concerned, or should I have this as a page on, you know, the site that I already have?
Right. And it's a good question, and the answer is, It depends. There are definitely pros and cons to, to, to both, to having one that's just solely for this and having one that's kind of affiliated with other things. So, you know, uh, what I do personally, I had a website from, from a long time ago, from when I was doing broadcasting.
And, um, it's josh heller. com. I just want to go. Uh, anywho. Wow. Shameless. It's a plug right there. Get it in there. Get it in there. Go there. Check it out. It's great. Um, and so it had my, you know, it had all my, my broadcast stuff, my hockey stuff. Um, you know, uh, interviews, audio, uh, demos, TV stuff. So it, it, it had that.
It was fairly basic. Um, but it, it had that. And I was not sure if I wanted to put my voiceover stuff on there. Eventually I decided to, as that became kind of more of my. Um, my focus and the sports kind of as a catch as catch can type of thing. So what I did was I took the front page of that site and I turned that into basically my voiceover site, my voiceover page.
So when you go to that, you're immediately gonna fall on a page that has a little bit more about me, about my voiceover career, about other things I've done, and my demos. If you move ahead a page, you can get to my broadcast material. If you want to, um, and the reason why I did that was, was twofold. The first is, I was told by someone, and I told you this, Marissa, and you kind of scoffed, and I agree, I kind of scoffed also, but I was told by someone that, um, that they were told, so we obviously know it went through the grapevine a bit, that they were told that If, you know, if they went to, if they were sent a link to someone's website, to someone's voiceover website, and they clicked on that link, and the page that they landed on, i.
e. the landing page, uh, did not have the demo there, they would not look for it. They would not. But they would not go further, that would be over. And that's, I just feel like that's kind of awful because they're like, they're, they're potentially missing their opportunity for greatness. That's super aggressive.
I get that. And that's probably a very, very extreme case if it's even true at all. Well, and I will say this, like everybody's busy, right? Everybody's busy. I get it. But nobody's that busy where you can't just take an extra second to find the link. No. And I will agree with that. But on the other hand. Don't make them have to do work like flipping to a second page.
That's fine That takes two seconds, but don't make them have to do too much work. Don't make them have to look Oh, yeah, don't have a hidden But like, you know if you go to a landing page and it's got a list of links where it's like broadcast voiceover Blah blah blah, you know bio like click the voiceover, you know Cuz it's probably right there and it just took you two seconds, but you were too in your feels And, you know, there we are.
So, I, I, again, I, I, but I, but I do see, you know, from that perspective of, you know, you want to make it as easy and simple as possible. Yeah. And you wanna make it easier and simpler than you probably need to just in case. So while I'm not saying you necessarily have to have it on your landing page, you don't want it to be, you know, you, you don't want them to have to, don't want it hidden.
Exactly. That's it. It should not be hard to find. So, you know, so there, there's, there, there's, there's that part of it. So you, you do kind of want it. So that's kind of almost a vote in the. Well, maybe having a dedicated site to it is not a bad idea. On the other hand, the reason why I wanted to use the site that I had and I kept my broadcast stuff on there is because it's different, it's unique, and it's, you know, it's a bit more about me.
So, if you went to Jodell's site, you know, it doesn't have VoiceOver on it yet, her demo is not produced yet. Well, I mean, it's produced, it's not, it's not edited yet. Um, you know, if you went to her site, it has, you know, all about her. It has pictures, it has, um, you know, uh, uh, music stuff on there. It has stuff she's done on there.
It, you learn a lot about her specifically from going to that site. And it can add a bit of context. Am I going to say that, you know, knowing more about her and, and, and her personality? Am I going to say that seeing my broadcast, you know, material, is that going to, you know, convince someone to, to use me versus anyone else or use her versus anyone else?
No, probably not. But it is going to differentiate you a little bit. It is going to show a little bit of personality. And if, say, it's, you know, it's a close call between a couple different demos, that could make a difference. Oh yeah, that could make a difference. Is it, again, if, if, you know, if the demo's not good, is that gonna, is that gonna change things?
No, of course not. But if it's close and it's like, well, you know, This demo's awful, but I absolutely love the sweater she's wearing. Yeah, I mean, okay, so I think that's probably not gonna happen. Does that's probably not a great producer. Um, but, but again, you know, if, if they're like, you know, I like this demo, but I also like that demo and she looks nice.
I like his sports stuff. That was fun. Something different, right? Something unique, something to separate you a little bit. So, you know, I, I, I'm. That's why I have it on there. Now again, I put all my voiceover stuff on the front page, so if indeed I do run into this person who only does it on the landing page, which sounds absurd, um, fine.
But if they're on my page, if they've listened to my demo, and if they're like, oh, we kind of like this guy, that was pretty good, then they're going to spend a little bit more time there. And then they'd be willing to say like, oh, he has broadcast stuff on his next page. What was that about? Click on that and all of a sudden you can see me doing some TV stuff from 2000.
Um, where I did not have a beard, and I was very young and fresh faced. Gotta tell you, you showed me that picture with you and when your son was born, and I'm like, who the heck's this dude? Yeah, yeah. Cause you didn't have the beard, and I'm like, this is a totally different dude. Yeah, that dude was, uh, yeah, that's a thing.
But yeah, you've never seen me without a beard. No, I haven't. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Except for that picture, and I was like, that's not right. Yeah. That doesn't, that's not right. It's different. It's a different guy. It is. That's not even Josh. And, and I, I, I. Josh, who's holding your kid? I don't, yeah, I don't know.
It's a stranger. Stranger. Well, when I worked with the hockey team, I was not allowed to have facial hair. No one was allowed to have facial hair. Um, which was, it's a very strict policy with that team. And, um, and so I never did. And so I never did. It was run kind of militaristically a bit. Yeah. And for anyone who knows, uh, you know, the, the Lammarellos who, who own or who, uh, ran the team, that is not surprising.
That's the way they, they ran things, which was fine. Um, but yeah, so I kind of went the other direction. I was like, I don't work for you anymore. Um, I'm Gonna have as much hair on my face as possible. Yeah, pretty much. But I did, I shaved my, my beard, um, a few years ago, it was the last time I did, about three years ago.
And I felt like I had no identity. Like, I felt like I was just another dude. I don't want to be another dude. I want to be the dude with the beard. The beard dude. Bearded guy. You should. You should always be the beard dude. Um, though I will say the pandemic is not helping. The whole mask situation is really cramping my style.
Yeah. Um, because A, no one can see it, and that's a shame. B, wearing a mask is a nightmare. Um, and so I wear like the full neck gators. Yes. to like cover that and I'm pretty sure I wore that one day and um, and Laura who works at her front desk said it looked like I had a massive goiter. Which was not a goiter, it was my beater.
I can hear Laura say it. Yeah, yeah. She meant it. Hilarious. She meant it too. Um, so um, so yeah, so I mean, so that's kind of like, how do, what are we talking about here? How did that? I don't remember. Um, anyway, um, you know, so uh, uh, Websites. Websites. Yes. So, again, there's no wrong answer. If you have one that's dedicated to voiceover, that's great.
That's great. But if you have something else, it's not, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to have it separate. Now, you know, what can and can't be, you know, matched up? I thought my broadcast was close enough that it made sense. Uh, music. So, for like, Jodell, that would...
I had a gentleman who did a demo and he was a singer for renaissance fairs, did like renaissance music. That's interesting. It was super cool. And, um, and, and he was like, do you think that could put on there? I was like, you definitely could. It, it's not that far cry. No, I've also had people who have websites who have their own personal businesses of like attorneys.
Okay. Maybe. You want to keep those separate, right? Right. When it's something completely different. Exactly. That's separate. Yeah. And that doesn't mean you can't, you know, mention it. You can't say that that's what you do. You can't even have a link to that on there. If they want to know more about your, your other professional career, that's fine.
Does it make sense to have it on there? Probably not. And I'm going to be honest. It probably doesn't serve much of a purpose for either, you know, for, for either. You know, path you're going down for your, you know, jobs in voiceover as well as jobs in, you know, law, my guess, but I don't know. Um, so again, you know, you want it to be similar where you want it to have, you know, something in, you know, in the arts.
Something, you know, that, that makes, that makes sense. Yeah, when it's under that entertainment umbrella, that's when it's like, go for it. Yeah, then you can definitely do that. And again, the other thing is, if you do want to have... Uh, a, a site that is solely for that, solely for voiceover, put a link to your other site.
So, so for Jodell, if she was like, you know what, I guess I'm, I want something more. That's all they're going to have. And that's just what I'm going to focus on right now. Okay. Put a link to your other site in there. Because again, then at that point, if they're like, Oh, we really liked her. Let's check out more.
Boom. They can do that. They can do that. Again, if they listen to the demo and they're like, this is all garbage. Well, then it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter anything. But if they are interested in you and in your demo and in your work, then they will certainly, certainly, but probably be willing to spend a little bit more time and go to another site.
Look that up. Find out more about you and, uh, and you know, make sure that, uh, that, that you're someone they want to, they want to work with, that they want to use. Exactly. Which if they went to JoDell's site, they would because she's awesome. Exactly. So, so. They'd be using her for everything. Probably, probably.
When they weren't using you Marissa. Well, I mean they can't, nobody can use me right now. That's fair, that's fair. Gotta wake up. That's fair. Um, so, so yeah, so that's uh, I guess, uh, I guess that's it. I guess that's it. That's it? Yeah. That's the end? It's all I got. Alright. It's all I got. I'm gonna go make more coffee then.
That's probably a smart idea. It's definitely a smart idea. I mean, he says I scoff as if I'm not literally drinking a cup of coffee at the moment. Yeah, well, I've got a cup of coffee next to me, but I need to put more in it. You're drinking your coffee out of a, you're drinking it out of a stirring straw.
Yeah. That's weird. It's protecting the color of my teeth. Okay. Alright. Okay. Let's slow down there. And the enamel and all the things. Okay. Talk to your dentist. I, I, I will. I actually have a dentist appointment in a couple weeks. Okay. So bring it up. I, I'm. It's a thing. I will. You know what else I have in a, in a, in a couple weeks?
A dermatologist appointment. Wow. You are getting old, man. I know, right? Wow. It's on my calendar and I'm like, ugh. Yeah. When's the colonoscopy? Oh my goodness. We're not there yet. Look, you're older than me. How dare you, madam? How dare you? Um, uh, I don't know. Isn't that 40? I'm not 40 yet. I think 50, actually.
I could be wrong. I, um, somebody mentioned mammograms to me the other day, and I'm like, you, mammogram yourself, okay? Like, I'm not there. I don't wanna. It's fair, it's fair. I mean, I, I, I don't want to say anything right now because I feel like it's an HR nightmare any way I go. I'm just gonna, I'm just nodding.
I'm nodding. You can't hear it, but I'm nodding. I'm like, okay, sure. You do. I can witness it. I'm a witness. Yep. Okay. I've no, I definitely don't have any snide comments that I'm thinking right now. Uh, that I'm, that I'm not saying. That you're going to say off mic? Definitely not. There's no way. No. No. How? No.
Um, I would never. I told you, I'm not a good person, Marissa. I may be. Today. Well, yesterday, clearly. Well, yesterday. And today. Yeah. It's, uh, becoming a habit. Yesterday into today. It's starting to become a habit. Starting to become a habit. Um, so, uh, so, well, rest up. You rest up. You and your broken whatever over there.
I will try. It's my, my Darth Vader scapula. Um, I, I will, I will attempt to do that. Uh, uh, so if you have any questions, uh, like Jodell did, uh, reach out now, joshatforcecoaches. com. That's the way to do it. Um, and uh, you know, I'd be happy to answer any questions, comments, concerns you guys might have. We could talk about it on the air, or not, if you don't want us to talk about you on the air, that's fine too.
Um, We probably will. But, uh, but yeah. Anonymously. Yeah, but it's fair, yeah. We got a random email from a person, um, not gonna say who. From a person that's name rhymes with Jen. Ha! Um, Ben? Yeah, maybe. Anyway. Ken. So, uh, yeah. So that's thevoicecoaches. com. That's the way to get in touch with us. Uh, thanks so much for tuning in.
We are, uh, we are just, just barely in the infancy of the second half of, uh, of our 500 episodes. Um, and uh, it's pretty uh... It's pretty entertaining so far. Pretty good, yeah. I gotta say so myself. We're off to a rousing start. Oh my goodness. So, thanks so much for tuning in, Marissa. Thanks so much for joining us.
Only up from here. Yeah, I mean, thanks so much for staying up and, and, and, uh And partying all night long. And working with us. Um, and, uh, and thanks so much for tuning in each and every week. Always appreciated. We will talk to you all next week. Same bad time, same bad channel. Until then, voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
Josh and Marissa answer a listener’s question about their website. What are the pros and cons of having a dedicated voice over website vs. using a website that may include other types of work?
