VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio Episode #693 “How Your Background Can Help You In Voice Overs”
John: [00:00:00] Well, hello my friends. I am John.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: And this is Voice Coaches Radio. And this is episode 6 93. This one, you know, we didn't even come up with a title. We just came up with an idea, but the,
Tina: yeah,
John: yeah. So, uh, this is, oh, I know. How can your background help you in voiceovers?
Tina: That's
John: a good one. That's a good one, right?
Good. I,
Tina: yeah.
John: Awesome. Yeah. There we go. Awesome. I meet a lot of people, you know, some of you may know that I do webinars, uh, intro mm-hmm. To voice acting or, um, sometimes it's called getting paid to talk, but it is still called Intro to Voiceovers and I meet a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds.
Yeah. And a lot of people will ask me, Hey. I do public speaking for my job. Does that mean I can be a voice actor? So, yes. First off, a lot of what you do in your background can help you as a voice actor. Mm-hmm. But I always wanna make it clear that like what you do, there is a particular set of skills to be a voice actor.
So it doesn't mean you could be a voice actor [00:01:00] now, like in other words, if you are someone who, um, is a trainer at work mm-hmm. And you do a lot of public speaking. It doesn't mean you're a voice actor. Now, you know there are some skills you will need to learn to be a voice actor, but absolutely your background and your skillset that you have now can help you in the voiceover industry.
You may even have a leg up.
Tina: Yeah, absolutely. 'cause you're, especially if you are someone who does public speaking, you're not afraid to get in front of that microphone. That's definitely the benefit of that. That's for sure. You know?
John: Yeah. And, and teachers too.
Tina: Oh, absolutely. I think we do. I get a lot of teachers.
I do get a lot of teachers who, um, are actually, um, towards the end of their career and they wanna do something that yes, they, you know, they're so used to talking to, you know, students or whatever, but they, they like this creative side of. And so I do get a lot of teachers who are, I am, I'm about to retire, but I don't wanna retire completely.
But I love telling stories. I love, you know, [00:02:00] teaching or anything like that, so I wanna do something that's still in that field, you know?
John: Yeah, absolutely. So I get a
Tina: lot of that.
John: Totally makes sense. Yeah. And, and, and that can help too. Again, you're, you're, when you're up in front of a group full of kids
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, you gotta keep their attention.
Tina: Yes.
John: So, you know, that's great. And, and, uh, your acting background now again. Actors aren't necessarily voice actors. Many of them transition to being voice actors. Yeah. And I do think your acting background can, of course, is advantageous mm-hmm. In this industry because you are someone who can loosen up a little quicker, perhaps.
Tina: Yes, yes.
John: You know? Yeah. So you're someone who can like, get in front of the mic and you, you're not nervous. You might, you know, again, Mike, Mike fright is a little different than stage fright. Yeah. A little different. But, but you, again, you're, you're used to kind of being silly in front of people mm-hmm. Or really acting, so that can help too.
But I think. Um, besides those jobs which are ob, I think are obvious as far as mm-hmm. You know, speaking quite a bit, there are many, many other professions that can be, be helpful in this industry. You'd be surprised. Mm-hmm. Something in your background could help you in voiceovers. And I'll just give you, again, I think it could be obvious, but it [00:03:00] might not, because I have people who are surprised when I say this, if you have a medical background.
Yeah. Super helpful in this industry because when we hire voice actors for anything educational these days mm-hmm. Um. If we can get a voice actor mm-hmm. Who has a background in something like medicine and we're doing something medical, yes. We prefer to. Mm-hmm. Because you know who can't pronounce the terms Me?
Yeah.
Tina: Oh, I'm with you. Me too.
John: Yeah. So, you know, and, and the producers can't help you with that. A lot of producers, they have no idea how that is, is a, so. I think that's, um, something to think about. Like what do you do? Yeah. For your, and, and it is funny 'cause I have some people who go, I don't like my job, so I don't want, I get it, I get it.
But your knowledge, your knowledge can be, again, you have to look at as all the things you went through, uh, went through in your life, uh, professionally, but all the knowledge of accumulated a anything. Is worth something.
Tina: Yeah, it absolutely is. You know, I tell students when they put in their little voice description [00:04:00] box that we add to, you know, they have on their webpage or just letting people know their background.
I said, tell them what you're doing professional wise. You never know who may need a voice in your profession. And they'll look at you and they go, you know what? You're an expert in that. You've worked in this for 35 years, so you could easily talk about this because you understand it and people listening to you are gonna understand it.
So that's, I tell them all the time, mention it. Let them know what you're doing and you're, what's your other career? That's all.
John: Yeah, and I think on your demo. I think, in my opinion, if you have a, a, again, a career that's very specific in knowledge. Mm-hmm. Based things that most people would know, for example, yeah.
I absolutely think you should put something on your demo that's related to that. The shows, yes. You have that skillset, that knowledge base.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So, um, yeah, and I don't think people think of that. And even though the meta, you know, again, to us, I think it's obvious, right? Mm-hmm. Because we're in the industry, and I always have to remember that we're, I think we're very fortunate because we have the opportunity to work with new voice actors all the time.
Yes. Or people who are aspiring to be
Tina: mm-hmm. [00:05:00]
John: Voice actors. And so I, I, I, it's easier for me to remember what it's like to just start out, you know?
Tina: Yeah.
John: But. I've had many people who I'm thinking like, oh, of course you, you're a doctor. Mm-hmm. Or you're a nurse.
Tina: Yeah,
John: of course your background's gonna help.
And they're like, really?
Tina: Yeah.
John: Are you serious? I'm like, yeah. Oh yeah, of course. Yes. Mm-hmm. You, you know, we, if they're doing like medical training
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: Like Albany Med is very well in this area, for those of you who're in kinda the Albany area. Mm-hmm. Uh, Albany Medical Center. A hospital has their own recording studio.
Tina: I did not know. That
John: has their own recording studio. Wow. Because they're attached to the college as well.
Tina: That's right.
John: Their teaching school. They do, and they do their own medical training videos there.
Tina: Wow. And
John: their own medical training. Yeah. So it's a re So that's an example of who do you think they'd prefer to have?
Tina: Yeah.
John: Right. They would much rather have mm-hmm. Someone who's a voice actor, who also knows medicine, because that can happen, that happen to me. I actually once did a pharmaceutical, uh, training. Well, it was audio. I don't know what [00:06:00] they did with that after I did the audio. I don't if they made it into something visual.
Yeah. Or, but I did the audio to it and. I had a pharmaceutical, a pharmacist. A pharmacist as the voice actor, which is great because yeah, the pharmacist caught a mistake in the copy, which I would never have known.
Tina: No. Yeah.
John: It was combining two elements that you couldn't combine, and they said, oh, this can't be right.
Mm-hmm. And that client wasn't there. So that was, that was the part. So the client wasn't there, so I couldn't ask the client. And uh, and the pharmacist said, this isn't, yeah, this can't be right. This is, these are two things are deadly. Mm-hmm. So these cannot be combined.
Tina: Oh yeah.
John: Yeah. And I, and I said, oh, so I called the client, they're like, oh, wow.
I can't believe it. We, we didn't catch that, that it totally Right. It saved the client a ton of money. 'cause if I had recorded it incorrectly mm-hmm. That's not on me.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And so when they came back. We would've had to have charged them again,
Tina: obviously. Yeah. To do it. Yeah.
John: And so it saved them a ton of money.
So it, you know, obviously that voice actor was the hero of the day.
Tina: Yeah. I will tell you, it's, it's funny 'cause you talk about a pharm, a pharmacist. [00:07:00] I had a pharmacist as a student, um, in, in Atlanta. And she was doing this because she loved reading to her kids. That was really the main reason why she decided to do voice acting.
She wanted do audio books, definitely do the children's books and, um. You know, we, when you do that, we also do the narration, which is, you know, the medical reads, the industrial type of things. She goes to a big convention that was at, in, in Atlanta and uh, she knows all the big wigs of the big pharmaceutical companies.
And she said to me afterwards, she says, I was a little hesitant to let them know that I was doing this. 'cause, you know, we were just chit-chatting away. She goes, but something inside me said, I'm gonna let them know. I'm gonna let these big wigs know, and they're like, Hey, how's it going? You know, what have you been up to?
She says, I'm, I'm taking voice acting classes. I'm about to do my voice, my demo. The woman, one woman she was talking to, says. She goes, I'm the one that hires all our voice actors. I would rather have somebody inside the industry than out. Let me know when you're ready. She's now doing all the voice [00:08:00] acting for the pharmaceutical.
Ah, there
John: you go.
Tina: So that, see, that's, that's exactly, there's that connection. You let people know. 'cause you never know. One, I say always tell people, tell people you're doing this. Let everybody know everybody and anybody, but it worked out great. But there it is. That pharmaceutical company says, I would rather have somebody who knows what they're talking about.
To do our voice acting.
John: Absolutely. Abs totally makes sense. Yeah. And it's, and it is not just limited, we're mentioning just a few things, but
Tina: Yes, no,
John: just think I'm talking like you could be an engineer.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Right? Yeah. You could be an electrician, uh, and, and all of a sudden that job, like, listen, being an electrician is a hard job.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Being a plumber, it can be a hard job as physical, but all sudden you could take those physical jobs.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And now they're not physical anymore. You're a voice actor talking about it.
Tina: Yeah. Talking about them. Yeah.
John: Right. It becomes mm-hmm. As far as like maybe what we consider a blue collar job becomes a white collar job.
Yeah. At that point. Right?
Tina: Yeah.
John: So, so it, you know, because let's face it, you know, my, my cousin for example, is an electrician, union electrician for years, and his body broke down. Mm-hmm. And, and, um, he never [00:09:00] had an interest in voiceover it. Yeah. But, uh, but if he did, it is like, oh, okay. I can still mm-hmm.
Especially if you like it. 'cause he did enjoy the profession. Yeah. It's just his body kind of broke down as the years went on. Um. You, you can still be involved in the industry. Mm-hmm. And, and maybe that could be kind of a, a, a niche for you.
Tina: Yeah. You know, I had a, a different situation where, um, I had a lawyer.
Come in. And the reason why he wanted to do this was to help with his presentations in court.
John: Yes.
Tina: So completely different where, you know, he, but he still, we still did a demo, you know, he said, yeah, down the line when I'm done being a lawyer and just, you know, looking for some, I'd love to do audio books, but this is going to help me with my presentation when they're, the jurors are looking at me or I'm talking to somebody, he says, it's just gonna help me more.
And I was just, I was like, wow, I never even thought of that. But it really, yeah. He felt so much more comfortable being now standing in front of people, but he's been a lawyer for a really long time, and I think he just felt [00:10:00] that he needed something to help him a little more.
John: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
And that we have trained, um, many, uh, communicators. Mm-hmm. Uh, so we do communication training besides just voiceovers, right? Mm-hmm. So we do, and so we'll do communication coaching. Yeah. And, and we've worked with Key Bank and we've worked with companies like that, uh, with some of their executives. So it can help.
Tina: Yes, it can help. Oh,
John: absolutely. 'cause a lot of times you're standing up there again when you, we, one of the things we, we coach you on is conversational reading.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And that can be very helpful in public speaking.
Tina: Yes, absolutely.
John: Yeah. Like, again, this is years and years ago. I actually was invited and it was super cool.
I was invited to speak at when, uh. I'm gonna blank out now because I'm talking about it, but what's the, what's the, um, Toastmasters? Okay,
Toastmaster.
John: So I was invited to speak at the national meeting for Toastmasters when they had it in Niagara Falls. Okay. So I got to go speak there, uh, about what we do.
Mm-hmm. And it can be very helpful because, you [00:11:00] know, a lot of public speakers, they, they project a lot, which, you know. Mm-hmm. Um, but if you can, if you can have something like a little microphone that can get your voice everywhere. It's much more natural if you're not yelling to the back of the room.
Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. And so we teach you to be conversational, which a lot of public speaking training or coaching doesn't teach you to be.
Tina: No, they do not. They
John: teach you to kind of, hello? All right, so here we are today. Mm-hmm. Which is not, listen, I fall asleep during those things. I'm not, I can't do it.
Like, as soon as someone start talking like that, I'm like, uhoh. Yeah. I'll not retain any of this.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: So, but cool. So I, I think that's a good episode. I, I, you know, I just wanted to make sure people understood that their background can be useful. Don't, don't scrap your background. Even if you're like, you're like, I just wanna get into voiceover.
Awesome. Mm-hmm. But keep in mind all those look at as, as an as investment knowledge, investment, all mm-hmm. The years of your mental investment that you put into whatever you're doing.
Tina: Yeah. Your profession, man.
John: Be absolutely used here. It's currency.
Tina: Oh yeah. Yeah.
John: Right. I mean, it's currency, so, [00:12:00] um, don't be afraid to tell if you're, again, if you're getting voice coaching, if you're in some kind of voice of a program, if you're going to record a demo, don't be afraid to talk to whoever you're working with and say, Hey, by the way, here, here's what I do.
Tina: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Let us know your background.
John: Yeah,
Tina: yeah,
John: yeah. Alright, well listen again, thank you very much for listening. This is Episode. 6 93. I have to look every time, you know, 6 93. I'm
Tina: glad you've got it in front of you. 'cause I just forgot to,
John: we're gonna have, you know what, when we, when we hit 700 in, in a few episodes, we should have, uh, we should do a big party
Tina: Oh yeah.
With the streamers, balloons.
John: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. No, we'll see it, but, well we are, oh, we're working on that though. Went by then. Seven episodes. We are working on doing a visual aspect of this, uh, podcast as well. And actually we thought we were gonna be doing it mm-hmm. This time, but just didn't quite work
Tina: out.
Yeah. Not yet. We're getting there.
John: Not yet. Yeah. Not yet. Oh, by the way, for those of you. Who are listening. Uh, we appreciate you and uh, just so you know, neither of us are Marissa. I know that the, uh, by the, [00:13:00] we're not as of this moment now, hopefully, if we cannot figure out okay. We cannot figure out how to get, there's a, the main podcast picture on all.
Like, um mm-hmm. Apple Podcast on, on, uh, oh, that Spotify, yeah. Is, uh, a picture of Marissa. Mm-hmm. And it says, uh, voice coaches with Marissa. We are not Marissa. No. No, we are not. This is Voice Coaches Radio with John and Tina. Yes. Or Tina and John, however you want, say it. Mm-hmm.
Tina: And,
John: um. We just can't figure, I'm changing the episode.
Art, that's easy. No one can seem to figure out how to change the main artwork. And we have like, and we have a lot of minds here. Mm-hmm. And no one's like, everyone's like, I don't know,
Tina: we can produce a demo, but we cannot change.
John: I know. And I, and I've been reaching out to Marissa and I can't seem to get her, she's probably super busy now.
She's got something else going on, but I've been reaching out to her via email. So Marissa, if you're listening to this, let me, oh. Although Marissa probably just wants her picture there forever.
Tina: Yeah, she might. She
John: was like, no, I want my.
Tina: Which is it?
John: She's all gonna keep this forever. Yes, as far as I'm concerned is voice coaches of the marsa [00:14:00] forever.
Uh, so all right, well thank you very much again. Uh, my email is john [email protected]
Tina: and I'm [email protected].
John: Don't hesitate. Reach out, let us know what you think. Let us know if you have any ideas and if you are a professional voice actor or you're some, whether, listen, if you're a professional voice actor, um.
Someone who came through our program who's finding success, please reach out to me. I'd love to get you in for an interview. Be pretty cool. That would be fun. Yes. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah. Alright, well, uh, thank you very much and we out.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: And this is Voice Coaches Radio. And this is episode 6 93. This one, you know, we didn't even come up with a title. We just came up with an idea, but the,
Tina: yeah,
John: yeah. So, uh, this is, oh, I know. How can your background help you in voiceovers?
Tina: That's
John: a good one. That's a good one, right?
Good. I,
Tina: yeah.
John: Awesome. Yeah. There we go. Awesome. I meet a lot of people, you know, some of you may know that I do webinars, uh, intro mm-hmm. To voice acting or, um, sometimes it's called getting paid to talk, but it is still called Intro to Voiceovers and I meet a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds.
Yeah. And a lot of people will ask me, Hey. I do public speaking for my job. Does that mean I can be a voice actor? So, yes. First off, a lot of what you do in your background can help you as a voice actor. Mm-hmm. But I always wanna make it clear that like what you do, there is a particular set of skills to be a voice actor.
So it doesn't mean you could be a voice actor [00:01:00] now, like in other words, if you are someone who, um, is a trainer at work mm-hmm. And you do a lot of public speaking. It doesn't mean you're a voice actor. Now, you know there are some skills you will need to learn to be a voice actor, but absolutely your background and your skillset that you have now can help you in the voiceover industry.
You may even have a leg up.
Tina: Yeah, absolutely. 'cause you're, especially if you are someone who does public speaking, you're not afraid to get in front of that microphone. That's definitely the benefit of that. That's for sure. You know?
John: Yeah. And, and teachers too.
Tina: Oh, absolutely. I think we do. I get a lot of teachers.
I do get a lot of teachers who, um, are actually, um, towards the end of their career and they wanna do something that yes, they, you know, they're so used to talking to, you know, students or whatever, but they, they like this creative side of. And so I do get a lot of teachers who are, I am, I'm about to retire, but I don't wanna retire completely.
But I love telling stories. I love, you know, [00:02:00] teaching or anything like that, so I wanna do something that's still in that field, you know?
John: Yeah, absolutely. So I get a
Tina: lot of that.
John: Totally makes sense. Yeah. And, and, and that can help too. Again, you're, you're, when you're up in front of a group full of kids
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, you gotta keep their attention.
Tina: Yes.
John: So, you know, that's great. And, and, uh, your acting background now again. Actors aren't necessarily voice actors. Many of them transition to being voice actors. Yeah. And I do think your acting background can, of course, is advantageous mm-hmm. In this industry because you are someone who can loosen up a little quicker, perhaps.
Tina: Yes, yes.
John: You know? Yeah. So you're someone who can like, get in front of the mic and you, you're not nervous. You might, you know, again, Mike, Mike fright is a little different than stage fright. Yeah. A little different. But, but you, again, you're, you're used to kind of being silly in front of people mm-hmm. Or really acting, so that can help too.
But I think. Um, besides those jobs which are ob, I think are obvious as far as mm-hmm. You know, speaking quite a bit, there are many, many other professions that can be, be helpful in this industry. You'd be surprised. Mm-hmm. Something in your background could help you in voiceovers. And I'll just give you, again, I think it could be obvious, but it [00:03:00] might not, because I have people who are surprised when I say this, if you have a medical background.
Yeah. Super helpful in this industry because when we hire voice actors for anything educational these days mm-hmm. Um. If we can get a voice actor mm-hmm. Who has a background in something like medicine and we're doing something medical, yes. We prefer to. Mm-hmm. Because you know who can't pronounce the terms Me?
Yeah.
Tina: Oh, I'm with you. Me too.
John: Yeah. So, you know, and, and the producers can't help you with that. A lot of producers, they have no idea how that is, is a, so. I think that's, um, something to think about. Like what do you do? Yeah. For your, and, and it is funny 'cause I have some people who go, I don't like my job, so I don't want, I get it, I get it.
But your knowledge, your knowledge can be, again, you have to look at as all the things you went through, uh, went through in your life, uh, professionally, but all the knowledge of accumulated a anything. Is worth something.
Tina: Yeah, it absolutely is. You know, I tell students when they put in their little voice description [00:04:00] box that we add to, you know, they have on their webpage or just letting people know their background.
I said, tell them what you're doing professional wise. You never know who may need a voice in your profession. And they'll look at you and they go, you know what? You're an expert in that. You've worked in this for 35 years, so you could easily talk about this because you understand it and people listening to you are gonna understand it.
So that's, I tell them all the time, mention it. Let them know what you're doing and you're, what's your other career? That's all.
John: Yeah, and I think on your demo. I think, in my opinion, if you have a, a, again, a career that's very specific in knowledge. Mm-hmm. Based things that most people would know, for example, yeah.
I absolutely think you should put something on your demo that's related to that. The shows, yes. You have that skillset, that knowledge base.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So, um, yeah, and I don't think people think of that. And even though the meta, you know, again, to us, I think it's obvious, right? Mm-hmm. Because we're in the industry, and I always have to remember that we're, I think we're very fortunate because we have the opportunity to work with new voice actors all the time.
Yes. Or people who are aspiring to be
Tina: mm-hmm. [00:05:00]
John: Voice actors. And so I, I, I, it's easier for me to remember what it's like to just start out, you know?
Tina: Yeah.
John: But. I've had many people who I'm thinking like, oh, of course you, you're a doctor. Mm-hmm. Or you're a nurse.
Tina: Yeah,
John: of course your background's gonna help.
And they're like, really?
Tina: Yeah.
John: Are you serious? I'm like, yeah. Oh yeah, of course. Yes. Mm-hmm. You, you know, we, if they're doing like medical training
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: Like Albany Med is very well in this area, for those of you who're in kinda the Albany area. Mm-hmm. Uh, Albany Medical Center. A hospital has their own recording studio.
Tina: I did not know. That
John: has their own recording studio. Wow. Because they're attached to the college as well.
Tina: That's right.
John: Their teaching school. They do, and they do their own medical training videos there.
Tina: Wow. And
John: their own medical training. Yeah. So it's a re So that's an example of who do you think they'd prefer to have?
Tina: Yeah.
John: Right. They would much rather have mm-hmm. Someone who's a voice actor, who also knows medicine, because that can happen, that happen to me. I actually once did a pharmaceutical, uh, training. Well, it was audio. I don't know what [00:06:00] they did with that after I did the audio. I don't if they made it into something visual.
Yeah. Or, but I did the audio to it and. I had a pharmaceutical, a pharmacist. A pharmacist as the voice actor, which is great because yeah, the pharmacist caught a mistake in the copy, which I would never have known.
Tina: No. Yeah.
John: It was combining two elements that you couldn't combine, and they said, oh, this can't be right.
Mm-hmm. And that client wasn't there. So that was, that was the part. So the client wasn't there, so I couldn't ask the client. And uh, and the pharmacist said, this isn't, yeah, this can't be right. This is, these are two things are deadly. Mm-hmm. So these cannot be combined.
Tina: Oh yeah.
John: Yeah. And I, and I said, oh, so I called the client, they're like, oh, wow.
I can't believe it. We, we didn't catch that, that it totally Right. It saved the client a ton of money. 'cause if I had recorded it incorrectly mm-hmm. That's not on me.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And so when they came back. We would've had to have charged them again,
Tina: obviously. Yeah. To do it. Yeah.
John: And so it saved them a ton of money.
So it, you know, obviously that voice actor was the hero of the day.
Tina: Yeah. I will tell you, it's, it's funny 'cause you talk about a pharm, a pharmacist. [00:07:00] I had a pharmacist as a student, um, in, in Atlanta. And she was doing this because she loved reading to her kids. That was really the main reason why she decided to do voice acting.
She wanted do audio books, definitely do the children's books and, um. You know, we, when you do that, we also do the narration, which is, you know, the medical reads, the industrial type of things. She goes to a big convention that was at, in, in Atlanta and uh, she knows all the big wigs of the big pharmaceutical companies.
And she said to me afterwards, she says, I was a little hesitant to let them know that I was doing this. 'cause, you know, we were just chit-chatting away. She goes, but something inside me said, I'm gonna let them know. I'm gonna let these big wigs know, and they're like, Hey, how's it going? You know, what have you been up to?
She says, I'm, I'm taking voice acting classes. I'm about to do my voice, my demo. The woman, one woman she was talking to, says. She goes, I'm the one that hires all our voice actors. I would rather have somebody inside the industry than out. Let me know when you're ready. She's now doing all the voice [00:08:00] acting for the pharmaceutical.
Ah, there
John: you go.
Tina: So that, see, that's, that's exactly, there's that connection. You let people know. 'cause you never know. One, I say always tell people, tell people you're doing this. Let everybody know everybody and anybody, but it worked out great. But there it is. That pharmaceutical company says, I would rather have somebody who knows what they're talking about.
To do our voice acting.
John: Absolutely. Abs totally makes sense. Yeah. And it's, and it is not just limited, we're mentioning just a few things, but
Tina: Yes, no,
John: just think I'm talking like you could be an engineer.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Right? Yeah. You could be an electrician, uh, and, and all of a sudden that job, like, listen, being an electrician is a hard job.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Being a plumber, it can be a hard job as physical, but all sudden you could take those physical jobs.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And now they're not physical anymore. You're a voice actor talking about it.
Tina: Yeah. Talking about them. Yeah.
John: Right. It becomes mm-hmm. As far as like maybe what we consider a blue collar job becomes a white collar job.
Yeah. At that point. Right?
Tina: Yeah.
John: So, so it, you know, because let's face it, you know, my, my cousin for example, is an electrician, union electrician for years, and his body broke down. Mm-hmm. And, and, um, he never [00:09:00] had an interest in voiceover it. Yeah. But, uh, but if he did, it is like, oh, okay. I can still mm-hmm.
Especially if you like it. 'cause he did enjoy the profession. Yeah. It's just his body kind of broke down as the years went on. Um. You, you can still be involved in the industry. Mm-hmm. And, and maybe that could be kind of a, a, a niche for you.
Tina: Yeah. You know, I had a, a different situation where, um, I had a lawyer.
Come in. And the reason why he wanted to do this was to help with his presentations in court.
John: Yes.
Tina: So completely different where, you know, he, but he still, we still did a demo, you know, he said, yeah, down the line when I'm done being a lawyer and just, you know, looking for some, I'd love to do audio books, but this is going to help me with my presentation when they're, the jurors are looking at me or I'm talking to somebody, he says, it's just gonna help me more.
And I was just, I was like, wow, I never even thought of that. But it really, yeah. He felt so much more comfortable being now standing in front of people, but he's been a lawyer for a really long time, and I think he just felt [00:10:00] that he needed something to help him a little more.
John: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
And that we have trained, um, many, uh, communicators. Mm-hmm. Uh, so we do communication training besides just voiceovers, right? Mm-hmm. So we do, and so we'll do communication coaching. Yeah. And, and we've worked with Key Bank and we've worked with companies like that, uh, with some of their executives. So it can help.
Tina: Yes, it can help. Oh,
John: absolutely. 'cause a lot of times you're standing up there again when you, we, one of the things we, we coach you on is conversational reading.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And that can be very helpful in public speaking.
Tina: Yes, absolutely.
John: Yeah. Like, again, this is years and years ago. I actually was invited and it was super cool.
I was invited to speak at when, uh. I'm gonna blank out now because I'm talking about it, but what's the, what's the, um, Toastmasters? Okay,
Toastmaster.
John: So I was invited to speak at the national meeting for Toastmasters when they had it in Niagara Falls. Okay. So I got to go speak there, uh, about what we do.
Mm-hmm. And it can be very helpful because, you [00:11:00] know, a lot of public speakers, they, they project a lot, which, you know. Mm-hmm. Um, but if you can, if you can have something like a little microphone that can get your voice everywhere. It's much more natural if you're not yelling to the back of the room.
Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. And so we teach you to be conversational, which a lot of public speaking training or coaching doesn't teach you to be.
Tina: No, they do not. They
John: teach you to kind of, hello? All right, so here we are today. Mm-hmm. Which is not, listen, I fall asleep during those things. I'm not, I can't do it.
Like, as soon as someone start talking like that, I'm like, uhoh. Yeah. I'll not retain any of this.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: So, but cool. So I, I think that's a good episode. I, I, you know, I just wanted to make sure people understood that their background can be useful. Don't, don't scrap your background. Even if you're like, you're like, I just wanna get into voiceover.
Awesome. Mm-hmm. But keep in mind all those look at as, as an as investment knowledge, investment, all mm-hmm. The years of your mental investment that you put into whatever you're doing.
Tina: Yeah. Your profession, man.
John: Be absolutely used here. It's currency.
Tina: Oh yeah. Yeah.
John: Right. I mean, it's currency, so, [00:12:00] um, don't be afraid to tell if you're, again, if you're getting voice coaching, if you're in some kind of voice of a program, if you're going to record a demo, don't be afraid to talk to whoever you're working with and say, Hey, by the way, here, here's what I do.
Tina: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Let us know your background.
John: Yeah,
Tina: yeah,
John: yeah. Alright, well listen again, thank you very much for listening. This is Episode. 6 93. I have to look every time, you know, 6 93. I'm
Tina: glad you've got it in front of you. 'cause I just forgot to,
John: we're gonna have, you know what, when we, when we hit 700 in, in a few episodes, we should have, uh, we should do a big party
Tina: Oh yeah.
With the streamers, balloons.
John: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. No, we'll see it, but, well we are, oh, we're working on that though. Went by then. Seven episodes. We are working on doing a visual aspect of this, uh, podcast as well. And actually we thought we were gonna be doing it mm-hmm. This time, but just didn't quite work
Tina: out.
Yeah. Not yet. We're getting there.
John: Not yet. Yeah. Not yet. Oh, by the way, for those of you. Who are listening. Uh, we appreciate you and uh, just so you know, neither of us are Marissa. I know that the, uh, by the, [00:13:00] we're not as of this moment now, hopefully, if we cannot figure out okay. We cannot figure out how to get, there's a, the main podcast picture on all.
Like, um mm-hmm. Apple Podcast on, on, uh, oh, that Spotify, yeah. Is, uh, a picture of Marissa. Mm-hmm. And it says, uh, voice coaches with Marissa. We are not Marissa. No. No, we are not. This is Voice Coaches Radio with John and Tina. Yes. Or Tina and John, however you want, say it. Mm-hmm.
Tina: And,
John: um. We just can't figure, I'm changing the episode.
Art, that's easy. No one can seem to figure out how to change the main artwork. And we have like, and we have a lot of minds here. Mm-hmm. And no one's like, everyone's like, I don't know,
Tina: we can produce a demo, but we cannot change.
John: I know. And I, and I've been reaching out to Marissa and I can't seem to get her, she's probably super busy now.
She's got something else going on, but I've been reaching out to her via email. So Marissa, if you're listening to this, let me, oh. Although Marissa probably just wants her picture there forever.
Tina: Yeah, she might. She
John: was like, no, I want my.
Tina: Which is it?
John: She's all gonna keep this forever. Yes, as far as I'm concerned is voice coaches of the marsa [00:14:00] forever.
Uh, so all right, well thank you very much again. Uh, my email is john [email protected]
Tina: and I'm [email protected].
John: Don't hesitate. Reach out, let us know what you think. Let us know if you have any ideas and if you are a professional voice actor or you're some, whether, listen, if you're a professional voice actor, um.
Someone who came through our program who's finding success, please reach out to me. I'd love to get you in for an interview. Be pretty cool. That would be fun. Yes. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah. Alright, well, uh, thank you very much and we out.
Tina and John talk about how your background, completely unrelated to voice overs, can help you in this industry.
