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Building Your VO Tribe
136 Plays1 year ago
In this latest episode of the VO Bar podcast, hosts Will Vincent, Al Moulliet, and Victoria Prather dive deep into the heart of voice acting, networking, and the importance of finding your tribe in the digital age. With their signature blend of humor and insight, they share personal stories of navigating the industry, from the challenges of paying bills with "exposure" to the early days of internet communities and the pivotal role of social media in connecting with fellow voice actors.
The trio candidly discusses the evolution of their careers, highlighting the shift from in-person networking to online platforms, and the unique dynamics of forming meaningful connections in a virtual world. They touch on the nostalgia of Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), the camaraderie found in acting meetups, and the mixed experiences with platforms like Discord for professional opportunities.
Listeners will find valuable advice on leveraging online communities for growth, the pros and cons of voice acting conferences, and the significance of peer support in overcoming the industry's challenges. The episode is peppered with relatable anecdotes about the quest for quality pizza in small towns, the quirks of attending voice acting conferences, and the humorous realities of navigating a career in voiceover.
Whether you're a seasoned voice actor or new to the scene, this episode offers a refreshing look at the importance of community, resilience, and the occasional reality check from your peers. Join Will, Al, and Victoria as they explore the highs and lows of voice acting, underscored by their unwavering belief in the power of finding your tribe.
Chapters:
(00:00:00) Finding Your Tribe
(00:02:53) Transition to Online Networking
(00:04:37) Transition to Voiceover Career
(00:08:33) Networking and Conference Experiences
(00:20:10) Benefits of Networking and Peer Recommendations
(00:29:58) Casino Nights and Discos
(00:31:21) Helping Others and Being Kind
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Transcript
The Irony of Paying Mortgages with Exposure
00:00:00
Speaker
It's tough to pay my mortgage with exposure, I'll tell you. Oh, geez. I paid mine with exposure once, and the next month they doubled my mortgage. Go figure. Even tacked on a little extra. Yes. Yeah, even that.
Finding Like-minded People Online Post-2020
00:00:20
Speaker
Finding your tribe.
00:00:24
Speaker
How doth one find their fellow peeps? Please say peeps. Please say peeps. Yes. I think there's plenty of ways to, you know, start that conversation at least. Social media has been, especially since 2020, like, oh my goodness, four years ago, because nobody was meeting in person. Yep.
00:00:49
Speaker
And that's where I found most of my peeps were online. I'm not going to lie. That's where I found most of my peeps my entire adult life. You weren't much for networking groups or anything like that? No.
00:01:05
Speaker
No, I don't like people in real life. Oh, strangers. Stranger danger. They're scary. Big surprise right there. Shut up. I'm the most likable, friendly, outgoing, real life person ever. Just ask no
Community and Networking: Past and Present
00:01:20
Speaker
one.
00:01:20
Speaker
as a long time BBSer and early, early, early internet adopter. Oh my gosh, BBSer. Yeah, yeah buddy. What about BBS? Bulletin Board System. Oh my god. So it predates the internet. It's how we used to communicate online before everyone was online. They put the B in the BS.
00:01:41
Speaker
Oh, yes. So between that and like IRC before the web. Yeah, that's that's where some of my oldest friends other than people that I would like went to school with are people I met online. Wow. Wow. Icy Q days. Oh, sure. Well, young people.
00:02:03
Speaker
I was in New York and we had an actor's meetup, which was kind of cool. And that's where I met a bunch of folks because you would see people in the audition room. And if you didn't know other people in the audition room, you kind of felt like, I don't know anybody. And I was like, oh my God, it's so good to see you.
00:02:22
Speaker
Feel like an outsider, a little intimidated. A little bit. So connecting with fellow actors that were there. And a lot of us have the same either acting coach or, you know, much like we did. Right. The three of us. Yeah. We all did the same workout. Yeah. So that was kind of the same premise to see what people were working on. See if they were working on anything that we could collaborate on as a group. And then in 2020, where everything was just kind of upended.
00:02:50
Speaker
everything went online for me. And then I started really finding voiceover groups on Facebook and X slash Twitter. I haven't joined Discord. Have you guys done that yet? Yeah, I don't use it though. I don't like it. No. It's a lot more distracting, I find. Same thing. I've been to it, but I don't get a lot out of it. Some people just love it.
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and there's castings that happen there. There's recording that happens there. Is there really? Yeah. Is there anything quality? Is there anything career? I don't know.
00:03:30
Speaker
I mean, I've seen a lot of, here's a role we're casting. It pays 50 bucks. Right. Join our Discord to audition. Yeah. I'm not going to join your Discord so that I can audition for your fan film. And that's what a lot of it looks like. Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:46
Speaker
And it's great for somebody who wants experience, somebody who wants to kind of see what's out there. But I think for those of us that are really, you know, trying to book jobs that, you know, other people might see other than someone's grandma. Pay the mortgage.
Challenges of Finding Valuable Gigs
00:04:03
Speaker
You know, actually pay a couple of bills would be great. Because a dollar a line is not going to do it. Sorry. Yeah, it's tough to pay my mortgage with exposure, I'll tell you. Oh, geez.
00:04:13
Speaker
I don't know why. I paid mine with exposure once and the next month they doubled my mortgage. Go figure. You got that? I did. Even tacked on a little extra.
00:04:31
Speaker
Yeah, even that. We see you guys had a little, have a little experience. I'm a late bloomer. And so I spent my early part of my day job career doing the networking and doing the industry meet and greets and such.
00:04:47
Speaker
I didn't do anything business-wise. I mean, I didn't start VO until 2017. Then at that point, everything was LinkedIn, everything was Facebook. So I jumped into
From BBS to Modern Professional Networking
00:05:00
Speaker
there. So you're giving, like you say, BBS? BBS. That's going back to the 80s. Yes, 80s. I must have lived through them. I don't remember them.
00:05:12
Speaker
But yeah, you were playing music then, so. I was. I was. You were too cool for BBSs. I was too cool for school. I was, yeah. And then came Craigslist. Oh, stop. Don't go there for jobs.
00:05:30
Speaker
But yeah, so I like the fact that there were things available other than face-to-face because holy crap, this would be a really hard industry if that's all you had. Yeah. Well, and especially when it's not face-to-face, it can be asynchronous, right? With a face-to-face meaning, you have to both be there at the same time. Yes. Yes. But now that everything's online, yeah, there's still a lot of you got to be in the same Zoom call or whatever. Sure.
00:05:59
Speaker
you know, emails asynchronous, Slack messages are asynchronous. Discord could be. I mean, even when we're texting, just us talking about our podcast and topics and things like that, we're using texting and sometimes we have a thought at 2 a.m. in the morning and
00:06:17
Speaker
Some of us more than others. Indeed. And then I wake up the next morning and go, look what I missed. You guys are blowing up my phone. Wait, what time did we say we're meeting? And scroll, scroll, scroll. Thank God for do not disturb.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, right? But yeah, with this finding your tribe, I mean, it's pretty cool that we were able to meet from different parts of this big scary world, as opposed to me pulling everyone I know from the huge city of Duluth, Minnesota. Massive. Massive. It's a metropolis. Well, compared to Gilbert, Arizona, I think it might be.
00:06:59
Speaker
Or Princeton, Minnesota. Well, okay, you gotta speak. We have more pizza places than we do people. It's not quite true, but it feels true. More slices of pepperoni than actual people. Our population's like 7,000 and we have 13 places to get pizza. I mean, it's kind of ridiculous. Wow.
00:07:21
Speaker
All right. That's a lot of pizza you guys eat over there. Right? Better be good pizza. That's all I'm saying. And as a New Yorker, I'm going to be judgy. So let's just leave that because you know I can get judgy very quickly. I'm pretty judgy about the food around here. And you got to drive. The food is not good. Do you fold your pizza? You're supposed to fold your pizza. You should.
00:07:46
Speaker
Well, you know, uh, pizza has a big New Yorker. That's the closest we get to it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Let me wipe away these tears of pain. I know we have 13 places to get pizza. That doesn't mean they're good. That's right.
00:08:06
Speaker
That's right. People rave about like the burgers and club sandwiches and stuff at the, you know, the local bars and whatever that is, like the closest we get to a sit down restaurant is a bar.
Building Community in New Places
00:08:20
Speaker
Okay. They all taste the same. They're all the same frozen patties and frozen whatever from the same place. And it's all, man, it's boring. Who cares? Who cares? Thank God for the internet. It's so good. It's so good. There's a place.
00:08:34
Speaker
Oh my God. And there's people in this town that are like, oh, that place is the best. And you're smoking crack, people. It's like you don't get out often, do you? See, they haven't found their tribe.
00:08:44
Speaker
That's true. There's Facebook groups for that, though, too. Now, yeah. For liking bad food? Way to steer us back in line here. Where I actually live now, there's a lot of east coasters and a lot of folks from Chicago that live in this part of the desert that I like to call the culinary desert. So there's a lot of, you know, we have some east coast
00:09:11
Speaker
chains, I guess you say, you know, chain restaurants, things like that. And it's interesting. And then that Facebook group, they like to meet. I haven't met with them yet, but they like to meet and do dinner. And then everybody can complain how it's just not like home. But that's, you know, it's fun. Find your tribe. So do these people wear shiny suits and drive Cadillacs? We're talking about Arizona. No.
00:09:39
Speaker
I'm not talking like we're going to... They're in witness protection, right? I'm like, what do you think this is? Like Atlantic City? Showing up in the shucks, getting sued, you know? Yeah, but they've relocated. Vinnie bag of donuts is over there going, hey, hey, hey. They renamed. They named Vinnie no more. Now it's Jim. Oh, that's right. Yes. Jim Johnson. That's it.
00:10:01
Speaker
been a Jim Johnson my whole life. Seriously, it's interesting. They all, you know. Where can I find the, you know, I need a deli. Anybody got good cold cuts around here? Now, if I had a mental picture, which I don't,
00:10:17
Speaker
This would be my mental picture of your surroundings all the time now. Just a bunch of witness protection. I never thought about it that way, but I will now. People hanging out like, hey, I gotta go get the papers. Make sure there's no pictures in there. You coming over for the barbecue later? Come on. Let's do it. Forget about it. You bring the plates. I'm not allowed to have cutlery anymore.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah. Look, all I need you to do is bring some cheese. Just a big block of cheese. You know what I mean? Yeah. But it is important to find people. It's important to find people that you can connect with, right? And talk about the things, whether it's food or in our case, voiceover and find... Witness protection. What are you not supposed to talk about? Yeah. Shh. God, dude. Come on.
00:11:13
Speaker
Leave it for the show notes. But the idea that the more people you can connect with should hopefully, you know, take out some of the, I don't want to use the word anxiety, maybe the mystery of voiceover.
Staying Motivated in VO Work
00:11:32
Speaker
Hey, who's your agent? Are they good? Eh. You know, people talk. Coaches. And finding your tribe,
00:11:40
Speaker
And especially because it's such a disconnected, you know, sort of lonely thing, right? We're all sitting at home in our booths. Right? Our booths. Yes. I'm restraining the way I want to say it. The two boots? The two boots. Yeah.
00:11:57
Speaker
We're doing our additions and occasionally book stuff and we're then we get to talk to somebody but you know, they're Telling us to do it different or right? Hopefully when you book something you suck That's usually the opposite That's just my experience
00:12:19
Speaker
But yeah, so having people you can talk to you commiserate with on the bad days. Right. Talk each other off ledges when you're over it. Thanks again. I'm gonna give up. No, don't give up. I'm selling it all. Right. I don't want this. I don't want that. I don't need it anymore. Not doing this no more. So stupid. Yeah. I just need this chair and this paddle game and that's all I need.
00:12:45
Speaker
And the dog. You don't need the dog. Now see those movie references I get, I got that one. That's just all of all of mine you don't get. Okay. That's fine. It's okay. No, it's fine. What did you just call me? It's fine. Wow. Wow.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yet I consider you guys part of my tribe, aren't you lucky? We are lucky. Aren't you lucky?
00:13:18
Speaker
See, and the other thing that's good about having the people, the peeps, like you guys. Yes. He's just coming, speaking of peeps. Yes. Peeps are like the Easter version of Halloween candy corn. Yes. There we go. Candy corn. Peeps are the Easter version of candy corn. They're everywhere, but nobody wants them. Yucky. Although I would say that candy corn is still worse than peeps.
00:13:46
Speaker
Peeps are basically just a marshmallow. No, they make like sriracha flavor and... Oh, I know they make weird flavored ones, but... No. What? Yeah. Yeah. Lots of weird flavors. They make Dr. Pepper ones. I'm still... I'm still a pest. Not a fan. The other benefit to peeps, people like you guys, is accountability. Somebody to keep you honest. Make sure that you're actually... No one's keeping me honest. Yeah, well.
00:14:14
Speaker
Hey, if somebody wants to reschedule something. Yeah. Make sure you're not trying to reschedule stuff at the last minute. Yep. For real. No, I appreciate that. It's true.
00:14:27
Speaker
It's true. Because that can happen so easily, right? That you just get derailed and it's like, no, wait, we said. If you're doing it on your own, it's easy to let the negative thoughts take over and let the imposter syndrome talk you out of it and to go, I'm not feeling it today. And then you do no auditions. And then a day becomes two and then three and then a week and then a month. And next thing you know, six months have gone by and you've done two auditions. And now you're selling your equipment. Right.
00:14:56
Speaker
Because this doesn't work. This doesn't work? I haven't booked anything in a year. It did five auditions in the past eight months. You got to be real good to book one out of five. That's true. Very true. If you're only doing that, then you become real good at making excuses for why you're not doing it. I'm too busy, or I get the day job, I get to take all my time.
00:15:27
Speaker
That's what I give you for that. That's a BS excuse. Every once in a while, there's an expletive in the text as well. And they're like, oh, probably a lot of them. Yeah, maybe. Probably. Anybody that knows me knows that I'm holding back a lot on this podcast. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:15:47
Speaker
I didn't know that. But no, it's true. I tried to reschedule this last minute because I was busy doing other stuff. I'm trying to pack for a trip and there's so many reasons, but it's unfair because there's three of us. It's not just my schedule, it's your schedule is what you're setting time aside for.
00:16:17
Speaker
different time zones. And not just us even, like our families too. Yeah, exactly. And let's suffocate our fans. They're waiting for this. I mean. Honestly, that was the only reason I had any issue with rescheduling last minute was because we had already kind of scheduled the day around the time we'd already set. Yep. And they were headed out the door to go do something and I'm like. Yeah.
00:16:43
Speaker
Nope.
Building and Leveraging Networks in VO
00:16:44
Speaker
So, but that's why it's important to have people that you can work with and understand that too, right? Like pull them back in. It's like, nope, we're going to do it. So, you know. I suggest you find one person and start there, whether it's a YouTube channel that you follow, whether it's Mark Scott, whether it's, you know, anybody else that does a podcast.
00:17:08
Speaker
Find someone that you can relate to. If you're young, you're gonna stick with someone younger, unless you wanna follow someone older because you're looking for someone who's been in the industry longer. But find them, find out who follows them, and eventually your group will appear. That's my point.
00:17:28
Speaker
Yeah. That's kind of how I found you guys. Yeah. And if you can get together in person, that just kind of expedites everything. Oh, yeah. You know, and if you, especially if you've made a connection prior to that, like we all connected online before that, before we met in person. So we kind of knew each other a little bit. And then we hung out at a conference at the bar at the conference. Well, yeah. Hence the name, the VO bar podcast. And much talking and what not happened. And here we are.
00:17:57
Speaker
Well, that's a given this but it was very interesting that this that's what needed to happen for this podcast to happen because will and I talked about over a year about it until we met up again in the bar at the bar and Yep, it was weird
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah, we talked about it at the bar, like we got to start a podcast. And then it was every couple of weeks from that point on. So podcast. And then finally a year later, we were talking about it again and then there was Al. And he joined in the conversation. We said, well, there we go. That was our missing piece. Al was looking for a tribe. See? And we adopted Al. You ended up with a few lucky humans.
00:18:41
Speaker
I was adopted. It was perfect. It was perfect. Because now we've been consistent. Or are we just fostering him? I haven't figured that out yet. Yes. That's it. It's better than sending him back to the pound. We haven't done that, so that's good. That's true. Yeah, I've had enough. No kill, right? No.
00:19:07
Speaker
No, it's not. Dang. Oh, man. Compassionate youth in Asia. Wow. Sorry, Al. Well, you had a good run. You moving to Asia? No. You just like me. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the derailment. Yes. I mean, it happens often, really.
00:19:33
Speaker
Yeah. But see, when you have accountability and it's the three of us, somebody has to like steer us back into the water. Yeah. So the other thing I think that's really cool about, especially voiceover, because I'm sure it happens in regular acting, but probably not nearly as much, is that your network often becomes a source of jobs and peers, not just like, oh, I'm connected to this casting director and this coach
Experiences and Benefits of VO Conferences
00:20:00
Speaker
and this whatever. No, no.
00:20:01
Speaker
like, your peers. Because what'll happen is a job will come in and you go, oh, that's not for me, but this is for Al. Or, you know, there's a female part. Oh, this would be perfect for Victoria, you know. And so we can either pass it on to each other or recommend each other. That happens all the time. A lot. But I don't think it happens as much in other types of acting, you know, stage or film or anything.
00:20:21
Speaker
I mean, I'm sure it does a little bit. Input, Victoria? I mean, one of the acting groups I was in, we actually created our own stuff because we wanted to play certain roles. But that's a little bit different. We're talking about actual opportunities that come out from different sources that we can then share if it's allowed. Because a lot of times it's like, don't talk to others about this casting spec or anything. But sometimes they're looking for legit, like, hey, we're putting out a wide net.
00:20:51
Speaker
they want recommendations. So I do think that is unique to voice acting specifically. And what's really interesting is I actually had a part, I have two parts only once been announced so far in a video game. And a couple of weeks later, will you are also part of things to weeks apart. So it's kind of it's kind of interesting that way. Yeah.
00:21:13
Speaker
It's such a small world. It was one of those things that I had auditioned for that particular production house for a while. After a while, you start going, do they even listen? They don't like me. Are they just like, no. I say, hi. I recognize that name. No.
00:21:34
Speaker
Yeah. Swipe left. No. It's a complete, like, just not gonna happen. And, you know, it had been a good, like, few years.
00:21:44
Speaker
I have auditioned for a lot of things from them. Yeah. So it goes to show it's one of those, that's what this industry is. It's just being persistent and not giving up that pursuit. So what other benefits do we have of networking and building our tribe? You know, obviously there's recommendations of coaches and workshops and rosters and stuff. And conferences to attend. Yeah, conferences, sharing techniques, I suppose to a point. When we can
00:22:15
Speaker
You know when we're all able to go to the same conference again, that's a lot of fun and You know you meet other people conferences. They can be scary if you're by yourself They are and I mean I've gone it's a lot easier if you've got even just one person that you know sure yep Because the first couple that I went to I didn't know anybody right I mean say well you guys I met I'm new from online But then I went to you know one voice or we all went to the sovas conference mm-hmm
00:22:44
Speaker
And so I knew you guys, and then I went to view Atlanta, and I didn't know anybody. Recognized a couple people from LA, I suppose, but I didn't know anybody, so I was kind of just on my own, which was very interesting because it was a completely different experience this year. So my first time was last year, and then this year I knew way more people. And they sold out too, so it was like a thousand people that were there, right? Yeah, it sold out both years, yeah.
00:23:08
Speaker
And see, to me, personally, that's kind of a, if I'm completely honest, it's a little bit of a drawback. A thousand people. Too many people? That's too many. Um, for me. It doesn't feel like it though. Yeah? I think probably for a couple reasons. So one, they don't all fit in the hotel. Okay. Because not long, there aren't that many rooms, but the Delta Hub being there, Delta takes like 500 rooms or something. So there's only a couple hundred rooms available in that hotel. Okay.
00:23:38
Speaker
So there's not a thousand people walking in the lobby.
00:23:42
Speaker
Not all at the same time. So half the people are staying at four or five other hotels. And then there's probably eight or 10 or more different rooms of sessions going on. So people get spread all over the place. So it doesn't feel like you're gonna suffocate in the sea of people. And even like in the after party and stuff, not everybody goes. So you get five or 600 maybe. My first conference was a
00:24:11
Speaker
was online. By the time I was like, you know what, maybe I should...
00:24:16
Speaker
try it out. So I did, it was called eVocation, capital V-O, which makes sense. And that was really about the business side of it. And they were sharing documents for the business side, like if you didn't have something like voice overview or some sort of CRM to manage that, they had spreadsheets. Everybody was kind of sharing that. So sharing those resources, to me, that was invaluable, especially kind of early on in doing this.
00:24:46
Speaker
And, but I didn't know anybody, right? I was like, hmm, all right. But then there was somebody, you know, when you're scrolling through the Zoom gallery, it was like, oh, wait, I know that name. And then, you know, you might start like a quick chat on the side or I knew them through Facebook and we're talking through Messenger while the conference is going on.
00:25:06
Speaker
So that was interesting. So when they finally got to in-person and I went to my very first in-person conference, that was literally last year, that I met all of those people for the very first time.
Challenges and Comparisons of Conferences
00:25:23
Speaker
I had seen them online. Now we can't get rid of you.
00:25:25
Speaker
I know, no, I'm just here. But I didn't do, other than SOBAS and I did their online, they still do an online version as well. But, you know, there's so many different conferences to go to, and I'm trying to be a little bit more selective with just because of time. It's balancing the family and the responsibilities I have. But,
00:25:55
Speaker
I find them hugely beneficial, and I know there's some people that just don't like them. I do like them, but I just can't do all of them. Well, it's a financial commitment for sure. It is, but it's also a time commitment, and not for nothing. We have a lot of special needs pets, and I have a teenage boy who's very into baseball.
00:26:18
Speaker
And, you know, that's going to be my priority, is that. So it's hard to balance that. My husband travels a lot for his job, so I can't get away as easily at this point. But when I do, I do.
00:26:33
Speaker
And that was great because when we were out in Los Angeles this past December, the three of us, you know, getting together not just for certain sessions, but also afterwards, we were able to go and grab things to eat and, you know, get an Uber to take us to that, you know, places and do, you know, carpool karaoke. It was great.
00:26:54
Speaker
Well, we had to, you know, we had to get some fanist vacations. Yes. Yes. To plan this professional podcast we have here. I mean, these kind of things take time. Oh, yeah. We plan lots and lots of every episode to the most minute detail. Oh, if it's not done right, we're not doing it. I think that might be backwards. If it's done right, we're not doing it.
00:27:18
Speaker
So just to put things in perspective for you in terms of conferences. So as a software engineer, I've gone to conferences and I just pulled up stats of one of the last ones that I went to, which was a while ago, it was 2012. There were over 3,100 people in attendance compared to the 1,000 that were at Rio Atlanta.
00:27:39
Speaker
Yeah. That's two people. If your Atlanta's not small by any means, but there are conferences in other industries that make it look super tiny and insignificant. But there's so much going on across different tracks of learning and there's 10 or 15 different rooms with something going on all the time that it doesn't feel claustrophobic or as packed as it is.
00:28:07
Speaker
It's difficult to spend time with any one or two people unless you're all doing the same thing just because there's so much going on and so many people and you want to say hi to everybody and whatever but there's not time. What about one voice? Is that just as large or?
00:28:23
Speaker
No, it's about half the size. So the best way I can explain it is one voice is basically VO Atlanta light. It feels very similar in terms of like the programming and the style of everything and whatever. But they also do awards at that one? There is also an awards, yes. But not VO Atlanta, correct? Not VO Atlanta, correct.
00:28:45
Speaker
Which one's in Vegas? Is that Volvo? I believe it used to be. Okay. That sounds like trouble. Probably. Yeah. That's like a lot of fun. I mean, Vegas in general sounds like trouble. It does, but... Well, I wouldn't go that far. Only because they took all your money and you can't afford to go that far.
00:29:04
Speaker
That's true, yeah. Either that or his... I'm still allowed to go. Photo is, yeah, are you allowed to? I was gonna, mm-hmm. Not kicked out yet. Hang on, this guy looks familiar.
00:29:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, they like him because he gives them money. High roller. When you show up in the sparkly boots, they're like, okay, come on in. Al, we got your table. He must be somebody. It's when you leave with their money, they don't want you back anymore. If you leave money there, come on back. Come on in. We'll even comp your room. Keep on a steak, we'll give you a steak.
00:29:39
Speaker
We don't need you to pay us at the hotel. Just pay us at the casino. Just go downstairs, go to the floor. Have fun. Here's a hundred bucks on us. Hey, thanks. No windows? Wait, what time is it? I'll have another beverage, please. Oh my God. The number of times that I've walked out of a casino after being there at night and it's like,
00:30:05
Speaker
Oh my God, it's like 10 a.m. How did that happen? That's happened like twice. He's seen the number of times I'm like, wow. I don't want to sound like a gamble all the time. It's been a long time. I haven't been to the casino in a long time. Reminds me of the 70s going out to discos. You just walk out with the sunglasses on.
Mentorship and Supporting Newcomers
00:30:32
Speaker
Find somebody with similar likes. Find somebody that you feel you can learn something with or from. And introduce yourself. We seem scary, but we're not.
00:30:42
Speaker
I would actually say the same thing. Find somebody who, I mean, and they don't have to be at the same professional level. If it's somebody you want to learn from, I think that's actually helpful if you find somebody at a different stage. Or maybe you're mentoring someone. I still think that can be a helpful relationship both ways. It's not just one way. But yeah, I think just,
00:31:09
Speaker
If you try to do it alone, it does feel very lonely as I sit in this four by four room or whatever it is. It's important to find your people. Side note, for those that are the ones being followed and approached, if someone comes and wants to learn from you, don't be a dick. Oh, God, yeah. Indeed.
00:31:32
Speaker
You know, I can understand people getting frustrated being asked the same question over and over and over again, especially if it's something that you can easily find with Google. But remember that you were there once too.
00:31:46
Speaker
Absolutely. And how hard is it to say, you know, this is information you can easily find on Google, but check out this link or that link or whatever, right? Yeah. And if you're given the same answer and over over again, just stick it in a text document or something so you can copy paste it. It's not rocket science. Yeah. This is difficult. And you giving somebody some encouraging words or a little bit of help at some point early on could dramatically change the trajectory of their life.
00:32:15
Speaker
Absolutely. And, you know, as somebody who experienced that in a negative way, I do whatever I can to make sure nobody else does. Absolutely. I understand that. Same thing, because I think we all just, this sounds very kumbaya, oh my goodness, but it's true. I think everybody needs a little bit of help.
00:32:34
Speaker
And if you try to do this in a vacuum, it's that more difficult. So just be nice. It doesn't hurt to be kind. It doesn't cost you to be kind. Like Jen Henry says, don't be a dick. Yeah. Yeah. And that applies just in general. In general, right? Just in general. Just don't be a dick. Because you know what? That person who maybe dropped out of being a voice actor maybe decided they wanted to go into casting. Guess what you just did?
00:33:02
Speaker
You burnt that bridge before it was even built. Great. So you just never know. And that comes, I have to remind myself that even when I'm driving down the highway and someone drives, like they just have no freaking clue how to do it. Oh no, those people deserve no leniency. Those people are idiots and they can go away.
00:33:20
Speaker
I've heard way too many things. You don't know how to drive. Get out of my way. Yeah, but if I'm headed someplace or, you know, an in-person audition, and we happen to be driving the same way, I don't want to see them going to the same parking lot. You know? All right. Good stuff. Find your traffic. See ya. Bye. Bye.