Season 1 Recap
April 2024
Day #1
Tina Morasco
Head of Casting at Sound & Fury, VO Coach & Voice Talent
Highlights of this interview include:
- Her process, as a casting director, of whittling down auditions to the final short-list
- How many of the short-listed auditions the client will actually hear
- How to make your audition grab her attention from the very first word
- She highlights her 4-step process for how to approach an audition to draw out an authentic read and serve the script
- Tips to keep in mind when submitting auditions
- Insight into everything that happens before a voice actor get that audition in their inbox
Tracy Lindley
Voice Actor & LinkedIn Expert
Highlights of this interview include:
- Approaching rejection
- Building a 6-figure business (while juggling mom-life!)
- Why LinkedIn is the best way to grow your client base
- Tips on perfecting your LinkedIn presence
- The 3 foundational elements she has built her business off of
- The winning mindset to approach potential clients with to achieve more success
- AND an exclusive, you-heard-it-here-first announcement!
Carrie Olsen
Voice Actor, Coach, Course Creator
Highlights of this interview include:
- Crafting a voiceover legacy (what that means and what it looks like)
- Why elearning, while not always seen as the most glamorous genre of voiceover, has huge income potential
- She explains just how much elearning work is out there and how integrated into all of our lives it really is, which we may not even realize!
- Marketing tips and how to stand out when reaching out to elearning companies
- Insights & advice for both new voice talent & working voice actors
- We also touch base on the topic of AI voices
Day #2
Everett Oliver
International Voice Acting Director
Highlights of this interview include:
- A VERY current look at the state of the animation side of the industry
- What NY vs LA specialize in within the animation genre
- How important having an agent or manager is in this side of the business
- How to get a casting director’s attention (whether you have an agent or not)
- Current trends in animation voice acting styles
- Career tips for animation voice actors
- The importance of networking (even for the introverts!)
- Tips for both newer and more established talent
Paul Schmidt
Creator of VOPro.pro and the VO Freedom Master Plan
Highlights of this interview include:
- Important career lessons learned (and some the hard way!)
- The true power of marketing
- How essential mindset is in finding success in this business
- Redefining our relationship with "sales"
- Tips to conquer mindset issues
- Mistakes he sees people making when approaching marketing their business
Armin Hierstetter
CEO, bodalgo.com
Highlights of this interview include:
- If you’re a talent on the online casting site, bodalgo (or planning to join), this interview is a must-watch!
- What makes bodalgo stand out against other online casting sites
- How it’s expanding, which will ultimately bring in more clients (aka more voiceover opportunities!)
- How job postings are vetted before they even go live
- How your audition is displayed to the client
- Insight on how the site works to help you navigate it
- Tips on how to get ahead of the competition
- Misconceptions that even pro talent may have about their auditions
Day #3
David Tobak
COO, Global Voice Acting Academy
Highlights of this interview include:
- What it means to run a business with abundance, integ
rity, and authority - Why both the trajectory and approach in the voiceover industry is different from the “real world”/ more traditional industries
- The origins of the GVAA rate guide
- How rapidly the digital broadcast landscape has changed over the past few years and how it's changing how voice actors should be charging for usage
- We talk about the upgrades happening to the GVAA to better serve the voiceover community
Emma O'Neill
Voice Actor, Career Coach
Highlights of this interview include:
- Hearing about the pivotal moments that boosted her career
- Just how powerful voiceover conferences are in progressing your career
- Different ways that she, as a 6-figure earner, finds work
- How she approaches copy/ a script
- She explains the power of the “mumble read” (and explains what that is!)
- How, despite many people thinking winning awards don’t really mean anything, they have been exponential in her career success
- She discusses the different career levels in the voiceover industry
- Then we get into the nitty gritty of working in the US as a foreigner, including the process of getting an ITIN and a Visa (this portion lasts until 30:35)
Kim Handysides
Voice Actor, Coach, Director & Demo Producer
Highlights of this interview include:
- We get a glimpse into how one of the top 2% of earners in the voiceover industry approaches her career
- Foundational elements of the acting side of voice acting
- Biggest threats to the voiceover industry
- Tips on how to approach your voiceover craft
- Insight on how and when to incorporate a team into your business
Day #4
J. Michael Collins
Voice Actor, Demo Producer, Coach, Producer, Casting Pro
Highlights of this interview include:
- We get JMC’s take on the much-talked-about VO Atlanta online casting panel appearance by the new CEO of voices.com
- Then we dig into all-things-political
voiceover! - We get insight into just how much the political genre of voice acting has exploded over the years
- He explains why political voiceover is likely the most AI-proof genre in the voiceover industry
- As one of the least-saturated genres in voiceover (for reasons we discuss in the interview), there’s a TON of opportunity out there
- We get into the cold-hard stats of just how little voice actors are pursuing the political genre
- How the voiceover style in political ads is expanding and evolving
- 2020 vs 2024 political ads
- He breaks down how the payment structure works for voicing political ads
- How to find work in political voiceover
George Whittam
Owner of George The Tech, Performer Friendly Techs
Highlights of this interview include:
- Top picks for audio software plugins
- State of advancement of audio tech to treat noise issues
- What he thinks makes an “acceptable” noise floor
- Simple tips for troubleshooting sound issues (hint: it could be as simple as replacing the cable!)
- We go through the top 10 things people NEED to know before starting in voiceover (some working pros could do to hear these too!)
Mandy Fisher
Voice Actor, Coach, Course Creator
Highlights of this interview include:
- How she got into looping
- She breaks down all the ways that she finds jobs
- Insights into why people from social media usually hire her for jobs
- As someone who is creeping up on 20,000 followers on TikTok, we delve into how she got started and how it grew from there
- We hear what she found was the big switch that shifted her follower trajectory
- Tips on how to grow your own following
- The low-down on whether hashtags and time of day (for posting content) really actually matter anymore
- She talks about a new TikTok creator tool and her honest thoughts on it’s usefulness
- We go through her step-by-step process of approaching recording an audition and get some of her suggested tips
Your Host
Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Dervla Trainor is a voiceover actor, producer, and the founder of the VO Kickstart Program, the V.O. North voiceover conference, and the Voiceover Speaker Series.
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