Podcasts about erikka

This week, news editor Erikka Askeland and Aberdeen features lead Ryan Duff attended the Energy Industries Council's (EIC) Energy Exports Conference in Aberdeen.   The show provided insight into how the UK is stacking up to other nations in the energy transition as Bureau Veritas launched its latest report and Aberdeen's Blazewe was honoured at an awards dinner.    Erikka spoke with Ann Johnson, director of Blaze Manufacturing Solutions, about the award and her firm's journey to it, as well as plans for the North Sea and further afield. Next, Erikka caught up with Verlume CEO Richard Knox to talk about his business' export opportunities as he looks to capitalise on recent success.   Ryan McPherson, EIC's regional director and general manager for the Middle East, Africa and CIS, joined us in our Aberdeen studio ahead of the event to share his insights.    Finally, Ryan spoke with EIC CEO Stuart Broadley about his key takeaways from the event on its last day. He said that some of the solutions to the UK's policy problems may be able to be found by looking to other nations and their approach to the energy transition. 

This week, Energy Voice's intrepid reporters Mat and Mike explored the recent announcement that the government is set to approve Eni's HyNet carbon capture and storage project. The deal comes with financial support for the Track 1 project, and adds momentum to the UK's CCS journey. We also catch up with news editor Erikka, who was at the North Sea Decarbonisation conference this week, finding out all about how the UK needs to reshape its industries, create new partnerships and generate sustainable jobs to secure a greener future.  And back in the studio, Mike and Mat chat about the £300m coming from GB Energy to invest in the UK's offshore wind supply chains. But is this a strong enough signal for the sector, which has seen mixed signals coming from the government?

This week we got further updates on the Neo Energy and Repsol tie-up, Kistos' full year results for 2024 and the results of HAR2. Energy Voice's Ryan Duff, Erikka Askeland and Mat Perry discuss. First up, what's happening at Flotta? Erikka chats about the gas terminal's hydrogen plans and what attracted Neo Energy's private equity backers to the Spanish firm's UK division. Ryan argues that tax incentives from Repsol's extensive decommissioning liabilities may be the answer.  Next up, Ryan discusses Kistos and its plans to expand the Greater Laggan Area off the west coast of Shetland. The firm has brought attention to the Glendronach field now that operatorship of the area is changing hands. When talking about gas, there has to be a Trump, the trio discusses how US policy is impacting global oil and gas firms.  Finally, Mat chats about hydrogen and the results of HAR2. Was it perfect? No, but maybe it doesn't need to be. He discusses some of the talking points from a recent conference in Birmingham, which touched on getting hydrogen "good" but it doesn't need to be "perfect" in order to unlock investment. Price is still a sticking point for this fuel source but the government is aiming to tackle this too. 

In this week's episode of Energy Voice Out Loud, Ryan, Mat and Michael discuss Petrofac's recent $500m contract award. Is it what the company, and the North Sea services sector in general, need to turn their fortunes around? Both could do with some good news. And then we heard from Mat, who travelled down to Birmingham this week for the Hydrogen UK annual conference, and spoke to the organisation's chief executive Clare Jackson about how the UK sector has progressed in the past year. And finally, Erikka was at NZTC's Net Zero Innovation show in Aberdeen and spoke to Mark Anderson, chief acceleration officer at the Net Zero Technology Centre, Paul Pirrie, co-founder of show exhibitor and TechX program graduate Myriad Wind Energy Systems, North Sea legend and UK Technology Platform director Colin Black and last but definitely not least Paul Addison, director of policy and external affairs for GB Energy. 

This week the Energy Voice team has been on the show floor at Subsea Expo in Aberdeen's P&J Live. The annual Global Under Water Hub event hosted those from across the energy sector as floating wind was high on the agenda.   Aberdeen Features lead Ryan Duff sat down with Yvonne Telford, research director for north-west Europe energy market intelligence at Westwood, and spoke about the cost of decommissioning. Additionally, she addressed the recent court ruling that will result in Equinor and Shell filing new environmental impact assessments for the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields.    Next up, news editor Erikka Askeland spoke to Aleks Jurczak, director of strategy and marketing for MDL, on the show floor about "blurring" lines between the different energy sectors, namely oil and gas, wind and decommissioning. Keeping herself busy, Erikka then spoke to Adam Reed, global leader of offshore renewables and upstream energy at Allianz Commercial, at the Energy Voice stand.   Finally, Ryan caught up with Richard Knox, CEO of Verlume, to discuss a recent project that saw his firm partner with two other Aberdeen businesses to deliver power to a Canadian oil field while its FPSO left for maintenance and how the technology they developed can be rolled out across the pond. 

This week Ryan Duff, Erikka Askeland and Michael Behr discuss jobs jobs jobs! How are firms trimming the fat, where are they getting new talent and is there enough people in the industry to deliver net zero? Erikka kicks off proceedings by talking through BP's change in direction. The supermajor announced a new strategy in its Q4 results following a dip in profits and the announcement that it would be cutting 7,700 jobs globally. BP has not been alone in its redundancy drive as Ithaca Energy also announced "inevitable" cuts this week.  Next up, Ryan discusses National Apprentice Week as the industry announces a wave of initiatives to bring young people into the industry. Additionally, ECITB and ORE Catapult launched a scheme to promote cross-sector working in oil and gas and wind. The government is also claiming to back "good jobs" as it unveiled a plan to give wind developers additional funds if they commit to UK manufacturing. Finally, Michael has been looking at CCS, namely Perenco kicking off injection at its Poseidon project. The French firm has claimed a UK record as it was the first to perform a CO2 injection as it tested how the greenhouse gas would behave in its reservoir. CCS is also set to play a big role in creating jobs and offers an opportunity for oil and gas workers to continue doing very similar work, however, the sector is seeing pushback from sceptics. 

There's plenty going on in UK energy this week as Shell and Equinor's court case came to a close just in time for Ryan Duff to come back from his holiday and discuss with Mat Perry and Erikka Askeland. First up, Mat explains why all sides have claimed victory following a ruling at Scotland's Court of Session which overturned approvals for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields. The ball is now in Ed Miliband's court as he has to write the rulebook on how UK operators calculate downstream emissions. Ryan has been chatting with Serica CEO Chris Cox who is "always looking on the bright side of life," according to Erikka. Cox has discussed his intentions to double down on UK mergers and acquisitions after his firm previously looked to Norway. With assets being too expensive across the border and optimism that things can only get better, Cox is shopping in the North Sea.  Finally, Carbon credits crunch Spirit Energy as it asks for “modest, pragmatic” support from the UK government. Erikka discusses how the firm which is celebrating 40 years of production from its Morecambe hub this month is running into issues with its CCS ambitions for the site. 

We are on the road this episode of Energy Voice Out Loud. But first Energy Voice news editor Erikka Askeland and features lead Ryan Duff discuss the late delivery of long-awaited the energy skills passport. Then we head to Glasgow where Mathew Perry and Michael Behr dish the latest on the industry from the floor of the Scottish Renewables Offshore Wind Conference. Also, we take over the studio at the E-FWD breakfast event – also in Glasgow, where Mat got the chance to grill Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, and Erikka talked with Dr Marie Macklin on efforts to energise the Halo regeneration of Kilmarnock

The Energy Voice Out Loud team of Erikka Askeland, Mathew Perry and Ryan Duff welcome the new year in the first recording of this popular podcast series in 2025. Ryan looks at the latest political wrangles over SSE Transmission plans for its Tealing to Kintore overhead lines. Mat discusses the latest investments in battery energy storage projects in Scotland, this time on a disused coal mine South Lanarkshire. Last but not least, Erikka looks at what's coming up next in 2025, taking in some of the bleak midwinter views of the energy supply chain, expectations for offshore wind and the inauguration of Trump.

Christmas may be looming but the news just keeps on coming! In this festive video special edition of Energy Voice Out Loud Ryan discusses CCS permits, Erikka tackles North Sea shenanigans and Mat chats about Bernard Looney's return to energy.  The week saw the NSTA grant a UK first CCS permit that will allow the infastructure to be installed at the East Coast Cluster. This came about as the Northern Endurance Partnership made a final investment decision on the Tack 1 winning carbon storage development.  Erikka had one hell of a morning rounding up Serica's acquisition of Parkmead assets, “serious misconduct”'s farm down of its Earlham and Orwell developments and Connaught selling out of UK gas field to Reabold. One thing's for certain, the UK North Sea is going to be a much different beast in 2025.  Finally, Mat has been looking into former BP CEO Bernard Looney's return to energy as he was appointed to the board of board of ADNOC subsidiary XRG. Looney left BP amid scandal involving personal relationships with with colleagues and misleading the company's board but is set to make a return following his appointment to a tech firm earlier in the year. 

Hear Ryan reveal how maybe the UK budget wasn't so bad for some North Sea firms after all, Erikka says slainte to the first hydrogen-powered whisky, and Michael goes on tour of ports in Scotland getting ship shape for offshore wind.  

This week Ryan and Mat have been swanning about St Andrews as OEUK hosted its Offshore Decommissioning Conference. They have been hearing all of the 'C words' while Erikka has been keeping tabs on court cases and jobs promises. First off, Mat runs through Offshore Energies UK's decommissioning report which found firms spent more by doing less in 2023. While Mat kept his finger on the pulse, Ryan was "chatting up a bird" in the form of Khaleesi, the gyrfalcon. OEUK's decommissioning manager Ricky Thomson caught up with the Energy Voice team to discuss what the trade body aims to do in wind. The group is looking to bring the expertise of the UK's supply chain into the offshore wind sector. Finally, Erikka has been keeping herself warm in Aberdeen this week by typing as quickly as her finger can manage. She has been keeping tabs on GB Energy's commitment to 2-300 jobs in Aberdeen, a significant decrease from the 1,000 that had previously been promised. Additionally, Viaro Energy's CEO has been enrolled in a court case as his previous employer claimed he forged documents to steal millions.

This week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered the Labour government's first budget since taking office amid intense scrutiny from the North Sea oil and gas sector.   Kicking off this week's episode, Energy Voice's Erikka, Ryan and Mat unpack what it meant for the UK energy sector and the reaction from the offshore industry as Reeves confirmed changes to the windfall tax. Was it a Nightmare on Downing Street?   Next up, Hydrogen Scotland held its annual conference in Glasgow this week and Mat discusses the key takeaways from the event, including positive signals from the German government on a green hydrogen export pipeline.   Finally, amidst the budget bonanza supermajors BP, Shell and TotalEnergies revealed their Q3 results this week. Erikka picks apart the results and how the firms might be looking at their North Sea operations post-budget.  

This week the UK energy sector is waiting with bated breath for the Labour Party's first budget as oil firms are set to receive an increased rate of tax.  Erikka kicks the show off by discussing the final warning shots fired by the country's oil and gas operators. The industry has not shied away from voicing concern with the Labour government's plan, however, this is the last ditch effort to have their voices heard before Rachel Reeves announces Labour's changes next Wednesday.  Next up, Mat has been looking into nuclear energy and how Viaro Energy is considering small reactors to power operations. Decarbonisation of oil and gas assets is a point of contention as some platforms struggle to electrify but Viaro has come up with a novel solutiuon.  Finally, the UK is finally setting out an energy infrastructure plan and Ryan asks, why has it taken so long?! Transmission infrastructure is key to achieving the energy transition and pylons have become a point of contention. As this was announced by the National Energy System Operator (NESO), SSEN Transmission announced plans to build 1000 homes in Northern Scotland as it looks to roll out infrastructure in the region.

This week, Scottish Renewables and RenewableUK hosted the Floating Offshore Wind conference in Aberdeen. Energy Voice's Erikka, Ryan and Michael were in attendance, speaking to John Swinney, getting project updates and gauging supply chain impact. Kicking off this week's episode, the trio discuss their key takeaways from the event and how John Swinney urged developers to submit higher-quality consenting applications to the Scottish government.  Next up, Ryan spoke to Vårgrønn chief executive Stephen Bull about UK manufacturing, progress on Green Volt and the role of Chinese manufacturing in floating wind. Sticking with the Green Volt theme, there was some controversy surrounding the project at the start of the week as it was revealed project partner Flotation Energy had made a £30,000 donation to SNP Westminster lead Stephen Flynn following a prompt to accelerate consenting. Additionally, Green Volt named Aberdeen as its headquarters as it looks to create jobs in the region.

On Energy Voice Out Loud this week, news editor Erikka Askeland and reporter Mathew Perry take in the OEUK Conference: Powering Our Energy Future. Hosted in Aberdeen, the conference had had some strong views to deliver. Erikka discusses some of the warnings issued by the likes of BP vice president for the North Sea Doris Reiter and OEUK boss, David Whitehouse, who talked about the effects of government policy. But was Energy Minister Michael Shanks listening? Mat tells all. There was also some good news to tell involving Cerulean Winds' INTOG offshore wind projects Aspen, Beech and Cedar, plus some of the latest green investments by the likes of Port of Aberdeen and Net Zero Technology Centre. Then we hear from some of the people were speaking at and attending the event, including Jenny Stanning, external relations director from the organiser, Offshore Energies UK; Myrtle Dawes, CEO of the Net Zero Technology Centre; Neil Rowantree, vice president of energy at Blend; and last but not least Marcus Paige, business development manager at Kellas Midstream.

This week government scouts were in Aberdeen as renewables leaders called for more cash and questioned where previously promised funds are. The GB Energy news just keeps on coming and as always, Erikka is on the case! Energy Voice's sister publication, The P&J, this week revealed that government scouts are sniffing about Aberdeen's Marischal Square as a potential HQ for the state-owned energy firm. Additionally, the government has proposed new legislation to boost the borrowing powers of the Crown Estate to unlock “strategic bottlenecks” affecting offshore wind. Staying on the topic of offshore wind, Michael has been looking at how the government can attract more power generation in its Contracts for Difference (CfD) processes. Last week's announcement of Allocation Round 6 (AR6) winners left industry commentators wanting more as offshore wind generation fell short of what is needed to reach government targets.  Finally, Ryan questions if Ed Miliband's move to propose new licences for the Track 1 projects is just "smoke and mirrors". The CCS sector is still waiting on £20 billion in government investment and it doesn't even know what form that will take if it ever gets delivered. This is causing the UK's front runners in carbon capture and storage to fall behind its European counterparts

No one could argue that the UK's energy sector was dull this week with the announcement of government funding for renewables projects, progress on GB Energy as the rumour mill keeps spinning and conferences. Ryan kicks off this week's discussion by diving into offshore wind and the winners of the governments Allocation round (AR). Last year's results revealed no successful bids for offshore wind so this year didn't have much to do to improve in that regard, however, was enough done as 3.3GW was signed off? Moving inland, Michael was on the show floor at RenewableUK's onshore wind conference in Edinburgh. As it kicked off on the same day that AR6 winners were announced, there was a bit of a buzz on the show floor. Mike dives into the state of onshore wind and what happens when things go up in smoke... Finally, Erikka's attention has been firmly fixed on GB Energy HQ location speculation as Ryan laments the eight hours he spent listening to Westminster debates on the Bill's amendments. Tempers are flaring as folks are eager to find out where Labour's state-owned energy firm will set up shop and MP's demand more clarity.

Wood had a rough landing this week, but the big boss reassured Erikka that things are on the turn. A number of suitors have come calling but failed to close, in testament to the company's attractiveness Ken Gilmartin said. Paying contractors on time is likely to be a topic of interest to a number of companies. The NSTA called for improvement some years ago, but progress has been slow. Could the EU's carbon plans provide a fillip for CCS projects outside the bloc? A number of things have to change, but there are some clear opportunities. 

Erikka J is an award winning voice actor, singer and writer working in most genres of voiceover, and is also a certified project and product professional with over 15 years of experience in tech. She’s voiced commercials for Carter’s, T-Mobile, Vicks, Toyota, West Jet, McDonald’s, the Georgia Lottery, Chevy, Atlanta’s Northside Hospital, and political spots for […] The post Voice Actor and Singer / Songwriter Erikka J appeared first on Business RadioX ®.

Today we chat with the incredible Erikka J. and we cover a lot of ground, including imposter syndrome, Erikka's journey in the voiceover industry, the importance of building relationships, and the evolving opportunities for women and people of color in the industry.  Erikka shares insights from her experiences with various coaches, including Kay Bess, Cliff Zellman, and Everett Oliver, and all with a ton of laughs along the way.  A must-listen, especially if you're newer to the business. _____________________________ ▶️ Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/1W6tM_sgEO0 SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/@vo-pro?sub_confirmation=1 The VO Freedom Master Plan: https://vopro.pro/vo-freedom-master-plan The VO Pro Community: https://vopro.app Use code You15Tube for 15% off of your membership for life. The VO Pro Podcast: https://vopro.pro/podcast 7 Steps to Starting and Developing a Career in Voiceover: https://welcome.vopro.pro/7-steps-yt Move Touch Inspire Newsletter for Voice Actors: https://vopro.pro/move-touch-inspire-youtube Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vofreedom The VO Pro Shop: https://vopro.pro/shop Say Hi on Social:  https://pillar.io/paulschmidtpro https://www.instagram.com/vopro.pro https://www.clubhouse.com/@paulschmidtvo https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulschmidtvo/ My voice over website: https://paulschmidtvoice.com GVAA Rate Guide: http://vorateguide.com Tools and People I Work with and Recommend (If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission.):  Recommended Book List with Links: https://amzn.to/3H9sBOO Gear I Use with Links: https://amzn.to/3V4d3kZ As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For lead generation and targeting - Apollo.io: https://apollo.grsm.io/yt-paulschmidtpro Way Better than Linktree: https://pillar.io/referral/paulschmidtpro

This week Ryan, Erikka and Mat discuss everything from SctoWind troubles to the investment needed in the UK's energy transition, can you spot the common theme? Money! Ryan has been looking into the market speculation that Shell is looking to sell up its stake in the two ScotWind leases it secured in 2022. The firm and its partner Scottish Power forked out £154,400,000 for the two floating wind sites that are set to produce a combined 5GW of power during Crown Estate Scotland's leasing round.  CCS investment is a "risk worth taking", said the National Audit Office. Mat has been diving through some of the reports that got held up with this summer's general election. The NAO explained that warned slow progress on the first phase of ‘Track-1' projects means the government will struggle to achieve its 2030 CCUS ambitions. Finally, Erikka looks at the UK's Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme and how it might change under the Labour Government. She is also speculating on what assets GB Energy may be looking to take over, but for that to happen Labour has to "get their finger out" as she said.   About Energy Voice Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what's coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight. For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services. For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscribe.  

Now that Labour has formed the UK government, there are a lot of questions over who will be taking on the energy brief, what it will do and how quickly it will do it. This week Erikka, Mat and Ryan discuss all of the above.   Mat has been keeping an eye on who will be the new government's frontbench energy team and he runs through all of the announced MPs that are set to take up the challenge. A Scottish educator and a Labour Party rising star are two particular highlights. Next up, Ryan discusses grid constraints and what the new government is doing to tackle the issue. The former chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark, will take charge of the UK government's newly announced Mission Control. He will be working alongside National Grid and other industry partners to speed up the UK's energy transition. However, is this just a flash in the pan?   Finally, the trio answered a view-submitted question: What former energy secretary, past or present, would you invite to a dinner part and what question would you ask them?

This episode is near and dear to my heart personally as I know the importance of not only talking about ADHD but how imperative it is to understand it to ensure you find the right approach and strategies to manage ADHD to ensure a productive, progressive and satisfying life!  Dr. Erikka Taylor Board Certified Psychiatrist exceeded my expectations throughout our conversation with her in-depth knowledge and expertise as an ADHD Psychiatrist who supports Children, Adolescent & Adults, this is an episode you won't want to miss!You can find Dr. Erikka Taylor Private Practice link below, tap/click,Catalyst NC | Our Team of Medical and Therapy ProvidersHere you'll find the CHADD-Children & Adults with ADHD, link below, tap/click,CHADD - Improving the lives of people affected by ADHDYou can find your Local CHADD Chapter here for additional resources and support groups, link below, tap/click,CHADD Affiliate Locator - Find a local ADHD support group in your areaTo purchase Dr. Ericka Goodwin, Child, Adolescent & Adult Psychiatrist books that Dr. Erikka mentioned during our conversation can be found here, in the link below, tap/click,Books – Global Health Psychiatry (ghpsychiatry.org)Disclaimer: Safe Space with Shay is not intended to be a therapy replacement or substitute, if you are experiencing a mental health crisis please reach out to your physician or your mental health provider.

Which is more important in birth preparation and birth itself? The body--or the mind? This week we're speaking with Errika Horner, a stay-at-home mom of 2 girls and blogger in her spare time, sharing healthy recipes and intentional homemaking inspiration on her website: thehomeintent.com.   Episode Roundup As Errika's story demonstrated, it is possible to have a positive birth experience in the hospital, if that's the option you feel you need this time around, keep this at front of mind, as it can be extremely encouraging to hear those positive examples. Errika acknowledges that yes, her body was made for birthing, but it was her mind that made the difference between her two experiences. Errika had a much better understanding of what her body was doing in labor, and she visualized it all, even talking to her body during contractions. Errika feels that's what really made the second experience smoother and quicker. And finally, you don't have to learn every single possible coping technique. In fact, having just a few specific strategies planned to use during the birth can help, so that you know exactly how to prepare and focus.  

Erikka J began her career as a songwriter and singer in the DC area, classically training at Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Her music videos have debuted on BET Soul, MTV.com, VH1.com and Russell Simmons All Def Digital Channel. In conjunction with her music career, Erikka began a voice acting career. She's started her own publishing and media company, is a certified financial coach and holds a project management certification. You see why we want to talk with her on this podcast? She is quite the example of a business leader and someone that understands how to create a successful freelance career. *In this episode, we discuss - * * How a music career led to her voice over career * Her most useful tools for her voice over career * Three things she wished she'd done differently at the start of her career * What to do when you feel stuck in your voice over career * What it's like being a black VO talent navigating this industry * Her advice to black talent just getting into this industry CLICK HERE (https://bit.ly/3uPpO8i) for 15% off a Voice123 Membership ($359 tier and up) Terms & Conditions (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CcYMkdLxWfbmwbvu-mwaurLNtWYVpIBgkJpOQTYLDwc/edit?usp=sharing) *Links for this episode: * Voiceoverview (http://voiceoverview.com/) Erikka J's Website (https://www.erikkaj.com/) *Follow Atlanta Voiceover Studio Here: * YOUTUBE (https://youtu.be/gGPFePt8Rfs) facebook.com/atlantavoiceoverstudio instagram.com/atlantavoiceoverstudio twitter.com/atlvostudio tiktok.com/@atlantavoiceoverstudio Atlanta Voiceover Studio & ProVoiceoverTraining's Classes & Workshops www.AtlantaVoiceoverStudio.com www.ProVoiceoverTraining.com **Sign up for FREE weekly VO tips HERE (https://bit.ly/AVSemail)

Join us for an empowering conversation with Erikka Grayson, a multifaceted woman who is a mother of three, full-time employee, co-founder and CEO of Avan Zoe Clothing, and founder and CEO of Bomb Moms. Listen in as we discuss Erikka's journey of discovering self-awareness and reclaiming her identity after getting married and moving to Pittsburgh. Erikka shares her inspiring story of resilience and growth, as well as the importance of setting boundaries and nurturing the soul through self-care practices. In this episode, we also explore Erikka's experiences with motherhood and mental health, as she navigated postpartum depression and the challenges of being a mommy. Erikka and her husband took time to heal their marriage, which has led to a stronger relationship. We discuss the importance of focusing on mental health before having children, and Erikka encourages other parents to prioritize self-care for their own well-being. Discover how Erikka has overcome self-limiting beliefs and learned to embrace her own strength as we dive into her journey of growth since she was 17. We discuss the power of resilience and self-discovery, as well as the importance of therapy in helping Erikka understand her worth and trust herself. Tune in to this inspiring conversation for valuable tips on supporting your own self-discovery journey, and learn the importance of asking for help, being okay with not being okay, and loving and caring for oneself.   Connect with Erikka https://www.instagram.com/thebombmoms_   Follow us on socials! Instagram https://www.instagram.com/whatshegrowsthrough Facebook https://www.facebook.com/whatshegrowsthrough Check out our new website!! https://www.whatshegrowsthrough.com  

Media often tends to focus on and center emaciated, thin, young white adolescents who are hospitalized due to medical complications of malnourishment when speaking on the topic of eating disorders. We don't often hear stories of Black girls with anorexia, Black men struggling with body image, Black families and the impact of these narrow stereotypes on limiting care and life-saving access to care. Today's episode was recorded almost half a year ago, but it still rings so important. Mimi talks with Dr. Erikka Dzirasa, MD about messages we received around mental health growing up and our work as Black healthcare providers in the eating disorder field. *The title was tricky for me to think about, I wanted to capture how Black children experience eating disorders because the narrative is lacking. I also wanted to capture that little Black girls and Black men and non-binary and trans Black people experience eating disorders. Blackness and eating disorders aren't mutually exclusive. I landed on Black Young Girls because that is the experience I can speak to the most and we need more voices. And also, one podcast episode doesn't capture the whole Black experience of eating disorders, there is so much complexity. So just narrowing in on some aspects here. I've also since read the book, It's Always Been Ours by Jessica Wilson, MS, RD, which has been absolutely incredible, I highly recommend reading! We talk about.. Black families and eating disorder care Messages prominent in many Black families around mental health The need for more representation within the field of eating disorder care How stereotypes lead to lack of early diagnosis and are life-threatening Dr. Dzirasa's leadership positions within Arise and Project HEAL, and the importance of diversity within organizations providing care Erikka Dzirasa, MD, MPH, DFAACAP is a double-board certified Child and Adult Psychiatrist who brings more than 10 years of deep expertise in eating disorders and mental health since first seeking out specialized training while in Duke University's residency and fellowship programs. She previously served as the Medical Director of an Eating Disorders specialty hospital system, leading policy and program development to deliver high-quality, effective care in their intensive outpatient (IOP) and partial hospitalization programs (PHP), residential and inpatient units for people living with eating disorders. Erikka is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of Project HEAL, a leading eating disorder nonprofit breaking down systemic barriers and providing education and supportive resources to people of all identities and background experiencing eating disorders. She is a partner in Catalyst Therapeutic Services, a private practice in Durham, NC and a Consulting Associate at Duke University Medical Center. As a mental health advocate, she also serves on the Race, Ethnicity and Equity committee for the North Carolina Psychiatric Association, and is the immediate Past President of the North Carolina Council of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Dzirasa earned her Bachelor of Science at Spelman College, Master of Public Health in Health Care and Leadership at UNC Chapel Hill, and her Doctor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. She is also a certified yoga instructor.  Find Dr. Dzirasa at: IG: @dr.erikka Arise: www.wearearise.com/about Find Mimi at: Main IG: @the.lovelybecoming Podcast IG: @lovelybecomingpodcast Website: www.mimi-cole.com

Today's guest is Erikka Grayson. Erikka is originally from Washington, DC. She currently resides in Pittsburgh with her husband Glenn and son Xavier daughter Zoey and her bonus daughter Aniyah. She is currently a Product Design Manager with Geisinger Health Plan.  After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Science in Health Information Management in 2008, Erikka continued her studies at Point Park University where she graduated with a Master's in Business Administration. Since becoming a mom, Erikka has seen the need to create a community of support and love for all types of mothers in the city of Pittsburgh. That passion has led her to create “Bomb Moms”, a support group that encourages, celebrates and brings together all moms from different backgrounds.  In this episode, Erikka shares how she's overcoming challenges along her motherhood journey, how she's inspiring other mothers, and how she approaches self care. Connect with her on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thebombmoms_/ Resources: 30 Day, done for you self care routine - ⁠jump start your self care journey today at backtoyouin5.com/30days⁠ Daily Journal - Available at ⁠⁠Amazon.com⁠⁠ My Journal to Reconnection - Available at ⁠⁠Amazon.com⁠⁠ Follow me on Instagram

About This Broadcast: THE MEANING OF "BLESSING" On this short Montyman's Recovery Meditorial, Monty shares some thoughts on what it means to be blessed or to encounter blessings. Thank you Erikka for your contribution to this Meditorial. More Meditorials at www.take12radio.com/meditorials.html 

It's been too long! Erikka is back. And I hate to speak in third person so I'm going to speak honestly. I've been busy and on this episode, I tell you exactly what I've been up to. Let me know what you think of this episode, you can find me on all social platforms at @the_realE and comment on the podcast at @VisionMattersPod on all social platforms. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/visionmatters/message

Iterate or evaporate. In this episode, Anne & Erikka are here to get you out of a funk. Whether it's a slow season in your genre or you are feeling like work isn't coming as easily as it did a few months ago, your hosts are here to cheer you on. Connecting with a community can help motivate you, but really the only person you have to impress is yourself! This industry requires you to be consistent, tenacious, and ready to keep going even when it feels impossible. Reflecting on recent accomplishments or setting new goals can reignite that fire. Maybe you need to journal about why you got into voice over in the first place. Whatever it is, we are here for you and if you need a little boost, put this episode on repeat! Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I'm happy to be back this morning, having a balanced breakfast with my good friend, Erikka J. Erikka! Yay! How are you? Erikka: Hey Ann. I am good. I did not have a balanced breakfast, but. Anne: Erikka: I'm coming back balanced and refreshed from vacation. Anne: Well, there you go. Erikka: That's great. Anne: And since we wanna remain with our theme of balance, I wanted to ask you, it seems like you had a wonderful, luxurious vacation. Did it restore the balance to your creative and professional life as well as your personal life? Erikka: I think so. I think so, but it was crazy because kind of looping back to what we said in earlier episode, I had like a chaotic day, right before I left. I know we've talked about like having backups and all those things, and man, did it save my behind because -- Anne: Ah, very important. Talk about it. Let's talk about it. Erikka: Oh my goodness. I had a SAG video game session that I've worked with once or twice before, but still, you know, those are like super exciting, but also wanna make sure everything's right. So had everything set up. They had me on Zoom first and they get on SourceConnect. And for whatever reason, Zoom and SourceConnect hated each other that day. And like my interface wouldn't work, and my DAW wouldn't work and it was just like, ohhhh, like. Anne: That's tense. That's a tense situation. So what happened? So what happened? Erikka: Luckily I had backups, Anne. Anne: Ooh! Erikka: So so I switched from my Apollo right over to my Audient, and I switched from Adobe audition right over to Pro Tools, which they use too, so they were super cool with. And I actually heard them comment, "isn't it great when an actor like knows what they're doing with the technical stuff?" Anne: Ooh. Score. Erikka: And I was, like -- Anne: That was awesome. Erikka: Yes! Anne: And you know what? I absolutely am quite sure that's gonna have a big bearing on them wanting to work with you again. Erikka: Well, I'll tell you what, it was also a very nice way to kick off vacation by not leaving a session, like, oh my God, I screwed up. It was like, it all worked out in the end. So then I could go on vacation happily and you know, relax. So it was great. Anne: Wow. Well, congratulations on that for sure. Erikka: Thank you. Anne: I know that for me, like when I go on vacation, I'm very much all on or I'm very much all off. And when I go on vacation, I can completely, thankfully I can completely disconnect. And then I find that when I get back, it's tough to motivate myself again. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: So I figured it would be kind of a good thing to talk about. How do you motivate yourself? And then also, how do you motivate yourself when, during the course of your voiceover career, let's say, things aren't working out the way you expect? I know a lot of people come to me, you know, I'm not booking and it's just really frustrating. And how do you self motivate when you're just coming off a vacation or when the chips are down? Erikka: Oh boy, that's something that I think is like a muscle that we have to keep toned in this business, you know? Because there's so many things that can not help to keep us motivate -- Anne: Demotivate. Yeah. Erikka: Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, you're not booking or whatever, but coming back off a vacation, it's like, yes, you've had this refresh, but it's always like hard to get back in the saddle, right? So usually what I'll do is I'll have at least one day of rest to make sure that like, I don't have -- Anne: Once you come back. Erikka: I'm typically still booked out. Anne: Yeah. I love that. Yes, I do that too. I book out one extra day when I come back for that jet leg or whatever it is. So you can just relax and kind of get yourself geared back up. Erikka: Yep. And if I see like an audition I really wanna do, I might try to do like one or two just to kind of like warm up getting back in the booth. Anne: Sure. Erikka: But you know, that way it's kind of my choice, 'cause I've already said like, hey, I'm booked out this day. Anne: Important question though. Did you completely book out during that vacation? Did you bring any equipment with you? Erikka: I did. So I have that Shure MV 88, which is plus, which is super tiny and it's so small that I don't mind carrying that. I stopped carrying around my 416 and my interface, 'cause that just felt like -- it was hard to be on vacation yeah. And I always get stopped by TSA. Like it's a microphone. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. Me too. Erikka: So I did bring it with me, but yeah, I didn't record a single thing on vacation. It was great. Anne: Good. Congratulations on that. Yeah. Erikka: Thank you. Thank you. Anne: Absolutely. Erikka: Yeah. So self-motivating, man, you gotta -- there's a lot of different things, whether that's warming up to get back in the booth and then thinking about why are you doing this? You know, what are your personal goals? What are your professional goals? What about you, Anne? Anne: Well, I think a lot of times, if you're getting frustrated, when let's say work, isn't coming your way or you didn't book that audition or you're not sure what's happening, obviously number one, it happens to all of us. So just know that. There are times when things can be slow, and things may not be happening the way that you expect them to. So number one, know that you're not alone. Number two, reach out. I think reach out to somebody that can be an accountability buddy or, or just a friend in the industry that can help you motivate, get yourself back on track. And just to kind of reinforce the fact that you're not alone, and maybe they're having some slow moments too, or maybe they're not, and then that may or may not make you feel better. But but for sure, I think know that it happens to all of us and reach out and communicate. Don't just let it sit inside you and fester. Erikka: Fester, yes. Anne: Because I think that just is like a self-fulfilling prophecy, you know what I mean? It just, it's hard to get out of until somebody can help snap you out of it. And so, Hey, just put this VO BOSS episode on repeat. So whenever you're down, and you need motivation to say it's okay and it happens, there are slow times in the industry. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Keep plugging away at it. It is a marathon, not a sprint. What other things do we say? Interestingly enough, Erikka, I've been in this industry over 15 years, and honestly it does take tenacity, and it takes consistency and staying with it. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Now obviously if you haven't booked in a year, that might be an indication that maybe you need some other outside help or maybe performance technique or something else. Maybe you're not marketing enough. But I think for the most part, when you go through these lulls, for sure, just understand that it does happen and reach out so that you're not in this self-sabotaging moments of saying, that's it; I can't do this or this isn't for me and quit, because it is a marathon. It is a marathon. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. And I think what you said is important about like, not just reaching out, like remembering that that also includes like coaches or, you know, finding workshops that maybe you need just need a refresh. Everybody still needs to train. I just had a class on Thursday when I got back. But you know, also sort of honing in on what exactly. like what's the problem? You can't really solve it until you know exactly what's missing. Is it that you're not reaching out enough and you're not drumming up enough leads? Or are you getting the leads and not quite landing the auditions? Maybe it's audition technique, 'cause maybe once you're in the job, it's great and they love you, but you're not getting the attention and standing out from the pack. Just sort of honing in on what is it that I need to work on to drum things up and knowing what the lulls are in the industry is key. Because it may not be you; it may just be the time of year, you know? Anne: Yeah, and also, not just the time of year, but the genre that you're working in as well. Erikka: Yes. Yeah. Anne: Like there are certain genres that probably don't let up, like if you're in promo, right? And you're the voice of a show, you will have a schedule that will be somewhat predictable when the show is running or before the show -- whatever it is, you'll be on a schedule for those particular jobs. Versus let's say commercial: if you're the voice of a particular campaign, there may be a lot of work at once and then the campaign might be over. And so then you're onto the next campaign. If it's e-learning or corporate, it could be kind of hit or miss, you know, sometimes it's feast or famine, that sort of thing. Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: And just understand that when there is a famine, I think that's the time when you have to step back and increase the marketing levels, increase your, you know, reaching out to your contacts, making sure that you're continually on the lookout for that next client. I think you really should never be complacent if you're busy and when you're busy. Always be on the lookout for finding that next client, because you just never know when that job may end. And I think for me, I don't expect anything -- Erikka: Yeah. Anne: -- from my clients and the more predictable the work is, obviously the more comfortable and the more confident you're gonna be. So for me, I've got some regular clients that I know in advance like what jobs are coming up. And that gives me a source of confidence so that I can go and audition for more jobs and maybe a different genre and take some chances there. Because I always like to mix that up. Erikka: Absolutely. Yeah. You don't wanna be taking all your risk at one point and then you don't have anything going on. You wanna kind of have your foundation, you know, know your, what your business plan is, know what your strategy is to keep yourself balanced, right, and to keep your balance sheet in balance. Anne: Absolutely. Absolutely. Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So those are all, all great things. Anne: And I think we talk about like goal setting in a recent episode. You know, I think goal setting is important because we can lose sight of -- within that goal setting, we write things down. We also not just write our goals down, but our accomplishments. And if you're doing that on a timely basis, on a weekly basis, a monthly basis, whatever that is, going back and taking a look at your progress and your accomplishments is going to be something I think that you can always keep track of. And that can also help to motivate you to say -- you know, I was thinking I haven't been busy, but in reality, I got that job. Or, you know, I got that wonderful testimonial from that client. Or I made contact with a bunch of new production houses that I'm on the roster. Whatever that is, you can take a look at what has happened so far. That's why I think keeping track in goal setting and writing down your accomplishments and goals that have come to fruition, I think that's so, so important. Erikka: Absolutely. Like my metrics are super self-motivating for me. And it actually has kind of pulled me out of a, oh, I don't think I'm doing as much work. You know, I haven't been feeling well, all of this. And then I go back, and I look and I'm like, well, it's not that bad. You know, and maybe it's not as bad as I kind of -- we, we inflate these things in our head, but when you go back and look at the numbers, especially like, what I do is I'll definitely look at my year over year. So I'll see I did this last March and you know, this this March and kind of get an idea of where I'm at, looking at incomes, you know, a number of auditions that I did, bookings, and even like callbacks. Like if I got a callback in a genre that I haven't gotten a call back in before, that is progress, and that's showing that, you know, I've gotten better. So all that stuff is incredibly self-motivating. Anne: Well, you know, you mentioned income, and I'd like to touch upon that just a little bit. I will say that for me, of course it's about voiceover. But for me, it's also about being the entrepreneur, and the entrepreneur is someone who can design their business so that it can be profitable and fruitful both in self-fulfillment as well as let's say financial, and I am not ashamed to say that that is part of a game for me. I like to make money. It helps me to support the household and the family, and I'm not ashamed to say that. And I think there's a lot of us that, especially when starting out in the industry are very timid. "I'm not experienced enough. I'm not good enough yet. I need more training." And they're very timid about charging a particular amount, charging what they're worth. We've touched on charging what you're worth, you know, multiple times in this podcast. But I will say that if you charge what you're worth, and even just once in a while, throw out a number that you think is ridiculous. When you get that number, that is a motivator, like no other . Erikka: Yes, totally agree. Totally agree. And being able to kind of, tying that in with goals and the income thing, is making sure that your goals are -- and I wanna be cautious with the word realistic. And what I think I really mean is incremental and iterative. Anne: Yes. Erikka: So it is okay to set astronomical goals for yourself, but make that a long term thing. Anne: Yes. Erikka: What are the steps to get there? If you wanna make $100,000 in voiceover, what is it gonna take for you to make per month, per week, per day? How many reachouts or, you know, whatever your lead generation strategy is, what do you need to do to to generate that number? And then taking a look at where you landed and kind of setting for the next iteration, what's a more realistic goal for me if I didn't hit it or, oh, I did go over. So maybe I need to reach a little harder because you put that into the universe, I really believe that you can limit yourself by kind of having lower goals. But if you have somewhere in the sweet spot, it can help you be very motivated. Anne: Yeah. And I do wanna continue a little bit more on that financial aspect of it, but if you have a cushion, if you have been able to, if you have a great repeat client, if you have -- or anything, not even, even if it's voiceover, if you have another job, right, that you're making income and you have some money that you have put aside, and this is my voiceover business investment money -- once you have the confidence of having money in there, I believe it is a true motivator to allow you to take more risks in your business. Erikka: Yes, totally agree. Anne: And that to me has been honestly, something that has helped me grow exponentially, just that confidence that I don't have to worry about the money because I've got money set aside for investment. I have a little bit of time to kind of strategize and calculate what can I do now to make money? And again, without people thinking I'm greedy, 'cause I don't like to classify that as greed at all. It's a simple acknowledgement and understanding that money makes the world go around right now, and I need to pay a mortgage. And so with that hardcore realization, to me, it becomes a challenge. "Okay. How can I have enough money set aside and reinvest that money so that I can make more money?" Erikka: Yep, absolutely. Anne: So that I can maybe invest in a good vacation that will help me reset myself creatively, which is something that I need and is coming up in the next year. You know, I've made plans to go on a nice vacation. That is something that I think is not only helpful for me personally, but also professionally because it's going to help me to reset. And so many of us have certain blocks for money. And once we realize what those blocks are, we can work to kind of clear those blocks and just, without getting too woo-woo, right allow the abundance, allow the money and not be ashamed or feel bad about it or simply accept it and allow it to come into our lives. 14:30 Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. So keeping that balanced mindset, not one of scarcity, but one of abundance and welcoming that not just money itself because yes, I love making money too. And recognizing that you have value when you are voicing these projects. You are helping these companies make money in some type of way. Anne: Exactly. Erikka: So you should be compensated for it. There's nothing wrong with that. But this money can allow you, you to not just hitting the number goal, but it can allow you to reach personal goals. Like maybe paying off debt or helping a parent or a child go to college or whatever. So it's a tool. Money is a tool that you can use to do things in your life. You work for it, you should get it, and there's nothing wrong with setting goals based on that. Anne: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the biggest money blocks that I faced when I was growing up was that my father was supposed to be the head of the household and making the money. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: And my mother was raising the children, right? And bless them both, love them both, but that was kind of what I was raised with. But thankfully my parents were always encouraging, saying I could be whatever I wanted to be. I didn't feel like there was a limitation, but just because it was something that I grew up with, and I saw, as I became a business owner, should I feel bad that I'm making more money? I remember when I was going out to get a job, I'm like, well, how much money should I make? Like that was an actual thought in my head. Well, if I get married, my husband should make more money than me, and I, you know, of course immediately put a stop to that. But I don't want that to be a limitation at all for that. So it was always like, well, as a woman, I shouldn't be making as much money. And of course I put a stop right to that in today's world. Heck no. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: You know? For me -- Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. I always wanted as much as possible. Anne: Yeah, exactly. And for me, believe it or not, you wanna talk about how we're motivating, how to motivate when the chips are down, that's a motivator. It is a motivator. And so I am continually trying to improve. And when I set my goals and again, I love that you said the incremental-iterive not outlandish goals, but when you set decent goals that are incremental, and you hit those goals, that becomes such a motivator. Erikka: Yes, yes. Anne: And again, it doesn't consume my business, but it absolutely drives my business because you want to be successful. And so to be successful, I'd like to make a profit for this because it is my full-time career. Now, if you're in voiceover, and maybe it's your part-time career, I want you to have a goal of making money as well, because I don't want you to not care about it because then it will drive down, let's say, it may drive down the valuation in the industry, right? So every one of us should get paid, whether we're working full-time or part-time, we should get paid what we're worth. Erikka: Absolutely. Think about, even if it's, if it is part-time or just side money for you, think about what you could do with that extra money, and maybe that'll help you keep your rates up like vacations. You know, just went to Cabo and it was gorgeous. It could be saving for retirement. It could be saving for college for kids. It could be saving to take care of an aging parent. It could be just investing, you know, go buy an investment property. So don't see it as just, oh yeah, I'll do this for $100 because who cares? Anne: It's just a hobby for me. No. I want you to turn that thought around and say, hey, demand the money that you're worth and concentrate on the clients who are willing to pay you what you're worth. Erikka: Indeed. Anne: And try to even change the notion that there are some jobs that may not be worth as much. I mean, I think a lot of that is our own self-inflicted limitations on what we can charge for a job. I mean, a lot of times, you know, we have talked about negotiation before. You know, the person who mentions money first usually loses. And so always asking for a budget really helps because one of the last jobs I asked for a budget, and it was literally five times bigger than the budget I had in my brain. And I said, oh, I think I can work with that. Right? And that was a great motivator that -- Erikka: Yep. Anne: Right? Erikka: Exactly. Anne: I'm like -- Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: -- wow. You know, I could actually get that money for that job and I didn't feel guilty. I didn't feel like it was overcharged because again, like you've mentioned, you're helping a business to make money. And so, you know, you are absolutely worth the money, and even if it's more than you think. And that really, I think helps to set like little benchmarks for like, okay, so I got paid for this particular genre this amount and you know what, it's not impossible that I could get paid that again or not more so. Erikka: Agreed. And even some like external motivators 'cause we wanna balance what's motivating us, right? 'Cause money is great. Money's important. Money is probably the main reason that most of us are doing this. We wanna get paid and compensated for our time and talents. But understanding that there are other motivators as well, in addition to other goals you can set, it can be personal, just kind of growing your artistic muscles and being a great actor, but even external motivations like awards. I think that awards showing achievements that you've made in certain categories, for one, I think that they are a marketing and advertising tool, which is great to drum up new business. And it's nice to be recognized by your peers and to be able to say, I did such a great job on this that I was awarded for it. So those can be great too. Anne: Absolutely. There is such a difference of opinion with some people about the awards. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Are they valid for us or not? But I think any type of recognition from our peers, that's validation. There's so many times when, again, we're such an isolated business and it's such a personal aspect of our brand that we're being judged on. Whether we get paid or not, right, whether we get that job or not, right, it is a personal part of us that is being valued, right? It's our voice. And so if we can have other people say, wow, great job, that really, really helps to motivate. And that includes award ceremonies. And again, there's the whole argument, well, you're paying for the award. Well, like you mentioned, consider that in investment in marketing. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: Does it really make a difference? I say, yeah, it does. I mean, it makes a difference to the person who may not be familiar with the voiceover industry, and they say, well, they've been awarded, so they must be good. I'm not necessarily marketing to voiceover people when I get an award on my voiceover work. I'm advertising to companies or other people that might hire me for the same thing. And it does leave an impression. Erikka: Yeah. Think about, I know that we've all either had a product or a brand or something that we've seen, and they have on their website when they've been talked about in certain magazines or when they've earned certain awards. Again, we are businesses as well. So why would we see this as any different? There's nothing wrong with it. And if you have the argument, what does it help? My retort would be how does it hurt? Anne: Yeah. Agreed. Erikka: You know, like -- Anne: That's a great retort. Erikka: Hey. Anne: I mean, why not? So. Erikka: Why not? Get dressed up and have fun with your friends. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I also think it's like, so anybody that knows me kind of knows that I'm a little competitive as I laugh, just a tiny bit competitive. And just the competitiveness of it all, even if I don't win, right? Erikka: Right. Anne: Which, you know, I'll be like rrr, but anyways , but even that little bit of competition is stirs up my adrenaline. Right? It's just fun. Erikka: It's fun. Anne: And again, it's something that wakes me up out of complacency. I think if you're not motivated, you're complacent. And complacency for me is like a dead end. It is a place where I can't grow and a place where ultimately I'll just get bored, and it's just not a place to be in my career. Erikka: Yeah. I don't know if I've said this quote before on this podcast, because it's like one of my favorites. So forgive me if it's a repeat, but one of my favorite quotes, because it's so short is iterate or evaporate. Anne: Ooh, I like that. I've never heard that. Erikka: I love it. It's like keep getting better, keep doing things and kind of going back and looking at how you're doing, or you're going to fade away. Anne: That's the nicer way of saying evolve or die. Erikka: Yeah. Exactly. Anne: Yeah, exactly. Which is one of my favorite Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: Actually that's so funny. Iterate or evaporate. Okay. So I'm gonna say that from now on. I like that. That's great. Yeah. So any other ways that we can help to self-motivate? Sometimes you just have to go on muscle memory, I think, you know what I mean? And just know as much as you're not feeling it, you're feeling low, you're feeling down, you're depressed maybe because you haven't booked a gig in a while. Just kind of going on memory again, play this podcast, and know that things will change. Things will change if you keep going, keep plugging away, be consistent. I think co consistency is key. Erikka: And remembering that yes, we have all these external factors like, you know, awards and money and all these things we've talked about. But personally, and as an internal factor, remember why you started. You know, why do you love voiceover? Why are you here? Why are you doing this? Why are you spending money on all this equipment and this training? And if you can get back to that love, that drive that got you started, that can be sort of a nice refresh to get you motivated to keep going. Anne: Yeah. What a wonderful way to end on this, Erikka. I love that you said it because when you remember why you got into it in the first place, that passion, that love it comes out in your performance. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: And there's no denying that can vibrate from your soul. Right? The passion and the love that you have for it. It really, I think it's infectious, you know? And it draws people into listening. And so I think that's a really wonderful way. Hey, wanna improve your performance? Remember why you started in the first place, bring that passion back to your reads. Erikka: And that passion might get you booked. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. Back -- Erikka: You'd be surprised. Anne: -- your leads, back to your marketing, bring the passion back to every aspect of your business, and it can only grow from there and move up. So. Erikka: You know it, indeed. Anne: Excellent, excellent episode, Erikka. Starting our morning outright with a balanced breakfast. Erikka: Or a balanced conversation for those of who just have simple carbs. Anne: A balanced, balanced motivation. So, ah, I love it. I love it. I love it. So I'd like to give a great big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. And also BOSSes, here's a chance for you to use your voice, to make a difference and give back to the communities that give to you. You can find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org. You guys, have an amazing week, and we'll see you next week. Bye! Erikka: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

In order to tell a story, you have to understand it. This week, Anne & Erikka discuss how to harness musicality to make the most out of your reads. Singing can teach you a lot about breath control, pacing, and emotional expression. Taking deep, diaphragmatic breaths will keep your air flow strong. This prevents you from breaking up ideas & phrases with pauses which ultimately interrupt the story you are telling. Knowing your voice and its capabilities can inform your daily workflow & schedule. Tune in to learn how you can harness the power of your voice… Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast and our balance series. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am thrilled to have back special guest co-host Erikka J. Erikka J, yay. Erikka: Hey, Hey Anne. How are you? Anne: We're kind of singing that. Erikka: Yes we are. Anne: You know, you are a singer. And I was thinking about this because I used to play an instrument for many years and I also sang for quite some time. I was an avid choir member and swing choir member as well, kind of like the glee club. And so it's interesting because it affects how I teach voiceover. So I teach voiceover with like conversational melody. And it's very interesting, 'cause I'll talk about, okay, start on your middle C. And then when you're going to inflect important words, that's pretty much just a tiny nuance of a step up. It's not like crazy notes. It's C to a C# or C to a D. And I thought, because you're a singer, we could really have a conversation about how there is a melody to our voice as we are speaking. We're not necessarily singing, but when we're talking and we're communicating, there's absolutely a melody. Erikka: Absolutely. But you have to keep it in balance. You don't wanna get sing-songy because then it starts to sound like, you know, old school commercials and nobody pays attention. It's not conversational anymore. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: But yeah, for sure. Anne: So let me ask you, you were a singer before you were a voice artist? Erikka: Yes. Anne: So what skills that you developed as a vocalist, how do they help you as a voice artist? Erikka: Oh man. So definitely for one was breath control. Anne: Ooh. Erikka: Yes. Anne: That's an important one. Erikka: When you get those really long run on sentences or those big words, and it's like, we gotta make it work or you gotta read speed through the disclaimers or whatever. I'm like, boom. You know, like . Anne: Look, and you just did a nose breath. I love that. I teach nose breath. Erikka: Yeah. I don't even do mouth breath. I don't even think it's automatic. Yeah. Anne: That's awesome. Because, so I talk about nose breath because it helps you to really get a deep diaphragmatic breath. Erikka: Yes. Anne: And there's nothing more powerful, right, than to deliver words when you're not afraid of running out of breath. Right? Erikka: Indeed. Yes. Yes. Because your brain is gonna be like, oh my God, I can't breathe, I can't -- Anne: Right. And that's all you can think about. You can't think about the story you're trying to tell when you're exactly gasping for breath. And honestly, I think there's something to be said for understanding the music before you sing it a little bit or kind of understanding the phrasing of the music, because for me, words and stories are broken up into phrases or clauses as my, my English teacher would say. And in those phrases, you don't wanna run outta breath. You don't wanna like stop. Like I am talking to you all staccato, like William Shatner. . You know, you wanna be able to have that -- here, it's a smooth phrase and I'm just talking. And if you guys, the BOSSes out there, you're listening to this right now is we're talking to one another, we're not breathing in the middle of our words. We're breathing either before we say them or at a comma. And if you run outta breath, like that's all you can think about. So you can't have a conversation while you're continually gasping for breath. Erikka: It's still a balance. Anne: Yeah. Talk to me about those diaphragmatic breaths for you. Erikka: So it's definitely, like I said, the support in being able to get through those long phrases, but it's also, like you said, finding the commas and that's not necessarily the commas that are written on the script. And I think that's important to keep in mind. When you're doing a conversational method of speaking, there are gonna be times when maybe, you know, you're in the middle of thinking. Like I just paused right now and I kind of, you know, I might take a natural breath there and that's okay. So it doesn't have to be, I have one breath for the entire sentence. Just now when I'm speaking, you can hear, there are some points where I'm breathing and it's just natural. You wanna keep the natural breath in there, but not the, oh my God, I ran outta breath, and I gotta breathe. Anne: Oh my God, just, I'm at the end of the, I'm at the end of the sentence now. Erikka: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So those are incredibly supportive. Anne: And it's funny because I had to kind of learn how to breathe even better after I had surgery way back in 2012. And it's interesting. That's when I started really doing nose breaths and diaphragmatic breaths, and it's incredible how confident it makes you feel. And so it really allows you to concentrate on the story that you're telling again. And you can deliver those words. Erikka: Yeah, yeah, I can -- Anne: Just when you want to. Erikka: I can feel them in my posture. Like it actually, like, I feel like it makes me sit up because it's like, your lungs are full, and it's like, I've telling this story. You know, this is my message. And you shall listen to me. Like it's . Anne: Yeah. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: And I think it's very similar to swimmers. Like I used to take swimming lessons and be like, okay, how long can you hold your breath underwater? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: It's a muscle that you can develop. So if you are in your booth, and sometimes you just don't anticipate long, unwieldy sentences. Boo on you, because you should understand at least at some point in your analysis of it, right? I always say go through the script like a first grader so that you kinda have an idea of where those long-winded sentences are and you know where you're going to breathe. You kind of have to plan where you're gonna breathe. So it's not at every single comma, but like you said, it can be in implied commas. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: And those are the only times you should have to breathe. And the cool thing about this is if you do that, if you breathe only like before you read a sentence or after, or at the commas or implied commas, then you have much less editing to do. And those of us, which I think Erikka, you are with me, we do long format narration a lot, it lessens the amount of editing you have to do afterwards. Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. Anne: And if you're talking about a piece of copy, that is an hour finished audio, right? And you're just getting rid of the big [air intake] before the sentence, versus trying to place those words in the proper place because you ran outta breath and now you're trying to piece it together so it sounds reasonable, well, that's maybe four or five or six movements, right, or edits in your software, not including the ones that you take in the beginning. So if you take a good breath in the beginning, you just wipe that out. That's one movement or one mouse swipe compared to four or five, when you're trying to rearrange sentences to make 'em sound decent, which they never do because you've pieced them together when you've run outta breath. And when you run outta breath, your inflection is off. Erikka: Yes. Yes. You're breaking up the story. And like you, you mentioned the swimming analogy. Another thing that like music kind of taught me was budgeting my breath because it could be, I've taken this deep breath. I might have to hold this long note or a high note. You can't like take a breath and then keep holding the note. It kind of, it kills the vibe. It's the same thing with speaking. If you breathe in the wrong place, it doesn't, it just doesn't work. Anne: Now, I like how you said, hold the note. Like if you get really technical about it, right? Holding the note doesn't necessarily mean that you have sound on the note. Right? So for example, I said, right. And I lengthened that. That's like, I would say an emphasized word, which I attribute to a whole note, right? Versus the words leading up to that important emphasized word, which would be half notes, quarter notes, 16th notes. The ones that aren't as important as the long note that you're holding. So I'm just saying that holding the note, you don't always have to have sound. And what I mean is when you are pausing, notice how I says when you are pausing. Notice how I didn't go when. you are pausing. So you're holding that note and that kind of meshes your words together. That sounds very natural. There's a lot of times when I'll tell people you're on the precipice. Don't cut in between your commas. Don't cut the words off, because what it does is it cuts off the idea of the phrase. Because you don't want it to be here, I am going to talk to you in a very crisp voice. And even though I sound conversational, I'm sounding very articulate. So that holding on the precipice of like, I'm about to, right? I didn't say I am about to. I said, I'm about two. So I held my breath and I think that's important for the natural sounding melody. Erikka: Absolutely makes you sound more relatable. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: And like, you're actually a person and you're not talking at people. You're talking with someone. That's the difference. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Absolutely. Do you have any exercises that you do like that you used to do to warm up when you were singing that are similar for voiceover? Erikka: I am your classic horrible singer in terms of warming up. We are bad about it. And I'm the first to admit. Anne: Now why is that? 'cause there's -- Erikka: We're just lazy. Anne: -- so many exercises. Well, there's so many exercises out there, and it's funny because -- Erikka: I know. Anne: -- it's always like, okay, what should I warm up with? What should I warm up with? And honestly, do I do warmups every single day before I voice something for an audition? I might, if I just got up out of bed. I'm not hydrated or my mouth hasn't moved, you know? Erikka: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anne: So, but other than that, it's funny. Sometimes I do a lot of telephony, and little secret, sometimes I warm up with my telephony jobs 'cause they're short. Erikka: Exactly. Anne: You know what I mean? And so honestly I can say those words and those sentences over and over again. And then that helps me to warm up. But I have a great app on my phone called Appcompanist, which my singing instructor Armie -- I'm gonna actually put a link to her 'cause she's amazing -- she got me turned onto that, but that's like, you can sing your scales, and that's helpful to help you get to a vocal placement that you might want to be in. Erikka: You bring up a good point. That it depends on like what you're about to do, because typically because I know that I'm bad about warming up, and I know some things, like you said, singing scales, like bumblebee to get your, you know, blah, blah, blah, your tongue going too, and then like straw foundation and all those kind of things. Or even just singing a song that you know, is close to your natural range. Like, you don't wanna stretch for really high or really low in your first words of the morning. But if I have something like a quick job, like you said, like telephony or in-store messaging or something, and it's where my voice naturally is when I first wake up, which is kind of lower Viola Davis in the basement, I do start with that work first and work my way up to something that might want more upbeat, more a higher pitch possibly. So I'm very aware of where my natural placement is and maybe what's a stretch for me, and I warm up in that way. Anne: Well, okay. So here's my question, right? So there's little tricks, I think, 'cause I, of course in the morning I, I have a lower voice and I'm like, oh I wanna do the audition in the lower voice or this is a great gig for me in my lower voice. So if I wanna get to my lower voice again, right, I can sing it down there. And when I sing it down there, I'll just, you know, do a scale, and it'll be up to scale. And then ba ba ba, you know, I'll get down to the scale and I can feel where the voice is in my mouth or my throat or in my chest. And interestingly enough, once I feel where it is, I can then use that as a starting point for -- Erikka: Yes, absolutely. Anne: -- my conversational, authentic, believable read. And that's how I get vocal placement to kind of change the start of the read. Now, besides that in terms of song, right, and melody, there's also the emotion. Now back in the day when I was playing piano, me and my best friend played piano together. Now she was amazing. She could sight-read and learn and play these incredibly complex classical pieces of music. And it used to always like, competitive Anne, I used to always get like, mm okay, fine. But my teacher used to always make me feel better because she said you have the feeling. You have the passion. And I think that understanding that along with melody, there's passion and nuance and emotion. So if you wanna get yourself to another place, another read along with vocal placement, you can then decide to understand the story and start from a different place in the scene or have a different reaction to it. And that means a different emotion to it. And that's gonna color the melody of the song differently. Erikka: Yeah. And absolutely like you mentioned kind of knowing where the voice is gonna come from. So as you're doing your script analysis, you can kind of think about where this character, you know, even if it's not character work, it's still a character 'cause you're reading as someone else, other than yourself -- where does that live? If it's very sort of determined and you know, gritty, it might be in your chest. It might even be more down in your gut. Like you said, it might be a little more in the throat if it's kind of mid and if it's, you know, really super upbeat and you're excited and it's like a sales presentation, you might be a little more in the nose or the head. So yeah. Thinking about where that vocal placement is gonna be, that's going to tell the story from that character's point of view, is key. Anne: Yeah. And I think vocal placement, like singing-wise, for me, gets me to the starting point. Then it becomes the story, and it becomes the emotion and the character, which I'm so glad you brought up character, because character's so important. Now when you sing, did you think you were a character? I mean, that's just a question I have. Were you placing yourself in a scene or is it just the melody of the song carried you? Erikka: You know, it's very funny you say that because what was always sort of my strong point and what I would talk about in interviews for my musical performances is that I really honed in on the feeling. And I think that was why I was able to translate into voiceover so seamlessly was because I was always coming from the place of story. And if my voice cracked or something, I just kind of, you know, I hated it 'cause I'm like competitive, like you and I'm like, I wanna be perfect, but I'm like, that may have gone with the story. So it was very much from the place of feeling. And my goal was to make you feel this story when I was sang it. I loved making people cry like. Anne: Right, right, right. Erikka: I would find a way to connect with the lyrics and the way that singing the notes and the melody from the place of that emotion and not necessarily quite so technical. Anne: Isn't that awesome? Like the more you really study music and voiceover, and it comes down to what's important? What is it that connects with the people who are listening to you? It ultimately comes out to be the storytelling, the emotion. Because that's what connects us, I think, as humans. And again, those of you out there that are afraid of AI, it's nowhere near coming to that human emotion, which is where we're always gonna win out. And we're always gonna win out for those people who decide that they want to hire that. Right? To connect to an audience. And so I think we always have that humanity. We have that feeling, that emotion, that nuance, that connects with our audience, and that's what we have to work on, I think, in our voiceover careers, if we want to continue to be successful while we are evolving along with AI voices, which have their place in certain, I think, genres. They're going to have their place. I mean, I say this because I talk to Alexa every day. Do you know what I mean? And I'm okay with Alexa's voice. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Alexa helps me get things done. And so I really do believe that the market will shift. But we always need to connect with the heart and the emotion. And it's so interesting that you vocally through singing as well as storytelling and voiceover, it all comes down to that. Erikka: Yeah. You have to make it personal. And that's, you know, kind of what we hear in, in voiceover is you have to connect to the story. And the songs that I found that were my favorite, and that I could tell were the most impactful were the ones where I found a personal connection to it. And I enjoyed like, it felt like a push. Like I literally would feel less anxious because I got that energy outta my body because I was literally like in it. And when you do the same thing, you can do the same thing with these scripts and voiceover, it's going to be more connected. It's going to naturally have a more balanced melody that sounds human because you've connected with it on a human level. So. Anne: And even though we talk about melody of conversation, there's that uniqueness of you, what you bring to it. Erikka: Yes. Anne: Even when we talk about character, I think sometimes when I talk to people about character, they think about cartoon characters, right? And they're playing another persona. Well, maybe they are, but there's always an element of you that is brought along with that character. And, and for, let's say more nuanced type of genres like corporate narration, eLearning, you're still a character. You're just maybe not as dramatic. In corporate, you're probably always gonna work for the company. You'll be a representative of the company, and in eLearning you're gonna be a teacher. And so those are characters, and those characters have emotions and feelings, and that's the special part that you and you alone can bring to the party, and to make it so uniquely yours where people say, I need to have an Erikka J to narrate that. I need to have an Anne Ganguzza to teach that. Whatever that is, it's that understanding of a vocal placement with a nuance of emotion and telling a story. Erikka: Yep. Absolutely. Anne: So let me ask you a question. Are you still pursuing, singing at all or singing in your voiceover? Erikka: You know, I've had a couple actually jobs and auditions where I've gotten the opportunity to sing as well. So I like that kind of keeps me fresh, but I haven't been pursuing it as much. I love music. I mean, it is definitely what got me here. My first love from way back when I was tiny, but it got to be a lot of, a lot of work with not a lot of return. Anne: Sure, right. That's tough. Erikka: Not as much as voiceover, it is. So maybe when my plate lightens up a little bit, I've thought about, you know, eh, maybe we'll, we'll do a little more music again, but for now it's really voiceover is the thing. Anne: I was like, why don't they bring jingles back? I feel like they're so identifiable. Erikka: I just did one. I just did one like a week ago. Anne: Did you? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Wow. Erikka: Yeah. It wasn't super corny at all, but yeah, there are very few in far in between, but yeah, I do get a couple. Anne: And I think, you know, in certain genres too, singing can help. Maybe with kids, genres that are, they're talking to kids, there can be more melody in it. Erikka: Oh yeah. Animation for sure. Anne: Yeah. You know, there's melody in everything, in the speaking language. And I think a lot of people don't even think of it in terms of melody. They just think of it in terms of reading words. And there's so much more to it, and I can't stress enough the importance of understanding the story before you tell it. A lot of us just pick up a script and we start reading from left to right. And you don't know what the story is when that happens. And so how can you have any connection to it or how can you have any emotion about it if you don't know what it's about? And so I think that's the last layer. So many people they think about melody in terms of it should sound like this. Erikka: Yeah, exactly. Anne: But in, in reality, the sound has to be natural. The sound has to come from you organically when you are telling a story, not so much in, it should sound like this, you know? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Because then it just, what happens is you're spending so much time. I think thinking about what it should sound like, that you take away from the amount of time you have to understand the story and then tell it. 'Cause in order to tell it, you've gotta understand it. In order to understand it. You've gotta read it. Right? Erikka: Yep. Anne: But not as a take, you gotta read it first, understand it, comprehend it and then tell it back, right? That's how we tell stories. Right? We have experiences and then we recall that experience and we tell it back. So how can you take words off a page if you don't know what they say and tell that story? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. And probably reading it at least two or three times. And you know, maybe to yourself, as well as out loud and not performing it so that you are just, again, internalizing that story and really understanding it, having the reading comprehension of it, where sometimes I've noticed that I might switch a word around or I might do a contraction because I'm not even reading it anymore. You know, and of course your client will tell you if it's like, oh, we really need it to say can not, and then you'll go back and fix it. But to me that has been a clue that like I'm really into the story. Not like a true misread, like something that's, you know, really integral to the message. But if I'm naturally contracting something, it's like, okay, my brain's on auto pilot. And I really understand what I'm saying. So making sure that you're balancing that melody and rhythm. Anne: Yeah. I think for me with corporate, I do so much corporate that I've kind of gotten away from the contractualization. Not that I don't wanna do it. It's just simply usually those of the scripts that, and e-learning are usually they go through so many rounds of approvals. That's true. And if it's written one way, I pretty much just voice it. But what I will do yeah. Is if I do feel a contraction will make it sound easier, I will give that as an alternate take. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: Hopefully that just is you, by the way, in case you wanted this, they have it. And then they're like, oh, that Anne, she takes care of us. Erikka: Exactly. Anne: She's wonderful. Let's hire her again and again and again. Erikka: And as corporate is becoming increasingly conversational and they wanna really relate to their employee base, I find that they're more open and amenable to that stuff, but great point that some of this stuff is really locked down because of legal. Um, so yeah. Anne: Also the thing is with corporate, because again with corporate, just, there's such a vast amount of corporate work. The companies that know how to story tell with their brand will write good scripts. And so you won't have those run on sentences. You won't have things that maybe aren't contractualized that will sound awkward. They hire copywriters that will write something that will sound good when it gets put on production. So. Erikka: Yep. Agreed. Anne: Yeah, it's a thing. So there is a thing, guys, BOSSes out there, called melody, and it does affect our performance. And so try not to think so much about the technicality of it, but understanding how technically there are certain things that happen in a conversational melody that in order to sound natural, dictate how we're going to tell that story. So we're not gonna be too high or too dramatic with our changes in notes. We're gonna start in a certain placement and then just concentrate on telling that story. And I think the melody will follow. Erikka: Indeed. Couldn't have said it better myself. The more that you're naturally connected, that melody is just gonna come out in the way that it should be, because it'll be natural for you. Anne: Such a cool conversation. I love talking about conversational melody. Erikka: Love it. Anne: Yeah. So BOSSes, a good way to really start to understand it is just listen to two people, having a conversation, for example, listen to all the episodes of VO BOSS. And you can really start to break apart what does conversations sound like? And you'll know that unless we're really excited, we don't go very high, and we have all sorts of rhythm besides just the pitch. That's all about rhythm and timing and imperfection, believe it or not. You know, I wish I was speaking Pulitzer Prize-winning sentences, but I don't. And therefore that causes the rhythm and the timing and the pacing and all sorts of things to make it sound just natural and believable. So thanks, Erikka, for a really cool conversation. Erikka: Thank you, Anne. This is lovely. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. So BOSSes out there, you can make a huge difference in someone's life for a small, quarterly contribution. And you might think that as a small company, you can't make a huge difference, but you really can. Visit 100voiceswhocare.org to find out more. And of course, a huge shout out to my favorite, favorite networking sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect and sound like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. Thanks so much, BOSSes. Have a wonderful week. Erikka: Bye! Anne: See you next week. Bye. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

There is no perfect voice for a genre. This week, Anne & Erikka let you in on the secret of genre exploration. Every genre has sub-genres and adjacent genres, but you'll never know which ones work for you without trying a few out. Examine what kind of work you are drawn to and where your passions lie. That will inform what jobs creatively challenge you vs. ones that make you feel stagnant. As Anne advises, always follow your passions. With a growth mindset, focus on the message you send with each script + a little help from your Balance hosts, you'll be on the path to success! Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am with the lovely and talented Erikka J this morning. Erikka: Hello! Anne: Hey Erikka. Erikka: How are you, Anne? Anne: I'm doing good. How's it going with you? Erikka: Going pretty good, man. Hanging out, you know, just another day in voiceover land. Anne: There you go. Another day in voiceover land. And it's so funny because we're so like, oh yeah, this is our day. This is what we're gonna do. We've got our auditions to knock out. We're gonna go find some new clients. We're gonna be working in the booth. I do have a lot of students that always ask me when they just get involved in the industry, well, first of all, how do I know that I have what it takes? And what genre, what is my niche? Where do I go in this industry? And for me, that's always a wonderful question of self discovery. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: I think there's lots of ways to find your niche in this industry, but I think it would be a good topic to talk about how we found our niches and what our recommendations are for BOSSes out there that are just getting involved. Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. Balancing to let the genre find you. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I think that it's kind of like letting your brand find you too. I think they're very similar. They're on parallel paths. And I know for me, the genres that I ended up doing, number one, I'm a big believer in following my passion. I've been that way all my life. Now, I don't know if that's just a thing that I just decided to listen to since I was young, but I've always followed things that I've enjoyed doing and found joy in doing, and I followed my passion. When I was young, I played music, I played piano. I had a love affair with horses. I owned a couple of horses, rode horses as a little girl. I would teach my dolls. All these things that I loved, I did and I explored, and I have to say that the same is true in my career. As I went to school, what I studied, what I ended up working in, in the corporate world, and in the educational world. And then ultimately I've found that I've been able to kind of bring it all together in voiceover. Because for example, I love to teach. As a little girl, I taught my dolls. I ended up 20 years being an educator in front of the classroom for kids, adults, college kids. And I find that I love eLearning. So the genre is kind of paralleling where my joys were and where my experiences brought me to. So eLearning, I worked in corporate for a short amount of time and then did a lot of corporate consulting. And so I love the corporate read. All of those things have kind of allowed me to do the things that I love to do. And obviously, because I love to teach, I'm a coach as well. And so for my business that is so wonderfully my own. And I feel so lucky and so joyful that I am able to do what I love and be able to support the household be able to support myself with it. So what are your thoughts, Erikka, on how do you find your genre? How did you find your genre? Erikka: Yeah. Very similar. Anne: Or genres. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. So for me, like I'm always like somewhat ADD with my interests. Like I like that. Ooh. And I like that, and I like that, and I like that so , but sort of my foundation and where I started, I had worked in corporate for quite some time and still do, in primarily in tech sectors. So I absolutely adore tech explainers or products because a big part of what I did as a project manager, sort of understanding the layout and then also breaking down requirements so that when somebody says, I want a widget that does this, having to break it down and be like, okay, so you want this to come out, kind of breaking that down for the user and putting it in layman's terms, so to speak. I enjoy doing that sort of breakdown, but maybe in shorter forms. So as opposed to like where you're talking about how you love eLearning, I'll do some eLearning, but I really love like the short form 90-second, let me help you understand this thing and what it does. And, you know, taking something complex and making it super simple to understand. I love that stuff. So that's really where I started. Corporate narration, same thing. Because of coming from the musical background, which essentially is storytelling in usually three to six minutes, see for a really long song in six minutes, but that's why I love like the commercial work or the short corporate narrations where, you know, I'm really sort of telling a story, sometimes getting more dramatic or using comedy to be able to tell those stories in a short amount of time, it just aligned with where my experience was and what I enjoyed doing. So those were sort of my foundations along with video games, love games, played games a lot as a kid, not as much now as I'd like, . I'm surrounded by gamers in my house. So constantly watching that. And I lean towards the dramatic and the dark more than the comedy. So I like using that, but yeah, those are kind of like my genres that hit me in the narration. Just loving to tell stories. Those are -- Anne: Yeah. I love that. And I think anybody that's just starting out in this industry, take a look at who you are from young age on up and where you've evolved and if you've followed those joys or those things that you really enjoy doing, and then try to translate into genres for voiceover. Or not even just for voiceover for your business, you know, the other part, it's not just the genres, right? But it's also letting the entrepreneurship follow you. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: There's the whole period of my life where I like to solve problems. I mean, you and I were both in technology, right? It's always solving problems and I also have an engineering background. And so because of that, I love the whole entrepreneur owning a business, kind of a thing, where I'm excited to build things, to build my business, to see where I can grow, where I can expand, how I can achieve success, how I can continue to reinvest in my business and grow in my business. I think that's the most important thing for me is if I am stagnant -- it's like, for me, I'm building a character, but I'm really building a business, right? Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: I keep adding to the story, and I have to keep evolving the character. I have to keep evolving the character of my business. And for me, if I don't, if I become stagnant, then number one, it's boring. And I don't do well with boring. But number two, it always allows me to grow kind of the whole, think of how do I make money the whole, how do I make money challenge? I even do like a class on money blocks where some of us have built in money blocks from long ago where maybe women weren't supposed to be earning as much as men or those types of things or the way you were brought up, the male was the breadwinner. Don't be greedy. That kind of thing. Well, I consider it part of the entrepreneurial game, right, how to make money with my business. And so it's not that money is like my first love, but I think it's the challenge of the game to be able to invest my money and then make a profit. And so I think what we all want to do with our businesses is to make a profit. And so that also evolves. And that was part of my personality. A big part of my personality is loving to solve challenges and solving problems. Yeah, I took that right into my business. Erikka: Yeah. I love that you said self discovery 'cause that's something that I talk about often too, is that you have to figure out sort of who you are as a person. And that kind of leads you to who you are as an artist. And as that evolves and develops, staying in touch with that is gonna tell you when maybe a genre isn't for you or if a genre isn't necessarily your primary. Like for instance, I love reading. I never get enough time to do it as much as I'd like, but I am not really into doing audiobooks. I know that I like the short form stuff. My attention span gets like mmh, so it's just not for me, even though I love books and I fully appreciate them, but it's not for me to do that as narrating. I had learned that about myself and be okay with it. In coming from a performance background, I discovered live announce was something that I really enjoyed. I'm used to being able to, you know, like on the fly, something live might happen and you've gotta be able to react and not be flustered. I did that on stage. So I was like, huh, didn't even know this would really be a thing for me. Anne: That's a special skill. Erikka: Right. Yeah. Yeah. So. Anne: The whole live thing. Erikka: That self discovery is really key to letting that genre. And your business, like you said, it's a persona, but you're building a brand your brand has an identity. It's a story. So you've gotta know who you are that's gonna align with the brand that you're building. Anne: Absolutely, absolutely. And interesting that you said being the voice of God. So back in the day, when I used to have to record onto phone systems, you had to do it live. And so you had to be on. If you screwed up the prompt in the middle of it, you had to start all over again. So there's a special skill in being able to, to be quick on your feet and to execute without mistakes. To me, if I were figuring out my rate sheet for that, that becomes a factor in the special skills like for medical narration. I mean, I worked in the orthopedic industry for six years, you know? And so I love medical narration, and that kind of found me. I mean, I kind of evolved because I started off in the engineering aspect of things. And then it kind of brought me into a narrower focus with biomechanical engineering at my job at the orthopedic company, which then ultimately translated into medical narration here. And the medical narration has expanded so that I'm not just talking orthopedics, and I'm certainly not a doctor, but the challenge therein lies in learning and discovering new topics in medicine that also I find I love to do that discovery, and that translates to my voice. So if somebody were to say what genre, I think really it can be any genre that you find that joy of discovery or that joy in. And sometimes you don't know it until you've tried it. Like you said, for the voice of God, you didn't know, right? Until you tried it and then you realized, oh wow, this is something that my theater training has prepared me for. And so I think every one of us should explore different genres. That's why I think workshops and sessions are a great thing. And one of the reasons why I developed the VO peeps so that I could have special, amazing guest directors come in from all different genres so that my community could have a lot to choose from and a lot to experience, a lot to explore and a lot to learn. And I think that letting the genre find you, finding what you enjoy doing, I think is probably at the very core of it. And you know, for me, like you were saying audiobooks, I did one audiobook and then I said, nope, not for me. I've kind of found the things that I love to do, but again, I don't wanna close my mind to trying new things. So for right now I've done a little bit of character work, but I've not really expanded into animation or even into like promo as much. But I know that I've got an interest in it. And it's something that I wanna look at. Erikka: And that's why I think that workshops are such a valuable tool to use in the beginning or as you start to make a foray into different genres, because it's more cost effective. Right? Anne: Yeah. Erikka: Usually they cost less because it's a group as opposed to like one-on-one coaching. You're able to hear what other people are doing and how they're getting directed, seeing all types of different coffee, experimenting with different directors, different coaches in these group settings. And that way you can kind of see like, is this really my thing? Like for me, promo, I sort of assume that since I have this lower register voice that, you know, has a lot of power behind it, that it might be something I really wanna do. And I always love beating the boys if I can, no offense. But... Anne: Hey, I hear that. Erikka: You know what I mean? And it is still something I wanna get into, but I found that it ended up being lower on my priority list because I wasn't getting as much traction as I was in other areas I was moving faster. So I was like, you know, maybe let me really refine and kind of get to expert level and everything else and consistently look. And then I'll come back around to promo. So it can help you prioritize your genre list as well. Anne: I like that you were talking about kind of letting it find you and you were getting hired in other genres. That's a really good indicator to find out what genre you might pursue in a more targeted, strategic fashion is what do you tend to get hired for? Do you tend to get hired for explainer videos? Do you tend to get hired for those one-off commercials, or do you tend to get hired for audio books? Whatever that might be, might be the genre that you really flourish in. And again, it doesn't have to be just one genre, but again, it shouldn't be every genre. I really don't know many voiceover artists that do every single genre. I think we all tend to just narrow down the focus a little bit and it doesn't have to be just two genres or, you know, it can be like narration. There's a lot of closely related -- corporate explainers are very closely to corporate narration. It's very close to corporate training, which is very close to medical narration. It's all part of the corporate world anyway. So all of that really kind of works for me. So there's multiple genres there that I can excel and flourish in. And then explore the ones that I haven't really had time to do before, because I've been working so much in these other genres, like character or promo or imaging. Like see, I've always wanted to do radio imaging, but I've never even tried it, like never But I'm always like, I wanna sound cool. So for me, I'd be like, oh, that would be a cool sound, but I've never tried it. I've always been a little shy actually. Erikka: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anne: About it, but I don't wanna not try. Erikka: Exactly. And that's the thing is like, unless you really do it and you're like, this is not my thing -- I feel like audio books are probably off the table for me, other than I did like a couple kids books. And I have like a couple like mid-length books that I've entertained or that I'm like, I might just do this one. It's, you know, public domain. I'll do it as a passion project one day just to kind of practice. But if I get one that's expected to be like 12 hours of audio, like I'm not gonna do the 48 Laws of Power. I know I'm not gonna be able to do something that long. God bless the voice actors that have that type of stamina. I know I don't. And I'm okay with it. Anne: You know, where I might go because I love the geeky stuff all the time, right, if there was a book that was completely geeky about, I don't know, a business book. And if it was something that I would discover as I read, I think that that could work, but the editing I would have to outsource. . Erikka: Yeah. I just, I just don't think I could, maybe that answer will change in a few years for me, even though I love reading it and consuming it or listening to audio books. Anne: Sure. Erikka: I just wanna be in and out. I just wanna get it done and to be done. Anne: Yeah. Well, I think it's important that we don't get complacent. Erikka: Yes. Agreed. Anne: And for me, that's just always been a thing where I haven't felt comfortable when I get complacent. I think I get nervous. Maybe it's more that than bored or maybe it's a combination of both, right? I don't wanna get complacent in one job for too long. And, and to be honest with you, my 20 years in education, I think my job, I had actually, believe it or not, in my job, there were certain levels that I traversed. And I went from getting my hands dirty and learning a bunch of stuff and really challenging like, oh, why does the network not work here? Oh, let me go and dig the wiring or look at the wiring in the ceiling and see what's going on there. And I love the whole challenge of that, kind of getting my hands dirty. Ultimately I started, year after year, I would, I would advance, you know, then I would go into like the networking. Then I would go into the administration. And then ultimately at the last part of my career, I was a project manager. And at that point, I wasn't getting my hands dirty anymore. I was managing people who were getting their hands dirty. And for me, I found out that that was not where I flourished. For me, I wanted that challenge of getting my hands dirty, figuring out the solution, not necessarily managing people. And at that point in my career, I had started to become a little bit restless. And that's when I really said to myself, well, I need to do something that's gonna allow me to grow. And I think that selecting your genre and balancing your genres or your performance or discovering what that is really comes with a lot of self-reflection in what it is that brings you joy and what it is that you're getting hired., a combination of that, what it is you're getting hired for. And if you're just starting out, try to focus on what are your past experiences. Like for me, I had experience teaching, which led me into e-learning. I had experience working for an orthopedic company, which led me to medical. I installed phone systems as part of my job that led me to a lot of telephony. So take a look at your experience and see what genre that might lend itself to, because when you can speak with familiarity and with confidence about something, it's going to be reflected in your voice. And that I think is gonna make you good at what you do. Erikka: Absolutely. And the other thing is to like not necessarily write off an entire genre to maybe to explore the sub genres, right. 'Cause like there's animation and I really kind of thought animation was off the table for me. I was like, everybody wants to do that when they come in, eh. Maybe video games, which I do think that that's still more my lane than animation. What I love, I love doing the villain stuff in animation. So I'm not really necessarily gonna too often -- I don't really see myself doing like the 14-year-old boy, like some women are able to do, but gimme a villain role I'm in and I'm excited about it. Anne: Now psychologically, Erikka, why is that? Where is that? Because that relief of tension -- Erikka: -- in real life. Anne: That's right. And then the alter ego kicks in. Erikka: So then I get to rrr, you know, it's fun. Anne: Yeah. Well, Hey, there's a creative challenge. And I think that, so BOSSes, we are all brilliant. Right? We are all brilliant people. This is the way I like to think of it. Right? We like the creative challenges. And so what is it that challenges you? What is it that you think will give you a challenge that you will enjoy? And so for me, the medical, of course it's because I feel like I'm helping somebody. I feel like if I do a voiceover for anything medical, right, it's helping somebody. But even more than that, there's like that challenge of, okay, what's the largest word that I can say eloquently? Erikka: The verbal acrobatics (?) of medical. Anne: Effortlessly? There you go. That to me is like, ooh, it's such a challenge. And I love it. Like I dig right in once I get a medical script and there's all these words. I dig in and I create my little phonetic spellings and I practice it so I can say it effortlessly, so it sounds like I'm a doctor. But that sort of stuff, I think letting the genre find you and letting your joy find the genre too is something to really think about. And so is there a voice for a genre? I don't think so. I think a lot of people consider like, oh, to do promo, I have to have a low voice. What are your thoughts on that, Erikka? Erikka: So not true. And the thing is that the more that you study the genre that you're trying to get into, and I don't just mean workshops and being coached, but I mean actually like watching TV, like going to watch the promos that are on -- it's been such a male-dominated genre historically that we just assume you have to "come in there and sound like this, tonight at eight." And that's just not it not now. So like I've heard women with much lighter voices than me that are super conversational to the point of sounding like a commercial, and they're booking promo. So I think that was a challenge for me and kind of was why I wasn't booking there at first because I had the idea of what it supposed to be, instead of bringing more of the authenticity to it. The reads are much closer to commercial now for promo, finding a promo voice. Anne: I love the whole authentic thing do and because -- Erikka: Yeah, me too. Anne: -- I think that voiceover artists, like in the beginning, it was always like, for me, when I got behind a mic, I was like, ooh, my voice is amplified. Erikka: Oh my goodness. Anne: And then I was like, I like to hear that in my ears, you know? 'Cause it was something like, I think sounds good or that somebody would want to hear. And I love the whole "let's get back to being authentic and being ourselves." Some of the most beautiful stuff that I've listened to is not a voice that many would consider to be like, oh a voiceover voice. Every time somebody asks me on one of my consult calls, so do you think I have what it takes or do you think I've got the voice? And I'm like, it really honestly, you know, and I've said this before, BOSSes, you guys, if you've listened to the podcast, it's only the first few seconds, maybe 15 to 20 seconds, 30 seconds that people are listening to what your voice actually sounds like. And then all they care about is what you're saying. Right? And what does it mean and is it of interest to them? And that connection that your voice has to them and how it can help them, that's really where it all counts. And I think that's why the authentic, the genuine is what sells, you know, in advertising, and it's what connects people together. And I think that's what we all, as humans, we really want. And a lot of this talk about the AI voice, there's going to be a place for that. And I know Erikka, we could have a whole podcast episode on this. There's definitely a place for that, but only when it's transparent. And I know that I'm talking to a voice that is not a human voice. Like, well, I talk to Alexa all the time. I talk to Siri all the time and I'm okay with it. Siri helps me, Siri has a job to do and she helps me. So when I don't necessarily need a human to help me, I am okay with that. But for everything else, right, our human voices need to connect. And I think that's one of the most important things. What genre can you divulge your authenticity in and connect with the audience of that genre. 'Cause different genres have different audiences. There's a different audience for corporate training than there is for promo. Right? People listening to promo voices are trying to find out information of what's on television. What's the next exciting thing? Or maybe it's like, oh what's happening next on HGTV? Right, there's your in-show narration. So depending on the genre, there's different audiences. So figure out not only what genre excites you, but know who is listening to the genre and who your audience is, because that's where that connection's gonna happen. Erikka: Yeah. And I think it's important to not limit yourself mentally and just say, well, oh, I'm not gonna do that. But try it. Like I said, like the audio books, I did a couple of kid books. I did a couple of mid-length narration for like news and I enjoyed that, but I was like, I couldn't do much more than this. So I know it's not for me. But like if you don't even give yourself the opportunity to see if you would like it, you might miss out on something that you're really good at. And/or like if medical intimidates, you try it anyway because those skills can translate. So if you're practicing reading multisyllabic words, you know, you finally get it, imagine how much better you're gonna read commercial copy now because you exercised your mouth to be able to get those kind of words out. So now when you get to just sort of regular English, you're gonna have that skill that you can translate into another genre. So I think it's good like you said, to just stay limb, stay flexible, learn how to play, not get stagnant ,and play with other genres, but know what your primaries are. And if you do have hard boundaries to just know, like that's not for me, . Anne: That's not for me. I know a lot of students in the beginning will spend a lot of time like investigating all the genres. And I love that. I think there's lots of good things to be said for that. But then there's also students who might spend time in every genre because they're afraid to start. That might be another podcast, but at least I think exploring the other genres, taking a few classes in the genres. I mean, I took some promo classes with a coach that I loved. I've really explored. I've taken some audiobook classes I've taken -- like I said, the one thing I haven't done is radio imaging, but I know a lot of people that do radio imaging, and I'm still like thinking about, oh, that's kind of like such a older genre. I'm not sure how well it's faring these days. Because I do believe I heard you . Erikka: I did do -- Anne: I heard you the other day. Yes I did. So it's very cool. Erikka: But that was fun. Like it taught me how to play better. Like, and I actually did a little bit of character development and I've taken that into some commercial copy. So. Anne: Well, that's an excellent point about that because the crazier and the more dynamic your character is in imaging, it really can help you in other genres. And I think a lot of times people that take my corporate narration, 'cause I'm always teaching how to be the real authentic voice. And that's not what people expect with narration. They expect to have a narrator's voice, and I'm like, no let's connect people. And so they can take that technique that they use in narration and apply it to commercial. Because learning how to be real and authentic with words that aren't yours is something that applies to every genre. So BOSSes, if you're out there trying to discover that genre, make sure that you are also getting those skills that allow you the acting to be real and authentic in those genres. So take acting classes, get coached on it. That'll do nothing but help you in any genre you decide to pursue. Erikka: And corporate narration I'm finding is increasingly having more opportunities for us to play. So it's obviously gonna be corporate to an extent, but I've seen some copy where it's like, they kind of want you to have the joke, land the joke, you know, be a little funnier, be a little more, you know, laid back. Anne: Or be dramatic, be passionate. Erikka: Be dramatic. Yes, absolutely. Anne: Yep. That's the corporate gold I've always talking about. It's good stuff. Erikka: Yep. Anne: So yeah guys, what genre are you? Erikka: Yeah. And prioritizing them. Yeah. Anne: Yeah. Look back, look at your passion. What brings you joy? And don't forget that even though you have genres, if you do have genres that you're already pretty well settled into and familiar with, don't forget to always play in other genres 'cause you just never know. You never know. Good stuff. So question for you, BOSSes, do you have a local nonprofit that is close to your heart? Because if you do, and if you want to help them, you can join an organization called 100voiceswhocare.org and help them extensively even if you don't have a lot to contribute. So find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org. And big shout-out to ipDTL, our favorite way to connect and network like BOSSes. Find out more at ipdtl.com. All right, BOSSes. Have an amazing week, and we'll see you next week. Erikka: Bye BOSSes. Anne: Bye. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Do not apologize for little mistakes during a session. You are human! This week, Anne & Erikka teach you how to overcome performance anxiety. Certain elements of voice acting get easier after years in the booth, but sometimes the nerves never go away. Taking steps before a big gig like walking outside, spending time with a furry friend, or breathing can calm you down, but what happens when you feel anxious in the moment? Stay calm in the booth and know that it is a safe space for you to perform and be your best. BOSSES, if you're unsure of how to take control of the situation & your anxiety, listen up! Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am excited to bring back to the show the lovely and talented Miss Erikka J. Woohoo! Erikka: Hey, Anne! Anne: Hi, Erikka. Erikka: How are you, darling? Anne: I'm wonderful. How are you? Erikka: Pretty good. Pretty good. Just the trucking along. I was thinking back this week actually about a workshop that I was in, and I really had like some anxiety. It was like crazy when I was on the mic. So I was in a class with the Andrea Toyias of Blizzard. Anne: Oh, love her. Erikka: I mean, I was waiting a year and a half to take this class with her, right? And I had actually just found out I was pregnant the night before, and I was just like freaking out because it was super unexpected. Great surprise. But I was just like, what am I gonna do? And all of a sudden, I start getting symptoms like I'm nauseous, right? Like super like, ugh. So I am now this class I've been waiting for for a year and a half, video game, you know, you have to use your whole body. I had like this beastly character, and I'm a ball of nerves and nauseous on top of that, whether it's from the anxiety or just the baby. But I'm like, how am I gonna get through this? And, you know, I realized that this was an opportunity for me to channel that anxiety into the energy of my character. And it really turned out great. Like she gave me good reviews, and I was just like, oh my God, thank God. Like I cried after, it was like all the emotions came out, but it was a great opportunity to sort of, rather than letting the emotions take over me and impact the authenticity of my performance, to actually channel that energy and be able to use it in an effective way that worked. So I was thinking maybe we could talk about how to overcome performance anxiety. Anne: Absolutely. Well, number one, I love that topic. Number two, I love that you are so open and upfront about it. Because a successful voiceover talent, you know, people seem to think, well, we, we have it all together. We don't ever get nervous when we come in the booth or perform, or we're live directed, but in effect we actually do probably more than people even realize. And I think it's just that maybe we've had a little more experience in dealing with it and trying to maybe turn that into something positive. I do have a lot of newer students that I've seen come into my workouts, my VO Peeps workouts, and get nervous performing in front of other people, let alone the director, but just performing in front of other people. And I know myself when I first started in the voiceover industry, believe it or not, I was almost like afraid myself to let go and explore my voice, because I didn't wanna hear it in my ears, because I thought, oh God, that sounds stupid. And so I think that's a really great mental emotion to talk about and how we can get over our performance anxiety so that we can make it work for us and not against us. So what are your tricks when you start to get nervous? And first of all, when we get nervous, there's so many things that can happen, even if it's a good nervous, right? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: If you're an excited, happy nervous, it's still, it gets you all your adrenaline hyped and your shoulders up, and it just makes your voice also with that same anxiety. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there are a few things. So like for one, coming from performing on stage as well, like that was sort of where I learned how to channel anxiety, because at the end of the day, it's just energy, right? But it's just like a really strong, sort of urgent energy, and what that can do when it works against you, if you don't have it in balance is like, sometimes I catch myself, it'll make me make my voice more higher pitch. And then they're like, well, can you we want you to speak more like kind of how you just were when we were talking. And it's like, oh yeah, Erikka, you're anxious, calm down. So that is kind of a way it can work against you. I tend to talk really fast too, when I get anxious. And I just have anxiety in general, sort of as the disorder. So I have to kind of manage that. Things that I do to get rid of it, if I feel like before a session I'm already kind of high strung about it, maybe it's a job I'm really excited about or, or nervous about, getting outside and really getting some fresh air breathing, the deep breathing thing -- I know it's like cliche. Everybody talks about breathing, but it really literally tells your brain everything is okay. There's plenty of oxygen available. I'm not gonna die, because that's what anxiety feels like. You're dying. It's just like, everything's wrong. And if you get that oxygen flowing into your body, real, really plentiful oxygen, that can help calm you down. Sometimes I'll go sing something really loud or scream. Like obviously safely, getting that scream energy out. 'Cause anxiety is just energy. Again, if you can kinda get that out of you to help you calm down and do that. Things like warm tea, just things that help you feel mentally safe are nice. Hug or going to your pet, you know, and playing with them and touching them and letting love on you a little before a session, all those things help me. Anne: I think that's wonderful. And I really am a big believer in the breathing, you know, and the taking a breath. And so if you're in the moment, right, okay, so this is maybe before the performance, right? These are things you can do. So when you're in the moment, right, and let's say you're being directed or you're in a workshop, a session, first of all, in any workshop or session, I just wanna kind of throw this out there that they are called workshops and classes for a reason. They're meant to be safe spaces for you to get that anxiety out, to experience that, and then experience recovering through that or whatever it is, working out your performance issues in a class. And so I hope that we can all feel safe or whoever's directing that workshop can help you all to feel safe. A lot of times the directors that I work with, they make a point of saying, look, get it out now. Do it now in this workshop, 'cause that's what we're here for. And that's the safe space. Where you probably don't want it to happen so much is when you're in a live directed session. So when you're actually in a session, I'm a big believer in the breathing. Now there's a couple of different things. Are you on Zoom, right? Are they watching you, number one, or are they not? And I am a big fan of you don't need to see me necessarily perform. And if I can actually get that to happen, I feel much more comfortable. It really helps me mentally relax. And it also allows me to do things in the booth, like maybe step away from the mic and, and breathe and instead of right in the booth or so that they can see me doing whatever it is I need to do to relax. And so I would say the breathing is a big thing, and also in the middle of a performance, if you happen to freak out, just know that you're a human being, and the people that are directing you are human beings. And so there's a lot to be said for that. I say that sometimes you don't really wanna admit that you're nervous necessarily in front of the director or whoever might be on the call, but you just do what you need to do. There's no rush, right? There's no like, oh my gosh, I have to get this done in the next five minutes. If there's any session where you feel like you're being pressured to get that read out in a short amount of time, I would second guess that client. That's for sure. If you can be with that client and you are not on camera, do whatever you need to do, you know, shake it out, breathe, mute your mic for a minute and do whatever you scream, sing, whatever you gotta do, breathe because they're never gonna really know . So that's kind of something you can do kind of behind the scenes. But if you are on camera, number one, I would try not to be on camera if you can help it, but you can always turn your camera off for a moment and/or mute whatever you need to do to kind of get there. I mean, unless you're in the middle of a sentence, right? There's no need to necessarily explain. You can just say, I need a moment, and do what you need to do. What about you, Erikka? When you're in the moment, what are some key things that you do? Erikka: Yeah, those are all great points, fully agree and sort of to elaborate on some of them, in the middle of a session -- well, for one, I usually start the session by taking control of the whole visual aspect. I'm like you, Anne, I'm a fan of camera off. So what I'll do is, in the very beginning of the session, I'll flip my camera on, say, hey, you know, I just wanted to introduce myself and kind of have that initial conversation to have the human connection. And then as we're getting ready to record, I'll say, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and flip video off so I can make sure that the audio quality is as high as possible. Anne: Oh, Erikka, golden nugget! Oh my gosh! Erikka: And they love that. Anne: Say that again. Say that again, because we can go home now. That was the best like piece of information, I swear. That, that's a great idea. Erikka: The pandemic educated everybody video takes up more bandwidth. And if you have video off, the audio is less likely to drop out. Nobody wants the audio to drop out because they wanna be able to critique the quality of the voiceover that you're giving and give you feedback so that they get what they want. So that way they're like, oh yeah, sure. Turn video off. I'm gonna turn video off. And then if they don't want video, it makes them feel comfortable. Like, oh thank God. I don't have to have video on Anne: I think a lot of people believe, it or not, are more relieved than not just because, you know, I don't know if we're having a little bit of anxiety from the whole, like during the pandemic, all we did was Zoom. Although I'm a big fan of the video connection that we did have. We just did it a lot. And so, you know, I did it to keep connected with my family and my clients, and I think, yeah, everybody could use a little vacation from the video being on all the time. It really has put on another added layer of potential anxiety for us as voice talent. Because most of us got into the business because we didn't wanna be on camera. We wanted to be behind the mic. And so I love how you said that you turn it on to say hello and make the human connection. And then just say, look, I wanna be able to flip this now so that we make sure we get the best audio. What a fantastic idea. I love that. Erikka: Sometimes I even make a joke just to keep it lighthearted, feeling the client out, if that works. And I'll just say, so you don't see my weird actor faces and they'll laugh, you know? And like that works because that's the truth. I'll flip it on at the end, you know, to kind of close it off and say, bye. I do make sure that particularly on Zoom or whatever platform I can, that I'll have my headshot so that they can see me. Even though they're not seeing me. So that kind of keeps the human connection as well. Anne: That's excellent. Now, Erikka, you know, that's funny because mine always just appears, but I don't ever remember putting it there. Where does that come from? That Zoom headshot, is that in the settings of Zoom when you set it? Erikka: It is, but you have to be logged in. So you have to actually be logged into your Zoom account and then you can set your picture and it'll come up. But if you just like click on their link, and you're not logged in, it'll just show your name that you typed in. Yeah. Anne: Ah-ha. Oh, that's an excellent point. I never realized that 'cause I'm always the one hosting the Zoom sessions for the most part. And interestingly enough, when I say to patch into my studio, if they don't wanna use the ipDTL link, or usually I use ipDTL, or usually I'm not the one providing SourceConnect, they would be the one providing SourceConnect link. But if I'm providing the link, then I'll usually give them an ipDTL link, and there's no video involved in that. And most people are relieved. And the reason why I tell them I do that, I'll give them an ipDTL link as a phone patch rather than Zoom is because it's better quality. And so it delivers better quality audio. They can hear me better, and it's always better to be able to hear better so they can direct me better so that I can do my job better. Erikka: That's what they want. Anne: So there's all sorts of kind of cool ways around being off camera if you so desire. Erikka: And you know, there really have been studies that have said that in the whole pandemic period that there was increased anxiety because if -- Anne: Being on camera? Erikka: Yeah. Because if I'm face to face with you, there's a safe distance, but there's a perceived closeness if like my face -- Anne: Oh, interesting. Erikka: -- here. And it's like, you're in my personal space, and it's more threatening. So it literally can makes you more anxious being on video on a digital platform as opposed to being in person, and you don't get to feel out and kind of mix the other person's energy. It's just this digital face. So it's natural that it makes you more anxious. Just take control of it. And I've never had anybody say, well, no, we want you to keep camera on. the only place I can see that ever happening is maybe video games. But even then, they're more concerned about audio. Anne: Yeah. And I think that, yeah, definitely. Let's just make the point though, that this is for a live directed session where it may not be necessary for you to have video on, even though your clients may like it. The other thing is that it might be the only form of communication that they have, right? Zoom, video, or Skype or whatever that is, or Google Hangouts. A lot of times, that's how they get a community of people together to listen and direct. And even in that case, you can absolutely take control of muting your camera or turning your camera off while you're performing. And so now what if you're in the middle of a sentence and you flub it up, Erikka? Erikka: Oh man. Anne: What is your course of action? Erikka: Yeah. So I talk about this with a few people. So for one, remember that you are human, and we make mistakes. We all stutter, even in regular conversation. Sometimes I'm able to catch it fast enough where it sounds natural. Because you know, one of the things of acting is that as just now, when I was thinking about what to say next, I hesitated. We don't have a script in real life. So we don't know what we're gonna say next. So some of that hesitation actually makes a more authentic performance. So if you can catch yourself and not get to the point of, oh my God, I just screwed up and just kind of get to the next word and it still sounds natural, sometimes it works and it actually makes the performance sound more natural. So I try to really just get back in it. If it's obviously like, you know, oh, I just screwed that up. I just pause and pick up. And there's a couple reasons for that. For one, if you kind of say, oh, I'm sorry, you know, you've already kind of, you've taken some power away from yourself with your client. Kind of told them, hey, I messed up and you've told your brain, you messed up, which is going to increase your anxiety and increase the risk that you're going to mess up again probably on the exact same word. Anne: Yeah, yeah. Erikka: And your brain is learning. It's like, okay, we may, we mess up there. We mess up on that word. We mess up on that word. Whereas if you just stop and then just pick up, it's a professional thing to do. It also makes it easier for editing so that they can just cut, if they like the first half of that sentence, and it was great, they can just Franken-take it, you know, and put it together and make it work. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. No, I love that advice to stop. So I always say to my students don't ever apologize. Yeah. You're human. It happens. You simply stop and pick up. Now you don't necessarily pick up from the very beginning of the entire piece of copy. You wanna probably stop and take just as you would be editing right in your own home studio, pick up where you would naturally pick up. And for me, that's at the beginning of the sentence, for the most part or at the comma, if it's that much, if I've still got the melody in my head and knowing where I'm gonna be. But for the most part, just simply stop. Never apologize. If you apologize, like you said, it definitely takes the power away. And a lot of times people may not even notice that you've flubbed up. And so you simply start it at the top of the sentence again, and that is an entirely acceptable thing to do. I mean, I've done that for years thankfully once I learned myself never to apologize, because again, we are human and just pick it up from the beginning. It does make it, number one, makes you look a lot more professional and number two, it makes it easy to edit. And the simple fact that you know this, right, you know, enough not to go into a bumbling "I'm sorry" apology or whatever it is, even if you have to cough or sneeze or what, whatnot, knowing that if you are silent and then pick up as if nothing happened makes it a really nice block of white space for that engineer to make it easy for them to fix. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: For sure. For sure. Erikka: And maybe that can also help you get outta the habit of saying, I'm sorry. It's just stop talking. Just, just get your brain to just stop. I make a mistake. I just stop. Anne: Just stop, breathe, know that it's normal and we all do it. We do. Erikka: Yeah, we do. Anne: We all do it. You know? And I always say to people, I wish I could do a read perfectly the first time. Right? It doesn't always happen. But I like how you also used it to talk about how to make that pause almost a natural part of things. Now I know that when I'm anxious, and I'm in the booth, the whole natural in the scene acting sometimes goes bye-bye. And so there's one thing that breathing can help you to come back to the scene. And always remember, even though you've got people watching you, I mean, imagine like you're performing like in the scene just as you would if you were on stage, or if you're not a stage actor or an on-camera actor, if you've got that video off, you are in your booth. That is your magic place. That is where you set your scene. You are in the scene, you're immersed in the scene. So just try, if you can, to block out the other external factors that are making you nervous and continue to be in that scene, because that's gonna make your performance more natural. And that's what they hired you to do for the most part. I mean, unless they told you to be crazy in character and you know your character, even then, right, you have to be in your character. So I would say, no matter what you're doing, you kinda have to be in character, even if you're doing an e-learning module, you're a teacher, right? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anne: If you're doing a corporate narration, you work for that company. So you're a character. So you need to remain in that character, and the booth where you are, is kind of your theater so to speak. As in a studio that you might be in when you're being directed live to. Now what about going to a studio and being directed live? What are your thoughts about that, Erikka? Erikka: Oh boy. I'll say maybe one, maybe two more things that I do use in my booth, but one of them might translate to in the studio too. In my booth. I think I mentioned before that for, just for performances and sort of a, who am I talking to, I do keep pictures of my family in the booth. And I found that sometimes that helps with anxiety too. So it's just like, you know, if you would look at the people that you love and that love you, sometimes it can just kind of help to bring you back. Anne: I'm opening, I'm opening my door, but you can't really see it. See if I can. Let's see. Erikka: Is, is that a kitty cat? Anne: Yeah. It's my studio cat. And on the other side of the door, which I can't, there we go. There's Anne and Jerry. Erikka: Yes. Anne: I have my family in the booth with me, the people that I love. Erikka: Yes. Anne: And I also have a booth buddy. Erikka: Yes! Anne: So this is my little booth buddy. Erikka: I got a booth buddy, but it's a (?). Anne: Oh. So you talk -- Erikka: My warm and fuzzy reads. Anne: There you go. So you talk to your booth buddy to help you in the scene. There's your audience right there. Erikka: Yep. Yep. Yep. Anne: So. Erikka: You can't see my family 'cause they're behind where the mic is, but yeah. I've got my kids, me and my boyfriend, and then ultrasound picture, my little boo-boo that's coming. Anne: Aww. Erikka: Another thing that I'll use too is I've got one of these stress balls. Anne: Oh. Erikka: And when you mentioned going to the studio, this is something that's more portable and not very -- it's discreet. So I could just have this in my pocket. So again, anxiety is just an abundance of energy. So one of the grounding tools that I know is used by some people that, you know, teach anxiety management is like literally like holding the tension in your hand for like five seconds and releasing, and you can do that with a stress ball. So it's just like, you're using all this strength and it's like, mm, get this anxiety out. And then you [breathes out], and you should feel some sort of relief. Anne: Yeah. And you know, what's good about that is like literally you don't want the anxiety to be in your mouth or in your brain. So having in your hand, having it transfer, and that's one of the good things too. I talk about with physicality behind the mic, right? When people don't wanna look at our silly actor faces behind that mic, when you are in that scene, you need to be in that scene, like physicating with your, with your hands, drawing things, jumping up and down, whatever you're doing, and that will help to divert the energy that might be all up in your shoulders and all up in your mouth and in your speech. Right? And kind of dissipate it so that it will be a little bit less. And so that's great. Erikka: And these are quiet. They don't make noise so much, so. Anne: Well, if you go to studio and you're flailing about, and you're doing like -- well, alright, I'm gonna say, how many of you have ever watched right behind the scenes, right, when people are at studios? I mean, there's all sorts of physication going on. As a matter of fact, that's the, the sign of a classic actor, right, behind the mic, who's physically making those silly faces. And I always talk about when you look at musicians on stage too, they always make funny faces. Right? Always. Erikka: Singing faces are way worse than actor faces. I know. Anne: I'm gonna tell you, singing faces are way worse. Erikka: I've been caught before. Like, Ooh, that's not going on social media. Anne: Yeah. But, but you know what? It creates the performance. And I always talk about Mariah Carey. She does a lot with her hands when she sings. Erikka: She does. Anne: How she like trills with her hands, and I'd be like, yeah, what is she doing there? And then I decided to do voiceover and I get what she's doing. It's all about the dissipation of energy and helping her create more energy and also dissipate energy. Which is really a great way to also relieve performance anxiety. Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. I used to grab my stomach a lot was my thing. And I don't know if that was from like the breathing exercises I learned, and they'd be like, why you grab your stomach? I'm like, I don't know. It's my thing. But it's just like, I don't know. It felt like everything that I was trying to get out was from my core. So I just kind of would hold my stomach and it would help me, ugh. I don't know, so. Anne: Yes. Consider whatever those silly faces are or what you think are silly moments of brilliance. Really. Turn it into a moment of brilliance and just who cares. Because if it gets the performance out of you, that the client is looking for, you're a genius. Like I dare anybody who gets an amazing performance out of you to laugh at what you do behind the mic. I mean, maybe they'll chuckle, but hey, they're gonna chuckle all the way to the bank. Erikka: That's right. Took the words outta my mouth. . Anne: Because you're the one that is absolutely giving them the performance that they're looking for and whatever it takes to get there. I would say for the majority of the time, if you're in your home studio, right, and you're being directed and they can't see you, what a blessing that is to be honest. What a luxury to be directed these days. Rather than us trying to like, oh my God, what are they looking for? How should I self direct? It becomes something that maybe you can start to look forward to. And you're not nervous about because for me being directed is a luxury because finally, somebody, just tell me what you're looking for. I can do it. I'll deliver it, whatever you want. 'Cause that's better that you tell me, rather than me trying to think of 100 different ways that you might like it. So if you can directly tell me -- let's say it's someone who's not familiar with directing, even if they might, like, I know a lot of people are like really, what if they line read for you? Now saying that the people behind the booth may or may not be able to line read for you, but if it helps them express what they're looking for, I'm not offended by that. And I don't think that if you have a client trying to express what they're looking for, and maybe they're not as successful, you know -- just me being a director for so many years, like I know what it's like when you're trying to express what it is that you're looking for. It's not always the easiest thing in the world. And for people who aren't used to doing it, give them some grace and just try to listen and give them what they want. Even if they say something completely weird and you're like, oh, so you want a little more smile or you give them more smile. And you're like, that was totally not what they said, just go with it because it's not easy for people who are not familiar or people who don't direct all the time to actually direct you. And don't let that increase your anxiety. Unless of course it becomes like two hours and you've given them the exact same take. You've come around circle and now you're giving them the take that you first gave them. And they're like, that's it so. "I gave them 100 takes. And the one that they took was the one that I just did like my first take." Erikka: I know, I know. Yeah, one thing that I'll do too, to sort of lower my anxiety and maybe even theirs, especially if they are relatively new or don't hire voice talent often and kind of are feeling their way through directing, you have to kind of feel the energy out, obviously in the client to make sure that this is okay. But for one, I'll kind of paraphrase back, especially if I get the line read, I'll also kind of explain. So you mean like you're looking for a little bit more upbeat, but still grounded? You know, like trying to do that because that way we're both clarifying what we mean and that can lower the anxiety on both sides. And/or I'll offer, would you mind if I did some triplets on this to play around with it and try different ways? They'll usually be like, yeah, sure, absolutely. So you do their line read and then kind of your interpretation of it, and they have options. They love having options. Anne: Exactly. So I think that's a great piece of advice. Give them options. I'm always, when I'm being live director-ed, I'm always giving them multiple reads just in case, you know, maybe there was a click or something that's hard for them to get out in one of the words, they can grab it out of the second take. And that way -- I do that a lot with self-directed sessions, I'll give them multiple takes for them to choose from, but also in live, I give them the full session and I'll give them multiple takes. I'm like, I'm happy to read this again. A lot of times when they're happy and they'll say, oh, that sounds perfect, I get a little nervous. Because I'm like, what if there was a little -- like I've edited myself enough to know that maybe there was a little click or mouth noise or I don't know, something could happen where they could use an extra word that might be clean. So I think giving them options and I think you taking the initiative and telling them, how about if I give you a set of three, so you can just pick and choose what you want later makes everybody happy and reduces the tension for sure. So I think in regards to being balanced, right, balanced in the booth and not overly anxious, these are some really excellent tips that we can take, whether we're self-directing or being directed by others on camera or off. Erikka: Yeah. Preferably off. Anne: Preferably off. Well, great episode, Erikka. I loved it. Erikka: Yeah. This is fun, me too. Anne: I love that we got to show our booth buddies and our pictures and our booth too. So I'd like to give a shout-out to my sponsor, 100voiceswhocare.org. You guys, if you ever wanted to do more to help your local community and give back with your voice, you can find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org to learn more about that. Also great big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. We love ipDTL because it allows us to connect with our other BOSSes and also with our clients. So you can find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week. Ah, get rid of that performance anxiety, that booth anxiety. Erikka: Breathe. Anne: Breathe, and we'll see you next week. All right, guys, take care. Erikka: Bye. Anne: Bye. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Prioritization is the most important skill for entrepreneurs. In this episode, Anne & Erikka go through the essential skills you need to balance multiple careers. Whether you are working from home or juggling a corporate and creative career, you can't forget to take time for yourself. Breathe, and know that once you step in the booth, the time you spent recharging on a small break between meetings will pay off. Career balance includes finances, family, personal needs, passion and most importantly a long term vision of your career… Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast and the balance series. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am excited to bring back to the show as always the lovely and talented Erikka J. Hey Erikka. Erikka: Hey Anne, how are you? Anne: I'm doing good. It's been a busy week. How about yourself? Erikka: Oh yeah, definitely been busy and prepping for another busy one. So, you know, as you know, I've got my corporate job, I've got my kids, my family, I'm pregnant and you know, I've got voiceover, which is like, you know -- Anne: Voiceover. Erikka: -- all in its own, a big old thing. And we've got a holiday coming up soon here. So holidays, everybody likes to get their work in before everybody goes out. So, I got tons of meetings and stuff and projects at the job. I've got tons of sessions next week for voiceover, and I am just really finding ways to balance it all, 'cause it's a lot. Anne: Look, I know that when I had a corporate job and I was doing voiceover part-time it was the hardest thing. As a matter of fact, whenever I talk to a student that comes to me, I'll just say it is very, very difficult to dedicate time to voiceover when you've got a full-time job and your career that you're already engaged in. And I look at you, and I'm like, my gosh, because you've got the family on top of that, and you're in It just the way I was. So I know how crazy it was for me. I'd love to talk about how you balance your careers and be so successful at all of them and your family. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I actually just a couple weeks ago or so talked to eVOcation about this, different strategies and things. One of the biggest ones, and something is kind of like a lesson for my corporate career, is prioritization because sort of accepting and knowing that you can't do it all -- and that's whether you have a job or not even just being in VO, probably not gonna be able to get to every single audition, especially if you wanna make sure you get the jobs done and all of your marketing work and all of that. So being able to prioritize appropriately and know like what's first to do. Anne: All right. So when I know that and I know you've got a number of agents, and they're all vying for you, right? Especially when you're doing well. And I know you're on a really great success track, and I'm so happy. I know what it's like when I can't do an audition for my agent. Like, it's almost like, oh my God. Yeah. Oh no. You know, and I feel bad, I feel guilty. And sometimes they'll write me and say, where is it? Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anne: And so how do you deal with that? That's gotta be something. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Like how do you prioritize? Erikka: That's a great point for me. Definitely the ones for my agent are number one. I very rarely, these days audition on Voice 123, where I am present. But I rarely am going on there to find jobs to audition for. It's more like if somebody DM's me either for a job or for an audition, or I get like one of those client invitations where they've specifically said, Erikka, we'd like for you to audition for this. And even those, they're last on my list. Agents, managers, theirs get number one. When I do have to kind of look at those and say, okay, I might need to prioritize, I got a ton of them today, I do wanna make sure that it's the right audition for me. And I'm trusting 9 times outta 10, the ones are sending me are great. But you know, if I'm really not sure, or if I'm not really filling the script, or they kind of like want it read three times and it's rather long, I might email and say, hey, I'm gonna pass on this one. And they usually understand because I don't do it often. So yeah. That's how I prioritize that. Anne: Right. Well, I think you probably prioritize agents too. I mean, in my certain cases, I have agents that are more local to me in LA, and I have to prioritize those agents that are local and the ones that I'm booking with. There are some other agents that, how do I say it? They're not not important. It's just that I have agents that I kind of, I have to prioritize them, if they're more local to me and they expect that as well. Erikka: Yeah. Absolutely. Your mother agency, they call it, you know, like that's -- Anne: Yeah, yes, exactly. Your mother agency. Yep. They do. They get dibs and they get priority. And so if there are five auditions that come out, and one of them is from the mothership, if I can only do one, that's the one that gets it. Erikka: That's the one. Yep. And you can look at things like the job you want too like for the rate or like, you know, if it's like a category or a brand you've really been wanting to work for, like that can help you with those prioritizations decisions as well. But yeah, definitely take care of your mother agency. Anne: Now you also go into work, right? You have to go into work or are you working from home? Erikka: No. The only way I'm able to do this is because I'm full remote right now. And I have been for three years. Yeah. Anne: Okay. That's great. That's great, 'cause I know some IT, you have to be there because you physically have to be present to take care of equipment or something like that, but you can do everything from home. That I think is one advantage of the pandemic for people that have been working full time, if you have been kind of re-homed to a home office, I think that that actually is a benefit for people who are looking to get into voiceover because you can sneak away to your studio to do a 5 or 10-minute audition. That was something I did not have the luxury of doing when I worked in IT, because I had to be on site on premise, even though a lot of my time I was doing remote work, but I also had to be there to physically turn machines on and off or, you know, install machines and that sort of thing. So I do think that that is one of the biggest advantages from the pandemic, if you are now able to work from home, having a voiceover career as well is a lot more accessible. Erikka: Absolutely. And that was something that I brought up in my talk is that yes, I fully recognize that not everybody has my position, and I feel very blessed that I'm able to work 100% from home. And even now like my position, it's more like product management. So I'm in software. So thank goodness I don't have any hardware that I have to be physically present to manage. But now after the pandemic, there are an increasing amount of remote jobs. So it's not just necessarily me. It's like jobs that were not remote before, these companies are recognizing that they're able to retain their talent better if they're able to offer that sort of perk. And actually a lot of people are more productive when they do their corporate jobs from home in the corporate work. So yeah, it definitely allows me the flexibility to come in and outta the booth. Like my desk is over there, my booth is here, and I just back and forth between meetings and sessions and auditions. And it's crazy, but yeah. Anne: But here's an important session though. How do you turn it off? Right? You're at your home. So where's the family part of that and that family balance come in? How do you work with that? Because that's gotta be tough. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a couple things. For one, in the beginning, I was very, very -- I'm already a workaholic, so... Anne: Hah. My name is Anne Ganguzza, and I am a workaholic. Erikka: Hi Anne. Welcome. Anne: Yes. I'm right there with you. Erikka: So I mean, they already knew that I was like that, but I was kind of in overdrive and my family was like, hey, you need to chill, Erikka. You know? So like I did have to find the places to set boundaries. Like I mentioned that I had a recurring great client that had booked me for a Sunday once, and I did it that one time, but I said for the future, I really don't do sessions on Sundays. And they were like, oh, okay. And it was great. So now I know that that day is like set aside for myself -- Anne: That's my day too. Erikka: -- my family. Sundays, I generally don't do anything unless it's like huge. And I tell them, and I'm like, this is huge. And they're like, okay. They have to be on board too I think is the big thing. Like they understand this industry. They've seen how hard I work. They know it gives me flexibility with other things. I was able to pay off my debt because of voiceover, so that helps us all. So having them on board and setting boundaries so that you do have some special time with them is really important. Anne: I agree. You know, the Sunday is my boundary. The workaholic in me is like six days a week. But, and you're right. Sometimes I work on Sunday, but only if I have to. And what's interesting is sometimes when my husband, if he has to travel for business, and he is gone over the weekend, on Sundays, I may work and not feel guilty. 'Cause if I end up having to work on a Sunday, I feel really bad, 'cause I'm like, I need to spend time with Jerry and the family and whatever else we're planning on doing, 'cause we need to make plans as well. And I'm one of those people that I'm so planned ahead in my planner or in my calendar, if I don't block off on my calendar up to a year ahead, I will be scheduled with something. So again, busy is good, but sometimes busy isn't good. And so was there a time that you realized "I don't have the proper balance right now" and you need to reevaluate, and what was it that happened and how did you readjust? Erikka: Oh yeah, this was probably about maybe -- even though we're still technically in the pandemic, but like midway, you know, when it was like, all right, we know that this is the way of life for now -- I had been just like throwing myself into so many workshops and a lot of 'em were LA based. So, you know, I'd be working all day, doing auditions, maybe cook dinner, and then, you know, in a workshop 'til one in the morning I was exhausted. I was drained. I was burnt out. I could tell, like I was less motivated to do auditions. You know, like I said, my boyfriend, my partner, he's just kind of like, you are doing too much you know? So other people kind of calling me out, and that's when I was just like, all right, you know, these workshops are great, I'm enjoying learning, but you know, maybe I don't have to take every single one I see. Maybe I can just do a couple a month, you know? And so that was kind of the turning point for me. And also I had developed to a point that I didn't need to keep doing them as much. I almost got like addicted to workshops at one point, 'cause I just loved learning and, and developing, but I'm like also from an ROI perspective, am I spending too much money now on workshops and training where I'm already at this point? So that was another turning point to be able to say, all right, I need to spend more time on working and making the money and maybe -- Anne: To reinvest. Erikka: -- go back some on the training. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anne: I think that's a good point to talk about that point where you are evaluating the numbers. And I think it's important that when we get to the point in our career, you need to evaluate your numbers. I know a lot of people don't look at the numbers sometimes, and they're just like doing jobs, spending money, buying microphones, upping their home studio, but yet they haven't really looked at their numbers. And I think it's important that you look at your numbers. Where is your outgoing expenses and what's incoming and where do you need to make adjustments? But I think having money to reinvest, I think you're probably at the point where you're being successful enough that you've forgotten to kind of figure out, oh, I need to pay the bills, or you've got that cushion, but you've also forgotten to look at your numbers to find out really what are you spending? And I think that's an important stop point in any career. You need to regularly evaluate the numbers, incoming and outgoing, so that you know when you can reinvest and when not to be. And in terms of like myself, I know myself, when I don't have the right balance -- and this is not balancing corporate career, but balancing my own career -- when I'm too busy, working too many hours, and I start to get like panicky, where I'm like, oh my God, I just don't have enough time to finish this and I've gotta finish this and I can't stop. And I will start to have like panic attacks. And that's when I know that the balance has got to come back because it's not healthy for me to be in that high. My blood pressure probably spikes. Erikka: Yeah. Your body will tell you, for sure. Anne: Yeah. And so do you have certain days that you set -- do you have time limits? Do you say I'm on the job from nine to five or I have an hour for lunch? I've got an hour to do auditions. How do you split your time? Erikka: Yeah, so I think it does vary for me from day to day because sometimes it might make sense for me to do a session at 12, when I know that I'm not gonna have any meetings. There might be days where I have no meetings. So it's kind of more like, you know, I have a project to work on on my own time, and it's not necessarily that I have to be right sitting in front of my computer for eight hours. And I might be able to have some sessions during that day, that do build in some breaks. Like I make sure that like, if I have, you know, meetings from one to four, and you know, sessions at some point, like I will set a boundary and be like, I'm not available at this time because I know I just need to breathe. I need to get outside, get some air, eat, you know. Anne: Yeah. I think mentally for me the performance, right? There's the business aspect, right, where I'm doing accounting, I'm sending emails, I'm responding to clients, and then there's in the booth. And I think so much of what's in the booth is mental. And that takes time. Like you forget to give yourself grace and time to prepare for that or build that into your calendar. That's where I find that I am lax sometimes, because I'll be so exhausted after I'm doing all the other stuff that I get in the booth here, and I'm like, oh God. Erikka: Now I have to act. Anne: And then what happens is I wanna get through the audition quick and I have to stop myself 'cause that does me no favors in my performance. How do you deal with that in the booth? How do you get back that peace? That, you know, restoration. Erikka: Yeah. Just kind of reset, yeah. Anne: How do you reset to have that balance? Erikka: For me, getting fresh air is a huge one. Like I've been either sitting in meetings, or I've been in the booth, or I've been sitting at my desk doing invoicing and all the admin stuff that comes along with our business as well, right? And like, I'll be like, all right, I need to get up. My butt hurts. I need to stand up. That tells me I've been in the chair too long. Anne: Yep. Erikka: And you know, these days I, I have to get up pretty frequently to go pee. So that helps, but I really do like try to get fresh air and that's a good reset because it literally getting the oxygen to my brain is like telling my brain, you're okay. And there's an abundance of air to breathe. And like that is something that I have learned. It tells your whole body, relaxes. One thing I did mention to one person at eVOcation is that I learned in therapy, particularly for people with anxiety or they get really high stress or high strung, if you kind of take a second to pause and do like a body scan and check, 9 times outta 10, if your stressed, your tongue is like resting or pushed up against the roof of your mouth. Anne: Oh really? Erikka: Yes. Anne: Ooh. I find it in my shoulders. Erikka: Absolutely. Your shoulders get tensed up, but it's like, if you check and it's like, your tongue is like just resting up there, and it's like, if you just relax it and like drop it down to the -- Anne: Oh my goodness. Erikka: -- bottom. Yeah. And -- Anne: To the bottom. Erikka: -- drop it to the bottom and just kind of scan -- Anne: My tongue is at the bottom. Erikka: -- your whole body, you can just feel everything just drop. And you're just like -- Anne: Oh, you're right. Erikka: -- huh. I was stressed out. Anne: Including my, including my posture though. But that's, that's good in way. Erikka: Yes. Anne: You know? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great one to reset too. Anne: Wow. Erikka: Definitely the air does it for me. I wanna go back to real quick to something that you said about the money too and the reinvesting. I think that as someone who has both incomes where I have the corporate and the voiceover, so I'm not necessarily paying bills out of my voiceover income right now. That's what the corporate job is doing. So it's really easy to overspend in reinvesting Anne: Yes. Yes. Erikka: You know, because everything is, is somewhat extra, right? Like it could be paying off debt or whatever, but you still wanna watch and make sure that you're getting an ROI from where you're spending your money in your business. And you're not just spending because you have it. Anne: Right. Erikka: I got into that, and that's how I have like a million microphones and headphones and I started looking at my numbers, and I was just like, all right. If I wanna build this to a point where it is gonna be my source of income, I've got to start making strategic decisions about where I'm making expenditures, just like businesses do, setting budgets for different categories so I can watch my spending, just make sure that's aligning with what I'm bringing in. So I wanna bring that up. Anne: Mm. Yeah. It's easy for us to forget, to check those numbers. Even myself. This is what I do full time. I'm not even talking about balancing one career against another. I find myself that I'm not looking at the numbers enough, but what's really cool -- again, I say over and over and over again, the best investment I've ever made was my accountant. I have her on retainer. So she'll be doing monthly. She's the one that will alert me. "By the way you realize that you're spending so much per month on this subscription or your income that came in last month was little less than it was this time last year. So let's make some adjustments or whatnot," because she's also keeping track of my quarterly taxes that I have to pay. So that keeps me in check. So if you do not have somebody watching over you, looking at your numbers and you're doing it yourself, remind yourself at least once a month, if not more than that, in reality, if you're active doing this full-time, you should really be looking at your numbers once a week, if not every day, seeing what's going on, what's in and what's out, and just taking a brief look so that you're aware. Erikka: Yep. Yeah. Anne: I think that's important. Erikka: Yeah. I have a Google sheet, and I should be outsourcing to an accountant. I have somebody for taxes, but I'm just, I'll get there. It's taken me some time, but I'd have this Google sheet where I'm looking at my average income per job, also the median. So that way, if I get like a whopper, you know, when it's a five figure job, it's not throwing off my average. I can also see where I hit the median, 'cause that tells me when it's time to raise my session minimum. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: I'm looking at, like you said, year over year metrics. I'm looking at monthly, how much I brought in so that I can compare. I'm looking at quarterly averages of what I've brought in, and I have all that automated, the calculations are in the Google sheet. So I'm not having to calculate this every time. Every time I put in a booking, it's calculating that based on what's in the other sheet and, and showing me that number and I just look at 'em from time to time. Super helpful. Anne: So let's talk about mental balance and joy, right? So a lot of people that are in their corporate jobs want to escape. Is that how it is with you? Are you at that point in your job where you're like, I gotta get out? 'Cause I was at that point where like, I am so stressed out, I need a change. I was becoming stagnant myself in my corporate job. And that is the worst thing for me, just knowing my personality. It is the worst thing for me to remain stagnant and not grow. So I was like, I need a way out. I need to get out. And that escape was moving to California and then going into voiceover full-time. What about you? Where's your mental state there? Erikka: I think I'm okay right now, but I do think that, especially since I've got a whole new obligation coming along here, it's definitely on the long range plan to move out of corporate and to focus on -- I don't think I'll ever just do one thing, but kind of having voiceover and maybe something else that is my own personal endeavor. And I do think that you have to know what your plan is, like is this for short term or you're just trying to use this to build up some capital? Is it like a mid-range thing where you're building a career, and maybe you're gonna do voiceover after retirement or something like that? Or if you have a long range plan where you're like, I'm gonna have an exit strategy, I'm gonna build voiceover to a point where it can sustain my lifestyle and I'm comfortable, and then I can leave my job and that's more me. So I know like on the long range sort of roadmap, I will eventually probably leave corporate and just do voiceover because it's growing to the point where I'm gonna have to at some point. Anne: Right, right. Erikka: And knowing things like that, you have to prepare, right? You have to have balance in your approach. You have to start looking at -- Anne: You have to plan. Erikka: You have to plan. You reverse engineer how you're gonna get out. Don't just be like, I'm tired of my job. Bye, I'm gonna do voiceover, and wing it. You're gonna be miserable. And I don't wanna be a starving artist. Anne: Honestly I'm so glad that you said that because I have so many people that are like, yeah, I'm not happy at my job. I'm gonna get outta my job and just quit and do voiceover full time. And I'm always like, okay, whoa. First of all, you wanna make sure you've got a plan because it takes a while to get established in voiceover, unless you're a prodigy, and there's very few of those out there and it's with any good business that you are growing as an entrepreneur -- they used to say five years. I'm like, make it closer to 10 years, you know what I mean, that it's gonna take for you to really see a good ROI. And maybe like, this will be your way of life. You can support yourself. I'm not gonna say it takes 10 years for everybody. But I had a certain standard way of life that I like to live. You need to make a certain amount of money to do that. And so for me, that did not happen right away. It took me many years of growth. And thankfully I had a financial cushion, which was what I had put in place. And my husband also, who was working at a job. I was able to get healthcare benefits; so important healthcare, to have those benefits. And as a matter of fact, even now I'm always telling my husband, I don't care what you do. Just get me my health benefits. So I'll make money if you want, just get me health benefits, because that's a huge, huge part. Erikka: Yeah. I'm glad you said that, 'cause it's not just about the dollars that you're bringing in. Yes, absolutely. The benefits that you lose after you leave corporate, whether that's health, dental, maybe vision insurance. You know, right now I'm carrying debt for our family 'cause my partner's also freelance. Anne: Yep. Erikka: So if you know that that's not gonna be an option for you, either planning for that expense, or getting enough union work where you can qualify for the union health insurance. And that's kind of where I'm at. Looking at now that you're not gonna have a 401k, what are you gonna do for retirement? Anne: Right. Erikka: Are you gonna open, you know, SEPs? Are you gonna look at, you know, individual IRAs? So kind of having that for yourself, just looking at all of what you're gonna lose and coming up with a contingency plan for that, for when you're on your own or just being willing to do without it. You have to consider more than just the dollars, the taxes -- the fact that now the income that you're gonna have from voiceover is not only gonna support your business and you're paying your own taxes, but you're gonna have to reinvest in your business as well. So you have to make enough to cover all of that. Anne: And support the family. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Right? So whatever you have to do. And I remember those first years when I made that decision. Before I quit, and I say this all the time, I said to my husband, you're going to have to make one and a half times what you make now. See if you can get a transfer to California, but we're gonna have to make one and a half times, because I'm gonna quit my job, and I'm gonna go full time into voiceover. And you can't just can't depend on my salary after that happens. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: I had money put away in savings, but again, we're talking about a move across the country, that was expensive. Buying a new home, that was expensive. Even though we sold our home, we were buying a home that was brand new. So we did have to invest a little bit as well. And it just was something that we had to plan out. I said, make sure that you can guarantee this salary. And then, you know, it worked out and we moved. And then unfortunately my husband was laid off nine months after we got here. And then people said, when are you moving back? And I said, no, we're not moving back. So we made it work, but you still have to prepare for those unexpected things that happen. And so an exit strategy is important. Make sure that you have some money put aside that can support you in the event that you need to live off it for a year, I would say. That is so important and know that it's going to take time to build up your career in voiceover. I mean, at least give it five years. If you're at the point where you're working full time, and you're doing part-time voiceover, and you're making a considerable amount in voiceover doing that, first of all, congratulations because I know how difficult it was for me when I was working full-time, but I had to be on site, right, at my job, it was very difficult for me to make any money at voiceover 'cause I couldn't audition easily 'cause I was away from my studio. Now I think if you have the luxury of working from home, that's a whole lot easier. But still even if you can work from home, build in an evolution of here's transitioning from full-time to maybe consider your skillset and you can then be a part-time consultant in it while you're doing voiceover as well. And so therefore you are kind of compensating for the time it takes for you to build up the voiceover business while still utilizing your current skills in a consultant fashion, in a part-time fashion, that can supplement your living expenses and/or whatnot, your investment in your voiceover for the time being. I think that is something very important to put in place. And do not obviously, anybody listening to this podcast, do not think that voiceover is the easy job that you can just do from home. That just scares me when I do consults, and I hear people, they're like, well, I got laid off for my job and I wanna do voiceover. And that just scares me because that it's not that simple obviously. That transition takes time. There has to be an investment, and it amazes me again how many people don't have money to invest in voiceover to make it a sustainable career. Erikka: That's one thing too that I always kind of bring up, and it might be a little bit of an unpopular opinion, but I think that you should have a balanced approach when you're looking at exiting to not just have savings, but to also go ahead and build up a portfolio of credit that's available to you. Because this is a high investment industry, right? To be able to be in voiceover, you're constantly having to either spend money on equipment or you know, have subscriptions for connections or get training, you know, conferences, all these things, they do help you grow. So it's not like a one-time outlet. You do need to have some money for when technology fails and you have to replace it. It's easier for you to get approved for credit while you have that W2 income. So you don't have to use it. But kinda have the lines of credit available so that if the sky falls down, and you don't have enough savings to take you through that whole period, you have another fallback plan. It's like, you know, have your plan ABCD . Anne: That's a great idea. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: That's a great idea. And also I'd wanna mention on that line, consider if you're going to move low key into a new home. By the way, they don't look upon freelancers or people who are self employed very highly when you want to buy a new home for a mortgage loan. And I found that out very like firsthand when I moved here like two and a half years ago, and I've been established in the business. But I had to prove over and over and over again, here, I made this much this year, here are my bank records. Here, have it all. We can afford this. And it just was painful. It was painful. So if you need to make a move, make a move while you work at a job Erikka: The banks highly favor W2 work. Anne: They do, they do. Erikka: Yeah. So take advantage of that and then make your exit. Anne: Yeah. And then make your exit. That's actually a really good strategy plan. It's not that it can't be done because I did it. But you've got to basically hand over every piece of documentation that looks at your business and shows your income. And then you have to make sure that you can define where that income came from. You cannot just transfer $10,000 from PayPal into your bank account and say that it was for voiceover work. They're gonna wanna know really, where did that come from? And it's that type of a thing. Any large deposits into your bank account, you need to account for those. And if you say they're from your business, you gotta be ready to show the paperwork. That is just part of the reality. And especially now it's crazy out there in the housing market. It's expensive. So it's gonna make it that much harder even. Erikka: Cars too, like the other major purchase, you know, buying a car. And that's why, even if you do have W2 income now go ahead and get in the habit of keeping meticulous records, not just for taxes, but so that when you're in this situation, and maybe you're a year into your only freelance career, you've left your job and they want two years of history, you're gonna have to be able to show everything that happened over the past year and voice over plus that W2, which is gonna be easy. But get in the habit now, so that when those come up, you're able to really just show it and yeah, you want this fine? Yep. I can show you, no problem. 'Cause they wanna make sure it's not coming from illicit sources, right? Anne: Exactly. Exactly. Money laundering. That's it. I'm like, what look, what, where do they think it's coming from? Well, you could be laundering money. I'm like, oh, like that didn't even occur to me. Like, so I don't have a criminal mind there, but anyways, your last piece of advice for balancing everything so successfully the way that you do to the BOSSes out there; what would it be? Erikka: Oh man. I would just have to say, it's probably multi-pronged, but know your plan. Know what it is that you're trying to do with voiceover. If it's just something that you wanna do on the side, that is okay. But you need to know that and not kind of purport like you're trying to build something long term. Or if you are trying to build long term, start making long term plans. Start making steps to get your financial house in order, to prepare your family for this change. Don't want an emotional whim because you're tired of it. Grin and bear it, you know, just mm-hmm and know what you're doing and why you're doing it and who you're doing it for. And in the meantime, just set boundaries for yourself. Take care of yourself, know that you're not gonna be able to get into everything, but just know that you having both is also an asset. You're able to double dip for retirement, do a SEP and get your 401k. You're able to have another capital source to invest in your business. So just be patient with yourself. That was a lot of advice in one point. Anne: That was great though. It was sage, sage advice. Thank you so much, Erikka. You are an inspiration, for sure. Erikka: Thank you, Anne. Anne: Yeah, absolutely. All right. BOSSes. So as individuals, it can seem hard to make a big impact, but as a group, we can contribute to the growth of our communities in ways that we never thought possible. And you can find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org to learn how you can make a difference. Also big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect like BOSSes, like Erikka and I, and find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week, and we'll see you next week. Bye! Erikka: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

You deserve to take up space & feel valued for the work you are doing. In this episode, Anne & Erikka discuss how saying no to jobs builds your career as much as saying yes! There is morality involved with lending your voice to a person or company. In making these difficult choices, it is essential to keep your brand & personal integrity aligned with the jobs you take. Bosses, have the confidence to say no, and if you need a little boost, your favorite hosts are here to help. Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast and our balance series. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I'm excited to start my day again with the lovely Erikka J. Hey Erikka. Erikka: Hey, Anne. Anne: How are you? Erikka: How are you? I'm pretty good. Anne: I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Erikka: Hangin' in there. Anne: It's been a crazy year or a couple of years. Hasn't it? Erikka: It has. Yeah, for sure. Anne: And I have to say that I got a job offer the other day to do something for a political candidate. And it made me think, because my thoughts about voicing things for, let's say, political and/or let's say anything else that maybe I may, may not believe in have changed and have evolved over my career here. And I thought it might be an interesting conversation to have with you. Maybe our moral compass, so to speak. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Balancing that and balancing your yeses maybe, you know what I mean? Like what you say yes to and your no, 'cause your nos can shape your career just as much as what you do decide to voice. Anne: Oh, right there. That's a golden nugget. We can go home now because that says it all. Honestly, I think sometimes no is even more powerful than a yes and can really help define in so many ways. Well, just a little more on that job that I was talking about, you know, it was for a political spot, and I literally went so far as to look up the candidate because it wasn't evident by the content right away what was happening there. I ultimately, I ultimately said no to it because it did not align with my beliefs and not just the copy, but because I said it was hard to tell with the copy because it was a candidate that wasn't as well known. And so I just said no, and I'm thinking about myself, maybe, I don't know, five years ago, or even later than that. I might have said, you know what? It's, it's a gig. It's a political gig. Let's do it. Let's get on board. What about you? I know you do a lot of political work, and it may not just be political work, but -- Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I do a lot of political, and in the very beginning of my career, like literally, like I had been probably doing voiceover for like a month, and I did have a quasi-political sort of thing come to me. But now kind of looking back on it and it was weird because when I did it, I was like, well, you know, I'm just starting and oh my gosh, they booked me and they want me and I can do it, you know? And it's like, yeah, it's kind of borderline, but I'll just do it. And I've regretted it ever since. And it probably lived for like two weeks. It was something that was very short term, but it was supporting a candidate that I was not in support of somewhat. Like I said, a roundabout, like, I didn't say their, their name. But it was just that I learned that not all work is good work if it's going to misalign with your gut and how you feel and your own beliefs. And if from a more business standpoint, misalign with your brand. You don't want to jeopardize the trust that you've built with your clients that do align with your values and your brand. And then they're like, well, why is she voicing this? So I stopped doing that. Anne: Yeah. And I find that now, especially now, 'cause it's such a divisive climate these days politically that I think it's just shaping my business in a way that I didn't anticipate, number one. Not that I do a ton of political. I mean I do enough political to know now I'm absolutely like checking on the candidates, finding, going to their webpage and finding out if their beliefs align with mine, because I'm just not willing to have my voice recognized, and then another client, like you were mentioning, a longstanding client, maybe, I don't know, not align with that and then maybe have issues with me voicing for them in the future. But it's not even so much about that. It's become now about my performance too. I wanna make sure -- it's hard to create a believable performance when you don't align with the client that you are voicing for. And it doesn't have to be political. I think it could be anything. You know, now we've got, one of our next episodes probably gonna be all about AI, but with AI jobs, right? Are they gonna recognize my voice and then will there be, I don't know, judgment in one way or another, because that's also something that people have very strong feelings about. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, definitely not just political. Yeah. Just kind of, it definitely comes out in your performance. Like, yes, we can take on feelings and emotions and words that are not our own. I truly believe that when you're not enjoying the performance, when you really are not totally invested in it, it's gonna come through somehow, some way. And you know, the client may say there's something about it or it might just be a difficult session when they're really trying to pry it out of you. It's gonna come out in the wash and when it's not real. So yeah. I just prefer to say no. And I find that when I say no, the right things come along to replace it. So it's kind of having that, that kind of mindset, not having the scarcity mindset of, oh, I have to take the job 'cause it came. You know, having a more abundant mindset of I'll release this thing that isn't for me. So I can go to the right person and the right thing will come to me. So. Anne: Exactly. And you know, that applies in so many things if I can, the power of no. And especially when you're negotiating also, I think that, that makes a huge difference in terms of, I don't have to take this. If you have that thought process of, you know what, I don't have to take this job. And I have the confidence that if I say no to this job, that it will give me room for the next job to come along and fulfill my need for, I don't know, money to support my, whatever to support me in this career. So the power to say no is huge. And when you are negotiating that confidence that you have the power to say no, and that you are okay knowing that if you say no, everything's gonna be okay, and that something else will come along and fill its place. That is huge. And I think that a lot of people, when they first start out in the industry, it's a scary thing to negotiate a job. Because they're afraid that they're gonna lose the job if they quote too high. And so therefore they settle. I think you only have to have a few negative experiences when you settle, and then you get that client that doesn't align with what you want your business to be. And then they kind of nickel and dime you on every little thing that they want from you. And those are clients that when I get really, I only had a couple that really came back and nickel and dime me. And I was like, you know what? I did not quit my full-time cushy job to come to a job where I could be beat up by my client. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: This is why I got out of it. And so I wanna just tell any voice actor out there that is beginning, you do not need to suffer through a client that is abusing you, so to speak. Erikka: Oh my goodness. Anne: Right? Erikka: Yeah. Definitely talking about balancing yes and nos, that is such a great point on rates, because like you said, the ones that don't necessarily want to pay your price are the ones that are gonna have the most demands, want the most pickups or little changes or, well, could you, you know, say this one with a, like going up like they really like line reads you type things. And you know, things like that, but yeah. Not being afraid to fire clients. I think that that's so important. Anne: When they don't value you. Erikka: Exactly. Anne: It's all about the value. Right? You've gotta understand that what you do is of value. And we say this over and over and over again, but it's so interesting how it always comes back into play in these, the power of no, the moral, ethical compass that you have in working. It's not just, oh, do you take a political side? It's a moral compass when working with a client who may not treat you as if your services are valued. And that I think is huge. And like I said, I did not give up my cushy job you know, and thankfully I had a cushy job. I say thankfully and gratefully, but I did not give it up to go into business for myself to be handled by my clients in a way that is not aligning with what I want my business to be and someone that doesn't value me. And that is a huge, huge thing. And it's a huge thing when you talk about AI, right? And we think that the AI industry is out to get the voice talent and to take away their jobs and to devalue them. I personally, just through the VO BOSS podcast and all of my interviews, have been fighting to have AI companies value the artist and value the voice and value the asset of voice because they value other assets. Right? If you think about some of these big advertising companies, they value the product. Well, if the voice is representing the product, how can you not value that voice? How can you not treat that voice with the respect that you treat the product? Because it's a part of it. Erikka: Yeah. You're bringing a branding element that nobody else can bring. You have something, this voice, this tone, this way of delivery that they have chosen to represent their brand. That's the value and, and should be given the proper respect for that. And even to your prior point, I do still have my nice job But I think the thing is like, even at work, not to take it too far off topic, but just valuing yourself and whatever value you are bringing to the table in any business transaction, really in any transaction at all, any relationship. And if you command that respect for yourself and knowing that when you set those boundaries and say, you know, Nope, that's not for me or I'm not gonna allow you to treat me that way, you make space for the right things to come. So that comes with rates. That comes with the way clients treat you, that comes with the way your boss treat you. If you have a job and they're not treating you right, find something else. Anne: Absolutely. I love that you brought that up, especially in the corporate environment, because I know a lot of reason why people may be getting into the voiceover industry, right, is to escape the job where they don't feel valued. You know, I worked in the corporate world. Corporate is one of my specialty genres in coaching and in what I do in voiceover. And I always felt that corporate became the way that I was winning 'cause I would do corporate voiceover. And I thought, here's the way that I don't have to go in and be mistreated in a board meeting, right, by members of the company or, you know, not valued. Here, I can do the job, don't have to go to any meetings -- well, maybe a meeting with a person that's paying me, but basically I'm in, I'm out, and I got paid. Erikka: Exactly. Anne: And so therefore I win. I win at corporate. But I do happen to love corporate and I understand the corporate way. And in reality, as voice artists, we are hired pretty much by companies, whether they are companies that have a product or broadcasting companies, they're still companies. And again, you want to be valued by that company that you work for. And it's just something that resonates, whether you are in a company wanting to get out to form your own company, right, that you need to be valued. You need to be valued and you have the space to morally and ethically say no to create a good balance in your life for not just getting paid, what you're worth, but just having joy in what you're doing. Erikka: And you have to remember that like these businesses, they're not saying yes to every single partnership or every contract, and you as a voice talent -- I know that it's easy for creators and artists to kind of see us, ourselves as beneath or as you know, well, we're so grateful to get a job, but we are B to B businesses. So when we are working or deciding to choose to work with another company, that is a partnership. And you have to decide if that partnership is right for you, just like the big corporations do. You're no different. Anne: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That's such a great point. Wow. So do you have any examples of jobs that you've said no to yourself? Erikka: Oh boy. I know. I do. Let's see. I've definitely said no for rates. And the couple times where I might have bent, I regretted it. Anne: Because then they would come back and want every little pickup. Erikka: Either they wanted more or it was just like, when I did it, it wasn't as fulfilling. And I was just kind of like dreading it. And then I send the invoice and I'm like, I can't believe I put myself through that for this. You know what I mean? So I kinda stopped bending. The times that I do kind of bend more on rates are like, if it's something I really wanna do. And I really believe in like PSAs or for non-profits and stuff like that. But yeah, I have, more times than I can count, you know, just said, hey, this is my rate. This is what it is. And if they say, you know, it's not gonna work for us. Great. Definitely say no a lot for usage, and that's something, you know, I'm open about the fact that I do participate on P2Ps. Just really Voice123 right now. But I'm very careful to make sure that anything that says in perpetuity, these contracts or these blatant boiler plate, things that they send out, I gotta make sure that I'm protected, that they're not gonna use it for broadcast use or try to use it in perpetuity without it being totally kind of safe from creating conflicts in the future. And I'll say no very quickly for those. Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I wanna point out that a lot of times there's a panic, right, if I say, no, I won't get hired again. And I just wanna say like in life right, think about the products that you buy. You can choose to buy a product that's maybe cheaply made and that doesn't last as long, or it's not as good value, or you can buy the stuff that has served you well in the past, right? A trusted brand that lasts a long time or you can depend on it over and over again. And when it comes to that, you don't care what you pay for it for the most part. Right? And I think that even though we think voiceover might be going down the tubes because online casting came and, and now AI is coming and, and people think, well, it's just be devalued, and so what's gonna happen? Well, I think it it's human nature that there's always gonna be the division of, okay, so there's good value. Or maybe there's not so good value. And I don't think that's going to change whether pay to plays are in the picture or AI is in the picture, because people are always gonna want to buy the thing that gives them the best value. And that does not always equate to money. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: Right? Erikka: You'll always have buyers for the Dollar Store sort of, you know, genre. You'll always have buyers that are more in like the Target sort of realm and then you'll have your Neiman Marcus folks. Like it's always -- Anne: Right. Erikka: There are people that are, that are price driven and those that are quality driven, and there's just different types of buyers. And it's just which one do you align with. Anne: Right. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: And those buyers can change at any given moment. There may be times when I feel like I don't need top of the line, I don't know -- I always go to the girl thing -- I don't need top of the line lipstick now, but but I always need a good hairdresser. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Do you know what I mean? Like, I feel like I wanna be that voice of our artist where people say, well, all right, I can forego maybe this part of the project, but I cannot live without Anne Ganguzza for my voice. Erikka: There you go. Anne: But that's what you wanna try to manifest for your business. Right? They say, Erikka J, man, she is like no other. She delivers. I love her voice. I can't live without her. And that's the type of client that you want. And there's a lot of clients out there, guys. I don't think we need to be worried that you're not gonna be able to get a client that will support that value and support your business. And I think you just have to believe, and I know a lot of times it takes -- it took me years to kind of get that belief and that confidence. And it's funny because it's still evolving, and I've been in this for over 15 years now. Erikka: Yeah. It's like a muscle. You have to keep stretching it. Yeah. Anne: It is like a muscle. It keeps growing, and you just like every day you realize, wow, you know what? I'm gonna be okay. People are going to want to hire me, right, because I deliver value. And then even if there are other things like pay-to-plays have become, it's tough. It's a lot of competition. Well, maybe that's something that you evolve out of and you do something different. And again, you always have to have that balance of this is aligning with my business, morally, ethically. And what's my other word? Does it bring me joy? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Right? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: There is that balance that makes my business go around kind of thing. And makes me happy that I do what I do. And when it no longer makes me happy or no longer fulfills my quota of, I need to support myself, right? Well then maybe I evolve into something else and what's given me the strength to be okay with that is the fact that I have built my business up. And that I have succeeded. I always say this. If the voiceover industry were to fall out, I'd be okay. Because I have learned how to operate a business myself, and I know that I can evolve, and I will evolve because I've proven it to myself before. And I know that you BOSSes out there can do the same. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: I'm not anybody special. I think there's something to be said for longevity and in following your moral compass. Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: Right? And having that balance. Erikka: Yeah. And I think part of balancing those yeses and nos, we talked about the moral compass. We talked about financially making sure the rates are right, the usage, making sure it brings you joy. I think another part of that is do you have the time? Because you don't wanna jeopardize your relationship with a client by you keep saying yes, yes, yes, yes. And you start falling behind on deadlines or you're not delivering the quality that sets up to par because the hours in the day are finite. Right? Your energy is, is finite per day. So sometimes you might have to say no, simply because you don't have the bandwidth, and you have to be okay with that because it'll be worse for you to deliver a subpar product. Anne: Right. Right. Erikka: Because you didn't have the bandwidth to really do it. Yeah. Anne: And I think it works. I mean, if you want it to, I think it can work in your favor and especially, Erikka, for you, I think because you are juggling a full-time job, a voiceover career, I mean family, everything. And so the fact that you don't have the time makes it like a little easier to say no. And a lot of times when you say no, that makes people want you more. Erikka: Yes, I totally agree. Anne: Just sayin'. And that makes people value you more. And that actually can turn out to be a wonderful thing for your business. Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: Right? Erikka: Yeah. Or like, for me, like I say no to longer form projects, because I know it's gonna be harder for me to fit that in. So it makes room for me to get more of the short term stuff. And like you said, it does kind of be like, oh, well you didn't have time for this, but I'd love you to do this. You know, like, could you do this one? Anne: Or even, I dunno, has it ever turned around, whether you've said, no, I, I don't have time for it. And they offer you more money? Erikka: They offer me more money or they offer me more time. They're like, well, if we wait until next week, could you do it? And I'd be like, well, yeah, actually I could Anne: Yeah, so in a sense, absolutely. I mean, it just works out, and I'm always saying being busy is a good thing as long as you're balanced and you're not going crazy. And like your health is at stake or something like that. But the being busy is good because then it's a great time, I always say, when you're that busy to raise your rates and see what happens and it's scary as hell, but when you raise your rates, and then you say, let me just see what happens, and people just, they take it. And you're like, damn. And it's so funny because to us, it's like this big, like, oh my God, I'm gonna raise my rates. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: And then the next thing you know, somebody's buying it and you're like, oh, well that was simple. Why didn't I do that before? Erikka: I am so glad you said that, Anne, because again, the laws of business, which we have to remember as BOSSes, that we are not just talking into a microphone, we're not just artists. We are entrepreneurs. We are businesses. What businesses do, the law of supply and demand. If the demand goes up, guess what, the price has to go up, because there's not as much supply to fulfill that. So yeah. Anne: That's right. It's a really wonderful thing. And I think there's too many people that let it get to them before they realize that, wow, this is how I can raise my -- this is how I can actually survive because there's not too many people that are just doing this as a hobby. I mean a lot of people, oh yeah. It's kind of fun. I'm dabbling in it. But in reality, the ones of us who are concerned about how do I market, how do I get the jobs? We want this to be a living. We wanna be able to do this and be successful at it so that we can support our families or whatever it is that we wanna do with that. And I think when it gets to that point, you've gotta figure out how you're gonna make that business work for you. And there are some scary, scary challenges. I'm -- like I say this all the time, you have to be scared of something every day, honestly. And I think that really is good for you to be a little bit scared. And I'm still scared when I raise my rates, and then I'm still like, oh, damn, that was easy. Somebody picked up on that. Erikka: Right. Right. Anne: It's like -- now I think you just have to be careful that you're within a market. Erikka: For sure. Anne: You don't wanna price yourself out of the market. And that is something that you have to, you know, understand. And I think that's something that, again, there's a balance of worth plus the market, because you can be a little more expensive than what typically is on the market. And that's where I kind of like to -- I don't wanna say I'm expensive, but I like to say they are my values. This is my price because I honestly, I don't have time to not have it be my price. Erikka: Amen. Yes, yes. And deliver the goods to match that price. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: You know, so that they are happy to pay that. Anne: Well, exactly. Happy and glad to pay it over and over and over again. And I don't feel guilty. Erikka: Yep. Anne: Right? I don't ever feel guilty. Erikka: Yep. Anne: Right? I don't know. Have you ever felt guilty when charging a client? Erikka: I, I might feel guilty when I first say it, but then like at the end of the job, I'm like, yeah, well that was worth that , you know, and they're happy. Anne: Yeah, if you work hard. Erikka: They didn't have to come back, you know, like they got what they needed quickly and yeah. Anne: Well, you know, that's so interesting that you say that too. I was on a live directed session the other day, and it boggles my mind, right, because I said, oh, do you wanna, you know, gimme some direction or you want me to just read it? And then you can gimme some comments later. They're like, yeah, let's do that. I delivered the read, and they're like, wow. That was perfect. And it's funny because that was quick. They're like, okay, no, that was perfect. We don't need anything else. Bam. I did it. They were like, wow, that's perfect. That was perfect. And they were so shocked and surprised and happy. And I was like, gosh, I wonder who they've been working with? Erikka: Really. Anne: Because for me it was just like, okay, let me just do this. And I was confident. I think confidence has -- we should have an entire episode on confidence. Erikka: Oh gosh, we should. Anne: You know, just because I was confident, there was no reason for me to be not confident. I do get nervous before a live session, but I'm confident in my abilities and to be able to deliver that, but they were so surprised and I was like, well, I'm so happy that I could deliver. And guess what? They hired me again. And so it just became like, it was quick, but it was worth it for them because it was quick. And I delivered what they needed quickly. Erikka: They're trading their money for you to make them spend less time. So the better that you can efficiently deliver with the read and what they're looking for, so that they're not spending hours directing you on a session, they're gonna appreciate that. And they're gonna happily pay you 'cause they can get more money. They, they don't have a lot of time. And yeah, I love what you said about, you know, it kind of just being ready, because if you get into that session and you're nervous -- I get nervous before live sessions still too. Anne: Yeah. I do. Erikka: One thing to kind help with that is I'm not afraid to like ask questions, especially if I have a client that maybe hasn't hired a lot of voice talent, so that I get clarity on the direction that they wanna go. You know, I'll do that at the top of the session. So then I'm more secure and more confident in what I'm delivering because it's not the guessing game and feeling it out in those first 15, 20 minutes. Right? And now I've just saved them 20 minutes because I took five minutes to ask questions, delivered the read in two, three takes -- Anne: Exactly. Erikka: -- we're done. Anne: Yeah. That's it, that's it, it's really delivering what they want. And that's the thing. 'Cause maybe, you know, you're confident in your performance, but you're not necessarily confident that you're gonna deliver what they want in their ears. So asking questions I think is, is super important. So guys, balance, I think balance in moral ethics, your value. I think that it is so important for a happy, successful career in voiceover. And I think that compromising -- look, I think anybody that gets into this industry, I think if they're coming out of the corporate world, which I have a lot of people, you know, trying to come out of the corporate world to do it full time, and I'm always like, well wait, just a moment before you do that. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: Right? And I think that, that is also another worthy topic for the podcast is, you know, your full-time job plus voiceover, how do you make it work? Which -- Erikka: And balance, and a balanced approach to the exit strategy. Anne: Yep, exactly. Yeah, exactly. But I think morally, ethically and worth-wise, you have to have a great balance and a great sense of who you are and your worth and to make things successful. And I believe in all of you, BOSSes out there, that it can be done. I mean, if I could do it, like like I've learned a lot over my 15 years, and, and that is a big part of what I've learned and a big part of what helped me become successful. And Erikka, I'm sure you see that every day. Erikka: Every day, balancing the yeses and the nos, balancing what I'm gonna do and not do. And yeah, for sure, eevery day. Anne: All right. Well, BOSSes, I'd like to give a big thank you to our sponsor 100voiceswhocare.org. This is your chance to make a difference using your voice and give back to the communities that give to you. Find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org. And also our sponsor ipDTL. We love ipDTL. It helps me to connect with BOSSes like Erikka here and all of you out there. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing wake and we will see you next week. Erikka: Bye! Anne: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

We all get a lot of spam messages, but how many of us are sending cold emails that could be perceived as spam? This week, Anne & Erikka are here to help you clean the spam from your inbox. Using discernment is key, but checking for legitimate business websites, email domains, and avoiding sketchy links is a great start. As for sending spam, any #VOBOSS knows that their website, email signature, and patiently awaiting a response will help, but keep listening for the whole conversation! Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and today I am excited to bring back my very special favorite co-host Erikka J. Woohoo! Erikka: I'm sure you say that to all the co-hosts, Anne. Anne: Hey. Hey. Erikka: Well, we are matching today with our headphones though. Anne: So, oh my gosh. That's pretty awesome. Erikka: Yes. Yeah. Anne: Wow. Wow. We're doing a little experiment, BOSSes, that not only are we recording audio, but we are recording video this week, and that was quite an event because I had to put some lipstick on. Erikka: Just gloss for me was the best I could do. Anne: And try to look good for the camera, but you know, we'll give it a shot. So Erikka, it's been a crazy week. It's been, goodness, what's been going on with you? Erikka: Man. Yesterday. Actually I posted that I got this really crazy spam email and um... Anne: Uh-oh. Erikka: Well, well, okay. I'll take it back even further. It went -- on a good note -- Anne: Crazy spam. Erikka: Oh goodness. All spam is crazy, right? But this one was, was probably the worst I've gotten. I had just gotten featured in this magazine called Voyage ATL and posted the article. Anne: Oh yes. Erikka: It's like really cool. And with that comes SEO juice, and there's good juice and bad juice. And it looks like this juice kind of fed some bad. I got a form submission actually from my, my site, which is based on Squarespace. And so I'm saying, okay, when, if somebody's wanna hire me, I click it. And it says it's from the Spit in Her Butt Show. Anne: oh my gosh. The Spit in Your Butt. All right. Erikka: Her. So particularly women. Anne: Oh, Spit in Her Butt. Oh! Erikka: The Spit in Her Butt Show. And they said that they found me on Voyage. Like they actually told me that that was how they found me. Anne: Wow. Erikka: And I was like, oh, ok. Anne: So that was not a job proposal. Erikka: I don't know, but I, I would decline whatever it is. Anne: Yeah, I think I'd decline. Erikka: And then they left a link, and it was like -- Anne: Oh my. Erikka: -- it's a valid show though. That's what's nuts. I didn't click the link because you know. Anne: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That looks suspicious. Erikka: But Googled a little and apparently this guy does and I was like, ew, you know, but spam. Yeah. Anne: Spam is, spam is ugh. Spam is annoying. That is for sure. And I think, you know what? That kind of is a great segue into what I think would be a great topic to talk about. 'Cause I get questions all the time about emails and email marketing. So we should talk about email marketing today. And spam is a concern. I think, let me just open up by saying there's a lot of people which will go and kind of mine the internet for production companies and email addresses to where maybe they should send their demos to and try to get on their rosters. And while that's absolutely a method to do that, the risk that you take with that is that you are probably going to be cold emailing someone. And I think that there's some considerations that you need to think about before you do that. Spam is most certainly one of them, and spam is in the broadest sense is receiving an email that you did not give permission or request. And so as business owners and trying to sell a service, we have to be very careful when we email people that we have their permission. I mean, that is the ultimate way that you need to be doing your marketing is to having permission to send to these people. But what do you do when you don't know these people? Right? Erikka: Yeah, yeah. Anne: How do you make an introduction? How do you do it without being considered spam? Because I know when I get spam, as you just mentioned, like the last thing I wanna do is contact these people ever again. 'Cause I'm annoyed, number one, how did you get my email address? How did you find me? At least the person told you how found you. Erikka: True. True. Anne: But a lot of times, yeah, a lot of times I'll just get an email in my inbox and it'll be like, hey, I can help your SEO or I can do your website or whatever that might be. And the interesting thing is that they never seem to be from a valid company. It's just like kind of an indescript email address and no signature file. And I don't know, what are some things that you look out for when you're getting emails to see if they're spam or not? Erikka: Oh man. It's the common stuff. Anne: Warning signs. Erikka: Yeah. The misspellings. Honestly, sometimes the all caps. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: Because humans just don't really write that way. Particularly like if it's coming to me in another language that I only speak English, I only have English everywhere on any presence on the web, maybe a little Spanish every once in a while, but yeah, nothing -- Anne: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Erikka: Yeah, definitely stuff like that. I don't know. Just the context. I'll I'll look at it. I definitely don't click any links, but I'll read it. But yeah, the misspellings and all that kind of stuff, usually it's in the text, you can tell. Anne: I think for me, the first thing I see is, is there a signature file, and is it coming from a proper domain? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: Right? Erikka: There you go. Anne: If it comes from like a Yahoo address or a, even a Gmail address these days, and I know there have been talks with people about, well, it's okay to just have a Gmail address for your business. And I'm like, I, I kind of have a disagreement with that because I feel like if you want to exude professionalism that at least have a domain name that is your business. And that domain name can be your name. But I feel like if it comes from Gmail, you didn't take the time to like really set up your business in a professional way. That's me. But I've had so many people say otherwise that, oh no, it's perfectly fine now to get an email address from Gmail or Yahoo. But if you're gonna do that, and then have a signature file that links back to a webpage maybe of yours, of your own domain. Right? I still feel like, again, if you wanna be, show professionalism, you should have a domain name. AnneGanguzza.com. That's me. Erikka J, right? Or even Anne Ganguzza Voice or whatever that is, it goes back to a domain that hosts a website that tells people about you. Erikka: Yeah. You've gotta establish that trust. Right? And I mean, it's so inexpensive. Like I said, I personally use Google domains. It's $12 a year, a dollar a month. I mean, why wouldn't you, you know, just to have that domain? And then setting up an email, I think it's like an additional six or something. Yeah. The Gmail or the Yahoo is definitely one. Another one to look for, particularly with spam is that they'll try to use like a known brand name, but it'll have like an extra dot or something in there. And you have to watch that 'cause you might see like Bank of America, but it's got like Bank of - America. And like that's not Bank of America, like watch that type of spam too. Anne: Right? Erikka: Yeah. Get your own domain name. It's, it's so easy. Anne: Yeah. And I think that will really do a lot. It'll do wonders for having people respond to that email, which is what we want. We don't want people to take a look at our email and get angry at us and then say, oh my gosh, I'm so annoyed that they just emailed me that and trying to sell me something that I don't ever wanna contact them again. Because that's what I do silently. I'll be like, oh I'm so. And if, especially if they send it more than once, right? If it comes like a day or two or again and again, and I can tell in Gmail 'cause it threads. Erikka: Yep. Anne: And I'll be like, all right, that's it. That's like the fifth time you sent me email and I, then I might write back. But as a business, if we're sending out emails to people who have not given us permission and guys, I say it over and over again, when you are mining the internet or you are finding production houses, and you are sending emails to the contact there, they have not typically said it's okay to send them emails. So you have to be very, very careful about what you say in that email that you're not gonna get them upset or annoyed that you are just reaching out to contact them because 200 other voice talent have found their name as well. And all they do is field off these, "hey, I'm a voice talent. Here's my demo." So I think it's important. Erikka: Yeah. The trick that I hate that people will do, and I see this probably more with like spam, legit, spam and bots. But like they try the re and the subject line to make it look like they were replying when you know, you never sent anything to them. It's like, stop trying to trick me. I know I didn't email you . Anne: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's interesting. What made me think you were talking about using a known brand or trying to kind of spin off of a brand -- I actually got like an invoice in PayPal, which was an invoice that I certainly did not -- I didn't buy anything from this person, but it came so legit with the PayPal logo 'cause it came through PayPal, but it was spam coming through PayPal in the form of an invoice where once they had the invoice, if you open the invoice, right, then they had links to probably, I don't even know 'cause I didn't click them. So people try anything to to, to contact or maybe it was phishing. Whatever it is, I think that again, as voice talent, we have to be very, very careful. There are laws. There's the Spam Can Act of 2013. There is the GDPR. There is the California Privacy Act. There are so many laws and, and regulations set in place that theoretically, if you do not put your address on the bottom of your email, and you do not offer an unsubscribe, that is considered spam. So even if you're sending an individual email out through Gmail, if it's unsolicited, if you don't have your address or a way to unsubscribe, that is considered spam and somebody could potentially legally take that up with you. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Things to watch out for. Anne: So, then what do we do? Right? What do we do? How do we market with email? That's the question of the day. VO BOSS has a direct marketing program. And the one thing that makes it different is that we have a list, but it was not a list that was something that we mined off of the internet. This is a list that was purchased. And with lists that you purchase, of course you have to be careful with that too, because you don't know how many times that list has been sold. Let's say, oh, it's a list of e-learning companies. And we sold it to 2000 voice talent already. And so you don't wanna have a list that you don't know how many times it's been used. You don't know how old it is. We don't know if there's current addresses on it. The list that I have purchased is a large list that has been in business for many, many years. They continually update addresses, and it's 90,000 plus creatives and companies that have in-house media production divisions, copywriters, creative directors, owners of companies. So this list that we have purchased, they have agreed to allow VO BOSS to market to them. And that is, I think, the number one advantage, if you want to do a direct marketing this way. You can also buy a list that has permissions built into it. This list costs a few thousand dollars, but it's one of the reasons why I started the VO BOSS blast because I was like, wow, I'm gonna buy this list. It's pretty expensive. So I can offer, uh, this 90,000 people, I can offer marketing to this list, and it's already what I call vetted. It's a vetted list. And so these people are okay with anybody from VO BOSS, sending them a marketing email. So essentially the product basically gives you a VO BOSS address. So Erikka, you would be like ErikkaJ@VOBOSS.com. So therefore it gets sent out to these companies who have already given permission. They're already expecting to hear from us, but the reply to is set to your individual email business address. So therefore when somebody wants to hire you or ask you for an audition, they basically will just reply or send an email to you. And it also has links in the email that go to your website, that go to your demos. We usually feature a project or something new that you've done. And that's essentially the concept around a direct marketing method that uses a list where people have already given permission. And that's like half the battle. Really. Erikka: Yeah. For sure. And I mean, if you're not gonna spend, you know, the thousands of dollars, obviously there's the grassroots, the organic route, right, is where you are talking to people or you have it on your website where they can actually subscribe. So they're making the choice to subscribe to your list and giving permission that way. And if you have those sort of tools built in, they obviously would have an unsubscribe option. So yeah, permission is, is the key for sure. Anne: I'm so glad that you brought that up 'cause people will say, how do I get permission? And that is, I think one of the leading ways to get permission is to have one of those pop-up windows. I have 'em on every one of my websites. And any platform has a way to do that. If you have a WordPress website, there are plugins. I used to use the plugin called Bloom. And that was the one that allowed a popup to appear once somebody was on your website and says, "hey, subscribe to my email list to get special offers or whatnot. If you wanna keep up with what's going on, sign up here." And I wanna say that that is a very valid way to get a permission based list of people that you can market to. And it's very valid. I mean, I've been doing it for years on all of my domains, on Anne Ganguzza, on VO Peeps, on VO BOSS. So anytime you see that pop-up and you say, yeah, let me sign up and keep up with what's happening with your business, that person has given you permission to email them. Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. Anne: And so there are ways to create your list. It takes a long time, I'm gonna say because not everybody that comes to your website's gonna really wanna keep up with you. I mean, a lot of us have email. I have, we've discussed my email before. Erikka: Yeah. You beat me, but mine's pretty bad too. Anne: Uh, yeah. I got a lot of unread messages and a lot of, yeah, I get a lot of email, so. But it's one of the ways, interestingly enough, Erikka people may laugh at how much email I get. But a lot of the ways that I learned how to market through email was by signing up for companies' lists. Erikka: Yes. Copy. Steal like an artist. Anne: Exactly. It's like my secret weapon. People are like, well, how'd you get so good at marketing? Oh my gosh, I sign up for company email lists. And then I, I observe and I say, okay, what kind of information are they sending out? Not only do I observe how to market myself, but I observe how I might be able to help that company 'cause I can see how they're marketing to their clients. And therefore it's like a double cool thing because, number one, I'm learning how to market, number two, I'm learning about this company and what their needs are. So then how can I serve those needs? So I can just bring it back to them and just say, hey, I really love what you're doing with this product, blah blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever it might be. Just wanted to reach out and say, hey. And even if you don't even say like I do voiceovers, it could just be like, hey, I signed up your mailing list. I love your product. I think it's super interesting. Just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration. And boom, you're done. Don't even mention that you're a voice artist, but in your signature file, guess what? Erikka: There you go, there you go. Anne: You're a voice artist. So you start to develop that relationship first. Erikka, like how do you find new leads and contacts? Erikka: You know, I am not one to do much of the email or direct marketing. It's just, this is not my jam at least not at the moment. It's sort of on my long range roadmap to probably outsource that moreso, the lead generation part. But I will say that when I was moreso doing music and I'm probably gonna date myself here, but I was using MailChimp So they still run, but I did it the grassroots way. So it was like people that I knew were already engaged with my brand, people that I knew were already buying from me, I started with that. And then I would just say, "hey, you know, I've got this thing, I have this newsletter that I'm starting. Do you wanna stay up to date?" And most of them said, yeah, sure. And then I just had them click, and it automated, and I built this database of about 500 people. So when I had a new release or I had a new piece of merch coming out, you know, I sent the one, and it went out to everybody, so I kind of did that. But yeah, as far as lead generation, now I'm more so -- I like the passive stuff. So I love the SEO. I use P-to-P's. I have my agents and my managers, but I really, really kind of leverage the SEO so that I have more walking into my website passively because I don't really love to email market. I do have a couple where it's like brands that I'm super engaged with. Just like you said, I'm like, I love this product. I love what you guys are doing. If I can ever help in any way, please let me know, and I just send it, and I have all my information in my signature. So I'm not really selling. It's just there for them. If they wanna see it. Anne: Well, exactly. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Exactly. You're expressing an interest in them, and you're not trying to take anything back. Erikka: Yep. Yep. Anne: You're not trying to push yourself on them. And I think that that's really wonderful, and I do believe that email marketing, it is just one way. Obviously we always wanna know how to get work. And we have a whole episode that we did on SEO, which I love because that is also one of my favorite methods of getting work is just having people find me and then listening to the demos. And if they're strategic, target marketed demos, which is what I'm all about, they listen to it, they love what they hear. They then contact you and say, "hey, how much would it cost to do this?" So I love that. But I also think a combination of that along with your talent agents, along with maybe pay to plays, along with direct marketing through a list, can really provide you with the opportunities to really get out there and get work so that you can make it a successful endeavor, this career, as voiceover, because that's gotta be the number one question, right? How do I get work? How do I get work? And how do I email mark? it's something that people are, they're kind of terrified if they've never done it before. And the first thing you have to be aware of is when you go and mine the internet for those addresses is that you've gotta be careful of talking to people when they haven't given you permission. It's also like when somebody calls you up, how many -- like I actually have a phone at my home that is not my cell phone. And we get spam calls every single day. And so you don't wanna be like that. when you're sending out email, but if you can send out email marketing, the cool thing is, is to send it out to people who've already given you their permission to do that. And the other cool thing is if you do hire or outsource, let's say, do a BOSS Blast, what happens is we kind of represent you without being an agent. So we're like on behalf of VO BOSS, check out millennial voiceover talent, or check out Erikka J. She's got the smooth promo sounds of whatever it is that you, whatever genre that you want to talk about in your promo or in your email marketing, we can focus on that. And it's on behalf of another brand that is trusted, that has already been given permission. And so that's even cooler because it's not like I, I, I, I, I, here's what I've done. It's about VO BOSS presenting you as the talent that is established, that is credible. And that's the other thing too, is that VO BOSS doesn't do this marketing for everybody. I mean, we vet the people that we market for. And we have to make sure that you have a well-established brand, that you've got good demos that we can market and things that we can do. Because if I get labeled as a spammer, VO BOSS gets labeled as a spammer, guess what? My entire BOSS Blast business is out of business. So I have to be hyper aware of what's being sent out and coming back and make sure that it's not going to be considered spam. So you better believe that we've got many eyes looking at that email going out, making sure that it's good and that it's not spam. I'm gonna say, think about your own email and the emails that you get on a day to day basis. What do you consider spam? And then think about how you are marketing email wise to people. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's what it's all about, talking about our balance theme is having a balanced approach to lead generation, whether that's P2Ps, agents, managers, email marketing, social media marketing, because that works too, using hashtags, or like you said, not, I, I, I; you know, talking about a recent job that you did, how you were happy to help this brand or this company, or promote this new product. All those sorts of things help you with lead generations. So having a balanced approach to that is super important. Anne: Yeah. Wow. Erikka: Wow. Yeah. Anne: Good discussion. Erikka: One more thing about email marketing I kind of wanted to touch on real quick. We, we kind of started to was the signature. I think it's important that you make sure that you have a good signature. You know, there are tons of tools out there for you to go build it. It doesn't necessarily have to be super fancy, but if you can get it branded, that's great. And there are tools that can help you do that, but you know, make it easy for them to find you and to find your work, to know what you do. If you choose to put a picture, but at minimum, at least like your website and some way to contact you maybe outside of that email. But yeah, I think that's important because if you are sending an email to market, that might be your only shot to make an impression. Anne: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And actually I think that, remember, it was the first thing that I look at when somebody sends me an email, do they have a signature file? Is it coming from a valid domain, a valid company? Does it look legit? And so I think your signature is super important. And by the way, I use Wise Signature. I think I spend $39 a year. And it allows you to put all sorts of really cool, like your social media icons, you can put links to your demos, and it makes it look really nice too. I love a nice, a nice signature. Erikka: Yeah. I've used them. I use Signature IO, same type deal where I can put graphics and colors and all that stuff so that it's branded. So yeah, like you said, it does establish trust, but I kind of wanted to touch on like the aesthetics of it alone, just being eye-catching and being like, oh, makes me wanna go click and look at it. Anne: Absolutely, absolutely, great suggestion. All right. Well, hey, I know we can talk about email all day long but I think this was a great start. I'd like to give a great big shout-out to our sponsor, 100 Voices Who Care. You guys can have an opportunity to have your voice make a difference. You can find out more at 100voiceswhocare.org. And of course, to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect and network like a BOSS and find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week. Thanks so much for joining us this week, and we'll see you next week. Erikka: Bye! Anne: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

What do Google, P2Ps, and Instagram all have in common? They are search engines! This week, Anne & Erikka talk tech. More specifically, SEO and how you can use keywords to improve your searchability & business. Our websites and online profiles are our digital storefronts. The words we put on them are the secret to getting found by clients, so specificity and consistency are essential. Listen up Bosses, we've got tips & tricks just for you! Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am here back with special guest co-host Erikka J. Hey Erikka. Erikka: Hey Anne, how are you today? Anne: I'm doing good. What's going on with you? Erikka: Oh, nothing, man. Just happy to be back and happy to have -- actually, I just had a job that walked in on my website, and I was so excited because I love getting those. Anne: Ah, oh my God. I love that. You said that because walking in on your website, that's the best kind of job to get because you don't have to do all the work of auditioning. They've already come to your website. They've heard your demos. And they've liked what they've heard, and then they contact you and say how much? Erikka: Yeah. They just walk in and wanna hand you money for you doing the talking. So I love that. Anne: I love that. That is such an efficient way to work. Not that -- look, I'm not gonna blast anybody who auditions. I mean, I audition. I audition for my agents every day and thankfully I'm busy because I do a lot of things in my business that I don't really have a ton of time to audition outside of, for my agents. And so when it comes in on my website or however they find me online, I absolutely love the inquiry because they don't necessarily need an audition. They're just saying here's my job. How much will it cost? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, talking about balance, yeah sure, we do auditions every day. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: And that's a great way to land work. And a lot of the work that we get from our agents where we have to audition are those big, you know, really great jobs, but having a balanced approach to your business and having a diverse set of leads that come in, having that walk-in money where you don't really have to do that audition work. And it's just like, hey, we want you to do this job. We saw your website and love your work. And when can we schedule a session and how much? Like, that's great. It's a good balance. Anne: Love it, love it. And so I think so important to talk about is SEO, because that plays a large part in how people find you online, a large part in how people find me and my website, and then pretty much say, hey, I like your voice. How much will it cost? So let's talk a little bit about SEO, search engine optimization. I know a lot of people like get discombobulated when we start talking about technological things like that and SEO. And disclaimer here, I am not an SEO expert, but I have definitely employed certain things on my website that have allowed me to be found easier. And it has really contributed greatly to those people that walk in and ask for work from me, which I think is amazing. Erikka, what about your experiences? Erikka: Absolutely. I mean, if you think about it, when it gets a little intimidating, you just think about SEO, as Anne said, stands for search engine optimization. What is Google? A search engine. What are all these social media sites essentially? A search engine. Even the P2Ps, a search engine, they're looking for things. So all you're doing is optimizing your website so that you are found more easily on that search engine when they're searching for things that are relevant to your website. Anne: Yes, absolutely. Or your online presence. I know. I -- Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. Anne: -- I bring it back to the website because I think the website is the core of who our businesses are. And the core website will allow anyone to come find me, listen to my demos and then pay me money. So it's like a full cycle. That's my online storefront. And so let's talk about how we can optimize our online presence for good SEO, Erikka. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: What's the first thing? Erikka: I think for me, I saw the jump when I went into -- 'cause currently my site is based on SquareSpace. I'm in the process of moving over to WordPress. But there is, if you dig into those sites, there are sections that are specifically for SEO. And if you go in there and you start putting in, I use keywords that I know when someone who is looking for me or my type of sound or what I bring to the table as a voice talent, I'm putting those keywords in my SEO box so that when they're searching for Black female voice talent, or authoritative, or sounds like Viola Davis or whatever, I'm coming up in those options. So I think that's number one is making sure that you have the right copy on your website and the right terms that are specifically driving SEO on your website listed there. Anne: Let's talk a little bit more about keywords because I think keywords are what, you know, people are like, well, what keywords should I use? And I think keywords are very specific to everybody, every person. And I think everybody wants to be found for the keyword voiceover. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: You know? Erikka: Everybody, Anne: Everybody. And here's the deal. The sites that have a lot of people that have voiceover in their profile, that word, are going to be the ones that get found first because there's many occurrences. So keywords are, basically in Google, if you rank highly for a particular keyword, you will show up on the first page, which is desirable to show up on the first page. 'Cause many people, when they search myself included, I don't always go to the second or third pages. However, I will say, Erikka, I don't know if you've noticed recently, there's been an awful lot of ads on the first page of Google lately. Erikka: There have. Anne: A lot. Erikka: Definitely. And not just Google, but like, you know, I went to like search for a restaurant on like Yelp or something, and it was like, it wasn't necessarily the best, but it was ranked first because it was sponsored, and you have to look for that word, and it's like, oh wait. . So yeah, lots of ads. Anne: And so I think that by the way, Erikka, this is probably another podcast episode, but thinking about marketing and ads, adding ads into your daily practice could be something that would be worthwhile. And again, that's another investment, but I say that just because I'm noticing the increase on the first page of Google of ads showing up. And so you wanna make sure that the keyword that people search for will show up your entry on the first page, if possible, because not many people click to the second or third pages. However, I will say because of the amount of ads I have been going to the second page more often now. Erikka: Yeah. I've seen that. Anne: But what makes a good keyword? So of course you can put voiceover in your body of text that you put on your website or on your profile. But I also think you definitely need to target it more specifically to what you want to be found for. So for example, if somebody typed in voiceover coach or commercial voiceover coach, and I'd have to keep checking right now, but I have certain words that I wanna be found for. But if somebody types in commercial VO coach, that's a different set of words than commercial voiceover coach. So keep that in mind because people say, well, I didn't find you when I searched for you under commercial VO coach. And I'm like, well, that doesn't necessarily mean that you won't find me under commercial voiceover coach. So I think a lot of times in order to get yourself found on that first page, try to think specifically and narrow down that focus on your target. So for example, if I say "commercial voiceover Orange County," I will show up on the first page exactly. Or "narration voiceover coach Orange County," that kind of thing. And if I don't, by the time this airs , I will, I will be working to make sure that that happens because I have a certain set of words that I wanna be found for. Now, it would be great if I could be found for voiceover coach, that in general, but there's a lot of voiceover coaches out there that use that as well as their a search term. So it really behooves you to think about what it is that you wanna be found for. Erikka: Absolutely being specific is so key 'cause like you said, everyone is gonna have voiceover and not just that, but the first page, if you just have voiceover or even VO or just those sort of generic terms, you're gonna get eaten up by the sites that are corporations that have thousands of dollars into voiceover, some of the P2Ps. Anne: Exactly. Erikka: You know what I mean? So you're gonna get pushed down and, and maybe not even be in the first three pages. You'll get found for what you wanna get found for, for what really your niche is because we all have different areas of expertise. Anne: Exactly. Erikka: Not just in genre, but in like how our voice sounds like, how do you describe your voice?What adjectives do you use? What celebrity references would you compare your voice to? Anne: I think celebrity references are great too. Erikka: Oh yeah. Yeah. Anne: So many people forget about that, their soundalike, and that really helps. And I think you should absolutely put that on your website. Because that will help target the search even more. Yeah. Erikka: Alt text in photos is another good thing to have just to get your site higher ranked in general. The better that Google likes your website, doing things like to make it clean and having the hierarchy right so you get site mapped, and that's where like if you search for a website and you'll see where it says, like if you search for Erikka J, you'll see like about and voiceover and music, like you'll see the different subpages on the Google initial search, that means you've been site mapped. So Google kind of ranks you higher just for that reason alone. So a lot of different things to consider. Anne: Well, I think that that's wonderful. I think, so number one is knowing that. The way search engine optimization works is, or the way search engines work is they pretty much keyword or they index your website with all the words on it. And so when somebody says to you, oh, I think that your website is too busy or it's too wordy. I always say, mm, think again. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: I mean, if you ever look at my website, I've got words everywhere. And so the reason for that is for SEO purposes. I want to be able to be found. And so these people they're like, I really want clean voiceover webpages that, you know, you can get to the demos right away, which I agree with, but I'll tell you what. Clean doesn't necessarily mean that you're not being verbose about who you are and what kind of a business you are. Because when I search for, let's say, I wanna find a particular product, like I'm trying to find green chickpeas. I just say that -- Erikka: That's pretty particular. Anne: It's particular, and it's very difficult to find green chickpeas, but when I type that in the websites that come back, I wanna be able to click on them and immediately purchase. And so when somebody types in those keywords for you, commercial voiceover or explainer narrator, whatever that is, you wanna show up on that first page. And then when they click on you, you want that page to be accessible and easy to buy. Erikka: Yes. Yes. Anne: Easy to buy and look professional. So I think in terms of the SEO, the search engine optimization being optimized for your site, I think it helps to have more words that accurately describe who your business is and what words you wanna be found as. So you must include those. And you mentioned the alt text, which is great. And somebody who doesn't necessarily design websites may not know what that is. But that is text that you put around an image in the code of the HTML of the website, which you can do if you understand a little bit about WordPress or whatever your website has been developed in. My websites are all in Wix now. I was using WordPress and then my websites became very complex in terms of eCommerce happening. I have a CRM embedded. I have email that I'm sending from these websites. So Wix kind of worked out for me for that because it had all of those embedded into the website, those capabilities. And with that, any web provider, if it's Wix, if it's WordPress, you know, hosted on a GoDaddy website, whatever it is, they're going to have some sort of provision for SEO where you can insert keywords. That is very, very helpful, not only having the words on your website, and I think also dividing your website into different sections. So like I have a commercial voiceover landing page. I have a corporate narration landing page. I have an explainer landing page, a telephony landing page. And so that just makes it even easier to find, because again, I can put more of those words on my website by having specific landing pages Erikka: And it's more targeted. So I mean, you know, obviously we're talking about having the right copy and having, you know, these SEO terms. You don't wanna word vomit, right, and just have like all the words that you think are gonna get you found. It still has to be cohesive and make sense. And it has to be true. Nothing's worse -- I don't know about you guys, but if I'm searching for like great Mexican food near me and I get something that's totally unrelated, that's annoying, and it pisses your buyer off. So make sure it's still relevant. So definitely getting those pages that are relevant to the topic can target who you're trying to talk to with that demographic. And I believe it may have changed 'cause I know Google was more so understood words and they're starting to have more like a computer vision where they can understand images more. But I think having at least 500 words was the cutoff last I heard from someone that worked at Google per page to get it kind of recognized and rank. Anne: Yeah. I think they're starting to recognize words within photos as well. Erikka: They are. Yep. Yep. Anne: I absolutely think that having, first of all, more words and targeted words that make sense -- by the way, you'll get penalized, if you just do what they call keyword stuffing. So you can't just throw in the words. And as a matter of fact, if you throw in more words like voiceover talent or voiceover or VO and you put too many of them in your pages and they don't make sense, you'll get penalized and you certainly don't want that to happen. And by the way, I always tell people that SEO is one of those things. Now we talk about Google, right, because that's my search engine. I don't really go to any other search engine. Do you, Erikka? Erikka: I don't. Anne: Yeah. So in reality there are other search engines, but I really don't use any. It's always Google, and nobody knows really Google's algorithm unless you work for Google. And that is a proprietary thing. And I remember SEO people would study that and there are different versions of the Google algorithm that come out and they name them. And so every time Google would come out with a new algorithm, they'd say, well -- and I think one of 'em was called like the penguin. I can't remember, but everybody would come out and say, okay, since Google's new algorithm, here's what you need to do to get good SEO. And so I'm just gonna say, if you don't work for Google, you don't know you don't. You just don't. So if you have somebody that comes to you and says, I can make you show up on the front page, I want you to probably just run far away. Because I just have never really believed people 'cause that used to be a real business. People would just be, they were SEO people and we can get you on the front page and you pay us all this money. And in reality they would keyword stuff. And that was back in the day. And I still have people who email me and spam me about SEO and getting myself on the front page. So beware -- Erikka: Me too. Anne: -- that, unless they work for Google, they don't really know. And I'm all about, and I think Erikka, you too, I'm all about organic SEO, and organic is absolutely let's write the verbiage. Let's use the words on our website and in our profiles that accurately describes who we are, what we do and what we would like to be found for and not keyword stuff. And that's worked wonders for me in the past years because as I mentioned before, I have a lot of different divisions of my business that I work at. And I don't have time to audition all the time. So for me getting work that finds me or getting clients that find me first, then they have the opportunity to listen to the demos on my site. And if my demos are targeted to the specific genre, and they nail the sound that the client is looking for, boom, I've just taken care of half of the work in terms of getting that lead and then solidifying it so that I can get paid. Erikka: Yeah, absolutely. You don't want someone to find you and then they find that you weren't the right match. You don't want to attract the wrong client and ends up wasting your time. So the more targeted and sort of more strategic that you are with those keywords to make the right match happen automated, take that manual workout for yourself, it's a win for both sides. So absolutely. Anne: I like how you said you don't wanna attract the wrong client. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: And interestingly enough, I always hear about people talking about being low balled in a lot of the Facebook groups and they'll be like, oh, you know, they only offered me this or this is what they're offering. And I'm like, interestingly enough, I never quite meet clients like that. And I'm going to very humbly attribute it to a great web designer, my great web designer who shall remain nameless because they can't take on anymore clients and a great writer for the verbiage of which I worked many, many years myself on on trying to hone that and really working with someone to figure out who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I wanna be found online? And really working, not just a day on that. It has evolved over years of writing, rewriting and a lot of work. And it has been, I think one of the most successful things that I've ever done for my business that has garnered me, I'm gonna say, three quarters of my income was a great website with great verbiage that says exactly who I am, targets who I want to find me, and just gets me work without me having to go and cold call people or email people or whatever it is, just being found. And it's not just the website, but it's a website in combination with social media profiles. And also not just the words on the website, but I know we're specifically talking SEO, but the words in combination with the actual website that looks professional enough so that people, when they see it, they trust it, and they're willing to click and buy so to speak. Erikka: Yeah. One of the best compliments I got was somebody told me, oh, your website looks expensive. And I was like -- Anne: Yeah, right? Erikka: -- perfect! because I want clients that, that know they're not going to get a $50 voiceover from me. Anne: And that's it. And then I guess that was the long story of me getting back to your point about you don't wanna attract the wrong client. If somebody comes to me, they're not gonna offer me $.08 a word. You know what I mean? For e-learning. I'm not even attracting that type of client. I'm attracting the type of client that is going to be willing to pay. And funny enough, I was like, and now of course I'm gonna have another one of those moments, but I said something to my husband, I said yesterday, I don't even care what it costs, but I am hunting for this product because I want it to be the right product. And I want it to be quality product, and I'm willing to pay for it. And that I think is something so important for us as business owners and entrepreneurs that we understand that. I shop online all the time. I love online shopping. I think it's the best thing since sliced bread personally. Erikka: Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, think about how it is when, when you guys are shopping, when -- there are times when you're more budget driven, when you're like, all right, what can I get what I need for the lowest price? And there are times like you just said, Anne, you know, when you're like, look, I don't care what it costs, but I need a certain level of quality. Anne: Yeah. I need this. I'm just gonna particular brand or yep. Erikka: Yep. And that's what you want your brand, your website, your digital storefront to say about you. Anne: Yep. You wanna be the Kleenex. Erikka: Yes. There you go. The Puffs Plus with lotion Anne: I need the Anne Ganguzza of voiceover. And also I wanna just mention that everybody should always have their name associated with their business, AnneGanguzza.com. And I tell people, I want you to be the Kleenex of voiceover. I need that Anne Ganguzza. Oh, I'm sorry. I need an Anne Ganguzza, you know, that kind of thing. I need an Erikka J . Really, that is important. And there's so many people that come up with these clever little names for their URLs and I'm like, well, that's great, but also have your name. Right? Erikka: Well, use them and, and I guess this is sort of a little, it's still kind of related to SEO in a way, but you can do that and use redirects. That's one thing I do a lot because people frequently forget that I have two K's in my name or where they wanna put two RS or whatever. So I have had other things like EJ Voiceover that are easier to find, but it still redirects you to ErikkaJ.com. Anne: Absolutely. Erikka: So you can still do those little clever names that get people's attention and have it tell them what your name is when they get there. Anne: Unless you have somebody else out there with another name that might be, I don't know, somebody undesirable that you may not wanna be found for. Then I say, add the word, voice or voiceover afterwards, you know, Anne Ganguzza Voiceover. Everybody's like, well, Anne Ganguzza, isn't that difficult to spell? I'm like, well, I'm a Kleenex. So -- Erikka: Teach them. Anne: And like, Erikka J, I will tell you, Erikka, I learned right away because you're somebody I wanted to know. I knew I wanted to be in contact. I immediately remembered the two Ks and not two RS. Erikka: Aww. Thank you. Anne: But it's true. Right? So I just now know -- Erikka: It's true. Anne: And I think that any client, right, that wants you, they learn it and that's it. And you stay in their brains and that is what makes you unique. And I love your last name. It's so like Ganguzza... Anne: Thank you. It is a cool name. Isn't it? It's one of the reasons why I took it Erikka: Right, right, right, right, right. You're like, honey, this is a business decision. Anne: Well, it kind of was. My name before was Lucy, and that was also a cool name. So I just thought Anne Ganguzza was a cool sounding name, but Anne Lucy was always also really a cool name 'cause people sometimes would call me Lucy instead of Anne. But when I first started, I picked a URL and I said, Annespeaks.com. And I thought it was so clever. And the funny thing is, is that nobody searched for Anne -- like, what is an Anne speaks? Is that like a noun? What is that? I mean, you would like it to be, but in the beginning it did not serve me well, even though I thought I was so clever. Erikka: That's memorable, you know? Yeah. But like Anne Ganguzza, how can you forget that? Anne: That's right. And if you want Anne Ganguzza, you'll know how to spell that name. Erikka: That's right. That's right. Anne: That's the point. You'll find it. That's the point. So don't worry BOSSes out there. If you have a name that's difficult to spell, I always say, get that name and then get redirects. Like things that are easier, like your first name voiceover.com or whatever. But that again is part of the SEO as well. Not just the words that you have on your website, but also in your URL. Erikka: Yes. Anne: So if they are words that people typically search for that you wanna be found, you can also include those in your URL. And it's not expensive these days -- Erikka: Not at all, not at all. Anne: -- to get additional URLs, to buy additional domain names. And then let's see, I have about 11 websites, Erikka. How many do you have? Erikka: Oh man. Err... More than 10. Anne: There you go. There you go. So the thing is, is I think for people who have been in the business and have a little bit of at least knowledge about SEO and understand the, the advantages and the benefits, you can create what you mentioned before, those redirects, that go to your website. So I also happen to have the eLearningvoice.com, medical-narration.com, phone-voice.com and all of these other genre based website domains. And they have, again, more words on the page that discuss who I am. Right? What my business does, my voiceover for explainers or voiceovers for telephony, voiceovers for -- and that also contributes to my overall SEO in the world of online searching. And so I pay for those websites. I pay for the maintenance of those websites. And so it is an investment, guys. But I, I think if anybody has a problem finding me online, they maybe don't know how to type it properly because -- Erikka: Well, I mean, that's what it's all about is being easy to be found. So what can you do to make it easy for people to find you? Because the internet is vast . I mean, it is so big So what are you gonna do to help people filter through the noise to find you? Anne: Google yourself. Erikka: Oh my goodness, yes. In an incognito window, which means that it's not looking at your cookies or anything like that or any, it's not seeing it through the lens of anything else you've searched. If you use Chrome or whatever browser, but you should see like in, I know in Chrome, in the upper right corner, there's like three dots. And if you click that, it'll say new incognito window and it'll be like dark. That means that you're in like, almost like a brand new browser and -- Anne: it's a dark window. Erikka: -- if you Google -- it's the dark web. Anne: You Google yourself in the dark window, on the dark web. Erikka: Google yourself. And then you will see how you are coming up from the dark web. No. Anne: But that's so important. Erikka: Seriously. Yeah. It's is. It is. Anne: That is so important. Erikka: You'll be shocked. Anne: And I say, Google yourself regularly, because you don't wanna be found for things that maybe you don't wanna be found for. Erikka: Right. Or old things, you know, like -- Anne: Exactly. I love that. You said old things because that's so important that we make sure that you clean up, make sure you clean up online. If you can. It's really difficult sometimes to completely clean up things that have been said. And that again, could be another podcast episode. If you've said things online, your social posts show up online as well. Erikka: Yes, they do. Anne: They do.   Erikka: I've definitely seen Twitter posts come up in a Google search for me. And I was like, oh, okay. Anne: So if you searched your name, right, Anne Ganguzza, I think the first thing, if it's properly done, that should come up is your website. Erikka: Should be, yes. Anne: Right? Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: And if you have multiple pages on your website, which I think is a good thing, and Erikka, I believe that you agreed with me, you'll see like you're about section, you'll see whatever that might be about, demos, those types of things, whatever sections, they should also show up. And then I think the next thing might be either YouTube or LinkedIn or whatever your social media social profiles are. I think YouTube possibly is the next one that come up. Erikka: It depends on the one you're most active in, honestly. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: If you're not super active on YouTube, like me, like I haven't posted anything with there in a while, bad Erikka but yeah. Anne: Yeah. So the next thing for me is YouTube. 'Cause I've been doing a little blurb on YouTube trying to yeah -- and again, that's another thing that I've been doing to try to increase my SEO is I've been putting out weekly videos. And so not only for VO BOSS, do I put out weekly videos, but for Anne Ganguzza I do. So for each brand I'm putting out well VO Peeps, I mean I'm only one person, but as most people know, I have a team of people that help me. I have been putting my own videos out on Anne Ganguzza to try to increase the Anne Ganguzza brand and VO BOSS, we do all of our episodes weekly. We put that on YouTube as well, just to contribute to the SEO. And as a matter of fact, we also transcribe our episodes as well to help any possible type of SEO. So if you were to search or if you listen to any of the episodes on, let's say Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you'll see that the transcripts are there as well. Erikka: Yeah. And I think, I think LinkedIn is another one that comes up heavy for me because it is one of the largest -- Anne: Yes, me too. Erikka: -- social media platforms in the world. And a lot of people sleep on LinkedIn. I know in our community we talk about it more, but seriously it's like, 'cause you know, it's like it's Facebook in a suit. You know, people say that, but -- Anne: It is Facebook in a suit. Erikka: But just about everybody's there. So -- Anne: Everybody's on it. Yes, absolutely. And you're right. And now there's the feed. And so I'm posting daily to that, and I'm trying to post content that matters. So another thing that can help you with SEO is to publish content and update it regularly or new content. And so I also blog on a weekly basis, and one of my blogs every week is my video that I've put on YouTube, which I've then transcribed, which then becomes a blog of mine. And then I also write a blog every other week. So that again are words that come back to my website so that again, people can find me easily. Erikka: Yeah. Another thing I did fairly recently, which I probably need to do some maintenance work on, but I'd created a business on Google business. Anne: Oh yes. Good idea. Erikka: Which is easy to do. And then that way you could actually get people to write reviews for you too. So yeah. You can come up there and show up as a business. So. Anne: That's the other thing, when you do a Google search on yourself, that should show up. That and Yelp always showed up pretty high up. But I think lately they've not been coming up as high up in the search. Erikka: I haven't seen Yelp as high lately, but -- Anne: Yeah. You know, well, there's so many issues with Yelp, I think with people sabotaging other businesses by writing bad reviews and that sort of thing, which was a real thing. Erikka: Yeah. I mean, SEO's kind of like credit scores, right? Like you said, the algorithm changes all the time. You get the most information that you can to try to optimize, but you're not gonna master it because it's proprietary to those companies, and they put a lot of money into keeping them very secret and specialized. Just do the best you can. Anne: So consider, you know, I'm thinking for the future, it's gonna be something I've been looking at too. I mean, if you're not advertising already, think about that. Because it's becoming more and more prevalent out there, but for sure, understand who you are, define who you are as a business, figure out what keywords you want to be found for, make sure that they appear in your websites, make sure they appear in your social media profiles and try to just Google yourself every week or so. And longevity by the way, has something to do with it. So make sure that you are Googling yourself every week, every other week, and you too can win at the SEO game, and it's not that complicated. Erikka: It's not. And bringing it back to our balance theme, you know, it's like we do things actively to get these leads and to get these jobs every day, like auditions or you know, some people on P2Ps or doing your direct marketing. SEO is something that you can do passively so that work just walks in the door. Anne: There you go. I love it. Wow. I could talk another half an hour on this at least. Erikka: I could. I think we both talk a lot, Anne because we get paid for it. Anne: Ah, there we go. Yeah. Well BOSSes, you can use your voice to make an immediate difference and give back to the communities that give to you. Visit 100voiceswhocare.org to find out more. You can absolutely make a difference for a small, quarterly contribution. And a great big shout-out to our sponsor. ipDTL. You too can network and communicate like BOSSes like Erikka J and I, and find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing, and we'll see you next week. Bye! Erikka: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voboss.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

How do you plan to avoid risk? BOSSES, we're here to help! In this episode, Anne & Erikka dive into the essential planning every entrepreneur should be doing for balance in their business & life. From setting up your 401k to planning for retirement, they bring it all back to how balance is managing and planning for what the future holds. Set up your will, find a good life insurance plan, and know that your future self will be thanking you for all the hard work. Transcript >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and today I am back with my brand new series, Balance, with our special guest. Co-host Erikka J. Hey Erikka. Erikka: Hey Anne. Hey BOSSes. Anne: How are you? Erikka: I'm pretty good. How about you? Anne: Thankfully? I am good today. Not that I was really bad any other day, but I've had a few doctor's appointments recently. It got me to thinking, because I still visit my oncologist every few months and I had had some troubling blood results, which are fine, everybody. It's fine. And I'm very thankful about that, but it made me think about what if, God forbid, something should happen to me, and I was unable to work at my full time voiceover career for a certain amount of time or what if I was out for a couple months if I had to have surgery or, or whatnot? And I thought it would be a really good discussion to have. It may not be the most happy pleasant discussion to have, but I think it's an important one to have for BOSSes that run their own business. Erikka: Absolutely. I'm a big proponent of balance in looking at it's easy to think about the present and all the things that you have to do to presently run your business. But to take a balanced approach is also to think about planning for the future. So -- Anne: Yeah, absolutely. Erikka: -- things happen that we don't like, you know, either we get sick or no one wants to say it, but one day we're gonna die, all of us. We have that in common and hopefully one thing happy to talk about is one day we'll all retire and just be able to do the things that we love, even though we love this work. But you know, maybe just being able to go to the beach and make that be your job, you know, so planning for retirement. Anne: Yeah. Such great points. And you know, I've made it fairly clear to many people that know me, that I am planning for retirement. And I don't wanna have to be burdened with, oh my gosh, where's my money coming from? I wanna be able to enjoy my retirement. So let's talk about the things that maybe when you are a creative entrepreneur, we don't necessarily invest in that help us to plan for the future. I mean, number one, health insurance, of course. And I'll tell you, my story is, well, my husband works. And so I'm taking advantage of that. And I take advantage of his healthcare plan, which thankfully has been a good one. And we make sure that we get the best that we can get just simply because I have had health challenges in the past. And it really is a lifesaver when it comes to money in terms of whatever we have to pay out when I go to see the doctor, right. It's kind of crazy. So I think health insurance is super important. And I know if you are union and you are in a certain level of earnings, you can take advantage of the healthcare that they offer. Erikka: Yeah. Actually, everybody knows that currently I'm still have a full-time job. So I'm somewhat in the same position as you, Anne, in that I still have corporate insurance, but I am about, I think like $50 away from qualifying for SAG insurance. Anne: It's there you go. Erikka: It's like $49 and change. It's pretty funny actually. but that's definitely something I'm looking at, even as if it's a possibility to have a secondary. Anne: Well, that's what I was just gonna ask you. Like that's not something that you would replace your current corporate health insurance. Erikka: No, no. No, not for now. I mean, obviously the whole corporate job, that's where I'm at today. Will I still be doing that 10 years from now, doing both? I doubt it. So kind of just having that plan for the future and making sure that me and my family have health insurance. Anne: And it's not a guarantee anymore that when you go to work for a company that you're going to get health insurance these days. There has been a pandemic. And I think that there's probably no more important time to maybe think about health insurance as when there's a pandemic happening. And you wanna make sure that you keep yourselves healthy and can pay for any care that you might need. And especially now let's say you get long-term COVID and that affects you. You were a full-time voice talent. Even if you weren't a full-time voice talent, if you're part-time and you can't voice, what are you going to do? So what about health insurance that could be a secondary health insurance? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I think that's a great segue to number two is disability insurance. That's something that a lot of corporations offer as well, but if you're not working for a corporation or maybe it's just not as affordable, there are independent disability policies out there. And I do have one, even though I have the corporate job to supplement. So if you can't voice for a few weeks, you can still get some income. Anne: Right. That's actually so smart of you. So what made you make that decision to purchase independent insurance? Erikka: Yeah, I think it was probably -- God. How long ago? At least maybe like seven or eight years ago, I started talking to a financial planner, and we started talking about life insurance and sort of disability insurance comes up in that conversation because it's all about wealth protection. Right? So even though it's making you great money, it's like, again, something happens to you, and that is gone or a lot of corporations with the long term disability, it cuts you down to like 60%. My father had a really bad accident that almost killed him four years ago. And his disability insurance, you know, like, I think like the first week or two was like short term and it's 100%, but then it went down to 60%. He had a mortgage, you know, a dog, like, you know, you don't plan for these kind of things to happen. So you have to have that contingency plan in place. So it really just made me think I had two kids. I was a single mom at the time. And it was like, you know, if something happens, I gotta make sure that we're okay. And I am risk averse. Like the definition, look at dictionary, Erikka J's picture is there. So So I like to have a plan and plan ABC. So I needed to have life insurance and disability. Anne: And you know, what's so interesting. Even health insurance, I'm just gonna backtrack. Just a touch, because it's not a secret. I had some expensive surgery, not so long ago. And in a year, if you have a decent insurance plan, a lot of times they'll say, well, we'll cover you up to... And then after so much money that you put into it out of pocket, we cover 100%. Well, what happens is when you reach that number where you shouldn't typically have to pay anymore out of pocket, guess what? They start determining the procedures that are actually qualify for that. I've got, see, I got so upset about it. I was, I couldn't even get it out. So yeah, some procedures and some portions of your doctor visits or, or procedures, they are not covered under that. I was like, well, look, at least I made my goal. So now I shouldn't have to pay anything else for my next, you know, set of tests that come back. No, come to find out that a lot of that stuff, some of it isn't covered under the policy and the plan. And so you really have to read those plans carefully and the fine print, 'cause a lot of times they make it sound a whole lot better than it might be. Erikka: And I'll backtrack with you, Anne, I'll run back to where you are. Not all health insurance plans are equal, right? So even the ones that are offered by corporations or by, you know, whatever, you know, full-time job you might have or part-time, it might be that if you qualify for SAG insurance, it might be that that plan is better. You have to look at the deductible, you have to look at what is and is not covered at what percentage who's in network that's close to where you are. You know, so just having a plan and not just kind of taking what's thrown at you and looking at your options is super important for health insurance and dental, dental. Oh my goodness, dental. We talk, please take care of your mouth. Anne: Is there any dental plan that covers more than a $1000 worth of work. That's what I wanna know. Erikka: Yeah. I don't think so. Anne: Because I think everybody has the same plan, and it covers up to $1000, and yet some of those dental procedures are way more than that. Especially I know I went through implant surgery a couple years back, and I had to strategically time it so that I got maximum amount of coverage one year, and then I could get the rest of it the following year. And so -- Erikka: We did the same. Anne: -- thankfully I could schedule things a little bit apart so that I could strategically get more money. And that's so important for us, right? I mean, in the middle of those surgeries, you know, my voice changed because I didn't have teeth maybe, or I had teeth or I was having a problem with my teeth, and I was in pain. So that's definitely something to think about. Now, most people, and I'm gonna come back to the short term disability, most people don't even think about short-term disability these days because it's just one of those kind of, I don't know, rare things. But the problem with thinking about it in that way is that it only takes one thing to happen where you will need short term disability or in long term disability. And that's when it becomes uber important that you have protected yourself. Erikka: Absolutely. And that's the balanced mindset, right? Is like none of us want to think about being hurt or not being able to do something for ourselves or being, you know, in a bad space. But the reality is that it is possible. A few years ago I was thinking that I was still a little younger than I was and jumping on a trampoline with my kids and rolled my ankle pretty bad before at a gig when I was doing stage performances. So when I was jumping on the trampoline, it really made it bad. And I had a high ankle sprain and I was in a boot for like six weeks. So thank God. I mean actually it's voice over, you know, that doesn't really affect us too much, but there may be some things that happen where you could be taken outta the game for six weeks or so. Anne: You know, you could be in pain and just that simple fact, right, it affects because what we do is with our bodies and you know, not just our mouths, right? But our bodies and if our bodies are affected, it affects our mouths. It affects our performance. It affects our mental health. I will say, thank goodness that we do, at least when I went through my surgeries, I was back in the studio after two weeks, thankfully. But I also couldn't be in the booth for too long. Otherwise I got tired. I was still recovering. And so thankfully during that time, you know, my husband had a job, but if this were what was supplying the family with financial aid, it would really be something that I would've thought about. Erikka: Yeah. And this is something I'll have to dig more into. So nobody take my word for this. I'm just kind of expressing a thought here. I do think that there are some plans that allow for like partial disability, because like you mentioned, like, you know, right now, like let's say you were back in the booth, but you weren't able to work at full capacity, and you can prove that your income has been affected by that dramatically. I do think that there are some policies that can help you with that too, because you can show that your income has been reduced by a medical condition. That's partially disabled. So just even thinking like that, that there's a variety of scenarios that can happen that none of us want to happen, but planning for the future is important so that you don't put yourself in a bad spot. Anne: And I don't care how old you are. actually the younger you are, the younger you are, I'm gonna say it's highly recommended to think about these things when you're young. Because let's say retirement, right, if you start putting away for retirement or you have a company that is -- do companies match? Erikka: A lot of them do. Anne: Do companies match anymore? Okay. That's good. Erikka: Yeah, mine does. And it's fantastic. Anne: Yeah. That was a big benefit, right, that your companies would match what you put into your retirement that was like, ooh, I have great benefits. And it's really all about that. And I, I have a feeling though that these benefits are slipping away from companies, but they're still very, very important. And I know back when I did work, I have a pension thankfully, which will be coming to me. And so does my husband. So we have that that we're accounting on, but we've also got other plans as well that we've invested in. Mutual funds and whatever it is. What about any other types of investments that you can recommend? Erikka: Yeah. So number three, retirement. Definitely. If you are at a job, please, please, please, please, please get a 401k and do your matching. There are a lot of, I've read quite a few books on this subject that a lot of advice that say that don't go over whatever they're matching. And I could definitely see for me, that's what I do is just up to the match. So like my company matches 6% of my income, so I contribute 6%, and anything else that I can do I put in other places, 'cause you don't wanna have all your eggs in one basket. Anne: Yes. Is that why the recommendation says not to go more than that and to put it elsewhere? Erikka: Because the thing is that when you come of age and you take that money out from the 401k, now that money becomes taxable. And you don't wanna be in a position where now you're 70 and you're paying more taxes, right, than what you're pulling out, then you're making money. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So the thing is that you wanna spread it out, spread the love a bit. And the thing is that as entrepreneurs, we get to double dip. We get to have the 401k, if you're still working at a corporate job, and you can also get a SEP, a self-employed retirement plan or self-employed plan, something like that. I actually just opened one this year. Well, last year. So that way you can put that money aside, still can be pre-taxed. There are also after tax options, like Roths and whatnot. Anne: Yep, yep. That's what I have. Yep. Erikka: Yeah. And there are like different things. You can invest it in like real estate, you know, you can pick which mutual funds or whatever, or have somebody manage it for you. But you just have more than one option to fund your retirement. Anne: By the way, this is a disclaimer for the podcast is that we are not wealth management experts. Erikka: Not at all. This all from personal experience. Anne: Just sharing, yes Just sharing our personal experiences. Yes. And so I'm thankful that I have pensions set up, but that doesn't mean that I'm not investing now smartly in other areas. You know, I have a Roth IRA. I have a financial planner that I work with, and he's actually been taking care of me since my job actually. I just kind of stayed with him because he knows me well and I trust him. And I think that's an important thing, like what to look for in a financial planner. Did you have one recommended to you or? Erikka: Yeah, that's a great question. You know, what's really funny is I don't remember how I met my financial planner. 'Cause originally it was one guy, and I think maybe somebody at work might have referred him, but that guy ended up leaving the company. And I got replaced with another guy and now we're like friends, Brandon, shout out to Brandon with Northwestern Mutual. He's a great guy. I think somebody that just, first of all, listens, they're not just trying to sell and shove stuff down your throat, really listening to your needs and your concerns and what you're looking for, what you feel comfortable with from a budget perspective on spending. The thing that I loved about my financial planers too, is that they didn't jump into the sale of the plan. They obviously explained it to me, but from a total wealth health perspective. We looked at like my debt and like coming up with a plan to get that paid down or off, which yay, I've pretty much done other than the mortgage and student loans. But yeah. So just really somebody that's gonna listen and take your needs into account and make that first, before they get the sale. 'Cause obviously they are selling policies at the end of the day, but yeah, I think that's important. Anne: That's true. And we always have to think about that. They are selling something at the end of the day, and they are profiting off of it. And so that's why it's so important that, yeah, you can find someone that you can connect with. And I think you're right. Looking at someone who's really looking at you and your financial future and at least seems like they have your best interests at heart before they try to sell you. Erikka: For sure. For sure. Anne: Because I think a lot of us get a little bit, whoa. The eyes like, oh my God, I don't know. Talking about money and financial planning gets me nervous. Erikka: Yeah. A lot, lot of people. Anne: Because that's not necessarily my forte. Erikka: yeah. Then you start adding in things that are seen as like morose, which I think is number five we're on now is life insurance. It's like, nobody wants to think about dying. Anne: Yeah. Right? Erikka: It's like, I'll just be here until whatever happens. And I don't wanna think about what's gonna happen. But if you have a family, if you wanna have anything that you wanna leave behind. And honestly, even if you don't have kids, if you have things, like if you have built up some type of wealth, if you have a house, you don't want people fighting over that stuff in probate court and whatnot. And like people trying to figure out how to pay for your funeral. I hate what hurts my heart when I see GoFundMes to have to pay for someone's funeral. You know, families should be able to grieve without having to worry about the money to do it. Anne: I agree. Erikka: Get life insurance. There are so many different types of plans and some are, are more affordable than others. At least look into it and you know, put it in your plan. Anne: Absolutely. Absolutely. And with that, I mean, again, wills, wills are important. Erikka: Wills, power of attorney and trusts. Anne: Exactly. Erikka: Again, it's just my personal experience. But I have talked to a professional and bad girl Erikka, I haven't done it yet, but it is on my list for this year. Yeah. I was educated that a will is not enough. A will, can be contested in probate court. And I was shocked. I was like, really? Are you sure? Like for the lawyer -- Anne: That's actually news to me. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Wow. So what else is necessary then? Erikka: So I've heard that like a trust is really kind of the most, I guess I could say foolproof --again, I'm not a lawyer, so this is what I've been told. And what I've heard is the easiest way to ensure that what you want to go down goes down. If you already have things set aside in a trust for your kids or for whoever, there's nothing to contest. It's already set aside, their name is on it. The ownership just passes on to them having a power of attorney, especially medical, someone to make those decisions for you. Knowing what the hierarchy is is that normally it will go to your spouse. If you're not married, it will go to the oldest child. If you don't have an oldest child, it'll go to the parent. I might have that mixed up. But knowing what that is, and if that person doesn't want that responsibility, you need to put it on paper of who it might be. Anne: Exactly, exactly. Erikka: Like maybe your husband or wife doesn't want that choice because it's too hard for them. I don't know. Like you have to talk about that. Anne: And not only do it just once, but you have to update it when things happen. Erikka: God, yes. Anne: Right? In the family, it needs to be updated. And I'm guilty of that right now because you know, a family member has unfortunately passed away. And so I need to think about, okay, who would be next in line for my possessions once I pass on? So it is important to kind of keep those things up to date. Erikka: Yep. Yep. And guardianship agreements, which was something I had never heard about. But you have to think about that. If you do have kids, being able to have on paper or even if you're incapacitated for a little while. If God forbid you get COVID, you're intubated for, you know, a couple weeks, who's gonna take care of your kids in the meantime? You don't want that decision to be up in the air. So yeah. All these planning for the future sort of items are just important to think about, especially if you are really just doing voiceover or entrepreneur and don't sort of have, you know, another company that supplies these things for you, you wanna supply them for yourself. Anne: Yeah. And again, bringing this back towards the idea of a balanced entrepreneurial, you know, career. And not just what's the income that I'm bringing in, but what am I expensing, that kind of a thought process? 'Cause we don't like to think about what we have to pay for, but we certainly love the money coming in. And so we don't always wanna think about the future and protecting ourselves or even investing in ourselves for the future, but it is absolutely a part of your life, right, And of course your business as well, to make sure that you have planned for these types of events that can happen. And especially if we can't work, I think it's so important for us. I think most of us don't even think about it because, number one, we're fortunate that a lot of us can work from home. And we've got our studios in our house, so what could possibly happen that would stop me from being able to work in my house. Well, I can't talk maybe or yeah. Some sort of an illness that takes that away from me. And I'll tell you, I have a lot of people that inquire about voiceover that are disabled or want to be in the home because they can't go out for some reason into the workforce and that maybe they are on disability. And so it is a wonderful career for that. But I think if we're healthy and we're not thinking about that, , we're not thinking about it. And I think we need to. Erikka: Yeah. And it doesn't even have to be bad things like, as has recently, you know, everybody should know now that I am with child at 40. Anne: Yay! Erikka: Jesus. Which, I mean, it's great, but it's a little different than when I was pregnant at 25. So, you know, like there are different complications. I've got thyroid issues now that I, you know, I have to take medication for and watch. I'm a little more at risk for things like preeclampsia that could put me out early or put me in the hospital or put me on bedrest. And if I can't work, even though this is a great occasion -- I'm having a new life and a new new family member, but I have to plan. Anne: And you probably have to visit the doctor more. Erikka: That's the other thing, yes. Anne: Because of that, right? Erikka: Well, and I've also been in the booth a little less. I just had to slow down. I have to go to the doctor very often. So there are times where I might have to push a session out or not be able to do something right away because I have a doctor's appointment. Or, I'm in the booth, my breath support is not the same Anne: So I can vouch for that after having surgery on my chest. Absolutely. I mean, yeah. And also, and this is a -- like I thought I'd be young forever, but I'll tell you what, as I'm becoming older, it is so much more important, your health, taking care of yourself because just, I can't do what I used to do. And it just, that impacts my business a little bit. I mean, it's not, it's not a horrible scenario, but I definitely am feeling age and how it's affected me to be able to perform and do what I do on a day to day basis. Erikka: Right. And the whole point is just to have a plan for it. If you have contingencies in place and you know, things that prepare for the future, then you'll be fine. But we just can't just act like everything's gonna stay the way it is because just like technology, as Anne and I know things get old Anne: We need backups. Erikka: We need backups. Anne: We need backups. That's right. We need backups. Oh man. I'll tell you for sure. And I think that, again, it gets to the point where I know there's a lot of people that try to enter into this industry. And it's one of those where I don't know if it's the concept of the dream of, oh, I can work from home, and it's gonna be easy, that a lot of people come to this business without thoughts of investing in the business. They're like, well, I don't have a lot of money, but I wanna be able to work and make thousands of dollars a month doing voiceover. Erikka: Yeah. Gonna spend so many more thousands first. Anne: But yeah, that's this thing. I mean, I think the whole concept of investing in your business now here's a good balance, right? Not necessarily listening to the dream and simplifying things to the point where, oh, it's just so easy. I'll just be able to buy a microphone and do this. No, there's so many things that you have to think about in order to run your business. And then it's beyond that because I know it took me a long time before I really thought seriously about disability, life insurance now that I am doing this full time and really helping to support the family that I have and be able to contribute to it in a very helpful way versus, oh, I can only contribute this because I'm not a fully owned -- you know, my husband is gonna retire sooner than me. And so I'll be the one that will be kind of taking on the, probably the income for a few years until I retire. I mean, I'd love to be able to retire at the same time. And I'll tell you, that's what I keep trying to do on a day to day basis. But in the meantime I found myself planning my business for extra income and extra streams of income so that I can afford to reinvest it in things that will protect us when I wanna be able to just enjoy my life when I retire and not have to worry about health expenses, not to worry about how am I gonna live, how am I gonna pay the rent, or I wanna travel, how am I gonna pay those bills? And so now is the time to think about those things. And any of you BOSSes out there that are thinking about getting into the industry, it is something that you should consider. Yeah, this industry is not necessarily as easy as a lot of people wanna think it is. Erikka: And you have to think about it that even though yes, we're at home and yes, for the most part, we're either sitting or standing in our booths most of the day or sitting down editing, this is still a physical job. It still is labor. Like -- Anne: How could I break an ankle? Erikka: You know what I mean? Like, yeah. You're probably at low risk to break things, but it is still something that requires your body in order to do the work. So as you get older or things happen where you might get sick, you wanna try to find, you know, passive forms of income that can support you such as policies or real estate investments or whatever other investments you're interested in. But also thinking about, you know, me having to work from home for the past two years before even being pregnant, I put on a couple pounds 'cause I wasn't moving around as much. And that affects health. You know? So making sure that you are thinking about that future and taking care of yourself and doing things to move around and get about that people that are working outside the home kind of get naturally that you may not, if you're working from home doing voiceover. Anne: Exactly. And I love that you brought up the idea of passive income that doesn't have to do with voiceover. I mean, passive income is just a -- we can have a whole podcast on that. Erikka: Oh my God. Anne: It's just the coolest concept, right, the passive income, because that's really where I have been delving my concentration into how can I make passive income that's going to supplement me in retirement? And so I love that you said just in other investments, in other areas, not just voiceover, how can you make passive income in other ways? And so, I think a lot of people think that, oh, if I'm full-time voiceover, that's all I have to do. No, think of it this way. You are an entrepreneur. I don't even really think of it. Oh, I'm a voiceover talent and that is my business. I am an entrepreneur and I am a business first. And so to me, the challenge and the joy is how can I make money? Erikka: Multiple streams of income are the key to wealth. Absolutely. Anne: Yes. Exactly. How can I make money so that I am not worried about it or stressed about it? Because that's one of the biggest issues when we first come into the business and we're doing full-time voiceover, and maybe it's the first time you've had your own business. And now you're like, oh my gosh, where's this money going to come from? That's the huge stressor, I think in the first few years of anyone's business is, oh gosh, where's the money coming from? Where's the income? And when you can start to devise and plan and strategize streams of passive income, I think that's when you're really growing your business. And for me, that's, that's so exciting. Erikka: Isn't it? Like, it's really cool to just be able to like make money in your sleep. If we could like man, like there are ways to do it. There are people that do it and to hop on a soapbox real quick, even things that are related to voiceover, this is why understanding usage and having cutoffs for things that are broadcast are so important because that can be passive income. That is voiceover related. If they use your voice again and wanna run it again, you don't have to get in the booth and make that money. You don't wanna cut yourself out of that. So please, I mean, people, BOSSes that are coming into this and coming to see Anne, please, please, please understand usage and have those things in place. Anne: Oh, I'm so glad you landed on that one. Erikka: Yes. Anne: Yeah. Excellent point and usage is, there's that lovely stream. passive income. Erikka: The residuals. They're beautiful. The unexpected checks. Anne: You gotta love it. You gotta love it. Well, what a great conversation. Maybe not as fun as some people like to think in, in this voiceover business, but a definitely a necessary conversation to have. BOSSes, balance, balance in your career, balance in your life, planning, planning for the future. That is most definitely an important factor in maintaining, achieving balance in your lives and careers. So. Wow. So I'd like to give a great big shout out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can network and connect like a BOSS. Find out more at ipdtl.com. And I also have another moment that I'd like to take to ask you to imagine a world full of passionate, empowered -- wow. That was a lot of P's -- diverse individuals giving collectively and intentionally to create the world that they wanna see. You can make a difference. Visit 100voiceswhocare.org to learn more about how your voice can make a difference. You guys have an amazing week, and we'll see you next week. Bye! Erikka: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voboss.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Are you right or left brain dominant? Anne & Erikka are here to bust the left vs. right brain myth, and discuss how both creativity and sensibility are essential in any entrepreneur. For all the creatives, they share tips to help your biz with structure. For our tech peeps, they have creative ideas for getting out of your own way. Make sure you know your studio inside and out, make a backup for the backup, and if you want more tips, you'll just have to tune in! >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza. And today I'm excited to have back to our new series on balance special guest co-host Erikka J. Erikka! Erikka: Hey BOSSes. Anne: Hey. How are you? Erikka: I'm good. How are you, Anne? Anne: Erikka , I'll tell you what, some days I have to say -- I always try to be grateful every day and find something to be grateful for. And so today I am grateful for my experience in the tech world. And I know you can identify with that because you are a tech girl as well. Erikka: Indeed. Anne: Because I had a crash of my Twisted Wave, and crazy enough, the file that I thought was the right file was not the right file, and I lost it. But I will tell you that my experience back in the day was backup, backup, backup. So thankfully I mirror everything onto another drive, and then not only do I mirror things on another drive, but I also back up to the cloud. So thankfully what had auto-saved actually was in the cloud, and I was able to restore it. Thank God, and not have to worry about redoing all of this huge eLearning module that I just did. Erikka: So I can hear the relief in your tone, Anne. Anne: I know. And so I am grateful to have this kind of a, you know -- I was always told that I had like a 50-50 kind of a brain, like the tech brain and the creative. And I enjoy the two of them. And as a matter of fact, Erikka, I love the tech aspect of the business as much as I love voiceover, the creative aspect. Erikka: Oh yeah. Yeah. Anne: I think it's important for successful VO entrepreneurs to have a little bit of a left-right brain thing. Don't you think? Erikka: Absolutely. I talked before about, you know, being an ambivert and then I came up with the term, I think I'm ambi-brained as well. No, it's not a real word. I made it up. I love the fact that we are able to be creative and true artists in this business and have that sort of artistic input, but you have got to have some type of technical and business and analytical aptitude to be successful as well. We are engineers really or the -- no, not as far as the audio engineers, the big ones at the studios. God bless y'all. Anne: Yes. Erikka: But we have to be engineers in some capacity . Anne: Oh my gosh. Yes. I'm so glad you said that. Like let's just say that one more time. So yes, in order to be successful in this business, it is so important to have both the creative and the analytical brain. Because you have to be able to execute on both levels. You have to be able to understand how to convert your audio file to MP3, or you need to understand how to attach a file to an email, or you need to be able to literally, if somebody can talk you through a session on ipDTL or SourceConnect or whatever that is, you need to have a little bit of an aptitude. Otherwise clients may not have the time to be able to walk you through those things or deal with someone who doesn't know how to send them the work that they've requested and they're paying for. Erikka: Yeah. And it's not even just -- you know, I have a stack set up by one of the greats and I'm done, right? Because you have to be able to have that sort of aptitude to know when you run into problems. As we know, as tech girls always happens, technology's gonna technology. Something's gonna happen. And you gotta kind of have that sort of way of thinking to be able to troubleshoot and you know, kind of figure out why aren't they hearing me on Zoom or why am I getting an echo or you know, that kind of thing. So that's really helpful in what we do. Anne: I'll tell you, I always get nervous when I have my students will say to me, yeah, I'm not really good at technology. Well, and I understand that, right? I mean, for people to be excited about technology, sometimes it takes a special geek like myself and I think you to appreciate it. But also it is a responsibility, right? It's a responsibility of your business to be able to function. And if you cannot function in a technical capacity or an analytical capacity that you need to, I think you need to have a full understanding of what it entails so that you can maybe hire or outsource, but also at least know what it takes to succeed and educate yourself. I think that's so important. If you are not really technical go to a computer class, you know? Go to a class that helps you to do whatever it is. Go take an audio editing class. Erikka: Yeah. It's part of the job description. I mean, it's not just talking into a microphone. In 2022 and beyond, people aren't just walking into studios and just letting the engineer do everything anymore, talking, and leaving. You have to know some of this stuff. And maybe, you know, you're not 50-50. Maybe you're not naturally super tech savvy, but it's not like you can't learn it. There are so many classes that are available online where you don't have to go somewhere. It's possible, but you do have to, like Anne said, have some sort of aptitude; you have to. Anne: And like you mentioned before, it's not like you're gonna be an audio engineer for your career. We don't have to go to that level of depth. But we do have to understand how to produce a file in the format that the client has requested. And also we have to understand enough about our equipment so that we can, God forbid, okay, something breaks. I am the biggest person, like I think rule number one for everybody, technologically has to be, have a backup, not just a backup of your files, but a backup of equipment as well. Erikka: Everything, redundancy, redundancy, yes. Anne: And internet. Oh my God. If you don't have the internet, we are sunk. . Like, our internet goes down for like 30 seconds, and I'm like, oh my God, who has taken down my internet? And I literally will run outside and look for people like, 'cause we have fiber in the ground. I'm like, is there somebody working in the fiber underground? Because this cannot be. Our phone runs off the internet kind of thing. Erikka: Oh my goodness. I had somebody doing some work in my front yard, and they swore that, you know, all the lines were marked. The people came out and did 'em. They're like, I was like, did you guys hit a line? I lost my internet. I have a session. And they're like, no, we didn't hit a line. We're good. And I'm like, are you sure? Anne: Oh, I know. Erikka: You know, thank God I had a hotspot. That was my backup. But it was like -- Anne: See? Yes, yes, yes. I was just gonna say, please, for the love of God -- Erikka: Oh goodness, please. Anne: -- have a backup internet, like a hot spot and understand how to get it going. So if you're in the middle of a session, and your internet fails -- and please, the other thing I wanna mention is -- I can't stress this enough. And I even wrote like a blog article. And as a matter of fact, I think I'm gonna throw it out there on the ether again. It's so important for you to, if you can, to have a dependable, reliable connection. And a lot of times wifi is not cutting it. Erikka: It's not, no. Anne: And if you don't know what's happening on your wifi connection, if there's a lot of people let's say watching movies in your household, or maybe, I don't know, you've got something that's causing some sort of interference, right? Sometimes it's as silly as your refrigerator's causing interference and your wifi router is not reachable easily. It's just something that I constantly am telling people when they have a bad connection to me in ipDTL, I'll be like, are you on wifi? Erikka: Yeah. You've gotta hard wire, guys. You have to figure it out. Anne: And then it's hard to explain. Yeah. But I just got it upgraded. Most people are like, oh yeah, no, I've never had a problem. I'm like, but here you really need to have, for audio quality, and this is just gonna go back to my days, thankfully in the tech world, when I installed phone systems, but they were voiceover IP phone systems. So literally in order to hear audio consistently streaming quality, you have to have packet data back and forth with no drops and no interference and no slowness or degradation on the line. And so the same thing really has to happen with your connection to the studio let's say through ipDTL or SourceConnect. So the more of reliable you can make that connection, and that includes your home connection, right? Connects wired to your router, because that's a whole lot more reliable because it's connected wired versus wifi in the air when five, ten other people could be using your network or even your computers and you don't know. Erikka: Yeah. You guys don't see me silently slow clapping in here. Like listen to the BOSS, listen to Anne, guys. You got to get the hard wire connection. Anne: All about the hard wire connection. It's reliable. It is your business. If we didn't do most of our work online, it wouldn't matter as much, but it does. Erikka: Yeah. And it's not even just the internet, just like you said, like having multiple ways to connect, you know, you've got SourceConnect kind of gets wonky. You know, you gotta have a Zoom or Google Meter, ipDTLe or something ready, having more than one interface. I know these things cost money, but as you grow your business and you make some -- set some aside for reinvestment in the business. Please don't just have one microphone. You don't have to have 10 of them like me. But 'cause I'm a nerd. Anne: What will you do if your interface fails right before a session? I've had that happen. Erikka: Oh my God. Yep. Anne: And a lot of times I'm just gonna say, I'm gonna vent a little bit, Erikka. And I think you'll -- Erikka: Do it, do it. Anne: -- people will buy these bundled packages with a microphone, headphones and interface. And -- Erikka: I did it the first time, I did. Anne: One of them is -- I'm not gonna say a name, but it's a kind of a color. It is. Erikka: There's a letter associated with it. Anne: The name is a color. So if you buy something like that in a bundled package, understand that they're probably making it cheaper with cheaper components. And therefore those things that you rely on may fail at the worst time. And I have had so many people where that has failed on them. So please get a backup and don't get the same brand, get a different brand that would be proven reliable. And you know, I got lots of suggestions. I have a page just on the VO BOSS website. We have studio gear. So you can see all my recommendations, but the one that represents the color is not one of my recommendations. Erikka: Na, I mean, it, it has worked, you know, it got me through, I actually still have it like as a stand from my lamp -- Anne: Well, as a backup, it does great. Erikka: -- to remind me of, you know, how I started, you know? Keep me humble. Anne: Oh, I had two of them. I had two of them. Erikka: Hey, it is great. But as you're growing and you're being relied on for live sessions, yeah, you've gotta have something that first of all, the hardware that's more reliable and then a backup for sure. And it's everything cables too. Anne: I'm gonna say your microphone. Erikka: Yes. Microphone. Yep. Yep. Microphones for sure. You gotta back up. Anne: I've never had a microphone fail on me, but -- Erikka: Same. Yeah. Anne: -- I have to say it gave me a good excuse to buy an additional microphone. Erikka: Right? Me too, me too. Anne: I'm gonna say BOSSes. It took me some time because I had a really decent microphone that I used for many years that made me money that was only a few hundred dollars, was wonderful. But then, you know, I upgraded myself to the 416, which is what I'm speaking on now. And of course I have a TLM 103 as well. Erikka: Yep, same here. Anne: So there's my A-B -- and by the way, have it not just as a backup, but if you can quickly switch from one to the other, it's not just, oh, let me go get my microphone, and then you've gotta, rehook it up. And then you gotta like thread the shock mount and that kind of thing. No, have it at the ready. So have a backup, have it the ready. And I always recommend -- I am not like a hardware kind of girl and cables and this and that same, but label, label your cables so that, you know, or take pictures so that you know how things are connected. And that way, if something goes wrong and need to disconnect it, or you gotta replace a piece of equipment, you know how to connect it back again. Erikka: You know, my dad is a hardware guy; that was his tech side. So little bit of a nerd with the cables just in terms of like organization and yes, I have blue painter's tape and I have like, this is the one for input one and I have it on like three points up the cable so that I know which one I'm looking at, just in case I have an off day, this is the one from input two. And I've got backup cables too, just in case. Anne: Levels too. Erikka: Oh my goodness. Anne: You know, taking a picture of the dials. So you know where your levels are. If somebody helps you set it up. Erikka: Speed test for your internet. Anne: Yes. Oh gosh. Yes. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Anne: So that is all the tech side. And it's funny, we end up talking about the tech side so much because I feel like that's where people, the 50 part of the brain is lacking for a lot of people that are struggling. Because the performance, they'll spend dollars on workshops for performance on coaching, which I think is wonderful and amazing. But yet people don't necessarily think about that when it comes to the other part of the brain. And even if you can hire somebody and outsource somebody for the tech side of things -- hey, look, I still hire somebody to set up my stacks and to listen to me once in a while to make sure that everything there is good. And if I need advice in setting up, oh, look, I wanna add another microphone to this interface. How can I do this? And maybe switch it on the fly. I will call an audio engineer to help me do that. But also I need to have that understanding myself of how it all goes together and how it works and how it serves me in my business. So photos, diagrams, label the cables, I think that's important. And you can't be afraid of doing that. And I'll tell you, you learn the most when things break. Erikka: , that is the truth. Anne: Right? Erikka: Keeping things balanced is knowing that, you don't have to know everything. You do have to have some sort of understanding and some sort of aptitude, but it is okay to outsource to someone that is an expert in that area. Anne: Oh yeah. Erikka: Like you said, I still have people, you know, I call Jordan or, you know, Uncle Roy. Anne: Yep. Tim Tippetts. Erikka: I have Tim Tippetts. We're still using, leveraging -- Anne: George Whittam. Erikka: George Whittam, yeah, absolutely -- those people to leverage their technical expertise because they're experts and that's where the most of their brain power is. But I'm not clueless. You know what I mean? And I think that that's important. Anne: Yeah. I think you should always be curious. One of the reasons why I think I excelled in technology and enjoyed it so much in my career was it was very similar to being an entrepreneur. There was a problem that I had to solve, and it was cool because I got to solve many different types of problems, and it was fun, and it was interesting and challenging to me. And that's very similar to as entrepreneurs, we have different things come up every day, and we're solving problems for clients. We're solving problems with our business. We're growing, we're failing. And I have to say, Erikka, the episode that we did, and BOSSes, if you haven't heard it on the modern mindset, failing forward is an amazing episode. It was one of our most popular episodes, about how you can fail. Like I just said, you learn so much when you fail. And you can fail forward so that it helps you to propel your business and expand your mind and learn. And I think that's where people need to be with the other 50% of whatever it is that you're maybe lacking. Maybe people are in technology. I love people that are in tech and then they wanna get into voiceover, 'cause they love the creative part of it. But for me being in tech and having to solve multiple challenges, and they were something new every day, that was creative for me. Erikka: Absolutely. I'm so glad you said that because it's easy to kind of separate them, you know, and we do that while we say left brain, right brain, you know, creative or technical, but it's really, there is a space in the middle, you know. Like the software engineers that I work with, they are creating, they have ideas. Anne: Sure. Erikka: And when we are problem solving or when we're troubleshooting, you're using that creative part of your brain to try to find a way around the problem. So it's absolutely a little bit of both. Anne: Yeah. And I'm thankful for the amount of time that I got to spend in the technological world and solving problems because I think it helped me in my business, and it helps me also be more creative in my performance. Because I'm constantly, here's the problem, I'm thinking about what is the solution and what are the steps to get to the solution? Same thing when you're trying to analyze the script. Right? So it's kind of breaking it down and then saying, okay, so what is the story of the script? What are the major points? Is there a -- I always call it a crescendo in the story. Is there a call to action? Is there a turning point? And so that helps me to solve the problem, right, of the performance aspect of things. But also I can use that same technique to solve problems with, let's say my interface doesn't work or I'm not hearing anything in my headphones. What can I do to troubleshoot this problem. Erikka: I mean, that's basically what storytelling, usually it has that type of arc. The story, the script itself is laying out a problem, sort of, oh, here's the solution, even talking about products. And it's like, if you understand that arc of problem solving, it's gonna help you vocally perform that way to here's the problem. Here's the solution. Yeah. Anne: Yeah. What's so interesting is you can hear that in the voice. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Right? Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: Here's a problem. But yet now I'm discovering a solution and yes, the solution. So you can kind of hear the emotion and how I've evolved from the problem into oh, a solution. And that's so interesting that it's really cool way to tell the story and evolve, problem solving and voiceover. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. It's more intertwined than you think, that creative and technical side. Anne: I like that. I like that. So what sort of things can you think of would help us to explore let's say the other side of our brain that maybe we wanna work on and develop? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Any tips or tricks you got? Erikka: 'Cause I guess, yeah, that could go either way. There are people that might be, and I know this was a problem for me starting out, is that I always kind of had some creativity in me, but I would default to technical so quickly because it was analytical. Is this right? You know, are my levels good? Is this, am I peaking, you know, like kind of getting, when am I reading all the word right? And that's when we get read-y, right? Anne: Absolutely. Erikka: Like, you know, Dave Fennoy always talks about the read-y read -- Anne: That's right. And that's when you get too technical about it. Erikka: That's when we're too technical. Anne: Yes, absolutely. Erikka: So there are some people that might be too far on the analytical side and need to know, kind of get some of that creative going. So it's both. I think some of those tools that you can use is obviously the brain is all about repetition. It really is. So the more that you can learn about this stuff from different sources and just doing it on a regular basis, you can't do voiceover once a week and expect to get to a performance level of being a pro. Anne: Yeah. I love that you said that. Erikka: You can't, because you have to have that repetition and then your brain kind of starts to absorb it and do it on autopilot. I think that's the great ways is to exercise both of those sides on a regular basis, just like muscles. Anne: Yep. It's a muscle and yeah. I'm always telling my students it's, you know, with 10,000 hours, Malcolm Gladwell said that. Erikka: Oh yeah, that's right. Anne: 10,000 hours. Now you don't have to spend 10,000 hours coaching. But I do believe you need to spend 10,000 hours working on your business, working on your performance. And as you were mentioning it, it's definitely a muscle because how are you going to perform if you've not experienced telling the story or experience the process of -- here's the script, let's break it down, let's analyze it, let's find out where are the main points? What's the story here? What's the backbone of the story? So many times we're so in a rush to go in and what happens when you do that, you end up reading the story. And you don't wanna read the story. You wanna tell the story and be in the story to make it the most believable and most natural. So I think stepping through a process, similar to how you would problem solve in terms of breaking down the script -- and that doesn't have to take a long time. I have a lot of people that will ask me -- 'cause I do tons of long format narration. And they're like, well, do you mark up your script? And I'm like, no, because I've got my brain working faster than my mouth right now. Because I'm reading ahead a little bit more to understand the story. And plus I'm always reading the script fully once at a, a quick pace usually. So I get the words outta my mouth. I understand where I need to breathe. And it helps me to grab the context of it. And I'll tell you what, if I can get that bionic app to put my scripts in. I think that would just really accelerate even more. Erikka: That could really be a game changer. And the thing is like, when you do that initial sort of read and understanding and connecting with the story, if you can understand the context and maybe connect it to something that is real to you, and if you can make that connection quick, it's gonna make it easier for you to get through the script. Even if they're not your words, you can put it in the context of, oh, this did happen to me. This is how I felt. And you voiced in the way that you felt in that scenario. Anne: Right. Erikka: It's gonna make your performance better. Anne: Absolutely. There has to be that element of you that comes into that story. And how many times do we hear that when we first enter into the industry? Oh, you know, bring you to the party and we need to hear you. We need, yeah. I'll say it 'til the cows come home. It is not about the voice that you think they want to hear. It's really about you and how you tell the story and your unique perspective, and your unique perspective means what's the nuance of emotion? What's the point of view in the story? Are you in the story? Are you excited by the story? Are you sad? Are you solving a problem? What is it that you're doing? And so doing that, those steps of problem solving will help you, I think, to enhance the creative performance aspect as well. Erikka: Yes, yes. That's what makes us actors and not just voice. Not just talkers. Anne: Yeah. And I have so many students who say, well, I'm not creative at all. They come from a tech world and I'm like, oh yes, you are. Erikka: Yes, you are. Anne: And let me tell you how, because , for me, that's all it was, it was about that. Erikka: Well, how do you think we got all this technology? Somebody was pretty creative to figure out that we could be on opposite sides of the country and be able to talk to each other. Anne: God. I know, you know, I say that all the time. Like I would marry the Internet if I could, I would marry the internet. It is one of the most wonderful developments. And back in the day, again, I'm aging myself, back in the day when the Internet was a little more than DARPANET, I got so excited about the fact that we could communicate through the ethers and do really cool things on the Internet. And it's just amazing how it can bring people together, technology. And that's, I think where my love of technology comes from, and I'm not afraid of it because I kind of wanna be on the edge of it. I wanna learn new things. I wanna see how it can continue to connect me with people. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. And it is definitely also a creative endeavor to imagine what's not already there. I mean, that's really what technology does, and then you just make it. So you can develop the creative side and you can develop the tech side. You can, you can do it. Anne: And let's talk not just tech, but I mean, I guess I'm considering tech, like that's the other 50% of your brain needs to be tech. But in reality, I think that's synonymous with, it can also be your accounting brain. Erikka: Yes. Anne: You know, because we've gotta send invoices and we have to be marketers. And so that's the other 50% as well. We have to sell ourselves because we're not gonna be able to make money in the industry if people don't know about us. So somehow we've gotta be out there and get creative and market. And that's where the creative and again, tech will come into play because maybe you're gonna do an email campaign. Maybe you're gonna do social media. How are you gonna get in front of these people? And we're gonna have an episode in the future, I know this, Erikka, about SEO and about -- Erikka: Oh yeah, we have to. Anne: -- how you can cut through the noise of the Internet. Because while I love the Internet over the years, it's gotten really popular. Erikka: Yeah. There's, there's a few people on there, you know? Anne: Yeah. Back in the day I remember going, oh, we'll never try to sell things on the computer. It's free. It's all about sharing research and education. And the funny thing is, is boy, did that not turn out the way I expected. Erikka: Yeah. For sure. I'm so glad you said that though. Because really when we talk about, you know, left brain, right brain, it's really more like creative versus analytical. It's not just tech. Anne: Yeah, exactly. Erikka: Because that business aspect is definitely leans more -- I think it's actually somewhat centered 'cause there is an element of creativity in business. Anne: Agreed. Erikka: But you've got to be able to, like you said, either do your accounting or at least have a, somewhat of an understanding enough to be able to outsource it. Anne: Well and to be able to, yeah, to be able to direct your accountant on what you need done, right? That's it. Erikka: Yep. Yep. And then there's the creativity of being able to direct maybe your graphic designer for your website, you know, how do you wanna be branded? Anne: Yeah. I think, you know that better than anybody; you're a project manager. Right? Erikka: Yeah. Anne: So you need to understand the processes that are happening in order to direct it. And as an entrepreneur of your own voiceover business, we need to be able to direct the people that we outsource. Like I need to be able to direct my accountant on, okay. I need to know, you know, what's my profit and loss. What am I spending my money on? And that sort of thing. So I need to be able to log into my accounting system to do that. And I'm gonna bring up a point that I think, Erikka, you can relate to: web hosting and websites. So many people are scared of their websites. And for the longest time, I think if you didn't know how to write HTML or you didn't know how to launch a website or you didn't understand anything about it, website developers would hold you hostage. And I'm like, you need to know how to get into your website, make sure your website is being backed up. Make sure that you have copies of maybe a downloaded backup of it on your computer. And then if you need to change something, at least know how to log into your hosting provider and make a change, right? Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Or assign -- change the password to allow to assign it to somebody else. Anne: There you go. That's it. Yeah. Erikka: Yeah. Totally agree. Just you're just preaching the gospel here, Anne. I'm just here, you know, I'm just here in the pew. . Anne: That's important. I can't tell you how many people just, I think the website just, it's one of those things that is beyond most people's brains or imaginations because they've never experienced it or never had to. But now I think it's important that everything that is a aspect of your business, right, write down. All right. Where did you buy your domain name? Who are you hosting? You have to know these things. Erikka: When's it up for renewal? Is it on auto renewal? Anne: Right? Exactly. Erikka: So you don't lose it. Anne: Oh my gosh. Can I tell you I have an Excel spreadsheet of all my subscriptions because I lose tracks so easily. Erikka: Were we born from the same person? Anne: I think we were. Erikka: Because my Google sheets are like shameful because yeah. , I've got one for medical. I've got one for personal. I've got one for business. Yeah. And I track my subscriptions too. Anne: You have to track your subscriptions. That's just good business. Right? Being a good business owner because you have to know your outgoing expenses as much as your incoming. Erikka: Yes. And your personal ones too. Anne: Incoming. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. Not just the business ones because the personal, like that's still your, your personal finance, it's still your money. So yeah. Track those, make sure Hulu didn't go up on you or Netflix or whatever streaming service, you know, so that, you know how much is coming out. Anne: My God. They do that. They sneak it on you. Erikka: They, you have like one of those home warranties and you don't need it anymore. Like they won't remind you, hey, you haven't used this. Do you wanna cancel your subscription? Like, no, , they're not, you know? So you need to make sure that you're using things that you're paying for. Anne: Yes. Amen. Amen to that. So 50-50 brains, BOSSes, I think we need to develop whatever side that maybe you're feeling weak in. Educate. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: I think education is so important. Erikka: And again, don't be afraid to outsource. You don't have to be an expert in this stuff. Anne: Right. Erikka: You don't have to feel like you gotta know everything about tech and business and accounting. There are people that nerd out on this stuff and do it in their sleep. Anne: Yeah, exactly. Erikka: Hire them, but just have a foundational understanding of what's going on. Anne: That's very, very important. And I think overall it'll help you run your business much, much, better, much smoother. And again, it will take away a lot of the fear of, oh my gosh, I don't know anything about that. So I can't start my business or I can't continue my business or I gotta hire someone, but I don't know anything. I don't know who to hire. I think education is key to being able to understand enough about both sides to progress and be a success. Oh right. My goodness. I could talk all day about that. Erikka: Oh man, time flies when you're having fun. Anne: It sure does. BOSSes. If you have a local nonprofit that's close to your heart, if you've ever wanted to do more to help them, you absolutely can. Visit 100voiceswhocare.org to learn how you can make a difference with your voice. And a big shout-out to ipDTL, our sponsor. Gosh, I love ipDTL. I can't even, I'm a tech geek. Love, love, love ipDTL, because again, it's that 50-50 part of my brain that says not only can I technically speak to somebody across the world, but we can also connect and engage and have the creative aspect of our part come together through the technology, so find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing week and we will see you next week. Erikka: Bye, BOSSes. Anne: Bye! >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voboss.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Let's talk balance! What goes into creating a work-life system that honors and prioritizes all these hats we wear? Anne and special guest co-host Erikka J share their own methods for balancing the various elements of a successful voiceover business, and discuss how to maximize productivity using techniques that keep the whole self in focus. Stay tuned for great conversations about time management, rest and relaxation, technology tools, and so much more. Explore focus skills, and learn how balancing your personal life and work life can be the key to being the best #VOBOSS you can be… MORE: https://www.voboss.com/balance >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and today I am excited to start a brand new series with special guest co-host Erikka J. Woohoo! Erikka: Hey! Anne: Hey Erikka. Well, for those of you that don't know Erikka, she is a singer-songwriter and award-winning voice actor. She's voiced commercials, narrations, political campaigns, for top brands such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Discover, Black Lives Matter, and many more. She's also a product and project management professional with 15 years experience in various sectors, including state and federal government, contracting, eCommerce, software development, and automotive. Woo Erikka. That's a list. Wow. You do an awful lot. Erikka: I forgot most of that. Thanks for the reminder. Anne: And not only that you just came back from like an extensive learning experience, extraordinaire at one of the JMC Euro retreats in Barcelona. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. That was awesome. Anne: You're doing it all. It's kind of crazy. I think, uh, how do you do it? How do you achieve a balance with all of that? Because it just seems like, you know, you and I both, I run multiple brands, and it's something that we deal with, I think, on a daily basis. I think it would be a great topic for today's episode to talk about how we can achieve balance in our VO careers. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: Or lives, not just VO careers, right? Erikka: Right. Anne: Take that back. Erikka: Right. For sure. Like the whole life 'cause family too. Anne: That's right. Erikka: How about that? Anne: That's right. Erikka: Um, but key number one, the number one tool is coffee. Both: Anne: Oh my God. And I literally, before we came on, I filled my cup to the max. So yeah, I've got coffee, but don't forget, BOSSes, also have that big old jug of water in your studio. Erikka: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Anne: Because I use that as a chaser so my vocal cords don't dry up, but yes, coffee. Erikka: I do both for sure. Not too much coffee. Just that one cup for me to get going in the morning. And if you wanna lay off that, green tea is a good alternate. You know? Anne: Yeah, absolutely. Erikka: It has caffeine. Anne: Absolutely. Erika: But yeah. You know, prioritization is a huge piece of how I handle all that. I don't get to every audition I want to sometimes, you know? Anne: Well, yeah. I remember that being my biggest hindrance, I think in progressing in my voiceover career back when I first started, because I had a very demanding tech job, and it pretty much took like all hours of the daytime for me. It wasn't just nine to five. I mean, a lot of times I was even working overtime, and I don't know if that's true with you, but it was hard for me to get to those auditions on time. Erikka: Yeah. So thank goodness I don't really have the overtime thing. Being able to work full-time from home kind of helps with that balance. So I know a lot of different places are offering that now, or maybe even just, you know, once or twice a week. So that helps a lot. But man, it is definitely a prioritization game, and to be able to accept and give yourself grace that you just can't do everything. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: So you do what's most important. Anne: Well, I think one thing that has changed well since the pandemic, right, the fact that you can potentially work from home, if that's a possibility, unless you work for Apple, right, at this point because Erikka: Right. Anne: Yeah. That's not gonna be a possibility, I don't think, but interestingly enough, our world has changed since the pandemic with people working from home and lots of companies offering their employees the ability to at least work remotely a portion of the time, or even sometimes forever. I know my husband can now work from home forever, and I actually really love that. I love having him home. I think he loves not having to sit in the commute for how many hours, which actually depending on how you use that time, I used to always listen to podcasts when I was sitting in traffic to try to make my time valuable in traffic. But yeah, it's so different now. So thankfully, if you work from home, you might be able to squeeze in and audition here or there. Erikka: Yeah. You know, I think corporations have increasingly become more aware of the benefits of balance to the corporate business. So people understanding that if I don't have to spend two hours of my day in traffic, maybe I'm more refreshed. Maybe I'm willing to spend an extra hour at work, getting that report done because I don't sit in traffic to do it. I can do a load of laundry or pick my kids up and come back and do a meeting. So I think that that's why a lot of them are increasingly okay with some remote work. Anne: And also there were some studies that were done that said that people were more productive at their home. Erikka: Absolutely. Anne: And I think for us as voice talent, because we primarily work from home anyways, if we're full-time, it makes all that much more difference to have that in-person kind of contact, which we get at conferences. But for the people who work full time, such as yourself and are voice actors and successful ones, not even just, oh, you're just starting out -- no, you're a very successful voice actor, not only finding time for auditions and work, but also escaping for a week or two to go to conferences and further your education. How are you working that with your job? I mean, is that something you have to beg for or I remember I was used to beg for time off. Erikka: Well, couple things. I think that just honestly, from a personality perspective, I'm not one that needs to be in the office and get the human interaction. I am a true textbook ambivert. I get my extrovert activities in, and I'll run to my bubble and you won't even know it. Like, you'll be like, where'd Erikka go? Like I needed to go recharge. So I don't necessarily need that, that touch. I get plenty just by doing live sessions and talking to people and the people in my home, and I'm good. But because a lot of my job is prioritization at work as a product owner, like I'm literally prioritizing work for my software developers, I just kind of make sure that I have everything done and ready to go if I know I'm gonna be out. And thank goodness I work for a wonderful company that has a great, flexible, unlimited PTO policy. So as long as your manager approves it and you know, your work is done, they're like, go ahead and take your time off and take care of yourself because that -- know that rested employees or employees that are able to live their lives and not have it all be about work are more productive and produce better work. Anne: Absolutely. And it really enables the creative aspect, I think of the profession to really shine if you have that time, that downtime. And I have to say that I do like the companies that enable the unlimited PTO. If you've got your work done, I know my husband has that same thing, and it's really, really made a difference. When I was working full time, it was one of those professions where I couldn't really work from home. And so it really was kind of prohibitive for me to do voiceover during the day, while I was at the job. But I think we have so many more opportunities these days, especially if you work in the tech sector. Right? And you don't necessarily have to be out in the field fixing computers or anything, but if you work and you have remote capabilities and so -- remote software capabilities and you know, there's Zoom. Thank God for Zoom and all the technological capabilities that help us to at least simulate a meeting with another person and see their faces, which I think is great. But yeah, I think starting out now in VO and working a full-time job, I think is a little bit easier. Erikka: Oh, absolutely. Anne: Yeah. Erikka: And like you said, there's more opportunities for remote work. It's, you know, more accepted and not as taboo and seen as, oh, you're gonna kind of, you know, screw up or at home and just not really do your work. That's not really the thought anymore. And even with voiceover has become increasingly remote. You know, it's not so much that you have to go into the studio for every single session or even for auditions. It's been more accepted that there's a lot of technology available where and, you know, knowledge where people can actually have broadcast quality studios from home. So I think on both sides of it, it makes it easier now that technology has advanced. Anne: And now let me ask you a question in regards to your , it's not even just a double life 'cause you do so many things. I feel like it's a triple, quadruple, like whatever kind of a life. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: Now do you tell your employer about the fact that you are a voiceover artist as well? And are you transparent with that? Or how does that work for you? Erikka: I'm so glad you asked that question because it was a little bit of a journey for me. So before I was really kind of doing voiceover to the magnitude I am now, it was more so music. And you know, I was writing at night and doing gigs on the weekends, and I was working for the government at the time. And you know, that just didn't really quite mix. And I wasn't really keeping it a secret, but I didn't broadcast it either. And the more I got uncomfortable with that, because I felt like I was hiding a piece of myself, I started to talk about it more. And then when I got this new job in the private sector, I was kind of really focused on corporate for a while and then pandemic hit. And you know, I started to say, you know what, this is me as a whole person. And I have a corporation that really values the whole person. And there are things that I learn in voiceover that help make me more creative at work. And it turns out I've actually done a couple of jobs for my company. Actually, they had a commercial that they ran here locally in Atlanta to try to get people to apply, you know, a lot of employment campaigns happening. So I was able to use that experience of literally the script was, we have multitudes and you know, people do all these other things. The visuals are showing people, doing all these other things outside of work. And I was like, that's me too. So I stopped hiding, and I actually have it on my LinkedIn. My headline is both of my titles. Anne: I love that. Erikka: And I love it. And I know that it's not comfortable for everybody, and not all corporations are quite that there yet, but I encourage some people to consider that. There was someone I was talking to and she's a doctor, and she had two separate profiles for her medical work and for her narration work. And I'm like, oh my goodness, do you know how much medical narration work you could get? Because you have the credibility of being a doctor. Anne: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Erikka: I say combine them if you can. Anne: Yeah. And be as transparent if you can. You know what's nice I think about voiceover is I feel like if there's a conflict of interest, , there's not high risk of that happening in your job, because there's really nothing else like voiceover. And, and I feel like, you know, unless of course maybe you're voicing a campaign for a competing company. Erikka: Yeah. Anne: That might be where some of the conflict of interest is, but in terms of actually having another career and being able to be transparent with your employer, I think that today it's even better than ever to have both. Right? You can have it all. Erikka: Absolutely. And I'm so glad you said that because that is one thing I did when I first got a job and they reached out to me, and it was actually my company as a whole separate media or creative agency, and they reached out to me for a job, they found me on 123. And I was like, whoa, I wanna make sure this isn't a problem. And I did reach out to our ethics and legal department, and they cleared it. They said, this is fine. Anne: Oh, that's great. Erikka: I think that's a great point to make sure you're not doing conflicts of interest. You don't wanna voice for, you know, a competitor and be the voice of. . Anne: Well, exactly. Erikka: That's probably not a good idea. So there are some considerations, but like you said, for the most part, it's pretty safe. Anne: Now, when you did your voiceover for your company, they did pay you, correct? Erikka: Yes. Anne: Separate? Erikka: They did. Anne: Yeah, okay. That's good. That's excellent. Now, was that something that you had to request? Because that's something I know a lot of people -- well, like myself and it was so long ago, it was just kinda like, oh yeah, you'll do those recordings for us. Right? You know? And it's part of your job, as part of your standard job. And, and at the time I don't think I was confident enough to like really stand up and say, hey, this is something that I get paid for. I think I used it as kind of a, a learning and a stepping stone as like here, because I hadn't really started working yet, but I wanted to. And I had been training. And so the timing for me was, oh, okay. This will be a good learning opportunity for me to voice some spots for the company and no, they're not gonna pay me, but that's okay because I'm on the job, then let me do it. And I'll consider this a learning on the job thing. Erikka: Yeah. I think that depends. So like in my case it was okay because it was actually a creative agency. It wasn't the company itself and they were hiring me. So it was fine for them paying me -- Anne: Okay. Erikka: -- you know, monetarily, but if a company that you're working for, and they're coming to you directly to, you know, voice a commercial that's going to put you in conflict and help sell something, I might not wanna do that, 'cause if you're without extra compensation, 'cause that takes you outta the running for other things. Anne: Sure. Erikka: But if it's like, you know, an e-learning or an explainer and it's not gonna take a lot of, and like it's, you're on the clock anyway, and you do kind of need the practice, I think that can be great. It's not necessarily a bad thing if it doesn't put you in conflict, but I think that's sort of a case by case, you know, see what feels right to you. I, I have heard of some people getting taken advantage, which I don't think is right. Anne: Yeah. I agree there. Yeah, I think that also, if it isn't a conflict of interest, I think it, it is something that you're talking about. I think it's also something that if we've not thrown the topic of you are worth it enough around in the industry, let's do it again. Right? You are worth getting paid. And I think that if you are transparent and your company finds that there's no real, you know, conflict of interest, you should mention, you know, if they ask you to do something for them, I think that you should absolutely stand up and, and say, yeah, absolutely. And will this be, you know -- for me, I was like, well, will there be an additional check for this? Or will there be additional money being allocated for this job? Because I would be happy to provide you with a quote. Erikka: Yeah. And the thing is that comes into that is it's not just your time. And it's really easy to just say, oh, we are just talking into a microphone, but who bought that microphone? Who bought the interface? Anne: Exactly. Erikka: Who bought the computer? Who paid for the training so that you had to do this in 30 minutes or whatever? You have a business; you have a media business. You're not just talking into a microphone, and you've invested in that. So they need to pay for part of that. Absolutely. Anne: So let me ask you a question, now, how are you prioritizing hours in your day? Is it possible for you to actually say, oh, here's I, I have an hour here that I can do auditions depending on the day, the schedule, the meetings? How do you organize your day with a full-time job and then working in full-time voiceover? Erikka: Yeah. So I have a lot of tools that I use, some new-school, some old. You know, I use things like ever node and -- Anne: Yep, yep. Erikka: Task List, Google Tasks and things like that. But I also, honestly, I'm really good about just paper and pencil, and I know that's old and I'm like an elder millennial and I still use it, but I do to-do lists. I, I use the calendar on my phone. Anne: me too. I love my calendar. Erikka: I love it. So it's like if I have auditions, and I know that they're coming in, you know, they're probably coming in from the west coast later in the day, I might try to record them that night if I have the energy for it. And maybe I'll edit them in the morning before my workday so that I can hear it again and see if I need to make adjustments. So I'll try to do that. I really try to get very efficient with my audition process and -- Anne: Yeah, that's key. Erikka: That is key. So that you're not spending 30 minutes on one audition. You don't have time for it. Anne: Gosh, yes. So here's just a little diversion into that world. And as a matter of fact, I've, I've talked to so many people that have been in the business for years, and auditioning is kind of a skill. It's like a muscle. And I think the more that you do it, the better you get at it. And also I think the more you realize that your first few takes are usually the ones that are the best, and it's not number 15 or 16 when you've rethought it or gone for a walk and come back and listened and said, oh God, no, it's horrible. Let me start again. Really, to be efficient, that I think is key to keeping a balance, right, to your work lives, you know, in multiple occupations. So don't spend an exorbitant amount of time on your auditions and just -- I always limit myself to three, takes three takes, done, send it and forget it. Erikka: Yep. Yep. And what I'll do too is like, if I it's a red flag to me, if I've been on something for more than 10, maybe 15 minutes, if it's a little longer, and I've have recorded auditions and not sent them, 'cause I was like, you know what? This just doesn't even feel right. This one isn't for me. Anne: I love that you said that because I have done that too. I always go by my gut instinct. And I feel that even if after the three takes, I'm not feeling it, I'm not gonna send it in. 'Cause you're right. Again, we are storytellers and we have to be able to envision the scene. We have to be in the scene to be real, to be authentic. And it has to feel right I think in order to really, I don't know, work. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. That's part of the balance. And I think a lot of times we know, even before we get in the booth. Like I'll get that email and I'll get that gut. Like, Ooh, I can't wait to read this. You know? And then you get the one where it's like eeeehhh. Anne: Well, I think it's important to note though that when you read through it the first time, and just because you're efficient at auditioning doesn't mean that you're not reading through and doing a little bit of analysis now in the beginning. Because in order to know, if you wanna tell the story, you kind of have to know the story. So taking a look at that script and maybe doing a Google here and there for the company or the brand, if it's known, absolutely can help you. And it can speed up the process. Gosh, what did we do before the Internet, right, when we got an audition and we wanted to find out more about the product, or I'd never heard about the product and so oh, okay. I'm just gonna read these words. Erikka: I bow to the OGs that had to do that before me, 'cause I never had to, and I don't know what I would've done. Anne: Yeah. Just reading the words doesn't cut it these days. It just, it never really cut it before either, I don't think, but it really has to be something that organically comes from you. And to get to that position and to understand the story, you've gotta know a little bit about the story, and that takes more than a minute. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I'm so glad you said that. Efficient does not mean fast. They are not synonyms. It just means that you have a process down. You know, maybe you are speed reading, you know, you're not necessarily like really digesting and sitting with it for 30 minutes, but you are getting an idea of what the story is, how you might connect with it. And then sometimes I do come in the booth and cold read because for me it, sometimes it's more organic as someone who, who is literally anxious. Like I, I have anxiety and I get in my head and sometimes the cold read ends up being the best one. Anne: But a cold read doesn't always mean that you're not familiar with the words, either -- Erikka: The story. Anne: -- because there's a certain method to speed reading. And actually I just was reading about something called bionic reading the other day. Erikka: Yes. I read that too. Anne: Yes. Very interesting. Where you get certain letters highlighted in the words, because it says your brain -- Erikka: Brain fills them in for you. Anne: Yeah. Your brain is faster than your eyes. So I honestly am looking for that app so that I can put all of my scripts into it because I actually saw it and it worked for me that I was able to process the words faster and comprehend them. That's the biggest thing I think we need is comprehension. And if you can do that faster and more efficient, that's gonna again help you with the balance of managing everything that you have to do in any given day. So we've got your full time job, right? You've got your pretty much full time voiceover, I would say. And then now what else are you struggling with? Or we've got life actually. Right? We've gotta have that time, that downtime so that again, like we were talking about before, where we can refresh and reset. Erikka: Yeah. Yeah. I have this mantra when I was doing more so music, it was, I had these t-shirts that was like natural born hustler and that's still kind of my thing. I'm definitely of a strong work ethic. I love working, but as I've gotten older and had more things on my plate and been kind of forced into it, that has evolved into now that rest is part of the work. That's my mantra. Anne: You're right. Yeah. Rest is part of the work. I like that. Erikka: Because if you are not rested, you are not bringing your best self to that script. You are not bringing your best self to the booth, and you're not bringing your best self to yourself or your family. Anne: Agreed. Erikka: You've got to recharge. You can't keep using your phone. It's gonna die on you. you're no different. Anne: I love that. And I'll tell you, I was that person back in the day. I remember now I'm like, I feel like here I am, I'm old, but I used to be able to survive on four or five hours of sleep at night. I can't do that anymore. I need to rest and recharge. And my brain has to shut off. That I think is the most energetic part of me is my brain, all the time going. And that also kind of disrupts my sleep once in a while. Erikka: Well, yeah, I definitely have had issues with, with sleep. And the thing is that I had to learn that even being creative and balanced in all aspects of your life, even rest, it doesn't have to be the eight hours of sleep at night. I'm not one that can do the eight hours. Usually like a good night of rest for me is seven. But like I might catch a 15-minute power nap. I have a friend that lives by power naps and he's right. Like there are sleep cycles and you can research this. If you sleep in intervals of like, I think it's like 15, 30, 45 or an hour and a half, like that can give you an, like a boost literally. Where if you sleep, if an have an hour, like you interrupt a sleep cycle and it's not as efficient as if you had slept for 45 minutes, something like that. Anne: Sure. Erikka: And if you get creative about how you're resting, even not sleeping, if there's a way to just rest your brain, like silence, meditating, all those things count. Anne: Can I just say, as I've gotten older, a woman of a certain age, my sleep patterns have changed, where all of a sudden I'm up in the middle of the night for an hour or two. Erikka: Me too. Me too. Anne: So first of all, I'm so thankful and grateful that I have voiceover because I'm not paranoid about getting up, shower, dressed and out the door and fighting the traffic. I don't feel that pressure. So if I'm up for an hour or two in the middle of the night, I don't stress about it. I just am like, okay, that's my sleep pattern. That's just the way it is. If I'm not sleepy, I'm gonna, I don't know. I'm gonna, I don't know, watch some TV until I fall asleep. And so for me, I'm not stressing about the fact that I'm not sleeping and it's funny 'cause my doctor she's like, okay, okay. So I know you're probably stressed out that you have an irregular sleep pattern. I'm like actually no, I'm really fine with it. And hopefully it's the same with you because you have to maybe report to work at a certain time. But if you have flex hours, I mean, that's just an amazing thing that we can just not have to stress about that lack of sleep during the middle of the night or just different sleep patterns. One of my assistants, literally she works during the night and sleeps during the day. So. Erikka: Yeah. You have to learn yourself. Like that's the key to balance too is knowing what really works for you. Like I know me, even if I don't sleep well at night, I'm gonna probably be up before 8:00. My circadian rhythm just does not let me sleep late unless I am like really sick. If I'm in bed at 10:00, you need to check on me. Anne: Yep. Yep. Erikka: Because something is wrong. Anne: Same here. Same here. Erikka: So it's just about knowing, like if you're a night owl and you know that you're most creative and work well at night, then find work, whether that's voiceover or even corporate work, that's gonna match that. So that you can be your best self. Anne: Now, do you have any other, when you wanna come down and you wanna just refresh your creative, do you have any particular things that you do? Do you meditate? Do you exercise? Erikka: Yeah. So, I don't exercise as much as I used to or as much as I want to or should. Anne: Yeah, I know. I think, I think, I think we all go through that. Although I've come back to this point where I'm doing like little power bursts of exercise, because I have to. Like, we're talking like literally five minutes at a time. No, if I'm in between, let's say, students or in between a gig and I get outta my studio. I'm gonna do like my little squats. My arm movements, gonna grab a couple of weights and I'm gonna do like a power set for maybe five minutes. And I find that that really helps me a lot during the day. I feel much stronger now because before I was just sitting on my butt, and it was not doing me any good for sure. Erikka: For me, I had this little sticky note I wrote for myself 'cause I'm a sticky note-aholic and I called it 60 seconds of sunshine. So if I have sessions and meetings and all this stuff going on, I can give myself 60 seconds of sunshine. It gives me the fresh air to reset. It gives literally -- the sun is vitamin D and all these things and you know, it just kind of resets you. I would do that even when I was in the office, like I would just go outside for a minute. Even if I don't have time to really walk or do anything. Just finding little bursts, little things that you can do throughout the day to reset your brain. It does help. Anne: Yeah. I agree, that 60 seconds of sunshine, I like that. I think I'm gonna put that um, a sticky note on mine. That, and I love to just go and take a break and pet the fur babies. Erikka: Yes, oh my goodness. Anne: 'Cause that just releases my stress unbelievably well. Erikka: Absolutely, they're -- because they don't care about anything. They just want love and food and sleep. . Anne: That's it love, food, and sleep. Erikka: Love, food, and sleep. Don't we all just want love, food, and sleep at the end of the day? Anne: It's so true. Really. And that love includes ourself, right? And taking care of ourself and trying to achieve that balance -- where I know myself, I have fallen into this and anybody that knows me again, I am a little bit of a workaholic. And it's really become so important with me because I will say I've, I've encountered some health issues of late that have forced me to say, whoa, Anne. You are sitting too much. You're working too much and you need to really stop and take a look at -- now, I think it's one thing about me. I've always been super, uber focused. I mean, I play hard and I work hard. So I just got too many years during the pandemic of working way too hard and not necessarily playing. So I know myself, the balance has had to come back into play major, especially the older you get. I don't wanna sound like a, an old broken record, but I'll tell you what, it's so much more important as you age. That's that's all I can say. Erikka: You telling -- likewise, I told you, the natural born hustler. I still have some of those hats and shirts. People are wearing them. Like I was, I love working. I got that from my dad. Anne: Me too, me too. Erikka: It's true workaholic. Anne: And my dad too. Erikka: Yeah. However, like you said, especially as you get a little older and you start doing more things, and your body's going to tell you to sit down, and you don't do it voluntarily. It will do it for you. And I just, I'd rather make the choice. Anne: Absolutely, absolutely. So I think balance. So then if you had to sum it up, if we're working towards better balance in our lives with our careers and lives, what would be your recommendations? Erikka: Find something every day that gives you joy, because I think joy is something that is a super fuel. Anne: Super balancer. Erikka: Yeah. And if you have some -- I mean it could be something tiny. I mean, lately I've been more on like iced coffee. I don't know why, it's just been, maybe it's getting hotter. I'm usually like I want hot all year long, but the coffee is what gives you the joy in the first thing in the morning, it makes it help so much easier to cope with all the other things throughout the day and give you that balanced perspective of yes, maybe this thing is irritating me or hard right now, but I'm gonna be able to have coffee again tomorrow. Or, you know, whatever it is that brings you, that sort of sense of balance in your life. Prioritization is another huge one. You can't do it all. And if you're workaholics like me and Anne and you wanna do everything -- Anne: You think you can. Erikka: You think you can -- Anne: I found an app. Well, it's not even an app. You can go right online. It's called the Pomodoro technique. So literally I think it was developed and I don't know the name of the guy. Maybe it was Richard Pomodoro, but anyways, his mother had one of those old timers that was shaped like a tomato. And so he was a writer, and he was struggling to keep his focus. And so he decided that he would set the timer and focus only on his writing for a set number of time. So it turns out that 25 minutes was key for him. You do whatever you need to do for 25 minutes. And then for five minutes you take a break ,and then you come back. And you do it again. And you do four cycles of the 25 minutes focusing. And I'll tell you what. I started using it for my own writing. 'cause I write blogs, and I find, I love to write, but write writing takes me forever. And I get very distracted and I'm like, oh, I just got an email. Oops, just got a text. And so I literally this simple thing it's pomodor.app. I think you go there and it's a big timer on a webpage. You click on it to set it to 25 minutes and it does a little timer in your ear when it's all done. So I wear my headphones all day. And so it's literally click that 25 minutes and focus only on that one tab that I'm in or that application that I'm in. And it's really helped me. I have to say. Erikka: That is really a key to balance too, because one of the red flags that you're out of balance is burnout. When you're feeling burned out. And if you kind of iterate that way for yourself and make sure that you're setting aside some time for rest, then you can prevent yourself from burning out. There's a physical exercise sort of thing that approaches it that way called Tabata training where you work out for like four -- Anne: Oh yes, absolutely. Erikka: You work out for a few minutes and you have rest built into the routine. So that's awesome for your brain too. Anne: Absolutely. That's my husband, did Tatabatas in his spin class. Erikka: Yeah. It works. Anne: Exactly. You just, you give it your all for a few minutes, and then you rest and go back and do it again. So yeah. Pomodor, Pomodor technique. Yeah. BOSSes. We all need more balance, and I'm just so excited, Erikka, to have you for this new series. Really our theme is gonna be about balance throughout your career. And we're gonna be talking about all different things and how we can hopefully overall achieve balance and more success in life and in our career. Erikka: So let's do it, balance, baby. Anne: Yeah. So BOSSes, I want you to have a chance to use your voice to make an immediate difference and give back to the communities that give to you. If you wanna find out more, visit our newest sponsor, 100voiceswhocare.org to find out more. You can make a huge difference for just a small, quarterly contribution. And I'd like to give a huge shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect and network like a BOSS like Erikka J and myself. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys, have an amazing weekend. We'll see you next week. Erikka: See you. Anne: Bye. >> Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your host Anne Ganguzza. And take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at voBOSS.com and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies, and new ways to rock your business like a BOSS. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via ipDTL.

Comedian and Commander of The Nerd Legion Erikka Innes and DJ Tommy Secosky joined Mark and Nicole fusing the nerd and goth worlds Erikka grew up in the Bay Area and went to Stanford, though she insists she is not a genius, she left a lucrative job as a tech writer to go into comedy and has been very successful with 3 comedy albums so far, including the latest Unicorn Dance Party 2. She talks about the world nerd takeover, cosplay, drag, Burning Man, Steampunk, Unicorn penises and so much more Tommy grew up a military brat and ended up in the Navy, where he got seasick in front of an Admiral. He found goth and ditched his former heavy metal roots and wardrobe and started DJing at Bar Sinister, the longest running goth club in LA. He talks about the goth fashion and music trends that have come and gone, the ghosts in the club as well as various incidents and celebrities he has seen behind the DJ booth You can order Nicole's new poetry book "Slow Burn" on lulu.com Eddie by Giddy FDA Class II medical device built to treat erectile dysfunction and performance unpredictability. Eddie is specifically engineered to promote firmer and longer-lasting erections by working with the body's physiology. Get rock hard erections the natural way again. Using promo code DARKMARK20, you can save 20% on your Eddie purchase, and you and your partner will be chanting incantations of ecstasy together faster than you can say “REDRUM.” Go to buyeddie.com/DarkMark for 20% off your purchase using code DARKMARK20 today. Raze Energy Drinks Go to https://bit.ly/2VMoqkk and put in the coupon code DMS for 15% off the best energy drinks. Zero calories. Zero carbs. Zero crash.

Stephanie talks to Erikka J., a voice actor who works in commercials, corporate narration, video games, and more! Erikka shares her thoughts on her work in politicals, how she balances work and family, and on the shift towards a more inclusive VO industry.Erikka's Website: erikkaj.comAll Erikka's Socials: @misserikkaj eVocation VO Conference: https://www.vocationconference.comVO School Podcast: http://www.voschoolpodcast.com(Maria's political episode is #54)Making It To The Mic Website: www.makingittothemic.comInstagram: @stephaniepamrobertsvoEmail: stephanie@stephaniepamroberts.com

Brightly Software Chief People Officer Erikka Buracchio joins our host Melissa Phillippi in the season one finale of Tech Culture Club. Don't recognize that name? Cary's Dude Solutions—after more than two decades—changed its name to Brightly in March 2022. Erikka talks about the reasoning behind the rebrand and subconscious bias with regard to Ageism. She also breaks down Brightly's quarterly management process. Brightly is a leading SaaS provider of operations management solutions, which enables organizations to transform the performance of their assets. They have over 700 employees around the world, with offices in Canada, UK, Australia, and India.

As we enter our second year of podcasting, the Docs are reflecting on their favorite episodes and sharing the highlights with you! Thank you for two years of 3BD! Dr. Zanetta chose our episode(s) with Dr. Erikka Dzirasa about depression and mental health in children during the pandemic. As we move into a COVID endemic world, these signs and resources are still just as useful. --This week, we're continuing our conversation with Dr. Erikka Dzirasa by covering the warning signs of depression in children and where to find resources if you see some of these signs.For more information on the resources mentioned:Taraji P Henson's Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation : Break the Silence, Break the Cycle. Focused on erasing the stigma around mental health issuesAAKOMA Project: dedicated to helping diverse teenagers and their families achieve optimal mental health through dialogue, learning, and the understanding that everyone deserves care and supportManaged Cares Services through Medicaid Dr. Erikka Dzirasa, MD, MPH is a double board-certified Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatrist, a certified yoga instructor, and a cycle instructor. She is a graduate of Spelman College, and she completed medical school, residency, and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at Duke University. She has experience in treating psychiatric conditions such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, trauma, neurodevelopmental disorders, and psychotic disorders. She is committed to providing compassionate and comprehensive care that incorporates supportive therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and psychopharmacology.  She also has expertise in topics such as eating disorders, body image, racial trauma, resiliency, school/work/life balance, stress management, faith & mental health, and mental health among diverse populations. She is the immediate Past-President of the North Carolina Council of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and the co-owner/founder of Catalyst Therapeutic Services, PLLC in Durham, NC. Follow her on IG @dr_e2kCatalystnc.com @Catalyst_nc   New episodes every Tuesday! Subscribe so you don't miss a beat! Also, join us for our monthly live podcasts on Facebook and Youtube! Join the Conversation! Follow us on social media! 3 Black Docs facebook.com/3blackdocstwitter.com/3blackdocsinstagram.com/3blackdocsYouTube Dr. Karen Winkfield facebook.com/drkarenwinkfieldtwitter.com/drwinkfieldinstagram.com/drwinkfield Dr. Zanetta Lamar facebook.com/drzanettainstagram.com/drzanetta

How to have a stronger Saturday in just 74 seconds. STEP 1: Listen to Erikka on todays show. STEP: Do what she says.  That is all. 

Erikka Rijks is making her return back to the adult industry. Her experience stems from stage performer and pro switch performance artist. Erikka, has been working in front and behind the camera for over 30 years at this point. She started out as a mainstream model in the 90's. Worked in mainstream as an actor, writer and producer. After 2008 work was drying up. The financial crisis was delaying many projects. Having known people in the adult industry she started in the BDSM end of it. Erikka got hired at Sanctuary LAX. She decided she wanted to do a screenplay about BDSM. At the same time Sanctuary LAX had a contract with Kink so Erikka also started web camming. One thing leads to another. As time went on Erikka did her first hardcore scene with Jack Cannon XXX. Right around that time she would also co-host the defunct XXX Porn Star Radio, Later on she shot a scene. Little did she know she would head the box cover but they got her name wrong. Then the pandemic hit. So now she's aiming for a bright 2022 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/high-profile-podcast/support