The results are in! “Anne of Aspercreme” has chosen the voices for her new spots. Anne and Liz discuss their choices and announce the voices of “Hopscotch” and “Walter”. Hear the winners, and get an in-depth look at the process of choosing the right voice! Congratulations to our winners!
Tune in to hear our bittersweet last episode with Special Guest Host Liz Atherton! Stay tuned in future weeks for our next special guest Co-Host and remember: Bosses Move Forward.
Takeaways
Quick Concepts from Today’s Episode:
We’ve narrowed down the finalists to our two winners!
One winner will receive a VO BOSS Blast targeted marketing campaign, and the other will win a one-year pro membership to CastVoices.com
No matter the spec, audition submissions are all over the places
Casting is a time-consuming process, hence why real-world casting directors don’t listen to all auditions or give personalized feedback
In a real scenario, it’s not up for a popular vote, but it’s a decision process that goes back and forth between the casting director and the client
Sometimes the first round of auditions won’t produce the right voice, and a second round of casting will go out!
Don’t submit for the second round of casting unless the specs have significantly changed and you fit the new specs
Often it’s the slight nuances that will book you the role
Make your second read count. This is your chance to showcase your variety
Follow Directions!!
Studio quality impacts casting decisions, make sure you have a pro home studio
Listen to the episode to hear the winners!
It’s important in these trying times to have more than one thing going on, as you never know when one stream of income will end.
Thank you to the Queen Bee, Liz Atherton for joining me for 12 weeks of VO Boss Cohosting! You helped bring life to the podcast, and we will miss you!
Referenced in this Episode
Direct links to things we brought up ++
Learn more about the VO BOSS Blast
Learn more about CastVoices
Get your studio up to date with Tim Tippets or George Whittam
Recorded on ipDTL
Badass editing by Carl Bahner
Transcript
>> It’s time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premier 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 here with the Queen, the Bee, Miss Liz Atherton. Hey Liz.
Liz: Aww, Anne! That’s the last time I’m gonna hear that for a while.
Anne: I know, Liz –
Liz: That makes me bzz cry.
[both laugh]
Anne: Liz, I’m so sad this is our last podcast together.
Liz: I know, I know!
Anne: It has been such a great ride, and I know that there are gonna be lots of listeners out there that are gonna really miss you.
Liz: Awww.
Anne: Besides myself. Yeah. I’m gonna say thank you right now for an amazing like, what has it been, 12 episodes? Yes, an amazing 12 episodes with you, and I really, really appreciate you taking the time. And this has not been a minor undertaking.
Liz: [laughs]
Anne: For those of you out there that don’t know what it takes to put together a podcast, I have to say it’s been a great learning experience for myself over the past 3.5 years. But I’ve brought Liz into the fold too, and I think now Liz understands, you know, everything that’s involved. [laughs]
Liz: Oh my word.
Anne: In getting this thing to run. And then we decided on top of that, Liz, to do this really cool and crazy audition and casting process for our last –
Liz: Oh my gosh.
Anne: – four episodes. Wow. So I have to say it’s been an amazing journey for myself as well as I think for Liz in terms of, how do we get this podcast together and run a contest at the same time that’s interactive?
Liz: Oh my gosh.
Anne: [laughs]
Liz: And it’s not only that. You know, Anne, you’re a VO talent and you have everything set up. So each and every time that I got to visit with you via this platform, it was a different booth. And finally, on my final, my final shining hour, I have a booth where I can actually raise my head and lean back, and I’m not laying on the floor looking up or sideways.
Anne: Well, that’s pretty awesome. Well see, if nothing else. [laughs]
Liz: This has been a real honor and a pleasure for me. I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve learned so much. Guys, if you want to step up your game, I’m telling you right now, Anne Ganguzza is your gal. She will not [laughs] She will not let you fail and she’ll make sure you’re – and pardon my vernacular – damn good. So anyway.
Anne: [laughs]
Liz: That’s an unsolicited, very true –
Anne: Aww.
Liz: – observation –
Anne: Thank you, Liz.
Liz: For the business.
Anne: Liz is very nicely saying that [laughs] –
Liz: No, no!
Anne: I don’t stay off of you. [laughs]
Liz: Anne, I’m not even gonna, I’m not even gonna address that last statement. [laughs]
Anne: I demand, I demand the very best. The very best –
Liz: Yes, she does.
Anne: Out of everyone I work with, and yeah. Thank you, Liz, for humoring me throughout that. You’ve been amazing.
Liz: You rock.
Anne: You know, I’m hoping to have you back very soon after, after my next round of guests, which BOSSes, keep listening, because we’ve got another set of really great guests coming up, and I’m excited for that. But yet super sad, super sad. But Liz, let’s talk about this really cool thing that we did.
Liz: Yes Anne, we’re going out with a bang. [laughs] My word!
Anne: We’re going out with a bang. Liz and I, if you’ve not listened to the past few episodes, we had a great audition contest, casting process where we invited our BOSS listeners to audition for a couple of different roles, where we specced out the casting specs as well as what the payment would be. So we had a lot of, a lot of learning points there. We had people audition, we had a great response. We had 73 people audition. And we came up with our shortlist. We talked about our shortlist. We invited people to comment on all of those auditions as well, so they could be casting directors.
Liz: Gosh, I’m tired already all again.
Anne: Got to experience what it’s like to actually go through and listen, and then we of course extended that and even commented. And so I think everybody got a great idea, Liz, of what it was like to cast.
Liz: I’m telling you, it was at an times arduous process, but one of the things we did is we said, if you’re gonna vote, you gotta go listen, you gotta comment, and you’ve got to give feedback to people. What I hope people took away from this is one, auditions are all over the place, no matter what the spec, what comes in is all over the place. In our case we got really lucky with some extraordinarily talented people. But it’s the time consumption. We just had 73. And granted, Anne, casting directors aren’t gonna sit and give feedback to every single one. No, no. But it’s still a big, ol’ task to listen to them all, and I hope that’s what people took away from it is that casting is difficult. It’s a difficult job. And then on the other side of what you and I did, Anne, even though you were Anne of Aspercreme –
Anne: [laughs]
Liz: Is that [laughs]
Anne: Liz of CastVoices. [laughs]
Liz: Liz of CastVoices, Anne of Aspercreme, in a more real scenario, it’s not up for popular vote. It’s a decision process that goes back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. Sometimes the casting director might present her or his top five, and the client says no. And then it goes to 10 or 15. So you know, we had some little nuances at the end, but I think it was a really good exercise for everybody to maybe step up their game and learn something. So it was good.
Anne: Yeah, and know, guys, that you know, it could have gone back out. You know what I mean? The client, Anne of Aspercreme, could have said, you know what? I don’t quite hear what I’m looking for right now. And so Liz, could you go and recast this for me? And we actually thought, guys, about doing that.
Liz: Just for an exercise.
Anne: Just for the exercise, just to let you know that that’s a possibility, that that may happen, and I’m sure you guys out there who have been auditioning, that’s happened to you as well. You’ve seen, you know, a part that has been recast or another audition that’s come out. Maybe it’s been a slightly different audition, or it’s the same audition, because the client just is not happy with the pick.
Liz: And I, you know, the talent will say, “hey. I already auditioned for this.” And you just have to be honest with them and say, a lot of people did, but they did not find what they were looking for. They may circle back around –
Anne: Right.
Liz: – but I think you can hang this one up, they’re still looking and they haven’t found the right sound. And no, you may not submit again. Did I say that? No, you may not submit again. It just doesn’t work like that.
Anne: Good advice.
Liz: So Anne, who are our winners? I don’t know, guys. Just so you know, I made Anne, or I requested that Anne not tell me so I could be just as surprised as everybody else. Because as the casting director can tell you, it’s the producer who does it. And so here we go, Anne of Aspercreme, although y’all voted.
Anne: So we had a pretty close race for both roles. And I kept looking at the responses throughout the day yesterday, because we of course invited all of you to vote, and we had some pretty savvy, savvy people that were saying hey, vote for me, vote for me. I think that was great as well.
Liz: Oh really? [laughs]
Anne: We did. I saw some –
Liz: Awesome.
Anne: – out into the social sphere. However just note in a real audition, probably that’s not what would be happening.
Liz: [laughs]
Anne: But, but as you know, Liz and I had come up with our final three for each role. And so therefore we came up with our shortlist of six for Hopscotch, and our winner for the role of Hopscotch is… Andrew Lander.
>> Andrew Lander. When you jump into life feet first, it can be painful. Introducing Aspercreme with lidocaine foot pain cream. Relieves aggravated nerves and moisturizes dry skin. 93% saw a visible difference. New Aspercreme with lidocaine foot pain cream. Live feet first. [repeats]
Anne: Wooo, yayy!
Liz: Yayy!
[both laugh]
Liz: That’s awesome. Oh, he’s so good!
Anne: Yes, yes. So, and now Andrew, you’ve won yourself a VO BOSS Blast. So make sure to contact me. I’ll reach out to you as well, and we’ll get that prize underway. That’s the VO BOSS –
Liz: So cool.
Anne: Yeah, the VO BOSS Blast that’s gonna help you market that voice of yours out into the stratosphere. [laughs]
Liz: I, I want one of those. I’m just sayin’.
[both laugh]
Liz: That’s fantastic.
Anne: Okay, and congratulations to everyone who auditioned for this role because I have to say, I don’t think there were any horrible auditions at all in any of these roles.
Liz: No, there weren’t. Some people asked me that too. It was great.
Anne: I have to say, if there’s only really, if there’s only one thing, there were just slight comments that I made on everyone in terms of how they might improve their audition. I’m gonna say when it came right down to it, everyone was good, and it was a difficult, difficult choice.
Liz: Agreed.
Anne: So are we ready for the role of Walter? [laughs] Walter, drumroll please. And the winner for the role of Walter is Michelle Campbell Jones.
>> Michelle Campbell Jones. Aspercreme is odor free so you can have maximum pain relief without that Walter smell. Aspercreme, no pain, no odor. [repeats]
Anne: Woo, yay!
Liz: Yes, yes of course! Of course!
Anne: Yes.
Liz: Congratulations!
Anne: Congratulations to Michelle. Tell her what she’s won, Liz.
Liz: So as you all may or may not know, we’re rolling out with our business-to-business software to help people find work called CastVoices. And we’re rolling in to test in the next couple of weeks. It’s really happening. I know you people have heard me say that for a long time. But it’s happening. And so she gets a one year upgraded pro membership for free, which is an awesome prize, I think. I mean, I got to tell you, the VO Blast is really cool, but this one is a cool thing too. I can’t, I can’t be more thrilled. She’s such a great talent. So cool beans.
Anne: Yay, so congratulations to both of you, and congratulations to everybody who played. And hopefully you all got some great educational benefit and value out of that and learned how to maybe up your audition game.
Liz: Yes, I hope so. I hope so. For me, if you leave with nothing else on a particular audition is make your second read count. Make it different. Develop a character. Do something. Make it stand out. You have this golden requested opportunity to showcase, you know, a different voice in your pocket. Use it.
Anne: Absolutely. And of course follow directions. I think that has been [laughs] that has been –
Liz: Oh God, yes.
Anne: – said multiple times throughout the history of voiceover to please follow directions in terms of naming, slating, how many takes to do, and also I think added into this very special time that we’re all going through, make sure that your studio is up to snuff.
Liz: Yes.
Anne: Because it really affected some of my decisions in regards to who my short shortlist was. So I wanted to make sure that the sound coming out of it was amazing, and there’s some great people out there that can help you do that. You know and of course I like to plug my colleague and friend Tim Tippets who built this amazing studio for me, and of course I’ve had some wonderful work done by George Whitham, myself personally, so guys, there’s some wonderful people out there. Please make sure to check them out, get your studio up to snuff.
Liz: I concur. I concur. Without the good studio, doesn’t matter anything else. Because you’re just gonna get nixed.
Anne: So Liz, before we leave, I just want to find out, so what is gonna be next for Liz? I know you’re talking about CastVoices of course, and in that entrepreneurial brain of yours, tell the BOSSes maybe a little bit about what your experience is moving forward, because it cannot be easy creating a software solution like you are creating. Tell us a little bit about the process, and you know, this is something, guys, I want to motivate and spark your imaginations to kind of think outside the box. Because in crazy times like this, I think we all need to have lots of things going on, and not just your one thing to depend on, because if something crazy like this were to happen, where’s your plan B? I think it’s always good for people to be prepared for that plan B. Liz, tell us what’s going on in that entrepreneurial brain of yours.
Liz: [laughs] Well, as you know, I’m working on CastVoices. I found out that I reserved – I’ve been working on this for 20-plus years, and I’m talking in terms just of an entrepreneur. You know, I’ve had a different company that was successful, TAG Talent Agency, that I stepped away from at the end of 2018 to jump into this next – it’s actually not next. It’s something I’ve worked literally – I reserved Casting.com in 1995, if that tells you something. I’ve been on this not from a casting director but from a business standpoint, it’s been so interesting. Had it funded, didn’t have it funded. Had it funded, didn’t have it funded, had it funded, real tight budget, but we’re rolling out some amazing features, and I’m now seeing the fruits of my labor, when you open it up and look at it in our protected view, you can actually see it rocking and rolling. That is super cool. Out of it, another software was born that’s gonna be developed. That’s gonna be part of our product, and then another one. Who knew that Liz Atherton was gonna be [laughs] you know, the QB of a software development company? I would have never pegged that, but yet I feel like I’m right where I’m supposed to be. It’s really, really cool. And especially, and this may sound all, I don’t know, fluffy feely, but I’ve been this way all my life, so you just have to know, but being able to hand and work through a tool for my community gives me an amazing amount of joy. It just really does. Outside of those things, I have a great big birthday coming up, the very middle of next month, Lord o’mercy, I thought – let’s just say it’s a good one. It’s a nifty one, but it’s, I had – you know, it’s the first year I decided I was gonna have a party. Well, I guess, you know, universe said mm-mm. They knew better. But I have that coming up.
Anne: I think we’re all grateful that we’re, myself and you, of course and everyone, we’re grateful to have that birthday coming up –
Liz: Oh yes.
Anne: – in these crazy times. But yeah. I think we can, we can just celebrate your birthday an extended period of time.
Liz: I like that.
Anne: If we can’t just come to your birthday party next month, we’ll just extend that a few more months until we can meet up again. [laughs]
Liz: Feel free to contribute to my Hawaii fund. Just sayin’.
Anne: We’ll keep celebrating over and over again. What I loved about what you just said is that your entrepreneurial…
Liz: Bent.
Anne: There you go, which started as one thing evolved into another thing. I think there’s something to be said for when you’re bold to move forward and to risk and take chances, that it’s really kind of a cool thing. Because other things just kind of fall into place or can evolve along with it. I want to encourage –
Liz: It’s passion.
Anne: Yeah, I want to encourage all our listeners to be bold, to take those risks, because other things can come out of that that you don’t even expect. And I myself can attest to that, where I never would have anticipated, number one, having a podcast when I first started voiceover. And you know, it just evolved as I was progressing in my entrepreneurial spirit and my business. And I took bold moves. Other things fell into place, and I’m a firm believer that to do that, you have to just keep moving forward. In these insane times, BOSSes keep moving forward.
Liz: Absolutely, keep moving forward.
Anne: Yeah. Things will happen. Oh my gosh, so I might be at the point where I’m a little verklempt right now because, because it is our last episode together. And again, I’m gonna just say thanks so much, Liz, for being here –
Liz: Thank you, Anne.
Anne: For really blessing us with your amazing wit and charm, and really beautiful heart in helping our BOSSes out there to grow and be successful.
Liz: I’m highly humbled and grateful. That’s all I can say. Highly humbled and grateful. This has been a wonderful experience, and thanks to you, so thank you very, very much. My joy.
Anne: Aww. All right, guys. Well, I’m gonna give a great big shout-out to the one, the only sponsor that helps us to come together in times like this, that can help us feel like we’re in the same room. And that is ipDTL. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys have an amazing week. Congratulations to our winners. You guys are all BOSSes. You’re all the best. We love you, and we’ll see you next week.
Liz: Take care.
Anne: Bye!
Liz: Bye-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.
[outtake]
Liz: It’s gonna be something. You ready?
[echoes, music starts]
[“round two, fight!”]
[chicken sounds]
[intense rock music starts]
¶
Liz: Okay, now there we go.
[chicken sounds and intense rock music]
Liz: Okay, now there we go.