with Kesha Monk
Nothing great comes from comfort zones! Anne and special guest co-host Kesha Monk discuss Clubhouse ― the new audio-based social media app ― and the unique opportunities it provides voice actors. If you’re nostalgic for the days of radio, Clubhouse is for you. If you’re looking for ways to connect and learn, Clubhouse is for you. Discover the magic of bringing people together and how the unknown can lead to your greatest reward. “Heavy hitters,” producers, VO stars, and more … you never know who you may chat with in a Clubhouse room. Tune in to the latest episode in the Entrepreneur Hustle series to learn why it pays to take a leap of faith.
Takeaways
Quick Concepts from Today’s Episode:
Clubhouse is a new, all audio, social media platform. It is currently only available on iPhone, by invitation only
The voice is an important tool for connection, and Clubhouse allows us to connect on an emotive level and have conversations
You can be in the room with someone on Clubhouse that you wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to engage with
Anyone can host a room on any topic of their choosing
Clubhouse Rooms can host virtual conferences
These rooms include virtual stages, panels, speakers, and audience members. The people connected to the panel members are in the front row, and others can join in the audience
Hosts and moderators can bring “audience members” up on stage to join the conversation
Clubhouse can connect with your Instagram and Twitter account
Clubhouse will curate your interests based upon your actions and suggest rooms for you to join
The more you participate, the more the app understands what you like
There is no recording built into Clubhouse. You need to attend events live
If you make an impact with people in your audience, they will often follow you on Clubhouse, and also your Instagram. This can lead to new business opportunities
Being strategic with the types of rooms and panels you host can lead to new business leads
The opportunities for networking and meaningful impactful discussions on Clubhouse can really change people for the better
Whenever you have people in a space who have a commonality, magic happens
Clubhouse is a haven for creatives and entrepreneurs
When a group of people did an audio production of Lion King, it received over 300 million impressions across social media
Not only is Clubhouse a place to network, but also is becoming a place to showcase our talents
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Clubhouse has been an amazing #networking opportunity for @KeshaMonk. Such an inspiring story! #VOBOSS Click To Tweet
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Referenced in this Episode
Direct links to things we brought up ++
Recorded on ipDTL
Full Episode 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, along with my most wonderful, excellent guest co-host, Miss Kesha Monk. Hey Kesha!
Kesha: That’s a lot of descriptors in there. Wonderful, excellent. Like “wow, who are you talking about?”
Anne: I could add, I could add so much more. [laughs]
Kesha: Aww. That’s sweet.
Anne: I was just blast, blasting off those today. But Kesha, I want to talk about a new platform, a new social media platform or relatively new platform which I happen to love because it’s all audio. And of course being a voice talent, I like audio platforms like podcasts. It always, you know, it always surprised me how few of the voice talent out there have podcasts. I think it’s now kind of catching on because this is what we do. It’s audio. But you know of late, this new social media app, called Clubhouse, of which I just became a member, but I know you’re a member, I think we should talk about it because you’ve been doing some really exciting things on this platform. And enlighten me, please.
Kesha: Without exaggeration, Anne, this app has literally shifted my career.
Anne: I love it.
Kesha: I’m not exaggerating.
Anne: Well, how? So I know, well, one thing I do know, I saw your video on, you posted maybe a couple weeks ago, you were cast as the narrator for a Dreamgirls production.
Kesha: Yes, ma’am, yes, ma’am.
Anne: And also I think another production — there’s not two productions that you’re apart of now?
Kesha: Well, not necessarily. I’ll tell you exactly what it is. First of all of course, I’m not sure if the BOSSes heard my previous podcast with you, but I am a radio personality in my blood. And I did 20 years doing that thing. I was the kid that lugged around that big, you know, the big [laughs] tape recorder and did all kinds of crazy things growing up.
Anne: I can see that.
Kesha: Yeah, totally. I’ve always, even as a child, have been absolutely amazed and fascinated with the power of voice.
Anne: Yeah.
Kesha: Not sure if I mentioned the story to you. When I was a kid, they had these like 900 numbers —
Anne: Oh yeah, I remember those.
Kesha: Party lines.
Anne: I remember those. Yup.
Kesha: I used to run my mom’s phone bill up astronomically just hanging out on these party lines. I used to do like little corny things like grab greeting cards and read them to the, like, the people in the room and stuff like that. People always used to say “oh my God, your voice is so nice!” You know so, again, there’s just something about the voice. And if you are in voiceover, if you’re not in voiceover, subconsciously you have to understand that the voice can emote, invoke emotion.
Anne: Oh absolutely.
Kesha: It’s the great connector. Whoever created the radio knew that, they knew that. That’s why, you know, the voice is such an important tool. And so obviously when I discovered Clubhouse, I’m like O M G. It’s a voice app where you can kind of just like, you know, go have conversations with people. And there —
Anne: And there’s a lot of people on there, and there’s a lot of heavy-hitters on there. It’s really, to me, it’s amazing because you can be in the room with somebody that you would, under normal circumstances, never have an opportunity to engage with.
Kesha: That’s the thing people don’t quite understand. I will tell you in a little while, but just like you said, you could be literally sitting next to someone who’s pretty much, pretty much of a, I don’t know, a power, a big heavy-hitter, you know?
Anne: Absolutely, absolutely.
Kesha: And that’s exactly what happened to me. That’s exactly what happened to me.
Anne: Aha, so tell, tell, do tell, please, because it’s exciting news.
Kesha: So I again, I take this Clubhouse thing very, very seriously. I did a women in voiceover panel a couple of weeks ago, and I grabbed some of my good, good girlfriends and I put them on the virtual stage, and we all talked about voiceover obviously, our careers, our journeys, our struggles. We talked about racism in voiceover. It was really, really good. I want to say maybe 300 people showed up.
Anne: That’s fantastic.
Kesha: Yeah, it was awesome. We took questions. It was very interactive. I tried to do like a women’s empowerment thing at the end. It was great. And so a couple of days later, somebody contacted me from NBC.
Anne: What!
Kesha: And they said you know, “we really, really love your voice. We want to hear you do your best Kamala Harris impression.”
Anne: Whoa, really?
Kesha: And so I got to be honest with you, Anne, at first I was like, there’s no way I could do that. I don’t do impressions. But you don’t tell an exec, an exec at NBC no.
Anne: Yeah, absolutely.
Kesha: So I went into the booth, and I did the best I could, and I sent it, and they loved it, and they hired me.
Anne: Nice! [laughs]
Kesha: Period. But get this, that’s not where it ends, my friend. After I hit send, they sent me another opportunity to play the role of the manila folder on Nancy Pelosi’s desk in the Capitol.
Anne: No way!
Kesha: I am a manila folder.
Anne: Whoa, wait! I was talking about a completely different production! This is incredible, wow!
Kesha: I have several.
Anne: This is the first time I’ve heard — wow!
Kesha: I have several opportunities. And again I’ve only been on the app for like a month or so. I have several opportunities that I have seized as a result of being active on Clubhouse.
Anne: So let me ask you a question. So you hosted a panel. So you were the moderator, right? You hosted, you invited a couple of other women to be on that panel with you. And then ultimately just for the BOSSes who don’t have, who are not on Clubhouse or don’t have an account yet, there is the moderators, and then there’s a stage, and the stage, if you want to get up on stage I guess to be invited to talk, or have a discussion, you can raise your hand so that you can be moved to the stage so that ultimately you can have the capability to talk and interact with the moderators and other people on the panel.
Kesha: So here it is. No, no. Let’s not even get that technical.
Anne: Ok.
Kesha: The VO BOSS conference is happening at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Ok?
Anne: Alright. Yeah.
Kesha: Madison Square Garden is the clubhouse. It’s the building, it’s the facade. Right, ok? Anne Ganguzza is the host.
Anne: Hosting the conference, yeah.
Kesha: She’s hosting the conference. And so while, you know, you got one stage with, with Anne, and then you got Kesha, and some of, you’ve got Randy Thomas, and we’re all on stage. Now the people who, let’s say, have our personal phone numbers, they’re the ones that have, who are connected to us, those are the ones that are sitting in the front row. So again you have the stage, and then you have the front row. Those are the people who are directly connected to us, or who are followed by the “speakers.”
Anne: Ah yes.
Kesha: And then you have everybody else.
Anne: Who’s in the — what do you call that? You call that the audience? Or what —
Kesha: The audience, yes.
Anne: In the audience. If I’m a member of the audience, do I have the capacity to talk to people?
Kesha: You do. All you got to do is raise your hand.
Anne: Raise your hand.
Kesha: Raise your hand. Raise your hand, and you as the moderator or the host have the ability to bring them up on stage.
Anne: Perfect, perfect. I think what’s so amazing for me, and like literally I’ve just had the account for three days. I’m getting my feet wet. It wasn’t even — like the thought of it, oh this is great. It’s an audio platform. I love all things audio because obviously, voice talent. And so it wasn’t until I actually went into one of the rooms and started listening to people interacting and talking where I said, whoa, this is powerful. This is super powerful. So alright, so you’ve gotten two jobs already [laughs] from NBC. Now when NBC contacted you, did they contact you through the Clubhouse app? Or did they —
Kesha: No, they emailed me. Clubhouse does not have the ability to inbox people, which is a wonderful thing.
Anne: Got it.
Kesha: What it is, is you have to connect your Instagram and your Twitter feeds to your account, and then that way Clubhouse knows what you’re interested in. It kind of like goes through all the people that you follow and kind of curates an experience for you. What’s gonna happen, Anne, is once you start going in these voiceover rooms — and then again, of course you could be a woman of many different interests. For me it’s cancer surviving and you know, real estate investing. The more you participate, the more the app understands what you like. And so when you log on, you’ll begin to see rooms that are, that you would definitely be interested in.
Anne: And they also have interests. So that when I first logged on, it asked me to identify interests in terms of like topics. I think that’s a new development.
Kesha: Yeah, yes, it is.
Anne: I was looking to see what was new. Plus the fact that you can create a more extensive bio than I thought before. But I really love the way, in a way, it’s kind of a semi-exclusive thing. And the other thing that I really like, that makes people of course want to be on it more. But the other thing too, it is, if you are not there live, that’s it. You know what I mean? It’s done. The show is live, and I think there’s something really awesome to be said for that. Because I’ve been hosting webinars for years, right, for over ten years. And there’s always the capability of somebody to get the video afterwards or the audio afterwards. And even a podcast, you can download afterwards, you can go listen whenever you want. But this, if you’re not there, it almost creates this excitement about the event and also this like, whoa, I better be there. And I think it makes it so much more exciting, that you need to be present at the time —
Kesha: Totally.
Anne: — and active. I love that. I think it’s been a long time coming that these, that a social media platform, you have to be live. Otherwise it’s done, and it’s gone.
Kesha: Right. And then not only that, it’s an opportunity for people to kind of like follow you, right? If you are on a stage, and as you’re talking and you’re making an impact with people who are in the audience, people are going to, number one, they’re gonna follow you on Clubhouse, then they’ll go a step further and they’ll click onto your Instagram and they’ll follow you there. Like honestly I’ve gained, at least within the past week, week and a half, over about 1000 followers on my Instagram.
Anne: Wow. I saw you commenting about, it was just blowing up. That’s fantastic.
Kesha: It totally is. And it just makes sense again for voiceover artists, even if you’re just a voiceover, or if you are, you know, you want to host rooms —
Anne: Right.
Kesha: — you can totally do that. It is absolutely incredible. As a matter of fact, Anne, this is the crazy part, I never really thought of myself to be a mentor, but people are literally flooding my inboxes wanting me to mentor them. So I had to hurry up and buy a subscription to like some scheduling software and try to get everything situated.
Anne: I can see that.
Kesha: It’s totally incredible. Yeah. So totally incredible.
Anne: Now, in terms of the types of content that you hosted — so you hosted something on voiceover. Is it just, I want to host, I want to host a room and talk about this? Or was it just organic, or have you started to like maybe plan panels? How is that working for you?
Kesha: I got to be honest with you. I, and again, this is not anything against people who just decide to wake up in the morning and do a room. I, oh my God, please don’t think I’m crazy — everything I do —
Anne: Wait, every time that — I’m gonna just say every time that I go onto the app, I see that you are involved. I see Kesha because I follow you, and I look at what’s available, what’s playing, what rooms are going on right now, and I see Kesha. Because you’re right up at the top there, and you’re either moderating, I believe you’re either moderating or you’re attending.
Kesha: Truth be told, I don’t necessarily wake up and say I’m gonna moderate a couple of rooms. What happens is, when people see I’m in the room, they’ll say, “oh my God, Kesha’s here! Come on up!” That’s how it works, but if there’s anything that I’ve had in mind I wanted to host, it’s a whole strategy. For instance, I’ll give you an example. For my women in voiceover panel, I wanted to make sure that I pulled together some of my good, good girlfriends that were all unique. So of course I had Maria, who, who’s really good at corporate narration. And she also knows a hell of a lot about the union. And then I pulled Malika Malette, who was an old girlfriend of mine, who’s had tremendous success in voiceover, but she used to be in radio. She also has on-camera experience. And then I may have pulled —
Anne: Yeah, exactly. Are you notifying them before the panel, or are you saying, hey, I’m thinking about having a room, let’s talk about it, and then it happens?
Kesha: Again, my approach is a little bit different. If I’m having a themed Clubhouse room or chat rather, I will take a week, a week and a half to prepare. So I invite them. I send them emails throughout the week. I sent them an agenda. I pulled some of their audio from their demos. I fused it all together. I played it. It’s a whole production that I do. And again, I did another one just the other day which was really incredible. I did a room called Black, Bald, and Beautiful. And it was about basically women who face adversity in the radio and television industry. And what happened, Anne, was that the panel was so, it just became very emotional. They started talking about like sexual abuse in the workplace, and you know, things like that. And put it like this. You know this, as a VO BOSS. Whenever you have a bunch of people, right, in a space, virtual or physical, that have a commonality, magic happens.
Anne: Oh absolutely.
Kesha: Magic, it’s very, very powerful. That’s how I curate my experiences on Clubhouse. That’s how I do it. You know. Everybody doesn’t do it that way, but that’s what works for me. Because I want to be successful, but more importantly I want to be impactful.
Anne: Sure, absolutely.
Kesha: And so that’s how I do it.
Anne: Now are you — I’m gonna say in terms of your strategy, is this going to be a strategy moving forward that you’ll do, you know, as a regular sort of, now this has become a really cool — I don’t see this app moving away or going away any time soon. It literally is on fire, and I think that the opportunities for networking and really having meaningful, impactful, as you’re saying, discussions that can really change people for the better, I think is just amazing. So is your strategy to, let’s say, do something once a week, or are you planning — I’m just curious. I’m still formulating. I’m still formulating.
Kesha: And that’s fine.
Anne: This is what I can do. Maybe the BOSSes will have a room.
Kesha: Of course. I would certainly hope that’s what you will do.
Anne: Absolutely.
Kesha: Unfortunately I don’t have a plan to do this thing on a weekly basis because I am slammed. Don’t forget, I am also a voiceover artist —
Anne: Which is also — exactly.
Kesha: I got to make sure that [laughs] you know, I got to make sure that I’m available for auditions and sessions and whatnot. However, even though I don’t necessarily have a timeframe, I will do this as often as I can, because there is truly a benefit. And it’s not even all about me being front row and center all the time.
Anne: Exactly, exactly.
Kesha: You know, when I go to bed at night? It totally is, and it is a haven for creatives. I’ll tell you about the Dreamgirls thing in a minute.
Anne: That’s the one that I saw that you posted on Facebook. And I actually, you posted a little bit of the video. Were you on Clubhouse when you were talking, or they had called you on the phone? That’s pretty awesome. [laughs]
Kesha: Ok, are you ready for the story?
Anne: I’m ready for the story.
Kesha: This is a freakin’ crazy, crazy situation, and I really, really hope everyone listening will truly get my frame of thought.
Anne: Ok, we’re ready.
Kesha: So Dreamgirls — well first of all, let me back up. At first they did The Lion King.
Anne: Yes, that’s the one that I thought you were the narrator for.
Kesha: Right, no.
Anne: But they had already done that.
Kesha: Right. At the time, I wasn’t even a member of Clubhouse, but I kept seeing it trend on Twitter. And then after it was over, I mean HLN did something on it, CLN — I’m sorry, CNN did something. It was in The Times. It was in like Variety Magazine, about these creatives who decided to do an audio version of Lion King.
Anne: Love it, love it.
Kesha: That production received over 300 million impressions across social media. Ok? So I thought, hey, that’s cool —
Anne: It’s a radio drama, right?
Kesha: Right, exactly. It was pretty, and I was doing something — oh, I know what happened. There’s a cap. You generally can’t get more than 5000 people in the room. And it was 5000 people, and I couldn’t get in. And once I got in, I kept getting off. I was like, “eh, it is what it is.” It was tremendous. It was extremely successful. So then I learned that there, a different set of creatives were gonna put on a production of Dreamgirls. And I’m like, eh, that sounds pretty cool. They had live auditions. I came into the room. I’m doing my work, and I’m literally sitting there for hours.
Anne: That was the tail-end of your audition that we heard? The one that I saw in the video? I’m pretty sure —
Kesha: Actually I put a couple of videos out, so I’m not sure which one you’re referring to. So check it out! Right? I’m in the room, and I’m hearing everybody singing. It’s just song, they’re just singing the same song over and over. You know how auditions go.
Anne: Absolutely.
Kesha: And so I’m sitting there, and I’m like “I don’t hear anybody narrating. I know that there are announcer roles in this film. Like why isn’t anybody doing it?” And so my husband goes, “eh, just raise your hand and get on stage and do it.”
Anne: [laughs] Did you have a script for the narrator? Did they have that as one of the options?
Kesha: They didn’t! That’s what makes this story so freakin’ amazing.
Anne: Whoa! [laughs]
Kesha: So I raised my hand. First of all, I do it reluctantly, because I’m like there’s 5000 people in the room. There’s absolutely no way they’re gonna pick me, because you know. And then they pick me. And so now I’m on stage. And I’m like “oh my God, this is my chance, but I don’t have anything to read.” I grab the laptop, and I’m searching, and I’m trying to find the script. I find a little bit of something to read, and I, you know, when it’s my time, I read it. And they say “thank you very much.” And then they kick me off stage, right? And so I went to bed that night thinking “it doesn’t matter if I get it or not.” I just find myself, I find it amazing that I pushed myself to do something that wasn’t like in the norm.
Anne: Sure.
Kesha: Like I made an opportunity and I was proud of myself.
Anne: Absolutely.
Kesha: And I went ahead to sleep, girl. And then the next day, holy crap! Somebody from the production sends me a tweet. They’re like “Kesha, get in the audition room right now.” I had no idea they were doing a second round of auditions.
Anne: Oh! [laughs] Wow!
Kesha: So I go in the room.
Anne: So you got the callback.
Kesha: I got on the stage —
Anne: So you got the callback.
Kesha: I got the callback. It was a callback.
Anne: Did they have something for you to read this time?
Kesha: No, they didn’t.
Anne: Ok.
Kesha: They don’t have time. It’s just too many people.
Anne: Got it.
Kesha: I found something. I made a little adjustment. There was a word like in the, in the script I couldn’t pronounce, so I made a change — I found the synonym for it. And I read it, and they go “thank you, Kesha.” And I say “thank you.” They said “you’re hired.”
Anne: What!
Kesha: And I’m like “what?” And that’s probably the video you saw.
Anne: That’s the video I saw! That’s the video I saw!
Kesha: I’m like, are you serious? And then mind you, Amber Riley from Glee, she’s in the room. She’s one of the judges. Sheryl Lee Ralph, which is one of the original Dreamgirls, she’s in the room. There’s another R&B — like there are celebrities in the room. And they’re all crying. They’re like “your voice, your intensity, you’re making us cry.” And I’m like, “no, this is not happening right now.”
Anne: I’m clapping for you right now, I’m clapping. That’s so exciting.
Kesha: And girl, that’s how it happens! So get it, get this! I have, and you know, now that I’m seeing who’s putting this production on, I have access to people who are executive producers at Fox.
Anne: Of course.
Kesha: And at ABC and NBC and all the major networks.
Anne: Hello!
Kesha: And I, right, I am over the freakin’ moon.
Anne: Well, Kesha, congratulations. That is, that is, you know, it’s just such an amazing story of, you know, getting outside of your comfort zone, doing something, you know, that you just, I don’t know, I don’t, and you did. And look at how it paid off. What an amazing story. Wow.
Kesha: Nothing great comes from comfort zones.
Anne: Isn’t that the truth?
Kesha: Nothing.
Anne: Isn’t that the truth?
Kesha: Even in unfamiliar spaces, even when you may think you may not belong — mind you, no one else was reading. No one!
Anne: Yeah.
Kesha: I was on the stage —
Anne: Everybody was singing.
Kesha: I literally filled the void —
Anne: When they called you up —
Kesha: — and commanded attention. Yeah?
Anne: When they called you up, did you say I’m not gonna sing, I’m going to, I’d like to read something? Did you ask about the narrator?
Kesha: What I said, and again, this is me being conscious. I’m like, they’ve been in here for 25 hours. They don’t want to hear a long story. Come up with something cute to sing. And what I said was, “hello, everyone. My name is Kesha, and I’m going to sing for you — ah never mind, that’s not my ministry. I’m just gonna read.” And that’s what I did.
Anne: Cool!
Kesha: Yup.
Anne: I love it, I love it.
Kesha: Yup. That’s what happened.
Anne: What a great story. So BOSSes, you know, there’s so many lessons to be learned. Kesha, I’m so incredibly happy for you. You deserve every bit of success that’s coming your way. This is just goes to show what you can do what you go outside your comfort zone, you take that step out, be brave, have a little bit of courage, and wonderful things can happen. I could not be happier for you, Kesha.
Kesha: Thanks, Anne. Thank you so much.
Anne: Yeah. I’m gonna give a huge shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can connect and be motivated and inspired by going to ipdtl.com and finding out more. You guys have an amazing week, and go out there and see if you can get an invite to Clubhouse.
Kesha: Yeah!
Anne: Alright, talk to you soon. Bye!
Kesha: 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.