Moving from the closet booth to the…car booth? Anne and Pilar finish telling the story of Pilar's Journey in Part 3 of the Boss Voces premiere. Listen as Pilar finally packs her car (+ her cat!) and moves to LA in hopes of establishing her VO career and signing with a big agency. It's been a wild ride, but things are really coming together now on the West Coast for Pilar...

More at: https://www.voboss.com/pilars-journey-part-3

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 so happy to welcome back to the show special guest cohost Pilar Uribe. Pilar, hey, how are you today?

Pilar: I'm doing great. How are you?

Anne: I'm doing great. Hey, I have been so interested in your story, and we've learned so many things that are parallels to being in the voiceover industry today from your story. So our last couple of episodes, we talked about your telenova star personalities in Colombia and your -- I think it was nine years you were there in Colombia doing all kinds of acting --

Pilar: That's right.

Anne: -- and some radio as well. And then you moved on to Miami, and we're talking to us about your radio career in Miami and how you evolved into that and also in voiceover. And now we're on when your next move, which it's so interesting, you moved from Colombia to Florida, to Miami, and I, I think it was all just things seem to take you where you needed to go to evolve in your career. And I think that's such a cool parallel with my experience as well. And hopefully BOSSes that are listening out there kind of have some similarities as well. So I'd love to hear about your, I guess what made you go from Miami to LA, and let's, let's continue the journey with you.

Pilar: So I'm in Miami, and my, as I said, in the last episode, my land lady, she actually wrote me an email saying, I'm so sorry, but I'm going to sell the apartment.

Anne: And you were there for how long?

Pilar: 16 years.

Anne: Wow.

Pilar: Yeah. So my first thought was total and utter panic because I was like, oh my gosh, I have to get out of this apartment that I've lived in. And I've sort of made a life for myself. And I started looking around. I had been working with somebody. We've had like a 25 now, yeah, more than 25-year conversation with his really good friend of mine in New York and something that he used to say to me. I had started getting a little bit sort of, I want to do something else, but I'm not really sure what it is. You know, I, I've got four jobs and I've got the radio host thing, and it's just, you know, it's, I'm always hustling, and it would be nice to be able to do more voiceover. But you know, Miami is not a lot, a lot of opportunity there, unless it's in my booth.

And he said something to me, because I was like, you know, I think I need to. And he would say until you decide to pack your bag, you're not going to move. And he said that to me for years. And I take it now is it's not just a physical thing. It's sort of a, if I want to do something, I have to go ahead and do it.

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: Because I can talk about it --

Anne: You have to pack your bag.

Pilar: -- until the cows. Yeah. So like, I can talk about it until the cows come home. But if I don't actually do it and decide to make a change, I'm never going to do anything, you know?

Anne: Yeah. I love that. I love that. There you go manifestation again.

Pilar: Exactly.

Anne: Especially for those BOSSes that are early in their careers, and they don't know, and they think about it, and they think this is what they want to do, but yeah. Actually taking the step and the, the physical part of yes, making that decision, putting the things in place, and it helps it come to fruition.

Pilar: Exactly. So I didn't tell anybody, and this is something that I'm very conscious of. A lot of the times I would sit there, like I wrote like 17 or 18 songs when I lived in Colombia. And so I said, you know, I'm, I have songs and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I would tell everybody that I was gonna put out an album eventually. I never put the album out, but I told everybody I was going to do it. And a lot of the times when you say things like that, you leak your energy. So when you have an intention in your mind, it's really important to keep it within yourself, um, and share it with people that you can trust and be aware that it's not something that you need to sit there and gab and gab and gab and gab about, but that you really need to focus on what it is that you're doing.

And I think that, that's what I, I mean, I did that for a while, and I would sit there and I would complain, and I'd be like, oh, you know, I want more. And I'm really kind of in love with this thing called voiceover, but I don't really know what it is. And so I decided to just go ahead and kind of be quiet and say, okay, if I'm going to do something -- because I'd been doing it for 10 years and everything that I got was actually I got it. I didn't have an agent. I didn't, I, you know, had the on-camera agents, but I was doing voiceover. So I thought, okay, what, where can I go?

And so VO Atlanta was coming up. And so I just thought, well, let me, let me check out Atlanta, because I love Atlanta. I've been there a few times, and I went and I saw these people and it was really wonderful. And then I thought, let me go. There was a, I think it was a WoVo was having a small, like a little mini session in San Francisco. So I thought, let me, let me go there. But once I left to go there, there was something about it. As much as I loved Atlanta, Atlanta was, I mean, at that point, um, this is two years ago now going on three, it's really, it, it definitely has a very strong voiceover, but it was more for on camera. And I realized I really want to focus on my voiceover, you know? And, and I had always thought, I mean, I always knew that in LA, you know, LA for me, it was like the Olympic village. And I was like, do I want to, I've always dreamed of going to LA and this, my friend Dale has been telling me would tell you, pack your bag.

Anne: Yeah. LA is weird dreams coming true. Right? People move to LA with their dreams.

Pilar: Right, exactly. What was it that they say in -- "what do you wish for? It your dream!" Was it that -- it was this great guy at the very beginning of "Pretty Woman."

Anne: Oh!

Pilar: He says it at the very beginning.

Anne: Oh yeah.

Pilar: And he says it at the very end.

Anne: Yup.

Pilar: "What do you wish for?" It was, it's really cool. So I went to San Francisco and then I went and I spent a few days with a friend in LA. And as soon as I got there, I was like, oh, I'm supposed to be here. And I just knew.

Anne: Yup, yup.

Pilar: I just, it was like, I arrived. And I just knew that that was the place.

Anne: Yup.

Pilar: So I went back to Miami and I started setting intentions, just like I had when I moved to Colombia. I was like, okay, I'm just going to start setting my intentions here. And I was like, okay, I'm going to need a place to live. And I had time before I had to leave. So this is like in March, March/April, and I had a lead from a very kind person who wrote a letter to Atlas Talent, and it turned out and of course, it's the universe, because they were looking for bilingual voiceover talent.

Anne: There you go.

Pilar: So I get this email, and they're like, we'd like to have a meeting. And I was like, oh my gosh, they want to have a meeting? They want to have a meeting with me? Are you kidding? I was like, I, so I didn't want to tell them that I wasn't there yet. So I was like, you know, I'm in the process. So I wrote them back and I said, you know, thank you so much. I'm in the process. I'll let you know when I get there.

Anne: Now, can I ask you how long ago this was?

Pilar: Two years ago. It's going to be three years.

Anne: Okay. And it's so interesting because again, the timing of everything, right? I feel like it's important to me. We're really coming into, you know, inclusivity and diversity and needing bilingual and more and more and more. So that makes sense to me.

Pilar: Yes. And, and that will play later --

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: -- into that. So I started packing, I started throwing things away. I started giving things away because I realized I can't move with all my stuff. 'Cause it was just, it was just too expensive. So I had to, you know, sell, give away, donate. And I got July 19th, 2019, I got into the car. I packed all my stuff, and with my kitty, with Paco.

Anne: And drove across the country.

Pilar: I drove across the country. I picked up a very good friend of mine who actually, we started out almost -- I met him almost as soon as I got to, uh, Miami ,Aaron, Aaron Goldenberg. And he is an actor as well. He was living in Atlanta at the time, but I flew him back from Atlanta to Miami on my frequent flyer miles. And we drove across the country, which I highly recommend. I mean, you know, this is --

Anne: With a cat.

Pilar: Of course.

Anne: With a cat.

Pilar: With a cat, of course. I highly recommend --

Anne: How was your booth kitty in the car for a cross-country trip? That would be interesting.

Pilar: I have to tell you, he was really good considering, you know, of course there was meowing going on.

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: I never let him out of the car. I mean, I never let him out of his travel bag because, you know, that's just not a good idea with --

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: -- with cats, but he was really good.

Anne: What about when you stay -- I can't imagine you did the drive in one fell swoop.

Pilar: No, no, no, no, no.

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: It took us seven days.

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: We would drive, I would park some litter in the bottom of the car. I had some litter there and I had water there. And so what I would do is that I would take him out when we would do rest stops. I would take him out and we would leave him alone. We would close the car. We would leave him the most. So he would check it out. He never went to the bathroom in my car.

Anne: Oh my gosh.

Pilar: I have to -- yeah, no. So what would happen is when we would get to a place, I would immediately, the first thing I would do was I would set up his kitty litter box with a little portable thing that I had, and I would put it in the closet usually so he would have privacy and he would go immediately. So --

Anne: I can't imagine them holding it for like an eight-hour ride. Like --

Pilar: I know. And the thing is, it was right there. That's what was so obnoxious that he wouldn't go. And I had the kitty litter there for him, but he refused to go. So, you know, whatever.

Anne: We digressed, we digressed --

Pilar: We digressed, yes. Sorry.

Anne: -- into the studio -- into the studio cat --

Pilar: Yes.

Anne: -- conversation. But I'm sorry, I had to, I had to ask.

Pilar: But it can be done. I'm just, I'm telling you now, Anne, it can be done if you want to go across with the kitties, it can be done.

Anne: See, we manifested it. We manifest -- we manifest our kitties as well.

Pilar: Exactly.

Anne: Crossing the country.

Pilar: Um, yeah. So it was, it was, it was great. I saw the most beautiful parts of this country. I was like, it's, it's really, when you realize, for those of you living in the States --

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: -- you just realize the vastness of this country and how amazing it is. You just, you really don't get that um, you know, when you fly in. Driving, it was, it was just, it was such a great experience driving through all across -- all of the states.

Anne: That's what I'm going to do when I retire.

Pilar: It's definitely worth doing.

Anne: Yup.

Pilar: So we, we arrived in Phoenix, and Aaron had to fly back for a gig. So I dropped and we -- that had that already been planned. So I dropped him off in Phoenix, and it was close enough that I could, you know, drive the rest of the way myself. It's like 600 miles. So it was long. But I had, I had done that before. So I drove. And then when I was literally inside LA, when I was literally inside, when I was inside the -- in California, I took a picture. I was like, okay, I've reached California. So I took a little, a little post -- I did, I just did a little Instagram post.

And when I got within the confines of LA county, when I knew I was within LA county, I stopped the car. I pulled to the side of the road. I stopped the car, and I sent an email so the agent would know that I was there because I didn't want to lie about that I was there when I wasn't. So I was like, okay, I'm already physically here. So then they know. So then they wrote me back pretty quickly after that. And they said, you know, we're every, and it was, you know, it was the summer. So everybody was on vacation. So I got to LA, I wrote them and I, I saw them like about two weeks after I arrived. I arrived at a friend's house. And then I started doing Airbnb, and then I found a place through a good friend, Randy Thomas. She found me -- a friend of hers had a room. So I rented a room, this dear man. So I just started living basically out of my car. I just, I had all this stuff, obviously. So I took some stuff out, but I would live out out of my car because like, what else am I going to do?

Anne: Right.

Pilar: I can't bring all that stuff 'cause it wouldn't fit in this room.

Anne: And this is before, this is before pandemic.

Pilar: This is way before pandemic.

Anne: Yeah. Okay.

Pilar: Yeah. So, so I'm, I'm --

Anne: Well, not so far, actually.

Pilar: No, no, no, no, not that far. No, because this is August. This was August. So --

Anne: Right, pandemic March.

Pilar: Yeah. This was the August, 2019.

Anne: Okay. Because was it 2020?

Pilar: Yeah, yes.

Anne: Where have the years gone?

Pilar: Yes. I know, exactly. We went through a whole year and a half. Right? It's already --

Anne: Didn't we have two years of pandemic? I'm not sure.

Pilar: Yeah, we're about to reach two years of pandemic, yes.

Anne: So okay, so you're about a year before the pandemic then.

Pilar: Yeah. Six months.

Anne: Oh, okay.

Pilar: Nine months, nine months.

Anne: Okay, nine months.

Pilar: Nine months. So --

Anne: Like a pregnancy, like --

Pilar: Exactly, like a pregnancy. Exactly. So I had nine months ,and that's really important.

Anne: Yes.

Pilar: So I, I, um, I, I go to the agent. I, you know, I get all dolled up and I, I get there super early to the appointment with the agents, and they were like, so incredible. So nice. So normal. I was like, wow, okay, this is just, and they asked me questions. And so I, I, you know, I give them my stuff. I give them my little, you know, my little elevator pitch, which by the way, everybody needs an elevator pitch. That's really important to have an elevator pitch. That's what I'm discovering is like, you know, just basically like a little minute of your life.

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: You know?

Anne: Absolutely.

Pilar: And so then they, you know, they asked me, they said, do you want to freelance? Which is what I had been doing for 16 years, because Miami is a right to work state, so with all my on-camera agents. And I didn't, I didn't have any experience with, with VO agents. And they said, do you want to freelance? Do you want to, you know, sign? And I was like, oh, where's the page where I can sign on the dotted line? I was like, I'm not, I'm not freelancing if you're giving me this choice, I'm signing, you know, because obviously California is not a right to work state. It's like, you sign with an agent, you're done. So I was like, yep, I'm on board. And then afternoon, they sent me an audition. And I was like, okay, how do I do this? So I became really good at auditioning inside my car.

Anne: Tell me about your setup in the car.

Pilar: So the setup is, it's actually, it's a really cool setup. So you sit, you have to sit in the backseat. You pull the seat all the way to -- forward. And I have a Sennheiser 416.

Anne: Yup.

Pilar: So you pull the seat all the way forward. You sit on -- and, you know, it's, it's, it's a maneuvering situation to get your butt in the bottom of the car, not on the seat, but on the floor of the car.

Anne: And we'll share a picture of this setup on our website, on the VO BOSS website.

Pilar: Totally. Oh yeah.

Anne: I would love to share.

Pilar: Oh, I have it. I have it. I have a picture. Yeah, totally. Totally. And then the laptop goes on the back seat, and then I've got my Focusrite 2i2 there as well. And then little, you know, the cables. And then I've got my Sennheiser with a stand in the middle of where the, on the --

Anne: Console, on the console?

Pilar: On the console.

Anne: Okay.

Pilar: No, in the middle of where the front seats are.

Anne: Yes, yes. Right.

Pilar: So it's that little it's, it's not on top of where the dashboard is, but it's in the middle. So I'm sitting down, and I'm looking --

Anne: I call that the console.

Pilar: Oh, you do? Okay. We call that --

Anne: Well, I do, the console in between the seats.

Pilar: Yeah. Okay, cool. Cool. Cool. Yeah. Okay, cool. It's like, I'm not familiar with that lingo. Sorry. I'm not that advanced! So I don't know why they used to call -- we used to call them jump seat -- the jump parts. I don't know, whatever. Anyway, so I'll take a little table. I'll call it the table. So I'd put my set, the, the holder, the mic holder and the Sennheiser.

Anne: Yup.

Pilar: And I would start doing auditions from there. 'Cause I originally, I had a, uh, a dear friend who would also let me use his studio, but sometimes I couldn't get to the studio in time if it was quick.

Anne: Right, right. So it's not like you were living out of your car. I mean, you had a place to stay; you just didn't have a booth.

Pilar: I didn't have a booth. Yeah. And the thing is I didn't have room.

Anne: Yeah. And so your car acted as the booth.

Pilar: Exactly. My correct as the booth.

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: And so I had the trunk of my car was filled with stuff --

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: -- because I couldn't take everything out, 'cause it just wouldn't fit in the room that I was living in. You know?

Anne: Yes.

Pilar: So like when I wanted to wear something different, I would go and get something out of the car --

Anne: Go in the trunk.

Pilar: -- and then -- yeah, exactly it was, it was actually kind of an easy way to live, you know?

Anne: Right?

Pilar: -- 'cause I, I didn't have that much.

Anne: Minimalist. There you go.

Pilar: So it was perfect. And then this guy had a garage. So sometimes when I needed real quiet, because it was -- the lawn mower situation --

Anne: Yup, yup.

Pilar: -- in California is just a nightmare and a half. There's always lawn blower, leaf blowers everywhere every day. So I would go and I would park the car, and I would, and this was summer. This was still summer. This was August. I was, I was just sweat like a pig.

Anne: Sweltering in the back seat there.

Pilar: Totally. But it was perfect because I was really, it was like, I was insulated.

Anne: But not like Miami. I can't imagine if you were in --

Pilar: No, no.

Anne: -- a car in Miami.

Pilar: Oh no, that would be horrible. No, I would. I would be, you know, they wouldn't find me. I'd be asphyxiated. It'd be so bad.

Anne: So you did your first audition in the car.

Pilar: I did my first --

Anne: For Atlas.

Pilar: Yeah, I did my first audition -- I think I did my first -- yes, for Atlas. Yeah, absolutely. 'Cause that was, that was like the first I, I needed a place to go. So that's where I did it. And then I did it at this friend's house as well. A lot of the times, you know, I would come in and I would, I would do like three or four, you know, auditions. I did them for five months, five months. Okay? So I would audition. I finally found again, it was, I wanted a quiet place. I asked for a place. I found this wonderful woman who's also a voiceover person. And she had converted her closet, not her closet, but this other house where she had, uh, she had, she used to do it. So it was actually already sort of treated. It was already a treated space where I'm, where I'm talking to you from now. So it was, it was perfect.

Anne: Ah, so you're still in the same place?

Pilar: Oh yeah. I'm still at the same place.

Anne: There you go.

Pilar: You know, when I found the place, it was a matter of, I asked around and this person said, oh, I have this friend of mine who's looking for somebody. So it was just, it was so perfect. It was one of these aha moments. I was like, this is it. This is where I'm supposed to live. I saw the place. And I was like, I want, you know, this is where I want to be. And the first day that I moved in, I had not finished moving in when I had it professionally treated and everything set up here where I'm speaking to you from now. So it was perfect. And I just auditioned and I auditioned. And when I say this am, I mean, it, I didn't get one gig.

Anne: So for five months, you auditioned and you auditioned.

Pilar: I got zero and I, yeah. I took classes of course, 'cause I realized, oh, this is a different scenario. I'm in the Olympic village of voiceover.

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: This is not, you know, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Anne: Right. And when you auditioned, what sorts of opportunities -- were they bilingual? Were they English? Spanish? What were they? Both. What did they send you?

Pilar: They were everything. It was like, they were everything. And it was like, oh my gosh, stuff that I would never have been able to do if I was in Miami. Now this was pre-pandemic.

Anne: Yup.

Pilar: Obviously the situation has changed, but it was also a testament to my agents who were like willing to put me out there because you know, they're always talking and there's always feedback obviously.

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: So I would get auditions for McDonald's. Well, I would never, I've never been able to do that in Miami.

Anne: Hold on a minute. I'm going to back the truck up there for a minute because you say there's always feedback. So with great agents, I think you get great feedback.

Pilar: Yes.

Anne: And if you are actively requesting feedback, I think that that can very much help. I know there's -- some people never get feedback. I think that that is something that is very different. And when you're shopping around for agents, and agents are shopping around, it really is a partnership. And I think that if you want a great agent, they will, they will be absolutely willing to give you feedback and help to propel your career. Just like you're going to help them get clients.

Pilar: Exactly. And you just made a really good point because it's a partnership.

Anne: Yup.

Pilar: It's not, oh, the agent is up there, and I'm down here or, "oh, you work for me. You got to get me the rules." No, no, no, no, no.

Anne: Right, exactly.

Pilar: It's not a community. It's like, you've literally created a community. Now, the agents won't say anything until you ask them.

Anne: Yes, absolutely.

Pilar: If I'm in the driver's seat, I need to drive my career. So I need to ask for that. And I have to be able to, you know, put my ego to the side --

Anne: Yes.

Pilar: -- and listen to what they're saying.

Anne: Yes.

Pilar: And not say, oh, well, they don't know what they're talking. They don't know that. You know, it, it really is. It's a, it's a real give and take. It's about giving it. It's about receiving.

Anne: So now in your five months, when you were not booking, were you asking for feedback?

Pilar: Not at the beginning, but then I asked for who do you recommend that I study with?

Anne: Right, right.

Pilar: And they were like, okay, we have this and this and this. And I was like, okay, great. And I also asked other, I asked a lot of other voiceover people. I was like, well, who do you recommend here? Who do you -- so then I started taking classes.

Anne: Sure. I think what's nice is that they, first of all, I would feel like because they are a large talent agency and a very well-known one. The fact that they gave you the opportunity, like if it were, I think any normal person going through that, and I'd start to be, oh my gosh, I haven't booked for five -- you know, it would start to psych me out. Oh my gosh, what if they drop me? Or what if, and it could be a nerve-wracking kind of situation. If you feel like, well, there's gotta be something that needs to change here. So you want to book for your agent.

Pilar: And you know what the thing is, Anne? To me, it's a testament to my agent, the agency that I have, and I feel really blessed. They were very -- it's not -- they knew that I was there. They knew that I was new, and they were --

Anne: They had faith in you.

Pilar: -- it's not that they were hands off.

Anne: They had faith in you, right?

Pilar: Exactly. And there was somebody that I talked to in the office one time, because I was just like really freaking out at one point. I was like, oh my God, they must think --

Anne: Yeah, I can imagine.

Pilar: -- who is this person? Why did we hire her? You know, it's like, she's not doing anything. And she was so nice and to the point, and she's like, you know what? It was almost like she said -- she didn't say it this way, but what she meant from that conversation was we know you're a newbie. That's why we're throwing it all out at you. We're giving you the space to do this.

Anne: Nice.

Pilar: So, uh, and I can't, I can't remember how she said it, but that's what I walked away from.

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: And I was like -- walked away with --

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: -- and I thought, oh, thank God. You know, I'm not --

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: -- like I'm not going to be fired immediately. You know what I mean?

Anne: What a nice, what a nice testament to really a working partnership and that your agent has faith in you, and they're giving you --

Pilar: Yes.

Anne: -- that space. And I think obviously they had to have known when they first spoke to you, when they first met you, that you had the wherewithal to be successful from whatever, from your past experience, from your personality, from your drive, whatever it was, they had that faith in you, and they kept that faith in you. So that's a really nice, that's a really nice story.

Pilar: Yeah.

Anne: I'm hoping that our listeners will take that for what it is, because I think getting an agent and having an agent and having a relationship with an agent is something we could have a whole podcast episode about --

Pilar: Yeah, yeah.

Anne: -- in regards to the, how to work together as a partnership.

Pilar: Yeah. And, and, and I think for me, what was really great was that I was willing to listen to them, and I was also willing to be transparent with them.

Anne: Absolutely.

Pilar: So they knew, they knew where I was coming from. I mean, they knew that I had radio experience because I have all this stuff on my website.

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: But they also knew that I was very new to the business in terms of commercial versus all these other genres in the world that they live in.

Anne: Sure. Absolutely.

Pilar: And they were willing to give me that latitude.

Anne: Great.

Pilar: So transparency, I think, is really important in this world.

Anne: Oh, I completely agree.

Pilar: And to be able to turn it into something of, not that I don't know this -- into, I'm very willing to learn --

Anne: How can I --

Pilar: -- and I'm willing to work hard, yeah.

Anne: -- how can I learn? How can I, yeah. I'm eager to learn. There you go back to, back to your roots there.

Pilar: Exactly.

Anne: I may not know, but I am absolutely eager to learn. And I think there's a lot to be said for that in just an overall mentality about what we do every day in our -- I mean, there's always opportunities to learn, and you're talking to an educator here, one that was in front of the classroom for 20 years. We always, always have an opportunity to learn and to improve. And I think that if you take nothing else away from our episode, absolutely, this is one of them. And there's always ways, if you're transparent, if you want to learn, you're eager to learn, people appreciate that. And agents, especially, I think appreciate that.

Pilar: Absolutely. Yep. I totally agree.

Anne: So five months, nothing. Then what?

Pilar: Then I booked this job and --

Anne: Commercial?

Pilar: Commercial. It's a commercial job. And I will never forget when the check came in. I thought they'd made a mistake. I almost called them and said, you've, you've made a mistake because this has gotta be wrong. Luckily I called a friend of mine. I al -- I literally, I had my hand on, on the press send a button. I thought we just call a really good friend of mine back east who's a voiceover. And she started laughing when I told her. She said, no Pilar, that's the right amount. This is what it means when you are a union actor, to get paid in the industry. So I was like, oh, thank God. I'm going to be able to pay my bills.

Anne: Yup.

Pilar: And then that was the end of January. And then in March, the pandemic hit and I was ready. And so I just, I started booking. I just started booking and booking and booking.

Anne: Success begets success.

Pilar: Yeah. Yeah.

Anne: Fantastic. Wow. What a great story.

Pilar: Yeah.

Anne: What a great story. And so now during this pandemic, you're still in the same place, right? Except now you have --

Pilar: Yes.

Anne: -- you don't have to necessarily record in the back of your car because you have a studio, which is awesome, which is where you are talking to me now from. And you are, I hope just a booking machine. And now is Atlas your only -- I imagine you have more than one agency or is Atlas pretty much your agency you're working with right now?

Pilar: Well, I was with Stars before I was with Atlas, and they were, you know, they were okay with it. You know, and they're, they're totally okay with having other regional agents that are not, you know, in their market. I've looked around for others. But you know, when I started looking around the pandemic had hit. So they were really swamped.

Anne: Yeah.

Pilar: So they're really my go-to people right now.

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: You know, it's, it's not easy because yes. I had a huge glut in 2020, and then 2021 was a lot quieter. It's been a lot quieter than I expected because I, you know, it was just the, I don't, if it was, I was the new kid on the block or what it was. And so, you know, for me, it's like finding other ways to be creative --

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: -- and to be able to support myself in that way. And so it's like, I'm constantly learning, you know? And if there's, if there's one thing that I can, a takeaway for me, from what I've been talking about is that I always have a beginner mindset. So if there's a place where I'm feeling stuck, because this is an area, let's say, where I'm not booking, it's like, okay, what other ways can I find --

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: -- to do it creatively?

Anne: And to evolve, right, as an artist.

Pilar: And to evolve. Exactly. Because it's not just about booking the big, you know, commercial job.

Anne: Sure.

Pilar: It's about how can I incorporate everything that I've learned, and how can I maybe use that in a different way?

Anne: And I'll tell you what I, what I love is first of all, your story is so wonderful because you try, you have faith, you manifest, you move. And while you struggle, you know, and fail sometimes, you ultimately come out where you become successful. And it has happened from the story that has evolved here to you multiple times. So each time when you move, you're growing, you're hitting those stumbling blocks. You're growing, you're finding success.

And even now you came to LA, you got the agent, you got the jobs, you did really well. Now you hit a little bit of a lull. And so again, you're going through that cycle of how can I improve? How can I grow? What can I do to, to learn? And I think it's such a wonderful testament to how our industry works and how the artistry works of voiceover, where we just must continuously learn. We must continually take those chances. We must continually learn from our failures, right, and put into practice things that we can do to be successful. And what a great story. I absolutely love it.

So I want to take the time now to thank you again for telling the story and helping us in being so inspiring. Because I think in our next episodes, I really want to get more into the nitty gritty of the day to day voiceover career that you are now embracing and, and living so that we can talk about how BOSSes out there can, you know, maybe do the same so that they can be successful.

Pilar: Absolutely. And I'm very, very excited to keep going.

Anne: Yeah. All right. Well, BOSSes, I'm going to give a great, big shout-out to our sponsor, ipDTL. You too can network like a BOSS. Find out more at ipdtl.com. Guys, have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Take care. Bye-bye.

Pilar: Bye, fellow BOSSes.

>> 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.