Ready to lift the veil on the VoiceOver industry and its many facets? My guest co-host, Tom Deere, and I are here to give you the insider's scoop on the role of agents, pay to plays, and emerging technology in the field. We spill the beans on how agents earn their crust, the types of work where they might prove beneficial, and why they're not a must-have for a successful voice-acting career. We also venture into the territory of synthetic voices and the effect they have on non-broadcast contracts, while underscoring the importance of time limits on contracts for one-off jobs. Plug in and join us on this enlightening journey that will offer you a new perspective on the VoiceOver industry. About Tom Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voiceover business & marketing consultant. As a voice actor with over 25 years of experience, he brings his wealth of voiceover knowledge to the table with his 1-one-1 voiceover strategy sessions, Diagnostic sessions, his Mentorship Program, and many public appearances.

0:00:01 - Anne Alright, everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and this is the real boss series. I'm happy to welcome back to the show real boss guest co-host Tom Deere. Tom, thanks so much for joining me. 0:00:16 - Tom Hello, thanks for having me back. 0:00:20 - Anne I love having real talk. I think there's so many things in this industry that sell the dream of being a Vio artist, being a Vio actor making money just talking behind your microphone, all of those things. I like to think that Tom and I have been in the industry for so long that, god, we've seen it all. We're just going to be real with you guys, because I think that everyone deserves the real talk, the real story behind VoiceOver. I'm going to tell you that I had a student this week who came to me, a beginner, and who was asking me all about agents. They were under the impression that they needed an agent in order to get the work and that the agent would be the one that got all the work for them. All they had to do was perform behind the mic. Perhaps we should talk about some myths and truths about what this industry is really about. We'll start with agents. 0:01:25 - Tom Tom Sure. One of the biggest challenges for voice actors coming into the industry aspiring voice actors is that most of them feel that they immediately need to relieve themselves for the responsibility of actually doing the work to get the work. 0:01:41 - Anne This leads right into that. 0:01:44 - Tom That's exactly the mindset that your student that you just referred to has. It's like the second I get into the industry, I got to find someone who will do all the work for me, because that's how it works. A huge myth is that you need an agent to be a successful voice actor. 0:02:00 - Anne I'll be honest, tom. When I first started I didn't know. Again, we talk about this all the time. I didn't know what I didn't know. Here we are bosses For those of you just starting out. You don't need an agent, Tom. We're going to expand on that. I used to think that I would get an agent and then that would give me all of my work. I erroneously thought that. Then, once I realized very quickly that that wasn't the case, I proceeded to work for four years before I got my full time, before I got my first agent. 0:02:32 - Tom I don't remember how long it took. I know my longest standing representative I got in 2005. It's been 18 years that I've worked with that particular manager. Everyone before that was either ripping me. Everyone I had that rep me before that was selling me stuff or wouldn't pay me on time. It was just a big mess. 0:02:54 - Anne That was a different time. Tom right, yes, With agents and agents that we didn't really know who they were and there were people that did take advantage. I don't know if that exists so much anymore, but that might be a different podcast. 0:03:09 - Tom Tom One of my students just said this week that there's a particular agent that they have that keeps bothering about. Oh, you need new headshots. You got to come to me to get headshots, but you have to pay me. I know a guy you want to stay on my roster. 0:03:20 - Anne You got to work with him. I know a guy. I know a guy. I know where he's from. 0:03:23 - Tom I think it still happens just a lot less than it used to, mostly because of educational reasons. Most people now know what it means to be a franchised agent, which is one that is certified, approved by SAG-AFTRA. That's one of them. But yeah, you don't necessarily and the operative term is necessarily need an agent to be a successful voice actor, because you, as a voice actor, need to define what success is for you as a voice actor and that will tell you if you need an agent. So, like, if you want to you know you want to narrate audiobooks you don't need an agent. You want to be in fallout halo cartoon network pilot. Yeah, you probably need an agent. 0:04:03 - Anne You want to do a national spot commercial? Probably, although I would say local spots maybe not so much anywhere but national spots, national spots probably you're going to need an agent, and I think the one thing is to be educated on, first of all, what an agent does and truly you know what is in the best interest of an agent. Right, agents are a business as well, right they're? I mean, they want to make money just as much as we want to make money. So how are they going to make money? They're going to develop relationships with clients who will then hire them to cast or help cast right for voiceover jobs, and typically they will be spots that will be paid with usage intact, and so there's an opportunity to make a percentage of money each and every time that voice gets used. And that's why agents will deal in a lot in commercial or anything that's broadcast, and anything that's non-broadcast typically does not require an agent. So, again, as you, as Tom, as you mentioned e-learning, corporate, anything that's one and done. But I'm going to just kind of put this out here, tom, with the advent of synthetic voices and I know we had a wonderful podcast episode about that not so long ago, and actually we're going to be at evocation talking about. Yes, we're going to be on the same panel talking about that, yeah yeah, I think that we have to start thinking about maybe changing that non-broadcast in perpetuity clause. I mean, I know that for me, with the coming up of synthetic voices, I have been really wanting to put like a time limit on all my non-broadcast stuff. Just at the end of my little contract or my email I'll say this is for a year and most people if I'm doing a one-off they're not going to need it or the content will expire after a year and so that's okay. So I actually put a time limit on it. So I kind of give it usage, but not necessarily broadcast usage which every year. Well, of course, it would be great. You're going to pay me again in a year. I'm going to do another content module for you. But yeah, I diverge off of that. So for agents, you don't necessarily need an agent, but I do get corporate work from my agents. 0:06:20 - Tom Literally. Yesterday I narrated two explainer videos for a company through one of my agents and so, yeah, once in a while it'll be an explainer or corporate thing. But yeah, the majority of the stuff that I get through my agents and managers is political, which is broadcast. And I get a lot of pharma commercials but like spec demo stuff which doesn't necessarily turn into broadcast. And if they do choose my voice and it does turn into broadcast, then I get paid for the usage beyond just the internal usage of the project. So, yes, agents, do you know who is it said that agents are like baseball cards they're fun to collect, but only a couple are valuable. 0:07:06 - Anne I love that. That's actually. I think that's really true. Yeah, somebody in our business and somebody in our industry said that that's very interesting because I at one point acquired I have 11, but in reality pandemics come and go and markets shift and change, and so there are a number of agents who are not. I have a couple of agents that I think I really stick with because they know me, they know my voice, they give me opportunities that are catered to my voice and it's not necessarily a cattle call and I'm not belittling any agent that does that, because agents are busy. I mean, if they've got work, they wanna make it available to their roster, and I think that that's a wonderful thing. But just you don't have to have a ton of agents either. I mean really just work with the ones that you have a great relationship with, and that becomes fruitful for both of you. 0:07:58 - Tom Yeah, and it is a synergistic relationship. And here's another myth when it comes to agents is that most voice actors think that they work for their agents. That is not true. 0:08:12 - Anne You work with your agents. 0:08:14 - Tom It's a complimentary, synergistic B2B relationship, because they can't make money without you and you can make money without them, if you think about it, because you can use other ways of booking voiceover work, which we'll talk about down the road. But yes, but just remember, it's an equal relationship and you need to vet your agent and ask them the right questions to see if they're a good fit for you, if you have determined that they're right for you, at this current point in your voiceover journey and for the vast majority of voice actors who are starting out, you do not need an agent. You don't. You also don't have value, yet you don't have the value delivery that an agent would want you for for the most part. 0:09:00 - Anne For the most part, they're looking for you know you've already done some work, so typically they're looking for some experience in the field and a recommendation, typically All right. Let's talk. Another myth. All right and it's another big one that always causes a lot of controversy. Pay to plays right, pay to plays okay. Do you need pay to plays? Do you not need pay to plays? If you use pay to plays, you're a loser because you're bringing down the value of the industry. There's just so many things, and especially certain pay to plays. Right, oh, if you use this pay to play, you're evil or you're working for the enemy or whatever it is. I think that there are good pay to play online casting sites, and there are online casting sites that maybe I wouldn't want to align myself with. 0:09:45 - Tom But that's a personal preference. 0:09:47 - Anne It is a decision I make for my business. But yeah, I think myths about pay to plays is, if you are on them, you are a bottom feeder. Tom what are your thoughts? 0:09:57 - Tom Here's the thing about that, ann, is that every sector of every industry, of every business on the planet has a percentage of people who are sketchy, shady bottom feeders. 0:10:11 - Anne Every single industry. 0:10:12 - Tom So true, the voiceover industry is no exception. There are a percentage of people, because there are humans doing this. A percentage of them will be predatory. That will try to get you to do voiceovers for as little money as possible and clone your voice or turn it into a commercial. You know, do stuff. 0:10:30 - Anne Speaking of which, if I can just interject, that's the whole discussion about AI as well. You will have bad actors. You will have evil companies that will try to steal your voice. The same thing, right A? 0:10:42 - Tom percentage of them AI, pay to play or anyone else will try to take advantage of you, and there are a percentage of voice actors, regardless of how they're booking their voiceover work, will be unscrupulous, because there are a percentage of voice actors who try to go behind the back of their agent and work directly with the producer. There's a percentage, and just like there's a percentage of them, who are on certain pay to play sites whose guideline says you need to maintain the relationship with the client on site, for reasons that I totally understand. I understand and they will try to undermine that. So pay to plays does not make people unscrupulous Unscrupulous people go to pay to play sites. They have agents. They do all sorts of stuff. So I do not buy that argument. It's also pay to plays is just reflection of technology and the economy of supply and demand. 0:11:35 - Anne Oh, thank you. Thank you, tom, for saying that. I mean really it's, and you know I worked in technology, so I mean just having been in that industry for gosh, you know, over 20 years. It just it happens, guys. Technology happens. We're not stopping it. We can fight it, we can put our head in the sand, we can kick and scream and yell and cry and do all these things, but gosh, it's not going away and ultimately we need to evolve. And, gosh, I will just say this until the cows come home and, tom, you say the same thing. We just need to evolve with it and the market will evolve with it. Ultimately it doesn't happen. I just caution. I tell the story. When I, in the early, well, late, 1990s, I installed voice over IP phone systems and it was early adopted technology and the calls would drop. There would be horrible sound, it would sound echoey, and everybody said this technology sucks, it's never gonna last. Well, guess what? Everyone? We use it today and we don't even realize that we use it. So give yourself, I say for any large disruptor of technology, right, which happens for all of us. Like home studios were a disruptor of technology. Digital music, mp3s were a disruptor of technology. Synthetic voices there, a disruptor of technology. I say it's got a lifespan of. You know, not a lifespan, but let it evolve a good 10 to 15 years, because that's what I saw from voice over IP, and then it's going to be seamlessly integrated somewhere in some way. That will become the norm. And that is something that if we do not accept that right, the norm, then we certainly it's gonna be hard for us to be in business. 0:13:08 - Tom Yeah, pay to plays are now. What was once disruptive 15 years ago is now part of the norm, and I know this because my direct marketing and indirect marketing strategies became, over the few, over span of a few years, far less effective. My cold calls. My emails, my blogging, my newsletters, my social media, all of it just took a nosedive and effectiveness because those clients that I was courting or working with via direct and indirect marketing strategies went to pay to play sites. 0:13:40 - Anne And why? Because it was easy for them. 0:13:42 - Tom Easier, faster. 0:13:44 - Anne Convenient and fast, and isn't that the whole idea behind the technology? So reality bosses right. Reality bosses, is technology right and again myth or you know, we're going to bust the myth. Another myth that I'm going to say that goes along with this is that technology is a disruptor and we can fight it and we can stand up together and we can stop. What we can do is we can maybe stop unfair usage through technology of our voices, but we're not going to stop the technology itself? 0:14:17 - Tom No, no. 0:14:18 - Anne Technology is designed to make lives easier, exactly and convenient and human nature is to do those things right. Yes, that will be easier. Right, I'm. And again, I say it all the time I use Alexa, I talk to Alexa. All the time I use new softwares on my computer that are faster, easier. You know new apps that I download. Oh my God, this is going to be great. I can do this now. I can now record this, or I can do this so much easier. I've got rocket money tracking my subscriptions. Oh my God, that's fantastic. This technology, ai, synthetic voices, all this stuff that we are fighting and screaming about, it happens and at some point we do evolve with it, without necessarily having a complete impact. just the one of us right. I will say, though, that I do believe, like you know. I want to say that this is no way reflective of my thoughts about the strike right now, because I do believe that you can fight collectively for rights that are due to you. You just cannot stop the technology. 0:15:23 - Tom Right, it's yes, because I mean, do you think back in the day when the wheel was invented, that there were people who were protesting the use of the wheel because it was disrupting? Their you know whatever business they were, that was disrupted by wheels. No, it's insane, everyone's like. Of course you use the wheel. It makes your life easier. Pay to plays, make voice seekers' lives easier. And it also makes it easier for us because, instead of spending so much time going on Google and LinkedIn and creating all these marketing campaigns which you should do- and can do and can be effective. 0:15:55 - Anne It just adds to your marketing plan. 0:15:57 - Tom Yes, it complements it. 0:15:59 - Anne It's not one size fits all, because direct marketing can be effective if you've got a plan right. I mean, I have a direct marketing package. I mean, tom, I know you do direct marketing, so I do. And it will. It will work, but I think to be just the one solution. I think you've got to really just grab as many solutions as you can and get yourself out in front of as many people as you can to have more and more opportunities. 0:16:23 - Tom Absolutely, absolutely. 0:16:26 - Anne Yeah, so what's another myth, tom? 0:16:28 - Tom Oh well, let's see. Well, you know the union, that's another one. 0:16:32 - Anne Yeah. 0:16:33 - Tom Absolutely. The myth is that if you, if you want to be a successful voice actor, you have to join the union SAG After we're talking about, and if you are not in SAG. The other myth is that if you are not in SAG After, you are, by definition, unethical. 0:16:50 - Anne Yeah, okay. 0:16:51 - Tom And I have had conversations with both people who are desperate to get into SAG After because they think that once they enter SAG After they will automatically be successful as a voice actor, which is not true. That will be the top echelon of being a voice actor, which is not necessarily true, and I have spoken to SAG After members who think I am scum and I've been pursuing voiceover and charging you know industry standard rates for 25 years. Well, isn't that great. But I am a scumbag because I am not in SAG After. 0:17:21 - Anne Isn't our rate guide based off of SAG After, to begin with anyways, absolutely. I think that's everything started that way I mean I remember when I started you know, quoting people, jobs and it was all based on SAG After rates. And then, ultimately, you know GVA. Everybody talks about GVA rate guide, which is amazing, but that evolved after. You know, a bunch of us that have been in the industry for 5000 years had developed our own rate sheets and our own painstaking ways and by the way that is oh, there's a met. That's another myth, tom, that we can talk about in just a minute. That's the myth of like there's a specific amount to charge per job. Okay, yeah, we can get that, let's finish talking about yeah, let's finish talking about the union. And I based my rates off of union and I thought, oh God, am I a horrible actor if I don't join the union, or I must join the union? And once I do so, I will have made it, and so, in reality, you just have to understand what jobs the union is supporting and behind and helping to serve their client base. 0:18:26 - Tom Right, I am, and for the record I am non-union but I am pro-union. I am pro-collectively-bargained, Absolutely. You know, protecting everybody, make sure everybody gets paid a fair amount. 0:18:36 - Anne Agreed. 0:18:37 - Tom And health intention and all of that stuff, but as a voice actor who's early in your journey, you wanna make the same exact calculation about SAG-AFTRA as you do about agents, which we just talked about a second ago. Which is what kind of work do I wanna have? What's my perfect voiceover day? What genres of voiceover am? 0:18:56 - Anne I doing. 0:18:57 - Tom And are those casting opportunities that I want? Are they union driven? So if you wanna do class A national commercials, yes, you need to be in SAG-AFTRA. Do you wanna narrate audio books? Well, you can be in SAG-AFTRA, because there's very specific contracts which I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of. But you can be union or non-union and do audio books and it can contribute to your health and pension. And I know a lot of people I know you do too whose path into and saying in the union is through audio books and they do a great and they make a great living and they get their health and pension and everything's fantastic. So it just all depends. If you wanna be an e-learning narrator, do you. Must you join SAG-AFTRA? Not necessarily. It all depends on what kind of work you're getting, where are you getting it. And then there's the whole. You can turn non-union into union work, but that's a whole other conversation. But, yeah, you go through the same thought process of will being an agent make me an effective voice actor for my definition of success and will joining SAG-AFTRA make me, or contribute to making me, an effective voice actor based on my definition of success. 0:20:09 - Anne Absolutely, absolutely. So now let's get to that point where there's a magic number to charge for every specific job. So I like to address this one because I think, tom, you and I both we're in the trenches okay that in the trenches where there weren't a lot of Facebook groups, we were like before there were, you know, voiceover conferences, before there was really the internet. I mean, I'm not saying not before there, although the internet really became big in the early 1990s. 0:20:40 - Tom Remember we talked about it, Right, but social media. 0:20:41 - Anne But social media and all of this collective right, collective networking online which has really brought a lot of wealthy, a wealth of information, I should say, to us as voice actors and for our businesses. It didn't exist. And so, Tom and I, when we I feel like get off my lawn, I had to walk 10 miles to the voiceover booth and-. 0:21:08 - Tom Up hill both ways. 0:21:09 - Anne Up hill in the snow and there was no one there to tell us what to charge no one. And literally from I swear to God, from the air I pulled rates. I didn't know what to do. The only thing I had available at the time was SEG after rates, and all the SEG after rates didn't really talk about e-learning and so, in reality, I just pulled it from the air. I pulled it from the air based upon what I thought my time was worth, and I'm gonna say we clawed our way into creating our rate sheets. And remember, tom, when it was a big thing, do we publish our rate sheets? 0:21:49 - Tom Or we not. I always say no. Every job is negotiable. Every job is negotiable, Terrible idea. 0:21:56 - Anne But honestly there is no magic number for really any of it. There's a baseline, there's a guideline right. And you can certainly. Today we have all sorts of references. We have SEG, after we have GVAA, we have gravy for the brain all those wonderful guides that give us ideas on what to charge. But is there a perfect number for a live announce that's going to happen three days in a row? And what do you charge on the third day if it's only half a day? You know that kind of thing and you're gonna be sharing the mic with another person. You know that kind of thing when there's all sorts of special circumstances. Is there a perfect number for that? And why isn't it in the rate guide? There just isn't. And guys, sometimes you just gotta pull it from the air or your rear end. That's what. 0:22:37 - Tom I say I just tell you that's where I got that number and there's no shame. There's no shame in that, and there's no shame in just asking the client what's your budget? Yes, oh my god. And they say the boss gave me this amount of money to work with and either you're comfortable with that number or you're not and if it's in within 10, 20% of what you normally charge, take it, do it. 0:22:58 - Anne That's, I think one of the smartest things you can do is ask what the budget is. I mean really. I mean because your budget, like you, might only wanna charge them, I don't know a few hundred dollars, but then their budget might be a thousand. I'm like, oh yeah, I think I can manage that. 0:23:10 - Tom Right right. 0:23:11 - Anne And so always asking the budget and that's like real. I think that's rule one of negotiations, right. Ask what the budget is. 0:23:18 - Tom And it's funny, ann and I know you know this is that budgets, you know, Budgets are usually set in advance for departments and whatever, for the often the year or sometimes quarter or whatever, and and these people that we're working with know that if they don't use all of that budget, next year their budget may be smaller Because they didn't use all of that budget. 0:23:39 - Anne Oh my god, you just brought your corporate to me. I love it. 0:23:42 - Tom Yeah, so sometimes, sometimes they want to pay you more than you would normally charge because they want to make sure they have they can get this budget, same budget for next year. So and that actually puts you at an advantage, that puts you in an advantage, not over them, but with them. 0:23:59 - Anne Are you with me in terms of have we not more than once thought about, oh gosh, if I were to, if I were to go on the corporate side and charge my coaching fees for corporate? Or what I do for Corporate and a corporate rate. 0:24:11 - Tom I'd be putting zeros at the end of my hourly rates. 0:24:13 - Anne That's exactly it I mean. So, remember, guys. I mean, companies have budgets and again, companies, departments, fight like hell for budgets, right, and they fight like hell to get Bigger budgets so that they can be successful, right, and the and and really is it are they. Are they caring so much about the company? Well, in reality, I think the people within the companies and within the departments, they again, we all just want to feel loved, right, we want to do a good job, we want to be appreciated and loved for what we do, and and that's really what it is. So I, you cannot, you cannot scrape me away from loving the corporate market, for sure. In a lot of ways. I may not work for a corporation anymore in the traditional sense, but I certainly do. In voiceover land, I work for them and I and I understand that budget. So, yeah, so there is no magic number, for you know what will it cost me to do? You know three pages of on hold messages for this company that I? You know they said their budget is only this amount. What should I do? You know, a lot of times, guys, you, you really just have to learn the art of this, the subtle art of negotiation, and sometimes that number just is is made up. 0:25:32 - Tom Made up. Guys. Sometimes and most of the time, it's not about you taking advantage of them or trying to take advantage of you. It's not about, yeah, what most of our students and go through is like they're terrified that if they're too aggressive the client's gonna walk away and if they're not aggressive enough they're gonna get taken advantage of. I'd say at least 80% of the time that is not the case at all. They've got this budget, they've got this thing to do. They found you, they like you. They want to give you money to say stuff out loud, which is what you want. So, most of the time you're gonna be fine and you know I've got so many clients I'll be like 400. They'll be like okay, or just same as last time, okay or hey. It's a new year. Can I up this by 50 bucks? 0:26:12 - Anne And they go okay. 0:26:13 - Tom Yeah, so most of time it's just, it's just easy peasy, just you know. 0:26:17 - Anne And here's one other thing I'll say is up in your price, yeah use the workaround of the rate guides. 0:26:22 - Tom I don't charge this rate. 0:26:23 - Anne This is the industry standard. 0:26:25 - Tom You know what I mean. You can use that so yeah, do we have time? For one more myth. 0:26:29 - Anne All right, one more myth. We got time for one more myth. What do you? Got time? 0:26:33 - Tom The AI myth well, which we don't even know, is a myth, yet not because it's still too early that could be an entire, that could be an entire podcast episode. 0:26:40 - Anne But okay, yeah, let's start. Let's start well. 0:26:42 - Tom Well, just just just the inkling of you know the myth, the well I, well I the myth that AI is gonna take all of our jobs, take our jobs away? 0:26:49 - Anne Yeah, no, and look, I'm a technology buff. I worked in technology for gosh 20 some odd years. I love technology. Tom and I are on multiple panels talking about AI and, honestly like, is it going to take our jobs away, tom? 0:27:05 - Tom It's gonna. It has the potential to take small percentage of some of our jobs away. I think that's reasonable. 0:27:15 - Anne But I think the mass panic right now, I think Tom is maybe good because it will get people's attention and it will and mostly our attention right, I wanted to get the people in the industry's attention so that they can educate themselves on how to be smart about their business. And that means don't let anybody take advantage of you, don't let anybody put something in a contract that will allow them to steal your voice or use your voice in perpetuity, forever and ever and ever, without knowledge, or create a synthetic voice, and that's what is going on now. I think that you know a big part of the strike is, you know, is got that AI rider in there and that companies need to compensate us. If they're going to use the technology and utilize our, our creative assets right, then we need to be compensated for that. We need to be compensated fairly and that's what I think we are all fighting for and as long as you are smart about that and you educate yourself and again, vo Boss has done over 30 episodes of talking. I talked to CEOs of companies who make voices. I talked to industry leaders in the AI industry, tom I've talked to Tom. I've talked to I'm going to be presenting next week, actually at an AI conference talking about ethical, you know, and and and rights for voice artists and in synthetic voices. So, guys, educate yourself on that. It's it will not there. We will have to evolve along with that technology. But be stay on top of it and understand how you can. You can run your business around that. 0:28:48 - Tom Right. One quick thing all the way on the other side of it is that there are certain voice actors and groups of voice actors on social media who are perpetuating the myth that AI is not going to take away any of our jobs and if you are just doing nothing but direct marketing, you're gonna be perfectly fine. That is also not true. It's not true because that means they are ignoring the reality of technology that is affecting our industry. Don't put your head in the sand either. Don't put your head in the sand, yeah absolutely and just and just understand and evolve. 0:29:19 - Anne And so, if it's going to, if it's probably and again, I I'm of the belief that there is that percentage of the market like we talked about in the beginning right, the bottom feeders. Right, they'll always be the bottom feeders that don't care about the quality of the voice, right, when that's not you know, the top quality of voice is not on their, their budget or on their brain then they're going to use synthetic voice and there's nothing you're going to do to stop that. Right, because it's going to be convenient and it's going to be easy and it's going to be cheaper. Okay, now, if somebody but again, I am the, I'm always the perpetuating manifesting, I am a celebrity voice, I am an influencer, right, tom, you are an influencer. If somebody wants to use my synthetic voice, they're going to have to pay me, compensate me for it. Oh yeah, and I'm not going to be cheap, right, because my brand is not cheap and I'm not saying it's going to be more expensive than my human voice, but I'm certainly going to be able to. Oh sure, I can cut you a deal on that, right, but it's not going to be pennies. I'll tell you that because my voice is worth something, my influence my the way that I can help brand and market for a company. I am holding true to that now. Whether a company chooses to buy into that and pay me fairly, then that's awesome. If they don't, they don't. I say no to it. Right and that's it, and my voice is protected just like any other type of job that I would do, right. Yeah, if you are not going to pay me what I am worth or what I am. You know this is my price. Then that's okay. I will spend that time looking for people who will. Right Simple as that, right, right, good topic. Oh my gosh, we could probably go on. We maybe should have part two of the myths. 0:30:55 - Tom Oh, we can do that? 0:30:57 - Anne Yeah, I think we should do that. So, yeah, bosses, tom, thank you again for another amazing real talk with the bosses. We totally appreciate you bosses. Simple mission, big impact. 100 voices, one hour, ten thousand dollars. If you need to know more, or if you want to know more, find out at 100 voices who careorg and join us and big shout out to sponsor IPDTL. Youtube can connect and network like bosses, like Tom and I. Find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing real week and we'll see you next week. Alright, take care. 0:31:31 - Tom Bye. 0:31:31 - Anne Bye, alright, stopping. Transcribed by https://podium.page