657: Make Money Using Your Voice: Find Voiceover Business Success with Voices.com CEO David Ciccarelli

Speaker 1 0:00 Marketer of the Day episode 657, make money using your voice. Find voice over. Business Success with voices.com. CEO, David cicerelli,

Robert Plank 0:17 Hey everyone, and welcome back to the marketer of the day podcast. We're chatting with David cicerelli, and he's the co founder and CEO of voices.com which is an online marketplace that connects business people with professional voice over talent. And David's unique blending of his audio engineering background with his self taught business savvy plus website development afforded David, the creator, freedom to pursue his passion for innovation during that first.com boom, and the results of that catapulted him onto the scene as a pioneer in his field in the early 2000s and since then, he's done all kinds of crazy, amazing stuff. And we're going to hear all about what David has going on included voices, including voices.com So how are things today? David,

Speaker 2 1:01 oh, everything's going well. Thanks, Robert, great to be here, and hopefully I can tell some stories that will both serve as inspirational, maybe instructive to those aspiring and entrepreneurs out there and people running businesses already. So let's make the most of the time together.

Robert Plank 1:17 Awesome. Well, I'm excited. And you know, it's cool that you mentioned that because I used to be the kind of guy where I was like, just give me the facts, just give me some things to do. But it's in the last few years it's hit me how important some of those stories were, and like, just hearing how, like, about the times where you got stuck and got past it, and how I can do it too, and and all that fun stuff. So, so, yeah, I think I've, I've heard of voices.com I've done a lot of like voiceover, making money with it, and we have a few classes. We teach people how to use some of those other voiceover platforms. But we won't mention those guys, but voices.com I've heard of it, but what is it? Exactly?

Speaker 2 1:55 Yeah, so there's a number of let's call them Freelancer marketplaces, or gig economy type marketplaces and voices.com. Is one that specializes just in voiceover. And so what we do is provide a venue where aspiring and professional voice talent, people with great voices, most of the folks, have a home recording studio, can go on and create a profile and audition for job opportunities through through the platform. That's really kind of the crux of it. On the buy side of the marketplace, which would be those clients looking to hire a voice actor, they can search the database of all the talent that are available by, you know, criteria like language and gender and age range, location or particular accent that they're looking for, or alternatively, a client who might be at a video production company or an ad agency, they can post a job. They say, Hey, I've got a project. Here's what I'm looking for, and our software actually matches that up and invites the most qualified people that match their needs and invites them to the job. And so that's that's where those job opportunities really come into play. So it's a two sided marketplace, connecting the client with the professional voice talent.

Robert Plank 3:10 Well, fantastic. And as far as voice over is concerned, I can't believe I didn't pick up until a few years ago, that whenever we watch a commercial on TV, or there's a YouTube ad or something like that. Somewhere along the line, some company had a product and they wrote a script and they went on a marketplace such as yours to post a job and have people try out, and then someone won that job and read a script and got paid for it. We don't always think about what happens behind the scenes? Right? We just see a commercial on TV or we see an explainer video online, and we don't realize that we all could be one of those voices, whether we are doing this full time or part time, you can try out for some of these jobs and get paid for just sitting down and reading a script and having your voice out there. And so you mentioned that so voices.com is this sort of gig economy, voice talent marketplace. And if someone is hearing that, that phrase, voice talent, that sounds a little intimidating. So what do you have to say? If someone says, Well, I'm not sure if I'm good enough or if I have these skills to get hired by some of the these people in need of voice talent.

Speaker 2 4:30 Well, we think of, we think of the ingredients of a successful voice talent, you know, they really exhibit kind of this triple threat of having, you know, dare I say, a God given gift of a great voice. So you need some innate abilities there. How do you How are you going to breathe life into that script and really pour your heart into it and create some emotional connection with those that might be listening? So let's say the artistic abilities, then you need the technical abilities and. Actually recording from home studios, you know, unless you're in a major center like New York or LA or maybe Toronto and Canada, Vancouver's got a big film community as well. Aside from these major centers, most of the work is procured through online platforms like this. You don't you're not really brought into somebody else's studio, especially because voice is one track, so it's pretty easy to record out of a home studio, and that could be as simple as, you know, an iMac or a laptop computer with a microphone plugged in and using either Garage Band Adobe Audition is very popular software. There's a number of them out there, but learning how to record yourself edit, edit the audio files. There's lots of YouTube videos in and of itself, just on on that. And then the final piece, you know, after artistic and technical skills, I call them business skills, and that's just knowing how to, you know, how to navigate, you know, an online platform, how to create, maybe a rate sheet. And we have rate sheets available on voices.com that serve as a great reference of, hey, how much do people charge for one of these explainer videos? Or maybe a large corporation said they needed some corporate training material. Man, this looks like hours of work. What do I charge for that? And so we've tried to establish some kind of pricing norms, but these are all these business skills that I'm referring to. How do you market yourself communicating with clients by email or by phone? And so those are really the three, as I call them, ingredients, if you will, that make for successful voice actors.

Robert Plank 6:36 Fantastic. And that, by breaking it down into those three buckets. That makes it a lot less overwhelming, right? You said, there's the physical aspect, there's that home studio components. That way you don't have to go to New York or Chicago and sit in a booth. You just do it at home. And you figure out that equipment, and you build it up as you go. You say, step number two is that software component, the recording part. The geeks call it the DAW, right? The DAW The Garage Band Adobe Audition. And then step three are those business skills of knowing how to navigate those platforms. Because, like as you and I know, they're all these different platforms for freelancing and for voiceover, and they all look drastically different, but they all kind of have the same concepts, right? There's the like having your profile and and bidding on jobs, and like the messaging and the back and forth, and sometimes things like a rating system, and just a lot of things where, if you haven't navigated or you haven't worked with getting these clients, it's awkward at first, but then you figure out the skill on one platform, and then it applies anywhere else. And there might be a little bit of overcoming that social anxiety and and like you said, getting on the phone or chatting or are negotiating until some kind of an agreement can be be met here. And so there's all these different platforms that are out there, and so why voices.com compared to a lot of other places people could go?

Speaker 2 8:07 Well, one of the things I think, we found that has been tremendously helpful for new talent and those maybe who tried us out a number of years ago, and kind of since have come back, we've actually engaged a what we call a talent success specialist. And in effect, if you go on, you know, Google ratings, Google My Business ratings, or trust pilot, you'll see all kinds of like, I think there's like, four or 500 reviews for this talent Success Manager role, which we in effect walk somebody through. It's, you know, rather than kind of a group session in a webinar, we actually walk people through individually, through their profile and initial setup, because the system is is only as good as the information that you as a voice talent actually put into it. And if, if I don't know that you can do a great pirate voice, or that you like doing radio commercials and TV commercials, as well as internet ads. We as a system voices as a system, we won't know to actually invite you to those jobs. So it is worthwhile taking the time to get set up properly. So I think that's one point of differentiator, is that we do, you know, take, take that opportunity, and at least from our research, you know, we find that there's arguably the most number of job opportunities@voices.com which tends to, you know, attract even kind of more professional talent, talent from different language who speak different languages and different locales around the world, because clients, likewise, we actually spend most of our time marketing to the clients to bring those jobs, because the platform with all the jobs, whether it's LinkedIn or Upwork or voices, the platform with all of the. Jobs tends to be the one that wins in the market. And any market is going to have a, if not a winner take all, certainly a winner take most. And there's usually only one or two within any space that completely dominate. And so that's why we figured, hey, if we can spend our time attracting those jobs, the talent will naturally follow. They're going to want to be there where all that opportunity is. So that's really our mindset of how we go about building the platform and and how we believe that we're different from from those in the space

Robert Plank 10:31 awesome. So you're you're marketing to those clients and making sure that it's always growing and that they're still using it. Because at some point, some of us use MySpace, and now I wouldn't even know how to log into it, because they just let it die. So that's great that you are are keeping that alive and making it so that, like you said, you dominate. And that way that the clients keep on using it and keep coming into it. So that way when those of us who go and get set up there as workers can keep on getting those jobs. And so you mentioned there that there's that talent success specialist who's there to make sure that you get the jobs that you want. And so do you find that that happens a lot, that that may be different people's personalities or like their wants and needs make them gravitate towards like the professional announcer versus the character, things like that. Like, are there like, certain, like, subgroups of narrators on voices?

Speaker 2 11:28 Absolutely. I mean actors. Actors tend to not want to be pigeonholed yet. At the same time, there is this, you know, you don't want to be quote, unquote, typecast yet. At the same time, there's a reason why certain actors, even celebrities, tend to get hired for similar roles over and over, because they're really good at them. And so the parallel with voice acting is finding what's sometimes referred to as your money voice, or your go to voice. And some people you know, like you know, you know, you know, Sir David Attenborough narrates all of the documentaries. You know, he's almost like the stereotypical National Geographic, you know, documentary Narrator or BBC, you know, planet Earth series, that type of thing. However, you know, whatever that might be for you. Then really just nail that, because that creates a reputation for getting hired in that space. It might be that you've, you know, you're a very talented narrator for audio books or maybe phone system recordings, or even kind of high energy, high impact radio promos or podcast promos that you often hear kind of the beginning or the end of a podcast. So whatever that is, I try to encourage you to find that out early, and one way to do that is considering working with a coach. And so well, we don't provide coaching services or, you know, evaluating individuals voices@voices.com, we do have a network of coaches that we just freely refer people to, and that's at voices.com/coaches and there you can kind of see what people charge, what their skills, what their you know, what they kind of do In a typical session, you can hear either a podcast that they've recorded with us, but I think a coach is a great way to evaluate just like you wouldn't think of, you know, and you wouldn't think of trying out for a sports team without maybe brushing up in the offseason or getting some lessons. You wouldn't jump on stage at a, you know, a call in a concert hall without, you know, going to piano lessons for probably years in in a similar manner. I think it's prudent just to get the advice of a coach who's been there and done that. Can probably point you in the right direction, show you some some shortcuts that we're all looking for, and ultimately help you make an informed career decision. Is voice acting right for you? If so, you know, get that reality check of what's really needed. And I touched on some of that today, but I think a coach is a great way to to be your guide.

Robert Plank 14:13 Fantastic. I agree completely that. I mean, imagine trying to pass high school or college by only reading a book and not going to any classes. I mean, I guess you could do it, but it seems like a real hassle. Whereas if you just had someone to talk to and point you in the right direction and tell you what to stay away from, and tell you what's maybe out of date or not important or what to focus on, that seems like a much better way of going about it than trying to go it alone and watching those YouTube videos which will only get you so far, or asking on Facebook groups, which, again, will only get you to so far. Sometimes you need that that coach, and it's not really much of a commitment, right? I mean, you can try out a coach one time, or try someone else if the if it's not working out

Speaker 2 14:59 Absolutely. Typically a coach offers either in person or over the phone or over Skype type instruction. And what they're going to provide you with, you know, we're all probably our own worst critics. They're going to provide you with some, you know, an objective point of view of somebody who's separate from you listening to your own voice. Because what's one of the challenges is that you hear it differently as it reverberates in your own skull. You hear yourself differently than what you know. That's why people always cringe when they hear their voice recorded back for the first time, because they're like, that's not how I hear myself. Well, no, because you're hearing it reverberate in your head versus like listening through your ears. And so a coach will be able to give you that perspective of, no, this is actually, you know, here's how you sound to me, how you're going to sound to everyone else. They're going to help you become a better listener of your own recordings as well, too. So certainly, lots, lots of benefits of working with a coach. Super cool. And so as you're explaining about the different, like this coaching thing and how, like the different people that are there and that that use the platform. It seems to me like voices is more of like one of the, like, the higher end, kind of upscale voiceover platforms on the whole spectrum of all those marketplaces out there. Is that a good guess? I would we're definitely trying to, and we, you know, we believe that, you know, the platform with not only the most clients who attracts great quality, dedicated, serious voice talent, but it can't just be any old client. It's got to be, you know, Fortune five hundreds the top advertising agencies, big video production companies, and so that is really the reason why, as I say, probably 90 to 95% of our business is on that client side, attracting those buyers. To the extent that I'm going to say, about a year and a half ago or so, we actually acquired another company within the space. They were called voice bank, and they actually started in 1998 they were, by far the first ones online, and very quickly got a whole lot of adoption from, I mean, they served as a similar type of, you know, connector, if you will, a platform, but they got a lot of ad agencies that, in turn, produce a lot of work, because they have all of their clients that they're looking to produce campaigns for. And so that acquisition of voice bank, and then ultimately us, I'm going to say, unifying these two platforms. In effect, we kind of merged voice bank into voices.com a lot of those ad agencies are now posting their jobs on voices. So that's what we, you know, that's kind of, I guess, another, if I way, kind of proof point of the type of things that we're trying to do to build the strongest relationships over the long run. And sometimes that means partnering with companies. Sometimes, if there's a good opportunity like that, and the, you know, the other parties willing and interested in selling their their website or their platform, you know, at the end of the day, we just want to be the go to destination for all things. Voice,

Robert Plank 18:12 fantastic. Well, I like a lot of what I'm hearing, which is that you're focusing on the people, right? You're like, well, we acquired this company and we merged everything together, and you made sure that the clients who are using voice bank are now up to speed and are happy with voices.com because I'm a computer guy, I'm a programmer, and there's that tendency to focus on the bells and whistles, the features and oh well, our marketplace has this page and that ability to do that, but I'm hearing a lot of where you're focusing on on the people, which is what we all want, right? I mean, who cares if, like, such and such marketplace will do this or that, if it's a ghost town, or if it's not easy, then, then you kind of want no part of it. So that's all. That's all really great stuff to hear. And then as far as the I know, we're focusing on the the voice actors a lot here, but as far as those voice actors finding success with voices and getting the jobs that they want and making it a smooth transaction and all that, do you think that is there something that the voice talent is missing out on? Like, if someone's using your platform, and they're they're not landing enough jobs or the jobs they want. Do you happen to see like any common factor that's missing?

Speaker 2 19:30 Well, one of the I mentioned, the talent success specialist, I think that's a great, great point. We actually ran an analysis on those talent that actually did a consultation, versus those who hadn't. It's available to anyone who's a subscriber on voices.com and those who went through the consultation, which is simply an hour of time out of your calendar, they earned, I believe it was three times more than those who didn't. So it just shows you that. At, hey, getting these kind of mechanics pieces set up initially, and then out of the way, that's really helpful. The other aspect of it is, and one of the things that you know, as I say, it's not just kind of going through the profile, making sure we're ticking the boxes correctly. One of the most, I guess, quickest wins, is ensuring that you have a voiceover demo, not only one uploaded, but you and one uploaded per area of expertise. We call them categories of work. But think about think about this, that our search engine is based upon voice demos, just like if you go to YouTube, you're not really searching channels or the description channels. You're searching videos because you want to see a specific video. Likewise, on voices, you're searching for audio demos, or, you know, voice demos from the voice talent. And so in order for you to show up in that search engine, you need a separate demo for all those categories of work you want to be seen. And to follow that logic through. If I'm a client that I'm looking to have somebody record for my phone system, then I probably want to hear people doing phone system recordings. I don't want to hear monster truck rallies. I don't want to hear, you know, Coca Cola commercials. That's, you know, might sound cool, but it's not what I'm looking for. So in the, in the spirit of matching, what a, you know, a potential buyer or an employer is looking for, you need to ensure that you have the corresponding demo, which is a 30 to 62nd I jokingly call them highlight reels, basically, but 32nd kind of sample for in that particular category of work that is so key, the average number of demos that that a free user uploads is one, the average number that a paying subscriber uploads is 10. So you can see right away that once you're if you're a professional voice actor or talent on voices.com It really does pay to have and those are, there's no extra cost. You can upload as many as you want. You just need to edit, you know, your portfolio of work into the correct categories so that it's specific to what somebody might be looking for. That's probably the single biggest tip is, you mentioned, you know why somebody might not be getting invited to a job or might not be kind of landing them. So that's just a initial setup. The other thing is, you know, in that that profile itself making sure it's complete, because we use the information in your profile to actually invite you to a job. So if the client is looking for, you know, in that process we refer to as voice match. You can Google this. You can find it online as well too. But in effect, the criteria that the client is looking for, we score that out of 100 and then the talent that are invited, we also score how well matched they are out of 100 So Robert, you'd get an invitation that says, oh, Robert, you're, you're 95% voice match. That's actually really good. That gives you the encouragement to go through that this, there's a job that actually fits your profile. But what we also do is, when you do audition, it's not first come first serve. It actually goes from highest to lowest voice match is how we order those responses. And so having a complete profile in effect gives you a highest potential voice match score when you're invited. And so you know that, kind of puts you higher up the list of those responses. That is a big paradigm shift from what we had probably five or six years ago. It was first come first serve, and we found people would just sit by the computer and upload something, and it wasn't the greatest quality. They just needed to kind of get their foot in the door, so to speak. But after that, we realized, look, we want to reward quality, not speed, and so that this voice match of having complete profiles, giving people the ability to take the time to record, it's almost serves as a bit of a placeholder, so that if and when you do audition, you're going to show, show up in, in, in effect, a predetermined spot. So that's that's why the profile is important. Use that score to to inform you, but you can read on that in the Help section, or, as I said, just Google around and and you can unpack that a little bit more.

Robert Plank 24:37 Yeah. And that's all really helpful stuff. And I think that, um, that it's good that you have that voice match in there, because, as you know, a lot of platforms out there, they'll have some sort of order, but either you're not sure what it is, or you can tell it's just thrown together. And this is good, because this way, if, if these voice actors are searching for a specific. Specific type of job, like you said, if they're if they're more looking for the promos or the audio books or certain types of things, they can see how well they're matched. And a lot of what you're describing sounds like, if you're there on a dating site, right? And like you feel, make sure to fill in all your profile and you see who you get matched with. And if it's something that's matched very well, then you know, to go after that hot lead, so to speak. And so if there's, there's the job that you really want to get, that that voice audition for, then you know, to maybe put a little more time into that, or do a little more follow up. And I mean, and those are, these are some really simple concepts that we're discussing, but I think that they're really huge, and I think that they're overlooked by a lot of people. That number one, how important it is to have those multiple voiceover demos. So that way, if someone's looking for us in this platform, they know that it's a good match. It like, like you said, if they're, if you have, like, a monster truck demo, and someone's looking for a monster truck type of voiceover style for their their commercial, or for their their video, or something they they know like this is exactly what I'm looking for. And when you explain it, it makes perfect sense. But I think a lot of people don't realize that there are people out there who are searching for you right now, and they might be passing you by because you only have that one demo. You only have that one kind of generic demo, and the other, the other thing that you mentioned there about having your profile filled out completely. I mean, that's so important on on any platform, right? And I think that there's that tendency of a lot of us to treat it like Facebook, like we all have tons of things in our Facebook profile and settings that we don't even know those tabs are there. We don't even have those things filled out. And a couple of years ago, I was I was going to a meetup event, and the person running the meetup said, why don't you go in your Meetup profile and just fill in anything that that you can make sure that your entire meetup profile is filled up because there might be someone who wants to network with you in your business, and if there's no bio on there, or if there's an old photo, or if there's no link to your website, then again, they're just going to pass you by. And it seems like the the same thing is true with with, you know, marketing ourselves and voiceover and especially on your platform,

Speaker 2 27:22 absolutely, you know, it's interesting brought up filling out. You know that these concepts apply to really all online profiles. I mean, ultimately, we're all looking for another opportunity or a way to grow our own business. Having complete profiles is so critical. I mean, even myself on LinkedIn, for example, you know, they added a section for patents. So I added a patent that that we have that, you know, is currently patent pending, but it has a patent ID number. There's also a section for articles, and you can link out to other articles, whether it's something maybe you contributed to entrepreneur or Fast Company or Wall Street Journal, if you were, you know, you know a writer on that. And so these are, you know. They call them publications, you know. And so, you know, that's something. You know, Robert, you could, you know, have your, you know, your book from Amazon, in the public publications that can already be kind of, you know, listed there as well, too. So I was checking out the checklist mindset as well, too. So I think that's, you know, making sure that you're getting the most of all of these platforms and positioning yourself for whatever that next opportunity is. Because it's, it's, you know, people are pretty quick to make a judgment, and it's like, if you don't care about how you're positioning yourself, as kind of superficial as that might seem, I think some prospective clients, or maybe somebody who might be thinking about working with you might go, Well, they're not really taking themselves very seriously. That's why I also, I think it's, it's a bit of a segue here, but I think it's very important to consider whether you're looking for your next job full time, or you're looking for, you know, you work as a freelancer, an independent consultant. People do a quick social media check before they consider working with anyone. And so, you know, I think it's we need to be conscious of how easy it is for a prospective future client or prospective employer that they're Googling your name, they're putting it into Twitter, they're putting it onto Facebook and reading those comments, and so I think the more we can have healthy, constructive conversations. And, you know, frankly, just being professional, I think that's going to help your own business, as as a marketer, as an entrepreneur, you. You know, just be kind of always thinking about, is this what I want my future employer or future client to be reading? If you're thinking about typing out a comment, I always just kind of run it through that mental filter,

Robert Plank 30:12 yeah. I mean, you're so right. And it's, it's definitely a different world than it was even a few years ago. We're all connected. We're all on these social platforms. And so we need, we need to be on on these platforms and there, but then also, like you said, Be careful of what people might see, because people will check up on you. The days are gone now of having just a username and no one can tie it back to who you are, like people will look you up. So important to be careful, but also to be out there. Because also if, if there's no presence, that's bad too, right?

Speaker 2 30:45 For sure, for sure. So it's just, you know, choose to have a presence. I agree with that, and then just you know act somebody, once you know, gave me this advice of, you know, only type out those type of things, type out comments that you feel comfortable with being written about in the New York Times, like the front page of The New York Times, and if you're not comfortable with that or being quoted on it, I know the the, in all likelihood, the, you know, that's a very slim chance that that's going to occur, but I think it serves as a bit of a pulse check of like, oh, maybe I don't want to write this nasty gram or react too quickly to a comment, because, you know, I wouldn't want everybody in the world reading about this. It's just, I think it serves as a good filter.

Robert Plank 31:35 I agree, and sort of like in the same way of the way that your voice sounds to you versus how your voice sounds to others. That you had that knee jerk reaction you might have thought your post will come across this one way, but then I come across as the other way. So yeah, great advice. And as we're winding down these last couple of minutes, I want to make sure that the bases are covered as far as the other end of things, as far as the the people hiring on voices. So I know we only have a couple of minutes left here, but if someone is looking for that voice talent and they're considering voices.com What should they know from that side of things?

Speaker 2 32:12 Yeah, the fastest way to do it is to sign up for a free account. So once you've signed up, you have access to the entire platform the and, as I say, the fastest way after that is to post a job. Really, what this means is just outlining what you're looking for. Who is it that you're you know, what's your project about? You know, is it a radio commercial? Is it an audio book? Is it a podcast? Describe kind of what you're looking for, and then who you're looking for? I want a male or a female voice, the age, the language that you want, you know, read out and and then finally, attaching your script so that the talent can actually audition for you. And then you set a budget range, and it might be 250 to $500 and then your deadline. And so as I say, we take that job posting and invite those people that are most qualified to audition, and the talent are actually going to quote on the project. So I think you used the term bid earlier, quote. Bid really the same thing of how much they're willing to do the work for. We add on our transaction fee. So it's a 20% platform fee. What you see is the all in price. There's no extra fees after that. You just see the price to hire the talent, plus the platform fee is a single, single amount. And if you want to work with them, you can click higher, and that takes you to a credit card form, in which case we actually, Robert, hold that, that deposit, if you will, that payment in an escrow account. And this is a really important step, because if, for some reason, the deal doesn't work out, the talents unavailable, then you get a refund. If, for whatever reason, the you know, the talent doesn't want to do the work, then you can, you know, or is too busy with something else, you can get it back. And likewise, it gives the talent the security knowing that they're guaranteed to get paid, because the payments already sitting there really on deposit in this escrow account, which overcomes a major issue that sometimes you know a talent would do the work, deliver it. They don't know if you're down the street or halfway around the world, they are then scrambling to get paid for the work that's that's done. So we serve as that trusted intermediary to facilitate the payment. And you know what you get at the end are your broadcast quality audio files. And then you can do with them what you want according to you know what you said you're going to do, if it was a podcast, then you can use them for your pod. Can use them for your podcast. So that's really the process in a nutshell, and it ends off, just like most online transactions nowadays, with a rating and review, you get to rate and review the talent just through five stars and a brief comment. And likewise, they'll do the same, same thing for you, but the talent find a lot of value. Building up those ratings, because that helps them out for future work as well. But that's the process going to voices calm and posting a job and, and we'll get you those auditions, really, in a matter of hours. And, and, you know, then you just listen and choose from there.

Robert Plank 35:15 Super cool and what you covered right there. I mean, that is the, the age old reason to use some sort of a marketplace, right? Because there's always that mentality of, Oh, why can't I just hire someone that I find on LinkedIn or from Facebook or either from a buyer or seller perspective, right? Why don't I just connect with someone randomly? Well, they're going to connect with who you just happen across, and there's no safety net. The buyer might get ripped off. The seller might get ripped off. And then, if you're a buyer or seller, a lot of times, you have to start from scratch for the next job, right? Because maybe that buyer went away, or that seller went away. And if you're a voice talent and you're building up these ratings, these reviews, then things become easier over time. And if you're the buyer, then you can you can see someone already has all this history, so there's no warm up period, right? There's no Well, let me see if I need to pay you half now and half later. Or let me start you off on something small. You see that they have hundreds or 1000s of reviews, you can shortcut, maybe even months of waiting around and frustrating and heck, maybe you can even skip over if you tried to hire someone that voice talent outside of marketplace, maybe you hired someone and it was a total waste, and now you're out the money from transaction number one, and then You have to start from scratch on transaction number two. So this whole system of having that, that third party, that that escrow account, gives you that recourse if things go sideways with a deal here. So it's a really great place to be. And so now no one has to start from scratch, right? No one has to try to get their own traffic. The traffic is there in the marketplace, and voices.com is the place to be. And so as we're wrapping up here, do you have any just final parting words, or any like motivation for people to go and sign up to voices.com for a free account today?

Speaker 2 37:16 Well, I certainly would love that. I think there's it's an exciting time and space. Maybe it's conversation for another day, but voice as a a channel of communication, is moving beyond kind of static one way listening experiences, there's we're seeing a whole new category of work around voice assistance, voice applications for smart speakers, voice apps in the cars. And I'm talking about Amazon's Alexa kind of echo devices, or Google Home. You know, there's talk of Apple coming out with a Siri operating system. And Amazon actually sold over a million pre orders of Alexa auto, which is basically an aftermarket smart speaker for a car. So there's this whole wave of new voice applications that we're just on the tip of. And so I think that's an exciting opportunity for voice actors to participate, and maybe, if you're a really progressive marketer, to look on that, I would encourage folks to consider joining voices.com for free. Check it out, and hopefully we can find you the right voice for your next project, or if you're a voice actor, help you get that first gig.

Robert Plank 38:32 Super cool. So get get that first gig, get set up and try out the platform. You're going to love it. That@voices.com's that's V, O, I, C, E, s.com, really easy to spell. And then we mentioned earlier about how if you're on the platform and you're looking for some extra guidance, you might want a voiceover coach. And the place for that is voices.com/coaches so everything to gain, nothing to lose. Get a free account, try it out, get set up there, see how you like it, and then as you use it more, as you get those jobs, either as a buyer or seller, then you can move on to some of those other levels. So voices.com is the place to be right now. And Thanks so much, David for stopping by and taking the time and telling us what we need to know to succeed in voiceover, either as a worker getting these jobs or as someone hiring voice talent. So I appreciate it very, very much.

Speaker 2 39:27 Great to be here. Thanks again. We'll talk again soon.

Robert Plank 39:30 Did you leave us a quick review on iTunes? Yet it's quick and easy. Just go to marketer of the day.com/itunes click the View in iTunes button, and we would be very grateful.