Interview with Lili Wexu on Voice Acting and Announcing

Hello and welcome to Geekcast Radio Presents,

an interview that will also be syndicated on

AlterGeek and Studio 2009. I'm one of your hosts

for this evening, Steve Megatron, and joining

me is my usual partner in podcasting crime, TFG1

Mike. Coming to the studios tonight is Lily Wexhew.

And if you're not familiar with Lily, she has

lent her voice to the Assassin's Creed franchise,

appeared on Grey's Anatomy, been the announcer

for the opening and closing ceremonies of the

2010 Olympic Winter Games, and is an author.

Hello, Lily, and welcome to the show. Hi, thanks

for having me. Thanks for being here. Yes, thank

you. So to get started, could you tell our listeners

a little bit about your background? Um, so I

guess the best way to describe me would be maybe

a failed singer. A failed singer who became an

actress who became a voice actress. No. Basically,

yeah, I'm an actress. I started acting when I

was a kid. And I thought I was, when I was really

young, I had a really strong connection to my

voice and I thought I was going to be a singer.

And then my great... I don't know, four, singing

teacher, you know, accused me of sounding like

a buzzing bee, so my career ended very prematurely.

And then by the time I was about 19, I just,

I don't know, my voice was kind of... popular

at the time everybody would come up to me and

say oh you should do radio you have a radio voice

and I was like okay sure sounds good and eventually

wherever I worked I befriended some DJs that

actually worked at a local station and they one

day needed a female voice and they called me

into the radio station and I started recording

voiceovers that way and then that kind of became

a sort of a side gig And then over the years,

it kind of took center stage, and I still do

acting, but my days just get filled up with doing

voice work. So that's sort of the story. Awesome.

Yeah, that's a pretty big jump from wanting to

sing to jumping to acting. Well, you know, it's...

First many many singers end up doing voice acting

in particular, especially in animation It's very

very common in commercials as well. So It's not

that uncommon, you know and also think about

musicals a lot of singing actors, you know So

but I really just because I had this super I

just thought when I was a kid this like kind

of embarrassing but Don't know must have been

like around seven or eight years old I just thought

I had a really good voice and I don't I wasn't

you know Necessarily singing or anything. I just

thought I had a really good voice and I didn't

know why Like nobody told me I had a good voice.

I was just a kid, you know, and I just thought

you know, it should be discovered in some way

so and then I saw adventures in babysitting which

was a movie with Elizabeth shoe where she has

to babysit these kids and then she she's kind

of stuck with them and she takes them all over

town and she takes them in Chicago in this blues

bar. And when I saw the blues singer singing,

I was like, oh, that's what I want to do. But

then, you know, I failed. Like I said, my my

teacher just said, no, you can't sing. And I

just, you know, just never sing again. And so

I just. Did what a lot of kids do who like being

on stage which was just acting, you know in class

and theater So it's not that far of a stretch,

but I really did think that voice was going to

be my thing growing up You know, which is kind

of strange, but it worked out is actually kind

of prophetic. So it is pretty cool Yeah, I love

that movie Isn't it cool? You know, I have to

watch it again. But I just love that movie and

that when they when she takes those kids down

in the blues bar, I just remember I was like,

finally, like now I know what I want to do. You

know, it didn't quite work out. Hey, but everything's

kind of a stepping stone, though. Yeah, no, it

did. It's funny, you know, and later, much later,

like recently, actually, like last year, I started

taking singing lessons. I had told my husband,

I was like, oh, I kind of would like to sing.

And actually for our wedding, we wanted to sing

a song for our wedding because he was playing

guitar. And I was like, that would be cool, you

know? And I said, I'd have to take some singing

lessons. And he, so he got me some lessons. And

actually it was the best thing I did for my voice

career. It really just made my voice clearer,

more beautiful, more resonant, more resilient.

So it actually, and I joke about this and I say

it's kind of like Botox for the voice, like it

just rejuvenates you. And yeah, so singing really

is, and a lot of singers do crossover to voiceovers

because they have beautiful voice, they're well

maintained and they have control of their instrument.

So it's actually very, very related. That is

that is pretty cool. I've not heard that angle

for voice acting before but that does make a

lot of sense Yeah, and actually for the book

when I before I wrote the book I interviewed

a bunch of casting directors and directors and

That's when I became aware of the connection

because I didn't even realize it either because

in animation Actors who work a lot in animation

often have to sing like if you watch those kids

shows There's a lot of singing in them. So I

was like, oh, yeah that makes sense But I just

I never thought about it. So yeah big big connection

So if you're a singer listening to this voiceovers

is just a short hop away So one note down the

scale, oh, yeah. Yep. So did you always want

to be an actor aside from from doing music? Yeah,

I mean around probably the same time I thought

that I had the best voice in the world around

that time I probably also thought like I was

the best comedian in the world You know in your

seven or eight. There's no one there to do a

little ego check But yeah, when I was a kid I

used to always what I used to do was I used to

write these little monologues and I used to perform

them for my mom and I used to watch sketch comedy

and I just I wanted to do comedy at the time

actually is what I wanted. And then I got involved

with school plays and took acting classes. So

yeah, acting has always been, and also I think

to be completely honest with you, and I think

if there are other actors listening to this,

they may have a similar situation or any kind

of art. Like my mom wanted to be an actress.

And I think that... you know her career got cut

short because she had three kids really young

and I think that I had one of those outgoing

personalities as a kid and I just thought she

was like oh she's an actress and she kind of

fed me that. And I kind of thought that that's

what I would, you know, like I never, people

ask me like, when did you start acting? When

did you start thinking about it? And honestly,

I don't remember. Like there was never another

option for me. Like that's what I thought I would

do. Of course, it's a very hard life. Nobody

tells you that part, but luckily voiceovers kind

of saved me, but. in terms of having a career

that was sustainable. But yeah, so it was always

just something that was kind of natural within

me. I never really questioned it until I was

a little bit older. And then I was like, well,

do I really want to do this? But by then I just

was doing it. So yeah, it was just how it happened.

It was just kind of fed to me. That's awesome.

That is very cool. So you were in the Assassin's

Creed video games What was it like working on

a video game environment compared to on -screen

or other forms of voice acting? You know that

video game happened. I booked that when I was

just kind of starting out professional acting

and It was very I think I didn't quite kind of

take it seriously to be honest like I was kind

of untrained and inexperienced and I remember

we had to do for that game you know it takes

place in Italy and all the characters are Italian

and so we all had to do an Italian accent. I

was like, yeah, I can do that. No problem. Then

I got into the studio and there was a coach and

it was just 10 times harder than I realized.

I was like, oh boy. You've got to really work

on accents. Some accents are easier than others,

but Italian is very specific and unless you listen

to a lot of it, it's going to be difficult. I

was put in my place in a way just like, you're

gonna have to prepare for things. It's all fun

and games, but you are a professional here and

people expect you to be prepared. And then it

was also the beginning of motion capture. And

for listeners who maybe don't know what motion

capture is, in video games, they basically put

sensors all over your face and your body and

you basically wear a suit and they put all those

sensors all over you and on your face. and they

film you with those sensors and then they use

those sensors to design characters so that they

look real. So at the time, it was the beginning

of that. So in my session, they put sensors just

only on my face. So we had to say our lines with

a proper accent and then we were kind of like

in a box with like a. there was a camera in front

of me and there was kind of a box kind of over

me like you couldn't move too much you know and

honestly with the accent and the not moving and

everything it was just like it was hard you know

it was harder than i thought and it was very

very humbling and um you know video games it's

like it's like theater on steroids but you also

have to be very very naturalistic So movement

is really important. You kind of have to have

bigger movements than you would, let's say, than

a film actor. But your speech has to be like

a film actor. So it's kind of a science, and

it takes a lot of experience to find that sweet

spot. And it's just by doing it and doing it

and doing it. And because the technology was

kind of young, I just didn't know where... It

sat for me, you know, so it was challenging I

mean is an amazing project to be a part of but

Excuse me. It was not easy for me. You know,

it was it was challenging I learned a lot and

I learned that In any fields in the arts that

you want to work a lot You have to really love

it and then you have to train really hard Like

it's not something you should just expect to

be good at and just like ace you know, training

makes perfect. Yep. Yep. Totally, totally understand

that. Yeah. Because I play some roles in a children's

radio drama. Oh, that's awesome. Podcast, which

I also happen to produce. That's so cool. There

was a particular season or series of episodes

where I was playing because we were doing like

a Boston, kind of like a Boston Revolution type

thing during the Revolutionary War. And I had

to play like kind of a old timey American and

then I was supposed to also play a British soldier

and I was just having a hard time wrapping my

mind around it because I hadn't had sufficient

enough time to train for that. that dialect and

because they have a couple of different dialects

and it just kind of determines you know which

one you need to use and there was this kid that

was in there doing some other lines for a couple

of other episodes that we had going and I was

saying yeah I'm having a really hard time doing

this British accent and he says oh I can do a

British accent and I was like here you go I handed

him the script had him read it and he I was like

oh this is great so I took him to the director

of the program and they're like oh yeah this

is good and so they used him and I was totally

fine with it. You're like, he just saved me.

Yes. I was like, yes, that was so worth it. It's

good when you're the producer and that happens.

Not so good if you're not the producer. Yes.

True. I was just like, here you go. It's so funny

because Steve posted this on Twitter and I'm

like, here's at least five different British

people that I know that you could ask about how

to do it. Yeah, it's hard. I mean, accents are,

you know, they come easy to some people. And

I have a very musical ear. I think that's something

anybody that plays an instrument is a little

bit like that. I don't know if you guys play

instruments, but, you know, so you pick up the

nuances and the accents there. If you really

want to be authentic, they require some work.

Oh, yes. Because the thing is in the in the field,

too, like the the the thing is, there's a because

there's so many people now. That are kind of

I want to say like allowed to be in the industry

like before the industry was so small You know

if you weren't in the small circle of people

you just weren't ever gonna work and now for

various reasons Which I go over in in in my first

book, you know The internet has made it has made

jobs accessible for so many more people and the

field just discriminating less. And so you have

so many more people with different accents and

different ethnicities, so they have access to

those people. So now, for example, if you're

gonna do an accent, you better do it really,

really well because the person that's from that

place has an agent and they can get in the door

just as much as you do and you're gonna be competing

against them. So you better make sure that you

have a really solid accent. It's not easy. It's

fun to do. I love doing accents, and I'm not

a master, but I love doing it in, let's say,

an acting class. You pick a British play or a

play set in Boston or whatever. But it's not

easy. No. To do like to do to pull off and we

see it to even with famous actors sometimes we're

like, oh, come on Please, you know, they only

they're only putting up with that because that

actor is famous, you know Yes, that happens all

the time. There are very few really famous people

can do a really good accent. Oh Yeah, totally

So the funny thing about the famous people is

that they're hiring them for that sound You look

at Chris Rock for example not to throw the man

under the bus or anything But you look at him

and you hear him like he's he's the new iPhone

12 Pro ad campaign person Mm -hmm. That's great.

He got that ad great. That's awesome for him

But like for the characters that he voices like

in Madagascar and things like that They looked

at him and looked at the character and they said,

we want his voice. We don't want him to do another,

like we don't want him to come in and try to

do a Maurice LaMarche or Rob Paulson or whatever.

We want Chris's voice. And that's what's so interesting

about the celebrity voice, the big time when

you get, you know. That's true in every, I mean,

it's true even on screen. You know, what happens

is that those people, you know, they'll sell

the movie, right? So some people will just see

it because he's in it. So that's a sort of a

marketing thing, you know? So yeah, you're totally

right. He was not hired to do a voice. He was

hired for Chris Rock. You know, do what Chris

Rock does. Yeah, absolutely. And that's just

a reality of being in the arts. That happens

on every level with everything. Yeah, for sure.

Yep. It's good to be famous. Yeah. Definitely

does. So you have a new ebook series right now

called Get Clever About Voice Acting and Announcing.

And I saw that it was also kind of dubbed as

a very similar to a For Dummies series. What

prompted this? You know, it's when you do voice

acting everybody always asks you like oh, how

do I get into it? and I'd love to do that and

somebody told me I had a really good voice, you

know and And people ask you for coffee for dinner

for this for that and honestly You cannot get

that information in one conversation. Like it's

just is there's so many levels to it, right?

So and also a lot of the time like you talk to

people and then they by the end of it, they're

like, okay, I'm not going to do it. So you're

like, oh, that sucks. Much easier to be like,

here's this book. So over time, I just had so

many people and even friends who were in the

industry, like I helped a lot of my friends start

their careers. And so my peers would ask me a

lot of questions. And so and I always loved writing

since I was a kid. Everything starts when you're

a child. When I was a kid, I had a journal. As

soon as I knew how to write, I had a little journal

and I would always take notes and I'm just like

a note taker. And so over the years, I collected

kind of notes that I had put together and I just

thought, so it was always kind of a matter of

of when and not if, you know, for many, many

years, I was like, well, who am I to talk about,

you know? And then one day I was just like, you

know what, I'm going to do this. I love writing.

And maybe later on in my career, when I'm in,

you know, my 60s and nobody wants to hire me

anymore as a voice talent, I'll have like started

a writing career, you know? So because it's it's

hard. It's it's I mean, you do get more work

when you're younger, whether it's on screen or

for acting, but in voice acting, it's less severe,

but it can happen, and so I'm conscious of that.

So yeah, I just thought, you know what, I'm just

gonna do this, it's gonna give me some good practice

for writing, and it's something I know, and I

know it's gonna be useful to people, and so that's

why I did it. It was sort of a very part -time

thing that I did. It took me so long to do it.

But then the pandemic happened and I had to kind

of get it out in the rush because the pandemic

really kind of changed, not changed things, I

want to say propelled. The industry was already

going, you know, towards the home studio and

actors having to work, you know, get their own

studio. And the pandemic just propelled that.

And so I knew that a lot of actors would need

to set up a studio and to just need to know how

the whole voice acting business worked. So then

I kind of rushed to kind of you know, get it,

finish it all together and get it out there for

people who might need it. That's great. Yeah,

I I've noticed too that a lot a lot of things

have changed with between COVID happening and

in between just the Internet of Things and it's

just easier to get people remotely like even

like I was saying with the production aspect

of doing a radio drama is we had to adjust because

of COVID and set people up with their own home

studios to record. And our director is actually

from Canada. So it made things totally different.

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, I can't tell you

when this happened because what happened was

a bunch of pretty much I feel like all the agents

like in the same week sent all their actors who

didn't have home studios, but who did do voice

acting. by going to other studios, they sent

a huge email. Everybody got an email from their

agent saying, look, everybody's asking for actors,

for voice actors right now. You guys need to

set yourself up. And so I had so many emails

and phone calls going like, what do I do? My

director, they need me. And even companies like

Ubisoft would send their actors microphones and

sound cards so that they could. have a good quality

sound to record. Now you have to have a quiet

space to record and obviously the microphone

is just the small part of it, the quiet space

is the most important part. But everybody was

like, what do I do? What kind of software do

I need? What's going on? So yeah, it was very

real and a lot of games and animation shows just

went remotely. A lot of that was already happening,

but it wasn't happening on a scale of high -profile

companies, and now it did. It's going to go back

to in -person. Some recordings in -person are

already happening, but it's really propelled

something that was already happening, which is,

why are you going to bother getting people in

-person if you can just get them, and you can

get them at a moment's notice too. That's not

my favorite part of the COVID thing, is everything

now. is happening, I don't know if you're experiencing

that on your end, but it's like everybody, for

me, my clients, everybody, it's just like they

want everything now. It's like it made everything

a lot faster because everybody's kind of at home

and they don't have to commute and they don't

have, everybody's just like at each other's fingertips.

So it makes everything faster, which is really

like difficult because all of a sudden it's like

I had like before like. My clients would, for

example, schedule a session in two days, or in

three days, or next week. Now they're like, can

you do this today? Because they know that I'm

there in the studio, and so it's made a lot of

things faster. But back to the previous subject,

it's like, yeah, it changed. It made it possible

for people to work from home. And those trends,

even though some of the studios are going to

go back to in person, obviously for motion capture,

they're going to be back in person. But a lot

of the video games that don't use motion capture,

they're not going to go back. You know, you can

get a director on the line like exactly like

you're like you're saying and like your show

is going and It can all be done, you know, just

fine. So yeah That's yeah, that's it's it's totally

different environment now, but yeah, that's it's

Good there's good and bad Yeah, it's more stressful.

I don't know if if you felt that but it's it's

It's more stressful now. I find that people are

just expecting things like, for instance, auditions.

We used to have like for video games, normally

you'd get like two or three days and for animation,

the same thing. For commercials, you'd have,

I want to say, it used to be two, three days,

then it went down to 24 hours. Now, it's the

same day and a lot of times my auditions have

to turn them around like in an hour. And, you

know, it's tough because, you know, you're, it's

just, it's just so demanding. You're, we've just

become like, it's just a race, you know, and

it's hard, it's hard to keep up with. Like honestly,

a lot of times, like the auditions that are like

that, unless they're, I know the casting director

and they know me and they've specifically asked

for me or it really fits me, I don't bother anymore

because I'm just like, I can't, you know, first

of all, I've got work or whatever. And it's not

sustainable. It's not sustainable to do that.

So I don't know what's going to happen, but that

part of the industry is tough. And even for actors,

like as an actor used to go to a, you know, there

were self tapes, what we call self tapes, which

is you record your audition, you know, a friend

reads the lines with you and then you record

your audition and you send it, you send the video

in. So that kind of has been happening for years.

It started primarily for actors. famous actors

who might have been out of town or working actors

who were out of town. And then it became kind

of a thing that happened a lot. And now, and

now, you know, it's becoming the norm. So now

there's there's no in -person auditions. But

the thing is for self tapes, you used to get

like three, four days. You know, now I got a

self tape yesterday and it was like due today.

But please, please, please, please send it to

me well before then, meaning send it to me today.

You know, yeah, which was yesterday and it's

like, okay, you know And sometimes it could be

like nine or ten pages of dialogue. So it's uh,

yeah, it's It's going fast. Yeah, it's it's um

But I feel like this is not the only industry

it's happening in, you know It's it's happening

everywhere. It's like that that old I'm going

to say military saying because I forget which

branch it is off the top of my head. I think

it's Marines, but whatever. It's like the only

easy day was yesterday. And it's one of those

things now where you had like before the pandemic,

we thought we were living in this fast paced

world of everything now, now, now, now, now.

Well, now that the pandemic is here, we want

things yesterday and last week. And oh my God,

why is this late? And oh my God, like For me,

I haven't had a chance to... I've done several

podcasts over the last year, but I've been doing

this for 12, 13 years. The network's been around

12 or 13 years. Steve's been doing this for 14

or 15 years. For the last year, outside of recording

stuff with him, my computer's in storage back

in Illinois. I'm finally getting it now, but

it's one of those things where it's like... I

haven't been able to podcast the way I normally

do it, the right way that I know how to do it

and get it right here. And I'm like, crap. Can

I still do this? Yeah. Can I still do this right?

And it's like, Oh Lord. Yeah. Yeah. I used to,

you know, my grandfather has a saying, you know,

go slowly. It ends up going, being faster. Yeah,

go slowly, it ends up being faster. And it's

true, like if you do things right, it does, you

do. Like what happens to me now, even for voice

work, let's say I'm more corporate stuff, the

clients will send me the script and then they'll

just say, oh, no, no, no, there's some changes

like three days later. You know, so instead of

getting it right the first time, so now they

go back and they go back and they go back, you

know, so it ends up actually being more like

energy. It's not cost efficient because your

energy you're constantly having to go back again

instead of just doing it right the first time.

You know, so it's yeah. We had it so good before

we didn't know. You don't know what you have

it until you lose it. Oh yeah, totally. Go ahead,

Mike. What do you recommend to people who want

to get into voice acting? How do you recommend

them have a plan to do so? If somebody comes

to me and they want to do voice acting, the first

thing I want to know is, did they perform in

any way? Have they ever been on stage? What their

background is? For instance, somebody came to

me the other day and they were like a preacher.

That's perfect because this person is already

performing. They're already aware of performing,

so that's always good. If you don't have any

experience performing, my first thing, would

be to find out what kind of voice work they think

they want to do. If it's anything acting related,

whether it's animation, video games, commercials,

even narration, I would say to them, I think

you should go take an acting class if you've

never taken one. Go take an acting class or if

you're not into acting, do some improv. Do something

that's gonna get you on stage, gonna get you

out of your head, and it's gonna get you to commit

to saying things that you have not written, but

that you have to get behind, because that's our

job as voice actors. We have to get behind whatever

we're saying, right? So that you need to train

for that. Otherwise, it feels really weird. Yeah.

and you're not going to be natural doing it.

Because we're competing against people like Chris

Rock, famous people who end up doing commercials,

and those people are really great because they

have amazing experience, we have to develop the

skills that they have, which is really to get

behind what you're going to say. Now, that's

something that you do long -term. I take acting

classes all the time. If I hit a dry patch, I'm

not booking for some reason. I get a coach, you

know, in whatever, if it's a commercials that

I'm not booking anymore, I'm struggling with

narration. I just always hire a coach. And I'm

in acting class. When things are busy, I'm not

in class when I'm like overwhelmed with work.

But when things slow down, I try to be in class

and I try to be regular with it, you know? So

it's not something you ever arrive at. You don't

ever just... say like, oh, now I'm an actor and

I'm done training. It's like, you're always going

to have to learn. I compared to skiers or snowboarders

or any kind of sport. You never go, oh, I've

mastered all of that. I know everything there

is to know about that. No, you're always going

to need to become better. So that's number one.

You have to just think like an artist, be an

artist, and just commit to that. Then after that,

you read my books. After that, you have to understand

how the industry works. Because once you understand

how the industry works, you can figure out where

you fit in or where you think you fit in. When

you know where you think you fit in, you want

to take specialized training in that specific

thing. So if you want to be a video game actor,

you need a video game coach. You should be doing

some theater, by the way, if you want to do some

video game acting. Theater is really a direct

gateway. and then you want to take some very

specific coaching because there's some specific

techniques and things that you should know about

in that sector, and then you can make a plan

of how you're going to get work. It often starts

with a demo, and you shouldn't make a demo before

you're ready. So it's kind of a long journey,

but then once you have a demo, then you can figure

out, okay. how am I going to get jobs? So you

can get through an agent, but these days you

don't need just an agent. And even if you can't

get an agent, you can still work. There's tons

of people doing video game work specifically

who don't have an agent, and they work on different

video games. Because now the beauty of the internet

is that you can find your own clients. You can

suss them out. There are casting notices on Facebook,

there's pay -to -play sites, there's all kinds

of ways to get hired. But it really starts with

you committing to thinking like an artist and

being an artist and understanding that this is

kind of a lifelong journey. It's not going to

be a quick get in, make some money and get out.

That can happen. It's not impossible, especially

if you start really young, but it's just not

the norm. So it's better to go with a blueprint

that is going to work than just a sort of magical

thinking of, oh, I'm going to get lucky and discovered.

kind of like when I was seven or eight years

old. Like that stuff doesn't work. It doesn't

work. It's not how it works. So it's not what's

going to keep you in business, making money,

having a career, sustaining yourself, being able

to buy a house, do whatever the things you want

to do. Buy your nice car or whatever, right?

So you just need to have a plan, but it really

starts with having a mind frame of... It's like

you almost like I I love comparing it to being

an athlete Because athletes have that mentality

of just they love it so much You have to love

it so much because it's going to be hard So you

have to know that you're gonna get knocked off

and then you're gonna have the only reason you

can get back up again Because you love it so

much So athletes have that kind of like passion

and resilience built in because they love it

so much, but they also have this discipline of

I can always be better You know, and that's to

me voice acting so It's it's it's now it doesn't

mean that you need to be at the top of your game

to start making money Like you can start making

money early on in the game, you know, it's I've

seen it happen But if you have the right mindset,

you're gonna be in it for the long haul and you're

just gonna have more probabilities of doing really

well long term You know, but I'm not suggesting

that the money's only gonna come in After your

master. No, I started working. I didn't know

what I was doing, you know, and I was working

I was I was paying some bills with that money,

you know, so it can happen even as you're discovering

yourself but there is Something about just getting

in for the long haul and committing to it That's

just gonna bring you on a level long term where

it's sustainable That's some great advice. Absolutely

Let's switch gears to social media. Yay. So something

that you've enjoyed doing is your Instagram live

streams with fellow voice actors. Tell us a little

bit about that. Yeah. I mean, it sort of was

in conjunction with my launch. So there's three

books, right? One of them talks about really,

like we just talked about being an artist, becoming

an artist. And one of them talks about the technical

part. of recording, and then the third part is

sort of the entrepreneurial part. So I'm slowly

moving into, I've had a couple of them with some

video game voice actors, and just to talk about

the truth about working as a voice actor. People

often have this idea in their mind, and it's

not as glamorous as people think. And I just

thought it would be cool to talk to some people

and talk about some stuff that we don't always

talk about. So the next guests will probably,

we're going to get a little bit more technical.

And then in the third part, we're going to get

a little bit more about the entrepreneurial aspect.

But yeah, the idea is to really kind of lift

the curtain on what's actually going on because

we're in a different era, you know, 10, 20 years

ago. things were different. Now we're in 2020.

There's the Internet. It's a strong power. And

we kind of have to do our own thing. Like, you

know, my friend Elias, the first guest that I

had on the Instagram Live, you know, Elias is,

you know, he's the voice of Adam Jensen and Deus

Ex. People love him. But, you know, he had to

kind of make his way himself to the Comic Cons,

you know. So it's not something people think

about. It's just but you have to always be doing

things yourself. And I think once people understand

that, then voice acting becomes a lot more accessible

and they realize like, they have the tools, it's

going to depend on them. And that's kind of my

whole thing about the books is like, you can

do this, you can do this on your own, you don't

need an agent. You know, I was years without

an agent. And I did fine financially, like six

figures fine. You know, and I didn't have an

agent so and there are others there so many others

like me so but it's all about kind of doing it

yourself and So that's kind of what I try to

talk about in the Instagram lives on some level

whether it's from the acting perspective You

know acting you can't do on your own. You have

to do with other people but You know the technical

part and the entrepreneurial part all those things

you can also do with other people but the point

is is you have to take charge, you know, nobody's

gonna take you by the hand and Just like I said

before like discover you, you know You're gonna

have to do things on your even if people on the

outside world Think wow that guy, you know or

that girl, you know, they're so successful. I

want to be like them Well, guess what they do

a lot of their stuff on their own You know, and

so it's kind of empowering to know that because

then you're like, oh Okay, it's not like you

sign with an agent and then they do all the dirty

work, you know No, it's not like that anymore

You have to do all the work now. Now, in fact,

you have to build your own resume and then maybe

an agent will consider you. It used to be the

opposite. You used to go to theater school, get

an agent, and they would help you build your

resume because they would give you access to

auditions, get you meetings with directors and

things like that. That's still happening for

a very, very, very small portion of people. The

rest of us mortals have to just build our own

careers. But it doesn't mean you're not going

to have an excellent career doing extremely well

and reaching a six -figure income if that's what

you want. It's not going to be overnight. It's

not a guarantee. No, there's no such thing. But

it is absolutely within the realm of possibilities

if you work hard. Well, that's like what you

were saying earlier about going to acting classes

and learning the craft, and then going in 20,

30, 40 years ago. You need the agent, like you

just said, to get your foot in the door. Now,

in the day and age we live in now, social media

is your agent, essentially, where you just said

you have to build your own career. You have to

kick in the door yourself, and you have to say,

hey, I've done this, this, and this. Notice me.

Yeah, I you know, you know that you know that

kind of thing where yeah, absolutely Yeah, go

for it. So self -promotion is key to anything

nowadays And if you're not if you're not self

-promoting, you're not gonna you're not gonna

succeed and this is coming from a failed author

But I'm not kidding. I have three books published

and I never did anything with any of them Well,

yeah, but like you said, you didn't do anything

with them. You know what I mean? If you decide

exactly, it's up to you. You probably decided

that energy wasn't, you know, you were going

to put your energy in something else, right?

Because we only have so much energy. Let's let's

be real here. You know, you can only do so many

things. But like there's this one guy on Instagram

and he's on TikTok and he does insanely well.

And, you know, he's he's figured out a way to

use his He's a voice guy. He's a voice actor

and he's figured out a way to promote himself

while also Kind of just being himself. So he

does these like he does these These commentaries

on these reviews these like live reviews on like

McDonald's food and like the new McNuggets, you

know, like he does all these ridiculous super

ridiculous like food reviews and he does all

sorts of things and he uses awesome beautiful

voice to do it And he reaches so many people,

and guess what? He gets work from it. Now, I

want to talk about something here. Social media

is great, absolutely. If you can figure out how

to build your following authentically, kind of

the way that he's done it, right? So he uses

his skills to keep people's attention, then it's

great. But there's also... the Internet, so the

website, right? So you can also create a lot

of traffic for yourself and turn visitors to

a website into clients actually more easily than

you would by being on social media. But social

media is an important tool. And if you're young

and you already enjoy getting likes and you've

already figured out that I get more likes when

this happens or I get more likes when that happens,

then you already have kind of a leg up. I talk

about that in the book. It's like a lot of people

are scared of the skills that you need to become

a working voice actor. But the truth is you already

have those skills. You're already on Instagram

waiting for those likes. You're already doing

that and getting them and building your following.

Well, it's the same thing with your marketing.

It's going to be the exact same thing. You're

going to get out there and knock on doors and

people are going to like, or they're just going

to pass. It's the same thing. It's the same skills.

But I just also want to reassure people that

if social media is not your thing, for instance,

and you're someone that you've taken classes

and your teachers are like, you're really great.

It's time for you to get clients. It's time for

you to go out there and get yourself out there.

There's also other tools like search engine optimization,

for instance, that you can use to help. buyers

find your website. So there are other tools that

you can use as well to promote yourself. But

either way, you are the one that's going to power

that machine. You can get some help. You can

hire a company to do it with you, definitely.

But you are the power behind that machine. Nobody's

going to do it for you. If you just have a website

and you just put it out there and you don't do

any work to optimize it, well, guess what? It's

just going to sit there. Same thing with your

social media. If you're just going to create

an account and post a picture once a month, well,

you're not going to get a whole lot out of it.

So you have to power that machine. But what I

also want to say, though, is that You don't have

to power all of them all the time. Pick one machine

that works for you, that works with your personality,

that works with what you have to offer, and focus

on that. For some people, it's YouTube. It can

be a different thing depending on your talent

and what you want to do. But I do recommend,

I'm just going to find this guy's Instagram because

I think he's a really good example of what you

can do as a voice actor. It's the perfect example.

So let me just try and see what his handle is.

Sorry, guys, you're probably going to have to

edit this. And it's crazy, too, what you can

achieve just through just self -promotion of

just having fun with it. Oh, yeah. I mean, I

got so many clients just reaching out to people

with my material. And, you know, it's just something

that you can that you can do that is well within

your reach. And if you like getting likes on

Instagram, you'll be fine with marketing. It's

the same thing. It's exactly the same thing.

You're throwing spaghetti on the wall and some

of it sticks and some of it doesn't. And you

learn which ones stick and that's pretty much

it. Yeah. It's funny. We've been doing this thing

for God knows how long now with the podcasting

and. Steve says we have numbers and Steve says

that specifically my stuff gets listened to and

I never believe him until he actually shows me

a sheet because Every time I put something out

there just see every time I put in a podcast

episode out or whatever. It's like, okay It's

just Mike doing another one of his posts Yeah,

it's uh, it's a lot of work, you know If you

if you want to if you want to do it to a scale

you have to decide where your energy The bottom

line is this are you if you if you're getting

we all have to just get paid You know, we have

to pay our rents pay our mortgages pay our cars

pay your food So whatever brings in that money

the rest is kind of extra, right? So it's like

if if you're making money With your voice or

with your whatever you're doing if that's making

you money Then you don't need to go out and have

a crazy social media account. You're making the

money You know, it's if you're not and you're

looking at ways to market yourself, then that's

when it becomes a proposition, you know, but

you can like I spent my first years just reaching

out to people, you know, and that's all I needed

to do. So I didn't have to build a huge social

media presence because I reached out to people

personally and then eventually those people became

my clients and then those people became repeat

clients and then they just keep coming back to

me. So then it creates like, oh, I have a bunch

of clients that keep me busy. So I don't need

to do all that social media work. But if you're

just starting, there are great tools to get out

there and show what you can do and attract some

new eyeballs because everybody's on social media.

So the guy that I was telling you about who's

a great example, his name, his handle is S underscore

Johnson underscore voiceovers. So he's just.

He's just figured out, he uses his personality

and his voice and he packages it in a way that

you know what you're getting. If I'm going to

be a client, I instantly know why I want to hire

that guy. It's clear. He's got this big baritone

voice. He's hilarious. So I know he's going to

bring out the humor in any copy I give him. And

he's just a no -brainer. I don't need to listen

to 50 demos. I hear him and I'm like, that's

the guy. So if you can look at this example,

You think you have something you can bring then

that's a great way to handle your social media

where it's on YouTube or Facebook wherever you

want to be Right, absolutely. Mm -hmm. Yeah,

that's that's great. Yeah, I'll have to check

him out later. I Just send it to you. Okay He's

very funny. He's very funny. He's hilarious so

Before we let you go how many The how can our

listeners find you and the various projects you

have coming up that you can speak about? Okay,

so I work primarily in a sector of the industry

right now that is it's just not it's it's like

I do a lot of boutique voiceover work So basically

it's ad agencies who are doing manifestos a manifesto

is when a company talks about themselves, not

necessarily like a product in particular. And

they basically hire me to be the voice of that

manifesto. And so a lot of the stuff happens

behind closed doors and it's very annoying because

I would publicize a lot of it, but I can't because

a lot of it is as we were talking before the

show about the non -disclosure agreements. So

I would say right now, Um, you know, the best

thing to keep in touch with me would be, um,

you know, go to my website, Lily Wexu voiceovers

.com that you will usually have my latest, the

latest things I've worked on. Um, and then let

me just think if there's anything special that

would be like, Oh, wow. You know, um, That's

well right now. It's political season, so I do

some political messaging, but I don't want to

get into that who wants to talk about that Stuff

like that, you know, so it's not like super sexy

stuff, unfortunately, but if you go to my site,

you'll you'll see what I do and Yeah, I'm just

trying to think of something. I recorded something

all day yesterday. Oh, it was, you know what

I get hired to do a lot of these days? It's just

coronavirus like prevention, like all of it.

It's just coronavirus. Just wear a mask and protect

yourself and do this and do that. And one day

we're all going to be able to get together. So

it's all of that stuff. So it's not very sexy.

So, since you're in voice acting and announcing

and all of that, why isn't your book on Audible?

Oh, yeah, because that would take so long. Oh,

come on, it can't be that long. You know how

long it took me to finish writing that thing

and bring it to a level that was acceptable?

Reading like because like when you write a book

like at the beginning like oh, this is easy I

could just write anything and then you're like,

oh, that's really crappy writing long time to

get it to a level that was like professional,

you know and And then so now I would have you're

right. I would have to I mean so many so many

of my friends asked me that they're like Oh,

come on. Just do it. You know, it's time -consuming

right now since the pandemic hit It's been so

busy. Honestly, I did not I did not imagine this

would be the case. But it's been really, really,

really busy and I just haven't stopped. So when

things slow down, I'm assuming around the holidays

probably, although this year, who knows? There

might not be holidays. But yeah, when it slows

down again, it's something that I know people

have asked me to do and I will do it because,

hey, who wants to read? It's better to listen

to stuff. Well, here's my thing. It's a book

about voice acting and announcing. I know, I

know. And honestly, it isn't just that. It's

more so for me personally. Yeah. While I grew

up reading and I love reading, I absolutely do.

I prefer, I mostly on the audible stuff that

I do listen to, it's... mostly autobiographies

and that kind of stuff. So, you know, whatever.

But it's like, I love hearing the people that

wrote the book, read the book to me and hear

it in their voice instead of me reading the text

on the page and trying to think in my head, what

are they really saying? How are they sounding

when they say this? So I'm a very auditory type

person and it's like, I'd rather hear it than

try to strain my eyes to read it at 1 a .m Yeah,

no, I totally hear you. I'll always remember

the day that I was long time ago. It was still

cassette tapes But I at the time it was a book

on tape. It was Ethan Hawke, you know the actor

he wrote I think several books But I think it

was his first book and I put it in the in the

car and I had a long road trip and I was like

Oh, this is so cool. Like Ethan Hawke narrating

his own book Like, yes, you know, so I totally

get what you're saying. I'll join the club eventually.

I will. You're making a really good point. Which

point was that? Was that rules for a night? I

think it was called was it called Ash Tuesday

or something like that? Oh, I don't know. I just

I think is one of his first books. I think it

was called Ash Tuesday. I don't remember the

book being particularly good, to be completely

honest, but listening to him, I mean, I love

him as an actor, listening to him narrate it,

I was like, yeah, that's cool. Well, it just

makes it more interesting. Yeah, totally. I agree.

It's just one of those things where if you get

attached to a voice and you're like, ooh, I'd

love to hear this person all the time. And this

is not this is not embarrassing for me to admit,

but for God knows how long now, I'm a huge fan

of the Investigation Discovery Network. Oh, yeah.

My number one favorite show on that network just

ended recently, Homicide Hunter with Joe Kenda.

And I have his first book. His second book comes

out in March of next year. I've listened to his

first book so many times that I know it by heart.

And it's not because it's boring. It's more because

his. The dude puts me to sleep every night because

his voice is just so good and how he said, I'm

like, I can start at any chapter and as long

as it's, you know, longer than, you know, an

hour or so left in the book, I can just immediately

just fall out and go to sleep. That happened

to me with the Game of Thrones books. Did you

ever listen to Game of Thrones? The audio version?

Oh my god, that voice actor is insane. He did

like, you know how many characters there are

in Game of Thrones. But in the book, it's just

so crazy and they're 50 hours per book, by the

way. And I would totally like every night just

put that on and just totally fall asleep. And

then my husband the next day would be like, but

you don't know what happened. Like, no, I don't.

But yeah, I hear you. Good to be put to sleep

by audio. That's fine. Absolutely. We would like

to thank Lili for taking the time to chat with

us in this GeekCast Radio Presents interview.

Stay tuned for future interviews on Altered Geek,

GeekCast Radio, and Studio 2009. We will catch

you next time, folks. Bye -bye.