Interviews – Lili Wexu – Get Clever About Voice Acting and Announcing

Hello and welcome to Geekcast Radio Presents,

an interview that will also be syndicated on

Altered Geek 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 grade. I don't know, four singing

teacher, you know, accused me of sounding like

a buzzing bee. So my career ended very prematurely.

And 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. But I really, just because I had this

super, I just thought when I was a kid, it was

kind of embarrassing. I don't know, I 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 Shue 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 teacher just

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

I 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. It was actually kind of prophetic,

so. That 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 blue 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, oh, it'd be cool, you

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

lessons. And 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 cross over 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 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 kid 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. It's one note down the scale. Oh, yeah.

Yep. So did you always want to be an actor aside

from doing music? And 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, when you're 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. But 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. 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. 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. And I was like, oh, yeah, I can do that.

No problem. You know, and 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, this is not like like you've got to

really work on accents. You know, 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. And so I kind of was kind of

put in my place, you know, in a way, just like.

You're going to have to prepare for things. You

know, 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, you know, 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. And so at the time, it was

the beginning of that. So in my session, they

put sensors just only on my face. And 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, 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 think

I just didn't know where... it sat for me, you

know? So, um, it was challenging. I mean, it's

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, um, in any field 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. Training makes perfect.

Yep. Yep, totally, totally understand that. 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 kind of

an 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 um there was this kid that was in

there doing some other lines for a couple of

other episodes that we had going and um i was

saying yeah i'm having a really hard time doing

this british and uh 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 were 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

the producer and that happens not so good if

you're not the producer yes yes i was just like

it's so funny because he said he 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. But accents, if you

really want to be authentic, they require some

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

too, like, the thing is, 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 going to work. And now for various reasons,

which I go over in my first book, you know, the

Internet has made it has made jobs accessible

for so many more people. And the field, you know,

just discriminating less. And so you have so

many more people with different accents and,

you know, different ethnicities. So they have

access to those people. So now, for example,

if you're going to 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

going to be competing against them. So you better

make sure that you have a really solid accent.

You know, it's yeah, it's it's not easy. It's

fun to do. Like, I love doing accents, but and

I'm not like a master, but I love doing it. And

let's say an acting class, you know, you pick

a British play or a play set in Boston or whatever.

But it is like it's not easy. No, no. to do like

to do to pull off and we see it too 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 who can do a really

good accent oh yeah totally um so well 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 like he's he's the new iPhone 12 pro

ad campaign person. 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 yeah 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 that's right

that's what's so interesting about the celebrity

voice the big time yeah 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, it definitely does. So you have

a new e -book 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, OK, I'm

not going to do it. So you're like, oh, that

sucks. It's 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

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

like, you know what, I'm going to do this. I

love writing. And, um, maybe later on in my career

when I'm in, you know, my sixties and nobody

wants to hire me anymore as a voice talent, I'll

have like started a writing career, you know?

So, um, cause 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, you

know, 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 going to do this. It's going to give me

some good practice for writing. And it's something

I know. And I know it's going to 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, and get it out

there for, for people who might need it. That's

great. Yeah. I, I, I've noticed too, that a lot,

a lot of things have changed with, uh, between

COVID happening and in between just the internet

of things. And it's just easier to get people,

um, remotely, like even, um, like I was saying

with the, the production aspect of doing a radio

drama, uh, is, And 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. Yeah. 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? Like,

you know, my director, they need me. And they,

you know, and even companies like Ubisoft would

send their actors microphones like and sound

cards so that they could. you know, have a good

sound, a good quality sound to record. Now you

have to have a quiet space to record. And obviously

the microphone is just kind of the small part

of it. The quiet space is the most important

part. But, you know, everybody was like, what

do I do? What kind of software do I need? Like,

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, on the scale of

high profile companies. And now it did. And so,

you know, it's going to go back to in person.

Some recordings in person are already happening,

but you know, it's, it's, it's really propelled

something that was already happening, which is,

you know, 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, which

is, that's not my favorite part of what 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

because everybody's kind of at home and 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?

You know, 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, you know, 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, you know, and for animation,

the same thing. And for commercials, you'd have,

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

you know, 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. 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 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 happening everywhere it's like

that um that old um 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 were things yesterday and last week.

And oh, my God, why is this late? No, 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, um, 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 more

corporate stuff, the clients will send me the

script and then they'll just say, oh, no, no,

no. There are 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, do

they perform in any way? Have they ever been

on stage? You know, what their background is?

Like, for instance, somebody came to me the other

day and they were like a preacher. And so that's

kind of perfect because this person is already

performing. You know, 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. And 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 going to get you

on stage, going to get you out of your head,

and it's going to 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.

And 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 kind of develop

the skill that they have, which is really to

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

something that you do long term. You know, I

take acting classes all the time. I'm always,

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. And 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. You

know, I compare it to skiers, you know, or snowboarders

or any kind of sport. You know, you never go,

oh, I've mastered all of that. You know, 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

want to or where you think you fit in. And 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. And you should be

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

do some video game acting. Theater is like really

a direct gateway. And 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. You know,

it often starts with a demo and you shouldn't

make a demo before you're ready. So it's kind

of a it's kind of a long, you know, it's kind

of a long journey. But then once you have a demo,

then you can figure out, OK. 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.

You know, 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, you know, 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. And

it's like you almost like 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 going to get

knocked off. And then you're going to have the

only reason you can get back up again is 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 going to be in

it for the long haul and you're just going to

have more probabilities of doing really well

long term, you know. But I'm not suggesting that

the money's only going to come in. after you're

a 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's it's sort

of was in conjunction with my launch. You know,

I so there's 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 of about, you know, working as a as a voice

actor, it's it's people often have this idea

in their mind. And it's it's it's not as glamorous

as people think. And. 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 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 are 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, um, 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 going to take you by the hand

and Just like I said before, discover you. You're

going to have to do things on your – even if

people on the outside world think, wow, that

guy or that girl, they're so successful. I want

to be like them. Well, guess what? They do a

lot of their stuff on their own. 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. No, it's not like that anymore. You know,

you have to do all the work now. You know, now,

in fact, you kind of have to build your own resume

and then maybe an agent will consider you. Like

it used to be the opposite. You used to go to

theater school, get an agent, and they would

help you build your resume, you know, 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 needed

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, exactly. You know

that kind of thing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, go

for it. Self -promotion is key to anything nowadays.

Absolutely. And if you're not self -promoting,

you're not going to succeed. And this is coming

from a failed author. 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 decided to, you know, 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 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

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 commentaries

on these reviews, these live reviews on McDonald's

food and the new McNuggets. He does all these

ridiculous, super ridiculous food reviews. And

he does all sorts of things. And he uses his

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, you know, 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 a 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 like 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,

right, 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,

right? 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. You know, 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

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. 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, every time I put a

podcast episode out or whatever, it's like, oh,

okay, it's just Mike doing another one of his

posts. Yeah, it's a lot of work if you want to

do it to a scale. You have to decide where your

energy – The bottom line is this. We all have

to just get paid. We have to pay our rents, pay

our mortgages, pay our cars, pay our food. So

whatever brings in that money, the rest is kind

of extra, right? So it's like if you're making

money with your voice or with 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, and you think you have something

you can bring, then that's a great way to handle

your social media, whether it's on YouTube or

Facebook, wherever you want to be. Right, absolutely.

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

him out later. I just send it to you. Oh, okay.

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

So, before we let you go, how many... How can

our listeners find you and the various projects

you have coming up that you can speak about?

OK, 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.

Um, not, not, not necessarily like a product

in particular. And, um, and they, 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. Um, because, you know,

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

a lot of it is that as we were talking before

the show about the non -disclosure agreements.

Um, 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, lilywexuvoiceovers

.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. Well, right

now it's political season, so I do some political

messaging. But I don't want to get into that

because who wants to talk about that? That's

not fun. Right, exactly. It's a lot of stuff

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

stuff, unfortunately. But if you go to my site,

you'll see what I do. 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? 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.

So it took me a long time to get it to a level

that was like professional, you know? And then,

so now I would have, you're right. I would have

to, I mean, so many of my friends ask 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. Um,

but it's been really, really, really busy and

I just haven't stopped. So when things slow down,

I'm, I'm assuming around the holidays probably,

although this year, who knows, you know, there

might not be holidays, you know, but, um, but

yeah, when it slows down again, that's something

that I know people have asked me to do and I

will do it because, Hey, who wants to read, right?

It's way better to listen to stuff. Well, here's

my thing. It's a book about voice acting and

analysis. 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. 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 embarrassing for me to admit, but for

God knows how long now, I'm a huge fan of the

Investigation Discovery Network. Oh, yeah. And

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 could 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? No. 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 there are 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. I was like, no, I don't.

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

by audio. It's fun. 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.