Troy Holden (00:01.36)
Hey, hey, hey, welcome back. It is the VO live podcast. Yes, I took a week off. I had to take a week off. If you didn't take a week off, shame on you. I even shut my phone off for a while, but not totally as some people that were gone on vacation that, joining me this week and it is the, the partner of all partners, Charles coats. Welcome Charles.

Charles (00:25.446)
Hey, what's up? Thanks for having me back.

Troy Holden (00:27.854)
Man, it's good to see you, buddy. It's been a while and I miss all three of us or four of us actually with Jake and Alden getting together and it's always good to get you on here. And to even make it more interesting, we have Amanda Elgie with us this morning.

Amanda Elgie (00:42.936)
guys. Hi.

Troy Holden (00:43.004)
Amanda is also a voice actor, which this is a video life. This is not that other podcast that I do a call between takes where we do not talk about voiceover much. It always slips in somehow. But Amanda, us a little bit about you and where you're from.

Charles (00:45.364)
Hahaha

Charles (00:59.712)
you

Amanda Elgie (01:05.134)
Well, am originally from the Midwest. grew up in central Illinois. Charles and I actually connected over being Cardinals fans in Holland. Moved to Connecticut 15 years ago now. my gosh, I've been here so long. Been in voiceover for about five years. I...

Charles (01:12.702)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (01:14.212)
Nice.

Amanda Elgie (01:23.874)
had the same kind of pandemic meltdown that I think a lot of people had and thought, what am I doing with my life? I was a college professor at the time. And I started coaching and eventually made a demo. And long story short, two years ago, I went full time, which has been really a really wonderful experience. I love this job.

Troy Holden (01:27.675)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (01:42.331)
Nice.

Troy Holden (01:46.321)
Yeah, sounds similar to me, similar to Charles. So we're a five year club, apparently, right? All of us, we've been in about five years. Cause I think the first job I did was the week of July 4th in 2020, the first real paid job. Yeah. So it's been five years and full time. I went full time after 18 months. So it was kind of a do or die thing, you know?

Charles (01:52.928)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (01:53.069)
Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (02:03.013)
wow, congrats, yeah.

Charles (02:04.574)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (02:15.678)
Yeah.

Troy Holden (02:16.294)
thought I was gonna die on the vine where I was working and I was sick of it and it was time to do something different. Charles jump in at any time because you know how we are, we don't prepare, we just do what happens. Amanda, tell us a little bit about what drove you toward VO, being a college professor, what were you teaching and then why did VO come out of this?

Charles (02:27.71)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Troy Holden (02:45.672)
Was it the same-o-same-o of a lot of people who go, I just saw ads and they said you can make money or no, was it something else?

Amanda Elgie (02:46.158)
Sure.

Charles (02:46.867)
Yeah.

Charles (02:54.451)
Yeah, I want to know because you said, because Amanda's like, you know, I was a professor and I was like, I need to figure out what to do with my life. I'm like, what? You were a professor. Like people end up going, what do I need to do with my life? And then they go back to school and become a professor. So I was like, I want to, I don't know. This is interesting.

Amanda Elgie (02:54.584)
So I'll...

Troy Holden (03:02.886)
Ha ha ha ha.

Amanda Elgie (03:05.102)
Well...

Troy Holden (03:09.083)
Right. Right.

Amanda Elgie (03:09.368)
When I was a professor, they would come see me and I would actually help students kind of figure out like their next steps, what they wanted to do, know, help them transfer to different colleges and different programs. And there were things that I really loved about that, but I grew up as a theater kid. I started doing theater in third grade. I...

Troy Holden (03:24.582)
Wow.

Amanda Elgie (03:27.918)
I was on the speech team. I did competitive poetry reading in high school and I loved it so much. So much so that my first paid job that I ever got when I was 16 was a voiceover job. yeah, there was this company when I was doing competitive poetry that there was a guy in the audience, he handed me his card and he said, I think you would be really great helping with a couple of these little projects. And they were for...

Charles (03:34.567)
awesome.

Troy Holden (03:34.972)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (03:40.827)
Really?

Amanda Elgie (03:55.545)
training for the military, it was essentially like, you know, the things that you do, like the trainings that you do, like harassment, you know, learning. So a group of us who were in that room went in and, you know, recorded all of the little like kind of in-between lines. And that was the first thing I was ever paid in my life to do, which was super cool. Yeah, but then I...

Charles (04:06.303)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Charles (04:18.737)
Wow.

Troy Holden (04:20.444)
That's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing.

Amanda Elgie (04:23.416)
got away from it, right? Like, I think as you grow up, sometimes you talk yourself out of things. When I was in college, I started as a theater major, and then I was like, I can't make money doing that. And so switched over to communication PR, went and got a graduate degree in political science, realized I hated working in politics. And so switched over to teaching and being an academic advisor for many years in college.

Charles (04:35.359)
Yeah.

Charles (04:45.887)
Amanda Elgie (04:53.07)
at the community college system here in Connecticut. And there were components of that that I really loved. I loved working with my students. loved, you know, there's a lot of storytelling in teaching. But I always came back to and thought about voiceover in theater. And I think what the pandemic really prompted from me was I'm home.

I'm here, I have time to do things and I've always wanted to do this and if I don't then when would I ever do this? And if I get to the end of my life and I'm sitting at my nursing home at 90 years old, I know that if I don't do this, I'm going to have a lot of regrets and more regrets than if I fail spectacularly at this. Like I could fail doing this, right? I could still fail doing this. I mean, I'm doing well now, but things change.

Troy Holden (05:25.947)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (05:25.951)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (05:44.275)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (05:46.382)
But I am so happy that I'm here.

Troy Holden (05:50.352)
Love it. Absolutely love it. Love it.

Charles (05:50.879)
I love that. think, I think what you say right there, there's a key component of fear, right? Because fear, there's, there's unhealthy fear and then there's healthy fear, right? A healthy fear or a healthy, because that kind of healthy fear is when a challenge comes and you're put into an uncomfortable situation that

Amanda Elgie (06:01.715)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Charles (06:21.018)
uncomfortable as in like, I don't like to feel like this or I don't feel, I don't feel secure. don't feel like I have a firm footing. and I think, you know, we've been in it five years. We've, we've kind of, I'm sure we've had a lot of the same experiences, but like you see your biggest growth when you are not like status quo, you know, going with the flow. It's you see the biggest improvements.

Troy Holden (06:29.596)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (06:50.736)
when you're uncomfortable, right? When you get that feeling, when you're like, this stinks, but I'm gonna do it. Whether it's your marketing or whether it's, man, I have to pay for coaching, but that's money I don't have. Well, you can probably sacrifice other things to find, you know,

Troy Holden (06:54.384)
Right, right, right, I agree.

Troy Holden (07:03.58)
No plan B.

Amanda Elgie (07:11.166)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Charles (07:19.486)
$60 to go to a group coaching session with a casting director or, you know, don't eat out for two months. I mean, whatever the time takes. It's that uncomfortable feeling and that fear. And it's like, well, if I do this, you know, maybe it's not gonna work. So like you said, I just won't do it. This isn't gonna make me money, so I'm not gonna do it. You know what I mean?

Troy Holden (07:43.395)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Yeah, I've enjoyed watching different people invest in different ways or change their trajectory in different ways. Some good examples. Jake is a great example. He took another at-home position to get the pressure off because he was worried so much month to month. And when he took that pressure off, he started booking stuff like crazy.

Amanda Elgie (07:43.854)
Mm.

Charles (08:09.896)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (08:10.626)
And it could have been two things. It could have been, was just his time, or it could have been, you know, the mental prep of worrying, I've got to book this, I got to book this when he's auditioning. He's not bringing baggage, it makes a difference. Where things changed for me was when I could say, I don't really have to have online casting. I've got a pretty good direct book of business. Maybe I should look at something else to supplement.

Charles (08:19.322)
Mm-hmm. He's not bringing that baggage with him to the reeds.

Amanda Elgie (08:22.297)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (08:36.418)
And as I go after special auditions instead of auditioning for seven hours a day for stuff I never book, and that prompted me to go after UGC, which has led to a really good income. And it offsets the pressure where now I can come in in the morning, a lot of times be done with what's in the box at 10 o'clock, go record my UGC stuff, and I'm done unless something else comes in.

So now it's 12 o'clock and I'm done versus it's 12 o'clock and I'm auditioning till six o'clock and not making any money. Me becoming choicy and worked for me. Charles' investment in going to certain conferences in certain places definitely worked for him. And then Jake's choice worked and apparently Amanda's has too.

Charles (09:02.61)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (09:07.912)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (09:08.067)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (09:10.494)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (09:26.974)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (09:27.142)
But I think getting the pressure off yourself, somehow after about that third year, if you can relieve some pressure, even if it's, you know, some of it's peer pressure because you're thinking, they're doing so good, why am I not doing as good? How come they're making this? I've been doing this, I'm just, you know, I think I'm as good. If you're gonna share that in your auditions and in who you are, and you have got to get the pressure off yourself somehow, someway. So that's why I always tell people, don't jump in full time too quick if you can avoid it.

Don't over pressurize yourself. Be totally prepared and then when the day comes maybe you can ease into it and it be as stressful as it was for some of us. Hopefully.

Charles (09:59.871)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (10:05.659)
Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (10:07.255)
I agree. I feel like when I'm putting pressure on myself or like when I feel pressure and then I do auditions, that probably comes through in my audition.

Charles (10:18.686)
100%. 100 % it will. Yeah.

Troy Holden (10:18.798)
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it really does.

Amanda Elgie (10:22.093)
And so I really try to not do that as much as possible, because there are months over the last few years where I'm like, I'm not making the amount that I should be at this point in the month. And it would prompt me to audition more. And I think the more I would audition, even though it's a numbers game and I think auditioning a lot can be really good, it would really stress me out and really come through in the audition. So I'm like, I have to stop doing this. This is not productive to me at all.

Troy Holden (10:34.928)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (10:46.768)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Charles (10:49.532)
Yeah, yeah, that's like, that's like, yeah, that's like fishing. That's like going fishing and you just want to fish so bad or like, I need to catch a fish. need to catch a fish. And you're just like casting out there and you're casting out there and you forgot to put a worm on the hook. So now you just got this, you're fishing like a madman, but there's nothing there for them to bite on. You know what I mean? So it's like, take your time, figure out what

Troy Holden (10:50.138)
Yeah, quality over quantity.

Amanda Elgie (11:00.183)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (11:05.931)
Yes!

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Troy Holden (11:12.144)
Yeah, I agree. I agree.

Charles (11:17.63)
what fish is in the water, figure out what bait you're gonna use for that kind of fish in this kind of weather, okay? And you toss it in there and out of the five casts, you might get one. Instead of out of 70 casts, you get nothing. And then you're going, what's wrong? I'm fishing, I should be catching something. But there's nothing on the end of the hook.

Troy Holden (11:29.434)
Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. And that's when to me, like the platforms where shortlist are encouraging, because you know, you're at least in the running more often and a callback, you know, or whatever. And that does make a difference. I do believe in the quality over quantity for me. I think for some people they can do more if they...

Amanda Elgie (11:34.485)
Mm-hmm. You're just spinning your wheels,

Amanda Elgie (11:48.675)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (11:56.797)
are relaxed about it and they're in the right frame of mind and you can do 50 auditions a day, heck yeah, go ahead if you know if that's what you want to do. I was advised that way at once and it was not the right thing. It caused me a lot of stress and a lot of worry and some issues on one of the platforms and I had to rebuild. But on the other hand, if you're not auditioning, you're not getting anything. But when you are, if it's not the real you and it's not you're not connecting,

You're one of that 80 out of the 100 where the casting director's going, that's another one, that's another one. God, God. And one of the things that I've learned, right or wrong, and I hear all the time, know, maybe you're doing your first one kind of as close to the spec as possible. The second one, just be you and do it out there. I started reversing those auditions and short list and callbacks went up quickly. So I started doing the first take, how I heard it and how I felt it, not that far off the specs.

Charles (12:31.463)
Yep.

Troy Holden (12:55.366)
but more me, way more me. And then the second one might've became, you know, more commercially conversational according to their specs, but I wanted to catch their ear with the first one and be different. And if you're different, I do think they put you in the pile, you know, a lot of times, so.

Amanda Elgie (12:57.647)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (12:57.681)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (13:09.873)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (13:15.183)
Amanda, when we were at the Euro Retreat, did you go to Kelly Macinski's and she played, okay, so Kelly Macinski for everybody that's listening, if you don't know who Kelly Macinski is, she is the owner of VoiceCaster, VoiceCasting, Amanda and I were in Amsterdam in Holland at a retreat, at a voiceover retreat and she was there and she ran some classes which were absolutely amazing.

Amanda Elgie (13:19.095)
I know exactly what you're gonna say. Yes. The same.

Troy Holden (13:29.564)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (13:44.568)
And she says, okay, I'm going to have you guys step into my shoes for, you know, a minute. Well, it was about six minutes. And she goes, yeah. And she goes, I'm going to go ahead and play just the beginnings of, of auditions of, yeah, of auditions that, that I get. And she goes, and this is the script and here we go.

Troy Holden (14:04.156)
I saw her post about that, like 50 of them.

Charles (14:11.837)
And I can't remember, do you remember what it was is like the cat walks down the hall or what was it Amanda?

Amanda Elgie (14:16.909)
Yeah, was something about a haul. It was... no, that's gonna bug me.

Charles (14:21.757)
Yeah, so let's just say it's today the cats went down the hall, right? And she just played it and she goes, I'm gonna play the first three seconds of every, and we went through, I mean, she played it for six minutes straight. It was like 80 or 120 of them. And we're just sitting there and it's like, the cat went down the hall. The cat went down the hall. The cat went down the hall. The cat went down the hall. The cat went down the hall because somebody's mic's terrible.

Amanda Elgie (14:38.956)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (14:49.847)
You

Troy Holden (14:49.896)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Charles (14:52.031)
you know, the cat went down the hall, like, you know, and, just, just it's that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, and we were like, and it was getting to the point where it was like kind of awkward. Like I was like, is she going to stop this? Because it is just, everything was the same. And then you get somebody that's like, Whoa, the cat went down the hall. And then, and then it's just like this bright sunshine, like a, like a

Amanda Elgie (14:54.359)
Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (14:58.415)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (15:08.333)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (15:18.011)
Yeah.

Charles (15:21.245)
creamer in your coffee that you love you're just it's so different like it's in the sea of Hey exactly and she's like and and she's like what did you guys hear different? We were like and then we were all like this person remember when they kind of did this and when they kind of did this and she's like yeah all those would have gone straight into a like a second round and Then I'll listen to more of it. You know what I mean? Yeah

Troy Holden (15:26.384)
Praise the Lord, something's different here.

Amanda Elgie (15:27.887)
Yes.

Troy Holden (15:44.765)
Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. I think she posted something about that and they're going to play it on their podcast too. And I'm telling you, and I love her advice. I love her advice. She is very down to earth and really she, a while back on one of the podcasts, she said, I'm so tired of agencies sending me the same 25 people. I want to hear other people.

Charles (15:52.121)
If she does, everybody needs to listen to that because it's... Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (15:54.929)
for sure. It's long, it's long, but it's really good.

Troy Holden (16:13.318)
they're picking the same ones because they have a good relationship with them and we're seeing or hearing those same people over and over and over. We need to hear more voices because these, you know, they're okay, but we want to hear something else. And it's nice that somebody would come out and speak a little truth like that, you know, really nice, really nice. So Amanda, how are you in your business? How are you set up as far as

Amanda Elgie (16:15.278)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (16:30.897)
Yeah.

Troy Holden (16:40.716)
And this is not an income question. This is more of a marketing and streaming question. We talk about a lot spokes in the wheel, you know, where we derive things from. We're doing direct marketing, Fiverr, Voice123, Voices.com, blah, blah, blah, blah. I recently got on a place called Voice Machine, was invited, they're in the UK, got invited to come on there and immediately booked three jobs, just right out of the chute. And they paid...

Charles (17:08.103)
Wow.

Amanda Elgie (17:09.176)
voice machine.

Troy Holden (17:09.68)
their corporate narration short under a minute and they paid really well. so, I mean, you just never know what you'll run across, but tell us a little bit how the spokes in your will and how it works.

Amanda Elgie (17:21.616)
You do never know. So when I started back in 2020, I did in fact start on Fiverr. I hopped on there because I got coaching, I got a demo. Eventually, I think it took me like six months of coaching before I got a demo. And then I was like,

What do I even do with this? Like, I don't even know where to go from here. And so I saw that people were on Fiverr making money, so I hopped on and I started making some money on there. And I think I realized really fast that Fiverr is an interesting place. And I didn't want to be doing voiceover work for $20, $25. So I...

hopped over to voices.com and started booking stuff on there, raised my prices on Fiverr, and just did that actually for honestly too long because I was really comfortable in that space. I'm like, well, you know, I'm booking things on Fiverr. Like, they're just paying me. They're just coming in on Voices. I'm booking a lot, you know, and so this is fine. But I kind of quickly realized that, you know, if you have a bad month on one platform,

Troy Holden (18:21.67)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (18:37.136)
you need a lot more than just kind of two places to go. So I started doing my own direct marketing, which I hate. I hate it. I hate doing it. I don't like it. But I do it because if I don't, you know, that's not a source of revenue that I potentially have. And one thing about direct marketing is that like you never know when it's going to kick in. There was a

Troy Holden (18:45.958)
Don't we all?

Charles (18:49.242)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (18:49.339)
Yeah.

Troy Holden (19:04.143)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (19:06.96)
an ad agency in Switzerland that I emailed and seven months later they got back to me and I booked my biggest job to date from a place that I cold emailed. Like so you just you never know and I thought when I did it I thought well you know it's worth a try and then I didn't hear anything back which you know 95 percent of the time you don't but it's still

Charles (19:18.266)
Wow.

Troy Holden (19:18.396)
Here you go. Nice. Nice.

Troy Holden (19:27.707)
Mm-hmm.

through. But that's encouraging though to hear that people need to hear these stories because they get so disappointed after a month or two. And it's not a month or two thing. It is a long haul. And it's

Charles (19:33.499)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (19:38.81)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (19:41.869)
No.

Amanda Elgie (19:43.586)
I almost gave up because for months I didn't hear anything from anybody. I, you know, the people that I talked to kept telling me, you know, it doesn't happen overnight. Just keep doing it. And genuinely, you never know when somebody's gonna reach back out.

Charles (19:56.731)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (19:57.06)
Yeah, and there are a lot of discouragers who keep saying there's too many voiceover people marketing and people are tired of it. And that's why they're not replying because they're sick of seeing that. I can't hardly believe that because most people don't want to market. A lot of the people I talk to are trying to figure it out or how to set it up and et cetera, et cetera. And they talk about it and they just kind of decide not to do it. Maybe their business builds enough. Like you said, you're in a comfortable place and I don't want to market.

Amanda Elgie (20:15.919)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (20:26.6)
It's great if you don't have to market, if you're making enough money and don't have to, but yeah, marketing is a, god, it's a slug. It's awful.

Charles (20:34.502)
Well, you know, for us, think, let's kind of talk with each other and kind of feel out what our, like, why are we still in it and doing well compared to other people that started five years ago that are no longer in it and they've sold their stuff and they're on to a different life. You know, what are those things? What do you think those things are?

Amanda Elgie (20:34.582)
It really is.

Troy Holden (20:55.61)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (20:55.904)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (21:01.244)
Good question.

Amanda Elgie (21:03.216)
Great question.

Troy Holden (21:04.996)
I have probably more opinions than fact. I'm going to say A, they did not coach and did not learn the craft and then B, and I'm sorry if this hurts, they just didn't have it. And I've consulted with people and I could, you can almost tell. They either have a musicality to them or a creativity to them or they're this

Amanda Elgie (21:15.236)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (21:34.084)
I've been in management or HR all these years and da da da da da and they're just business and this just looks like a decent opportunity. you know, I've always been good at talking to people and, and this is so much more than that. I think to a lot of people that get so overwhelming after about a year, they drop out a year or two. but

Charles (21:43.804)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (21:53.806)
overwhelming as in like I've invested in this this stuff but I have made no money.

Troy Holden (21:56.59)
No return. Yeah. And you know, I know, I know people that have been in it almost as long as I have, and they're still not doing hardly anything, but they won't give up. And here's the other thing, I've heard their stuff, they're pretty good. You know, so that kind of washes out my other theory in some ways. But that could come from personality, how they are to work with, etc, etc. You have to be the Kwan to do this.

Amanda Elgie (21:58.075)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (22:22.107)

Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (22:25.904)
you know, if you remember that from Jerry Maguire, I want to Quan, I want the whole thing. You have to have that in this. You have to wear the business hat, you have to wear the personality hat, you have to be very easy to work with, you have to understand your equipment, your technology and be good with it. You gotta be fast most of the time. Once you've built up and you got great clients, they can forgive a day or two off or a week off. But you know, I lost a job back.

Charles (22:29.401)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (22:52.654)
last October because I had my out of office on my email and it basically said I'll be answering my emails, you know, and I'll be back at home in two days. Well, they said, well, well, we just saw out of office and we moved on. You know, and that's what does that tell you? Nobody reads emails. What's in the subject line matters, right? So anyway, that's that's just two cents on why I think they're falling out.

Charles (23:11.523)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (23:17.219)
I think, I think,

Charles (23:23.451)
coaching.

Charles (23:27.311)
Well, coaching period coaching number one, you should coach. and who you're coaching with and why you're coaching with those people, I think is very important, because you can coach like that's like coaching without a goal, right? Like when I coached with, let's say Brad Highland, for example, he said, why do you want to coach with me, Charles?

And I was like, well, because you are like a slayer of dragons on pay to plays and I want to shortlist more and I want to book more on pay to plays. That was, it was very specific. And he's like, okay. Like he had the plan for me. I coach with him. It was like day and night difference. Like here come the frigging bookings. Right. And

So now if I didn't have the goods, he probably would have coached with me first or maybe not taking me on as a coach because he, you know, he he'll set up a call with everybody for 15 minutes. And if he doesn't think you're a good match or maybe you're just brand new starting out, I don't know how he does it, but he doesn't take everybody because he still needs he still needs to work too. You know, he's still he's still working and and killing it.

Troy Holden (24:48.7)
Sure.

Charles (24:50.455)
And so I think that's why that coaching session with Brad worked so well because he is actively booking. So he knows what's the sound is. knows, you know, he knows what's out there. And we had a goal specifically for coaching and he was like, okay, yeah, I can do that. We'll cover that. And so I think that's why that was like a home run coaching for me.

Because I've done coaching before where I was just like, okay, well, this person's having a special and I just coach with them. And then you get there and, they're five minutes late to the zoom and they're like, where everybody's going to get a read. And then we get through four people of 10 and it's like, well, this was like, you know, and then all the, and then all they say is that was great. And it's like, well, that was great for everybody. Like everybody was great. Like

Amanda Elgie (25:21.968)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (25:34.768)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (25:40.037)
Yes.

Charles (25:44.464)
We're not paying money to hear that we're great, you know? And I'll tell you what though, in the very, very beginning, that's kind of what I wanted. That validation, right? Because I'm like, okay, okay, somebody's saying that, you know, that's really good and this and that. I'd rather somebody tell me, dude, like, what the hell was that? Like, I told you, I need you to do this and say it like this, cause I need to feel this. And then you just read it exactly the same.

Amanda Elgie (25:49.125)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (25:56.314)
Right, right.

Amanda Elgie (26:06.939)
Same.

Charles (26:14.573)
Like, tell me where your mind... Yeah, it's like, tell me where your mind is, you know?

Troy Holden (26:15.578)
It's like your story on feedback. I remember you telling that on one of our podcasts way back about you thought you were supposed to get feedback for everything when you first started. And then you were asking people, how come nobody tells me if they liked it or not? And I thought that was great. And it's true. We throw so much out there into the world and don't get anything back. And then on top of that,

I think a lot of people think they're going to get in this for $500 and that's all they got to put into it. And then they realized, I got a coach, I got this and I tell people now when I do these talks at the conferences that if you're not ready to invest $10,000 the first year to be serious, you know, between, and maybe not that much, but 10 is a good number. It's a good number. I mean, you might could do five one year and five the next or whatever, but you're going to spend it.

Amanda Elgie (27:05.745)
Close, yeah.

Charles (27:06.627)
Yeah.

Troy Holden (27:11.866)
you know, and if you don't.

Charles (27:11.919)
Yeah, you could cut that number down just a little bit if you live in a subdivision that's brand new and people are building houses around you. can kind of take that down just a little bit.

Troy Holden (27:17.366)
Exactly, exactly, exactly. What about you, Amanda? What do you think?

Amanda Elgie (27:18.287)
you

Amanda Elgie (27:25.265)
I definitely having a, I think Charles is right, having a specific goal. Because if you're just kind of flailing around, not like focusing on something, I think it's easy to kind of get bogged down in this industry because there are so many different things to do. But then also having the flexibility of knowing like, maybe this part of the industry is not for me and how do I pivot to something that is. I got into this thinking I was gonna do audio books.

And then realizing, realizing really quickly that audiobooks as a strategy was not for me. I think I've done 12. I'm happy and willing to do like a, you've done one.

Troy Holden (27:54.736)
Bless your heart.

Charles (27:56.303)
Yeah.

Charles (28:07.994)
That's 11 more than me.

Troy Holden (28:09.66)
11 more than me too.

Amanda Elgie (28:11.549)
I'll do a romance novel. no. I did a couple of royalty share at the beginning. Never again. Never again. That was so much work. I think that that was...

Charles (28:11.906)
that I didn't even get paid for for the first one.

Troy Holden (28:19.068)
Mmm. Mmm. That's a lot of work.

Charles (28:24.078)
But you actually did them for people, right? They were real people that existed? okay. okay. yeah, that was my one. That was my one that totally, totally burned audiobooks for me for the rest of my life. Yeah, I was like 100 % royalty share. I was like, it's okay. I'm starting out, I'm like five months in, and I did an audition on ACX, and they're like, it's great.

Amanda Elgie (28:27.301)
I did, yeah. Yes, they were. I feel like there's a story here.

Troy Holden (28:32.348)
There is a story.

Amanda Elgie (28:36.664)
Charles!

Charles (28:53.134)
We love it. And I'm like, awesome. It's called parenting, parenting, parenting for parents. And it was like 86,000 words. No, it 86,632 words. remember. And I did the 15 minute, you know, like the kind of the first thing and he's like, okay, it sounds awesome. Everything's great. And I was like, cool. And I didn't.

Amanda Elgie (29:02.267)
Parenting for Parents.

Troy Holden (29:08.87)
Ha

boy.

Charles (29:21.172)
I was new, I didn't know how to edit. I wasn't fast at anything and I'm trying to make it perfect because I'm new and I want this to be the best thing. I'm very, very proud. It's very validating for me. I'm posting on Facebook to my family and friends like, hey, I got an audio book. They're like, that's so cool. Like, yeah. And I'm like, yeah, like a real voice actor now.

Amanda Elgie (29:32.145)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (29:46.415)
and I get this whole thing done. I'm like not going to bed with my wife every night. Like I'm crawling into bed at two, you know, for weeks at a time. And I send it all off to get it approved and nothing's coming back. And I was like, let me reach out to customer service. They're like, we'll go ahead and send them an email. And if they don't reply in six days, let us know again and we'll send it again.

Amanda Elgie (29:54.565)
Yes.

Charles (30:15.052)
So six days goes by, nothing. Now I've sent everything to them, right? For them to approve, it's all finalized. ACX format, everything. And then six days rolls by, nothing. I call customer service back. They're like, we're gonna reach out to them one more time. If they don't reach out in six days, reach back out to us and we'll give you all their information, their phone number, physical address, everything, so that you can reach out to them. And I was like, cool.

Amanda Elgie (30:23.046)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (30:41.979)
Gosh.

Charles (30:42.976)
Six days later, nothing. They give me all his information and here's the kicker. Okay. The, the name of the owner, is, has a Japanese name. So I'm thinking like, okay, parenting for parents. Okay. It's a book. It's probably just like a Jap. It's just an investor. Like I go around and I buy books, buy it, the rights to the books. And then I'm just going to get them done on.

Amanda Elgie (31:06.395)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (31:11.258)
audiobooks and I put them out and then this guy gets royalty shares. It's fine. It's a good business model. That's what I'm thinking. Right? So I call the number right first and it's like, do do do this number has been disconnected or is no longer in service. And I'm like, what the heck? The number doesn't work. So then I typed the address in to look it up on Google and it was in Canada and it was a picture I did Google view, you know, the road view and it was a picture of an empty field.

Amanda Elgie (31:26.125)
no.

Amanda Elgie (31:37.659)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (31:42.33)
And I was like, you son of a gun. So then I was like, I'm looking up this dude and seeing who he is. So I type in the name. Hell yeah, I was pissed. Yeah, I'm gonna hunt you down, but it looks like you are an anime character. Really? This anime character kept coming up when I typed in the name and I was like, this guy has the same name as an anime guy? That's crazy. Really? No, that was the name of the

Troy Holden (31:46.532)
Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (31:49.883)
You're like, I'm gonna find you.

Troy Holden (31:52.482)
I'm gonna hunt you down, you scammy sucker!

Charles (32:12.408)
the name that they fake started their account with. So I wrote this giant email. Like it was like, dude, I just want you to know that you pretty much effed over a really good guy that is trying to make it, that was really proud of this job. And just know that like, dude, like you hurt me, man. Like don't do this to any more people, please.

Amanda Elgie (32:37.861)
Yeah.

Charles (32:38.848)
Like, it was just like I was pouring my heart out and I was angry, but I wanted to know that it's like, dude, you did this to a human being. I wasn't just some name, you know, that was typed on a screen. And I never heard anything back, but I don't know, it me feel good. Hopefully it changed his life. Or her life.

Amanda Elgie (32:46.972)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (32:55.122)
Okay, well, I can see how that might put you off of doing audiobooks. Mine is not nearly that dramatic. I just realized that it took me so long to produce a finished hour that I did not get paid very much for and I could do a commercial in 10 minutes for the same amount of money. And I was booking commercials, so I'm like, why not focus on

Troy Holden (33:01.495)
huh. huh. Yeah.

Troy Holden (33:18.328)
Yes. Yeah.

There you go.

Amanda Elgie (33:23.846)
booking more of the things that, you know, I am booking that don't stress me out a bunch.

Charles (33:29.454)
We kind of get spoiled by, like if you end up like doing well in commercial, like we kind of get spoiled because we're like, I ain't doing that for that much.

Amanda Elgie (33:32.326)
We do.

Troy Holden (33:36.332)
Mm-hmm. yeah, I love those. I love them

Amanda Elgie (33:38.81)
I know, I feel spoiled sometimes. Yeah, because it's just like, yeah, no, even local stuff. I'm like, yeah, I'll take 400 bucks for a 30 second radio spot. Great, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Please, yeah.

Charles (33:47.318)
Yeah, heck yeah. All day long, I'll do one of those a day, no problem.

Troy Holden (33:48.784)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

My one book was a, it was a book about MRP systems, which I worked in all my career. And it was a Southern author and my agent sent it to me. And I'm like, I really don't want to do an author. He said, no, no, no, no, listen, all you have to do is read. If you mess up, the clicker. They'll do all the editing, everything. And you'll still get 250 a finished hour. I said, seriously? He's like, yeah. And I went through Tim Heller creative.

Charles (34:14.79)
nice.

Troy Holden (34:22.15)
They do all the editing and it wasn't a bad experience, but it wasn't a super long book. It was only like a three hour deal. And I've auditioned for two more cents the same way, didn't get them. And I was kind of like, thank God, because I only auditioned because I love my agent and I would do it for him. But yeah, it's just not for me. And it's like you guys are saying, this is important to everybody out there that your first few years, you're going to dip your toe in a lot of different.

Amanda Elgie (34:38.226)
You

Charles (34:41.571)
Alright.

Amanda Elgie (34:42.428)
first.

Troy Holden (34:51.846)
pools. You're going to try a lot of different things and then you're going to find if you'll start cataloging and I always kept a spreadsheet from day one every booking every month and what type of booking it was. What percent was commercial? What percent was just a narration? What percent was that? What percent was video games? And it surprised me commercial video games were the bigger part of it and then narration after that. But as time has progressed, it's become more narrations.

Amanda Elgie (34:52.786)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (35:20.636)
then commercials, then it's, I don't know what to call the other, guess, you it's a combination of radio imaging, podcast, intros and things like that. And then it drops into some other stuff, but it will pivot and change and you have to pivot with it and focus on like Amanda saying, where is it paying off? That's where you focus your education, you focus your marketing, et cetera, because those, you know, you know, you're booking that you're good at it and it'll continue. But

Charles (35:28.919)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (35:43.385)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (35:49.572)
And I think, yeah, and I think that's, sorry, I think that's a good, yeah, I think that's a good thing because now that you're in that stable, like, that's your wheelhouse, right? That's your thing. Okay, now that you're pretty comfortable in that, keep that going. And now that you have that, yeah, and now that you have that stability, like, okay, you know what? I wanna kinda learn about some character stuff. Like, that's something, well.

Troy Holden (35:52.379)
You're fine.

Amanda Elgie (36:01.586)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (36:09.488)
And now what?

Yes.

Troy Holden (36:17.115)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (36:18.591)
Now, since you're still making money, can invest in little bit of coaching to do some animation. You can invest in a little bit to maybe do your marketing better, streamline your marketing, whatever it is. like you said earlier, Amanda, it's like you can't just be there flailing around and you're just treading water in the same spot and you're working but you're not doing anything. You know I mean?

Troy Holden (36:24.675)
Exactly.

Troy Holden (36:31.76)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (36:44.006)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (36:44.1)
Mm-hmm. You have to figure out what works for you. I think commercials are a thing that I book a lot in. I think they're probably my primary genre. But I book a lot, actually, weirdly. I thought it was going to be e-learning. And I do e-learning. But my second biggest booking genre is medical narration.

Charles (36:47.041)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (36:54.253)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (37:04.924)
Sorry.

It's a great genre. It really is. It's just, it does. And I've done a little of it. I've even done some pharma taglines. I've done the disclaimers or the info sections, ISIs. I've done some of that. I had a regional radio with Pfizer one time, but I hate the pronunciation stuff because it's not my thing.

Charles (37:10.933)
It pays well, and it pays fast.

Amanda Elgie (37:12.366)
It does, I love it, I love it.

Amanda Elgie (37:18.919)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (37:22.201)
You have the ISI's? Mm-hmm. Me too.

Amanda Elgie (37:23.664)
Yeah, I do a lot of ISI.

Troy Holden (37:37.348)
You know, it's just not. And I've got this YouTube channel that does a lot of prehistoric stuff. this is not your typical YouTube channel. These guys pay top rates because they have so many followers and subscribers. And I don't mind doing them. It's the only one I've got left. I used to have a lot. And they will send stuff sometimes with all these freaking dinosaur names in it or these different...

Amanda Elgie (38:01.776)
you

Troy Holden (38:03.106)
satellites that are going up, you know, where they're talking about stuff in space and all that. And they don't warn you or highlight anything or they don't pay you any extra for any of that. But it's such a pain. And that's where I fall back on laziness and say, just give me a commercial, just give me something easier. And really, I don't, I would love to be able to sit and do that kind of stuff because yes, it pays really good. And I've not done, I've done corporate work, but I've never done like a full big e-learning module package ever.

And that's probably fun. that's one of my targets that I'm starting to work on now is industrial e-learning. I don't want to do the other. I want to do the industrial, where it's going into a factory or a place where I would fit. And that's another thing I always try to research. Where can I fit in e-learning? I don't think I fit in medical e-learning. I don't fit in this type. But industrial, sure, I can talk all day about the factory safety and all that kind of stuff.

Charles (38:45.053)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Amanda Elgie (38:47.313)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (38:53.548)
Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (38:53.798)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (38:58.844)
Totally.

Charles (39:01.75)
Well, and I think people, mean, that's a good way to kind of find your path also is like, what do you have experience in? Like, okay, I was a FedEx driver, I was a paramedic, I was a bartender. So like, I was a manager, was in training. So it's like, take all those things.

Troy Holden (39:10.213)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (39:22.348)
that you've learned and see where you can kind of plug that into someplace. So let's say it's e-learning. Well, okay, well, I have experience in parcel delivery and sorting and fleet management. And you know, it's just like, you don't really think of that kind of stuff. But if you do, it's like, okay, like I have like, I got a lot of different little ingredients in my drawer that I can offer, you know?

Amanda Elgie (39:33.809)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (39:45.66)
matters. Yeah, life experiences matter a lot. Yeah, because after absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. And speaking to that, those of you that are listening and coming to OVC, I know Charles has a session, I want him to talk about that too. I'll be doing one called You Are Enough. And that's exactly what this is about. It is taking all of you, your authenticity, your past, your background, and how to apply that to your voiceover career.

Charles (39:49.077)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (39:50.226)
For sure, because they want an authentic voice for a thing, and if you don't know what you're talking about, then it shows.

Charles (39:52.914)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Troy Holden (40:15.118)
It's very important. Charles, you're speaking as well.

Charles (40:18.56)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and my session is called Make It Happen. And it's about resiliency, not giving up, and just kind of my story of where I started. And hopefully if people listen to that, they're like, holy crap, like if that's the way he started, I can definitely do this. But it's that making it happen thing, like that.

Troy Holden (40:38.565)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (40:46.144)
that mic stand that I have, keep it in my booth and I also keep my first pop filter in my booth. And this is it right here. And this is a 99 cent crochet ring with an old sock. This is an old sock, a dress sock. And I used this for two years because I could not afford a pop filter for 1999 at the time. You know what I mean? Like I don't, I don't want to hear excuses, you know?

Amanda Elgie (40:58.18)
I love that.

Amanda Elgie (41:03.463)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (41:08.688)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (41:15.174)
Right.

Charles (41:15.176)
It's like you can excuse yourself out of everything and you can fear yourself out of everything. And if you want to make it in this business, you have to make it happen. It's not going to happen for you. Yep. that's going to be my session. So if anybody's listening, come to it. It's going to be awesome. And I have a lot of cool little freebies and swag.

Troy Holden (41:27.356)
That's right. You gotta hustle. You have to hustle.

Amanda Elgie (41:30.279)
You do.

Troy Holden (41:32.7)
it

Troy Holden (41:39.516)
Yeah, yeah, when you were ordering your stuff, I actually use the same vendor and got a couple things. I'm going to bring some VO life key chains and some buttons that say you are enough. Be fun. And I'm going to have some bags, you know, like the little bags they give out with the drawstring on it. I've got some of those with VO life on it. And actually, I've got a label printed to ship them to your house. So I'm going to send one box to your house if you'll be kind enough to bring it to the hotel and.

Charles (42:02.846)
Okay, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, of course, of course.

Troy Holden (42:08.556)
and that'll be great. I'm looking forward to it, to seeing people. I skipped VO Atlanta this year just because we had so much going on with my wife's double back surgeries and everything we had, so I skipped. And it was probably the right thing to do, but man, am I missing seeing the VO peeps, know, getting to see everybody. I am really looking forward to it. And yeah, it'll be fun.

Charles (42:27.24)
Yeah. Yeah.

Charles (42:32.128)
Amanda, are you coming to OVC?

Amanda Elgie (42:34.947)
my daughter's high school that week.

Troy Holden (42:37.612)
Charles (42:37.966)
well that's not important. No, I'm just kidding. Priorities Amanda, jeez.

Amanda Elgie (42:39.545)
I know, right? I want to so badly because I've never been. I'm like, I'm nominated. I want to go so badly.

Troy Holden (42:46.992)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fun. I enjoyed it so much last year. I wanted to go back this year and then luckily got invited to speak and so I was really, really happy about that. A lot of fun. Amanda, where exactly in Connecticut are you? Because I used to go up in that area a lot for business. So I'm curious, are you on the Massachusetts side or the other side or where? Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Elgie (42:50.043)
Next year, next year.

Amanda Elgie (42:58.867)
That's awesome.

Amanda Elgie (43:11.737)
pretty cl- I mean Connecticut's so small, we're all pretty close to Massachusetts, but we- Bradley. Mm-hmm. okay. I'm 20 minutes from Bradley.

Charles (43:14.741)
Yes.

Troy Holden (43:16.316)
So what's the big airport up there that's right up close to the state line? Bradley. Yeah, that's where I always flew into Bradley's. Can't believe it's six years. Oh, okay. Okay. So I would drive from there over to Chickpea, Massachusetts. And that's where I'd go. Springfield and then to Chickpea. Yeah. Beautiful. You know, it just looks like home when I go up there, the landscape and the mountains and the way, you know, my favorite thing when I was up there traveling, somehow, my GPS, I was going to the airport and I didn't pick to stay on the main roads.

Amanda Elgie (43:29.319)
Yeah!

Okay, yeah.

Amanda Elgie (43:37.914)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (43:46.308)
It was the best thing ever because it took me these back roads and I got to see all these farms and barns and I love to see stuff like that. It's beautiful. The old houses and all beautiful country up there. Beautiful, beautiful.

Amanda Elgie (43:54.567)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (43:58.342)
It is. It makes me feel like home too. Like I'm from the Midwest, but I'm from, so I'm not from Chicago, Illinois. I'm from like the middle of nowhere. My high school was in the middle of four cornfields. We had our own water tower because there was nothing else there. And so I like driving up in Connecticut, not where I am because I'm pretty close to Hartford. So like we're very suburban, but the quiet corner of the state.

Troy Holden (44:07.632)
Yeah. Yeah.

Troy Holden (44:13.596)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (44:18.842)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (44:22.285)
It just has all of this beautiful, wide open landscape, lots of farms, just a nice place to drive around and see everything.

Troy Holden (44:27.568)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it is. Now what do you really enjoy doing when you're not recording, not spending time, you know, in the video? What kind of hobbies? Yeah.

Charles (44:38.027)
Yeah, the non-VO, the non-VO life Amanda.

Amanda Elgie (44:41.757)
Gosh, I don't know, I'm pretty introverted. I love reading. My pandemic hobby other than voiceover was brewing my own loose leaf tea. So I like do my own mixes. So I'll make you a nice cup of tea. I travel a lot. Though I'm trying to travel a little bit less, travel rigs are a mess. know, bringing your mic along with you and I always feel like I need to have it. So, you know, I still take one or two trips a year with my fam.

Troy Holden (45:01.542)
can be.

Amanda Elgie (45:12.263)
Yeah, that's about it. like...

Troy Holden (45:14.584)
No, no, no bad like shopping, Amazon hobbies, anything. I'm in trouble. okay, candy.

Amanda Elgie (45:19.717)
candy? I guess candy is my bad hobby then. I love banana candy, so like you send me some banana laffy, give me all of the like fake banana flavor, I love it.

Charles (45:19.991)
Oh lord. And the 8th starting today. 8th to 11. Oh.

Troy Holden (45:31.888)
Huh, that's interesting.

Charles (45:32.223)
Okay, I have a fun fake banana fact. Yeah,

Amanda Elgie (45:36.56)
Ooh, tell me.

Charles (45:40.76)
So the flavor that, like you said, send me all the fake banana candy, because you like that fake banana flavor, right? Did you know that that flavor is the actual flavor of original bananas? OK, that we don't have any, but you can buy it. You can buy them. There is a company that sells them. But it's like $50 for five of them.

Amanda Elgie (45:49.746)
I do.

Troy Holden (45:49.788)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (45:57.16)
Yes, that we don't have anymore. Yes, the cabinet, yeah.

Troy Holden (45:59.724)
Wow.

Amanda Elgie (46:04.593)
You can?

Charles (46:07.967)
And they're like from the strain of the original banana. So when you eat that banana, it tastes like banana candy banana. Like Runtz, like the banana flavor from Runtz, like that's what it tastes like. And in your mind you're like, well, that's fake banana taste. And it's like, no, that was what everybody ate when they first ate bananas.

Troy Holden (46:11.196)
A $10 banana. Holy smokes.

Amanda Elgie (46:11.601)
I know what I'm asking for for Christmas.

Amanda Elgie (46:19.333)
my gosh, I'm so excited. Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (46:21.872)
That is cool. Huh.

Amanda Elgie (46:24.786)
Troy Holden (46:27.803)
Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (46:29.735)
from the original banana. Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (46:31.696)
That's something. you were talking about traveling. Have you guys seen the Highland? The travel set up?

Charles (46:40.818)
Mm-mm.

Troy Holden (46:41.828)
Brad Highland was involved in developing a travel setup and it's foldable, small and lightweight. And Karen Guilfrey just reviewed it on her podcast and she said, I will never use anything else.

Amanda Elgie (46:41.843)
I don't think I have.

Amanda Elgie (46:53.235)
Yes, Karen was in Holland as well and I remember

Troy Holden (46:58.37)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's where she was using it. Yeah.

Charles (47:01.052)
that was her- but it's based- that's why it's called the Highland. I didn't know it was- That's why it was called the Highland.

Amanda Elgie (47:02.758)
Yeah!

Troy Holden (47:04.218)
Brad Hyland, it's called the Hyland. Yeah, yeah, Brad was involved in that thing. out.

Amanda Elgie (47:08.945)
I peeked in while she was showing it to people, but I didn't get to, like, really look at it myself, but it looked nice.

Troy Holden (47:12.956)
I found the material and I don't remember what it was and you can buy it in certain sizes and you could probably buy it and cut it up, but it wouldn't be fixed like this one sewn together and it's got the straps and whatever. But if it works that good, I think it was like $349. It wasn't dirt cheap. But I'm telling you, I'd rather do that than fool with the luggage rack and the stuff and all that because...

Charles (47:25.655)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (47:26.237)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (47:30.421)
That's not too, that's not too bad though.

Amanda Elgie (47:31.315)
That's not bad. No.

Charles (47:37.612)
you should have seen me.

Amanda Elgie (47:37.767)
Listen, I was in Japan two years ago and I got a like a rush job like I booked a job and I'm like, okay And I had to like I've made a pillow fort like between the beds and like I use the luggage rack and I like had my little mic and like I could still kind of hear the HVAC and I'm like, my gosh, so I'm like trying to turn the temperature down and like my daughter's in the next room and I'm like, can you guys go for a walk?

Charles (48:03.497)
Yeah. Get out of here.

Troy Holden (48:03.58)
Yeah, hotels are just noisy anyway.

Amanda Elgie (48:05.874)
Yeah, like please, please just be quiet.

Charles (48:08.543)
I was, so when we were in Amsterdam, right? I had, I got a booking with one of my agents and I, dude, my setup was so jank up there. had the luggage rack because downstairs I had a downstairs and upstairs and the upstairs was just a room. Right. But, but you know, it's in that kind of like Chateau kind of a building. the, the stairs that go upstairs are like straight up.

Troy Holden (48:11.58)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (48:11.88)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (48:15.697)
yeah!

Troy Holden (48:31.654)
Hmm

Charles (48:37.321)
and very narrow and yeah, it's like I'm going up to my room to find Rapunzel, you know what I mean? Yeah, and so I couldn't do it downstairs because the AC was way too loud and it was a big open room. So I took the luggage rack upstairs. I took two chairs from downstairs, took them upstairs and I was sitting on a footstool and everything was on the bed.

Amanda Elgie (48:37.837)
So steep. So steep.

Troy Holden (48:43.364)
Yeah, a barn ladder.

Amanda Elgie (48:43.795)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (49:05.212)
and it all worked, but it was so chaotic. And like, if I moved a little too fast, like the whole thing would have collapsed like a house of cards.

Troy Holden (49:08.826)
Yeah, it's stressful.

Amanda Elgie (49:12.368)
Mm-hmm. no.

Troy Holden (49:14.298)
Yeah, it's stressful. You know, the most stressful thing to me is trying to edit on a small screen. just, for some reason that drives me nuts. So I have, I was talking earlier about Amazon stuff. In the last couple of months, I became, thanks to having a good year,

Amanda Elgie (49:20.084)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (49:31.172)
I thought I'd like to have a bigger screen that's portable, that can travel and go to my laptop, no problem. So I did, I got a regular like 24 inch super thin travel screen. And I think that'll relieve the pressure. But then, you know, I started getting buying stuff for UGC and this gadget and this type of light and this stand and this green screen thing. And next thing I know, you know, I was looking at what I'd spent and I felt so bad. And then I started sending stuff back and the people at UPS really

Charles (49:42.711)
Mmm.

Charles (49:51.133)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (50:01.106)
hate me because I was like I don't really need that I'm taking that back I shouldn't have bought that I'm taking that back you know guilt set in so don't don't bin shop if you're a gadget junkie it's just not a good thing

Amanda Elgie (50:02.26)
you

Charles (50:12.468)
Well, one thing you can do, Troy, is what I do is I take my laptop, but I usually take a HDMI cord with me, an extra one, and I'll just plug it into the TV that's in the hotel. Yeah, and then it's like, giant computer screen. Yep.

Troy Holden (50:18.012)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (50:23.58)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (50:27.142)
That makes sense. That makes sense.

Amanda Elgie (50:28.761)
yeah, that is a good idea.

Troy Holden (50:32.026)
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Huh, maybe I'll send that monitor back now. I don't know. I don't know. Well, I'll tell you another thing that's really handy for having an extra monitor and for UGC stuff. I can throw my phone onto that monitor.

Amanda Elgie (50:37.415)
You

Charles (50:37.654)
UPS dang it. You said you weren't sending this back

Charles (50:53.704)
merit. Yep.

Troy Holden (50:54.37)
and mirror it and flip it. And although it's not a whole lot bigger than the phone, it is a little bit bigger, it will at least give me, if I want to flip the phone and use the back camera instead of the front one, I get a little better picture and it's really good for that. But, and then I can run my teleprompter on the regular screen and let it run and put the other one up on top of it where I'm not, look like I'm looking over here reading the teleprompter. But.

Charles (51:05.079)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (51:18.851)
Right. Right.

Troy Holden (51:20.284)
Boy, this has been a learning experience this year. mean, figuring out how to make it look natural and be able to read the copy and never come off the camera and all of that and trying different cameras and no, no, none, had none. I'm really just doing, I'm just voice acting. I don't pay any attention to anything except don't wear the same shirt every time and don't do this and don't, I just, I don't pay any attention to that.

Charles (51:29.278)
Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (51:30.152)
Did you have any like on camera experience before this Troy or did you? That's awesome. Good for you.

Amanda Elgie (51:45.876)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (51:49.478)
the cool investment was a gimbal for my phone because I can let that thing out and walk with it outside while I'm talking. It looks natural like I'm taking a walk, but it's stable. It never moves. And so that was a really good investment and it wasn't that much. But yeah, I'm big into, you you self-teach yourself as far as you can go. And then you start watching, it was just like voiceover, watching YouTube videos, trying to find somebody who's trusted in it. had a, and Charles, I think you remember Grant Holmes.

Charles (51:59.24)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Charles (52:16.416)
Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Troy Holden (52:19.93)
So Grant does really well in this as a spokesperson. He does web hosting, all kind of stuff. And he's been a good resource. He was a lot of help. You know, don't do this, get this, don't do that. that was when, you know, I had thrown Fiverr away. I had done two voiceover jobs on Fiverr almost in four or five months. It just wasn't coming in. And then I put up all these UGC gigs and now I'm booking all kinds of them on Fiverr plus the voiceovers picked back up because it gets your

profile more visibility, I guess. And so that's been good on both points. Not that that's something I'll ever rely on, but I like the extra that comes in from it. But yeah, it's fun. was something new to do, a new challenge, and at my age, I gotta be challenged. I don't get to Alzheimer's.

Charles (53:03.99)
We all have to we all should we all should be challenged because if we don't challenge yeah, I Have a question for Amanda what? What was like the craziest thing you've ever voiced

Amanda Elgie (53:09.553)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (53:20.308)
craziest thing.

Charles (53:20.402)
whether it be, and not crazy as in like the most money, but craziest thing as in like you're kind of embarrassed to even like tell your friends about this one.

Troy Holden (53:25.66)
It's going to be a favor job.

Amanda Elgie (53:29.332)
gosh, I did a whole thing for the Canadian Digestive Fund about diarrhea.

Troy Holden (53:37.98)
What a great subject to come up because I'm actually prepping this afternoon for a test. Yes, actually. yeah. Well, I had to have my all I could have this morning was a couple of scrambled eggs and then you go on clear and I can have chicken noodle soup, you know, this afternoon if I want it, but no cream, no nothing.

Charles (53:38.134)
Amanda Elgie (53:39.4)
So that was...

Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (53:47.294)
Colonoscopy?

Charles (53:48.97)
Yeah. Are you drinking Go Lightly?

Amanda Elgie (53:52.094)
Well, you can check out the Canadian Digestive Fund.

Amanda Elgie (54:02.76)
So you're doing this podcast hungry.

Charles (54:02.835)
Are you taking Go Lightly?

Troy Holden (54:06.84)
No, they're doing the Gatorade Miralax mixes, which I don't think it works as good, but okay. And then, yeah, and I gotta be there at seven in the morning, so luckily. But no, I'm not hungry, because I'm on Zetbound, and I don't even care about food anymore, it's good. It's all good. It's all good. Yeah, Charles and I have had that going, I think, for a while. It's doing okay. There are some, you know...

Charles (54:10.469)
yeah, yeah, the Gatorade one, yep.

Amanda Elgie (54:11.124)
Mm.

Charles (54:22.547)
Yep. Yep.

Troy Holden (54:32.616)
Some side effects I've noticed, I think I worry more. I used to be a I don't care person. And I see that I think more about other things because honestly there are no, there's no food noise going on. I don't think, boy, I'm hungry. I need a snack, man. I want something salty. I wonder if we got any bread, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And.

Charles (54:44.936)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (54:45.532)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (54:49.747)
I want something cheesy. I want something crunchy.

Amanda Elgie (54:52.262)
Okay, so off the podcast, can we talk about this? Excellent. I'm on Wigovy.

Troy Holden (54:55.516)
Sure, Oh, okay, cool, cool, yeah. And speaking of that, we're coming up on about an hour. so, yeah. So I wanna give you guys a chance to talk about, you know, your websites, how people can get in touch with you. you, I always ask people this and sometimes, well, if I say no, I'm gonna sound rude. No, if you're not available to talk to other voice actors or whatever, if you don't really have time for that or you got rules for that, it's a good place to...

Charles (55:00.092)
sweet.

Charles (55:04.467)
What? Wow.

Amanda Elgie (55:21.203)
Mm-hmm.

Troy Holden (55:24.54)
put that out there. I tell people all the time, I'm available. Send me a Facebook message or whatever. Please don't text me. Find my phone number and text me. Send me a Facebook message or an email and I'll answer you when I can. And be prepared that if you send it on the weekend, I'm not answering you till Monday. But I'm not being rude. It's just that I want to live a life too. Yeah, you gotta have boundaries. So let's start with you, Amanda.

Charles (55:42.131)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Elgie (55:44.744)
That's a good boundary.

Charles (55:46.963)
Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Elgie (55:50.856)
gosh. Okay, so you can find me on my website, which is amandalg.com, or you can find me on Instagram at AmandaLGVoice. I'm happy to talk to people. What I will say is, I think that when I got into this industry, I felt so much love and support from a lot of people who didn't need to do anything to help me but did anyway. And I

would love to pay it forward in any way that I possibly can. if people have questions or if you're struggling with a specific thing, I'm always happy to talk about it because I've spent the last five years now thinking, if I do this, I've made it. If I do this, I've made it. If I do this, I've made it. And the goal keeps getting kicked forward, right? Like, if I get an agent, I've made it. I got an agent. There's still things that you can keep doing because you have to keep pushing forward.

Troy Holden (56:46.564)
Mm-hmm. Growing, pivoting, expanding. For sure, for sure. All right, Charles.

Amanda Elgie (56:47.465)
to get to the next thing. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Charles (56:49.595)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Really quick though, you you said, if I do this, I've made it, and if I do this, I've made it, and then.

You know, you're always growing. did a thing with the, cup of Joe thing with David Rosenthal yesterday, and he made a really interesting statement that kind of, that was like, it's like, if you think right now, like life is good and, voiceover is awesome and this and that he's like, I've been in for 40 years. He's like, you right now are in your little specific paradigm. And he's like, that will be different in five years from now in three years from now, probably he's like, it will be different.

Troy Holden (57:26.374)
Yeah. yeah. Constant change.

Amanda Elgie (57:26.697)
Mm-hmm.

Charles (57:29.991)
So if you're doing the same thing, it's not going to work for this next paradigm that you're going to shift into. You know what I mean? Yeah, you have to adjust. And the second thing is, if people aren't watching this and you want to go to Amanda's website, it's AmandaLG, and LG is spelled E-L-G-I-E dot com. AmandaLG. And on Instagram, it's AmandaLG. E-L-G-I-E.

Troy Holden (57:37.468)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Right.

Amanda Elgie (57:37.907)
Yeah, you have to change with the industry.

Amanda Elgie (57:52.585)
Thank you, that's a good call, thank you.

Amanda Elgie (58:00.0)
Thank you, Charles.

Charles (58:00.649)
Yeah. Yeah.

Troy Holden (58:01.296)
Wonderful, wonderful. Now Charles, how do they find you?

Charles (58:04.309)
You can find me on all the social medias. It's Charles. It's either Charles the voice or Charles the voice VO or Charles underscore the underscore voice. It's going to be Charles the voice and you'll see my picture in my profile and my website is Charles the voice.com super easy. Yeah dude, OK, real quick. He only get up in the camera hill. For those of you that are watching, I shaved my head.

Troy Holden (58:21.166)
Yeah, and welcome to the club. Isn't it easier?

Amanda Elgie (58:28.405)
You

Charles (58:33.321)
because I've always had like losing my hair on top and you know, a bald spot in the back which I never see because I only see the front and then I see a video and I'm like, who's that bald? that's me, right? And so I just shaved my head and I'll tell you what, I am never going, never going back. It is so convenient. Thanks, thanks.

Troy Holden (58:55.034)
Right, right. you'll go through the experimenting that I have. I tried an electric Remington, a Baldy Pro, whatever. It's pretty good. It's pretty good for 50 bucks or so. It's probably the best razor for the money. But there is nothing like a good five blade flexible razor shave to make that head slick as a cue ball. the only thing I miss about hair is in the summer when you're outside and you're sweating.

Amanda Elgie (58:56.661)
It looks good

Charles (59:05.565)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Charles (59:15.893)
Hmm.

Troy Holden (59:24.258)
It goes right in your eyes. mean, that's the only thing. Yeah.

Charles (59:25.173)
Hey, that's what I noticed. My wife and I went on a hike this morning and that's what I noticed. I was like, cause I didn't have a hat on and yeah. And the sweat was like rolling into my face. I'm like, why am I sweating? Yeah. Yeah. Where the old eighties gym shorts, like the coaches wore. Yep. With the socks, tube socks, with the siders on the top. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to bring it back. I'm bringing it back. No.

Troy Holden (59:32.856)
Yeah, bucket hats are your friend. They are your friend. Yeah. You can, you can. And I've just found that, you know, God. Yeah. Well, the stripe on them. that's the bike, the bike shorts with the big elastic wide waistband and the spot built shoes. Remember those? Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (59:37.429)
Can you wear like a sweatband? Like an 80s?

Amanda Elgie (59:44.317)
Yes.

Amanda Elgie (59:52.629)
If anybody can, you can,

Charles (59:55.613)
Yeah.

Troy Holden (59:56.28)
A bandana is my best friend anymore. I bought a big six pack of bandanas and when I'm out doing stuff, I'd stick one in my pocket and just dab it off, you know, before it gets in my eyes. It helps. It helps. Hey, I want to thank you both for joining this week. After a week off, it was good to get to see some people, even if it's on the screen. Amanda, great to get to know you and hope to see you. Hope to see you somewhere soon at one of these these places. And and Charles, good as always to see you, my friend. I'm always incredibly proud of Charles and love.

Charles (01:00:01.973)
It's okay, might, I might, yep.

Amanda Elgie (01:00:14.717)
So nice to talk to you.

Charles (01:00:17.491)
Yeah.

Amanda Elgie (01:00:18.527)
Sure, yeah.

Charles (01:00:21.949)
Yessir!

Troy Holden (01:00:25.816)
I've loved watching his career and always wish him the best. Just quit auditioning for Southern accent jobs. That's all I...

Charles (01:00:33.449)
Hey, you're the one who's like every time I talk to Troy, it's like, you I live in Texas. He lives in Tennessee and he's like, yeah, I've got another spot now in Texas. I got another spot. And then I hear his voice on the radio for cotton patch and this and that. I'm like, you're all up in my neighborhood, dude. Yeah. Right.

Troy Holden (01:00:38.054)
Texas.

Troy Holden (01:00:43.724)
yeah.

Troy Holden (01:00:50.328)
Yeah, yeah, and everybody else is in mine. I think I booked one job. It was for Governor Lee here when he was putting out some kind of education program and I booked that on voices.com and I just don't get Tennessee work. That's okay. I don't care where you play me. Just play me. Doesn't matter.

Charles (01:01:06.547)
Yeah, hey, as long as you pay me and pay me well and treat me fair and come back, we're best friends. We'll do it all day long.

Troy Holden (01:01:10.896)
That's right. That's right. That's right. Well, from all of us here until all of you out there, we'll see you the next time we're together on the VO live.

Amanda Elgie (01:01:12.092)
Exactly.

Charles (01:01:21.935)
See you later!