This Episode:
The episode opens with a light-hearted introduction, setting the tone for a candid conversation about the struggles and triumphs of being a voice actor. Troy shares how he stumbled into voiceover during the pandemic, prompted by a request from his employer to voice some corporate videos. What started as a side gig quickly blossomed into a full-time career, but not without its challenges.
I’m a firm believer in reach forward and reach behind. – Brad Grochowski
In the latest episode of our podcast, we dive deep into a subject that many freelancers in the voiceover industry grapple with: how to put yourself out there when you’re an introvert. Hosts Louise Porter and Brad Grahowski are joined by voice actor Troy Holden, who shares his journey into the world of voiceover and the importance of building a personal community.
Troy reflects on the importance of finding a supportive network of fellow voice actors. He emphasizes how crucial it is to have a small group of friends who understand the unique challenges of the industry. This camaraderie has helped him navigate the ups and downs of voiceover work, from understanding rates to dealing with the stress of auditions.
It’s not just the fact of talk, talk, talk, and book, book, book. It’s the fact of marketing, invoicing, ah customer service, you know, social media, blah, blah, blah. – Troy Holden
Throughout the episode, the trio discusses practical tips for building your own personal community. They suggest reaching out to fellow voice actors who are at similar stages in their careers. This way, you can learn from each other and grow together. Troy emphasizes the value of connecting with someone just a little ahead of you in the journey, as they can provide guidance while you both learn and evolve.
The conversation also touches on the balance between marketing oneself and staying true to who you are as an artist. Troy candidly shares his struggles with social media and branding, reminding listeners that not all successful voice actors are visible online. Sometimes, the best approach is to focus on honing your craft and building genuine relationships.
It’s not about putting yourself out there, it’s about being yourself. – Louise Porter
As the episode wraps up, listeners are left with a sense of encouragement. It’s clear that while the voiceover industry can be daunting—especially for introverts—building a supportive network and staying true to oneself can lead to success and fulfillment. If you’re in the voiceover world or considering a career in it, this episode is a must-listen!
Tune in to hear more about Troy’s journey, the importance of community, and how to thrive as an introverted voice actor. Don’t forget to subscribe for more insights and stories from the voiceover industry!
Transcript:
00:00:00.00
Troy Holden: hang my shoe.
00:00:01.32
Brad Grochowski: No, man.
00:00:02.69
Louise Porteri: um Okay, wait a minute. So…
00:00:05.69
Brad Grochowski: Okay.
00:00:07.67
Louise Porteri: Troy, you can turn your gain up a little, I think. Can you guys just do a check one, two, check one, two?
00:00:12.02
Troy Holden: Okay.
00:00:12.66
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, check one, two, check one, two.
00:00:13.91
Troy Holden: Check one two, check one two, one two two.
00:00:14.66
Brad Grochowski: Inside Voice, episode 14. fourteen
00:00:17.36
Louise Porteri: and Shut up. I’m just kidding.
00:00:19.87
Troy Holden: The voice is in my head. and
00:00:22.86
Louise Porteri: Okay, I think we are good.
00:00:30.68
Louise Porteri: So,
00:00:34.95
Louise Porteri: yeah, take it away, Brad. Just kidding.
00:00:37.19
Brad Grochowski: All right.
00:00:37.90
Troy Holden: Thank you.
00:00:39.13
Brad Grochowski: Good job on the intro there, Louise. I know I didn’t just hear it in real time, but I’ve heard it many times, and I just wanted to say you did a great job. I love it.
00:00:47.38
Louise Porteri: Oh, thank you. You mean the pre-recorded one. i
00:00:49.64
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:00:50.50
Louise Porteri: fully thought you just meant me just saying nothing just then.
00:00:54.38
Brad Grochowski: Oh, no, no, no, no. Your pre-recorded intro.
00:00:56.38
Louise Porteri: After I hit record.
00:00:57.05
Brad Grochowski: I think it’s great. nice Nicely written, nicely performed.
00:00:58.54
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:01:00.36
Brad Grochowski: I love it. Thanks for doing that.
00:01:01.48
Louise Porteri: Thank you. Thank you.
00:01:03.80
Brad Grochowski: Welcome to Inside Voice Podcast, episode 14. Hi, Louise. How are you?
00:01:10.03
Louise Porteri: Hi, Brad. I’m good. How are you?
00:01:11.81
Brad Grochowski: Good. I’m great. i’m I’m really glad to um be with you again for the Inside Voice Podcast. This is season two, episode four.
00:01:21.41
Louise Porteri: Likewise, likewise. Correct. Yeah.
00:01:25.05
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:01:25.44
Louise Porteri: and this week we’re super excited because we really, it’s a special treat.
00:01:27.38
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Special treat for us.
00:01:30.36
Louise Porteri: We wanted to talk about building your personal community, finding close friends so that are going to help you succeed in your VO journey. And our good friend Troy Holden is joining us today.
00:01:45.30
Louise Porteri: um Troy Holden, hello.
00:01:50.03
Troy Holden: Hello, hello.
00:01:50.09
Brad Grochowski: Hi, Troy.
00:01:50.20
Louise Porteri: but feel ah very awkward.
00:01:51.76
Troy Holden: ah didn’t want to jump in too early, but I’m here.
00:01:56.05
Louise Porteri: ah Troy is joining us from ah beautiful Tennessee. And some so, Troy, tell us a little bit about your journey, like when you started and kind of where you’re at now, just for people who don’t know you.
00:02:11.43
Troy Holden: Okay, glad to do that.
00:02:13.17
Brad Grochowski: If there’s anybody left who doesn’t know, Troy…
00:02:13.19
Troy Holden: I’m in… ah I think there’s a lot of people who don’t know me. I run into that often, actually. um i’m I’m actually in year five.
00:02:24.72
Troy Holden: um I started in 2000, really late 2000. um I’ve always wanted to do this. I just, yeah.
00:02:33.69
Louise Porteri: Wait a minute. Can I interrupt you? Late 2000.
00:02:35.47
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:02:35.66
Louise Porteri: There you go.
00:02:37.04
Troy Holden: Oh, I’m sorry. 2020. I’m sorry.
00:02:38.25
Louise Porteri: There you go. 25.
00:02:39.13
Troy Holden: My God.
00:02:39.41
Louise Porteri: there you go
00:02:40.24
Troy Holden: Oh, I’ve really got experience all of a sudden.
00:02:42.30
Brad Grochowski: 25 years.
00:02:42.66
Louise Porteri: twenty five
00:02:42.90
Troy Holden: um Yeah. You know what? And i and I’m going to warn you when you turn 60. Time, the the concept of time completely changes and we can talk about that later.
00:02:54.08
Troy Holden: But anyway, five years in.
00:02:54.98
Brad Grochowski: I think that’s already starting at 50.
00:02:56.81
Troy Holden: it It can.
00:02:56.90
Brad Grochowski: I’m going to be honest, because…
00:02:57.34
Louise Porteri: Yeah, I was going to say, oh my goodness, I’m the youngest one.
00:02:58.05
Troy Holden: It can. You’re right, Brad. It does.
00:03:01.31
Louise Porteri: yay
00:03:01.44
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:03:02.47
Troy Holden: Lucky you.
00:03:03.28
Louise Porteri: Just rub that in.
00:03:03.62
Troy Holden: But it it does. But yeah, year five, i started in 2020. um You know, COVID thing had ah got a lot of people interested in it. I got accidentally into it through my employer who said, would you please voice some return to work videos, you know, during all that mess?
00:03:12.62
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:03:20.25
Troy Holden: And excuse me, i did. And the HR person
00:03:23.84
Louise Porteri: Which made you not want to return to work.
00:03:26.29
Troy Holden: No, I did not ever want to return.
00:03:27.05
Brad Grochowski: That’s…
00:03:28.70
Troy Holden: But the ah HR person said, hey, you could make a living doing this.
00:03:28.93
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:03:30.03
Brad Grochowski: that’s
00:03:31.94
Troy Holden: And she showed me some videos on YouTube and stuff. And I started digging in. And that was like in April or May. And by September, I was i was booking some work.
00:03:44.04
Troy Holden: It wasn’t anything glorious, but it was a start.
00:03:44.40
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:03:47.96
Troy Holden: And you know not that people can do it the same way anymore, like all three of us did.
00:03:47.91
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:03:52.24
Troy Holden: We all three kind of had a similar journey.
00:03:53.03
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:03:55.08
Troy Holden: But um that’s a difficult way to go.
00:03:56.19
Louise Porteri: We did, and we started around the same time, because I remember you got in, yeah, you, Troy, you got in touch with me late 2020, I think, because I started sort of officially in October of 2020, and we were part of some Facebook groups, and then, and I think you reached out to me first, and you were just, like, super genuine and kind, and like, hey, like, I’m starting too, and if there’s any way I can help you, like, just so sweet.
00:03:58.46
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:03:58.94
Troy Holden: We did. and We did. and Mm-hmm.
00:04:07.10
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:04:09.80
Troy Holden: Yes.
00:04:10.24
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:04:21.34
Louise Porteri: And then Brad got in touch with me, like, a few months later, I think.
00:04:21.52
Troy Holden: Well, thank you.
00:04:21.52
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:04:25.06
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:04:25.50
Louise Porteri: And then we became what we then called the tricycle, which maybe we’ll well back back up to that later.
00:04:29.03
Troy Holden: Yeah. yeah Yeah.
00:04:31.47
Louise Porteri: But please continue telling us about your journey.
00:04:31.92
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, yeah.
00:04:32.16
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:04:35.67
Troy Holden: Well, I did the, you know, the part-time work, the cheap work. and I did what I could for a while. And then I learned there were a better, there were better routes to take through workshops and coaching and really, you know, better rates.
00:04:46.33
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
00:04:49.34
Troy Holden: And i began to go that route. And and what, money I made, i would reinvest into workshops and coaching and 18 months in, I was a full-time voice actor.
00:05:00.52
Troy Holden: Um,
00:05:00.64
Louise Porteri: That’s amazing.
00:05:01.57
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:05:01.78
Troy Holden: Yeah, it it wasn’t a big living the first year. It was still a lot of development and work to do. But by the you know second and third year full-time, it’s been a pretty nice living. out you know I now understand rates and usage and all the things I had no clue about when I started.
00:05:19.90
Troy Holden: And yeah, so it’s been a heck of a journey and I’m really proud of it. And it’s um it’s it’s been hard.
00:05:24.60
Louise Porteri: You should be.
00:05:27.53
Troy Holden: And as you guys know, because we are… nine employees in one, and you have to have a lot of wherewithal in a lot of areas to be able to do this.
00:05:32.56
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:05:39.12
Troy Holden: It’s not just the fact of talk, talk, talk, and book, book, book. It’s the fact of marketing, invoicing, ah customer service, you know, social media, blah, blah, blah.
00:05:47.50
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:05:50.61
Louise Porteri: Yeah, relationship building.
00:05:50.83
Troy Holden: It’s just so much to do, but but I love it.
00:05:51.89
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:05:53.21
Troy Holden: I mean, it’s the hardest I’ve ever worked for the least amount of money, but I love it.
00:05:57.26
Brad Grochowski: I tell people the same thing. I said, I’ve never bet i’ve never worked harder at a job in my life, but I’ve also never been happier.
00:06:03.80
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:06:03.81
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:06:03.96
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:06:04.55
Louise Porteri: That’s just the thing, too, is it’s like it’s not… I mean, there are some things that I do not enjoy doing, but overall, it’s like I have no problem putting in this much time and effort into something that I…
00:06:11.46
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:06:16.64
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. And certainly there are moments and you guys know because you guys are the people I turn to when I have those moments where I’m like, oh no, this is, this is not going to work.
00:06:18.60
Louise Porteri: It’s so rewarding.
00:06:22.62
Louise Porteri: Yes. Yes.
00:06:27.32
Brad Grochowski: And then you guys talk me back from the ledge every time. And I, yeah.
00:06:30.93
Louise Porteri: Right? Right?
00:06:31.79
Troy Holden: yeah Yeah, you guys have just been you know such a ah a force in everything that I’ve done because it keeps me grounded.
00:06:40.71
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:06:40.76
Troy Holden: And admittedly, yeah, i’ve I’ve ventured off into some other groups with other people, but we always have kept in touch. And it seems like here in the last several weeks, we’ve kind of floated back in that this is kind of the primary go-to for me because we’re all working at a certain pace and we get it.
00:06:51.52
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:06:51.92
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:06:58.32
Troy Holden: And it’s it’s not a thing of anymore so much of helping each other. It’s a thing of just saying, I got to talk about this i don’t want to go public with it.
00:07:05.96
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:07:06.73
Troy Holden: I just need to get it out of my system, you know, and it’s a big, huge help because my wife is so sick of hearing some of the stuff.
00:07:08.72
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:07:08.85
Louise Porteri: Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:15.06
Brad Grochowski: Oh my God, don’t tell me about it.
00:07:16.74
Troy Holden: Oh my gosh. You know, and now she knows stuff, but something will come on the radio and she’ll say, is that so-and-so? And I’m like, yeah, how’d you know that? She goes, oh, I remember the voices, you know, and it’s amazing.
00:07:26.70
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:07:26.96
Louise Porteri: That’s so funny.
00:07:27.65
Troy Holden: She can hear, she’s got to where she can hear certain people that I mentioned a lot and that’s kind of crazy, but.
00:07:32.95
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:07:33.40
Troy Holden: ah Bless her heart.
00:07:33.45
Louise Porteri: Oh, yeah. we hear We hear Chuck Brown all the time um in a NordVPN
00:07:36.51
Brad Grochowski: Really?
00:07:38.82
Louise Porteri: ad but that comes on it comes on like our cable TV.
00:07:39.57
Brad Grochowski: Oh, weird.
00:07:40.03
Troy Holden: Oh, wow.
00:07:44.43
Brad Grochowski: Huh.
00:07:44.46
Louise Porteri: And I’m like, oh my god, that’s Chuck.
00:07:44.57
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:07:45.94
Brad Grochowski: Hi, Chuck Brown.
00:07:46.45
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:07:46.99
Louise Porteri: Yeah. And Irv totally knows his voice, too. We’re both like, there’s Chuck.
00:07:50.03
Troy Holden: You can’t miss that voice. I mean, he’s he’s he’s he’s got a very distinctive voice.
00:07:51.47
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:07:52.00
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:07:52.08
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:07:53.20
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:07:54.83
Louise Porteri: He is.
00:07:55.06
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:07:55.70
Brad Grochowski: Well, it’s really nice in that, you know, the three of us have known each other for so long.
00:07:55.79
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:08:00.79
Brad Grochowski: And we like, I don’t have to explain anything about where I am to you guys, you know, like, and Troy, you know, you’re like, oh, and I, you know, it’s it’s exciting to to hear.
00:08:05.43
Troy Holden: Right, right, right, right.
00:08:11.60
Brad Grochowski: We’ve, know, we’ve had guys before and and as they talk about what their history is and stuff, but I was there for years. And it’s, I don’t know, it’s just cool to hear you kind of share it. But having been there as it happened.
00:08:23.34
Louise Porteri: it’s good yeah It’s great to have a crew you’ve been with since day one.
00:08:24.02
Troy Holden: Right.
00:08:25.92
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:08:28.59
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:08:28.71
Troy Holden: It is, it is.
00:08:29.81
Louise Porteri: Like, even if you did cheat on us, that’s okay.
00:08:30.24
Troy Holden: That’s that’s the crazy thing.
00:08:35.04
Brad Grochowski: Even though you do have other friends, Troy.
00:08:35.40
Louise Porteri: We forgive you. You’re not allowed to have other friends.
00:08:37.87
Troy Holden: Yeah. And, you know, and, and I think we all do that because, and the three of us are a good example because we came up in some of these Facebook groups that we found out we probably needed to be in different Facebook groups.
00:08:41.71
Brad Grochowski: Sure.
00:08:50.91
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:08:51.56
Troy Holden: And we grew into other groups and met other people. And Brad and I have,
00:08:54.51
Louise Porteri: Well, and then you started a really great one, too. Yeah.
00:08:56.81
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:08:57.07
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
00:08:57.60
Troy Holden: Yeah, that that’s been fun. and And then Brad and I being able to go to VO Atlanta a couple times and and hang out.
00:08:59.24
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:09:05.16
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:09:05.22
Troy Holden: And, you know, he came through town last year, he and his wife did, and they stopped and we had lunch. I mean, that’s, it was fabulous, you know, because it puts reality into what we do.
00:09:10.35
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, that was awesome. Yeah.
00:09:15.92
Troy Holden: And sometimes you got to wonder, are the people I talk to on these places, are they real?
00:09:16.29
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:09:21.20
Louise Porteri: I’m not, but I’m glad you guys are.
00:09:21.50
Troy Holden: You know, and
00:09:22.52
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:09:23.70
Louise Porteri: um i’m I’m Canadian, so it doesn’t count.
00:09:23.83
Brad Grochowski: Louise is AI. That’s right.
00:09:27.38
Troy Holden: Yeah, we we all keep plotting keep plotting how we’re all going to get together.
00:09:27.51
Brad Grochowski: You’re Canadian and
00:09:29.52
Louise Porteri: Canadian and I’m also AI. Yeah, no, we have to do that. Yeah, yeah.
00:09:34.22
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:09:34.87
Louise Porteri: I definitely have had FOMO from the whole you guys meeting up, but not necessarily the conference itself, but just meeting up in person, you know, that would have been really nice.
00:09:45.07
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s great. Even, you know, just a short lunch like we had that day, Brad, it’s just funny how it helps keep that connection going.
00:09:54.91
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:09:55.16
Troy Holden: And and we keep saying over and over, just can’t wait to sit down with Louise and talk to her face to face.
00:09:55.51
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:09:55.76
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:10:01.24
Troy Holden: And, you know, and I would love to come out there.
00:10:01.31
Brad Grochowski: I know.
00:10:01.94
Louise Porteri: Hey, you can drive a few thousand miles for a short lunch, can’t you?
00:10:05.98
Troy Holden: I really would. It’s its just all the pictures. It is so beautiful.
00:10:09.15
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:10:09.90
Louise Porteri: It’s so nice.
00:10:10.47
Troy Holden: It’s just gorgeous. I would love to visit. And we need to find a way.
00:10:12.29
Brad Grochowski: You mean the pictures Louise posts of hiking with her dogs, like, on Dagobah, like, every week?
00:10:15.66
Troy Holden: Yes.
00:10:19.06
Troy Holden: Yeah, yeah, it’s gorgeous.
00:10:19.65
Brad Grochowski: Like, you just expect, like, a pterodactyl or something to fly through the scene.
00:10:20.13
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:10:25.19
Louise Porteri: I know it’s otherworldly. that i say it all the time.
00:10:27.75
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:10:29.00
Louise Porteri: i have a really good friend that hikes with me almost weekly, my friend Amy. Hi, Amy. um And we both are like constantly looking around in awe going, this could be a movie set.
00:10:40.78
Louise Porteri: Like this looks fake.
00:10:41.59
Troy Holden: Oh, it could be.
00:10:42.48
Louise Porteri: This is CGI.
00:10:42.67
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:43.16
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:10:44.07
Louise Porteri: Like it’s just, it’s insane.
00:10:46.53
Troy Holden: It is, and I’m that way when I watch the Yellowstone or 1923.
00:10:46.78
Louise Porteri: It’s so beautiful.
00:10:51.02
Troy Holden: I love that part of the country out there, and it’s it’s similar.
00:10:51.57
Louise Porteri: Oh yeah.
00:10:52.98
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:10:52.99
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:10:53.86
Troy Holden: It reminds me of that somewhat, and and I’m just like, why can’t we just do a you know conference in your area, and let’s all go there?
00:10:55.99
Louise Porteri: yeah
00:11:02.41
Louise Porteri: i I think we should just start one. That’s probably what has to happen.
00:11:05.10
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:11:05.10
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:11:06.04
Louise Porteri: There is a VO North, but it’s in I think it’s in Toronto.
00:11:06.46
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:11:09.54
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
00:11:10.25
Louise Porteri: Hmm.
00:11:10.39
Brad Grochowski: There’s a new, i i think it’s a new conference they were talking about at Vio Atlanta, and I apologize for not remembering the name of it, ah but they’re doing it in, think in the the Seattle, maybe Portland, Vancouver, Washington area, like in in the Pacific Northwest.
00:11:22.11
Troy Holden: I saw that. Yeah.
00:11:24.25
Louise Porteri: Hmm.
00:11:27.15
Louise Porteri: Yeah, I think we need another Canadian one, though. and That’s what I’m rooting for, personally.
00:11:29.60
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:11:30.21
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm. That’d be nice.
00:11:31.18
Brad Grochowski: Yep. Yep.
00:11:32.42
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:11:32.99
Troy Holden: That would be nice.
00:11:34.10
Louise Porteri: It would be great. It would be great.
00:11:35.45
Troy Holden: Yep. So what’s up?
00:11:37.47
Brad Grochowski: Um…
00:11:38.37
Troy Holden: What’s up?
00:11:39.86
Brad Grochowski: I, Louise, I tried just for fun to go all the way back to our, you and i our first um Facebook message.
00:11:52.41
Louise Porteri: That’s amazing.
00:11:52.58
Brad Grochowski: And, and, oh, oh,
00:11:52.99
Louise Porteri: so I don’t have, ah like, all of my history is gone because I switched phones and I can’t get the history back. Did you find it?
00:11:59.69
Brad Grochowski: Well, I tried and the and and and I was also going to try to find the tricycle group the first. And I scrolled and I scrolled and I scrolled and I scrolled and I scrolled and I scrolled and I scrolled and I’m like, oh my God, I’ve been scrolling forever.
00:12:11.65
Brad Grochowski: And then I looked and it was like early January, 2025. And I’m like, oh my God. So I scrolled and I scrolled and I scrolled and I scrolled and I scrolled and it was like mid-December.
00:12:16.61
Troy Holden: Uh-huh, uh-huh. There’s a lot of interaction.
00:12:18.51
Louise Porteri: You’d be there literally for years. Yeah.
00:12:21.32
Troy Holden: Don’t do that.
00:12:21.42
Brad Grochowski: So then i I figured out you can download all of your Messenger online.
00:12:27.01
Troy Holden: Ooh.
00:12:27.25
Brad Grochowski: but it has to download them all from like 2000 and 2005, I think is when I joined Facebook and it’s still doing that.
00:12:27.78
Louise Porteri: Oh.
00:12:34.25
Troy Holden: Oh.
00:12:35.39
Brad Grochowski: So, uh,
00:12:36.70
Louise Porteri: Oh, wow.
00:12:37.46
Troy Holden: It’ll be a minute. That’s better in getting the trigger thumb, though, Brad. That hurts from scrolling.
00:12:41.35
Brad Grochowski: yeah, yeah.
00:12:42.02
Louise Porteri: oh wow. so And so I’ve never done it, but yeah can you not search Messenger by date?
00:12:48.23
Brad Grochowski: You could do, you could do like, I don’t, I don’t, don’t remember exactly what the interface was. You could do like this year or the past year or that sort of thing.
00:12:57.75
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:12:58.55
Brad Grochowski: And, but and you couldn’t pick, I just wanted messenger for that with this person. You couldn’t do that. It was like all messages.
00:13:03.69
Louise Porteri: Right. Oh, weird. Well, when you find out, I’d love to know.
00:13:08.24
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:13:08.78
Louise Porteri: i
00:13:08.93
Brad Grochowski: But I thought that would be funny to,
00:13:09.29
Louise Porteri: just remember, like, what thinking back, I’m like, it’s so cool to of have met and become friends with both of you because we did click right away.
00:13:19.58
Louise Porteri: Like, it it’s just, it was very natural.
00:13:19.90
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:13:20.32
Troy Holden: We did.
00:13:23.13
Louise Porteri: And I think sometimes you have kind of a gut instinct about people, like who your tribe but probably is. and that, I think, holds true for us. Like, I didn’t really reach out to anybody.
00:13:34.90
Louise Porteri: I don’t, other than, well, Leanne, who’s become a good friend, but, um, yeah.
00:13:41.38
Troy Holden: I’m sorry, you know why I’m laughing, but that’s funny.
00:13:45.80
Brad Grochowski: I don’t, but you guys can have an inside joke.
00:13:47.17
Louise Porteri: That’s fine.
00:13:47.76
Brad Grochowski: That’s fine.
00:13:47.70
Louise Porteri: That’s a, apparently a private joke.
00:13:51.51
Louise Porteri: Um, yeah. So, um, let us know about that. uh, so, so
00:13:59.05
Troy Holden: The inside joke, I’ll give that to you after after we’re done. You may want to tape it and use it, but I don’t know.
00:14:05.42
Louise Porteri: No, I wasn’t talking about that.
00:14:07.04
Troy Holden: Oh, okay, okay.
00:14:07.90
Louise Porteri: Okay, let’s move on um So we it like did we talk about how we ended up calling our group the tricycle because there’s three of us? Did anybody touch on that?
00:14:17.44
Brad Grochowski: so i i um yeah my instinct was to call it something like the um oh shoot what’s the word for like if you have like three gods or three uh not triumvirate um
00:14:18.88
Louise Porteri: Because that’s kind of a fun thing that we do.
00:14:19.07
Troy Holden: No.
00:14:33.25
Louise Porteri: You’re getting too clever, I think, is what’s happening right now.
00:14:35.04
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:14:35.14
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, and it it did. It was like, no, that’s dumb.
00:14:36.88
Louise Porteri: Oh. Oh.
00:14:37.27
Troy Holden: you lost You lost me at trifecta.
00:14:38.50
Louise Porteri: yeah
00:14:39.15
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then i’m and then and to my memory, if you guys feel like you thought of it, that’s fine. But to my memory, then I thought, and I’ll simplify it. And then I thought of Tricycle, and it sounded so stupid that it seemed perfect.
00:14:54.01
Louise Porteri: oh
00:14:54.24
Troy Holden: And it relates to the business too, Brad.
00:14:54.33
Brad Grochowski: That’s how I remember it.
00:14:56.04
Troy Holden: Think about that. Because you see, always picture in my mind, you know, some guy way too big riding on a tricycle, you know, by himself.
00:15:02.44
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:15:03.23
Troy Holden: And then there’s two clowns climbed up on his back and they’re all three on it.
00:15:05.68
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:15:05.62
Louise Porteri: yeah
00:15:06.67
Troy Holden: And why not?
00:15:07.54
Brad Grochowski: Uh-huh.
00:15:07.67
Louise Porteri: Who’s the clown and who’s the person? Who are the clowns?
00:15:10.17
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:15:10.72
Brad Grochowski: I think we’re all three clowns and we’re all three trying to ride this tiny little…
00:15:12.15
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:15:12.48
Troy Holden: Yeah, we are.
00:15:13.41
Louise Porteri: That’s fine.
00:15:14.24
Troy Holden: We are.
00:15:14.28
Louise Porteri: I thought I was going to say it’s just you two, but and okay.
00:15:16.75
Brad Grochowski: Oh.
00:15:17.49
Louise Porteri: um oh
00:15:19.47
Brad Grochowski: Of course you would.
00:15:20.86
Louise Porteri: So um what else are we wanting to cover here?
00:15:24.16
Brad Grochowski: Well, one one thing I wanted to do is just talk a little bit from a more pragmatic perspective of like what, what I mean, we’ve we’ve talked about it anecdotally a little bit, but like what are the benefits? Because I would say personally, i you know, if you’re getting started in voiceover, you’re struggling in voiceover, I think it’s a really good idea to sort of look for a small little personal group. It could be one, two or three groups.
00:15:50.94
Brad Grochowski: maybe four people and just sort of build a little, a little mini team where you can be there for each other.
00:15:52.48
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:15:55.50
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:15:58.29
Brad Grochowski: You can talk to each other. You can bounce things off of each other and it doesn’t have to be permanent or forever.
00:16:01.37
Louise Porteri: Yes.
00:16:03.01
Brad Grochowski: And maybe so one or more of you grow off into something else and, or you do, and that that’s fine.
00:16:08.37
Louise Porteri: You cheat on each other whatever.
00:16:10.21
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:16:10.69
Louise Porteri: umm Like Troy did.
00:16:11.13
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. But I just, I just really think that ah the three of us has super benefited from that.
00:16:12.05
Louise Porteri: Um…
00:16:16.47
Brad Grochowski: And, and,
00:16:17.09
Troy Holden: We have. We have. And I think one thing that can help if some someone is fairly new, that if they can align with someone that’s, say, six months ahead, not two years or three years ahead, because they’re going to know a lot, but you can learn a little from them and grow and catch up to them, then you can really start learning together kind of more at the same pace.
00:16:38.28
Troy Holden: It’s really helpful that if you go into a group brand new that at least somebody’s kind of a little ahead of the game. I think it’s beneficial.
00:16:45.62
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, I don’t disagree with you, but that can be hard to find some but sometimes, right?
00:16:50.38
Troy Holden: Yeah, it is.
00:16:50.85
Brad Grochowski: Like anyone six months ahead of you, they’re trying to get their own stuff done.
00:16:51.23
Louise Porteri: Yeah. yeah
00:16:56.03
Brad Grochowski: They’re trying to learn their own things. So I wouldn’t say not to do that, but don’t don’t like slow yourself down because you aren’t able to convince somebody to
00:17:06.03
Troy Holden: Yeah, for sure.
00:17:06.61
Brad Grochowski: You know, like finding…
00:17:07.09
Louise Porteri: That’s the other thing, too, because then they’re having to hang out with somebody who’s behind them. Because we all are like, oh, you should surround yourself with people who are blah, blah, blah.
00:17:12.18
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:17:13.10
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:17:17.55
Louise Porteri: And it’s like, well, then are you just dragging them down then?
00:17:20.63
Brad Grochowski: Right, right, right, right.
00:17:20.95
Louise Porteri: I never understand that whole idea. It’s like, I get it, but then get a mentor or a coach, too.
00:17:27.18
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. and
00:17:27.54
Louise Porteri: Anyways, I feel like we just completely poo-pooed Troy’s idea.
00:17:29.89
Troy Holden: wasn’t Wasn’t that Brad’s tagline to get us going, let the tricycle drag you down?
00:17:30.65
Brad Grochowski: Oh, I didn’t mean to do that.
00:17:34.08
Troy Holden: and Something like that.
00:17:34.73
Louise Porteri: Maybe that’s it.
00:17:34.88
Troy Holden: I don’t know.
00:17:36.24
Brad Grochowski: All I’m saying is like, I, I’m a, I’m a firm believer in you know, reach forward and reach behind, right?
00:17:37.15
Louise Porteri: tricycle tricycle anyway
00:17:42.60
Brad Grochowski: Like look for someone that’s ahead of you and reach for them and, you know, ah try, try to, to work with them to help pull you forward while you’re also reaching back and trying to help somebody who’s behind you.
00:17:42.87
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:17:43.45
Louise Porteri: yes
00:17:54.26
Troy Holden: Right.
00:17:56.05
Brad Grochowski: And I think that it a a million percent or yeah, right.
00:17:57.02
Louise Porteri: Or just dragging them down with you. You know, that’s ah also a possibility.
00:18:00.31
Brad Grochowski: I’m million. like So the person behind you is dragging you down and you’re drinking, but there’s a lot of ways to think about this.
00:18:04.99
Louise Porteri: I just love that we all we were just at the exact same spot.
00:18:05.57
Brad Grochowski: Uh,
00:18:09.79
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:18:09.75
Louise Porteri: Like, it just, I mean, that I think that’s why we reached out to each other.
00:18:09.99
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:10.20
Troy Holden: Yeah,
00:18:13.39
Louise Porteri: It’s so much easier to to be real with people that are at your level.
00:18:13.66
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:18:20.19
Louise Porteri: You know, like we just, you know, like I said, we just hit it off right away. Yeah.
00:18:25.46
Troy Holden: yeah and we it was funny. We were all drinking the same Kool-Aid, and we were discussing it, and the the longer it went on and the longer we discussed it, the longer we were going, you know, there’s may not be the…
00:18:38.99
Troy Holden: the exact best route.
00:18:39.31
Louise Porteri: The right path or…
00:18:41.10
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:18:41.18
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:18:41.38
Troy Holden: There may be something a little better.
00:18:41.50
Brad Grochowski: and
00:18:42.90
Troy Holden: And we all three were looking to see where does this need to go? and And we all went on our adventures.
00:18:46.55
Louise Porteri: We were figuring it out.
00:18:48.20
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:18:48.22
Troy Holden: Yeah, exactly.
00:18:48.31
Louise Porteri: Yeah, together.
00:18:49.06
Troy Holden: But we shared that, which kept us from going down another rabbit hole.
00:18:49.02
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:18:50.70
Brad Grochowski: who
00:18:50.64
Louise Porteri: Yes.
00:18:52.98
Troy Holden: So it was a big help.
00:18:53.18
Louise Porteri: Yeah, exactly.
00:18:53.28
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah, because if if any of the the three of us had been isolated, then it’s easy to sort of just get stuck in that place. And for the three of us to sort of give each other permission to grow out of that, that I think that helped us all really move move beyond it.
00:19:05.80
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:19:08.16
Louise Porteri: Absolutely.
00:19:08.66
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:19:08.68
Louise Porteri: And just have yeah those sounding boards for like, does this sound right to you
00:19:11.55
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:13.08
Louise Porteri: Should I be paying this much money for x y and z
00:19:16.89
Troy Holden: Right.
00:19:16.89
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Which we still do with each other all the time.
00:19:19.40
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:19:21.37
Brad Grochowski: Like, all the time.
00:19:21.52
Troy Holden: Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:22.83
Brad Grochowski: ah And so just having someone who’s outside your own head to bounce things off of is just so valuable.
00:19:29.63
Troy Holden: Right.
00:19:30.39
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:19:30.70
Brad Grochowski: And…
00:19:30.73
Troy Holden: Right.
00:19:31.29
Louise Porteri: That really has a vested interest in you as a friend.
00:19:36.01
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:19:36.43
Louise Porteri: you know Because coaches and mentors are great, but you know there’s a monetary aspect to it, right?
00:19:43.08
Brad Grochowski: And they can only get so invested. Plus, catching them up on your whole history, that’s always so painful.
00:19:45.32
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:19:48.43
Louise Porteri: Yeah, exactly.
00:19:48.69
Brad Grochowski: Like, it’s such a ah task. Whereas we’ are we already know all that about each other, so…
00:19:53.66
Troy Holden: Right, right.
00:19:54.27
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:19:55.30
Troy Holden: I was just ah randomly, I said, I’m going to scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll wherever it stops.
00:19:55.30
Brad Grochowski: I don’t know,
00:19:59.93
Troy Holden: I’m going to say, here’s here’s a good example of something we talked about.
00:20:03.16
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:20:03.31
Troy Holden: And it landed in the worst place, but here it is. Here’s the conversation.
00:20:06.64
Brad Grochowski: Uh-huh.
00:20:07.52
Louise Porteri: ah no Hopefully no one knows what we’re talking about.
00:20:07.85
Troy Holden: I have a real hard time talking about income.
00:20:10.87
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:20:11.03
Troy Holden: And this person’s talk, I won’t mention their name, was really dumb. It reeked of, you all suck, but I’m awesome. It was super condescending and arrogant, not very attractive.
00:20:19.40
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:20:22.56
Troy Holden: The next message, ooh, I just listened to what a narcissist. And though you wait none of us would ever go, no, we would never go public with any of that.
00:20:31.84
Brad Grochowski: You’re talking about me, so let’s be honest about that.
00:20:33.84
Troy Holden: That’s what I’m saying. But you have the opportunity to let that out among us and know it’s not going anywhere.
00:20:34.98
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:20:37.92
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:20:38.17
Louise Porteri: Yes.
00:20:40.43
Troy Holden: And and a lot of times we’re over letting it out.
00:20:41.42
Brad Grochowski: You say as you just read it out loud on our podcast.
00:20:44.32
Troy Holden: Well, you know, and no names, no names were mentioned.
00:20:47.54
Brad Grochowski: i know
00:20:48.35
Troy Holden: No names were mentioned, but…
00:20:49.44
Louise Porteri: Yeah. Just to be clear, I wasn’t in on that conversation.
00:20:49.86
Brad Grochowski: Well, it yeah, a thousand percent.
00:20:51.86
Louise Porteri: Just joking. Um,
00:20:56.00
Brad Grochowski: You know, and just as another example, and and and this was Louise and I specifically, and and sometimes three is good, but sometimes you just, Troy, sometimes there’s things that I reach out to you about and and sometimes Louise and it it just, yeah.
00:20:56.13
Troy Holden: But that’s the kind of stuff that’s…
00:21:08.40
Troy Holden: Yep, same.
00:21:09.79
Brad Grochowski: And I was just having an awful day. I was just having a spiral. And I’m like, I feel that I’m not going to, do we swear on our podcast? I can’t remember.
00:21:18.08
Louise Porteri: Yes, we do.
00:21:18.99
Brad Grochowski: Okay. I’m like, man, I always feel like I’m just shitting my pants all the time. Like I’m like always flipping out. Like if I’m not getting enough work, I’m shitting my pants because I can’t pay my rent or my mortgage. If I’m getting too much work, I’m shitting my pants because I can’t get it all done.
00:21:32.58
Brad Grochowski: If I’m somewhere in the middle, I’m shitting my pants because blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, what do I do? When does this end? And Louise is like, first of all, it doesn’t end. This is our life now.
00:21:41.38
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:21:42.50
Brad Grochowski: And second, take a step back and maybe do some, I don’t remember exactly how you set it, but you know, look into,
00:21:47.86
Louise Porteri: I said maybe start a mindfulness practice that is kind of centered around gratitude.
00:21:51.63
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:21:53.95
Louise Porteri: And i really meant it.
00:21:54.83
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:21:56.40
Louise Porteri: And i i I’m not a toxic positivity fan, but there is a point that you reach where you have to step back and go, okay, where am I actually at?
00:22:01.10
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:22:08.14
Louise Porteri: Because you’re your you know your negative ah self-talk is going to derail you and it doesn’t serve you.
00:22:08.43
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:22:15.84
Brad Grochowski: And to be honest, I didn’t start a ah and ah practice or anything. But what you said to me framed my… It just put things back into perspective for myself.
00:22:27.98
Louise Porteri: Oh, I’m so glad.
00:22:29.10
Brad Grochowski: Like, it just…
00:22:29.48
Louise Porteri: And I mean, that’s all I mean, too. It’s like a a practice can be as simple as when you catch yourself really going there.
00:22:31.40
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:22:35.64
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:37.57
Troy Holden: who
00:22:37.55
Louise Porteri: The practice practice mindfulness about it. And then you’re what are you grateful for? you know, you have a lot to be grateful for.
00:22:45.97
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:22:48.18
Louise Porteri: So.
00:22:48.56
Brad Grochowski: And it that just it just turned me 90 degrees and sent me in the right direction. And it…
00:22:53.99
Louise Porteri: Oh, God, I’m glad, because I really thought that it would enrage you.
00:22:55.94
Troy Holden: Perfect. Perfect.
00:22:58.17
Louise Porteri: I was like, sound because sometimes that’s not what you want to hear. You just want to blow off steam, which i also think it’s good to have friends you can blow off steam to. We do that with each other all the time, um as evidenced by Troy reading that excerpt out loud.
00:23:08.28
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:14.31
Louise Porteri: um but But it’s also good to have a reality check of just like, you know, you need the balance.
00:23:20.19
Troy Holden: It is.
00:23:21.32
Louise Porteri: Like we can’t just always be bitching and moaning.
00:23:25.68
Troy Holden: Right.
00:23:25.88
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, exactly.
00:23:25.97
Louise Porteri: That’s not healthy either.
00:23:27.03
Troy Holden: this um This morning was a good example for me of how thankful I am to have all this chaos of voiceover because I walk in the kitchen, I look out my dogs in the backyard, they’re just running back and forth, barking.
00:23:27.99
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:23:40.38
Troy Holden: I’m like, something’s wrong. There’s deer in the field, probably something going on. And I look and I see only two horses and I have 11 and the two are like running back and forth across the fence.
00:23:44.68
Louise Porteri: boy.
00:23:51.35
Troy Holden: And I like the rest of those don’t look like they’re on my property, the other, the other nine.
00:23:55.66
Brad Grochowski: Ugh.
00:23:57.00
Louise Porteri: Oh, boy.
00:23:57.48
Troy Holden: And so I go outside, go around the side of the building. And yes, there were by that time, 10 on the other side of the fence, one who just would not cross the gap area. And what happened, deer had broken through and torn the fence down. It’s a rope electric fence, and the deer tore it down, so the horses went, hey, we’ll leave.
00:24:16.08
Troy Holden: They weren’t far.
00:24:16.22
Louise Porteri: my
00:24:17.04
Brad Grochowski: Dear.
00:24:17.09
Troy Holden: They weren’t, you know, they weren’t 50 yards away. But if I were still working and Amy were still working a day shift job, and she’s home during the day, she’s taking a nap now because she’ll work tonight, but I wouldn’t have been here to see that and take care of it.
00:24:26.20
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:24:32.76
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:24:33.12
Troy Holden: i don’t you know And my neighbors aren’t home.
00:24:33.11
Louise Porteri: Right. Yeah.
00:24:35.17
Troy Holden: They’re all gone. So they could have wandered off, got out on the highway.
00:24:36.27
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:24:39.03
Troy Holden: you know it could have been terrible. And things like that happen a lot on a farm. And I’m here all the time to take care of things if something happens.
00:24:44.90
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:24:45.84
Troy Holden: I’m very thankful for that. Although that was chaotic and stressful, I came back in being thankful I was here and I could take care of it and we could get them back in.
00:24:53.17
Louise Porteri: Exactly. that’s and That’s exactly what I mean. It’s just like so shit goes sideways all the time.
00:24:56.63
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah. Can I…
00:24:58.21
Louise Porteri: That’s…
00:24:58.31
Troy Holden: Yeah, yeah, life that’s what life is.
00:24:59.16
Brad Grochowski: can i
00:24:59.63
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:25:00.81
Troy Holden: i’m pretty sure that’s on a t-shirt, Life’s a Shit Show, and I don’t know where you buy that, but that’s what it is.
00:25:06.76
Brad Grochowski: Can I just say, you when you messenger messaged us and you’re like, oh, I’m going to try and be on time, but my horses jumped the fence. I’m like, like literally, or is that like a, like, is that like a metaphor?
00:25:19.01
Brad Grochowski: Like it’s, it’s such a proverbial problem, right?
00:25:19.95
Troy Holden: Yeah, I know what you mean, because, yeah.
00:25:21.73
Brad Grochowski: Like but my, my horses jumped the fence and they’re in the neighboring pasture.
00:25:22.34
Troy Holden: yeah
00:25:22.30
Louise Porteri: Yeah. I, and I love that you have, i feel like Troy is living my other dream life.
00:25:27.04
Brad Grochowski: So I’m going to be late.
00:25:29.90
Louise Porteri: Like I’m pretty much living my dream life now, but with where I live, but my other dream was always to like live on a big farm out in the country and have horses.
00:25:30.35
Brad Grochowski: Okay.
00:25:40.51
Louise Porteri: I don’t think I’d want that now.
00:25:40.93
Troy Holden: Yeah, it’s…
00:25:40.98
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:25:42.02
Louise Porteri: It sounds like a lot of work, but, um, yeah.
00:25:43.85
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:25:43.99
Troy Holden: It is. It is. Oh my gosh. Expensive. Um, you know, they, they live a long time. A lot of people don’t realize, you know a horse can live 30, 35 years.
00:25:55.96
Troy Holden: A lot of them can.
00:25:56.16
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:25:56.88
Troy Holden: And most of mine are somewhere between the age of 10 and 20. Um, I got a couple that are over 20.
00:26:01.32
Louise Porteri: Wow.
00:26:04.22
Troy Holden: I had one pass a few years ago that was 33. um and then I had another one pass that was only, 20. Um, horney But you never know.
00:26:13.71
Louise Porteri: Right. It’s a big commitment.
00:26:15.26
Troy Holden: And, um you know, so with 11 and we feed ah we feed hay daily.
00:26:16.31
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:19.72
Troy Holden: We feed hay all winter. We feed grain and and beet pulp all the time. that a lot of them are on supplements because they’re like people. They all, you know, like us, we don’t all have the same.
00:26:34.26
Troy Holden: routines with our intestinal movement, you know, so they don’t either.
00:26:36.59
Louise Porteri: um
00:26:38.02
Troy Holden: I mean, they have, have some of them that are this way and that way.
00:26:38.65
Louise Porteri: They all have their own unique makeup. Yeah.
00:26:41.14
Troy Holden: So we, we have to give them different supplements.
00:26:41.58
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:26:42.86
Troy Holden: Some of them’s feet don’t grow, grow well.
00:26:42.95
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:26:44.91
Troy Holden: You have to have supplements for that. Some of them have these issues. And my wife is like a horse pharmacist. She makes sure they all get everything they need and they are all extremely healthy because she takes such good care of them.
00:26:50.93
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:26:57.49
Troy Holden: And we probably haven’t ridden and over a year because she had two back surgeries and
00:27:02.68
Louise Porteri: Right.
00:27:03.29
Troy Holden: I started having back issues and I’m having the injections now and she’s not cleared to ride again yet. And even if we never ride them again, we’ve been, we’ve been, um i won’t say burden, but we’ve been awarded the right or the the gift to take care of them.
00:27:10.58
Louise Porteri: and
00:27:20.37
Troy Holden: And that’s what we do.
00:27:20.70
Louise Porteri: I mean, that it’s in itself, just how you destroy described all that sounds like its own full-time job. Like, it’s crazy.
00:27:27.17
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:28.50
Troy Holden: It’s a job.
00:27:28.51
Louise Porteri: um But I love hearing you talk about it.
00:27:29.43
Troy Holden: It is.
00:27:30.62
Louise Porteri: I especially love hearing you talk about it with your… You’re from Tennessee, right? You don’t just live there.
00:27:36.88
Troy Holden: Well, let let me tell you how this accent came to be.
00:27:37.68
Louise Porteri: Or are you? Okay.
00:27:39.80
Troy Holden: This might be of interest.
00:27:40.12
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:27:41.44
Troy Holden: um I was born in Nashville or around Nashville, and we ah my dad decided we were going to move
00:27:45.16
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:27:50.19
Troy Holden: Right before my brother was born, this was about 1968, we moved to Texas. So we went and spent time in Texas. Then he came back. We came back to Nashville for just a short time. Then he took another job, and where did he go then? Georgia.
00:28:07.46
Louise Porteri: Oh.
00:28:07.60
Troy Holden: So I had no choice. I have Texas, Georgia, Tennessee all mixed together, and no matter what you do with that, it’s Southern.
00:28:12.41
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:28:16.49
Troy Holden: you know it’s just It’s not going to be anything but.
00:28:17.57
Brad Grochowski: Oh
00:28:20.01
Troy Holden: But I have learned in by doing voiceover that I have what is called a southern business accent because of growing up and working you know in the corporate world and and the manufacturing world so long, ah have what is a, I guess it’s a little more acceptable than the old hillbilly.
00:28:20.05
Louise Porteri: Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:37.77
Louise Porteri: Like more polished or something. That’s so interesting. Yeah, because if you if you’re not familiar with all of the nuance of Southern accents in the United States, you would never know that.
00:28:45.44
Troy Holden: Oh, gosh, it’s so much.
00:28:45.81
Brad Grochowski: oh my gosh.
00:28:48.06
Troy Holden: Yeah, the Appalachian.
00:28:48.18
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:28:48.42
Louise Porteri: Hey, tell about tell us about being told by a prominent VO o coach who we shall not name that you would never make it with your accent.
00:28:56.91
Troy Holden: um Yeah, I remember when I first, I was probably six months or a year in, and I thought it’s time to go get a demo. So I started shopping around and getting prices. I thought, well, I won’t be getting one anytime soon. i didn’t realize it was that expensive.
00:29:10.98
Troy Holden: But they told me point blank, you would you know you probably can make a bit of a living. You’ve got some talent from what I hear, but you’ll never make six figures.
00:29:22.61
Troy Holden: And, you know, that at first I was like, crap, I’m wasting my time. I should have known.
00:29:28.01
Louise Porteri: Because of your accent.
00:29:28.35
Troy Holden: but, but
00:29:28.85
Louise Porteri: They specifically said because…
00:29:29.32
Troy Holden: yeah Right. Because of your Southern accent. and And I said, well, I have two options. I either work to eliminate it, which probably is not going to happen, or I can work to control it in some instances where I don’t sound too ridiculous.
00:29:44.42
Troy Holden: And maybe I can make a decent living. I don’t have to make, you know, a half million dollars a year. I’ll just make, you know, long as I make a living, I won’t have to work.
00:29:52.73
Louise Porteri: But I feel like what you’ve done is, and we don’t need to talk about who earns how much now, because we know that we’re all doing pretty darn well.
00:29:52.91
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:53.46
Troy Holden: But
00:30:00.81
Louise Porteri: um But you’ve really, i feel like you’ve leaned into it. Like you do not shy away from it.
00:30:06.40
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:30:06.99
Troy Holden: I had to.
00:30:08.20
Louise Porteri: You’ve branded yourself as that voice.
00:30:08.43
Troy Holden: I had to.
00:30:10.12
Louise Porteri: And I feel like that that’s a great example of sort of to be yourself.
00:30:16.34
Troy Holden: Be you. That’s the thing.
00:30:18.02
Louise Porteri: Exactly.
00:30:18.87
Troy Holden: You have to be you.
00:30:19.10
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:30:19.18
Louise Porteri: that’s what they That’s what all these coaches say all the time anyway.
00:30:21.58
Troy Holden: Yeah, and they’re right. They’re right because I have booked things I shouldn’t have booked, ah not because I was or was not Southern, but because of the way I could interpret the copy and sell the feeling of what they wanted to sell.
00:30:23.29
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:30:26.32
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:30:33.97
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:30:36.11
Troy Holden: And they didn’t care what accent it was once you sold it the right way. ah You know, that’s all that mattered. But, i ah you know, I still run into it a lot, um and that’s okay. But what I have learned to do, especially in the past year,
00:30:51.58
Troy Holden: If it’s not a fit for me, walk away. It doesn’t matter.
00:30:54.50
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:30:54.55
Troy Holden: There’s enough out there that is. And by building a direct business on my own and working very, very hard at that, because 70 to 75% of what I bill every month is direct.
00:31:06.36
Troy Holden: It’s not off of online casting. It’s not agent work. It’s stuff I went out and got, you know, and and marketed for and worked hard for.
00:31:12.98
Louise Porteri: That’s very impressive, I have to say.
00:31:13.79
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. And you’re fantastic at that.
00:31:15.24
Louise Porteri: Yeah, I’m not there at all.
00:31:15.55
Brad Grochowski: I have to say.
00:31:15.64
Troy Holden: Yeah, yeah and that’s and that’s not easy to do, but I knew I had to go that route because I had to find people that would use me for me because it was too difficult.
00:31:17.45
Louise Porteri: Yeah. No.
00:31:26.92
Troy Holden: I went through some dialect coaching, and yes, there I can turn down a lot of words and correct a lot of words where they’re not overly Southern, but the Southern will never go away.
00:31:38.04
Troy Holden: So I just have to make the best of it and embrace it.
00:31:40.83
Louise Porteri: I think you’ve totally done that.
00:31:40.97
Brad Grochowski: I was going to… Yeah, you totally…
00:31:42.50
Louise Porteri: Go ahead, Brad.
00:31:43.26
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, I was just going to ask you. i love, ah you know, watching late night ah interviews where they have British people who take on an American accent or whatever.
00:31:53.04
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:31:54.29
Brad Grochowski: and it’s it’s always so fascinating to me as ah as an actor who…
00:31:54.72
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:31:57.72
Brad Grochowski: I’m not an accent guy and I’m not a You know, I’m not a voices guy, but would you do like your best neutral American accent for us?
00:32:09.80
Brad Grochowski: I just want to hear it.
00:32:10.89
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm. Well, where that works best for me is when i when I say, okay, this is a Harrison Ford read. and And then it becomes…
00:32:17.66
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:32:20.05
Troy Holden: ah deeper and and a little bit raspier and whatever.
00:32:24.44
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:32:24.67
Troy Holden: So it’s anytime you’re looking in this area of the country, maybe you should look for a new Chevrolet truck to get you there.
00:32:33.17
Louise Porteri: That’s pretty darn good.
00:32:33.38
Troy Holden: You know, so something like that works.
00:32:35.16
Louise Porteri: There’s like a slight twang, but it is very neutralized, I thought.
00:32:35.37
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:37.80
Troy Holden: but it’s not they But they hear it more as a, ah you know, out northwest twang or some Midwest Northwest.
00:32:45.10
Louise Porteri: Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:47.21
Troy Holden: And I do a lot of reads that way. And I book a lot of work that way. And and then I book ah book the folksy version of that is, well, we’re going out there today and we’re going to go fishing on this beautiful river.
00:32:50.26
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:32:50.42
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:32:58.59
Troy Holden: And we’ll say,
00:32:58.65
Louise Porteri: I feel like you sound like the da-batist guy.
00:32:59.28
Troy Holden: but yeah It does. It does.
00:33:01.60
Louise Porteri: It’s great.
00:33:01.88
Brad Grochowski: Wilford Brimley.
00:33:01.92
Troy Holden: it it it
00:33:02.27
Louise Porteri: I love it.
00:33:03.01
Troy Holden: And, you know, that that’s gotten me work with, I do five outdoor shows in that voice, and that’s a perfect fit for that.
00:33:09.37
Louise Porteri: Yeah. And this is such a great lesson for anyone who’s listening.
00:33:11.34
Troy Holden: But…
00:33:13.39
Louise Porteri: If if you’ve got like a unique voice print or and unique accent or anything like that, like there’s just these niches that you can get into, like the outdoor um stuff that you voice, you’re perfect for that.
00:33:14.03
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:33:26.55
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:33:26.84
Troy Holden: Yeah, you can find those things. And, you know, radio imaging was also another great area for me to go into because and and i and I’m doing a light rock station.
00:33:28.71
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:33:32.56
Louise Porteri: For like country stations, right?
00:33:36.55
Troy Holden: I’m doing a ah um i’m doing a talk radio station.
00:33:36.72
Louise Porteri: Oh, are you? Amazing.
00:33:40.39
Troy Holden: But what I do is try to do a transatlantic or something for the talk radio. It’s you’re listening to WLYN, Indiana’s talk radio.
00:33:50.29
Louise Porteri: I love it.
00:33:50.55
Troy Holden: You know, something like that. Or, but country can go both ways. You know, it’s 98 country WSIXFM or it’s you’re listening to Rebel Legends right here.
00:34:00.82
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:01.55
Louise Porteri: Oh, like a little Sam Elliott kind of action, yeah.
00:34:01.80
Troy Holden: So you’ve, yeah. So you’ve got so many ways you can go.
00:34:03.90
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:34:04.45
Louise Porteri: Nice.
00:34:06.07
Troy Holden: And a lot of people say, well, that’s not your voice. Yes, it is.
00:34:09.09
Louise Porteri: It totally is.
00:34:09.17
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:34:09.47
Troy Holden: It’s just, it’s, and and this is a golf bag that I carry with me into my booth.
00:34:13.59
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:34:14.91
Troy Holden: And when I see that copy, I go, which club are we playing?
00:34:18.02
Louise Porteri: Yeah, nice.
00:34:18.55
Troy Holden: Because, and I have to, i have to pick a club and I have to really stick with that club.
00:34:22.97
Louise Porteri: I’m similar to that. And I think, i you know, i wouldn’t be where I am right now if I didn’t have that toolkit of just being able to do multiple accents convincingly.
00:34:33.32
Troy Holden: Oh gosh, your accents are great.
00:34:34.02
Louise Porteri: And
00:34:35.28
Troy Holden: I would love to be able to do accents.
00:34:35.49
Louise Porteri: i if I only had just my neutral kind of North American to rely on, I mean, maybe I would have. kind of got specific coaching or something but like it’s just it served me so well I’ve done such a variety of projects and it it’s just like expanded the the the opportunities so
00:34:44.99
Brad Grochowski: Well, and that’s a… check I mean…
00:34:50.72
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:34:52.55
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:34:56.84
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. And I’ll be honest…
00:34:57.63
Troy Holden: that’s what’s so hard to answer when people say, what do you specialize in? I say, don’t specialize in anything.
00:35:03.27
Louise Porteri: I know I was gonna ask in terms of genre or niches if you’re mostly booking a certain yeah
00:35:04.02
Troy Holden: I’ll take, I’ll take anything. Yeah. Anything that’s thrown at me. ah I do probably a good amount of commercial, but you know, with the the narration, I still have one YouTube channel left called space matters.
00:35:16.92
Troy Holden: If you want to go to YouTube and look up space matters and hear Southern, Southern narration, talking about the planets and dinosaurs, you know, and, and,
00:35:19.93
Louise Porteri: I’ve seen you or heard you yet.
00:35:20.79
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:35:24.35
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Which I love.
00:35:25.34
Troy Holden: ah It shocked me.
00:35:26.98
Brad Grochowski: And that, and that’s something I was actually wanted to address is like, you have opportunities to do plenty of things where, like aren’t accent reliant, right?
00:35:40.44
Brad Grochowski: Like they may be looking for neutral American accent, but if you’re able to really connect with the text and you’re really willing to do a good job,
00:35:40.78
Troy Holden: Right, right.
00:35:53.55
Brad Grochowski: the fact that you have an accent is either an added bonus for them or it doesn’t really matter.
00:35:58.55
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:35:59.34
Brad Grochowski: And so you have a lot of that sort of neutral work, but you can go into stuff that requires a Southern accent that I just can’t, like I can’t often, if I, if I audition for something with a Southern accent, it’s not going to be authentic.
00:35:59.69
Louise Porteri: There
00:35:59.96
Troy Holden: Very true. Yeah.
00:36:02.71
Troy Holden: yeah
00:36:13.12
Brad Grochowski: Right.
00:36:13.94
Troy Holden: Yeah, yeah, and I had four, oddly, four in one day from agents, four authentic Southern accent only.
00:36:14.47
Brad Grochowski: Um,
00:36:22.50
Troy Holden: Do not fake an accent if you are not, you know, indebted and that’s fantastic.
00:36:24.23
Louise Porteri: so you go
00:36:26.21
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:36:27.37
Troy Holden: To see four in one day was crazy, but let me tell you, God honest truth, that puts a ton of pressure on me in my head because I’m thinking these four are up to me to lose.
00:36:38.64
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:36:38.73
Troy Holden: And I shouldn’t do that because the pressure’s there because I don’t see that many.
00:36:39.19
Louise Porteri: Oh, yeah.
00:36:43.38
Troy Holden: But then again, like I said, i will book sometimes where it didn’t say that. um my My favorite one is when it says, um you know, we’re not really looking for British or Australian or blah, blah.
00:36:48.42
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:36:55.44
Troy Holden: We just want something where you can’t really tell where you’re from. And I can muddle the heck out of an accent.
00:36:58.75
Louise Porteri: Right.
00:37:00.83
Troy Holden: I mean, I can take it and it sounds Australian, British, something else. I don’t know what it is, you know,
00:37:06.24
Louise Porteri: Yeah, I’ve seen those too. It’s really interesting. i guess they’re maybe just for like a broader European market sometimes.
00:37:08.40
Troy Holden: Yeah, and I’ve booked, I have booked them.
00:37:11.45
Louise Porteri: Or even an American market where where they and can’t tell or they don’t want it to be so thick that they lose their American audience, maybe?
00:37:11.95
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:37:12.09
Troy Holden: I think so, yeah.
00:37:18.30
Troy Holden: Right.
00:37:19.36
Brad Grochowski: But they want that air of culture that um a nondescript generic.
00:37:21.03
Louise Porteri: Yeah, or something.
00:37:22.14
Troy Holden: Yeah, yeah, i’ve done I’ve done a couple of video games that that was what they wanted, but most of my video games that i book, I’m always the the warrior or the wizard or something.
00:37:32.09
Louise Porteri: Right. Right.
00:37:32.36
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:37:32.76
Troy Holden: It’s stuff like that, but.
00:37:35.03
Brad Grochowski: I really, I mean, I’m jealous that, you know, i don’t, i I have a hard time with accents and I i have a hard time doing voice um voice matches and things like that.
00:37:46.99
Brad Grochowski: Like, it’s something I need to work on.
00:37:47.37
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:37:48.97
Brad Grochowski: And so, like, i that’s a whole piece of career that I just don’t have. Fortunately, I benefit, or unfortunately, depending on the angle you’re looking at it, but from…
00:38:01.12
Brad Grochowski: you know, the majority of the work is for cisgendered white men. Like, there’s enough work for that that I’m able to stay busy, but…
00:38:12.10
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:38:12.12
Troy Holden: Well, they one of the things that I’ve tried to do is I know where I just call it my base of business. I know I have this certain base of business. It’s what I’m decent at.
00:38:21.62
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:38:22.89
Louise Porteri: Right.
00:38:23.16
Troy Holden: And then um i decided this year, you’re going to pick something. You got three months and you’re going to pick something and you’re going to go all out with the coaching to do it.
00:38:32.11
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:38:32.38
Troy Holden: Because I know, you you know, you got to pick something to challenge you to go after, to expand your business.
00:38:37.86
Louise Porteri: And I feel like, didn’t is that what you just did with the radio imaging?
00:38:38.40
Troy Holden: And
00:38:40.89
Louise Porteri: Is that that’s the most recent kind of iteration of that?
00:38:41.39
Troy Holden: um Well, radio imaging was radio imaging was a thing I always wanted because I loved radio. I wanted to be a disc jockey when I was a kid.
00:38:47.53
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:38:49.24
Troy Holden: But the radio imaging, I kind of accidentally fell into it. I went to a couple of workshops. I learned how to produce it And then it was like, they told me, you don’t really need any coaching.
00:39:00.18
Troy Holden: You know, you got it. You don’t really, you so I kind of ran with it and it’s kind of a spoke in the wheel.
00:39:02.07
Louise Porteri: Nice.
00:39:05.64
Troy Holden: I don’t ever look for that to be a big thing for me, but what I’m going after this year, I do because I feel like it is my thing. And it’s, it all revolves around storytelling.
00:39:17.90
Troy Holden: ah Whether I’m using that deeper voice or whatever, i have found that I can pull people in, you know, I can, I can pull them in and make them want to listen. What is he saying? I want to hear what he, is he going to finish, you know, or whatever.
00:39:31.02
Troy Holden: And so I want to go after the in-show narration market because it’s not completely clogged up. Um, there are a lot of good opportunities for a voice like mine and I can use the variety of voices.
00:39:44.14
Brad Grochowski: I would think so, yeah.
00:39:45.63
Troy Holden: So I have scheduled and I’ve already got coaching set up to start this month with Tom Pinto and I’m excited and cannot wait.
00:39:52.54
Louise Porteri: Oh, nice.
00:39:54.57
Troy Holden: um And
00:39:55.25
Louise Porteri: And so do you know, is that like, that’s non-union work and also, is that mostly like agent sourced or?
00:39:59.64
Troy Holden: it can be both.
00:40:02.50
Troy Holden: it’s It’s mostly agents.
00:40:02.82
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:40:04.06
Troy Holden: um And here’s the beauty of of some people in this industry when you get to know them and they believe in you.
00:40:04.30
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:40:10.46
Troy Holden: And I have a couple of people that I couldn’t have gotten where I am without them you know, reaching out to me or coming to me and saying, I want you to go talk to this person. You know, you’re better than what you’re getting. You need to go talk to this person.
00:40:25.88
Troy Holden: And they would send an email to both of us and say, you know, hey, this is so-and-so. I want you to meet so-and-so. And I have gotten, you know, agents that way. I’ve gotten a lot of good things happen that way.
00:40:37.02
Troy Holden: So that’s where this came from as I was struggling to say, I need to pick something and really go after it. a ah A person who I count on for things like that, said, here’s what I hear. The more I listen to you, you know, with your progression over the last year or two and this, is this, this, I really think you could make money here. And here’s how it works. And they explained to me which agents have those jobs, who is booking most of those jobs, what are the different genres in that.
00:41:05.99
Troy Holden: And I’m like, yeah, that’s exactly what I’m looking to do. And it and it was.
00:41:09.89
Louise Porteri: That’s super cool.
00:41:10.21
Troy Holden: but But it took a while to find that. I mean, I’m five years in and now I really know, the industry’s telling me that it’s not me picking and choosing.
00:41:20.38
Troy Holden: And that’s what you have to learn in this industry. And you guys know that the, the industry will point you to where you are the best and, you know, the best genre or whatever that works for you.
00:41:23.27
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:41:30.54
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:41:30.56
Louise Porteri: To a degree, but I also think, you know, what you’re saying is you’re sort of taking the bull by the horns on this one, too.
00:41:30.68
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:41:36.10
Louise Porteri: um And kind of, you know,
00:41:38.88
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:41:39.39
Louise Porteri: um you’re choosing it, which I think, you know what I mean?
00:41:43.34
Troy Holden: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. That part too.
00:41:46.16
Louise Porteri: there was I think it’s a mix of both.
00:41:48.31
Troy Holden: It is, and
00:41:48.30
Louise Porteri: I think there’s things that I’ve done where I’m like, oh, I never expected to do. Like, I’ve done so much video game stuff that I’m just…
00:41:52.12
Troy Holden: yes, if if you’d have told me three years ago that you’re going to be on a Pfizer commercial, I’d say, there’s no way.
00:42:00.57
Louise Porteri: Right.
00:42:00.96
Troy Holden: They’ll never hire me for anything like that, but they did.
00:42:03.02
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:42:04.45
Troy Holden: You know, I did get the spot, and and if you’d have told me when I got into this that I could use my auctioneer background to book voiceover, I’d have never believed that either.
00:42:10.80
Louise Porteri: I love that.
00:42:13.17
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:42:13.48
Troy Holden: You know?
00:42:13.49
Brad Grochowski: Usually when you were starting out.
00:42:13.53
Louise Porteri: That’s so, hey, give us, wait, to give us a little auctioneer example.
00:42:16.82
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:42:18.09
Louise Porteri: And actually, can I just say, you helped me a lot. I didn’t book the job, but there was a job, an audition that I got through my agent where i had to imitate like an auctioneer kind of person.
00:42:22.42
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:42:29.62
Louise Porteri: And i sent you that script and I was like, help me with this.
00:42:32.98
Troy Holden: Yep. Yep.
00:42:34.14
Louise Porteri: And you totally did. And I know I nailed it. They went with somebody else, but I guaranteed they didn’t do as well as I did.
00:42:38.82
Troy Holden: Yeah, well, that’s… the The last one I booked, or the one before I actually ah was with Yeti. And it was just rambling off all of these different new products they were coming out with.
00:42:53.81
Troy Holden: and And it was really hard because, you know, you’re saying words like cast iron skillet, ah so-and-so water bag, some kind of backpack. But it’s it’s got to be like an auctioneer. And it was really hard.
00:43:05.91
Troy Holden: But they had been to two major agencies and could not find anybody. And I said, well, you have to be an auctioneer or somebody teach you and train you how to do it. Because, you know, you go to school for that.
00:43:14.27
Louise Porteri: Yeah, yeah. Okay, give us your action here, boys. Let’s hear it.
00:43:18.92
Troy Holden: Hey, $1 and $5 and $2, $5 and $25 and $30 and $35 and $40, $40, $50 bill. Who will get $50, $50? We’ll get $50 now. Sold $50.
00:43:26.68
Brad Grochowski: Yes! I got it.
00:43:27.93
Louise Porteri: love It’s so good.
00:43:29.04
Brad Grochowski: That was brilliant.
00:43:29.33
Louise Porteri: and
00:43:30.79
Troy Holden: yeah it It used to be a lot better when I did it all the time, but, you know, I haven’t yeah i haven’t live auctioned in probably 15 years.
00:43:34.52
Louise Porteri: ah
00:43:34.81
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:43:34.94
Louise Porteri: Well, that was pretty good.
00:43:40.14
Louise Porteri: That’s amazing that did that.
00:43:40.25
Brad Grochowski: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.
00:43:42.18
Troy Holden: But it’s fun. It’s fun. And yeah, one of my first jobs was DoorDash during COVID and it was, you were selling, you know, how many tacos, how many, how many are you going to give and blah, blah, blah and whatever.
00:43:52.91
Troy Holden: And yeah, one of my first real good voiceover jobs that I booked like on a pay to play was, yeah, it was DoorDash.
00:43:52.98
Louise Porteri: Oh, you mean one of your first voiceover jobs.
00:44:00.36
Louise Porteri: Yeah. That’s, ah yeah, that’s so cool. I love it.
00:44:04.12
Troy Holden: You never know, but I’ve done that for but like calling out bingo numbers for some, some company in Louisiana that was running a radio ad and,
00:44:12.53
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:44:12.88
Brad Grochowski: Oh
00:44:12.94
Troy Holden: You know, like B-52, B-51, B-52, B-B-B-B-51.
00:44:16.78
Brad Grochowski: my God.
00:44:17.02
Troy Holden: And you’re like, what the heck? You know, but whatever they want to pay for.
00:44:18.34
Louise Porteri: yeah Hey, do you have do you have it like one celebrity impression that you’re really good at?
00:44:26.33
Troy Holden: I got a couple. Yeah, I always thought my Ronald Reagan was really good.
00:44:29.79
Louise Porteri: Okay, let’s hear it. Let’s hear it.
00:44:31.49
Troy Holden: Well, my fellow Americans, it’s been a terrible, terrible economy this year.
00:44:38.76
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:44:39.12
Louise Porteri: That was really good.
00:44:41.04
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, that’s great.
00:44:41.22
Troy Holden: Yeah, I’ve always been able to do him. And then i always wanted to learn to do Trump and I couldn’t do it. And my wife said, just make fun of it instead of trying to do it.
00:44:52.10
Troy Holden: And then when I did it more as a comedy and trying to be funny, I started auditioning for a couple of things and I booked an actual car spot up in New York for a car dealership doing Donald Trump’s voice.
00:45:05.96
Troy Holden: I did a lumber, I did a lumber yard in Georgia.
00:45:06.21
Louise Porteri: Did you?
00:45:09.95
Troy Holden: You know, we’ve got wood. We’ve got the biggest wood you’ve ever seen. You know, and and and it’s not really, but it’s not really him.
00:45:14.10
Brad Grochowski: Wow, that’s great.
00:45:15.36
Louise Porteri: That really good, Troy!
00:45:18.78
Troy Holden: You know, it’s just me.
00:45:18.82
Louise Porteri: it
00:45:19.49
Brad Grochowski: Sure.
00:45:20.81
Troy Holden: Yeah, it’s just me, my voice.
00:45:21.39
Louise Porteri: It sounds pretty close, though.
00:45:23.16
Troy Holden: Yeah, but there’s, I don’t have the accent for it.
00:45:23.92
Brad Grochowski: And there’s a difference. Yeah, there’s a difference between doing ah an impression and and doing a sound alike. Right. Like you’re not you’re not trying to slot into, ah you know, a documentary where it’s supposed to be him.
00:45:30.12
Troy Holden: Right, right, right, right.
00:45:36.14
Brad Grochowski: You’re yeah, you’re it’s an impression.
00:45:36.64
Troy Holden: Right.
00:45:37.82
Louise Porteri: The parody is much funnier, anyways.
00:45:39.81
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:45:40.47
Troy Holden: That’s what I think.
00:45:40.57
Louise Porteri: Yeah. Because it’s the exaggerated…
00:45:41.46
Brad Grochowski: Much more interesting, too.
00:45:41.57
Troy Holden: You know, when when you’re…
00:45:43.17
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:45:43.44
Troy Holden: And the car thing was so funny because whoever had written the scripts that I got for all of those, they wrote them perfectly the way I would comically say he would say things.
00:45:44.34
Louise Porteri: yeah
00:45:54.34
Troy Holden: You know, like ah the Chevrolet dealer was like, they’re coming from China to buy our Chevrolets all the way from China. You know, and and and so they had it written to where you could play it up and it was great.
00:46:07.36
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:46:08.48
Troy Holden: But anyway, you’re still laughing at my MIDI joke.
00:46:09.65
Brad Grochowski: Sure.
00:46:10.64
Louise Porteri: I cannot.
00:46:11.70
Troy Holden: I know what you’re laughing at.
00:46:13.37
Louise Porteri: No, I’m laughing at the coming for the cats. It’s so funny. ah
00:46:21.55
Louise Porteri: ah
00:46:21.72
Troy Holden: And that, you know, it never and never was a political thing with me.
00:46:22.51
Louise Porteri: I’m crying.
00:46:24.44
Troy Holden: I don’t care. You know, I just, I don’t play that game.
00:46:26.05
Louise Porteri: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:46:26.18
Brad Grochowski: sure
00:46:28.13
Troy Holden: and And if I could have could have done a Joe Biden impersonation, I tried and I tried and it just, I couldn’t make it work. But I’ve done, yeah go way back, Richard Nixon, my follow Americans, let me make this perfectly clear.
00:46:34.22
Louise Porteri: right
00:46:41.30
Troy Holden: You know, and I’ve done, I have done a Richard Nixon um voiceover job. So it’s crazy.
00:46:48.62
Louise Porteri: so good. You’re really good at impressions.
00:46:49.50
Troy Holden: It’s just crazy. like
00:46:50.70
Louise Porteri: I don’t think I knew you had that many.
00:46:50.84
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:46:51.17
Troy Holden: I used i used to be used to be better when I was a kid, but all the ones I learned when I was a kid, they’re all dead and gone.
00:46:55.17
Brad Grochowski: Oh. My God.
00:46:57.45
Troy Holden: And when I do them, people are like, who is that again? I don’t know who that is.
00:47:00.70
Louise Porteri: Too funny.
00:47:01.00
Troy Holden: So,
00:47:00.98
Louise Porteri: And did you just say I’m still laughing at your middies joke?
00:47:04.46
Troy Holden: yes, I did.
00:47:04.83
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:47:05.17
Brad Grochowski: oh
00:47:05.23
Louise Porteri: So before we started recording, I feel like I have to say this because I wished I was hit.
00:47:07.14
Brad Grochowski: my god
00:47:09.83
Louise Porteri: I had hit record already. um I asked Troy if he was wearing cans. rather than having, you know, his speakers or monitors on. And he said, yes.
00:47:20.69
Louise Porteri: And I’m also wearing headphones. And i said, did I say? I said, oh, I’m not talking about your man boobs.
00:47:30.93
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
00:47:30.88
Louise Porteri: And then you said, we call those.
00:47:33.89
Troy Holden: Middies.
00:47:37.37
Troy Holden: And my my good buddy Charles Coke calls his moobies.
00:47:41.35
Brad Grochowski: Uh-huh.
00:47:41.64
Louise Porteri: i like middies.
00:47:42.05
Troy Holden: But I do too.
00:47:43.26
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:47:43.91
Troy Holden: I like middies.
00:47:44.02
Louise Porteri: That’s really funny.
00:47:44.83
Brad Grochowski: See, people, this is why you need a tight, close-knit group of a few friends so you can have these conversations.
00:47:48.54
Louise Porteri: You need a tricycle.
00:47:49.83
Troy Holden: That’s right. yeah
00:47:50.23
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:47:51.99
Troy Holden: You’d never have these these wonderful conversations. Yeah.
00:47:54.50
Louise Porteri: Yeah. It’s not moobs. It’s middies.
00:47:57.11
Troy Holden: Middies.
00:47:59.10
Brad Grochowski: How, i ah just to drag us back to the theme here, how, but Troy, you’re you’re like, I am really impressed by your ability to sort of network and just, like, get yourself out there.
00:48:03.30
Louise Porteri: Oh, boy.
00:48:03.44
Troy Holden: yeah
00:48:12.33
Brad Grochowski: Like, the energy it must take. I just, I don’t know where you get it, and I’m so impressed by it.
00:48:15.88
Troy Holden: Oh, Brad.
00:48:17.24
Louise Porteri: Well, yeah, because you’ve said you’re an introvert, too, so
00:48:19.95
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:48:20.26
Troy Holden: i am. am I’m a very i’m a very so to myself person.
00:48:21.51
Brad Grochowski: Like, for one, for example, how much,
00:48:24.60
Troy Holden: So, yeah.
00:48:25.02
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. But you you say that, and i believe i’m not I’m not questioning that, but at the same time, that’s not how it appears from the outside, right?
00:48:32.66
Troy Holden: No, I have a switch.
00:48:32.68
Brad Grochowski: Like, yeah.
00:48:34.30
Troy Holden: I have a switch.
00:48:34.95
Brad Grochowski: And I get the switch.
00:48:35.02
Troy Holden: And yeah, you yeah you understand that, I’m sure.
00:48:35.83
Brad Grochowski: I do. Yeah.
00:48:38.00
Louise Porteri: But I think most people would would, anybody who follows anything that you do, because you you put yourself out there and on sort of video on social media quite quite a lot.
00:48:46.23
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:48:47.44
Louise Porteri: Like, I don’t think anybody would know or even assume or guess that you are an introvert.
00:48:51.22
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:48:54.37
Troy Holden: Probably not. And and i you know I think a lot of that is boredom. for me because it’s create, I like the creativity, but if I’m home during the day and as you guys know, as your business progresses, you have a lot more free time than you had when you started.
00:49:03.94
Louise Porteri: Okay. Okay.
00:49:10.72
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:49:10.99
Brad Grochowski: i
00:49:10.95
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:49:11.62
Brad Grochowski: I can’t say that that’s true. I don’t.
00:49:13.45
Troy Holden: Well, ah i I think mine comes from the fact of i am not going to sit and wait for auditions.
00:49:14.32
Brad Grochowski: For me. For me, I mean.
00:49:19.79
Troy Holden: I’m not going to wait on things to come to me.
00:49:19.99
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:49:21.22
Brad Grochowski: Sure.
00:49:22.00
Troy Holden: I’m going to go look a couple times a day, and if something’s there I should do, I’ll do it. And I used to be of the mindset I had to sit right in front of my screen and had to watch all the pay-to-plays, and I had to watch all the the sites, and I had to do this, do that, and I drove myself nuts that first year and a half.
00:49:36.90
Troy Holden: And so when the time started freeing up, I’ve always liked creativity of any kind. I mean, I love to sing. I like the auctioneering thing.
00:49:43.95
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:49:45.18
Troy Holden: I can’t draw or anything, but I used to like to sketch house plans, you know, crazy things just to be creative.
00:49:51.24
Brad Grochowski: Hmm.
00:49:52.07
Louise Porteri: That’s so random.
00:49:53.33
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:49:53.56
Troy Holden: Yeah, random, very.
00:49:54.89
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:49:55.64
Troy Holden: And i like to cook. ah My wife will tell you she’s pretty much not allowed to cook. I do all the cooking around here because I enjoy it.
00:50:01.30
Louise Porteri: I’m the same. I love cooking. Cooking is my one of my creative outlets, too.
00:50:02.81
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:50:04.48
Troy Holden: I enjoy it.
00:50:05.04
Louise Porteri: Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:05.95
Troy Holden: And ah so anyway, the the videos and some I even started this last week, I watch other people and what they’re doing. im like I like, wonder if I could do that. You know, it’s kind of a challenge.
00:50:14.03
Louise Porteri: Okay.
00:50:15.08
Troy Holden: Could I do… One with just me in it, but it’s two people talking back and forth. Could I write a script funny enough for that?
00:50:19.45
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:50:19.80
Louise Porteri: Right.
00:50:21.46
Troy Holden: And course, what am I going to base it on? Southern idiots. Why not? ah Because it’s what I know. So I’ve got one guy going to the doctor with a rash and the doctor telling him what’s wrong and blah, bla blah blah, blah, and whatever.
00:50:31.89
Louise Porteri: Yeah, that was super funny.
00:50:32.56
Troy Holden: you know So anyway…
00:50:33.28
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, that was really funny.
00:50:33.86
Troy Holden: anyway I don’t, I surely don’t do that because I’m extroverted, but what I know is that’s something I can do by myself and put out there, and people may so see that and relate to it or think it’s funny, or they may go to our, you know, go to the Facebook group, and yeah.
00:50:39.07
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:50:47.73
Brad Grochowski: And you do, yeah. And you do seem so like somebody who needs to, you just, you just got to keep doing something, right?
00:50:55.55
Troy Holden: I do.
00:50:55.60
Brad Grochowski: Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:50:55.69
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:50:55.91
Troy Holden: i have stay busy. I mean, my my whole life’s been that way.
00:50:57.64
Louise Porteri: also think… So many people in creative fields or that are creative, maybe not as a profession, um really get stuck on their kind of self-editing.
00:51:09.60
Louise Porteri: Like this is this about writers. Like if you’re going to write, you just keep writing and don’t self-edit.
00:51:15.35
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:51:15.42
Louise Porteri: Like just keep going, just keep doing it. And I think you’re a really great example of that. Like you, it doesn’t seem like you’re fretting over it. You’re like, I’m going to do this thing and I’m going to put it out there.
00:51:26.23
Louise Porteri: And you’re not, you know, you’re not,
00:51:26.55
Troy Holden: Yeah, yeah.
00:51:28.08
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:51:29.03
Troy Holden: and And I think the the other trait…
00:51:29.32
Louise Porteri: worrying about it, which I think is where I i get held back a lot.
00:51:30.73
Brad Grochowski: I’m jealous of that.
00:51:33.56
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, I do.
00:51:33.54
Louise Porteri: But yeah.
00:51:34.04
Brad Grochowski: I do too.
00:51:34.98
Troy Holden: My other trait is, and I don’t know what the, I know there’s a ah term for it, um but I’m like a caretaker. I have to take care of people.
00:51:43.64
Louise Porteri: Hmm.
00:51:44.09
Troy Holden: I want to take care of people.
00:51:44.69
Brad Grochowski: That is…
00:51:45.17
Troy Holden: I want to help them. And it is ah it’s just an not an obsession, not to that point, but it’s like, if I see somebody struggling, I’m not the guy who’s going to jump online and answer every freaking post.
00:51:57.80
Brad Grochowski: Right.
00:51:57.86
Troy Holden: You know that drives me nuts. People do that.
00:51:59.30
Brad Grochowski: But I will speak from experience that if you need something and Troy’s your friend, he’s going to do what he can do to help you out with that.
00:51:59.41
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
00:51:59.74
Troy Holden: They know it all, but.
00:52:06.17
Louise Porteri: Yes. Yeah.
00:52:07.11
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:52:07.16
Brad Grochowski: If it’s…
00:52:07.31
Troy Holden: and if And if I can’t and I don’t know, i will send you to somebody I trust that I know will help you because I’ve probably been down that road.
00:52:10.65
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:52:15.17
Troy Holden: um And that’s what I tell people when they come to me through VO Life or my ah website and they want voiceover advice.
00:52:23.24
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
00:52:23.37
Troy Holden: I say, you might not like what I tell you because I’m going to tell you what has happened to me and the straight of it and people I know and how this really works.
00:52:25.87
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:52:26.02
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:52:32.60
Troy Holden: It’s not going to be a painted picture of what somebody wants you to hear, wants you to believe.
00:52:34.99
Brad Grochowski: Yep.
00:52:36.70
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:52:37.86
Troy Holden: I’m going to tell you the truth.
00:52:39.43
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
00:52:39.52
Brad Grochowski: Yep.
00:52:39.57
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
00:52:39.75
Troy Holden: And, you know, I do a lot of 15-minute free consults with people that end up going an hour, and that’s fine because I don’t want them disillusioned.
00:52:48.14
Brad Grochowski: Yep.
00:52:50.66
Troy Holden: I want them to understand what this business is really about and how hard it is.
00:52:54.39
Brad Grochowski: I mean, and in the end, this business is about making $100,000 a year in your pajamas just by talking into a microphone.
00:52:54.74
Troy Holden: And it’s
00:52:59.84
Brad Grochowski: So.
00:53:00.76
Troy Holden: in your in your walk-in closet. Yeah.
00:53:02.73
Brad Grochowski: In your walk-in closet.
00:53:02.98
Louise Porteri: And there’s a lot of courses you can take where, you know, you can make that happen inside of a week um with just your cell phone.
00:53:03.96
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:53:07.65
Troy Holden: Yeah, sure, sure.
00:53:08.98
Brad Grochowski: Yep, that’s right.
00:53:12.20
Brad Grochowski: Yep.
00:53:12.55
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:53:12.76
Brad Grochowski: Six.
00:53:12.74
Louise Porteri: Can we can we just pause for a second? I’m going to edit this out, but I have to run to the bathroom because I’ve just had a second copy.
00:53:20.17
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:53:21.83
Louise Porteri: um um
00:53:22.18
Brad Grochowski: ah
00:53:22.61
Louise Porteri: We’ll just pick up when I get back for you know another five or ten minutes, if that’s OK.
00:53:24.33
Brad Grochowski: Yep.
00:53:26.03
Troy Holden: Okay, sure.
00:53:26.56
Louise Porteri: I won’t hang up.
00:53:26.65
Brad Grochowski: Yep.
00:53:27.39
Louise Porteri: I’ll just let you guys chat.
00:53:28.74
Troy Holden: Okay.
00:53:28.73
Brad Grochowski: Yep.
00:53:29.21
Louise Porteri: OK.
00:53:30.80
Brad Grochowski: So you got all the horses back in?
00:53:33.14
Troy Holden: Yes. ah the first, I went over with a rope and got the first one. Cause I know which ones ah walk right up to me. No problem. So I brought her across while like, well, heck the fence is still down. Somebody’s got to hold the fence while I get another one. So then here comes Amy finally with, with our little, uh, side by side vehicle. And she’s got feed in the back and she’s bringing all the ropes and,
00:53:54.98
Troy Holden: So it ends up, I end up standing there holding the fence and she’s going over there and getting them.
00:53:58.77
Brad Grochowski: ah She’s the one who gets it, man. Yeah.
00:54:00.02
Troy Holden: Yeah. And I’m like, let me do that. No, no, no, no, no.
00:54:02.62
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:54:02.81
Troy Holden: I’m afraid, you know, they’ll run over me if I stand here. And so, and then I’m, I can tell by looking at her that she, her blood sugar’s low and she doesn’t even need to be out there.
00:54:10.77
Brad Grochowski: ah
00:54:12.10
Troy Holden: She needs to be in the bed. She’s got to work tonight, you know, and.
00:54:14.91
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:54:15.55
Troy Holden: And so she would stop and she’d look around a little and I’m like, oh gosh, she hope she’s okay. And then she’d come back and she’d say, this is wearing me out. And I’m like, I know.
00:54:25.42
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:54:25.58
Troy Holden: Well, then they went across, there’s a little, there’s a little road over to one side and they went across that road into another field. And she said, I’ll never get them if they go over there. And I said, just, just go out there and stand and hold that bucket and they’ll, they’ll come.
00:54:39.43
Troy Holden: They always do.
00:54:39.48
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:54:40.11
Troy Holden: And I said, they’re just nervous. They don’t know where they are, but the grass is, you know, the old saying grass is always greener.
00:54:44.81
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, right, right, right, right.
00:54:45.92
Troy Holden: it it And it is over there because they, they seed and fertilize all that because they cut hay off of it. So the grass is coming up wonderfully.
00:54:52.73
Brad Grochowski: Oh.
00:54:54.66
Troy Holden: And those horses are over there just slobbering there in heaven.
00:54:57.59
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:54:58.14
Troy Holden: And so once she got the key one, that is kind of the herd leader and got ahold of her and brought her across, then the other started coming back across and, It got pretty easy, but it is so stressful when something like that happens.
00:55:07.98
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:55:11.34
Troy Holden: but
00:55:11.59
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, I bet.
00:55:13.32
Troy Holden: Because, you know, it’s a big 900,000-pound animal, and if four or five of them get riled up and the other and the one you’re holding wants to go with them, it’s dangerous.
00:55:22.44
Brad Grochowski: Hey, we we have five to 10 pound chihuahuas and ah even those can be emotionally demanding and draining.
00:55:25.31
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:55:28.34
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:55:29.15
Brad Grochowski: So I can only imagine.
00:55:29.36
Troy Holden: Yeah. and we’re and And we’re trying to raise this new puppy, too.
00:55:31.15
Brad Grochowski: Hey.
00:55:33.50
Troy Holden: That’s fun.
00:55:33.66
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, he’s so cute.
00:55:35.73
Troy Holden: He’s a mess.
00:55:36.00
Brad Grochowski: Thanks for hooking me up with the the vo leads dot com. um
00:55:42.94
Troy Holden: Well, hopefully it hopefully it’ll work.
00:55:43.06
Brad Grochowski: I just I got to figure out where to get good. ah E-learning leads.
00:55:48.71
Troy Holden: So why don’t why don’t you get one of these business-to-business lead guys.
00:55:48.96
Brad Grochowski: That’s.
00:55:54.55
Troy Holden: There’s some on LinkedIn, too.
00:55:56.07
Brad Grochowski: Yeah, I had one from Upwork, and I got a lot of leads from him.
00:55:56.61
Troy Holden: And give them the job titles.
00:56:01.40
Brad Grochowski: some Some of them were fine. i don’t know.
00:56:03.39
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:56:04.08
Brad Grochowski: i’m just looking for…
00:56:06.09
Louise Porteri: Okay, I’m back.
00:56:07.22
Brad Grochowski: hey, I’m just looking for the good lead. I’m looking for the Glenn Gary leads or I don’t know.
00:56:09.55
Troy Holden: Yeah. I got you.
00:56:13.25
Brad Grochowski: I’m just looking for some magic thing that’s going to help. I’ve actually been using LinkedIn a lot and sorry, we can get back to recording in a minute, but this is important.
00:56:18.26
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:56:21.43
Brad Grochowski: No, I’m just kidding. And i I’m actually reaching out to instructional designers and just starting conversations with them. Not even about, hey, you know,
00:56:32.06
Brad Grochowski: You want to book me? Just asking if they use voiceover and if they don’t, why and what they’re doing. And I’m finding that most of them either don’t use voiceover just for the type of e-learning they’re doing, or they do the recording themselves, or they’re using AI.
00:56:47.01
Brad Grochowski: Like, it’s really frustrating.
00:56:48.46
Troy Holden: Right.
00:56:49.45
Brad Grochowski: It’s really, um…
00:56:51.55
Troy Holden: I don’t think I’ve ever done an e-learning per se job.
00:56:51.84
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:56:55.11
Brad Grochowski: Oh, I’ve done a lot.
00:56:55.20
Troy Holden: I don’t think.
00:56:56.81
Brad Grochowski: But I want to do more.
00:56:57.00
Louise Porteri: I’ve done a few. They pay pretty darn well.
00:56:58.87
Troy Holden: Yeah, i would like I would like to do it.
00:56:59.68
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:57:00.85
Troy Holden: I market some for it, but I target market.
00:57:01.06
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
00:57:04.55
Troy Holden: You know, of course, I’m just marketing to the southern states, but.
00:57:07.92
Louise Porteri: Alright, let’s get back on track here.
00:57:08.07
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:09.64
Louise Porteri: so Okay, hang on, hang on.
00:57:09.75
Brad Grochowski: Okay. Thanks. Sorry.
00:57:12.95
Louise Porteri: Alright, just had to do that. Okay, so… um
00:57:17.30
Brad Grochowski: ah So one one thing I did want to ask Troy about, if is is that okay?
00:57:20.62
Louise Porteri: ah You just totally least stomped on me. It’s hilarious.
00:57:24.00
Brad Grochowski: Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I thought you were just ramping us back in.
00:57:25.09
Louise Porteri: No, I’m sorry.
00:57:26.00
Troy Holden: ah
00:57:26.60
Brad Grochowski: I’m sorry.
00:57:28.42
Troy Holden: I couldn’t even catch my bird.
00:57:31.62
Louise Porteri: Go ahead, Brad.
00:57:32.78
Brad Grochowski: No, i can I thought you were just ramping us back in and I wanted
00:57:33.49
Louise Porteri: No. Yeah, I was. i was But te no, please go ahead.
00:57:36.76
Brad Grochowski: Oh. ah Okay, now I feel bad. ah It’s just that you… So, like, you… we’ve We’ve had our little group, and we’ve talked a lot about that, but you’ve also sort of surrounded yourself with other, you know, other smaller groups, um and even though obviously…
00:57:56.17
Louise Porteri: And so how are we better than them? just kidding.
00:57:58.59
Brad Grochowski: I mean, no, obviously we’re the best and we know why, but, but what’s been your experience?
00:58:01.23
Troy Holden: Absolutely. Yeah.
00:58:03.48
Brad Grochowski: Like, um, you know, has it, has it worked for you, you know, being in in different groups and leaning on different people and different combinations and, and chemistry, I guess.
00:58:14.68
Troy Holden: it In some ways, yes, but what it usually meant was there would be one person in there I would connect with.
00:58:21.63
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:58:21.78
Troy Holden: ah due to either you know some some background we had or maybe whatever, whatever, maybe it was an age thing, whatever it might be.
00:58:21.86
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
00:58:30.17
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
00:58:31.07
Troy Holden: And I would end up talking to them away from the group more than anyone else.
00:58:34.47
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:58:36.57
Troy Holden: What I find with almost all groups other than this one, we occasionally are off the track, but most of the discussions are not about things we can do to help ourselves, are not about voiceover.
00:58:50.65
Troy Holden: It’s you know, what’s going on in there, if they have ah regular job, maybe. excuse me, what’s going on with their regular job and how they’re stressing out about their job and dah, dah, dah.
00:59:01.44
Troy Holden: And I understand maybe they want to get that off their chest, but I kind of look at this as, you know, quick, quick in and out VO advice, quick in and out.
00:59:04.12
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:59:11.77
Troy Holden: Hey, guess what I booked today? You know, and that’s wonderful for us because I don’t want to be, i don’t post stuff very much online anymore about, Oh, I booked this great job with so-and-so or I did this work today or, or whatever.
00:59:13.58
Louise Porteri: who
00:59:20.37
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:59:24.20
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:59:24.57
Troy Holden: ah Usually I’ll stick radio imaging up there and put a sample and stuff like that because I think people like to hear it sometimes. But anyway,
00:59:31.67
Louise Porteri: Well, and I feel like we do so much stuff that’s, like, internal, too.
00:59:34.31
Troy Holden: it is.
00:59:34.23
Louise Porteri: Like, it’s like you’re not going to be able to post about it, you know.
00:59:34.93
Troy Holden: It is.
00:59:34.94
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
00:59:35.66
Troy Holden: We do. Yeah.
00:59:36.88
Brad Grochowski: yeah
00:59:37.16
Troy Holden: and And when you do hit you know something larger like that, I think it’s good for all of us to share it with each other. And and that was kind of what the group is.
00:59:43.14
Louise Porteri: Yeah. The highlight’s real.
00:59:45.77
Troy Holden: Yeah.
00:59:46.33
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
00:59:46.60
Troy Holden: the other, you know, the, the other two groups more became this conversational groups. They really, I just didn’t really feel like it was a support group or any help.
00:59:52.53
Louise Porteri: Right.
00:59:56.96
Troy Holden: um And then the one that I had, course, was tied to the, another VO o podcast, which was the four of us doing the podcast were in that group. And You know, there’s some decent interactions in there, but, you know Charles came along about the same time I did and you guys, and I’ve always been close with Charles. We, we roomed together at VO Atlanta.
01:00:16.70
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:00:16.87
Troy Holden: I’ll be staying at his house ah during one voice and um we’re close, you know, but Jake and Alden kind of came along in the VO life group because we ran a live audition.
01:00:21.95
Louise Porteri: yeahp
01:00:22.18
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. He’s a good guy.
01:00:27.84
Troy Holden: They submitted for it and they won. And so we started talking to them, Charles and I did, and Charles didn’t join the podcast till later, but Jake had always wanted to do a podcast.
01:00:38.51
Troy Holden: So I said, well, I’ll help you and we’ll get it going. Well, I ended it up being the one chasing everybody down, doing all the work, but that’s okay.
01:00:44.75
Louise Porteri: It’s time consuming, right?
01:00:45.33
Brad Grochowski: Funny how that can work.
01:00:45.61
Troy Holden: That’s okay. That’s all right.
01:00:46.77
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:00:46.95
Troy Holden: and It is. And Alden, I love Alden to death.
01:00:48.05
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:00:50.07
Troy Holden: One of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. And, you know, he has ah there, but ah but Alden has a calling to do other work and and he’s very involved in his church and he’s got pulled back in to do full-time ministry.
01:00:53.82
Louise Porteri: Other than me and Brad, but yeah, okay.
01:00:55.68
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
01:01:04.63
Troy Holden: And, you know, so, and um I think the world of him, he is a ah very grounded, good person, but it’s it’s not always easy to, you know, i don’t, I feel,
01:01:15.85
Louise Porteri: Well, you only have so much time time in a day, right?
01:01:16.06
Troy Holden: kind of feel bad talking vo with him yeah yeah exactly and it seems like with us it’s quick and to the point and yeah yeah well but here’s the thing if you guys ask something i know it’s a true need and if i’m asking you you know i probably need help or need an answer pretty quick because i wouldn’t ask you know i would be out there looking somewhere else or in a group or something i’m
01:01:19.23
Louise Porteri: That’s the problem.
01:01:19.82
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:01:20.38
Louise Porteri: you can’t you Spreading yourself too thin is, yeah, exactly. We’re not needy. Well, I mean, I am, but you guys are good about it. Mm-hmm.
01:01:32.44
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
01:01:35.93
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
01:01:38.15
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:01:41.48
Troy Holden: ah was it Monday? I think Monday, my Adobe audition went cuckoo. And then, well, I found out everybody’s did. I didn’t know this was a system thing.
01:01:48.27
Brad Grochowski: oh
01:01:49.40
Troy Holden: If you did some kind of upgrade when you did this, you go in there and delete away file, it doesn’t come off the screen. But when you hit record, it disappears and a new one would start. And I’m like, I don’t like this. Why did they do this?
01:01:59.34
Brad Grochowski: Just for the record, Reaper was working fine at that time, so.
01:02:01.56
Troy Holden: Yeah, of course.
01:02:01.62
Louise Porteri: Okay, buddy.
01:02:02.52
Troy Holden: Of course.
01:02:03.04
Brad Grochowski: Hmm.
01:02:03.56
Troy Holden: But anyway, you know, and then all my my files, um all of my files couldn’t, ah something about my PC was going on to where it didn’t know where to go look for files.
01:02:05.24
Louise Porteri: You and Reaper. Get out of here.
01:02:15.26
Troy Holden: So I would do an audition and then I’d click on the folder that I normally I dump them in and they were and it would just sit there in the little circle turn, like for 10 minutes. And I’m like, well, why is it not finding it? So I went down the rabbit hole on YouTube of, you know, what’s wrong when Windows Explorer files aren’t coming up? And I finally found a way to reset it and it worked. But you guys were going to be the next stop for that.
01:02:38.54
Troy Holden: But…
01:02:39.43
Louise Porteri: But she got it sorted. Yeah, I think it’s just good. I know that you guys are there. And, like, you know, we’re working in isolation all the time.
01:02:48.73
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:02:48.87
Troy Holden: Yes.
01:02:48.98
Brad Grochowski: Right.
01:02:49.10
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:02:49.95
Louise Porteri: Unless we’re, you know, in a live session with a client.
01:02:50.30
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:02:52.81
Louise Porteri: But that’s not all day every day but by any stretch of the imagination.
01:02:55.88
Brad Grochowski: right
01:02:57.12
Louise Porteri: So it can be pretty, like, lonely. And I just know, knowing that you guys are there and I can just, like, shoot a question or just say good morning or be like, oh my God, this amazing thing happened. Or can you believe this absolute douchebag I’m dealing with?
01:03:13.77
Louise Porteri: Any, you know, that never happens.
01:03:15.04
Brad Grochowski: That never happens.
01:03:17.48
Troy Holden: ah
01:03:17.66
Louise Porteri: um
01:03:17.76
Brad Grochowski: We never send screenshots of frustrating client communications.
01:03:21.00
Louise Porteri: Look at that shit.
01:03:22.91
Troy Holden: Can you believe they posted this? don’t know.
01:03:26.11
Louise Porteri: We don’t do that. What are you talking about?
01:03:27.39
Troy Holden: No.
01:03:29.51
Louise Porteri: Okay, so have you, here’s a good question. Have you ever thought of quitting VO? And if you did, what kept you going?
01:03:38.49
Troy Holden: I actually hi have. um
01:03:39.96
Louise Porteri: Okay.
01:03:40.43
Troy Holden: And it was about halfway through last year. um ah thought, um I just can’t. and I and had been in it a while, and I thought, I’m in that…
01:03:54.21
Troy Holden: that area where I should be breaking through, you know, somewhere between year three and five.
01:03:59.50
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:04:00.04
Troy Holden: um ah know what I’m doing now. I should be breaking through. And then I had to, I had to just step back and identify what my shortcomings were and what, what did I need to do to help myself? So I thought, come up with something to help increase your income. You’re worried about your income a little bit. So come up with something that’s related to VO, but not exactly VO. And maybe you can help yourself.
01:04:22.07
Troy Holden: And so I ventured off into the crazy world of user-generated content, ah UGC videos, and started doing on-camera work, which I never thought I would ever do any on-camera work.
01:04:28.70
Louise Porteri: Right.
01:04:35.32
Troy Holden: But I saw the market when I dug into it for, let’s call it mature, let’s not call it old people, mature voices and mature faces that to sell supplements or sell insurance or, you know, or do this or that.
01:04:50.65
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm. Wow. Hmm.
01:04:52.97
Troy Holden: And when I first started piddling with it and it brought a couple of ah jobs in, I thought, you know maybe this isn’t so bad. And then next thing I knew i was doing, I don’t know, i do an average of four to six a week now.
01:05:04.32
Brad Grochowski: wow
01:05:04.39
Louise Porteri: wow
01:05:04.99
Troy Holden: And, and there, you know, Quick and easy, in and out. I can do most of them at home. and I’ve got to go out this afternoon and do a shoot at a truck stop because they want everything done where you can see trucks in the background and you’re hanging up the fuel pump thing before you talk and stuff like that.
01:05:21.85
Troy Holden: so And this one pays good.
01:05:23.95
Louise Porteri: nice
01:05:24.15
Troy Holden: And then I had another client I was doing ah video sales letters for, and I hadn’t heard from them in a year and a half. And I thought, well, they were so good. What happened? So I didn’t email them.
01:05:34.69
Troy Holden: I actually called her and she said, well, I mentioned to you about doing it on camera, but you said you couldn’t do it.
01:05:36.43
Brad Grochowski: Hmm. Hmm.
01:05:40.14
Troy Holden: and I said, well, I can now. Guess what? You know, and. And so I picked up work from her and that put ah lift back in me, you know, got me over that hump because I really thought, do I need to go find another job? Do I need to go back to the automotive manufacturing world?
01:05:54.39
Troy Holden: And what do I need to do? And, you know, it just seems like I’m just chugging along and just, you know, dah, dah, dah, dah. And I was really down. i didn’t tell a lot of people that I was that down because i don’t want to put that image out there to other people who are,
01:06:09.12
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:06:09.99
Troy Holden: In the business and saying, well, gosh, if he’s if he’s going downhill, you know, because a lot of you know people sometimes see you as way more successful than you really are.
01:06:18.99
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
01:06:19.43
Troy Holden: They don’t really know how successful you are or aren’t. They just see or perceive online where you are.
01:06:25.20
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:06:26.24
Troy Holden: I was doing OK, but I was really down on myself.
01:06:26.39
Louise Porteri: Well… Yeah. I think we’ve all been there. Thanks for sharing that. I know that’s not an easy thing to just blurt out.
01:06:33.25
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:06:36.17
Louise Porteri: But some I did have a little question here that ties into that, which is like, then how do you define success? Like if you’re having those moments of like, I’m really down, like I can’t seem to break through where I’m at, like it’s stagnating.
01:06:52.36
Louise Porteri: and Because the the sort of dollar amounts, like this the six figures or the 200 grand or the 500 grand or whatever the thing is, people throw that around as the yardstick.
01:06:57.32
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:07:01.84
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
01:07:01.89
Louise Porteri: But it’s like, and obviously we all have to earn ah living doing this.
01:07:02.06
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
01:07:06.64
Louise Porteri: But how do you define success?
01:07:10.32
Troy Holden: I don’t know if it’s a definition, but I have a couple things that I, here a couple of tools I use to keep myself grounded and keep myself motivated.
01:07:18.61
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
01:07:18.98
Troy Holden: The first one is, there are a lot of people in voiceover that you and I and Brad and others have never heard of and they make a ton of money.
01:07:25.79
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:07:26.18
Troy Holden: They are not visible. they They just do their thing. And I was able to meet a person like that last year. And that it helped me because I ran into them randomly.
01:07:34.02
Louise Porteri: really?
01:07:37.72
Troy Holden: that us We were talking about what we did, and it is actually where I went and got this booth. And I never heard of the guy or anything, and he’s doing extremely well.
01:07:48.24
Louise Porteri: Mm-hmm.
01:07:48.37
Troy Holden: um Then the other thing i do when I’m feeling down, um just pull up the NAVA survey. And I remind myself, look where you are.
01:07:55.74
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:07:57.55
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yep.
01:07:59.10
Louise Porteri: Yeah. I do that too.
01:08:00.31
Brad Grochowski: I do that too.
01:08:00.49
Troy Holden: Yeah. and And we should.
01:08:01.14
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:08:02.04
Troy Holden: We should look at that because that’s a very good indicator of how hard this is and how long it takes and how few people actually make any money.
01:08:07.79
Louise Porteri: Yes.
01:08:12.17
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:08:12.30
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:08:12.89
Troy Holden: And, you know, and there’s, yeah.
01:08:13.67
Louise Porteri: Any money that you could live on. Yeah, exactly.
01:08:16.35
Troy Holden: And the other thing is I know some people in this business and very confidentially, you know, they have told me,
01:08:16.34
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:08:23.77
Troy Holden: that they have not booked anything this year yet, or yes, or um they’re in their second or third year and they’re barely making 15, 20 grand and, you know, and they’re full time.
01:08:28.56
Louise Porteri: Really?
01:08:36.94
Louise Porteri: Whoa,
01:08:39.39
Troy Holden: And, and I’m, you know, definitely not talking any certain names or anything, but what I’m saying is my perception was that they were booking and they were successful because
01:08:43.88
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:08:50.49
Louise Porteri: yeah. Because of what they were putting out on social media?
01:08:53.62
Troy Holden: because because they were coming to all the conferences.
01:08:53.64
Louise Porteri: Or?
01:08:56.77
Louise Porteri: oh I see.
01:08:56.91
Troy Holden: They were going to the European retreats or stuff, or maybe they were going to big stuff or whatever.
01:08:56.91
Brad Grochowski: Yep.
01:09:03.07
Troy Holden: But the thing is, they are investing and trying to go in through that door, and it may work out, but they really sometimes struggle because they’re pouring out all that money and they’re not really seeing the results yet, and it may take five to seven years.
01:09:18.47
Louise Porteri: I mean, I was going to say, like, you can throw money at anything and not have a guarantee of success because so much of it will come down to people often overlook luck.
01:09:19.12
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:09:24.05
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:09:31.26
Louise Porteri: And I don’t mean just so there’s a lot of factors in luck, like where you’re born in the world is luck.
01:09:37.35
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:09:37.89
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:09:38.35
Louise Porteri: What gender you’re born is luck. Yeah. ah what your voice print is, what the demand on the market is for that voice print.
01:09:45.98
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:09:48.41
Troy Holden: Yep.
01:09:48.41
Louise Porteri: um There’s a slew, but timing is luck, right?
01:09:52.64
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:09:54.01
Louise Porteri: So people…
01:09:54.36
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:09:54.79
Troy Holden: And they’ll always be a unicorn. Always.
01:09:56.97
Louise Porteri: Yeah, so throwing money at something, yes, you need to invest in anything that you do in terms of a career, particularly if it’s your own business, but it’s not a guarantee.
01:10:08.56
Louise Porteri: So, yeah, I’m sort of…
01:10:08.84
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:10:10.38
Louise Porteri: I’m picking up what you’re throwing down there. It’s like…
01:10:12.02
Troy Holden: Yeah. And I hustle. I really do. I hustle hard to make money.
01:10:14.35
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:10:14.78
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:10:15.77
Troy Holden: I mean, I hustle hard to to keep, you know, my name in front of the right people or try to… I have… you know, tried to make sure that this Facebook group has been a good group for people and, and you know, that my podcast has always been legit and truthful and transparent, sometimes maybe monotonous and boring because there are weeks you go, what in the crap am I going to talk about?
01:10:31.38
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:10:32.46
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:10:36.87
Troy Holden: I got 170 episodes, you know, and, and you run out of gas, but then something will happen usually during that week that you’ll see somewhere in a group or hear a comment about, and you’ll think, you know, that might make a topic and you can at least get 10, 15 minutes out of it.
01:10:39.02
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:10:39.70
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
01:10:51.76
Troy Holden: But, um,
01:10:52.22
Louise Porteri: Yeah, and it’s tough, too, because, I mean, there are so many voiceover podcasts out there. So you’re just kind of like, well, how do I put like sort of a spin on it?
01:10:56.85
Troy Holden: Yeah.
01:10:59.14
Louise Porteri: And I and I think the thing I always come back to is like, you don’t really need a spin. You need to be yourself because different people have different things to offer based on their background, their personalities, their chemistry.
01:11:04.31
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:11:05.14
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:11:05.31
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:11:11.12
Louise Porteri: If there’s more than one person, all that kind of stuff.
01:11:13.06
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:11:13.52
Louise Porteri: And it’s just like you’ll attract the right people, the people who you resonate with.
01:11:14.03
Troy Holden: Yeah.
01:11:19.59
Louise Porteri: Right.
01:11:19.97
Troy Holden: Right, right, right.
01:11:20.56
Louise Porteri: Excuse me. So, um,
01:11:22.62
Troy Holden: and And I say all that about that stuff to say that this, you know that further iterates how hard this business is. You know, so it’s and that’s not saying that what they’re doing is wrong or that they won’t make it or it’s bad.
01:11:28.30
Louise Porteri: hmm.
01:11:34.62
Troy Holden: It’s not. There’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing if they can do that. If I could go to more stuff like that, I would love to go. But it.
01:11:41.78
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:11:42.14
Louise Porteri: yeah and see, I wouldn’t, but that’s me.
01:11:43.64
Troy Holden: Yeah, I enjoy that kind of stuff because I’m like a sponge.
01:11:45.18
Louise Porteri: Hmm.
01:11:47.49
Troy Holden: I want to learn from as many people as I can. And, you know, um I used to be worse with voiceover that I was in so many groups trying to learn so much and absorb so much.
01:11:57.75
Troy Holden: But now it’s to a point where I know.
01:12:00.24
Louise Porteri: You have to curate it a bit.
01:12:01.17
Troy Holden: Yeah, yeah, you do.
01:12:01.35
Louise Porteri: And I think you don’t know what you don’t know. So it takes a while to get there and be like, okay, I can call lot of this shit that is coming into my feet all the time or whatever.
01:12:03.75
Troy Holden: Right, right.
01:12:04.53
Brad Grochowski: yeah
01:12:07.77
Troy Holden: Yeah. Yeah.
01:12:10.78
Louise Porteri: But yeah.
01:12:12.26
Troy Holden: And it amazes you what you know when people are asking you questions. You’re like, holy crap, I can answer all this.
01:12:15.59
Louise Porteri: yeah
01:12:17.50
Troy Holden: so
01:12:18.22
Louise Porteri: But I also really like i liked what you said about there there’s a lot of people out there doing really amazingly in their voiceover businesses that we’ve never heard of.
01:12:25.40
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:12:27.22
Louise Porteri: We don’t see them in Facebook groups or on Discord or on TikTok or at the conferences.
01:12:27.88
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:12:32.63
Louise Porteri: like And I sort of feel like I’m a little bit in that camp of not… I’m not really going the route of…
01:12:39.13
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:12:41.89
Louise Porteri: Other than this podcast, I guess. And like a few odd little posts on social media, i just…
01:12:44.04
Troy Holden: Mm-hmm.
01:12:44.26
Brad Grochowski: Mm-hmm.
01:12:47.76
Louise Porteri: That’s…
01:12:47.88
Brad Grochowski: And i I have to admit, that I have a real strong sort of attraction to that approach.
01:12:47.95
Louise Porteri: ah
01:12:54.92
Brad Grochowski: like But we hear so much, you’ve got to be on social media, you’ve got to be putting yourself out there, you’ve got to be doing this, you’ve got to be doing that. you got to be And so I’m doing those things, but sometimes I just want to be…
01:13:06.78
Brad Grochowski: just in my studio doing the job, not having to worry about any of that stuff. And it’s so hard. Like, how which which way do you go, right? Like, do you put 100% into just auditioning and and and marketing and zero into, like, building?
01:13:22.26
Louise Porteri: Well, there’s got to be a balance, I feel like.
01:13:23.70
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:13:24.15
Troy Holden: There does.
01:13:24.14
Brad Grochowski: And I try and do that balance, but ah a huge…
01:13:24.34
Louise Porteri: And also, yeah.
01:13:24.68
Troy Holden: There does.
01:13:26.89
Louise Porteri: And it’s also about but honoring who you are as a person. I’m not saying, like, don’t challenge your introverted self. what We definitely have to do that.
01:13:33.23
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah.
01:13:35.60
Louise Porteri: But there’s also just a point of, like, well, maybe it’s also fine.
01:13:40.98
Troy Holden: I think the two most overrated things that people are taught
01:13:41.46
Brad Grochowski: Hmm.
01:13:44.54
Troy Holden: is branding and your social media stuff.
01:13:47.18
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:13:47.35
Brad Grochowski: Hmm.
01:13:47.72
Troy Holden: I think that’s pushed. And in all honesty, when I go…
01:13:51.24
Louise Porteri: by people who probably have courses to sell on branding and social media content.
01:13:53.82
Brad Grochowski: Hmm.
01:13:54.14
Troy Holden: Yeah, that’s a lot of it. And in in all honesty, go look at some of the more successful people’s websites.
01:13:55.62
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:14:01.11
Troy Holden: You will not see a tagline or a branded thing. You might see a color or a certain picture they use all the time, but that’s sensible.
01:14:07.31
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:14:08.65
Troy Holden: But you don’t see them painting themselves into a corner either with a tagline.
01:14:12.38
Louise Porteri: Oh, yeah, I looked up somebody the other day that I really look up to.
01:14:13.71
Troy Holden: So…
01:14:14.93
Louise Porteri: I won’t say who they are, excuse me. And yeah, very sort of plain ah website, just to the point.
01:14:20.25
Troy Holden: Yep.
01:14:23.35
Troy Holden: Yeah, and they and and you’ll notice those same people don’t overdo social media.
01:14:23.59
Louise Porteri: And I was like, yeah, that’s…
01:14:28.77
Troy Holden: They may chime in here and there or something, but they’re not really overly you know crazy on social media.
01:14:34.45
Louise Porteri: yeah And I’m really drawn i’m drawn to people who are who really keep it real.
01:14:34.97
Troy Holden: So that makes me think,
01:14:38.74
Louise Porteri: like you know they’re not
01:14:39.10
Troy Holden: yeah, yeah.
01:14:40.81
Louise Porteri: You can tell the people who are just…
01:14:43.25
Troy Holden: Yeah, absolutely.
01:14:43.60
Louise Porteri: like It’s over the top and fake and annoying.
01:14:44.94
Troy Holden: Absolutely. Yeah.
01:14:46.78
Louise Porteri: Anyways, we’re so we’re coming up on over an hour. Well, we are over an hour.
01:14:50.44
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:14:52.60
Louise Porteri: so
01:14:52.85
Troy Holden: Well, as my mother says, stop it. Stop it right now.
01:14:55.66
Louise Porteri: and Just stop it right now. But we did ask you we did ask you to come up with a closing tagline and you did.
01:14:57.78
Brad Grochowski: My mom said that, but it was because I was doing things.
01:15:04.66
Louise Porteri: It’s a really good one. um So would you like to deliver that? We would like three different ways.
01:15:11.33
Brad Grochowski: Wait, wait, wait. Before we get that, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I just want people to know where to find Troy and and how to get a hold of him.
01:15:16.88
Louise Porteri: And we could have done that after. That’s fine. Okay, sure.
01:15:19.08
Troy Holden: I’m in my studio near Nashville.
01:15:19.13
Brad Grochowski: Well, a tagline. That’s supposed to be the last thing.
01:15:21.14
Troy Holden: No, I’m just kidding.
01:15:23.05
Louise Porteri: Out trying to get my horses back into the barn.
01:15:23.43
Troy Holden: already did that once today. Yeah.
01:15:25.50
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:15:25.93
Troy Holden: I’m out in the lot stepping in horse shit.
01:15:28.49
Brad Grochowski: what’s your what’s your What’s your website and what’s what’s your Facebook group? And…
01:15:33.44
Troy Holden: um Yeah. ah Website, Troy Holden Voices with an S dot com. And the Facebook group is The VO Life. If you want to be in the group, please come be in the group, but answer the questions because it’s got an Autobot.
01:15:46.02
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:15:47.13
Troy Holden: And if you don’t answer the questions, it won’t let you in.
01:15:50.74
Brad Grochowski: Awesome. Thank
01:15:51.24
Louise Porteri: Okay, alright. Now, ah give us your closing…
01:15:52.80
Brad Grochowski: thank you
01:15:53.97
Louise Porteri: Okay, I think closing tagline, do one as Ronald Reagan, one as Donald Trump, and one as Troy Holden.
01:16:03.78
Troy Holden: and Okay, I can do that.
01:16:04.26
Louise Porteri: And you pick what… I don’t care what order they come in.
01:16:05.17
Troy Holden: All right. Okay, we’ll go in that order. Makes it easy. All right. Well, there’s a lot of noise in this world, but always trust your inside voice.
01:16:20.09
Louise Porteri: ok
01:16:21.13
Troy Holden: All right. Okay, listen. I’m here to tell you there’s lots and lots of noise in this world, but you should always trust your inside voice.
01:16:33.93
Louise Porteri: Amazing. Okay.
01:16:36.35
Troy Holden: And then me, I would probably take the Harrison Ford read on this one. There’s a lot of noise in this world, but always, always trust your inside voice.
01:16:48.34
Louise Porteri: That was really sexy, actually. I love Harrison Ford.
01:16:51.53
Troy Holden: do too.
01:16:51.68
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:16:52.26
Troy Holden: The older he gets, the better he is, I think.
01:16:53.76
Louise Porteri: You probably love him for different reasons than I do.
01:16:56.45
Troy Holden: I know, know. Hey,
01:16:59.02
Louise Porteri: Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Troy Holden.
01:17:00.90
Brad Grochowski: Thank you so much, Troy.
01:17:02.05
Troy Holden: thank you for inviting me. I miss you guys and love talking to you.
01:17:04.43
Louise Porteri: I miss you guys too We love you to bits.
01:17:06.10
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:17:08.30
Louise Porteri: To bits to bits.
01:17:10.03
Troy Holden: Thank you.
01:17:10.02
Brad Grochowski: And this was kind of nice just having a chat. Like a lot of this is just chat we would have had, you know, when we when we connect.
01:17:15.97
Louise Porteri: Yeah.
01:17:16.08
Troy Holden: Yeah, yeah. And speaking a and in speaking of that, hey, come listen to us on Between Takes.
01:17:17.02
Brad Grochowski: So.
01:17:20.52
Troy Holden: Ro Marsh and I are trying trying a new podcast, and Ro is such a treasure.
01:17:23.76
Louise Porteri: Oh, right. Yeah. Between takes.
01:17:25.38
Brad Grochowski: I love Roe.
01:17:26.04
Troy Holden: Yeah, so give that a listen if you get a chance.
01:17:26.19
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:17:26.10
Louise Porteri: Yeah, she’s lovely.
01:17:28.80
Troy Holden: And it is nothing about voiceover, absolutely nothing.
01:17:31.59
Louise Porteri: Oh, fun.
01:17:32.14
Brad Grochowski: Yeah. Yeah. yeah
01:17:33.24
Louise Porteri: Right on.
01:17:33.91
Brad Grochowski: It’s about hot dogs.
01:17:35.38
Troy Holden: It was first episode, yeah. Episode two, I don’t know.
01:17:38.40
Brad Grochowski: I love it.
01:17:39.49
Louise Porteri: That’s hilarious.
01:17:42.18
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:17:42.31
Louise Porteri: Alright, guys.
01:17:42.74
Brad Grochowski: Congratulations on that.
01:17:43.05
Louise Porteri: Well, um I gotta go.
01:17:45.85
Brad Grochowski: Okay. Yeah.
01:17:46.45
Louise Porteri: I’m going hiking this afternoon.
01:17:48.20
Brad Grochowski: Nice.
01:17:48.49
Troy Holden: Have fun.
01:17:48.76
Louise Porteri: I’ll post pics.
01:17:49.39
Brad Grochowski: Have fun.
01:17:50.59
Troy Holden: we’ll We’ll be looking for you and Sprocker Daniel.
01:17:50.73
Brad Grochowski: And.
01:17:53.35
Brad Grochowski: Yeah.
01:17:54.18
Louise Porteri: Excellent. Okay, bye!
01:17:56.07
Brad Grochowski: All right. Bye, guys.
01:17:56.90
Troy Holden: Bye-bye.