Heb je je ooit afgevraagd hoe een stemacteur de overstap maakt van radiohost op een lokaal Belgisch radiostation naar fulltime internationaal voice-over talent? Onlangs had ik het met Janet McMordie, de host van Second Act Actors, over mijn loopbaan van radio dj naar stemacteur. Haar podcast duikt in de levens van mensen die de sprong hebben gewaagd naar acteren of aanverwante carrières vanuit allerlei achtergronden.
Janet, een arts die actrice werd, is net zo inspirerend als haar gasten. Dankzij haar unieke perspectief is elk gesprek boeiend, doordacht en herkenbaar. Tijdens onze aflevering bespraken we alles, van mijn beginjaren in de Belgische radio tot de realiteit achter de schermen van stemacteren. We deelden zelfs wat grappige momenten, zoals verhalen over opnames in onconventionele opnameruimtes zoals auto’s.
In elke aflevering brengt Janet een krachtig verhaal naar voren. Haar podcast is een verkenning van de vele wendingen in het leven, met verhalen over veerkracht, heruitvinding en natuurlijk een flinke dosis inspiratie. Onze aflevering kan je bekijken op YouTube of beluisteren via platforms zoals Spotify, Apple Podcasts en meer.
5 Dingen die Je Leren van Deze Podcastaflevering
Tijdens ons gesprek kwamen de volgende onderwerpen aan bod:
• Je Eigen Stem Vinden (Letterlijk en Figuurlijk): Van het imiteren van commercials tot de ontdekking dat mijn Belgische accent mijn grootste troef werd in de Verenigde Staten.
• De Realiteit van Stemacteren: Waarom een goede opnamestudio essentieel is en hoe de sector is geëvolueerd, met trends zoals de relaxte, conversational toon die populair is op TikTok.
• Een Carrière Vanaf Nul Opbouwen: De stappen die ik heb genomen om de overgang van radio naar stemacteren te maken en de uitdagingen die ik onderweg ben tegengekomen.
• Grappige en Frustrerende Studiomomenten: Van overdreven “Disney-stijl” opnamesessies tot de teleurstelling van een afwijzing met de woorden: “We hebben voor een andere stem gekozen.”
• Advies voor Aspirant-Stemacteurs: Waarom geduld, doorzettingsvermogen en zelfacceptatie essentieel zijn in deze veeleisende maar super toffe sector.
Waarom Deze Podcastaflevering Over Stemacteur Worden een Must-Listen Is
Te gast zijn bij Second Act Actors was een ongelooflijke ervaring. Janet’s oprechte nieuwsgierigheid maakt haar een fantastische gastvrouw. Ik hoop dat mijn verhaal je inspireert om jezelf te omarmen zoals je bent en je unieke stem te vinden.
Beluister Nu
Als je ooit hebt overwogen om een tweede carrièrestap te zetten—of als je gewoon nieuwsgierig bent naar de wereld van stemacteren—dan is deze aflevering een aanrader. Bekijk het op YouTube of luister via Spotify, Apple Podcasts of je favoriete podcastplatform.
Volg Janet op Sociale Media
Laat me weten wat je van de aflevering vond. En als je zelf aan je tweede carrièrestap begint, hoor ik graag je verhaal!
Volledige transcriptie van de podcast aflevering
Janet McMordie (she/her) (00:00)
more intimately connected with the people you're listening to because you're listening to it like here and you're like I'm in their living room having this conversation. I'm gonna adjust this. Yeah, it's I like it. I'm yeah, I'm in my living room. I literally am. I'm like you can see my cat is like over there. I can see my couch. I've got my tea. and then you are in yeah I've had I'm two coffees in. This is a it's called dirty chai tea.
Serge (00:03)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So you are in your living room? Is that what you're saying? Yeah.
I got my coffee.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (00:29)
It's like coffee plus chai tea together. It's really good. It's really good. And you are in what looks like the Starship Enterprise.
Serge (00:31)
Yes, I've heard that about that. that's what I heard. Yeah. Okay. I should try it.
Well, yeah, it looks like that on camera, but it's not in real life. It's actually a really nice booth. It's a Studio Bricks. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the brand. Yeah, so the booths are made in Spain and they're sort of like Legos. you don't, they arrive in like a big pack completely apart and then you have to slide all the...
Janet McMordie (she/her) (00:52)
No.
Yeah.
Serge (01:10)
the pieces together. You don't have to use a hammer or a drill or whatever. You got to screw in a couple of things, but that's it. And they're so nice. Look at this. It's so nice. It's so cozy as well. So whenever I'm in here, it feels very cozy and it makes me feel relaxed. And that's so good for voiceover work, right? Because you got to feel relaxed and I can...
Janet McMordie (she/her) (01:17)
Yeah.
It's so nice Yes
Yes.
Serge (01:39)
Right now I have the door a little bit open because we're not really in a voiceover session. This is just a podcast, but to get some air because it gets really hot in here after a while.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (01:45)
Mm-hmm.
I bet. Well, and it's so interesting you say that, like it makes you feel relaxed, right? Because there's the joke, and I wish I could take credit for this, about like, you're literally in padded room, and that makes like anyone, nobody would feel relaxed in a padded room.
Serge (01:54)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
No.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (02:05)
But, especially because in like voiceover land, the room that you live in is so quote unquote plain that you have to vividly imagine the world that you're trying to create with just your voice. How in the world would you stay relaxed doing that? So I think it's so cool that you feel so relaxed in that space. Yeah.
Serge (02:14)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, so I mean not everyone and neither did I. I didn't start out like this. I didn't have the money to buy this booth and I wasn't making enough money in voiceovers. So as soon as I had this, I was able to buy this. I was like, wow, this is, and I started out in, I mean, I've done, I've recorded commercials in my car because that's a good, like a good installation, right?
Especially if you have like the luxury brands, Bentley for example. If you have a Bentley, accidentally, then that's perfect to record in. Just kidding of course. But no, are excellent. And I started out in my car and then I built something with two mattresses. And then at one point I was like, I gotta buy a booth. Because for live directed sessions...
Janet McMordie (she/her) (03:01)
Yeah
Serge (03:16)
You want to be relaxed too. The client dials in and you don't want that truck that passes by or the lawnmower or whatever in your recordings. And I was always stressed about that. But this is perfect. You close the door and it's perfect. So, and you feel relaxed. You can concentrate on the script. You can concentrate on the client or whatever. And it's just, yeah. And it feels cozy and homey in here. And I put in the lights and it's just, it's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (03:21)
Mmm.
Yeah.
love it.
It's so awesome. Well, yeah, tell me your story. How did you get into this crazy business of voiceover?
Serge (03:51)
Right. So I'm originally from Belgium in Europe and I live in... You have been to Belgium? okay. So you saw Monika Peiss? The little tiny guy who's peeing all the time. I think it's a disappointment, but it's very popular for tourists, so sure. I think I've only seen him once or twice, but anyway.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (03:56)
One of my favorite countries by the way, I'm sorry. Yes, I loved it. I in Brussels, I've been to Brussels. Yeah, I loved it.
Yes.
Yup.
Serge (04:20)
Yeah, so I'm from Belgium, moved to the US in 2010. And in Belgium back in the 2000s, I started out at a small radio station with only like 10k listeners per day. So I volunteered there and I got a little bit of money per month, I think like a hundred bucks a month to do a show like every Sunday for four hours. But I loved it.
I loved radio and I made my way up all to the national radio station in Belgium, which has, back in the day, I'm not sure about now, but a commercial station with a million listeners per day, so it's quite big. And once I got there, I was like, well, I want to do some voiceovers as well. and that's how, I mean, I sort of used my position at the radio station because it was such a...
big radio station to get into voiceovers and slowly I got into voiceovers. Then I moved to the United States, couldn't do my radio show anymore obviously and yeah after a while I just decided to go full-time into voiceover so yeah that's the short story. It's a little bit longer than that.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (05:30)
When, well yeah, I'm curious, like when you were a kid, was this something that you always had wanted to do, like work in radio, work in kind of a creative field, broadcasting? How did that come about? Did you go to school for that?
Serge (05:34)
Yeah.
No, there is no radio or voice acting school or even a... Well, there is an acting school in Belgium, but not for... I think these days radio, yeah, there is a radio school. But back in the day, when I was young, you know, there was no school for radio people or voice actors. But I don't know, I always was obsessed with radio and there never was a thought of me getting into radio, but I loved radio. It was just...
I got a, I think my grandparents gave me a tiny radio when I was about like six or seven years old and I got obsessed with it, listening to all the radio stations and recording music and yeah, I just was obsessed with it. And then after a while, I never thought about it. Like I played radio at home with a little microphone with my brother and everything and it was terrible.
but it was fun, but I never thought of like, maybe I should go into radio because I was like, no, I mean, I could never do that. I mean, it's all the big stars, you know, are making radio. And then somehow, I think when I was 18 back in the 2000s, I was online in a chat room and I accidentally met one of my older, someone who went to school with me.
And he was like, yeah, I work at a local radio station now, a small local radio station. Do you want to come over and see how that all goes? And while I'm doing my show, I'm like, yeah, sure, why not? So I went over there, sat through his show for four hours. And then afterwards, he was like, he put the studio off air. And then he was like, why don't you try a little bit? And he recorded that.
And then that ended up on the station manager's desk. The station manager listened to it. And a couple of weeks later, he called me up and was like, hey, I got your recordings here. And I kind of like it. And there's someone's leaving on Sunday. Someone's going away. So there's a slot opening up. Do you want to do that? And I was like, what? I know nothing about radio, but yes.
And he was like, yeah, we don't pay you. You get like 75 euros a month, which is a thousand bucks, a hundred bucks a month for four shows, 16 hours. was like, sure. So that's how I started, yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (08:15)
That is so, that's one of those things, and I think the term is like synchronicity, you know, when things kind of happen and you're like, huh, what a coincidence. Like what are the chances? What are the fates? Like what, what, what? And then that just being a thing that you love to do, turning into now a career, that's so cool. Mm.
Serge (08:27)
Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it didn't feel that way back in the day. was just I was playing around. was still going to university, you know, I was studying and this is fun. Some fun things to do. Hang out with friends and playing radio and whatever. It was all not. I mean, it was not professional at all. I didn't know what I was doing. And but slowly I learned and I listened to more radio stations, other radio hosts and
try to copy all that and everything but looking back at it now I'm like this is actually an incredible story right it's just so random yeah yeah
Janet McMordie (she/her) (09:03)
Mmm.
Yeah, I love that. When you were in university, were you studying something to become like the logical career path that everyone says you need to do?
Serge (09:20)
I didn't know what to study. mean, I wasn't the smartest kid anyway, and I was like, what the hell should I do? So I started communications, studying communications. After three years, I was done with that, and then I was like, I don't know what to do with this degree. I I still cannot build a, I don't know, a closet or something out of wood, you know? I can't do anything. What do I do with this?
Janet McMordie (she/her) (09:29)
Mmm.
Serge (09:47)
And yeah, and then I kept doing radio and got into TV as well for a while behind the scenes as a sound engineer on the field for a news channel. And yeah, so it's all like very random, basically. Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (10:07)
Yeah, it's kind of like, this sounds like a negative word, like piecemeal, like patchworking, like putting it all like, I did this and then I did that and I did this and then I did that and it became a quilt and now I'm a voiceover artist, right? Like, I love that. That's really cool. Now, in a career like voiceover, where, like, how do you build, how do you learn how to become a voiceover artist? Like, did you train? How do you build a career, especially moving countries?
Serge (10:15)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. For sure. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Right. Yeah, so I sort of had already connections when I was living in Belgium and I had returning clients, not that many, and I wasn't really thinking about this is a business or something. I wasn't thinking about marketing. I wasn't thinking about anything because I was doing my radio show and this was just something on the side. It was like, like doing voiceovers, but yeah, I mean, and the networking was like very important.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (10:42)
Mmm.
Serge (11:05)
at that point, back in Belgium. I'm not sure how that was back then in the United States. But then moving to the US, my English wasn't very good. mean, basic English with a thicker accent than I have now. I couldn't find the words and everything, but yeah, I learned a lot. then at one point, someone, client of mine,
Janet McMordie (she/her) (11:05)
Mmm.
Serge (11:35)
Actually, voicebooking.com, they're pretty huge in Europe. I went over there and visited them and they were like...
Janet McMordie (she/her) (11:39)
Mm.
Serge (11:44)
there were people working there from other countries, from France and Germany and whatever. So we had to speak English and they said, well, your English is actually really, really good. We should put you on our website, not only for your native language, for Flemish, but also for international English. And I was like, really? Seriously? My English? I I'm not good at this. But I was like, sure, let's do it. You know, yes, I'm the yes man. So I said yes. And yeah, so they put me on their website and suddenly I got a
ton of work from that. was like, what? People are looking for that? For like an accent, especially in Europe, I guess, when clients don't want British English or American English, but they want something exotic. So yeah, that's... And then I started thinking, maybe I should turn this into a real business, you know? Started doing marketing, update my websites, demos, and that's how it sort of took off. But it's...
How do you, your question was how do you learn it, right? How do you learn all that? think taking classes, getting coaching classes, that's really important. Looking at what other people are doing, trying to like steal little things from other people and make it your own. Like, I like that idea, I'm just gonna do something else with it, like put my flavor on top of it. And I feel like I'm still doing that constantly, listening to other people.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (12:45)
Yeah.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Serge (13:13)
Going online, listening to commercials. Whenever I was commuting to the radio station back in the day, back in Belgium, I always on my way over there, I listened to the radio and turned up the volume during the commercials and I listened to the commercials, tried to mimic those intonations and everything, the tone of voice and see if I could do it better or not, hop into my own little studio. You know, I was obsessed about those things.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (13:28)
Mmm.
Well, I think that's where that's really an interesting thing to think about is the, the, the training of it. And I know a lot of people, especially with, it's going to sound terrible, but like, especially with voice acting, there is that sense of like, well, you just talk. So isn't it easy? Like, why do you have to take a class on how to talk? Don't you already know how to do it?
Serge (14:02)
Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (14:07)
Like, but do you find, you, know, I know, I'm not experienced in voiceover, but there seems to be such distinctive, like, specializations, right? Audiobook, commercial, video games, animation. Like, did you have to, did you train in those specializations, or do you feel like, I know, I am more of a this voice actor, and no, it's not just talking, because of this is this.
Serge (14:29)
Yeah, for sure. I specialize in commercials and web videos, corporate videos, corporate narration, e-learning. I don't do a ton of games or I've never done a game by the way. No animation. If it's for a commercial and it has to have like an animated character in there and I can do that, that's fine. But like a full movie or a game, that's next level, you know? That's just...
So yeah, and there are people that are specialized in just that and not in commercials. So it's completely different. And to be honest, I taught myself a lot by listening to other people. And then I knew I was doing some things that I knew was they were good, but I didn't know why I was doing them, you know? And then with a coach, they sort of had like a structure or sort of like theories and
You got to do this, this, and this. I was like, but I'm already doing this, but now I understand why I'm doing this, you know? And that helped me a lot so I could actually implement it more and be more conscious about it. Like, no reading a script and then, okay, I can do this, this, and this in this script, for example, to make it sound different from my previous read or from what someone else is doing. So, yeah, it helps a lot to...
Janet McMordie (she/her) (15:35)
Huh.
Mm.
Hmm.
Serge (15:56)
to make you aware of what you're exactly doing.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (16:00)
Hmm, and it's interesting because I think so often when I talk to people who do voiceover And you know we were kind of talking a little bit about this before we started recording about you know like yeah You're in this booth you have to have such a vivid imagination and From what I've learned is especially with commercials you have to be talking to someone
Serge (16:22)
Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (16:23)
And has that always been you? Have you always been somebody with a really vivid imagination who's been able to be like, yeah, I'm in this room, but I know exactly who I'm talking to. I can picture them.
Serge (16:33)
Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah. But once again, I mean, I didn't really realize I should do that or I should have done that. just like, but coaching brought all that up. Like, how do you do that? How do you, you know, it's all life experiences. Now I realize whenever I see a script, I'm like, this is probably the setting or the scene that they're going for. And I can pull up.
memories from whenever or maybe that one time I was in a grocery store blah blah blah and that happened okay let's let's that grab that put that in my mind and just go for it you know but it took I mean obviously it takes a while before you get there it's not from the first moment I mean I mean as an actor as a on-camera actor it's the same thing I guess right you learn constantly and you
Janet McMordie (she/her) (17:03)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Serge (17:26)
Yeah, there's an evolution in your way of acting. So, yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (17:27)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's funny, do you ever listen back to any of your old voiceovers and go, huh, I'm just saying the words? Because it's funny, when I say, you have to have somebody that you're speaking to, and I'm like, would I even hear the difference?
between me saying like ABC one, two, three, but then saying ABC one, two, three, but knowing that I'm speaking to like my nephew who's six. And then I listened to it back. I'm like, there's a huge difference. Just that subtle little shift. Do you notice that as well too? Yeah, cool.
Serge (18:03)
Yeah. Yep. yes, I do. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I sometimes listen back to something I've done before, like many years ago, and I'm like, back in the day, I thought this was good, but now I would have done it differently. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's normal, no? We're just getting better. We're learning all the time. We get new life experiences and...
And the world changes too. That's also like a big thing. The world around us. Back in the day, announcer, announcering, announcer-y reads were very hip and hot. But now, I mean, you get nowhere with the announcer's, announcer voice. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. The TikTok generation is more relaxed, you know, it's just like, they don't give a, they don't give a, can I say fuck? They don't give a fuck.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (18:36)
Hmm.
That's super interesting, the changes in trends.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Serge (19:01)
It's like, know? So you gotta practice that read as well. So that's, it's really interesting. So that's stuff that I would be doing now that I never would have thought of a couple of years ago that I would be doing.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (19:15)
And it's interesting to think about and I wonder, and I know it's every industry, every part of the film industry is all about who is the consumer, but in commercials, you're literally, who is buying stuff now? It's the millennials and younger, and they don't wanna hear, like you were saying, they announce their voice of God, the old white British dude. They wanna hear themselves.
Serge (19:31)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And also, so if you're if you're a brand and you're advertising on TikTok, for example, people are scrolling on swiping on on TikTok and then suddenly they see something completely different from what they're what they've been seeing like an actual announcer commercial, you know, they're going to be like out of the zone. But if it's in the same.
style as the reels or the TikToks they're watching, then it doesn't jump out as much, you know? It's just... And it's like in the style of the whole app. So that's important too. Because especially young people, they...
Janet McMordie (she/her) (20:07)
Huh.
Serge (20:16)
They don't like watching commercials. No one likes to watch commercials, you know? No one likes them, except for me and the actual voiceover. I'm like, always, rrrr, commercials, this is so cool. But a lot of people don't like them. So, yeah, think brands are looking for ways to make their commercials not seem like a commercial, you know? Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (20:21)
Except for voice actors, yeah.
Yes, yeah. Well, with that, have you noticed anything? Has anything been surprising to you throughout your career, as it's evolved?
Serge (20:51)
you mean like in a commercial or
Janet McMordie (she/her) (20:55)
Yeah, or even just like since the beginning or even when you started, you were like, this is not what I expected. I didn't know that. Anything that's been kind of like, kind of a shock.
Serge (21:07)
Well, think for example the... So, yeah, when I moved to the US, you know, I was sort of like anxious about losing my clients in Belgium because I thought I was at a disadvantage because I moved away to a different time zone. I was like...
Janet McMordie (she/her) (21:21)
Mmm.
Serge (21:25)
So my mornings here are afternoons in Europe and clients will be emailing and trying to contact me in the morning, in their morning, and I won't be able to answer the emails or calls because I'm sleeping, you know? And I was really anxious about that and I sort of like never mentioned that I moved away. I was like, I'm not going to say that I'm in a different time zone because it's just going to be a disadvantage. And after a while, I figured out like, well, actually it's an advantage. I'm different than anyone else.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (21:38)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Serge (21:55)
Also, I can tell clients, hey, if you email me your script at 8 p.m. European time, which is 1 p.m. my time, I still have plenty of time to record. So I can deliver your recording by the next morning, you know? So that's an advantage. Same thing with the language thing. I was always like, yeah, if I'm gonna get into English.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (22:10)
Yeah.
Serge (22:20)
voiceovers, I need to get rid of my accent because I'm never going to be able to compete and blah blah blah. So I took dialect classes, I worked with a dialect coach and it was really tough, know, like, And then after a while I figured out, wait a second, this accent is an advantage for me because it makes me unique. So, and I think we're evolving into...
Janet McMordie (she/her) (22:40)
you
Serge (22:47)
especially the voice actor, voice acting world or the voiceover world, we're looking for authenticity and for unique people. And that is something completely different with what was happening in the past. we're looking for people, brands and clients are looking for real people, for authentic people. So I think that all the things that I thought was a disadvantage is actually an advantage for me.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (22:55)
Mmm.
Serge (23:17)
So yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (23:18)
And again, I wonder, like again, as time marches on and trends change, obviously that's gonna shift and whatever. But have you noticed any changes since the pandemic? Because the pandemic to me is when I learned that there was such a thing called voiceover, because it seemed like everyone was trying to do it.
Serge (23:28)
Yeah.
Yeah.
That is very true. We saw a lot of people coming into the industry. I mean, because there are also coaches that are online advertising like, make a million bucks in 10 seconds. It doesn't work that way. Spoiler alert. excuse me. But a lot of people.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (24:02)
What?
Serge (24:08)
Thought well, I'm at home and I'm stuck at home. So why not get into voiceover? They bought a little bit of equipment some gear blah blah blah I got into into voice acting and that flooded the the industry with voice actors for a little bit I think that's now going away
Janet McMordie (she/her) (24:22)
Mmm. Mmm.
Serge (24:26)
some more but style-wise definitely during the pandemic everything was more sober. it's such a difficult time right now but we gotta stay strong and we're Domino's Pizza and we think about you we deliver your pizza to your home you know like but yes stay strong.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (24:44)
Mmm.
Serge (24:46)
You know, that was more like the tone of voice for the commercials or for the web videos. yeah, we're here for you. Just dial our phone number or order on the app and it'll be delivered. And it's a no contact delivery and everything. So yeah, that definitely was a huge difference. Yeah. And then afterwards there was hope. The vaccines were there, you know, and we were about to see that COVID was slowly going away. So yes, there's hope.
and that you could all hear that in commercials and web videos, for sure.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (25:18)
It's so funny because my I'm just thinking of this now. I'm like if when I Don't know about say when aliens listen to what happened or like when archaeologists dig up whatever like nothing more so I think will show indicative of the times more than advertising Because it's like the driving force of society, especially in one the first world, right and the trends Like that's so interesting to me
Serge (25:37)
Yeah, probably.
Yep. Yeah.
Yeah, it is, it is. Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (25:48)
That's really cool. Do you have any advice for anyone who's interested in a career in voiceover, especially coming into it later on in life?
Serge (26:02)
I think right now it's really difficult to get into voiceover and voice acting unless you're a celebrity. I've just started a new company with a couple of other voice actors, VoiceOver for the Planet, and it's sort of like a collective of voice actors, and we're trying to get work through our collective.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (26:07)
Hmm.
Hmm.
Serge (26:27)
And the plan is, and I'm going somewhere with this story, but the plan is to try to find work through voiceover for the planet. And we are doing the buy one, give one model. So we're part of 1 % for the planet. Those are companies that give 1 % of their revenue to nonprofits, to environmental causes.
And the idea we had was, if someone buys a voiceover from us, we can give one voiceover for free to a nonprofit who cannot afford one, you know? We're trying to set this up and it's like really, really tough. It's really difficult to find, to connect to the right person, to find the right clients, you know? It's not easy. And I think we have a good business model here.
because we're looking for like-minded people that are thinking the same way. But it's so, so tough. We've been working on this for several months now, and it's just slowly going. So when you get into it, you have to be very, very patient, and you have to be really, really good at this point. You have to have the right gear, like a nice booth and a good microphone, because a lot of voice actors, especially in the United States,
have all that equipment, the good equipment and the training and everything so you're yeah the bar is really really high so you have to be really really good and I think there is sort of like a lead period you have to try to try to be better try to like get coaching and everything that's obviously not free and
Janet McMordie (she/her) (28:13)
Mm.
Serge (28:15)
It takes a while to get there and then you have to find the right clients. all that said, don't listen to me and just go for it if you want to get into voiceover. Because, I mean, there are exceptions. I know people who started out like a couple of years ago and like in six months they made six figures or something. I was like, what? How do you do that? I'm jealous. I've been working at this for so long.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (28:35)
Yeah.
Mmm.
Serge (28:43)
And I mean, I make six figures now, but it took me a while to get there. yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (28:46)
Yeah. And I think that's where, and I know I've had this discussion with people across the board in the film industry and wherever they are in the film industry and why it's such a one frustrating industry to get into, but two, an industry that when you're in it, people are like, well, must be nice of a career and whimsy, blah, blah, blah. Because there are so many stories of like the plucked from obscurity people who were found in a shopping mall, right? Who then are now
Serge (29:10)
Yeah.
Right.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (29:16)
who they quote, did no quote unquote work. They just got lucky.
Serge (29:21)
Yeah, I don't think those stories are true, the way, right? Because, you know, don't you think so? Because, I mean, I cannot imagine, I mean, some of them are obviously true, but I cannot imagine that it must be someone who's taking classes, who's interested into acting, is trying to do all the right things. And then, I don't know, someone found them, but they still had talent or were working for it for so long. Or don't you think so?
Janet McMordie (she/her) (29:24)
Interesting.
Mm.
Yeah, think there are so many stories of the actor who it's like, look, a rising star, where did they come from? And the actor's like, I've been waiting tables in New York City for 20 years. I've been here. I've been here. But then I wonder if, mean, and then again, there always are those stories of like, and maybe not the shopping mall anymore. This isn't the 90s where it's like, I found this girl and she was so pretty. And I was like, you're gonna be a model, kid.
Serge (30:05)
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (30:19)
But I wonder if, especially now, with like you were saying, like the TikTok generation, fast, it sounds like fast fashion where you can become, it's more like the 15 minutes of fame. You know, make a Netflix show, it lasts for one season, then they cancel it, right? Or like there's, you don't have those like legacy stars as much anymore.
Because I think we are as a society so we get bored so easily and kind of want the newest things so the industry is looking for like the newest thing. I don't know what your thoughts are on that.
Serge (30:51)
Yeah. Yeah, I also think that it's the industry or the world is a lot more splintered. There are people on TikTok that are super, super popular, have millions of views and I have never heard of them because I'm not on TikTok, by the way, but so that doesn't help. But no, but I mean, like.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (31:00)
you
Yes.
Serge (31:13)
And for example, Mr. Beast, do you know Mr. Beast? The YouTube guy he has like, he's the most, well, you don't know him. Well, he's the most watched guy on YouTube and he is making, I don't know how much money, but tons of money. I had never heard of him until like, I think about a year or two ago or something. And I was like, how come I don't know this guy? And he has, his videos get like millions of views.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (31:28)
Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Serge (31:41)
And he's selling chocolate now at Target and you gotta look him up, MrBeast on YouTube. Not that I am so in love with his videos, I'm probably not his Target group, like, so that's what I mean. Like there are several sort of like celebrities, but we don't know them because everything is so splintered. And yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (31:47)
I told you I'm going to, yes.
Mmm.
Serge (32:05)
So I think the celebrity, the Taylor Swift's of this world and Selena Gomez and whatever, I think they are sort of like disappearing. It's much more difficult to get there unless you have multiple target groups that like you and that are watching you. Yeah. Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (32:16)
Mmm.
Yes.
Yeah, and I, this also makes me think of, I remember having this discussion with a producer about like actors that they're hiring. And for a while there, this is a couple of years ago, this big studios wanted to hire influencers to be in movies. Cause they were like, they're super popular on TikTok, on YouTube. Let's put them in there. Our films, they were sorry, terrible actors, but they're like, who cares? They have an audience. come with an
Serge (32:44)
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm ready.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (32:57)
audience pre-made. The problem was their pre-made audience doesn't go to the movies. They watch their movies on their phone. They don't watch movies. They watch TikToks. So the big production houses were like, uh-oh, right? Again, it's the trends. It's the trends. It's all moving like that and the splintering. So yeah, you need to have, you need to still have your niche group, not just be on TikTok, but also be like, yes, I will still watch.
Serge (33:02)
But I'm right.
Yeah, yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (33:25)
Classic Netflix. I will still watch cable TV It's so interesting to me these days. It's a completely different world that I think a lot of people were hoping to get into
Serge (33:29)
Right.
It is.
Absolutely, yeah. all that makes it more difficult to get into acting or voice acting. And even when you're an influencer and you have a million followers or 20 million followers, there's still a lot of people that don't know you because you're not in the news all day or you don't, like, you know, it's just, I don't know, it's a tough world, yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (34:01)
Yeah. So in the tough world of voiceover, what keeps you in it? Like what do you love so much about? I know, right? It's so hard out here.
Serge (34:09)
It's so tough. Help me please. I just love what I'm doing. I just like it. just, I don't know, it gives me a fulfillment when I create something and something that I can be proud of and then a video comes out and I'm like, this is so awesome. This is great. And my voice helped that project become better. That's just, I love that. just...
And I like to experiment with different types of, well, different characters or different tones of voice. It's just, that's what keeps me going. Also, since I move a lot, because my husband, he has a completely different job, an office job. He's in finance. And we move around a lot. like approximately every two years we move.
And this is perfect for me because I can take my booth, can take my equipment, my computer, blah, blah, take it with me and just move everything. So a couple of years ago, we moved to, from, Dallas, Texas to Hungary, to Budapest. And I live there. We lived there for two years. So, but I could just continue my work. Right. So I just had to tell my clients, Hey, I'm going to be out of, out of my booth for two weeks because I need to move, but then I'll be back. And yeah. And it's.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (35:21)
Hmm!
Serge (35:36)
seems like nothing ever ever happened and that's super convenient too that you can I love being self-employed and having my own business and I can work whenever I want and I cannot work whenever I want. That's all like an added bonus for sure and it's such fun to meet new people all the time talk to you be on podcasts you know let's tell my story listen to other people's stories and
Janet McMordie (she/her) (35:50)
Mm-hmm.
you
Mm-hmm, that's awesome. Do you have any favorite memories of your time in the booth? Any funny stories?
Serge (36:06)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. there was this one time I was in a live directed session and we were recording a serious script for a corporate video. I can't remember exactly what it was, but... And the client was like super impressed. He was like, you can do all these different tones of voice and...
And I joked, well yeah, I mean, can do it. I'm a professional voice actor, know? Do you want me to give, I jokingly said, like, do you want me to give you a take Disney style? Like very, and they were like, can you do that? Can you do that? And I was like, yeah, sure. So I read the script, Disney style. It's like, in a world, you know, like very warm, totally not.
It's tailored to that script, obviously, that we're not gonna use it. But they laughed so hard and it was just so heartwarming that they were like, this is so awesome. We're obviously not gonna use that for our video, but this is so awesome. Thank you so much. So yeah, that was really fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (37:23)
That so awesome. That just like brings in the play, right? Where you're like, I was allowed to play. What else am I allowed to do than that in this crazy world? That's so wonderful.
Serge (37:31)
You know what I think? I mean, I am a little bit of a shy guy. I would love to be on camera and the big shot and everything, but I'm too shy for it. But in my booth, I can just... I'm here by myself.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (37:35)
Mmm.
Serge (37:45)
No one can see me and I can act crazy and no one's gonna judge me. I mean, they might judge me, but I just turn off the camera and I end the conversation or whatever, but they never judge me, you know? So that's really, yeah, that's really fun. And that's what I liked about radio back in the day as well. I was all alone in the studio. It felt like I was alone and I could do crazy things, say crazy, funny stuff, try new jokes or whatever.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (38:02)
Mm.
Serge (38:14)
It seemed to me like no one was listening, although we had like a lot of listeners. And that's the same with this, right? You can be expressive, but still feel like you're not making a fool of yourself in front of a million people. So that helps too. But I have horror stories too, where I was in a studio on location with nine people for a commercial for a bank and...
It took too long to get everything recorded and they were like discussing. The nine people were like, do you want this tone of voice? And after I think two or three hours, I was like sweating because this is not normal for a for a 30 second commercial, you know. And OK, everyone was happy. go home and later on the next day or something, I hear they went with a different voice. I was like, what? So that's obviously not fun. But yeah, yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (39:07)
Hmm.
No. my gosh. Stress. Yeah, for sure. Do you have anything that you are looking forward to coming up?
Serge (39:14)
Less, less fun.
Absolutely. Our new project, Voice Over for the Planet, that is something... We've been working on that with four... with the four of us, basically. And then we have a bunch of members, people that are voice actors and are not taking the decisions, but helping us with everything. And that is... I mean, I'm so excited about that project because we want to do something good.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (39:27)
Yes.
Serge (39:50)
for the planet and for the world and for the nonprofits and everything. And we were trying to figure out, obviously we wanted to do everything for free for nonprofits, but that's not possible, right? You gotta make money and eat and it's a business and everything costs money. So we came up with this awesome idea of the buy one, give one. And that's just, I'm so excited. I can't wait. I know it's gonna take off. I just don't know when. I know it's a hit.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (40:15)
Hmm
Serge (40:19)
The reactions we get from people is just amazing from the people that are in nonprofits that we try to help and from people that are interesting in doing good for the planet but have a business. They're all like, this is an awesome idea. We love it. So yeah, we want to book you. We don't have work right now, but we want to book you guys as soon as we have work. And I think this is going to be so much fun to work on that.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (40:49)
Do you have, is there a website or anything like that that I can go to? We can go to? We can link in the show notes below.
Serge (40:53)
For sure. So, yes. VoiceOverForThePlanet.com is the website. even if you're a voice actor, a professional, we're always looking for new people. Even if you're a voice actor and you think this is something that you like and once in a while you want to do a voiceover for free. mean, you can get credits, donation credits for it as well. So it's not really free, you know.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (41:01)
So great.
Serge (41:23)
Like you can get something out of it. Yeah, you can join us as well or give your information or if you're interested in helping us with buying voiceovers, then go to our website, voiceoverfortheplanet.com as well. Yeah.
Janet McMordie (she/her) (41:41)
Do you have any final words of wisdom or advice?
Serge (41:45)
Just be yourself. I think that's the thing that I absolutely learned throughout the years. I'm now 43, I think. I'm old, I'm all right. And that's something that I learned. Like, when I was younger, I was always trying to be someone else and trying to be the best version of not myself, you know, like someone else.
And I feel like if you're just yourself and with all your flaws, other people will think your flaws are not flaws. yeah. Just with the accent, that's what I'm saying. I I was trying to change myself and I think that's not necessary. So that's really my advice. And keep going at it. Just if you want to get somewhere, just go for it. You just got to keep going and someday it'll happen.
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