George The Tech’s Performer Friendly Podcast

Why are so many sports, automotive, tech, and financial commercials still voiced by men? And what happens when brands finally give women a chance to audition? George sits down with Christy Harst, a veteran voice actor and founder of the Building Doors campaign, to talk about breaking down gender barriers in voiceover and creating opportunities where women have traditionally been overlooked. Christy shares how a career setback led her to pursue voiceover full-time, how she built her first recording studio using PVC pipe and moving blankets, and how landing a national John Deere campaign helped her take her studio to the next level. They also discuss the remarkable impact of Building Doors, including a campaign that caught Valvoline's attention and helped change how the brand approaches casting. Christy explains why changing long-established industry habits takes more than good intentions—and how data, advocacy, and something as simple as sharing a social media post can make a real difference. 00:00 Why Women’s Voices Are Still Overlooked 01:00 Meet Christy Harst & Building Doors 03:00 The Unicorn Award & Community Support 09:00 How Sharing a Post Can Create Opportunities 12:00 From Career Setbacks to Full-Time Voiceover 16:00 Building a Studio & Knowing When to Upgrade 21:00 Christy's Recording Gear & Studio Setup 25:00 Source-Connect & Remote Session Best Practices 32:00 Building Doors: Progress & Challenges 36:00 The Valvoline Success Story 44:00 What the Data Says About Gender in Voiceover 52:00 How to Support Building Doors   Connect with Christy and Building Doors: Website: https://buildingdoorsvo.com Social media: @buildingdoorsvo Subscribe to the Behind the Door newsletter and discover the voice actors helping open doors throughout the industry.   The George The Tech Performer Friendly Podcast is brought to you by Full Compass. Not sure if your audio sounds professional? A Sound Check by George The Tech helps identify problems and explains your next steps.  New customers receive 20% off with coupon code XPTO.

What happens when you land your dream voiceover gig—and your studio won’t cooperate? Voice actor and former VH1 VJ Roger Rose joins George for a funny, candid conversation about the business behind the performance. From finding the voice of Happy Feet’s leopard seal to pursuing his dream of becoming a network announcer, Roger shares what it took to get in the door, handle rejection, and keep showing up when the stakes were high. Roger and George also unpack the technical side of staying employable: reliable remote connections, simpler recording setups, and why talent and engineers need to work as a team. Along the way: an unexpected Clint Eastwood encounter, recording from hotels and cars, and a few memorable occasions when getting the job done required serious improvisation. Timeline 00:00 Sponsors, Preview, and Meet Roger Rose 03:00 Happy Feet and Roger’s Voiceover Beginnings 07:00 Doing Clint Eastwood—for Clint Eastwood 12:00 The Business Behind the Talent 17:00 Going After the Network Dream 23:00 Keeping the Job and Handling Rejection 26:00 Choosing Coaches and Continuing to Learn 29:00 Travel Recording and Simpler Studio Setups 36:00 Troubleshooting Without the Panic 42:00 Source-Connect, Session Checks, and Teamwork 47:00 Tri-Booth and Recording Wherever You Are 54:00 Car Studios, Career Support, and Final Advice Brought to you by Full Compass: https://www.fullcompass.com Need help getting your recording setup working reliably? Visit https://georgethe.tech Content note: Contains explicit language.

Voice actor and audiobook narrator A.W. “Aaron” Miller joins George to talk about the long road to becoming a full-time voice actor—and why sounding polished isn’t the same thing as sounding real. They get into audiobook workflow, auditions, improv, breaths and mouth noise, perfectionism, and the importance of making an actual choice when you step up to the mic. A.W.’s recurring advice is refreshingly simple: be yourself, let yourself play, and stop trying to make every audition sound like a finished commercial. 00:00 — Why Authenticity Beats “Performing” 03:00 — A.W. Miller’s Road to Voiceover 11:00 — The Best Advice: Be Yourself 13:00 — Going Full-Time & Finding a Routine 18:00 — The Realities of Audiobook Narration 21:00 — Punch & Roll and a Better Production Workflow 27:00 — Stop Trying to Make Everything Perfect 33:00 — Breaths, Mouth Noise & Knowing When to Let Go 35:00 — Voice Actors as Co-Creators 39:00 — Make a Choice in Your Audition 42:00 — Why Improv Matters for Voice Actors 52:00 — Stop Making Auditions Sound “Finished”

George the Tech sits down with Heidi Rew, full-time voice actor, on-camera actor, podcast host, and co-owner of Atlanta Voiceover Studio, to talk about her unlikely path from childhood performer to radio personality to working voice actor and studio owner. Heidi shares why persistence often matters more than raw talent, what she learned from losing a nine-year client, how Atlanta Voiceover Studio grew from a tiny recording space into a major VO training resource, and why making a demo before you're ready can set you up for failure instead of success. Timeline 00:00 Sponsor: Full Compass + GTT Sound Check 00:57 Meet Heidi Rew 02:00 From Childhood Performer to Voice Actor 05:00 Performing Without “Performing” for the Microphone 07:00 Self-Consciousness, Confidence, and Getting Out of Your Own Way 11:30 Paying Her Own Way Through College 12:30 Internships and Finding Radio 14:00 The Many Jobs You Do in Radio 16:15 The “Redneck Home Shopping Show” 18:30 Meeting Mike Stoudt and the Road to Voiceover 20:00 Building a VO Career While Working in Radio 23:00 Why You Can’t Compare Your Voiceover Journey to Someone Else’s 24:30 Talent vs. Persistence: Who Actually Builds a Career? 25:30 Leaving Radio and Going Full-Time 27:00 How Atlanta Voiceover Studio Started Almost by Accident 29:00 From Recording Space to VO Training 30:30 You Don’t Need to Be the Biggest Expert to Be a Great Teacher 33:00 Learning to Let Go of Auditions 34:30 Big Wins, Long-Term Clients, and AutoNation 35:30 What Happens When a Nine-Year Client Disappears? 37:00 Balancing VO, Acting, and Running a Studio 38:30 The Business Mistake Heidi Wishes They Had Avoided 40:00 Growing Atlanta Voiceover Studio — Then COVID Hit 42:00 How Virtual Training Changed the Business 44:00 Surviving the Financial Ups and Downs of Creative Work 45:00 Hiring, Delegating, and Building a Flexible Team 48:30 What Atlanta Voiceover Studio Offers Today 52:30 How Do You Know When You’re Ready for a Commercial Demo? 54:00 Where to Learn More About Heidi and Atlanta Voiceover Studio

George talks with UK-based voiceover engineer and demo producer Henry Willard about the rise of virtual engineering and why more actors are bringing their own engineers into remote directed sessions. Henry explains how having someone handle recording, playback, timing, and client requests can free the actor to stay where they belong: in the performance. They also explore Henry’s approach to creating authentic commercial demos, why overproducing auditions can backfire, the never-ending battle with mouth noise, common home-studio mistakes, and the realities of producing audiobooks by hand in an increasingly automated world. And because two audio engineers can only behave themselves for so long, there’s plenty of talk about Pro Tools, headphones, plugins, noise reduction, Macs vs. PCs, and keeping your processing chain simple. Timeline 00:00 Sponsor and Sound Check 01:00 Meet Henry Willard 03:00 Running an Audio Business with Two Young Kids 05:00 The Reality of Working from a Home Studio 07:00 Why Voice Actors Are Hiring Their Own Engineers 10:00 What a Virtual Engineer Actually Does 11:00 Henry’s Start in Remote Recording 14:00 How COVID Changed the Voiceover Workflow 16:00 Building a Freelance Voiceover Engineering Business 19:00 Getting Into Voiceover Demo Production 20:00 Making a Demo Sound Authentic—not Overproduced 22:00 Music Choices That Can Ruin a Demo 24:00 Henry’s “Palette Call” for Building Personalized Demos 27:00 Why Demo Spots Need a Beginning, Middle, and End 28:00 Mouth Noise, Perfectionism, and Over-Editing 29:00 Mac vs. Windows for Voiceover Recording 34:00 How Much Mouth Noise Should You Actually Remove? 35:00 RX Mouth De-click and the Problem with Overprocessing 37:00 Alternatives to RX and When Your Headphones Are Too Good 39:00 Fix the Room and Mic Technique Before Adding Plugins 40:00 The Wrong Mic, the Wrong Input—and Other Common Mistakes 43:00 Henry’s Approach to Audiobook Production 46:00 Punch and Roll vs. Continuous Recording 49:00 AI Proofing vs. Actually Listening to the Audiobook 51:00 Why Henry Takes a Premium Approach to Audiobook Editing 53:00 Henry’s Favorite Tools: Pro Tools, Editus Keys, and Headphones 58:00 Keeping Plugins Simple 59:00 Waves NS1 and Noise Reduction 1:00:00 Apollo C-Vox and Real-Time Noise Reduction 1:02:00 More Audio Geekery—and an Invitation to Pro Audio Suite