Anne Ganguzza and Tom Dheere share decades of combined experience in this insightful episode, dedicated to the long view of a voice acting career. Having been in the industry since the cassette and CD demo era, the hosts emphasize that longevity is achieved not through linear steps, but through resilience, strategic adaptation, and continuous self-improvement. The discussion provides a candid look at why the work never stops, the necessity of community, and the critical importance of mastering the mental game.

 

00:00 - Anne (Host)
Hey bosses, Anne Ganguzza here. Are you ready to take the next step in your voiceover career? At Anne Ganguzza Productions, I specialize in target marketed coaching and demo production that gets you booked. If you're thinking about elevating your performance or creating an awesome demo, check me out at anneganguzza.com. 

00:22 - Speaker 2 (Announcement)
It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss a VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. 

00:41 - Anne (Host)
Hey, hey everyone. Welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Real Bosses series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I'm here with the one and only illustrious Mr Tom Dheere, real Boss. 

00:54 - Tom (Host)
Hi everybody, hi Anne hey. 

00:56 - Anne (Host)
Tom, how are? 

00:57 - Tom (Host)
you. I'm doing pretty good, if I'm not mistaken, haven't you, didn't you just have an anniversary? 

01:03 - Anne (Host)
I did Just celebrated 25 years with my hubby whoa. It seems like yesterday. I swear to god, 25 years just went so fast that's amazing and uh, and you, just, you just were telling me about your blogiversary how long have you been blogging? 17 years oh my god, tom that blogging, I mean I've been blogging for a you been blogging 17 years. Oh my God, tom, blogging, I mean I've been blogging for a while, but blogging for 17 years is insane. 

01:31 - Tom (Host)
Thank you. 

01:31 - Anne (Host)
Wow, you must have really good SEO. That's all I got to say. 

01:35 - Tom (Host)
I would like to yeah. Yeah, my SEO is pretty good. 

01:37 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, we would like to think that you have good SEO, but, wow, so long term relationships. You know it makes me think about voiceover, because I have been in voiceover just about as long Not quite as long as I've been married to my husband, but you know, 21 years, and it's. It's incredible. I feel like I just started, but yet I don't, because it is and we always talk about it being a marathon, not a sprint and I think you've been in voiceover longer than me. 

02:03 - Tom (Host)
Yes, I decided I wanted to be a voice actor in 1994. 

02:09 - Anne (Host)
Wow yeah. And then I got my commercial demo. Some people were born in 1994. 

02:14 - Tom (Host)
Not me, I know. 

02:17 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, some of my students haven't been born. 

02:19 - Tom (Host)
Some bosses listening to this are going to be like, I was born in 1994. I know, or 2004. And then I got my commercial demo in 1995 and I booked my first voiceover in 1996. And I went full time as a voice actor in 2005 and started coaching in 2011. So I've been-. 

02:39 - Anne (Host)
Oh, I started coaching just shortly before you. Yeah, yeah, just a little bit longer, because then we started coaching just shortly before you. Yeah, yeah, just a little bit longer, because then because we met shortly thereafter at Voice 2012. 

02:49 - Tom (Host)
Oh my goodness, we already knew each other, but I don't think we met. 

02:52 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, but I remember we. 

02:54 - Tom (Host)
I definitely remember we hung out at Voice 2012, which was 13 years ago. Oh my gosh. 

02:59 - Anne (Host)
Woo At Disneyland. You know so and it's funny because we talk about you know how long have you been in voiceover and how long did it take you to become successful in voiceover? Well, I always say you know, my overnight success took many, many years. So I think and I think it's something that a lot of people don't understand, especially those that are intrigued by this industry you know thinking that, oh yeah, it's, I can stay at home, I can do this. You know thinking that, oh yeah, it's, I can stay at home, I can do this. You know, I can buy the mic. It'll cost me a few hundred dollars and then I can just start booking jobs and making money. 

03:32
And I think really for I know we talk about all the time, but I think I want to have a whole episode dedicated to the realities of having a long view career and the fact that it is something that you have to be in for the long run if you truly want to be successful at it. I mean, of course, you could be in it for a couple of years and then, if you don't like it, you get out. But most people I know want to make a good, they want to be successful at it, they want to make a good living. So let's talk about what it's like to be in voiceover for a long time and what it looks like, because it's certainly not like a corporate job. I am a corporate girl and came from corporate and then education, and I certainly was not handed a paycheck every other week in this full-time voiceover job. That's for sure, because it's a much different, much different industry. It's our own businesses. 

04:22 - Tom (Host)
I have the luxury of being able to zoom out and look at 30 years of being in the voiceover business, where when I started, you know, they just segued out of reel to reels and started using plastic cassette tapes. So I'm of the cassette tape generation of voice actors that started in the mid 90s and now we are. I was CDs, you were CDs, so you were, just I was CDs. 

04:51 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, shortly after the cassettes came the CDs. 

04:53 - Tom (Host)
Just as CDs came out and then, a few years after the CDs, came the MP3. 

04:57 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, and it was a thing, because I remember the burning of the CDs was like, oh God, who do I get to do that for me? 

05:03 - Tom (Host)
I did it myself. 

05:04 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, well, that was before. Right CD burners came out and now you know you can have a CD. I had a duplication company that I did all my cassettes through and then started doing the CDs. 

05:14 - Tom (Host)
There, you go and then I was like wait a minute. 

05:20 - Anne (Host)
I can print my own labels. 

05:21 - Tom (Host)
using Avery, I can burn my own CDs, stick it in the tray and my desktop. 

05:25 - Anne (Host)
I was one of those people. I got that. The stamp thing where you push it down, you stamp your label on the CD and that was like, oh my gosh. 

05:33 - Tom (Host)
Oh, now I feel old. Now we're getting really anachronistic and alienating ourselves. 

05:37 - Anne (Host)
That was like. That was like that. That was the coolest. That was the peas knees. 

05:40 - Tom (Host)
That was kind of fun. 

05:42 - Anne (Host)
I love that little stamper. That was awesome, it was. 

05:46 - Tom (Host)
But anyway, so, yeah, so looking back and zooming out and looking at what are the realities of what you need to have a long VO career, I mean it starts with training. It absolutely starts with training. I'm a theater-trained actor. I went to college and then I did a little graduate work at a place called the National Shakespeare Conservatory that used to be here in New York City. So I got like hardcore theater training about body and mind and spirit and voice and engaging. I had great voice coaches, I had ballet coach, chekhov coach, like all this stuff. That really gave me a very, very, very solid, solid foundation. Gave me a very, very, very solid, solid foundation. So if you want so the so step one. If you want longevity in the voiceover industry, if you want a long career, you got to start with very solid training performance training, voiceover training, genre training, so you can be demo ready. 

06:38 - Anne (Host)
I didn't realize you you had been a theater trained. Yes, I did. How did I not know that about you, Tom? And I know I've known you for a long time it doesn't come. 

06:45 - Tom (Host)
I mean, it was so long ago, Wow. 

06:47 - Anne (Host)
Do you miss it? Do you still do it or do you miss it? 

06:50 - Tom (Host)
No, I haven't been on a stage in almost 25 years. When I discovered voiceover after I dropped out of the conservatory for reasons we will not get into as soon as I discovered voiceover I was like, oh, that's where I need to be and that's where, also, I can take all of that training that I did on stage and I had a little bit of on camera. I had a little bit of TV and a little bit of film experience very, very little bit like extra work on 30 Rock and things like that. 

07:25
You know that's that sort of that. You know if you blink you'll miss me, that sort of thing. But that turned into that inhabited me. As I'll put it to you this way, that sort of training, theater training, it's like pro wrestling, like it's large gestures, projecting, you know, into an audience and then voiceovers is is boxing. It's very, it's very intimate and it's very, it's very, very close. 

07:51
Um, so that all that great theater training, I had to obviously learn to make adjustments and turn from this very open, broad presentation, presentational type of acting to this very intimate, one-on-one, you know, doing this, this kind of acting. And I use that training, consciously or unconsciously, every every day, 30