0095: How VOHeroes Pro Bethany Arrington-Peck’s Starbucks Session Went
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Show notes:
Hey there, hero!
When a VOHeroes Pro has a success, I always take a moment to savor that. Whether it’s a breakthrough in training, an equipment or software victory, or something as major as a booking, it’s a moment to celebrate.
And I try my best to find out the details: what did you do that led to this? What did you learn? What does it feel like to achieve this success?
And so, when I get a chance to talk to a Pro when they get such a gift, I grab it.
And that’s what I got to do with the newest voice of Starbucks, VOHeroes Pro Bethany Arrington-Peck. She’s awesome and I couldn’t be happier for her.
If you’ve wondered what it’s like to get booked and do a session for a major brand, this podcast episode is for you.
Are you excited (and maybe fearful) of such a success? Did what Bethany shared square up with your expectations of your future success? Let me know in the comments below.
Raw transcript:
Raw transcript:
we spend a lot of time in these episodes
trying to help you decouple the
potential outcome of your voice over
Pursuits your work your study your
auditions Etc trying not to emphasize or
get too disappointed when a booking
doesn’t happen because it’s so rare that
it does even for people who quote book
all the time
and when it does happen
it’s worth celebrating
yet another video Heroes Pro is now the
voice of a major brand and we’re going
to meet her in just a second
on this episode of the vioheroes podcast
[Music]
well you called it I don’t know if you
remember that but during when we were
doing my commercial demo you like
jokingly said to Trevor oh it’s just a
matter of time she’ll have a national
spy you know like you said that offhand
and I was like there’s no way there’s no
way and you’re like no you’re yeah
you’re gonna do it just wait it’ll come
and it did
so you like the voiceover Oracle you are
uniquely you and your Starbucks coffee
should be too so if you like your coffee
rich
[Music]
buttery and full of caramel flavor then
Starbucks Caramel flavored coffee is
made to be yours
I feel so fancy I’m on the same podcast
as angusa
okay all right uh yeah you are are you
doing my hair like now
you have to do what I even did my hair
like hers wow so those little Ann
ganguza worship people were on purpose
but then I finished and I was like oh
well okay all right
so I after watching that
uh I I feel like I have to temporarily
suspend my venti misto uh with with uh
sugar-free uh vanilla syrup order and
get myself something with caramel I mean
did you was your biggest was your
biggest choice at that point and maybe
they helped you make it how to pronounce
the word caramel this it became a very
heated discussion like extremely heated
um because I am actually from Carmel
Indiana
c-a-r-m-e-l right and Carmel is by the
Sea right right normal is by the corn
and neither one of them have that middle
a exactly and for me when you eat
something or it’s flavored it is caramel
it’s not caramel all right so I gave my
they’re like Bethany do you have an
opinion and I was like do I and I was
like yeah I do actually
so that’s pretty rare I mean very rare
you usually have choices Made For You by
not just the producer or the director
but the brand manager yeah and I want to
get into uh you know how this all
happened and what it was like the day of
the recordings or the date of the
recordings because it turns out now it’s
a campaign not just a booking so first
off let’s go back to the beginning where
did the audition come from so the
audition came through my agent Simon
Stewart talent in Chicago specifically
my agent Sheila
um and I love her to death and it was
very interesting because they it was not
actually the initial audition wasn’t for
the campaign it was four and it was
titled Starbucks animatics
so basically it wasn’t going to be
front-facing initially it was just going
to the c-level executives
um you know the the marketing firm
wanted to pitch this and so they asked
for a short list
um from my agent
and Sheila sent me off and I guess I I
did very well in just the initial
audition and they were like great we’re
gonna book you and they paid me a nice
little flat rate and then it was kind of
like forget about it because
the sea levels like Starbucks may say
Yes
um the marketing firm may go you know
we’re going in a totally different
direction voiceover wise like just you
know it’s very much that game of not
counting your chickens before they hatch
right and out of sight out of mind so I
did the animatics
um finish that and then two months later
I I get the email from my agent hey
they’ve come back uh they’d like to
negotiate to do
um three separate ads
um and I was like okay that’s totally
fine I have a wonderful working
relationship so with my agent so Sheila
actually asked me if I had opinions on
um my rate and other things like within
the contract because I make my I work
independently so much that I do most of
my
um pricing on my own so she respects
that which I really appreciate that’s
great so let’s just let me clarify a
couple of things for people who are like
wait what animatic so an animatic is the
study or the the sort of uh hey here’s
what we’re thinking production that they
will do so that it becomes a little bit
more real for what you also said which
was c-level Executives so CEOs CMOS
Chief marketing officers CEOs uh you
know the the the inner letter there can
vary but these are the the muckity mucks
or the company yeah and so
it used to be you come in with with
boards and you’d go storyboarding it and
you go well in this scene we’re going to
do this but now you know the budgets are
are high enough and the ease of
production is easy enough that they can
actually do a scratch version of what
they finally end up putting out to the
public and that’s what an animatic is
it’s like we’re gonna go from this scene
to this scene to this scene and this is
the way it’s going to look and this is
how it’s going to sound and you see you
were the voice of that so this is not uh
usual but it’s not all that uncommon
that a company will say well what’s
wrong with the woman we had that did the
the animatics why don’t we just get hurt
she’s great great yeah yeah
so tell me how you felt that moment when
you were sitting on the same side of the
table with your agent and trying to
figure out what you were going to come
back with for a rate
honestly it was it felt like a milestone
it felt it felt like a really big
milestone because I’m I don’t know if
you remember this David but when we
first started working together one of my
big like I would say one of my biggest
hurdles was becoming confident in
pricing out things and basically you and
I had a pretty long conversation about
cost versus value
no no no when somebody actually listens
you know it seems like I I sometimes
feel like when we share the things that
we share in this podcast that I’m just
casting it out as a potential help and
if anybody grabs it and uses it great
but I realize that it doesn’t happen
nearly as often as people going oh yeah
I’ll watch that sometime but the pricing
on this
um you actually had an opportunity to
work it out with your agent in a way
that it wasn’t and I don’t know was this
a union job this ended up being
non-union okay
and but you kind of based your rates on
what on Union so
so yeah
um the
love that guide global voice acting
academy I think it is because they like
do a poll every year and it’s basically
a bunch of us kind of giving the median
cost of what you know we’re pricing and
whatnot um but then I also always look
at Union rates
um that way I have an idea I I’m not
undercutting myself or other talent and
I’m keeping myself competitive
um within within reason I guess it’s a
really good parameter to work from yeah
and so in the mastering video pricing
course that we have in video Heroes the
non-union rates are based on the GBA uh
rate guide as well as the voice over
guide here in Los Angeles and also union
rates I mean yeah um so the pricing’s
taken care of you got booked on the gig
when it first started was it three spots
uh no it when it the the animatic was
for one and then they were like oh but
we have this idea for the vanilla or no
for verbana the verbana
um and I was like oh okay and they’re
like well would you be willing to to
record and I was like yeah for another
fee I mean you’re getting you know
another they’re like okay sure they were
really great
um and so and then it became when they
came back they were like okay now we’re
gonna do three separate spots and I
believe only two are front facing right
now I don’t know if we’re going with the
third one so yeah and it’s kind of
interesting we always think oh I if I
ask for another fee they’ll go find
somebody else yeah it’s pretty rare that
the fee that they pay to a voice
challenge is anywhere near the biggest
part of the budget the biggest part of
the budget is the actual buy and this
spot is going to be everywhere this
winter which is so exciting yeah um Okay
so we’ve been and booked we’ve read the
price I’m assuming that there was no
negotiations some negotiation but they
basically said yes your book no they
just said yes I was really lucky again
okay so you’re booked let’s go to the
day or days of recording where did you
record what what did you do what what
did you do what happened I’m so excited
to talk about this because everybody
gets all up in arms about what Mike you
know you know in our industry
everybody’s like if you’re not using off
you’re terrible right sure I recorded
right here in my home booth with my
at2020 USB Plus
I
yes part of USB mic okay all right so
and the mic that you’re talking in right
now is the USB mic it’s it’s look the
best mic around
everybody I I can only say
um this is an illustration we just
watched the spot okay you heard the spot
you heard the quality of her voice
certainly she went the the signal was
picked up over
Source connect yes we ended up with
Source connect
Source connect clean feed whatever
you’re using it goes to a studio
somewhere an engineer is mixing it with
music it’s against picture
um and
the the
great that’s what I’m gonna skip great
this is just just another example of
the rules that have been set by somebody
somewhere and have scared the crap out
of the industry you have to have a
Neumann you have to have a focusrite uh
you know interface a really high-end one
you have to okay
the point is you did your work from your
booth
on your at2020 USB plus and it’s now
airing nationally internationally it’s
going to be airing for a while note that
this spot if you want to rewind and go
back and watch it this spot has no
uh Year date uh you know it can be used
forever it’s Evergreen yes and so note
that that’s the case and next winter
when these flavors are you know being
pushed on us by Starbucks great
who knows there may be a renewal in your
future all right so you’re recording
that day what version of source connect
do you use
I paid for Source connect standard
um I am very much of the opinion that
voice actors with their home Studios do
not need to do uh voice uh voice sorry
why why am I source connection there we
go I cannot I do not believe uh Source
connect pro like you need that as a
voice actor that’s more for the
engineers so I do pay for the standard
um you know agents are still really
stuck on that uh I’m a huge fan of clean
feed I’ve now been kind of pushing it on
my clients I mean like let’s try it if
you hate it we I have Source connect we
can pop it over you know what I mean but
I again where do we want to spend our
money as voice actors a lot of us you
know are doing this freelance and
I if I don’t have to spend my money
there
yeah I’m gonna I’m not going to you know
so yeah so how long was the session
we ended up it was a little bit longer
than usual so it ended up being a little
bit over an hour most of my sessions are
an hour under hold on hold on stop
a little over an hour that is a blip in
your day right
and when you think about it people go oh
that must have been like a long you know
three spots oh my God
and and I don’t think people really
understand
the the size the the effort the chunking
of uh commercial work of versus
narration work versus audio book work
and so when you say a little over an
hour and that was a little longer than
normal this gives you some insight those
of you watching this gives you some
insight as to what it takes to do a
typical session when you’re working in
commercial copy and in a short form copy
um how were they to work with
oh incredible I couldn’t because we had
done the animatics that made the session
quicker too because it was like oh let’s
just do this again you know like let’s
do it again
um there’s been maybe a slight change in
the script but not much my engineer was
fantastic it was actually a studio out
in La squeaky clean audio and I I cannot
stress enough how much Engineers are
your friend engineers and producers are
your friends they are the best of the
best and they when you treat them with
respect they advocate for you and at one
point
um there was a lot of a lot of back and
forth between the client and the
marketing uh director and they were just
kind of going around and around and
which happens it’s totally fine you know
you’re as a voice actor you just sit
back be quiet drink your water and know
that you’ll probably be speaking again
soon and I have to say my engineer was
like we need to be mindful of Bethany’s
time
um she’s on with us for this amount like
you know guys can we wrap this up and I
just I was like
man that just makes you feel good when
other people value you you know yeah and
I want you to I want you to rewind a
little bit you came on board as a vo
Heroes Pro a couple years ago and what
two years ago two years ago yeah uh and
who knows when people are watching this
so
um within that time period
I think you’ve been incredibly diligent
about
listening and implementing and probing
and testing and seeing what fits for you
and seeing what works for you
and you’ve also become an advocate in a
way that I’ve never seen another video
Heroes Pro work and I’m really proud of
you for this you’re now doing uh little
snippets on LinkedIn and uh maybe they
are showing up elsewhere I see you on
LinkedIn and what you’re doing is you’re
communicating with your potential
audience
I have asked my students and clients to
do this for years and I want you to know
you’re the very first one to ever do it
talking with people who could
potentially hire you
about the best practices of doing just
that if you’re talking to a talent about
doing
um you know a piece of Animation do this
here’s a tip on how to talk with Talent
on what you need for that you’re
actually treating your potential client
base as an audience that you can help
educate especially because so many
people are going direct to Talent now
rather than through agencies or through
casting sites they’re going direct to
the talent right so you’re doing your
best to
educate them and I just think that’s
brilliant so I want to ask you this one
last question and that is how did it
feel the moment you saw the finished
product
I cried
I cried because it
you know you you know it’s coming out
there’s not much fanfare in voiceover
it’s not like anybody’s seen your face
and unless they know you really well
like a lot of people don’t recognize my
own mother doesn’t always recognize my
voice like she well she cracks me up
she’s like unless you’re doing your mom
voice I don’t know it’s you
um and
so there’s not a lot of fanfare you’re
kind of looking for stuff on your own
there is like a sense of you have to
create community and voice over because
most of us are working out of our booths
you know by ourselves and so when I
finally saw it you know front facing
people are gonna see it I cried because
I was so excited but I also cried
because I was really proud of myself
um because I have worked I have been
very diligent in the past couple of
years and like you said experimenting
figuring out what works for me because
not everything works for every voice
actor there’s a lot of um black and
white thinking
in in especially I think in performing
uh people would be like this is the hard
and fast rule right like we said about
the microphones and what’s really
important is to move away from that and
to figure out what works specifically
for you and your voice and that’s really
what I’ve been doing for two years
um not even like getting good at
voiceover I’ve been getting good at
being Bethany and that’s that’s what
sells that’s what gets me booked is
Bethany she’s more than enough and
that’s what I feel like I want to say to
voice over artists all the time you
right now just as you are more than
enough so yeah it was a great feeling
awesome I want to take a moment to say
congratulations we spent a lot of time
on these podcast episodes trying to
decouple the outcome from the process
because the outcome is very very rarely
a booking
but on those occasions when
a booking occurs when something weird
happens in the fabric of the universe
and or maybe not so weird because you
were able to show them what you were
capable of doing in the animatic
it’s worth celebrating and I want to
celebrate with you and I want to tell
you how proud I am of you and how proud
I am that you joined via Heroes Pro and
that we had some small part to do with
your current success and hopefully with
your ongoing success yeah yeah uh if you
uh like this episode and it inspires you
hit the like button subscribe to the
channel if that’s what you’d like to do
certainly tap the notification Bell
gently so that you’re notified of future
episodes
uh I’m David H Lawrence the 17th I thank
you so much for watching and for
listening and we will see you in the
next episode of the video Heroes podcast
that’s when the sound goes and it goes
yeah that’s where the sound goes
from YouTube
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David, good interview.
I’d like to second your congratulations to Bethany on landing the national. It’s an affirmation that due diligence and talent can pay off.
I especially enjoyed you mentioning the affordable microphone she used for the spots and that she recorded from her home studio. I once recorded a few spots that aired on Game Show Network from my VERY humble home studio using an AT 20 20 as they directed over phone patch. The microphone worked fine. Sometimes I think voice talents get too hung up on gear/equipment when they should be focusing more on honing their craft and skill set in this very competitive business.
The latest big, bad, hyped golf driver you see on a TV commercial won’t necessarily make you a better golfer. I feel the same way about microphones.
Again, congrats Bethany. Many more coming your way. You sound like a very positive force.
What a fantastic interview. Congratulations, Bethany! David, these extended interviews have so much good information and insight. So good that you’re doing them. Thank you.
Bethany,
I specifically appreciate the pauses you let hang. It allows the listener to taste with your words. the pause is so underused, that coma, that selah creates the edge of your seat in drama, builds humor in comedy, and builds flavor with your ad. Great job.
DJ
Thanks David for interviewing Bethany. It was good to hear that it was her hard work during the last 2 years, going through the courses, applying the knowledge and treating everyone with respect, that got her to this point. Loved the final take away..clients want to hire YOU…find out who YOU are and become your best version of yourself!! Congratulations Bethany!
Congrats to Bethany! She also has a great energy which makes for a great interview.
Great interview, David! Thanks for taking us BTS and demystifying some of the process of commercial work.
Bethany, congratulations! I am so proud of you and found myself full of joy as I watched you tell about your experience – lots of great nuggets for us to remember.
I especially appreciate when you affirmed us, saying that we are enough, that we need to become good at being ourselves because that’s what sells us.
I can’t wait to see the campaign – I think I’ll get a bit misty too 😊