Sirius XM and Pandora Radio with Steve Pogatch

VO BOSS

Join us as we sit down with Steve Pogatch, Senior Manager of Voice Over Operations at Studio Resonate, SiriusXM and Pandora, to uncover the transformative journey of voiceover and audio advertising over the past decade. Prepare to have your perceptions of podcast advertising turned upside down. We dive into the fascinating differences between host reads and announcer reads. Gain valuable tips on delivering standout performances, crafting compelling commercial reels, and handling ambiguous scripts with finesse. Steve underscores the importance of prompt communication and reliable turnaround times while highlighting the industry's efforts to protect voice talent amidst the rise of synthetic voices. Finally, discover the impact of the Sonic Diversity Initiative, a significant step towards inclusivity in voice casting.

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00:39 - Intro (Host) It's time to take your business to the next level the boss level. 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 Ganguza.

00:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss Podcast. I'm your host, anne Ganguza, and today I'm very excited to have with me in the studio a very special guest, senior Manager of Voice Over Operations of Studio Resonate, which is SiriusXM Media Pandora Stitcher, Steve Pogatch. In addition to producing thousands of high-quality audio ads in the past 10-plus years that he's been at Pandora, steve has been the go-to guy for all things VO casting, direction and quality. He's responsible for recruiting, auditioning and curating new talent for the Pandora VO roster, as well as managing that roster. Steve, I am so super excited to have you with us today. Thanks so much for being with us.

01:42 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. I feel like I've reached the upper echelon of the VO world now that I'm on the Boss podcast.

01:52 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So thank you so much. Well, thank you, thank you. Well, we're super excited to glean all of your years of wisdom and I'm just so excited that we had this opportunity that I saw you in person. I had to see you in person to beg you to come on the show. So let's kick off things by talking a little bit about your journey at Pandora. You've been there for 10 years and I know in the past 10 years in my voiceover career, I've seen a ton of things change. Talk to us a little bit about what you've seen as far as changes in audio advertising, casting and voiceover.

02:24 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Sure. So yeah, about 10 years ago when I started I was just a producer and our voice roster was maybe about 60 talents or so Wow, and yeah, when they started their advertising department they were getting talents off of Craigslist and other places that I really didn't know. So when I got there, that roster was on an Excel spreadsheet really and it was just filled with all kinds of information and it was really hard to manage and navigate. But a lot of the voices were that terrestrial radio, you know announcer-y style voice.

02:56 And one overarching theme is that voices and everything we've been doing for the past 10 plus years has really just escalated from the announcer-y like hey, pandora listeners, you know like radio style, to hey, pandora listener, you know it's like instead of talking to a group of people talking to one person, you're interrupting their music flow, you're tapping them on the shoulder. You know you're in their earbuds and you just hey, let me tell you about this Tide detergent or Cascade dishwashing liquid or something like that, and just the gentle approach. So it's really gravitated from the super announcer-y, terrestrial radio style to super conversational. The directional word I love to use nowadays is casual a lot. Everyone's sick of conversational already. They're like oh yeah, you're talking to a friend, blah blah, blah, you know yeah.

03:46 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) You know, what's so funny is just my own personal feelings about it is, I get that Like I think they're just sick of the conversational word, but in reality we have conversations with each other every single day, and so there's all different styles of conversational. It could be authoritative conversational, it could be like super casual conversational. I think that when it comes to advertising, though, one of the reasons why it's kind of gotten to that in your ear one-on-one sort of, I think that's what sells and I think that's the evolution of advertising over the years. Would you say that that's true?

04:18 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, I think so it's. You know, the more personal you can get, or targeted, you know, with an ad, or I mean not to the point where it's creepy, but to the point where it resonates with the listener. You know where it's like, oh yeah, the same thing with VO talent getting into a script and connecting with a script. It's like you want to connect with that listener, like, oh yeah, I do use that dish soap every night.

04:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh, yeah, I want to.

04:40 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Oh yeah, that sounds interesting to me, you know.

04:42 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So then I guess my question would be is and this is probably something you're very familiar with is that they ask you to have that casual, like engaged, sort of sound, but yet they don't always write it so that it's easy to achieve that? Do you find that, in terms of the copy that you're seeing come across your desk over and over again, like people still want it to be very, you know, like you're talking to your best friend or that casual, but yet sometimes it's written like super announcer-y?

05:08 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, and that is hard. That is really hard when you get the bullet point style our orange juice has 100% fresh pulp and made from only Valencia oranges. It's like there's three other facts attached to that and you're squeezing that into 30 seconds spot. It's like there's three other facts attached to that and you're squeezing that into 30 seconds spot. It's like how do we get these bullet points to be super conversational?

05:30 - Intro (Host) That is hard.

05:31 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) That is very hard for a talent and for a copywriter. So we do have some great copywriters on our team on Studio Resonate that actually really write great scripts and whenever I can get scripts with humor in them or stuff like that, it just really makes the whole experience better.

05:48 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Now in the studio, are you always writing the copy, or do the clients come and provide copy as well, or do you make suggestions? Let's say, when they come with copy and then they ask for a super casual read, or they have 5,000 words when they need it in 30 seconds.

06:02 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, that happens. The struggle is real.

06:04 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) The struggle is real.

06:06 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, I'd say I don't know the exact percentage, but from where I sit I don't do the writing, but it feels like maybe half and half half are our copywriters and half might be the clients, and sometimes we'll actually take the clients and go here, let us try and rewrite this in a Pandorified way or something like that. And sometimes again, it's like those bullet points-y stuff that really need to get in there and don't even get me started on like some like pharmacy disclaimers and stuff like that.

06:32 - Intro (Host) You probably know from medical narration and stuff like that.

06:34 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) It's just like woo. You know, it's like 90 words in a 30 second script.

06:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, but they're changing too. It's interesting if you actually listen to some of them now I don't think they're as fast as they used to be, because I'm almost positive that because it's a legal disclaimer that they have to be, like, understood by the listener, and so sometimes if they're talking too fast then it's not clear, or because I've really noticed that trend and I don't know if it's the same in terms of I've seen it on television at least.

07:04 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah.

07:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I don't know about Pandora, but very interesting. So then my question is is the casual read dying? Are people coming back to announcer style, or are you seeing variations on the type of casual?

07:20 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, I hope it's not going back to announcer, because we've really worked hard on this whole gentle approach. Yeah, exactly, and you know personally, when I meet a voice actor who's locked into that whole radio world like I have 27 years of radio experience how do I get on your roster and I just kind of go well, how do I let you down gently?

07:41 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, exactly Because you're looking for an actor.

07:44 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Some talents and again talents who haven't really evolved with us in the 10 years that I've been there at least, or may not be on our roster anymore because there has been that evolution. But yeah, it's really difficult for some people who have been locked into that radio world to actually shift and change and it's part of their muscle memories.

08:02 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Right Interesting. I know that even when it comes to, like, long format narration, I know that just reading it it doesn't cut it anymore. I mean, you have to be in their ear and that's super hard, given you've got more than a minute's worth of copy and it's not always written in a first person kind of way, so that I know the struggle is real for that as well. So, in terms of advertising, would you say that there are more advertisements from 10 years ago today, or how are you seeing the trend? Because I know in podcasting there's a lot of people who, like they find advertising annoying and so they fast forward quickly, and so I'm just curious to see how advertising is received in terms of listenership and in terms of popularity of people. Yeah, let's advertise on Pandora.

08:49 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) It's funny because when I first started this job, I would meet people at like a party or something like that, or a dinner, you know a get together, and they were like oh, where do you work?

08:57 - Intro (Host) I'm like, oh, I work at Pandora.

08:58 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) They're like I love Pandora, and then I just sit back and wait for the next sentence. They take a breath and they go, but the ads, yeah, exactly.

09:14 - Intro (Host) You, he knew it. And then I go, hey.

09:15 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) I make those ads and then talk about like an awkward. You know you can hear a glass drop in the background, but it's just like, well, we're trying to you know to make these ads gentle and not as abrasive and in your face like real radio ads.

09:22 And then they turn around and they start to agree with me. I'm like yeah, yeah, you know, okay, but I think the Free Pandora, you knowora, has really kind of survived on the advertising and I haven't really done a count in a while, but I don't think it's that many ads. I don't think it's really changed over time either, like in terms of an ad pod and an hour listening session.

09:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Well, I think it is what it is. I mean, you have to support the medium and I know that for myself, like on the VO Boss podcast, I've had sponsors which I wait until the end typically to say anything about the sponsors. But lately I'm like gosh, I've had this podcast for seven and a half years and I've never done any advertising, and so now I'm kind of doing my own ads. Now we'll see how that turns out. But my question to you is is that podcast advertising is now really started to become a thing just because podcasts are now becoming a thing? So what are your thoughts on that? Are you seeing trends? Are you seeing changes in how people tolerate ads and podcasts?

10:16 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, I mean, I actually am guilty of fast-forwarding through a podcast ad recently, when I was listening to a podcast.

10:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) It better not be mine.

10:23 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Shame on me.

10:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) That's like a voice actor who fast-forwards through a commercial on television.

10:27 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Right, it was their own. No, no, no.

10:30 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh, I don't watch commercials Really.

10:34 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) But since SiriusXM bought Stitcher a few years ago, they were a podcast company. So we had to kind of figure out okay, we're going to do a lot more podcast ads now, so what does this sound like? So I feel like in the past few years we've been kind of sculpting this. There's a couple of different versions of what we work with in our group, on our team, and one is host reads. You know, it's like you have your Conan O'Briens and they're just handed a sheet of bullet points and they're ad living.

11:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yes, yes, and I think that's effective.

11:02 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, if you ever listen to Conan O'Briens ad reads, they're incredible.

11:06 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh, it's smart list. I'm going to put my vote in for SmartList. Okay, Really, really excellent. It's Sean Hayes, Dustin Bateman and oh my gosh, Will Arnett.

11:15 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah.

11:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And so each one of them take turns. And you're right, they get the bullet points and they add them. They're amazing, they're funny. That's the best yeah, and so I agree. So that's just so so interesting yeah.

11:25 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) So that's the host read, and then we also do this thing called announcer.

11:29 Read now again that word announcer is not used in the same context that I just told you that we've evolved from. It's just quote announcer read, it's another package or whatever. So we've been trying to sculpt what does this announcer read sound like? Well, in my eyes it's like an offshoot of the conversational, because you're listening to a podcast and it's usually two hosts, you know, or whoever the hosts are, they're just shooting the breeze, you know, talking to one another, you know, we've all heard that. And then boom, a podcast ad comes in. So how do we want that ad to be? And it's the same thing as interrupting someone's music flow Again. But this is like. So we just want that super casual approach.

12:07 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) But you can still tell the difference, because it's not necessarily ad-libbed right Like a host Right.

12:14 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, you can definitely yeah, but we're trying to write that way as well, and we've been working on this for a couple of years already, and I feel like we're getting there and we have a select group of talent.

12:23 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I think I'm going to hire you guys. I wrote my own and it took a long time because trying to write it as a host and in trying to like write something to sell something, I'm doing it myself, not bouncing it off anybody, and so it's a tough way to write. I mean, it's a whole different way of writing. Very interesting.

12:41 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, I actually. You know, I produced a podcast for my wife and her sister my sister-in-law and my wife is a therapist and a coach and she has products and stuff like that and she finally said oh, I should advertise myself on there. Sure, I said, you know, go to chat GPT and have them write some scripts for you and adjust it.

13:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) She didn't ask you to write them.

13:05 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) No.

13:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) No, Steve, I think maybe.

13:07 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) I already do too much. Producing this podcast is a lot more work than I expected, but I said feed in your website or something like that, so they know who you are.

13:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Again, I'm not super experienced with it yet I did have some help with ChatGPT writing my own ad, yeah and she came up with three, and so I created three commercials for her.

13:23 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Now I put them in a rotation for her midway through her podcast, so it's cool. And then they also turn it on ads wherever they're uploading their podcast to as well, so it'll be her ad, and then whatever ads they decide to put in there as well.

13:37 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So yeah, let's talk a little bit more about when you're recruiting or trying to find new talent for your roster. What is the process and what are you looking for? What sort of qualities in a voice actor are you looking for that are suitable for your roster? I know before it used to be a thing in the industry where it would be like, oh, they're opening up the roster, so everybody would be like, oh my God, did you get an invite, or it was that kind of thing. Or did you submit? Did you submit and did you get asked to be on the roster? And it was a big thing when you weren't thing, when you weren't. I remember that it was years ago. I submitted. I just remember, like going in the underground VO circles, it was the big thing.

14:15 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, and I will say it's very hard. We have 260 talents on our roster, or 250 talents on our roster right now, and I'd say it's pretty jammed up, so it's like it's really hard to like find what are we looking for now. You know, I feel like every time someone applies or sends me something, the number one reason I have to tell people is you know, you kind of sound like one or two other people on our roster and I feel bad like you are a superstar.

14:41 But yeah you know I can't give the people on our roster a disservice and I can't give you a disservice by oversaturating those kind of voices. So it's been tough to manage and we don't open the roster at any particular time. I know at the end of the year I do a little house cleaning. So people who aren't really, who are maybe booking one or two jobs a year, it's like, let me tell you, that's the hardest thing about saying goodbye to someone because they're not booking enough, like sorry, you've only booked like two gigs in the past two years. It's like you know that's not sustainable for you as us being a client of yours. It's like you're firing me. I'm like no, I'm not. No, I don't want to use that word, no, but again, it's not sustainable for you to just book one spot a year from us. You know.

15:29 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Right, I book one spot a year from us, you know. So, right, I agree, and I also think that it's hard for talent because they take it very personally when in fact sometimes it's not. I mean, sometimes, yes, it may be performance related, correct, but myself, having been in casting and having done Vio Basta as an audition demolition, but in casting and for projects like that, I just know that sometimes it has nothing to do with the performance, it has everything to do with oh okay, I have this product and this voice is not the demographic that I'm looking for, and so a lot of it is based on the client and what kind of voice they're looking for and who they're trying to sell to. Is that similar to what you feel, as well as to why some people get picked on the roster, like is there a trending sound right now, like millennial, like that kind of thing?

16:13 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) No, I mean there was the millennial thing, I think, but we've gotten everything we need right now and I just like what I really watch out for is oversaturating certain age ranges, you know, and just like you know, okay, we already have some, you know, senior age, males only a couple and then it's like do I bring one more on? No, because again it's that oversaturation thing. That's the thing I have to watch out for the most these days.

16:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So what would be your tips or secrets to help voice actors deliver their best performances? Not necessarily to get on the roster, but because I mean you've been casting for years and casting talent and performances. So what would be your best tips for helping VO talent deliver a great performance?

16:59 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Sure, I mean, I think the number one thing in the way we deal with talent is we're not doing a lot of live sessions, we're booking via email. So in those cases you're going to have to send us three takes, and your confidence and your self-direction is really what's at play here. So I would say that's like the number one kind of thing that we really hope you have is that confidence and self-direction, because you're going to send us three choices and you can't be unsure and you can't send us three of the exact same carbon copy. We've had some talents in the past?

17:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, how often does that happen?

17:33 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) It's happened where I actually have taken all three of their takes and put them on top of each other in Pro.

17:38 - Intro (Host) Tools or whatever.

17:39 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) And it's just one thing, echo and there's no difference between any of them. It's almost like it's eerie. Yeah, so that's a no do. But other stuff, definitely a good commercial reel. I think from like listening to a ton of commercial reels, I'm starting to learn like what makes a good one these days. You know, and also sitting on the speed dating with your demo panel the past few years at Solvus, I've had people give me demos that are, like you know, sound effects heavy, and then there's another voice on there and I say you have 60 seconds, add up the sound effects, add up the other voices on here. What's that? Four, five, six seconds? Okay, that's 10% of your demo.

18:18 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) That's not you. That's real estate.

18:21 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, so you can have sound effects, but not have it just be by themselves or start your demo with a big explosion or something like that, right, unless you're going for terrestrial radio or whatever I don't know. But yeah, other stuff is like. One thing I really appreciate from a talent is I call it VO intuition. If you have a script that, for example, it says finance or something like that, and you're not sure the way the client wants it, you know it's finance or finance and I want to write a book that has those words in VO data data. You know, I wonder if anyone's done that yet. A book that all the words that could be said two different ways.

18:56 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh right.

18:57 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) There's my quarter million dollar idea. I guess I don't know. But if you have a script like that and it's like 9 o'clock pm and the producer's not available, send it both ways and say hey.

19:07 I gave it to you. So that's what I call VO intuition. I really appreciate that when it's like oh, I didn't know if you wanted data or data, so I'm giving it to you both ways or I'm picking up this sentence. Stuff like that is really great, but it's not a requirement. Good communication If I send good communication, you know, if I send you a request, I want to hear back from you within, you know, three or four hours, say, yes, I got it, I got you, I'm going to hit it by the deadline, no problem, our turnarounds are like 24 to 48 hours, so we need that as well. So, yeah, stuff like that and other stuff. I mean definitely the commercial demo is number one. These are nice to have character work singing, but, again, not required got Got it.

19:45 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So what qualities in addition to like, let's say, the demo? Right, let's say you have a demo and the demo is amazing. And then, all of a sudden, do you find talent sometimes that don't equate to the demo. Meaning what you hear on the demo is not necessarily what you get back when you give them. Okay, here's a job the customer picked out for you. Can you give me three versions of it? And then, all of a sudden, it sounds nothing like their demo. And then what happens at that point?

20:09 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Do you direct them or yeah, I mean, there is always a chance for us to get on the phone or do a live session. But in terms of our recruiting and the way it works to get on our roster is we listen to the demos and if we really like it, then we'll reach out with a whole packet of auditions. Oh god, this is like 12 different scripts you know from like automotive, university, healthcare, retail, and then we've just created a podcast script and cpg, which is consumer packaged goods, and a conversational script and ad lib script. So it's like 12 of those scripts. So that gives us. So you'll find out. Yeah, did you record in a fancy studio and now you're at your kitchen table and what you did on your demo? Is that also translating as well to our scripts?

20:53 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So let's talk a little bit about I always call it like the technological disruptor in the room synthetic voices. Are you finding that you have clients that are looking for that these days and, if so, do you have a source or how do you feel about it? What's your take on synthetic voices and their place in the industry today?

21:13 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, I think there are some spots where it would be good for a talent, you know, like if you had your clone and you were in control of it. I think that is number one. Again, I want to shout out to Nava and everything they're doing for. Ai Because I believe in all the stuff that their manifesto, everything about how they stand for the vo industry and ai.

21:34 I'm just so into what they're doing so I gotta shout out for them. But there are places, you know, suppose you were given something you know where you needed to read like 2500 addresses or something like that, you know, and you're just like, oh god, I can't do, I can't do this, I'm going to blow out my voice or it's going to take six hours. And then you're like, all right, I'll just do the body of the spot and then turn my clone on to do that. It's hard to figure out. What are the rates? What is a good rate for that as well? You know, and that's kind of stuff I think about, you know, when I'm what is a good rate? I always want to stand for our talents and try and get the best rates possible for them. So you know, that's something I need to think about if we ever were to go into an AI world Right now. I mean, some clients are asking for it and stuff like that.

22:16 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And what type of applications Are they asking for it in terms of it's because they can't afford or they have, let's say, volume material that they think it's an ongoing thing where just a date will change or a price will change or a couple of things will change.

22:30 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, I don't think it's gotten that expressive yet or that detailed yet. I think they're just like wanting to touch the new toys that are out there Play around yeah.

22:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, I actually almost I agree with you on that, because I feel like it's kind of novelty. People just want to see how good it is and I think for certain things, as you mentioned and a big shout out to Nava and one of the reasons why on the VO Boss podcast and Bosses if you haven't listened to it I did an extensive set of interviews with a number of AI companies to talk to them about ethics and the industry and synthetic voices in general, and I got educated. I did a lot of work and I got educated and I think that's wonderful and Nava is a really wonderful source for being educated as well, and so I think if we own the creative license to our voices and we can control it, I think that's moving in a positive direction and we just need to get it there first so that we can do that Absolutely.

23:27 But I don't think that the technology is there yet for emotion or rhythm or that kind of thing, although there's lots of great examples out there, and the scary thing about some of the great examples is somebody will say, oh gosh, listen to this. And everybody's like, oh my God, it's really good. And then everybody panics and gets scared. And in reality there's a lot of technical things on the backend and this is just from my own education, from interviewing so many people that worked in the AI industry that there's many, many different ways that people come out with these samples and you don't know how much engineering is done on the back end to make them sound that good.

24:01 And there's different technologies too. I mean there's text-to-speech, and then there's speech-to-speech, which is an entirely different technologies too. I mean there's text-to-speech, and then there's speech-to-speech, which is an entirely different thing, which is what they use for high-end Hollywood movie dubs, and that's where it sounds scary good. And so a lot of times you don't know. You don't know how it was produced or how it was manufactured. But kudos to NAVA again. And the sooner we can get legislation in place so that we can be protected, the better. You know, I've always said that we should, as an industry, just evolve. I mean, we're not going to make it go away, that's for darn sure. So we need to evolve and somehow work with it as it evolves as well. I don't think anymore that AI's high power is in synthetic voices anymore. I really feel that it's in data manipulation and data curation, and that's where its true strength is in terms of helping the world, you know, and hopefully in a good way.

24:55 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah, I think there's also in my mind. There's a difference between, like the synthetic voices which are just like sprinkling stuff into a blender, and creating a new voice, versus a real person who owns their clone and they're in charge of their clone. That, to me, feels like the more comfortable situation.

25:12 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And to me I feel like that's like money-wise, it's an equal split, right? I feel like I should get 50% and the company that has my voice and generates my voice and hosts my voice right with their engine should get 50%. That's where I start in terms of why not, right?

25:28 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) yeah, if you need a pickup and you're like I'm sleeping, I'm on vacation, I'm in charge, I'm going to push the button, I'll get you that pickup, but I'm just going to set it for my phone right here, you know, or, yeah, you're in charge of that locker or whatever it is.

25:40 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So yeah, well, what other predictions? So I guess I'll say, if you took a look into the crystal ball outside of synthetic voices, what sort of predictions do you have for the future, at least for yourself and audio production and advertising?

25:54 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Well, this is what I'm enjoying a lot more in my day-to-day is more immersive sound design in audio advertising.

26:05 We are starting to do some cool stuff in the 3D space, where and I'm now the go-to guy Well, I'd like to think I'm now the go-to guy on my team for horror movie trailers or all things horror, because I just did something the other day that was really cool for this horror movie coming up and I just enjoyed taking an alien and going whoo whoo, whoo, whoo whoo, but in the headphones, where it comes from the top of the head to the bottom, or you can go around in that 3D space in headphones, which is really cool.

26:41 So anytime I could do that where you're just getting more theater of the mind stuff to actually immerse a listener and just have the VO be a support to that. I think if we can get more into those kind of things almost cinematic ads in your headphones I think that might be the way to really get people to enjoy ads too and really just be like whoa, did you hear that? You know, imagine people talking about did you hear that audio ad? You know? Like when they're in the same way people talk about super bowl ads, you know it's like, yeah, I'd love to get there.

27:09 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, yeah, audio ads like that. One other thing before I have to leave you, we could probably do five podcasts with all this really great conversation. Tell us a little bit about you started something called the sonic great conversation. Tell us a little bit about you started something called the Sonic Diversity Initiative. Talk to us a little bit about that. Sure.

27:23 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) This is like something we started during the pandemic. It's called Stand for Sonic Diversity and is a website we created called standforsonicdiversitycom, and basically we just started to take a look at our casting practices and other advertising agencies and we kind of put out almost like a pledge to other advertising agencies hey, will you guys pledge along with us to make your casting and your rosters more diverse and more inclusive? And as a result, I've worked really hard and I'm proud to say that our roster is now more than 50% voices of color. So I'm really proud of that work and we're trying to also make sure that our casting practices are that way.

28:10 Because, back then it was like you know, you're just like, unless a client specified, you would maybe assume like, oh, if they don't specify, then they want a white talent as their go-to and it's like no. So we decided we can move the needle from within by just making these changes internally and smartly, and it's the right thing to do. And so we also put this pledge up to other agencies and other advertising conglomerates and stuff like that, and hopefully they all join in as well.

28:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Wonderful, wonderful.

28:39 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Well, thank you for that, yeah if you go to that site, there's a really cool audio spot that you can play there, and I am I'm proud to produce that spot as well.

28:46 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So what's that site again? Stanforsonicdiversitycom okay, awesome, so all right. My last question, which is here's a fun question for you if you were stranded on a deserted island and you could only bring three albums or podcasts with you, what would they be? I mean, I figure you must have some music preferences, for sure yeah, oh man only three, wow all right.

29:15 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) One of them is Prince.

29:18 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Ah, Of course I say 1999.

29:21 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) No, it's a double album.

29:23 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Well, just saying Prince is enough for me. Yeah, yeah, I would absolutely.

29:27 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) I like that it's the one with Housequake and Starfish and Coffee. I don't know why the name has escaped me. It's one of my favorite albums too he's brilliant. He's brilliant. Yes, and then I'm also a metalhead and I like kind of like heavy hardcore music and there's a band I.

29:42 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Why did I know that? Why did I know that somehow?

29:44 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) I play in two bands actually, so that's my weekend. Therapy is going and playing super loud music.

29:49 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) There you go, and what do you play if I can?

29:51 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) ask I play bass.

29:52 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh, okay, awesome, my brother plays. Brother plays bass. Yeah, wow, okay, can we hear you anywhere? Is that a thing? Can we hear you somewhere?

29:59 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Uh-huh, I'm in a band, it's an all-dad band, and this is the best name for an all-dad band. It's called that Ship has Sailed. I love it, I love it. We're on all the streaming places and I'm in're called Converge and their album is called Jane Doe. Okay, and then one more.

30:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh God, it could be a podcast too, if you have a favorite podcast.

30:29 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Yeah.

30:30 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Because you've got to keep yourself busy.

30:32 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Right.

30:35 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So maybe the podcast would be more refreshing because it would come out on a regular basis.

30:39 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) There was one podcast I listened to by a co-worker introduced it to me and it's not something I can listen to over again because it was pretty intense, but it was really cool. It was called Sweet Bobby, I think. Okay, it was like a kind of a true crime kind of podcast.

30:51 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that I have.

30:53 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) I wouldn't take that with me, though. I'm sorry you put me on the spot.

30:58 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) That's okay, that's all right. I think you did really well.

31:00 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Thank you.

31:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So let me ask you I'm really excited by the way that, before I let you go, that I'm going to have you as a guest director for my VO Peeps group, which is going to be really amazing coming up in July. So thank you, Very excited to have that happen. If a voice talent, Voice talent want to reach out and find you, see all the good things that you do, listen to your band and also the other website that we mentioned, when can they find you?

31:23 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) You can probably hit me on LinkedIn or my email address is spogach at pandoracom. It might change to SiriusXM shortly. But one thing I like to tell talents and I guess I'm overly nice this way is like I'm always happy to lend talents their ears, like, for example, if someone sends a mission out or they want you, they want to know oh, why didn't I get that audition? You know, I'm happy to give feedback on there. It's like almost like you're all sending resumes out in the world. You don't hear anything back. You know it's, and it's like you're sending auditions out and no one ever gets feedback. So I'm always happy to lend an ear and give feedback. Or someone's like oh, can you listen to my demo? If I have time, I'm glad to take a minute and listen to someone's demo, give them feedback and stuff like that.

32:09 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) That's wonderful, I guess I'm too nice, I don't know. Now I'm going to send everybody your way out.

32:14 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) I know.

32:19 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) By the way, I'm changing my email address. There you go, yeah, right, well, steve, it has been so wonderful to have you here. Thank you so much for taking the time. I'm going to give a great big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. Yes, you too can connect and network like bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Steve, thank you again, it's been wonderful.

32:35 - Steve Pogatch (Guest) Thank you, can't wait to see you. It was great talking to you.

32:37 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah for VO. Peeps and bosses, you have an amazing week and we'll see you next week.

32:44 - Intro (Host) Bye-bye. Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, anne Ganguza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast-to-coast connectivity via IP.