We’re back live on the floor at MAVO 2018. It’s Sunday, and I’m now joined by JJ Surma.
Hey, Paul.
How are you doing this morning?
I’m gonna be way better after I have this coffee, which we stocked out, and now both… So, cheers. Both actually gotten ourselves to where we need to be, holding a nice cup of coffee on a Sunday morning.
Agreed. So, tell me what brings you to a conference like this. This is your first time at MAVO, right?
It is.
So, I actually met Val via email and phone a long time ago, in fact, and I take no credit for her success. Her success is all her own, but she actually sought me out. I’m the Creative Services Director of Cumulus DC, so I was a production director for local radio stations, and somehow we got connected.
She sought me out by email, and we ended up on the phone, and at the time, I think she was a French teacher?
And she was…
She still is.
Yeah, she still is, okay. She had this voice, which when I heard it on the phone, kind of put her above the level of email exchanges I have with the basic question, how do I get in the voiceover? Because I hear that a lot, and so I have a sort of a stock answer that I give to people, and it’s a generous answer, but it’s a stock answer.
And then when I got on the phone with her, I was like, holy goodness, you do need to do animation. And it’s funny because I was actually trying to find a parking space at this school for my daughter’s dance recital, and there were no spaces. So as I drove around for like a half hour trying to wait for someone to leave so I could park and see my daughter’s dance recital, I had all this time to talk to Val.
And so we ended up on the phone for like, I don’t know, a half hour, and we had this great conversation. And then a couple years down the road, she was like, hey, I’m doing this conference. And I wasn’t in the best place with Voice Over at the time.
I was in one of those valleys that Rachel Naylor just talked about, and I was kind of feeling negative. So I didn’t come. And Val, to her credit, had stuck with it.
This event has grown. And finally, I’ve gotten to be here, and I’m so excited, not only for the possibilities for myself, but for my friend, and to see Val go from, hey, I’m a French teacher who wants to do animation, to putting together an awesome event like this. I’m really happy for her.
Yeah, it really is fantastic. We were here recording in 2016, but it’s grown so exponentially. Not by size, because it’s designed to be small, but in stature and reputation, I think.
Well, I think it in value. You know, as someone who’s really only been to some smaller conferences, you know, sometimes the small is in the value as well. I mean, some of them are more valuable than others.
It’s just the nature of those things. And sometimes that depends on where you are in your career and also how you connect with the people that are there. But you know, really, the value of…
I can’t believe it’s only been a day and a half that I’ve been here because I’ve gotten so much information and so much encouragement, and have made some great starts to a great relationship so far. I’m just really, really appreciative of what she’s done and also the value of this conference.
I agree. So tell me what’s been your favorite part of either a session or something you heard on the floor.
Well, again, the relationships. And I had a great conversation the first night, just kind of, I don’t know if it’s God or the universe or whatever your belief system is, but I was in the right place at the right time to have a great conversation that really reaffirmed how I had kind of gotten through that valley that I had spoken about before. And I didn’t really have a lot of the tools and terms to realize sort of emotionally what was going on, but I had put up a lot of resistance in my life to my own success.
And now, being in a position where I’m much more confident in taking responsibility for my own success, I just feel so much more encouraged. But I gotta say, the coolest thing, and you know what I’m gonna say, was being in Joseph Riano’s class yesterday and reading promo to video with him was just, I mean, he’s a legend. That’s a once in a lifetime experience.
And to not have fallen on my face completely, I see as a raging success.
So it was really something. I thought you did one of the best jobs in there.
Oh, that’s so generous. Thank you so much. And yeah, it was just, God, my heart was pounding.
Was your heart not pounding?
It actually wasn’t, because I had spoken to Joe right here earlier that morning and gotten to know him the night before.
I thought you said you’d smoked to Jay. You said spoken to Joe. I thought you’d done a little pre-gaming.
No, I didn’t know what your…
We’re not in the district.
What is your method? I don’t know.
You’ve spoken to Joe, go ahead. And sort of knew his disarming personality like we talked about. He’s so great about just making everybody feel at home and comfortable.
So I wasn’t nervous. I was excited to get it done.
So down to earth, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that’s so, I’ve seen that with some of the other people that I’ve met that are, I don’t know about at his level, but have reached a certain level of success. One of the patterns that I’ve seen with those people is their pattern of generosity and their humility and you know, I mean, not everyone’s perfect, but good Lord.
He is such a giving person. And I think that’s sort of the hallmark of people that have reached that level. They sort of look around and go, oh my gosh, you know, I know I’m just me.
I see these opportunities that I’ve been blessed to have and oh my gosh, let me share with other people. Let me give, let me be generous. And I think Joe is definitely an example of that kind of attitude.
Yeah, I think it’s a hallmark of the industry, which is unique to this industry from what I’ve experienced over the years, not only in this business, but other businesses. Voice Over really is its own sort of communal thing. And I really love that about it.
Yeah, I definitely agree. And what’s amazing is, you know, I come from a radio background, broadcasting, and so we all live our lives in these little booths, but there’s a lot of looking over your shoulder in radio. Like, someone wants my job, someone wants my shift, someone thinks they can do a better job on the morning show than me.
I grew up really in radio. Since I was 17 years old, almost 30 years now, being in radio and that sort of paranoia seeps into your bones, that competition, that unhealthy spirit of competition, and that sort of, I gotta protect my thing. And what amazed me about being part of conferences like this one and also in Atlanta, I went to this one called VO Intensity.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I met some of the most generous people, encouraging, honest, sharing, you know what I mean? And it was the opposite of my radio experience and I was really shocked by it.
I was like, oh my god. Everyone hears on my team.
It can’t be real. It can’t be real.
There’s punking me.
Well, yeah.
I mean, like last night, I did this thing with Johnny Heller on audiobooks. I was actually, I actually sort of misbooked this thing. I’ve never done an audiobook.
I’ve never considered doing an audiobook. It’s like a marathon compared to my sprints of 15 second ads or whatever. But I was in the class and everyone did a reading and when it was my turn to do a reading, I’m like, god, I suck in audiobooks.
And Johnny Heller, look at this guy. And what am I gonna do? And I did it.
And afterwards, people were so kind and generous. And I, like my instinct was, they’re lying. I was like, you can’t think that that was good.
No, no, it really wasn’t. I’m like, oh my gosh. And it just reminded me that this is a really encouraging community where people do really try to just kind of come alongside and form relationships and boost each other up.
And that’s so needed for me, especially.
Right, that’s why Val says the slogan is get inspired. And I think that we all feel that way.
Yeah, for sure. It’s been an inspiring time.
Thanks for joining me this morning. Enjoy the rest of the conference.
I really appreciate it, thanks.
Thanks.