Finding Success Through the Power of Your Voice with Earl Thomas | RR283

Earl, hello and welcome to relationships rule.

My special guest this week is Earl, the voice Thomas, and I'm

pretty excited to hear a lot of his history and his expertise,

because he's been around for a while. And I'm going to start

first of all by welcoming you, Earl. Welcome to the show.

Thank you, Janice. I'm really glad to be here.

It's my pleasure, and I gotta start with Earl,

Thomas, the voice. So talk to me about that. How did you get that

moniker, and, and, and where did that come from?

I was in the self employment program at Douglas

College.

Oh, my God, I took that. Oh, did you Yes?

Yeah, long time ago,

and we had to have certain things, like we needed a

business license, so we got that a business card. And that's

where Earl Thomas the voice came from, and creating vocal

paradise for your exact needs. And it was, it was a really good

program, and I really enjoyed it. Actually, there was a

volunteer I had to go before a small board. And it turned out

that person became a friend later because he's, he's in my

Toastmasters program, Darren fruit and and he remembered that

before I remembered it. Oh, yeah.

Well, when did you so when did you start doing

voiceover stuff? Because that's obviously the connection the

voice being that you have a fantastic voice, and you've been

in radio, and you've done a lot of voiceovers, and that world

itself fascinates me, so I'm wondering how that started for

you.

Well, it was when I came back from Penticton. I was

in radio, because I've been in the BCIT Broadcast

Communications Program in radio, and I took this course called

VoiceOver and animation from Kathy Wessel, luck. Okay, it had

an option, an option to go out and get consultations, so I

would do that. And of course, when we first met, you know,

this is your homework. You don't come back until you do your

homework diligently. And then she got me ready. She got this

was all in preparation so I could take direction and be

ready to go into the studio, to Coco studios and do my demo. And

since then, I've actually done demos right on here on my

MacBook Pro, from work that I've done before. So I love doing

voiceover. It's very competitive, of course, yeah,

I once took a little, sort of one day or two

day program about voiceovers and and what I would I did it for

was because I wanted to, I love to read aloud, and I love to

read interesting books or children's books even more

allowed. I was a teacher in my first life, and I always loved

reading aloud to the kids, and I thought that that would be fun

to do. But again, as you said, it's very competitive, and it's

also a whole thing unto itself. I would have had to spend a lot

of time just focused on that, and I didn't have the time to do

that, but it was something I always wished I'd done. What was

your favorite thing for in voiceovers to do?

Well, I thought it was narration, but I found that

when I got a hot cell, which from BCIT, a hot cell is like,

there's a lot of energy, and I find those were were more fun to

do. You know, when you ramp up the the energy, yeah, of course.

And I've, I've learned since, really, what is the going thing

now is, is not the hot cell. You're talking one to one to

another person you got, you got to bring it down. You know, just

as I'm talking to you, this is the best product I've ever used,

you know, Janice, you just gotta have

it. Ah, okay, so the enthusiasm is there, but,

yeah, but

bring it down.

So is there money to be made in voiceovers?

Well, I have, but the when you first start, there

are ones that on Facebook, there was a guy in Carolina, and I did

Joe Leone's bakery, and that was free, just to get me started.

Now, years later, I did, you know when the pandemics was on a

voiceover for him, and it was paid because we we kept John

figueroato, we kept connecting through LinkedIn. So yes, but I

like them now. I like the money. I'd rather have the money now,

yeah, of course. But you know, there's so many

different types of of voiceover jobs, like there's the. The

promos, the the public service announcements, the sports

announcing, the business messages and and the narration

and so on. I wonder if you've ever done this. I was a trainer

for many years, and for the telephone company, and one of

the things we trained on in my department was we would go to

big customers, and we would set them up with their new this is

back in the day. We would set them up with their new voice

mail system, and we'd have to set up the voice recording for

the automated answer, the automated attendant. You know,

Hi. Thanks for calling ABC Company. You know. Please press

one for this. Press two for that. And I was training in one

of the companies, and I think it was a law firm or a big

accounting firm, and the girls that I was training were the

front office people, and they said, Oh, I can't do that. Will

you do the voice for me? Will you do the voice? Will you do

the recording? And I said, Sure, I'll do it for you. Well, five

years later, I called the company, and my voice was still

on the on the recording, because nobody had changed it. And I

think that's hysterical. But did you ever do any of those, the

the voice recordings for that? Yes,

I had a client out in Coquitlam that I did for it.

Did the recordings Now, press this or press that? Yeah, yeah,

that's hysterical, but to still be

there after all that time. Now you, I know have, I think you're

passionate about and correct me if I'm wrong, but doing work

around mental health,

yes, yes, because I've experienced depression, and

I took a course called stand up for mental health. SMH, and, you

know, I've done live, because it was part of the course, the

graduation of the six months. Was it? Yuck, yucks Comedy Club.

That

was the graduation your comedy piece.

Oh, my goodness, I did watch that. Actually do

a debut, but that that's not there, that's that

was at a coffee shop. Oh, okay, in Burnaby, but the place is

full. The lights are bright. We can hardly see them out there.

And I still have them because, you know, we had a videographer,

and it's on my my website, and I can go back anytime and be an

alumni. And actually was an alumni for a year, and actually

got paid for a couple places that we did well. Thank

you for sharing that you, because I think

depression is one of those things, and that is probably

more prevalent than we think in society, especially today and

and if people let it go on, undiagnosed or unnoticed, in

that sense, it can be very detrimental and even deadly,

right? So do you feel now, like I know that was a while ago, you

you're on an even keel, and you're good. And,

yes, what I did is I was taking counseling at New

West High School. Was the grad program for the, you know, the

outing, UBC. And I realized it only runs from a certain time,

let me say March, October to March, and I knew to do

something more, and I read this book by Dr Caroline leaf, and it

was talking about a 21 day brain detox program. So I took that

and I wrote my own positive, healthy thoughts, and I use them

today, because depression can sometimes rear its ugly head,

absolutely mine. Mine is particular situational

depression. So I've, you know, I've remember, I've written

them, I've memorized them. I don't say them every day, all of

them, but there's certain ones that I I focus on, and I'm, I'm

grateful for that. Yes, so

you, you've, you worked on yourself, and you were

able to to pull yourself out of it as well with the course that

you took. It sounds as though you're a very curious person,

because you're always taking courses. What are you curious

about today?

Well, that's why I love interviewing, because you

don't know where it's going to go, and what I love about it,

too. I do an interview, and it's different being on the other

side here. Yes, I'm I'm parking in my back of my brain. There

secondary questions, because they're going to say something,

and we want to clarify it some more. There's some something

more there. So, yeah, I'd say I am a curious person. Why is this

happening now? Why? Why?

And what are you most curious about?

This is happening good right now, but this is

okay. So, so what are you most curious about

today?

What am I most curious about today? Where my

business is going to go. Hey, I'm having a really good year.

It started really good. It slowed down, and I'm getting

close. So the last three months is really important. I'm taking

this mentorship program called momentum, momentum membership,

membership program, and I've gotten good results because

there's a lot of accountability that comes from those in the

program and the coach, Marshall Stern, he's been very helpful to

me. Actually, he connected you and I didn't. He did.

He's a dear friend, yes, yeah, well, that's

good, that it's working for you and propelling you for that last

quarter, which is always the for me, that last quarter of the

year is also it's like the beginning, because, having had

kids, I've always thought of September as the beginning of,

you know of something. So I get it, it's a good time to dig in

and make things happen. And I know that you love interviewing

people as well, and where do you find your your guests for your

podcast? Well,

a friend of mine told me about this website, and

she said, there's a free part to it, and so you can go on there.

Earl, thank God for Sheila. Well, you know, I never have had

to go on there because, like, I was invited, I mean,

Toastmasters, and a friend of mine invited me to the Mad 25

year anniversary. It was in Central Park. It was a really

good feed. There was a lot of speakers, and he spoke. And

while he's speaking, I'm thinking, Wait a minute, Bob

would make a really great interview. I got him, and I

needed him again, because I played it a second time and a

third time when the young boys in in their 30s in New Jersey

were killed by a drunk driver. Uh, their Matthew coro. And so I

replayed him, you know, because it's essential don't drink and

drive. Yeah, yeah. That was very sad, very

sad.

Are you a hockey fan? Oh, yes, I am.

I thought you might be. Yeah, I'm not, but that's okay. I

we're a sports family, so I can't help is, if it's not

hockey, it's football or baseball or basketball that's

on, so I kind of get it through osmosis. So so I know, because

I've been interviewed by you, that you do do your homework on

your podcast, and you like to have your questions and your

opportunity for secondary questions laid out for for your

guests, which is great. I like to go by the seat of my pants. I

don't know what I'm going to say. I do pay attention to your

LinkedIn profile. I look at your website and maybe listen to

something that you have done as well. But I have to go with my

gut, and I remember one of the things we talked about before

off air was we had alluded to that stand up comedy piece that

that you were just talking about, and I didn't realize that

the one was sort of your graduation from, from this

course, but I do you still ever have because I know you felt

that stand up comedy didn't turn out the way you wanted it to.

You didn't really it wasn't for you. Do you ever regret that? Or

was it? I wouldn't

say it wasn't for me. It was for me at the time,

but there's so many things going on. I still stay connected with

you. Okay? And I could pick it up again anytime. I have a

comedy file. And I moved from Wilson Avenue over here to

Sussex. And, you know, I, I keep my things where, so I can find

them and everything. Yeah, a comedy file. I don't I, you

know, I've got to, one day, go down to my the lower reaches of

this, this place, and go p3 and look in my locker, and because,

because it's there, you know,

well, actually, I find when you say that, that's

fascinating to me, because, you know, all the great comedians

have these boulders or files about their jokes, and I never

think about, you know, I was Listening to a couple of

comedians talking about that, probably, on a talk show, and

how they can develop a joke to go this way or that way or the

other. And I, you know, I never think about that, but it's a

whole thing, right? It's definitely a whole

skill. Yes, it's the setup and then the

punchline. Yeah, yeah. And the interesting thing about when I

did it was in both places. I got to the setup on one joke, and

then I said, Oh, it's coming because I'd forgotten the punch

line, and it did come in both places, so I was relieved that

it was there.

Oh, that's too funny. Troy, yeah, that's crazy.

I mean, it was loud in Yuck, yucks.

That's great. That's absolutely great. Okay,

so what you're working mostly right now on your podcast,

right?

Yes, doing podcasting, as you know, there's

lots of detail and tons of detail. Well, you

do it all yourself. That makes it even

more so I don't, I must admit, do the back, you know, the back

end myself, because I'm not interested in doing that. But

you must, must be, because you do it all yourself. Yeah,

well, I enjoy the whole process because I've

created the process that works, that works for me. And, yeah,

can you think of somebody that you want to

interview that you haven't been able to get to yet.

Well, yes, okay, I have a friend of mine who is in

a baseball discussion group saw Lindsay Barra, who is the Yogi

berras relative, yep, granddaughter of Yogi Berra.

Yes, he helped me, because he said, Well, send me an email. So

I sent an email, then I got a response back from the president

of that local group. And I expected that she would have had

an agent. She didn't have an agent. I was able to send her a

direct email, and I'm waiting now and I'll do a follow up, but

you gotta know that when she says yes, because I'm almost

certain she will, because I responded to something that she

put on Twitter, she liked it, and the President liked it, a

Yogi Berra museum. And, you know, I'm going to be excited,

and I already do really great prep, but I'm going to really be

close. Yeah, I'm going to this is going to be the best thing

and, and probably the hardest thing about voiceover, about

doing a PA announcing for the Grand View sealers, is that just

before you open up the mic. But then once you get going, this

woman is really intelligent. She knows about baseball injuries.

She knows about Yogi's history. Oh, talking baseball with

Lindsay Barrow will be such an awesome experience.

Oh, okay, so you're so did you announce for

baseball? Then, is that what you said? You just what was the name

of the team?

Oh, he, he played for the New York King. No, no,

no. Excuse me. I know that. Don't. Don't, please.

I know who Yogi Berra is. You said you were an announcer.

Oh, yes, the grand. I was a PA announcer for the

Grand View Steelers. And they're baseball team. No, they're a

hockey team in the junior B League. Okay, so, okay.

So then we got confused. Okay, so I got

confused. So, so you're also a baseball fan, though, yes, I am

happy, and you were a New York Yankees fan. Yes, I was my

husband's a lifelong New York Yankees fan. And of course, I

know who Yogi Berra is, and what I love the most about Yogi Berra

were his, his? What are they called? His? Yogi isms. Yogi

isms, right? There you go. And no one goes to that restaurant

anymore. It's too crowded. That's one of them. I remember

that. And okay, so I'm going to just temper things a little bit,

because you haven't actually talked to Lindsay Bera yet.

You're trying to get you've sent her emails and whatever, and she

responded correct or no, no, she

hasn't responded. She responded to my like of her

her post, because there's a book, of course,

is she on LinkedIn? Yes, she is on

LinkedIn. Have you tried to connect with her on LinkedIn?

Well, I I'm not sure if I've sent a connection

request. I think I'm waiting for her because I got a direct email

to her, which surprised me, that I would get a direct email. I

thought, yeah, but the

problem about that is it could get lost in her

junk mail.

Well, that's why I'm going to follow up. Yeah, I

will be up again.

But following up how? Because if you follow up by

email, it's still going to go in your junk mail. So that's why I

sometimes recommend that you also try to get to her from

LinkedIn, because that won't get lost,

yeah, well, I will send a LinkedIn connection. And

we also, you know, I often respond when she puts, you know,

something out there on Twitter, and she responds to that,

okay, that's cool. So that's where she hangs

out, is it Twitter? So, so that's someone you really want

to interview. And you said something about you thought

she'd have an agent. What does she do?

Well, she has, she's a sports journalist. She's

working, yes, okay, cool. She's

worked for ESPN, okay, demo reel that she's done,

you know, several, there's several clips in there. She has

a very interesting. A intro right on her website. So, you

know, once, once we get going, that's what I would use. And,

yeah, she's there anyone very intelligent, very intelligent,

that's awesome. So is there anyone else that you

want to interview your bucket list?

Well, I that's, that's my main one. Okay,

because, go ahead, there is someone that it's been approved

by BCIT, but he got really busy. I mean, it had to go through the

marketing department, and they approved it. And now I'm got to

follow up him some more, because, like he said, he's

really busy. And I, all I had to do is look at the timestamp. It

was 2 00:20:44

49am when he sent that email. So I gotta get back the

was 2 00:20:49

head of business in in BCIT Business Media, School of

was 2 00:20:55

Business and media.

Okay. Okay, interesting. Well, the first one

more? Well, maybe both. In both cases, I see that you know it,

it seems as though you've gone through who you know, and that's

always the best way. So I love that, because it's all about

relationship building and relationship nurturing, and it's

not what you know, it's who you know. So if you go through

people you know, sometimes it's easier to get, to get to the

person you want to get to. And so I hope that those work out

for you. That's That's great. That's really great. Thank you.

Yeah, I, I'm trying to think when there's a guy that I want

to talk to, but I want to finish his book first. I haven't

finished it yet, and and I, I found him because somebody I had

on my podcast was talking about his book, and so I I'm reading

that book, and now I'm going to go back to my the person who was

on my podcast that knows him, and see if I can get an

introduction. Because I always think that's the best way,

better to be introduced by somebody than to go in cold,

right? Yeah, yeah.

So that happened with Lindsay, because Ben knew

he was part of saber and then the President got back to me,

yeah.

So that's great. That's really great. Um, what

would you say? I know that one of, one of the things that I

think you're doing now is teaching through your podcast

when you do and correct me if I'm wrong, when you do solo

episodes that you're teaching people about how to do

voiceovers and things. Is that correct?

Yes, I've done different topical episodes, like

how I record and how I use my system. I wrote about success,

and it's interesting. Writing a solo episode, you start with it,

you don't what, what is there? Okay? And then once you start

writing, there's more and there's more and there's more.

So I'm I enjoy the writing part of it. Do

you? Yeah, not me. I just rather talk. I just

rather talk. So what do you find? What is can you think of

someone that that, and you don't have to say who they are, but

that that you felt was your most exciting or most enjoyable or

interesting interview that you've done?

Oh, Linda Todd, because she almost died in Gaza.

She came to speak at just pros when we were at the Justice

Institute, and that was another case of, this is really good.

And I had to turn it into a two parter. Oh, wow. I like the

writing of that. You know, when I, when I do the prep. Will she

live, you know, like the second part? Will she speak again? Oh,

just, just those little hooks, or those big hooks? Yes. Belinda

Todd was really interesting. You know, the the funny thing about

it was, she was going through terrible things, almost dying.

But this woman had such a great sense of humor the way she told

the story. I mean, yeah,

listen to that one.

I really enjoyed talking to her.

Oh, that's great. I'll have to listen to that

episode. That's amazing. Um, okay, so what advice would you

give someone who's starting a podcast today?

Well, you've got to be prepared. I took a course

from Carl Richards. I got connected to Carl Richards in

Ontario, and I he said, you know, you're you're ready to

start. There's some tweaks you need to do, but you've got the

you've got the microphone, you've got the Mac, you've got

the voice to be focused and get all those things that you need

to do, like the artwork. I did several. I did one on ones with

Carl on Canva. And now it just happens really quickly, you

know, I can, I can. Get that artwork, the picture that goes,

you gotta be focused and have a strategy. And I did not really

think that we would get to a season four. And it's quite

amazing. I had more topicals in my first season, and then it's,

it's increased. The interviews have increased to about 60% by

season four,

just in numbers. You mean, yes, okay, yeah, okay,

and your podcast is called Voice power, correct? That's right.

And it's on all of the

Yeah. It's on all the directories, yeah, okay,

awesome. And I love your email address. You

take me back to the day Duke Earl, yeah,

that was when I was in BCIT and art, art factoro,

he's the program director at 650 and we got to know each other.

He gave me the nickname Dookie. Hey, do

girl, right? Yeah. So wait, I forgot what I

was going to say. I was going to ask you a question. Oh, I know,

because you were in radio for a long time. What would you say?

What do you say about the way radio is now? I mean, it's so

different than it used to be, right?

Well, radio has fallen behind because

podcasting, there's more people listening to it. You know this

voice tracking. You know you want to be taught hearing a real

person. You know, radio will always exist. They always have

said, Oh, radio is going to fall away. It's not going to be

there. No, it's, it will always be there. But it's changed,

right? It has changed a lot, yeah, because am radio is more

talk, yes, is, is the music? Yeah.

Um, I'm just trying to think though, yeah,

it's either talk or it's news, solid news, right? Yeah,

you got your news stations? Yes. Um,

they just had, what here in Vancouver, the what

was it? The 75th anniversary of CK and W

That's right, yeah. And,

I mean, that's a station that's got a huge

history, and it started a lot of people in in radio, and I have

some, yeah, I still listen to it occasionally. So when I'm in the

car, if I'm not listening to a podcast, because I listen to

podcasts all the time in the car, what's your favorite

podcast? Do you listen to a lot of them.

Well, I like Brad Shawna. His coaches call it's

about lacrosse, and he interviews all the coaches. He's

interviewed all the coaches in the National Lacrosse League. I

listened to the one last night. He interviewed Walt Christians,

and he I was finding out how he's helped lacrosse in England.

You know, it was quite a, quite a change. I mean, it's, it's got

more. There's more to it now. I mean, there's more people

getting involved. And Walt Christiansen had some really

interesting, funny stories of how he got started with the

Victoria Shamrock. So, oh, there's another one I want to

interview. I want to interview Brad shawnner,

ah, okay, okay, so you could reach out to him

through his podcast. No doubt,

yes, yeah, I know. Fellow

podcaster, right? Fellow podcaster. Um, so, so you

now you're hockey fan, you're a baseball fan and you're a

lacrosse fan. Lacrosse is the biggest. Is it? Because you

light up when you talk about sports, I can see that lacrosse

is the biggest. Oh, that's interesting. I have a friend who

has two daughter, two granddaughters, who play

lacrosse, box lacrosse and field lacrosse. So and it's such a

it's kind of a minor sport compared to to some of the but

it's still very big here. And is it bigger in Eastern Canada or

Western Canada,

eastern and western Canada, it's big, but in

Alberta, it's really grown because they actually had a

Minto Cup where there was an Alberta team, and he's Brad, has

interviewed, you know, Alberta coaches, a number Alberta coach,

yeah, Can you see yourself morphing to being a

sports podcast. Would that be something you want to do?

I like the diversity I have. I'd like to

bring in some more sports. Yeah. I mean, because when I had art

on from 6:50am yeah, he's talking about the Canucks and

the Sedins and those interesting things, yeah, so I don't see it

myself going sports, strictly,

strictly sports. Yeah, yeah, people who have

stories, um, it makes me think that some of the sports writers,

or that not the sports Well, the sports writers, the sports

reporters that are around might, might be, um. Fun to interview,

because they've got stories from, you know, like, the guys

that are still on the air, you know, like that, but aren't as

like, I think Blake price and I think Dan Murphy and those guys.

They're young enough they still want the exposure, but they've

done a fair bit over time, right? Yeah, yeah. So I don't

know all fun and all interesting, and if I can help

you, by the way, in any of those areas, let me know, because it's

always who you know, right? So you know, not what you know.

Well, thank

you. I would like to do that. Yeah,

that's fun. So I'm just checking if I missed

something, anything here, because I think you did. It says

here 112 projects with diversity. So you just mean the

diversity of what you've done, from voiceovers to stand up

comedy to your mental health work, infomercials, training

workshops, telephone prompts, all of these different things

that you've done.

They're all different. Yes, they

are totally all different. And going forward,

this podcast is just getting more and more interesting, right

for you? And yeah, yeah. So I like to ask my guests one of a

couple of questions, and I'm going to ask you, do you prefer

getting your information through reading, through watching or

through listening? Oh, all three. All three. Okay,

because, because you can get more in the second

one or the third one. I'm always looking at, you know, there's

LinkedIn, okay. And is there any information on Facebook? And

where else can I find more information? Well, there's the

website, their website. Yeah, it's all good to have the have

as much content as possible, although you're not going to use

all of it?

No, of course, no, but it helps you learn about

the person so but when you're not working, what do you love to

do?

When I'm not working, what do I love to do?

Sports? Probably sports events. I love to dance. And it's come

back, because I've had a couple of pulled muscles, and a friend

of mine let me know about Zumba gold, and I've been going on

Thursdays at the Edmonds Community Center, and it's a

full hour when I first started going, I thought, Oh, how am I

going to get through this hour? Well, sometimes it hurt too

much, and I had to sit down for a song, but I've been going very

consistently, and then I get a free hot tub, and then also I

can swim a few links. And now I'm, I'm up to last time I

actually did 10 links. Yeah, I was, I love,

I love Zumba, but my knees won't let me do it.

Well,

it's a slower, it's, it's for injuries. Zumba

gold is for injuries. There's a higher based one, but I always

do Zumba gold, yeah.

Oh, good for you. That's great. Alright, so one

last question. Do you have a piece of business advice that

you'd like to share with my audience? Yes,

the most important thing is, you know, you're going

to have good days, you're going to have bad days, but the most

important thing is, don't give up. I mean, you feel it, you

know, there's many times I've wanted to give up but, but I

realize I don't want to lose doing this. I enjoy it. You

know, I'm interacting with people. I'm doing some media.

It's it's great. I really know that it's important don't give

up, no matter what. That's

great advice. Thank you so much, Earl, and

thank you for being such a great guest on my show. And I think

there's a lot of nuggets there that my audience will appreciate

hearing. I love that your sports a sports fan extraordinaire as

well, because I can talk about that all the time, and this, I

really appreciate that. Yeah. Thank you to my audience for

being here as well. And if you like what you heard, please

reach out and do check out Earl's podcast voice power and

let him know that you enjoyed it as well. We love to hear to see

reviews, and remember to stay connected and be remembered.

You.