Episode Notes
I had the pleasure of speaking with Tina Morasco, and I’m excited to share the second part of my interview with this true expert in casting and coaching. Tina is renowned for her ability to help actors perfect their craft and for her impressive library of commercial audition videos. But that’s not all—she also just released a Spanish version!
Here’s a summary of our conversation and some highlights that are sure to inspire:
**Casting in Spanish:** Tina discusses how casting for Spanish commercials has evolved, aiming to maintain consistency with English campaigns while adding an authentic and relaxed touch that reflects the warmth and enthusiasm of Hispanic culture. A fascinating perspective on how auditions adapt to different cultural contexts!
**Creating Her Video Library:** Tina reveals that the idea for her library came from a specific need: to reach more actors with her valuable lessons! She explains how she went from a small project to an extensive video collection and the incredible dedication she put into translating it into Spanish to ensure nothing was lost in the process.
**Audition Tips:** She offers essential advice for improving auditions, from the importance of following instructions closely to avoiding overly stylized and inauthentic readings. Get ready to learn how to enhance your technique with these practical tips!
**Authentic Connection and the AI Challenge:** Tina shares her personal experience dealing with overly polished readings and the impact of AI on the industry. She discusses how authenticity and real connection in auditions remain irreplaceable by technology.
**Group Study Sessions:** For those looking for more coaching opportunities, Tina has opened group study sessions for members of her library. These sessions allow for deep immersion in the work and the chance to observe and learn from other talents.
Don’t miss this episode filled with valuable insights and inspiring anecdotes. Remember to follow Tina’s news at www.tinamorascocoaching.com where you can also acces to her personal video library.
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!
Transcript
Nicky: Hello and welcome to La Pizarra! I’m Nicky Mondellini. This is part two of the interview with casting director and coach, Tina Morasco. Tina is head of casting at Sound and Fury Media, and her coaching sessions are in very high demand. Her library of videos is a great resource for voice actors, and she recently added a Spanish subtitle version. Here is where we pick up on our conversation from last week. Enjoy.
Interviewer: Let’s talk about Spanish voiceover, because you also cast commercials in Spanish. Is it a little bit different or is it– It’s the same thing. We have influencers in Spanish as well, and all that talking, peer-to-peer thing.
Tina Morasco: I think the answer is a little bit of both. I think what we tend to cast in Spanish is we’ll cast the English and the Spanish simultaneously, or we’ll cast the English first and then, cast the Spanish. Usually, they’ll try to model like, okay, whoever they hired for English, we want to find a similar voice to keep the campaign consistency. Then we are then in fact, looking for more of that real peer to peer, very much more grounded, relaxed than the classic Telemundo style that has been the industry standard for years and years and years and years.
That said, I still do think that– I recognize that I am not part of the Latinx community, but I do think as a culture, there is a natural brightness and enthusiasm and warmth to the culture that is slightly different than the US, general market, so I think there’s still always going to be just a little bit of extra energy, but what the clients are trying to match is the grounded realness of whatever we cast in the US.
Interviewer: Oh, okay.
Tina: It’s a little bit of both. It’s trying to be as grounded as you can be, but with the authenticity of what your true energy and the way you would gender genuinely relate in that culture, right? It’s like, you don’t take the warmth and the joy and the exuberance out of it because that is authentic.
Interviewer: It is, definitely. Latin communities, and it depends also on the country and also on the part of the country that they’re going to be a lot more effusive, a lot more bubbly or grounded. Also, it depends a lot on social status as well.
Tina: Yes. I can say that for the most part, when we’re casting, it is really trying to match the energy of the US spot. That’s where I hear the discrepancy, and which is why I did translate the library into Spanish, because I feel like that is still a pretty big disconnect when we’re casting. There are a lot of Latin talent that really work a ton in the US, and so they’re completely dropped into that style, but then there are a lot of people that are still really, really doing the more polished, the more presentational style. I just wanted to get my message out there that like, when you need to drop into this, here’s a method of how you can do that.
Interviewer: What prompted you to start the library? Also, in English, in the first place, is it for things that you were seeing that we were missing, voice actors that we were missing or a few little pet peeves [laughs] that you have?
Tina: To be honest, it was this, it was every time I coach somebody and they’re like, “Oh, why can’t I just have you right here for every audition?” It was truly an answer to that. With my limited time, I only have time to coach actors twice a day before I start casting. I was like, how can I get this information to as many actors as possible? That was really the incentive. Then I started writing the lessons and I kept writing and I kept writing and I kept writing and I kept writing and I kept writing and I kept writing. I was thinking it was going to be a much smaller thing than it ended up being. Much to my producer and cameraman chagrin, when we went to shoot everything, he was like, “Oh my God, how much is there?”
We shot the whole thing– We didn’t shoot the updates in the same day, but we shot the whole body of the library. It was like a 14-hour shoot.
Interviewer: Wow. That’s intense.
Tina: Yes, it was intense. Seriously, if you wind me up, I will go and I don’t even need a water break. I’m like, “No, next, next, next.” He’s like, “All right, my blood sugar is dropping here. I need to like fuel up.” I just realized that I had a lot of either pet peeves or clever way– or not to give myself that credit, but innovative ideas of how we could get you grounded in these different ways. My structure lesson is a pretty fun, unique way of [unintelligible 00:05:44]. From coaching, I’ve come to realize I have a lot of tricks in the bag that I wanted to share with everybody, so people could take what works for them and what doesn’t.
Then as I coach, once I start to see a pattern, I really do start to notice patterns of what people are struggling with at different stages, and then I jot down ideas and I’m like, okay, that’s going to be an update in for the library, I’ll do a whole video on that. Right now, my new focus is on– People who have worked with me before have the library. They’re getting really good at creating pre-lives and understanding how they relate to the story. A lot of times, what I’m finding is, they’re creating a story. They’re going like, “Oh, I have experience with this product, so I’m going to just rely on that experience,” but that experience with the product might not be the story that this particular script is telling.
They’re like, “Oh, well, when I was, when I was off-roading in my Subaru, it was super fun and it was a girl’s day and we were just out there having a great time.” They’re coming into the story really bubbly, but really, what the specs we’re asking for and what story is being told, is much more gritty and rebellious and defiant and edgy, right? It’s not enough that you just have a connection to the product. It’s matching a personal connection to the actual story being told. That’s my latest, okay, there’s a little bit of a disconnect because people think like, oh, if I just connect to the product, that’s enough. It’s like, no, it’s more important that you connect to the story and not so much just the product, if that makes sense.
I come up with ideas of, different videos and then I jot them down, and when I get like six or seven, then I do another shoot and then, update the library.
Interviewer: The updates. How can people find your library, and let’s just get into that, and also, for the Spanish version.
Tina: Yes. It’s all on my website, which I’m sure you will put on the screen. It’s just tinamorascocoaching.com. The English version is just called the library, the Spanish version, it’s translated into Spanish, and it’s not me speaking Spanish, it’s subtitled in Spanish. As you know, because you also were such a great sounding board for me, I really took great pains in making sure the translation was as accurate as possible. It was translated by one of my best friends who I went to graduate school with, who grew up in Panama, but one parent is from Spain. I forget where her dad is from, but she grew up in– She can discern every regionalism, every accent from every different Spanish-speaking country.
She would call me like 3:00 in the morning. She’s like, “Okay, T, this joke does not translate.” [laughs] “Okay. What’s the essence of– Really, what is the essence of this joke, because I’m going to have to like completely reformat it for the Spanish market.” We really spent a lot of time talking about nuance and all of that. I really wanted to put great care into translating it correctly, so it wasn’t just going to get lost in translation, as they say.
Interviewer: Yes. No, but you put a lot of work into it. I like the way you use your life experiences to just give examples of what your point is, because it makes it more memorable and it’s just like, oh yes, now, I get it right. It’s a great way to do it.
Tina: What I hope it’s modeling is that I want you to all weave in your life experiences to these different stories as applicable, right? I don’t know, if you have a crazy story about something that happened to you on a bachelorette party one night, how you are holding court telling that story in the aftermath, right, might be exactly how this story is being asked to tell, and so it’s like, you go, “Oh, I know how I am when I tell a story that’s like, that’s my fish story.” You always want to bring different parts of your life into your storytelling, and that’s what’s going to make it unique, and that’s what’s going to make your read different from mine.
I try to model how you can– I bring my own stories in and then weave them into the way we’re going to approach the copy as a springboard for you to do the same.
Interviewer: For people that want to coach with you, they have to be aware that there is a waiting period because, as you say, you don’t coach all day, so they just need to be patient, but it’s worth the wait, people, I’m telling you right now [laughs].
Tina: Actually, the one thing that I’m doing is I have opened up every other Monday, and now, I’m doing study groups, right, for libraries. I’m doing these group sessions, so 10 people can work at a time, and then an unlimited amount of auditors can watch. I say this all the time. There’s so much value in auditing, because you’re not on the hot seat. You can just observe everyone else’s process. You can soak in all of that learning and parallel process it all along the way. It’s really invaluable.
I’m going to be doing, probably three groups a month, one on a weekend and two on every other Monday, to try to get more access to more talent. Then I’ll still be doing the privates in the mornings and stuff, but just to get people able to be coached sooner. The groups, even though it is a group, you’ve been in there. I go very, very deep with each person. Each person is getting almost like a half a private. I’ll go 20 or 30 minutes per person, and we go really, really, really deep.
The reason I do it for library members only is because everybody has the foundation laid. Everybody has the shared vocabulary. I don’t have to teach. We can literally just treat it like a total pro workout. The level of work that has come out of those has been so inspiring and off the charts. I feel like everybody’s energy and the way people hold space for each other is elevating everybody’s game. It honestly chokes me up because it’s just so beautiful to watch. Everybody encouraging everybody else. Then there’s the work just getting so nurtured and just becoming really powerful.
Interviewer: Oh, I think that’s beautiful. Yes, and definitely just to be listening to others’ work. If you for some reason, don’t get in. It’s just first come, first serve, whoever wants to read in that session?
Tina: Yes, so because it’s for library members only, I send out an email. If you do join the library, you want to make sure you check the box, that you’re interested in email updates. I do not send a lot of emails. I send maybe one every three months or something. I announce all the dates. Then from that email, you can click on it. The first 10 people who click on the link get to be a player, and then everybody else can join as an auditor.
Interviewer: Oh, okay.
Tina: Now that I have several, several dates through the end of the year, there’s a lot of opportunities.
Interviewer: Also, would you listen to people doing Spanish work there in the library? Have you had that happen?
Tina: I haven’t, but you could be the first one that we do that with. The thing is, full disclosure, I’m not fluent in Spanish. When I’m casting Spanish, we bring in my same friend who does all the translation. She’s our Spanish creative director. She will eliminate– she does the initial quick, “Hey, these people are speaking native, neutral Spanish. These are really good, but they have a little bit of an Argentinian. These are really good, but they have a little bit–” and let me decide what the client said they wanted. Or these people feel like they grew up in a Spanish-speaking household, but in the US, so they have a little bit more of an American accent.
Then from there, then I have the ones that she deemed as neutral Spanish or whatever. Then when I’m casting, I’m really listening. I speak enough Spanish and I also know what the script is, right? I speak enough Spanish, but I’m really listening. It’s almost, in a way, not having the words as readily accessible as I have them in English, right? Now, I’m really hearing connection. I’m really hearing emotion. I’m hearing connection. I’m hearing nuance. I’m hearing subtlety. Acting is about so much more than the words. It’s about the depth of the connection and stuff.
I really think that having the words out of the way almost makes my Spanish casting even better. That said, if I’m working with somebody one-on-one who doesn’t speak English, who only speaks Spanish, that might be a barrier. I just want to be really upfront about that. If the person is bilingual, then yes, no problem. We can work in English and Spanish in one of those sessions.
Interviewer: Yes. Oh, perfect. Oh, well, that’s very good to know. I didn’t think of that, but it’s really interesting to hear you say how not understanding the words, it’s like your brain goes into a different mode, and now, you’re perceiving the energy in a different way. I think that’s very true. It happens to me when I watch films, like in, I don’t know, Russian, or Polish. You could definitely see that. I’ve seen plays also in other languages that I don’t speak, and I’m like, okay, yes, I’m feeling that. You can feel the drama, the connection. You can still see expressions or just hear nuances about, yes, this is drawing me in or no, I think that person’s a little bit disconnected. You can tell the difference.
Tina: Right. The thing is in English, sometimes people, I call it a good conversational fake-out, right? They can make it sound really good, but there’s no connection there. Sometimes if it sounds really good, you– and I don’t mean sounds really good like it’s polished, but sounds really like, yes, I’m just laid back and I’m casual and I’m just having this conversation. You’re like, oh, that sounds really relaxing casual, but I just do not feel like I understand what you’re saying and why, right? In Spanish, I’m going to be able to clock that in Spanish because like it’s not the words that are getting me. It’s the connection.
Interviewer: Yes. Oh, yes, absolutely. Now, let’s talk about obstacles that you’ve found along the way in your career. What is it, something that it’s been a little bit hard to overcome, but that you’ve learned a lot from it?
Tina: I will tell you, and it’s going to dovetail perfectly into the library. The obstacle that I had a hard time overcoming was the being too polished and being very announcer-y. My energy is very bright and very like, handed-to-you-on-a-silver platter, right? For the entire decade of the early 2000s until probably 2015, I did great in commercials, because that’s exactly what they were back then, and there were all of these different stylized reads, right? We had the luxury car read and the warm healthcare read and the delicious food read and all those different styles, right?
Half the time, I wouldn’t even know what I was saying. I would just slap whatever style was onto my voice and go on autopilot, and I would end up booking the job, right? I was rewarded for that terrible behavior, but we all were. It was like, that’s what voiceover was back then. Then once I started narrating, I narrate the HGTV show, Love It or List It. Once I started doing a ton of narration every week, that really bouncy narrative style started bleeding into my commercial auditions, and it became a huge obstacle.
Starting in 2015, all of a sudden, my commercial bookings went way, way, way, way, way down. My agents were like, “I think it’s all this narration that you’re doing is creeping in. You got to find a way to get out of it.” I really, really, really struggled to get out of that polished announcer-y read. I’ll tell you a really quick anecdote. This just happened like maybe a month or two ago. Creative director friend of mine was in a bind. She was like, “I need to scratch track stats. Can you go in the booth and record something for me?” I was like, “Yes, of course.” It was literally two lines. Okay? She was in such a hurry, I was in such a hurry, so I didn’t ask her what the context was. I didn’t see the film. I had no idea.
She’s like, “Just give me a couple of takes, like three in a row.” The lines were– I’ll leave a product name out, but with– Man. With LG electric products and appliances. Oh, gosh. “When you switch to LG electric products and appliances, the results pretty much speak for themselves.” That was the whole script, right? I was in such a hurry. This was literally a month ago, after I’ve created the whole library, after I coached authenticity and truth and connection of the story every single solitary day, and I go into the booth and I’m in a hurry and I start to do it. My default is announcer-y. I wasn’t thinking of anything. I had no connection to any story and I just started doing it. It came out like this.
It was like, “When you switch to LG electric products and appliances, the results pretty much speak for themselves.” I was like, “Ah, what are you doing? You can’t do that. It’s so announcer-y. It’s so affected and–” That was my default. I had to practice what I preached, and I was like, okay, she doesn’t have time for me to ask her to send me the video or whatever, so I just have to make something up. What I did was I made up a completely imaginary scene. I pictured some guy who would be a very unlikely guy to be cooking in the kitchen and having this gourmet meal emerging from his work.
I just pictured him and it was very, very clear to me what he looked like. I had a very vivid image and he’s in a white t-shirt and he’s got this sweat stains and whatever, but he’s happy in the kitchen. I just pictured him. Then I pictured a split screen to him serving a date this candlelight dinner and her being like, ooh, la la, sir, and then him being all dressed at the end. That’s the first thing that just popped into my brain. This was instantaneous, because I had no time, she needed it. Right? The second I pictured that, and I just imagined, I’m seeing this guy cooking and I’m like, yes, “When you switch to LG electric products and appliances, the results pretty much speak for themselves.”
Then all of the polish went out of it. She was like, “Oh my God, that’s it. That’s exactly what I needed. It’s perfect.” When I don’t do the work, I come upon the obstacle the same way everybody else does. It doesn’t go away. It doesn’t go away. That is the autopilot. That is the default autopilot that we all get into. The antidote to it is to engage the brain, is to engage the imagination and create the connection. Then this won’t kick in, and it was a big slump. I had like a very, very steep learning curve of how to find my way out of that, because it had worked for me for so long. That’s also another reason why I created the library, because I want to save people from falling into the hole that I was in for such a long time.
Interviewer: It happens, but it’s like those habits are hard to break, because as you say, that’s what was booking. That was your default. Yes, I feel like a lot of us have to struggle with those things in some measure. Can you tell me a little bit more about other pet peeves that you have when you’re listening to auditions? What would you like to grab people and just shake them and say, stop doing this?
Tina: Yes. Not following directions, because we take such care to say exactly how many takes– Oh, here’s the biggest pet peeve. When we put a pronunciation reference link on the script, that all you have to do is click on it. Then you still pronounce the word wrong, especially if it’s the product name, [expresses frustration] It makes me even madder when the rest of the read is so good, because then if I want to really do my job, then I have to reach out to your agent and be like, “Oh my gosh, I love this read, but I cannot put it through when they’re mispronouncing the product name. Can they pick it up?” You know how many times, like if I have to do that over and over and over when I’m casting eight roles in a day, it’s not–
Interviewer: That’s crazy.
Tina: Yes. Then you have to wait for them to get back in their booth and do it. If they’re out, whatever. That would be number one. Just really the basics of just really reading– If we take the time to write it, please take the time to read it and put a little bit of extra effort into your pregame, right? Don’t just jump in and start opening your mouth and just reading, right? Really read. Okay. How many takes do they want? What version of me is being asked to tell this story? What is the story? Who can I imagine I’m talking to? What can I imagine that person said that forces me to respond with this particular story in a way that feels real and engaged and authentic?
If you’d spend that time with the script before you open your mouth, it will save you so much time. It’ll save you from doing, like I say, 73 takes that all sound identical. Then you’re having to go through all 73 and be like, “Ah, they all sound the same to me,” because they are, because there’s no difference in what you were connected to, but if you are very thoughtful about it before you open your mouth and you connect to it, then you can just probably do the two takes or the three takes that are being asked for and be done. A little bit more forethought will save you hours of frustration on the backend.
Interviewer: Yes, for sure. Sometimes, if you are planning to do 10 auditions or 15, one after the other, where you’re like, okay, I’m just going to knock these out, whatever, you run the risk of going into your default.
Tina: Yes, it’s the churn and burn. I’m telling you, the process doesn’t have to take even five minutes. It can take a minute or two minutes of just really reading and being present with each one. If you’re adding an extra two minutes to your 15, that’s an extra 30 minutes you’re in the booth. It’s really not going to add a tremendous amount of time, but it really will have a massive impact on the work that you’re putting forward. You could turn it out really quickly, and just be like, ah, I just got to get these out, but then, you’re really wasting your time because it’s just going to be general and get lost in the sea of sameness.
Interviewer: Yes, exactly. We’ve talked about, that you said, okay, sometimes I can hear a dog barking in the background or an ambulance or something, but how much would be the opposite? Too clean, too polished or too perfect that you can also not use it because it just doesn’t sound natural? Breaths are okay?[crosstalk]
Interviewer: Yes, breaths are okay. I think there are two kinds of breaths, right? There’s the breath that you take. That’s a biological need to keep yourself alive. Then there’s the breath that’s connected to the thought, right? I think you can cut the first breaths, the breaths that you take, a big gasp of air, so you can get through a big paragraph, you can cut that breath out. The breaths that are connected to the thought, if you and I are talking and I’m like, “Oh, the other thing,” and there was a breath in the way I said the, oh, you want to keep that because that’s part of the thought bridge, right? That’s part of how I’m hearing the synapses connect.
The thing is, with everybody really investing in their booths, which is amazing for me as a casting director, because I get to listen to good, clean sound most of the time. You want to be careful that you don’t fall into the trap of, because you have this gorgeous mic and you have headphones on, it’s so tempting to really lean in and massage your voice to make it sound really pretty. You want to keep your performance pulled back and real. You want to sit back and probably pull your mic to you, because if you start doing this and you start really leaning in and you start making it sound really pretty, it’s going to sound polished, right?
If you pull back and you just let the mic do the work that you’ve hired it to do, and just trust that THAT mic is going to get every nuance and detail without you getting in and getting real close on it, that’s what we’re listening for. Good, clean sound quality, but you not working that sound quality. then not over-processing, not putting The sweetener and the stacks and all of that. You want to normalize it. You want to keep it so it’s nice and full, the sound, but you don’t want to process it so it sounds like it’s just hot and [crosstalk].
Interviewer: Yes, for sure. We’re definitely going to take note of all of that and try to apply that and not be too exaggerated.
Tina: I would just say, the way you’re sitting and the proximity of your mic, that would be perfect because we’re having a real conversation, right? If [crosstalk] pulled the mic into you and you started talking like this, then it’s going to sound radio. Exactly. What you’re modeling is a perfect example of like, that mic is going to be powerful enough to pick up exactly every little detail that you’re putting into it, and [unintelligible 00:30:38], you have to eat it.
Tina: It doesn’t need to be too loud either, right?
Tina: No, we want it to be just like natural conversation.
Interviewer: Yes, exactly. No, I mean after you record like, just going to pull the volume, just make the volume a little bit brighter so that it can stand out from all the other auditions. [crosstalk]
Tina: It’s that middle ground. It’s that sweet spot. You want it to be nice, full waveforms, not peaking, and not like super thick that it’s going hot, top to bottom, like full, just nice in the middle, like a nice, normalized file.
Interviewer: Yes, exactly. Is there anything else that would be a pet peeve of yours?
Tina: Honestly, it’s the pronunciation thing and not reading directions. Then still holding on to the stylized thing that I just talked about. The other thing that I also touched on a little bit is that conversational fake out that I’m talking about. I feel like everybody’s trying to cultivate this conversational sound, but then, what you’re doing is you’re just creating another fake stylized read, right? There’s a difference between sounding conversational and actually having the conversation. When you actually are having a conversation, there’s connection to the other person. You know what you’re saying and why you’re saying it, and you have an intention, right? A conversational sound would be like, “Yes, there’s connection to the other person and you know what you’re saying and why you’re saying it and you have an intention.” Do you hear how– It just is void of all meaning. It’s void of engagement, right? I think that’s my other thing, is like, people just sitting back on their voice and just talking like this and thinking that’s enough and having no idea what they’re actually saying. That’s not it. That’s not it, that’s not what’s booking. It’s the engagement. It’s the connection. It’s the actually having the conversation, not sounding like you’re having a conversation.
Interviewer: Yes, for sure. I’m going to ask you the AI question because that’s so prevalent right now, and us being afraid of losing our jobs because our voices are being synthesized or replicated or whatever. You’re still pretty active, which makes me think, no clients are not really rushing to clone voices nowadays, right?
Tina: No. I think the really good news in commercials is that all we hear from our clients every single day is, more human, more connection, more real and more spontaneity, more spontaneous. It’s exactly what I was just demonstrating, right? You can program AI to give me a cool read. You could program AI to give me a friendly read, but it’s going to be friendly all the way through in the exact same way, right? What I teach and what I have in the library is how you create true spontaneity, right? Is you look at that story and you figure out, okay, what’s the meaning of that story? What are the talking points of that story?
You weave that into the pre-life that you’ve imagined what was said to you. That way, when you get to some of those talking points, you’re like, oh, like the prodigy example, right? It’s like, you have those light bulb moments and then you make those connections. That’s how things are– That’s how we talk in real life. We have these spontaneous callback moments. We have these, I might know, like, “Oh my gosh, you just lost power, right?” If I’m talking about something and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, my internet just went out,” I’m saying it to you in a way that there’s already a pre-established understanding that I know that you just lost power because of the hurricane, right?
That’s a uniquely human thing, right? The way we change our energy in the middle of a conversation is uniquely human and cannot, at least so far, knock on wood, be pre-programmed by AI to replicate, because it’s so human. I might be talking to you like this and then all of a sudden I’m like, oh my gosh, I totally forgot to tell you, and that’s human and that’s what clients are asking for, right? I think we’re safe because of that. I also think we’re safe because I know a lot of e-learning has gotten hacked by AI and stuff.
Then I’ve seen a lot of people posting that the clients are course correcting because they’re noticing that e-learning videos are losing engagement when they’re using AI. That the people that they’re teaching these really important skills to are disengaging because of the monotony of the AI voice, right? It’s coming back to actors doing them. I’m pretty optimistic that we’re going to be okay. I think there’s always going to be that period of time where people experiment, where clients experiment and see if they can cut corners and save. I think the bottom line is going to show that what they’re going to lose in engagement from their audience–
Interviewer: Is not going to be worth it.
Tina: It’s not going to be worth it.
Interviewer: Yes, totally. Because people can tell when there’s a lack of engagement and a lack of convincing you or telling you from a first person perspective that the product is really good because you like it and you’ve tried it and by actually telling a story that is grounded and real.
Tina: Yes. I had an actor tell me that they created an AI version of themselves just for emergencies. If they were on a plane and a client was like, “Oh, we need you to pick up a tagline,” they could type it in their own voice. Just type it and send it in. I said, “Okay, I want you to trick me. The next time you get an audition for me, I want you to submit both versions, the AI version of you and the real version of you, and let me see if I can tell the difference.” It was laughably obvious. It was so obvious.
Even though in a pinch, if you needed that to just do a quick tagline on something or whatever, and you literally were in the air and couldn’t do it, then great. To sustain that for an entire spot, the melody becomes repetitive, the cadence becomes repetitive. Then our ear is like, yes, it’s just not a real person.
Interviewer: Definitely not. Wow. That’s good to know. Very calming.
Tina: [laughs] I think. [crosstalk] come into the door and just like haul me off and then put me off, robot is doing the rest of the interview and nobody even notices.
Interviewer: Oh my God. This has been wonderful, Tina. One more question that I always like to ask my guests, because I think everyone has a unique perspective, not talking about work as much, but you as a person. If you were to write a message for someone to find in a bottle, what would it be?
Tina: Find joy in every moment in everything that you do. If it’s not joyful, let it go. If you have to do it, make it joyful.
Interviewer: Oh, that’s beautiful.
Tina: Because it’s really– Now, I’m going to get choked up. Whether you intend it or not, the energy that you put out is being received, and if what you’re putting out is love and joy, it’s being received as love and joy. Then it’s the butterfly effect, right?
Interviewer: Yes.
Tina: That it just goes out and ripples into the world, right?
Interviewer: Yes.
Tina: If you go into the booth and you’re like, “Oh, I have no time, but I have to get these.” Believe it or not, even if you think you’re faking it, that is the energy that is being transmitted through your vibrational instrument of your voice, and then getting put out into the world. That is how I’m going to receive it. Whether I’m aware of it or not, something’s going to hit me in such a way that it’s just not going to feel good, right?
Interviewer: Yes.
Tina: If you put your joy and your love and your creativity into everything that you do, then you know your work is done. You know you’ve done good. I think, everybody, for the most part, we all want to do good. We all want to help the world. I think the best way to do that is by just doing– It can be in every little tiny moment.
Interviewer: The small things.
Tina: Yes, just the little, tiniest things. If we all do that in every moment, we’re just all going to be elevating the consciousness higher and higher and higher, without having to go build houses. If you can go build houses somewhere, [chuckles] then by all means, if that’s your calling do it, but if you’re just thinking like, “Oh, what can I do? I’m isolated in this booth or whatever,” just put your love and your joy into every line you say and just know that it’s a service.
Interviewer: It is. Also, I think you need to be honest with yourself because we all have bad days.
Tina: Oh, sure.
Interviewer: Sometimes you get in the booth– I know it’s happened to me and people that I know, and you’re reading something and you’re just not feeling it. Wait, take a break, go around the block, or if you have the time, sleep on it and do it. Otherwise, you’ll be sabotaging yourself, wouldn’t you?
Tina: Watch a funny sitcom that makes you laugh, take a bath, just change your energy if you can. Don’t try to white-knuckle your way through it because it won’t be worth it. You won’t be doing yourself or the work the service it really requires.
Interviewer: Yes, for sure. Definitely. Oh my gosh. Thank you, Tina so much. I’ve enjoyed this conversation.
Tina: [crosstalk] I feel like we had the best date. We should do this again more often. No, it was wonderful. Honestly, I want to thank you for all of the good that you do and everything that you put out into the community. You’ve been such a blessing to me, especially when I was translating the library. I just appreciate you so much on so many levels. You’re so talented. You just put out so much good into the world. Thank you.
Interviewer: Thank you so much. Right back at you, that library is a great resource. The work that you put into it, and now that I know that you went 14 hours straight, people, gosh, you have to download this library. A lot of work went into it. A lot of you, your personality is into it. That’s why it’s so enjoyable.
Tina: Maybe one day I’ll create a blooper reel of what happened in those 15 hours.
Interviewer: That would be nice to see, definitely.
[laughter]
Tina: Thank you so much for having me. This was wonderful. It was such a quick hour, however long it’s been.
Interviewer: Yes, just a little bit. Yes, definitely. Thank you. This is going to be a two-parter, of course. I know people are going to enjoy it very much. Thanks again, Tina.
Tina: Thank you. I hope to see you soon.
