Episode 109: John Pleisse

John Pleisse: The Producers, featuring the most respected international talent in the world of audio production and voiceover. Radio, TV, film, and online. In-depth interviews, industry insights, putting you on the inside. This is The Producers Podcast with Ryan Dreen.

Ryan: Hey, we do it again, Producers Podcast. guest today, John Plesi. I'll try to keep my intros nice, short, and sweet. To be totally honest, I was checking out some new podcasts recently, trying to up my arsenal of what I listen to, and, it's a lot better when you just get to the meat of the show. So I'll try and do that. John Plesi's website, voicejohn.com. we get into a little more contact information. He's one of these guys that isn't all over the internet, all over the social medias, etc. but he'll, he'll give you a few ways to get in touch with him. Let me play you a demo. You've heard John. I'm going to suspect if you're in America, you've heard John. If you're outside of America, you probably still heard him, because he's kind of everywhere. but primarily I knew him every time I traveled. I would, I like to watch local news wherever I go to get kind of a little taste of what's happening. The NBC affiliate, you're hearing John Plesi, in Dallas where I live, New York, various other locations. So he does a lot of that, but a lot of affiliate work, A lot of radio imaging. And to be quite honest, it'd been a little while since I had a really top-shelf voice on the podcast. So we're ticking all of these boxes today. We get into a lot of nuts and bolts of the industry, you know, getting an agent, having an agent, working with coaching, some of the tech stuff we did. You know, we did get into a little of his background, but, you know, there's going to be a lot more about the day-to-day dealing with clients and copy and how to do, you know, good customer service, marketing, all this stuff. I hope it'll be really valuable to voice talents, but even those who are thinking of the career or those who work with voice talent, I believe you're gonna find some value here. So with no more delay, let's dive right in. The one, the only, John Plesi. Live from Studio 3C in Rockefeller Center, this is News 4 New York. Live in the now. The Now Cleveland. From the start of your day, The power of Chopper 4 is working for you. In North Texas, we work together to make a difference where we live. NBC 5 and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Magic 106.7 WMJX and WMJX HD1. Boston, Shannon in the morning. New York's greatest hits all day. CBS FM. And I don't have to worry about it. Star 101.3 is KIOI. San Francisco, San Jose, and in digital HD, 98.1 CBS. Toronto's perfect music mix. K-B-I-G, Los Angeles. Catch the day's biggest plays from the Xfinity Sports Desk. The Xfinity Sports Desk, weeknights on News 4 at 11. ESPN's presentation of the NBA playoffs, brought to you by Mercury. NBC 5 goes silver and blue all week. It's more than finely tuned athletes that makes America's favorite football team. We're going behind the scenes. Heidi Harris, Alan Stock, Chad Benson, in the largest radio news department in in Southern Nevada. This is NewsTalk 840, KXNT. This is KOMO News Radio, KOMO, Seattle. WBAL News Now with Brian Nieman. Big 107.9, Albuquerque's New Country. Today's hit country, 99.9 The Wolf. Today's hit country is on New Country 93.3. Yeah, New Country. And on an iHeartCountry station.

Ryan: And we do dive in. The guest today, Jon Plesi. You hear him everywhere. I feel like every time I travel, I turn on the NBC station. I always like to check out the local news. It's Jon Plesi telling me everything. All right. Long enough intro. Sorry about that, Jon, but thank you so much for joining the show.

John Pleisse: Nice to meet you, Ryan. I've arrived. I'm on the Ryan Green Podcast, so you got to love it.

Ryan: That's how you've made it. Let me start with, you know, the basics. Website, voicejohn.com. And I really wanted to let you tell anybody else any other ways you wanted them to reach out, any other contacts. Do you use any social media, that kind of thing?

John Pleisse: I'm not big into social media, and I'm on Facebook, and I have a healthy stable of client friends who are on Facebook. And, and, you know, things seem to work out, fine that way. I, I don't have any need for Twitter or anything else.

Ryan: Yeah, I kind of thought that, which is why I sort of threw that out there and let you field it as such instead of me trying to guess, which is totally cool. Let me start there because I'm just curious. it seems sort of 50/50, but somebody with a lot of work where I'm assuming at this point you're not chasing down a lot of new jobs, you're You're more trying to keep up with what you have. Is that a fair statement?

John Pleisse: No, I'm constantly looking for new work. You constantly have to backfill work that you may lose. And losing a client eventually is a reality. And you can't— I read on somebody's website that 90% of it is marketing, and you gotta keep marketing yourself. And You know, just resting on your laurels will put you in a bad spot. At some point, you're gonna lose some business. So you keep, you keep have to backfilling it.

Ryan: And so then it's a little, not surprising, but I mean, kind of everybody replies in that way to me. So for you, while your workload's probably very large and there's not a lot of extra time in your day, what sort of things are you doing to get new business?

John Pleisse: Well, I just attended a convention in Las Vegas, the Station Summit with Promax, which is an annual thing I do.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: And I work on playing defense. I send gifts and various things to my current clients. I send them Christmas presents, and I work through their word of mouth. That's the best way to try to get new business. And if you don't take care of the people you have, In my mind, if you don't have a special relationship with them, they're not going to recommend you to people. So that's really how I look at it. I also go through some of the old consultancy apparatuses, apparati, if you will.

Ryan: Yeah, apparati or upper— yeah, I got you.

John Pleisse: In terms of marketing, it's very, very important, and I try as best I can with what little time I have.

Ryan: Yeah. So, I, I do want to actually get to the big milestones of your background and your career, but you sort of went there with what little time you have. I'd be interested to hear about your day. You know, what time do you have to get into the booth and get started? How many hours are you voicing copy? Let's start there.

John Pleisse: Okay. So, I manage a, a healthy list of radio stations and a healthy list of TV stations. The TV stations, they're busy 4 months out of the year, 5 months really, in what are called sweep months, upfront months, and fall launch.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: So these are very busy times for TV stations. So a typical day would be 9 o'clock in the morning till 8 o'clock at night covering West Coast clients. And then I immediately turn around radio in the middle of the day when I have open spots. And it used to be, You could turn radio over in 24 hours, and that was acceptable to most clients, but I think nowadays they expect it pretty fast. So, you know, it's— I'm not constantly working from 9 AM to 8 PM, but I must be available and ready. There's no golf, there's no happy hour, there are no hobbies, there's no BS. It's a constant readiness to be able to read something for somebody immediately. Right.

Ryan: You mentioned that turnaround, especially for radio. I would like to hear about the turnaround for TV as well, but it's true. I feel like a lot of talents that have been doing this quite a while have seen that happen. What do you believe is an acceptable turnaround for radio imaging copy now? What are they all generally expecting?

John Pleisse: Within the day, at least. I try to do it within a couple hours at the very least. I have a lot of clients who just send something and say, hey buddy, don't need it till Monday, and then I'll put it off. So, you know, they're— but generally speaking, when it pops up on the screen, I take care of it pretty quickly.

Ryan: Yeah, and you're able to do that with all the various tasks you have though. You're still able to jump in and out of projects and knock out some radio imaging copy in between TV affiliates.

John Pleisse: Correct.

Ryan: That's kind of how it works for you.

John Pleisse: Correct. Correct. Yeah.

Ryan: I'd be interested on the TV side. So you say, especially during the sweeps months, you're in there at 9:00 AM. You're East Coast, right?

John Pleisse: Correct.

Ryan: Yeah. So are they sending you copy and like, hey, I need this in 15 minutes, or is the copy coming in throughout the week and it's all due in a matter of days? Give people an idea how the TV affiliate work works.

John Pleisse: The TV affiliate work is absolutely, positively immediate. You absolutely must turn it around almost as soon as it's on your screen. And sometimes they're not working on these projects for a couple days and they have time, but generally speaking, for what they call topicals, which are the evening newscast promos, They're building and constructing those, and they have maybe a half hour to put them together. So, if they're not getting the copy from you immediately, you're holding them up.

Ryan: And I'd be interested, not that it's happened to you, but is it the type of deal where maybe they're more concerned about the turnaround and the ease it is to work with the talent almost more than the way, you know, than the talent himself. Does that make sense? You know, the quality?

John Pleisse: Well, yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, it has to sound great and you gotta articulate the copy and make it sound amazing and tell a story. And radio is very one-dimensional and you'd have one read for that. TV is multidimensional where you'll be telling stories that could be sad or upbeat and happy, and they're very different reads for TV you have to do.

Ryan: Yeah. And let me rephrase it. I feel like the way that the TV side of it is structured is like you said, I mean, if they have 30 minutes to build an entire promo, which is visuals and effects and everything involved, the talent has to just literally be not a problem. If they know that, Talent B is not quite the perfect sound but can deliver much faster and better than Talent A. Do you feel that they'll go that way in TV more?

John Pleisse: No, they, they go with people they like. There are lots of famous people doing TV voiceover who are great storytellers, and these clients are militantly loyal to them.

Ryan: So yeah, interesting. Let's see here, we've talked radio imaging and TV promo work, affiliate Are you doing a lot of national stuff on the TV side? I'm actually not sure about that.

John Pleisse: No, no, very little promo work. I'm on a couple different cable networks. I do steady work for them, and that seems to supplement the income and help out a bit. And for instance, I've been on ESPN for many years and things like that.

Ryan: Are you doing any commercial narration? Anything else?

John Pleisse: Not really. And, and, you know, I've always been in broadcast, and broadcast has been very good to me.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: I've been told— I've been told many times that you must diversify to survive in this business, and I'm scared to death that, perhaps I haven't enough, and I could be in a position where, you know, I, I wish I'd made a full narration demo and a commercial demo all those years to, to be able to backfill income if I lose it.

Ryan: Yeah. I got to say, it's interesting. I mean, to me, you're one of those guys that's everywhere. You're successful, you're doing well, and the mentality's always the same. It's always the, it could all collapse at any moment. I hear that from everyone at every level. Is that fair? Yeah.

John Pleisse: I run scared. I mean, it's served me well over the years, but I run scared.

Ryan: Sure. And again, I really do want to step back and hear about where you were, but this is interesting to me. Is there anything thinking in your mindset right now as John Polisi, who everyone knows, that could happen where you would suddenly feel comfortable, like, wow, I am set?

John Pleisse: No. You know, it's a lot of work spread over several different entities, and that's how you protect yourself. I mean, There are other people who do a lot of radio, for instance, and my advice to them is keep those radio stations. If you lose 15 of them, you're still in business.

Ryan: Hey, I gotta say, we got interrupted. This was awesome. So you had copy come in and 2 stations immediately knocked it out, sounded great. I just wanted to let people know there's a bit of a break there, but stellar job, John, as if you need me to tell you that.

John Pleisse: Well, I mean, you know, again, these people are waiting in edit bays And it's gonna air during Ellen and Steve Harvey and the intro to their 4:00 PM newscast. I mean, they need it now, man. That's the way it works.

Ryan: Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, it was just cool. I'm a total geek. I like watching on-air jocks do their work. I like watching producers produce and voice talent voice. Anyway, let me take a step back 'cause we never got there yet. Big milestones in your career. Admittedly, as I said in the intro, poorly, that I didn't know a ton about you. I just know your work. So where did you start? What were some of the big things that happened along the way?

John Pleisse: Born and bred in the state of Maryland. Went to the University of Maryland, have a BA in film. I got out right away and got a job doing overnights at what at the time was called Mix 107.3 in Washington. which was a union job and paid very good money for a kid right out of college. And I'd been a jock in several small markets around Maryland, and it was my big break. and then I moved over to being the creative services director for WMAL and WRQX.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: And, you know, I saw a lot of the invoices, and I wrote the purchase orders for the voice talent, and I was just shocked at what they made. And their agents were ungrateful, and— You know, the voice talent would show up late. I'm thinking, I could do this. And I mean, and why not give people a square deal, you know?

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: So, I, I— back then there were several consultancy firms all located in the DC area. And, Mix 107.3 at the time was a tremendous success. They wanted to emulate around the country. I started getting plopped down in various small markets. The station at the time was owned, by the same company that now owns PLJ in New York. Scott Shannon hired me to voice PLJ, and that was my big break.

Ryan: Oh yeah. All right.

John Pleisse: And, I, I had a 5-year run on PLJ. I then moved to Lite FM in New York where I had another 5-year run, and I'm now on WCBS FM in New York, and I've been on there a few years.

Ryan: Yeah. And boy, what the success they've been having. For years now.

John Pleisse: I think they're an amazing station.

Ryan: Yeah. And I—

John Pleisse: one, one, one word about the management, Jim Ryan and Scott Shannon, these guys are so rare, and so successful that just, just being a part of what they do is, is beyond comprehension to me.

Ryan: When you were on at PLJ, did, did Scott have anything to do with bringing you there, or was it a Tom Cuddy, or I don't know, somebody else?

John Pleisse: I flew up, or took the train up from D.C., and Shannon got my face on a couple different times. Probably I went up 3 or 4 times over the course of the run. And he would come in and sit with me. And I remember one thing he used to say, you know? He said, I want you to imagine your voice being an English muffin, and I want the butter to seep in every crack crevice.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: In a 955 PLJ. You know, I mean, he had a very— he knew what he wanted and he taught me how to do it. And I owe the man my life.

Ryan: Did he have anything or everything to do with you then becoming the voice at WCBS?

John Pleisse: I believe so. I worked for Jim Ryan, who was at Lite FM previously. So I left PLJ to work for Jim at Lite FM.

Ryan: So then you and Jim Ryan have a good relationship, clearly.

John Pleisse: Cordial. And he's my boss. Or you did.

Ryan: Okay, sorry.

John Pleisse: Yeah, I mean, as much as a voiceover person is very low on the totem pole, It would be in my interest to travel up there and just sit down with them when I can find time. They're probably okay with me not, and that's okay, but it's not like we're best friends.

Ryan: Right.

John Pleisse: Jim and I did get together for a round of golf many years ago at Lansdowne in Virginia, and we had a wonderful day. We both played terrible and just chewed up the course and didn't do very well. We had a good day together, and I'm very endeared to him and think the world of him.

Ryan: As a talent, especially in those early days, when you're like, hey, I believe I can do this, and then you parlay it into sort of the big step, voice on PLJ. From the talent side, how much work did you feel you or a talent needs to do to then make those next steps, to parlay being on PLJ into multiple stations, or to— major markets outside of New York versus an agent or the consultancy or anyone else?

John Pleisse: Well, what happens with these radio guys that have tremendous success, they'll get on a big station like Z100, and there's not a lot of marketing after that. 99% of the game is who are you on and what success do you have? And I would say that if you're on a big station in New York, your phone's going to ring. You're going to have to do very little marketing.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: And that's what happened to me. I mean, I had mixed stations all around the country just calling me up out of nowhere.

Ryan: And did it feel like that to you? That you're like, wow, I mean, there's another one, there's another one, there's another one. Like, you know, wow. Was it surprising, I guess?

John Pleisse: Yeah, it was meteoric. And I also experienced, because I was in a large critical mass of major markets, when the format eventually, the mixed format as a hotter AC, but still AC, Yeah. When it finally ran its path, I lost a lot of those stations, and they either went back to CHR or they went back to a full AC format. And, you know, I had to go back and take a radio job, and I worked at Z104 in DC. And then about a year later, the phone started ringing again. I had enough business to go back home.

Ryan: Huh. That's interesting. Yeah, I haven't gotten into too many of those. So you were, you know, in-house brick-and-mortar radio, then you, you had enough work to step out of the station, and you actually went back and then did it again. I don't hear that story too often.

John Pleisse: I know.

Ryan: How was that process for you?

John Pleisse: I know one particular voiceover guy who had a large account and lost it. He's back at it. He's back at a radio station now, but he's, he's probably making a very good living. And he has still a thriving freelance business on top of it, so he's doing very well. And he's a nice fella, so, you know.

Ryan: Well, there's a lot worse things to have happen than to have to go back and work at a radio station. You know what I mean? To some people, it's a dream job, so.

John Pleisse: Absolutely. Absolutely, 100%. And if the voiceover thing for me folds up and dies, My first option.

Ryan: Yeah. So let's see here. Ballpark some timeframes for me though. When was the last time that you kind of held a job in radio and then came out full-time working from home, locked to the desk with a chain?

John Pleisse: I succeeded from full-time radio in the late '90s.

Ryan: Okay.

John Pleisse: And basically have been 100% freelance since.

Ryan: Yeah. That's kind of what I suspected. So, it's just— and don't take this the wrong way, it's odd to me that it's still sort— to me, and I think a lot of people listening, you are one of those talents that should be like, yep, I'm good. But you still have that feeling that it could collapse, or not collapse, but you know what I'm saying.

John Pleisse: Ryan, I always run scared.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: It's just the way it is. And, it serves me well.

Ryan: Yeah, I can, I can hear that. Well, it definitely sounds like it's causing you to give really good customer service, which definitely seems like a lesson everybody should be taking. Because even in this day and age where every human being has been told, well, you have a great voice, you should be a voice talent, and then they go and try, you know, there's still people that feel like, well, I can deliver this in 3 days, or I don't need to reply back for a week. You know, the customer service still lacks and it's surprising to me.

John Pleisse: Do you really think so? Because I can tell you, if you're not back, you know, at the very least, if I'm out of the office at Starbucks or something and something comes in from New York or wherever, I quickly reply on the email, be there in 20 minutes, you know, or I got it, be there, I'll be there. Just, you know, hang in there, I'll be right there. And that's what it requires.

Ryan: Yeah, it definitely does. I would say the vast majority and the talent, if you just looked at the top 50 humans that are voicing radio, they're all doing what you said, but there's still plenty of people that— and it doesn't surprise me, or I mean, it surprises me that there are still so many that don't put a lot of emphasis or feel like they're at a certain status where they don't have to. I see it.

John Pleisse: Yeah, I've seen it ruin plenty of careers. I totally agree with you. Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan: I know our time is going to go thin here. Let me pile through a few things and you just tell me to shut up and you're done with me too. You just throw me out.

John Pleisse: You're good, Ryan. You're good, baby.

Ryan: Yeah. Managers, agents. I want to talk about that side of the business. I'm very familiar with your main agency, Atlas. I know them well. So again, I'm never looking for— one time it turned into a let's trash agents with this question. So that's not what I'm looking for. But talent is— they're always kind of, especially new talent, always wondering, do you have to have an agent? What should an agent be doing for you? What are reasonable expectations a talent should have when they sign with an agent? Or an agency?

John Pleisse: Well, the first prerequisite in my mind is when you go to a talent agent, you have to be showing some amount of income and some amount of success. Talent agents, for the most part, in my humble opinion, don't have time to develop talent. They may hear a demo they like and put them on the roster, and say, go take some voiceover lessons and let's see how you develop. But generally speaking, you come to them showing some sort of income, some sort of potential.

Ryan: Mm-hmm.

John Pleisse: And then they can then start booking you and developing you. And the business is shrinking. The number of union jobs are shrinking. And the number of people getting into voiceover has gone up exponentially.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: So, your relationship with your agent is everything. The resources of Atlas are amazing. I cannot overemphasize, how important they've been to my life and career. And, everything you do should either be centered around your success Or, at the very least, maintaining a very high professional level because of your association with the agency. So you're always part of the team.

Ryan: Mm-hmm.

John Pleisse: And I cannot overemphasise that. Agents who have to call talent because they're AWOL or missing, or out sick all the time or whatever, they don't have time for it. They don't wanna mess with it. So, it's a team effort. And what the agency can taketh from you, they can also giveth. And,.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: You know, I've lost work, but I've gotten work back through my relationship with my agent. And I cannot overemphasise the incredible resources of Atlas Talent Agency. It is, in my opinion, the best And I'll be working for them for hopefully my entire career.

Ryan: Yeah. Let me ask it from this angle. You are a young talent. You have some value. You have some— you're earning income. You get signed. I realize that a lot of times the opinion is that the agent works for you. A lot of people will say that. And the agent, they work for you. You don't work for them. But what can the talent do to really make the most of that relationship?

John Pleisse: Work for the agent. And it's a two-way street. you, you, you, you must subscribe to their philosophy of schmoozing the clients, the buyers, showing up at the conventions, being a part of a larger team effort. And, you know, I, I, I, again, I just cannot overemphasise that, that, that working with an agent is a two-way street.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: if, if, if you think, well, I'm gonna send a demo in and I'm just gonna be a rock star and they're just gonna go around and find me work, they really don't. They, they kind of develop people who are already successful and they make them more successful.

Ryan: Managers, other support staff, is there anybody else that you work with? I know you can't speak for everybody, but there are different types of people out there that are not agents that help talent.

John Pleisse: I've heard that management can be very helpful. I don't think the agents like it as much because they're treading on their territory somewhat. And then— That's another 10%. So the talent's out 20%, 10% to the management, and then 10% to the talent agency.

Ryan: Mm-hmm.

John Pleisse: So you're doing 80% on the job. Now, I know guys who have a manager and get lots and lots of work, and I haven't had time to explore it, but I think that's for the higher-end work, for the network promos, for the film trailers, for the high-end national commercials. I think when you're at that point and you're so busy that you need help, that's when you get a manager on top of an agent. Yeah.

Ryan: Coaching. I wanted to just get, you know, whether it's a quick take or a long take, I wanted to get your take on coaching. How to utilize it, if you utilize it?

John Pleisse: I use 2 voiceover coaches, the famous Maurice Tobias.

Ryan: Of course.

John Pleisse: And I'm presently with Dave Walsh, who I'm just absolutely enamored by. He has a solution to what my deficiencies are at the moment. And he's helping me out tremendously. And, you know, people say, well, you know, I pay $250 an hour or whatever else for a voiceover lesson. It isn't so much a voiceover lesson. You learn about the business. You learn about who's hot right now. You learn which reads are in vogue and where the business is going. They can help you with your marketing and You know, for instance, I did a mailing and Maurice Tobias gave me a few brief suggestions on how to do it without seeming desperate. You don't ever want to come across that way when you market yourself. So there's a lot more to voiceover lessons and a relationship with a voiceover coach than just going over reads.

Ryan: What about finding a coach? I actually get this question asked of me often. I don't know why. Maybe just 'cause of the podcast, whatever. How do you know? Just like voice talent, it feels like coaches are almost the same. They're popping up everywhere. Everyone seems to be a coach. How do you know who's good, who will work for you?

John Pleisse: Well, I look at their past success. Dave Walsh was a tremendous success. Joe Cipriano has just started a promo boot camp.

Ryan: Yep, the masterclass or whatever. I've seen that. Boot camp? Yeah.

John Pleisse: Okay. And look at Joe's success. He's been there. He's made millions. I mean, he had a house in Beverly Hills with a tennis court in the back and played tennis with the president of Fox TV. I mean, you know, so if you're gonna tell me these people aren't good resources, they are. And, you know, can you base an entire career on it? Are you gonna walk out completely changed? No, it's part of a growing process. You know, you just gotta ask around and find what's right for you. With Dave Walsh, for instance, he's into storytelling and articulating copy and having a proper feel for it and so forth. And he has a trademark method that I'm not gonna go into right now, but he's helping me where I need help right now.

Ryan: Do you mind if— sorry to interrupt, but do you mind if I ask you about that? I'm just curious. And tell me it's, you know, not something you wanna discuss. But you kind of mentioned you have an area you wanted to work on, and he knows how to work on that.

John Pleisse: Oh, it's still too much of a broadcast read. People want a lot of feel in TV copy. They want a lot of emotion and diversity, and, you know, it's really all about telling a story. Radio, on the other hand, is one-dimensional. You're trying to bark like a dog, kind of as loud as you can, to cut through. And to me, that's, that's the dynamic. That's the difference between the two. I came from radio. I've got a lot to learn about TV. And really, the, the day you stop growing, the day you stop changing, the day you stop taking voiceover lessons, I think you're gonna put yourself at a disadvantage. I think you should always be learning.

Ryan: All things being equal, money not being a factor, time not being a factor, whatever it is, What area of the business would you like to be in that you're not?

John Pleisse: Commercials.

Ryan: You would?

John Pleisse: Okay.

Ryan: And why?

John Pleisse: I think the earnings potential is good. I think that it shows a greater acting ability. I think that commercial success is constantly ongoing. There's the potential to earn residuals, and that's my next step, I think.

Ryan: And why haven't you dove into that as of yet? You know, really hardcore?

John Pleisse: I've just been too busy.

Ryan: Yeah. Time. Yeah.

John Pleisse: Just working every day.

Ryan: You're working for a living. Leave you alone.

John Pleisse: That's right. That's right.

Ryan: I was just curious, am I correct that you are on a lot of local NBC affiliates across the country?

John Pleisse: Yes.

Ryan: And is this a, you know, you got one and then a lot of them wanted to emulate type of a scenario, or is this just luck? I mean, you know, Is there a little story behind that?

John Pleisse: yeah. I mean, you know, once I was on New York, there were openings at the other ones and they kind of followed along.

Ryan: Cool. I've, I've asked, I think I asked Roger Rose a similar question in that he has a lot of his eggs in the CBS basket. does being on so many NBC affiliates kind of hurt you from being on other networks in different markets, or is that not the way that works at all in TV?

John Pleisse: Well, what happens is, is you have a critical mass of your business wrapped up in one group, and that's not— for a voiceover person, you've gotta be on a lot of different stations. And, so I worry at times that I'm so wrapped up with NBC, and I mean, their service comes first, that I'm not really growing elsewhere. So, you know, there'll be a day when I lose the NBC stations. It's a fact of life.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: And that one's— it's gonna hurt when it happens, but, Right now, I think I'm performing well for them, and everybody seems to be happy, and I have taken care of them, and everything seems fine.

Ryan: In my opinion, you're one of the talents that definitely has a really unique signature sound. I mean, this is just me talking, but I think that's always— and everybody at the highest level will say that, you know, first be you, and then, you know, go and learn to do other things.

John Pleisse: Well, there's always a reason for a new sound. I mean, If you look at the commercial industry, and even with your success, Ryan, you're doing work on the younger end. I saw your Lego spot, which was just awesome.

Ryan: That was fun.

John Pleisse: And the business is getting younger and younger. So usually there's a position shift at some point for demographic reasons or whatever else, and you just gotta be ready for it.

Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. Well, all I meant to do was pay you a compliment and say, I really feel like you have the John Plesi sound and there's nobody really anywhere Well, that's nice of you to say, but, you know, it's, —

John Pleisse: who knows? I may have to change the way I sound someday just to keep up, you know? You never know.

Ryan: Well, maybe you'll take over the commercial side of things.

John Pleisse: Maybe one day. Maybe one day.

Ryan: Yeah, sure. Real quick, 'cause I like to try and bring this up with everybody, and clearly you know your way around a studio. Tech guy. If you want, we can just kind of talk a little bit of mic chain, maybe? You were talking to me about your mic situation. Things you really love to use, things you hate to use?

John Pleisse: Yeah, I like using big condenser mics for radio. They have a big, fat bottom-end sound. They really come through nice, and it leaves production directors a lot of room to process on their end. I use the Avalon 737 tube, and right now I'm talking to you on a 416 going through an API channel strip. And, I don't like to process much. You know, the, the flatter the mic— I, I do have a little high-end EQ to brighten things up, and that's about it.

Ryan: Yeah. and, and that's— you're talking on the 416 though. I assume I can bring this up because you had a mic issue, right? The mic you wish you were talking on isn't functioning right now.

John Pleisse: Yeah, I had a Neumann M149, and the, the, the tube blew last week, and, that's gonna be expensive to fix. And, and, The 416 has its drawbacks. It's got a narrow field. It picks up spit. It sometimes doesn't leave you a lot of room to articulate. It's very sensitive. It picks up every mistake.

Ryan: See, I'm sorry. You think the 149 actually is more forgiving than the 416?

John Pleisse: No, vice versa.

Ryan: Okay.

John Pleisse: Yeah.

Ryan: That's what I thought. I thought you were— yeah, gotcha.

John Pleisse: Yeah, I mean, with a 416, there's nowhere to hide.

Ryan: Mm-hmm. And you were a creative services director, you know your way around a DAW, you know, Pro Tools or whatnot, but as a voice talent, especially for the other voice talents out there listening, what do you record into and how do you get from point A to point B in your computer?

John Pleisse: Sure, I was a Pro Tools hack for a number of years and I really love the system and know it well. But when it comes to coding an MP3 file, it's 17 keystrokes. It's a joke. Right down to the stupid question if you wanna copyright it. I mean, Avid's gone nuts in my opinion. So I work with Adobe Audition exclusively. It's the fewest number of keystrokes to code a file.

Ryan: And I heard you do 2 different stations actually right in the middle of this podcast, and I heard you were like, Here's the copy. Bam, you knocked it out. You gave him multiple takes, and I heard you make, you know, 2 clicks, and you're like, all right, sent, sorry about that. And I'm like, that took no time at all.

John Pleisse: Yeah.

Ryan: So I, I understand that.

John Pleisse: It's, it's, it's about, it's about speed. And Pro Tools is a track-based system. Adobe Audition is an event-based system, and, in my opinion, is, superior for radio work, and, it works well for me.

Ryan: Absolutely.

John Pleisse: Cool.

Ryan: Anything else in your studio you want to make people aware of? Oh, do you have a booth, you know, a whisper room or a booth of some kind, or do you have an entire treated room, or how's that set up?

John Pleisse: Yeah, I have an entire treated room. I bought the house I live in in 1998, and I have an octagon-shaped room about—

Ryan: Oh, nice.

John Pleisse: About 8 by 10, and I have this At the time, it was very pricey, this fiberglass wall covering everywhere that is the equivalent of 8 inches of foam.

Ryan: Wow. Nice.

John Pleisse: And I have a separate air conditioning system, and we figured out the BTU requirements for body heat and equipment heat, and it's all dead on, so.

Ryan: And so you actually specifically built the AC systems for low noise, obviously. That was another advantage of that.

John Pleisse: Yeah, it's funny you brought that up. We actually zigzagged the ductwork to cut down on noise. To cut down on noise, that's absolutely right.

Ryan: Yeah, well, that's the beauty of getting a little big time. You get to build out your studio from scratch, an octagon room. Maybe explain to people why that's a value, why that has an advantage.

John Pleisse: It's where the bump-out of my house was. So I have 5 sides that bump out and the kitchenette is above me. And the bump-out was already there, so we just completed an opposite set of walls to match it. And the back room— the back of the room has fibreglass bass traps to cut down on all the bass wave stuff that interrupts your voice. And then the front of it is fibreglass as well.

Ryan: I guess I was just assuming that that would help with the reflections and actually be better than a square room. Yeah, and you never wanna be in a cubicle.

John Pleisse: You can't be in a completely dead room. There has to be some liveliness to a room to sound good, I think. If you're in an acoustic chamber that's completely dead, I think you'll drive yourself nuts and you'll walk out of there shell-shocked every day.

Ryan: Yeah. Well, especially if you go into a booth that's completely dead and you're in there for long enough, you start to feel a little weird in your head.

John Pleisse: Yeah, and unless you're really working the mic soft, quiet, and close, you know, the second you need to have kind of a diversity in your sound, you need to be more animated or louder, you don't have the room helping you.

Ryan: Yeah, yeah, I'm with you. Hey, I want to ask you my one final question, and you might have already covered it, and you know, you can be quick, you can say whatever you want, but At the end of the day, everybody needs a little help. One piece of advice the youngsters of the world need to steal your job, John. What should they work on?

John Pleisse: Just go after it and don't let up. And believe in yourself and keep sending out demos, keep sending out tapes, keep trying to get in with an agency. Keep at it. You know, it— natural evolution occurs. And there'll always be a spot for somebody if you've got talent. And I really think a lot of it is a business. You have to be good at knowing who all the connections are. And that's critical. And it's a process. And, you know, I gave up on it early on and threw all my tapes in a box and just gave up.

Ryan: Yeah.

John Pleisse: And then I, then I got a lucky break. And so you never know. You just never know.

Ryan: Yeah. Well, hey, this is awesome. Aside from my terrible start to this interview, you did amazing, and everybody's gonna really appreciate all your information. I really appreciate your time. Thanks a lot.

John Pleisse: Ryan, I love what you do. I love your, I love your commercial work, and, and I'm a huge fan, and Again, you know, hey, if I'm on the Ryan Dream Podcast, I've arrived, baby, you know?

Ryan: Yeah, you finally— yeah, this is why you've arrived. Yeah, after all these years, this is, this is why. all right, oh gosh, I wanted to say your website one more time. What is it? voicejohn.com. Here's some more demos, you know, a little contact information, some agency information, but, but finally, one more time, thank you John Plesi, thank you so much.

John Pleisse: Thank you, Ryan Dream.

Announcer: Contact the show, contribute your opinions, see additional content, or simply stay connected at producerspodcast.com.