Episode 115: Vanessa James

Announcer: 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 Dream.

Ryan: All right, welcome to it, Producers Podcast. 2018 is here, and yeah, I'm a touch late. I gave myself an extra break to get the year kicked off. let me tell you this, kids, the older you get, the faster the years go by. It is science. And, I was thinking somebody had emailed me to remind me. actually it was CJ Wilson. CJ Wilson, my favorite of like the 6 different CJ Wilsons I either know or have heard of. It's crazy. Anyway, the guy— she's like, ain't you got a pretty big, anniversary coming up? I'm like, yeah, man, I think, I think I might. So in August of 2018, I think that'll be the 10-year mark of this podcast. I did that complicated math and I still might have gotten it wrong, but I'm pretty sure that'll be the 10-year mark of this podcast, which again, it's kind of just a big anniversary for me. You know, you listen to the show off and on or however you consume it. Great. By the way, I also still have people coming back and saying, man, I just grabbed that Dave Fox episode. That was cool. good for you. Dave's awesome. I won't go back and listen to the first shows of this thing. I can't even imagine how cringeworthy I was, and maybe I still am, but I try anyway. moving forward. Okay, so will I do something? I'll— like I was just saying about time flying, I'll see what happens when August rolls around. I might try to do something sort of special for the anniversary. We'll see. At this point, no plans. Okay, so, real quick, let me tell you who's coming up next in the next episode, and then I'll talk about my guest today. I want to highlight the next guest though, because he is pretty big time. Graham Judd is his name. hit his website and just play anything. You'll be like, oh yeah, I know that dude. promo voice, one of the biggest promo voices in the States. And guess what? He don't live in the States. Also a, a foreigner coming in and, and taking all the American Judd. No, this isn't that kind of podcast. Graham Judd, I actually have the interview in the can. I'm gonna make you wait for it a little bit and give you time to check out the Vanessa James episode. but it was a great one. Really cool dude. had a great time chatting with him. So hopefully you will enjoy that next. For today, Vanessa James is the guest. Vanessa, one of the big female imaging voice talents in the States, but she's also everywhere. a lot of positivity coming out of her. VanessaJamesMedia.com is her website. Let me rattle off the socials, but I'll have these all linked On my podcast page, Twitter @Miss— sorry, Twitter @MissVanessaJames, YouTube Vanessa James Media, Facebook Vanessa James Media, Instagram you can get— there you go, Vanessa James Media. She's everywhere. But do go to her website and see all the different cool stuff that she's into. A lot of video components. She's up presenting and hosting. She's an influencer. But Great work on the voiceover side as well. So Vanessa's the guest. We'll kick things off with— oh, you know what? I didn't even mention some of the radio credits. Let me just say this. One of my favorite stations, because I didn't really have anything like this before I moved out east, and I did radio in Jersey, but I got to listen to KTU. At the time, Harry Legg was doing amazing things there. But it's just one of those stations that still remains pretty unique. She is one of the main voices of that and many, many other stations around the country. So we'll hear some demo from Vanessa, then we'll get to the interview with the one and the only Vanessa James. Here's a fresh new demo. Vanessa's Voice, 103.5 KTU, keeping New York moving all summer long. The hottest songs from today. 24 hours of nonstop old school jam. KLQT, Morales Albuquerque. Brought to you by Electric Cloud. Let's get to the real thing. This is old school. This is Hot 95.1. They play old school hits. An iHeartRadio station. Cube 93. Yo, what up? It's Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. This is new music on Cube 93. Travis Scott and the Dopes. Popping, popping, all we know. We've got bills to pay. So many bills to pay. Whoa, whoa, whoa, bills to pay. Lucky for you, they're your bills we're paying. Who paid that bill, baby? If we call your name, you'll have 9 minutes to call us back and get your bill paid. You going to pay my bills? You make This is that good processed turkey. We'll play the jams. Take a trip back into the past. 24 hours of nonstop old school. Turn it up! Hot 95.1. For rates, inquiries, and more demos, visit www.vanessajamesmedia.com.

Ryan: All right, we get it going again. And in fact, this is the first interview, first episode of the brand new year. It's exciting because my first guest is everywhere. let me just say, Vanessa, Vanessa James, welcome to the show. Thank you for fitting me into your extremely busy schedule. I appreciate it.

Vanessa James: Thank you, Ryan. I appreciate you having me on, and happy New Year.

Ryan: Happy New Year. Yeah, belated, of course. But, you know what? I was gonna ask this at the very end. So before I rattle off just a million credits—

Vanessa James: Sure.

Ryan: And tell everybody about all of your— everywhere they can find you. You're in Miami, and I've never been to Miami. Tell me something about Miami that I might not have seen from TV or I might not know.

Vanessa James: Hmm. Something you might not have known from Miami. Okay, obviously it is a huge melting pot of lots of different cultures, but it's also a huge melting pot of Caribbean cultures. I'm from Trinidad originally and moved up here in the early '80s, and it's probably one of the best places you can find incredible Caribbean food and Jamaican food and Haitian food.

Ryan: Really?

Vanessa James: Yes, so, you know, above and beyond just the classic mojito on South Beach and really awesome Cuban food at Versailles, there's also a world of different awesome Caribbean restaurants that the next time you come to Miami, If you come to Miami, you have to check, especially if you love curry.

Ryan: Oh, I love curry. I love curry.

Vanessa James: Yeah. So yeah, definitely.

Ryan: Oh, great. Okay, cool. I figured I'd toss you a softball. Now we're getting into the hard-hitting questions.

Vanessa James: Let's do this.

Ryan: Yeah, right. Okay, so let's see here. I know you, I just gotta say, I even reached out to my buddy Stacks.

Vanessa James: Oh, Stacks.

Ryan: I love the sound of KTU.

Vanessa James: Thank you.

Ryan: I've always loved the sound of KTU.

Vanessa James: I appreciate that.

Ryan: Absolutely. Voice of KTU New York. I'm just legendary. Hit 97.3 or 97.3 in Miami?

Vanessa James: Hits 97.3 in Miami.

Ryan: Yeah, there you go. Well, I'll let you talk about some of the other stations, but you're actually, you're everywhere. Vanessa James Media, your website has tons. How did you get your start? Was it radio? Was it voiceover? Was it other stuff?

Vanessa James: Yeah.

Ryan: Tell me about the beginnings.

Vanessa James: It was definitely radio. I'd been on, I spent my radio career at iHeart, at that time Clear Channel as well. I bounced around from Tallahassee, Cassie, a little stint in Tampa, and then moved down to Miami when an opportunity came open actually at WMIB. So it just kind of worked out 'cause it's the station I always wanted to work at. But when I was there—

Ryan: Yeah.

Vanessa James: At MIB, this was 2005 to 2010, I got really into voiceover. A mentor of mine, Doug Torkel, you know, he was like, hey, come, come, you know, voice these spots for me. And he needed that female voice. And I just started doing more VO work outside of programming and being on air at MIB. And I really loved it because it really got me a chance to play around with CHR, play around with obviously brand voiceovers, auto, all kinds of different things. And really kind of fell in love with it 'cause it's kind of like voice acting, right?

Ryan: Yeah, yeah.

Vanessa James: And so, and it gave me a chance to kind of storytell and play in a different way. And I love narration as well for that reason. And I didn't have a way to pay myself. He was like, okay, send me an invoice. At that time it was like $150. I was so excited about it. 2008, you know, $150 extra from voicing 4 lines. I'm like, this is amazing. And he was like, you know, send me an invoice. I'm like, I don't have a company or anything. He's like, well, you need to start one. And so I did. I started— at that time it was called Vanessa's Voice, and it transitioned to Vanessa James Media in 2008, you know, as a way to be able to pay myself, you know, for freelance work. And it just kind of flourished from there.

Ryan: It's awesome. Love that. Now, you mentioned Him, but any other mentors or talents in the beginning that you learned from, looked up to, caught some lessons from?

Vanessa James: Absolutely. In terms of radio, obviously the Angie Martinez's of the world really helped inspire my radio career in terms of how I wanted to sound and feel on the station, really sound like even if you're talking to 5 million people, that I'm having a conversation with a girlfriend. And I really try to always keep I wanna keep my on-air, you know, on-air radio style that way, very much like Nina Chantel also in LA at The Real. She's really great at that. But in terms of voiceover, I mean, I love Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, and I also love Doug's voice. And I was really privileged at that time to work with amazing people because Dave Fox, formerly of Z100 in New York, used to also image KTU. So he heard my work.

Ryan: Yeah.

Vanessa James: And Rob Miller at the time heard my work and said, hey, we'd love to have you on KTU. And I jumped on there and Dave Fox imaged the hell out of my voice, just really made it sound like butter. And so that's how it kinda picked up steam. I would get program directors around the country just saying, hey, do whatever you're doing on KTU, we love the way that sounds. So I'm like, well, that's half me and half Dave Fox at that time, and now it stacks. But it just kinda worked out that way in terms of really being able to play in the urban world in terms of VO.

Ryan: Yeah.

Vanessa James: but always urban upbeat, and then also play in that whole CHR pop world too, because that was the great thing about being on air. Obviously, I was really familiar with a lot of the artists across genres, and really had a good chance to, especially at iHeart, working there and being on the other side, I got to really understand that imaging is really, yes, it's great to be that big, bold voice on the station, but it's just really important also to be really relatable. And I think a lot of program directors around the country around the country have picked up on that and they're hiring me for that reason. It's, you know, to kind of break up the monotony of that big VO guy and, and, and kind of give the, you know, station a little bit more of a warm and fuzzy feel if you'll— if that's— there's a word, you know, a way to put it. Definitely that way.

Ryan: I absolutely agree. You're, you're an announcer technically, but you don't get that announcery feeling so much with you.

Vanessa James: I try.

Ryan: You get that when needed.

Vanessa James: Thank you.

Ryan: But yeah.

Vanessa James: Thanks.

Ryan: absolutely. let's stay on the VO side.

Vanessa James: Sure.

Ryan: I do want to talk about about other stuff you're doing.

Vanessa James: Yeah.

Ryan: And this one's gonna be like, you know, anti-humble question.

Vanessa James: Okay.

Ryan: But I like to ask it and then we'll go the other way.

Vanessa James: I love anti-humble, that's awesome.

Ryan: Yeah, well let me try it.

Vanessa James: Okay.

Ryan: And then we'll see if you love it.

Vanessa James: Okay.

Ryan: Tell me something you believe you do best or better than anyone.

Vanessa James: Mm, what I do best or better than anyone is my impeccable word. So I say that to say I work with a lot of brands now, which is under the Vijay Media umbrella much more than voiceover. over creating a lot of content for brands, collaborating with a lot of auto brands, voicing a lot of projects for brands like Barbados Tourism and JetBlue, major brands. I've worked really hard to curate those relationships. But in terms of my business savvy, I would say that that would be my anti-humble. I proudly am someone that's very impeccable with my word. If I say I'm gonna do something, I do it. My follow-through is killer. So let's say we do a project together, Mm-hmm. and there are 4, 5, 6 deliverables, before you check your email, they'll be in there. So, you know, I've gotten really awesome feedback from some amazing brands around the country that say, hey, Vanessa, we love working with you and we wanna continue working with you because gosh, you know, it's just so awesome how thorough and professional you are and how warm you are at the same time too. Like, you know, just because you work with amazing people doesn't mean that you have to give them attitude. You always keep your humble and just continue to—

Ryan: Yeah.

Vanessa James: Keep your head down, stay focused, and work.

Ryan: Absolutely. Okay, let's go the other way.

Vanessa James: Okay.

Ryan: What is something that you wish you did better?

Vanessa James: Ooh, okay. Discipline, Ryan, I would have to say. So, you know that famous saying, don't be the jack of all trades and the master of none? That would probably be my Achilles heel. I love, you know, I'm really, really passionate about creating, really passionate about creating. So that means everything from producing a project here in Miami to doing, 'cause I also create a lot I do a lot of content, travel pieces too, right? So I'll go—

Ryan: Oh yeah, I was gonna get there.

Vanessa James: Yeah, fly to Jamaica and do like a hotel review. But so my whole thing of saying all of that is, it's coming from the world of radio, you know, it's a very special world and we're a very special family regardless how long you were out of it or if you're still in it. It's just real, I mean, we're spoiled rotten, you know, every concert, you know, every major thing coming to town, we get to enjoy an experience, we get to interview people. And I think once you leave that world, world in terms of, you know, day-to-day, 9-to-5 radio, you still covet those moments. So I try to create my, you know, new-founded, you know, entrepreneurial world around that. And I definitely feel like it can be a little bit daunting to feel like, okay, I wanna do this this year and do this and, you know, and all of those things don't necessarily have anything to do with each other. So it's just about finding a way to chisel them down to like, Okay, what are the top five things you're gonna do this year? Okay, I'm gonna add five stations. I'm gonna work with two more brands. You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna go do four travel pieces and curate three events here in Miami, and that's it. And of course, things are gonna come up that I'm gonna say yes to. But if I don't structure myself like that, I'll be all over the place. So that would be the one thing I I would have to say. It's just to really be micro you know focused, which is great for business anyway because it really allows you to to. to play up your position more.

Ryan: Absolutely. It's funny you've brought this up. I have actually written a question 2 down from here about sort of doing too much. Can we be doing too much? And you've really just covered it there. But I was, I was, you know, doing my research on you as I do for all my guests. And I'm like, damn, like you are into everything.

Vanessa James: I try.

Ryan: So, yeah, you do. And you do it and you kind of covered that. So let's go to a little bit of a different angle.

Vanessa James: Sure.

Ryan: And show everybody what your world is like, the percentage of your workday spent on what? You're doing voiceover for this long, what else are you into? What's your workday look like?

Vanessa James: Heck yeah, okay, workday is up, first of all, I'm a night owl, so when I tell people that I'm up around 8, 8:30, they're like, wow, I'm already out of the house, and I'm like, yeah, but I go to bed at 2, you know what I mean? So—

Ryan: Yeah, I'm like you actually, I'm that way.

Vanessa James: Yeah, I'm a huge night owl, I tend to get all my stuff done You know, at night when everybody else is getting ready to you know turn down, I'm turning up for sure on the computer though. But so pretty much the day looks like I try to get the the VO knocked out before noon if I can. It does not always happen that way because clients you know roll stuff in when they roll it in. But I try to do that, and then after that I tackle VJ Media stuff. So you know I'll answer I'll answer all the emails as they come in in terms. of brand synergies, that type stuff. But for instance, I break my days really into the week, right? So Mondays and Tuesdays are typically not as heavy for VO, so that's when I'll tackle independent projects. Whereas Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, when everybody's gearing up for their weekend stuff, Boston's Hot 96.9's getting ready to show off about the Patriots, so I know I'm gonna have a bunch of Patriots VO coming in and lines from Doug.

Ryan: Mm-hmm.

Vanessa James: Stuff like that. So, but typically it's workout, voiceover, take a break, work on VJ Media stuff, grab lunch, come back, there'll be more VO in my box, tackle that, take a break around 4 o'clock, grab a snack, I'm drinking tea and staying hydrated all day.

Ryan: Yeah.

Vanessa James: And then around 5 o'clock I'm winding down for the day and then I'm doing, if I'm doing a community event or if I'm going to an afternoon event with a client or a brand or if I'm doing an influencer event here in Miami, So I try to structure it that way. And it's good because Miami's traffic is so bad that I try to avoid that during the day. And I try, don't get me wrong, if Google or NatPee or some awesome brand has something cool going on around 3 o'clock, I'll dash out and go to that. But for the most part, I'm saying no to stuff during the day if it's not really going to benefit VJ Media and if it's just going to hobnob. I try to say no to it so I can really stay laser-focused and try to just attend night events.

Ryan: Yeah.

Vanessa James: if that makes any sense.

Ryan: Absolutely. And just so I'm— sometimes I'm an idiot, I'll admit, but you're 100% on your own. You are VJ Media, you're working from a home studio, you are your company.

Vanessa James: I am my company, yeah. So that's why it's important to keep the voice and these vocal cords hydrated. And I'm trying to do this in my PJs till at least 70. So we'll see how that works out.

Ryan: When you broke away from whenever your last sort of day job, if you will, ended, what was the mindset of that? Were you like, okay, I'm making this many dollars so I can do it, or I need to jump for this reason? How did that work for you?

Vanessa James: Okay, if I'm being very honest, it was a little tumultuous because as I expressed earlier, radio can be your world, but I've spoken to so many radio personalities who say that when they leave radio full-time, it's very jarring for them and they kind of fall into a little bit of a rut. So I didn't wanna be that girl. I talked to my mentors. I have, you know, gracious enough to have, excuse me, thankful enough to have people like Doc Winter and Juliet Jones from Atlantic Records and of course Doug Turkell in my life where I can just call and go, okay, here's what's going on, like what's your honest, like not, you know, BJ, the radio personality, just your honest opinion. And they would all tell me like, listen, you're really good at what you do. Go to Paris, take a damn vacation, get out of here for 2 weeks and come back and be refreshed. And that's what I did. When I transitioned into, it was May of 2010, so it'd be 8 years this year. Wow, it's crazy.

Ryan: Wow.

Vanessa James: Yeah, 8 years this year. It was a little bit strange because radio is very much a family and at that time I was program director and midday host at The Beat, and they were flipping stations. And so it was, you know, I had an offer on the table to move to another market and all of that, but I just didn't want to do that on anybody else's terms anymore. I had gotten and picked up some steam with voiceover. And at that time, just doing freelance work on the side and still being on the air, I had 5 stations. So I go, you know, I'm sticking it out in Miami. I had made so many amazing relationships All of my family's from here, and I just didn't feel like I was ready to pick up and move and start from scratch because because of a job. So I started my own thing, and that's how VJ Media was born. It was really born out of necessity. She was really born out of necessity, you know. So I never really looked back. I kept and maintained awesome relationships in the industry, and and just you know kind of sat out for six months, thought about what I wanted to do. And thankfully, I had people calling me like, "Hey, so what are you gonna do?" And in the meantime, I you know. I'd done some small things at like Bloomingdale's and Macy's here in the market and worked with Carnival Cruise Lines, and they all called and said, hey, we want you to host this, or, you know, what are you doing? Okay, well, we, you know, we have this new ship premiering, we want you to, you know, host the launch of it.

Ryan: That's great.

Vanessa James: So that's why I again kind of fell into that based on relationships, right, that we talked about earlier, and just really being really impeccable with my relationships, following through, you know, writing handwritten notes, sending flowers, I was like, I'm known for that and I'm very proud of that.

Ryan: That's awesome.

Vanessa James: Thank you.

Ryan: Let's see here. Let me get into the coaching and the agent type stuff real quick. First of all, agent. Just tell me about your agent situation.

Vanessa James: Okay, so again, total transparency here. I started my company in 2010 and I had 5 stations at that time under my belt and I got up up to 7. And Haas, the famous John Haasenlopp, the agent—

Ryan: Yep.

Vanessa James: Out of New York called me and we kinda talked and flirted with each other a little bit about, well, you know, let's see if things are gonna work out. And then a lot of stations were flipping and doing this brand new hybrid hip-hop, which was more progressive hip-hop. So a lot of '90s and current, but also wanted a little bit more of a female edge, right? 'Cause it really was targeting women pretty much 24/7.

Ryan: Mm-hmm.

Vanessa James: So right in my demo and they wanted that sound and I totally could relate. So I did some demos for him, sent them off and he was like, listen, I need to sign you. And so we made the deal and I started with Atlas. But again, we kind of courted each other for about 6 months. It wasn't like an immediate let's fall in love. At that time I was so excited about being with an agency, but I knew of the greats and so I let them know about me, but I kind of was trying to figure out who I wanted to land with. And Atlas, you know, and Haas and I just had a great relationship. We had a great bond and it really worked. I felt like behind closed doors he really fought for me and, you know, fought to get me on stations and we just kinda blossomed from there. He's no longer at Atlas. I stayed with Atlas and now I work with Lisa Barbara Rich. She's my agent.

Ryan: Yep.

Vanessa James: And Wasser, my other agent, and I've, you know, grown now way past radio with them and so now it's, auditioning for everything from the Discovery Channel to The Bold and the Beautiful to HBO's Insecure and really, you know, have had a chance to work with them, you know, on narration, on really cool projects that I'm passionate about above and beyond radio. So that's the one thing that I made really clear, what, you know, in staying with Atlas, like, look, radio is what I do. It's my foundation. It's what I know. Imaging, obviously, and voiceover, you know, in terms of imaging, but I wanna grow, and I made that very clear. So we worked together on that, and they kind of saw that I'm a little bit of a different animal because again, I had those radio stripes. I was able to call program directors that I worked with before and said, I wanna image your station, what's up? So they'd be like, wait a minute, we're the agent here. Wait a minute. But yeah, it kinda works out that way because you can't really get pushed around when people know that you know about your industry.

Ryan: Absolutely. And that brings me to the kind of the second part. I have people reach out to me semi-regularly asking about agents. How do you get an agent? What do I need to— So do you feel like you brought enough to the table? And the other side of it is, well, it's kind of 2 questions. I'll stick with the first question. When someone's out there looking to acquire representation, Sure. You brought things to the table, but any advice you have for those people instead of them just emailing me and me trying to give my answer?

Vanessa James: Sure, definitely.

Ryan: You help them.

Vanessa James: Try to, first of all, make sure that you have your online and digital presentation ready to go. I mean, I actually did a podcast, I'm gonna refresh it and do it again and re-release it to the world called The Art of Staying Ready. I think specifically people in our industry, when there's so much competition, you really have to believe in your brand and your voice and what you do. And I would say while you're still working your way up and trying to figure it all out, and okay, you want an agent, but you can't want an agent and not have a demo, not have a fresh bio, not have a headshot, not have a website. Like, 4 things that you have to have so that when an agent goes to your online platform, they see that you're legit. Now, who have you worked with in the past? It could be your local car dealer guy, but maybe you did great, great, great, you know, excuse me, content and commercials with them. Maybe it's just a handful of people that you work with. It's not necessarily that, you know, you have 30 stations and 6 companies that you work with under your belt. It could be 2. Make sure that that's front and center. I think a lot of us, especially in this new world, especially for millennials who I speak to a lot because they always want to know, how do I get into voiceover? I think I have a great But they want instantly a $100,000 contract with CBS, like in 6 months. It doesn't work like that. Like, you've got to— it's the art of staying ready. It's making sure everything is polished and ready to go so that when people call, you have it all and they don't have to wait a week for it, 'cause that's the hugest turnoff ever.

Ryan: Right.

Vanessa James: But then also, it's not being afraid to take small jobs to build up your portfolio to get to the bigger jobs. And before you have an agent, you should be sending in your local market all of those studio houses that do commercial work, you should be sending them your stuff, introducing yourself to them, stopping by, dropping off your demo in person and saying, hey, I am here, I'm in the market, I do voiceover work, I'm available, and I'm, I'm available for auditions. I've got my home studio, all of that, so that people know that you are there. A lot of it is accessibility and availability as well. You'd be surprised how many people don't get opportunities because they're not ready and they're not accessible.

Ryan: Yeah, man.

Vanessa James: Yeah?

Ryan: That's awesome, man.

Vanessa James: I know it's the simplest thing, but you'd be so surprised how many people you talk to right now that say, hey Ryan, I wanna get into voiceover, and you ask them, okay, do you have those 4 assets? And they go, well, I mean, I can by March. You know what I mean? It doesn't work like that. An agent is so busy, that agent is tackling, has maybe a portfolio of let's say 50 minimum other talent that they're managing at the same time. How are you gonna stand out, right? So this is your digital resume. You have to make sure that you stand out.

Ryan: Let me ask you this at risk of just sounding like a complete idiot, but the women I talk to in the industry, I get the impression that women are hustling more and better than men are.

Vanessa James: Definitely.

Ryan: Is that true? Is that stupid? Is that real?

Vanessa James: I don't think that's stupid at all, and I think that you're 100% on the mark. I think that's just in our nature, right? I think from what I've seen, as people—

Ryan: Let me follow it up real quick. Yeah, go ahead. but do you feel that women have to hustle more than men to be successful?

Vanessa James: Totally. Totally. I mean, here's the thing. It's a twofold question, so here's a twofold answer. One, absolutely we're hustling more because I feel like the opportunities, it just is what it is, are less for us. I mean, yes, we've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. Voiceover, radio, all that. Show me where all the female PDs are. There's a handful. You can probably count 'em on 2 hands. That's it. Versus the male PDs. The male EVPs, the male SVPs and presidents—they're there. Where are all the female ones? It's hard. I mean, I can name three. You know what I'm saying? So, so I say that to say, so we already have that challenge in terms of in terms of the balancing act there. So now a female VO artist, think about this: your talent is your gift, right? But how again, how do you push through and shine at you know and and make sure that people know that you're there? There out of everybody else in the marketplace. It's leading with your talent, but it's really hustling your way to the top as well. You're not gonna get there without help. Now, it's not to say that you're not gonna get there without help from your male counterparts. I mean, as much as a feminist I would say that I am, I do believe that people have to work together. But at the end of the day, I also do see that yes, women are out hustling men because not necessarily that they've gotten lazy, that's not it. But it's more of we realize that we don't really have a choice. We have to roll our sleeves up and get it done 'cause no one's gonna get it done for us, you know? And we are also operating with smaller budgets, smaller opportunities at times. And so it's just making sure that you're level-headed about what's in front of you and figuring out, okay, how am I gonna maneuver myself to get from the 10 to the end zone? I'm 90 yards away, But I don't know, I think that we just have a little bit more maneuverability and hustle in us to get things done.

Ryan: Yeah, it's great. Hey, we're getting close to our end time here. So I definitely wanna get a good opportunity to talk about VJ Media, Vanessa James Media. Okay, so I mean, you're an influencer, you're working with brands, you're helping to build brands, you're up in front of the camera, up in front of crowds. Tell me, I guess just say what you wanna say about that, how you built it, how you made the transition from radio to that, and how it relates to your voiceover career. And you've talked about it a bit, but I wanna give you an opportunity to talk about that.

Vanessa James: Sure, okay, so Vanessa James Media was born out of necessity, you know, 2010 in May, radio station was flipping, I didn't wanna move, so I started my own thing, Vanessa James Media, as a way to pay myself for the voiceover work that I was doing. When I did that, I quickly understood that I had a lot of movement already in the city of Miami, and I didn't want to let that go. I wanted to grow on that. So I rolled my sleeves up and I went out there and I hustled. I met with brand directors, I met with CEOs of companies about voicing their projects, but also about helping them to produce, you know, their shows and different things they had going on. I also, while I was on radio with iHeart, did a lot of on-camera work and a lot of things with NBC and different local affiliates in the market. And I used all of that, you know, to really launch VJ Media. Now, 7 years later, it is a 360 full-service multimedia company that proudly houses all of my voice work on air as well as on-camera talents, as well as production too. I've really gotten into that lately. And just in the last few years as blogging and influencership has grown exponentially, I really, you know, VJ Media has really propelled into that. Unbeknownst to me, because brands wanted to work with me in that capacity in terms of helping to create content for them. So I really grew my social media stripes in terms of you know reconnecting with people and engaging on social and working with brands to help cultivate their message. So everybody from JetBlue to Coca-Cola to working with Nissan, Infiniti, Cadillac—it's really been in that capacity in terms of. working with them with influencer and content creation work. So it's been an awesome ride and journey. Let's see where everything goes in 2018, but I'm feeling good about it.

Ryan: Yeah, let me ask you one more question, just a quick follow-up on that, especially for people that are out there that are thinking, look, radio's radio, I may or may not stay here, but I love what Vanessa is doing. Any kind of professional lessons you had to learn the hard way along the way? Maybe it was a mistake, maybe it was a whoops, it doesn't work that way. give people a little bit of a step up if they're trying to get into that world too?

Vanessa James: Honestly, I would just say, listen, the punches are gonna come. You just gotta learn how to bob and weave them, 'cause that's life, especially if you're in entertainment or wanting to be in entertainment. So is a million other people, right? So it's just really about making sure you stay ready for opportunity and also not being afraid to roll your sleeves up and hustle, even for the smallest job. And when you get that job, Don't be afraid to celebrate that win. Last year, for instance, I was in Chicago for the auto show with Nissan, just showcasing all their new fleet of cars and all that. And I got a call from my agency about ESPN wanting me to do some auditions for their 30 for 30 series. I'm like, heck yeah. I love, I absolutely love the 30 for 30 series because of the storytelling aspect of it. And they sent me the scripts. I found a studio in Chicago. Shout out to V and the entire gang over there, V103, and Derek Brown. And he was like, yeah, come through, 1 o'clock. I had a 4 o'clock flight. I'm like, nope, I'm going. 1 o'clock, I pulled the scripts up, I rehearsed them on the train. I got over there to that studio. I felt like I was super rushed and like kind of panicky trying to get it done. and wanting it to be perfect. And I just took a breath, got outta my own head and delivered the read, sent them back before I landed. I got the job. So I was, I, I voiced, the 30 for 30, for Serena Williams.

Ryan: Wow.

Vanessa James: And for, yeah, for Serena Williams, for LeBron James, and also for the female swimmer Simone that, her last name escapes me right now. But, so again, it, it, you know, it's, it's just to say opportunities are gonna come. You have to be, you have to be open for them. Yeah. And you have to be malleable. I think I think my biggest lesson would really be about, you know, to people that are upcoming in the industry, regardless of whatever facet of entertainment it is, it's really about being malleable and figuring out if you really want it, how many ways can you bend to get there and not stop? You know, it's all about, you know, those setbacks can be the biggest comebacks. So I love football. You know, I'll use that— I love that. Yeah, I'll use football as an analogy. Sometimes if there's like, there's no way I'm gonna make this Hail Mary from the 50 and I have 9 seconds on the clock, you know? And it's the 4th quarter, but I'm gonna get this done. I'm gonna figure out a way to Peyton Manning it and get it done. And that's what I've kinda just done with my career, just figured it out. But making sure I'm always open and ready for opportunity. Yeah. And don't take things so hard. I think that's the biggest thing too, if I could leave you with this. We are very emotional creatures, right? And especially women. And we take things sometimes, you know, not with a grain of salt. And things can weigh really heavy on us 'cause we're emotional creatures. But when you're in entertainment, you really gotta learn to brush your shoulders off on some things and keep it moving and just keep it pushing. I say that all the time because if you stay in that space where you're like, man, I really wanted this Pixar job and it came up and I was so excited about it and I didn't get it, you don't wanna close yourself off to other stuff because let's say it ruins your mood for the next 6 reads that you do. They're like, ugh, God no, she sounds like she's Dead, dead on the mic. Like she doesn't even want, you know, want to be here. So it's just about, and especially with voiceover, you got to deliver however you think that that should sound based on the copy that you get. And then you got to let it go. You really do. You let it go. You let it go into the universe and you don't take it. Don't get disappointed if you don't get it. Because there's, there's times when there's unexpected things like the ESPN that you'll get and you're like, wait a minute, I don't even feel like I did the best read that I could have done on that. So, you know, it's all, it's all a crazy circus, but it's just really learning how to play the game in the circus of entertainment. Seriously.

Ryan: Yeah, I love it. I love it. The great way to wrap it up. I mean, we hit my last question so hard there. That was awesome. So I just got to make sure everybody knows, I said all of your links at the beginning, they're all posted on my website, but vanessajamesmedia.com.

Vanessa James: That's right.

Ryan: You have so much there for people to check out and I think not only are you influencing in your career, but you are definitely a really good influence for young talent to have.

Vanessa James: Thank you so much, Ryan, I appreciate that. Holla whenever you wanna chat again, I'm so excited, and thank you for everyone that's listening. I wish you guys a great year, and just keep hustling, keep working at it, keep refining whatever it is that you're doing, and keep refreshing your demos, refreshing your website. And also, if you want certain opportunities, go get them. Don't be afraid to send people emails and say, hey, I really am excited about this opportunity. What's going on? Is, is it still available? That's the one thing, you know, I, I, I would say definitely separates me as well. I'm not afraid to ask, you know, for those big asks either. I just go for it. I'm like, what? I have nothing to lose. I'm just gonna ask.

Ryan: I love it. I love it. Vanessa, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Vanessa James: Thank you. All right, we'll talk soon.

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