Latest / How To Talk To Humans / The Voice Behind the Mic: Mark Thompson's Secrets to Powerful Communication/an Interview

Transcript

The Voice Behind the Mic: Mark Thompson's Secrets to Powerful Communication/an Interview · How To Talk To Humans

• 0:00
  Larry Wilson: Hi, this is Larry Wilson and this is How to Talk to Humans.
• 0:04
  Larry Wilson: This is the podcast that shows you how to improve your communication skills.
• 0:10
  Larry Wilson: Are you looking to get a better job?
• 0:12
  Larry Wilson: Are you looking to find a relationship?
• 0:15
  Larry Wilson: Are you trying to do things in your life that have frustrated you and eluded you so far?
• 0:21
  Larry Wilson: I can show you so easily how to change that.
• 0:25
  Larry Wilson: Now, I can only do it with humans.
• 0:27
  Larry Wilson: If you're looking to deal with vampires or zombies extraterrestrials, this is not the show for you.
• 0:33
  Larry Wilson: But if you're really looking to improve your communication skills, I can show you what I've learned for 40 years in the show business working with the biggest celebrities and superstars in the world.
• 0:47
  Larry Wilson: And their secrets are unbelievable.
• 0:51
  Larry Wilson: What I'm going to be teaching you during the course of this podcast every week are tools that you can use to communicate toward success.
• 1:04
  Larry Wilson: Hello and thank you again for joining me for another episode of How to Talk to Humans.
• 1:11
  Larry Wilson: This is a particularly exciting episode today because I have with me a very special guest, uh, a man.
• 1:22
  Larry Wilson: So funny, you know him, you just may not know that you know him.
• 1:28
  Larry Wilson: Um the gentleman I have is a man of many talents, does a lot of different things, but what I always think of him is he possesses the greatest pipes in show business.
• 1:42
  Larry Wilson: When you hear him speak, you're a part of your brain's gonna go, wait, I I know that voice.
• 1:50
  Larry Wilson: Well, of course you do.
• 1:51
  Larry Wilson: You know it from every major network television show that he's either been on uh or or done voice over for.
• 1:59
  Larry Wilson: His voiceover on radio, on television, in film.
• 2:04
  Larry Wilson: The other night we were watching uh was it Air Force One, and suddenly my wife said, That's Mark Thompson.
• 2:13
  Larry Wilson: I said, Yeah, that's Mark Thompson, of course, you you know.
• 2:16
  Larry Wilson: So uh I sort of uh gave away the lead here.
• 2:20
  Larry Wilson: My guest is the inestimable voice actor, screen actor, radio host, and superb communicator, Mark Thompson.
• 2:33
  Larry Wilson: Welcome.
• 2:34
  Mark Thompson: Wow, what an intro.
• 2:35
  Mark Thompson: Thank you so much, Larry.
• 2:37
  Mark Thompson: I uh am honored to be here, and I'm uh delighted to offer anything that I can to an audience that I think probably already gets a whole lot from you.
• 2:47
  Mark Thompson: So I'll have to look for my spot to uh to add value, but I'll do my best.
• 2:52
  Larry Wilson: Well, you you already are doing it now, and I'm going to keep this as succinct as possible.
• 2:57
  Larry Wilson: I know you have a crushing schedule.
• 2:59
  Larry Wilson: I really appreciate you being able to jump on here with us for this.
• 3:03
  Larry Wilson: We cover a lot of different stuff in Wilson method training, and we cover a lot of different stuff, particularly in this podcast.
• 3:12
  Larry Wilson: And I don't want you to feel um like you have to do some kind of unified field theory about communication.
• 3:23
  Larry Wilson: What besides the fact that you're uh you have so many fine qualities, not the least of which you make me laugh regularly and unexpectedly.
• 3:34
  Larry Wilson: But the thing that I think is so important for people who are interested in communication is the incredible quality of your voice.
• 3:45
  Larry Wilson: Now, uh everything I say I have to qualify.
• 3:50
  Larry Wilson: You're extremely bright, extremely well educated, you're a very witty guy and a sparkling conversationalist.
• 3:59
  Larry Wilson: So I don't mean to make you ask.
• 4:00
  Mark Thompson: Oh, I'm sorry we didn't do these podcasts more frequently.
• 4:02
  Mark Thompson: I mean, so far it's just been like a a mountain of flattery.
• 4:06
  Mark Thompson: I love it.
• 4:07
  Larry Wilson: No, it's just all fact.
• 4:08
  Mark Thompson: It's all fact you're charming.
• 4:10
  Mark Thompson: Uh your voice is remarkable, your abilities of communicator unprecedented.
• 4:15
  Larry Wilson: Well, uh well, I'm saying those things because I don't want people to think I'm just saying you're really pretty, you know.
• 4:23
  Mark Thompson: In other words, you mean I'm not really pretty?
• 4:25
  Larry Wilson: You are really pretty.
• 4:26
  Larry Wilson: But my point is your voice is so incredible, and I don't want people who listen to this to think, oh yeah, well, he was just born with that, you know.
• 4:36
  Larry Wilson: I mean, that's all it is.
• 4:37
  Larry Wilson: He's just lucky, you know.
• 4:39
  Larry Wilson: I can because my experience, and please correct me if you feel differently or if you think I'm completely wrong, but my life experience has been that people like you, people who have the sound that you have, who are able to speak uh as voiceover, as on radio, all these things, this is like anything else.
• 5:03
  Larry Wilson: It's like being an athlete.
• 5:04
  Larry Wilson: Am I right?
• 5:06
  Mark Thompson: If you mean that you uh practice it or you work on it, or that you uh look for ways that it can work for you, like any ability, then yeah, you're right.
• 5:19
  Mark Thompson: I mean, I I think it's true.
• 5:21
  Mark Thompson: You end up with whatever genetics has given you in terms of uh various tools that you use.
• 5:29
  Mark Thompson: You might you know, it might be uh the way you look at someone or into the camera, or I mean it really may be your look, you know.
• 5:36
  Mark Thompson: A lot of people have that.
• 5:37
  Mark Thompson: Or it can be the way you sound.
• 5:39
  Mark Thompson: I think it's important the way you sound, so I don't mean to gloss over it like it's just one more thing.
• 5:44
  Mark Thompson: You know, you can run fast, you can be tall, you can have a the way that your voice is.
• 5:49
  Mark Thompson: They're not all equal.
• 5:50
  Mark Thompson: And certainly when it comes to communicating with someone, voice is critical.
• 5:55
  Mark Thompson: It doesn't mean you need a good voice, you know, it doesn't mean you need this big kind of I have an announcer-y voice, and it can get in my way.
• 6:03
  Mark Thompson: I mean, people, you know, always say, gosh, you sound like a guy on the radio or something like that.
• 6:07
  Mark Thompson: You'll get that a lot.
• 6:08
  Mark Thompson: And it's not, and and I don't know to what extent like that's something, because I was a broadcaster from a very early age.
• 6:16
  Mark Thompson: I don't know to what extent that's something that I didn't sort of just with reps, you know, at the microphone develop.
• 6:22
  Mark Thompson: The way in which you do commercials and promos and trailers and all that, that is stuff that you have to learn and practice and get better at and really work on.
• 6:30
  Mark Thompson: But the way you communicate with your voice, whatever your voice is, is something that all of us can work on.
• 6:37
  Mark Thompson: And uh I've seen some of the stuff that you do, and it's really good.
• 6:41
  Mark Thompson: I mean, you you really emphasize the ways in which whatever abilities you have with your voice, you you bring forward in certain ways that you may emphasize an idea or that you may pause.
• 6:54
  Mark Thompson: You're really good at this.
• 6:55
  Mark Thompson: Larry is very good at the pause, and the pause is so important because it uh it brings the audience in.
• 7:05
  Mark Thompson: When you pause, it brings the audience in, and then you continue.
• 7:10
  Mark Thompson: It's a um it's a small thing, and you also don't want to over over-exaggerate it, but by the same token, it's a wonderful tool.
• 7:18
  Mark Thompson: And it doesn't matter then how you sound, particularly, as long as the way you're telling the story or making the point uh is is done effectively.
• 7:27
  Larry Wilson: Well, hold on, hold on.
• 7:28
  Larry Wilson: I have to stop you because what you said is so mission critical.
• 7:32
  Larry Wilson: Uh, as usual, and I expected this and I'm delighted by it.
• 7:36
  Larry Wilson: Mark just sort of threw this out in passing, but when he says about the pause, the pause is to engage the audience.
• 7:49
  Larry Wilson: And you know, the thing I keep hammering here again and again, always with Wilson Method, is that we want to connect with them even before we've said a word.
• 8:02
  Larry Wilson: And that, of course, we're talking about eye contact and facial affect.
• 8:06
  Larry Wilson: But when we do start to speak, Mark just hit on something that's so valuable that even when you're not speaking, it is part of the semiotic signaling that you're engaging in with your audience.
• 8:24
  Larry Wilson: And it's the opposite.
• 8:25
  Larry Wilson: Now, I I didn't want to interrupt him there because I I attempted just let him go on and on and on, because everything he's saying is golden.
• 8:35
  Larry Wilson: You know, he he's telling you first and foremost that you can develop whatever you have.
• 8:44
  Larry Wilson: And of course he's right, you know, I'm too tall to be a jockey, but I'm much too short to be an NBA player.
• 8:54
  Larry Wilson: But so what?
• 8:55
  Larry Wilson: I mean, it just means I won't do those things.
• 8:58
  Larry Wilson: But I could still play basketball for fun, I could still ride a horse for fun if I wanted.
• 9:03
  Larry Wilson: But what Mark is saying is regardless of what your voice is now, you can build it, you can practice things, you can get better at them, and things like understanding when to pause to engage them.
• 9:21
  Larry Wilson: This is this is mono from heaven.
• 9:25
  Larry Wilson: This is from a guy who's the top of his game here.
• 9:28
  Larry Wilson: And I'm tempted just to let you run loose.
• 9:31
  Larry Wilson: Let me ask you a couple leading questions, though.
• 9:33
  Larry Wilson: How old were you when you started broadcasting?
• 9:36
  Mark Thompson: Oh, I started young.
• 9:37
  Mark Thompson: I think I was well, when started is sort of one of those words.
• 9:42
  Mark Thompson: I was really into uh recording stuff all the time and that, but I didn't really have a brush with any professional situation until I was an intern at 16, I think I was.
• 9:55
  Mark Thompson: I was interning at a couple of um uh television stations in Washington, D.C.
• 10:00
  Mark Thompson: I remember I have I remember have a memory of, I mean, I was doing I was getting coffee and just being around a talk show.
• 10:08
  Mark Thompson: And at the time, I don't know why I'm telling you this story, but just because I've started it, I'll just finish it.
• 10:12
  Mark Thompson: Please do, please.
• 10:12
  Mark Thompson: Um there was a guy who was a guest named Bob Guccione.
• 10:16
  Mark Thompson: He used to be the editor of Penthouse Magazine, which is a skin mag, okay?
• 10:20
  Mark Thompson: It's like a Playboy magazine, but like a little uh more skin and uh like a little edgier, you know.
• 10:26
  Mark Thompson: But he and he was like this cartoon character almost.
• 10:29
  Mark Thompson: He had the big 70s thing with the wide lapels and his chest hair out, and he had a big um medallion.
• 10:36
  Mark Thompson: And he talked like that.
• 10:38
  Mark Thompson: He was the guest on the set, so I'm there on and I've just started.
• 10:43
  Mark Thompson: Okay, it might have been my second day, if not my first day.
• 10:47
  Mark Thompson: And I'm on the set of this talk show, and it's all dark except for the talk show set.
• 10:53
  Mark Thompson: The host asks him, you know, uh, Bob, do you want uh anything?
• 10:56
  Mark Thompson: Can we get you a cup of coffee?
• 10:57
  Mark Thompson: I love a cup of coffee.
• 10:59
  Mark Thompson: And so, Mark, could you get Mr.
• 11:02
  Mark Thompson: Guccione a cup of coffee?
• 11:04
  Mark Thompson: And how do you how do you want it?
• 11:06
  Mark Thompson: And he said, cream and sugar.
• 11:08
  Mark Thompson: Now, I had never made a cup of coffee or gotten a cup of coffee for anyone.
• 11:13
  Mark Thompson: I didn't, but I knew what cream and sugar was.
• 11:15
  Mark Thompson: I mean, I you know, I wasn't a business, but I just didn't know like how much sugar, how much I didn't know.
• 11:19
  Larry Wilson: Right.
• 11:20
  Mark Thompson: So this is the level at which I was exposed.
• 11:22
  Mark Thompson: This is the start.
• 11:23
  Mark Thompson: So I'll just again finish the story by saying, so I go over to the craft service table and I get this, you know, mug and I put the coffee in, and then I put the cream in, and then I put a lot of sugar in.
• 11:34
  Mark Thompson: But I mean, uh, you know, more than in retrospect would have been a reasonable amount.
• 11:39
  Mark Thompson: And I walk out of the shadows and into the light, and now it's just me, Guccione, and the host there.
• 11:46
  Mark Thompson: And I said, Sir, here this here you go.
• 11:48
  Mark Thompson: This is the coffee.
• 11:49
  Mark Thompson: Thank you very much.
• 11:51
  Mark Thompson: And then he takes a sip of the coffee, and then he says, and I'm I I can't my heart is beating through my chest.
• 11:59
  Mark Thompson: Imagine a 16-year-old, I'm going, he's gonna say this is the worst thing I've ever tasted.
• 12:04
  Mark Thompson: This is gonna be right.
• 12:04
  Mark Thompson: He says, This is the best cup of coffee I've ever had.
• 12:11
  Mark Thompson: That was the start.
• 12:14
  Mark Thompson: That was my start in broadcasting.
• 12:16
  Mark Thompson: From internships and getting coffee for Guccioni, I went on, I was an 18-year-old DJ in Washington, and I was so obsessed with broadcasting, sports broadcasting, uh, you know, top 40 radio broadcasting that I was really pretty good right out of the shot.
• 12:33
  Mark Thompson: It was sort of like, wow, you know.
• 12:35
  Mark Thompson: Uh, I know this from other people who were who later told me when you first started, it was like a real DJ was coming on the air.
• 12:42
  Mark Thompson: It was just amazing.
• 12:43
  Mark Thompson: We're expecting somebody much more uh elementary in their skills.
• 12:46
  Mark Thompson: So, but that was just because I'd immersed myself in it.
• 12:49
  Mark Thompson: So this really gets to what we're talking about.
• 12:51
  Mark Thompson: You can work on this stuff before you get your close-up shot.
• 12:55
  Mark Thompson: You know what I mean?
• 12:56
  Mark Thompson: And so at the time you get your close-up shot, you're prepped, you're ready.
• 12:59
  Mark Thompson: And you've run that speech a million times in your in your the dining room.
• 13:04
  Mark Thompson: You've uh you've run whatever paragraphs are your introductions so many times while you're in the bathroom.
• 13:10
  Mark Thompson: Whatever.
• 13:10
  Mark Thompson: You these are all ways in which you can come with your knives sharpened to whatever situation.
• 13:16
  Mark Thompson: So uh I really started professionally at 18, but it was at 16 and 17 that I was doing the internships and getting coffee for guys running skin mags.
• 13:25
  Mark Thompson: So that's it.
• 13:26
  Larry Wilson: Well, this is this is incredible.
• 13:28
  Larry Wilson: And of course, there's so many things I want to.
• 13:30
  Larry Wilson: First of all, I want to steal that line from you.
• 13:33
  Larry Wilson: You can come with your knives sharpened.
• 13:37
  unknown: Yeah.
• 13:37
  Larry Wilson: I love the imagery, but what are we gonna use those knives for cutting people up or something?
• 13:42
  Larry Wilson: No, you're a you're a chef.
• 13:44
  Larry Wilson: Oh, you're a chef, you need to prepare with sharpening.
• 13:47
  Larry Wilson: You're a great chef, you're a great chef.
• 13:49
  Larry Wilson: No, I love it.
• 13:50
  Larry Wilson: Uh, it doesn't matter what it is.
• 13:52
  Larry Wilson: I didn't know whether you were a ninja and you were gonna slice people up or whatever it is.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: But but a a good chef needs sharp knives, that's what I mean.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 14:02
  Larry Wilson: And there is a there is a a saying, as I understand, uh amongst Chinese chefs, that they might challenge you by saying they want to see if you know how to hold a knife.
• 14:13
  Larry Wilson: Oh.
• 14:14
  Larry Wilson: Which is uh indicative of your expertise.
• 14:17
  Larry Wilson: Are you really a master or are you an apprentice?
• 14:19
  Larry Wilson: But again, I have to keep interrupting for so many reasons.
• 14:24
  Larry Wilson: I want to make sure that no one thinks Mark Thompson uh trained with me in Wilson Method.
• 14:32
  Larry Wilson: He did not, but so many of the things he's saying are exactly the things I espouse.
• 14:39
  Larry Wilson: He just reiterated to you you can rehearse this stuff a million times at home.
• 14:46
  Larry Wilson: Why?
• 14:47
  Larry Wilson: So that when you're called upon to do it, you don't have to think about it.
• 14:53
  Larry Wilson: It's there, you know it, you know the stuff.
• 14:57
  Larry Wilson: I saw a comic today online, I won't mention a guy I like who's very funny, but uh, I just someone from the his audience asked him, you know, how do you speak in front of a group?
• 15:07
  Larry Wilson: And he said essentially the same thing, but he did not tell you what Mark just told you.
• 15:12
  Larry Wilson: This guy said, Oh, well, you know, uh rehearse and then you'll be fine.
• 15:17
  Larry Wilson: And I'm thinking, yeah, that's true, but you're not telling people how to do it.
• 15:21
  Larry Wilson: Mark just told you you can practice this stuff before you're called upon to use it.
• 15:29
  Larry Wilson: And as I've as I've said again and again and again, it is by preparation.
• 15:37
  Larry Wilson: There's you know, it's the it I come back to this thing over and over again.
• 15:43
  Larry Wilson: Everyone, and I mean everyone thinks that great writers sit down and write their brilliant works in the first draft.
• 15:53
  Larry Wilson: And there hasn't ever been a great writer who did that.
• 15:58
  Larry Wilson: They write draft after draft, they keep going back and refining and rewriting in the same way.
• 16:08
  Larry Wilson: Mark just, I mean, he's so self-effacing that you may, it may have gone right by you, you may not have heard it.
• 16:16
  Larry Wilson: But what he said was later on, people said to him, Oh, you showed up and it was like you were a pro right away.
• 16:22
  Larry Wilson: Now, they may have thought, oh, you're a natural.
• 16:26
  Larry Wilson: But what Mark just revealed to you is, no, he'd been working on this for years, so that when the time comes, people think, oh, you're a natural.
• 16:38
  Larry Wilson: And this is so valuable for so many reasons, not the least of which is the idea that anyone can get really good at this kind of communication if you're willing to do some work.
• 16:54
  Larry Wilson: Now, I I also I hate to interrupt Mark, but I want to also emphasize, you know, I keep talking about the importance of storytelling.
• 17:02
  Larry Wilson: And Mr.
• 17:03
  Larry Wilson: Thompson just showed you their classic, perfect.
• 17:08
  Larry Wilson: I mean, he could have just said, uh, you know, uh, I got into radio and uh right away uh I was successful and I was very encouraged, and so I wanted to keep doing it.
• 17:20
  Larry Wilson: That means nothing to us.
• 17:22
  Larry Wilson: No, he tells you about bringing Bob Guccioni a horrible cup of coffee that by chance Guccioni really liked.
• 17:30
  Larry Wilson: And you can tell if you go back and listen to the previous five minutes, you can hear in Mark's voice, you can hear the color, the texture of what he's saying.
• 17:42
  Larry Wilson: You can feel what it was like to be 16 years old and think you've made a mistake and then be highly praised.
• 17:50
  Larry Wilson: Well, of course, that's gonna have an enormous impact on you, as the storytelling has on us.
• 17:58
  Larry Wilson: I don't, I'm sorry, I don't want to.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: That's really great.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Uh, you know, it's funny.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Uh it's um obviously we're speaking extemporaneously, so everything I'm saying, uh even phrases I've used or whatever it is, uh I just I'm saying right out of my mind in we are just exchanging.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: So it's like there's no um, but what we talk about here, I think, particularly with the work that you do, is oftentimes uh comments and uh stories, uh as you suggested, or even uh profiles of things that are important that you really would rehearse.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: You know, it might be a pinpoint, uh uh a PowerPoint, I should say, presentation or or or some kind of presentation involving uh a sales situation or whatever.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: And you would rehearse those.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Now, you know, QA that you get from people afterward, if it was a sales situation, uh, you know, that you should be able to handle just because you kind of know the areas in which they'll likely be asking you questions.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: But well, you damn well better.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, exactly.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: But but the stuff of an opening pitch should be stuff that you're pretty well familiar with and maybe even formally rehearsed, but obviously it has to sound like you're just speaking extemporaneously for the first time.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: So that's why uh the advantage that everybody has now is you can see yourself on video, you can you know hear yourself uh with all the different ways you can record yourself.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: So you really can uh even ask family members who remember, did you know this sounded natural, right?
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I mean rehearsed it 10 times, but just you know it sounds pretty natural, and usually you'll get you know somebody who'll be honest enough to tell you, yeah, sounds okay, you know.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: So uh I think that that's a that's a key distinction, you know, in in the ways in which you speak.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:36
  Larry Wilson: Absolutely.
• 19:37
  Larry Wilson: And we're you know, we're running out of time here because I know your time is very limited.
• 19:42
  Larry Wilson: I want to ask you if you have any uh techniques, if you have any special things that you do, your connection through your voice is uh, as far as I'm concerned, I wasn't kidding when I said you're the best pipes in the business.
• 20:01
  Larry Wilson: The sound of your voice, but you also are able really to connect with an audience.
• 20:07
  Larry Wilson: I don't want to lead the witness.
• 20:08
  Larry Wilson: I'm just curious if you have uh uh things that you use in your imagination or your mind, or tell me what's happening there.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's interesting.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I I can't really honestly say that I do anything from a technique standpoint, or I I'm trying to think in uh, you know, I'd say I think preparation is always important.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: So when I'm speaking to someone who's an author or a um whatever, I mean, if they're there as a guest, uh try to do at least enough of a primer on who they are and what they've done and what area they're working in and what their book's about, whatever it might be, so that you are comfortable.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's the only thing that can really produce anxiety in me is not being prepared or feeling like I'm not prepared.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you feel like you're not prepared, and you are.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you feel as though uh I'm under-rehearsed for this audition.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: But the reality is you're fine.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: You rehearsed just enough, you know.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Um, so these are things that go to your psychology and your sense of insecurity, and you know, all the things that may inform a situation that have nothing to do with what's actually happening in the situation.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: But I I I would say that that's my anxiety.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Like I want to be prepped for whatever situation I find myself in.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: So and and I find as long as I'm prepped and kind of have a sense of little areas in which I can take the conversation, I don't worry about anything else.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: That's at least where I am at this point.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:34
  Larry Wilson: No, I mean it makes perfect sense.
• 21:35
  Larry Wilson: And and do you do do you specifically do any vocal exercise for yourself?
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: No, I don't.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I really don't.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: I I and you know, maybe I should.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, I I I mean I you know, it's always a well, you know, how can you say that?
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: You're doing so well.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, uh, you're doing well, but you know, it's possible you might even be doing better if you did some vocal exercises.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, I avoid situations like I won't do an audition for a commercial or whatever first.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: thing in the morning, you know, I'll make sure that my voice is back where it is, like with a range, because, you know, you wake up in the morning, all of us do, and you kind of sound, you know, you sound like you just woke up.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, you may not even sound bleary-eyed, but you, you know, you usually you're, you know, you may be speaking down a little bit, your your voice register may be lower.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: And if you're reading copy for a commercial and your voice register is lower and you still do all the great things to sell it and then you book the audition, uh, well that's not really where your vocal register is normally.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: So you now you have to um uh change it but I uh so I don't do any um warm-up things I'll I'll tell you one story that's kind of embarrassing.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Uh just I just thought of it now and it's quick.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: I auditioned and it was my first year maybe as a voiceover actor in Los Angeles which is really cool.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: You go to the agency and there are all these stars there.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I mean you're these are on-camera people now you can audition from your home everybody has a computer you know with a way in which you can you can record yourself and send it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Back then you had to go to the agencies.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: So in New York Chicago LA these are big agencies.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: So you went in there and it was like the best cocktail party with no alcohol being served that you could ever be invited to like you have I had Mark Hamill sitting next to me and Roddy McDowell and all of these guys.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: You're waiting to read copyright for him.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: So um and then all of the other actors were actually even more fun because they're not super celebrities yet.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Anyway but I mention it because uh it was in the first year of this world and I book a big commercial it's for Denny's I think or Coco's or one of those uh restaurants.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I book it I record it they say uh they call me this is like a month later and they say they want you to come in to do a pickup so that means just like one line is changing like the Grand Slam breakfast is now just a dollar ninety nine at Denny's yeah because the price had changed for the month of February or whatever.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: I drive to Hollywood I go in and the way they did it back then again the technologies in the 90s they have the commercial on a television set and it's being run from Chicago Chicago's on a satellite Jay Walter Thompson I remember was still the agency and I'm there in Los Angeles with the light shining down on this easel right with the copy and then everybody you hear you know hi Mark it's Greg uh from Jay Walter Thompson and uh you know uh I've got Marjorie here the writer and uh Susan is the producer Susan do you want to tell Mark what you need here and Susan comes on and she says um Mark it's just the one line they've changed the dollar amount on the Grand Slam breakfast and we'll play the spot down for you and then we'll just uh punch you in for the one line on the second run.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I said that sounds great let's do it so they run the commercial and the voice on the commercial is not me.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: They've somewhere along the lines they've replaced me and I'm in a crisis situation and remember it's just my first year in the business like I need this work.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Of course and so in a nanosecond I'm thinking do I tell them that that's not me or do I I don't know what to do.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: So I'm watching the commercial and I'm going this is ridiculous.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: There's no way I can double this guy's voice in like an instant only having heard it once right so Susan comes back down and goes okay Mark so we're gonna play it down and you just go ahead and punch in on the dollar ninety nine for the month of February and I said okay great so they play the spot down and I do my best like instant impression of the guy I've just heard right and they come on and they say um it's weird it just doesn't even it doesn't even sound like you know now again I'm in a crisis of but again I'm a young guy trying to get the so then there's this pause and so there's the they're on the satellite tie line but I can't see them I can only just hear and I kind of hear some you know and they come on and they said the greatest thing I could hear at that moment.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: They said let's just do the whole commercial again and that was like oh that is so cool.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: So we recorded the whole thing again and that was it.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: But on the way home I did call my agent and say and tell him the story and he said well they requested you he said I don't know what to say Mark I mean you did the original spot and they requested you in this session so unbelievable but that was like the moment where I forget what what uh fired off that story but I was um I was just thinking about uh you oh we were talking about recording a commercial and doing an audition with a lower register and I just remembered like and I was going to say it that won't sound like you at the audition uh at the at the moment you actually booked it and that's what made me think of it.
• 26:47
  Larry Wilson: It may really not sound like you if it's a different person.
• 26:50
  Larry Wilson: Listen, I I can't thank you enough.
• 26:54
  Larry Wilson: I know we're out of time.
• 26:56
  Larry Wilson: I've got to let you go.
• 26:57
  Larry Wilson: I know you've got other stuff you have to do here.
• 26:59
  Larry Wilson: I can't thank you enough for being here I'm hoping that my people listening to this understand you're so casual and friendly that it's very easy to think some of the stuff you're saying is oh just off the cuff.
• 27:17
  Larry Wilson: It may be off the cuff but these are nuggets of gold that you're hearing here.
• 27:23
  Larry Wilson: If you didn't understand the importance of storytelling that last story should have done the job and again the the message of the story doesn't have to be complicated it doesn't have to be elaborate or Byzantine but it's also there's such a fantastic self-effacing quality to it that Mark presents in telling you but the climax of the story is obviously there's something about him that made them say yeah let's do the whole commercial again with you they didn't even get they had the wrong guy or something.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Well I hope that look it's been a great visit with you I love visiting with you anyway I have a mad respect for everything you do you have great versatility and you have great magic uh literally in in some of the things you've done but you just have a wondrous uh a wondrous ability to uh I think dissect situations and to kind of uh lead us out of the wilderness on some of this stuff and I uh you you you're a great writer you're a great communicator so anyway it's my pleasure to come through and and uh you know if you need me again at any point uh I I'm happy to stop in again but the one thing I would say is I wish everybody luck I mean I think this is uh really great information that you have Larry and uh I I think it really can make a difference in all kinds of ways not just about uh you know pitching something for sales or in the professional environment but just in interpersonal communication I think a lot of what you say could be applied so really good luck to everybody thank you I I could not have put it better myself you you're of course correct it's it's foundational you know and as we move into this weirder AI realm I think it will become more foundational the ability to talk to humans.
• 29:14
  Larry Wilson: Thank you again Mark Thompson thank you all of you listening and I'll see you next week on another episode of How to Talk to humans.
• 29:24
  Larry Wilson: This has been Larry Wilson I want to thank you for spending this time with me and I hope you found this information useful.
• 29:33
  Larry Wilson: If you're looking for more you can find it at thewilsonmethod.com there's a ton of stuff there.
• 29:40
  Larry Wilson: In fact if you want you can even speak to me because I'm human send me an email at info at wilsonmethod.com because I read every single one I hope that you'll join us next week in this continuing journey and you'll be with me for the next episode of how to talk to you