Latest / Next Act with Jeff Ornstein / Andy Lipshultz – Voice Actor, Andy Says It Voiceovers
Transcript
- 0:02Jeff Ornstein: Hi everyone and welcome to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
- 0:05Jeff Ornstein: I am Jeff, and on this show we celebrate people on the cusp of greatness.
- 0:10Jeff Ornstein: Those building on past successes in some of the curious and inventive and sometimes unexpected ways they have achieved those, and stepping into moments that could define their legacy.
- 0:21Jeff Ornstein: We'll talk about current projects, lessons learned, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead.
- 0:27Jeff Ornstein: So the best is yet to come.
- 0:29Jeff Ornstein: Today's guest is Andy Lipschultz, award-nominated voice actor, former tech executive, and storyteller whose voice has been trusted by brands like Amazon, Google, ATT, and Johnson Johnson.
- 0:42Jeff Ornstein: After a successful corporate career spanning product management, analytics, and digital innovation, Andy reinvented himself as a full-time voice talent and has become one of the industry's most versatile and recognizable voices.
- 0:54Jeff Ornstein: Welcome, Andy.
- 0:56Jeff Ornstein: How are you?
- 0:58Andy Lipshultz: Doing all right, doing all right.
- 0:59Andy Lipshultz: I just put one foot in front of the other and one word in front of the other.
- 1:03Jeff Ornstein: Good.
- 1:03Jeff Ornstein: Well, I familiarize myself with all the research that our production team has done about you beforehand, and you've got a great story, and it so relates to the people who listen to this and the advice that you can share and words of wisdom you can pass on.
- 1:17Jeff Ornstein: Because next act is about people who have firm careers or have had multiple careers, and then at one point in time they say, I'm gonna go for something.
- 1:27Jeff Ornstein: And some people, like yourself, did it super successfully, and other people might not have the courage yet to do it or have questions.
- 1:36Jeff Ornstein: And I think we're gonna get to a lot of those questions today, and people want to know what how you faced it.
- 1:42Jeff Ornstein: So congratulations on an awesome career in the business world, not to mention your MBA from the Stern School, which is no small feat.
- 1:51Jeff Ornstein: That's pretty impressive.
- 1:53Jeff Ornstein: My partner just got his MBA from MIT, and we didn't go on a vacation for two years.
- 1:59Jeff Ornstein: Yeah.
- 2:00Jeff Ornstein: So it's a lot of work to get those MBAs.
- 2:03Jeff Ornstein: So and it obviously it served you well because you had a very successful career.
- 2:07Jeff Ornstein: So you were in the corporate world and you were doing these amazing brand building exercises for these totally blue chip customers.
- 2:17Jeff Ornstein: At what point in time did something, this idea like I could do be doing something a little different creep into your brain?
- 2:25Andy Lipshultz: I like to think that I've had a couple different pivots, not just the one that's the most jarring, but several.
- 2:30Andy Lipshultz: So I started out in the traditional music industry, like selling records and CDs and cassettes, and was at the record labels for four or five years, and at one point realized, wait a second, this internet thing might be a thing.
- 2:45Andy Lipshultz: Yeah, I'm not old.
- 2:46Andy Lipshultz: But I was like, well, how do I think about it?
- 2:49Andy Lipshultz: And there's this business book, I think it's called Built to Last, where they studied, and you might be telling you stuff you already know, but they looked at like people that were perennially like number one or number two in their industry, and they said, Well, why are they always winning?
- 3:03Andy Lipshultz: And versus the ones that are kind of also RANs.
- 3:06Andy Lipshultz: And the thing that that that they found was that they kind of knew who they were and what was important to them and what they were good at and what could change.
- 3:14Andy Lipshultz: So I thought about it long and hard, and ultimately it made a pivot at that point, that first pivot, to essentially doing going to what I call entertainment tech.
- 3:22Andy Lipshultz: At the time it was kiosks and record stores, and then ultimately became music subscription services, digital music subscription services, and then music on cell phones.
- 3:31Andy Lipshultz: We was in New York for 10 years.
- 3:33Andy Lipshultz: We came back to the Maryland, D.C., Virginia area, which is where I am now, and realized that had run its course and people weren't like hip to buying music on cell phones anymore.
- 3:43Andy Lipshultz: And I thought, well, I don't want to move, what should I do?
- 3:47Andy Lipshultz: And that was, and I really did a very similar thing, like, well, what can I do differently?
- 3:52Andy Lipshultz: Where am I?
- 3:52Andy Lipshultz: What do I want to learn?
- 3:53Andy Lipshultz: And I ultimately went to Capital One and to cap to Capital One, which is a very different shift.
- 3:59Andy Lipshultz: Just like thinking about like, well, just because I love music and it's a big part of my soul, doesn't change anything.
- 4:05Andy Lipshultz: I can still be a part of music as it's part of me.
- 4:09Andy Lipshultz: And I had to get used to like being at parties where people say, Oh, what do you do?
- 4:12Andy Lipshultz: And I'd say, Oh, I work at Capital One.
- 4:14Andy Lipshultz: They say, Okay.
- 4:16Andy Lipshultz: Versus like when I like work at a record at a record level, like, oh, that's cool, man.
- 4:20Andy Lipshultz: And it's so in ingrained in your in your identity.
- 4:23Andy Lipshultz: I had to get used to that, but be like, am I satisfied?
- 4:26Andy Lipshultz: Those were earlier pivots.
- 4:28Andy Lipshultz: Then I I went on with Capital One and then ultimately to healthcare at Centeen, which does government-sponsored healthcare.
- 4:35Andy Lipshultz: And in both instances, well, not in those instances, just in general throughout my career, and I think this gets to the heart of your question, I kept finding myself kind of getting promoted to the point of where I was either unhappy or not good, or both at where I got where I was winding up.
- 4:53Andy Lipshultz: And I was like, at Capital One, I'm like, when I hit that point at Capital One, I realized, well, this is a pattern that keeps happening.
- 5:01Andy Lipshultz: What do I need to be doing differently?
- 5:03Andy Lipshultz: And I never felt like I was corporate enough for the corporate club, but corporate enough.
- 5:08Andy Lipshultz: Like I'm being like, hey, I just do weird stuff all the time.
- 5:10Andy Lipshultz: And not quite what they're like, hey, that guy's kind of smart, but not smart enough.
- 5:17Andy Lipshultz: So I thought about it, thought about it, thought about it.
- 5:19Andy Lipshultz: And at that point, I read a book called Designing Your Life.
- 5:23Andy Lipshultz: And it's basically the people that did design thinking and applying the precepts of design thinking to yourself.
- 5:29Andy Lipshultz: And I'm guessing you probably heard that the given what you do, I'm sure you've heard of this book.
- 5:32Andy Lipshultz: But I realized, hey, I'm kind of an idiot and I like to fool around.
- 5:37Andy Lipshultz: And my kids are always like, do the voices, my man.
- 5:40Andy Lipshultz: So I tested and learned my way into voiceover, which started out as this room was a six by eight closet with like blankets everywhere and what have you.
- 5:51Andy Lipshultz: And little by little, I was like, okay, well, I'll take some classes and train.
- 5:55Andy Lipshultz: And then I worked on just essentially getting towards my first commercial demo.
- 6:00Andy Lipshultz: And three, four years in, and I'm doing this on the side while I still have these careers, but I treated it like a full-time, like, okay, I have two careers.
- 6:07Andy Lipshultz: And then ultimately at one point, I'm like, I need to make this a studio.
- 6:11Andy Lipshultz: And my wife's like, yeah, you you really need to invest.
- 6:13Andy Lipshultz: If you're going to do this, you have to do this.
- 6:15Andy Lipshultz: When I was leaving Capital One, one of the things that I realized is if I'm going to actually make a big career shift, I can't try to be the rock star in two places at once.
- 6:27Andy Lipshultz: And I think that's one of the things that a lot of people, when they're trying to make that pivot, they're like, I have to kick ass at the job I'm in while I'm trying to do this other thing.
- 6:36Andy Lipshultz: Andor they just like go full boat and just go to the other thing, which is really scary and all many times maybe a little too quick.
- 6:43Andy Lipshultz: I had the luxury of being in a comfortable financial position, and not everybody has that.
- 6:48Andy Lipshultz: So that's not everyone's in that situation.
- 6:50Andy Lipshultz: And you kind of might have to do it more of a microcosm of what I did, but it still can do it.
- 6:54Andy Lipshultz: You just have to free.
- 6:54Andy Lipshultz: Give yourself the headspace.
- 6:56Andy Lipshultz: So when I left Capital One, I purposely looked for a job that was not, I wasn't trying to ascend.
- 7:03Andy Lipshultz: I essentially I wanted to go, I actually went backwards.
- 7:05Andy Lipshultz: I purposely went backwards.
- 7:06Andy Lipshultz: I looked for jobs.
- 7:07Andy Lipshultz: It's like I don't want to manage anybody, I just let me be employee 30,001 and give me the headspace.
- 7:15Andy Lipshultz: I I will do a good job for you, but I also want to build this other thing.
- 7:19Andy Lipshultz: Right.
- 7:20Andy Lipshultz: Right.
- 7:20Jeff Ornstein: And well, it's interesting because the term authenticity appears a lot in the bio that I was presented with.
- 7:26Jeff Ornstein: And that's clearly something that's important to you, and ties to also you have a real strong commitment to mentoring.
- 7:34Jeff Ornstein: So, and I'm guessing you're telling these young or maybe not so young voiceover students wannabes the value of authenticity.
- 7:43Jeff Ornstein: And explain to us a little bit about that and what that plays into creating a voiceover character or hitting the nail on the head, let's put it that way, for a particular client.
- 7:54Andy Lipshultz: Well, it's funny.
- 7:55Andy Lipshultz: I think almost everybody that starts in VO, when you're working with a coach, at some point they will say to you, you're trying to sound good versus trying to do a performance.
- 8:08Andy Lipshultz: And I remember my first coach was saying to me, we were practicing like a commercial of some sort.
- 8:14Andy Lipshultz: I think it was like a detergent commercial.
- 8:16Andy Lipshultz: He's like, Man, this is acting.
- 8:17Andy Lipshultz: And in my head, I'm like, fuck you, this is acting.
- 8:19Andy Lipshultz: And we're doing a detergent commercial.
- 8:21Andy Lipshultz: And but now I look back, I'm like, he was totally right.
- 8:24Andy Lipshultz: You actually need to really think about the situation you're in, because otherwise, people see that shit.
- 8:30Andy Lipshultz: Like they know people will see, and so especially now with AI, I mean, even more so now, authentic prompts anything else because people can see AI, and AI won't in the middle of a conversation start going, hey dude, let's do a podcast.
- 8:49Andy Lipshultz: Because AI is not gonna do that.
- 8:52Andy Lipshultz: They're not gonna like be a weird, kind of like quirky person or whatever makes you.
- 8:57Andy Lipshultz: Right.
- 8:57Jeff Ornstein: So then I thought I'm dying to ask then.
- 9:00Jeff Ornstein: So you have to get into the mindset with if you're doing a laundry detergent commercial or a commercial for burial plots, I would imagine.
- 9:08Jeff Ornstein: There's a slightly you have to come across with an authenticity that's appropriate for the product.
- 9:14Andy Lipshultz: Exactly.
- 9:15Andy Lipshultz: And you have to pull on various relationships in your life.
- 9:19Andy Lipshultz: So you kind of think about like what is the project trying to connote?
- 9:22Andy Lipshultz: Whether it's an animation or a game or a commercial or an audiobook or political ad, whatever it is, what are they trying to communicate?
- 9:30Andy Lipshultz: Okay, great.
- 9:31Andy Lipshultz: Now, how can I apply the me to that in such a way that it works?
- 9:36Andy Lipshultz: And so I think about the relationships in life.
- 9:38Andy Lipshultz: So let's take your funeral plot thing.
- 9:40Andy Lipshultz: So am I talking to one of my parents along those lines about like telling them, hey, I think it's time to think about this.
- 9:49Andy Lipshultz: Am I talking to my spouse?
- 9:51Andy Lipshultz: Am I talking to one of my kids?
- 9:53Andy Lipshultz: Am I giving a presentation to people?
- 9:55Andy Lipshultz: And in each one of those, you can hear a difference in the way I may be doing that.
- 10:00Andy Lipshultz: And so you envision that and you think about like, what are you actually trying to say to them?
- 10:05Andy Lipshultz: The the words are the words, but what is the meaning of the words?
- 10:08Andy Lipshultz: And oftentimes you might have to, like, depending on how well written it is, you may have to actually give it other words first and like practice, like saying the thing that you would say that aren't those words, but are what the words are trying to say, then saying it again using the words.
- 10:23Andy Lipshultz: Okay.
- 10:24Jeff Ornstein: So you do these voiceovers for a lot of commercial enterprises, but I'm sorry, just refresh my memory.
- 10:30Jeff Ornstein: Are you doing then any for feature films or for a longer term?
- 10:34Jeff Ornstein: Are they all shorter snippets where your character has to be established fairly quickly?
- 10:39Andy Lipshultz: Yeah, at the moment it need to be established very quickly.
- 10:42Andy Lipshultz: Now, subject to change?
- 10:43Andy Lipshultz: Subject to change.
- 10:44Andy Lipshultz: Uh yes, they are generally that now.
- 10:46Andy Lipshultz: There are also some longer form audio things that I do as well, like audio series, audio books, etc., where the characters are over time and they do have a ch a chance to have a bit of an arc, but oftentimes you need to establish them quickly.
- 11:01Andy Lipshultz: Right, right.
- 11:02Jeff Ornstein: Get in there and make your mark quickly.
- 11:04Jeff Ornstein: Your students, what would you say is the biggest misconception creative people have about promoting themselves?
- 11:11Jeff Ornstein: Because that's a question a lot of people that are going to be listening to this are going to say, How do I get from point A to point B?
- 11:18Jeff Ornstein: I know I'm creative.
- 11:19Jeff Ornstein: I know I've got the balls to do this, but what's the best path for me?
- 11:24Andy Lipshultz: Yeah, that's a really good question.
- 11:25Andy Lipshultz: And it's probably the one that I encounter the most.
- 11:28Andy Lipshultz: What you're talking about is the the marketing coaching that I do, the VO marketing coaching that I do.
- 11:33Andy Lipshultz: And a lot of times the creatives, like there are people that are excellent.
- 11:36Andy Lipshultz: I mean, I think I'm pretty damn good at this, but there are people like that are amazing, but they're not as strong on the business side and/or to your point are afraid to promote themselves.
- 11:45Andy Lipshultz: And they oftentimes don't think that what they have to say about themselves is as important or useful to their audience as like if I'm like, hey, I did stuff for I just did an ad for Lamborghini, which is pretty cool.
- 11:58Andy Lipshultz: I just did that.
- 11:59Andy Lipshultz: That just came out yesterday.
- 12:00Andy Lipshultz: But like, so like saying that kind of stuff is like, cool, okay.
- 12:02Andy Lipshultz: That's like shorthand for credibility.
- 12:04Andy Lipshultz: But you know, you watch the rest of what we just talked about.
- 12:07Andy Lipshultz: I'm also kind of a weirdo, like that weird dichotomy of like always talking businessy, businessy, and then he's making weird voices.
- 12:14Andy Lipshultz: Both of those are for me to talk about myself, that that is useful.
- 12:18Andy Lipshultz: So when I talk to the students, I say, like, let's get to the heart of what makes you.
- 12:22Andy Lipshultz: And don't be afraid to talk about that, because people like to work with people, they don't like to work with robots.
- 12:29Andy Lipshultz: And yes, there's a bit of transactionalness that can occur with voiceover.
- 12:34Andy Lipshultz: However, when you're establishing relationships and trying to get people to work with you and stand out, what stands out is the authentic you, not the business card you.
- 12:46Andy Lipshultz: Right.
- 12:47Jeff Ornstein: So that's interesting because like you think about Hollywood actors, film actors, and in terms of the top A list, what are there?
- 12:55Jeff Ornstein: 30, totally recognizable all over the world, this face, whatever they do, the really good ones can play a million different characters convincingly.
- 13:03Jeff Ornstein: And then when I think about voiceovers, immediately Morgan Freeman comes to mind.
- 13:09Jeff Ornstein: And his voice is incredible.
- 13:11Jeff Ornstein: It's also very, what's the word I'm looking for?
- 13:14Jeff Ornstein: Consistent.
- 13:15Jeff Ornstein: When Morgan Freeman is narrating something, you know it's Morgan Freeman.
- 13:20Jeff Ornstein: So in your world, do you encourage your students to become a Morgan Freeman, create and perfect a sound and an image, or are you encouraging them to be like Mel Blank and have like a million voices?
- 13:34Andy Lipshultz: Well, I actually don't do the performance coaching itself.
- 13:38Andy Lipshultz: So I don't necessarily do that.
- 13:40Andy Lipshultz: But in terms of when I'm just talking to peers or someone that's maybe newer in the genre, I kind of talk about like what is comfortable to you.
- 13:49Andy Lipshultz: So there are some people that there's only so far they're gonna get out of their shell, and great, that maybe there's a level of you sound awesome tech when you're talking about tech, do your commercials or medical narration, et cetera.
- 14:03Andy Lipshultz: And then there are people that want either aspire to or have that the ability to get into another head.
- 14:10Andy Lipshultz: You don't necessarily have to be able to do the voices.
- 14:13Andy Lipshultz: I think not everyone has the vocal range, but if everyone has the ability to have empathy, you can connote a lot of things with a voice.
- 14:23Jeff Ornstein: Okay, you touched on this a little bit that when you finally you started doing more and more voiceovers, and you started saying, Hey, you know, I've already made several marks in the business world, climbing to the top, and then finding whatever it sounded like it was maybe a little hollow at a certain point, or the the next step was something that wasn't as interesting to you.
- 14:43Jeff Ornstein: But you did have the luxury of financial stability, and that is one of the things that can kind of keep people from jumping off the cliff.
- 14:52Jeff Ornstein: What happens if I leave my nine to five and I'm chasing work on a day-to-day basis?
- 14:58Jeff Ornstein: What kind of advice would you give to younger voiceover artists about how to manage that if they didn't really have a strong financial security net?
- 15:10Andy Lipshultz: One of the things that I felt like was really helpful for me was I met with a financial planner and I basically said, When can I start making the small bucks?
- 15:19Andy Lipshultz: So, like, you know, essentially, when can I give up the corporate salary and move to something that doesn't pay me as well as that corporate salary?
- 15:28Andy Lipshultz: And we went through an exercise, he did this what they call the Monte Carlo scenario, where he essentially like said, Well, if the market tanks and this goes this way and this goes this way, and your wife does this, well, when do you want to retire, et cetera?
- 15:39Andy Lipshultz: And was able to essentially give me a number, say, okay, if you want to leave corporate world at this age, this is how much you need to make for this long to retire.
- 15:51Andy Lipshultz: Now, people that are younger, it may be different, they may have different goals, et cetera.
- 15:54Andy Lipshultz: Might be like, this is how much you need to make to be comfortable.
- 15:57Andy Lipshultz: But a lot of people guess.
- 15:58Andy Lipshultz: And financial planners, I mean, they want your money, so it's not necessarily like this didn't cost me anything.
- 16:03Andy Lipshultz: It cost me time.
- 16:05Andy Lipshultz: I had to go and assess my stuff.
- 16:06Andy Lipshultz: And there might be things online to do that as well.
- 16:08Andy Lipshultz: But getting your financial picture to understand what that is, because oftentimes it may not be, I was surprised.
- 16:15Andy Lipshultz: I was because they like the number they gave me, like, oh, well, I'm making that now.
- 16:20Andy Lipshultz: Now, I wanted to be more diversified than I was, so I basically did not want to leave when he told me that, but it was like a oh, it was a more of a comfort.
- 16:28Andy Lipshultz: Okay, this is what I need to know, what I need to know how to shoot for.
- 16:32Andy Lipshultz: So that's one thing that I would recommend to doing.
- 16:35Andy Lipshultz: And the other is start small.
- 16:36Andy Lipshultz: You don't have to do this.
- 16:38Andy Lipshultz: There's a lot of people that are incredible voice actors that never leave their other jobs.
- 16:44Andy Lipshultz: So, and I know we're not everybody's listening is gonna be like, oh, well, voiceover is what I want to do.
- 16:47Andy Lipshultz: I want to do this other thing.
- 16:49Andy Lipshultz: But what's life?
- 16:50Andy Lipshultz: Like, are you fulfilled by your job but you want to do this other thing?
- 16:53Andy Lipshultz: Or you're like, I freaking hate this job, but I need to get out.
- 16:56Andy Lipshultz: Two different things.
- 16:57Andy Lipshultz: Right.
- 16:58Jeff Ornstein: We had a fellow on who said what advice he would give to young actors was think to yourself, is there anything else I can do that I love, I have the same passion for, but that would guarantee me a more secure, stable income?
- 17:14Jeff Ornstein: And if there is, do it.
- 17:17Jeff Ornstein: Because this is not an industry for the faint of heart.
- 17:21Jeff Ornstein: So I think your advice is actually it's a new piece of wisdom that's come across that get someone else to tell you what the parameters are, you know, and then figure out does that blend with my reality?
- 17:33Jeff Ornstein: I think that's fantastic.
- 17:34Jeff Ornstein: Now let's talk about some of the fun stuff.
- 17:37unknown: Yeah.
- 17:38Jeff Ornstein: What were some of the most memorable for you uh voiceover projects that you worked on and why'd you love them so much?
- 17:45Andy Lipshultz: Oh God.
- 17:46Andy Lipshultz: Well, one of them I just did, I think we I mentioned it earlier that they just came out this week.
- 17:50Andy Lipshultz: I voiced for the new the launch of the new Lamborghini Urux S Purper Monte.
- 17:55Andy Lipshultz: I think that's so cool.
- 17:56Andy Lipshultz: Were you Italian in it or were you?
- 17:58Andy Lipshultz: No, no, no.
- 17:59Andy Lipshultz: I mean, it's like a brand film and it's like a just kind of a the whisper gritty voice behind, and it's beautiful.
- 18:06Andy Lipshultz: They did an amazing job with it.
- 18:07Andy Lipshultz: I think sometimes just don't get in the way, and that's what I feel like I did.
- 18:11Andy Lipshultz: So that one was amazing, and just kind of seeing it.
- 18:14Andy Lipshultz: Plus, it's Lamborghini.
- 18:15Andy Lipshultz: So that was pretty cool.
- 18:16Andy Lipshultz: Were you able to take any samples from the job site?
- 18:20Andy Lipshultz: They did not pay me in Lambos, although I did want to get off Lambo a couple times, but did not happen.
- 18:25Andy Lipshultz: Trying to think of others it's funny, it's not a big role, but I've really enjoyed it.
- 18:31Andy Lipshultz: There's a a guy I work with, a guy named Earl Fisher, who's incredibly talented in in voiceover.
- 18:36Andy Lipshultz: He's been around for a while and he's done some really cool things.
- 18:38Andy Lipshultz: I mean, he was on the original Barney.
- 18:40Andy Lipshultz: I love it.
- 18:41Andy Lipshultz: And he and I create our own animations, and we just kind of mess around.
- 18:47Andy Lipshultz: And being able to both write it and then come up with it and just do some weird stuff, I found that incredibly fulfilling and just fun.
- 18:54Andy Lipshultz: And so it's there are so many that I'm really excited about.
- 19:00Andy Lipshultz: There's one that I can't talk about yet, but I will just say that I'm planning to be taking my father to a stadium to hear it being played sometime this fall.
- 19:15Jeff Ornstein: Very cool.
- 19:16Jeff Ornstein: So only 80,000 listeners for that one shot, right?
- 19:20Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, it's it's it's for a team.
- 19:22Jeff Ornstein: It's pretty cool.
- 19:22Andy Lipshultz: That's fantastic.
- 19:23Andy Lipshultz: So, yeah, I mean, there's a variety of them that are that are exciting.
- 19:27Andy Lipshultz: It's and every day it's interesting because I can get excited about like I did something for like the Atomic Energy Commission where I'm learning about like nuclear energy.
- 19:35Andy Lipshultz: I'm like, oh, this is pretty cool.
- 19:36Andy Lipshultz: And then other times I did a five-minute spot to teach people how to wash their hands.
- 19:42Andy Lipshultz: That was not as fun.
- 19:45Jeff Ornstein: Did you ever have to be like intoxicated or something?
- 19:48Jeff Ornstein: Not the you intoxicated, but the voice intoxicated.
- 19:52Jeff Ornstein: How'd that go?
- 19:53Andy Lipshultz: Varying results.
- 19:54Andy Lipshultz: I think sometimes I was able to land it, other times I maybe tried to sound like I was.
- 19:58Andy Lipshultz: It just it also depended on the lines.
- 20:00Andy Lipshultz: I mean, but uh, it's gone pretty well.
- 20:01Andy Lipshultz: I mean, there's also things like you know, like you pretend like you're eating, and actually sometimes I actually do eat or what have you to try to carry that across.
- 20:07Andy Lipshultz: So that's pretty fun as well.
- 20:09Andy Lipshultz: Oh, there's one thing that I did that I liked was there's someone I work with, and I think I've done it like the past three or four years, where they have an a holiday card animation for a company they work for, and it's really well done.
- 20:20Andy Lipshultz: This guy, Dave Stovka, he's like really talented in terms of his animation, and he does a different theme each year.
- 20:25Andy Lipshultz: And there's some years where I've done like 17 different voices, and I love the way he cuts them together, where I'm talking to myself, and there's one where like it was a guy with a puppet, and I was doing the voices for both, and he's like, No, actually, you need to make sure they actually sound like they're coming from the same person.
- 20:42Andy Lipshultz: And I was like, That's a that's kind of a compliment.
- 20:44Andy Lipshultz: So, like yeah, a real compliment.
- 20:47Andy Lipshultz: He's a really good director, too.
- 20:49Jeff Ornstein: It's good, it's good.
- 20:49Jeff Ornstein: Of course, we've already gone grossly over, as I knew we would, but we're gonna still wrap it up with some more questions.
- 20:54Jeff Ornstein: I like to let my guests ease out of the interview here.
- 20:58Jeff Ornstein: All right, looking back, was becoming a voice actor a career change, or was it actually the destination all along?
- 21:06Jeff Ornstein: Oh, I should have a violin for Christ's sake.
- 21:09Andy Lipshultz: It's cute, but a little hokey pokey.
- 21:12Andy Lipshultz: I I mean, not to get morose, but there's only one destination for us.
- 21:15Andy Lipshultz: I mean I think the rest of it's the journey.
- 21:20Andy Lipshultz: And I talked to this by my kids.
- 21:22Andy Lipshultz: I've got kids in their 20s, and I I always tell them, like, whatever you're doing now is not forever, it's what you're doing now.
- 21:29Andy Lipshultz: And so I don't know if it was a destination, I don't know if it was preordained, but I would imagine having done something in the creative field like this was something that I was likely to do because I kept do trying to do things like this.
- 21:44Andy Lipshultz: But it's so easy to go through life and be like, shit, that was 10 years.
- 21:49Andy Lipshultz: This is actually kind of a semi-important thing I want to get.
- 21:53Andy Lipshultz: I have a written-out bucket list.
- 21:54Andy Lipshultz: Not many people do that.
- 21:56Andy Lipshultz: And every year I go to that written bucket list and I say, all right, what are the two to three things I'm gonna do off this list?
- 22:02Andy Lipshultz: And I always break it out to parties or whatever and talk to people, not to brag, but more to see like what else am I missing?
- 22:07Andy Lipshultz: And then if it keeps going, that I can't die because it keeps getting stuff added to it.
- 22:11Andy Lipshultz: But going into voiceover was one of the things on that list, and that one year I'm like, you know what?
- 22:16Andy Lipshultz: F this, I'm actually gonna do that.
- 22:18Andy Lipshultz: So that's a long answer to the destination.
- 22:20Andy Lipshultz: So it's not necessarily destination, but there was intentionality to it.
- 22:24Andy Lipshultz: Right.
- 22:24Jeff Ornstein: And you know, also that's also what our listeners want to hear and they comment on after they see the podcast that this guy felt it like he was this corporate bigwig and he's doing all these great projects, but there was something that made him write it down on his bucket list, and it got to a point where he said, I'm gonna do it, and you created your niche.
- 22:45Jeff Ornstein: But I want to ask you something.
- 22:46Jeff Ornstein: Did you ever use your voices in the corporate world?
- 22:50Jeff Ornstein: Did you find yourself lapsing into a character in the middle of a presentation or anything?
- 22:54Andy Lipshultz: Yes, yes.
- 22:55Andy Lipshultz: I did and still do actually when I do my my marketing seminars, I do that too.
- 23:00Andy Lipshultz: But yes, I did that in the corporate world as well.
- 23:03Andy Lipshultz: Hence, like the not being corporate enough.
- 23:04Andy Lipshultz: I mean, people gotta laugh, it stood out, and it does ascend you to a point, but you're not likely to be CEO of anything wrong.
- 23:12Jeff Ornstein: Right, right, god forbid.
- 23:14Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, the guy's great at parties, he gets the job done beautifully, but we need someone a little stuffier to be in the C-suite.
- 23:20Jeff Ornstein: All right, Andy, I gotta wrap this up.
- 23:22Jeff Ornstein: I want you to stay in touch with us.
- 23:25Jeff Ornstein: So if you've got a great project, give us a call, come back, and we can talk about it, share that with our listeners, and also see if the industry changes.
- 23:34Jeff Ornstein: All industries go through changes, and you might want to share, hey, you know, there's I've got some new perspectives since last time we spoke.
- 23:40Andy Lipshultz: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
- 23:41Andy Lipshultz: I mean, this is a really interesting thing.
- 23:43Andy Lipshultz: I'm glad that you do this thing because I think a lot of people want to make that change and seeing other people doing it, like just for me, even too.
- 23:53Andy Lipshultz: Like my wife went from a corporate career to becoming a professor.
- 23:56Andy Lipshultz: She works at Georgetown, and she did shift too.
- 23:59Andy Lipshultz: And I think that was inspiring, just seeing other people do it and like how they do it helps you figure it out yourself.
- 24:05Jeff Ornstein: No, absolutely.
- 24:06Jeff Ornstein: With all due respect, I mean, we're every man, so it's like you don't have to be one of this one in one percent.
- 24:12Jeff Ornstein: And the people that are listening are saying, This this person, this guest gave me some insights that I'm gonna process and I'm gonna, you know what, I'm gonna use that and I'm gonna take the jump, even if it's a little jump.
- 24:24Jeff Ornstein: Right.
- 24:24Jeff Ornstein: It's definitely not magic.
- 24:25Jeff Ornstein: Yeah.
- 24:26Jeff Ornstein: All right, Andy, have a wonderful day.
- 24:30Jeff Ornstein: Thanks so much for coming on.
- 24:31Jeff Ornstein: Thank you.
- 24:31Jeff Ornstein: All right, so long.
- 24:33Jeff Ornstein: Thanks for tuning in to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
- 24:36Jeff Ornstein: Follow, subscribe, and stay connected to your favorite socials at www.next actpodcast.com.
- 24:44Jeff Ornstein: Keep chasing your next act.
- 24:46Jeff Ornstein: The best is yet to come.