Latest / Career Identity + Growth Conversations for Professional Women: Exposing the Hidden Reality / 052: When the Door Doesn't Exist, Build One

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052: When the Door Doesn't Exist, Build One · Career Identity + Growth Conversations for Professional Women: Exposing the Hidden Reality

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So Sandra, what do you do when you've worked hard,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: you've developed the skills, you're invested in training and you
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: realize the door you're trying to walk through might not
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: actually exist?
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: We call it Ghostbusters.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, that is perfect. I think we should do that.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 0:18
  Speaker 4: Agreed.
• 0:19
  Speaker 5: Well, I would build one.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Build a door.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: I love this.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: And wouldn't you bring like a whole bunch of women
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: through it with you?
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Totally.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 0:29
  Speaker 5: They're my best buddies. And you know what? That reminds
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: me of this amazing episode we have in the vault
• 0:37
  Speaker 5: with our friend, Christy Harse. And that's exactly what she did.
• 0:42
  Speaker 5: It's a conversation we originally recorded with Christy back in
• 0:45
  Speaker 5: November of 2024. And if you don't know Christy, she's
• 0:49
  Speaker 5: a professional voice actor who discovered something interesting in when
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: she tried to break further into the male dominated world
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: of sports promo.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: And I really love what she did because what she
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: started out with was being frustrated that she couldn't get
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: where she was trying to go. And so like you
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: talked about, she built a campaign. And as we listened
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to the conversation again, I don't know what you thought,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: but I realized that it was a much bigger story
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: than just being a voiceover talent and It's about what
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: happens when working harder isn't enough. It's about recognizing the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: systems around us. And Sandra, we've talked about systems and
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: stories so much this year, using the influence we have
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and creating opportunities for other women along the way.
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: And we honestly think you're going to love Christy. She
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: describes herself in this conversation as a human sparkler. And
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: you're going to understand why pretty quickly.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she's very magnetic. And before we get into it,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: make sure to follow Exposing the Hidden Reality wherever you're
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: listening and subscribe so you don't miss our next conversation.
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: Let's go back now to November of 2024 and introduce
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: you to Christy Harse.
• 2:05
  Speaker 6: It's so exciting and very vivacious.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: I don't know that I've ever heard that word associated
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: with me, but I like it.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, you should make people use that with
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: you all the time.
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: Like, oh, you can only talk to me if you
• 2:18
  Speaker 7: call me the vivacious Christy or.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: Something like that. Somebody called me a human sparkler the
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: other day. Oh, I love that.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: That is you.
• 2:31
  Speaker 6: Well, I'm going to get you a t-shirt.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Oh no.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Now what happens if I'm in a mood that day
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: and people are like, she's not a sparkler.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Then don't wear it that day.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: Depending on my mood.
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: You can do this.
• 2:51
  Speaker 6: Okay, I have my coffee.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: I'm ready.
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: Good morning, Annette.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: Good morning.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Good morning, everyone.
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: We are promising you an exciting morning today as we
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: talk with Christy Hart.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: She is a voiceover actor.
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: And the voice that you hear at the Cleveland Airport
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: and the voice of so many brands. So Christy, How
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: about you start with like a better introduction than the
• 3:21
  Speaker 6: one I did?
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: Oh, you just did a lovely job. That's great. I mean,
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: I think it's wonderful. I've been a voice actor for
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: 20 years now. I work out of my home-based studio
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: right here. I'm located in Fairview Park, Ohio. My BFF
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: is traveling for work and she's texted me four times today.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: She says, I'm at the airport and all I hear
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: is your voice. And my husband travels for work and
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: he says the same thing. And I say, you can
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: never escape me.
• 3:58
  Speaker 7: So how many airports am I listening to your voice
• 4:01
  Speaker 7: when I'm there?
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Oh, it's throughout the entire Cleveland Hopkins airport. So I'm
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: the voice of the entire airport. So if you hear
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: any type of massage and it's a female, it's likely me.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: some are not so nice tone. Like I'm a little nasty.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Like nice nasty or like nasty nasty?
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: No, they asked me to be very like very stern,
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: very on a couple of the massages. So you'll hear them.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: Mm hmm. Anyways, so I have served as the national
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: voice of Jones here. You've heard my voice on the
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: world series, Monday night football and the NBA finals as
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: a national voice for a major streaming service. And recently,
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: not recently, but you know, in the last five years,
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: I've really been focused on trying to break into male
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: dominated sports promo. What is promo for those people who
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: are listening, who may not know promo is what you
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: hear when you're watching a Let's say you're watching ESPN. Okay.
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: During a commercial break, it'll say, this Sunday, watch Rory
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: McIlroy in the PGA, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: That's a promo. If you're watching NBC Friday on Dateline,
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: you know, that whole bit, that's a promo. So I
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: really enjoy it. I love it. I feel like it
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: comes easy to me. I feel like I'm good at it.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: And so I invested a lot of money, time and
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: effort in training, workshops, demos, you name it. And really
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: tried to do some out-of-the-box marketing techniques, and it wasn't
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: getting me anywhere. And I became very frustrated. Frustrated. And
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: I was in a workshop, an online workshop. Yeah. Promo
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: workshop with a prominent LA agent who happens to be
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: a woman.
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: And I just asked her point blank, what are my chances?
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: Because I've been working on this. And she was honest
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: and said, yeah, not so much.
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: And.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: She said it's not for a lack of women in
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: the industry trying to create opportunities for women in these lanes.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: It's that once these opportunities get to a certain point
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: in the decision making process, typically a middle aged white
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: man will say no. So that made me after five
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: years of time, effort, money. Yeah. Dare I say made
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: me angry. And I know that's a touchy word for
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: a woman to use. but it made me angry. And
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: so I woke up the next day. I called a
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: colleague of mine who happens to be a middle-aged white man,
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: explained what I was feeling. And that birthed the Building
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: Doors campaign. The reason I call it Building Doors is
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: because what I realized in that conversation with that agent
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: was that if there is no door for me to
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: go knock on, go kick in, What do I do?
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Because clearly there isn't. There is no door for me
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: to knock on, kick in, nothing. So I have a
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: cold one and I might as well bring a bunch
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: of women along with me. I partner with women around
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: the world to re-voice scripts that were originally voiced by
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: men in male-centric brands. So not only sports, but think whiskey, construction, farming, tech, gaming.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: We recently had a non-binary woman voice, I'm sorry, not woman,
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: because she's non-binary. Oh, I'll get it right.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: A non-binary person.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: Thank you. We had a non-binary person who, by the way, is,
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: I mean, they killed it. They killed it. Voiced the
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: iconic Dos Equis, the most interesting man in the world spot.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, very cool.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: It was awesome. Oh my gosh. You saw it, Sandra?
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: Oh, I did.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: It was fantastic.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: Her name is Cherie B. Tay. And it's Cherie, middle
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: initial B-Tay. And I just love saying her name. Cherie B. Tay.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: Cherie B. Tay. Cherie B. Tay. And they killed it.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: I mean, their voice is so luxurious and powerful. And anyways, buildingdoorsvo.com
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: is the website. And I partner with these women and
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: they're featured on the website, explains everything that we do.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: But I initially only wanted to do it for Women's
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: History Month. So I launched in March of 2024 this year,
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: and I was only going to do it for a month.
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: I think there was 13 women that I partnered with
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: from around the world. Okay. We did it. And it
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: gained so much traction. And I realized that a month
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: isn't going to really move the needle for equity for
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: women in the industry. So I decided to do four
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: women a month. And I feature four women every Wednesday
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: of the month. And then it started to grow a
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: little too much. And I was like, I can't do
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: this by myself anymore. And that's where I'm at right now.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: The success of the campaign has afforded me the opportunity
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: to have face-to-face conversations with nearly a dozen brands. I
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: can't mention all of them right now because I'm still
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: in the process of figuring out with them how to
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: announce publicly our relationship. Yeah. But I will say that
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: I have had face-to-face conversations with the chief marketing officer
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: of Valvoline, the folks at the Cleveland Guardians, Sportsnet, which
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: is the number one sports media network out of Canada.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: I've also had a face-to-face conversation with, in one Zoom call,
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: nine executives across three different organizations, the Cavs, the Charge,
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: and the Monsters.
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: Oh my God, Christy, that's fantastic.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and... You know, what I think is happening is
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: through the success of the campaign, I'm able to open
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: the door to these people, right, to these brands and
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: plant the seed about equity. And, and I'd love to
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: share with you the most common responses I get when
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: I have conversations and they are, they're this. Christy, is
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: this really a problem? Because I hear women on the
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: radio all the time. Christy, I see Aaron Andrews reporting
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: from the football field every Sunday. Christy, didn't they just
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: hire a woman to do play-by-play for an MLB team?
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: And then, Christy, I never realized this. You're right. Now
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: that you pointed it out and I'm thinking about all
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: the times I watch TV or streaming, you're right. I
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: don't hear a woman.
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: So the pushback I'm getting is that it's already exists.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: There's plenty of equity. There's plenty of equality for women.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: They just hired a woman for play-by-play and baseball. Well,
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: let's name all the women that do play-by-play and baseball.
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: And how many men did they.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Hire in all of those positions? Cause yeah.
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: I watch football and I think that was the most
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: powerful part for me, not.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Just hearing the voices voice over.
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: The campaign, but the write-up that you do about the
• 11:20
  Speaker 6: demographics and where, where.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: The viewership for that sport is.
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: And maybe you could talk a little bit about that too.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: So it's, I was very clear in my mind that,
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: what I wanted to do with building doors. Right. It
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: was very, very clear. Look at these women doing this.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: A brand is not going to miss out in any way,
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: shape or form by having a woman do the same thing.
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: Here's why. Data, data, data.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Facts, facts, facts. So did you know that the majority,
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: like over 50% of fans of the MLB, NFL and
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: NHL are women statistically? Yeah. I think that as women,
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: we all know this, but not enough people know this,
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: that around the world, between 70 and 80%, women have
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: that much buying power. They are the ones that decide
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: what sports camps their kids go to, what swag they buy,
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: if they get season tickets or not. They are the
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: decision makers when it comes to even on the farm.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: They're the ones who decide when they get new farm equipment.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: They're the ones that decide where to get their seed from.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: So statistically speaking, There is nothing from keeping brands from
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: using more women. You know, there's a frustration right now,
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: at least in the sports world. There are there are
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: major brands, major teams and stuff that have like wine
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: night and pink hats at the stadium. And women want
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: more than that because women appreciate the game. Women are
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: fans of the game. They can analyze the game just
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: as good as anybody. And they want more than a
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: pink cat and a white knight.
• 13:06
  Speaker 6: And it's a little condescending.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: Correct. Correct. And that's the point. And, you know, I
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: can see how someone listening to our conversation right now
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: may say, sounds to me like you're mail bashing. Sounds
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: to me like you're brand bashing.
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: No.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: And what I want to say to that is 25%
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: of our followers on Instagram, which we just created, um,
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: Instagram and LinkedIn pages because they used to be on
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: just mine, right? Because when I started this, I wasn't
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: going to create our own page, but now that it's
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: gained steam at building doors VO on LinkedIn and on
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Instagram is where we're starting to like try and move
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: all the people who've been following me over there. And
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: 25% of our followers on Instagram are men. Uh, if
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: I was male bashing, I don't think they'd be that
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: many people following us and growing. Um, I mentioned that
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: I had that Zoom call with nine executives across three
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: or four organizations.
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: They reached out to me.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: White man, a C-suite white man reached out to me
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: on LinkedIn, said, I've been following your campaign. I want
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: to put you in front of decision makers across all
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: these teams so that you can be top of mind,
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: you and your ladies.
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: I love it.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: If I was mail bashing and brand bashing, these brands
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: wouldn't have face-to-face as They would want to not touch
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: me with a 10-foot pole. But look at the movement
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: that I've been able to create. Look at the seeds
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: I've been able to plant for equity for women in
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: my industry. And the majority of these meetings are with men.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: Love that.
• 14:43
  Speaker 7: I think you're bringing an awareness to a problem that
• 14:47
  Speaker 7: people haven't thought about.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: And that is not so easy all the time, right? Because,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: you know, and I.
• 14:54
  Speaker 7: So I don't watch as much sports as maybe other
• 14:56
  Speaker 7: women do. I'm definitely not in the 50%. I'm maybe
• 14:59
  Speaker 7: like in the 35%. I'll watch my teams.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: When they're doing well. I'm sort of a fair weather
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: sports fan. Sorry.
• 15:08
  Speaker 7: But I do notice the women on the field. I
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: notice when a woman's calling the game or not calling
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: the game. And I bring it up all the time.
• 15:17
  Speaker 7: And my husband always says, you're right. I don't know
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: why there's not somebody. calling the game that sounds like
• 15:24
  Speaker 7: you or sounds like a female voice.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: So I think it's important.
• 15:28
  Speaker 7: And I think they're reaching out to you, Christy, because
• 15:32
  Speaker 7: they want to include the people that spend the money.
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: And I know you're saying women make 50% of the
• 15:38
  Speaker 7: sports related decisions, but overall in America, women make 80.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: To 85% of household buying decisions.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what I said. Yeah. I think it's 70
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: and 80 worldwide. Yes.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: It's so big.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: So yes, you're right.
• 15:54
  Speaker 7: They're deciding a bunch of different things. And if we're
• 15:57
  Speaker 7: included and we see ourselves reflected in the game, in
• 16:01
  Speaker 7: the broadcast, we're more likely like, and I don't know
• 16:05
  Speaker 7: how you feel about Taylor Swift, but you know, these
• 16:08
  Speaker 7: past couple of years, she's.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: Really brought attention to that too.
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: Especially the Taylor Swift effect is real.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: The Taylor Swift effect is very real. Yeah.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: You know, one of the things, so I'm in Florida
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: right now attending a retreat. And one of the things
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: we've been talking.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: About is exactly this.
• 16:32
  Speaker 6: What system, not just, you know, how do we hold
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: ourselves back? How, you know, in the way that we
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: approach things, but what systems hold women back, right? And
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: calling them out because unless we see them, we can't
• 16:52
  Speaker 6: fix them, right? Until we realize we have a problem.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: We can't work on a problem.
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: And I think it's such a great thing that you're
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: pointing out, Christy, that just because something has always been
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: done a particular way doesn't mean that it isn't time
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: to re-look at how we're doing that and to find different,
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: more inclusive, better ways to incorporate people who are actually
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: already involved in that process anyway.
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: You know, you bring up an interesting point. This campaign
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: has been running for 10 months and I have about,
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: I don't know, sometimes four, sometimes two face-to-face Zoom calls
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: a week. And what I do is I try to just, like,
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: I have a Zoom meeting with this person and I say,
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: do you know anybody that you can do a warm
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: intro to, right? So then it just goes, goes, goes.
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: So like it took me, you know, maybe five Zoom
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: calls to get to this brand, maybe seven Zoom calls
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: to get to this brand. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: But what I am seeing in the result of these
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: calls is that some people literally just don't know. They
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: just don't realize. And then there are other people who
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: are like, I'm not doing this. And if I do it,
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: it's only going to be to check off a box.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: And I'm only going to do it once everyone around
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: me does it. So I'm not talking to you, which
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: is fine.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: But for example, when I talked face to face to Valvoline,
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: I spoke with their chief marketing officer, who is a woman.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: Their CFO is a woman. Their CEO is a woman.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: And she said to me, until your campaign, we didn't
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: realize that voiceover was an opportunity for diversity.
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: Mm hmm.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: And she said, because of your campaign, we are now
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: going to require our ad agency to bring us an
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: equal amount of male voiceovers and female voiceovers when we're
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: deciding on a campaign. She said, it's always just been
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: status quo. You know, we've always just used a male voice.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: We never thought about it. Like, it never dawned on
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: us to use a female voice, not because we don't
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: want to. Clearly, all their C-suites are women. They were
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: concerned about forward-facing. making sure there were female texts at
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: the actual locations, making sure those female texts were featured
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: in commercials, making sure they were featured in reels on
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: social media, but it never clicked to use a female
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: voice actor. So there are people and brands, honestly, that
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: it just doesn't dawn on them.
• 19:23
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 19:24
  Speaker 7: And I don't know if you know this, but I
• 19:27
  Speaker 7: used to work for a large retail firm, oh my gosh,
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: a while ago now. And I was in charge of
• 19:32
  Speaker 7: who was Recording my customer service messaging that would go
• 19:37
  Speaker 7: out on the VRU and also that was used when
• 19:40
  Speaker 7: they used it in the store locations. I got to
• 19:44
  Speaker 7: select my voice and I was so excited about it
• 19:47
  Speaker 7: because they presented a few different options. And this is
• 19:50
  Speaker 7: a while ago now, Chrissy, this, oh my gosh, it's
• 19:52
  Speaker 7: nearly 15 years ago, but they presented all the options
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: to me. And then I was doing my research like,
• 19:59
  Speaker 7: this is the demographic of our client, our customers, what
• 20:02
  Speaker 7: would she respond to?
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: Cause she was a female.
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: So I did all kinds of research and learned more
• 20:08
  Speaker 7: about her and I ended up selecting a female voice.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: And I was so excited to be able to do that.
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: Not realizing the impact that I'm realizing now.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: So.
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a huge impact. And, you know, like I said,
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: What I'm seeing is that when it gets to us,
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: it's not for lack of women not trying to create
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: these opportunities. It's that when these opportunities get passed up
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: and up and up, typically from what I've been told,
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: a middle-aged white guy who's like, no, we want a man.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: In fact, since I started this campaign, I cannot begin
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: to tell you the emails and messages I get from
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: women in my industry. Stories of inequality like you would
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: never know. Um, more than three have emailed me and said, Hey,
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: I auditioned for, went through a lengthy audition process for
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: XYZ male centric brand. I got the job. I was
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: so excited. I went and we did the recording. We
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: got everything done. And a week before it was supposed
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: to air, they pulled me and replaced me with a man.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: I have, I have at least three or four emails
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: like that. So listen, Inequality exists across, it's not something
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: that is unique to women. It is in race, in class,
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: in gender. And so why I think that this campaign
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: is gaining speed and growing is because of that. People
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: are empathetic to inequality because almost everyone experiences it in
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: some way, shape or form throughout their life.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Now more than ever, it's crucial that we find community.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: We find missions. that align with who we are, we
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: join that community and we stay loud and we stay vocal.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: Because becoming silent and going into a hole isn't going
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: to help anyone. It's going to be a bumpy road,
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: I know, for my campaign, but I'm willing to keep
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: it up. I've worked this hard so far. The last
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: 10 months, I'm not going to give it up now.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: I'm making progress. And the people who are meant to
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: be in our circle, we'll find each other. We'll find
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: each other and make some money.
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: I think there's another important aspect of what you're doing.
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: And that is that oftentimes decisions are made on the
• 22:33
  Speaker 6: basis of money, right?
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: So if we do this, it will transform or convert
• 22:40
  Speaker 6: into X, Y, Z amount of cash. And by doing this, right,
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: we can.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Demonstrate that shift, right? That buy-in.
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: And then that puts more women into positions where they
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: have the opportunity to.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Influence, right?
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: So yes, these decisions are being made because of financial reasons,
• 23:06
  Speaker 6: but it puts people who are aware of these limiting
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: systems into places where they can have impact and broaden
• 23:16
  Speaker 6: the scope.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: And to be clear, I'm not asking to take away
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: jobs from men. No. I'm asking for equal opportunity.
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: Correct.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: For the job. So if you're going to audition two men,
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: three men, audition two or three women. Yes. You know,
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: I'm just asking for the opportunity.
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: Correct.
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: Equal opportunity. That's all I'm asking for. Because in many,
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: in many cases, it might be, yep, the man is
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: the right fit for this message.
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: And that's fine. That's fine.
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: But you know what happens when you sit in a
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: room and you listen to to how a woman's voice
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: might add. Either you may say, oh, we weren't expecting this.
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: That's probably good based on what you just said, our
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: consumer base, this mission, what we're trying to do. Or
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: what could happen is someone in that room is going
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: to remember a voice that they liked. And then six
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: months down the road, when there's another opportunity for another
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: video or another voiceover or something, they're going to be like, oh,
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: who was that woman that we listened to in the
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: conference room? Let's reach out to her. It's a domino effect, right?
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: It's just providing space. It's providing space for women's voices
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: to be heard and then equality and opportunity.
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: I love this because it's really easy, I think, as
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: an independent business owner to say, I'm not going to
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: collaborate with other people who do the same thing as
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: me because we're in competition with each other. And what
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: you're demonstrating is the power that can come from collaboration.
• 24:53
  Speaker 6: When we join together in a common cause, that there
• 24:58
  Speaker 6: is abundance, not scarcity. We're not all fighting for the
• 25:02
  Speaker 6: same pie. We can create a larger pie. if we
• 25:07
  Speaker 6: agree to band together rather than to compete against one another.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: I love that you said that because that's exactly the point.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: There's plenty of voiceover jobs, right? There's plenty. Yes. And
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: there is absolutely nothing wrong with me bringing some women
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: along with me and showcasing their voices. I mean, if
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: you were to look at my LinkedIn, look at my Instagram,
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: look at my Facebook, there's not much about me and
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: that's fine. That's absolutely fine. You know, I want to
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: talk just really quick about the power that you just
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: kind of touched upon. One of our biggest success stories
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: is a woman named Ashley Tirado. Ashley is a woman
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: that I partnered with the very first month of the campaign,
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: and she redid a Honda Sport spot. Originally voiced by
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: a man, and she did an amazing job. She even
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: has like a little higher tone, right? It isn't just,
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: you know, voice of God kind of stuff. And part
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: of what you do as a member of my campaign
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: is you agree to like tag and share. So you
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: like the post, you tag the brand, and then you
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: share it to your network. So this is in the
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: first month, mind you first month, we had like 13
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: or 14 women and all these women agreed to do
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: that for one another. What happens when these women push
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: share is that it puts that woman's voice out into
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: a whole other sphere of eyes and ears. And at
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: this point, when you look at the collective networks of
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: all the women who are door builders, we're talking millions, plural,
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: of eyes. And so what happened with Ashley in the
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: first month is that we all shared her post. It
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: went out into the world, if you will. She doesn't
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: know who. Someone saw it. forwarded it to an ad
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: agency in Florida, who then reached out to Ashley and
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: hired her to do a slew of Honda spots.
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: Awesome.
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: That is the collective power that women have. That is
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: the collective power that we all can have and uplift
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: one another in any cause. Because when you put someone
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: in front of millions of eyes, you don't know. You
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: don't know who's watching. You have no clue who's watching you.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: I can't begin to tell you how many people on
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: LinkedIn have reached out to me talking about how they
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: love the campaign, but we're not even connected. Right. We're
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: not even connected. People see you. Correct. People see you.
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: Don't think that just because you're not getting likes and
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: all this other people see you and they may be
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: huge fans. They may be supporters. You know, you never know.
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: That's what I keep telling myself, Christy, about this conversation
• 27:55
  Speaker 6: is that, you know, I have millions of fans.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: And honestly, LinkedIn, I think is kind of like that
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: more so than the other networks like LinkedIn. I feel
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: like I remember I went to an in-person networking event
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: and I couldn't believe how many people came up to
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: me and said that they had been following it. And
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: I'm not even connected with them. I don't even know them.
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: But they follow it. Right. Just because someone isn't commenting
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: or liking. And so when you keep that in mind
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: and you stay consistent and With your messaging, you stay
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: consistent with showing up. Things like building doors can happen.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: And I love you.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: Well, seriously, you are so much fun.
• 28:40
  Speaker 6: I consider myself so lucky to have found my way
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: into your little orb.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: It's true.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: It's a crazy orb, Sandra. I love it. I love it.
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: I would like to point out though, Sandra, that this
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: is my little corner, right? VoiceOver is my little corner
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: of the world. It's not, we're a small community. We're
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: a strong community. Voice actors are some of the most
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: generous and giving people I've ever met. And this is
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: my small part of the world. And so if I
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: can get angry about something enough to like start a
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: campaign to change, anybody can. It's really not about changing
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: the world. It's about changing the little corner of your world.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: The little corner of your world that you live in, right?
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Stay in your sphere of influence.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Absolutely true. So what if somebody.
• 29:40
  Speaker 7: wants to join your movement, Christy? What can we do
• 29:45
  Speaker 7: to get them connected to you?
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: So the first thing you should do is follow us
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: on our LinkedIn and Instagram pages. And those handles are
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: at buildingdoorsvo. If you decide to follow and go there,
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: I highly, highly request that you like, share, and tag.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Because as I previously described, it takes our voices out
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: to the millions. So the more people that like Share
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: and Tag, the more attention we can get and the
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: more I can get into those conversations with brands. I'm
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: proud to say that this past year, I was hired
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: by Generac, the generator people, to be an influencer. Look
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: at me. Anyways. I am a fan of Generac. The
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: tornadoes that happened here in Ohio was, you know, and
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: I posted about it. They reached out and I've created
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: a handful of videos for them. And so I am
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: proud that I have that skill set now, you know,
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: that I've been able to develop that skill set. So
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: I can use that now for building doors if I
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: partner with another brand. So if you're looking to support us,
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: please do so by liking, sharing, tagging, following us on
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: those pages at building doors VO. You can check out
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: our website, There's a place to take a pledge if
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: you're a company and that's buildingdoorsbo.com. And then if you
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: want to even get real deep into it, reach out
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: to me and let's talk about partnership opportunities.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of ways to get involved.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Christine, this is huge, huge.
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: And you are, you are shifting, you are shifting massive energy.
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: Well, you know how I'm going to know. when, when
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: this campaign has, has really made a dent is when
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: I hear a woman voice a Superbowl promo.
• 31:32
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: When I, in the weeks leading up to the Superbowl,
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: you know, you hear stuff like watch a Superbowl, you know, February, whatever,
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: you know, if one of those, if one of those ads,
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: just one of them is a woman and, and hopefully
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: it would be a direct result of this campaign. Yeah.
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: That's when I know we've, we started to, we've started
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: to change.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: So you're like saying, hey, Super Bowl.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: I mean, you'll be great. That would be great. But again,
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: all these Zoom calls that I have are going to
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: lead there. I know it. I'm going to find somebody
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: who's going to know somebody who's going to know somebody
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: who's going to know somebody. It'll happen.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: It will. Yep.
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much for having me on and giving
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: me the opportunity to evangelize our mission. I really appreciate it.
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: I think I can speak for a nap. It's an
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: honor to have you here.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: Agreed.
• 32:24
  Speaker 6: Thank you.
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: I can't find my proper voice today.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: She's just so impressed. She can't even talk.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: You've got her quieted, Christy. Write that down. That's the accomplishment.
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: Are you verklempt?
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, I'm verklempt.
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: Christy, when you are mega.
• 32:43
  Speaker 6: Famous, And you are speaking to these great audiences and
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: really all these amazing celebrities. Are you going to just
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: send me selfies or can I comment? I'll go and
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: like drool as well.
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: You know, my aim is not to be famous. My
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: aim is to make change and to be well-respected in
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: my community. So if other voice actors can, you know,
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: have respect for me as their peer, And if I
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: can make change, then that to me means I'm famous.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: You know, famous in my little world, right? And fame
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: is not the goal, right? Change is the goal. But
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: if other things happen along the way, of course, I
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: welcome it.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Fame is not the goal. Change is the goal. Listening
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: to her say that again, almost two years later, still
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: gives me the chills.
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I love this conversation because it wasn't just about
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: changing the entire voiceover industry, which we can fall into
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: so quickly. If I can't do it big, I'm not
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: going to do it. And she just looked at the
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: corner of the world that she could influence and simply asked,
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: what can I do here?
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: And I keep coming back to the fact that she
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: didn't build the door only for herself. She brought other
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: women with her. She shared their voices. They shared one
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: another's work. And that collective visibility started creating real opportunities.
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: And isn't that what not just exposing the hidden reality
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: is about, but collaboration? Cooperation, right? Helping, lifting others because
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: the tide raises all boats. So that leaves us with
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: a question for you, our dear listener.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Where is there a.
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: Door in your own life, in your workplace, your industry,
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: or your community that's been waiting for somebody else to open?
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: And what might be possible if instead of waiting for
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: that door to open, you built your own?
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: Because you don't have to change the entire world to
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: make an impact.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Maybe you just start with your little corner of it.
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: So true. So if conversations like this one today made
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: you think differently about work, leadership, identity, and growth, we'd
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: love to have you join Exposing the Hidden Reality and
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: our community.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, join our newsletter at exposingthehiddenreality.com. We'll keep you connected
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: to new episodes, conversations, and resources to help you take
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: what we're talking about here And bring it into your
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: own life and your own career.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: Until next time.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Keep building doors.