Local Market Monopoly

Clarence Fisher: All right, I'm sitting here looking for the any key to see if we can get this going. Welcome back to Local Market Monopoly. As we said, made it through the intro. Today, today, I am excited. I am more excited than I have been, and I want to say ever, but I don't want anyone to get offended prior to this episode. And this is why, is because our guest today, professional voiceover actor, professional actor, as we talk today, you're going to. I think by the end of this session, you're going to be giddy as I am giddy, and you're going to understand probably about three minutes into this. So I'm going to open the curtain right now and bring out our guest today, Connor Quinn. How are you, sir?

Connor Quinn: I'm doing awesome, Clarence. Thank you so much for having me over. It's my pleasure, honestly. I'm more excited than you are.

Clarence Fisher: Okay. Well, hey, we're going to be excited on this call because I learned so much in the pre-call that we had, and I mean, it was just so awesome, and I can't wait to share everything. Some of the stuff we're going to go back over, I hope you don't mind just because I wasn't recording.

Connor Quinn: Right, which is often the case with these things. We meet at a coffee shop and we're talking, you're like, "Man, if we were doing a podcast, this would've been a good episode."

Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. So you started, I mean, we're going to go over the voice acting and how small businesses can benefit from that and walk through that. But just the way you got started is just so incredible. And you got started acting as an embryo, right?

Connor Quinn: Right. Yeah. I had an agent before I was born, right? No, I started when I was six years old. My mom kind of lived vicariously through me. I think she wanted to be an actress probably at some point, but we had a family in Hollywood that worked in the business, and I was out there and was asked to audition. And for some part when I was six years old, and that was for Disney, that was for Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin. Back in those days, some of your audience might remember, others may not. We had cassettes and records long before CDs and MP3s, and they had a series called Storyteller Records where they would put some of their biggest animations on these cassettes and albums for kids to listen to. And you'll know when it's time to turn the page when you hear Tinkerbell, go like this, that type of thing.
So I was six years old. They were looking for a young Christopher Robin for this particular session, and I got the gig. Lucky, 99% of this business is luck. If you have a talent, that's good. That might keep you busy, but luck is a big part of the driving factor. And at six years old, I didn't know even how to read. They had to whisper my lines to me.

Clarence Fisher: Wow.

Connor Quinn: So it was funny as my family's mainly from Oklahoma, so also my grandfather would hang out with Sterling Holloway, who was the original voice of Winnie the Pooh. And when we were out there, he asked me, "Would you like to meet Winnie the Pooh?" Well, if you asked a kid in the 70s, "Do you want to meet Winnie the Pooh?" The answer is yes. And I thought he meant the character. He was meaning the guy that plays him, which at six years old, you don't know. I though Winnie the Pooh was real.
So I met this strange, old, soft-spoken guy, and he spoke like Winnie the Pooh, and it confused me and confounded me, but I loved it. I mean, it sounded like Winnie the Pooh. And so when I left for the day, he asked my grandfather, "Does your grandson do a British accent?" And my grandfather, without even batting an eye, said, "Yes." Well, of course I didn't do a British accent. I didn't even know what that is. So him and my dad worked with me for weeks and weeks trying to get me to do a British accent. And in the end, it sounded worse than Dick Van Dyke and Mary Poppins. It was LA. It was horrible. It was just absolutely a stereotype upon a stereotype. But because of Sterling Holloway's approval, I got the job, and that was my first gig in LA, and hell of a first gig.
But I was very fortunate. And that began my life as an actor, as a child actor. I immediately started doing a lot of on-camera stuff after that, but my very first thing was voiceover.

Clarence Fisher: As Christopher Robin.

Connor Quinn: Christopher Robin. Yep. For Winnie the Proof.

Clarence Fisher: Seriously, that is luck, right? The Star Rove right there.

Connor Quinn: Yeah, especially as bad as I sound. I mean, it's a wonder that. They must have though Sterling Holloway was crazy for suggestion. Oh, this kid is great. It's like, no. Surely better than in that in Hollywood at the time.

Clarence Fisher: So how long does that last? How long does the job last for that? Are you there for a week or is it a month? Or how's that work?

Connor Quinn: No, for that particular album, I think we worked on it for two days. The process was a little bit slower in those days because they didn't do digital recording. It was on Reel to Real and that sort of thing. And a lot of the actors were the original cast from 1968 or so, 69. So a little bit older and they moved slower as far as. But they were so good. I mean, a lot of these folks were from old radio and they were used to doing stuff live, so they didn't make a mistake. When they recorded, it's almost like in their DNA that it's live. So there was very few mistakes. I was the one that was making all the mistakes because I'd never done it before. But they moved very quickly and they just went from one thing to another. But it was like having eight grandparents.
They were so sweet and kind to me and give me all the attention a little boy would love. I was spoiled, man. I mean, it was like a fantasy. It was absolutely wonderful from the top to the bottom. And then right after that, then I started getting on camera gigs doing Coke commercials and jello commercials.
There the work really started because then nobody knew who I was at that point. You're just an actor and you get in there to work and had to memorize lines, had to memorize where to stand, where to look, where not to look. And the hard work began as a kid. And I think that's really tough on a kid, but I enjoyed the heck out of it. I was so fortunate to have those opportunities back then.

Clarence Fisher: And that's part of, I guess, the allure that I see and what excites me so much about our conversation is I come from an age where when I was in radio, I recorded commercials on Reel to Real as well. And you had to be there. It was live. It wasn't voice tracked like it is today. You kept moving. And if you could master how to record on a reel-to-reel and back that thing up and get it to right where you wanted it and then punch in. I mean, it's a mastery, it's an art.

Connor Quinn: It really is. Even today, I still use a lot of analog processes because there's a lot of things that digital just can't reproduce. So when they were wanting me to do a. Here a while back, I did some promo work for NBC and they were looking for that quality from the 1970s. I used my Ampex Reel to Reel and an old Ribbon 44 RCA microphone to give that sound. There is just something unique about that quality back then that has since been. It's just like the difference between listening to vinyl and listening to a clean MP3.

Clarence Fisher: Man, that explains things. So you've got your toolkit around. Because as I was listening to your demos, well, they aren't even demos, the actual work that you've done that you have posted on your website. I'm like, how the heck does he get his voice to be so different on these different commercials? I mean, it's just incredible. But it sounds like you have the tools to make that happen no matter what the job needs.

Connor Quinn: Well, I've been very blessed as far as learning my craft. Back in my day, voiceovers, in order to. There was a small handful of people. There was probably, I don't know, I'm making up the number, but let's say 10 guys and two women. And they did 70 to 80% of everything that you heard in the English-speaking world. And that was a Thai group. So you couldn't become a voiceover. I mean, it was an impenetrable group of people. And once I discovered that I wanted to go that route, it was tough to break in because the competition is so hard. A lot of the producers and stuff were set on who they wanted to choose or they'd say, "We need a Casey Casem voice," or, "We need a whatever." So the only way I learned to compete was by asking them in an audition. I'd say, "Who's in the waiting room?
Who else are you going to have read for this?" And they would say, "Casey Kasem." And I'd say, "I'm Casey Kasem. At Dairy Queen, we know how to treat you right." So I would go through all these invitations of, I learned all these voices, so I became a voiceover nerd, still am. And so instead of listening in my car radio when I became a teenager to music, which I love, but I would listen to just cassette upon cassette of just nothing but voice actors and try to memorize. I'd go to sleep listening to them on my Walkman, trying to imitate their voices so that I could get these voices down, these other people that are hot. Because I knew not everyone could afford these high dollar. Not everybody could afford Casey Casamore. One of the big guys was Percy Rodriguez, a great character actor. He did Roots.
He was on several episodes, I think, of Star Trek. But he was the voice of Jaws, and he was also the voice of Kenny Shoes. And when I was a kid, he was the voice of Coca-Cola, and a very distinguished gentleman from Canada with the last name Rodriguez.
I mean, just an incredible onscreen actor, but he also made big money doing voiceovers. And so early on in the day, we had the same agent and Joni would have me shadow him. So I had to travel in his car, I think much to his chagrin. He was an older gentleman and now he's having to put up with a damn teenager. And I would go with him to all these jobs. Well, we went to the Paramount Studios to do a Coca-Cola commercial. And do you remember the Hillside Singers where I'd like to buy the world of Coke?
Okay. So it was like the something something anniversary of that. They had re-shot those people now older 20 years later, and it was going to be for Christmas. And here we are on a very large soundstage for film, and they had a 70 millimeter aspect ratio version of it so we could watch it. A live orchestra, they had the jingle singers, and me and Percy were in a booth. And then he came in on the very end tag of the commercial. So it went on for 60 seconds of them singing and beautiful music and helicopter footage. There was no drones then. And the orchestra's playing, the backup singers are singing. And he comes in at the very end and goes, "Coca-Cola Classic, you can beat the real thing." And on what they call Simpti Time Code, which is the code at the very bottom that shows how long the video is running, it was a little bit over.
And the engineer or the producer said, "Percy, could you shave off a 10th of a second on that?" And he goes, "Absolutely." So they ran it back, they did it again. And Clarence, I swear to God, I mean, as it went across, he said, Coca-Cola Classic, you can beat the real thing. It was 0.0001 or so. That right there sold me. I was like, "I want to do this." And he was a stage actor. He was also in many films and television, and he was just mystified that I wanted to be a voiceover actor. He's like, "Whoa, what do you mean you want to be a voiceover actor?" He was a classically trained royal Shakespearean actor. He'd done stage and he'd done, like I said, roots. I think he'd won awards for all of the stuff he had done. And he just couldn't believe that I wanted to be a voice. Nobody wants to do voiceovers. We do this between films.

Connor Quinn: What's wrong with you? And I'm like, "Well, I want to do Coca-Cola commercials." Well, what's funny is towards the end of his life, long before that, but he quickly, as he got older, he made more and more of his money from voiceovers. He was the voice of Kenny's shoes, Coca-Cola, Nabisco. I mean, he did so many stuff that he was making most of his money from voiceovers. I mean, hell of an actor, but that voice, I can't even do it justice. He had such a beautiful golden voice that. But his famous line was from Jaws. He would say, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water." That was his big line. And scared the heck out of me as I was a kid in 1970s or whatever.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah. Guys, hold on a second. Guys, we're going to cut me out right now because I need to check something. I have a feeling, and I just want to make sure this is the case, I think your audio may be coming through your computer instead of your microphone. Are you showing levels from your mic?
Let me look at this right here.

Clarence Fisher: If you look at your. Because I know your audio for your. You had to change the audio for your speaker on the mic. Is it coming through?

Connor Quinn: And maybe when it. Oh my God. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.

Clarence Fisher: At first, I wasn't - How is this? Oh, snap.

Clarence Fisher: That's it. Here's the deal because -

Connor Quinn: You want to start over?

Connor Quinn: Yeah.

Clarence Fisher: Let's do it, man. I'm down, man.

Connor Quinn: Here's the thing, because at first I'm like, okay, cool, cool.

Clarence Fisher: No, dude, this is all about audio. So I mean, if it sounds -

Connor Quinn: That's exactly like during that last story, I'm

Clarence Fisher: Sitting here thinking - I'm glad

Connor Quinn: You caught it.

Connor Quinn: Dude, you can't eat. When this reset, man, it was just like it erased everything.

Clarence Fisher: Oh, there it is.

Connor Quinn: I'm so glad you caught it, man.

Clarence Fisher: There it is. I'm sitting here like, "Man, nobody's going to hire because we're like, this is about audio."

Connor Quinn: Right. Okay. So ask me whatever you want. I'll go back from memory and if not, we'll take it till we make it. We'll just

Connor Quinn: Go back. Again, this does not happen in Hollywood, right? No,

Connor Quinn: I don't know what you're talking about.

Clarence Fisher: Man, you sound so golden right now. That is awesome. Okay. All right. Let me.

Connor Quinn: I'm going to get a little sip of bourbon here while we -

Clarence Fisher: Yeah, do that, do that, do that. All right. All right. We had no amateurs here. So amateur would've went through that whole interview and then been like, "I hope that turned out okay."

Connor Quinn: Yeah, I hope so. I'm an F'ing nerd.

Clarence Fisher: Oh, dude, your voice is. All right, here we go. All right, welcome back to Local Market Monopoly. Clarence Fisher, your host. And I'm super excited today more so than probably I have been, I'm going to say a long time, just so I don't offend anybody, but I'm telling you, I'm excited. I'm like a hardcore. Dang, that doesn't even sound right either. If I say I'm hardcore excited, we're going somewhere crazy. All right, so I'm just going to say this is a great, great day that I get to interview someone who is awesome with voiceovers. And look, I see you. Now you're getting it because of my radio background and entertainment background that I get to bring on someone who has made an absolute living doing this and is now helping small medium. Actually, not just small to medium-sized businesses like huge businesses, but you as a small and medium-sized business owner get access to him now.
So that's why I'm excited to interview him today and bring him in from the wings. Mr. Connor Quinn, how are you, sir?

Connor Quinn: I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm just as excited as you are. I can't believe that I'm here, that you want to talk with me.

Clarence Fisher: Dude, our conversation before this conversation was so crazy. And like I say, it's like it wasn't recorded.

Connor Quinn: No, I mean, we had this great talk and we both were saying, "If we've been recording, we'd have a heck of a podcast right now. This would be a killer episode."

Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. So a couple of weeks later, here we are. And I am grateful that you are taking the time to share with my audience. I have had the time to, again, speak with you and then look at your work, listen to your work. I don't understand even as someone who has had a career in audio, how you change your voices that much. But I mean, we'll get into that. But you got started in the industry very, very young.

Connor Quinn: Yeah. Luck played a big part in it. Everyone's journey into whatever field or whatever success is different and looks different for everybody. Mine started out with just an amazing opportunity through my grandfather who had a career in Hollywood. He was a cameraman for CBS Television City, Prize is Right and stuff like that. And I'd gone out during a summer to visit him when I was a kid, probably six years old. And this was 1977, so he asked me, same year as Star Wars came out, by the way. He said, "Hey, do you want to meet Winnie the Pooh?" Well, you ask any six-year-old in 1977. And the answer is yes. Yes, I do, because that is cooler than anything.
So I was awfully excited about it. Well, what I had in mind, what he had in mind were two different things. He was meaning the guy that did his voice, which was Sterling Holloway, an incredible actor from Vaudeville, from the films from the '30s and '40s, and Andy Griffith, he did a lot of TV and stuff like that. Well, as a six-year-old, I didn't know who he was. So I met this old, red-haired, weird guy. And he talked like Winnie the Pooh, so it sounded cool, but he didn't look like Winnie the Pooh. And I was kind of morbidly fascinated. I am meeting Winnie the Pooh, but yet I'm not. But anyway, so we hit it off. He talked to me and signed an autograph and all that sort of thing. And when I left, he asked my grandfather, who's from Oklahoma, so is my dad, he said, "Hey, does your grandson do a British accent?
Because we're doing Christopher Robbin storyteller records," which for your audience, some of them might remember, but long before MP3s and Wavefiles and CDs, we had analog, we had cassettes, and we had albums, vinyl. And so Disney made a lot of their stories and they would put them on records to tell kids to teach them how to read basically. You'll know when it's time to turn the page when you hear Tinkerbell, go like this, that type of thing. So my grandfather, without even stopping, he says, "Does my grandson do a British accent?" "Yes, of course. "Well, I didn't. I couldn't even tie my shoes at six years old. So him and my dad worked with me for several weeks, multiple weeks, trying to get me to do a British accent for this audition that Sterling Holloway was allowing me to go to. So then the day came forward, I did the British accent.
It was the worst. I mean, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Poppins. I mean, it was horrible. Ultra horrible stereotype of a British accent is what I was doing, and it was horrible. But I guess because I've had the blessing of Mr. Holloway, I got the gig.

Clarence Fisher: That is good.

Connor Quinn: And that's where it started as a career as a child actor with voiceovers. My very first gig was for Disney. I mean, that's just, what? I mean, it's impossible. But if that was a sign of things to come, it was not true because from there on it was work. You're a real actor and having to work to get auditions. But that was kismet in the beginning. That was a blessing is what that was. And then from there, I slowly did on camera because everyone, we're all cute and thin and young and stuff when we're a kid. So I did a lot of commercials for Coke and Jello. If there was a cereals in the '70s, I probably ate it on television on commercials and did several television series. So I was a busy kid actor. So it was an awesome start that I owe my career to Sterling Holloway basically, and my grandfather.

Clarence Fisher: Busy kid actor and you're still alive.

Connor Quinn: Yeah. That's podcast number two.

Clarence Fisher: Right, right, right. Okay. And so you're getting started, you're six years old, you're in the business, you've got a Bentley, and then what you. You probably don't have a Bentley at six years old. I just threw that

Connor Quinn: Out. No idea. Okay. Exactly. But it sounded good. I was going to get involved with that.

Clarence Fisher: How do you end up on Sesame Street? How does that happen?

Connor Quinn: So my agent at the time had a whole bunch of connections and got me on Electric Company. And I met with a lot of Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman. All those were. Rita Moreno was known, I guess Morgan Freeman in some circles, but definitely not who he is today. Nobody knew him by name probably at all. He'd done commercials and probably some television, but not as much. And so my agent got me the gig on Electric Company and right away, I only did a few episodes there, but immediately booked me on Sesame Street. But let's back up. Before Sesame Street, I was doing Little House in the Prairie as a child actor, and I was on there for several seasons.
I love that show.
Oh, yeah. I mean, it's really an iconic show now. And they had seen me, they'd seen one of my screenings on there, my auditions for that. And so they pulled me to New York to do Sesame Street. So at the same time, I was doing Little House in Sesame Street. So six months out of the year, I'd fly to New York and do Sesame Street and then fly back and about that time start Little House for a few months.

Clarence Fisher: Wow. Is this what your mom asked for? Was she ready for this?

Connor Quinn: No, I don't think they were. They had no idea because they were just real simple people from, not that they were stupid, but we were probably about medium income, just a normal regular family. And her and my dad were living in New Mexico. That's where I was born. And so they had jobs and stuff, so they had to go back to. So I, along with other children, lived basically in this housing is a building. In fact, Marilyn Monroe used to live in this building back in the day that was one of the rooms was in her penthouse. This was a tall skyscraper. And so we had boys on one side, girls in the other that was ran by my agent. And that's how we'd go get work. We were right there in Hollywood central to everything. So it was part of that system back then of running and doing auditions.
And then also during the day when we weren't auditioning, we had to learn how to sing, how to dance, how to act. I mean, it was just a full scale. It was like an episode of The Little Rascals or something. I mean, it was all hands on deck. There was something going all the time.

Clarence Fisher: That's crazy. Now, this is before FaceTime. So how are you communicating with your parents? Is it -

Connor Quinn: Yeah, long distance. Because back then, parts of LA, to call across town was a different area code. Maybe to call across the block was a long distance fee because they had two different area codes like 818 and 213, two different things. So back in those days, everybody was using Ma Bell, Pacific Bell. And so a lot of long, expensive phone calls to my parents back in the day. That was the only way to reach. If I was out on a film set or out shooting in Utah, there was no way to talk to them.

Clarence Fisher: Wow.

Connor Quinn: You just go days without talking.

Clarence Fisher: Did you enjoy it? I mean, is this them feeding your dream and allowing you to do your thing?

Connor Quinn: Well, I don't think that I, really six years, I really hadn't expressed what I wanted to do. I was very kindergarten pageants, whatever you call them, where your little plays that I seem to enjoy. And I think my mom picked up on that. And I get a lot of my attributes from my mom. I'm not shy, and that type of thing I get from my mom. And whereas my dad is more opposite of that, not as talkative and on and on and on. So I think my mom was living vicariously through me and encouraged me to do stuff that I didn't know was there. I didn't know what television was really. I didn't know what any of that was. And so she's the one that encouraged that. And as I went along, it was just incredibly fun. I mean, to say it was work is, yeah, there's work, but I mean, it's not like mowing lawns or something that other kids are doing or cutting a pasture or whatever they might be doing or painting a fence or going to school.
We did go to school, but even that was different. We had onset tutors that we would learn from, just get moments at a time that we could. Like in California, when we did Little House in the Prairie, the child actors couldn't work more than eight hours a day. Three of those hours had to be in school. One hour had to be for recess or fun time. So that only left maybe three or four hours to shoot. So they had to make the most of the time. And Little House in the Prairie was very. Michael Landon knew exactly what he wanted and was very efficient. He'd get probably 15 shots in a day. So they probably could do an episode a week. It was pumping it out. And you have to remember, this was in the day before digital, anything.

Clarence Fisher: Right.

Connor Quinn: Yeah. No computer assist. He'd get up in the mornings at 4:35 and watch dailies, which means what they shot yesterday, that film had to. Be developed and then shown to him to see if, did it look right? Was it framed right? Because nowadays we use the teleprompter. We can see ourselves like we're looking at ourselves on Zoom, but when they did films back then or television, which was filmed, they couldn't see what they were shooting until the next day. They were like, "Oh my God, there's a microphone in the shot or there's an airplane or something like that."

Clarence Fisher: Man, that's incredible. To think that the machine was such that you had all of those kids and you guys were just going on auditions all day and just coming back to the dorm and doing it at such an early ageis just incredible to think.

Connor Quinn: It's crazy because a lot of television shows back in the day, we shot a lot of stuff at the ABC television center. We did, let's see, Welcome Back Cotter, Sanford and Son, The Loveboat, Waltons, stuff like that. And a lot of those sets, it was just crazy. You had eight-year-olds smoking because parents would - Are you what? Yeah, parents would drop their kids off and all mayhem would be there. Michael Landon had been a former child star, so he knew what kind of stuff that kids get into. So when we were on that now, you have to remember, we shot about an hour north of Los Angeles in the Semi Valley, and
It's called Big Sky Ranch. And we were an hour north of LA, so it's not like you could retreat and go down to McDonald's and get lunch. We didn't have bathrooms out there. We ate out on park tables underneath the oak tree. It was like day camping. Sometimes in the Simi Valley, you might get up to 105 degrees when we're shooting out there. There's not much shade. And he had rattlesnakes. All the actors carried shovels. It was insane, the kind of stuff that would happen out there. And so anyway, with Michael Landon, he didn't put up with anything. So you were either on the set shooting your scene, you were off the set rehearsing your blocking your moves and your script, or you were with your tutor and you were in class. He didn't put up with anything else. So as a child, I hated it because it was so strict and formal.
Whereas if we were on other sets at ABC, it was just anything

Clarence Fisher: It probably saved your life.

Connor Quinn: Absolutely. So the bunch of us that were on Little House, including all the stars and all us in the background and stuff, child actors, we were taken care of. We had good handlers that knew when to keep us out of trouble and when to let us have fun. Whereas in Hollywood Proper, it was just they had so much stuff to do. The last thing they paid attention to was the kids, which is scary. Yeah. Right.

Clarence Fisher: So let's dive into something pretty controversial because your take on it convinced me in our last conversation that we may have the story wrong about Bill Cosby.

Connor Quinn: Right. Yeah, I definitely feel sorry for any victims, for his victims. And I don't know firsthand anything.

Clarence Fisher: Well, okay, let me take that back. As far as the story, let me take back. And saying the story wrong, I'm saying as far as the sentiment of how we changed the sentiment of a human being. It's just the way we do when everybody loves you and then something happens and we're like, we just throw you away. And so I'm like - That's true. Not taking anything away from any victims or anything like that. So I'm not saying that we're getting that story wrong, but you painted a picture of you knowing him of a human being actually.

Connor Quinn: Yeah. I mean, you have to remember, he was one of the most powerful men back in the day. He was America's dad. And before I met him, it was before the Cosby Show. The group of us, we were called Casa's kids. He gave a lot of us our first job, our first real job paying in Hollywood and took care of us. So he is like our dad. We'd go to him with our troubles or whatever. I say this a lot, he is the smartest, funniest man I've ever met in my life because it's so genuine. My mom was very beautiful. My sisters, they never had a problem with him. So I think we have to separate the artist from the art and that can be very tough. And that's from everything. I mean, we know stuff about our former presidents, the first founding fathers. They were not free from sin at all.
They did some things too. And I'm not okaying all of it, but I'm just saying you're not 1000% bad. Some people are, but in this case, I don't really feel that Cosby was, at least in those days when I met him, in all that I saw, he never did anybody wrong. So I think it was maybe a different persona maybe back then. He had our best intentions at heart and always looked out for us and learned so much. I mean, it was like having a dad, those Cosby records of him and his dad talking, and a lot of those stories came out. So he would tell you these life lessons, but he used comedy to a great effect. And his faces at first scared the hell out of me. I mean, it was just like when you're that close and he's right in your face doing it, it was so funny.
But I grew to love him. And so back in those days, I did hundreds of jello commercials, hundreds of Coca-Cola commercials, and never saw the bad side of him at all. And so in deference to his victims, I do feel sorry for him, but it's just that my story to tell is of a different perspective. And again, I'm male and didn't really have any problems. But then again, what does a child know? I just remember him, he always took care of us. There was no ego.
Everywhere we went with him, everybody knew who Bill Cosby was, and everybody wanted a picture or wanted to shake his hand or do something that way. And he always took time for everyone. He didn't discount anybody. He made everybody feel important, made me feel important when I was a kid that you can, regardless of what you've been told or the way you may have been raised or the area you've been raised at. I was in New Mexico where not a lot of famous people come from there. So how would you dream? How can you dream of great things? But he made it feel like you can. And he did. He showed us. A lot of us kids. I remember early on he put a lot of us on, he had an animated series called Fat Albert, and that he had been based on his standup comedy.
So that was some of our first gigs was doing the kids in the background shouting and stuff just for fun. He didn't have to, but he did. So that I totally respect him for and love him for.

Clarence Fisher: That's great. And I. Oh, go ahead.

Connor Quinn: It wasn't long after that that his career really started to take off. You have to remember it. He helped me get on Sesame Street Electric Company. I think he was doing Captain Kangaroo with the picture pages. And so he was tied into all those learning shows at the time. But his career with not only the commercials, but he was a producer and a writer, just a genius. His career really started to take off. And so he had to turn us over to one of his assistants and Joni Vinari. And she's still my agent to this day. So I tell everyone she's older than Methusola, which she really loves

Clarence Fisher: Hold on. And I apologize for that total media setup of. I should have just said, "Tell me about how you know Bill Cosby." Right.

Connor Quinn: Yeah, but I mean everyone can't say because we can't separate what we've heard or what has happened because of the sensationalism. But I didn't experience that. And I'm not saying that it's not valid or whatever, but I'm just saying my experience always was good qualities that I knew him from.

Clarence Fisher: And you knew him, you said before he really blew up?

Connor Quinn: Well, I mean, of course he was popular towards the late '60s, but it was before The Cosby Show and he owned NBC in the '80s. So this was before that. This was 77, 78, 79, somewhere around there.

Clarence Fisher: Very cool. Very cool.

Connor Quinn: In those years there. So right after that, he really started to. I mean, he was always been Bill. I mean, he had records in the '60s, so he was big. But I'm just saying he really took off. And in the '80s with Primetime, he became America's dad with The Cosby Show. He owned Primetime.

Clarence Fisher: It is interesting to me that, I guess, because you're in the business, you talk with all these people, and since you're doing voiceovers, you mentioned the agent that is still your agent to this day, and you have quite a few agents that you have getting you work and all that. The story about Morgan Freeman, where you were hired to do voiceover for a political race. Is that something that you can share or is that

Connor Quinn: Yeah. As long as I don't mention the name as far as what state or whatever, but there was a particular race for a state governor and he couldn't afford Morgan Freeman.

Connor Quinn: Who can. So my agent thinking that. I always thought she was old, but now that I do the math, she was only 25. But as a six-year-old, that's old.

Clarence Fisher: Sure. Yeah.

Connor Quinn: Of course, about the time this was happening, it was probably when I was 16 or 17. So she heard this particular running candidate couldn't afford Morgan Freeman, but wanted a Morgan Freeman type. And she knew that I could do kind of a Morgan Freeman. And so I did it. At 16, what can you do really? And so I did it, and the guy bought it, and he aired it. Well, it just so happened that Morgan Freeman traveled to that particular state around that time that these were airing and heard the spot. Well, Morgan, it's nothing hiding here. I mean, he's a very proud Democrat, and this was for a Republican gubernatorial candidate. And so yeah, Morgan was not happy with that. And so yeah, we had a call to Jesus meeting by phone, and I was basically told, "Do you believe in God?" "Yes, I do." "Well, if God himself tells you to do a commercial, you're going to check with me first."

Clarence Fisher: Oh, wow

Connor Quinn: So I don't use or any way. I don't go out of my way to do a Morgan Freeman voice at all for fear that this phone might ring. But very sweet man. He and I go way back those few episodes that I did for The Electric Company when I was a kid was just memorable. I mean, what a great actor. There'd be so many roles because he had so many wild things that they'd put him in where he played the DJ, I forget what his name, Venus Flytrap. I forget.

Clarence Fisher: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. WKRP

Connor Quinn: I forget what he said.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah.

Connor Quinn: It was so funny. Yeah, he had the sunglasses on and - I forget what he said. That was

Clarence Fisher: That was him?

Connor Quinn: And then he played Dr. Frankenstein. He had a thing where he'd play this guy with bottle Coke glasses and a scary wig and just funny. I mean, just stuff you would not even imagine Morgan Freeman doing, but he was a young actor, so he was trying it all.

Clarence Fisher: And he still has done that throughout his career. Even as an older actor, you see him in roles that you're like, "Morgan Freeman is playing that character?"

Connor Quinn: Not afraid of it. Yeah. He likes the challenge of putting on a fake mustache or kind of like Anthony Hopkins, not afraid of him

Clarence Fisher: Yeah, absolutely.

Connor Quinn: Just get into the role, whatever it takes to bring that character alive.

Clarence Fisher: And can go from these really serious roles to hokey.

Connor Quinn: And my particular theory about Morgan Freeman is they send him Mr. Morgan or sending you a script. Okay. So he gets the script. He looks at it and he goes, "Well, let's see, do I have a long narrator? Oh, here it is. Yes, I'll do it."

Connor Quinn: Scripts where he can talk off camera for a few minutes because everybody, they want his voice, man. That's awesome. Anybody would be stupid, we're going to hire Morgan Freeman, but he's not going to have much narration. That's what made Shaw Shank Redemption. I don't care what they say. It was a great movie. But you really believe that Morgan Freeman was a diehard inmate. And that opening narration about Andy DuFrain, Andy DuFrain, the way he talked, it was just - Andy DuFrain

Clarence Fisher: Andy DuFrain.

Connor Quinn: Andy DuFrain. Yeah. It's just like either get busy living or get busy dying. There's so many classic things of Morgan Freeman, and it's easy to go back to any movie and pick those voiceovers because you really feel it when he reads it or doesn't read it. He emotes it.

Clarence Fisher: He emotes it. Oh man, that's really good. So on the voiceover, man, thank you for being open with what I've asked you. On the voiceovers, which again, if you're listening, if you go to his website and you just look around, you're looking at Disney and all these just amazing companies and the amazing work that you have posted. How is it now that we have access to this level of talent and product?

Connor Quinn: Oh, the computer, the advent of our technology has really allowed smaller and medium-sized businesses to take advantage of quality talent worldwide. We have access to people and not just voiceover, I mean everything, marketing. We've got people that do video, all forms of business, not just in the media side of things, that we have access to. And along with that, when I moved out to Oklahoma after many years of being in Los Angeles, talent was not. There's very few people that did voiceovers full-time, or even still. There's a lot of people that do voiceover, but there's not that many of us that do it full-time, that do nothing else, have no other gigs really. It's just that we do voiceover. That's pretty much what I do all the time. I do coaching and some other things, but for the most part, it's just doing voiceover acting.
I don't do any on camera or anything like that. So for the smaller businesses, having that access to not only voiceover, but production companies and copywriters and people that can help people with their branding is insane. It's just amazing ability to take your brand and your small organization, but having it treated as just like anyone else, tell your message because that's what all of us need to do is we got to tell our story. And that's pretty much, we say voiceover and announcing. And you and I go back in the days where when a microphone was put in front of you, you project. You announce, you do that sort of thing. Absolutely.
But in this modern day, it's more about just telling a story. How would you tell a story around a group of friends at a bar or a Starbucks or at a campfire? How would you tell them about your company or what your services are? And so the voice comes down and you're talking with them and not at them. So you sound more friendly and you're more confident because not just the millennials and the Gen Zs, they don't like being sold to, but actually none of us like being sold to. I mean, pretty much all of us think of a bad used car salesman. I remember when you and I were younger, that was a thing. If you wanted to get a car, you had to get over that hurdle of dealing with this guy that's going to be all over you to sell you this horrible car probably.
And that has become more transparent now. So people don't like being sold to. They just want to tell me your story. How can I resonate? What interests you? How are you helping other people in your community? Because that will resonate with me and make me want to do service with you if you also help other people in the community by doing such and such, or what are your charities? And stuff like that is what bonds us. And it's kind of like how you and I met through partial through social media, through mutual friends that have mutual interests. And that's just the way things get done now. So advertising is that way. And so the long answer to your question is that our technology has brought us to this point where now they don't have to hire some big agent to get a very expensive voice.
I have rates for different markets. If I'm going to do a Super Bowl ad, that's one ad, that's one rate. But if I'm going to be doing. I've done commercials for Brahms for many years here in Oklahoma, and I'm very proud of that. So my price tag for here in Oklahoma, which is, I don't know, market 51, somewhere around that, it's not up to possibly.

Clarence Fisher: We were 60 when I was on there

Connor Quinn: Okay, so there we go. I stand corrected. Okay. So the rates are not going to be the same, and I know that. And by living here, I want to help out people that are Oklahomans because I love it here. I absolutely love being in Oklahoma.

Clarence Fisher: And Daniel Baylor will give you a shout-out to Danielle.

Connor Quinn: Yes, thank you, Danielle.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah, absolutely. And the Brahms story of you becoming the voice of Brahms for so long is incredible. Were you in Oklahoma at the time? Or you were in LA when you got - In LA at the time.

Connor Quinn: Yeah. And Brahms is just like any other client, so they have a lot of different ad campaigns. So there's a group of us that share voiceover duties, and over the years they've used a variety of actors and that sort of thing. But I've been doing Brahms commercials for almost 20 years off and on. It's not consistent. It's not like they always use. God, everybody would be really tired of me by that point. So they break it up and they use various other actors. And almost, I think all of us are based here in Oklahoma, so they don't use anyone outside that doesn't have ties to Oklahoma. I feel like in Oklahoman by default, my parents were both born in Oklahoma. My dad from Muskogee and my mom went to Klassen High here in Oklahoma City. So I very much feel that this is a part of my DNA and my heritage.
I feel more at home here than I ever did on LA. And plus there's no traffic here. That's why I really like moving here because there is no traffic. LA, it could be so bad. You turn your car engine off so you don't run out of gas.

Clarence Fisher: And you met, should I call him Big Daddy Brahms or you met

Connor Quinn: Yeah, Bill Brams. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So he interviewed me the very first time that I did a commercial for him. And my agent was saying, "You're from Oklahoma, aren't you?" "Well, my parents are from Oklahoma. I'm not from Oklahoma. "She's like," Well, there's a guy out there that has a hamburger stand that wants to use your voices for his hamburger stand. "I'm like," I'm young kid. What is a hamburger stand? What do you mean? "Because she had no idea. She didn't even know where Oklahoma. Where is Oklahoma? Well, it's north of Texas. Okay. And so yeah, I mean, come out here and I though we're going to go to this big fancy restaurant. I've never really been interviewed for a voiceover job. And he took me to Brahms on 39th Expressway here in Oklahoma City and I think Tulsa. And we went into that Brahms.
That's where he took me for lunch. And so we got our cheeseburger and the malt and the fries and whatever, and we're sitting down. And I said, "You own this restaurant, don't you?" And he's like, "Yeah. Yeah, I do." And I said, "But you paid for our meal." And he's like, "Yes, I did." "Why? If you own this, I mean, couldn't you just eat five hamburgers or whatever? "And he's like," You're not a businessman, are you? "I'm like," No, I'm an actor.
"And he's like," Well, the young girl that rang us up, she has no idea who I am and doesn't care. And that's important because then I can see how are they treating my customers? Is the restaurant clean? How does everything look? And so I can take care of my business because I don't believe in franchises. I own everything. All restaurants, I own them all. I don't believe in franchising. And so that just shows the quality of that wonderful family. I mean, Brahms is Oklahoma. Oklahoma is Brahms. He's the real deal. He was the real deal.

Clarence Fisher: Bruce Hoover.

Connor Quinn: Yeah, with an enduring legacy.

Clarence Fisher: So how does it work for a business, SMB? And when I say SMB, small, medium-sized business, how does it work with voiceover? Are you brought in? Is the script already created, the video's already created, and then you're brought in by maybe an agency like mine? Or how does that work? Is that how it worked?

Connor Quinn: Yeah, usually, so the client will go to a place like yourself and say, we would like a video made of our product or maybe a landing page for our website or something about customer testimonies or employee testimonies. And so you'll have the video shot and a script written. And usually the voiceover is one of the last things put into play. So usually the video is just about wrapping up when I get the script and they'll have me audition. A lot of clients that have had me for many years will just go directly to me and say, "Hey, we want you to voice this." And so I'll record several versions of it. Sometimes the client wants to be in on the call so they can hear me do it to better direct me. Could you put more emphasis on this product or this service or that sort of thing?
And they choose what voice they want to do, and then that's married to the video for their social media or for their commercial or whatever they're going to be using that in thing for. Sometimes I just do voiceover for their radio or Spotify ad or something like that. But most of the time it's with either digital ad or YouTube pre-roll. There's so many ways that I think a lot of small businesses don't even understand how I can get in front of my prospective audience. And that's why they need to go to someone like you that understands their audience better than they do. Because what do they do? They do their product or service, and that's what they're good at. You do your service and I do my service. So that's why a lot of places, they don't need to prejudge how much is this going to cost me and look at it as an investment.
How do I get my brand out there and my story out there? So you need several people to help you with that. You need someone with digital marketing, someone that knows where your audience is and how to get you in front of them. And then you need an effective message, which is either video, voiceover or both or whatever. And on my side of things, there's several points that I consider that it's very important if they're looking for a voiceover. Number one is acting. If I had a dime for every guy that comes up, I've always been told I got the voice for radio or the voice for voice. This probably means that you probably shouldn't get into it because they're not. Back when I started, they wanted the voice of God. They wanted Gary Owens. They wanted the big Orson Wells, but they don't now.
They just want a realistic person that sounds like a customer or an employee or whatever.
So I think over AI, which is dirt cheap, and it's coming after everybody, you need a human that can act, someone that has an acting ability, that can take your message and make it sound conversational to whoever you're talking to, whoever you're trying to bring to life your copy basically. You also need the naturalness, which I talked about, which AI is not there yet. It can sound like Morgan Freeman, but not quite. It's not really Morgan Freeman. I think no matter how advanced that gets, there's always going to be a higher priority, not just voiceover, but any service with a human. There's going to have a higher price tag. For me, it's just comforting to know that the human is behind that. I can't tell you how many YouTube videos I've watched. I though, "Well, this is going to be a good documentary." And then it starts off and you can tell the script was probably written by AI and it's an AI talking.
And two minutes into it, even if that, I get lag. It's like, "Oh, shut it off." It's all at the same tone. There's no ups and downs and no things that a human would do.

Clarence Fisher: Hey, step out of.

Connor Quinn: That's it. And the other thing to consider when hiring someone for digital media production and voiceover is pro audio. I've got a broadcast quality studio that I work from here in Oklahoma City, and that can effectively communicate your message or story. And same with these people like yourself that are working to get that message out. You have the professional equipment. And along with the acting, you have the articulateness. I can't even say that word. Articulateness. Is that it? I'm going to change the word.

Clarence Fisher: Articulateness.

Connor Quinn: Articulateness. Clarity. There we go.

Clarence Fisher: There you go.

Connor Quinn: It can be articulate and be clear with the message. And one thing you cannot fake with any of this is all of them are important, but something that's truly important is a general interest. How do I care about this product? So I'm speaking for the company or I'm speaking for the brand or whatever. And having that genuine interest, it's my job as an actor to find what in that script is of me is really relevant if I'm also the consumer. What would I like to know about this company? And exploring that and bringing those points out while at the same time satisfying the client that you're telling my story in the right way because it's their story, but I'm the one that gets to share it. And furthermore, a lot of times we are used in conjunction with a client's viewpoint, with them telling, and maybe sometimes their Own voiceover is also added to it.
So it's sometimes easier for a professional voiceover to tell someone else's story in addition to them telling their story as well. We kind of enhance it and we just put the bookends on it and put it in a nice package.

Clarence Fisher: Ah, that's nice.

Clarence Fisher: That's nice. Okay

Connor Quinn: So yeah, those are just things to keep in mind, whether they hire me as a voiceover or there's so many wonderful talent, but I want them to find someone who generally has their best interest, not just a gig, not, oh, this is a voiceover gig, but it's someone who does this for a living and will take the time to research the company and find out what is your real message? What are you trying to make clear? And how can I help you adapt your message to your end audience?

Clarence Fisher: So it's not very often that a business owner is contacting you directly?

Connor Quinn: Very rarely. Now there's some, not all of them are like Brahms where they have their in-house advertising person. At that time it was Terry Holden who did all their advertising stuff. Other companies do hire me directly, but mostly they'll go through someone like yourself or if they have a lot of money, they'll go through a big ad agency. But here in Oklahoma, for the most part, just going to someone who is a video specialist, a marketing specialist, they will have a network of people that they can bring to the job. That's not to say that the person can do their own research and find a voiceover or on-camera actor that they would, I really like this guy or this woman and suggests this is similar to what I want to go to.

Clarence Fisher: Right, right. Absolutely.

Connor Quinn: Yeah, so that kind of helps too, especially if it's to tell their story, something that they're comfortable with that looks right or sounds right for their brand. But just that overall, the ability to convey the message of their brand, that's the bottom line.

Clarence Fisher: And that happens quite a bit with me, especially with clients that I've had for a long time, that we have the relationship of, "Hey, Clarence isn't going to get bent out of shape." A lot of times I am brought to the table, and this trips a lot of marketing guys out, is like they've caught my client's ear somehow with something, and my client is talking with them, and then my client's like, "Hey, let's meet on X day at the office." And then that day comes and my client's there, they're there, and I'm there. And they're like, "Hold on, do you have a marketing person already?" "Yeah, yeah. I mean, we run everything through him basically. Okay, so tell us what you were talking about. "You know what I mean? And they're like," Whoa, hold on. "Well, because it's just, like you said, caring about their story, caring about their business, being transparent," I'm not the best at everything.
We're on this together. I want you to win. And yeah, maybe for instance, this other team was, I thought they were better at LinkedIn advertising. And I'm like, "Yeah, we could do it, but let's hear how you do it." And I can't tell you how many times the other marketing person in the room gets super nervous or even offended
That somebody else is there. But I say all that to say, I can get a call. It is not unusual for me to get a call and they say, "Hey, I ran into this guy, Connor Quinn. Let's see how we can use him on some of our stuff."

Connor Quinn: Absolutely. I do the same thing where people contact me directly. Recently, there's a fairly large retailer in New Mexico, and I've done their commercials and digital marketing for probably 10 years. And that was a direct reach out from. They knew family of mine and that's how they heard about me. They liked my voice and they went direct. Other times, most of the time it is through someone like yourself or through a video production company where the client just openly goes there and says, "Help me with this." And they're the ones that put together the video and we'll bring you five voiceovers, you choose which one you want to go with.
It's so cheap, they can go to AI, they can go to Fiverr, they can do all this stuff. But I really encourage them, if they really take pride in their brand and they really want to tell their story and they believe in themselves, they need to hire a professional to help them because we all have relatives that are good with the phone camera that know their way around LinkedIn or TikTok or whatever. But having someone, a third party that really genuinely cares, and it's not just a gig, a $5 gig, but someone who genuinely cares and has invested to make your story a part of everybody's story, that is completely different. That's something that's totally worthwhile. It's a worthwhile investment.

Clarence Fisher: I totally agree. And I challenge you if you're listening here to go to voxguy.com and listen to Connor's work here. And this is, as I said before, I'm about to send it to everybody I know in the business here as far as digital marketing and production because I wish we would've met when we did the Tulsa Boat Show. I guess it was last year, but I think the year coming up, it's something that I can pitch because a lot of times too, we're always pitching stuff. When you just said YouTube pre-roll,

Clarence Fisher: I didn't think about that. I mean, I'm like, "Heck,

Connor Quinn: Wow." A lot of what I do now used to be just all radio and television. Well, terrestrial radio and television is starting to take a backseat. And I'm often doing more quotes for their YouTube pre-roll or for Spotify or Pandora ads or -

Clarence Fisher: Yes.

Connor Quinn: All those are ways that they can put you in local. For local listeners listening to Pandora or SiriusXM -

Clarence Fisher: Over the top advertising.

Connor Quinn: That's where it's at. Over the top. Yeah, my over-the-top numbers have exponentially grown in the last three to five years.

Clarence Fisher: Man.

Connor Quinn: I still do terrestrial radio and broadcast television, but not as much as this other stuff. This digital ads and stuff like that is really taking the cake. It's just like those ads are now, for the first time a few years ago, some of those rates have gotten more expensive than traditional broadcast radio and television ads because their importance and their audience is larger now than someone watching television.

Clarence Fisher: What's so crazy is we were trying to push over the top to local businesses probably about three years ago, and it was difficult to get people to see it. Well, now it's starting to come out. And if you can imagine, of course, you know this, and if you're listening, if you can imagine Disney, Disney was the first to just kill me with this. When I told the kids we were going to Disney, and for some reason, if you say Disney out loud, Disney is everywhere.

Connor Quinn: Everywhere. Yeah, that's true. They're pervasive. And

Clarence Fisher: I was like, how are they doing this? They're on the TV?

Connor Quinn: All of a sudden influencers on TikTok, everyone starts coming onto your algorithm and -

Clarence Fisher: Exactly. And I'm like, Babe, now I do this for a living and I don't understand how this is done. Well, come to find out, it's a lot of over-the-top advertising where I get pixeled, it gets picked up, and then all of a sudden, like you say, Spotify, YouTube, what's the Roku? All of these places that have ads, they're following me.

Connor Quinn: That's right. And also Google Ads that pop up on the side of the screen. It's just amazing. So popup, yeah, it's completely different. Before, I wasn't really paying attention to doing voiceovers for YouTube pre-roll. I would occasionally do them. But now I do several a day because it's just now they've replaced. I used to do automotive. I used to do eight automotive commercials a day. And since COVID, that's died down a little bit. It's starting to pick back up a little bit, I think. But this digital over the top and pre-roll, all that stuff, that is what used to be supplementary is now becoming to the forefront

Clarence Fisher: Yeah. Man, I would love to hear your voice everywhere that I am. You're like, "So would I, dude? Make it happen.

Connor Quinn: Yes.

Clarence Fisher: All right. Okay. So this has been awesome. Okay, so summing everything up, you gave already some of the biggest mistakes that people are making, but hiring, you see it. They go on Fivver and they're like," Hey, I'm going to pay 10 bucks and here read my whatever. "But one of the things that I think that people miss is even when you're hiring Fivver talent, you have to hire five or six of them or four or five in order to try to get what you want. What you're saying is if you go to a professional from the jump, then you get a better product.

Connor Quinn: Absolutely. And plus I probably work with most people in the media that you're having to go to, so I know most of these people. And I'm in Oklahoma. You can get ahold of me and say, no, Connor, I want you to change. You can listen in with me while I do the recording session and make adjustments as we're recording live.
Stop really.
And I don't know of Fivver that do that. And I understand the need to save money, but it's just like at the end of the day, how much is your brand worth? How much is your marketing worth? And that's why people say, well, I don't need to advertise. It's like, well, have you heard of Coca-Cola? They were started in 1885. They're still advertising. They don't have to, but they do because you have to. Yeah. They've not stopped advertising since 1885 or whenever. They're still advertising. I just saw one of their commercials last night on YouTube. So everybody knows who Coke is, but they still advertise because there's competitors all day long. And furthermore, they're advertising on the can. The can cost more than the product inside. The very product they're selling you costs less than what it is to market.

Clarence Fisher: Oh, that's a thought.

Connor Quinn: The can.

Clarence Fisher: That's a thought. I've been told that not advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you're doing, but no one else does.

Connor Quinn: Yeah, that's true. Exactly. And people say, "Well, I don't need advertising." Here in Oklahoma, I mentioned Bob Mills or the Mathis Brothers. They've bought their fame. I'm not saying everybody can afford to buy every single newscast like Bob Mills or the Mathis Brothers, but I'm sure at the beginning they didn't either, but they started that way. And that's how people usually go to the familiar, to what rings true, to what's always in front of their eyes. And I'm not saying that you have to buy every ad or whatever. You need to find your audience. You need someone that can direct you to your audience, and then you have to have that clear message that speaks to them because none of us like being sold to once again. Back in the days when Mathis Brothers were selling, it was furniture. It's like you don't want to be sold to.
And so even today, they've changed their marketing situation. Even Bob Mills says no shopper stockers. He's talking to his audience.

Clarence Fisher: And that's a big thing that I picked up from what you said as well is, and I learned that from our conversation today. I couldn't put my finger on it until you said it, but it's the conversation. It's not projecting to someone. It's having the conversation with your audience.

Connor Quinn: Yeah, not talking at them or to them, not with them. Having a dialogue. A dialogue is two people. A monologue is order now. Offer ends by midnight.

Clarence Fisher: Man. And if we're not careful, we do that. Buy now.

Connor Quinn: We do. Yes, come on down. We got 24 hours left and you'll save millions.

Clarence Fisher: So crazy.

Connor Quinn: We just learned to tune that out. It's like, oh, that guy is doing a commercial. I'm not going to listen. But if someone is telling you about some problems that they're experiencing or that a lot of their customers experience that you're like, oh my God, my sink was leaking the other night. I think, yeah, so what does he have to say about this? Or whatever, he's talking with you. We're in a Starbucks having coffee and I'm just saying, I don't know about you, but have you ever had this problem with your refrigerator?

Clarence Fisher: That's so awesome.
What's this? What is?

Clarence Fisher: This is so awesome. This is what I'm saying is, and maybe because I'm a marketing guy, when you just stopped just then and just had the conversation, I saw an ad, and I wanted to respond to that ad. I can tell what wins when I hear what wins.

Connor Quinn: Right. Yeah. And that's what makes you specialty with what you're doing. And that's why people need to reach out to you because they need to trust that. We all need help and guidance somewhere. If I need a plumber, I'm not going to do it myself or waste time watching YouTube. I'm going to call a plumber.

Clarence Fisher: Okay, so how do we do this? All right, my folks are listening right now and we're wrapping up. The thing that needs to happen in order for them to benefit from your genius is what?

Connor Quinn: So if they were to reach out to you with what their goals are with their company or their product or service, and they would like to hear my voice on it, I would be willing to demo, give them a sample of what my voice would sound like with their product. And along with your guidance, you can show them how we can get their message in front of the right people in front of the right audience.

Clarence Fisher: Man awesome.

Connor Quinn: And it's just going to cut through. If you spend 30 minutes watching television in Oklahoma City and you hear those ads, they all sound alike, and they have sounded the same for 30 years. It sounds like a local ad. But what cuts through the air is truth of what someone is communicating to you and saying, at St. Anthony's Hospital, we know what it's like to have a sick child. It's different feeling when you actually feel the copy because you've been through that process and you're trying to relate to someone. You know what's really scary is going in for knee surgery. But here at Knee Orthopedics of Ocala, I'm not a doctor, but you know what I'm saying? It's just slowing the roll and not saying, "I've got 30 seconds to say all these wonderful things." I'm just going to select the right things for my audience and just say those things because people are going to listen when there's not a bunch of clutter.
Our first instinct when there's clutter is to turn it off, turn it down, ignore. But if there's someone saying something or a TikTok that piques your interest, you're all there, baby. You're going to watch it.

Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, so Tulsa Internet Marketing. Hi, Here we go.
Standby. Phones are ringing.

Clarence Fisher: Man, Connor, thank you for spending so much time with us today.

Connor Quinn: No, Clarence, thank you. I mean, why didn't I meet you five years ago, man? No,

Clarence Fisher: I know. Well, we know each other now and I have the feeling, matter of fact, I know that we're going to end up working together really soon here.

Connor Quinn: Yes, absolutely.

Clarence Fisher: Okay. So I gave the website V-O-X-Guy, which is voiceover by the way.

Connor Quinn: That's right. Yeah.

Connor Quinn: Voxguy.com. And your phone number on here?

Connor Quinn: Yeah, it's 405-603-8020. 603-8020.

Clarence Fisher: And you have Call My People Here. How does that work with your agents and

Connor Quinn: All that? With agents. Those are for large companies that are. So here in Oklahoma, we don't need to worry about that and doesn't need to be scaring you.

Clarence Fisher: You don't Want to do that. Yeah. When you see all those big names that. I've been the voice of Visa for seven years. In the past, I was the voice of Visa and Sandals Resorts and on and on and on. None of those should scare you because I want to help people here in Oklahoma. Mercedes-Benz. It's direct. Yeah, Mercedes-Benz. It's like just call me directly. You don't have to go through my agents. Other people, they need to go through my agents. But not Oklahoma.

Clarence Fisher: And that's the beauty about Oklahoma, man. It really is. You run into people in Oklahoma that seriously could have millions and millions and millions of dollars, and they're right there at the grocery store with you. I mean, it's just Oklahoma.

Connor Quinn: Not only am I lucky and you're lucky that we get to do what we do for a living, we're all fortunate to live in Oklahoma because every day there's not a session that goes by where I'm working with a producer in New York or Los Angeles and they're, "Where are you, Connor?" And I said, "I'm in Oklahoma City." Why? Because I look out my window here and there's a cow chewing or cud. When I was in LA, it was smog and the 405 and back-to-back traffic. So I would much rather be here.

Clarence Fisher: And people hold the door when you. Yeah, no.

Connor Quinn: They do open the door. I didn't know what to do with that, so I had to settle down. Yeah, we wave at people for no reason

Clarence Fisher: Here in Oklahoma. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. All right, Connor. Well, thank you so much. I know we're going to be working together, and hopefully if you're listening right now, I've said this probably four or five times now, voxguy.com. I am a believer. And so I know that you move because I hear from you. I'm getting the emails, I'm getting the LinkedIn communication, and we're talking back and forth. I am giving my stamp here for Connor Quinn.

Connor Quinn: And furthermore, if they talk to you real quickly, Clarence, if they talk to you or email you with questions, I'd be glad to field them, help them out in any way I can. Oh, awesome. Awesome. If they have questions about voiceover business or whatever, let Clarence know and I'd be more than happy to answer.

Clarence Fisher: That'd be awesome. Awesome. Thank you very much. Alrighty guys. Thank you. We are going to see you next week with Local Market Monopoly. And as we always do, go own your block.