Voiceover and Mastermind with Alessandra Levy

Yeah. Yeah. So the viewers should know that Ali Saundra is a boss lady producer. She's a great friend. You know, we, we have just such a special bond that we want to share with you today on she's all over the place. Yeah. So let's get started. Cool. So tell us a bit about you, where you're from and you know, your education and your passions, your interests. Let's start there.
I was born in Queens, New York, a very long line of new Yorkers in my family. My dad's from the Bronx and my mom's family's all from Brooklyn. You got that New York connection going. And my passions are music acting. I love nature. Just being outside in nature. Those are things that I really enjoy yoga, you know, moving my body, especially with everything going on now, you know, it's good to just move your body a little bit dance, do some yoga. I know you like to have dance parties to your Katie.
Yeah. That cool idea. Recently that we have online community dance party.
I would love that. And you know, I'll be there front and center, but, but, you know, I think, you know, going back to what you were saying about us having a really deep bond, I really do think it's because a lot of the things that you like to do, I like to do, you know, we're both voice actors. We both have been acting since we were kids. We both love comedy, you know, sketch comedy improv. Well, you do stand up. I'm too scared of that.
My fire going, baby. That was, that was your birthday, your birthday gift to me.
I love it. Music, you know, music is so important to both of us. I grew up in a very musical household. I know you have musicians in your family too. So, and then of course seeing, yeah, and she she's been an ORC. She was an orchestra teacher for, you know, 40 years. But it's funny because I just forgot. I mean, not, not forgot, but as I said, you know, the things I'd love to do, you know, Yoga move my body. That's actually what brought us together was Yoga. We met in Nicaragua on a yoga retreat.
Yeah. Yeah. My sister, Anna, she was a part of this program with Chloe and Chrissy from Sky Ting Yoga and they had 18 gorgeous, beautiful, independent females all come together. It was in may like three or four days ago. Right.
It was may of 2015. So this may will be five years that we
Are, oh my God. Having a beautiful friendship. Yeah. I was so inspired by that trip. That actually it was, you know, Arianna Huffington asked me to write for her on the Huffington post at the time. And that was in February. And then I was just like, I had that writer's block. I was like jolted stuck. I didn't know which topic. And then going on that trip to Nicaragua, Dickie who, you know, was the creator of the Marius village or w you know, when there's three of them, but he's one of the founders. I was so inspired that I wrote my first article on the Huffington post about that trip. Yeah. Three months later. So yeah, we were just doing yoga every single day.
And then there were different activities. And, you know, there was this one day where it was probably like the sixth or seventh day into the trip and, you know, people could go horseback riding, or there were just like five different activities. And so like all 18 girls were splitting up and going in different directions. And my sister, Anna and I, we took the option of going into this van, which would be a two and a half hour trip to go to like this town to, you know, see the local shops and buy gifts and stuff like that. And it was Marissa Melissa, their sisters, and then Ali Saundra. And then I don't even remember who else was in the van, but, but, you know, it was just like us group of girls.
And we were just like, all of a sudden, we were just like, like, I just heard your voice. And we, we, we just like some, We, we were both, we were both talking to different people and something was said, and then there were just like a drop. And then we were just like face to face. And we're like, like bullet shots, boom, boom, boom, back and forth voiceovers music. And it was just like, it was not a non-stop et cetera connection. And we've just been going ever since it was like love at first sight for friends, it was like an immediate soul connection. Yeah. So shout out to the girls at Sky Ting, Yoga for having these retreats around the world. I mean, they do them in Costa Rica and all these like phenomenal places and they bring like-minded souls together.
And for these nourishing bonds that, you know, create a ripple effect. And I mean, yeah, I definitely need to go to their studios in New York city. Now they have like two of them. So in there they're even doing these online courses now. So my sister was telling me about it the other day and I saw, I think Chrissy posted something about it, but yeah. Yeah. So what a great story. Yeah. And it was just a remarkable time. I remember I was in LA and I was writing like the pros and cons of going. So it was just like in my thing, super focused. And it's like 10 days going away, like, you know, spending all this money. And it's like, you know, it's like a bonding with my sister and she accomplished this, you know, a 90 day yoga teacher training.
And it was like a great opportunity to be with my sister and more females and to bond. And I mean, it was just so worth it and a dream come true. And I mean, you become, you know, one of my bestest friends since then me to love you. I love you. So we have a awesome new sponsors on she's all over the place. And I love to honor, you know, my friends and Ali Saundra, and she's been a big supporter of me getting this podcast on the ground running, and she's doing the voices for, you know, the new sponsors we have. So when you hear those voices, that's her on? Like basically mostly every episode.
Yeah.
Got a shout out your sponsors. Oh,
Totally. Totally. Yeah. It's just like everything I've ever brought to her attention. She's like, okay, let's do it. Okay. Yeah. I like that. We like talk about it. We make a plan. We talk about everything from me into the yang and on a macro micro everything into between. And she just rolls up her sleeves and she's just, she's like my go-to girl. She's like always there. Oh,
Thank you. I feel like we're very similar. We both have the, that what we, what we called our producer brains, you know, we both just get stuff done. We have a plan, we see the vision and we see the big, we see the, the, the big end goal and we just go for it. So I think that's also what makes us really compatible and why our friendship has, you know, stood the test of time and also stood the test of being on opposite coasts from time to time. Right. I mean, that just goes to show both of our drive and our ambition and just our work ethic that we can get. We can make stuff happen if we're in the same place or if we're across the country.
Yeah.
We're both east coast to west coast by code. So girls cool with our profession because literally we can be anywhere in the world like Bali or Japan or Hawaii or any anywhere. I mean, God willing during these, you know, sacred times, you know, it's limited. But for the most part, you know, before just, you know, just a couple of weeks ago, like we can be anywhere in the world doing our voiceovers. And it's so cool, like having, you know, the mobile, the mobile setups to be able to accomplish our goals and our dreams and, you know, have the characters and the choices and the pre-work done. So when we get onto the mic and we're giving our best reads possible, you know, not just saying the lines, but it's like, you know what we bring to the different characters.
And I know, I know you do little boy voices. Like I do. Yeah. That's like one of your favorite things. Right.
So I mean, my brother and I were very, very like innovative creative children and my brother when he was about three or four, so I was probably seven. He started doing the, you know, we both were just like making up characters. And so I think, yeah, I think it's just kind of always been in my, in my DNA.
Yeah. And then we were, we were both on the call with Randy Thomas the other day. And the lady was saying how like Nickelodeon closed everything down like two days ago.
Yeah. Yeah. So she, everyone's kind of doing stuff from home if it's not just outright canceled or postponed
A rush audition today, which was cool. And yeah. So I'm super grateful that we're, we've set ourselves up in such a way to be able to, you know, still act and work remotely, you know, while, while being inside,
It's super blessed, you know, it
Is the big blessing and we created that for ourselves. So we get to acknowledge ourselves for that because you know, it, it takes a lot, it's a lot, it's like if something's handed to you or given to you, or like find you're an animator, you know, tech and you work remotely, and it's your thing. I mean, you know, like they've been saying for years, I mean, people have been saying like texts, the way of the future, like learn tech. And my friend's mace, he went to this tech school in San Francisco for a year. It's like one of the best tech schools in San Francisco, you know, to be educated because it's, it was the way of the future. Like people have been saying that for a long time. So the ones who like were already on board or like, you know, took serious interest to that, you know, those are the people who, you know, are, I don't want to say thriving right now, but you know, like obviously it's a, it's a turned, turned upside down world right now with what's going on.
So,
And I've, and I've seen such a big, you know, there's a lot of communities online for voice actors. There's a lot of Facebook groups. There's a lot of, you know, community groups. And I've noticed that on the Facebook groups, there's so many people saying, oh, you know, thank God I just set up my, my, my home studio, because now all my agents are asking me, can you send from home instead of going in person or, you know, or just clients want to be able to record you from your booth. So just being able to be set up for that. I mean, I already had those capabilities just because, like you said, I, I'm not an, I'm not an engineer by trade, but I have learned over the years because my husband is a producer and I learned how to use pro tools back in 2013 during hurricane Sandy, actually another time I was stuck in the house.
And so, you know, I think it's just, I've always kind of tried to make sure I was accessible from anywhere, but yeah, I see a huge push now. And, you know, even with my agents, they, I mean, they knew I had a home set up, but they sent out a blast email saying like, please let us know what your capabilities are to hook up with other studios. And it's definitely, it's definitely smart for anyone in our, in our industry to make sure you have a really good sounding home studio and home set up.
Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your background. You went to the university of Miami, right? For me.
I did. Yeah. So sort of, it's just, you know, sometimes when you look back, you know, obviously I've been out of school for a long enough time where I can kind of look back and say, wow, what an interesting trajectory to get where I am today. But in a way, it actually sort of set me up for what I'm doing now. And I'm still, I'm still obviously singing and making music and still a professional musician. But I went to school at the university of Miami for studio music and jazz performance and voice. And I also played bass and many, many ensembles, but it's just kind of interesting, you know, in college learning how to be in a recording studio as a, you know, as a 17, 18 year old, just fresh into college, you know, being able to go into a state of the art recording studio on your campus and record stuff with your friends was just such an amazing time.
And also, you know, I really wanted to be a jingle singer. I really make a lot of money. Yeah. I wanted to, I wanted to sing, you know, for commercials, which, you know, the, the jingle business has. It's very, very small if that now, although I went to a conference last may and, and the audio, there was an audio guy from Pandora, and he had said that they start, they've been starting to write jingles for some of their clients. So maybe there's a little bit of, it could maybe come back a little bit, but it's pretty, it's turned into Voiceover, which is how it's kind of funny that I ended up in Voiceover because I, when I went to school, you know, I was in school for being in the studio and learning how a composer would say, okay, here's your, here's your part?
We're going to press record. And you just got to sing it, you know? So learning how to be kind of like under the gun, looking at a piece of music and being able to sing it, I think really prepared me for obviously everything I do in music, but also just studio etiquette, microphone, technique, you know, learning how to, you know, just everything, everything that has to do with now, what I'm doing with Voiceover, except I'm not singing as much Voiceover every once in a while. You know, like, of course we know with animation, sometimes there's auditions where they want you to sing in character. Which of course I'm always excited to do since I do have that singing background, but I went to school for music and I had been, you know, an actor like you, you know, I'd been acting since I was little, I'd been in the performance, you know, space like that.
And so at first I wanted to go into school for acting and then I don't know, somewhere in high school, I, I changed my mind and I wanted to go for, for music. But I will say that, you know, when you get out of school and you're kind of, you know, in the real world and on your own, again, it's nice to say, you know what? I want to incorporate all those things again, because I think in college, it's hard to do a lot of things, especially I think in a music setting or maybe in a theater setting, because you're so focused on your major, it's hard to spread out and do multiple things. So I do think, I do think it was nice when I got out of the college to say, oh, I can go back into acting again.
You know, I have time, I have time to do that. It's kind of funny how it all kind of went, you know, it came back to now, I feel like I'm kind of it's full circle. You know, like, like I was saying, my, like I was saying, my brother and I like on road trips would be recording each other and making up characters and voices and just really, really imaginative and creative things. And now fast forward all these years, I get to use some of those characters that my brother and I created when we were little kids and I get to use them now, as you know, as an adult.
Yeah. Young adult. And I also think it's like really cool, because if you go to the root of it to have that support for your parents to say yes, you know, to a lake, I, I know growing up like, or just stories I've heard parents, you know, are just anti like, oh, what are you going to do with that? Or would it, you know, what do you want to do, you know, have a backup plan or, you know, so to that you went to school for that and that your parents said yes, and they supported you in that journey. It just shows like you were able to be connected to your bliss and be connected to you. You know, it was a lot of people get disconnected from who they authentically are because they're wanting to people please, or they need to fill the shoes of someone else's desires for them.
And they're too young to, you know, go with what they want to do unless they rebel and then they get in trouble and then they're, you know, looked at as maybe like a problem child or something. And then, and that's a whole different path so that you have the nourishment and the family to, to have those play times with, and the support I think is a, a moment to really think about and reflect and honor.
Oh yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm so incredibly grateful and blessed to have supportive parents. It's actually kind of funny because I mean, you've met my dad before, but especially, this is just funny because, you know, when I first moved back to New York after college and I had to get a lot of like part-time jobs and even a full-time job that had nothing to do with music or anything, you know, my dad would say like, why aren't you doing music? Like, you know, and it's so funny. Cause that's the opposite of most parents. Why aren't you working? Why aren't you like, you know, an accountant? Or why aren't you, why aren't you getting a full-time job with benefits? Meanwhile, my parents were like, we feel like you're not exp, you know, you're not, you're like, you're not doing enough creative things anymore.
That is so cool.
It is really funny. And I remember having to tell my dad like, no dad right now, you know, making money as a musician, it's a struggle. So I, I have to get another job to pay my bill. So it is kind of funny. It's almost like a reverse of what a lot of people, like you said, a lot of people go through where they want to be creative and their parents say get a real job. Or, you know, we're worried about you. It's like, my parents are the opposite. They, they are like, if I wasn't doing something creative, they, they were like, what's wrong. Yeah.
Yeah. I love
That. So I definitely do not take that for granted, but I appreciate you that up because yeah. That is really special.
God willing if I, if, and when I have kids one day, God willing, I definitely want my kids around you and your parents.
Exactly. Yeah. Well, I know you will be so supportive in any creative endeavors. Yeah. No.
Oh, so, so let's talk a little bit about, you actually decided to, you know, take charge and wear a hat and go work at an ad agency for a little while and, and kind of do the business side of it. I thought that was very advantageous of you. And I really thought that was really cool when, you know, we were masterminding. We'll have to talk about that or a masterminding, you know, when you, when you were seeking, when you off the position, your journey through it, and then when you were deciding to, you know, leave and go on that journey, let's talk a little bit about your experience when you're actually in the office.
Yeah. So we worked with, I was a, an audio producer, so I worked with a lot of ad agencies, but I was at a post-production voiceover studio and I was, I started out as an assistant producer and then I became a producer. And this is before I decided to go into Voiceover full time, I had only done like maybe one or two voiceover jobs, you know, just through my own finding. So when I started, this was, I think it was about November, 2016 is when I started. And I started because I, I thought kind of going back to what I went to school for. It was like, okay, I went to school and it was a studio major and music, but I want to be in a studio environment.
I love being in the studio. And so I decided to work, you know, I got the job there and it was actually, I learned so much about myself. I learned a lot about what it's like to work with other people in a very, very close in very close quarters. There was actually one big desk and four of us were at the desk. So talk about getting used to being up close and personal to four people, you know?
Yeah. I remember I was in New York during New York fashion week, so I, you invited me to the office. I actually witnessed the, the one.
Yeah. Yeah. But I learned a lot obviously about the industry from behind the scenes. So I think as a general rule of thumb, the kind of person I am, I'm very curious. I kind of want to know everything. I'm sure my husband can laugh about that because when we're watching a movie and like, it's not very clear, I'm like, I want to know what's happening. Like, how is what's going on? You know, so I think for me, I've always been very curious. And so for instance, when I was on camera acting, I then actually started to do stuff behind the scenes of production. So I started casting, I was also a coordinator. Then I became an associate producer on some things I helped produce other things. So I kind of like to learn both sides of whatever I'm doing.
So I think it was the kind of same, it was kind of the same thing with this, with this voiceover studio, you know, post-production studio. I wanted to know I like doing voiceovers, but I said, I want to know the background, you know, so producing there was really interesting because I got to work firsthand, like you said, with the ad agencies and come up with budgets and make sure that the talent was taken care of and that, you know, sending out quotes and I will say fast forward to now that I, you know, when you have a voice, when you are a voice actor, you it's your own business. Right. You're, we're all business owners, we're the business of our voice. And so for me, I found it really, really crucial for when I have certain clients that I've worked with for years, that aren't through an agent because I don't have a, a specific agent that I'm exclusive to, you know, there's certain times where I have to CA I have to quote my clients and I have to write out budgets.
And I think being a producer set me up for that, because if not, I'd be totally clueless. So it was really interesting to be on that side of the glass, as they say. And then I also got to really hone my skills more in the engineering department, producing department, you know, learning how to edit faster and make sure, you know, troubleshooting and setting up my own home studio was really helpful based on just watching the engineer at work. Yeah. I think it really set me up for when I decided to leave. I had a couple months where I just kinda sat and meditated and was like, what do I want to do with my life? You know?
And yeah. A lot of people are doing right now with their lives over the next couple of weeks and months. Yeah. And I mean, it was kind of this thing where I was like, you know what, I think I'm just gonna go for Voiceover full time. I'm just gonna do it. And I just kinda threw myself in there. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, this story, but it, I think it's worth telling, but in kind of the, the, the icing on the cake, I guess it was sort of a sad thing, but I'm also a beautiful lesson in life. But in January of 2018, January 31st, a dear friend of mine passed from brain and breast cancer.
And she was maybe, you know, early thirties, 31, 32. And it was sort of this wake up call, I think kind of like what you're saying now, you know, people are having this moment, like, what am I doing with my life? Am I doing the right thing? Am I, you know, am I living to my fullest potential? And to be honest, there were some things that were going on in the workplace that were just a big challenge and also just kind of weighed on me. And towards the end, I really kind of felt miserable about going into the office every day. And I felt, you know, my commute was like almost two hours a day and then I'm working and then I'm working 50 hours a week. And it was like, you know, I wasn't even, I had just gotten married and it's like, I wasn't even seeing my husband, you know, it's like I came home, he sleep or he was out.
And then when I woke up in the morning he was sleeping. So it was kind of like this thing. And then
Yeah. Working.
Yeah. You know, and, and my friend and my friend passing was kind of this thing of, she was someone who she was a librarian and she loved it. She did, she was amazing at what she did. All the kids loved her. And she just had a passion every day about life, about going into work, about doing what she was called to do. And I think her sudden passing was a reminder that I should never, and no one should, no one should spend a single moment doing something that they are, they hate. You know, if you're, if you feel like every day you're going into work and you're miserable and it's affecting your, your life and it's affecting your spouse's life or, or your, your, your family's life, or just your friends, people around you, you know, you have to take a look and take a look inside and say, is this really what I should be doing?
I mean, think about it. Life is so short. You know, we thought she was better and she she's had an aggressive relapse and then passed very quickly. And so it just reminded me, and it's sad that it took something like that to, to kind of give me a slap in the face, but you know, it really made me sit and go, wait a minute. I'm not happy. So I need to get out and with sort of no backup plan. I don't know. I'm, I'm crazy in that way. I mean, my husband would be like, he'd have a plan. He'd go, okay, I'm going to set everything up so that when I leave, I have everything lined up, but I was just like, you know what, forget it. Life's too short. I'm outta here.
Wow. Yeah. So
Yeah,
Yeah. That story, it's just, yeah. It's very, very, very good that you told that story. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, God rest her soul. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, you know, it's like you said, going down deep and questioning, you know, should I be doing this and then dismantling, you know, eliminating belief of, you know, I'm doing this because I was told I was supposed to, or like, this is what I thought, but check in with your thoughts. And then also it's like emotional, you know, a lot of people follow their emotions without checking in with that balance of the, the inner.
So that's why it's really important to have, you know, education and great friends and community around you. So you can talk about these things. I have been like, oh my God, you don't even know, like, you know, I'm just saying, like, to the viewers here, I've had some, you know, crossroads and it's like, I just get overloaded. I just, I get a system overload. And it's just like, cause I'm so analytical with my thinking. And it goes like a million miles in so many directions. I have like so many train tracks going on. I'll like narrow it down to like two or three and I'll call all the Saundra and I'll be like, okay, so this is what I got. And then like, you know, like one small situation would be like, well, there was a situation to go in for this meeting, but also like I was dragging and not wanting to go because why go and do this?
Meaning if I'm doing this other thing, there's no reason to go to the meeting. It's wasting my time. And she's like, she just simply said it wasn't all or nothing. She's like, you can just reschedule. Like you can see if plan a is working, but it, all of a sudden something falls through that plan B where you had that 12 o'clock meeting, you can just call them or your reschedule. And it just hits so hard. And ever since then, like when I've come up to a situation with that, I'm like, is this something I can reschedule? Is this something I can reschedule? And so you really helped me, you know, get over that bridge and thank you.
Oh, you're so welcome. And you are right. It really does make a difference to have a good community, a good, good amount of it. Doesn't have to be a ton of people, but just a select few that you can really call when things are crazy or when you need to run something by someone or, you know, it goes to show like years of us masterminding have really helped shape who we are.
Yeah. I actually want to talk about that. I just really quick want to say that, you know, anyone who's listening and you have your go-to people, like all I saw and her and I are talking about awesome cream sauce, if not, you can definitely contact us and we can be there for you through the phone or an email and, you know, be there to just listen and kind of help with those crossroads as well. Cause I know exactly what it's like, not having someone and, you know, feel free to reach out to us. And yeah. We're I know I'm here for you. I think Alessandra would say the same thing.
Yes, definitely. It's so important to have a good, a good support system.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Onto the next real quick. You're so smart. Okay. So yeah. Let's talk about masterminding masterminding.
I just have to say, I'm thankful that you're the one who put it into my head that day at, by Chloe's.
Yes. Yeah. So I was in Los Angeles. I love LA woo. Shout out LA what up and the SAG foundation and The Actors Fund, they have these programs and it was called nuts and bolts and nuts and bolts. And it's all about like budgeting and financing and, you know, knowing or you stand. So, you know, where you're going. And there was a book, it was by Napoleon hill and it was all about masterminding. And I was just so impacted by it. And I was like, you know, we were like, oh yeah, in the class, the woman Miata, she was like, you know, Mastermind have mastermind groups set it up due to do.
And so I like, you know, was talking to Alessandra. I was in New York city for New York fashion week. It was, it was like September, it was a February. It was in September. It was, it was on September season. And we were at Chloe and I was just like, Hey, like you're rad. And I would love to be in contact with you all the time and hold each other accountable on our dreams and our goals and check in with one another. And so we did, we made a choice to be on a call once a week. And we did this for over three years and we'd be on the phone once a week, east coast, the west coast or wherever we were traveling to. And we would talk about work goals, coffee hour emails, w what we wanted to do, we would be like, did you get that done?
And we would talk about personal fitness and meditation. And we would talk about, you know, personal, emotional stuff too. It wasn't just like all business. It was like, well, w we would still, we would start off with like, Hey, how you doing? Maybe check in there and then like, get straight to the business. Or it was just like, sometimes she will later. Sometimes I will lead. I would just go off for like 30 minutes. I'm like, okay, I got, I got the Cubs really full now it's your turn. And then we would just go back and forth. And through that, we just developed this amazing bond. And we developed amazing projects together. And, you know, we wrote an animation series together that now we're going to take and make a podcast and we're going to be doing the voices to it. We collectively with, you know, Nikki Scorpio, we wrote a comedy series and we have the first two episodes written, the working title is called green beans, but it's going to be something else.
You know, we've helped each other on our VO journeys and supporting one another with that, with, you know, instructors and mentors and people to reach out to and building communities and, you know, coming together as a team and Ali Sondra being my producing partner, I wanted to, you know, was it your idea, or, I don't know if it was your idea or mine, but I, I I'm like, I want to do, like, I was very intimidated, but I, I was like going past myself and I was like, yes, let's do a YouTube series. And Ali Saundra was my producer. She is my producer on this YouTube series. And we literally, we recorded 14 episodes a day.
There were like these like 10, like five to 10 minute episodes. And we, yeah, we just like bang them out and like different hair, different makeup, different looks. We were just like topic topic. And she had it like all organized and you know, of like the beginning, the middle of the end. And then at Nikki Scorpio, God bless his soul. He's awesome. Super creative. He edited all the videos that are on YouTube and Ali Saundra produced them. And yeah, I mean, just one thing after another, we were like talking about like TV shows and animation and a series. And we were just talking about all these stuff. We lifted it and we put it in action and we just didn't do it. And it's like, whatever, like it's, it's top tier, like 1% quality, like the algorithm and the marketing and all that jazz is a whole nother beast.
But like, we created some really cool content for, you know, kids and young adults and for parents and, you know, for everyone, for them to be entertained with, you know, feel good material about our experience in the industry thus far.
Yeah. And, and that just goes to show again, coming back to the whole, the reason why we put everything into action and, you know, the reason why we've said we're going to do this and then did it is because of the accountability through the masterminding every week for so many years. And it's so important because, you know, and there's also been times where, when we've had calls, it's like, well, you know, there's, I don't really have too much going on. And then it's like, we encourage each other, we lift each other up. Okay, well maybe we should send out some emails here, or like, maybe you, maybe this is a sign that you just need to like, take a deep breath and maybe do some personal development. You know, some reading, some meditation, some, you know, just spending time with friends and family, you know, cause I think as creative people, we tend to sometimes get really perfectionist, you know, where we think we have to be doing a million things all the time to get stuff done and there's waves, right.
Everything kind of goes in waves like a rollercoaster. Sometimes you're really up and you've got a lot going on and sometimes you're all the way at the bottom and you're like, what am I doing? So I think, I think it's also so important that you have that Mastermind partner or that accountability partner, whatever you want to call it, because it does help you through the good times and the uncertain times and the times where you're like, am I making the right decision? I mean, you know, Katie and I have been on these calls for so long. And as she mentioned before, I've had so many different jobs and different areas that I was going down different avenues. You know, I was in the production side of things for film and TV. And then I went into production side of voiceover. Now I'm in the performance side of Voiceover, you know, she's seen me through so many things and there were definitely a lot of calls where I would just say, I don't really know what I want to do.
I'm not sure where I'm going. And just having, having Katie, you know, having that accountability partner, our mastermind sessions were so invaluable. So, you know, we're, we're not getting paid by whoever made up masterminding to say this, like,
Yeah, well, you know, the book is thinking grow rich by Napoleon hill. No one wants to listen to it, you know, on the ebook or the book or audio and Alessandra a few years ago turned me on to, and literally I just did a podcast yesterday and I talk about this and I did one the other day and I talked about it again. And I'll just keep saying it because I think because who knows, who's going to listen to what episode, but education is a big part of she's all over the place. And Ali, Saundra years ago turned me on to overdrive overdrive app hoopla app and Frigo lap. So it's overdrive app and hoopla app and Frigo app.
And it's so cool because you can download up to 30 e-books for 30 and or 30 audio books a month for free. And it's like, you can read autobiographies fiction, nonfiction, scientists, authors, like robotics, like anything, emotional trauma, financial books, like anything you want to read about like Caroline mice. She's amazing. She's a mystic intuitive from Chicago. And you know, there's like 13 of her books on there and I did them all on audio. Like one's on faith. So it's like, like education is so important. And it's just, it's so amazing that, you know, you turn me on to it and I'm forever grateful. And I share that with everyone because I really feel that education should be for everyone.
And it's so cool. Cause you can just have it through your public library. It's like all around the world. You just, you just have to log in one time with your library card and the last four digits of your, whatever number you put on file and boom, like you can have it everywhere. So a lot of times when I'm flying on the planes east coast to west coast, I just download the audio book before I get on the plane. If I don't have wifi and I just listened to the audio book and a lot of times they fall asleep listening to audio books and I'm all about audio books. So you can definitely find a Polian Hills books on audio. And he through the library, through the apps for free free goal is the library. I believe they have a deal with Sony. So like it's like a, having a Spotify or Amazon music, but it's free Google.
It's free legal music and it's their MP3. So you download them and you get to keep them, which is cool. Like one of the linear Kendrick Lamar came out, Casha came out like they're all on there.
I love that. And also, I just want to echo what you just said about, you know, the fact that education is so important and that doesn't mean college or graduate school or, you know, getting a doctorate, but it just means like, you know, education, I agree with Katie should be inclusive, not exclusive, you know, it shouldn't be just like only people with lots of money or the means to, to be able to harness this information that's given by, you know, spending, you know, if you can't spend the money to buy the books, it's like, it should just be offered to everyone. And that's why the library is so amazing. And obviously I have an affinity for the library. Anyway, as I mentioned before, my friend Amy, she worked at the library, but I've loved libraries my whole life.
And it's so important. And I think it's amazing that the library has the option for people to have these books, you know, either to read them on a device or obviously real copy or just to listen to them on audio book. I mean, it's, it's so great. This information should be spread far and wide. So I love that. You love it as much as I do.
Yeah. Yeah. One step further. I really liked that. It's also environmentally friendly. Like if you want a book and it's classic and I love holding a book, of course. And if you want to keep a book for your home and your bookshelf forevermore, let's awesome. But a lot of times, because I like, you know, like I remember one Christmas, I went through like eight audio books and like, you know, a 10 day and a 10 day vacation or something when it was my time off just to indulge. And so I sometimes I just want to soak all this information up on audio and just go on to the next. And frankly, I wouldn't have a lot of, you know, space and thinking about the environment to have like all these books around, you know?
Yeah, definitely. It's good for your mind and the planet
yeah. And circling back around to what you were saying earlier about like, oh, I don't know what I should do or like, I'm really emotional and I don't know what to do. And like we live in a very yang world where it's do do do. And so it's like, but we're human beings, not human doers, we're human beings. So it's like, like in the moments of not knowing what to do or just like reading a book or listening to an audio book or doing a meditation in a Yoga, you know, allowing permission just to create space, just to be. And just to, just to sit in that, and it's going to, sometimes it's going to feel really uncomfortable and anxiety at first because you're not used to like not doing something. So that's why I really love Yan yoga. And I was wondering some of your go-to practices or people that you admire, or some podcasts that you listened to for your meditative groovy experiences when you're, you know, getting more into your body and just being, or getting still in your mind.
Okay.
Oh yeah. I have definitely recommendations for that. Yeah. So as far as Yoga is concerned, I have practiced obviously that's how we met, but I've practiced for many years now, so I can get to a place where I can just kind of do a flow on my own and just kinda work through some stuff. But I also do love yoga. I love restorative yoga, especially, you know, if you're feeling tired or for women, you know, one is that time of the month and you're just feeling kind of depleted. I find that restorative yoga is amazing, cause you're still getting the benefits from stretching your body, but you're just allowing yourself to kind of sit and just feel. And it's really helpful. Some of my favorite yoga studios in New York are sacred sounds Yoga, Vita Sky Ting.
So I would say, definitely go check them out if you're in New York or since everything's kind of a little bit shut down, they have classes online as Katie was mentioning before. And then as far as what I listened to, I love the 21 day premeditation experience with Deepak Chopra and Oprah. And I also on my podcast app, I listened to hay house meditations. And then as far as when I need some kind of music or chance, or kind of like certain frequencies for just kind of feeling better, like getting the shockers aligned meditative mind is probably my favorite YouTube channel.
They have videos for everything. I mean audio and sometimes they'll have really cool graphics. Like if you're working on your root shocker, it'll just be like these, this big red circle. And like it'll actually vibrate as the bells are vibrating or as the people are chanting. So it's really cool. And it's very relaxing. So I like meditative mind. Yeah. I would say those are probably the biggest things for me. I try to meditate at least once a day. You know, if I'm feeling especially frenetic or anxious, I'll definitely do it throughout the day, but generally I try to make sure I do it at least once a day and same thing with Yoga or just moving your body, you know, even if it's just going for a walk, you know, you don't have to keep your body in shape.
You know, you don't have to do CrossFit. You know, you don't have to do the craziest craziest, craziest things just to keep your body moving and feeling good. You know, you can dance, you can do Yoga, you can take a walk, whatever, whatever works for you. I mean, if you love CrossFit, go for it. I just not my thing. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, there's, there's so many good resources and that's the thing too. That's the beauty of the fact that we live in the age of information, right? I mean, can just go on online and just Google, whatever you're looking for, whatever kind of meditation you're looking for or whatever kind of yoga class you're looking for, whatever you need to feed your soul. You can find something online that will either point you to a physical place or a physical person to work with or all the resources that Katie and I were talking about.
Books and meditations and podcasts. There's just so much out there.
Yeah, definitely. And for the people listening in a local communities who maybe they're not in the big cities and you know, everyone's isolated inside right now. So we're similarly, go-to places they could go to, to maybe earn some, you know, new contacts for, you know, maybe potential online jobs of, you know, do you have any resources? I know you've really turned me on to lake. We work and there's, I know there's hit record.com and that's a creative thing that I love that I forget his name. Joseph Gordon Levitt. Oh yeah. This film. Oh my God. I saw it at the Tribeca film festival years ago, this film that he was in, oh, what was it called? Like mystic. I don't even remember the name of it right now, but oh my God, his, his acting was amazing, but yeah, he, he created hit record, which I'm a fan of.
We work on what are some other like online places maybe people can go to if they're interested in voiceovers and you know, doing things online to get with creative communities, maybe a Facebook groups. Yeah.
I would say Facebook groups are a really good place to start. And like I mentioned before, there's a ton of communities for voice actors. And this is, you know, a lot, some of them are like, there's one, that's just basically for already working pros. But so many of them are really open to people who are curious about starting. They want to get advice. They want to know what are the good pay to play websites to use. But other than that, I think if people want to work at home, are you talking about in general or just specifically with Voiceover? Okay.
Yeah. Just in general, people want to just like, you know, get online and get creative and dive in more like, you know, what are some resources if maybe you are in a local town and you wanted to, you know, fish your way through to, to, to get going like know,
Well, first I would like to, I mean, I think probably now, because everything's kind of going virtual right now, there is a site called meetup.com and it usually has meetups in person. Obviously that's why it's called meetup. But I think in these times of virtual, the virtual landscape, I bet you, there's tons of meetups that are now going to happen on zoom chats or, you know, somehow virtually, but meetup is great too, because you get to meet with people that are interested in very specific things, right? Like if you love crocheting, I'm sure there's a meetup group for crocheting in your area. You know, there's there's, if you want to start hiking more and you live in LA and you want to start doing more hikes, you know, you can go look up meetup and then look up for hiking groups.
And obviously since they're not hiking now, unless they're practicing socially social distancing, but you know, you can probably find whatever you want to, whatever you want to do. And there's one there, professional organization kind of meetups. So, oh, if you're interested in like the entertainment industry, I'm sure there's, there's there definitely meetups for specific ones. Like if you're in film and TV or if you're in music or if you're in production and then other than that, you know, places where people can find work remotely right now, you know, sometimes I would say like, indeed, or like you said, we were, or indeed whatever.
Oh. And then voiceovers there's ACX. So it's like by audible and audible made it sound like a Actors they can account and upload their demo reels, get a demo reel made. If you have a, you know, set up a little professional studio, you can reach out to us probably about that. We can, you know, help you with some gear that you can get. There's this there's this one mic that I just got from my iPhone for like podcasting and video on the goats, this sheer sheer Mike. And it goes right into the iPhone. It's so cool. It was like only $129 are being now. I think it was on sale, but it's 1 49 now, but it plugs right into the iPhone. And then you just, there's an app that goes with it. So it's like a really cool, easy setup. So you don't have to spend like hundreds and thousands of dollars.
So ACX is a good website. I'm not on it. I did like years ago, but I'm not now. I know there's like voices 1, 2, 3. I'm not on that. But I just referred it to a friend yesterday. Cause he's in a cynical and he's wants to do like African voices and stuff. So I like shared with his, he has a mic and stuff. I'm like, yo put up a real and they need someone that's very specific. Like you're, you know, you're in higher ranks of getting the job. The thing about being a voiceover actor, it's like, you need to be authentic. Like VB, if you, if you're like a British accent or Irish or like French, like you can't be like put on. They won't like the real deal and lots of it, unless they say like, we want like a comedic style, like sh like all over the place. Like, no, but if they want authentic, you want to give them like, give them what you can do authentically.
Like Ali Sondra can do the little boy voices. She's the voice of HelloFresh right now, Ching Ching, which is awesome. And yeah. So how can people reach out to you if they want to be friends you on social media and keep in touch and follow your journey and celebrate you?
So I am on Instagram and Tik TOK as Alessandra voice. I am on Facebook as Alessandra Levy. And I'm also on Twitter as Alessandra box, like Vox because all is under voice was taken. And if you want to check out my website, it's just Alessandra Levy dot com. That's a L E S S a N D R a L E V y.com. My, my demos are up there. I have a video, like a little welcome video on my homepage, just that people can get a feel for my personality and just quiet them and kind of like to work with my clients. And, you know, I just wanted people to feel welcome when they came to my website and I think I do better in person than on paper.
So I was like, I'm going to put a video up so people can see me.
I want to check out your site and go back and see what's up there
Then. Yeah. There's been some updates. Yeah. So I'm, I'm very accessible on the interwebs cause you know, your
Husband, is he still in a band?
Yeah. So he is, he has a couple of music projects, but right now, since obviously, you know, we can't really perform live and you know, bars and restaurants are closed and he's not really, he's not playing gigs right now. He's been producing tracks up the storm right now. And he's on Instagram as the Steve Brickman.
And then do they have music on streaming services or anything, or I know you guys do music together to do, do you have music up that new music up or old music that people can listen to?
Let's see. I think that the group that we were in, well, one of the groups that we're in, we'd never, we have some recordings, but they're not up. And then he has an album that he's working on right now, which I sang on. That's not coming out for a little bit, but he has a rock band called hell's kitchen with a Z. So H E L L Z kitchen. And they have a couple of albums out on Spotify, so you can listen to them there.
Cool. That's so cool. Yeah. We'll have to have you back on. I would love to have you back on and like I'd
Love to come
Back. Yeah. I want to have you on, I want to have you perform next time and you know, maybe we could play one of Steve's songs on the podcast too. That'd be really cool. Maybe love to do like a duo live jam or something. That'd be awesome.
Yeah. I think we would definitely do a duo. That would be very fun.
Cool. Any last words, words of wisdom or anything you want to share during these times before we sign off?
I guess the last thing, just because, you know, we were talking about how everyone's kind of in isolation and it's sort of this weird unknown time as to what is really going on. I mean, we know what's going on, but there's a lot that's still unknown. Like how long will this last and what's going to happen? I would say just one piece of advice. I'm not a, you know, I'm not a healthcare worker or a, a psychologist, but I would just say to allow yourself to feel whatever feelings are, are coming up for you in this time, because it is sort of this unknown territory that we've entered. Don't judge it, just let it happen and make sure you have a good community of people that you can talk to hear. Awesome.
Thank you so much. I appreciate you.
I appreciate you. Thanks Katie.
. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time. Kyriaki, over and out.