We’re diving headfirst into the glorious world of authenticity in performance. Join us as we chat with the owner of L A Jones Talent, Pam Jones, who’s not just about finding talent but about discovering the real, raw essence that makes performers shine. Forget about all that polished perfection nonsense—Pam’s all about the heart and grit behind the mic. We’ll be exploring the importance of bringing your full humanity to the table, because let’s face it, in an industry obsessed with image, connection is where the real magic happens. Remember, it’s not about being flawless; it’s about being you!

Takeaways:

• Pamela Jones believes authenticity in performance beats perfection every time, and it’s key to connection.
• In a world buzzing with noise, don’t rush to fill silence; it can be powerful and impactful.
• Talent is important, but without tenacity and the willingness to work hard, it’s like having a Ferrari without gas.
• The podcast emphasizes that being human is vital in voice acting—bring your whole self into every performance.
• Remember, we want to hear your truth, not a polished facade—realness resonates way deeper than perfection.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Ignite Voice, Inc.
• L A Jones Talent
• TSN
• Microsoft
• Lego
• Canadian Actors Voice Actors Association
• Nava
• Poi Dog Pondering

Your voice is your superpower.

Use it.

Welcome to Ignite My Voice Becoming unstoppable, powered by Ignite Voice, Inc. The podcast where voice meets purpose and stories ignite change. Deep conversations with amazing guests, storytellers, speakers and change makers.

Don't phone it in. Don't think you're all that. Don't expect your agent to do everything. Work your ass off and be authentic and be a human being.

Our guest today knows talent when she sees it. And she's not looking for perfect. She's looking for real.

Pamela Jones, owner of L A Jones Talent, has built a reputation for championing performers with authenticity, drive, and heart.

From super bowl ads to voiceover careers, she's helped actors find not just opportunities,.

But themselves inside the work.

She believes charisma comes from owning the words, grounding into the moment, and bringing your full humanity into the room.

And an industry obsessed with image, Pam reminds us the real magic is connection.

This is a conversation about talent, tenacity, voice, and why being human still matters most.

Here's Pam Jones.

I have an example of when I went to Sweden a few years back and I was fishing with my cousins who were swimming.

Oh, a story. Good. Okay.

You're fishing from a small town in Iterhuda, which has one school, one church, one store. That's it. My mom's hometown. We're standing there, we're fishing. My sister and I, blabla, blabba. And he's fishing, he's fishing, he's fishing.

He turns around and finally goes, you people fill the air with so much sound. And I went like, everything was, like, stopped. I'm like, you're absolutely right. Why do we always think we have to fill every minute with words?

Right? And that's changed me a lot just from that one moment.

But it kind of relates to being a voice actor in acting as well as I think a lot of people speed through their scripts. They speed through an audiobook read. But if I took that pause before I said something, it's more impactful, it's more interesting.

So don't be scared of the silence is what I had on my book there.

I call that pause with thought, because if you have thought behind the pause, it's not silent. But if you don't know exactly what you're going to say, then it is silent and you're freaking out.

Well, you're also thinking it's a longer pause than it really is. I've been silent for an entire minute. But no, it's actually like five seconds.

You give weight to the less words you use, as opposed to too many in our teachings. I have a famous line for teaching performers try to give more weight to those words. And do you have to talk all the time and just shut the fuck up?

Just listen?

And he says it just like that.

Because what if the story is. What if you had a maximum number of words in your gas tank you could use every day?

It was a small amount, and if you run out, you can't refill the gas tank until you sleep.

So for all those talkers that just go blab, blab, blab, blah, blah, blah, from first thing in the morning, by 9:30, you're out, you can't speak now, you're gonna value every word, right?

That's really true.

Which is what you're driving at.

Yeah, it's true, everybody. Well, right now if I. Well, it's me too. People want to be heard, I think, too, right?

There's so much noise and so much busyness and you're trying to stand out and be heard. So maybe there's a bit of a panic as far as wanting to talk all the time. And I think, you know, when someone says to me, why did you get into radio?

I always tell them that. Well, number one, my story is that I came to BCIT and I wanted to be in television. And the woman at the wicket said it was full.

And so I went, okay, what next?

I have money.

Look, look at this check. I got money. It says B, C, I, T. So the radio is free, so why don't you go into that? And so I did.

But then I thought, you know, I didn't know anything about radio. But what I realized when I was growing up, my house was very quiet. I don't remember my mom and dad even having a conversation, really.

We would sit at the dinner table. This was a 60s, so children were meant to be seen, not heard, not heard. I actually grew up with white gloves.

And literally my sister and I had blue outfit, she had pink, we had white gloves. Like, it was very for show. And so I don't remember my parents ever speaking, hardly. There was no sound in my house. It wasn't a bad upbringing.

I had a great time. I had great friends. It was. But it was the quietest house I'd ever been in in my life.

And then my mom one day just went, would you like to see my new apartment? I'm like, what? Yeah, I'm leaving your dad. I went, what?

Apparently she wasn't that happy.

Whoa, hey.

I think she wanted someone to talk To. But yeah. So then I thought, you know, maybe I need to feel heard.

And maybe that's why a lot of people go into broadcast or, you know, go and, you know, be a star or whatever, try to be, you know, on film and tv. Maybe they just want to be seen and heard and find their voice. Right. And maybe you just wanna do it for fun and you love it. It's passionate.

There's all kinds. It's not always a deep psychological reason, but I think in my case, I might have been. Why?

And behind the scenes, your mom, not very happy. But playing the role together, playing roles for a while and then boom.

I wonder if we're not doing a bit of that right now with social media, you know, with postings and we pretend our perfect little lives. Then of course you hear about the people, their life completely blows out.

You just saw the pictures of these happy people last day and it's not what it looks like.

No, it's not.

Maybe we're back in that era.

I don't know. There's part of me that misses that old time when it was a lot simpler.

Seemed simpler, didn't it?

Yeah, Too much demanded of people. Right. And, you know, people on our roster, like, I'm the talent agency for L A Jones Talent, and they're saying, do I need to have social media?

How many things do I have to do? Do I have to do this? Do I have to. So much pressure on them to be out and seen and get likes and all this stuff.

And it takes away from the work, takes away from what they're actually here to do. Like, do you be creative, do your stuff?

And all that is just noise in the background. Like, you're right. It takes away from the work that you do need to do and there's.

Just only so many hours to do stuff. Yeah, I love to post about all the bookings I have.

Yeah, we've had lots of bookings in the last while and people don't think I do because I haven't had the. To get on there and brag about it or show off my people. There's just only so much time.

I was thinking, you know, it's fascinating what you do and how do you recognize talent? How does talent stand out for you?

It is the it factor. Right? You just know it when you walk by someone you just, you have it. You captivate me. Something about you captivates me, but it's also.

The word is overused. So much authenticity. Authenticity. Are you really, Is that who you are? Are you putting this on for show? And if I feel that that's really who you are?

And also if you're gonna bust your ass because this is a really hard business and do you have a thick skin that you're not gonna cry? Because I'm a tough ass.

Like if I get an audition that I don't think is good, or I know the casting director didn't ask for or doesn't want, I might ask you to do it again. And it doesn't mean I don't like you or anything else. I'd like to go to bed before nine at night as well.

But if I don't think it's good, I'm going to ask you again. So there's all the talent, the tenacity, the drive. Do you want this as a second sort of additional income or is this your passion?

If it's your passion, I will go to the end of the earth for you. I will fight, fight, fight. On my website. It's like I'm a talent champion.

Yes, I will go and say, no, you've got to listen to this but person because they're really good or you got to see them like for film and tv. But if you're not in it, why should I be? Right? So there's a sort of a combination, but I think it is that, that it factor.

Because you can have talent but not have tenacity. You can have tenacity but not have talent. There's a real mix in there, isn't there?

For sure. And there's a lot of people that have that entitlement thing. You know, I'm an actor now and you're my agent.

So I'm just gonna sit back and you're just gonna give me stuff because.

Do my work for me.

I'm an actor, you know. No, entitlement doesn't work for me. It might work for other agencies, but it doesn't work for me. For me, like an agent and a talent are a team.

If you don't book, I don't make money. If I don't book, you don't make. We work together. And that's what I look for in a person as well. Respect and tenacity. Also. Do you listen?

Do you listen or do you just talk? There's a theme again. And listening for me on my website, if you look at it. It says submissions.

Under submissions I've got, please send us your favorite recipe. And that's the test. Nobody do. Some of them do. And the ones that do, I will call them. That's awesome. You paid attention.

I'm thinking about charisma, because we've done a deep analysis of charisma, and we argue that we can help people uncover charisma. Where some people say, oh, no, you're born with it, or that's it. You know, what are your thoughts on charisma?

I think charisma is just being confident in who you are. Just. And as you're saying, you can uncover that in people and just letting them do them. Like, just do you. You know, I had.

I have a sportscaster from TSN that's on my roster. He's got a list like this, the Olympics, FIFA, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he's been giving me auditions this week. This announcer thing.

I'm like, where the hell are you? And so yesterday, I was, you know, I slammed him pretty hard. I said, you're on the roster.

Cause because I like you and I like your voice, and I like the way you present. Who's this guy? You know, so maybe that's what you're saying is you're kind of helping them find themselves in a way.

It's true.

And that's the hardest thing to do.

It's hard. I mean, yeah, you're gonna be characters, and when you do acting and stuff, you're putting on a part, too.

But your essence of who you are is the building block, I think, for you to be confident in doing those other characters.

And you pull that from experience, and you pull that from depth of knowledge, and you pull that from looking around you and analyzing the world. And when you bring that to the character, you're not that, but you can feel that just like anybody else would.

So that's really important to bring to bear.

Well, as we know, in voiceover, you know, owning the words is so critical. That's authenticity. It's not mimicking like a sports reporter.

But that's where people start, you know, often.

And you have to get underneath. Well, how do you feel? Yeah. What do those words mean to you?

And if you haven't been in the situation, of course you do an as if. Maybe you haven't had a parent pass away, so you don't know what it feels like.

But maybe, you know, when you were younger, you had a puppy and the puppy died. Can you remember that? So do an as if. So that has Authenticity. You can connect on some level, find a way in to connect to different things.

Connection, that's so important, isn't it? Owning the words, connection, connecting to yourself, feeling it, really being with it, being in it and being present.

We talked about presence a lot in our books and being in that moment, like you said, as if you were there, as if it was happening and.

Creating a full character, whether you're doing voiceover or acting. So where are you? Who you're talking to? Really feel it in your bones.

And if you don't feel it and you're panicking about, get your feet rooted to the ground. I always say, wear cement shoes and just slam yourself into the ground and stand there. You know, just feel it and imagine it. It's hard. Harder.

I think voiceover is one of the hardest things you can possibly do. I've been an actor and on other people's rosters and Lucas talent and stuff like that.

And I think, you know, you're in a box by yourself, the padded walls, and the whole world is just you. And when you're doing an audition, you don't have a reader, you don't have even.

So you're reading the other lines and reacting to the other lines as if someone's talking to you. So you have to hear them, see them, feel them. And, you know, moment before, I'm like, what was I doing a moment before I did this?

What am I going to do this after? How am I going to feel? So it's a real skill, and I think it's undervalued. Voiceover. Undervalued. I'm an actor. Oh, you're just. Just a voice actor. Yeah.

Really?

Just.

And that's why I always love teaching. And I'm sure you guys, too, you teach as well. And it's like, people come in, I've talked my whole life, how hard can this be? And then they leave.

They're stabbed on the floor. They're like, holy crap. Was that harder than I thought? Like, win for me. I want them to feel it, respect the craft. It's really hard.

It takes all of you.

I remember the audition I did for you for an animation character. Sari was her name.

And I was in there ages in the studio because it was really hard, and it was very short little words and some grunts and groans, and I spent hours on it. I didn't get the part either. But you were great. But I tried, really. Thank you. But I did. I worked hard. I was sweating in there.

Yeah. I don't put any Take through to casting if I don't think it's good. So yeah, you got through. Yay.

Woo hoo.

We've had some fun in the studio doing those too. I seem to remember us doing some characters peeing with laugh. You take a character onto an nth level and it just silly. So it can be fun too.

So a lyric came to my mind from one of my favorite bands, Poi Dog pondering out of the US and the line was wear your scars with pride.

I like that.

You know, just wisdom matters. Having life experience actually matters in this, which is beautiful.

Yeah, it's hard for the young like 20 somethings. Right. They haven't had the things happen to them that we've all, you know, mustered through. But so they have to do a lot of as if.

But it's just so fun to watch as people get older and things. And they've been through a lot. They bring so many layers to it and it's just so nice. And I'm happy to see that older actors are valued now.

Shows like, you know, Golden Girls, young people are watching reruns and stuff. And you know, Frankie and Frankie Grace. Frankie and Gracie. Gracie. Love it. Yeah, right. And just seeing the wisdom of that and you know, it's great.

Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin. Have you not seen it? Kevin?

Kevin.

I have seen shorts of it. I haven't seen the whole super good,.

Cute little series.

Wisdom age. Are we fighting against youth being everything? Are we?

That's a hard one because I see in casting they want like younger voices and how can you tell a younger voice from an older voice? Like, you know what I mean? How can you tell that someone's 20 versus telling someone's 40?

You gotta add gravel to that. Yeah, a little gravel.

I think a blues singer, you know, a young person can't fake that.

Or tequila the night before.

We gotta have gone through 10 funerals of your best friends. I mean, you just gotta feel light.

Okay, do a little boy for me now. Yeah, do a little boy. Go.

How can you do a little boy? I can go up and pitch. I could. But there's still the layers of stuff.

But also everybody can't do everything. You know, I can't do little kids. I just can't. It's not my thing. I like doing, you know, I like doing audiobooks, I like doing commercials. Right.

If I had to do a little, pitch something up higher, fine. But there's certain adults that do great kids and so, you know, try other things but you know, stay in your lane. Most of the time.

Because there's nothing worse than hearing somebody pushing when it's just not really worth it. And also, accents. Know your limits.

Stay within it.

Right. If you can't do a British accent and hold it for four hours, just. No, don't, don't.

Or learn to do it better. Practice.

Yeah, practice. I mean, I've got some auditions this week, and they started out British, and then it went kind of Irish, and suddenly we're in the Bronx.

I'm like, what just happened here?

But it's interesting because you really have to put yourself on the line. You have to step into your fear, because there's a lot of fear behind it. A lot of people.

We want the job and we want to get it right, and we want to be perfect at it, but that can hold you back. You have to have some risk in here, too, don't you?

Yeah, have risk and then let it go. Yeah, go on to the next one and let it go, you know, and think about things like humanisms. We talk about that. Right? Humanisms.

Well, really, you know, roll your eyes, you know, pause, laugh.

You're using body language.

Right.

When you're.

And using hands. Talk with your hands. Talk. You know, like that. Just.

Yeah, it's embodying the energy. It's embodying the feelings.

You can't feel it. And you can't monitor at the same time. You can't try to be perfect. You can't do the announcer. Okay.

Every word's gonna be awesome, but then you're listening to yourself at the same time. You can't react and get those humanisms in.

Yeah. And I mean, sadly, they want American accent most of the time, not Southern accent, but they want a generic American accent. Right.

So don't be too Canadian when you're speaking if you're going to be a voice actor.

And don't mum. You say, mom.

Mom. Exactly. Exactly. That goes for acting and voice. You know, they want you to be in Seattle, not Vancouver most of the time.

And that's one thing I'm really wanting to expand on my roster is diversity in every way.

That's really changed over the years. That's so good to hear. Because it was so dominant in one way for so long.

Right, Exactly.

Well, I'm wondering, too, the copywriters. Are the copywriters authentic for the material in the first place?

More. More so, yeah.

Which is good. Some of the stuff I've read lately where I don't want an announcer voice. Don't be an authentic, real human.

But the copy you read is just more announcer. An announcer selling something. Come on, do both.

Do you take one to two? Yeah, for sure. The other thing that's happening in the industry, for sure, thanks to the Internet, is how international it is too.

That's one thing that I'm seeing changes. Like we booked Lego. Well, Lego, you'd think be out of LA or whatever it was in Denmark.

So they got the gig and we were voicing with Denmark and we were voicing for Ireland, right, Because they got a gig of, you know, just these little educational videos, you know. And so that part's really interesting.

It's a challenge for talent because the time differences, time zones and trying to get up and be fresh at whatever time. But, you know, people can make money in their basement and have their voice all over the world. You can be heard everywhere.

You know, I've got a guy making 150,000 in his basement right now. He's just. That's what he does. He's online.

He's on these, what they call pay to play sites, where you pay a certain amount every month and they give you a bunch of auditions. And once you've got a bunch of clients, then you have ongoing work, right?

And then he also has me as an agent and as a Toronto agent and he's going to get an LA agent. You can have a bunch of different agents all over the place. The only thing is, I'm very competitive.

So if I see something come in from Toronto, I am up at 4 in the morning and I beat them 98% of the time. I'm going to get that, I'm going to get that and I do.

He's got two agents and his thing was whoever gets it to me first and I'm like, it's going to be me. It's going to be me. And 98% of the time I do. So that's kind of fun.

There's a lot of competition.

Oh, I'm a barracuda.

Good. Because I think it's getting more competitive, isn't it?

Yes.

How did you get into this? Like, what inspired you?

Well, the root of all of this is acting. And when we talk about that, for voice acting, you gotta be an actor.

So I was an actor, graduated from ubc, went on to bcit, worked for a whole bunch of radio stations in town, had my own studio called Sounds Right, which I had in the basement of my house in North Vancouver. We ended up getting a contract with Microsoft off Craigslist. I'm like, whoa, that was a Score.

And they wanted 20 different nationalities to voice an online cookbook. So my husband quickly built two other studios in our house.

Then I had to find producers who could speak these different languages and voice talent who could speak these different languages. Because I couldn't edit Czechoslovakian or whatever it was, we had people talking languages all over our house.

And it got to the point where I was just running around giving everybody sandwiches because it was just. It was just the most fun we've ever had in our life.

And so then we end up downsizing and moving on from that with different life changes and family changes. And I've always found that I loved booking, but I got so excited when I got work for other people. Like this job with all these people.

And then just anytime I get people work on the roster, I just get so thrilled. So I thought, well, that makes sense. I'll go do an agency thing. Knew nothing about it. Nothing about it. And I thought, I can figure it out.

It's way harder than it looks. All the contract negotiations and all of the platforms you have to be on.

And I wasn't granted access to one of the major platforms in town is breakdown services. I was. And that's where most of the big shows, you know, come. Yellowjackets and all that, that's where they cast from.

And I wasn't allowed to be on it until I was an agent for a year. And like, dude, have you seen my resume? I've been a producer. I've produced documentaries for cbc. I've been on all these radio stations.

I've been an actor. I know how to do this. And he said, nope. I said, well, how about if I get. He goes, you need five letters of support. And then you gotta wait a year.

I said, I'll get you my five letters. So I got my five letters. And he's like, no, I think you need to wait longer. So he was gatekeeper, gatekeeper to the max.

And if he hears this, I'm probably going to get cut off for all of it. But in hindsight, I was mad as heck with that. And a year's a long time to keep me from getting some big work. But he was right. There's a lot to know.

And so what he was saying is, in that year, you should be working under somebody. You should be learning from somebody. You should be apprenticing. You should. And I'm like, I got this. But he was right.

It's taken me this long to teach myself how to do all this stuff and pick other people's brains to do what I do. So I'm not gonna say his name, but you were right. I eat humble pie. You were absolutely right.

After all that, you're giving in.

I did. I just love humble pieces.

What surprised you the most about your role?

My role was, well, I guess contracts, negotiations, den mother. I just wanted to get people work. It's all the stuff you gotta know business wise, that that's the stuff you gotta learn.

Do you deal with a lot of anxiety from your performers?

Yeah, but the good thing is my sister works with me at L A Jones. My sister has a master's from Switzerland in conflict resolution.

That could be handy.

And a degree in psychology. So we call her the camp counselor.

That's a good combo.

She also has a degree from BCIT and used to run the international student department out here for years. And so she is really good at. She's really good at scouting talent, knowing talent and stuff like that. So we've got kind of a.

She's the camp counselor.

When people are kind of on the ledge or they're really nervous, I'll say, lisa, call them up and she talks them down and she kind of guides them that way. And I kind of handle more of the voiceover stuff.

I just this morning read a quote from the president at Harvard.

Oh.

And he was reacting to our AI onslaught in our modern world.

And he said, actually, the specialized skills that a lot of people have, they're going to be contracted out to AI In a way, it's the soft skills, it's the people skills of having to get people to connect or negotiate. That's the new high skill. As we move into the AI world.

And I think we're going to see way more. You probably heard that too. More live performances. People are more interested in theater seeing things.

I hope so.

I hope so because, you know, I grew up in the day with the Ed Sullivan show and all, you know, things like. And. And I would love to see life. It was just. We make a mistake. Like, look, listen to Harvey Corman laugh his head off anytime. Carol Burnett.

And they don't try to crack each other up. We want to see that. We want to see that on the edge.

What's gonna happen? It's not predictable. It's not perfect.

That's why live theater's so great for that.

Then. Then what about your thoughts on AI and voiceover?

It's happening. 11 Labs is there. I actually had a guy on my roster that worked doing voiceover with me and all over it. But he also sold his voice to 11 labs.

He was capable of doing incredible number of accents. An incredible number. So it was sort of. Was it really him or was it one of his characters that he kind of sold?

You know, so he was, you know, you need money. So he was doing that, and he was fine with it. And that's. That's okay.

You just got to make sure in all your contracts, I'm getting more contracts that say we're going to pay you instead of $2,000, we're going to give you $12,000.

But that means for two years, we can take your image or your voice and say, pop you into a Christmas commercial and then manipulate it so now all of a sudden, it's an Easter commercial and basically own you for two years for our brand.

Now, 12 grand at the moment when you're trying to pay your rent sounds like a lot, but if you did each individual season in each individual spot, you'd make more than 12 grand. So that's what we're fighting. There's writers now.

The Canadian Actors Voice Actors association is a fairly new organization who's really helping to lead the way in protecting voice actors and everybody.

Tanya Buchanan, right? Yeah.

They've done amazing stuff. There's Nava in the States as well, and they're campaigning like crazy to protect our voices.

They have writers on their sites that you can download as a freelancer.

And, you know, if you're working without an agent, get the rider and just say, okay, well, I'll sign your contract, but I want you to sign this contract that says you can't clone my voice.

And it goes back to that perfection.

Everybody wants to be perfect, to get in there and get seen, but it's actually our imperfection that are key to our humanity, are key to connection, and it's kind of ass backwards, isn't it?

Yes, totally. I would rather you send me a personal letter and ask me about my cat.

I don't have a cat, but say about a cat or something, rather than just this perfect little letter about why I think I would be a good fit for your agency.

So what are you standing up for there, Pam? What bothers you? What makes you go, I would never hire that person?

What is it, laziness? Okay. Don't be lazy.

All right. I thought she was gonna say, I believe in humanity and I support all of human.

Get off your couch and do something. No. Yeah, yeah. Don't phone it in. Don't think you're all that. Don't expect your agent to do everything.

Work your ass off and be Authentic and be a human being, you know, or call me. Why don't more people. I'm gonna. After. I'm gonna regret this after. Why don't we call me. They're gonna call me.

You know, people are scared of agents, I think, and scared of casting directors. You know, they're kind of above really true. Please, please, please pick me.

Well, you have power, I suppose.

I love it. My husband always goes, why are you an agent? I know why. When you walk into a room, you say, an agent. People.

People kind of go, ooh.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, that feels kind of nice. But it isn't really. That's just a perception. It's not who I am, and it's not reality.

But I'm surprised more people don't just kind of go, hi, I'm sorry to bother you. Or, you know, or send me a letter and say, would you listen to my tape? You know, I just would love some input.

I know you've been in the industry a long time, and I'd really love that. And I go, makes me feel good. Makes me feel.

I've been doing this for 30 years and maybe I know a thing or two, but I'm surprised that people don't take advantage of mentors in the industry because I think it's an honor to be asked. Because it means you think I'm smart and whether I know the answer or not, at least you maybe think I do.

I wonder if from the other angle, people aren't as willing to be vulnerable, though. Right. Because that takes a vulnerability to go, here's what I have. And I don't think I'm any good. Can you help me? Or whatever.

And I'm uncomfortable and, yeah, that's scared and. Cause what if you say I'm not good? What if you don't like it? What if you don't like me? Then that hits your ego and your confidence, doesn't it?

True that. But, you know, pick the people that you want to phone and, you know, if they're, you know, if they're going to be nice or not, you know, pretty much.

I mean.

And as an agent, I expect you to tell me the truth. I'm not expecting you to candy coat it. Because if you candy coat it, it's not good for me.

So the responsibility actually lies with the person seeking the advice. To take it as given with responsibility and care, and to take it and assimilate it in the way that suits them.

And I'm not always giving you the power.

Yeah, but I'M not always right. This is my. I give you my opinion based on the knowledge of the casting director, whatever, but get another opinion too.

Like, you know, take workshops with people. Take workshops with casting directors. If you want to be in film and TV or voiceover, take workshops with casting directors.

I've had talent go in with one workshop with one casting director, and they booked on a major series because she just happened to have something come up the next week, and that person was in front of her. You know, it's challenging, you know, being on the other side.

Like, I get asked to speak in classes and stuff, and I would love to remember everybody, but I don't always remember everybody. But if you send me a note maybe in two weeks or a month and go, hey, I really liked your workshop and just wanted to check in or something.

Oh, and I know most of the time when I get those kind of things, I go, oh, I'm glad.

I'm glad you contacted me because I really liked you in class or whatever it was, and I wondered where you were, how to get a hold of you or whatever. So don't assume that we don't want to see you or don't want to talk to you or whatever, you know.

Well, those are networking skills. I don't know how many people have them. They're also. It's about connection. You want the connection to the people.

Yeah, I want you to waste.

Make me money.

Make you money. We'll make money.

I love that Pam keeps coming back to authenticity over perfection, you know, because.

Audiences don't connect to flawless. They connect to truth.

Whether it's acting, voiceover, leadership, or life, people feel when you're fully present in your body and your words.

And Pam's message is clear. Work hard, stay coachable, take risks, and.

Stop trying to be what you think people want.

At ignite my voice. That's what we believe, too. Your voice isn't about performing perfection.

It's about expressing something real enough that people actually feel it.

Because your voice has power.

And when you own it authentically, people listen. Ignite my voice dot com.

Ignite my voice. Becoming unstoppable. Your voice is your superpower.

Use it.