GTT in the Wild: Robb Smith from Chewing the Fat Podcast, Reflections on VO Atlanta

just went into season 5 hey in episode one of season 5 Joe Sano was kind enough to be my 100th guest yeah on the podcast and he has some great insight into things that you deal with in our industry he's on that Mount Rushmore of people and for him to have had dark times that he had to get through too and to hear how he got through it and to still be where he is now and to be the kind person that he is it was very inspiring very inspiring George the tech well hey everybody George the tech

this is a very different kind of setup we're doing this one on the road and the reason we're on the road is we've been at vo Atlanta for the last four or five days and here with me is a new friend stayed with me here in the house he has his own podcast he's going to tell you about as well Rob how you doing today I'm doing good George to first of all thank you so much for opening your rent at home to strangers to stay with you it was a cool experience to have some time

with you here to grow a friendship and then also just be able to like just have a place away from all of the noise and the chaos yeah exactly and the air conditioning right when you're stuck in a building for 4 days with air conditioning frozen solid yeah it can be a lot even if you're not cold it takes all the humidity out of the air right

we're here for vo Atlanta I understand this is your first time this is my second time actually second time okay excellent second year but I was what they called the first Contact guide so so I was able to actually help out folks that it was their first time here and who did you guide a person I had a guy from Florida Robert Starling robt yeah I met him he's a good dude he's a great guy and then Max herzfeld who's from California it was their first time here

and it was a great program to be a buddy for the first time folks who maybe not know how to navigate it can feel over it can feel overwhelming right thousand people there so it was really cool to be that for someone for their first time here and then again grow more bonds friendship so it was great that's great man I'm glad you could do that yeah what contrasted this event to the last time you came anything stand out just for what I was doing last year again my

first year I made sure every hour was crammed with something if it was a breakout to break out to break out to break and it was exhausting and this year I made sure I took like an hour in between things maybe 1 in the morning 1 in the afternoon because sometimes it's the stuff that happens in between those breakout sessions that can be some of the most valuable stuff being able to connect with people in between be able to build those that's definitely true for me man colliding with people in the

hallways it's non-stop it's lotun and if you don't have that pressure on yourself oh I got to get to this thing it allows you to breathe and to soak in the information you've been getting so that was my big difference this year concentrating more on building those friendships being more present as opposed to schedule driven that's really smart I've done trade shows and other events where I try to schedule too much and I always regret it so I think that's a really good approach yeah you drove in

I flew in where did you come from how long you've been there and what the hell do you do over there I came up from

Augusta Georgia so 2 and a half hours straight up I20 I am a full-time voice actor I've got a studio at the house working in commercial promo a little bit of this a little bit of that like we all do but I've been there pretty much my entire life born and raised in Augusta lived in the southeast most of my life that's home I'm my mom's sole caregiver she's 86 and so being close to her is very important I've got a lovely wife Valerie and my kids Jacob and Jeremy but they're

adults now one's 31 he lives in England and the other one is 289 and he lives upstairs at the house world we live in now right right but it's cool that they're supporting what I'm doing and they're excited about me coming here and have the opportunity to learn more and to make more connections to do this really cool creative job that we do so your background I know a little bit about you but your background is one that's somewhat of a common story I think with voice over is old radio radio

in the background right yeah when did you get your first radio so I started in radio at 15 while I was still in high school that's I was just listening to Joseph brano's bio and that's it's the same he started at 16 yep yeah yeah I was still you knew you wanted to do it though yeah I was a freshman in high school and of course people are be like oh you got a great voice you got a great voice and which radio you can have a great voice and not know exactly what to do with it and get by which is

completely different from vo but yeah I just fell in love with the entertainment side of it that you could play these characters on the air that you could build these worlds that you're a part of people's lives just from them hearing you and be able to entertain them and it just I just got the bug and then I moved into like doing theater I got into television doing commercial production and things like that and that's pretty much what my life was for mhm you know 35 something years

before the industry changed yeah pushed a lot of people out all at once yeah yeah and so trying to reinvent myself I ended up doing sales for about 10 years sure and then that kind of went away and my wife was like you should get back to what you love and so EXC here I am great having a supportive partner that tells you it's okay it's okay yeah go do that thing it's what you want to do you should be doing it exactly GT not sure if your Studio's audio sounds

competitive a sound check by George the tech removes all doubts and explains the next steps audiobooks podcasts voiceovers for Content creators we do it all new customers get 20% off their first service with a coupon code on your screen George the tech you have a

podcast and at some point I'm going to guest on that podcast yeah absolutely um when the time is right tell us a little about it I know it's called chewing the fat and that's about all I know and the cool logo other than that yeah chewing the fat is a mental health and positivity podcast I launched it in 2021 we were all locked down for covid and I was dealing with depression and anxiety and I felt there were other people that were dealing with that too you would see it on the news or

other people dealing with those aspects of it yeah and I wanted to create something to maybe bring a little light into the world people could hear and realize that everybody's going through this so maybe it's not as dark as I think it is and truly the impetus of the podcast was a quote from JRR tolken in The Hobbit when Gandalf is choosing the Hobbits to go on this Quest right and it's like I believe it is the small everyday Deeds of ordinary folk that keep the Darkness at Bay small acts of

kindness and love oh yeah that's a beautiful quote what an inspiration to start a podcast yeah and that's really what drove me to start this is like what are other people doing to keep the Darkness at Bay so wow that's fantastic yeah so that's a question I asked my guest say as old radio guy it's set up in like three segments like a radio show and that's the question I ask every guest is what do you do to keep the Darkness at Bay and that allows them to talk about their dark times and then how

they have made it through so that they can be a light to other folks so that they can learn maybe somebody's dealing with something and it's not working but hearing somebody else give a suggestion of what to try maybe that gets them through that period so w well I'm going have to have a hand nearby when I tell some of these stories yeah but it's going to be great I can't wait to be on it how many episodes now 100 episode just went into season five hey in episode one of season five Joe ciano uh

speaking of Joe yeah hard not to mention radio and Joe and not in the same breath exactly he was kind enough to be my 100th guest yeah uh on the podcast and he has some great insight into things that you deal with in our industry he's on that mount Rush of people and for him to have had dark times that he had to get through too and to hear how he got through it and to still be where he is now and to be the kind person that he is it was very inspiring very inspiring I

listened to the second half of his autobiography audio in the car as I drove across North Carolina you know and it was cool to wrap up the trip with those stories yeah and the irony did you get to meet Joe while he was here yes yes I did I know he was here and I saw him from a distance but I never said hi to him which is ironic but you know that's the way it goes like at these conferences it happens you hear that story all the time oh you were there too yeah how could I miss you how I miss how

we not see I acted as tech for him for his X session that he did so man was his man in the chair hitting the space bar for him so that's cool yeah yeah again V Atlant is amazing and you all that didn't go think you have fomo I know you there's fomo yeah I have fomo problems all the time but the people that go to vo Atlanta there's still a lot of there's still a lot of fomo there's so much great stuff going on so many things simultaneously I would obviously have loved to stop in and see

what that was about I did a similar thing and I guessed it on another X session with memo Sala it was the Latin speaking one which was fun English did I say Latin speaking nobody speaks Latin anymore Spanish speak speaking Latin Community voice actor Breakout and it was awesome getting to hang out with him he was showing off the new Tri Booth memo yes which was really cool you should I think I called it the Milo last night the Milo thank you so much GE got

to meet and get to know each other better and we'll get some more time to really get to know each other on when I'm on chewing the fat I'm looking forward to it buddy is that the whole name if you look it on the podcast podcasters yeah you can find it chewing the fat or chewing the fat with Big Rob website it's chewing the fat br.com and that's all the socials and stuff like that site the voiceof rob.com and Rob tobes Rob to the voiceof rob.com there you go thanks for your time thank you thanks

for listening we'll see you around guys George the tech out George the tech