This v/blog is about sharing stories, listening to people tell their journey whether it be about their careers or hobbies. Inspiring others to follow their dreams and strive to do something that makes them happy, speaks to their soul or lights a fire in their belly. My guests share advice from their own perspectives over various topics, they share their hopes and dreams and what they want out of life and out of their endeavors. The great thing about being human is that everyone has their own experiences that form their own opinions, and sometimes we need to hear an opinion that differs from our own. This is not a place to condemn someone for how they do or think about things if it’s different from how you’d do it, but to just listen and take it for what it is – a sharing of their experience.

Give a warm welcome to Brian Cook!

Brian is a voice actor just trying to spread some happiness to everyone he meets. He’s a family man, a mental health advocate, a lover of characters and he tries to inspire those he meets with funny voices and positive words. This episode is truly a gem because it takes a lot of courage to speak about your own depression, burn-out and general low times. Brian wants people to know he’s been through that, still goes through it, but he never stays down.

His family has been his biggest support system. They cheer for him and they tell him when he needs a break but they never stop believing in him, and that’s allowed Brian to keep on going even when it gets tough. That’s the kind of support system we all need and some of us are extremely lucky to have. For those of you who don’t have a support system in place, it’s time to find one! Doing anything is hard without one, but as actors we face so much in the way of negativity. If you work in characters, there will always be those who feel the need to voice their discontent to whoever may listen, usually blasting it on social media or even sending it to you by private message. If you put out hundreds of auditions without landing but maybe 1 or 2 roles – or even none – it can be very discouraging and feel like rejection. Then, there’s some clients who are never satisfied and you can’t understand why they hired you in the first place.

If you choose to focus on the negatives, that’s all you will see. I loved my conversation with Brian because he may struggle with these things, but he still gets up and chooses to move forward. When he has a bad day, he takes a step back, reconvenes, and then gets back on track the next.

When the universe hurls a lemon at your head, you say “Well that hurt like hell. I don’t remember asking for a lemon, but it sure does taste good when squeezed over grilled salmon!” And you proceed to use said lemon for something delicious. Positive reactions attract positive events, you guys. ;]

*UPDATED* Brian is available over several different social medias, so go show some love! Here’s his LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/ibcookvo. His TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter is BrianCookVO. I recommend his TikTok or Youtube if you wanna hear his Stitch and Joker interpretations. If you have a project that you’d like to work with him on, send him an email at ibcook.vo@gmail.com!

If you wanna check out my website, you can find it here: samphilyawvo.com. There, you’ll find all of my demos, blog posts and some video projects that I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to work on. If you’d like to contact me about future collaboration on your project, email me at sam@samphilyawvo.com.

If you have questions or comments regarding the video podcast, or great guest suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment under this post!

Stay tuned for the next awesome episode, see you then!