Preserving Your Legacy: How to Share Your Story with Robert Lane
Are you ready to uncover the truth behind building a successful career in the entertainment industry? Let’s bust some myths wide open and reveal the secrets to thriving in this dynamic field. Get ready to discover the real strategies that will set you on the path to success. But first, let’s explore some common myths that may be holding you back.
In this episode, you will be able to:
- Mastering the art of building a successful career in the entertainment industry.
- Unleashing the potential of transitioning from corporate to entrepreneurship.
- Amplifying your success through the power of personal branding for authors.
- Discovering the benefits of narrating your own audiobook.
- Conquering work stress and burnout for a more fulfilling career in entertainment.
My special guest is Robert Lane:
With over 30 years of multifaceted experience in the entertainment industry, Robert Lane has worn many hats, including roles in post-production, corporate management, and on-camera work. His 14-year tenure at 20th Century Fox as a feature project manager stands as a testament to his expertise. Beyond his corporate journey, Robert has also delved into audiobook coaching and production, leveraging his rich background to guide non-fiction authors in narrating and publishing their own audiobooks. His transition from the bustling world of entertainment to a fulfilling career in coaching and speaking serves as a wellspring of inspiration for those seeking to carve their own paths in the industry. Based in the serene landscapes of Sedona, Arizona, Robert continues to captivate audiences with his transformative speaking engagements, embodying the resilience and adaptability crucial for success in the entertainment realm.
Connect with Robert Lane:
Website: https://www.robertlanecoaching.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robertlanecoaching/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKl-CMZrL2RvKdkoRIAZs-A
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertlanecoaching/
Connect with Dwight Heck:
Website: https://giveaheck.com (Free Book Offer)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/give.a.heck
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwight.heck
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Giveaheck
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@giveaheck
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwight-heck-65a90150/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@giveaheck
X: https://x.com/give_a_heck
The key moments in this episode are(Full Unedited Transcript follows):
00:00:02 – Introduction to Robert Lane
00:02:01 – Robert’s Origin Story
00:07:58 – Transition to Coaching
00:10:26 – Creating Audiobooks
00:13:41 – Building Confidence
00:16:30 – Fulfilling Coaching Process
00:17:16 – Trauma and Resilience
00:18:46 – Entrepreneurial Challenges
00:19:51 – Tenacity and Resilience
00:23:27 – Seeking Help and Personal Reflection
00:30:11 – Transitioning into the Digital Age
00:33:19 – Overcoming Stress and Pressure
00:36:11 – The Reality of Working in the Entertainment Industry
00:39:53 – Transition to Life Coaching
00:43:55 – Voice Coaching and Empowerment
00:45:24 – The Power of Mindset in Audiobook Narration
00:46:25 – Embracing Your Unique Author Brand
00:49:34 – The Impact of Voice in Storytelling
00:52:35 – The Pitfalls of AI in Audiobook Narration
00:58:35 – The Importance of Uniqueness and Authenticity
00:59:40 – Taking Ownership of Your Decisions
01:00:24 – Developing a Six-Week Program
01:01:44 – Creating a Comfortable Environment
01:02:54 – Importance of Human Editing
01:10:09 – Being Your True Authentic Self
01:13:50 – Embracing Opportunities
01:10:25 – Overcoming Challenges
01:07:40 – Finding Purpose
01:05:15 – Sharing Experiences
Unedited Transcript of Episode:
00:00:02 – Dwight Heck
Good day and welcome to give a hack on today’s show. I welcome Robert Lane. Robert is an audiobook coach and producer as well as transformational speaker. He spent 30 plus years working in the entertainment industry in a various facets including on and off camera, post production and corporate management. 14 of those years were spent at 20th Century Fox working on the studio lot in LA as their feature project manager. He also has over 22 years of experience as a re recording mixer, sound designer and music composer for many films, TV shows and industrial videos. After leaving the Entertainment World In 2020, Robert founded Robert Lang Coaching first as a career life coach, then expanding the business as an audiobook coach and producer. After publishing his number one best selling book Lights Action you the guide to mast your mindset, overcome work stress and regain your personal freedom. Based on his experiences in the entertainment business, he created the your book your Voice audiobook coaching program, a one on one program helping non fiction authors narrate and publish their own audio books on Audible, Amazon and Apple Books as well as other dis distribution platforms. In only six weeks, Robert has taken the career life coaching aspect of his business on the road as a transformational speaker, inspiring audiences from big corporations to community groups all around the country, showing them how to live a better, more productive life and make a true difference. Robert is also an award winning filmmaker and he resides in Sedona, Arizona. I’d like to welcome you to the show, Robert. Thanks so much for agreeing to come on and share with us some of your life journey.
00:01:58 – Robert Lane
Oh absolutely. Dwight, thank you so much for having me on your show.
00:02:01 – Dwight Heck
Oh, you’re welcome. I look forward to our conversation. Buckle up listeners, viewers. We’re going to get down to the the, you know, the details and the nitty gritty of what Robert has gone through and how he’s elevated his life and now is out giving a heck and changing other people’s lives by giving a heck about himself. So Robert, one of the things we talk about, as I mentioned, is we the listeners and myself enjoy a person’s origin story. It can be your earliest recollections. It doesn’t have to be bad. Not everybody has bad childhood. But sometimes there’s defining moments in our lives that we need to understand so that we can better connect to you and you know, just feel your, feel your joy, feel your pain, whatever the case may be, to help us connect so that we can, you know, better understand what you went through and why you do what you do. So Robert, do me a favor. Share what you feel comfortable with in Your origin story from key things from your childhood to adulthood to where you are currently.
00:03:05 – Robert Lane
Oh, you know, I think I’ll go back to when I was three years old. That’s going back quite a bit.
00:03:14 – Dwight Heck
Oh yeah, absolutely.
00:03:16 – Robert Lane
But that’s okay. No, actually, and I talk about it in my book. It’s actually the first story of my book and But I feel it was a defining moment into where I am today and when where I grew up. The My best friend was a kid who lived in a house behind ours and he lived with his grandparents. Unbeknownst to me, his grandfather was a gentleman named Robert a Maddie and Robert Lane as a special effects guy or he was a special effects guy who worked on a lot of Disney movies. He did Mary Poppins, he did 20,000 leagues under the Sea and he did this some little movie about a shark called Jaws. And I remember being over with my friend, best friend Craig. And I was there when his grandfather got the call to come out of retirement because he was retired at the time to work on Jaws. And so he decided that he was going to take the job. And one day he asked Craig and myself, hey, do you want to go see the shark while he was building the special effects for it? So, you know, we’re little kids. Yeah, absolutely. We go there, we walk in, we see this massive shark, 25 foot shark. I mean as a little kid, of course it’s pretty scary. Jaws are open, the teeth and everything. But what was really fascinating was that the back half of the shark was all opened up. So you saw the hydraulics and the mechanics and everything that made the shark work. And even as a little kid that blew me away. And I guess at that moment or at that time, I realized this was something I wanted to do or be involved in somehow. I guess that was really the start of the entertainment career was seeing this because it was so fascinating to see something behind the scenes like that. So that I think was. Was a defining moment which did eventually lead me to working in the entertainment industry. I always loved audio. Was an audio guy. When I went to college, I studied radio. Got my first job at a radio station doing, you know, production and then hosting talk shows and music shows and doing commercial and voiceover and all that, which eventually led to getting an audio engineering job for Playboy Radio of all places. They started doing a radio show and I got the job to be their audio engineer. When I was let go from that job, I had to figure out what I was going to do and I decided, well, I still want to be in the entertainment business. So I went back to school to, to learn and develop my craft as an audio engineer. And from there I got internships at a couple of different studios in Burbank, California. Finally got a job in Hollywood at a post production place. And that actually led to really more of a corporate job. So I wasn’t doing audio engineering but I was scheduling the work for that post production facility. And then one day I got some phone call, random phone call from some person who said I work for 20th Century Fox and would you be interested in working for our audio department? And of course it was like yes. I went down, I interviewed, got the job. And then of course that led to various different positions more so in the corporate world. Ending up being a feature project manager for the studio until 2020 and life happens. Which is what happened to me because at. What was it? I don’t remember the exact year was a 2017, 2018, something like that where Disney bought Fox and that was this big deal and it obviously affected our department. So when Disney finally came into clean house, I was on the first round of firings.
00:07:45 – Dwight Heck
Oh wow.
00:07:47 – Robert Lane
So there you go. There’s a major life change now. At that time I, I didn’t want to work for Disney and I decided I didn’t want to. I just didn’t want to go back to the corporate world. I’ve been working in Entertainment for over 30 years. I just figured I wanted to do something different. I wanted to actually do something that was more personally fulfilling but can also maybe help others more so than just working in entertainment. And that’s why I started the Robert Lane coaching business. And I, I even remember the, the first day or like, or not the first day, but the actual day when I made that decision. This is what I’m going to do. I know it’s not going to be easy. Entrepreneurship is, is a tough job, but that’s okay because this is something that I was really passionate about. So I started off my business with studying how to be a life coach and career coach. And I figured with all the experience that I’ve had in the entertainment world, it definitely transfers over into any job. It doesn’t matter whether it’s entertainment or a corporate job or even blue collar work or working at a grocery store, it doesn’t matter. We all experience the same types of work situations. We’ve had bad bosses, we’ve had deadlines we’ve had to hit. You know, we have to manage our time. You know, we have to build confidence and not be afraid to Take on big projects. I mean, everything that, that we do in a career just goes across the board. Now, I had some people were asking me, you know, why don’t you write a memoir? I mean, you worked in the entertainment business. You must have tons of stories to tell. And I thought about that, and I thought, you know, maybe I will. But I want to take it one step further, and that is I’ll tell a story. But with each story, I want to have a tool or technique or a life lesson that I can share that this is what I learned from this experience, and these are the tools and techniques that I use to help me through this experience, so. Which ended up being the book Lights, Action, You. So with each story, of course, I want them to be entertained with the story, but I really want the readers to be able to take something of value from it and apply it to their lives. And you can apply it to your job, you can apply it to your personal life. You know, it. It all makes. Makes sense. So that’s why I ended up writing the book. And of course, being an audio guy had it turned into an audiobook, which.
00:10:45 – Dwight Heck
Makes sense, of course.
00:10:47 – Robert Lane
Right? So then I had other authors approaching me saying, hey, you know, I. I would love to turn my book into an audiobook. How do you do it? So that’s when I decided to expand Robert Lane coaching and provide a service to help authors through the process of creating an audiobook. Because there are a lot of moving parts. It can be overwhelming and. But to be able to actually help and coach people on how to do it, not just the, you know, the setup and preparation and all that, but how to do a great narration, how to be compelling, how to be engaging, how to be authentic, how to be conversational and get that through with their unique personality because they’re. They’re always look at it as. Your voice is already in your written word. So when you narrate your own audiobook, you’re just bringing it to life in your own voice. So. So I created the audiobook coaching program that I teach, and. And that’s kind of taken me to where I am now in regards to the life coaching and career coaching. I still do that, but I do that with doing speaking engagements because I feel that I can reach more people. And I mean, if there’s just even one person that can get something, some value out of what I have to say or what my keynote speech is, then. Then I did my job. And you know, that that’s really the reward. The reward is being able to help Somebody, in some fashion, even with authors, to hear their excitement after they do their audiobook and it gets published. You know, it’s amazing that that’s, that’s, that’s the true reward.
00:12:37 – Dwight Heck
Well, it would be, but wow. You go from The Journey of 20th Century to Disney to continuing to evolve, to learning exactly what your passion is. I know myself been through, gone through electronics engineering into computer consulting, into finance. Like really, there’s no real. The opposites of one another. Your entertainment industry business obviously gave you some guidance and direction for certain things that you’d want to do. But really, when you went into the world of coaching, it’s tough because when you start coaching, people will automatically think, what do they know that they can teach me? Like, what is so great about them? Or you have the people that are so desperate they hire anybody as a coach. What have you. What did you do to define yourself? Was it. Did you have anybody special in your life that helped you figure out how you wanted to do the life coaching? Or is it something that just came natural because of your working in the corporate world in entertainment?
00:13:48 – Robert Lane
I think, you know, it’s funny, when I, as a kid, I. I was always a shy kid, very introverted, and it took work to get over that. And to be, I guess assertive is the word without being, you know, you don’t want to be aggressive, you just want to be assertive. But it comes down to believing in yourself and having confidence in yourself. And it took a lot to do that. I think growing up, my mom would push me into doing things that I was not comfortable with. And sometimes that was a negative experience because it would ingrain a fear. And my dad was more like just, you know, if, if, you know, let Robert decide what he wants to do and let him do it. Don’t try to push him into doing something that he doesn’t want to do. Now, there were times where my mom would push me into doing, you know, something that was of value. So I am thankful for those experiences. But other times, you know, like when I was starting to learning how to play guitar, and then, you know, if they had people over, they’ll be like, oh, you grab your guitar singing, you know, do this, and it’s like, no, I don’t want to do it. I did not feel comfortable doing that. And to be forced to do something like that can be a traumatic experience. Especially, you know, especially when you’re young. And it does, you know, go back into the subconscious vault. And it does rear its ugly head at times. That does create Barriers for people that does create people from doing the things that they want to do, and then they stop doing it. Again. Confidence was a thing that I felt that since I experienced this lack of confidence and to be able to get over it and believe in myself and be confident in myself, what can I do with my experiences to help others build their confidence? And one of the more common issues that I deal with, especially with, with authors who aren’t speakers, they’re not professional speakers, but they want to narrate their own audiobook. A lot of times they, they say, ah, I hate my voice. I don’t like how I sound. I. I don’t have what it takes. And, and it’s, you know, we talk about that. Well, let’s strip away the layers. Let’s find out if there is a root cause. Is there something that is stopping you from feeling confident that you, that you are, you are capable of narrating your own audiobook, for example? So diving into that is part of the coaching process and being able to help people through that. Again, it’s personally fulfilling to be able to help someone else, have them be purposely fulfilled to do the goals that, and reach the goals that they want to do. So, yeah, I think it did stem from some experiences of being pushed into doing things that I didn’t want to do, that, that, you know, I like.
00:17:01 – Dwight Heck
How you put that, though. It can be traumatizing when our, when our guardians, our parents, the people that we respect, even as adults, we can get directed to a certain way that we really don’t want to, but we don’t know how to say no. As a young person, saying no to your parents is, especially when you have split parents, one that’s saying, hey, let Robert be his own person, and the other one is going, no, you got to do this. And, and like you said, there’s a trauma that ignites within us and it can stick with us for a long time. It’s. I know as a parent myself to now five adult kids, it was tough knowing when I should push him, when it, when it’s not. There was. And even now, you know, 23 years of doing finance coaching. I kind of relate to what you were just saying too. You know, people say they don’t have a good voice on your end. For me, they’re going, well, I have all these things going on. And you, you want to get to the root trauma. I want to get to the root trauma. Because if you don’t, it’s pretty hard to have success. People quit way too early. Before they see their success. Wouldn’t you agree?
00:18:07 – Robert Lane
Absolutely. 100%. Just even from leaving the entertainment world, starting a business, you know, creating something from nothing. Right. You’re creating something from scratch. And to build an entrepreneurial business is tough. And I mean, you know, there are highs and they’re really high, and then there’s lows and there’s, you know, incredible lows. And you know, honestly, Dwight, there. There are many times where I just thought, you know, forget this, you know, I’m throwing in the towel, you know, I can’t deal with this. But then I stop myself and I. And then I’ll ask myself, did you really try everything to make this work? Have you tried everything that you can possibly do to make this business work? And the answer is it’s always no. Because it is a journey. And you do find new ways to do things. And if there is a barrier or if you try something and you fail, learn the lesson and then figure out, what can I do to not have this happen again? Or how can I achieve this goal that I want to reach and what steps can I do to make that happen? You find solutions instead of just giving up. I was in a coaching program a few years ago and I was voted Mr. Resilience. I just kind of laughed about, but that kind of stuck in my mind because I think about that and it’s, well, you know, you have to be. You have to have resilience. You have to, you know, be tenacious, but do it in a positive way.
00:19:47 – Dwight Heck
Yeah. Tenacity is a superpower as far as I’m concerned. Being resilient is a superpower. And, you know, questioning some of the things you were talking about, questioning the fact that, you know, and being honest with ourselves is a big problem for people before they quit, because if they could reflect when they made a mistake or they had a failure and tell themselves, you know, I need a day, I need to reflect on this. I need to be looking at what did I do? What was my part in that failure? What could I have done different? Who can, who can I reach out to that mentors me that will tell me how things are not what I want to hear. You know what I mean? Like, instead of having. Looking for that confirmation bias and. And boohoo, woohoo, you know, being honest with ourselves, you know what? I’m human. I made a mistake. Time to go on to the next thing. And sometimes that human response and decision is going to be truthful. But put some time and effort into it before you quit on what you’re what you want. Now, if you realize I tell people all the time now, if you realize this isn’t honestly what you wanted after you’ve experienced some of it, then you’re better off pivoting. Don’t use the mindset of, oh, I’m quitting. No, I’ve decided that this isn’t even the wheelhouse of my life. This isn’t my purpose. I only purpose driven. So I’m going to try something else out. Like there’s people in life, you know it as well as I do, that start one thing and they’re there the rest of their lives.
00:21:17 – Robert Lane
Yeah.
00:21:18 – Dwight Heck
And the very small portion of them were actually happy throughout that whole 35, 40 year journey of their life. They just did it for a paycheck. Go to work, go home, get paid on that hamster wheel. No purpose. When in reality they wanted something different. But they had nobody encouraging them, nobody saying it’s okay to make a mistake and pivot or make a mistake, correct it and continue on the same path. We are a society that has an education system that teaches people to be workers, not critical thinkers, not people that are willing to step outside of their comfort zone. And I like how you put up brought up earlier. Being an entrepreneur is real. It’s, it’s hard. It’s not, it’s. Everybody thinks it’s all fancy. I get to say I’m my own boss or I get to be the boss of others. You just added your more complexity. Think of your people listening or watching. Think of your job and actually right now think about your superior or people above you or people that work at the same level as you. What are they going through in their daily lives? How much more do they have to invest? Do you think the manager has to invest in time after work because he’s got to worry about project deadlines, he’s got to worry about this and that. And you’re at your job, comfortable, going nine to five, two weeks vacation, whatever. And what I’m saying, this is some people, that’s their wheelhouse, that’s their purpose. They don’t want anything more than that. But I find most people have really never been challenged to think about anything besides that. They’re so comfortable. Go to work, go home, get paid, come home, wait for the weekends, wait for their two weeks. And if that’s you and you’re, and you truly are happy, great. But if you’re a person that’s got something on and something’s not feeling right, maybe you need to talk to somebody like Robert or myself, to help you level up, think differently. And if that leveling up, thinking different, and he’s like, I like where I’m at in my life, great. But most people never reflect, do they, Robert?
00:23:17 – Robert Lane
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I agree with you 100% that. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t be afraid to get a coach. Don’t be afraid to find a mentor. Don’t be afraid to seek out people who are doing something that you want to do and pick their brain and find out how. Maybe they can help you, or maybe they can lead you in a direction to do what you want to do. And it really is true. Don’t be afraid to ask, because nine out of 10 times, somebody that you thought would never even give you the time of day would be more than willing to at least talk with you or send you in a direction that can help you achieve the goals that you need to achieve or at least give you some advice to say, hey, if you want to reach this goal, you need this and this and this. So maybe start here. You know, it’s.
00:24:19 – Dwight Heck
It’s help with the baby steps. Yeah. Give them help with the baby steps of life. And. And if sometimes, though, there’s people out there that when you. They get coached or you help them, that you realize that they are just the person that is better at being a foot soldier than a general. They just. They don’t have the capabilities. And that’s okay. We’re. We’re all different. Like our fingerprints. If. If you’re best at what you do. I know a lot of people that are happy in their jobs, in their careers. I know people that are. That are working outside in this cold, and they. They’ll go, oh, yeah, I just got to dress up better. No negativity. Right. Got to go out. I got a job to do. They come home, they’re happy, they’re. They got their family, and it’s just. Is what. What it is. But then there’s some people that come home and they just got something gnawing at them. They’re never satisfied. Right. Those are the people that need to realize that the seeds of greatness, even if you’re in your 50s, 60s, 70s, can be watered. And if you’re in your 20s and 30s and 40s, oh, my gosh, you got the world by the. I won’t say the rest of that term, but, you know, they have the opportunity to pretty much accomplish anything in today’s world with the technology and the learning. Look at all the learning you can do on YouTube, Google.
00:25:42 – Robert Lane
Right.
00:25:42 – Dwight Heck
Audiobooks, podcasts. Right. There’s not a. I don’t think there’s a topic you can’t find anymore, is there?
00:25:50 – Robert Lane
I think if you’ve searched, you will find. I believe that 100%. And, you know, it does make sense. Like, I look, I could, all right, I’ll step outside of my box just to look in and see from the outside looking in of what my journey was. I’ve had people come up to me and say, oh, wow, man, you work in the entertainment business. It must be so glamorous and this and that and the other. And it’s like, well, it was a corporate job. It is a job. However, I do look back and I do see things that I was able to do that most people don’t get to do or like, most people don’t get to see in the entertainment business. So from that aspect, I count my blessings. I’m. I’m fortunate. When I worked at Fox, I worked. The building that I worked in was. They had. The scoring stage was downstairs. So that’s where they recorded all the, you know, the music for all the films that they were working in on. And upstairs was the voiceover stages. And the building that I worked in, the Simpsons recorded every Monday. All the actors came in, they did their thing. And Mondays were great because after they were done, we were friends with the, you know, the person who was the manager of the. The sessions who would call us and say, green rooms open. Which meant, you know, that all this great food wasn’t eaten. So we all get in there and we knew Mondays were great days.
00:27:24 – Dwight Heck
Oh, that’s awesome. But you know what? Aren’t we all a combination? Like you say you learned all this stuff, you experienced all these things. Those are memories. Yeah, but how many people discount the memories when they look back on things that they used to do? What. What does a normal person do? They pick apart and come up with negative. They’re not talking. They’re talking about, oh, I sure don’t miss that boss or that person that worked beside me or. Or blah, blah, blah. They didn’t care about me. And they can’t stop and see the forest from the trees. They can’t actually appreciate. This is what I learned. Yes. Was there negative? Absolutely. We’d be lying to ourselves to say there isn’t negativity within our corporate. Corporate jobs or our careers or whatever the case may be, actually looking back and reflecting. Not even that. Like, we talked about reflecting on our day. Well, what about Reflecting on what did I learn? Yeah, I did this as a sport, as a kid. Did this teach me anything? I’ve had to look back at my life and go, this was the stages of my life. What did I learn? What did it teach me? And that’s. Well, it’s in my book too. Like, you know, you talked about your story of your being three years old and. Same thing. I have stories in there, too. I have little assignments at the end of the chapter for people to make them think and stuff. Why? Because we coast through life and we miss the journey, don’t we, Robert?
00:28:46 – Robert Lane
We really do.
00:28:48 – Dwight Heck
That memory of your job at 20th century with the Simpsons and the food, that’s an exciting memory to even hear about. And the smile on your face for those watching, you know what I’m talking about? That’s a great memory. You could focus and share stories about all the negativity, but what good is that? Does that build you up or does it tear you down?
00:29:06 – Robert Lane
Yeah, exactly. I mean, sure, there were moments that were horrible working at the studio, but again, it’s not just because it was the studio. It’s just because it was a corporate job. And, you know, we. We had. We were never allowed to say no to any work that came in. And we were literally worked to the bone. We had skeleton crew. We were.
00:29:38 – Dwight Heck
They were tired.
00:29:40 – Robert Lane
We. We were working like two crazy time jobs, you know, handling things. And. And you had deadlines that were insane, especially in the entertainment business.
00:29:53 – Dwight Heck
And there was, Were there points in time, though, like I have written down here, you know, you had, you share. Do you have any moments, like you share about love working in entertainment? But were there times, though, where you were just, you know, you were sick and tired, gonna pack up your bag and never come back. And if you did, what made you come back there?
00:30:14 – Robert Lane
I’ll share with you an experience, Dwight, there when the encoding world started. Because, you know, back in the day, if you had a movie or TV show, it, you know, it was on tape first it was on, you know, vhs and then it went to hd. So you had, you know, HD cams and HD camsr, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever the technical term is. Yeah, and then. But really, Fox was on the forefront of doing the transition from tape format to what we know now as streaming and to create those digital files. Fox was on the forefront. Matter of fact, I remember having other studios, Disney included, coming to our studio and just being blown away about how we were creating the whole.
00:31:06 – Dwight Heck
The content.
00:31:07 – Robert Lane
Yeah, the content. You know, the digital file content. So when we moved into another building. It was like getting in on the ground floor of this new technology. And I thought, I’d love to do that. I’d love to learn and do this. So I asked my boss, can I go from doing audio stuff to learning the encoding world? And again, I’m not an encoder, but I was the person who was scheduling the work for the encoders. Now, starting off, obviously it wasn’t easy and SOPs right, standard operating procedures would change weekly, if not every few days. So when you create a work order for the encoder, it was a lot of work. There was so much detail and a lot of it I just didn’t understand because my brain couldn’t wrap myself around of the. The encoding world. It was such a. A new thing. But my manager would come in and there were times where I would ask a question and his response would be, I just told you how to do that two days ago, and then walk out and you just left there really unsupported, not supported. And that’s where. That’s where the fear kicked in, because it was unbelievable. I had stacks of videotapes. I was buried, literally. And all these had to be, you know, work orders had to be made and this and that and the other. And I would. I was working, you know, 10, 12, 13 hours a day just to try to get all this work in. And it just felt like I couldn’t. I couldn’t keep up. And it got to a point to where it took a toll physically and mentally. I just. I couldn’t keep up. And that was. That was a breaking moment for me. So one of the other schedulers in the audio department went on maternity leave. So they said, hey, why don’t you go back to the audio department? And. And for me, that. That was. That was what a relief to get out of this encoding thing, because I just. It wasn’t. It wasn’t working for me.
00:33:29 – Dwight Heck
It wasn’t in your wheelhouse.
00:33:30 – Robert Lane
It just wasn’t. Yeah, it wasn’t in my wheel.
00:33:32 – Dwight Heck
Enjoy it. Didn’t enjoy it.
00:33:34 – Robert Lane
Not at all. It was so incredibly stressful. And unfortunately, that carried over to. I was in the. Now in the audio department. And again, just the, the pressure of getting that work done, that was it. I. And I. I went. I just got up from my desk, went downstairs to the VP and I said, I can’t do this anymore. I’m done. I just cannot do this anymore. And, you know, it was like having a. Probably was like, I’m a nervous breakdown. I Couldn’t deal with it anymore. So luckily that VP was compassionate and we talked and she set up sessions with a therapist that Fox paid to help me get my head back where it needed to be. So I think I did like five successions at least just to get myself, you know, re.
00:34:36 – Dwight Heck
Engaged.
00:34:37 – Robert Lane
Yeah, right. Where I can go back to work and not just be so overwhelmed. It was the whole fight, flight or freeze thing, you know, it was like I just, I wanted to, I wanted to. I didn’t know how to fight, so that was out. I didn’t want to run away because I needed the job.
00:34:53 – Dwight Heck
Well, who’s fighting for you though? Like the stars of the productions of entertainment and that they have people fighting for them because they’re a big name for the people watching or listening. I never really appreciated until now all the garbage and things like, yes, there’s good, but all the garbage that people have to put for you to be entertained, all the people behind the scenes, all the people scrolling by as the movie or TV show ends, those are all people that, without all that people and their, and their salaries combined probably don’t even add up to what the star is getting paid. You know what I mean? I get it. But thank you for sharing that though, because so many people just don’t realize how the entertainment industry puts that much pressure on people in order to. Right. I can imagine there’s a high turnover rate too in the industry.
00:35:48 – Robert Lane
It’s funny because like when it came to project managers, which is what I was, average lifespan at a studio was about a year and a half, maybe two years, and they decided to just jump from studio to studio, always thinking that the grass is greener on the other side. Not necessarily so. Like, for example, you know, people would go to Netflix because Netflix, ah, it’s Netflix. It’s a great job. They pay. They pay. I mean, they paid really, really well. However, the pressure and the environment, from what I saw from people who went there, it was insane. I would, I wouldn’t want to work for them under those types of working conditions.
00:36:30 – Dwight Heck
It’s like, oh, money. Money’s not going to, going to take away your angst, your anxiety, your stress, your depression because you come home thinking, why am I doing this? I’m working for Netflix, I’m working for Disney, I’m doing. Why am I doing this? 13 hours of unthinkful and then the movie comes out, the star gets paid 10 million and, and you’re not making a six figure income or maybe you are, but the amount of hours you’re putting in, you’re missing your family, you’re lacking so much. And, you know, depression. Should I have done things different? Anxiety and what’s tomorrow going to be like? I already hated today. Right. I can’t imagine what you went through, and I can see why you left.
00:37:12 – Robert Lane
Yeah. You know, the. As things evolved and as we got into the encoding world and the digital age and streaming, you know, creating files so like, you know, someone who watches a Fox movie on Netflix, for example, well, somebody had to create that file, that digital file that you are watching. And that’s what our department did. But what’s funny is that the deadlines, like the window of completion just got smaller and smaller and smaller. For example, you would get assigned a movie. This is your project. You need to oversee the movie. So it’s not like, okay, we’re gonna make a digital file and send it off to Netflix and Hulu and all the other. It’s like, here’s your movie. You have 30 languages that you have to put that movie in. You know, there.
00:38:07 – Dwight Heck
Oh, gosh.
00:38:08 – Robert Lane
And, and there are like, you have your, Your opening credits may be different because you have to insert this card for this distribution person, you know, or company or even at the country.
00:38:20 – Dwight Heck
They have all the logistics. You had to worry about all the logistics and legalities. Oh, my gosh. For delivery and for legalities. Wow, that’s a. That’s impressive that you tolerated as long as you did. Because I’m getting anxiety just thinking about it, you know.
00:38:37 – Robert Lane
You know, Dwight, there are times where you feel trapped. And I understand this. And I think a lot of people feel this. This is why they’re in the job and that they stay with the job that maybe they’re not happy with because you feel trapped. What am I going to do if I leave my job? And that. That is a scary feeling and a scary situation to be in. And there are times where, you know, I felt that way. But on the other hand, I do love the entertainment business. I, I enjoyed aspects of the business. I mean, sure, you know, the, these, these situations were. Were hard and were a nightmare to deal with, and it was a lot of pressure. But on the other hand, I enjoyed working in the business. I just don’t like the pressure.
00:39:30 – Dwight Heck
Well, but look at, look at. You know, we talk about people pivoting and changing in life lessons. Your escalation, your elevation from doing that taught you a lot of things in regards to now, your career, life coach process. Right. So you left that industry and then, you know, you expanded it eventually into the audiobook stuff. But I want to know more about the life coach part of it. How much was it driven by all these experiences you’re talking about where you could see? Was it seeing other people going through, or was it always through your lens, like what you were seeing, but were you also seeing what other people were going through that they had no, no real direction or purpose in their life? Was that any. Was that any reason why you went into life coaching or what was the, the final thing that you decided you wanted to be the person to coach people so that they could live more purposely themselves?
00:40:25 – Robert Lane
That is also a factor. Yeah. It wasn’t just only my personal experience. It was seeing what some other people who weren’t as. I don’t know if. Well, I guess you could say resilient to that type of pressure, who, who just crumbled under it. And, and I saw management treat people inappropriate.
00:40:57 – Dwight Heck
Yeah.
00:40:57 – Robert Lane
Inappropriately. And. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s kind of heartbreaking in a sense to, to see that not, you know, and experience it. Now it’s funny because one of the VPs at Fox I got along with and who ended up being pretty helpful to me throughout my career there, but most of the people that I worked with or who knew of this manager, this vp, hated her. Hated her. They thought that she was mean and vicious and didn’t know what she was doing, etc. Etc. And I would listen to them. I wouldn’t really comment or say, oh, yeah, yeah, I didn’t agree or anything because my experience was. And I, I saw, you know, I.
00:41:50 – Dwight Heck
Saw some of the things how she could be.
00:41:53 – Robert Lane
Yeah. But for me and my personal experience, I’m not going to drag her into the mud because she did help me. And it wouldn’t be fair for me to drag somebody into the, you know, into the dirt just because other people are like. You have to be true to your own convictions. You know, you. You have to. You have to. Like you mentioned earlier about being honest with yourself, just because someone says something or does something, don’t jump on their bandwagon.
00:42:26 – Dwight Heck
Well, of course you have your own, but maybe you got along. I keep on thinking this because I’ve experienced it too, where people will say the nastiest things about a human being, male or female, doesn’t really matter. That’s in a position of power. And the difference was, is how their tonality and their communication to that person was. Maybe that person was harsh to you in the way they delivered, but yet you interpreted it as an assistance and you developed that kind of relationship. Relationship where you can have synergy. Still, they weren’t being negative. They’re just on the clock, on the deadline. They have their own things going on and they want to keep it concise. And somebody else that’s too, too sensitive gets all butt hurt about it. Now they go and spread more things. Then they get known as the person that complains. And really at the end of the day, it’s back to communication. The reason I bring that up is I can see this flowing into your voice coaching. I can see this, the fact that you get into life coaching because you could see circumstances of what people were going through. You wanted to be able to help them have the strength to not to feel that way because you experienced it, you’ve seen others experience it and you felt it. Now all of a sudden, when we go to be a voice, you teach people to be a voice, you’re teaching them to have their own voice too. Like, you know, we talked about that a little bit, that everybody’s voice has its own DNA. While in your coaching business, the people you worked with if their voice they didn’t feel was worth anything because they took everything personal instead of as a constructive criticism. Now you get into voice coaching. That must be a lot of work to be able to communicate with people and say you are worthy. Don’t take what you’ve gone on in your life. So your life coaching, my point is, is tying into your voice coaching it. It has to because you must be having to work with some bruised egos or some hurt feelings or somebody’s told them, like, are you, are you dumb? Why would you want anybody want to hear you? Your voice doesn’t matter. Like get somebody else to do it. So let’s transition into some of that before we run out of time about your voice coaching business. How was it, how has, how has it been like transitioning from the life side? We understand that you wanted to help people because you’ve seen lots of people hurt in the entertainment industry, including yourself. You wanted to help them live a more leveled up, purposeful life. When you go to your voice side, how. How did that transition? Why did you all of a sudden like you said, you have. You wrote your own book and you’ve been in the entertainment industry working with, with digital files and working with sound and different things. How did that. What was your light bulb moment where you knew you could be that person? Besides being a life coach to help people have their voice heard not just through, you know, their book, but being able to like what they say and have confidence in themselves.
00:45:24 – Robert Lane
Yeah, there’s definitely a connection between the career life coaching aspect and narrating an audiobook. Definitely a connection. One of the first lessons that actually it is, the first lesson that I do with an author is, is a mindset. It’s mindset because you have to be in the right frame of mind before you even hit the record button. And part of that is being grounded, being focused, being in the present moment, not worrying about the past, not worrying about the future. I do a little visualization exercise. I call it the Happy Place. Where’s your happy place? Like my happy place. I live here in Sedona, Arizona. I got the red rocks. I go trail running. You know, that’s my.
00:46:08 – Dwight Heck
Oh, it’s beautiful there.
00:46:09 – Robert Lane
But anyway, you know, or, or maybe someone’s happy place is, is having a tropical drink on a nice beach somewhere with the warm breeze and curling their toes in the sand and you know, wherever it is. But the whole point of doing visualization is focusing not on what really what you’re seeing, but how does it feel? How does it feel? Do you feel content? Do you feel joy? Do you feel confidence? Do you feel empowered? These are all things that, you know, we, we teach and give tools and about how to do that for career and life coaching. But that does definitely bleed over into your personal life and it bleeds over into, especially if you’re going to be narrating your own audiobook because you want to have that confidence, you want to tap into these feelings. Another thing that I do with, with authors as well is let make a list of affirmations. Especially if you hate your voice and you don’t think you have a good voice because you do. The one thing that I, that I talk to authors about and really make them understand is that you are now a brand. You are an author brand. Your product is your ebook, your paperback, your hardcover, your audiobook. All right? But you’re a brand. So your voice is part of your brand. So everything, I never thought of that. Right? Everything. Who you are, everything that encompasses who you are is your brand. How you were brought up, your personality, your sense of humor, your belief systems, your habits, your voice, that’s all part of who you are and that’s what makes you unique. So when you, you write your, your non fiction book, your voice again is already in the written wor. Your personality, everything is already there. So love your voice. Embrace this sound that comes out of your body. Just love it because that’s, that’s who you are. And that actually allows you to stand out in the crowd because no one can replicate you. This is why I’m a big advocate of saying all nonfiction authors need to narrate their own audiobook, because another narrator, no matter how great they are. Oh, I would love to have Morgan Freeman narrate my audiobook. That would have been awesome. I would have had, you know, Shawshank Redemption guy. Yeah, it would have been great. But the thing is, no matter how professional they are, it’s still their interpretation. This is your story. There are subtleties and nuances about who you are that encompasses your uniqueness, and that’s what you want to tap into. So no matter how great another narrator is, really, you should be telling your own story, even if it’s a memoir or especially if you’re a coach. Would you have another narrator coaching your coaching program?
00:49:01 – Dwight Heck
Absolutely not. Well, I look at the fact too, and oh man. People watching or listening. Rewind to listen to that again. I’ve been studying and working with branding now for quite a few years. I really got into it 2019, going into 2020 with the pandemic. But I never really thought about the author brand and the fact of how much power our. Our experiences from being young all the way to where we are now and including our voice is our actual overall brand. One of the things that I don’t have to look at my notes because I wrote them, but I wrote in the notes, what’s the differences? And in a great conversation like we’re having, it comes out anyway. It’s our brand is everything about us, right from our when we’re little to where we get older. And I know I never really grasped until recently why I like audiobooks so much better than actual cracking the spine. And yes, for those don’t get upset those listening who I love cracking it and the smell of the book. That’s what my daughter says. She still listens to audiobooks, but she loves the cracking of the books. Two of my daughters do. And one of my other daughters goes, she goes through books like, oh my gosh, she loves listening to him since she discovered how much more she can accomplish by listening. And she gets more out of it, too, than she does reading. She. Because she’s. But she says the same thing. I like it when it’s the actual author doing it or if it’s the actual person reading it as opposed to somebody else reading their book. Because really, when I read something about you, until I heard your voice, there was a disconnection because I’m reading Your written word about you, Robert Lane on what’s going on in my 6 inches between my ears and the books. Books are the same. I can read a book and be in a bad mood, but if I’m listening to an audiobook, like one of the best narrated audiobooks, two of them for me thus far are green lights. Matthew McConaughey, man, that book can, that guy can narrate a book. Unbelievable. And I loved Outwitting the Devil, Napoleon Hill. He didn’t obviously narrate it, but the people, they got to do the audio for the Devil and for Napoleon. Interviewing the Devil was amazing. They must have had to go through a lot of people to find that right chemistry and energy for a book that was written in the 30s. For those that don’t realize it, Outwitting the Devil is probably my favorite Napoleon Book Hill book of all time. But anyway, I digress. My point is, is our voice is so powerful. Thank you for sharing that. It is our brand, our tonality, our energy. And you know, even watching some people online that do their, that have watched them reading their audiobook, not just listening to it on Audible, but you can, some of them will have it where you can go read it. I get a different experience out of watching them read it.
00:51:53 – Robert Lane
Yeah.
00:51:54 – Dwight Heck
Along with their tonality, there’s so many different levels of enjoyment we can have. But it all starts with the fact that our voice is so much part of our brand. And I never thought about that. So thank you for that realization. Hopefully other people listening are realizing your brand just isn’t about social media. It isn’t just about flashy logos or flashy catchphrases. People need to hear you, your voice and what you stand for.
00:52:20 – Robert Lane
We live in an age that we should really embrace when it comes to audiobooks, for example, you know, having the author being able to. Are having the technology to be able to narrate your own audiobook is. You are not only preserving the integrity of your author brand, you are leaving a legacy for generations to hear you tell your story in your own voice. I mean, wouldn’t it be awesome to have an audiobook done with the memoirs of Abraham Lincoln or, you know, Leonardo da Vinci or, you know, anything like that.
00:53:04 – Dwight Heck
Yeah, yeah.
00:53:06 – Robert Lane
Wasn’t there. We don’t have, you know, they didn’t have that technology at that time, but now we do. So it’s a great thing to be able to tell your story in your own voice the way you intended it, to be heard the way you, you want to speak it and preserve it. And have other people 100 years from now listen to you tell your story.
00:53:30 – Dwight Heck
Well, yeah, it’s, it’s, it is something to love because I talk about the fact people say, why’d you write a book? Well, my grandkids that are still young, if I die tomorrow, can pick up my book. They can read about it talks about my origin, it talks about things I went through as a child up to where I launched my podcast and wrote my book. And it’s something they can actually read. But if they want to hear what their papa’s voice was like, right, Most people would never have that. See, I’m lucky though. They can listen to 200 and some podcasts. They really want to hear papa’s voice and be, be lulled asleep. I don’t know, maybe they’ll find it exciting. As a side note, my 12 year old grandson listens to my podcast all the time. He says he doesn’t always understand it, but he just wants to hear my voice. Voice makes him feel good.
00:54:23 – Robert Lane
That’s awesome.
00:54:24 – Dwight Heck
But the reason I bring that up is the voice is powerful. He just wants to hear papa. So he, right, puts on his Apple podcast, he’s 12 years old and his on his little old phone that we use on WI fi and listens to me. I thought that was so cool. I got a review one day that popped. I got a notice from a site that constantly tells me if I have new reviews put up and I go to read it and I looked at the name and it said Caden. And I’m going, what? And so I reached out to him, he says, yeah, Papa. He says, sometimes I listen to your podcast when I want to hear your voice. He says, it’s really, it’s really, it makes me feel good. I said, okay, that’s awesome. So my own 12 year old left a review on Apple podcasts about his grandpa. That was awesome. I thought that was priceless. But our voice is so powerful. It can comfort, it, can abuse, it can hurt, it can love it can do everything. It can emote. We just, we don’t take our voice serious, do we?
00:55:23 – Robert Lane
We need to, we need to take our voices seriously because that again, is part of who we are. For example, a couple of the books that I’ve worked on that I’ve helped authors. One was about her journey of getting cancer and getting, you know, defeating and getting over this horrible disease. Another book that I recently worked on was an author who got pulled into a religious cult and, and all the, the trauma from that and to get out and to now live a fantastic life for those people to be able to tell their story. You know, no one can tell that story better than them because they experienced it. You know, as an author, you lived it, You’ve breathed it. You know, it’s. It’s your story. No one can express it better than you because you, it’s your experience. So.
00:56:22 – Dwight Heck
No, well, so with the audio, you’re right. It’s experience. So with audiobooks, when I’m reading something, and even when I read your bio, you know, I put intentionality into, you know, putting more dominance on certain words or phrases or energy in there. And then now you throw in the fact of people using AI, right, to do audiobooks. And I had a company try to do it for me, right? They, they said, oh, they could make it perfect. And you know, a year and a bit later, I refuse to ever authorize it to be published. I canceled everything to do with it. I’ve got what they did and I listened to it and the energy is just not there. AI can. They’ve replicated my voice somewhat. I’d say maybe 50, 60%. But it doesn’t have my highs and lows. It doesn’t have my sadness, it doesn’t have my happiness. It doesn’t have, you know, the flip in a conversation sentence where I’m going from sad to happy in that paragraph. It does, it just, it, it doesn’t encapsulate it. What’s been your experience with. Because I know you talked about other people reading your book. That’s already an issue because they’re not you. They don’t have your experiences that they’re just reading it. What’s your experiences been with AI? Have you had much, much experience with that?
00:57:43 – Robert Lane
I know there are companies out there that, you know, will provide a computer generated voice or, you know, companies that will try to, you know, replicate how you sound. My view is this. If you use AI, you’re cheapening your, your author brand, period. AI is not you. AI is a misrepresentation of who you are. And you, you hit the nail on the head there, Dwight. AI is soulless. There’s no soul into it. We are human beings. We have subtleties and nuances in the way we speak, in the way we deliver our message that AI will never be able to replicate. This is what makes you you. You are a unique individual. You are a unique person. Why would you jeopardize your uniqueness? Again, you’re cheapening your author brand. And especially, you know, let’s say you did some voice cloning place and you’re going to palm that off as you now you’re lying to the people. That’s your, that’s your audience, you know, and that’s, that’s not good either because now you’ve just knocked yourself down in regards to being an expert in your field because people will interpret things that way. Oh, what do you mean? You try to palm off AI as being you. Oh, then how can I trust you? Especially if you’re a coach, how can I trust that you’re going to give your all to me? Because you, you’re cutting corners and I don’t believe in cutting corners. You know, just like in my, in my audiobook coaching program, I send the equipment to them. A professional microphone, professional headphones. And I don’t mean cheapy stuff, I mean good stuff. You know, probably if someone went out to buy it, they’d be spending at least $300, if not more for the equipment that I send them. But I do it because you don’t cut corners. You, you got to do the best that you possibly can. That’s just what you do. This is again your author brand. You know, the catchphrase I throw out all the time is you are the CEO of you make decisions, right? Make decisions for your business because the buck stops right here. You know, that person you see in the mirror, that’s where the buck stops. So if you’re going to do something, don’t cut corners. When you wrote your book, did you cut corners? Probably not. So why would you cut corners on the audiobook? Doesn’t make sense.
01:00:04 – Dwight Heck
It’s amazing though that you have for the listeners and we’re going to get close to wrapping up the show. You have six week program that takes them through different things that you’ve implemented to, to obviously teach them to have some confidence practicing that six week program. How long did it take you to develop that program? Was it something that came really easily to you or was it trial and error dealing with some clients to see what you had to adjust and correct?
01:00:37 – Robert Lane
Luckily, because of my entertainment experience working all this time and then being an audio editor as well, understanding that aspect of it, I did give this a lot of thought and I wanted to create a program that the author just won’t feel so overwhelmed. You can get it done in six weeks. And that’s the beauty of having a coach to be there to guide you through every step of the way. I don’t do group coaching. I only do one on one because I found that authors preferred to work with me one on one than be in a group setting. And I think that has to do with the story that they’re telling because again, like being in a cult or a memoir, that’s really intense. They want to be able to feel comfortable with the person that’s helping them with creating this story in their own voice. And I want to make sure that I allow them to feel comfortable working with me. That was some of the learning process. Again, my goal is let’s take away as much of the hassle and overwhelm and, you know, take that away. Set up your recording space so you don’t have to go to a studio. You’re not on someone else’s timeline if you’re having a bad day or if you’re making a lot of mistakes. And the engineer’s like, ah, kid, you know, time’s up, you’re out. You don’t want that pressure on your shoulders because then you’re not going to do a good delivery. So there’s, you know, there’s that and then, you know, again, the coaching. But I do all the editing for them so that you don’t have to worry about that. You don’t have to find an editor. And just so people know, editing after you do your audiobook is part of the process. You can’t not do it. That’s part of it. You have to have your audiobook edited, you know, and I listen to everything in real time so I can catch some subtle nuances. Like you say, AI is not going to catch it if there, if there’s a slurred word or maybe a mispronunciation. AI is not going to catch it. And if you run your audio files through a program that’s going to clean it all up, you’re going to miss these things. And what if, what if there’s too long of a gap between a word or a sentence or paragraph, or what if it’s too short? These are little subtleties that the human ear needs to hear so that it can be fixed.
01:03:08 – Dwight Heck
You know, look at, look at. AI can’t pronounce lives versus lives right. It does. It screws up all the time.
01:03:16 – Robert Lane
Yeah.
01:03:17 – Dwight Heck
Or, or it would just miss stuff altogether. Right. It would just. I was just floored by it. And the only reason I even agreed to try it was because it was a friend of mine and who helped me get the book out and publish it. It was another arm of his company was starting and he said he, you know, we’ll do this for you for, for free, be our guinea pig. While the whole process of it was just painful, I would never recommend anybody doing it with AI. I know a few other people that did. Did it on their own, and they said by the time. All the time they spent, they might as well have just done it themselves and gone the traditional route of actually using their voice.
01:03:55 – Robert Lane
Yeah, yeah.
01:03:56 – Dwight Heck
So giant wake up call. Yeah, wake up call. And now you’ve even confirmed it more for me that my voice is part of my brand.
01:04:06 – Robert Lane
Your voice is part of your brand. And, you know, my goal at least is to alleviate as much of the stress and overwhelm as possible. I want the author just to worry about doing a great narration. Sure. There’s a setup and preparation phase, obviously, but.
01:04:20 – Dwight Heck
Well, you have five steps to audiobook narration. Awesomeness, right?
01:04:25 – Robert Lane
Yeah, right, right.
01:04:27 – Dwight Heck
If you got it. If you got a couple minutes. Do you want to share about that before we wrap up?
01:04:32 – Robert Lane
Well, you know, I think a lot of the things that we discussed throughout the podcast covers that five steps does cover that. You know, confidence, belief in your voice, understanding your author brand, knowing you have what it takes to do a great narration. And. And again, from a practical standpoint, you teach them about where to place the mic, body posture, staying hydrated. You know, those are important aspects of it, too. But you know what, Dwight? Really, it’s the intangibles. It’s the things that you don’t physically touch but you emotionally feel. That’s. That’s the key to audiobook awesomeness. You know, being your true, authentic self, being conversational and being consistent from opening credits to closing credits, making sure that your energy level doesn’t dip. You do one chapter, then the next day you do another chapter, and you. And you narrate it in a completely different energy. Well, people are going to hear that, you know.
01:05:33 – Dwight Heck
Yeah. So that. That ties back to why it’s so important you do your own narration of your book. Because you feel what you wrote.
01:05:42 – Robert Lane
Yeah.
01:05:43 – Dwight Heck
You feel that memory. I know, right? In my book. Oh, my gosh. Five and a half months of working on it, sometimes every day, then every other day sending it to the editor, they send stuff back, and I get so emotional. It was just like. And when I think about it now and wanting to read my own book, I can’t even imagine how many times my emotional state will cause me to have to pause.
01:06:06 – Robert Lane
Yeah, right. Yeah.
01:06:09 – Dwight Heck
And then if you want to be the person that’s editing that together, so maybe it was a great clip, but then you pause and then start again. Now you got a gap. Well, then, like you said you have to have somebody editing it and making sure it sounds and flows good. And. And I know that some of the audio services, like Audible, they run it through a. Whatever, maybe it is an AI to make sure that you’re consistent and that you’re. You know what I mean? They do have qualifications, correct? They absolutely accept it.
01:06:40 – Robert Lane
Absolutely. And that is a key factor of why, again, you know, I have the coaching hat on. When I do the coaching to help an author do the best narration they can possibly do. That’s what I want for them. Coaching hat comes off, and the editor’s hat comes on. And that includes not only going through everything in real time with a fine tooth comb, move, removing mouth noises and shoring it up, you know, spaces, and just making sure everything sounds good. But it has to meet the exact specifications for publication because if it doesn’t, it’ll get rejected. And I’ve come across that I’ve had had an author, I did one of his books. He had several books, but the book before the book that we did, he recorded it, went to a studio, everything, uploaded it to Audible, rejected it, didn’t meet the specifications. And he spent a ton of money and a lot of months of time to try to fix all that work that he did narrating that book. I mean, finally got fixed, but what a hassle. You don’t want to do that.
01:07:44 – Dwight Heck
What’s the number one thing that would cause him to be rejected? What’s a couple things from a technical.
01:07:50 – Robert Lane
Standpoint, there are levels that you have to maintain, you know, decibel levels that are specific. You know, like noise floor, which is basically your ambient sound. If there’s too much ambience in there, it’ll get rejected. If it’s, you know, too loud or too soft, it’ll get rejected. And, you know, there are times. And this is why I upload the files for the author for publication, because I don’t want them to have to worry about that either. Because if there is a rejection once in a while, you know, to me, it looks great, my meters look great, everything looks great. And I’ll upload it and I might get a rejection saying, oh, the audio file is 0.3 decibels too low.
01:08:35 – Dwight Heck
Wow. So they are. They’re really serious about it.
01:08:39 – Robert Lane
And I’m like, okay, well, again, at least I know what the issue is. I can make adjustments, re output, re upload, make sure everything is good before I send all those audio files back to the author, you know, I want them to have the, you know, the mastered files that are all good. But then that way at least I can guarantee you will be published. Don’t worry about it. There won’t be any rejections.
01:09:02 – Dwight Heck
It’s just a matter of going through the steps.
01:09:05 – Robert Lane
Yep.
01:09:06 – Dwight Heck
You just got to the odd time there’s a pause on one of the steps because it’s down point three db or whatever, like you were saying. Right. And that, and that shouldn’t discourage anybody listening or watching. It’s just a matter of if you want something done. Sometimes you got to use somebody that’s an expert. Just like you go to a mechanic to fix your vehicle because they’re an expert at doing stuff. Or an electrician or whatever the case may be. A lawyer, accountant. There’s, there’s voice experts like Robert. Why wouldn’t you want to introduce yourself to making your life stress free? I realize for some people it’s, it’s a cost issue, obviously, but they can reach out to you to find out what your costs are and, you know, and figure it out. So, Robert, if you had to give our listeners one last closing message, what would you tell them in regards to giving a heck and never giving up?
01:09:58 – Robert Lane
I think the number one thing is always be your true, authentic self. Be your true, authentic self. Believe in who you are and what you’re about. Whatever your values are, your, you know, your morals, your beliefs, your habits, whatever they are, stay true to your convictions. Because when you are. For example, I have a speech or one of my speeches that I give when I do speaking in gigs, it’s called follow your moral compass. You know, staying. Of course, now I’m forgetting keeping yourself basically on the path of true north. Stay on your true north path. So in other words, stay the course. Make decisions for yourself, even if they’re hard. If you know that, that this is the right thing to do, do it. Because your convictions really boil down to giving a heck. Because you do give a heck about yourself and you care about yourself and you believe in yourself. And the way to do that is to be your true authentic self. So don’t shy away from just being who you are.
01:11:11 – Dwight Heck
Right on. Don’t be others. Be yourself. All right. Don’t, don’t live. Don’t live like the Jones and Smiths. Live like yourself. Right? Live who you are. So our time is up, but I’d like to, you know, let the listeners know what’s the best way they can reach you?
01:11:27 – Robert Lane
Simplest way would be just to go to my website. You can go to Robertlanecoaching.com if you are an author, it has all the information about the audiobook coaching program that I teach. But you know, my email is on there, my socials are on there. Would love to, to connect and talk with you and if you are interested. As an author, I always talk to every author before I enroll anybody into the program because I believe in that personal connection. I don’t believe in sending people to, you know, landing page pages and taking their credit card without any personal conn because that’s not, that’s not good. We’re going to work together on a. And usually it’s a memoir so it’s, so it’s something that, that’s personal. So we have to make sure we resonate with each other and if we do great and if we don’t, that’s okay, no pressure.
01:12:19 – Dwight Heck
That’s similar to what I have to do too with clients. It’s just a matter of there has to be a synergy. Otherwise you’re just, there’s no congruency to get to the end result if there’s no chemistry. Right. So I, I appreciate that. For those new the show go to giveaheck.com hit the podcast at the top of the landing page and you will see a picture of Robert and all his. So there’ll be this show notes, detailed show notes as well as a full unedited transcript, chapter summaries as well as all of Robert’s social media links and a link to his website so you don’t have to pull over on the side of the road and write it down. You can go to giveaheck.com one stop shop to find out everything about Robert and this fantastic podcast episode. Any last words before I wrap up the show? Robert?
01:13:13 – Robert Lane
Just really thank you Dwight to having me on your show. It’s been a blast to talk with you and hopefully my experiences that I’ve shared will inspire hopefully some people out there.
01:13:29 – Dwight Heck
We’re looking for one. That’s all we need to do.
01:13:32 – Robert Lane
At least one.
01:13:33 – Dwight Heck
Yeah. And, and you already accomplished it. Me, you’ve already inspired me.
01:13:39 – Robert Lane
So I appreciate my job.
01:13:40 – Dwight Heck
Yes, exactly. The rest of you, you know, take your time. He’s already inspired one, now he’s looking for two to a thousand or more.
01:13:50 – Robert Lane
There you go.
01:13:51 – Dwight Heck
So thanks so much for being on Give a Heck, Robert. I appreciate your time and sharing some of your experiences so that others too can learn. It is never too late to give a heck.