One of my tasks coming up is to write a paper on a person who I think is a good leader and why? To be honest I am a little stumped because my vision of a leader doesn’t exist. There has been no one on earth to totally unify everyone but, that is neither here nor there. So I will continue to search aimlessly through my brain for a person who I think is a good leader. Once I have picked one I will let you know.

Have fun and continue to learn!!!

So who are these voice actors and what did they say? Well let me start with the first one to respond to me.

BOB BERGEN – quick bio  – Bob Bergen is the voice of Porky Pig, Marvin the Martian, Tweety Bird, and a ton of other voices. He has voiced characters in many major motion pictures like, Space Jam , Cars, Monsters Inc., Bugs Life and many many more.

So What did he say?

Here are some of the quotes from the email he sent me.

The first thing that he sad to me was…  ” Hey bud! First of all, you are very good!  Loved your commercial demo!  Loaded with personality, very real, your brand is clearly presented.  Great!”

Let me tell you after I ready this I was as excited as a cat on catnip!

He went on to say this about my imaging demo… “good imaging stuff!! Needs more!!!!!! Bigger variety with shorter clips.”

So did he say anything about my voice acting? YEP! Bob Said “I can absolutely hear you have the chops for animation.”

After reading the entire email and taking in all of the advice I did know what to say or do next! I could not believe what I read.

So a couple of months passed and the second Major Voice Actor responded to my email and that actor is… James Arnold Taylor.

JAMES ARNOLD TAYLOR – quick Bio – He is the voice of Fred Flinstone, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Johnny Test and many more voices. He has voiced many characters in such motion pictures and tv shows as Star Wars the Clone Wars, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, plus many many more.

So what did James say?

“Very nice site. I also listened to all your demos and thought that they were all good. If you don’t mind my thoughts, I will share them with you. First off, I think that the order you have them listed on the site is right on for you, I feel your promo voice is your strongest asset. That said though, your commercial sound is very strong as well.”

As I got to the end of the email with Jame he made my day by saying the following… “I really think you have a great sound and will continue to grow and work in this industry, just never give up and remember you do it because you love it. ”

HOLLY CRAP did he just said he thinks I have a great sound? Yes, Yes he did. I can’t believe it and still can’t.

From this point on I know my passion for my voice acting will continue to grow as I continue to practice my art.

I once was a victim like most people, discouraged by people who didn’t really understand what I was trying to accomplish. I have always had a passion for voice acting and producing.  I was supported by most people but it was the few discouraging people who made me almost give it up. They only thought this because they didn’t think it was realistic in their minds. It wasn’t until one guy who took an interested in me ask me how old I was. I told him I was 27 ( and at that time I was). He then said to me “You are now at the age when most people make up there minds on what they want to do in life and that usually happens between the ages of 27 to 30. What you need to do is to really take a deep look at yourself and think of what you want to do with the rest of your life. What passions do you have and what careers do you want to make a liven at? ” I then said “wow”.  He then told me ” Jonathan, if I didn’t do this I wouldn’t be here right now and I wouldn’t have seen the world. I just recently got back from Africa and if I didn’t decide to go I  would have never went. If that had happened I wouldn’t have seen the silver back gorillas. So, really put some thought into it! I want to see you succeed!”

So I thought and thought and finally decided what I wanted to be. I was going to be a voice actor and producer and guess what, I am. Maybe I am not at the level I want to be at but I am still doing what I love and that makes me happy. Why am I telling you this? Well recently I email one my favorite voice actors and asked him for a professional’s critique on some of my work by listening to my demos. His answer wasn’t what  I was looking for at all. I was expecting him to say I sucked and I need a lot more work but it was just the opposite.  He said quote ” First of all, you are very good!  Loved your commercial demo!  Loaded with personality, very real, your brand is clearly presented.  Great!”

WHAT!  What did he just say? I couldn’t believe what I just read. This is a guy who has lent his voice to more that 100 major Movies and Television series. The email when on and talked about my other demos. The responses were completely positive and  gave me pointers to improve my demos and skills. This is the extreme proof that my hard work is working and I will work even harder now to get to the level I want to be at.

Who is the actor?  Well, I’m not going to say because I have chosen to keep that info to myself. The one thing to keep in mind for yourself is to do it for you and not for anybody else, not even for a star. Because that star could have easily said that I sucked and give up. The one thing that I did not tell you about earlier is that the guy that took an interested in me gave me one more piece of advice. If someone doesn’t like you find out exactly why, because it could help you improve. Take everything life in a positive way no matter what. If they say you suck find out why because from failure you learn to walk. When you were a child learning to stand up and walk you fell down over and over but did you let that stop you from trying again? No, because at that point in your life you had no concept of discouragement. So, eliminate discouraging thoughts from your mind by turning them into positive ones and taking a deeper look at what you are doing!

Now, you can go to the iTunes store and download a lot of my material and the best part is, it is all free! If you have iTunes search Jonathan Mertz or click this link http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=347864723.

If you don’t have I tunes you can still download all of the material under the podcast section of the this website.

Here is the link to my facebook fan page  - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jonathan-Mertz/155165427311

My email is under contacts but I will give it to you anyways

jonathan@jonathanmertz.com

Thanks!

Love,

Jonathan Mertz

PS: if you haven’t been my fan on my Facebook fan page do so. Click Here I know this is a lame self promotion but I am trying to get the numbers up. Plus some of you don’t know that I have a fan page.

In this show We try to help Devin get a Date , We talk to Clint Hedges about a new Contest and we hear some classic WS Moments.

Here is Part 4

In this show We try to help Devin get a Date , We talk to Clint Hedges about a new Contest and we hear some classic WS Moments.

Here is Part 3

In this show We try to help Devin get a Date , We talk to Clint Hedges about a new Contest and we hear some classic WS Moments.

Here is Part 2

In this show We try to help Devin get a Date , We talk to Clint Hedges about a new Contest and we hear some classic WS Moments.

Here is Part 1

We had decided not to do any gifts this year for our anniversary but I still wanted to. I started off yesterday events, after she got home from work. Taped to the front door was a card confessing my love to her, she opened it and was warmed with love.

After dropping the kid off at his grandmother’s we made our way on to the Melting Pot. At this point she has no Idea that I have a dozen roses waiting on our table at the restaurant. The look on her face when she saw them was very emotional and heartfelt. That very moment set the tone for the rest of the night. She started to really open up to me as if we were dating again. She had so much energy throughout the entire meal and evening. After the four course meal, another surprise was in store for her. I had the staff at the Melting Pot take our picture and then frame it.

When our experience at the Melting Pot was done it was off to the Movies. My wife has been wanting to see Love Happens so last night she saw it. I didn’t know what to think as I entered this movie but the movie turned out to be a great story of giving love a chance and not being fearful of life’s trouble, stresses and tragedies. After sharing laughs and tears together during the movie it was off to home to round out the night. Although our real anniversary isn’t until Sunday we didn’t care we just wanted to share our love with each other.

This is one of my first radio recordings, I was 16 years olds at the time and I sound young as well as Clint Hedges.