Intro
It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss a VO Boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.
Anne Ganguzza: Hey everyone, welcome to the V.O. Boss podcast. I'm your host, Anne Gangusa, and I'm here with my lovely boss co-host, Lau Lapides, hey, Lau.
Lau Lapides: Hey, Anne, you look super disco sexy. 70s, maybe 80s.
Anne Ganguzza: Why, thank you.
Lau Lapides: You want to do the hustle?
Anne Ganguzza: Do the hustle. Do, do, do.
Lau Lapides: I just turned into John Travolta for
Anne Ganguzza: Hey,
Lau Lapides: a second.
Anne Ganguzza: who said we don't have fun here in Boss Land, in
Lau Lapides: We
Anne Ganguzza: Boss
Lau Lapides: do
Anne Ganguzza: Land?
Lau Lapides: we do.
Anne Ganguzza: You know, hustle, hustle. I think that's the, that is like the word for my business, is hustle, hustle.
Lau Lapides: Mmm.
Anne Ganguzza: And you know, I think I've been kind of a hustler all my life.
Lau Lapides: Me too, in a good way,
Anne Ganguzza: In
Lau Lapides: not
Anne Ganguzza: a good
Lau Lapides: a
Anne Ganguzza: way,
Lau Lapides: negative way, in a
Anne Ganguzza: in
Lau Lapides: good
Anne Ganguzza: a good
Lau Lapides: way.
Anne Ganguzza: way. And I think it probably helped me to get where I am today, really, all those little side hustles. I think we should take a, let's take a journey. Let's take a journey back in time and talk about our side hustles. And I'll tell you what, bosses, there's no shame in a good side hustle, that's for sure. Because
Lau Lapides: Mm-mm.
Anne Ganguzza: I think it helps build your character and get you to where you are today to become a resourceful and entrepreneurial boss.
Lau Lapides: Yeah, there's no shame in that game. Let's go down memory road and
Anne Ganguzza: Mmm.
Lau Lapides: I'm willing to share. I'm actually proud of working really hard to get to the day where I was able to open a studio.
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: I think that there's a whole long path leading up to that the public doesn't see and doesn't know about that really is the building block to getting to your business end. So
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: take me way back, take me back to like even
Anne Ganguzza: Way
Lau Lapides: your teen
Anne Ganguzza: back,
Lau Lapides: years
Anne Ganguzza: okay, my
Lau Lapides: of your
Anne Ganguzza: teen
Lau Lapides: first
Anne Ganguzza: years.
Lau Lapides: jobs.
Anne Ganguzza: Okay,
Lau Lapides: That
Anne Ganguzza: okay,
Lau Lapides: counts. What
Anne Ganguzza: so
Lau Lapides: were your first
Anne Ganguzza: all
Lau Lapides: jobs?
Anne Ganguzza: right, I, all right, so I am trying to remember, I grew up in New York State, upstate New York. And so, you know, there was a legal, you know, working age.
Lau Lapides: Okay.
Anne Ganguzza: But I started
Lau Lapides: Which you
Anne Ganguzza: very
Lau Lapides: ignored.
Anne Ganguzza: early. I started very early. I started at the very young age of 12. And, but I wasn't working for cash, I was working for writing lessons. So, Some of
Lau Lapides: Oh.
Anne Ganguzza: you may, that follow me on Facebook, may have noticed that I've been spending an awful lot of time on the weekends going to horse shows. Well, that is just a blast from my past. And it just, I'll tell you what, when I was young, horses were my passion. I mean, I wanted to grow up and become a professional horse rider. And I, you know, had a couple of horses growing up, and I showed growing up. And I'll tell you what, that is not a cheap hobby. And so I used to work at the barn from the young age of 12, shoveling lots of manure and taking care of the horses, grooming the horses. Oh my goodness, I spent
Lau Lapides: Bye.
Anne Ganguzza: probably seven days a week at the barn. And I would do that in trade for my riding lessons. And yeah, it was really, and riding of course is a whole, like I can have a 30 minute podcast on what riding taught me. I think that the lessons that I learned from my horses were just invaluable in helping me to shape who I am today and to be fearless, because I had a lot of fear. I was afraid. I mean, I was thrown off my horse multiple times, you know, and I just. was taught to get back up on that horse and face those fears. And oh, it was a wonderful, wonderful time in my life. And my mother loved it because she knew where I was. You know, I wasn't hanging out. I wasn't hanging out in the bank parking lot, you know, drinking
Lau Lapides: Yeah,
Anne Ganguzza: beer.
Lau Lapides: right,
Anne Ganguzza: So
Lau Lapides: right.
Anne Ganguzza: that was
Lau Lapides: And
Anne Ganguzza: my
Lau Lapides: the horses
Anne Ganguzza: very, yeah. How
Lau Lapides: know you. They
Anne Ganguzza: old were
Lau Lapides: love
Anne Ganguzza: you when you got
Lau Lapides: you.
Anne Ganguzza: sick?
Lau Lapides: They
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: know your voice. They're so emotional and creative.
Anne Ganguzza: Well, that's it. It was such
Lau Lapides: Right?
Anne Ganguzza: an emotional connection. I mean, outside of like,
Lau Lapides: Yeah.
Anne Ganguzza: it's not just a physical ride. It's very much a mental ride because animals sense every, you know, every essence of your being. They can sense when you're nervous. They can sense when you're afraid or fearful. And really just becoming one. And you know, it amazes me, and I'll just, I'll shut up after this, but it amazes me because I used to jump, that was, I wrote English and I used to jump, that you take a beast. that is, you know, 2,000 pounds, and you point it towards a fence, and he willingly goes over it. Sometimes they don't willingly go over it, but usually that's, I say, operator error. You haven't brought them
Lau Lapides: Hahaha!
Anne Ganguzza: into the fence properly, so they can safely jump the fence. But I'm telling you, just, the animals, they're just amazing, beautiful, kind, wonderful beings that here, I'm gonna point you at this fence, and I want you to jump over it, and
Lau Lapides: Mmm.
Anne Ganguzza: I'm gonna be on your back while you do that. And you know, I'm going to continually ride around these different fences and courses And you're gonna just willingly do this for me and it just it amazes me the kindness and the and the Connection you have to have with that horse to really have that be a thing
Lau Lapides: So it sounds like a very profound way of teaching a moral lesson to our listeners that you learn a lot of hardcore skills when you side hustle,
Anne Ganguzza: Mmm,
Lau Lapides: right? How to
Anne Ganguzza: absolutely,
Lau Lapides: build trust, right?
Anne Ganguzza: absolutely.
Lau Lapides: How to go on the ride and
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm,
Lau Lapides: trust,
Anne Ganguzza: mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: how to get up into fearful heights and fall and get back
Anne Ganguzza: And you make,
Lau Lapides: up again,
Anne Ganguzza: yeah, when you make a mistake,
Lau Lapides: right?
Anne Ganguzza: you know, get right back
Lau Lapides: Love
Anne Ganguzza: up again.
Lau Lapides: that.
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: Love that.
Anne Ganguzza: So
Lau Lapides: Love
Anne Ganguzza: much. And
Lau Lapides: that.
Anne Ganguzza: that was not necessarily for money, although I used to groom. I mean, that was a side hustle after I would work at the stable. I would also groom as a side hustle. Then I would make cash
Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm.
Anne Ganguzza: for the horses that I braided and groomed. I would do that. I would go to horse shows and groom for people. And
Lau Lapides: You
Anne Ganguzza: oh
Lau Lapides: braided.
Anne Ganguzza: gosh, it paid for a lot of my... my professional riding gear, my
Lau Lapides: Ah,
Anne Ganguzza: show
Lau Lapides: so
Anne Ganguzza: entry
Lau Lapides: good.
Anne Ganguzza: fees, my jackets, my boots, horse tack and equipment. Ugh. Such a good time of my
Lau Lapides: So
Anne Ganguzza: life. So
Lau Lapides: good.
Anne Ganguzza: that was my very first. What about you, Law?
Lau Lapides: Well, you know, besides the typical before 12, which I did like babysitting and I did mowing lawns and all of that
Anne Ganguzza: Mmm.
Lau Lapides: delivery
Anne Ganguzza: I mode lawns
Lau Lapides: of
Anne Ganguzza: too,
Lau Lapides: stuff,
Anne Ganguzza: mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: those were not prolific to me, even though I was doing skills. The first one was when I was 15, 15 years old. Think about that, 15 years old. I think I was a freshman in high school. I had a shoe store across the street from my high school, a family owned shoe store, and they trusted me to be a manager. gave me
Anne Ganguzza: Wow.
Lau Lapides: keys to the shoe store and that changed my entire life because I suddenly realized that I had the ability I didn't think in this way but I had the abilities and skill sets to be trusted and to be a leader and so I would literally open up the store close the store man it was a shoe store
Anne Ganguzza: Wow.
Lau Lapides: managed the store at 15 and I and I think back on that you know 40 years ago and how those little bits and pieces really built my life built my
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: whole mindset over a lifetime. So that was the first, I think, prolific side hustle
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: for me. What's your next one?
Anne Ganguzza: Well, let's see. So I was constantly, I probably did that all through high school. And then in addition to that, I was like, well, I gotta make some cash, some cold hard cash cause I like to buy clothes and or other things, just back then it was like, or records or CDs. Actually it was records, CDs weren't in college. So now I'm really dating myself. But
Lau Lapides: Ha ha!
Anne Ganguzza: yeah, so then it became, I worked at a department store in retail. So I worked at Sibley's.
Lau Lapides: You learned
Anne Ganguzza: And I
Lau Lapides: so
Anne Ganguzza: also,
Lau Lapides: much doing that, right
Anne Ganguzza: oh yeah,
Lau Lapides: Anne?
Anne Ganguzza: I worked
Lau Lapides: So
Anne Ganguzza: in retail
Lau Lapides: many.
Anne Ganguzza: in the kids department and I also worked for a gas station kind of mini-mart, which there I had the keys and I had to like lock up at night, I was working that nights. And yeah, I mean, those were like, you make the minimum wage and I worked, God, however many hours I could. And believe it or not, I'm gonna go one step further and I'm going to say that, In high school, they had a work study program, so I had enough credits by the time I was literally at the beginning of junior year to graduate. So I elected for my senior year to do a work study program, where I came to school for, I think, just the morning hours, and then in the afternoon, I worked.
Lau Lapides: Mm,
Anne Ganguzza: So
Lau Lapides: great.
Anne Ganguzza: I had to just put in a certain amount of hours per week, which I'm quite sure I did 15 to 20. But most of that was encompassed just me going to the stable. and working. And so that was really kind of great. I mean, the work study and I just I absolutely loved all my little side jobs that I did and you know, waitressing, you know, which was again, you know such a such a learn those life lessons that really help you to you know When you are running a business and owning a business that can really help you in a multitude of ways I mean that was the customer service aspect, you know Which really helped me in my job today What about your next one?
Lau Lapides: I tell you, it's so subliminal. You
Anne Ganguzza: Right?
Lau Lapides: don't even realize for many years how it gets ingrained in your core and then it comes out in really important ways as a business person and as a business owner. I too was a server,
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: I too worked in retail,
Anne Ganguzza: I was a bus
Lau Lapides: but
Anne Ganguzza: girl.
Lau Lapides: you're a bus girl, I was a
Anne Ganguzza: And
Lau Lapides: waitress,
Anne Ganguzza: a waitress. Yep.
Lau Lapides: right? But the next prolific job for me was at 19. I was in college. and one of my professors who was actually teaching me singing said, you know what, we're going away on vacation. Can you stay at my home and take care of all of my animals? And I was
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: always a huge animal lover like you, like my
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: fur children. I said, okay, I'm happy to. And she said, how much do you want me to pay you? I said, you're gonna pay me
Anne Ganguzza: Ha
Lau Lapides: to do
Anne Ganguzza: ha
Lau Lapides: that?
Anne Ganguzza: ha!
Lau Lapides: What do you mean? I said, I don't know, pay me. And she paid me, so I was, changed my world. I launched a pet sitting business at 19,
Anne Ganguzza: Oh, nice.
Lau Lapides: and I did it for 10 years, and it brought me through
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: all of my professional performing through my 20s and through my college
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: years and bought me a new car. and savings for what would soon be later or later in my 20s, my graduate school career. So
Anne Ganguzza: Oh yeah.
Lau Lapides: that side hustle was major and it set me up for the next whole piece of my life and I loved it. It was like
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: if I didn't do what I did, I could have easily gone in another direction of creating like a multi-million dollar animal business or
Anne Ganguzza: Sure,
Lau Lapides: something like that,
Anne Ganguzza: absolutely.
Lau Lapides: which turned into that. And the skill sets were amazing because I already knew like you knew how to have keys in my pocket and be totally trusted
Anne Ganguzza: Yep,
Lau Lapides: with someone's
Anne Ganguzza: yep.
Lau Lapides: property. So I was like a janitor. I had huge
Anne Ganguzza: Mmm.
Lau Lapides: sets of keys of houses all over my area that I'd be going into and taking care of. I loved it because I'm a very pragmatic person. I love taking care of things. I like things that are purposeful and I love my animals. It was like check, check.
Anne Ganguzza: Nice.
Lau Lapides: And the money was terrific even at that time, which was a good you know 30 years ago now. time I was a young kid pulling in 25 or 30 dollars per animal and could take up to 10 a day. Do the
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: math! It's
Anne Ganguzza: Yep.
Lau Lapides: like oh my goodness I can do my theater, I can finish my bachelor's degree, I can love on my baby pets all over the place because I'm trusted and where's that gonna lead you see?
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: And that was
Anne Ganguzza: yeah.
Lau Lapides: started out of a accident side hustle.
Anne Ganguzza: Wow, I'm gonna
Lau Lapides: Mmm.
Anne Ganguzza: say, okay, college
Lau Lapides: Witchers.
Anne Ganguzza: then next for me
Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm.
Anne Ganguzza: was, okay, so I started off doing, and this is my preliminary voiceover. So I started reading textbooks onto tape for disabled students
Lau Lapides: That's
Anne Ganguzza: at the college.
Lau Lapides: nice.
Anne Ganguzza: And okay, so I'm gonna set the scene for you. I was reading physics and calculus books onto like, tape recorders, like with the cassette tapes.
Lau Lapides: I remember
Anne Ganguzza: So when
Lau Lapides: those!
Anne Ganguzza: I had to record, I pressed play record at the same time and I would be reading the actual questions in the back of calculus problems. So I had to understand what all the symbols meant. And so if I made a mistake, I had to stop, rewind, and then record the whole thing all over again. And that paid for my single room. I had a single room in a suite, which was great. And I was also an RA, I was a dorm guard. So that also paid for my room at the college because I basically kind of paid my way through college by doing things like that. And also that was when I continued, I was a singer in high school in musical theater and choir and then continued that in college. and met up with a person where we started singing at weddings at venues. So we were like a little bit of a singing team. We would do duets at weddings. And so I made money
Lau Lapides: Oh.
Anne Ganguzza: that way.
Lau Lapides: Why did I not know you were a real singer? How come I didn't know
Anne Ganguzza: Uh,
Lau Lapides: that?
Anne Ganguzza: you know, it's, I'm not, I mean, I,
Lau Lapides: What was your favorite song? What was one of your favorite
Anne Ganguzza: oh my
Lau Lapides: wedding
Anne Ganguzza: gosh,
Lau Lapides: songs?
Anne Ganguzza: we're talking
Lau Lapides: Ah!
Anne Ganguzza: about the wedding songs that were back in the day. We used to sing like theme from Ice Castles, you know, we
Lau Lapides: Oh!
Anne Ganguzza: used to have like those kinds of things.
Lau Lapides: Oh my god,
Anne Ganguzza: Um,
Lau Lapides: the Carpenters!
Anne Ganguzza: Ave Maria, oh yeah, but all those, you know, all of those things. Um, so, but it was cool because she had a 12 string guitar and we would sing harmony.
Lau Lapides: Oh my
Anne Ganguzza: And
Lau Lapides: gosh,
Anne Ganguzza: so yeah, it was
Lau Lapides: so
Anne Ganguzza: one of my favorite
Lau Lapides: good.
Anne Ganguzza: things to do. Although I can't say that I'm a singer today, but I can carry a tune, that's for sure.
Lau Lapides: That's amazing.
Anne Ganguzza: So, and that's a lot of my musicality comes from my singing as well as, you know, I played piano for, you know, eight years, I took piano lessons. So again, that's another core, I think, a core skill that I think is so important that contributes to my business today and what I do today in voiceover. It's very musical for me. So,
Lau Lapides: Totally.
Anne Ganguzza: yeah.
Lau Lapides: And I'll share my last, I think my last side hustle in my life, which actually became part of my career. And that was when I was 28 years old. I was still pet sitting, because I was a huge multitasker, but I fell
Anne Ganguzza: That doesn't
Lau Lapides: into
Anne Ganguzza: surprise
Lau Lapides: teaching.
Anne Ganguzza: me.
Lau Lapides: I fell into teaching and I started teaching in a modeling agency.
Anne Ganguzza: Mm.
Lau Lapides: And I
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: absolutely fell head over heels for teaching while I was trying to get into grad school. And it took me about four years to get into grad school. And I was doing my pets my teaching and doing my performing.
Anne Ganguzza: Yep,
Lau Lapides: And
Anne Ganguzza: yep.
Lau Lapides: then I got into grad school. All of that stopped. I moved to California and started a whole new life. But the teaching became
Anne Ganguzza: Mmm.
Lau Lapides: an integral part of my whole career and my whole program. So I don't know if it's a side hustle or not, but at the time it was. And it just seemed fun. It seemed like something cool to do and something to... challenge me and my knowledge
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: base. Like, you don't really know what you know until you have to teach it to someone
Anne Ganguzza: Isn't that true?
Lau Lapides: else.
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: You know what
Anne Ganguzza: yeah,
Lau Lapides: I mean?
Anne Ganguzza: because you have to learn it like 20 times more. I'll tell you what,
Lau Lapides: Yeah.
Anne Ganguzza: my after college, my teacher kind of came out of me because I went to work in the corporate world. As people know, I was a design engineer for an orthopedic company and I was designing hip and knee prosthetics. However, I used to go for training. I used to go up to Massachusetts, used to go up to Boston. And I used to go for computer training because I did a lot of my design work on a CAD system. And I'd go for training frequently up to the Boston area because that's where the company was. And I met my 2B boss there at a computer class. And he said, hey, I need somebody to teach this, you know, CAD at my school. Would you be willing to do that at night? And that became a side hustle for me. at night and I said sure I'd love to and I started teaching at night and boy I'll tell you what I fell in love with that and I should have known because back in the day when I was a tiny girl before I was 12 and you know working in the stalls and shoveling my manure every day I was teaching my dolls you know flashcards so I feel like I always had teaching in my blood I started teaching at night and then I ultimately you know went to work full time for the school did that for 20 some odd years. And then ultimately that was my last career before I decided to, well, I went into voiceover part-time while still working in that career and then decided to go full-time into voiceover. And I just loved the teaching. I continued the teaching, started coaching in voiceover. And
Lau Lapides: Me
Anne Ganguzza: while
Lau Lapides: too.
Anne Ganguzza: I was working my way through the corporate world, I also consulted on the computer end of things so I would work for companies. setting up their computer systems or you know doing you know whatever system admin type of deals so I Constantly, I think I worked like oh my god 60 to 80 hours a week since I was you know 21 since I got out into the working world I mean the real working world after college and interestingly enough I remember setting my priorities. I was like, you know what? I hate cleaning houses. I mean, I'm a clean person, but I hate having to clean my house on the weekends because that was the time that I had to do it since I was working full-time. And I said, you know what? I'm just gonna work overtime so that I can pay someone to come and
Lau Lapides: Hmm.
Anne Ganguzza: clean my house. And I said that at age 21 and I've had that happen ever since. I mean, there's
Lau Lapides: You've
Anne Ganguzza: maybe
Lau Lapides: delegated.
Anne Ganguzza: a time when I stop it, but I was like, I will always make sure I make enough money. That's how, when we were talking about priority setting, right?
Lau Lapides: Yes.
Anne Ganguzza: I will always have someone to clean my house because I'd rather work the overtime than clean my house. I mean, not that
Lau Lapides: Yeah,
Anne Ganguzza: I'm not a clean person, because I
Lau Lapides: yeah,
Anne Ganguzza: really am.
Lau Lapides: no, that's
Anne Ganguzza: I do
Lau Lapides: delegating.
Anne Ganguzza: all the clutter and yeah,
Lau Lapides: No.
Anne Ganguzza: that exactly is what
Lau Lapides: Listen,
Anne Ganguzza: it is.
Lau Lapides: listen, just because you're capable and really good at doing something doesn't mean you should be doing it.
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: Right.
Anne Ganguzza: it's really so
Lau Lapides: Sometimes
Anne Ganguzza: true.
Lau Lapides: you have to take that time. That's what we were talking in our in our last podcast about building the team. It's like, well, You have to be the head of the ship, the captain
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: of the ship, which means
Anne Ganguzza: yeah.
Lau Lapides: you have to steer the ship. You can't be doing all the jobs on the ship, even though you may know how to do
Anne Ganguzza: Sure.
Lau Lapides: them, you shouldn't be doing them because you need to steer the ship. So it's the same in this case. It's
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: like you are already smart enough and mature enough to understand that, oh, I can do a great job cleaning my own house and I don't mind doing it, but I wanna spend that time really building my career and
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: really
Anne Ganguzza: absolutely.
Lau Lapides: putting that into more
Anne Ganguzza: And
Lau Lapides: important things.
Anne Ganguzza: that's so you're so right, because that's actually what I was doing. I was building my career and
Lau Lapides: Yeah.
Anne Ganguzza: moving up in every aspect of my career. Whatever I was doing, I made it a point to grow and to move up, to get promoted and, you know, and do what I needed to do. And a lot of that included, you know, spending time educating myself. And Once I got into my last job, which was at the school teaching, but actually I was on staff as a tech person, but I also taught all the IT electives, I taught at night and ultimately did phone installs, which is where I ended up being the voice of the phone system. And that got me into voiceover. Then I did that part-time, right, while I was working full-time at the job. And then ultimately when I decided to go full-time into VoiceOver, I then had another side hustle because then I wasn't, you know, full-time, I didn't have the clients built up yet. So I was like, whoa, gosh, there's no money coming in. So I need a side hustle. And so again, the side hustle for me for that was I literally worked. for a chiropractor. I went to a chiropractor and he needed help and I was like, you know what, I need to bring in some cash to help pay the bills. And he needed an office manager and so I became an office manager for just about, gosh, I'm gonna say it was a while, maybe it was the first five years of my business. I worked 20 hours a week. I got free adjustments, which was great. And that's what I did. And I just remember my mother. God bless her. She was always like, so Anne, when are you going? Because I'd had all these career jobs and promotions and titles. And she's like, so Anne, when are you going to get a real job?
Lau Lapides: Nyeh
Anne Ganguzza: And
Lau Lapides: ha
Anne Ganguzza: I'm like,
Lau Lapides: ha!
Anne Ganguzza: mom, I am building a business. I'm an entrepreneur. And
Lau Lapides: Good.
Anne Ganguzza: so yeah, but I had side hustles. And I always encourage students that are just coming into the industry to do the side hustle. Take the experience from life, from your work. and utilize that to continue the revenue stream while you build your business. So
Lau Lapides: Yeah,
Anne Ganguzza: important.
Lau Lapides: and make sure it's flexible. It has
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: to be flexible in nature so that you're not putting your career and your education on hold.
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: You don't ever want to side hustle to take up so much time and energy
Anne Ganguzza: Exactly.
Lau Lapides: that you're not building the more important building blocks you want it to support, but not to take up all of your. your time and your energy
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: and focus
Anne Ganguzza: yeah.
Lau Lapides: and make sure it's something you kind of like. You don't have
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: to be in
Anne Ganguzza: absolutely,
Lau Lapides: love with it, but
Anne Ganguzza: absolutely.
Lau Lapides: make sure it's not something that's causing anger, disdain, grief, because then you're gonna bring that into your career and
Anne Ganguzza: Sure.
Lau Lapides: into your education and you're not gonna be successful there and sabotage the thing that you wanna build. So you have
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: to kind of think the
Anne Ganguzza: absolutely.
Lau Lapides: whole thing through and don't be afraid to switch it out. If
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: it doesn't work, switch it out, you
Anne Ganguzza: Well,
Lau Lapides: know?
Anne Ganguzza: that's the cool thing when you're in business for yourself, right? You can, you
Lau Lapides: Yeah.
Anne Ganguzza: know, it's like, well, try it. If it doesn't work, you can try something else. And I can't tell you how much my own experience has helped me to become, you know, I'm also a business, I have business mentorship programs that I work with my students that has helped me to help my students. I mean, and the fact that I'm like, hey, I was an office assistant, you know, and my mother's like, Ann, you know.
Lau Lapides: Hahaha
Anne Ganguzza: I'm like, there's nothing wrong with being an office assistant, right, or an office manager. In reality, it's, you know, again, it's people serving, and I, you know, had developed a lot of skills doing that, and I was very organized and wonderful. And at the time, it was just enough hours so I could bring in money to contribute to the household expenses, and yet gave me time to be able to audition, you know, and it was close to where I live, so I could run home and audition during the day if I needed to during a break. It was wonderful. I mean, I cannot, I cannot talk enough about the benefits of the side hustle.
Lau Lapides: and there's
Anne Ganguzza: And,
Lau Lapides: probably hundreds of them.
Anne Ganguzza: yeah.
Lau Lapides: that you could really get your hands on and learn from and enjoy,
Anne Ganguzza: Absolutely.
Lau Lapides: make money at, learn skills. And don't look at it as you're wasting your time or you don't want to do it
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah!
Lau Lapides: or you resent doing it. Look at it as, no, this is part of my education. This is
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: part of my investment into
Anne Ganguzza: Yes.
Lau Lapides: my education and career. I have to do this so that not only I build money and capital, but I learn things. I learn how to take care of someone else, something
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: else, build trust. you know, learn skills, selling skills, dealing with money, all of that.
Anne Ganguzza: It's so funny, I think education has always been in my blood. I mean, again, I say it how many times a day, La when people say, what is your purpose in life? It's to educate. I truly, truly believe that from being a small girl teaching flashcards to my stuffed animals, to the V.O. Boss podcast was a whole resource for education. The V.O. Peeps was, when I got out of teaching full time, I was like, oh God, I miss teaching. So let me have a group. you know, that I can provide educational resources to. So I say follow that passion in all aspects of your hustle and side hustle, really. And you can't go wrong. And I think education is such an important part of just continual growth and building and growing your business
Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm.
Anne Ganguzza: as a boss.
Lau Lapides: And be proud of it.
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: If you're not willing to share it or talk about it, if you're hiding it, if
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: you're embarrassed by it, it's probably something you shouldn't be doing. So find things that you can add to your resume, that you can chat about at an interview,
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: or that you can be proud of and make some good connections through.
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah, absolutely. And that's like the biggest thing that I'm always promoting too, when people are just getting into the industry. What are your skills? What is your life skills? What are your job skills? What have you done? The more things you have done, the more you can bring to this side of the business.
Lau Lapides: That's
Anne Ganguzza: I mean,
Lau Lapides: right.
Anne Ganguzza: it is, I mean, think about it. What we do is we have a product, we sell it, right? We sell it to companies. It's not just, I mean, it's creative. Yes, it's creative, right? And it's artistic, of course. But think about what you really, you have a product, your voice, that you are selling to companies. So all of your life, you've probably worked in some form for a company or for a business that you've gotten paid for. So you can bring that experience to the table to enhance your business, to either side hustle it, have what I call the divisions of your business or the tendrils of your business. And it's funny because even now that I'm in full-time VO, for many, many years now, I now still have many divisions of my business, which I consider to be my side hustles. And you yourself, Law, have multiple divisions of your business as well.
Lau Lapides: Mm-hmm. And they're growing. It's not
Anne Ganguzza: Yep.
Lau Lapides: static. Like, you're never done. You're never saying, okay, this is my business, and that's where I cap it. Like, you should always be saying, what's my projection for the next year
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: or five years? Where
Anne Ganguzza: yeah,
Lau Lapides: do I want to go with this? What
Anne Ganguzza: absolutely.
Lau Lapides: do I have to do in order to figure out how to do it? And maybe that's a professional side hustle,
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: you know, that you have to do or you have to hire someone to do in order to figure out how to grow.
Anne Ganguzza: Oh, I'm constantly thinking of I love that I'm constantly thinking about that again, as we move through, you know, changing and evolving markets right in voiceover. Is there an opportunity for you to continue to take these skills into even something else. Let's say if you wanted to do something else in addition or parallel with voiceover. What skills do you have now that you can evolve into what's going to happen in the future. for this industry. It's always good to try to look and really predict what's happening in the future. And that might be another podcast episode for us, Law. What's
Lau Lapides: of
Anne Ganguzza: going
Lau Lapides: it.
Anne Ganguzza: to happen to voiceover in 10 years? There's a lot of people asking that question. And there's a lot of people that have ideas and theories. And I've got my own theories. But it doesn't stop me from thinking about, if this were to happen, what's your plan B? What's your side hustle? How are you going to evolve or maybe shift into something else? Or? maybe not something else, maybe something in addition to. And I think it's always something that it's wise and strategic for you bosses to be thinking about. I mean, if you are not thinking about it, then you might wanna rethink being in business for yourself,
Lau Lapides: Yeah, always
Anne Ganguzza: right?
Lau Lapides: have your backups ready to go.
Anne Ganguzza: Mm-hmm.
Lau Lapides: Have the safety nets there for you.
Anne Ganguzza: Yep,
Lau Lapides: Just
Anne Ganguzza: yep.
Lau Lapides: know your plan A, B, and C is always gonna work for you. I think we are gonna go back to that hustle, right?
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah.
Lau Lapides: We're gonna go back and do the
Anne Ganguzza: Yeah,
Lau Lapides: hustle.
Anne Ganguzza: we're all so well. Now I have to go see if we can lease the music. Right.
Lau Lapides: Ha ha ha!
Anne Ganguzza: Anyways, so yeah, bosses do that hustle. It has been a wonderful conversation. Boss, I love love, love talking to you. Law, I called you boss law. Yeah, I love I love our conversations
Lau Lapides: And
Anne Ganguzza: and
Lau Lapides: I love you right back
Anne Ganguzza: yes.
Lau Lapides: to pieces.
Anne Ganguzza: And and it just thank you so much for continuing to be by my side here.
Lau Lapides: It's just
Anne Ganguzza: Uh, yeah, for-
Lau Lapides: a joy and we're coming up on our year's anniversary.
Anne Ganguzza: Oh my God, oh my God, we're gonna have to celebrate with a big party.
Lau Lapides: Yeah, yeah,
Anne Ganguzza: Big party, big party guys.
Lau Lapides: party!
Anne Ganguzza: So, bosses out there, simple mission, big impact. 100 voices, one hour, $10,000. Four times a year. Gosh, do you even know what I'm talking about? Well, if you wanna find out more, visit 100voiceswhocare.org to join us and join in on the giving. Big shout out to our sponsor, IPDTL. You too can connect and network like bosses. Find out more at ipdtl.com. You guys have an amazing week and we'll see you next week.
Lau Lapides: next
Anne Ganguzza: Bye.
Lau Lapides: week. Bye!