Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop. We're back after a couple of weeks with lots of weird stuff going on here Surgery and Memorial Day and all these other things that go on out here Our guest tonight is the wonderful Debbie Irwin. Say hello Deb. Hello Deb. There you go See I follow directions Well and being able to take directions very important in this business Anyway, we're gonna be talking about medical narration Which is a big market because there is a lot of medical stuff going on out there And if you want to learn a little bit more about it now It's a great hour to hang out with us and learn more about it and how to do it And if you have any questions all you got to do is put them in whatever chat room you happen to be in whether you're on Facebook live or whether you're on YouTube live or If you're one of the growing crowd that said LinkedIn live, I don't know what they call it now But anyway, throw the questions in there Jeff Holman is hiding in there somewhere And he will relay those questions to us in the next segment so you can ask them those questions as well Are we all ready everybody? Okay, all right, it's time for voiceover body shop right now Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements the folks who bring you source connect the oh heroes comm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training Voice actor comm your voice over website ready in minutes Voiceover extra your daily resource for voiceover success and by world voices the industry association of freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts Dan and George Well, hello there if you're wondering I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whitton and this is voiceover body shop or vo B s Thank you very much Anyway, well, we're glad to be back after a couple of weeks of hiatus and Apparently the show that the last tech talk was only on YouTube because Facebook didn't want to upload it for some reason Meta is a freaking meta mess.  Yeah, I'm glad we got multiple platforms Yeah, so I had neck surgery a couple weeks ago and You know, I'm not gonna show everybody Essentially, you know, and then then sew it back up and fix my spine and all those things and now I can I can walk without tripping over My own feet. It was a very strange thing science. Yeah, science.  So We will use our imagination. Yeah, it's it.  Anyway, speaking of medical stuff. We have a great guest tonight Debbie Irwin has been spending years of her life lending her voice to everything from medical explainer videos for patients and medical professionals to pharmaceutical marketing to medical legal recordings and more Are what make her the expert in the medical narration industry? So let's welcome to the show. I guess for the first time as an actual guest Debbie Irwin Thank you for having me. Oh, it's a pleasure to have you I think we've we've interviewed you at at Fafcon and in a couple of conferences and stuff But this is the first time you're actually here sharing your expertise with us Appreciate that if if my booth were big enough, I would curtsy right now and say, thank you Not really necessary. So how long how long you've been doing voiceover? I guess just 20 years. Oh Just 20 years. Yeah. That's just 20 years. That's cause for a celebration right there. Yeah How did how did you get in? How did you find your way into this marvelous business? You know, circuitously like like many folks, I really didn't know anything about voiceover I had a background in theater and had come to New York back in 1980 to pursue that dream of being a stage actress And after I struggled for a couple of years Uh, I decided okay. I'm off of this. I'm ready for a real job So I started working at the Guggenheim Museum Doing pr and special events and if you know anything about the nonprofit world, especially in New York If you're not independently wealthy or married to someone who is Then uh, you just can't afford to you can't afford to keep that job.  And I happened to find a course in one of these, you know, nyu school of continuing education books And I was like this looks interesting So I took the class and within the first five minutes standing up and with a script in my hand I was like eureka I found it. So, uh, that's the reader's digest version of of how I ended up Here. Yeah, and so I like to I like to say I'm living my dream that I came to new york for I just didn't know It's gonna look like this It usually doesn't work that way anyway, but and you're originally from chicago, right chicago. Yeah south side All right, you're from south side of chicago. Oh, oh, yeah. Well, that's Yeah, that that you know, that's not you know, I love to dance Yes That explains that too So how long how did you break into doing a lot of medical narration and how long you've been doing it? I don't think I I don't think I really broke into it I think it it found me and when I talked to my Medical students the people who coached with me. I say, you know, it's really important to to Go for the low hanging fruit. Why make it difficult? Maybe you you know, I have a dream to do animation But if people are hiring you to do IVR or e-learning go, you know do that don't fight it Enjoy the success of that genre and then work towards something more specific So because of certain quality natural quality don't fight it Around my voice. I was just hearing an echo. Um, that'd be my fault. That was gonna say it's Georgia's fault I was here. Don't fight it. Don't fight it. Don't fight. I was like, is that my alter ego reminding me? Don't fight it So because of certain qualities around my voice it sort of naturally sounds and I feel a little Uh, I feel A little funny when I say this because it sounds presumptuous But it is a spec Intelligent authoritative Um, uh warm Um, worldly sophisticated So because of these natural qualities that are in my voice I was getting hired for this kind of work that Required somebody who? sounded intelligent and Could make sense of the content well enough to um to communicate it in a way that expressed My understanding of it, you know, and my understanding is not Deep it's broad, you know, I do do try and understand the content And we can get into that later but because sometimes it's very difficult to understand the content Yeah, well, and you know medical is it I mean, it's huge. I mean, I've done a lot of it too. I've done a lot of pharma And and it it's not getting smaller. It's getting bigger And and continues to be so but it's a very interesting reading, of course every every project's a little bit different Uh, but then again, some of them just seem to sound the same all the time Uh, so I I guess I could ask can anyone do this kind of stuff? Uh with a pen and a paper is anyone an author? Good, but just just because everybody can doesn't mean everybody should yeah, and and I would ask another question which is Does everybody want to do it? because It's challenging and there are certain things about medical narration That you don't find in let's say commercials. For instance, it's long form The terminology is can be very technical. It can be tongue twisting. It can be difficult to understand You have to have stamina in order to read, you know a long script. Let's say, you know ISI for an hour or whatever. So not everybody thinks that that's a fun job Uh, I remember years ago. I had won a session for an ISI and it was I don't know 10 minutes long something like that and really at the you know by law they had to have it at the end of their video But they didn't want it to be read Conversationally they wanted it to be read as fast as possible now I had done my homework to prepare because I always do before I get into the booth But I had no idea they were going to ask me to read it fast So That was a challenge like to disclaimer faster Like well not not not disclaimer fast. No not disclaimer fast, but but faster than faster than Too fast Faster than like comfortable conversation. Yeah speech. I guess even you know It just they were like pick up the pace pick up the pace. So it's very technical There are all kinds of you know percentages and dates and how many people in this study and that study and technical words So it was a it was it was a challenge if I hadn't prepared I would have you know Been horrible, but as it was you know, I certainly hadn't prepared like that Because that had never happened before where somebody asked me to read it quickly. So yeah Well, do you have to have a background in science or medicine to be a good medical narrator? No, absolutely not you don't but it helps and Not always in the ways that somebody thinks I am the daughter of a scientist. My dad was an entomologist And so, you know, we had insects and vials in the refrigerator growing up and You know, so science was part of my My my childhood And certainly having familiarity In the field is is helpful But the field is so vast to your point that You know, there's terminology in in in you know, cardiology that you're not going to hear in gynecology, etc So in all the different sub-sector sections sectors You may be really proficient there, but not necessarily in you know and content that You're not familiar with I got to ask a totally out of the blue question But that's just I just I'm a color guy. I'm the color guy here, right? So Is it is a man going to get booked to do gynecological No generation. No, right. Yeah, just Because here's the thing we always We're always storytelling and we're always thinking about not only who am I but who am I talking to If you're a woman, do you want to hear man telling you what to do with your body? Hell, no, right. No So it's you know, it's it's it's almost insensitive I mean, that's not to say there aren't male gynecologists and that women don't go to them, etc however However POV the POV of the Of the listener of the audience, right? Who are you? Who are you talking to and how do they want to be spoken to? Are they elderly? Are they young? Are they your peers? Are they, you know, above you? Are they, you know, there are all these different variables that have an effect on How you tell the story that you're that you're telling because when we're talking to our spouse or our kid or In-laws, we speak differently Absolutely If you're just joining us our guest is Debbie Irwin and we're talking about medical narration Yeah, we don't we just talk about general stuff on this show a lot But something really specific like medical narration, which is As we said very very large if you've got a question about this All you got to do is write it down in the chat room wherever it is You're watching our show right now and we will get to that question in just a little bit So stay tuned for that. So I guess a follow-up to that would be like When you're doing these types of reads Who are you talking to?  Are you talking to patients? Are you talking to just the general public? I would imagine It's yes. Yes, okay. I figured it would be specified in the in the specs on that But rarely all three at the same time. I would imagine Yes Yeah So here's you know, here's the thing what I when I talk about medical narration I say it's a huge umbrella under which you have commercials and explainers and e-learning and IVR and voice of god and MOA mechanism of action and mechanism of disease animations ISI the important safety information So you have all these different sub sectors that are areas that people work in Without you know outside of the medical sphere. So in terms of commercials, it could be a commercial for A senior living center. It could be a commercial for a hospital. It could be a commercial for okravis. I'm on My voice is on the currently running okravis and everybody tells me they hear it all the time You know giving the the fair balance information. So there's a lot of work There and that's not complicated and it's not Challenging you're talking to one person and um, you know, it's a it's more intimate and you're either talking about you know, you're You're generally not talking to doctors in a commercial because That's not how they're reached. They're reached privately through other kinds of of media explainer videos or These medical animations and scientific animations because they need that they have a Well, pharma sales people have a toolkit with all these different assets and sometimes it's let's say an e-learning Video that's a conversation between a patient and a doctor. So that's more appropriate for them And you know in a commercial again, you're you know, you're you're targeting either, you know people to go to a certain hospital or You know providing resources or Medicaid Medicare, right? All that stuff is all over right here at all over. Are you probably more likely to book commercials for pharmaceuticals if you've been doing medical narration for a long time? well I don't know that you're necessarily more likely to but if you are if you are proficient in in reading The more challenging medical text then yes, you're more likely to to be hired for that specific role in a commercial which is the important safety information, which is the fair balance, you know Do not take this with you know, do not take this with milk and the the serious side effects could be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah If you happen to be Right to this drug exactly exactly but for you know for the commercials that are You know at at st. Joseph's You know healthcare we we care about everybody in the neighborhood not just the blah, blah, blah, blah, right? You don't need to have a background in you know medical Or be a strong medical narrator in order to do that. Well, you'd need to be a storyteller And be compassionate Mm-hmm Yeah, so yeah, just I want to finish answering your earlier question dan about Does it help to have a background in science? so Yes As I was saying before It helps that you are, you know familiar and comfortable with many of the many of these, you know complicated terms But where it's really helpful Is when it comes time to market yourself So some of my students, you know, I've had an anesthesiologist. I've had nurses pharmacists Science writers, etc. So at the point at which you're ready to hang hang your shingle, you know open for business and I'm a stickler on when that time is because You need to be able to do any and all of those different kinds of medical narration In particular and especially the complicated stuff in order to call yourself a medical narrator and a pro Right because I've heard plenty of stories from uh from clients who just you know, so frustrated that people represent themselves Is that anyhow i'm getting off track um So once you're ready to really put yourself out there and say yes, this is what I can do when it's time to Start knocking on people's doors via linkedin, let's say When you have a background as an anesthesiologist You know that lingo you know those people you can join a hundred groups on linkedin I don't know that you'll find a hundred anesthesiology groups, but you will find many and You join the group and you start to converse with them and you have things in common with them So you can add to the conversation because you know what they're talking about I usually suggest being a fly on the wall initially just to hear and see what people are You know talking about but at any point when you feel like you've got something to add add it And that way people start to get to know you and you're you're presenting yourself as someone who is also Familiar with anesthesiology the fact that you're a voice actor They'll discover when they click on your name to find out more about you. It's secondary Right and as I tell my students look if you know when uh, you know If the job has to do is with anesthesiology And i'm knocking on the door and my student who was one is knocking on the door They're going to open it a lot faster for him than they are for me because they share something in common with him Right So so where is the work? I mean you were saying there's so many different pieces of this I mean pharma and You know pharma to doctors pharma to the general public you've got You know doctors to doctors. I mean we can discuss some of the weird jobs we've had in a little bit Because I have a doozy Anyway, so we're how do you find the work for all these different types of genres? Well, let's talk about what kind of work it is. It's um You know many times when you're talking to somebody who doesn't know about voiceover when you start to list all the different Kinds of voiceover they are there are they'll be like, oh, wow. Yeah, I never really considered that that was voiceover and the same thing um happens in here So I'm just going to rattle off a bunch of different kinds of projects There are aftercare videos Right. Are you maybe you were sent home with one after? Yeah, no, I know I well I was sent a few of those. Yeah Okay, somebody voiced those somebody shot them and voiced them right and it could have been you dan um There are award ceremonies, you know hospitals have benefits annual benefits and they've got their their um anthem video showing what they've accomplished over the course of the year and that needs a narrator there are there's tons of e-learning continuing medical education for All kinds of hcps healthcare professionals there are Funding pitches. So I was hired to narrate a video for Johns Hopkins University. They were pitching to Get funding for some research around blood testing and They put a lot of money into creating this video And I got to voice it and they won a 50 million dollar grant now, you know That's just one other little kind of thing people probably never even thought about that and then there are in-office videos, right? When you're in the hospital or in your doctor's office, it you know They don't want to have to say the same thing to a hundred people over and over So they'll create a video of content that's relevant to everybody so that they can consume it on their own There's student education. There's what to expect. There's medical and surgical videos anatomical cellular I mean, there's research videos. There's just a tremendous amount of Work happening globally. Yeah Once again, we're talking with Debbie Irwin about medical narration and I'm sure that brings up a lot of questions for everybody And you were talking about, you know in-office stuff when you see when you're sitting there in a doctor's office There's now they have, you know a video screen in there and they're running some medical network or something specific to that particular Uh area that the doctor you're seeing is about like, you know, it's like you go to the cardiologist Here's how you take care of your heart, you know, and then they'll be interviewing a doctor or something But somebody's got to narrate that stuff. So Where can you find copy for these types of things so you can try to practice it and see if you can do this kind of stuff? Well, uh, you can transliterate a commercial, right? Uh, but my favorite place to tell people where to find copy is in their Medicine cabinets Yeah Now, I don't know about you, but when I go to the drug store And um, you know pick up my in this case. Okay, it's zolpidem every now and again I need a little help sleeping So I like to have that little pill just in case or if I'm traveling to europe I want the help to go down And so most of the time, you know, we just take this and we toss it and we go into the bag and get You know get our goodies, but actually do not toss this document. This is invaluable There is so much wonderful information here and this is isi This is important safety information that you'll be asked to read So just hit up your medicine cabinet your ibuprofen It I can barely read it. I need a magnifying glass and it says peel back here And then underneath here are all the warnings and symptoms and indications and all the rest of that stuff Or even if you have a a pet, right? And you have to get some Medication for your pet You know, there's instructions in here Right the ingredients it's for xymox advanced formula octic hc one percent Warnings and cautions uses contra indications, right? Whether it's a dog or a human So there's lots and lots of wonderful information Right here. Even if you're still testing yourself for covet, which I did the other day negative um that the that Packet of information, you know that tells you what to do what the steps are that's medical e-learning right there First you do this this these are the pieces in the in the box You have this that the other thing, you know first you unscrew the tab Then you do the this and then you do the that so it's not just isi information that uh that you can have easy access to Yeah, uh Where where do you find buyers for this? I know I remember I worked for companies that Contract out to the pharmaceutical companies And I assume the pharmaceutical companies do it themselves as well. How do you and how do you find them? I mean the names are all pretty well known, but Yeah, it's it's hard to work directly with J and j or You know any of the any of the big pharma companies Um because they are so huge and they either have their own ad agencies or and or in-house Production companies or they're dealing with agents You know to provide them with with talent so on the On the p2p's you'll oftentimes see projects that come through for you know medicare or hospitals etc And You can also do your google research to find production companies and you know those science communication studios, let's say or medical device manufacturers um, you know government agencies also produce a tremendous amount of content that has to be um narrated universities and academic institutes I've developed a relationship with uh a couple of universities and for their graduate students Um masters thesis projects. I have Narrated many of them. So they are learning how to be animators. They're getting their master's degree in this and so for their thesis they have to create a project and part of Making a project perfect and the best it can be is to have a professional um voice artist So I see that as an opportunity to also teach these young people who are coming into the field About working with a voice artist and what kind of information is helpful for us to have So um, you know so I can hopefully Send some people out there who uh think about voice and sound and music Earlier in the process Right, right. Once again, we're talking with Debbie Irwin. We're talking about medical narration It's it's a big long subject I mean if you're you're teaching it and there's so many different things there But again, if you've got a question throw it in one of the chat rooms you might be hiding in right now And let us know what you want to know and deb will be able to answer that uh, all right This is this is get to some interesting stuff here like the hardest part of this business Of doing medical narration is pronouncing some of the names There's if if you're good at latin or some of these other things it helps I imagine But you've got a couple of words here that I you know two of them. I have no problem with the last one I don't think anybody can do although. I'm sure you've probably practiced it a million times Uh, like, uh, I wonder if if sue can put some of these up there as we're saying them like the first one here is Spheno palatine ganglia neuralgia. How'd I do with that one? Yeah, pretty good. Spheno palatine ganglion neuralgia Yeah, which I yeah, and he guesses as to what the heck that is Well, I already know. Let's see if anybody else knows that. You know what that one is george Heck no Spheno palatine ganglion neuralgia. It's a very serious condition. You should know it george everybody should know it Is it one of the things that are really stupid long name and it's a really simple common Yeah, sort of But it's it it's an ice cream headache Uh That's a good one Which is more acute than a migraine headache apparently. Yeah, just not as long lasting more brief, right Yeah, I didn't know that. Wow. All right. This one the the second one here is my personal favorite Because when anyone asks me about medical narration like what could I do medical? Well, you have to say something like ankylosing spondylitis without thinking about it There it is ankylosing spondylitis I knew that one, you know, and I had to do it because what ankylosing spondylitis is a Not plexoriasis, but it's a it's an inflammation thing with uh, due to your Uh spine and joints right right right and and there's lots of different treatments for it and say it's and You know what your non-steroidal whatever it is. See I've done a lot of this stuff I know where all this goes but But let's look at the last one here because I have no idea what it is Uh, no not not spalentine ganglioneralgia, but the last one we had there, so, uh Let me see if I can really really really long really long one. It's All right She's gonna put it up here and then we're all going to say it together Okay And then we're gonna go to a break and take your questions. It's pneumo mono Trauma microscopic silico covo clenan anosis Okay, I need to do a little uh, you know a little Okay Thank you pneumono ultra pneumono ultramicroscopic silico volcano coneosis Boy does a special skill at looking at that very very long word and knowing kind of mentally where to divide No, no, I need help smaller chunks or I I need help. I use the dictionary all the time There are medical dictionaries that I refer to and it looks it looks completely fanatic It's a matter of not Tripping it's a really long long word, but it's really just a bunch of words, right because medical terminology is based in Germanic language Germans love to string a bunch of freaking words into one new word And it's like if you can subdivide that mentally, right you can break it down, but when you look at it as a whole as a whole it's like Letter right and and what is this stuff?  Ah Why don't they just call it that no they've got to come up with that name Anyway, once again, we're talking with deb erwin and we're talking about medical narration If you've got a question throw it in the chat room right now because we're going to get to it in just a little bit But right now we're going to take a quick break and listen to some of the people who support our show And we'll be right back with debbie erwin here on voice over body shops.  Are they at a professional level to record for broadcast? And what does that mean? To me it means it doesn't sound bad I've seen several now demanding cardioid condenser microphones Some are great and cheap ones not so great. So how do you choose? It's like standing in the checkout line at the supermarket deciding which candy or mince you want to buy So which is right for you? 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You sign up. You're paying for a subscription, but you're getting the support and it's worth it I recommend it. I know many times in the past. I've said just get your free trial Get a demo and that might be fine for some of you who are much more technical Have a higher aptitude for learning new tech and jumping through a lot of hoops to get things to work However, if you feel like this is going to make your career To have the technology and you really want that extra level of help Sign up get a subscription and have them walk you through it It's really worth it You'll feel confident in your studio when you've gone through this And if you do the extra mile of certification, which you can also opt to do is get certified You're telling your studio clients the ones that you work with that you know what you're doing and you know They know You have a great sounding studio. Anyway source elements as a great software get familiar get certified and feel like a pro Right now head over to source elements.com and get started Now back to you Well, hey there heroes It's david h. Lawrence the 17th of vo heroes and I had a chance recently To talk to amy joe berman Now who is amy joe berman? She's somebody who can help you with your career If you visit the url below you'll see it amy joe berman is The former head of casting at hbo So she sits on the opposite side of the table when you're doing your auditions Whether it's on camera or voiceover and she has a lot to say About things like AI and synthetic voices and getting paid for auditions that people have been talking about Self tapes at home, which we've been doing in the world of voiceover for like what centuries now This link will take you to a place where you can register for her free webinar Where you can ask any questions you want about making your auditions better and your auditions Are the one thing that you have control over that can increase your bookability So visit voheroes.com slash berman. That's voheroes.com slash berman This is bill radner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham vobs.tv And we are back with debby urwin. We're talking about medical narration Now one of the things that I wanted to challenge you with was what's the weirdest medical narration job you've had I gave you a couple of days to think about this What what did you come up with I it's lame. I mean it That that really tough is I won right which I where I had no clue that they were going to ask me to do it at you know speed 45 instead of 33 Um Times when you know the word there come, you know the the name of a drug and people in the same company don't agree on how It's supposed to be pronounced, which is kind of funny Uh And you know in a situation like that you do it every which way they ask and then you let them duke it out later after the session Cover your bases right Um, and then I have one it's kind of funny that came to mind. It wasn't a medical. It was for a a uh It was for a perfume and this was years ago Uh, I was in a studio session And I tend to move a fair amount when I'm when I'm working even when I'm not working And I was in this adorable Jumper And for you know, what a jumper is right folks, you know, you're wearing stockings You have a shirt and then it's like a dress skirt kind of thing over Well, this adorable jumper was lined with some kind of satiny material and every time I moved it It was So I had to take my dress off In order to get the job done well Luckily even though there was a mirror there Luckily, uh, the mirror was like just to hear so, you know, there was nothing they were seeing but I had to disrobe To uh to get the job done Hmm take that context. Yeah Yeah No, I've had not fully just partially. Yeah. Now in the medical stuff I've had two really weird ones one was Some doctor doing a lecture And nobody could understand him because his accent was so bad. So they hired me To be his voice on this thing and it was like, well, okay I can't even remember what the subject matter was but that was weird But the the weirdest one And probably the most uncomfortable one was some doctor who was selling a product And showing people how to use it to diagnose ed Which involved needles and a number of other things and the video was Very graphic and and it's like but this and I'm like why why don't just have the guy do it himself He's voices but no no no I want somebody professional to do it And I'm watching this video and I'm going So yeah See I told you I'd come up with a good one, but that's And that's just one out of a million, you know that we we've all done those types of things Got a video was still like stuck in my mind. Can't unsee it. No, you can't you can't you can't Anyway, let's get if you've got a question for for debbie Irwin about medical narration throw it in the chat room right now We still have time for a couple here, but let's get to these george Why don't you get the one from patricia andre? I will thank you Hi patricia. Thanks for writing in from youtube I have a degree in radiography and when I worked at a legal office for many years And where she did or then because I can't read You can read it on screen and correct my terrible comprehension of the english language Where can I look to get medical or legal narration and in spanish too? Well, you gave us a little bit ideas, I think Well, first of all Are you able to you know the fundamentals? Do you do you have a? An excellent space to record and you know how to record yourself. You know how to edit, you know There are these fundamentals That have to be in place in order for you to then take the next step the next step is Uh training is learning how getting familiar with with the content, right? So the fact that you're familiar with radiology is great But that does that that doesn't necessarily mean that you know how to tell a story That doesn't necessarily mean that you know how to act in the case of dan that he needed to act calm When he was narrating that he wasn't feeling calm But he needed to act calm and professional even though he was you know coming screaming and you know His his skin was was whatever I was laughing more than anything else. Okay Well, the good good good thing about patricia. She's a fan and watched our show for a long time and worked with dan on her studio So she's got a great place to record. But like you said it is a form of acting Absolutely. I mean no matter every kind of voiceover is storytelling So you have to be comfortable with with the format right and know what to expect Um, so different You know when I when I approach a script, I approach it from like three different doors The first door is the genre. What do we know in general about the genre if it's Um, if it's e-learning, we know that it's going to be sort of more professional a little more buttoned up It's going to be instructive. They're going to be um, you know Very detailed things that you're being told to do in sequential steps If it's an explainer, you know that as a genre they're light and friendly and and easy going and very conversational And if it's isi, you know that it's you know, really serious and um, you know You have to get through these complicated terms and the complicated text in a way that sounds like You know exactly what you're talking about. So that's the first doorway the genre What can we what do we know about the genre in general? And then there's the structure you take a look at that script and how it's structured if it's a commercial it's structured, you know um problem solution, uh, you know Yay, everything's going to be okay again. If it's e-learning, you know, that's you know We're going to talk about what we're going to talk about we're going to talk about what you're going to learn Then we get into the learning and then we talk about what you learned And that's that structure when it comes to Important safety information when you look at these at these documents, you know, you'll see And become familiar with the format of them. Um, you know, there's indications. What is this used for? um, you know contra indications, um, you know Etc etc etc. So you become familiar with the structure and then the third doorway into a script is by The content right water. What's the story that you're telling and what's the subtext? Who are you telling the story and who are you telling the story to? So all of these components are really important and assuming that you have all of that kind of training Then then you're ready to start to put it put yourself out there and find work I think that was the crux of the question which I did a terrible job of reading Which which says where can I Look to get medical or legal narration. And I think she means work She didn't put the word work at the end But I think that's what she meant and you mentioned earlier that paid of play sites are a common place to look for that Yeah, and also production companies right and Again, what what I suggest is Being a fish in a different Pool of water where you are the only voice actor, right? So I use a metaphor that you know what when we have a project There are there are a series of actors of people who are players right in the project And I say that we're all in the same show. We're just not on the stage at the same time So I've made it my business to get to know the other players in the show Right the writers the animators the illustrators the editors um the producers I'm a member of swiney, which is science writers in new york, right? And i'm the only voice actor there And why am I there? Well, I tell them chances are I've voiced some of the things that you've written it makes sense Go find your swiney The more I understand about the entire process the more helpful I can be She needs to go find her swiney find your swiney. There you go I think I left mine in at home. Uh, let's see here Uh, jeff holman asked a great question. Is medical narration sourced through agents like the big pharma companies? Yeah Yes, yes, and and Not not all work comes through agents, um, you know and not all Uh, I don't know The big agencies well enough to know if some of them are the go-to for certain genres like recently somebody told me that atlas is the go-to for In-show documentary narration And I don't know if that's accurate or not, but in hearing that it makes me think. Okay. So maybe there are You know agencies that are more Prone to get certain kinds of work. I don't know of any that's just does medical or specializes in medical But I talk when I if I go knocking on a door of a production studio, you know In the states or in the us production studio or even a talent agency in in europe I say this is my expertise and that immediately makes me different from everybody else. I'm not just a jane of all trades Um, this is what I and I also take a look at who else is on their roster to see Do they have voices that are like mine or do I bring something different? Yeah Uh ajb voice actor on youtube says hey debbie. I'm on okravis. Can you say progressive multifocal lukko and synopilophily? Encephalopathy. Yes progressive multifocal lukko and cephalopathy. I think I just said it Was that what you had to say ajb? I guess Justin ramos says uh, hey, did debbie mention their mic of choice? Is that the shotgun on screen? It is a shotgun on screen. Tell us a little more about your actual studio studio bricks the voiceover version um I know now they're making the the the pads out of recycled blue gene material or something like that There you go right there I this is my home inside my home And I love it here. I also use it as a storage area for my lipstick because I love wearing lipstick Those those are pens This is lipstick and over here are my lemon glycerin swab sticks Which I adore your mouth de-clicking For mouth de-clicking if I'm too wet if I'm too dry I you know, I open this up and I swab swab swab and then I stick it in I have a pencil Holder that's like a broom So I just stick it right in there and then I just continue to use it now over here where you can't see I have my pens and pencils and uh Chapstick Yeah, do the guys at studio bricks think about this when they were designing all this stuff? Pretty fascinating good use of that. Yeah, uh, tony hoover Question or comment here some people who used Uh google translate They type the word that hit the microphone icon and hear an ai voice speak the word Is using google translate a good idea? More importantly, is it accurate? well, I often triangulate um resources because There's a british pronunciation of a word and there's an american pronunciation of that same word um You can be you you can be given a reference to how to pronounce something in a video and that person is speaks english with a very heavy non-english accent and it can be hard to decipher what it is that they're saying and also just figure out if that's really the correct pronunciation Or if that's just a reflection of their accent and their understanding of it So I will go to the company oftentimes to ask how it's pronounced generally the person who answers the phone Knows it pretty well because he or she or they are saying it on all the time But I like to use webster's medical dictionary A lot and I also use the cambridge dictionary Um To you know to get the british and english Um pronunciations and I check with my clients Yeah, that's always a good one. It's like, yeah, they're the ones that make it. Perhaps they know how to pronounce it Uh, yeah, it always amazes me how how weird some of these pronunciations are and how do they come up with some of these drug names? You know And then there's the actual name of the drug and then they come up with the commercial name for it and it's like Okay, and boy, they are really pushing it on people if you watch, you know, the nightly news or something It's one med commercial After another they must have a hell of a scrabble game these get must And now we're noticing that the disclaimers and the the uh and uh Adverse reaction stuff is like 40 percent of the commercial sure Yeah, well So the the law changed. I don't know. I don't remember when but it used to be that all of that um important safety information of fair balance the disclaimer stuff was read really really fast and You know Somebody in washington said this doesn't make any sense because nobody can understand it So now that disclaimer information is not read quickly and in fact it's read Um in the same kind of almost conversational voice as the rest of the spot They don't want it to really stick out and it's read over people who are you know on screen They're having a wonderful time and they're laughing and they're in a bathtub or they're at the beach and you know All the rest of these really beautiful things so that what you're seeing and what you're hearing are not really matching up But that's that's the way they're that's the way it's done now Yeah So deb if someone wants to learn from you how to do this and enter this marketplace because there seems to be plenty of work out there How would they get in touch with you at my website debbie erwin.com? And there's a contact form there and you can fill it out and let me know I you know, I ask you questions about your experience and uh, what areas you're interested in working and and then I'll get in touch with you and schedule a free 20 minute chat And figure out if if it's a good fit I'm not the right fit for every project or every person And I offer both private coaching and i'm also doing small groups now as well I have a couple of medical ones coming up in Next month and the month after Excellent well deb it is a pleasure to see you We don't get to see each other much during the pandemic But now we're running into each other in all sorts of places, which is great Thanks for being on the show tonight and we really appreciate your expertise in this and i'm Looking forward to having you out again when thank you something else to talk about. All right. There must be something We always find something when we get together. Thanks so much. All right. Thanks for being with us Alrighty, well george and i'll be right back to wrap things up and re-racket for tech talk right after these important messages So don't go away You're still watching vlbs Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead There's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like Audio books auditioning home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voiceover x t r a dot com Well, guess what? It's time to talk about a great new service from our friends at voice actor websites dot com and it's called Voice actor dot com. What is voice actor dot com? Voice actor dot com is a website that allows you to get your website Up in a very short period of time When we came up with this idea joe davis and I were talking about it He says what do you want? What would be good for people in the voiceover business?  They can change the colors. They can add the pictures They want and it's very user friendly and you can do it really really fast and get yourself online Very very fast and to get started with voice actor dot com. It's free Uh, 20 a month will get you even more features with it But if you need to get your website up now, that's the place to do it go over to voice actor Dot com and get your website up and running right now We are the world voices organization Also known as wove. We're the not-for-profit industry association of freelance voice talent Voice over is a complex entrepreneurial business Wovo is there to promote the professional nature of voice work to the public to those already established in their voiceover practice And to those who want to pursue voiceover as a career membership benefits include A supportive and creative community a profile and demos on voiceover dot biz our searchable directory of vetted professional voice talent Our exclusive demo player for your personal website our mentoring program Business resources and our video library our annual Wovo con conference a fun and educational weekend with other members With the chance to learn and network webinars and great speakers and weekly social chats with other members around the world If your world is voiceover make Wovo part of it world voices organization. We speak for those who speak for a living Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop And we're back with voiceover body shop to wrap things up for this particular segment Our thanks again to debbie erwin for her expertise in medical narration and It it can be a lot of fun doing medical narration, especially when you get the weird words and the weird jobs Anyway, uh, let's see here next week on this very show And we're about to do it live if you happen to be watching live You might want to stick around and ask your questions for tech talk Not otherwise, you're gonna have to watch it and replay But it's a lot more fun when you watch it live because we never know what's gonna happen So next week we'll have tech talk number 104 and then on june 19th Hugh klitsky will be joining us to talk about Getting your demos the way they should be and he's an expert on demos and he's a fun guy to talk to Uh, let's see here george the tech you got any specials for all the people going to your website Now we just have the same coupon code i've been telling you guys about for quite a long time And that is on our site at just put in v o b s fan 10 You can get 10 off on anything that you buy or do through george the dot tech All righty, uh, here are our donors of the week. We got a couple of new ones. So we'll start off with grace newton Christopher epperson robert leadham, steven chandler kasey clack jonathan grant thomas pinto Greg thomas a doctor voice ant land productions martha con 949 designs Sarah borges philips appear brian page patty gibbons rob rider Shawna pennington baird don griffith Trey moseley diana birdsall maria makas and sandra man willer All righty. Thanks. You can donate to the show if you go to our website if you're already there V o b s dot tv. There's a little button there. It says donate now and you can give us a dollar a month 10 dollars a month. You can give us your entire life savings and we will not complain Anyway, uh, but that helps us keep this show going and technically fantastic The other people helping us out are our sponsors like harlin hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra Source elements do heroes dot com voice actor dot com and world voices dot org the industry association of freelance voice talent joined today Because we get lots of cool stuff going on there our thanks to jeff holman in the chat room getting all those questions to us Uh from facebook and youtube and all that stuff Sumer lino who has to leave us for whatever reason so george and i get to control everything for the next hour For getting things done on the technical end and of course lee pennie just for being lee pennie Well, this is not an easy business, but there's so much to it And that's why we bring you people like deb urwin and all the other great guests We have to tell you how to succeed in this business with lots of trying anyway, uh I'm dan lennard and i'm george woodham and this is voiceover body shot or vo bs Stay tuned for tech talk. We'll be right back. Where'd you get that one from?


Well, school is out for the summer at Central Lakes College, but the school's foundation is gearing up to award scholarships for the 2017-2018 school year. The CLC Foundation will be awarding up to 200 scholarships, totaling anywhere from $350,000 to $400,000. The money will be awarded to go towards tuition, fees and books. And according to the foundation's director, it's all a part of the foundation's mission. The CLC Foundation exists to remove barriers to student success, and of course one of those barriers is paying for college. So through our scholarship funds, we are able to help in some small way for students to help them make college more affordable. The deadline for applications is June 1st, and the fall semester begins at Central Lakes College on August 21st. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


Hi guys, I've got a little circuit here I've been playing with This is basically You can use LM317s. I've got LM388s here I've put two of them in series so the output The output of this one goes to the input of this one and We have a 200 ohm variable resistor on the output of this and 10k variable resistor on the output of on the adjust leg, sorry of all this now this variable resistor controls the voltage and this one controls the unpage so I just Put this second on the supply and as you can see if I just turn that up a second you can see a little I can leave that up. I suppose kind of Seems a lot darker in here, but the the camera's adaptive for it. So oops, sorry about that It's what I've got there is over there a current restriction of 100 mA on that supply We've got 2.8 Bolts there now if I were to adjust this pot here and as long as We're not My touch will do I can turn that up on the pot to the limit of the Of the current But it's actually limited on the board here by this pot So I can turn this up here using this It's here. It's a real dodgy connection if I push it back in again It's because I've had to bend one of the legs on on here But there you go. I can turn that up. I can turn it down and of course That is adjusting When I turn it down on the On there all the way down below even the 1.25 output that you normally get If I continue to turn it up It seems maybe a little bit staggery the way it gets turned up That's drawing 91 84 91 so I back that down again as you can see Also, it starts taking the voltage back down again as well So it's it's basically this thing is on the On the datasheet But if you want to have a look at the circuit There we go I'm gonna put the light back on so watch your eyes So here's the circuit anyway. Should be able to see that I don't know if I'm making any better Yeah, nice and easy does the job and of course you've got the variable on the volume on the voltage as well Which enables you to drop that down Or turn it off because it's currently limited so it literally goes that brightness regardless of how much I turn the voltage up Because we've currently limited it about 200 a About 200 a man resistor variable resistor Great little circuit. Cheers watching guys


Welcome to Sheboygan city desk. I'm mayor Mike van der steen and hosting the show with me today is our city administrator Darryl hoffman Welcome Darryl. Thank you mayor today. We have a special guest Natasha Torrey who is the judge for the Sheboygan Collar Municipal Court Welcome Natasha. Thank you. Thank you. I'm happy to be here First of all, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about How long you've been the miss municipal judge for the court? Sure? I was elected April of 2015 and I started my term May 1st of 2015 Okay, and how long is your term? It's a four-year term. So I just just pass that halfway point. Okay Judge Torrey can you Provide for us a little bit of background regarding the court itself. How many years has it been in existence? Sure the court Was created in 2007. So it's in its 10th year And I'm the second judge that's been able to serve in that capacity in the beginning There were approximately 8,000 citations that were processed that first year When we were transitioning from having the circuit court primarily responsible and then that's pretty much studied And leveled off at about 6,000 a year. My understanding. We're not the only municipal court in Shueggen County tell us a little bit about some of the other communities. That's correct So what makes us unique is that we're a joint court So we have an agreement with the village of Kohler that we would be the court for Citations issued in the city of Shueggen and village of Kohler and the rest of the county There are several other municipal courts. There's one in Plymouth Elkirk Lake has a municipal court and so does Shueggen Falls, but they're all separate How many municipal judges do we have in Wisconsin? Right now there are approximately 240 Municipal judges in Wisconsin, but most of those are in rural communities And so because of that most of those judges are solely part-time I believe there's only about five full-time municipal court judges in Wisconsin Question for you is The credentials my understanding there are options for communities as far as what's required of someone who's who's running for The position of a municipal judge. That's true And that's what I think a lot of people find most interesting is that you don't necessarily have to be an Attorney to be a municipal judge by statute. So there is a statute that governs municipal courts and How they're set up and what the qualifications would be and it specifically states that you don't have to have a law degree And the reason for that is because again, there are so many smaller communities in the state that have Municipal courts and it would be cumbersome and cost prohibitive To require that you would have attorneys serve in that capacity because some of these municipalities might not have an attorney that lives there I Have to be a resident of either the city of Sheboygan or village of Kohler if I'm going to serve in the capacity as judge So that would that would be an issue The position is part-time tell me a little bit about your your career or prior experience so I Graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in 2001 the city of Sheboygan does have a requirement that The municipal judge be an attorney and that's because of our size and so most larger municipalities like ours where we're over $50,000 people do have that requirement and they're there are several and and so again, we're one of those I Have been practicing in Sheboygan for 14 years and prior to that I practiced in Green Bay and Milwaukee Where is the Sheboygan municipal court located? The municipal court is located at 1315 North 23rd Street, and it's in the same building as the police department It's a beautiful location That was created for us when they moved the police department from the city hall building Right off of Kohler Memorial Drive You tell us about the synergies and how that helps to be located with the police department co-located there Well, it's really important to to make it clear that the municipal court is separate We are in no way Affiliated with the police department. We're not an extension of the police department. We are completely separate But the fact that we do have the police department located so close is Convenient for safety reasons, but it's also convenient for police officers So they are able to for instance work in the department on other matters while they're waiting for trial Sometimes they might be called in unexpectedly for testimony and the fact that the police department is right there Makes it more convenient to do that. Well, I know you've changed the hours recently that people can access the court and Conduct paperwork or pay fines. Do you give us a little idea what those hours are sure? The actual desk is open So the court office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. To 4 30 p.m What has changed is that now you can call and leave a message 24-7 and that message will be answered but you can also pay online and that option is also available 24-7 and we have QR codes that we attach to every Correspondent's in every order from the court to make that a little bit easier to pay online plus there is a Box that can be used. There's a drop box Right outside the court and then there's a drop box outside of the building What else has changed is that the police department has also made themselves available if people do have some general questions Or they want to make a payment of cash without leaving that in the drop box. And so they're doing that Daily between 7 a.m. And 9 a.m. Before we open and then in the evening Between 4 30 and 7 p.m. When we close and then also Saturday mornings So that's quite a quite a few more hours that the court's accessible now Now does the court have hold any hours in the evenings or is it all during the day? we have All of our hours during the day except for Wednesdays and Wednesdays are the day that we have initial appearance hearings and so because of that the court is open Generally till 8 p.m. On Wednesdays, but if we would friend since have court go longer than that then the office would stay open Just or you've mentioned a couple customer service changes that you've made To the advantage of the patrons or customers of municipal court if you could maybe touch on The read the advantages of having a municipal court over what was in existence prior which was a circuit court sure Well, there are advantages for both the defendants as well as the municipality I think that one of the key advantages for defendants is the fact that if you receive a municipal court citation That's a civil forfeiture. It's not a crime the cases that we handle could have been crimes We handle criminal code cases that have been adopted as ordinances by the by the city council. We handle First first offense owi as well as local ordinances some of those offenses could have been crimes But if it's cited in municipal court, it's not a crime Someone doesn't have to indicate on a job application that they've been convicted of a misdemeanor and they don't have to Disclose again that they've been convicted of a crime, but also it's not searchable So in this internet age, even though employers Aren't necessarily supposed to be looking up to on on C-CAP or online to see if someone was charged We know that it happens and so for a municipal court They're not posted online and so that's that's a big plus I think that for a lot of defendants one of the biggest advantages is the fact that You pay a lot less in forfeitures so we have an example of a Ticket that would be $30 so $30 speeding ticket if you were issued that $30 speeding ticket You don't pay $30 if it's issued by the circuit court You end up paying $175 if it's issued by the municipal court you pay $98 So for every every forfeiture that a person receives in municipal court The defendant pays over 75 76 50 more per ticket But the municipality also gets $38 more and I know that that that's a little bit wordy of an answer But but we do have a slide today just to break that down a little bit. So again $30 ticket Once you add in all the costs the amount if it's issued by the circuit court Issued to be heard by the circuit court the defendant ends up paying a hundred and seventy five dollars and fifty thirty cents The municipal court receives twenty five dollars of it if it's issued by an Officer to be heard by a municipal court the defendant pays $98 and eighty cents and the municipal court gets sixty three dollars of it so there's quite a big difference and So that would be a benefit for both the defendant and the municipal court other advantages for the municipal court are the fact That if you have a municipal court Then officers spend a lot less time waiting for trials when there's a circuit court The circuit court has to prioritize the trials that they hear based on sometimes the importance the the degree of Technicality perhaps sometimes You know, I don't like to think that that as a justice system that we see things that as More grievous or or again important than others, but it but it is true that if you have a You know sexual assault case that might take priority over a speeding trial at the municipal court That's not going to happen because we only have non criminal traffic We only have local ordinance violation cases and so they're all of equal import and they all get their their due their time as as scheduled Could you tell us a little bit about Whether municipalities or cities are required to have a municipal court and why they might make that decision Municipalities are not required to have a municipal court And so that's why when I mentioned the municipalities in in Schwoing County that have Municipal courts I didn't include places like Howard's Grove or Oostburg or Cedar Grove because they don't have courts and if there is a desire to have a municipal court then basically people in local government the council needs to Get to come together and make that decision and then have the the proper ordinance is drafted to form that court And that's also governed by statute. What exactly has to happen in order to create a court and the reason that I think Municipalities would want to have a court is because they have concerns about Access to justice for their citizens. They have concerns about the fact that there is such a disparity With the amount of cost between having a circuit court And when you don't have one I know that there are concerns about police time I when I was recently speaking with the village of Kohler police chief at a Periodic lunch that that we get together for he explained to me that a big drive for Kohler and wanting a municipal court was that years ago They would have someone where in Kohler they would be cited for some type of infraction and Send it over to the district attorney's office because that was the way that things had to be done without the municipal court and That there were several occasions where they would receive the documentation back Seven years later yellowed and coffee stained and be told that sorry Too much time has lapsed. We didn't have a chance to prosecute this and again That's because of the prioritization and when you have a municipal court You don't have those issues cases are handled promptly. So I think that that could be a big reason for it Now I just got noticed that I'm going to be serving on jury duty in the circuit court Did is do you have anything any jury type cases? We do not have juries in municipal court I Mentioned before that we do handle first defense OWI cases if you are issued a first defense OWI and you want to have a jury trial Then you don't have you're not required to go through the court process at municipal court You can indicate within 10 days of entering and not guilty play in the municipal court that you want a jury trial We pay a $36 fee and then the case gets moved to the circuit court right away Every other case has the potential to have a jury trial Because every decision that I make as a municipal court judge is appealable to the circuit court And so if you go through the process where you enter not guilty play and then have a trial And then decide that you want to appeal my decision You then have the option to request a jury trial So first defense OWI right away You can go and have a jury trial every other type of infraction that you could be in municipal court For you could potentially have a jury trial after you are not happy with with the result of your trial. Thank you You mentioned when we started today's program that it is a joint court between the city of Sheboygan and the village of Kohler Are all the court proceedings held at the police station at the municipal court a Science space or do you have our hours and court proceedings in the village of Kohler? All of the proceedings are held at the municipal court Which is again located in the same building that we share with the police department, but it is separate and we just have a separate time Kohler initial parents hearings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 1 30 And if there would be a trial needed for a Kohler Citation that would also be held on on the second Wednesday unless another time would be more appropriate or beneficial Otherwise the first third and Fourth Wednesdays are for the city of Sheboygan and and honestly It's at the second Wednesday, too So every every other Wednesday of the month including the second we have initial parents is for Sheboygan But they're in the evening so Kohler is during the day second Wednesday Same place every other every other Wednesday. We also have court for Sheboygan now my understanding as part of your schedule You do differentiate differentiate between adult versus juvenile We do and those are the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month and the reason that we differentiate is because juvenile matters are closed proceedings Sheboygan has taken an extra step in Providing that juvenile traffic is scheduled separately So if you're 16 or 17 and you receive or excuse me 16 or under and you receive a traffic citation That is held on juvenile night That's not necessarily required But in in Sheboygan it's been determined that if it's a young person then maybe they should have a little bit different treatment It's nice to get parents involved. And so those are held on juvenile night And again juvenile night requires that The hearings are closed. So basically Kids and their parents come in they check into the office. They come into the courtroom I'll give my opening statement But then when I address the subject matter and get into details of what happened on the cases if that becomes Appropriate those are in my chambers. So those are private Could you review a little bit the different types of cases that come through the court? Yes, so again, we've we've discussed Non-criminal traffic so that would be traffic offenses like speeding or deviating From your lane running a stoplight cases where there was no no one was seriously injured or it was a first offense Owi then Our local ordinance has adopted several crimes And made it part of our ordinance. So for instance trespass disorderly conduct shoplifting The police officers when they encounter someone who is maybe engaging that behavior have the choice To write a ticket either under as a municipal court citation or have it referred to the circuit court And so we hear those offenses where the officer chose to write a municipal court citation and then also local ordinance Violations and so that could be parking violation building code violations And zoning those are those are the type of local ordinance cases that we hear now We've added some inspectors to our building inspection program code enforcement officers And I understand that they are writing quite a few citations. How has that affected the the court's traffic? Is it been that much of to handle well last year? We had approximately 300 cases that were scheduled for trial and then a third of those we actually had to have trials on So we had approximately 106 trials last year. I Haven't broken it down, but I can't tell you just from my personal Experience and memory that a good chunk of the trials that we have are for building code violation cases But the amount of citations that have been written has gone down and they've gone down significantly during my time and In 2015 we had over 700 citations that were written for building code violations and last year it was a little less than 500 and I think that the reason for that is because we have had these extra officers patrolling the neighborhoods Having conversations with people making people aware of what resources are available to fix their properties I know that in every every warning letter that goes out. There's information about habitat for humanity There's information on resources to contact to get help to fix the roof that might be Having shingles fall off or or the paint that's that's peeled and and exposed the wood so I would say that that Definitely the amount of inspectors and and building code violation citations that are written impacts the court's busyness, but I see it as a very valuable Asset and resource I can say personally That program has has changed my life. I mentioned that I have practiced in Sheboygan County for 14 years But I lived in Oostburg for nine of those years when I first moved to the area I worked for Sheboygan County and I moved from the Milwaukee area and I knew that it wasn't going to be practical for me to drive on those roads For a long long term And I knew that she was a place that I that I wanted to be and that I wanted to work But I was a little reluctant to move here because of driving on Erie Avenue and and seeing the state of the homes and in 2010 The city started to make a real concerted effort in that area to improve the the aesthetics But when you improve the aesthetics you you improve the quality of the whole neighborhood you you improve The desire of people like me who who have no problem coming to Sheboygan to work and to eat to want to live there And so in 2012 I did make that that decision To to move to the city of Sheboygan and I'm very happy with that and I and I love Sheboygan But I do think that I have to give credit and to that building inspection department Whether I knew it or not that made a big impact in my life. Well, that's good to hear And I know that those building code enforcement officers really do try to sell the big picture to the people that are getting citations and do a little bit of education along with With the citation for the work that needs to be get done and I'm glad that's paying some dividends That's that's my understanding and and that's what I what I hear in court Judge Tory last fall you commenced Participation in a state Sort of a revenue intercept or forfeiture intercept program explain a little bit about The benefit of participating in that program sure State debt collection is the name of the program and that's Program that was created by the Department of Revenue to help municipalities collect Outstanding debts and so that could be parking tickets. It could be Citations that that were that resulted in forfeitures to the municipal court it could be debts for ambulance and So basically how the program works is if a person who owes money to a municipality Is more than 30 days overdue? Then the municipality needs to send them a letter and warn them sir, ma'am It's been at least 30 days since your forfeiture since your debt was due to be paid If you don't either make arrangements to start working out a payment plan Or get it paid then there could be other repricate repercussions and and those could be That we take the money from you by either levying your bank account garnishing your wages doing a tax intercept or Putting a lien on your property so there there are various ways that of an enforcement mechanisms and what's official about this program is it takes away the Onus on municipalities to basically be bill collectors And it frees us up to do other things to help to help citizens other than just trying to enforce forfeitures now It's I don't personally see the role of the municipal court as as a source of I don't see it that our job is to make money for municipality But when someone is ordered to pay a forfeiture and they don't I feel like that has to be dealt with because If we don't take that seriously then what we're saying to our citizens is that this group of people that complies with the laws and pays their forfeitures You know are just out of luck and this other group who Receives a citation and doesn't pay a forfeiture That's really it doesn't really matter because we're not going to do anything about it and that's not fair I look a lot. I look at a lot of what we deal with in Municipal court as as dealing with good people law So we have these citations for not wearing a seatbelt Well, that's good people law because we want to protect you okay? We want you to be safe We want you to think about what you're doing when you get behind The wheel or just in a car in general You know statutes that we have to write to present to prevent homicide. Well, you know, that's that's not really good people law That's that's because we have people that do bad things So I mean is the court a lot of what we do is good people law but in order to keep people good and in order to Really have buy-in we can't have disparate treatment And so SDC is just another mechanism that we use to keep people honest and and I'm hoping that it'll be successful We have gained revenue from it and that's great and that will hopefully Benefit our citizens in other ways as well What are some of the other challenges that you're facing that we didn't cover yet? well, I Think that you know one of our biggest needs would be to address Young people in our community especially with with truancy issues I Have again two nights a month for juvenile night because I was finding that one night a month wasn't enough part of what I have to do is is have these little Counseling sessions where I just meet a family for the first time and a child is in front of me for Smoking marijuana or underage drinking and sometimes these kids are 12 years old and And I'm supposed to quickly Try to get down to the bottom of it and I have these parents in front of me that are Exasperated and then they don't know what to do anymore and and then hopefully order them to Participate in a program reduce in community service and hope that it's all good And I really wish that I had more resources than what we have I was recently did some job shadowing with a municipal court judge in Milwaukee and And he would have kids come in front of them and the hearing Didn't seem to be closed and he didn't ask any questions And he just ordered them off to this program and I asked about that and in Milwaukee every kid There's funding for every kid to be Basically followed with a social worker so they have a contract with the social service agency and that Child then has a has more follow Following or backup and so I wish that we would have something like that available to us here Well, I can tell that you and your staff are doing a really good job I appreciate you coming today and sharing more information for the viewers of city desk On how your court operates and some of the changes you've made since you were elected judge Any you know if people want more information, is there any place you can direct them? Well, we do have a link on the city website And so if you would just go to the city of Sheboygan website I mean this court is a listed department, but I would also welcome people just to come visit us in court The hearings are open to the public. I'm always Welling to discuss issues with people or if they have ideas for for how we can make the the court more effective or efficient I'm open to that. Very good. Well, thanks again for joining us. Thank you