Building the Sound of Change

When a young Christy Harst first announced she would one day replace Barbara Walters, her father laughed. Years later, that spark of determination would carry her through the competitive world of marketing, television, and eventually, voiceover—where she discovered just how few women were given the mic. Instead of waiting for an invitation, Christy decided to build her own door—and open it for others.

In this Power Lounge conversation, host Amy Vaughan, Chief Empowerment Officer of Together Digital, talks with Christy about how one moment of frustration became a movement. From realizing the imbalance in sports voiceover work to launching Building Doors VO, Christy shares how she turned awareness into advocacy and data into impact.

Amy and Christy explore what it takes for women—and the men who support them—to create real pathways in industries still dominated by old systems. They discuss the power of collective action, the influence of representation, and why inclusion isn’t charity—it’s good business.

This conversation is for anyone ready to push boundaries, elevate voices, and reimagine what opportunity sounds like.

Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
00:10 – "Empowering Voices in Media"
06:10 – "Combining Sports Passion with Voiceover"
11:39 – Breaking Barriers for Women Everywhere
17:27 – "Using Privilege to Empower Change"
22:09 – "Power, Privilege, and Responsibility"
27:31 – Voice Bias Study Sponsorship
34:15 – "Breaking Barriers with Building Doors"
38:40 – Power of Collaboration
45:09 – "Ask for the No"
48:04 – "Evangelizing Through Data and Stories"
56:14 – "Connecting Communities and Networking"
59:44 – "She's Inspiring and Successful"
01:01:51 – Outro

Quotes:
"Life doesn’t just happen to you—it happens for you. When a door closes, build your own and leave it open for others."- Amy Vaughan

"Change begins when we stop waiting and start creating. Use your voice, stand together, and build doors wide enough for everyone."- Christy Harst

Key Takeaways:
Build Your Own Door—And Make Room for Others
The Power of Community—and Collective Action
Data with a Dose of Storytelling
Spot Bias, Create Change
Allyship in Action
Every Micro-Action Matters
Your Authentic Voice is Powerful
Representation Shapes Reality

Connect with the guest Christy Harst:

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christyharst/
Website:https://www.buildingdoorsvo.com/

Connect with the host Amy Vaughan:
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/amypvaughan
Podcast:https://www.togetherindigital.com/podcast/

Learn more about Together Digital and consider joining the movement by visitingHome - Together Digital

Support the show

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:10):
Hello, everyone, and welcome to our weekly Power
Lounge.
This is your place to hearauthentic conversations from
those who have power to share.
My name is Amy Vaughn, and I amthe owner and chief empowerment
officer of Together Digital, adiverse and collaborative
community of women who work indigital and choose to share
their knowledge, power, andconnections.
You can join the movement atTogetherIndigital.com.

(00:32):
And today we are joined bysomeone who is literally
changing the sound of an entireindustry.
Christy Harst is a voiceoveractor, former college athlete,
and fierce advocate for genderequality in media.
When Christy encountered thebarriers women face in sports
voiceover work, she didn't justbreak through for herself.
She founded Building Doors VO tocreate opportunities for women

(00:56):
in the industry historicallydominated by male voices.
Christy's voice has become thenational brand voice for YouTube
TV, Walmart, and John Deere, buther real impact goes far beyond
the mic.
She is using data andstorytelling to challenge the
status quo in mediarepresentation, pro proving that
equality isn't just the rightthing to do.

(01:18):
It's good business, as we allknow.
Working from her Studio Brickstudio in Cleveland, Ohio,
holler to our Cleveland membersand fans.
We love Cleveland.
Christy has come become aleading voice for gender
diversity in the voiceovercommunity.
And today she'll share how womenacross digital fields can
amplify their voices and buildtheir own doors.

(01:40):
Welcome, Christy.
We're so excited to have youhere on the Power Lounge.

unknown (01:44):
Yay!

SPEAKER_00 (01:45):
I'm very excited to be here too.
Fantastic.
Well, we are here with our livelistening audience as well.
So hi, listening fans.
We love that you're here.
You know, you could be anywhereelse, but you chose to spend
some time with us today.
Use that chat.
Let us know if you havequestions for Christy.
You're already getting lots ofshout-out and love in the chat.

(02:08):
So look at that.
We're off to a great startthere.
Fantastic.
Don't be shy.
Ask your questions.
I'm going to go through a numberof questions and then I'll check
in with y'all one more timebefore we go into our power
round of some fun littlerapid-fire questions.
But Christy, you know, origin issuch an important aspect of like
who we are, where we came from,how we came to be who we are.

(02:31):
It's always inspiring to hearthat.
I'm curious, you went from acollege athlete to a voiceover
actor and now an equalityadvocate.
What made you realize that thevoiceover industry needed a dorm
built and not just a knock onthat little door?

SPEAKER_03 (02:46):
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity to kind of share
a little bit more about how Igot to where I am today.
Uh, I also want to say thank youvery much to all the door
builders who are in the chat whoshowed up.
Yay, thank you.
Love it.
Um, so I majored in broadcastcommunications in college and I
wanted to be the next BarbaraWalters.
For those people who are notfamiliar with who Barbara is.

(03:07):
Don't know what to say.
Yeah, showing you.
Um Barbara, you know, as a12-year-old girl, I I was raised
in a very strict Catholic houseand I wasn't allowed to watch a
lot of things on TV.
Yeah and so on Friday nights Iwould sit, because you know
that's that's what we did.
We were cool.
I sat with my parents on Fridaynights and watched 2020.

(03:29):
And so I remember I stood upafter watching her uh many times
and said, I'm gonna replace hersomeday.
And my dad laughed.
You know, Barbara was the onlywoman who was on nightly news,
literally, the only woman.
Yeah, she was interviewing someof the most powerful and some of
the most influential people inthe world, yeah, and had a

(03:50):
reputation for making them cry,getting them emotional.

SPEAKER_02 (03:53):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (03:54):
And so as a young girl, to see that, right, as an
example, and as the onlyexample, right, um, I I took
that and wanted to become much,I wanted to be Barbara, right?
I wanted to get Barbara out ofher chair.
So went to college, mastered uhmajored in broadcast
communication, and I was at myfinal internship.

(04:15):
I had four internships incollege, and the last one was at
MTV in New York.
Nice.
And I saw how women,specifically this one woman, she
was there were three toppositions at MTV, two men and
one woman.
And my intern desk was right adiagonal.

SPEAKER_01 (04:33):
Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 (04:34):
And what I saw and what I heard was not something I
wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01 (04:42):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (04:42):
I didn't want to have to be like that to get to
Barbara status.
And so if I'm at MTV and I'm asenior in college and I'm seeing
this woman who's at the top ofher game, yeah, and she has to
act like this, I don't want it.

SPEAKER_00 (04:58):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (04:58):
So I said, well, I'm just gonna get some other type
of job a job.
So I worked in nonprofit andgovernment and real estate
development doing marketing andPR.
So I had about 10 or so years inmarketing and PR, and I would
drive every day to work andlisten to commercials on the
radio, and I would be disgusted.
I can do so much better thanthat.
Why am I not doing that?

(05:20):
And so I made a New Year'sresolution one year to get an
agent, and I did.
And I had that agent for 17years, and I did national
television commercials oncamera.
It started off with a lot of oncamera because when you're um,
you know, 22, you get booked toplay the 40-year-old mom.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
Uh so now that I am BC, um, no,I'm sorry, that was BC before

(05:46):
children.
Now that I'm after children, Idon't do as much uh on camera,
but with the birth of our firstchild, I decided that the cost
of daycare was too much.
Oh yeah.
Didn't make sense to have afull-time job.
So we built out a studio in mybasement, and that's when I
started doing voiceoverfull-time.
And after 10 years in voiceover,you start to, when you're in

(06:08):
voiceover, you start to realizeum what you're good at, what you
like, what you're passionateabout, you know, because there's
so many different genres ofvoiceover.

SPEAKER_02 (06:18):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (06:18):
And what I realized was I could combine my passion
for sports, because I'm a formercollege athlete, and my kids
drain my bank account with theirelite sport, this and their
elite sport that why not combinethat passion with voiceover?
So I started to learn the art ofpromo.
For those who are watching orlistening, promo is what you

(06:40):
hear when you're watching a TVnetwork or you get a streaming
ad on Netflix that says thisSunday on Dateline, you know, or
tune in Friday to watch RoyMcElroy.
You know, that kind of stuff.
But specifically because mytimber is lower, I wanted to do
male-dominated sports.
So I spent five plus yearsperfecting my craft, paying

(07:04):
coaches a lot of money, doingout-of-the-box marketing, and I
was getting nothing.
I was getting nowhere.
So now I'm like 15 years in tovoiceover, five plus years of
focusing on this genre, and Ican't even get an audition in
this genre.

SPEAKER_01 (07:21):
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (07:21):
So I'm talking with a LA agent, a woman, doing a
workshop, because as we do, welearn.
And I read for her and she goes,Oh, booked, booked.
I go, No, I'm not, sister, I'mnot booked.
Let's talk about it because I'mnot booked.
Right.
I'm not, like, I'm not gettinganything.
And so I told her what I've beendoing.

(07:42):
And she goes, It's not for alack of talent, Christy.
It's a lack for opportunity.
You're a woman, and theseopportunities don't exist in
plethora, right?
Yeah.
In the same amount for women asthey do for men.
And I woke up the next day and Iwas really angry.
And I thought to myself, well, Ican either give this up, right?
Just give it up.
Like I just wasted five plusyears of my life and a ton of

(08:04):
money from my bank account.
Or I could say, What do I haveto lose?
I could make a thing of it.
And so I decided the very nextday with the help of Brandon
Miller, a fellow voiceoveractor, to start a campaign
called Building Doors.
Uh, it was February 9th.

(08:25):
So I had two and a half weeksuntil Women's History Month, and
I was like, let's do it forWomen's History Month.

SPEAKER_02 (08:29):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (08:30):
Let's feature women all around the world revoicing
scripts originally voiced formen.
I love it.
To show people that women belongin these spaces.
You're not missing anything.

SPEAKER_01 (08:42):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (08:43):
The intention was to do a handful of posts, and that
was it.
And then it kind of turned intosomething, and now I'm almost
two years in.

SPEAKER_02 (08:51):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (08:52):
I love it.
It's such a great origin storyand super relatable, I think, to
a lot of our listeners,obviously, uh Building Doors
folks and together digitalfolks, because yeah, life
happens and it's eithersomething that's happening to
you or happening for you.
And I feel like you were thekind of person that's just like,
well, if this is gonna make thishappen, I'm gonna make this for
me.
Like, even though it's a door inmy face, I will just build a

(09:14):
door.
Yeah, right.
I'll build my own damn door.
And I love that so much.
So were there any otherparticular obstacles that you
faced breaking into sportssports voiceover specifically?
Um, and maybe how did some ofthose challenges help shape
building doors VO?
Because it's, I mean,opportunity is obviously a big

(09:35):
part of it.
Is that the only part of it?
Or were there other things thatwere barriers?

SPEAKER_03 (09:40):
So, you know, for anyone in voiceover, and I think
just anybody in any industryreally, when you decide to
pursue a certain avenue of yourjob, you have to be good at it,
right?
Yeah.
You can't just say, Oh, I wantto become a copywriter and
you're a copywriter.
No, you gotta go to school oryou gotta go to training, you
gotta workshops.
And so that's what those fiveyears that I did really focused
on was making sure that I wasready to put myself out there.

(10:03):
Yeah.
Right.
And so everyone I trained with,and I'd like to point this out,
the majority of my coaches weremen.
Yeah.
Okay, that's first and foremost.
The majority of the coaches whoare men said, Oh, Christy,
opportunities are just, yeah,you trust me, you'll be fine.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But then when I talked to thewomen in the industry, coaches

(10:24):
or women who are actuallygetting these opportunities,
they would say, Look, yeah,yeah, it is better.
It's better in the sense thatwe've gone from zero
opportunities to maybe one.
Uh-huh.
So, you know, it's improved.
And what's so interesting,what's so interesting to me
about that is and I I've talkedabout this before uh at the

(10:47):
beginning of the campaign inyear one, which is perspective
to all the men that I had beenworking with, to all of the
coaches, all of the people I hadbeen talking to, yo, yeah,
things are improving, things areimproving.
But to all the women, yeah, notso much.
And so what I compare it to isif you're sitting sitting in a

(11:08):
baseball stadium and 20 yearsago, 30 years ago, it was
imagine all the pink seats inthe upper seats, right?
The whole stadium is filled withpink seats, but the good seats
are the blue seats, the men.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
So fast forward 20, 30 years,and the men are saying things
are improving.
The men are saying things areimproving because now when they

(11:28):
look to their left, there mightbe a woman somewhere in the row.

SPEAKER_01 (11:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (11:32):
When they look behind them, there might be a
few pink seats behind them.
So they see improvement.
Right.
But to women still sitting inthe upper deck of the stadium,
it's not.
It really is.

SPEAKER_00 (11:46):
Yeah.
That's a great analogy, a goodvisual analogy.
I love that.
Uh so on that note, like withyou know, breaking into more
seats for women, more doors forwomen, whatever we want or need
them to be, um, a lot of ourmembers uh and our listeners are
working to break intomale-dominated spaces.
Ironically, in marketing, Ithink it's more of there's a lot

(12:07):
of women in marketing andcommunications because guess
what?
We're good at communicating.
However, when you look at thetop-tier jobs, you look at the
C-suite, it is abysmal forwomen.

unknown (12:18):
Yep.

SPEAKER_00 (12:18):
Um, what do you feel like there are any uh strategies
from your voiceover journey thathas helped translate maybe into
other industries is in a way tohelp people try to shift the
gender balance?
Because I do I love that idea,the campaign idea of like, let's
just re-record all this and makeit women.
You know, are there otherstrategies, tactics, things that

(12:39):
you have found effective thatmight even be industry agnostic?

SPEAKER_03 (12:44):
So what I think I will start with the umbrella uh
thought of women need to unitewith other like-minded women to
make the change because you'renot gonna do it by yourself.

SPEAKER_02 (12:54):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (12:55):
I may have started this campaign, but I have a slew
of like 40, 45 women who aredoor builders who have lent
their voice and who, you know,help me market, who helped me
brainstorm, who introduced me topeople that can advance the
mission.
So I have this amazing team ofwomen that I work with, but I
would like to share a fewstories of how women are doing
it in other industries.

(13:15):
So, for example, um, I havethree to four Zoom calls a week
talking to people, women andmen, uh, in male-dominated
genres of the world, of theworking world, and I hear a lot
of stories.
And so in the insuranceindustry, I guess I didn't
realize how male-dominatedinsurance was until I started
talking to women in insurance.

(13:36):
And listen, that that place isan HR nightmare.
I will just tell you that much,that whole industry.
So, one of the things a lot,there's a lot of HR conferences.
That's where they meet withbrokers, that's where they get
deals done.
And so, all throughout the year,insurance people are traveling
to this city, that city, blasewoo-woo.
And it is always revolved arounddrinking, men, and bars.

SPEAKER_02 (13:58):
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (14:00):
All I mean, that they might have a 10 a.m.
happy hour.
No joke.
My friend did.
My friend works in insurance andshe had a 10 a.m.
happy hour.
Yeah, and she was like, Christy,I can't do it.
And so someone in her industry,a woman, decided to have an 11
a.m.
woman's tea.

SPEAKER_00 (14:19):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (14:19):
And she invited all the women who were attending
that conference to go to awomen's tea.
That action alone of putting allthe women in that male-dominated
industry together to swapstories, to share tips, that is
building a door.
That is what's going to causemore change.
Now, let's get into anotherstory, which is Big Ten, Big Ten

(14:47):
college football, or just BigTen college, big ten colleges.
So I'm talking Ohio State,Michigan, Nebraska.
So the big 10 of college sportsare D1 schools that have major,
major brand recognition.

SPEAKER_00 (14:59):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (15:00):
So one of, I'm not gonna say who, but one of those
brands in the lower part of thetop 10 hired hired a marketing
firm to come in and do ananalysis of how they could get
up in the ranks of that top 10.
What are we doing wrong?
What can we improve?
What do we need to do less ofand more of?
So this marketing firm was ledby a middle-aged white man.

(15:21):
They spent three monthsanalyzing all of their
departments.
They meet in a conference room,and in that conference room is
about 20 people.
Only two of those are women.
They're all men.
This middle-aged white man sitsat the conference room table,
and the first words out of hismouth were based on our
company's analysis, we believethe number one thing you can do
to improve your standings in theBig Ten is to remove all women

(15:42):
from positions of authority.
They would be better served athome.
Whoa.
Now, you may think that's thewow moment.
For me, for me, for me, itisn't.
Because of the phone calls thatI've had, I mean Zoom calls that
I've had, yeah, that story isnot unique at all.
No, of course not.
That story happens tenfold everyday around the world.

SPEAKER_02 (16:06):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (16:06):
Here's what made my jaw drop.
Not one man.
Not one man stood up andchallenged what this man said.
And the two women in the roomwanted to, but now imagine put
yourself, put yourself in thatconference room and you're one
of two women.
Are you gonna stand up and saysomething to this firm that your

(16:27):
brand, your job just paidmillions to to make this
analysis?
No, you're not gonna sayanything.
And so what I think needs tohappen so that more doors are
built when you take these twostories is one, women need to
create more space for women tosupport one another.
So if there is no space, createthe space.

SPEAKER_02 (16:47):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (16:48):
And then in terms of the other story with the Big
Ten, well-intended men need tofeel empowered to know what to
say and how to say it in momentslike that.

SPEAKER_00 (16:59):
Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (17:00):
Because I know that in that room there were
well-intended men.

unknown (17:03):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (17:04):
I don't know personally, I'm just saying I
know out of 20 some men, theyhave daughters, they have
sisters that you know, but theydon't know how.
And so the more well-intendedmen speak out against that kind
of behavior and call it out,yeah, the less it'll happen.
And those two things, just thosetwo examples, are gonna cause

(17:24):
more women to be in those rooms.
It's gonna cause people tolisten to them because when you
gather women and you're allsaying the same thing, they
can't ignore you.

SPEAKER_00 (17:32):
But if it's one woman, right, she's standing
alone.

SPEAKER_03 (17:35):
She's standing alone.

SPEAKER_00 (17:36):
Well, and that's such a great case in point and
strategy for dealing withnon-diverse spaces and giving
voice, is oftentimes we think,oh, we just need more diverse
voices in the room.
No, actually, we just need thepeople with privilege to feel
empowered to speak up.
We often say we have to empowerthe women.

(17:56):
Yes, but we also need to empowerthe well-intended men who feel
like they are going to beshamed, blamed, ridiculed for
speaking up and say, no, dude,you are okay to speak up.
You are okay to use yourprivilege.
Like, don't just say, don't justrecognize you have privilege and
have guilt about it.
Own it and then use it.
That will help to solve to solvethat guilt.

(18:18):
And I mean, I've had situationslike that where an executive
creative director, we were doinga pitch for a major restaurant
chain.
We worked our asses off on this,but we had a guy team and a gal
team.
And he pre came back.
We didn't get to go to thepitch, even though we did all
the work.
And he sat there and presentedour work to the agency and then

(18:38):
was like naming all the guys andwho did what on for that work.
And then he's like, and then thegirls did this.
Did not even mention one of usby name.
He just called us the girls.
And I saw the faces of my team,and I'm like ready to just put
my hands on their shoulders andbe like, sit down, ladies.
It's okay.
I walked up to him immediatelyafterwards and I said, That was

(19:00):
not cool.

SPEAKER_03 (19:01):
No.
What did he say?
What did he say?

SPEAKER_00 (19:03):
He's like, I'm not sexist, my dad's gay.
I was like, I don't think youunderstand anything that I'm
trying to explain to you.
So I'm just going to stop rightnow.

SPEAKER_03 (19:16):
And you know, I think too, Amy, these stories,
these situations are anopportunity to educate.
Some people want to learn.

SPEAKER_00 (19:25):
Yeah, see, see, some people are open to it.
And they're like, I hear it.
I see it.
And and then what's great islike some of them literally have
gone on a CFO that I used towork with, literally started a
whole nonprofit to help get morediverse students, like grants

(19:45):
and scholarships get intoadvertising because I basically
just started calling out all thebullshit I was seeing.
And he was just willing tolisten and then leverage his
power and his privilege to pull.
All that together, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
It's but that is such a goodstrategy, is I think, you know,

(20:08):
if we have any guys listeningtoday, and I know we've we've
got Matt with us too, but Ithink that's one of the best
pieces of advice you can give toa man, you know, is um if you
hear a woman getting spokenover, if somebody starts to kind
of take her idea and and say itin their own way, be like, that
was a great idea that Chrissyjust had.
I agree with you, you know, Joe.
Right.

(20:29):
That's exactly what Chrissy justsaid.
And you don't have to do it inlike a totally dickish way, just
like say it and state itplainly, and then people will
start to see it.
And then, yes, the same thingfor women.
I think there's too much stillcompetition among women.
And I think with your community,and definitely with our together
digital community, I can speakfor is like there is no
competition.
Right.

(20:49):
We are going to support eachother.
There's more than enough roomand success for all of us.

SPEAKER_03 (20:53):
There we go.

SPEAKER_00 (20:53):
And I no drama mama.

SPEAKER_03 (20:56):
I I see I'm no Miss Cleo, but I see a business
opportunity of a course to sellto women-tended men and
companies.
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (21:05):
Absolutely.
Because again, we try to empowerthe women, and at the end of the
day, we truly are empowered.
It's the systems that hold usback.
It's the systems and the biasand the things that are outside
of our control, right?
So stop.
I mean, not that I'm saying Iwant to stop empowering women.
I love it.
But again, that only gets us sofar.
The systems and the people onthe other side of things have to

(21:26):
start to listen and change alongwith us.
So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (21:29):
I got a message shortly after I started the
campaign from a I I won't saytheir name or anything, but they
are well seated, I will say, invoiceover.
Yeah.
This woman is, you know, thatpeople know her.
Yeah.
And she's in a position of uhinfluence.

(21:49):
And she said, look, Christy, Iapplaud what you're doing, but
in essence, I'm summarizing hermessage.
Good luck.
Yeah.
Because you're fighting againstsystems that have been built for
centuries.
And I think you're fighting alosing battle.
That's so heartbreaking.
It is, but for me, I'm a verycompetitive person.
Yeah.
And I want to be able to saywhether it's tomorrow, whether

(22:12):
it's three or five or eightyears from now, I told you so.

SPEAKER_00 (22:17):
Well, and it's because that there are still
women out there in positions ofpower and privilege, right?
We all have some to some degreethat don't reach a hand back
that are like, I work clawed myway here.
I worked my way here.
Why should I help anybody?
Nobody helped me.
And I'm like, that is not thementality to have.
Because here's the other thing,honey.
You're going to become over 40.

(22:38):
You're going to be over 50.
And what's going to happen?
You're going to be irrelevantall of a sudden.
You aren't going to be thehottest thing around.
And it's going to suck.
And then you're going to have tolook to the women and your peers
around you or people that areeven younger than you for help.
And who's going to want to helpyou?
Nobody, because you were nasty.
You were nasty.
Exactly.
Nasty.

(23:00):
Oh my goodness.
It's such a fun conversation.
All right.
And then also enraging and youknow empowering all at the same
time.
Let's see.
My next question was uh oh,okay.
Using data.
I think that's an importantright to challenge the media
representation norms, whichhonestly probably not too hard
to do, right?
When you got a lot out there andyou just listen, just listen to

(23:21):
the radio guys, gals for thenext 24 hours and tell us if you
notice the discrepancy.
What does data actually show,though, about gender
representation and voiceover?
And how do you use those numbersto create change?

SPEAKER_03 (23:36):
So when I started the campaign, again, it was just
supposed to be a month, ahandful of posts.
And so I immediately gotresponse.
I got response from women aroundthe world.
I was getting messages fromwomen around the world saying,
Oh my God, Christy, this is howI feel.

unknown (23:51):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (23:52):
Christy, I feel the same way.
And then I would get responsesfrom men, which I knew, right?
I was prepared for that wholeshaboo.
Um, and what I realized realquick was that I needed data.
This isn't just Christycomplaining that she doesn't get
jobs, right?
Um, this there it's rooted in infact.
And so I went in search of this,and there's not a lot because

(24:16):
voiceover is a niche industry.

SPEAKER_02 (24:18):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (24:19):
Then I'm trying to focus on a niche within a niche.

SPEAKER_02 (24:22):
Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (24:23):
So there's no data, right?
There's little to no data.
So I decided just to go collectit myself.
And so the first study I did,the first poll I did was within
the voiceover community, and Ihad about 200 people respond,
and it was pretty equal in termsof gender.
So it was 46% men, and the restwere women.
And what I discovered was that73% of men polled said that they

(24:46):
received five plus auditions formale-dominated sports promo a
year.
That only leaves 27% of theirfemale counterparts to claim the
same.
So that day that data pointreally helped me at the
beginning to prove no, women arenot getting as many
opportunities.

SPEAKER_02 (25:03):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (25:03):
And so then I dug deeper and started to have a
poll on our website and startedto send it to advertising
executives and creatives andpeople who are voice seekers,
people who make the decision tohire voice to get a better sense
of the kind of opportunitiesthat are available.
And also, um, you know, whatwould the general public be

(25:26):
willing?
Do they even notice when it's amale voice or a female voice?
Sure.
And so from that poll, Idiscovered that 74% of people
polled say that they do noticeif it's a male or female voice.
Wow.
Okay.
So that's a that's a great,great data point, right?
People notice.
It's not just something thatjust is like, oh, whatever.
Yeah.
And then the next data pointthat I found fascinating is that

(25:51):
over, I would say 30% of peoplepolled said it doesn't matter to
me if it's a male or female.
Doesn't matter.
So 70% said, yeah, it doesmatter to me.
I'm gonna spend my money with abrand that is that exemplifies
gender equality.
That's great, right?
That's a great data point.
That's a lot, you know.
If you're more gender inclusive,you're gonna get more money

(26:11):
because 70% of people polledsaid yes.
But to me, the gold is in that30%.
Because if 30% of the people onthat poll say, eh, it doesn't
matter, that's an opportunityfor conversion.
That is an opportunity for abrand to say, hey, that's
untapped ads.
That's that's untapped brandloyalty.
Right.
So if it doesn't matter eitherway, that's 30% of the

(26:35):
population or of in my it was alittle over 400 people that took
this poll.
That means I can sway them.
That means if I use more women,it's not gonna be damaging.
That way, if I use more women infront of and behind the camera,
I'm I'm gonna tap into moremoney that I didn't have before.
They're leaving, brands areleaving potentially millions and
billions of dollars on the tableby not including more women.

(26:56):
When you take into account thissimple equation that 83% of
women globally control theirfinance, their family's
finances.
Yep.
So when it comes to choosing thecell phone plan, the swag, the
season tickets, all of thosethings, women do.
So when you take the informationI have from my poll, you combine
it with simple data points aboutthe power that women have with

(27:17):
money, your brand could get moremoney.
Now, some people say, Christy,why are you so focused on trying
to get brands more money?
Because that's what they listento.
Right.
That's what they want.
That's their goal.
But guess what happens whenbrands start to do that?
Women become more empowered inthe economy.
They get to spend their moneywhere they want to spend it,
which uplifts the brands thatsupport women.

(27:40):
And so I know that this is notsomething.
While the equation is supersimple to spell out, I know it's
gonna take a long time beforethat happens.
And so right now, I am trying tofind a funding source to sponsor
or pay for a study.
And I don't want to get too muchinto it, but it's going to be
some A-B testing of the samecommercial for a male-dominated

(28:02):
brand voiced by a man and voicedby a woman.
And I want to see the outcomesof this because if I can have a
third party, a professionalthird party, let me know the
real deal, right?
Let me know where the connectionpoints are.
What because for example, didyou know?
Girl, I could talk forever.

(28:22):
Did you know that there was a acompany, an audio data
collection company that did astudy over a year to determine
what voice the general publiclikes to hear from the most?
Can you guess?
And I'm turn in terms of genderand race.
Okay.
Guess, guess which, after a yearof study and surveys and all

(28:43):
these ads that they had peoplelisten to of all these different
races and genders, which voiceresonated the most?
I don't know why, but I thinkblack women.
You are right!

SPEAKER_00 (28:57):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (28:59):
Yeah, it's black women.
By and large, people prefer tolisten to a black woman over any
other they wouldn't give voices.
They resonate emotionally, theyremember there's a recall that
they remember what the ad wasfor.
And you just take that datapoint alone, right?
Imput it with the rest of the sothere's just a huge case to be

(29:20):
made, and no one else is makingit.
And I think this is the hugeopportunity for building doors
to make it and to create streetstrategic partnerships to really
blast it out.
And so that's why I take anyopportunity I have to be on
podcasts like yours and connectwith women in digital spaces or
even creative spaces.
That because the more I can getin front of those women who have

(29:42):
seats at the table, yes, themore apt they are to share this
data, which I hope to get fromthis company, right?
Even more data than I alreadyhave.
Because the reason I know aboutthat black woman stat is this.
I was speaking with an audioengineer.
He said that he attended theconference where they released
that study.
Two weeks later, he was in aconference room with a client

(30:03):
and a brand, and they werediscussing who should voice it,
who should voice thiscommercial.
They were going back and forth,back and forth, and so he piped
up.
And he said, Well, at thisconference I was just at, they
said a black they ended uphiring a black woman because of
what he said.
Yeah.
There's power in data.
There's power in having a thirdparty, like an audio collection

(30:25):
firm, or whether it be from CNN,you know, whatever, whatever,
you know, there's power in that.
And so I've if we take it backto the the first question,
right?
When we have women creating morespaces for women to be women
within these male-dominatedgenres, like the tea time that
we talked about.
When we talk about empoweringwell and well-intended men to

(30:47):
speak up and how to do it.

SPEAKER_02 (30:49):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (30:49):
And then you take it and you give them data points to
share.
Yep.
It takes away, this is myopinion, to this is fact.

SPEAKER_00 (30:58):
Did you know?
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I think data is a reallyimportant part of validation.
But then also, I've been doingresearch for a book I'm writing
about closing the networking gapfor women because networking is
so fraught with so manylandmines, like drinking and
late nights and all these thingsthat just sound terrifying to
us.
Golf course, good time for otherguys, right?

(31:18):
Um, is that um women don't risethrough the ranks based on um
getting leadershipopportunities, positions,
leading projects, or even havingmore time with executives on,
like said golf course.
They actually get moreopportunities by third-party
referral.
So another ally tip, like, oreven women speaking up for other

(31:40):
women, um, yeah, you if you makethe recommendation for a woman,
she is that much more likely toget the role or the opportunity.
Um, and so yes, people who havepositions of power and
authority, like you have tospeak those names.
You have to bring them into thespace.
And this is what I loved so muchabout what you do, Christy, is I
I mean, before this, um, some ofyou may or may not know I was a

(32:01):
creative director for likeFolgers and Pringles and Fabreze
and Ford and all these differentbrands.
And it was always very importantto me from a casting standpoint.
As a creative director, I wasdeciding the talent.
I was the one putting forwardthe talent.
And, you know, the messages notonly need to be able to resonate
with your audience, but theyneed to be able to see

(32:23):
themselves in that space.
And so, yeah, creativedirectors, if you're listening,
start paying more attention tohow you're casting and who
you're casting.
Um, it's such a small but verysignificant opportunity that you
have to have an impact.

SPEAKER_03 (32:36):
And Amy, uh, do you still stay in contact with your
creative director, colleagues,network, and friends?

SPEAKER_00 (32:41):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (32:43):
I'd be interested uh what their stance is and what
they see in trends.
Um just curious.

SPEAKER_00 (32:50):
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (32:51):
Maybe we can get together after this and do a
little poly poll.

SPEAKER_00 (32:55):
I love it.
We love a good poll, we love adata, digital marketers.
That's that's what we live for.
That and a good spreadsheet.
Uh or freaks in the sheets, aswe like to say.
Uh all right.
So building doors view, you'recreating opportunities for women
in voiceover, as we've clearlydetermined.
Walk us through how theorganization works and what are

(33:16):
some tangible doors that you'veopened for other women.

SPEAKER_03 (33:21):
Uh yeah, so let's talk about the organization.
In my head, I'm going to closemy eye because I'm a
perimenopause and I can't thinkunless I have my eyes closed.
I feel you.
Oh my gosh.
So when I close my eyes and Ithink about this organizational

(33:41):
chart, um Building Doors, yes, Icreated it, but I couldn't have
created it without BrandonMiller.
I often use him.
He's a fellow voice actor and acreative.
He creates a lot of content.
And so I lean on him a lot.
Um, Sandy Harrison Cooksie issomeone who reached out to me
early in the campaign andbasically designated herself as
someone a board of director.

(34:01):
I was like, okay, fine.
Let's go.
And then there are doorbuilders.
So they are women who voice forme, who've who volunteer to lend
their voice and time um torevoice a script.
There are global builders.
I have a global builderevangelizing the mission on the
ground in Australia, the UK, andEgypt.

(34:23):
Love it.
And uh then the general publicand our supporters who uh engage
with our content and spreadawareness through sharing.
Um and I had a great directmessage on LinkedIn yesterday,
which was a woman who applied tobe a 2026 door builder.
She did not get in.
However, she auditioned for ajob with a company that

(34:46):
typically only hires men.
She ended up getting the jobbecause the producer threw in a
few women.
She got the job.
And when she got the job, shewas like, Oh, I thought this was
for men only.
Did you do this because ofbuilding doors?
And they're like, No, what'sbuilding doors?
And so that opened an entire newavenue of conversation for this

(35:07):
woman to establish herself withthis company, not as a voice
actor, but as an advocate forequality.
And so she told them all aboutbuilding doors.
And so now when this womanreaches out again, they're not
gonna be like, oh, she's sellingherself, she's selling herself.
She wants to talk aboutsomething else, something that
maybe we could benefit from.

(35:28):
That's one story.
And then, okay, I talked abouthow it's organized, but then how
we open up doors for otherwomen, I believe that story
right there is empowering awoman to take a mission, use it
to not sell herself, and use itto create, right?
So that's one way she's outwe're creating a way for women
to open a door by using themission.
And she's not even a doorbuilder and she's doing it,

(35:49):
right?
Um, one of the first ways thatit really clicked for me was
three months into the campaign,there was a woman who voiced a
spot for Honda Sport.
She re-voiced it.
It was originally voiced by aman.
She has a higher tone, she'syoung, she's gorgeous, has a
beautiful smile.
And she reached out to me andshe said, Christy, someone heard

(36:13):
my reel.
Someone saw my reel for Honda.

SPEAKER_02 (36:15):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (36:16):
You know why they saw it?
Because all 40 some of the womenpushed like and they shared it
to their networks.
So now that puts that woman'svoice and image up higher, yeah.
Uh in front of millions moreeyes and ears than we have been,
right?
Yeah, I love it.
So because all the women bandedtogether and did this, someone,

(36:38):
she doesn't know who, saw thisreel, forwarded it to an ad
agency in Florida.
That ad agency then reached outto that woman, the door builder,
and hired her to voice a slew ofHonda spots.
Yes.
We are not an agency.
We are not a pay-to-play.
I'm not in the business ofgetting jobs for women.
I'm advancing the mission.
However, that right there showsthe power of what happens when

(37:01):
women come together and supportother women.
Yes, 100%.
So that opened a door for thatwoman, right?
I will share one more story.
There are a couple doorbuilders, uh, my Australia door
builder, my Egyptian doorbuilder, and several here in the
US, who have taken what we'redoing with building doors.
And they're they've watched,they're learning uh how we do

(37:24):
things and they're applying itto their own businesses.
So, for example, there's onedoor builder, and I believe
she's here, uh, Marion Mills.
She's super passionate aboutmental health.
Yeah.
And guess what?
Women were multifaceted, and wecan have several streams of
income, and we can do more thanjust one thing.
And so she used Building Doorsas the example and is now

(37:45):
creating her own brand, heranother brand uh called
Depression Proof Your Life.
She hosts weekly lives where sheinterviews people about how
mental health impacts theirbusiness, how it impacts their
personal life, how they'vegotten through it, right?
And so she's using the templateof what Building Doors has done
to do that for herself.

SPEAKER_01 (38:03):
That's great.

SPEAKER_03 (38:04):
Then the woman in Australia, she is creating a ton
of her own reels where shere-voices ads in Australia, you
know, that were originallyvoiced by, and she has a whole
page on her website of them.
That has allowed her to become ateacher at a voiceover school in
uh Perth, Australia.
It has allowed her to getconnected to major, major voice

(38:24):
seekers at major TV stationsdown there.
So I just think that there's Ididn't realize when I started it
what I was doing.
Yeah.
But as it's grown, I think thatI think that the best thing that
Building Doors has done is to beable to empower other women to
take this and use it to betterthemselves, better their

(38:44):
business, and have somethingelse to talk about other than
the fact that they're avoiceover actor.

SPEAKER_00 (38:48):
Yeah.
No, absolutely.
I agree.
It's like the benefit of thebenefit that you just don't
consider going in.
Um, I feel that way withTogether Digital, the
friendships, like the deep, deepfriendships that kind of
transition life and career andeverything else is so important.
Um, but there are tangible, realresults where they're building

(39:11):
businesses together or they'regetting inspired by one another,
or they're helping grow eachother's client base.
It's just incredible.
There's so much power in when wework together versus trying to
work against each other, like weboth very much seem to believe
and work through.
I love it.
And then what is her name,Marion?

SPEAKER_03 (39:30):
I think she's here.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (39:31):
Yeah.
Um, it feels like you shouldcome and be on that podcast too.
We talk about mental health alot.
And I such a right now, and eversince COVID in the wintertime
too, man, it's rough.
This is a rough time of year.
So yeah, you can email me,Marion Amy at
togetherindigital.com, and we'llget you the form over and you
can hop on.
We love, love, love talkingabout all the things because we

(39:54):
are whole ass humans.
And I know companies will say,Oh, you can come to work and be
whole.
No, it's We're not a family.
We don't pay family to come tosee us every day.
Um, it's a job.
And so these kinds ofcommunities that we're all
working to create, um, you know,uh that's that's what's needed.
I don't think that's a problemfor companies to solve as much

(40:16):
as I know that they would liketo.
It ain't gonna happen.
Anyhow, slight tangent.
All right, back to the nextquestion.
Uh for women who in digital whowant to amplify their voices,
whether that be literally orfiguratively, what is maybe the
first step that they should lookat taking?

SPEAKER_03 (40:33):
They need to find more women who believe what they
believe in.

SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
Oh, yeah.
I love that answer.

SPEAKER_03 (40:38):
Yeah, because if you think about it, um let's talk
about Marion again.
She's passionate about mentalhealth.
When she starts to put herselfout there as a position of
authority, that she's passionateabout mental health, she's
connected to these mental healthprofessionals.
Other people are gonna be like,oh God, Marion, I feel the same
way.

SPEAKER_00 (40:57):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (40:58):
And remember at the beginning of our conversation, I
said that when I first startedwithin two weeks, I was
receiving emails from womenaround the world.

SPEAKER_02 (41:04):
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (41:06):
If you just put yourself out, you know what?
I'm frustrated with the factthat these damn staff meetings
are an hour and it could havebeen an email.

SPEAKER_02 (41:13):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (41:15):
You know what's gonna happen when other women
get along?
They're gonna say, let's createa system.
Because that's what women,that's what women do.

SPEAKER_00 (41:21):
That's what we do.
We see a problem, we make itbetter.

SPEAKER_03 (41:24):
And so then that's gonna change, you know, that
causes change, right?
You have to find your community,but you're not gonna find your
community unless you speak up.

SPEAKER_00 (41:32):
Yeah, exactly.
That that and it's so scary atfirst, right?
I think people feel like theyhave to I have to find my voice,
I have to craft it, I have tohone it, I have to perfect it.
It's like, no, please actuallydon't like be vulnerable, do it
scared, because that is so muchmore relatable than overly
poised and prop polished andprocessed, because people can

(41:55):
feel that it doesn't feelauthentic, it doesn't feel
relatable.
So yeah, and I think I don'tknow, maybe you've always been
outspoken, Christy.
I get the sense maybe this islike who you've always been.
No, yes, maybe, but I guessthat's my follow-up question.
Like for women who don't feellike they have a strong voice,
like yeah, how do you how do youbegin to do that?

SPEAKER_03 (42:19):
So I will say this I could not have done building
doors in my 20s or my 30s.

SPEAKER_02 (42:25):
Uh-huh.
Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (42:26):
I wasn't secure enough in myself and who I am.
I was too worried about whatother people would think about
me.
And let's be real, real.
I literally called Brandon and Iwas on video and I would have my
finger on the post button forthe first post.

SPEAKER_02 (42:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (42:44):
Like, I can't do it.
Because there are, and I'm surethis is like this in other
industries, but in the voiceoverindustry uh especially, you
know, there are anointedgatekeepers, self-anointed
gatekeepers, right?
And heaven forbid one of thoseanointed self, you know,
gatekeepers doesn't agree withwhat you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 (43:05):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (43:06):
You're you're blacklisted, right?
You're you're you're done.
You're out.
So I'm sitting there like, oh,do I do it?

SPEAKER_02 (43:11):
Do I do it?
Oh my god, do I knew it?

SPEAKER_03 (43:14):
And Brandon was like, what do you have to lose
at this point?

SPEAKER_02 (43:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (43:18):
Don't forget how angry you were when you woke up
that day and called me and werelike, what am I doing?
And I was like, you know what?
You're right.
At the end of the day, what'sgonna happen?

SPEAKER_01 (43:26):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (43:26):
It's not like I'm not gonna lose a job because I'm
not getting any jobs today.
So why, so why not just do it,right?
That's so true.
I would say to someone who uhand and we talk a lot about this
in the voiceover industry aboutthe fact that many creatives are
introverts.
They're not extrovertextroverts.
100%, right?
They don't, they don't, theymuch and let's see be even

(43:47):
deeper.
I'm in a padded room talking tomyself most days, right?

SPEAKER_00 (43:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (43:55):
Like I'm I'm a right now, I thought I was looking
good, but this darn lightning, Igotta get my lighting right.
But my point is that I thinktiny, tiny incremental steps is
what it takes.
I had a call before this with adoor builder.
Um, and I know that she is, sheshe's got great ideas, she can

(44:18):
really make an impact uh withthe stuff that she's passionate
about, but she's a little, youknow, shy.
She does, she's a little shy.
And so to answer your question,I think it's important that
those, if you are a little shy,yeah, look for an accountability
partner.
Look for somebody who's gonnahold your feet to the fire and
help you push you to say, like Idid when I called Brandon.

(44:40):
And he's like, just put thebutton, put the button, you
know.
So just do it, just do it, youknow.
Um, and I think also too to havevalidation, to have someone
else, even more than one person,to validate and say, no, this
really is helpful.
You've got something here.
Yes, let's schedule the post,let's press it together.
I'll show up, I'll comment, I'llshare.

(45:00):
All of that I think gives peopleconfidence.

SPEAKER_00 (45:04):
Yeah, yeah, I would agree.
Um, one of my good friends,Lakretia, always says, have all
of the confidence of a mediocrewhite man named Chad.

SPEAKER_03 (45:12):
Okay.
Chad, Chad gets way too much forbeing mediocre.

SPEAKER_00 (45:17):
They do.
And they like somebody posted inthe chat, like they just do it
anyways, you know.
And we were at an event forTogether Digital doing our ask
and give exchange.
And, you know, I politely askedthe gentleman to hold their
comments or questions until theend.
Let the women speak first.
And they were absolutely fine todo that because they are great
guys.
And at the end, one of the otherpieces of advice that stuck with

(45:38):
all of us was he was like, askfor the no.
Just ask for the no.
Like, why don't just go and askfor it because the the worst you
can get is a no.

SPEAKER_03 (45:47):
Oh, I see.
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (45:48):
You know, I was like, all right, okay.
And so sometimes I think we justget so caught up in the analysis
paralysis and perfectionism thatit's like we don't we don't we
don't learn by doing it rightthe first time.
We learn by falling on our faceand getting back up.
Like you have to fail to learn,right?
You have to do it scared tolearn to be brave.

(46:09):
It's just the only way it's evergonna work.

SPEAKER_03 (46:11):
And I will say that when I look back now, if I
didn't have that window where,oh, Women's History Month is in
two and a half weeks, it's aperfect time to launch.
I gotta do it, I gotta do it.
I'll miss an opportunity.
If that didn't happen, Iprobably would have overthought
it to the point where I neverwould have done it.

SPEAKER_00 (46:27):
Right.
It's such a good opportunity.
Don't let it go by.
Don't sabotage yourself, right?
Like, yeah, don't sabotageyourself.
All right.
Uh let's see.
You've mentioned usingstorytelling alongside data to
drive change, which obviously issuper important, right?
We're hardwired for stories, andum, that's what we love about
people is their stories.
How do you combine these two umelements effectively when

(46:51):
advocating for equality?

SPEAKER_03 (46:53):
So the data and the storytelling, for example, when
I told you that Big Ten story,your jaw dropped.
Yeah.
You'll never forget that Big Tenstory.

SPEAKER_00 (47:02):
I was flipping, I'm gonna flip a table.

SPEAKER_03 (47:06):
And then when I share data points, like uh I
have volunteers across theUnited States who help me
collect data at major sportingevents, broadcasts.
And so last year, the SuperBowl, in fact, I'm all quiz you.
You probably already knowbecause we've talked, but if you
if you already know it, thentell me.
But last year's Super Bowl, the2025 Super Bowl broadcast, what
percentage of ads were voiced bymen?

(47:27):
Do you think it was A, 60%,uh-huh, B, 78%, uh-huh, C, 85%,
or D, none of the above?

SPEAKER_00 (47:38):
I want to say I feel like 78%, but I could be wrong.
It was a while when we spoke.
It's 85%.
85%.
I knew it.
I see a second guess myself.
75%.

SPEAKER_03 (47:48):
85% of all the ads in the Super Bowl were voiced by
men, and those aremale-dominated genres that
choose to spend millions in adspend for that.
Yet, yet, the latest stat was47% of the fan base of the NFL
are female.

SPEAKER_00 (48:06):
It's women, yeah.
We're showing up to the games,we're wearing the gear.

SPEAKER_03 (48:09):
Do you see how the equation doesn't cope you?
When I pitch building doors,when I get on these calls and I
evangelize building doors and Itry to expand the network and
extra and expand the mission,when I have speaking
opportunities, in-personspeaking opportunities, I use a
combination of data and storiesto make the lasting impact.
Because when you take a statlike that and you combine it

(48:29):
with the Big Ten story, when youtake the insurance story and you
combine it with the equationthat I got from my 400-person
poll, those things are powerful.
And they leave a mark so thatwhen because I will tell you,
the first year of buildingdoors, the number one thing that
people said during meetings was,I had no idea.

(48:50):
But now that you say that, Irealize it.
The number two thing is thatthey would send me a DM or an
email and saying, Christy, Ijust watched XYZ sporting event,
and you're right.
I only heard two women on the anentire broadcast.
So people don't realize it untilit's pointed out.

SPEAKER_00 (49:07):
Exactly.
And then they can't unsee it,right?
I think I can't see it after.

SPEAKER_03 (49:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (49:12):
That was kind of the beginning of my journey and all
of this was that I, a male bossof mine, sent me to the 3%
conference, which at the timewas um started by Kat Gordon in
San Francisco, and it was allaround the fact that only three
percent of creative directorswere women.
When 83% are doing the buying,only three percent are creating

(49:35):
the messages that I wow.

SPEAKER_03 (49:37):
Three percent.

SPEAKER_00 (49:38):
Three percent.
It's it's closer to 15 to 20%now.
That was in 2012 when itstarted, but obviously still
nowhere near the 80% it ought tobe.
And you know, I I got to seeCindy Gallup speak.
If you have if you don't followher on LinkedIn, you really
should and Instagram.
She's amazing.
Um, but she used to say she'sthe Michael Bay of marketing
because she likes to blow shitup.

(50:00):
Uh and she was always like, Youif you can't see it, you can't
be it, um, which is very, verytrue.
Um, and then also I think youknow, another phrase that comes
up often for me is like fishdon't see water, we don't see
air.
Right?
Like we swim in these waters andwe don't we don't recognize, we

(50:21):
don't see the microaggressionsalways, especially if they're
not directed at us.
We don't see the inequities orinopportunities or lack of
opportunities because we justthink that's normal.
And then once you see it, youcan unsee it.
So I think it is so important.
I think that's why thecombination of stories and data
is important because data getsthe jaws to drop it, makes it

(50:43):
factual, but stories tug at theheart.
And those are the things thatstay with you ultimately.
You might not be able toremember the exact stat, but
you're gonna remember the storyfor sure.

SPEAKER_03 (50:52):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (50:53):
Yeah, I love it.
All right.
Last question before we move onto the power round.
Looking ahead, what needs tohappen for gender equity and
voiceover in media to become thenorm rather than the exception?
And where do you see the biggestopportunities for change?

SPEAKER_03 (51:09):
So if I were a brand, right?
Um, I think brands need tounderstand what they're missing
by not including the people whohave the money.
The people who control thedecisions with the money,
they're missing a huge oper hugeopportunity.
Am I trying to say everythingshould be voiced by a woman or

(51:32):
everything should no, I'm notsaying that at all.
What I'm saying is um brands aremissing out on potentially
millions of dollars by notincluding more women, and the
way that they can change that isby voice.
You can start to change that byvoice.
Voice is a small puzzle piece tosomething much larger, right?
Yeah, because when girls andwhat okay, story time.

SPEAKER_01 (51:57):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (51:57):
My my daughter it plays in two sports, golf and
flag football, and she's prettydecent at both.
But she's probably gonna playgolf in college, and so she's 12
and she needed a new pair ofgolf shoes.
My daughter likes ones withspikes, okay?
So we go to golf galaxy and wego to the shoes, and luckily she

(52:18):
wears a women's size.
So we go to golf galaxy, andthere's like just rows and rows
of of golf shoes, and a wholewall, too.
Yes.
So we go there.
Turns out there's only two baysof women's golf shoes.
Yeah, there's only like 10 onthe wall, and out of all of

(52:39):
those, which is about 40 pairs,only one had cleats.
I mean a spikes.

SPEAKER_00 (52:43):
Oh my gosh.
Only one there's your optionright there.

SPEAKER_03 (52:47):
That's right.
So now let's dig deeper.
Not only did my daughter go toGolf Galaxy and only see one
option for her, but then shecan't watch women play on TV.
There are no TV broadcasts ofprofessional women golfers
playing in their tournaments.
Look at what and he and I willsay, since then, so that was

(53:09):
last year, the PGA has a newhead guy and he believes in
women, and he has now decidedthat in 2026 they are going to
start broadcasting the women'smajors, which is great.
So now my daughter can tune inand see, right?
But when you think about it, mydaughter in golf cannot go
purchase a Nellie Corta glove.
Nellie Korta is the number onefemale golfer in the world.

(53:30):
She cannot buy a glove, shecannot buy clubs, she cannot buy
a clubhead, she cannot buy apolo.
But uh Norman, uh his lastname's Norman, uh, by the way,
has been retired for like30-something years.
You can go buy his shirts withthe darn shirt on it.

SPEAKER_02 (53:44):
Do you see what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (53:47):
So, to answer your question, to open more doors, I
think brands are missing a hugeopportunity uh in just providing
things for little girls to hearand see.

SPEAKER_02 (53:57):
Yeah, that's number one.

SPEAKER_03 (53:59):
And in voiceover, um, I have a great story of a
talent agency that I met withthat are in the UK.
They're called Foxy Tongue.
And I met with them because adoor builder who is signed with
them called them, talked aboutbuilding doors, and said, You
should talk to Christy.
We talked.
And she asked me, they asked me,these two ladies asked me, they
said, Well, how can we do it?

(54:20):
And I said, When they ask foronly men, throw in some women.
They literally did that the nextday.

SPEAKER_00 (54:26):
Love it.

SPEAKER_03 (54:26):
They literally threw in three women the next day for
an audition that they got,right?
Yeah.
So I think that there'sresponsibility within the
voiceover industry, if you aresitting in a position like that,
to do tiny, and again, thesetiny little micro steps is going
to create a ripple.

SPEAKER_00 (54:44):
Yes.

SPEAKER_03 (54:44):
And then that's for VO.
VO is creating the ripple,right?
Then when copywriters,producers, filmmakers, and then
that turns into a wave.

SPEAKER_00 (54:53):
Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 (54:55):
And then those waves, after a decade or two,
will turn into tsunamis, andthen tsunamis make permanent
change.

SPEAKER_00 (55:00):
Yep.
I love that answer so much.
And you got exactly to what Iwas thinking is that I think
sometimes we think activism issome big, huge effort that takes
so much time, and it's there'sit's microactivism, it's
speaking up, it's showing up inthose small ways, and knowing
that that even that matters andthat counts.

(55:21):
Love that answer.
Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 (55:22):
And I hope that I hope, and my my my hope is that
as Building Doors continues,yeah, that other industries will
see what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 (55:31):
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (55:32):
And say, Oh, I'm an insurance, I can do what they
did.
Let me look at their model anddo it here.
Oh, I'm an automotive, or I'm intech, or I'm in this, let me let
me copy and paste what buildingdoors is doing.

SPEAKER_00 (55:43):
Actually, yes.

SPEAKER_03 (55:44):
That's what I would love to see.

SPEAKER_00 (55:46):
Yep, I agree.
I agree.
Some people will come to me andbe like, oh, so-and-so starting
this group and it's for women,and is she stealing from
together?
I'm like, no, no.
Oh my god.
Creating more space and moreopportunities for women.
And I'm never going to be incompetition with another women's
organization.
Never have, never will be.
That's right.
Um, because yeah, we've got alot of work to do and a lot of

(56:08):
people to uplift and educate.
So it takes all of us.
All right.
I'm gonna try to do a couplereally quickly power on
questions.
And then again, you've beengetting so much.
Your people are great.
So much love in the chat.
It's so good to see.
I have read all of it.

SPEAKER_03 (56:22):
Oh my gosh, they're you know, I told them to come on
because I wanted them to notonly, you know, get a refresher
of what building doors is, butalso um, because I wanted them
to be introduced to yourcommunity.
And I know that you said it's atthe end of the year and not
many, you know, people tune in,but I wanted them to kind of
network with door members.
So I know that there's not a tonof your members uh in the chat,

(56:44):
but if uh the build the doorbuilders wanted to get in touch
with people, how would they dothat?

SPEAKER_00 (56:48):
Uh-huh.
Well, they can go to the websitetogetherindigital.com.
They can connect with me onLinkedIn.
I am always there.
If there's a particular type ofperson within the industry,
whether they're creative,account, brand side, anything
like that, like I am alwayshappy.

SPEAKER_03 (57:03):
Love connecting people.

SPEAKER_00 (57:05):
Oh, yay!

SPEAKER_03 (57:07):
So that's awesome.
Thank you for that.
Thank you.
I really appreciate that becauseI feel like it's this uh your
forum and your community is agreat way for voice seekers to
kind of introduce not only themission of building doors, but
themselves.
Yeah.
And I really appreciate youopening your network to them.
Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 (57:21):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
It's my pleasure.
Um, because yeah, it makes itbetter and easier for for
everyone.
Yeah, this is end of year andend of quarter.
So they're they're all tails onfire hoping and praying they
don't have to work all nextweek.
So, you know, ages away.
I don't miss it.
I don't miss it.
Uh all right.
What is the most surprisingbrand or project that you voiced

(57:43):
that people wouldn't haveexpected?

SPEAKER_03 (57:45):
Uh I voiced three chickens.

SPEAKER_00 (57:50):
Wait, how did they sound?

SPEAKER_03 (57:54):
I am not a character voice, like, I don't do
animation create differentcharacters for games or
anything.
So when a client reached out tome and said, Look, we have an
egg producer, an egg brand,okay, and they're doing this bit
with three chickens.
Okay.
And I do all of their stuffanyway.
So could you just do it?
And I'm like, Yeah, sure, noproblem.
Fake it till you make it.
So I got on with a coach and Iwas like, let's discuss these

(58:16):
chickens.
And one chicken was very posh,and I imagined her having like a
um a row of pearls around her,and she was like the snooty one.
And so we created, you know,different was it great?
No, it wasn't my best work, I'lltell you that.
But it was fun.
Also, I have a national campaigncoming out soon where I am the
voice of IBS.
So that's great.

SPEAKER_00 (58:37):
That's awesome.
That kind of takes me back tofriends.
Enjoy being the face of VD.
Yeah.
Uh, I'm the voice of IBS.
I feel like you need to get at-shirt made for that.
All right.
Finish this sentence.
Building your own door means.

SPEAKER_03 (58:54):
Building it big enough for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 (58:56):
Oh, I love it.
Good answer.
Good answer.
Snaps for that.
Best advice you'd give youryounger self starting out in
voiceover.

SPEAKER_03 (59:04):
Be yourself.

SPEAKER_00 (59:05):
Yes, ma'am.
I love that.
Um, thank God for being olderthan 40.
I feel like it's hell with allof it.
Yes.

SPEAKER_03 (59:14):
Just real quick, real quick.
Did you know I looked up there'sa study that says that when
women are in perimenopause intheir brains, there's a section
that is all for nurturing andcare.
In perimenopause, it's literallyswitched off.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (59:28):
Oh my gosh.
Thank you.
A break.
Let's go.
That's the one thing I'm lookingforward to in perimenopause.
Not the insomnia, not the brainfong, not the fatigue, not the
other things.
But yeah.
Oh, you're getting a t shirt.
It's happening.
You might get one or two.
And then I like, oh yeah.
Um, I mean a care club.

(59:50):
Yes.
Have you seen her?

SPEAKER_03 (59:51):
Oh, I love her.

SPEAKER_00 (59:52):
She's amazing.
And I am so happy for herbecause I know she just started
it because she just wanted to doit.
And now she's got she's probablythat's probably all she does
full time.
All right, last question, andthen we will wrap it up.
Although y'all have been ablast, we should do this again.
Um, one thing people get wrongabout the voiceover industry
hiring AI isn't cheaper.
Thank you.

(01:00:13):
Thank you.
And it's not gonna be as good.
I'm just gonna tell you all thatfrom a creative director
standpoint.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:17):
Just don't need to correct hire human.
Hire human.
AI AI is not the answer.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:23):
No, not in this case.
I don't hate all AI, but I thinkin this instance, I am 100%
behind you.
All right, ladies.
Well, this has been a blast.
Thank you so much, Chris.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
No, my pleasure for sharing yourvoice, for sharing your
experience, for creating spacefor others.
Um, you're just like we'rekindred spirits all over here.

(01:00:44):
So really loved having you on.
And thank you to all of yourdoor builders as well for
joining us.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:49):
Yeah, thank you, door builders.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:50):
And thank you for the offer to connect.
I appreciate it.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
TDM members, where should theygo when they're listening to
this?
Um, because a lot of them areprobably going to be listening
to it over their holiday breakif they get one.
Um, where's the best place toeither reach you or learn about
uh door builders?

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:05):
So our our website is buildingdoorsvo.com.
We are on most socials atbuildingdoors vo.
Okay.
And I'm on LinkedIn as ChristyHarse.
Feel free to reach out.
I am always, always up for aconversation.
Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:22):
I love it.
All right, Christy.
Well, thank you so much.
This has been a great lastepisode of our third season as
we're wrapping up the year.
Can't believe that.
We're also probably coming onclose to 200 episodes, which is
wow.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:34):
Congrats.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:34):
Yeah, definitely take a listen, look at some of
our past episodes, give us fivestars, give us a review.
We'd love that if you could dothat.
Um, but yeah, until next year,everyone.
We love you.
Thank you for listening.
And until next time, keepasking, keep giving, and keep
growing.
Take care, everyone.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:00):
Produced by Heartcast Media.