Anton H. Gill, Voice Actor, Writer, Financial Wizard

00:00
I will soon be going down the Embarcadero, clad in my protective gear from head to foot.

00:12
Let's go to another episode of Chewing the Fat. I am your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in, downloading the podcast. I certainly do appreciate that. Thank you for my new friends following me on Instagram at Chewing the Fat BR. And the folks that have donated to the podcast and bought me a coffee at ChewingtheFatBR.com. Thank you so much for your support. Of course, I love meeting interesting people and helping tell their stories. And I have someone joining me.

00:39
from the San Francisco Bay area right now, please welcome Anton H. Gill Anton. Hi there. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Thank you so much for agreeing to this. Anton is a new friend of mine that I met at the VO Atlanta Conference, which was a huge voiceover voice actor conference a few weeks ago, obviously up in Atlanta, hence the name.

01:07
But Anton was part of a VO book club with a friend of mine, Nicole Swanson. And so we all kind of got together and met. And I just kind of fell in love with you and your story and your passion. So thank you so much for agreeing to be here with me today. Oh, my pleasure. I really enjoyed, you know, going to the conference and I got exactly what I wanted out of it, which was one of those.

01:35
late night conversations where we all sat at the bar cross pollinating friendships and relationships and finding out about each other and you know being really intrigued by our own individual journeys and such so it's been it's been a pleasure doing this. Yeah absolutely and so we're gonna kind of get to know you a little bit more here other than knowing that you're in finance and you're doing voice acting. That's about the you know not the extent that I know you but

02:04
everybody else listening knows you right now. So where are you from? I know you're in San Francisco right now, but where are you from originally? Originally, I am from Trinidad and Tobago, and I lived there for my formative years. But since then, I've had brief stints living in different places. Even as a boy, from the ages of three to five, I lived in Switzerland. So even though my English is technically my mother tongue, because...

02:33
being from Trinidad, that's our official language, the first language I ever spoke was French as a kid. So I would come home, speak with my mom and or try to speak with my mom and she would say, I don't know what you want, you have to wait until your father comes home. So that's how it was for a couple years. And then I eventually returned to Trinidad at the age of five. I'm told that I would tease mercilessly by my cousins because I could not speak English. So I dropped the French like a hot potato and I picked up English and I've

03:03
I was in Trinidad basically from the age of five to 18. Then I spent two years in Venezuela where my family was living at the time. I did undergraduate, uh, schooling in England at the university of Leeds, where I did my undergraduate in accounting and finance. And then I went to Florida to do not one, but two master's degrees back to back my master of accounting and then my MBA. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

03:31
Yeah, the reason for that was basically I was looking to get hired in the US. I wanted to move to the US. I wanted to have more options in life. You know, I love my country, but I just, I just had a building desire to, to live outside of it and experience more. And exactly what I tried to have happen worked out because I got hired by Insta Young in the San Jose office. So once I graduated, I moved to the Bay area and I've been here ever since. I was in San Jose first for seven years and then I moved up to San Francisco. So I've been here for quite a while.

04:01
So were the numbers and math and that type of stuff just come to you naturally? I mean, I had like, okay, you know, like math in school and stuff like that. I was more of the science geek, but did that stuff just kind of come naturally to you? Actually, no, I had some, what I would call mental blocks against math for quite a number of years. And I just had...

04:26
I would think debilitating might be too strong a word, but I definitely had anxiety around math. And then I remember one day I just got tired of being fearful. And I threw myself into it more. And I started to have good grades in high school and so on. So accounting started to look like a more plausible option. Although I will say that if I had to live my life all over again, I probably would have chosen something different. Back then in the Caribbean.

04:53
you only know what you know, what you're exposed to. So nobody said there was a word in advertising or design or fashion or acting. I didn't have that type of awareness. It might seem a little bit extreme, but accounting, medicine, and law were basically some of the more viable concepts. And I chose the one that I seemed to have some proficiency at, but it wasn't like the steeped love that I had to do at all costs. I kind of fell into it.

05:23
Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. You know, I think a lot of times when we're young, you know, you get asked that what do you want to be when you grow up? And it's like, I don't know, I'm still a kid. I don't know what I want to be. And like you said, if you're in an area where you're not exposed to these other options, that kind of limits you to the things that you see you that you see represented in the area you're at or whatever. So exactly. And I not only does it take conceptual knowledge of what the possibilities are.

05:52
But I feel it also helps considerably to have someone at your back urging you along that path, whatever it may be. And my father was very generous, but he was also a pragmatist. So I think he pushed me towards something where he felt that I could earn a living. And that is not a bad track. You know, it has saved me well so far. I can't complain. It's been a great journey.

06:20
primarily worked for over 20 years as an auditor accountant, first with Winston Young, the big auditing firms, for eight and a half years. So I got to look at the underbelly of all types of companies, primarily tech and biotech companies for a significant amount of time. And then I transitioned and moved into private industry. So I've been working for companies since then, again in the tech arena.

06:45
more in a financial reporting and technical accounting capacity. So I've been working primarily for public companies. And if you're a public company in the United States, then every quarter you've got to issue your reporting, your financial results to the SEC, the Securities Exchange Commission. So my team and I basically have to prepare that document. And we also do technical accounting, figure out how to account for the more complex technical accounting issues that are the meat and bones of most public companies. So, you know.

07:14
Not very exciting. I don't bring this up at parties. It kind of tends to stop the conversation, just like tax. People go, oh, okay. But the flip side of that is that in my 20s, I discovered that I also have a deep creative side of me. So I remember as a gift, my father buying me a correspondence course, insurance literature. I had expressed interest in it and I started doing it while I was...

07:41
attending graduate school in Miami, you know, the kind of thing where you would get an assignment by mail, you fill it out, send it back, and then you'd get feedback on it. I never finished the course because what happened is that in awakening my creative writing, I sort of speak, my hand drifted across to, I would say just adult fiction. And I just, I just started to indulge that.

08:08
So much so that I, at the time, was attending graduate school at Florida International University, and I found out that they had a creative writing competition, both at the undergraduate and at the graduate levels. And long story short, I entered it and took the first prize in writing at the undergraduate division. And I'll never forget the call, because they called me and they were confused because they had never heard of me. This program was something where only the only applicants they would receive were the

08:37
are from individuals who are already enrolled in their creative writing program. And there was I from the School of Accounting. They were like, what? Who is this? Oh, wow. So it was very validating to have that early acknowledgement that I do have writing ability. And I remember the one comment that they made in the email that followed. And they said that there isn't a spare word in this story. And

09:05
I really appreciated that because my process before submitting the final one was that I would print it out and read it aloud. And if I found a word that was extraneous, I would delete it, reprint it, and start it again. I must have done that 15 to 20 times before I finally felt satisfied to submit it. So it's been a theme in my life. Even though I'm in accounting, I actually use my writing skills a lot, whether it's been in screenwriting, short story writing, essays.

09:32
writing blogs on my website now. That type of skill never leaves you. That's awesome. Yeah, I was one of those guys that would end up putting all the superfluous like really, really, really, really, really bad just to hit the 1500 word count or whatever. So let me reiterate what I just wrote, like two or three different ways. I do that too. In high school I was accused of padding by my geography teacher. Just forget the word count. That was before I think.

10:02
I reached inside and started to really awaken some deep-seated skills in myself. That's awesome. So it was the course that kind of got you started into looking into yourself, finding the stories you had internally, and you found that they were more adult than children stories. Would the content be...

10:27
Did you take stuff from your life or things that you had experienced or was it just totally just extemporaneous? Oh, I think that from the time you start to write fiction, I think on average, broad brush, I think it would take a concerted effort for you to wall yourself off from writing anything that is not related to your life in some way. I think from the time we start to do a deep dive, especially when you're learning to write,

10:56
They say write what you know, and I think from an emotional perspective, it's very natural, I think necessary, to connect to those things for which you have the strongest feelings, whether that's joy or rage, whatever it may be, because that in turn helps you speak from a more authentic perspective. So necessarily you draw on your past experiences.

11:25
and pull that in some form or another. It may not be recognizable to others, but I think you as the writer have an idea of where it's coming from. And I remember I got into this, I started to really throw myself into writing a lot, even while I was doing my graduate degrees. And I remember going through a weird phase where I would just become a little bit antisocial. And then I started to.

11:53
I think be even more sensitized to my body and started to get a little bit high, be a bit of a hypochondriac. It was a weird thing. I think that sometimes when you start off on a creative journey, it can lead you down a path and sometimes you can end up looking at your navel a little bit too much, you know what I mean? So that's where you have to pull yourself back and say, you know what, I do have to get out and live because if you don't live, you have nothing to write about. So it's a balance. Yeah, I love that. So you...

12:22
Was there any desire then to further pursue that professionally or anything? Did you try to have anything published or any of your screenplays made into movies or shorts or anything like that? I have certainly, I think I've adopted more of the pragmatic qualities from my father than I care to admit. Because I realized...

12:51
how unforgiving this world can be and how extraordinary you have to be in the artistic arts, especially in this country, where there's so little support to excel in that era. So my tact was that we continue on my career, building that, you know, working throughout the years through these different companies in these different roles, whilst also feeding it. So whilst I've also maintained a full-time career, I've also, for example,

13:21
been a member of a screenwriting of several screenwriting groups. And our aim, or one of the aims was to really just build each other up by giving each other feedback and different groups have different philosophies. You know, some, some want you to basically be a cheerleading club. Others, and that's more my opinion. I take the more tact that you need to give me very substantive feedback because that's the only way that I would improve constructive feedback.

13:50
with substantive feedback. And as we wrote screenplays, we would enter into competitions of which there are many. But long story short, there are a couple that are really highly regarded, one of which is the Nicholl Fellowship, which is actually actually administered by the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, the Oscars. And I remember reaching the quarterfinals with one of my screenplays, and I just a second moment of validation where I thought, you know,

14:20
I do have some ability, you know, whether, whether you can take it beyond that. Who knows? I didn't have the courage to really reach out to the few people I knew in the industry and say, Hey, can you read this? Because people are guarding their time and appropriately so, but it takes from what I can tell a confluence of luck. People, you know,

14:47
Different the stars have to align because it is so difficult to get any kind of a movie made especially in this post Marvel You know world that we and we're still in it, but you know, there's there's thankfully a little bit more acknowledgement of the need for

15:08
I did a number of screenplays and I loved them and I'm still revising one at the moment, but I've also moved into a voiceover because it's something that I also trained for over 20 years ago. This is when I was still living in San Jose. And as my career took off, this was before we were doing things remotely, I just didn't have the bandwidth to continually driving up from San Jose to San Francisco. So I dropped it. And then post-COVID, I...

15:36
So the landscape had changed. People were doing a lot more remotely. People were basically expected to have their own in-home studio and because I work remotely, I thought why not? Why not pick this back up, you know, and continue doing that in addition to screenwriting to the extent that I have a bandwidth. So, you know, I like to have different things in the pot. Yeah, no, and I was gonna ask, you know, what that transition into voiceover, where that started from and...

16:01
And I was thinking maybe it was because you wrote these stories and you wanted to actually tell your stories or something like that. But so 20 years ago, as you know, it's very familiar to me when I was a kid, I wanted to be a special effects makeup artist, you know, and so I would make my own, you know,

16:21
prosthetics and you know, creature effects and things like that. But that that job did not exist in Augusta, Georgia, where I lived. So, so I would have to go to Los Angeles to try and make a go of it. But so so that was a dream that I kind of just just hung up because I was like, there's just there's just no way you know that, you know, as a, you know, 15 year old, whatever, that I was like, I can't make that happen. But I got into radio at the same time.

16:51
you know, I started interning at a radio station and you know, it was like, you got a great voice and this, you know, the set the other so that kind of set me on that path. And then I was able to work in video in television as well and doing post production. So it was kind of the same industry just on a local level. You know, directing commercials, writing commercials, voicing, that type of stuff. And I did that for the longest time, all because I was like, I can't get to California.

17:20
I that's, you know, it's a dream too far. But I mean, you know, I love the career that I, that I had, you know, I have it. And, and enjoying now getting back into a different side of that through voiceover for the same type of reason, you know, I have a home studio that I use podcast in, but now I'm able to actually be in California, through, you know, source connect, and have, you know, directed sessions that there's, you know,

17:49
in going to VO Atlanta meeting these people and like, oh, yeah, we don't, we usually don't bring, you know, anybody in studio anymore, we expect them to be at home and they can still do all the things it's just makes it so much more approachable. Yeah, you know, so I think that's, I think that's amazing that you're able to reconnect with something that you were passionate about, as well. Have you thought of doing like a narration of one of your stories? Oh, I, I

18:16
I have a long list of action items. Honestly, there are times when, you know, something arises and it jumps right at the head of that action items list. And then I have to do that. And then I wonder why haven't I made more progress? You know, it's everybody deals with this in some shape or form. But I think it's a great idea. I have not yet done that. I am still in the, in the process of really just building out, you know, a client base back.

18:45
Then when I started, I did some initial work. I dubbed a primary role in a last American feature length film. I was doing corporate narration. So I just need to just get the engine going again, which I've been doing. So I'm very grateful for that. And the reconnecting part of it, I think, for me, it's more important for me to have followed these callings. Yeah.

19:16
Because you just, at the end of the day, you want to know that you did what your heart compelled you to do, you know? So I think that very important to follow these little journeys. And just remember that every bit of these journeys is individual and specific to you. Oh yeah, yeah. You know, and that's what I tell folks all the time, is like, you know, don't compare your day one to somebody else's year five.

19:40
It's such a different look. You know, if you were to compare your day one to their day one, you might see more similarities. But don't don't that what is it the comparison is the thief of joy, you know, you're doing it because you enjoy it, you get some fulfillment out of it. Keep going. Don't don't stop because you're like, Oh, well, Anton's got this amazing voice, and I'm not gonna be able to do this. And he can write stories and do it. You know what I mean? It's like, no, no, no, but this room for

20:07
there's room for everyone. I have a big believer that you know, there's room for everyone at the table. And also everyone can eat. You know, it's not that you're just sitting there, you can eat and make it make a go of it. If you just if you just stop comparing yourself, you you sit there and learn. And that's what I did find at VO Atlanta. It was such a warm and inviting environment, you know that that everybody was like, yeah.

20:33
Come on, there was no gatekeeping. There was no, oh, this is my job and I don't want you taking my job. It was like, no, let me show you how I do this. Let me show you how I do this. You need to talk to this person. I thought that was so great. Yeah, I think that what differentiates the voiceover community from, for example, on camera acting is that we all have such distinguishing characteristics. Our voice signatures are so different. The client that wants my voice

21:04
is probably looking for something very distinctive because obviously I have a different sound. I don't speak with American accent. I have what can be characterized as a multicultural or transatlantic accent, whichever adjective you prefer. And that's very different from your voice. You know, they may want the American accent. Like in the run up to the Super Bowl, I was getting all these different Super Bowl ads from my agent. And I was looking at it and going, yeah, this is not.

21:32
for me, they don't want my voice. Right. That's great. I mean, is there a specific lane you're looking to lean more into for your voice work or anything like that, things that you really are passionate about? Because that obviously will help you do the work. Yeah, so in voiceover, it's often said that it's all very well and good for you to have a natural interest and preference in something in that certain.

22:01
genre or sub genre and that's important because obviously something that naturally holds your interest you're more likely to Excel and perform well in that arena, but there's also the very very strong reality that Where you end up spending most of your time in voiceover is dictated by the market and not by you You know the ways you may want to do commercial but guess what you end up doing more corporate narration because that's what you're getting and right now

22:30
I'm still exploring a couple of different genres, but I am also leading into specifically things which have a financial services nature because that's close to my experience and my knowledge base of being a CPA. Yeah. But also speak that language very fluently, you know, just with the technical side of it. Yeah, exactly.

22:54
But also because I've gotten feedback that my voice has a refined quality, that I'm also targeting certain markets like real estate, like the travel industry. For example, things that are more, you know, luxury nature, whether it's products or services. So to that extent, I'm going to TravelCon in Portland in May with a fellow, you know, a mutual friend of ours, Tyler Smith, another great and talented voiceover artist, so that we can...

23:23
you know, just make these contacts that will hopefully translate because at the end of the day, even though we time work remotely, relationships count for a lot. Yeah. So, you know, you want to get out there and know people, let them get a sense of what it would be like to work with you, which is a very important part of the consideration of who you're partnering with for commercial and other transactional work. Yeah. Is there in your, you know,

23:52
auditions and things that you're that you're getting to read for. Do you have anything that that you see in like a direction or something that is just that makes you roll your eyes because you see it so much of but people don't really realize what they're asking for on a script. You know, it seems like for for the longest time, I always say everything was to be warm. It's like, okay. But you're like, it's a race car ad or something is like that's not

24:21
necessarily warm. I think sometimes when you see too many adjectives being used, it can, it can, you, when you take a step back, you think, okay, this is a lot of fit in there, you know, you know, with 10 different adjectives, and I'm not exaggerating sometimes, you look at it and go, you know, I'm just, I have a sense of what the script is, because a well written script will point you in the direction that you should go. It has, it has clues embedded in there. So

24:50
whether it's punctuation marks or ellipses or, you know, just the general speech cadence, whether it's formal or not formal and then concerning the nature of the product or service itself. So I think at the end of the day, you have to go with your gut. And the important thing is when there seems to be something that does make sense to us questions, if possible. Like, for example, my agent said something and they even wanted us to read the

25:19
the directions. That's what it said to read the direction, you know, and I said to my agent, I said, this doesn't make sense. And then she sent us revised version, she said, ignore that. So, you know, the things that that just don't fit well, I think you want to naturally be engaged and it shows that you're being attentive and detail oriented, right? Because what we do is, is creative, but it's also detail oriented, you better not mislabel that file, because you're gonna piss off somebody.

25:47
They'll never ever be able to find it again. Oh my god. Is there a client or a brand or something like that that's like on your via wishlist, maybe somebody you'd love to do an ad or explainer or narration for? I think I think I would have a lot of this similar wishlist that a lot of of clients, you know,

26:16
that a lot of video artists think about. But to make it most meaningful, what I already use in terms of the products and which speak to me are fantastic. I'm a huge Apple fan. I love to use, I love watches, I love cars. So I love travel. That's a huge era of interest of mine. I do these two international vacations a year. I do a lot of cruises. So,

26:45
These are things that, you know, they catch, they catch my, my attention whenever they cross my mind, you know, financial services, industry like into into it and things of that nature. But I also have a part of me that my father was an international relations diplomat. And we, you know, that was probably the reason why I've lived in a couple different countries. So things I'm also tuned to the global stage, the United Nations, the Olympics, things that

27:14
you know, a little bit more, not so much the Olympics, but the United Nations and the OECD and other international bodies are also things that I grew up hearing about, you know, because they have very fundamental and meaningful mission. So those are also areas of interest to me. Yeah. I mean, and I feel like, you know, you know, maybe it's my name of a

27:39
being able to express that to your agent is you have an agent say, Hey, if you see this stuff, or hate if you know someone, I think a lot of it is letting people know that you're interested in these different areas. You know, letting you know, it's like, hey, because because sometimes you get pigeon holed and they're like, Oh, you're the you're the race car guy or whatever you're that you know, and I keep saying that because that's just seems like the most extreme thing. You know, you're the monster truck guy. You know, so you just like no, I'd like to do some sort of

28:06
you know, narration, some PBS narration or something like that, which is completely opposite of what you would normally think. So you just kind of have to put it out there in the universe and let people know that that's something that you're looking for. Yeah. In fact, that speaks to one of the areas that I'm going to start exploring, which is animation with my voice prints, which is very nondescript. Most people can't pin me down in terms of my, my era of origin.

28:36
Animation is an era that's arrived with possibility to reinvent yourself, especially when you have unconventional accents, because you can morph that into different things. So I am, I'm, I feel that I'm going to start training very soon. I have one or two candidates that I'm meeting with coaching, coaches who are quite prominent in the area. Certainly Voice, Vio Atlanta gave me some ideas as to where to go. So that's probably my next era that I'm going to explore.

29:05
Although I have to be realistic, it's a pretty small world. It's competitive. It's difficult, but this is America where all dreams can come true. This is why I came here in the first place. So if I can come this far and have a successful career in finance and, you know, be well on track in terms of getting where I want to be as a voice of artists, then why not make a mark in that nation? I just think why not me?

29:35
Absolutely, why not you? I mean, you've got you. And you've got the you've got the personality. You've got the the voice. You've got the I think you've got the right mindset about it too. And like, like we said earlier, a lot of this stuff is relational, you you I think you can quickly build relationships with people. And because you're very, you're very honest, you're very straightforward, but you're also very empathetic and caring too. And I think

30:04
that people see that they can see that and feel that when they meet you that like this is someone who's not trying to pull something over my eyes as someone who's not trying to, you know, just get a job to get a job as someone who actually does care. And I think it will definitely take you take you far in whatever realm you may want to explore even beyond voiceover or whatever whatever the next, you know, post voiceover chapter is for, for you, you know,

30:32
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. But this is of course, assuming that you lay the groundwork like anybody else to make sure you have the proper training, the proper engineering skills, the ability to take direction. You know, there's a lot of versatility that's inherent in any role. So yeah, we'll see. It's a journey. And I'm really trying to just enjoy the journey. Oh, did want to ask you, in the time that you lived in

31:01
the other countries? Were there things that you picked up like, you know, you say you have a very, you know, multi multinational accent. Did you find yourself, do you pick up accents quickly? Like you would start to talk like folks when you were in Sweden or, you know, Venezuela, did you find your, your voice morphing to those areas that you were in? Well, I do speak Spanish, so that does help, even though I'm shy away from mocking myself.

31:30
as a bilingual artist because I'm not born as English speaking, Spanish speaking I mean. And I think that that can make a difference. So it can help in terms of having more of a Spanish accent or more of a Southern accent. But you know, I take the view that the print that is inherently me is this voice that I'm speaking with right now. So that's what I'm really trying to

32:00
um, you know, make inroads with, because I think that you do best when you capitalize on your strengths rather than to support and build up those areas which are secondary to you. So yeah, that's my area because I mean, honestly, voiceover is such a huge area, a massive field with so many genres, so many dialects and everything like that. I think it, for me, I think I'm more focusing on being more of a niche artist.

32:29
Yeah. And just capitalizing on my inherent strengths. Awesome. Awesome. Outside of your, your voiceover passion, your financial job. Um, what is bringing you joy? Well, a couple of things I mentioned travel. So I'm headed to Northern Europe in June for two weeks vacation. So looking forward to that because work has been heavy so far in 2024. I'm grateful for the work, but it's been heavy.

33:00
The other thing is that I do like to do outdoor sports. So I just came back last weekend from a weekend in Tahoe and I already bought my ski pass for next season. That was my first Tahoe trip post COVID. I mean, I used to go every year and go several times a season because it's only a four hour drive from San Francisco. So I, I know I really have at least two weekends for 2025 where I'll be going with friends.

33:29
So that's another huge area of joy for me. I just bought myself a pair of rollerblades. I had a pair for over 15 years. And when I was moving to my current apartment, I in a fit of, what should I say, cleansing and minimizing. I took them to Goodwill and I'm not, I'm not sure if that was the right decision. But you know, when I, when I, my, my net.

33:57
my nephew started a road leading the other day and I thought, okay, this is a great activity to take up with him. So I jumped on the line and I bought some big ass planes. I mean, they're like big wheels because they're more built for urban, going urban, uh, skating, you know, just going over those cracks. So I will soon be going down the Embarcadero clad in my protective gear from head to foot. That's the kind of thing I love to do. I know of course, um, family and friends are continued focus for me. I know I have a

34:26
family in the Bay Area, luckily, so we see each other and talk to each other a good bit. Yeah, so that's about it.

34:38
Alright, Anton, this is the second segment of the show where we dive a little bit more into your mental health journey. I'm a firm believer the more we can have these conversations and kind of get rid of the stigma of talking about mental health, the easier it is for everyone to kind of recognize themselves in other people. And it gives them a lot of ability to kind of lift some of that weight that we all feel in those times. So for you,

35:06
How do you keep the darkness at bay?

35:11
For me, it's been very important to acknowledge who I am and what my needs are. And while also ensuring that those around me, those who are my loved ones and friends, we also feed those relationships and we help each other where necessary. To some extent, I think that I have to prioritize my own mental health and that has shifted a bit post COVID as well. So.

35:41
I'm an introvert, but somewhere along the spectrum, you know, I'm not at the extreme end. I know to turn it on like anybody else, you know, obviously you saw me when I was at the Atlanta and we were on the bar and I was like a little flamingo flying all over the place talking to everybody like wildfire. But even those contexts, what I tried to focus on is as a bit of a sidebar is just just having a rapport with a couple of people, one or two people making meaningful relationships, especially when you're meeting new people.

36:11
so that you come away feeling, I come away feeling a little bit more filled and enlightened and energized rather than drained by making a lot of, you know, just very superficial interactions. So that was something that I enjoyed and something I've gotten better at. But to answer your question more directly, you know, as an introvert, I find that

36:39
for me, seeing that I get, I recharge on my own rather than with other people. On a day-to-day basis and even on a week to week basis, it's about just making sure that I have a good balance between stimulation and relaxation. Because if I'm going too hard for too long in a social situation, I can feel drained and it just, it starts to affect my mood. Yeah. Uh, I, and the good news is that it doesn't take me long to.

37:09
regain that balance. Like for example, at the conference, there were times during the day that I would just go up to my room and just have downtime for half an hour, you know, whether it was during lunchtime or you know, you just want to take care of some emails or you just want to sit and watch something mindless, you know. So that's important to me, having a mental balance and keeping things in check. I don't like to have too much going on in a single day.

37:38
But I also want to do the things that feed me on on a regular basis, like getting regular exercise is important to me. I mentioned I work from home 24 seven because my, my employees in a different city and I have a setup where I have a standing desk and then I have a desk treadmill under it. So I will walk usually 10,000 steps a day while taking calls, while doing emails and tending to my, to the basic obligations of my job.

38:07
And getting that basic work done, making your body move on an almost daily basis for me, it is important because it does for me affect my brain chemistry. I can, I feel better when I engage on that level. Obviously, when, at times of my life, when I have had a more acute need, I've gone off for professional help. I've reached out to therapists and anybody who's reached out to therapists knows that that's...

38:37
It can be, it's a myth, right? You could meet with two people and in your gut, you don't feel as if it's working, they don't get you, they're not hearing you or they're not offering the specific solution that you need. At times I've had very good people who just got to the heart of me very, very quickly. One of the most interesting experiences that I've had in that vein was when I was living in Miami, I mentioned that I.

39:07
did my graduate schooling there. And at that time, I was living in my parents' condo while going to school, while going to graduate school. And they felt at one specific point that I needed some help. So their intentions were golden, like always.

39:36
but they went about it in a very novel way. They basically hired a therapist in Trinidad, flew her up to Miami, and she moved in with me. Oh. And, yeah. And she stayed with me for several months. And basically when I wasn't in class, when I was working part-time at my job in the graduate school, or when I wasn't sleeping, I was working. So I have a distinct recollection of going to the grocery store.

40:05
getting a college and she's right next to me and she starts off, so you said yesterday, da da da da. I remember thinking, dear God, when is this going to end? You know, it was the most intense experience I'd ever had in my life, but it was also one of the most revelatory. I realized in retrospect that I was very apprehensive about the experience. And what I mean by that is that

40:32
I remember picking up at the airport and just thinking, Oh God, what is this going to be like? Is she going to weaken some thing inside of me? You know, I, I, somehow I got it in my head that she could implant stuff in my head. But the interesting thing about her is that she never said anything. She only asked me questions, probing questions that would take me sometimes a couple of minutes to formulate an answer for. So, you know, it was the kind of thing where I was very, very grateful to have gotten that experience.

41:02
in the end because it came at a provisional time in my life when I was grappling with my sexuality, for example, as a gay man, I was not very accepting of myself, it was very hard on myself. So she taught me self-acceptance and that was very, very key at that point in my life. But overall, you probably wouldn't recommend having your therapist move in with you necessarily. You know, I...

41:32
When I look back at it, you know, they say when you're learning a language, but the best way to go about that is through an immersive experience. Yeah, that's true. Move to the country and just throw yourself into it. And there's a part of it that is a part of me that questions whether I would have made the leaps that I did. Had she not been working with me because I think it's one of the reasons why, for example, they tell you right every day. Yes.

42:02
the very obvious benefit would be, well, you are producing content every day and you're, you know, by definition, hopefully improving every day. But what they don't tell you, which I found to be true for me, is that a key benefit of writing every day is that you're training your subconscious. Your subconscious knows that tomorrow at 9 a.m. or whatever time it's work time. And more importantly, there are many times, and I'm speaking

42:32
My experience, there are many times when I may end the previous day's writing session saying, I know this scene is lacking this, I know this scene is lacking that. How do I do that? How do I infuse conflict here, which is organic and meaningful? And how do I create these? You know, I would always have a short list of creative issues I'm trying to solve within a screenplay or on personal essay or whatever it is. And what you don't realize is that your

42:59
your subconscious actually basically takes that as homework. So that when you're walking the dog or you're taking a shower or whatever it is and you get that aha moment, that's your mind at work going, that is you that you were thinking of. That's where the aha moment comes from. And I think that that happens more and more. You're working on a regular cadence in a creative sphere. So to your question, I think it's individual.

43:28
I think it depends. You know, first you have to have the resources to dedicate to something like that. My parents just put out all the stops and then you have to have the person, the person who would be willing to do something so intensive. I mean, I think that that's few and far between. That's not the normal sphere, but you know, everybody has, I'm sure if you were to canvas your listeners, you would.

43:52
probably get people saying, hey, so this happened to me when I was this age, and this is also highly unusual. People come from such varied backgrounds with such unusual experiences at times. So I'm sure that mine is one of many, but it just depends on what you need.

44:14
All right, it's time now for the third segment of the show. It's time now for the Fast Five. The Fast Five is time now for the Fast Five. Fast Five. Sorry, I'm still working on a theme song for that. I gotta get my music guy on it. But. Oh, you can go jingle. Right, right. The Fast Five is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown. If you go to chewingthefatbr.com slash poddex, it will take you to the page where you can download it at your favorite app store.

44:43
Five questions, no wrong answers. First thing that comes to the top of your mind. You ready to go? Uh-huh. All right, here we go. Question number one.

44:56
What did your 15 year old self imagine you'd be doing right now?

45:04
I don't think that I had a very clear notion of what that would be in terms of a career. What I can tell you is that at 15, I was in a pretty dark space in terms of...

45:20
dealing with my sexuality as I alluded to earlier. So the only thing I would say is that I had formulated that I had to do something to have more options in life. I didn't want to live my entire life on a small Caribbean island as beautiful as it is and as important as it's been to my development, but I just wanted to have more options. And this theme of having more options has been a constant to me. I always want to not be...

45:49
limited to one thing. Life is, there's so many possibilities. I always thought, certainly if I moved beyond and I was able to reveal myself being educated in other countries and living in other countries, I think that would be a great tapestry from which to enjoy life. I love that. That's great. That's great. Question number two.

46:15
So you said you like to travel a lot. What's the most sentimental souvenir you've brought back with you from your travels? So I'm a bit of a minimalist. I have gone to Europe, you know, for two, three weeks and not come back with a single thing. That's the kind of person I am. 95% of the time when I travel, I travel with hand luggage only. So that leaves very little margin to come back with stuff. But-

46:46
I would say I really focus on experiences, the things that I have done on a whim or anything like that. So I don't think that there's any one thing that I'm so wedded to that I can say I got this here. Of course there are some things, but none of it is precious because I really value experiences more. Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Do you have a specific experience you had that was just, that comes to the top of your head?

47:14
I'm a huge fan of using Airbnb experiences. I have no affiliation with them. So apart from, you know, giving, apart from, apart from giving you opportunities to, to, to stay in great places, the experiences are for me, a great way of having an experience in a country, which is, it tends to be more intimate, smaller groups and led by a person rather than an organization. So I remember going to Lisbon and signing up.

47:44
for a performance that was in a secret location that we would be advised of just beforehand. And on the day of, about two hours before, I got a text saying where it was, and it turned out to be in a palace, a 10 minute walk from my hotel in downtown Lisbon. Oh wow. We went there and it was a beautiful, beautiful venue with about 25 people, we all sitting on cushions, they were serving wine and appetizers, and then the music proceeded with

48:14
Portuguese musicians followed by Brazilian musicians who were from Rio that were studying in Lisbon and they were also a pair of Icelandic singers that were flown in for the weekend and we kept looking at each other going Oh, how much should we pay for this? This is amazing And it was about I think it was about 70 bucks for about two two and a half hours of music wine and appetizers like In a glorious venue. I mean it was fantastic, you know, so I've had a number of those

48:44
type of experiences that have really differentiated my applications. That's awesome. I love it. And question number three.

48:54
burger or hot dog? Neither. Wait, what? I grew up in the Caribbean and burgers and hot dogs are something that we would have like, maybe once a quarter. It was not a big thing in my family. And I don't buy those. I mean, every once in a while if I see a hot dog that's amazing and looks amazing, fine. But it's not something I generally need. But so if I mean, if you had to choose one, you're right.

49:23
I invite you to the house and we're having a cookout and I have burgers and hot dogs. If I'm going to choose one, I'm gonna go for the hamburger. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Question number four.

49:39
What's the best compliment you ever received?

49:46
I would think, honestly, what comes to mind is my voice. And I'm not saying this because we're talking about voiceover throughout my life. People have said, you know, complimentary things about my voice. And I was in a cruise ship in November of 22, having dinner with a friend who used to work for Disney. And he was asking me, why don't I pick back up voiceover, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I didn't have a good answer for him. And then.

50:15
In the table next door, a woman sat down with her teenage daughter and we started talking. 10 minutes later, she leans over and she said, you know, I have to tell you, I just love the sound of your voice. And my friend looks at me like, for God's sakes, how many times do I have to tell you? And that's when I decided, you know, to get back into voiceover. Instead of getting off and put away all the next day, I sat by the pool, turned on my phone and started doing research. Oh, wow. I love that. I love that. I love where that little...

50:44
interaction, that little compliment, where it's taking you. That's great. That's good. And question number five.

50:54
If you could bring one famous person back from the dead, who would you pick?

51:02
Mmm.

51:04
I'm going to put your name.

51:09
But I'm not even going to say the name, but she was the only female pharaoh in ancient Egypt. And that's an area of fascination for me. So I would love to have a conversation with that babe. Was that Nefertiti? No, it's Hatshetspah or something like that. It's not like, it's not, yeah, it's, it's, it's one of the few lesser known facts of ancient Egypt. Okay. Yeah.

51:36
Okay, just to talk and to learn more about about her rules, how she got where she was, why was she the only one, you know, I'm basically a feminist at heart. So I'm very, I'm very interested in the rule of women and, you know, what's happening in this day and age in terms of their rights. And, you know, so yeah, don't get me started. But women leaders and rulers, I find particularly interesting because how they got there.

52:06
tends to be a very interesting journey and how they stay in power. I mean, I may not have agreed with Margaret Thatcher's politics, but I remember being in England as a student and seeing her seated for so many years in Downing Street and just going, you know, why is it that England has managed to have a female head of state? And look at the United States, you know, so many hundreds of years and we haven't done that yet. I mean, we have a vice president, but...

52:35
that's different. So I don't know, it's just I find I find I find the auras around female leaders to be interesting. I love that. I love it. Well, that's our fast five. And that's the show. Anton, thank you so much for being here and for talking to me today. I really, really appreciate it. And I love getting to know even more about you. If folks want to keep up with you, what's the best way they can do that?

53:00
I think it's to go to my website and check out what I do. But I'm also available on many of the socials. So on Facebook it's AntonHgill and on Twitter it's also AntonHgill. Okay, we'll make sure to put those notes.

53:17
in the show notes as well as where she can find Anton and our other guests on the website as well at tunifatbr.com. Anton, I wish you nothing but success in all of your endeavors, financial, voiceover, whatever your travels, safe travels to you. I just love you and I just wish you nothing but success, sir. Thank you, sir. It's been a real pleasure doing this and I know we'll be talking soon. Absolutely, absolutely. And if you would like to support this podcast, I would appreciate

53:47
me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com but until next time I look forward to the chance we have to sit a spell and chew the fat.