Billie Jo Konze, Voice Actor, Podcaster, Accountability Coach

00:00
Don't pinky swear unless you mean it.

00:10
Welcome 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 to Leslie for buying a t-shirt at chewingthefatbr.com. I really appreciate your support. Thank you for listening and reaching out. Letting me know that you really do enjoy the podcast. I certainly do appreciate your support of this. It's the podcast where we help tell beautiful, messy, 

00:38
human stories and maybe find out how you can help keep the darkness at bay as well. My guest this week is a voice actor. She's up in the Atlanta area right now. Please welcome Billie Jo Konze. Billie. Hi. Hello. I'm so happy to be here. How are you doing? I'm good. A little sleepy, but I'm good. I got my coffee. I appreciate that. Yeah. I've moved past coffee to my water session now. So but what's your what's your?

01:08
Coffee of choice. Starbucks Cafe Verona, dark roast. Cream, sugar, anything like that? Oh, just cream. I'm a sort of, you know, even though they say it's not good for voiceover, like I can't do without dairy though. Yeah. That's, I kind of cut the sugar out of my coffee several years ago, just, you know, quote unquote for my health, but.

01:36
Yeah, I can't cut the dairy out. It's just, it feels sharp by my throat, you know what I mean? It's acidic. And also like the sugar thing, back in high school, I used to be able to do like a mocha lot of chill at Cinnabon and I used to be able to do like all of the Starbucks like, you know, cinnamon dolce latte with the, you know, whipped cream and everything. I can't do any of that anymore.

02:06
If my best friend convinces me to get a cider, if we go to an apple orchard or something, I feel ill. Like my body does not like it. So every time I think it's a good idea, I take like two sips and I'm like, I'm done with that sweet beverages and I don't get along. So. Wow, interesting. That's, I mean, I guess, you know, once you kind of, if you get it out of your life, it becomes, you know, not necessarily toxic, but you know, toxic to you if you take it in. That's pretty interesting.

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But, Billie, you're up in the Atlanta area. You've been doing voiceover for how long now? Eight and a half years. Wow, full time? I mean, not full time the whole time, no. I was still, I stopped doing stage theater and I gave up like three of my five part-time jobs to start doing voiceover in 2016. And partially because of mental health.

03:06
I'm not earning any money and it's hard to juggle all of this. And I really, I had always wanted to do voiceover and I put it off for like 10 years. And so finally in 2016, I was like, I have to make a commitment to this if I'm going to do it. So I gave up all the other stuff and I kept my serving job because that one was the one that made me the most money and was easily, I could easily control the schedule. And so I kept that. And then I got laid off from my last serving job.

03:35
in 2020 and haven't gone back. So. Yeah, and I guess around that time in 2020, we all know the, I always refer to it as the blip instead of COVID, but that's when everything shut down and it seems like, you know, it was two years later and oh, wow, all this time has passed, you know, before we were able to do anything. But yeah, there were a lot of people that kind of decided to take those leaps into their passions in that time of isolation and.

04:04
That and that's that's when I decided to launch this podcast because again, I was I was isolated there were a lot of people that were isolated and You know, I just realized that there were so many people that kind of deal with the same things We were all kind of going through the same thing at that time I mentioned you're in Atlanta right now, but Atlanta is not where are you from originally? I am I was born in Sparta, Wisconsin and Grew up in, Wisconsin

04:32
moved to Arizona for three years for junior high. So I lived in Yuma. And every time I mentioned that people are like, why? Or, or the other one I get is I'm sorry. And because Yuma is it's like right on the Mexican border. It's about well, it's both right on the Mexican border and also 20 minutes from Mexico from actual where you go in and right on the California border. So it's like the farthest southwest corner of Arizona.

05:02
lived there for three years, that was some culture shock, and then moved back to Wisconsin for high school, went to college in Minneapolis and never left Minneapolis until 2019. Oh, wow. When you were in school and going to college and stuff like that, you talked about doing theater, is that what you were pursuing? Is that was just a passion since birth that you had to perform? I wouldn't say since birth,

05:32
I have very early memories and some people don't have memories until they're like eight. And I'm one of those people who's like, no, I remember this thing. And my mom's like, oh, you were like three. How do you remember that? I remember going to see my aunt's high school production of Oklahoma when I was about three years old and I was sitting between my mom and my grandma. And it was so riveting. I was like, she's wearing a green dress. She's singing. She's dancing.

06:00
Oh, look, they came out of this little house. Where do they go when they go inside that house? It was so fascinating to me. And ever since I was three then, I wanted to be an actor. So, yeah. I love that. And so you did drama or theater in high school then. Do you remember one of your first roles? I mean, I did theater. I mean, I did school plays and stuff, junior high, high school, college, of course.

06:29
Uh, when I got to, you know, it was ups and downs. Like there was some time at junior high, I didn't really get cast. I got to play Piglet in junior high. Winnie the Pooh. Um, uh, that was the thing, the only role I got in junior high and then high school. Apparently I just made the thing of playing animals. Cause the first role I got in high school was Charlotte and Charlotte's Web. Okay. But I mean, that's yeah, yeah, that's still pretty cool.

06:58
Yeah, I mean, it's a great, it's one of my, probably was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. So yeah. And then I played Goldilocks and the trial of Goldilocks. Yeah. Yeah. They played Bad to the Bone and I came out in a leather jacket and got put on trial. Let's see. I don't know. I'm like in high school, we did Grease, we did Fiddler on the Roof. I had, you know, decent.

07:28
roles in those and, but yeah, I don't know. I just always wanted to do it and I was like, however I could do it, I was gonna do it. Yeah. Yeah. And so was that what your degree was in in college then as well? Did you get a theater degree? Yes I did. Whatever it was. No practical for me, just, let's go straight into theater. No side, you know, no, I just pulled.

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Minored in Spanish because I already had had five years worth of Spanish in high school. So it was easy. It was like I needed like five classes total to get a minor in Spanish. So I just did it.

08:14
And so you went to, you were in Minneapolis, and what's the theater scene in Minneapolis? You graduated, you're there, and so what was the theater scene like there for a now person with a degree in theater? I mean, Minneapolis has a great theater scene. It has suffered over the past couple years, like many places have, but at the time it was,

08:43
definitely booming. But you know, booming for theater, meaning it has one of the largest regional theaters in the country, the Guthrie, and it had some other major union shops like Old Log and The Jungle and some other ones. So they had had all these theater companies that were pretty established that had been there since the 70s.

09:14
And then there are all these other little theater companies that were newer. And there's a lot going on. But it's also pretty insular, you know, so it was a little hard to like, work your way into the community. So my way of doing that was karaoke. Oh, okay. What's your, what's your go-to karaoke song?

09:40
I actually, I have a playlist on Spotify that's like 80 songs of like, that I've done that I can just like go to and look. But you and I by Lady Gaga is probably my favorite. Oh, wow. That's awesome. Yeah. You know, and it's interesting you talk about like the union shops as far as theater and stuff like that up in Minneapolis. I'm in Georgia and South Carolina. They're right the work states. There are no union shops.

10:07
pretty much if we do theater here, at least, because these are smaller towns, it's community theater, it's volunteer, there's no pay for it. It's fun, it's fun as all get out, and we put on some amazing performances, but it's not a way to actually sustain a livelihood. Yeah. What, you mentioned having all these other jobs as well, so I'm assuming that you couldn't necessarily.

10:35
sustain a livelihood, even though you may have been getting paid to do some theater, it just wasn't enough to keep going. No, no. And you know, I always had other jobs. I was always, you know, like you do. I mean, the joke is, oh, you're an actor? What restaurant do you work at? Right? So I always had a restaurant job and I usually had some part-time day job that was flexible. Like

11:02
marketing or administration. I worked for a lot of small arts organizations doing stuff. And yeah, that was just what I did for a long time. And it was, yeah, it was constantly re- moving the pieces around to make it work. Like, oh, this week I have a Tuesday night audition, but then I also have a Wednesday morning audition for this on-camera gig.

11:31
So you had to have the total flexibility because you needed to be available for night auditions for theater and you needed to be available for day auditions for commercials and film stuff. And then weekend evenings, it's like, well, if you have a serving job, that's when you make your money. But then you also have to take off every time you're doing a show. And if you're in rehearsals, you have to take off the evenings. So it's just, yeah, it was kind of a...

11:59
It's kind of a puzzle mess, really. Yeah. And then trying to squeeze in any type of social life in between that, you end up becoming, you know, you socialize with the people you work with and that's about it. There's nothing kind of outside of that. Oh, all my friends were theater people. I mean, I, you know, when I was younger, I remember trying, like my friend being like, you got to stop dating actors. And I was like, nobody understands.

12:29
My schedule. Other than actors. Yeah. And all my actor friends that I know from back home, pretty much they've all married actors or other theater people. And a lot of them have their weddings on Mondays, one, because it's cheaper, and two, because that's when all their friends will be available to come to the wedding. Right. So, you know, I don't know. It didn't seem like there was a really...

12:59
Not that I wanted to get out of that either. I was just like, no, these are my people. Yeah. All the glorious weirdos, weirdo creatives. Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, it's a great group of people to be in when you're in with actors or any type of creatives for sure. Did you ever have any desire to try and, you know, pick up your bags and move to New York and get on Broadway and that type of stuff?

13:26
Did I ever want to do Broadway? I mean, yeah, of course. Like I loved, when I was younger, I loved doing musical theater. But to be entirely honest, like I was never that great of a dancer. So it's like, well, so then I would have to be super competitive enough to get the lead roles where you don't have to dance. And I don't feel like I ever focused on music enough to get that level.

13:56
And then the other thing was that honestly, some of my worst theater experiences, interpersonally, were all in musical theater. Just toxic, just really toxic environments to work in, bullying, you know, adults bullying other adults. And I'm, you know, so I, I don't, I miss doing it. I don't miss the, a lot of the people that I.

14:25
had to interact with. Yeah. So did you find yourself going more like the straight play route? I mean, I did so many different things. Like, I mean, I did almost everything you can think of. I did, like I never did, like so far as performance in general, I never did standup. I never did burlesque. And.

14:54
I think that's about it. I mean, like everything else I've done at some point or another, like I played Elmo at a kid's birthday party. I've been a palm reader at high school graduations. I've been a sexy nurse singing telegram for a 50th birthday. I've been, you know, I've done clowning. I've done Commedia dell'arte. I've done physical and devised theater. Like I've done a little bit of Shakespeare, although I didn't get cast. I got cast in one show and then couldn't do it.

15:24
So like I've done it all, but I think like right before I moved here, I started finding the place that I really felt at home in theater, which was the Devised Theater. And I had a group that did Comedia together for like two years. Comedia is like improv, only with a structure. And I loved it.

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my group was so welcoming, it was so great, it was so fun. And so to do that and to do the DeVice Theater with kind of similar, but it was kind of the same group of people, some of them anyway. That feeling, it's like, it's the opposite of the musical theater thing. You know, like in theory, it's like the musical theater thing it should be one giant working organism of people. And instead it's a lot of individual egos.

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kind of refusing, they want to stand out, but they're supposed to be part of an ensemble. Right, right. And Devised Theater, it's like, you let go of the ego completely and you merge with all these other people and all of a sudden, like I went to this audition for the show I did for the horror festival and Twin Cities Horror Festival and it's this cool festival where they do all these different plays that are horror-based plays.

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but people are creating them. So we did one called The Deep Dark, and it had a script, but then we also had to create these scenes like the woman diving from the boat, and all these horrific things. We used light and we used physical theater stuff to do it. So it was all just tricks. And my mom still talks about it. She's like, Billy, that was so amazing, how you made it look like she was diving. And like,

17:26
In the callback, like none of us really knew each other that well. I think I knew like two people in the room. It was like 12 of us. And we did this whole hour and a half long callback where our director just like, he turned the lights down and he was just like, talking us through with this ambient music, talking us through like your seaweed and there's this and there's that and we're like.

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floating around the room, like people were doing lifts and like, we weren't talking to each other at all. And by the end we collapsed in a pile just like, and he's like, okay, and just let it go and like come back and we're all like, collapsed on the floor. Like we'd had this experience where we had become one. And it was the coolest thing. Like I, I miss that. Like I became good friends with a few of those people and a few of the comedian people and

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Like that lack of ego, the letting go of it. Yeah, I love.

18:31
So from doing that, where did voice acting come into your life at? Oh, God. When I was a kid, I grew up in a time when we all listened to the radio back then. And for my eighth birthday, I got a cassette player, you know, double cassette boombox.

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some blank tapes and I just used to spend hours in my room, like waiting for the right song to come on and record it. I'd be like, the DJ talked over it again. That was always the thing. You'd be like, I didn't get it. Or you'd miss the beginning of the song. So you just let the tape record and you'd get a bunch of other songs. You'd be like, I don't like that one, but we'll just fast forward through it. So I would listen to commercials and

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I always just wanted to make up my own commercials. I tried, they were bad. I can objectively say that. But yeah, I was always interested in that. I watched cartoons just like any other kid, but I never really did the whole trying to imitate them in the same way. So, I don't know, it's just always kind of there. I really liked.

19:57
commercials actually like when I was in Like maybe 12 years old 13 years old my room You know girls used to put up pictures of like hot celebrities in their rooms, and I didn't have that I had like I Had all my magazines I'd rip out pages that were like cool ads you know Anything that was super creative clever, I was kind of obsessed with with ads

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you know, had a list of taglines at one point that like, you know, in your, in your teenage mind I'm like, these sound dirty. Like these taglines sound dirty. But, but yeah, I was just more interested in, in advertising and art. And like I knew, I knew I wanted to be an actor, but I was also like, I could also be a singer. I could also be an artist. I could be like, I always wanted to be a writer. Any of those things.

20:55
So, yeah. So what precipitated the move to Atlanta in 2011? I met a boy, no. Was it, was that it? I mean, yes, I had met him back in St. Paul when he lived there. And we met on set for a commercial and we had the same agent. And when I moved, or when I came here to VO Atlanta, the year that I came, the first time I came,

21:25
I just reached out to everybody I knew who lived here and said, hey, I'm going to be in town. Anybody free want to go get a drink or hang out or something? And he said yes. And we talked for seven hours. And then we hung out and had lunch the next day. And I was like, this is weird. I feel like I just went on two dates. But that was not supposed to be a date. But huh, OK. And then we kept texting. And I.

21:54
convinced him because in our first in the seven hour conversation I had convinced him I like I said You know we're talking about traveling and I said Where do you want to go and he said Iceland and I said oh, I just went to Iceland last year or two years ago I said I want to go back. I said if I can find cheap airfare. Will you go with me? And he was like ha ha ha yeah, of course. I'm like no. I mean pinky swear Don't pinky swear unless you mean it

22:22
Because I want to go this year and I knew that it would be easier for me to go with somebody than by myself. Yeah. So we went to Iceland on our first date. Wow. Eight days in Iceland. First official date. First official first date was eight days in Iceland. And we were like, I guess we're dating long distance. Okay, cool. Mm-hmm. That's so cool though. So then just how long was it into the relationship before you were like, you know what, I'm just going to move to Atlanta. I mean...

22:52
by, so that was August of 2018. So I moved October 2019 was when I moved here. So we dated about a year long distance. And like he came to visit once and I came to visit like twice and cause I came back for the conference again, of course. So, yeah. So I always say like, you know, when you talk about conferences and people poo poo conferences, I'm like, conferences can change your life. Like even if I hadn't.

23:22
ended up moving here. I still think Vio Atlanta kinda changed my life, you know? Yeah, yeah. Was it a bit of culture shock coming from Minneapolis to Atlanta, coming to the South? Not too bad. That's good. Not too bad. I mean, when I visited, I actually thought like, wow, people are really polite. And then I moved here and I'm like, wow, people are really jerks. Ha ha ha. I don't know what the difference was, I swear.

23:51
Everyone had a, it was a conspiracy to get me to move here. Cause like the people at Barnes and Noble were super helpful. The first time I came, the cop at the station at Marta was really helpful when it came and ever since then, I'm like, I had never seen a cop at a Marta station since I try to find somebody at any shop to help me with something and they're just like gone, the people at McDonald's are rude. I'm just like, okay, well, uh, yeah. Yeah. That's that Southern hospitality for the visitors.

24:20
Once you become a local, then it's like, no, sorry, you've got to, you have to fend for yourself. I don't sound like, so anyway. I don't know.

24:31
Well, that's, I mean, that is, it is, I can imagine, especially with you being in theater and doing theater and stuff like that, as we talked about, like being in a union shop as opposed to being in kind of, you know, non-union shops. Although, I mean, I know there's some paid companies and stuff in Atlanta and things like that and opportunities and definitely more so than where I am. Did you, were you able to find a group?

25:00
to get into that or did you just kind of like, you know what, I'm just gonna stay the VO course and be in the padded room and talk to myself? You know, I didn't have time. Like I was here for five months and I had to get a job and so I got here and I got a serving job and I started taking some voiceover classes here just to meet some people and so I took a looping class and I took class with Steve Henderson and then.

25:27
After that, it was like, oh, and now everything's shut down. And when you speak of culture shock, the culture shock I did encounter was mostly when I was working at the restaurant. And that had to do with kind of the same thing when you're talking about union versus right to work. I mean, Minnesota is technically a right to work state, actually. But all the restaurants I worked at in Minneapolis, the last two I worked at, we p-

25:56
I tip pooled everything and we got a regular minimum wage. And then I moved here and it's $2.17 an hour just for you out there who don't know that your server is only making $2.17 an hour. Like your tips do matter to those people. I moved here and some nights I was making 45 bucks at a nice place. And I was like, I can't afford to live on this you guys. And I, everyone I worked with.

26:25
that hadn't been at that restaurant for very long, they were so disgruntled. All they did was stand around and bitch about their job. They didn't help each other. And so the mentality, like it was weird for me because I'm like, I was taught, like you just help each other. That's what you do because you're a team. It's kind of like going back to musical theater. All of a sudden it's all these egos being like, mine.

26:53
This is mine and nobody else can touch it. I'm in it for me and only me. And I'm like, I don't like this culture you guys. I don't like this. And I tried to really be like, hey, where I came from, it's this magical land where we all tip pooled and we were tip pooling and making $30 an hour in tips plus our 11.50 an hour in wages. We were making bank at a pizza place. And people were like, I don't think I would like tip pooling. And I'm like,

27:22
If you were making 30 plus dollars an hour, you would be a main, like, and I mean, always, I mean, every shift. Like, you could count on it. You could mark your bills to it, you know, as we all need to. Yeah, you could count on it. And you can also count on the fact that like where I worked there, I knew I wasn't going to work more than six and a half hours in a shift unless I was doing a double, which I didn't do. But like, you were done. When you got cut.

27:51
you went home and you got to have a life. Like you were talking about, like, you got to have a life here when I was working here. I was working eight plus hours in a shift. I was working 55 plus hours in a week and barely clearing like 550 bucks. Wow. And I was like, I can't do this. And I tried, you know, I told my bosses I was quitting and they were like, but can we get you to stay? Like, what can we do? And I'm like, I would need to close like two nights a week. And they're like, oh, we can't.

28:21
do that because other people have seniority. And I'm like, I've been in this business for 20 years. Like if that's not seniority, like then you're going to keep hemorrhaging good people because the people who don't have seniority need to be treated well enough that they want to stick around and help those with seniority. That's all. I mean, it's just a mindset thing. And it's really short-sighted.

28:51
to think about, oh, well, we just have to make these two, once again, the ego, these two individuals, we have to make them super happy so that they wanna stay and make the bank that they make. But meanwhile, nobody else wants to help those people and stick around and have a good, healthy team. Yeah, whereas if you treated everybody decent, you may end up with 14 of those people that want to stay and do the great work as opposed to just

29:21
And then you've got you know a dozen disgruntled people Right yeah, it's such a it's such a mindset that Is so short-sighted and yeah, I've seen that in a lot of places. It's you know you and in any retail or Food service type thing you see it you you know that's why there's burnout is like you know what you keep? you keep the shitty people and try to keep them happy and yet

29:49
the people who are having to pick up all the slack, you don't give them a little bit of a leg up or a reason to want to stay or do the extra work that they've already been doing. So that's why they leave, to find somewhere else that appreciates them. Yeah. And the place I worked in Minnesota right before I left, it was very self-policing. The managers wanted us to take care of a lot of issues on our own and coached us how to do that too.

30:18
Um, and we had, we had, we had the ability to take sick days there. Like we actually accrued sick time, which what, um, as part-time employees, we accrued sick time and as a city law. And then we also had an on-call person so that if someone did call in sick, the rest of us wouldn't be struggling. And so we just kind of knew that like, if you were on the on-call person, you know,

30:46
that's part of what makes this a healthier place to work. Yeah, I miss that. I miss that sort of, you know, more collective mentality. Not this like, it's all in it, I'm just in it for me. And, you know, so that's kind of what I gravitated towards voiceover, I think, is it does feel...

31:14
Not that there aren't egos in voiceover, but generally I think like most people in voiceover seem to be very kind and helpful to their fellow voice actors. Yeah, yeah. That's one thing that I have said, you know, from my first time attending VO Atlanta earlier this year, you know, I just got into VO official, you know, in February of this year and I've met so many people like yourself and, you know, Paul Schmidt and...

31:44
you know, all these other people that are just amazing people that are willing to help, you know, lend a hand to help somebody else, you know, become what they want to be in voice over, in whatever avenue it may be. So I think that's amazing. So when you got into voice over and are really diving into it, you're...

32:13
You're becoming your own boss. There's a lot of mindset shift in that when you become your own boss. Managing your own schedule and reaching out to people and think what was that like for you after having, working all these different jobs where basically you're at the behest of someone else to set your schedule and be there on those times and now to have to set it for yourself and to change that mentality.

32:44
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I definitely, you know, was used to having my day jobs. I always ended up with day jobs that were pretty flexible. And I'd be like, oh, I'm running late. I'll probably be there an hour later today. And like that didn't matter as much. Um, I worked for this couple out of their home for like seven years. So it's just like, I showed up when I showed up and they were just like, okay, hey, whatever. Um, but.

33:13
Yeah, I think when I was younger, I remember feeling very, I never wanted to work at a corporate job because I never wanted that nine to five, like I was so tired of school and like you have to be here at this time and you're gonna be sleep deprived all the time because I'm, I don't know, maybe it's because I was born at like 8 p.m. but I've always been kind of a night owl. My dad worked second shift.

33:43
most of my family work second shift or overnights. And so I'm like, I don't know what chronotype they call it, but I'm like the one that's like, I like to go to bed around 2 a.m. That's perfect for me. Any later and I'm kind of a pumpkin the next day and any earlier is hard to get me to go to sleep. So, but it was really hard to, when I was younger, I thought it would be great to be my own boss. I thought it was like,

34:11
Like, oh, I have freedom and whatever. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, I have to make myself do things. That's hard. That's really hard when you don't have somebody holding you accountable. And so that's what led into the last eight and a half years of me doing accountability groups, because at some point I realized no one else was gonna hold me accountable to achieving the things I wanted to do except me.

34:42
Life will always throw you a million things that will keep you from doing those things. Including your day job, you know. Yeah. Yeah, and I love that that's kind of where I, I think where I became acquainted with you was through like accountability groups and seeing your content on like LinkedIn and things like that and just the very you know very

35:11
very mindful way that you're approaching accountability and how that can accelerate your career as a voice actor, or any creative that's setting your own schedule, as well as with goal setting and things like that. Where did that switch turn on for you to kind of reach out in that way? Where did the switch turn on? When you realize the value of accountability groups and...

35:41
keeping yourself accountable, but also others keeping you accountable. And then, you know, being able to keep yourself accountable to the goals that you set. Yeah. Well, so I was in an acting class for 10 years at the Guthrie Theater, and my teacher, Ray Burke, he is an amazing man. He was taught by Milton Katsalis, who is a famous Hollywood teacher.

36:10
80s, 70s and 80s, I think. And Milton's method, but like his platform was acting, attitude, and accountability. Or sorry, administration, I think he called it. So like, you have your acting skills, which is the artistic part, the attitude, which is the mental portion of it, and then the administration part of it, which is the day to day.

36:41
stuff that no actor really wants to do. Like no actor wants to send out emails and they don't want to like put together their headshots and resumes and cut the little extra off and all that stuff. And work on their resume. Like nobody wants to do that. And so but it's like we have to get the work somehow. So my acting teacher at one point, a couple of times during the course of me being in his class over the years, he

37:10
gently prodded us like, hey, we used to have an administration group. Like, you know, if some of you are like talking about, oh, I don't know, I'm never gonna be in a show again. Oh my God. I'm just, you know, it's gonna dry spells gonna last forever. He's like, maybe someone should start an admin group. Anyone? Mm-hm. Anyone? And nobody did. And then one day, one, somebody did. And I went to that group one time. And I never went back. Mm.

37:39
was all it was, was people sitting there and bitching about shit in the industry that they couldn't change. It was a lot of whining. There was no like, Hey, I'm setting this goal and here's what I'm going to do to get towards it. It was literally just a complaint group. And I was like, that's not what this should be, but what should it be? And so I left that group, didn't go back a couple of years later. My teacher was like,

38:07
Hey, I know I've mentioned this a bunch of times, but if anyone wants to start an admin group, I think that would be a really great idea for some of y'all. He didn't say y'all. That's the one thing I picked up here. Um, and finally that day, like something drove me and I just literally my hand shot up and I was like, I'll do it. I will do it. I'll start this. And the first meeting we had like 14 people. It was like in-person coffee shop before acting class.

38:37
so many people. And then I had no idea what I was doing. And I tried what I thought might work, and then that didn't work. And then there were times when I would show up and nobody would be there. And then I would get really down about it. And I talked to my friend, Katie Aducci. I have three friends named Katie now. Pretty close friends named Katie. But Katie Aducci was in acting class with me and she was my accountability buddy sometimes.

39:06
She was just like, you know, nobody's forcing you to do this, Billy. Like you don't have to keep going with this if it's hurting you. And I was like, no, but I need it. Like I need it and I know other people need it. And I just don't understand why people don't understand that they need it because I know that they do. And I think they know that they do, but like how to get people, you know, to, how

39:36
actually go, you know what, I know it is a little bit like going to the gym, but it is fun once I'm there and it is important. So that took a couple of years of tweaking things. But you knew what you didn't want it to be. From that first one that you went to, you're like, this is not going to be a bitch and moan session. It's amazing sometimes how...

40:02
when you see what it's not gonna be drives you to create what it needs to be because it's something that you need. Yes, sometimes we need bitching loan sessions to people, but that's for like you and your friend to go have one, not a group of 20 people to go through that because that then becomes a lot. But for you to kind of define what you needed for you out of it, I think that's amazing. Yeah, and even when I started the first group and then we had like the giant table of all the people,

40:32
One of my classmates had come and, you know, I remember her being like, Oh, well, I didn't get to my tasks for this week because my child was sick. And then this happened. And then that happened. I'm like, like you, there's this fine line between like empathy and allowing people to, it's going to sound harsh, but like the, you don't need the excuses. The excuses are a waste of time.

41:00
And they don't really tell you why you didn't get something done. It's a justification for not getting something done. But really, it's OK. So you waited until too late to do the thing you said you were going to do. And then this thing happened. So what does that tell you? So it's like all that you don't need the excuse, you just need to look at it. In a sort of. Diagnostic way.

41:29
and say, okay, so what actually happened here? Okay, so either the task was too big to do in the week, or it wasn't specific enough, or you procrastinated and waited too long and then something else came up, which life will always do that. And so it's just a diagnostic tool. So it's just like, did you get your thing done or didn't you? And how can we tweak that?

41:56
so that you feel more empowered because what ends up happening is that if you're constantly making excuses for why you didn't do something, you're just gonna feel unempowered.

42:09
And so those groups are going well for you now. I mean, you've kind of got all that going for you. And you also have a podcast, correct? I do have a podcast. It is on hiatus temporarily. OK. My co-host has some medical stuff. And so we're planning to bring it back probably in the spring after he's through this patch. So.

42:39
Yeah. And what's the subject of the podcast? Yeah, so the podcast is called Scratch Claw Push, which is based on a Dwayne The Rock Johnson quote, where he talks about growing up and how, when he was a kid, they say, if the door is closed, look for the open window, and he's like, we didn't even have windows, we had cracks in the wall, and you had to scratch and claw and bite and push through them to get anywhere. And, you know,

43:09
Brandon Duke is my co-host. He and I met when I got here through Heidi at Atlanta VoiceOver Studio because he was casting a podcast of his own that was an audio drama. So I met him and Clayton Romero who were doing that one. Then it all went from there because he and Clayton had another podcast. When Clayton left, he asked me to join him. I said, what if we start this other thing? I have this idea. So my idea was basically,

43:38
Let's talk to artists of all different types who are out there not waiting for the phone to ring. Yeah. Because what has happened through my accountability stuff is that I realized all the people that I admired in like college and after college that were making things happen.

44:03
As soon as you start creating something of your own, people flock to you. You become a beacon for other people. Because people go, well, how do you do that?

44:16
And they either want to be part of what you're doing or they want to know how you did it. And I felt that way about people in college. I was like, oh my God, he writes all the time. He has these plays and he's doing this. Oh, and they're producing this. And I admired those people so much, but I didn't know how to do that. I didn't know how to actually take something from tiny idea inside me to finished. And so when you do that, when you learn how to do that, other people are attracted.

44:45
it to you, but other people flock to you. And it inspires other people. And so I wanted to talk to other artists who were out there making their own work, not waiting for someone else to choose them. And that was kind of the basis of the whole thing was creating opportunities for yourself and then thus for other people eventually.

45:12
Um, so aside from, you know, the stuff that you've got going on with the voice acting and everything like that, what's bringing you joy on a daily basis?

45:24
On a daily basis. Um, so, uh, my view from my apartment, I live on the East side Beltline in Atlanta and my old apartment had a view of a kind of rundown apartment complex. And we had nice trees back there and some high tension power lines. And, uh, so it was okay cause the trees helped, but you know, it wasn't.

45:53
the best. And then my apartment had a fire last year at the old place. And we went from living somewhere to being displaced overnight. And that's a longer story. But, you know, it's weird when you're like, you're thinking like, I'm gonna wake up here the next however many months and then I'm gonna choose to move. And when that doesn't happen, it's very disorienting.

46:23
And so we were looking for a place to live right before the holidays last year, my roommate and I and we're like, Oh my God, we got to find a new apartment quickly because he was going to his family's for Christmas. And I was going to my boyfriend's family's for Christmas. And, and it's very stressful, but when we saw this place, I was like, yeah, I'm sold. I'm in. Because the view alone.

46:49
is just, you wouldn't think, but it's like, I try really hard not to take that for granted because I know I won't always have this view. So like very often at sunset, I'm just like out there like taking pictures. I'm like, my whole camera is gonna be 90% my cat and then maybe 10% photos of the sunset.

47:16
This is the second segment of the show where we dive a little bit deeper into your mental health journey. I believe that people who deal with anxiety and depression kind of all go through the same thing, but we feel so alone in it because your mind wants to tell you that nobody else is going through the same thing. It's just you. But the more we talk about it, the more I believe it kind of releases some of that tension and maybe makes it easier for us to handle and get through the stuff. So for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay?

47:46
Um, for me, I mean, it's changed as I've gotten older. Like when I was younger, one of the worst years of my life was a year my grandpa was dying. And I don't think I've ever been more depressed than that year. Um, like, and.

48:07
that I spent a lot of time like with other people and writing a lot. I wrote a lot just, you know, not trying to create something just writing out, you know, and letting letting artistic expression happen wasn't just journaling but like I did some journaling and I did a lot of writing trying to express what I was feeling about the whole situation.

48:34
And then a lot of like watching happy movies over and over and over because I couldn't like function if I just let myself wallow. But now I think like since finding the whole accountability thing too, there's this element of. Like during the pandemic, for instance, I read Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel.

49:04
And I read another one called The Choice, I think, which was by another Holocaust survivor. And, you know, I feel like if you, my mom is a history teacher, so like, if you think back and you just go, you know, are things really the worst they've ever been? Hmm, I think people have been through worse. And I people, you know, there are still people around the world who are going through way worse. So to put it in perspective and just say, you know what?

49:34
I have a roof over my head, I have food, I have toilet paper, you know, like during the pandemic, just, and then going to the accountability stuff to use goals as a way to have a point of focus and give your life meaning. It's not just about being productive, it's about having meaning, having a purpose, right?

50:04
You know, they always say that like people who retire, if they don't have something to do after they retire, then they often die pretty quickly because they don't have anything, you know, it's like, well, what is it all for then? Right. So yeah, so I think about, you know, if I'm, some people get depressed by that idea of like, it is an infinite game, as they say, like the infinite versus finite games. It is.

50:32
It is an infinite game. Of course, until you die, you're just going to be working towards something else. But if it's something that gives you joy...

50:42
then why not? What is the alternative? The alternative is I go and watch TV or I play a video game, right? And I don't have a purpose. So for me, I think keeping the darkness at bay involves knowing like these are the things that I really, like for me, not for anyone else, but these are the things that for me would have meaning to achieve

51:13
would bring me joy, would keep me growing as a person. Like over the last couple of years, I mean, I was like, I learned Italian on Duolingo, I did some German. I was, I bought a ukulele during the pandemic and was like, I'm gonna play it. And I did for a while and then now I've not as much, but I still want to. And I'm trying to think of like, what else I wrote. You know, I started my blog.

51:43
I started a lot of things in the last couple of years. And actually, right as the pandemic started, I had already been doing accountability groups for like four years. And some people that I'd worked with were like, you should really like do this as a business. Like you should make this into a thing because you're really good. And I was like, okay. And so I was going to run a paid group at the beginning of 2020. But then everything shut down. And I was like,

52:14
I can't right now. Like it's not the right time for that. So I started two free groups and I ran those for most of 2020 just as a place for like people who wanted a place of purpose to come and have the community and a purpose that they were working towards to give them just that point of focus. Yeah. And I think that's one important thing too that when you are thinking of stuff.

52:43
for yourself when you're trying to keep the darkness at bay? Is there a way that I can reach out to others to be a resource or something like that? I think that helps tremendously. Because then you're not focusing on your problems specifically constantly. You're putting yourself out there. And again, more people help to...

53:12
to brighten the situation, lift the burden a little. Even if you're all commiserating, it still, it makes it a little bit easier to kind of go through that stuff together as a group. You mentioned a difficult time with the fire at the apartment and stuff like that. Was there any revelations during that time that...

53:40
kind of changed your way of thinking about how you get through stuff. And, you know, when a fire, you know, destroys or you get put out, you, you kind of have to rely on other people for a lot of things. You know, there are people even now dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in our area are still without power, still without water. Folks in North Carolina still without these resources that they need. But, you know, even something as, you know, not to say small, but something as is confined as a

54:09
apartment fire can feel very similar to you. Yeah. It's just a more contained, you know, because it was just as devastating to the people who were there, except that I guess, you know, we were able to relocate. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what kind of resources the other people in the building had, because, you know, I'm sure there are people in the building who didn't have a place to go.

54:39
didn't know anybody nearby or whatever. And so I think what it should make everybody think about is that you, going back to the whole ego thing, not that it's egotistical, but the reliance on self as opposed to community, that seems to be the theme of this right now.

55:09
that if you are only reliant on yourself, that is limited. Because you may find yourself in a situation like that. And if I had been here and had only had me or only had me and my boyfriend, even that would have been very difficult. My boyfriend ran the GoFundMe. I did not have the bandwidth to have anything to do with that.

55:39
at all. I didn't know what I needed. I was kind of paralyzed for a while. I was just like, what do I do? I don't have socks. I don't have underwear. I don't have shoes, except the flip flops I was wearing. It's November, even though it's Atlanta, it's still cold. So my community came together.

56:06
It's very humbling when that happens to you because you realize like even the things that are set up to help us like insurance are not always there right away or at all. I mean some people in my building had trouble getting insurance claims covered at all because they couldn't get in to the building to prove what was there or what was not there.

56:35
for like six weeks or more. So yeah, I mean, during that time, it was, it's kind of a blur, but all I know is like, it was like two months of me eating whatever the hell I wanted to eat. I'm gonna take this comfort food and run with it because like, it's all I have, you know? And so it was just...

57:04
And it was a lot of like, new routines, which is weird. Like when you're completely out of your normal routine, staying in somebody else's house, you know. Um, so yeah, it's hard and it's humbling and it's the only way to get through it is to have a community and if you are somebody who is pretty insular, that's, that's rough.

57:33
Like, I'm an extrovert. I don't know how someone who is introverted would do it. It's like you have to have a support system.

57:45
Billie, this is the third segment of the show. It's time now for the Fast Five. The Fast Five. It's time now for the Fast Five. Fast Five. Sorry, I'm still working on a theme song. I had some musician friends that are hopefully gonna lay some tracks down for me at some point. Fast Five is powered by Poddex. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown. If you go to chewingthefatbr.com, you can download the app at your favorite app store. It's got the link on there.

58:13
But it's five random questions, no wrong answers. You ready to go? Yep. Here we go, question number one.

58:22
sweet or salty.

58:26
Mmm salty salty now we're talking about like your snack preference not necessarily your attitude or anything like that So is it still the same? Yes, yeah generally salty. Yeah, I'm the same way. I just don't like don't like a lot of sweet stuff All right question number two

58:47
Ooh. Would you rather get lost in the woods at night having to find your way out or sleep in a cemetery with your best friend? Sleep in a cemetery with my best friend. Yeah? Yeah. I feel like that's the easier with those two. Fewer pumas and bears in the cemetery probably. Right. Question number three.

59:15
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

59:20
Anywhere in the world. Oh That's hard. That's a really hard one. I mean If I had the if I had money so I could like travel also I'm like and this is also limited because I haven't traveled a ton, but I'm like Iceland or Italy are those are two of the only places I've been and they're both amazing So either one of those maybe Canada, maybe Banff

59:50
Mm. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Question number four.

59:57
What's the best compliment you ever received?

01:00:02
Oh.

01:00:06
Oh, that's hard too. One of my favorite compliments I ever received was I was doing a spot for a healthcare company and it was early on in my voiceover career and they were trying to get me to do that sort of very intimate, very like flat read and they kept more lower, nothing, nothing, nothing. Okay, too much nothing back up. And at one point, you know, and they dreaded thing of like they go away and they're talking and you're like, I don't know what they're saying.

01:00:36
They could be saying anything. He came back and he's like, Billie Jo, your voice is magical. And I'm like, that's a good compliment. I'll take it. That's pretty amazing compliment right there. I love that. All right. And question number five.

01:00:55
What's the last book that you read?

01:01:01
I mean, I'm currently reading like four, so. Oh, okay. Well, which was the last one out of the four? I'm currently reading the most recent, I don't remember what the title is, but it's the most recent in the series, in the Flavia Deleuze mystery series. So it's about a girl who's very into poisons in 1950s England.

01:01:29
If people like cozy mysteries, it's kind of a cozy mystery, you know, small British town type of thing. Okay. They're very well written. Very cool. All right. Well, that's our Fast Five and that is the show. Thank you so much for being here, Billy. Thank you. It was a pleasure talking to you. This was great. If folks want to keep up with you and your career and everything that you've got going on and the podcast too, back out, what's the best way they can do that? Ooh. So I am on...

01:01:59
uh, LinkedIn very, very frequently, um, Instagram at Billie Jo VO and, um, the podcast is scratchclawpush.com and my personal website is Billie Jo VO or BillieJoKonze.com. Billie Jo VO is probably easier to spell and, uh, we'll get you there too. So, and then Audacious Accountability is my...

01:02:23
coaching and accountability group stuff, but that website is not up just yet. So, yeah. Well, I will put the links that are up in the show notes that way folks can keep up with you and find you again. Thank you so much for, for who you are and what you're doing for the, for the DO community and just for the, just for the world at large is as well as the insight that you have as far as accountability and those types of things. I really do appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. It was a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

01:02:54
And if you would like to support this podcast, I'd appreciate it if you bought me a coffee at chewingthefatBR.com. But until next time, look forward to the chance we have to sit a spell and chew the fat.