ï»żEP14 - Dina Sherman
Virginie Lavallée: There is a healthier and happier way to produce animation. Let's talk about it. I'm Virjin Lavali, an animation producer on a mission to elevate well-being in animation production. I'm so grateful to welcome you to the Happy Producers Podcast, an uncensored space to discuss how we can make animation production fun again. On this episode of the Happy Producers Podcast with myself, your host Vili, your project management bestie, I have the amazing pleasure of being in the company of Dena Sherman, who's joining me directly from Los Angeles. Fancy Los Angeles. And if you don't know Dena yet, well, she is the official voice of the Annie Awards. She's an esteemed voice actress with decades of experience in animation, anime, commercials, video game, and more. And she's also a content creator both on YouTube and on Tik Tok. And I invited her today because she recently launched an extremely cool series on YouTube called Bad Eggs and it is absolutely hilarious. It is it dares to go where few people dare to go and I feel like we need more of that in the animation industry but also in YouTube. So, I am so glad that you're joining me today. Dina, welcome.
Dina Sherman: Hello. Thank you so much for having me on your show. You look fabulous, by the way.
Virginie Lavallée: Oh, thank you. So do you.
Dina Sherman: Great.
Virginie Lavallée: The last time we saw each other was in Anie, so you know, we have we have to show up. And we actually met at an industry event a few years ago in LA at the Animation Magazine Summit. Um and it was kind of love at first sight, right? Anyways, for me it was love at first sight.
Dina Sherman: Yeah. We were so sad. We lived on like two different ends of the continent. Yeah. UNLP, you guys have really been game changers for a lot of people in the business.
Virginie Lavallée: Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm really glad that we get to have this space like the podcast where we could talk about project management and the different business models that are emerging and you are such an inspiration to me with bad eggs. So I wonder if you could tell us a little bit like for our viewers or our auditors that haven't seen what bad eggs is or haven't watched bad eggs on YouTube, how would you introduce it to us?.
Dina Sherman: Aha. Well, it's bad eggs with a Z. Bad eggs. Naked and afraid. And it's naked, meaning like naked eggs. You put it together, it's naked.
Virginie Lavallée: Naked.
Dina Sherman: Naked. So, think South Park. Like, what would happen if you took South Park and you mashed it up with naked and afraid? Like two completely different genres. And when you mashed them together, you decided to make them eggs. with that are naked with blurs, but they move like South Park characters. That's naked and afraid. And trust me, there's a whole lot of blur going on with these guys.
Virginie Lavallée: Oh, yeah. It is salty. They're they are salty eggs. I will say.
Dina Sherman: I have to use that. That's good. Yeah, they they uh they they push the boundaries quite a bit visually and in the writing as well. Um it's it's just good fun there. It's a very funny, irreverent gas joke, puns. So, you get your dad jokes and your little boy jokes because girls, we don't talk about gas and bad jokes. Oh, yes, we do.
Virginie Lavallée: You would never make any play on words with eggs and you know,.
Dina Sherman: Oh gosh, it's excellent. They have visit shells and they're extremely funny. No, we never have any exceptional egg puns.
Virginie Lavallée: And I'm going to put all the information in the show notes about about um bad eggsed and naked and afraid with my French accent. It's hard to say, but like how uh I I like want to give a visual to the people that are not seeing it. So, you were saying they're eggs, they're naked, and there are blurry parts that are very voluminous and super generous. So basically there are eggs but they have a human like sexual anatomy,.
Dina Sherman: right?.
Virginie Lavallée: Which makes it like an extremely daring um like funny, right? But also like when you're watching watching it, you're like, "Oh no." Like you almost feel bad to find it funny, but it speaks to experiences that we've all had. Although we might not have been naked and afraid, in an egg shaped situation, right? So, tell me how you know you've been a voice actress for a long time. You voiced a lot of animes. You have amazing credits. You uh during the co were doing story time on YouTube. So, you were already like dabbling and using YouTube to meet your audience. But how did you find the confidence to decide to do something that is adult content that is irreverent that you know not not not everybody's going to like might be a little bit like polarizing and that really plays on humor. How did you find the confidence to be like, "Yes, that's the idea I'm going to be developing.".
Dina Sherman: Oh my gosh, there's so many questions in there. I want to go back for two seconds and push your envelope just a little bit more. Um, for anybody who's got kids in the room, maybe step out. No. Um, what's really interesting about animation is that you actually have to draw everything. So my animator and character designer had to draw eggs with actual human genitalia. So Florentine Yeah, because they're eggs. So Florentine is our main contestant. Ben Florentine and Benedict are the two contestants, the male and female. And the difference between this show and Naked and Afraid and the other Survivor shows is that you get to see the cast. So of course there are a dozen naked eggs and uh they had to draw all like the boobs and Benedict has this ginormous unexplainably large voluminous Humpty Dumpty and bangers. I mean we we definitely pushed the limit. I'm like nope longer longer longer longer. So it's quite big which is a whole lot of blur. And what people don't realize is that all had to be drawn before the blurs were added. Those are added in after effects. So, we actually, and it's hard to imagine, have eggs with human body parts on them.
Virginie Lavallée: I wanted to see that uncensored version.
Dina Sherman: Somebody told me to put it up on uh on um fans only, but my daughter's like, "Don't you dare.".
Virginie Lavallée: You know, you'd have to curate that. And I don't I don't know. I want to curate that channel. Although Only Fans just got purchased and I hear that there's going to be a huge rebrand where they're trying to move away from like the p*** uh aspect of it or like there will still be that aspect of it, but they want to rebrand it in a way where it's more generalized. So, it might get to a level where it's okay for for it to be a home for for bad eggs. But, of course, YouTube asks you to censor a lot of things. But, I think it makes it funnier cuz you're like, "Uh, you know, you went longer and longer and longer to a point where it just looks like it's in the way and you're like, 'Wow, we're not going to have enough blurriness in the world to like cover everything we need to cover.'" It's just like It makes it feel like uh you're seeing something you're not supposed to see, right? Which is part of what makes it hilarious.
Dina Sherman: Yes. You you It's It's so funny watching people's expression if I hand them the business card with the images on it and they look at it and they're like, "Oh, how cute." And I'm like, "Look again." And they're like, "Oh my god." and their their eyes get huge and then they start laughing and it's it's it's it's so much joy for me to watch people laugh that hard at like oh my god oh my oh oh my oh and they you know they use other words besides that what the are you what you know um I bring so much joy from making people laugh that's to me the inspiration for.
Virginie Lavallée: Yes.
Dina Sherman: why I did this is I want to laugh and I want make other people laugh because that makes me laugh again. Uh, does it make me selfish? Maybe. Maybe. I love hearing other people laugh. I don't know. But that was the impetus behind bad eggs. And when I get on my production calls with my team and we have to talk about, okay, uh, her, uh, nipples are not pointing out, they're pointing down. And she's 20. Uh, that doesn't work that way. You know, we need to blur that, but they need to be perky, you know, having these really like HR nightmare conversations and we're all laughing our heads off as we come up with other funnier ways to do this. I can imagine what South Park what you know what makes them laugh is what they're putting out there. And that gave me permission. Uh then you have Big Mouth. I think Big Mouth is way more way more.
Virginie Lavallée: I don't want to say pornographic because it's not p***. but racy, edgy, educational. Um, it is very educational with what they do on that show. That eggs isn't there and it's not sausage party there, but it it has its own lane of I can't believe I'm watching this. I can't believe they're saying this stuff,.
Dina Sherman: but it's all good fun. It's silly, runchy, funny. Um, made for 18 and older. An 18-year-old. could totally handle this. It's.
Virginie Lavallée: Yeah, absolutely. And I like runchy. That's the right word cuz it's not that it just it's not just exposing things to just be shocking. It's really to like be funny. And it's such like a lousy It's such a funny industry that we work in.
Dina Sherman: Yeah.
Virginie Lavallée: You know that that's what we do. So, you're having fun.
Dina Sherman: Yeah.
Virginie Lavallée: Creating the stories. When we watch the stories, we're having fun. But you're having fun producing them, too, which is something that's left behind often. I I feel the joy joy of creating it and these days we need more of that I think. And how did you decide that you were not going to wait for somebody to greenlight this idea and that you were greenlighting yourself and just producing it and putting it on YouTube? What was that journey like for you?.
Dina Sherman: I treat no like um a boulder in the road or a fence you got to climb. I don't treat no as a stop sign. It's like okay, how are we going to get around this. And at the animation world, any any live action, any animated project, you have to get someone else's permission and acceptance and they have to green light it and say, "Yeah, we'll give you money and you can go do this." And right now, money's tight and everyone doesn't want to take a risk on something that's not proven. And this is an original IP. I was like, "Well, we have a platform form that we can put stuff on. You know, my channel um Dina Sherman Stories and More where I read to children. I created that during the pandemic because as a voice actor, I used to go in and read at local schools and I've been doing it for a very long time. Uh I love the idea of bringing literature to life and the fun of of stories and telling stories and creating things. And when the world shut down in 2020, I wanted to find a way to still bring stories to the teachers that needed them, the the the students that needed them, the families. I mean, we all lived through this and we needed stuff. And so within a week, I created a YouTube channel and just read a book. I mean, talk about taking a risk and posted it.
Virginie Lavallée: Yeah.
Dina Sherman: I remember it was the ugly duckling and I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have any equipment yet and I was like, "Wow, that was hard." But it wasn't hard. There's a difference between hard and a challenge. I mean, there's something that is too hard and you can't do it. And there's something that's hard, but you want to do it and you're not going to let hard stop you. I guess I love that way I can explain that. I'm like, that took a lot of effort,.
Virginie Lavallée: but I can do it.
Dina Sherman: So, I did it again. And I have over 50 or some odd books and I got authors from the world to send me their stories. I have all those books up on the channel. And while I was doing that, I thought, I can't It took a lot of time and energy to do a story. Uh, but there's other things I could do in between the stories. We're locked in. So, I created hand puppets that told knockk knockock jokes. And then I I created.
Virginie Lavallée: True.
Dina Sherman: And then I I created um uh Jack the Frog. And if anybody remembers Mr. Bill from the old Saturday Night Live days, you know, Jack always had Miss Ham there and and she just uh beat the crap out of him. actually until I literally stuck a knife through my hand cutting an avocado and had to have hand surgery. I'm fine. But I actually got the doctor who did the hand surgery a picture and her permission. And uh Mr. Bill was like, "Ah, Miss Han, what happened to you?" Because I had my hand all wrapped up. It's like, "Well, Jack, you know, this is what you shouldn't do." And I told people about how to cut an avocado. So, it was educational. Then I decided I wanted to uh talk about all the United States federal holidays like why we have them in a schoolhouse rock kind of way and I didn't have the music I didn't have ability to create music like u um schoolhouse rock I didn't have a composer I didn't have singers I didn't have all that so how could I do it on my own I created a candy bar that could talk with one of the apps that I had and he told you all about the national holidays. And so Jack the Frog and I have a whole series on my channel of Jack the Frog explaining US holidays. Uh, and then I created um I saw a billboard and it had eggs on it and I thought, "Oh, I could create something with eggs. Eggs are fun. You can do a lot of things with eggs." So I made the unexpected spooky stories. And I had a bunch of eggs sitting around a fire pit with all DIY pompoms and googly eyes and little felt mouths. And I've made them all tell spooky stories.
Virginie Lavallée: I love it.
Dina Sherman: A whole lot of stories that they told. And that's when I got the challenge from a friend of mine who said, "You know, Dina, I think you've bought something there, but could you age it up?" I was like, "Yeah." And he goes, "No, really, not for your children, but for for adults." Uh, yeah. No, could you make it adult? Well, I am one. I think so. And I took that challenge, and that's what made decide I've got to age this thing up. And I loved the idea of the eggs. And then uh I remember meeting I totally fangled over this poor guy, the editor from Naked and Afraid.
Virginie Lavallée: Okay.
Dina Sherman: And he was the blur editor. And there's five of them on that show to do that job of blurring all their naked bits.
Virginie Lavallée: Wow.
Dina Sherman: Yeah. And he says, "It's awful. It's a hard job. Can you imagine having to look at that all day long?" And I lost it. I I thought that was the most hysterical thing I'd ever heard.
Virginie Lavallée: That's somebody's job.
Dina Sherman: That was That is somebody There's five people back there. Five people's jobs is to blur that junk. And I was like, "Oh, well, what if I made eggs naked?" Naked.
Virginie Lavallée: Naked.
Dina Sherman: Naked uh and and afraid. And I thought, "And then we got to give them a lot to blur." And I never thought for a second I couldn't make this at this point. I'm like, "I want to do this. Yes, it's going to be hard. Yes, it's a challenge, but yes, I want to have fun making something. And we have YouTube. So, I didn't need to ask the the producers and I know the people at Warner Brothers from being at the Annie Awards and doing that for over 20 years. I know the creators of all these things and the presidents of the studios. I'm also a member of the television academy. I vote for the Emmys and I vote for animation. And I know it's any worthy in what makes these rooms laugh or what they pick. I do not for one second think that they would pick. My show is Emmy worthy. But my character designs.
Virginie Lavallée: could.
Dina Sherman: I am going to enter my character designs for an Emmy because they are unique. They I mean how do you make 12 eggs look different?.
Virginie Lavallée: That's a good point. Yes.
Dina Sherman: Yeah. And they do. They have chins. They have body parts. We don't.
Virginie Lavallée: like.
Dina Sherman: Where's the elbow on an egg? You know, their shoulder,.
Virginie Lavallée: elbow, what arm? They don't have arm and they have like little feet.
Dina Sherman: They have teeny little legs. I make them I said I want them to walk like the characters in South Park used to walk that wobbly thing. So, they have a very funny walk.
Virginie Lavallée: except with a big like schlong hanging out in front of you. So,.
Dina Sherman: comedy comedy is all about being difficult. If everything were easy, it wouldn't be funny. So,.
Virginie Lavallée: that's true.
Dina Sherman: He probably doesn't walk around in unless he's in the shower with a long schlong. So that was a a running. It was a joke of the rest. It's like how does he work with this? Do we sling it over his arm? Stip it in the in the burlap sack.
Virginie Lavallée: Scarf.
Dina Sherman: Do your ears hang low? Do they wobble to and fro? Yeah. Do you tie in a knot? Do you tie him in a bow? Yeah. No, we had to figure out how does he do this? So we of course he has to trip over it. It gets in the way. That's That's comedy. It's how do you how do you get around something? So, I don't know. Did I I think I answered your question in a longabout way of like I don't I I wanted to make it. I did have to find money uh because I do hire I did hire my team. I've got an amazing team. Michael Derry's my my uh character designer. Michael Pearls my editor. Johnny Burgess is my animator. And the team those these are like my dream team. These guys are amazing. they're bringing this this thing to life and I have someone help me write it and it it's very very small team.
Virginie Lavallée: So you have three people besides yourself.
Dina Sherman: and then Yeah. And then I have a composer that's done some of the music for it. I have a social media person helping me and I have a co-writer who's written helped me write the second episode which we are in production for. You can see the first one now up on YouTube.
Virginie Lavallée: Yes. And it's hilarious. You're going to be like did I just did I did I just Was that what I think it was?. It's hilarious. And I love that. Um, you know, I think that more YouTube is becoming an empowered space for the animation industry. And maybe I'm saying I'm becoming and I feel like I'm late already to the party because there's some people that have been using it for like a decade. But it feels like currently with the state of the industry, more and more people are getting interested in where am I going to meet my audience directly. Uh, you know, I come from a more linear TV like traditional TV um like upbringing. When I was a child, you would watch whatever was on TV and you had two channels and you would watch that, right? And now the audience. is not really in front of the TV anymore, but there is many places where the audience is. And I find that uh Southeast Asia, you know, even in Africa, West Africa, South Africa, they're using YouTube um more and more to meet their audience. And I love that you're here to talk about that with us because you're in LA so you're like super connected to the industry as you were saying and I think that some people go to YouTube thinking like we're never going to get green lit by an LA studio or like I don't know anybody in LA and like that seems so far you know that the heart of the industry is in LA and if you don't speak like your first language is not English and everything it can seem like really like a huge challenge to really make it but you you know these people like you're connected you are in LA in the heart of the industry and yet You're choosing to do something that's, you know, outside of the box.
Dina Sherman: Yes.
Virginie Lavallée: To the beat of your own drum. So, I find that that's extra inspiring. So, it's not like, well, I have no choice because in my part of the world, I feel left out. It's like, no, I I could have pitched it to all these people. I decided to greenlight myself. I decided not to wait for validation, which is something that we need to do. And like, what an opportunity that we get to greenlight ourselves. Like, that wasn't always the case um at all, you know? So, I'm I'm really glad that you're you're sharing this with us because it's a new business model.
Dina Sherman: It is.
Virginie Lavallée: um that's going to be important for the our peers to at least get curious about, you know, whether it's YouTube um you know, a lot of people are using Roblox these days. I know you're on TikTok as well, which like I've never even been on Tik Tok, so that that can seem like uh extra challenging to learn all these things. So, how did you lean into the And I want to like preface this by saying that as you were touching, there's kind of like two parts to your brand, right? So, there's Dina Sherman. She's the voice of the Annies. You know, everybody knows her as this beautiful, you know, blonde hair, super sweet, funny person. She reads to the children to help the teachers, right? But then in your brand, there's also like naked and afraid, you know? So, and I find that that's really daring because uh sometimes, especially as we're getting interested in social medias and meeting our audience where they are, a lot of the people that we work with at the happy producers are are scared of their own person. brand of like how's that going to make me look or how that's going to translate on my LinkedIn and and whatever. So, how did you how are you daring to go in all those directions without being scared?.
Dina Sherman: I think I think I know what you're saying. Um I am on Instagram as well. I'm using as many social media platforms as I can because that is important. Um so as a voice actor We have to learn to differentiate ourselves from our product.
Virginie Lavallée: Mhm.
Dina Sherman: So when you have if you have a store and say you sell cupcakes, cupcake is your product, right? Uh you you've branded the store. You're you're you could be Suz's cupcakes. I'm Suzie. These are my cupcakes. You're not branding Suzie. You're branding Suz's cupcakes. And it's its own thing. Yes,.
Virginie Lavallée: I've had to retrain myself to realize that Dina Sherman, who I am as a wife and a mother, u daughter, brother, sister, you know, I have family, I've got all and I've got friends, is who I am as a human being. A voice actor is my job and my voice is my product.
Virginie Lavallée: Yeah.
Dina Sherman: So, I pitch my product and I tell people, you know, hey, do you need to hire a a voice actor to do, you know, little kids? kids and their mother and their grandmother. I can do that for you. So, you can, you know, get your project, your story told. That's my product.
Virginie Lavallée: Yeah.
Dina Sherman: I'm not a grandmother yet, but I can pitch my product as one. Um, so it was not a big transition for me to go, okay, I have a product that's Dina Sherman stories and more made for children, totally safe, made for kids only. I also have a product called add eggs naked and afraid and adult content that is definitely not and I do not post that on my kids channel. I make sure do not cross-pollinate those.
Virginie Lavallée: There's no cross referencing. Yeah.
Dina Sherman: Yeah. And my kids, you know, I think my kids are proud of me, but at the same time, they're wholly embarrassed of the fact that I take these risks. I hope I'm but I I think I'm also giving them the opportunity and the role model to see that you can step beyond no. You can greenlight yourself and give yourself permission to try for something.
Virginie Lavallée: Yeah.
Dina Sherman: All the stuff that I put on my my stories and more channel. didn't all work. The puppets didn't catch on. The hand puppets, even though they're funny knockknock jokes,.
Virginie Lavallée: yeah,.
Dina Sherman: it wasn't working. So, I moved on to the next thing. Um, you know, bad eggs I'm still in the process of. I'm hoping it's the right thing. and we find the right audience for that. Uh but they're different that's that's why I'm able to to do do stuff to do stuff outside that to do stuff outside of myself. However, both these things still sit within my value structure in my integrity.
Virginie Lavallée: Yes,.
Dina Sherman: I am not doing anything that crosses a line for me. I am very comfortable with both of these. As Florentine would say, I'm very comfortable in my own shell. Would I go naked and afraid? Oh, heck no. I would not be comfortable on any part of that. But would Florentine? Yeah. I mean, reinventing myself. That's Florentine. You know, it's what she decided to do for the show. That's the product. Uh, and YouTube, as a kid, if I had had the opportunity to have a streaming channel, and apps and phone that recorded and recording devices at my fingertips.
Dina Sherman: Oh my gosh. All I had was a telephone that was hooked to the wall and I used to write crank phone calls and call people and make them laugh. That's all I had. Now there's just so much. So I know even though yes, I do know everybody. I don't know everybody in Hollywood. I know enough movers and shakers in Hollywood and these people people and they know who I am because of the Annies and they don't know who I am as the voice actor or as the producer necessarily but I do have contact to reach out to people. It doesn't mean that they would pick my project and I didn't want to wait.
Virginie Lavallée: to say yes. I don't think it's a right moment to wait neither because it might be that no projects are getting green lit like it might not be it might not mean anything about our projects as well like it's just a slower the risk assessment is bigger than ever. So these things happen too. So what are we going to do? Like we've been in the industry a minute. We know there's ups and downs, right?.
Dina Sherman: Yeah.
Virginie Lavallée: And that when we're down like how we're going to get inspired, how we're going to build the next the next wave, you know, like I think for a younger audience, they feel like this is the end of the industry. And it's like if you've been in there a minute, you know, like.
Dina Sherman: we've seen other really challenging times. And I think like it's just extremely inspiring how you're seeing this challenge but also just like reacting to it. I'm sure your children are very proud of you for daring like and I don't think that many people would dare and as you say and I think that's the key is being aligned with your values and like what's our purpose with our work. So as long as that's there I guess the medium doesn't matter as much but. making if you want to Make stuff. Make stuff. Don't Don't sit and think about it and ponder and oh, I'd love to do this someday. Do it. What's What is there What is stopping you? There's there's literally nothing. And if there is something stopping you, evaluate is is this something I can get around? You know, for me, doing u you know, it's bite-size, you know, bite-siz candy bar that tells all the federal I I couldn't get around the fact I couldn't make music.
Virginie Lavallée: There was just no way during COVID for me to put together a team and on and on and on. So, I found it. I took a a turn and went around it and found a different way and a different approach. Don't let no stop you. And if people say, you know, you're going to get in trouble for bad eggs, I had a I let the social media team go. I for a video before the show started, eggs, as the world remembers, there was a whole Well, the US especially, there's a short shortage of eggs.
Virginie Lavallée: Okay.
Dina Sherman: And right, we had this problem and I thought, I've got to do something that's a little bit on the edge. And I took one egg and I practiced. I only used one egg and I made it scream and I dropped it. Just crash, you know, bad eggs coming soon. And the social media person said, "You know, you're going to get some kickback on this because eggs are expensive and people are not going to like that you wasted an egg and this might not be good. We maybe shouldn't post.
Virginie Lavallée: And I'm like, "Are you kidding me?".
Dina Sherman: Yeah. Let them be angry. Let them vent. Let them say, "How could you waste an egg?" Nobody said it, by the way.
Virginie Lavallée: It wasn't that popular. No, of course. Why would that Why would I go, "Oh, you're right. I shouldn't, you know, I wasted.". And that's the thing with social media that's important. Like two things maybe about social medias uh to mention. The first one is like it's not all about the vanity metrics. You don't necessarily need to have 85 million followers. You don't need to be Coco Melon, you know, to Coco Melon level to make money with your YouTube or to like finance your idea or, you know, what's important is really to like get the right people to come in front of our content. So, I think sometimes when we launch a Tik Tok or YouTube or anything, you're like, "Oh, I'm going to start with zero followers, right?" Like,.
Dina Sherman: yes, but if you can get like a thousand hardcore fans of what you're doing, that's going to compound. Like, not everything needs to go viral anymore. Like, that's not the the only way to go. So I think we're very attached to like vanity metrics with everything social media that if you don't have a 100 million followers like is it going to work and I would say like yes as you're saying like do with you know meet your audience see what the audience has to say you know like just get in get in contact is the first one going to be the biggest hit of your career maybe not but it's worth connecting with the audience um with the audience uh in that way. And the second thing I have to say is that yes if we post things on social media there can be some opinions that are shared and especially on YouTube uh people have big opinions about things you know but I with the happy producers we have yet to and like I don't want to say that and somebody takes that as a challenge it's not a personal challenge to you but we have yet to have like a really mean comment right so it's been like three years and a half that we started we've never really gotten anybody like getting really mad at at our mission or anything like that and that's because we attract we attract the right audience for our product and we are aligned to our values as you were saying. So the super like the person that's like anything sexual is inappropriate and doesn't want to see it on YouTube. Well, they're not going to end up on your channel like they're not part of your fandom, right?.
Dina Sherman: So I think like if it's aligned with you, don't don't be scared of Yeah. like the vanity metrics. Are people going to be mad to me? And also like would you say that there was a little bit of a and maybe when you first started the YouTube like with the stories like is there a little bit of like an ego that when you have to get yourself out there, put yourself out there and be like, "Yes, I'm going to be on YouTube." Like, that can be it's scarier than we think, you know?.
Dina Sherman: Yeah. Well, it's get out of your comfort zone. You know, I'm comfort in my house. I'm comfortable, you know, in this space with these friends. Um, it's it's yeah, you have to step outside your comfort zone, but if it's in a in a a direction you want to go, then go in that direction and don't worry about what people have to say. And here's here's something else to think about. Um, all the social media platforms, whether it's Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X, Blue Sky, and then there's others, they all are now more interested in engagement than they are in subscribers.
Virginie Lavallée: Yeah.
Dina Sherman: So, if people leave a comment, it doesn't read your comment. It doesn't evaluate or judge the comment. It just just sees a comment. It could be a thumbs up emoji. It could be, and I got some of these, an image, a photo with this sabu. I don't even know how to pronounce it, which when I looked it up is like the highest form of disrespect you could give somebody.
Virginie Lavallée: Okay.
Dina Sherman: And I was like, "Wow, oh my gosh, we can write." And I use it every I got we got pulled off Tik Tok. We got pulled off of LinkedIn.
Virginie Lavallée: Oh yeah, LinkedIn. I could see them being a bit more Yeah. Yeah, one of the posts because apparently it doesn't like the ginormous blur. It's colored. It's all pixelated, but it didn't like. Now, there's no problem with female blurs, but Benedict's blur is apparently problem. Yeah. Yeah. If you guys haven't seen this, you got to see it and comment, but LinkedIn said, "This doesn't fit with our community." So, I then reposted, not putting the image up, and said, "Oh my gosh, we just got pulled off LinkedIn. You decide." And a little link that Is it?.
Virginie Lavallée: Yeah.
Dina Sherman: Use anything. It's engagement. Now, don't go I don't believe in inciting people. I don't believe in hurting other people.
Virginie Lavallée: No,.
Dina Sherman: I don't I don't believe in being negative on purpose. That's not my goal. My goal is to make people laugh.
Virginie Lavallée: Yeah.
Dina Sherman: And if I'm not making you laugh, don't watch. But go ahead and tell me this isn't funny. Let me know. Or, you know, is that I don't really want thumbs down. Nobody wants that. uh you know, thumbs up, thumbs down doesn't really do anything for the algorithm. It's the comments and the tagging. So, if any of your listeners out there want to support you, want to support Bad Eggs or what I'm doing, or want to support any of the other uh talented people you have on your show, it's the comment. And the comment could be as simple as an emoji, a GIF or GIF. We'll discuss that later. That can go in the comment section. this show.
Virginie Lavallée: Okay.
Dina Sherman: Um, you can tag a friend. And how you do that is you just do the ad symbol and their link. So, if you see something that you think your friend, like, let's say you have someone in your life that says bad puns or does dumb dad jokes and they might like my show, tag that person. That's amazing. You do something like that, it totally supports independent artists.
Virginie Lavallée: Yeah, I cannot highlight that enough. And We're going to put all your information in the show notes so that everybody can check out Bad Eggs, can follow you. Also, if they're interested in story time or anything that you do because everything you do is great. Uh, but I think it's so important. A lot of people ask us, how can I help? Like, do I give portfolio reviews? Do I give free this and that? And it's like, support the people that you like that are creating content, you know, that artist that you like that share the post, comment on it, like anything. If we can enhance each other's visibility.
Dina Sherman: Yeah.
Virginie Lavallée: That's the best thing that we could do for for each other, you know? So, yeah, follow like leave the comments. I think on LinkedIn they're more like you need to write like a smart comment that has more than so many words. But also like take the time to comment and interact with people, you know, if you if you're like, "Oh my god, Bad Egg is hilarious." Just made me laugh. I think I have abs now from this episode. I need to share it with my friend. Well, write that. You know, like it's okay to interact with people for real without being scared of like if other people see my comments, is it like are they going to think that I only like eggs would buy big schlongs now. Like no, you're allowed to just comment on somebody's show.
Dina Sherman: Only one of them has a long schlong. Just one.
Virginie Lavallée: very long. So I am so inspired by everything that you do, Dina, and I'm extremely grateful that you took some of your time to come and chat with us on the Happy Producers podcast. I hope that it was not the last time that we discussed bad eggs and your YouTube endeavors together. Again, I'm going to put all the information in the show notes. Uh, so I want to invite everybody to follow you. Check it out for yourself. See if you like bad eggs. Leave a comment saying what what's your favorite part. If you're not like dead laughing by watching this, check your pulse, my friends, because it is hilarious and you know it's a challenging time in the industry and being in an was absolutely wonderful to be connected to everybody's passion. There were 18,000 peers you know that were there. So obviously the industry is not dying, but you were a huge highlight for me because you're a ray of sunshine. Like you bring the joy, the authenticity, the true laughter. You're like truly funny. You are hilarious. So, I want to thank you for boldly going there and inspiring us like think outside the box and.
Virginie Lavallée: and you know daring daring like I'm in awe that that you you dared to go there girl and I am a huge fan of had eggs like forever. I cannot wait for the next episode. And um did you have any last words for our listeners?.
Dina Sherman: Uh well, there's two things. One, you can share everybody's stuff. For all those who don't know, it's that little um looks kind of like a a hang glider thing, like a little uh kite arrow on.
Virginie Lavallée: Are we on YouTube now or.
Dina Sherman: on almost anything? Um on YouTube it's the share arrow. That's true. On YouTube it's the share arrow, but on the other stuff it's that little, it's called a carrot, but it looks like an arrow, like a a triangle flying off to the side. Uh, that's the share. And that also reminds me of the last thing I did. I didn't tell you when I was in Anastasy. After I saw you, I jumped off a cliff.
Virginie Lavallée: Oh, I think I saw that on your social media. Like,.
Dina Sherman: I haven't posted anything yet, but I I think I might have sent you a picture. Um, yeah, I literally went paragliding off the French Alps.
Virginie Lavallée: Wow. must have been. lifech changing. It's gorgeous. You're so courageous like and so much fun going.
Dina Sherman: I I laughed the I you know you got a I was the I was the Joey and the kangaroo scenario there. Uh and the guy strapped to my back. You know, you're up there for 20 minutes flying and of going cow bunga dude. This is awesome. Yeah, I was having a ball. All voices and all.
Virginie Lavallée: You are so cool.
Dina Sherman: So yes. uh share, like, follow, and support Happy Producers because you guys are really making a difference for everybody that.
Virginie Lavallée: Oh, thank you. We're just trying to make production a happy place again. You know, let's have more fun doing what we're doing. Let's have as much fun doing it as the people who are watching our content have. watching it. So, and if you are listening and you have your own YouTube show or whatever Tik Tok, feel free to share it in the comments. We would love to support you as well. We are in this together and we are strong. If we support each other, no matter what's going on in the industry, supporting each other is always cool. So, Dina Sherman, I am so happy that you joined us. And for everybody else there, I will see you on another episode very, very soon.
