Austin

Our busy Marketing crew is thrilled about Lizette Zuniga joining the team. Lizette is a recent graduate of the University of Texas where she studied marketing. Originally from Corsicana, Texas, she returns home often to visit her parents, 2 brothers, and beloved family dog, Cooper.

Kristi Novelli joins our Sales team as a West Coast Territory Sales Manager. Kristi is a Northern California native living in the San Francisco Bay Area and has 2 children, Gianna (21) and Dominic (19), and a 5-year-old lab named Cali. In her free time, you can find her hiking, paddleboarding, skiing, or playing a game of pickleball. She absolutely loves music and her hidden party trick is housing an extensive song, artist, and musical lyric database in her memory bank.

Our busy Corporate group has expanded with the addition of recent Angelo State University graduate Kate Ybarra. Kate is originally from Wylie, Texas, and loves exploring Austin with friends when she’s not enjoying a good board or video game. Fun fact: she’s very musically inclined and can play a song by ear on the piano!

The growing Sales team is joined by Brittany Johnson as our Dallas-area Territory Sales Manager. Brittany is very familiar with the industry from her previous position as a corporate paralegal. A Dallas-native, she has a husband and 2 daughters, ages 1 and 6, and in her free time enjoys photography and spending time outdoors with her family — especially swimming, hiking, golfing, and skiing.

Bob Gorse also joins our Sales team as Territory Sales Manager to the Northeast region. Bob is originally from Long Island, New York, and has over 20 years of industry experience. He’s a fitness fanatic, training at a conventional gym and implementing both CrossFit and track workouts. He also loves paddleboarding, hiking, biking, and any time spent on the beach or in the mountains. Fun fact: Bob’s great-great-grandfather Frank W. Gorse invented elastic threading; the patent can still be found on file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office!

Dover

Our Dover crew is excited to have Keri Smith join the team. Keri attended Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she met her wife, Miranda. Together they live in Harrington, Delaware, and have 6 parakeets, 2 gerbils, and an African red-bellied parrot in addition to chickens and ducks. Her happy place is journaling outside while listening to the sounds of nature.

Josh Washington is also new to our Dover office bringing prior industry experience. Josh was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated from Delaware State University with a B.A in Marketing, where he was also a leader and member of Omega Psi Phi. Each year he makes an annual trip to Jamaica, his family’s home of origin. He enjoys keeping active through exercise, swimming, and basketball, and is a youth basketball coach at YMCA of Delaware. His favorite NBA and NFL teams are the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Vikings.

Sacramento

Samantha Goodsell has joined our West Coast crew as a Lien Researcher. Originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, she made the move to her partner’s hometown of Sacramento 2 years ago and fell in love with the idyllic California weather. She and her partner have a 1-year-old son named Weston and they love to do just about anything outside together. She also enjoys painting, reading, and travelling. She’s been to 42 states and counting (South Carolina is her favorite)!

Tallahassee

Our Lien team welcomes Kendall Howell, who brings 13 years of industry experience. Ken is originally from Panama City and has lived in Tallahassee since 1979. His family includes his wife and 2 boys, and cats, Smokey and Midnight. He’s an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hunting, fishing, and camping, and has fond memories of traveling and camping his way from South Florida all the way to Los Angeles as a young child.

Voice Activated

Introduced to the voiceover world in 2008 by the mother of an old friend, Michael Montes (Lien — Austin) took a single 6 week course and knew he was hooked. His voice coaches believed in his talent so much that he was offered a discounted rate to continue with more classes.

Armed with a robust skill set, he went on to pursue paid voiceover work, which led to professional talent agency representation. This is when he landed the biggest opportunity of his voiceover career thus far: the announcer role for ABC’s The Taste, an American cooking-themed reality program hosted and produced by the late Anthony Bourdain. You may have also heard Michael’s voice in commercials for brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Kia, and Yamaha, among others. He has since gone on to build a community of voice actors dedicated to skill development through sessions that he hosts weekly.

We asked Michael how one goes about getting into a niche field like voiceover acting, and he says it starts with really honing your skills in acting and improvisation, paired with one-on-one coaching. After that, it’s all about networking. “Ultimately, I’ve learned that you don’t need a really nice voice to be a voice actor. You need to have good acting basics and people skills, and it’ll be surprising how far you go!”