The Voice That Refused to Quit with Kris Keppeler

Wendy & Rich 0:01
Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios, Hartford County Living presents, Conversations with Rich Bennett. 

Rich Bennett 0:30
"Only to spend the rest of your life proving that prediction wrong. Today's guess was told at just 13 years old that she'd never learned to sing. For a lot of people, that kind of comment would have been enough to silence your dream. Actually, that kind of comment at 13 would have drove somebody's self-confidence down through the ground. But not Chris Kepler, instead she kept singing. She kept performing. She kept telling stories. Over the years, that determination led her from choir rooms and theater stages to film sets, recording studios, podcast microphones, and the world of audio book narration. Oh, you've heard me head authors on here all the time and we always talk about audio books. I love listening to books that way." Today, Chris is a narrator, an actor, a voice actor, a writer, and podcaster who has brought more than 50 audio books to life. He has created memorable characters ranging from dragons and witches to presidents and ant eaters. Appeared in independent films and video games and built two successful podcasts, dedicated to storytelling and sharing wisdom. People don't know where so many people give up on creative dreams because they think they're too old. Too late. Or not talented enough. Chris's journey has proved that persistence, curiosity, and a willingness to keep learning can open doors you never imagine. 

Grab your beer, grab your beer coffee, grab your water, whatever you're drinking, and join the conversation because this one, you're not going to want to miss. How you doing, Chris? 

Kris Keppeler 2:30
Hey, I am pretty good. Yeah. It's anywhere I am. So... 

Rich Bennett 2:34
Oh, it's definitely so it's weird here so those of you listen, we're recording on June 18th. June 18th and Chris is on the west coast. I'm here in good old Maryland. And here it's going to, I think the highest like 90 but they're calling for like 40 to 50 mile per hour wind gust. 

Kris Keppeler 2:57
Oh my gosh. 

Rich Bennett 2:59
But I don't think we're supposed to have like storms or anything. 

Kris Keppeler 3:03
Well, weird. 

Rich Bennett 3:04
And it'll probably be a hot wind so they ain't going to... 

Kris Keppeler 3:07
I'll 

Rich Bennett 3:07
put down. I can't stand that but that's OK. All right, so Chris, I want to start with something that actually really, really stood out to 

Kris Keppeler 3:19
Huh? 

Rich Bennett 3:19
me. You were told when you were 13 years old that you never learned to sing. 

Kris Keppeler 3:24
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 3:25
Yet here you are decades later with a career built around your voice. So when you look back on that moment now, what do you think kept you going when someone else might have quit? Well, actually, when a lot of other people would have quit. 

Kris Keppeler 3:41
You know, it made me angry. And my you know, it's like, and then it's like, well, I love singing. I want to keep doing it. And I'm going to keep going, you know? It's like I'm... And it morphed into I'm going to prove them wrong. You know, I'm not going to give up. I'm going to prove them wrong, which eventually I did. 

Rich Bennett 4:10
No, please tell me it wasn't a family member that told you that. 

Kris Keppeler 4:13
No, no, it was a 

Rich Bennett 4:15
OK. 

Kris Keppeler 4:15
choir director. 

Rich Bennett 4:15
Good. 

Kris Keppeler 4:15
And then it was the next 

Rich Bennett 4:17
You 

Kris Keppeler 4:17
choir.

Rich Bennett 4:17
were already in the choir? 

Kris Keppeler 4:19
Yeah . 

Rich Bennett 4:23
Oh, come on now. You're already in the choir. And the choir director told you you could not 

Kris Keppeler 4:28
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:28
sing. 

That's 

Kris Keppeler 4:31
up. 

Rich Bennett 4:31
messed 

Kris Keppeler 4:31
Oh, yeah, I was, yeah, I was messed up. Oh, yeah. Oh, kidding. 

Rich Bennett 4:37
Please tell me that choir director lost their job. Well, probably not. 

Kris Keppeler 4:40
No, no. I... I think they probably taught there for several more years. 

Rich Bennett 4:47
Did you go back and prove them wrong? 

Kris Keppeler 4:48
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:49
Or did you just keep going good? 

Kris Keppeler 4:51
I 

Rich Bennett 4:51
Good. 

Kris Keppeler 4:52
just, I just kept going. It's like, I really like to sing. Um, you know, my parents did try to help somewhat 'cause my dad liked to sing. And uhm, you know, but I just kept getting. And how stuff do people that really couldn't, you know, they found me a friend who also 

Rich Bennett 5:14
Right. 

Kris Keppeler 5:14
told me I couldn't sing. What! Ehm, man. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 5:22
Here's the thing, and, uh, To me, anybody can sing. 

Kris Keppeler 5:29
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 5:30
Everybody has a voice that somebody wants to hear. How many people have always said Bob Dylan couldn't sing? I love listening 

Kris Keppeler 5:38
the- 

Rich Bennett 5:38
to 

Kris Keppeler 5:38
Yeah, yeah, 

Rich Bennett 5:40
yeah. I mean, who's the other, uh, William Shatner? 

Kris Keppeler 5:44
You 

Rich Bennett 5:44
know, Captain Kirk. But yet he released an, I know at least 

Kris Keppeler 5:48
album. 

Rich Bennett 5:48
one 

Kris Keppeler 5:48
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 5:49
And we're singing. There are some, and you even had that one guy from, I can't remember what show it was. I don't wanna say William Hunger, whatever. From American Idol. I don't know. One of them shows. 

Kris Keppeler 6:02
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 6:03
And he even put an album, and guess why? People listen to 

Kris Keppeler 6:06
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 6:06
it. 

Kris Keppeler 6:07
yeah! 

Rich Bennett 6:08
Yeah. So there's an ear. There's an ear for every voice. This is what I believe. 

Kris Keppeler 6:17
Yeah, and-and-and sometimes she just, um, it turned out part of my issue as I went on, is I know when it helped me develop an ear for music. I just- 

Rich Bennett 6:30
Uh-oh. 

Kris Keppeler 6:31
I just never developed it 'cause I didn't an instrument. Uh, 

Rich Bennett 6:36
play 

Kris Keppeler 6:36
playing an instrument always helps you, you know, develop an ear because I didn't play an instrument. I didn't, I didn't develop an ear, um, for, you know, sound and tuning and stuff like that. So, um, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:56
Alright, so a crazy question. When you were younger, did you buy chains ever listen to opera? 

Kris Keppeler 7:03
Uh, no, didn't really, well, my dad played it occasionally, you know, 

Rich Bennett 7:10
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 7:10
um, but not, not a lot. No. 

Rich Bennett 7:14
I-I think that's how, you look at a lot of your top singers that never played an instrument. 

Kris Keppeler 7:21
I 

Rich Bennett 7:22
think that's how you develop an ear for music, is by listening to something like, 

Kris Keppeler 7:28
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 7:28
up. 

Kris Keppeler 7:29
listening, I think listening, yeah, helps a lot too. Yes. I eventually learned to sing opera. 

Rich Bennett 7:36
I'll come 

Kris Keppeler 7:37
Now 

Rich Bennett 7:37
on. 

Kris Keppeler 7:37
I didn't like opera when I was young, you know, my dad did. And yeah, then, um, a voice teacher got me into it and it's like, oh, actually. 

Rich Bennett 7:50
[laughs] Like 

Kris Keppeler 7:51
this. It's-it's the very- 

Rich Bennett 7:52
It's a beautiful art. 

Kris Keppeler 7:53
It's a beautiful art. I have to say, from doing, going to choir and then doing musical theater and then actually singing in some opera's, um, it's the very hardest to do. It's a 

Rich Bennett 8:11
hard

Kris Keppeler 8:11
very 

Rich Bennett 8:11
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 8:12
To do. Because you still have some acting you need to do. You have to be at the right point on the stage, at the right time. And then you've got to put out this huge output, vocal output, and you're doing all of those three things at the same time. [laughs] 

Rich Bennett 8:31
Yup. 

Kris Keppeler 8:33
It was a- 

Rich Bennett 8:33
Alright, so... So after school, because you were in the choir, when you were a 

Kris Keppeler 8:38
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:38
teen, when you were in school. So after- and I love asking this question a lot. Back in school, high 

Kris Keppeler 8:45
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 8:45
school. Yeah. Everybody's supposed to have a career goal. 

Kris Keppeler 8:49
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:50
At least nowadays they are, 

Kris Keppeler 8:51
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:51
with- 

Kris Keppeler 8:51
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 8:52
I don't believe it because, even in your early 20s, you don't know what 

Kris Keppeler 8:57
You 

Rich Bennett 8:57
you were- 

Kris Keppeler 8:57
don't. 

Rich Bennett 8:58
Uh, 

Kris Keppeler 8:58
No. 

Rich Bennett 8:59
but what was it that you wanted- that you thought you wanted to do, after high school, you ended up doing? Or did you always want to be into acting? 

Kris Keppeler 9:10
Um, I- I really want- I really want us to do musical theater. 

Rich Bennett 9:15
Hmm. 

Kris Keppeler 9:16
Um, Yeah. I really wanted- I- not acting. I had really thought about acting. I just 

Rich Bennett 9:23
right. 

Kris Keppeler 9:23
wanted to do- I enjoyed musical theater. That's what I wanted 

Rich Bennett 9:27
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 9:27
to- Um, and so... So yeah, I, you know, I did eventually get there. [laughs] Years 

Rich Bennett 9:38
[laughs] 

Kris Keppeler 9:39
later, but I got there. Um, when, uh... Yeah, I think the- the big tale there was, um, I- I sang in a local dinner theater production. Uh, 

Rich Bennett 9:54
Oh, 

Kris Keppeler 9:54
I- 

Rich Bennett 9:55
I love 

Kris Keppeler 9:55
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 9:55
that. 

Kris Keppeler 9:56
I I sang 29 performances as the mother Abbas in the sound of music. 

Rich Bennett 10:02
Oh, wow. 

Kris Keppeler 10:03
Oh, that was fun. That was really fun. It's just a really fun part. You have that wonderful 

Rich Bennett 10:08
but 

Kris Keppeler 10:08
song, 

Rich Bennett 10:09
yeah, 

Kris Keppeler 10:09
you get you get to sing with me. You get to dance with Maria. It was so much fun. So much 

Rich Bennett 10:16
fun. Oh, yeah, I haven't been to a good dinner theater all the time. I need to go. My wife and daughter just went to one. I want to say several months ago to see a rock of ages and then my best friend and his daughter just went to one. I don't even know what the name of it was it was similar to rock of ages, but it was all based. It was all Elvis's music. 

Kris Keppeler 10:38
Uh huh. Oh, 

Rich Bennett 10:40
which would have been interesting. 

Kris Keppeler 10:41
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 10:43
He thought he was going to see an Elvis and person there is 

Kris Keppeler 10:46
like. 

Rich Bennett 10:47
Oh, it's 

Kris Keppeler 10:48
I 

Rich Bennett 10:49
was shocked. It was very good. I said did I said did you try to get up on stage and be Elvis? 

He would have tried if they gave 

Kris Keppeler 10:59
opera. 

Rich Bennett 10:59
him the All right, so with huh voice acting because voice actors have always 

Kris Keppeler 11:08
uh 

Rich Bennett 11:08
amazed me. I've had a few on. Kerry Ferris, I've had on a friend of mine who's in radio. John Klug now does no darn doing radio is doing voice acting voiceovers. 

Kris Keppeler 11:19
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 11:20
Actually, what's the difference between voice acting and voice overs? Because a lot of people may think it's the same, but in a way, it's not. 

Kris Keppeler 11:28
I yeah, it's not voice acting is more in the you know, in the rumble where you're doing animation games. 

I it's more the room of you know, acting. acting 

Rich Bennett 11:46
Yeah, 

Kris Keppeler 11:46
with your voice voiceovers. That's you know, the overall umbrella that is used if you're doing other sorts. If you're doing corporate narration you're doing obviously audio books falls more into the voice acting. 

Rich Bennett 12:06
Right. 

Kris Keppeler 12:07
But then there's all the other stuff than this commercial voiceover. There are there's so many types of voiceover that you can do. There's YouTube. There's you know, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 12:18
Yeah. Well, with the voice acting because you did that, but you're also doing it for audio book. 

Kris Keppeler 12:24
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 12:25
And you're, so when you're correct me for all, but when you are doing an audio book that has character, 

how many multiple characters do you have to have the voice of. Do you have, are you actually covering the voices for at times, 

Kris Keppeler 12:44
as many as are in the book has come up in the book. So, 

Rich Bennett 12:49
Yeah. So it's usually just one person doing it right, 

Kris Keppeler 12:52
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 12:52
but with different voices. That's what I thought. 

Kris Keppeler 12:54
You know, that there are multi cast you know, audio books. 

Rich Bennett 13:00
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 13:01
That's unusual unless they think it's going to be a big seller, because that runs 

Rich Bennett 13:06
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 13:07
into a lot of money to have several actors voicing you know, characters. 

Rich Bennett 13:12
Right. How long have you been doing audio books now? 

Kris Keppeler 13:16
Oh, I could what 16, 17 years. Yeah. That's. 

Rich Bennett 13:22
Yeah. Okay. So, okay, so you started back when actually I don't think it was books on tape. I think by then it was books on CD. 

Kris Keppeler 13:29
It would. Yeah. It was already had moved into the digital realm by the time I got started. So 

Rich Bennett 13:37
now, since that time. And well, then you're probably going into a studio, not doing it from home. Correct. 

Kris Keppeler 13:45
Now I started, it had already moved into the home studio. 

Rich Bennett 13:49
Oh, it was. Okay. So you're. So you were doing it from home studio. Then, um, what's been one of the biggest differences. You've seen since you started doing it to now, even with even if it's been like the software because we know how much software has changed. 

Kris Keppeler 14:07
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 14:07
And even with AI now, too. 

Kris Keppeler 14:09
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 14:10
Which I'm sorry. Those voices. 

You can tell, something at least I can tell the difference. 

Kris Keppeler 14:21
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, 

Rich Bennett 14:23
but what's been the biggest change for you besides AI? 

Kris Keppeler 14:32
She's the biggest things in audio books. I think is just the the perfection that you have to reach. 

Rich Bennett 14:44
Yes. Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 14:45
And, you know, um, I, you know, perfectionism isn't a good mindset, but you almost have to have that with audio books. 

Rich Bennett 14:57
I, you have to because here's. And I've done this. I love listening to the audio books, but there have been audio books I started listening to. And I, I stopped. 

Kris Keppeler 15:08
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 15:09
and I wouldn't go back to it, I wouldn't even read the regular book because the narrator was just 

Kris Keppeler 15:13
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 15:14
that 

Kris Keppeler 15:14
bad. Yeah, for the, 

Rich Bennett 15:16
and, I, and I do know like with novels, novels, you should definitely have a voice actor 

Kris Keppeler 15:24
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 15:24
because you have all the different characters. 

Kris Keppeler 15:26
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 15:38
because that's a different stu. 

Kris Keppeler 15:40
Ah, yes, and, uh, yeah, I also coach authors who want to self narrate. 

Rich Bennett 15:47
Ohhhh. 

Kris Keppeler 15:48
And some authors are really good at it, especially if they're already a speaker or a teacher? 

Rich Bennett 15:54
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 15:55
They're already, you know, they're, they're just about ready to go. There's a lot of technical stuff that they, or they think that, "Oh, I have to do this in an audiobook." And it's like, "No, no. You don't wanna do that." Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. No, no, you don't need to speed it up. If people want to speed it up, they will do it themselves, but not you. Ha, ha, ha, ha, 

Rich Bennett 16:23
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, 

Kris Keppeler 16:24
ha, 

Rich Bennett 16:24
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, 

Kris Keppeler 16:24
ha, 

Rich Bennett 16:24
ha, ha, ha, ha, 

Kris Keppeler 16:24
ha, 

Rich Bennett 16:24
ha, ha. Now, I can't look, there's a lot of time, I know, and a lot of people will listen to a podcast that like one-and-a-half speed or even two-speak. I can't even do that. 

Kris Keppeler 16:32
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 16:33
I need regular speed. That the ones that are going like speedy guns on us, I gotta slow down. 

Kris Keppeler 16:41
Yeah, and I think that's the most- that's the tendency I find among authors. It's like, "I have to speak fast." It's like, no, no, you 

Rich Bennett 16:51
don't. Okay, so when it comes to the audio books, are you actually working with certain publishers, or can anybody contact you? 

Kris Keppeler 17:02
Any? 

Rich Bennett 17:03
And the reason I asked is, is because a lot of authors I have on, if they're going through a publisher, the publisher tells them they have to wait at least a year to do an audio book to see how their book sales. 

Kris Keppeler 17:17
Oh, ah. 

Yeah! 

Rich Bennett 17:22
This is why I wanted to talk to you. 

Kris Keppeler 17:24
Now, anybody can- I work directly with authors all the time. 

Rich Bennett 17:29
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 17:30
And, 

you know, if the author already- Maybe if you're a new author with not a huge following, you 

Rich Bennett 17:40
Right. 

Kris Keppeler 17:41
know, and you don't know if you might need an audio book or not, you might want to wait. But some authors that I work- authors that I work with, especially already have, books 

Rich Bennett 17:52
Uh-huh. 

Kris Keppeler 17:52
selling well, they're making the audio book right, right with or right after the, you know, the printbook, because they already know. 

Rich Bennett 18:02
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 18:03
They already know how things are going to go. So, yeah, um, so I think it depends on the author and if they have previous books and how those have gone, and they're following. And, you know, if they have people asking for an audio book version right away, it's like, well, it's probably a good idea to make one. 

Rich Bennett 18:31
Well, and with the audio book, would it go through the publisher like the actual book itself? 

Kris Keppeler 18:37
Some- it depends on the publisher. Um, some- 

Rich Bennett 18:41
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 18:41
Like, to keep control of that, and others are like, now I want to- I don't want to deal with that, so. 

Rich Bennett 18:48
Right. 

Kris Keppeler 18:49
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 18:50
Wow. Okay, so, with you. And- and there's nobody's ever asked you this yet. I don't know why. Um, but what has been one of the hardest characters for you to do so far? 

Kris Keppeler 19:09
You know, um, the hardest characters for me are always the- when you get just like a professional, a- a doctor, a nurse, uh, that they don't really have, especially in the book if they don't have- Um, any special descriptors. It's like, 

Rich Bennett 19:31
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 19:32
do I need to make them stand out? Do I just, you know, go with what their characters going through at that point? Sometimes it's not much at all. It's just like the characters imparting information. So, 

Rich Bennett 19:44
Right. 

Kris Keppeler 19:44
though, I think those are the hardest- for me, those are the hardest to deal with. 

Rich Bennett 19:49
At- at which ones are you are- and if this is not a word, it is now because I'm about to say it. Which ones have been the funnest for you to do? 

Kris Keppeler 20:01
Oh, those are the ones who 

Rich Bennett 20:02
that's a 

Kris Keppeler 20:03
are- 

Rich Bennett 20:03
word. 

Kris Keppeler 20:03
Oh, yeah. We're have to come up with unique voices, uh, 

Rich Bennett 20:08
like dragons. 

Kris Keppeler 20:09
Yeah, dragons… or I did a, a couple months ago, I did a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. And… 

Rich Bennett 20:19
oooh. 

Kris Keppeler 20:20
There were three characters that spoke. And two of them were inanimate. One was a cucumber. Tale… The other was a weatherveine! 

Rich Bennett 20:33
Veggie 

Kris Keppeler 20:34
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! So it's like, I yay, what, what would this cucumber talk like? Let's see. So those, those, those are the fun things or, actually the characters that have a unique. 

Rich Bennett 20:50
You got to be really 

Kris Keppeler 20:51
then. 

Rich Bennett 20:52
creative 

Kris Keppeler 20:52
Yeah, you do, yeah, you do. You do. I mean, that's the fun part. I love creating those kind of character voices that are unusual, they're an unusual ob 

Rich Bennett 21:03
right? 

Kris Keppeler 21:04
Or… yeah. 

Rich Bennett 21:09
Alright, so we, before, when you do a book, when you record the audio book, before you record the whole thing, do you actually, um, send, like, little tracks to the authors of the different characters for their approval, or how's that work? Or did they get… or do you have, like, free range? 

Kris Keppeler 21:27
I pretty much have free, you pretty much have free range, unless you get specific directions, yeah. Um, 

Rich Bennett 21:36
Right. 

Kris Keppeler 21:36
if you, if you're working for a major publisher, you're probably gonna have specific directions, or maybe even a, you know, the session will be directed as you go through it. So, but, but a lot of times it's just free, free range on, you know. 

Rich Bennett 21:55
Now, are, are there any audio books that you've done that some listeners may know about? 

Kris Keppeler 22:01
Oh gosh. Um… 

Rich Bennett 22:04
o is it mainly independent 

Kris Keppeler 22:06
It's mainly independent authors. I don't. I haven't 

Rich Bennett 22:09
authors? 

Kris Keppeler 22:10
worked 

Rich Bennett 22:10
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 22:10
with any of the major publishers. Um, I'm on… some list with smaller audio book publishers, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 22:20
Right. 

Alright, so if you don't mind, because I've, this is, I've been dying to hear this. 

Kris Keppeler 22:28
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 22:29
'Cause you've done dragons of witches. 

Kris Keppeler 22:31
Huh? 

Rich Bennett 22:31
Right? 

Kris Keppeler 22:31
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 22:33
Can you, can you share one of them voices with us? 

Kris Keppeler 22:37
Well, my favorite one to share is the children's audio book that I, that I did and it was like 

Rich Bennett 22:45
Oh, 

Kris Keppeler 22:45
the author wanted a very separate specific voice for 10 different animals that spoke. And it's like, you know, these, these, these, these, these are easy snakes. They're kind of easy, you know, 

Rich Bennett 23:00
wow. 

Kris Keppeler 23:00
it's a, well what the heck does an anteater sound like? Ah! So it's like, okay. And I don't even have the long tongue, so he's not 

Rich Bennett 23:10
buttoned. [laughs] 

Oh god. Oh. 

What cartoon character am I thinking of that had an anteater 

Kris Keppeler 23:26
it? 

Rich Bennett 23:26
in Was it the pink panther? 

Kris Keppeler 23:30
Oh gosh. I don't know. I was just, you know, I'm thinking... 

Rich Bennett 23:34
I don't know if the anteater spoke. 

Kris Keppeler 23:35
Yeah, I don't know. Um. 

Rich Bennett 23:39
So, so you have, 

Kris Keppeler 23:41
it. 

Rich Bennett 23:41
I can't even do 

Kris Keppeler 23:42
[laughs] 

Rich Bennett 23:43
So you were doing an anteater talking while you were punk 

Kris Keppeler 23:46
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 23:46
with, 

Kris Keppeler 23:47
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 23:48
do 

Kris Keppeler 23:48
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 23:48
that. How long was that, how long did you have to record that character for? 

Kris Keppeler 23:54
Oh, it was only, I think, a line or two, so it was short. 

Rich Bennett 23:58
Oh, thank 

Kris Keppeler 23:59
[laughs] 

Rich Bennett 23:59
god. 

Kris Keppeler 24:01
Yeah, the, 

Rich Bennett 24:01
You're, I was 

Kris Keppeler 24:02
um... 

Rich Bennett 24:02
gonna say, otherwise your tongue would be known by the end of the day. 

Kris Keppeler 24:05
Oh, I think one of the longest characters I've done has been, um... Oh, I did. Ernie, the earthworm, and he talked like this. Telling kids about the earth for ten minutes. [laughs] 

Rich Bennett 24:23
Okay, well well, you know what, that just hit me. So you're doing children's books in audio form. I never realized that children's books can be an 

Kris Keppeler 24:37
form. 

Rich Bennett 24:37
audio 

Kris Keppeler 24:37
Yup. Mm-hmm. 

Rich Bennett 24:39
Which makes sense because, oh, wow. 

Kris Keppeler 24:43
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 24:44
Okay, oh. Oh, oh, 

Kris Keppeler 24:47
I especially 

Rich Bennett 24:48
oh, 

Kris Keppeler 24:48
love 

Rich Bennett 24:48
oh, oh, 

Kris Keppeler 24:48
to 

Rich Bennett 24:48
oh, oh, oh. 

Kris Keppeler 24:48
narrate children's stories. That was so fun to do, that fairy tale was so fun. 

Rich Bennett 24:54
Oh, Chris, I... I have a lot of people. I need to send your way. I talk to children's authors a lot. 

Kris Keppeler 25:04
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 25:04
And because to me, a good children's author, the kids don't only learn from it, but the adults... 

Kris Keppeler 25:11
Yeah! Oh, 

Rich Bennett 25:12
And 

Kris Keppeler 25:12
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:12
I think that makes a great children's 

Kris Keppeler 25:14
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 25:14
author. 

Kris Keppeler 25:14
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:15
And I- Wow, I don't have to go book back and look to see if any of them have it in audio book form and if not, I definitely got to put them in touch with you. 

Kris Keppeler 25:28
Oh yeah, I love- like I say I love to do children's stories. 

Rich Bennett 25:34
Oh, they're- they're great. 

Kris Keppeler 25:35
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 25:36
They're 

Kris Keppeler 25:36
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:36
great, I mean they're the only one I could do a Santa Oh, see? 

Kris Keppeler 25:42
I- 

Rich Bennett 25:44
I used to personate voices, well, alright, maybe 

Kris Keppeler 25:49
I 

Rich Bennett 25:51
can't even do that anymore. I- I used to love impersonating people, and I just- I- I guess once you stop, after a while, you lose the art of 

Kris Keppeler 26:02
it. 

Rich Bennett 26:02
doing 

Kris Keppeler 26:03
Yeah, I think it's a very special 

Rich Bennett 26:06
talent. 

Kris Keppeler 26:06
is? To do 

Rich Bennett 26:06
It 

Kris Keppeler 26:07
that. I don't- I don't have that talent, I don't- mine is, you know, coming up with unique voices for characters. That's- 

Rich Bennett 26:16
Right. 

Kris Keppeler 26:18
You know, that's me, but- but mimic now, I- I'm terrible at mimicking anything. You know, someone who's already well-known. No, don't do that. 

Rich Bennett 26:30
Yeah, that's- that's why- what's his name? Was it Mel Blank, Mel Blomp, whatever? The- the one 

Kris Keppeler 26:38
did- 

Rich Bennett 26:38
who always 

Kris Keppeler 26:39
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:39
You know, all those other characters. 

Kris Keppeler 26:41
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:41
That's why he was so successful. He didn't mimic anybody. He came up with him 

Kris Keppeler 26:45
Yeah, came 

Rich Bennett 26:45
on his 

Kris Keppeler 26:45
up. 

Rich Bennett 26:45
own, 

Kris Keppeler 26:46
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:46
and- 

Kris Keppeler 26:47
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 26:47
Oh, he's had Jack Benny laughing. 

Kris Keppeler 26:50
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:51
I'm sure my age now. Holy 

Kris Keppeler 26:53
cow. 

Rich Bennett 26:54
And just, there's a few listening. I was- I was watching Jack Benny on the reruns, okay? 

Kris Keppeler 27:00
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 27:01
On Pluto TV or something 

Kris Keppeler 27:02
that. 

Rich Bennett 27:02
like 

Kris Keppeler 27:03
Yeah, I think they have, you know. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 27:08
Um, 

so with- with authors, when authors want independent authors especially, when they wouldn't get in touch with you, whether it's to use you or for you to coach them, how do they get in touch with you? 

Kris Keppeler 27:20
It's my website, Chris Kepler. That's K-E-P-P-E-L-E-R. Chris with a K-A-K-R-I-S-K-E-P-P-E-L-E-R.com. Yeah. There's- there's a place right there on the website. To book a consult with me, and they can find me on social media, send me direct messages. I'm on X, LinkedIn, LinkedIn's one of my favorites. Instagram? 

Rich Bennett 27:48
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 27:49
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 27:49
I need to start getting active on that again. 

I'm on it, but I'm more active on Facebook than Instagram than anything. And that TikTok I'm still 

Kris Keppeler 28:00
trying. Oh, 

Rich Bennett 28:01
Dude, 

Kris Keppeler 28:01
I- 

Rich Bennett 28:01
there's just too many 

Kris Keppeler 28:02
pages. I 

Rich Bennett 28:03
social media 

Kris Keppeler 28:03
know. Yeah, it's- and it's like, okay, which one? 

Rich Bennett 28:08
It's nerve wracking. 

Kris Keppeler 28:09
I get it. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 28:11
All right, so... What made you decide to start a podcast? 

Kris Keppeler 28:18
I- you know, as- as a voice actor, you're set up. Already. To do it. 

Rich Bennett 28:25
Well, that's true. 

Kris Keppeler 28:26
And I love telling stories, and I was reading, you know, these really wonderful stories, and I thought, "Well, wouldn't it be great if people could listen to these?" Um, and that's- so that started the dose this happened to you podcast. And I really enjoyed 

Rich Bennett 28:43
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 28:43
narrating the stories. It was good for me, you know. It was, uh, the writers really enjoyed hearing their work. Uh, narrated? And so- and it- it was just something it's easy. You know, to do. The, um, 

Rich Bennett 29:03
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 29:03
moving into an interview style, which is my new podcast. Chris talks about the wisdom of women. Um, that was- has been a little more difficult. Um, 

Rich Bennett 29:14
'cause it's not solar, 'cause it's interview. 

Kris Keppeler 29:17
Yeah, 'cause it's interview. So I'm really 

Rich Bennett 29:20
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 29:20
enjoying it now, but it was a little nerve-wracking to begin. Oh,

Rich Bennett 29:26
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. 

Kris Keppeler 29:28
Oh , yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:29
When I started this over 10 years ago, 'cause when I was in radio, I was- I- I played music. 

Kris Keppeler 29:36
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:36
I didn't talk to people. I didn't want to 

Kris Keppeler 29:38
people. 

Rich Bennett 29:38
talk to 

Kris Keppeler 29:38
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 29:39
yeah. And when- and then when I got- when I started the podcast, even when I recorded the first episode, I 

Kris Keppeler 29:48
yeah, 

Rich Bennett 29:48
was a nervous wreck. 

Kris Keppeler 29:49
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:49
Yeah. Yeah. And I had an interview, people, 

Kris Keppeler 29:52
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:52
and even to this stage, who it is, there's still times I get nervous. 

Kris Keppeler 29:57
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:58
Uh, it's- I like the Natural Conversation 

Kris Keppeler 30:01
Park. Yeah. Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:03
I don't like scripted questions. 

Kris Keppeler 30:05
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:06
I know some people do- now my other podcast, yeah, that's scripted questions, but it's short form. 

Kris Keppeler 30:12
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:12
Just talking to authors, listening to their pitch. 

Kris Keppeler 30:15
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:16
You know, which now I gotta tell them, hey, you need to get Chris Kepler, so she can do your uh, audio book. Ah. 

Kris Keppeler 30:23
[Laughing] 

Rich Bennett 30:25
But it's, it, it's so much fun doing 'em. 

Kris Keppeler 30:31
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:31
Doing a podcast and you learn, so when you're, especially when you're interviewing people, you 

Kris Keppeler 30:35
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:35
learn 

Kris Keppeler 30:36
much. 

Rich Bennett 30:36
so 

Kris Keppeler 30:36
Oh my gosh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:37
And... 

Kris Keppeler 30:37
It's... 

Rich Bennett 30:39
That's one of the reasons I started. 

Kris Keppeler 30:41
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:42
Was the, to learn something and I'm already learning stuff about 

Kris Keppeler 30:45
voice. [Laughing] 

Rich Bennett 30:45
Voice acting and voice over 

Kris Keppeler 30:47
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:47
work, you know? Um, but with the, so with the podcast, the first, the first one, uh, that you're doing does this happen to 

Kris Keppeler 30:55
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 30:55
you. When did you, when did you start that? How long ago was that? 

Kris Keppeler 30:59
Oh gosh. That ran for, I just decided to put it on, hold for right now, but that ran for like over 10 

Rich Bennett 31:08
What? 

Kris Keppeler 31:08
years. Yeah. About 10 years, yeah, about 10 years. Yeah. I, I... 

Rich Bennett 31:14
Wait, wait, maybe. When do you mean you're putting it on 

Kris Keppeler 31:19
I'm 

Rich Bennett 31:19
hold? 

Kris Keppeler 31:19
putting it on hold because I want to concentrate on my, Chris talks about the wisdom of women. I've only got so much time. Yeah. Uh-huh. I don't think I have so much 

Rich Bennett 31:30
time. Oh. 

Kris Keppeler 31:31
[Laughing] 

Rich Bennett 31:32
You have all the time in the world. 

Kris Keppeler 31:33
[Laughing] But it's still out there, you know, you could listen to several episodes on 

Rich Bennett 31:39
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 31:39
Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Um, there's several 

Rich Bennett 31:44
Podge. 

Kris Keppeler 31:44
episodes, yeah, on good pods. There's several episodes out on my YouTube channel. So, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 31:53
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 31:55
So. 

Rich Bennett 31:58
So, you... The interview podcast, and when did you start that one? 

Kris Keppeler 32:03
I started that, you know, I think it's coming up on close to a year ago, 

Rich Bennett 32:12
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 32:12
yeah. Or maybe, or maybe about six months, actual interview part, yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 32:19
Okay. Yeah. All right. So, with that one, and that's the reason you're putting the other one on hold for... 

Kris Keppeler 32:25
Yeah. It's just... Uh... Yeah. I... 

Rich Bennett 32:29
Trying to 

Kris Keppeler 32:29
it. 

Rich Bennett 32:29
do 

Kris Keppeler 32:29
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 32:29
to 

Kris Keppeler 32:30
I'm trying. I'm trying to focus on it. And I, you know. And I really enjoy the Chris talks about the wisdom of women because I talk to these amazing women. 

Rich Bennett 32:38
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 32:40
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 32:41
So. And is that weekly or... 

Kris Keppeler 32:46
Uh, it's now going out three times a month, so, 

Rich Bennett 32:52
yeah. Three times a month. 

Kris Keppeler 32:55
Okay. 

Almost once a week. 

Rich Bennett 33:00
Almost once a week, yeah. Okay. So, where are you and you're only interviewing women on this, right? 

Kris Keppeler 33:05
You know, I... I'm actually going to be 

Rich Bennett 33:10
Uh-oh. 

Kris Keppeler 33:10
interviewing a man. But, he is going to be talking about his great aunt, Gruda Garbo. And specifically 

Rich Bennett 33:21
Oh! 

Kris Keppeler 33:21
talking... 

Rich Bennett 33:26
I know who you're talking about. 

Kris Keppeler 33:29
God. 

Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 33:34
I have him coming on. Oh. 

Kris Keppeler 33:36
Oh, you do. Yeah. So we're going 

Rich Bennett 33:39
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 33:39
to... Because he is a guy, but we're going to talk specifically about Gruda Garbo. And what she went 

Rich Bennett 33:45
Wow. 

Kris Keppeler 33:46
through as a female, you know, trying to do what she wanted to do in Old Hollywood. 

Rich Bennett 33:53
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 33:54
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 33:55
So, I get it. 

Kris Keppeler 34:05
Oh! 

Rich Bennett 34:07
Yeah. But she was also... But also, like... I mean, everybody looked at her like a sex 

Kris Keppeler 34:11
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 34:11
symbol. Yeah. And... Oh, wow. That's going to be a good 

Kris Keppeler 34:16
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 34:16
one. So, have you taught to other voice-over actors yet on it? Women, women, voice-over actors? 

Kris Keppeler 34:23
I haven't. Um, it's been mostly... Most of the women are business leaders that I've spoken to. 

Rich Bennett 34:35
Oh, okay. 

Kris Keppeler 34:35
Um, although I have spoken to a woman that's part of the Iranian resistance movement. 

Rich Bennett 34:46
Oh, 

Kris Keppeler 34:46
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 34:47
wow. 

Kris Keppeler 34:47
Yeah. That was very interesting. Um... 

Yeah. But it's... It's been mostly women in business of some, all kinds of businesses. But yeah. 

Rich Bennett 35:03
Right. Now, are you finding them all on pod-match or different places? 

Kris Keppeler 35:08
Uh, different places. I found a lot on pod 

Rich Bennett 35:11
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 35:11
match, I've been overwhelmed, actually on pod match with 

Rich Bennett 35:15
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 35:15
everybody who 

Rich Bennett 35:16
Oh, yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 35:16
wants to, there's a lot of women out there, fantastic women with great backgrounds that are searching for a podcast like mine to be on. So, yeah, 

Rich Bennett 35:27
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 35:28
yeah. 

I have, I haven't. 

Rich Bennett 35:40
There, I, I guarantee the one I was told, I told you about that I was recording earlier 

Kris Keppeler 35:44
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 35:44
today. 

Kris Keppeler 35:45
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 35:46
I found her through our local Chamber. 

Kris Keppeler 35:48
Really? Wow. 

Rich Bennett 35:49
And she owns her, yeah, she owns her own studio, uh, which, but her story, blue. I did, see, I want her to come on to talk about her business. 

Kris Keppeler 35:59
Uh. 

Rich Bennett 36:00
I love promoting other businesses. 

Kris Keppeler 36:01
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 36:02
Uh, but I didn't, I didn't, I, her story about why she started it was mind blowing. 

Kris Keppeler 36:12
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 36:12
And it just, if you want to. 

Kris Keppeler 36:15
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 36:15
And that's why I love when I talk to people, especially a lot of business owners, when you hear their backstory about why they wanted to start it 

Kris Keppeler 36:23
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 36:23
or, you know, the reason they had to. A lot of times you have to have Kleenex ready because it'll bring tears to your eyes on why they had to or why 

Kris Keppeler 36:35
did. 

Rich Bennett 36:36
they Yeah. If you haven't run into that yet, you will. I guarantee you, you will. But that's what makes it so great. 

Kris Keppeler 36:44
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I talk to. Yeah. A woman that's been, uh, she got started in. She's 83 and she's still working. 

83. 

Rich Bennett 37:02
Did you get, you need to find her through bye, Matt. Did you? 

Kris Keppeler 37:04
No, I found her on the line of bull. 

Rich Bennett 37:07
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 37:07
The business networking site. Um, 

Rich Bennett 37:11
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 37:11
but 

she, what, she, um, she helps nonprofits. That's her business. She's been doing it for years and years. And she, and it's her own business. And the reason she got started was because when she got into nonprofit work, she was told that women can't raise money. 

So she's like, 

Rich Bennett 37:34
huh. Yeah. Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 37:37
Okay. I'll just go and do my own business. Let's, you know, that was like. 

Rich Bennett 37:46
Wow. 

Kris Keppeler 37:47
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 37:48
Yeah. Wow. 

Kris Keppeler 37:49
So, uh, 

Rich Bennett 37:51
you 83 years 

Kris Keppeler 37:52
He's 

Rich Bennett 37:53
old. 

Kris Keppeler 37:53
83. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 37:53
Wow. All right. So, and you know, you hear the phrase age is nothing but a number. 

Kris Keppeler 38:02
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 38:03
And I believe that especially after this one young lady, I had a one. Uh, me, my one co-host Wendy, we're talking to her. 

Kris Keppeler 38:12
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 38:13
And she's an author. 

Kris Keppeler 38:14
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 38:14
And she was taking a little break from writing because she needed to have not categorized but something else don't for 

Kris Keppeler 38:20
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 38:21
eyes. So it was hard for her to write. 

Kris Keppeler 38:22
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 38:23
But she was getting that done. Still has a fitness trainer. 

Kris Keppeler 38:28
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 38:29
Now this episode came out. 

Two years ago, maybe. 

Kris Keppeler 38:35
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 38:35
But when she was on, she was 101 

Kris Keppeler 38:38
Oh 

Rich Bennett 38:38
years. 

Kris Keppeler 38:39
my gosh. 

Rich Bennett 38:42
Wow. Uh-huh. 

Kris Keppeler 38:44
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 38:44
And one years. Uh-huh. But two things that really blew me away when we were recording 

Kris Keppeler 38:50
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 38:51
that. The first thing that blew me away was the fact that we were doing it virtually, virtually like you and I. 

Kris Keppeler 38:57
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 38:58
And 101 years old, she's using the computer equipment to record virtually. 

Kris Keppeler 39:04
Yeah. Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 39:06
The second thing that really blew me away, that here she is 101 years old and still has a fitness trainer. 

Kris Keppeler 39:11
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:13
That, that right there said, you know what? Here I am. No, right now I'm 63. 

Kris Keppeler 39:20
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:21
And I complained if I can't even lift something because my back would never hear this woman's 100 she could run circles around me. It's like I can't complain about 

Kris Keppeler 39:33
more. 

Rich Bennett 39:33
anything no Forget that. And that's when I agree it's like, yeah, age is nothing but a number. It's how you 

Kris Keppeler 39:40
It really 

Rich Bennett 39:41
can't 

Kris Keppeler 39:41
is. 

Rich Bennett 39:41
thank. He's. 

Kris Keppeler 39:41
It really is. 

Rich Bennett 39:43
Yeah. I think you just turned 100 is getting ready to. It's still performing. 

Kris Keppeler 39:48
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:51
I think no Brooks is another one. 

Kris Keppeler 39:53
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:54
Let's say you can see so this just tells you so Chris. This tells me this you and I will both be at least 100. And we'll still be podcasting. 

Kris Keppeler 40:07
Of course. That's 

Rich Bennett 40:10
my goal. 

Kris Keppeler 40:11
yaa, yaa, 

Rich Bennett 40:12
That 

Kris Keppeler 40:13
i'm kidding. 

Rich Bennett 40:13
is my goal. [laughing] Alright, so we knew with the voice over and the voice acting. 

Kris Keppeler 40:21
Uh-huh? 

Rich Bennett 40:23
I understand why you got into that, but with audiobooks, what was it that said, you just needed to start doing audiobooks. There had to be a 

Kris Keppeler 40:31
up. 

Rich Bennett 40:31
trigger 

Kris Keppeler 40:31
When it, you know, it was just, that's what I started getting hired for. When I got into voice over, 

Rich Bennett 40:38
Oh, okay. 

Kris Keppeler 40:39
automatically that's what I started getting hired for. Was audiobook work. It's, it's just a natural segue for actors to go into audiobook work. 

Rich Bennett 40:50
Okay. 

Kris Keppeler 40:50
Just, you know. Uhm, and I don't know if this probably applies as much, but several years ago, when the big audiobook studios were going out and looking, they, it's, the audiobook has become much more competitive. There's lots more narrators out there. But, wh there weren't as many, they would, they, they wanted actors. They wanted actors. They wanted actors to come into the studio and, and do the recordings. And that's, that's what they looked, looked for first was the acting ability. So, 

Rich Bennett 41:32
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 41:33
uhm, so yeah, it's just, um, yeah. And so I didn't really choose it. That's what I started getting hired for. So... 

Rich Bennett 41:41
I do, do me a favor and I mentioned AI earlier. 

Kris Keppeler 41:45
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 41:45
The fact that you just mentioned the help these studios were looking for actors. 

Kris Keppeler 41:50
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 41:51
I explained it everybody because I know I'm pretty, somebody told me, another author told me how Amazon now launched, uh, this program where authors can do their own audio book, using AI 

Kris Keppeler 42:06
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 42:06
books. 

Kris Keppeler 42:07
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 42:07
Hmm. 

Kris Keppeler 42:08
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 42:09
Tell everybody what the biggest benefit is or benefits of hiring somebody like yourself to do the audio book versus AI. 

Kris Keppeler 42:24
It's the human emotions that we put into it. And especially if you're doing fiction, it would be, you know, getting the characters right. 

Rich Bennett 42:38
Mm-hmm. 

Kris Keppeler 42:38
Getting the characters right. But even for nonfiction. I mean, some nonfiction is like, well, yeah, AI is probably okay if it's, you know. 

Rich Bennett 42:49
Right. 

Kris Keppeler 42:50
Maybe some kinds of very educational material stuff like that. But if you want real nuance and, and, you know, some, a lot of nonfiction, it really does require nuance and you just don't, you're not going to get that with AI. I just, um, completed, it's not published but a book on ants. And so, I, you know, I- 

Rich Bennett 43:21
Not Jeffery 

Kris Keppeler 43:21
Annie. 

But it's like, you need to, I needed to make that interesting. I found it interesting. So when I'm not reading it, I'm, I'm interested and I sound like I'm interested and, you know, um, and so it's, 

Rich Bennett 43:46
one. 

Kris Keppeler 43:46
it's 

Rich Bennett 43:47
You 

Kris Keppeler 43:47
the 

Rich Bennett 43:47
could 

Kris Keppeler 43:47
new 

Rich Bennett 43:47
tell. 

Kris Keppeler 43:47
Yeah, that's, it's the new one. 

Rich Bennett 43:50
Yeah, it's, that it's a human 

Kris Keppeler 43:53
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 43:53
connection. You don't need to see somebody to make that human connection. The other thing is, I want to say the clarity and just give you an idea, I was just watching a video last night on YouTube 

Kris Keppeler 44:06
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 44:08
about Bob Seger. Bob Seger, the singer. 

Kris Keppeler 44:11
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:12
And how some of the songs that he wrote, he gave to other artists, 

Kris Keppeler 44:18
uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 44:19
And at one point, they were talking about Glenn Frey of the 

Kris Keppeler 44:23
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 44:23
evil. Hey, he wrote a song, he gave the Glenn Fre- and Glenn Frey was actually playing with Bob Seger, uh, back in the day before he was, I guess, part 

Kris Keppeler 44:32
evening. 

Rich Bennett 44:32
of the 

Kris Keppeler 44:32
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 44:34
But I, I ended up turning it off because I could tell it was AI. 

Kris Keppeler 44:38
Um. 

Rich Bennett 44:39
The voice was 

Kris Keppeler 44:40
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:40
AI. Yeah. Because it was saying Bob Sager. 

Kris Keppeler 44:44
Oh, no. Bob Sager. 

Rich Bennett 44:48
And Glenn Frey. 

Kris Keppeler 44:51
Oh, man. That's 

Rich Bennett 44:55
right away. That just, 

Kris Keppeler 44:57
oh yeah, that's, 

Rich Bennett 44:58
and if it was a human voice, I would have turned it off as well. 

Kris Keppeler 45:01
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:03
You know, it's like, okay, if you're going to do a video about somebody, learn how to pronounce their 

Kris Keppeler 45:08
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:08
name. 

Kris Keppeler 45:08
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 45:08
Don't you hear that a lot with 

Kris Keppeler 45:10
AI? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:10
AI. Couldn't 

Kris Keppeler 45:13
I. Hey. 

Rich Bennett 45:13
Correct, its own punctuation 

Kris Keppeler 45:15
no eh. 

Rich Bennett 45:15
Grammar I should 

Kris Keppeler 45:16
say no. 

Rich Bennett 45:19
Yeah, I heard I'm like you gotta be. 

Kris Keppeler 45:21
Oh my gosh. 

Rich Bennett 45:25
No, 

Kris Keppeler 45:25
no. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:27
Alright so Chris before I get to my last question, which by the way you're gonna pick, is there anything you would like to add? 

Kris Keppeler 45:39
Wow, 

Rich Bennett 45:39
in your in one of your favorite characters voices, I would say do it in the aneter but that would be too long for you to talk 

with 

Kris Keppeler 45:51
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 45:51
you. 

Kris Keppeler 45:52
I'm so good at that. My favorite thing about narrating is I love to narrate comedy. 

Rich Bennett 46:11
Oh. 

You love the narrate comedy? 

Kris Keppeler 46:17
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 46:19
Yeah. How many takes does that take? How many takes does that take? Yeah, wow. 

Kris Keppeler 46:24
Not actually not that many. Unfortunately I don't get to do a lot of audiobooks. Um, usually the comedy is in, you know, well, yeah I guess the comedy can be a little bit in children's audiobooks but I just don't, the comedy was for my podcast that does this happen to you. I was actually narrating all the stories were funny. So, I was weakly narrating funny stories. I just had so much fun with that. 

Rich Bennett 47:01
I wouldn't be, I'd be, I'd be rolling the whole time. It would take me several, or it would take a lot of editing if I 

Kris Keppeler 47:08
that. 

Rich Bennett 47:08
did 

Kris Keppeler 47:10
So yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:11
Well you should look, you've had me cracking up 

the water out. 

Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah, I would, that would be imagine trying to narrate a biography, autobiography of Robin Williams. 

Kris Keppeler 47:34
Oh boy. 

Rich Bennett 47:35
That had some of his stuff in there. Well, during the way you can do it with a straight face. 

Kris Keppeler 47:39
No. 

Rich Bennett 47:40
It 

Kris Keppeler 47:40
some. 

Rich Bennett 47:40
would take 

Kris Keppeler 47:40
It'd be hard. I mean, yeah, that, that's the thing about comedy. There's, there was a lot of stories I narrated. It's like, I just start cracking up. It's like, oh, well, gotta go back redo that one. 

Rich Bennett 47:57
That would, but you know what, that'd be a challenge. And I love challenges. 

Kris Keppeler 48:03
Oh, yeah. It's, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:05
I would try it. 

Kris Keppeler 48:06
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:07
That would 

Kris Keppeler 48:08
try. 

Rich Bennett 48:08
definitely All right. So Chris, I need you to pick a number between one 

Kris Keppeler 48:15
and five 

Rich Bennett 48:18
four, all right. Now I need, and usually, so I don't know what these questions are. I have 100 different 

Kris Keppeler 48:24
four, 

Rich Bennett 48:24
questions, just to let you know. 

Kris Keppeler 48:25
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 48:27
And a good amount of the time. Somehow or another, the questions that my guest picks ends up somehow another corny with what we've been talking about. we're going to see here. 

Kris Keppeler 48:40
Really? 

Rich Bennett 48:40
Wow. Now I need you to pick a number between 61 and 80. 

Kris Keppeler 48:49
72, 

Rich Bennett 48:52
72. All right. So all right. This question has been asked before, but it's still a good 

Kris Keppeler 48:57
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 48:58
question. Oh, I do like this question because it really makes, it makes, it makes you really think. 

Kris Keppeler 49:07
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 49:09
If you could witness any historical event first hand, which one would it be? 

Kris Keppeler 49:25
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 49:26
Oh. All right. 

Kris Keppeler 49:26
Um, 

Rich Bennett 49:27
usually, usually this even takes me a while, but consider what we've been talking about. I already have something. 

Kris Keppeler 49:32
Oh. Uh, 

I think, uh, the, the first successful launch at Cape Canaveral. 

Rich Bennett 49:49
Yeah. Oh wow. Okay. That, th, that would be fun. I mean, what I was 

Kris Keppeler 49:54
about. 

Rich Bennett 49:55
thinking 

Kris Keppeler 49:55
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 49:57
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I'm just, so I'm tying it to what we've been talking about. And any historical event 

Kris Keppeler 50:03
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 50:03
would I would, that I wish I could be a bit a part of just tying into what we've been telling is to be in the studio when Orson Wells did war of. 

Kris Keppeler 50:16
Oh. 

Yeah. I'm not a big Orson Wells fan. So, but yeah, 

Rich Bennett 50:24
me neither, but I mean, just, 

Kris Keppeler 50:27
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:28
Well, he did over 

Kris Keppeler 50:29
time. 

Rich Bennett 50:30
radio 

Kris Keppeler 50:30
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:30
that 

Kris Keppeler 50:32
Yeah. Was 

Rich Bennett 50:32
you talk about storytelling? 

Kris Keppeler 50:34
Yeah. That was yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:36
He had people believe 

Kris Keppeler 50:38
in, oh yeah, 

Rich Bennett 50:45
oh yeah, that was uh, yes, yeah. Yeah. Either that or even one of FDR's fireside chats. 

Kris Keppeler 50:49
Oh, yeah, that would be yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:52
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think there would be fun. God, there's a lot of them I could think of when it comes to radio. 

Kris Keppeler 50:58
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 50:59
even the old time radio 

Kris Keppeler 51:01
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:01
shows. Watch 'em. 

Yeah. Oh god. Man, now I'm gonna have to go listen to the learn ranger. 

Kris Keppeler 51:10
Oh yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:13
Yeah. 

Kris Keppeler 51:14
When you bring up that kind of thing I think of actual theater actually the first, 

Rich Bennett 51:22
oh 

Kris Keppeler 51:23
yeah, the first performance of the A's stories. 'Cause that 

Rich Bennett 51:27
actually, yeah, oh 

Kris Keppeler 51:29
yeah. He did bring some of those to the stage in the very early 1900s. Yeah. Which people don't 

Rich Bennett 51:37
Yeah, 

Kris Keppeler 51:37
know about. 

Rich Bennett 51:38
you know what? It sounds like we could do a whole another podcast on just the historical recording. 

Kris Keppeler 51:46
Go! 

Rich Bennett 51:49
Yeah. Oh 

Kris Keppeler 51:51
god. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:52
Wow. Chris, I want to thank you so much. Those of you listening especially if you're an aspiring author or if you need any, even businesses that need voice over work. Contact 

Kris Keppeler 52:05
Chris. Yes. 

Rich Bennett 52:06
She's a professional. She's been doing it three years and I'll make I'll make if you want coaching yourself contact her as well. I'll have a link to her website in the shownoods. 

Kris Keppeler 52:17
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:18
But if you're listening right now you don't want to waste your time looking at shownoods. Go to Chriskepler.com. Go! K-R-I-S K-E-P-P-E-L-E-R. 

Kris Keppeler 52:31
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 52:32
Dacom. 

Kris Keppeler 52:32
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 52:33
Chris, thank you so much. 

Kris Keppeler 52:35
Thank you! 

Rich Bennett 52:36
Well, if there's one thing we can all take away from this conversation, is that someone else's opinion doesn't have to become your reality. Chris was told as a teenager that she never learned to sing, yet she built an incredible career around the very thing someone tried to convince her she couldn't do. Along the way, she became an actor, a voice actor, an audiobook narrator, a podcaster, and a storyteller who's helped to bring countless characters and stories to life. Her journey has proved that persistence, curiosity, and a willingness to keep learning can take you places you never imagined. I also loved getting to behind the scenes look at the world of audiobook narration and voice acting. It's easy to think it's just reading words on a page, but Chris reminded us it's really about bringing emotion, personality, and humanity to every story. Whether she's creating the voice of a dragon, an ant-eater, an earthworm, or helping an author find the perfect way to tell their own story, she's showing us that every voice has the power to connect with someone, and I have to admit, I'm still trying to picture what an ant-eater sounds like. I don't know if I'll ever get that image out of my head, but has definitely made this one of the most entertaining conversations I've had in a while. If you're an author thinking about turning your book into an audiobook, if you've ever been curious about voice acting, or if you've ever been holding back on a dream because someone once told you that you couldn't do it. I hope today's conversation gave you the encouragement to keep going anyway. Be sure to check out Chris Kepler, her podcast, and the incredible work she's doing. And I'll have links in the sharing room to make it easy for you to connect with her. Until next time, I'm Rich Bennett. Thanks for listening, and remember, every great conversation starts with someone willing to listen, and someone willing to share, and now it's your turn. Join the conversation by sharing this episode, leave in a comment, or reaching out to me directly. Take care, be kind to one another, and I'll talk with you again soon.