Journey to Freedom: Redefining Life and Career

Join us for a heart-to-heart with the extraordinary Jonathan Lockwood! From mastering voiceovers to finding tranquility in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Jonathan’s journey is all about embracing change. Discover how he transformed his life’s path, from breaking free of restrictive beliefs to living among the beautiful high desert mountains. Packed with wisdom and inspiration, this episode is a must-watch for anyone contemplating a significant life change. Grab your coffee, settle in, and get ready to be inspired!

TIMESTAMP:
02:07 Jonathan Lockwood’s Journey of Reinvention
03:07 Breaking Free from a Cult
08:41 Relocating to Mexico: A New Beginning
11:47 Life in San Miguel de Allende
17:55 Cultural Observations and Reflections
24:37 Recovery and New Beginnings
24:55 Voiceover Clients and Language Challenges
26:02 Journey into Voiceover
31:14 Technological Advancements in Voiceover
36:38 Passion and Gratitude in Voiceover
40:17 Discovering Mezcal
42:36 Advice for Career Transitions and Relocation
46:39 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Emily Bron: Hello, lovely listeners and welcome back to the age of reinvention. Where we uncover the stories and wisdom of those who have dared to transform their lives. Today’s episode is a special treat as we journey into the life of a voice that resonates through countless speakers worldwide. Jonathan Lockwood.

Few have mastered the art of voiceover like Jonathan. And even fewer have lived to completely reinvent their lives. In the foreign land. Today, Jonathan, a Michigan native, joins us from his stunning home studio in the high desert mountains of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. From the bustling a stateside urban life in the different U.

S. states to serene Mexican retreats, his relocation story is about embracing new cultures, finding new rhythms, and rediscovering passions in a new setting. So grab your coffee, settle in, and dive into this exclusive insight Into taking both steps toward personal and professional fulfillment. Hello, Jonathan.

Happy to have you in my studio.

Jonathan Lockwood: Hello, Emily. Pleasure to be here.

Emily Bron: Thank you. Thank you. And I would just jump to the main question which I believe will get the Good start to our conversation. You reinvented yourself several times during your lifespan. First by relocating. Secondly, professionally by being mobile and working remotely long before it became the well known trend and sort by rediscovering the, your own world spiritually at age of 38 and finding your own way to freedom and authenticity.

Where did you find the internal power and courage to start the new life chapters?

Jonathan Lockwood: I can’t see how I will answer that without talking about the kind of elephant in the room when it comes to reinvention life shift. And that was coming to realize that the religious organization I had been born into, I was in the third generation of it.

That wasn’t what it purported to be. It was, for lack of a better term, it was a cult. It was an apocalyptic religious cult. And I’m not interested in interfering with others who remain in that organization. But when I came to realize, and I remember the day it was September 15th, 2004, I was at that time, 38 years old, and I just couldn’t believe it.

It took me a while to comprehend and begin to wonder how did this happen to my entire family all of these years? So it was very difficult. I didn’t know what to do. I thought I would just fade. As others had done move away and just ease away from everyone. But I’ve, and I did do that. I moved to Southern California with my daughter who was 17 at the time.

And that was in 2005. And but I just couldn’t, my mom would call me up and start asking me questions, are you no longer going, to the meetings and all that. And I finally had to tell her, look, you do you, but this is not what it claims to be. I’m quite certain of it. And I can’t continue to pretend it is what it claims to be.

So that wasn’t easy. At the same time, it’s been 20 years this year. I’m thinking about having a party. As difficult as it is, I tend not to write about it as much as I used to, because in the past, when I would write, I would say, this is the best and most important thing that has ever happened to me.

It’s amazing. It’s wonderful. And yet people would come in all the time and it would particularly be older women. I noticed they would always say, Oh, the pain, the sorrow. I’m like, did you read what I wrote? You know, I mean, I understand they’re trying to be nice, of course. But it was a wonderful experience, not only waking up.

But experiencing what it’s like to live in a completely different world where up is down and down is up and you do what you’re told and you don’t engage in independent thinking, Oh, never do that. And to move away from that and start putting together an authentic life. And so I did that. It took some time and it’s been 20 years now.

My parents, unless something has happened recently are still alive. My mom is. 90, I believe my dad will soon be 92, but they will not see or speak to me. Not for any bad thing I did, but just because I admitted, I don’t believe this organization is the sole channel of communication from the almighty creator of the universe to planet earth.

That is a pretty extraordinary claim. I think. So because of that, I’m now in the prostate and they won’t talk to me, but it’s okay, I’m living a great life now and I’m a better

Emily Bron: boy. I understand that it was not so easy for you over all this period of time. As even now. After 20 years speaking about it you’re full of emotions and it’s all understandable and acceptable.

And I really commend you for this.

Jonathan Lockwood: Emotion is joy, Emily.

Emily Bron: Absolutely. Absolutely. I am, I fully agree with you. And but I believe it was some power inside you, or maybe a desire to be authentic to yourself and this desire for freedom to be I don’t know, aligned with your values and your values as a human.

Are not less valuable if you are not part of the some religious congregation, I would say, and but I believe that it’s really probably shaped all of your life, your internal flame or maybe questions about, important things in life, but I leave it to you. Thank you very much for sharing it.

Or maybe you can add something in this regard, because I’m still amazed by people who, there are many people living under a similar condition, even in similar say, congregation. And I understand the hardship of your parents, being parent myself and you are parent. But. With all this, some people really dare to transcend, dare to get out of.

What do you think is a secret here?

Jonathan Lockwood: It’s a good question. A lot of people ask me that question. And they look on with a type of awe as I’m speaking, like they just can’t picture it. And I get that. I will share with you. I was not cut out to be a dissident. I really wasn’t. I was more of a person who went along.

I would just say that clearly I proved to be something other than I thought I was because for me, it did not seem like I had a choice. What am I going to do? Continue? Living in this silly world where I’m pretending that something is true, but is it, I guess some people do that. I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t imagine myself doing it. So I didn’t feel I had a choice.

Emily Bron: Interesting. Okay. Let’s move to your next reinvention adventure. I would say you made significant life steps. Style change by moving from the United States to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. First of all, what inspired this move?

And how has living in the high desert mountain city with cultural significance influenced your personal and professional creation? And why you selected Mexico in the first place?

Jonathan Lockwood: Okay. Yeah, I can talk to that. I think. So it was about 2005 when I was leaving Flint, Michigan, that’s where I was living and I had lived in Michigan all my life.

So I was 39 in 2005. My daughter was really interested in moving to Southern California. I had decided to move there. Again, originally just to hide, to fade away from the situation I just described. I was a little concerned about all of the clients I had in my local market there in Southeastern Michigan, would it be out of sight, out of mind?

If I just moved, but it proved not to be, that was the non issue. The first client I remember who called me after I moved to California, he said, Hey, Jonathan, I’ve got a couple of scripts for you. Can you take care of those in the next day or so? And I said, yeah. And I said, I’m not living in Michigan anymore.

I moved to Southern California. And he said, Oh, great. He said Can you do the scripts? What did it matter? It just took a while for me to realize that it wouldn’t matter, and so it was the idea that you could do this from just about anywhere. But inspired the idea that maybe I might do this from just about anywhere.

Moved to Southern California was disillusioned at that time about what you could buy as far as real estate. It was just insane. So I had a number of friends living in Phoenix who said, Hey, come here. A much better deal. And I did bought a house there, put in a pool, was living a great life. But, there came a time when I realized maybe I could live someplace really cool and I decided not only just because I was born into that religion, must I continue?

There is no reason just because I was born in the United States that I’m obligated to stay. Maybe my life could be a bit more adventurous. Maybe I could live someplace interesting. So it appealed to me and I had three spots on my list. The criteria for me had to do weather was a big one. I like warm. I do not like crazy, hot, humid.

Ooh did not like that. So number one on my list was central Chile. There were some people looking at building a kind of a thing there, a sort of a community, and I went there for a few weeks in early 2013, liked it. But they really were not ready to move forward with this. And I’m grateful. I saw that because I didn’t buy into it and all blew up and a lot of people lost a lot of money.

So I’m very grateful for that. Second place on my list was San Miguel de Allende. Third place was New Zealand, but I enjoyed San Miguel so much. That I never made it to New Zealand, and I’m grateful for that. The reason the weather is quite beautiful, to my way of thinking. I think most people enjoy the weather here.

It, I guess the Centro area is about 6, 200 feet above sea level. Where I am, I’m a little bit further up into the mountains. It’s more like 6, 800. Feet above sea level. So people generally from the U S have this impression of Mexico as being very hot. In fact, I often have this conversation with people.

You wouldn’t believe how often this happened.

Emily Bron: I believe because I’ve had similar conversation about Mexico and I know the region that I’ve been in San Miguel de Allende, I personally selected for myself Curatora, the next state. But I’ve had the same questions and. Concerns about crime and humidity.

Jonathan Lockwood: There’s that, but this is the funny one. This happens even sooner than that. They say, so where are you in Mexico? And I say, I am in the high desert mountains of central Mexico. And they’ll say, so by the beach then? People don’t know geographies. Sorry. What about, I guess Americans in general think of Mexico as these Towns, and they’re lovely, but no, I live right in the center of the country, up in the mountains.

It is nice and warm. We do have a rainy season, which is about to come on right now. We also have a winter. So that winter is really a, maybe three months, starts December, January. By the end of February, it usually starts warming up again, but there is no month in the year where the average high temperature is Is below about 73 Fahrenheit, nor above about 86, 87 Fahrenheit on average.

So I like that sleeping weather most of the year, it is, between about 53 and 63 at night in the winter, it will get colder down into the forties, sometimes even a high thirties, but that weather works great for me. I love it. It’s also a town that. People ask a lot about, are there cultural tensions because it is a big expat town, and the reality is no one is alive right now who remembers a time when this town wasn’t full of Mexicans and Americans and Canadians and Europeans guy came here in the late thirties, early forties to start an art university, and he did that.

And so after world war II, a lot of returning soldiers Accepted the GI bill that would pay for their college. And they came here to San Miguel. And that was what kind of began the proliferation of expats into San Miguel. As a result, you’ve got all, it’s one of the early Spanish colonial cities. So it’s just gorgeous.

You’ve got the narrow cobblestone streets in Centro, the Gothic churches, the beautifully manicured trees in the Hardeen and the city center. But you’ve also got, because of all of the people moving from everywhere, which does include a lot of Democrats, but does include a lot of. People from Mexico city and Guadalajara, if you’re not moving here and buying property here they’re coming here for their weekends off because it’s, this town is held as gear for its role in the the Mexican revolution and stuff.

You’ve got that as a result, there’s all of these amazing restaurants and nightclubs and art galleries and just things like that. That one might not think they would find in a town of this size. So I loved it right from the beginning. And so I never went anywhere else. I moved here. It’s been exactly 10 years this month that I moved here and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.

Emily Bron: Congratulations. I’m happy to hear about it. And how is your Spanish at this point? After living in San Miguel de Allende, I know it can be challenging because of a big English speaking

Jonathan Lockwood: community. No muy bueno. It’s my restaurant Spanish is great. It’s, I remember one of the first experiences I had been doing the Pimsleur method, listening to Spanish and I was really practicing and I was renting a house at that time and standing out, waiting for the taxi to come.

I could see him coming up and I thought, okay, I’m gonna get this right. I hop in the back of the taxi and I’m like, when?

And he just turned around and he said, where do you wanna go? This is incredibly common here. I’m not going to say 100 percent of the Mexican population speaks English, but I’m going to say probably 35 or 40 percent are fluent and another 30 percent or more can speak English better than I can speak Spanish, probably in most cases.

It’s interesting you should mention that does create a situation in which you don’t feel an extraordinary incentive to speak Spanish. Because everybody speaks English here, or almost everybody. But just about five, six months ago, we hired a Spanish teacher who comes to my house twice a week.

And we’re working our way through the lessons and I’m determined to improve because I should.

Emily Bron: There is your invention, latest reinvention, finally to speak Spanish in the country you are living. And probably became already citizen I assume.

Jonathan Lockwood: No, not a citizen. I’ve been a permanent resident though, for many years.

I, I came here as a temporary resident and I think about six years or so ago, I became a permanent resident.

Emily Bron: No, but it’s a courageous step. And I know that it’s not easy. I myself relocated several times to the country with completely new language and culture. And I understand that it’s not easiest.

Especially being after 50 but I’m interested in your cultural observation as a U. S. citizen living in Mexico for 10 years already. I read a couple of your articles, but it was a while ago. And since then, after COVID and latest changes, I believe you probably have new observations that you can share with us.

Jonathan Lockwood: Sure. I’ve had more chance to reflect on them since maybe I wrote some of those early articles, but they are basically the same. I lead off when people ask me this question with, I love it here. I like it. I like living here better than I do the United States, which is no condemnation of the U S I like it here better.

That said, I’m not going to be there. There tends to be among expats here. A kind of a competition. It’s a weird competition. The competition is to prove oneself more culturally sensitive than the next gringo. And it takes a weird form every now and then, I’ve lived, I lived in the United States until I was 48 years old.

And, I know that most people in the United States don’t like really loud music. If people were partying really loud or blowing off fireworks all hours of the night. That would be considered rude. Okay. That is something that happens here a lot. It is a very loud. Country is certainly a loud city, San Miguel is, and the reality is you do have to adjust to it.

It is the culture here. We have the responsibility to adjust to it, but someone new will come and go on a local message board and say something like, Oh, those fireworks were huge last night, four in the morning, really? What what do you guys do to sleep through that? And. And, of course, a lot of people are level headed and kind, and they give them recommendations.

But there seem to be some who seize upon this opportunity. When I moved to the humble land of Mexico, I knew there would be changes to make, unlike you! Why don’t you move back to your blessed Canada, where everything is pretty? I it’s bizarre. But they’re trying to compete. To prove themselves more culturally sensitive or more Mexican ish than the average gringo or something.

I don’t like that one, but as far as Mexican, Mexicans are not like that or a precious few are anyway. With Mexicans, the thing is you’ll always hear. It is a non confrontational society. And I’d say that’s certainly true. And that can be nice. You can count on nobody jumping in your face or getting too aggressive with you, which I like, but,

Emily Bron: And they’re very polite.

Actually, I found very polite in these friends, this family, and even with strangers.

Jonathan Lockwood: Yeah, it is. I would say, and obviously you can’t. Paint any group of people with a broad brush, but generally speaking, that is absolutely true. There is at some point you realize it’s so non confrontational.

That a lot of people are just not honest sometimes, when they’re in a situation where they might have to say no, and they don’t want to say no, and you’re perfectly happy with them saying no, say no, if the answer is no. Now all of these things are funny, most of the time, until you start building a house.

Or creating a business or something here as some of my friends have, then it gets really frustrating because sometimes their interest in not being confrontational does just mean they’ll lie. And it’s just, again, you, we, I come from a culture. In which if I lied at work, my boss would say, what are you talking about?

And I would get in trouble. They would call me out on it. I’ve determined here. My wife is from Mexico too. I’ve determined here, and this may be true, that it’s not necessarily considered rude to lie. In Mexico. But what is rude is calling someone out on the line. Be careful. My wife knows that the person is lying to us.

I know. And I’m like then come on. And she’s no. Don’t say anything. Okay. I’ve learned to navigate this pretty well. I think. I am not saying that people in Mexico lie more than people in other countries. They’re just polite. They’re just

Emily Bron: afraid to say no, or really get to confrontation.

I’ve had similar experience and I’m Westerner from this point of view.

Jonathan Lockwood: And let’s be honest and say, sometimes you’re not getting the straight story sometimes because of their interest in being kind and polite. And non confrontational. So that is something you have to adjust to.

This town is, it’s great for us. We love it here. My, my wife is originally from Torreon Coahuila, which is a rather large town in the North of Mexico. She moved here a few years before I did. And I met her here. We both love it. It’s we live out in the country, built a house out here, moved in about six and a half years ago.

And so we don’t have as big a problem as many do living in Centro and in other crowded areas with the fireworks that blow off at four or five in the morning. We get them, but they’re a little more in the distance. We love where we live. We have lots of friends, both both people from the U S and Canada and Europe and Asia and lots of Mexicans.

And we, it’s, getting more and more crowded. We drive into Centro when we go in less often than we used to. We usually drive up to the local mall, which is really close to us. They’ve got a big parking lot and there are always taxis there. And we’ll taxi into Centro and get a taxi back there.

But it’s home now, it’s been 10 years. I might be missing some of the things that are different from the U. S.

Emily Bron: And there is a really big art, cultural ambience of this place. I think there’s always something going on. I remember looking on San Miguel local newspaper or meaning online. And the festivals and exhibitions, and I don’t know, reading and some performances.

And even at COVID time, it was a little bit, and I believe now it’s flourishing again.

Jonathan Lockwood: Yeah, it’s true. It’s it’s great. Things appear to have recovered. Unfortunately, lots of businesses in a way that it appears won’t be heard from again. That’s unfortunate. But yeah, but yeah, it’s things seem to be rocking pretty well now.

There’s a bunch of new restaurants and bars and galleries and stuff. And so do you have some Mexican clients, voiceover clients? Yes. I do. I’m going to say two thirds of my clients are in the U S and the other third are from all over the world. Sometimes people hire me to do voiceovers occasionally.

Finally, they will ask me if I. We’ll do something in Spanish and I’ll tell them, you really don’t want that. I can do it. It’s not going to sound authentic. I did one time, somebody demanded that I do their, their it was like an on hold system, but it was very brief and I worked on it really hard with my wife to make sure it sounded right and I did that.

What more often than that, though, what I’m hired to do is a Mexican company will want me to do say a corporate video for them, and I’ll They want it to be an American speaking English, but they want me to pronounce the company name and maybe certain cities and a term or two here and there. They want to make sure I’m pronouncing that properly in Spanish, and I’m certainly able to do that.

Emily Bron: Okay. And just to a little bit, just discover for our listeners. What you are doing. I need to say is that Jonathan had an extensive and successful career as a voiceover artist. And could you tell us what initially drew you to this? This voiceover industry and how you began your journey in this professional field.

Jonathan Lockwood: I started working in radio when I was 17 in my high school. They used to have it was a forensic speaking competition in one of the divisions, the categories within it was called radio news. So I entered that and did well. I would go to the state competition and. And then it, I started getting the idea, maybe I could work at a radio stations.

So there were a couple of local radio stations in my tiny town of East Dallas, Michigan, where I grew up. And I made a little tape of myself on my parents, little tape recorder of, do reading the news. And they told me throw a commercial or two on there. So I made that up. And so they hired me when I was 17, I was working in radio.

I ended up working in radio until I was 32. So I worked in radio for 15 years. You soon learn after getting a job that it’s not just reading the news or playing music. Part of your job is doing commercials for local businesses. And so I began to do that by the time I was about 19. I started to notice that another station I was working at later the sales people would often request me to do the voice of the commercial, and, that was nice by the time I was. 20 or 21, I was working at a station in Saginaw, Michigan. And some of the older guys would say, you’re good at commercials, at voiceovers, and I’d say, Oh, thank you. No, you’re good at this. And that led to the first

Emily Bron: And no special training, not special acting or voice training as many artists actually

Jonathan Lockwood: No, I just had an ear for it and that’s why, this term, they used to call it voice talent.

I always felt uncomfortable saying that when somebody asked you, what do you do for a living? I’m a voice talent. I’m talented, and then so people use the word voice actor and I’m like, that’s reaching a little bit, isn’t it? Actor. But the truth is it does for some of the more successful voiceover people.

It does come down to an acting ability. When somebody is directing you, you have to be able to hear what they’re telling you to do. Before you can do what they’re telling you to do. And I’m somebody who’s pretty good at being able to do that. And some people I know from trying to direct others for many years, just can’t do it.

You tell them to do this and they do something else, so that was something apparently I was good at, but the first time I got a call, I was doing overnights at a radio station in Spagano, Michigan. And so I would sleep from maybe 6, 6 30 AM until one or so in the afternoon. I had an old high school friend who used to call me up knowing that just to wake me up and cause me trouble, and so my phone rang at about 9 AM and I picked it up and. It was like this rich Italian voice, and he was saying, Hello, is this Jonathan Lockwood? And I was like, I just knew this was my friend. I said, Yes, this is Jonathan Lockwood. Who is this? And it wasn’t my friend. It was the Italian owner of a local production company there.

And I was so embarrassed. I said, I’m so sorry. I thought you were my friend. Anyway, he was okay with it. And he hired me to do my first voiceover outside of the radio station itself. So that’s how that happened. And then shortly thereafter, I was really ambitious during those years. Sending out a lot of demo tapes, even when they were on cassettes.

And and getting voiceover work that way. And I would slowly accumulate clients. I would not long after move to Flint, Michigan and become a program director, excuse me, a production director of a group of stations in Flint. And more and more people hired me. And eventually I had so many regular clients.

I was able to leave my job as production director. And just focus on voiceovers. I had a marketing agency for a time there too, which I left behind not many years in the story. I guess what I would say is what attracted me to it was, I guess your question is, I seemed to be good at it. Other people told me I was good at it.

Other people were willing to hire me to do it. And it appealed to me, the idea, even back then that maybe I could do this remotely. I wasn’t sure how that would play out. Very interesting to see how technologically things unfolded in that regard. But I think that was another appeal to me.

Emily Bron: Obviously, latest trends we’re working just to prove your earlier work in this direction.

And yes I wanted to ask you if, and how technological advancements and working remotely shifted or impacted your career. Especially when you are now living in Mexico, but I understand interacting with clients globally. Did you change something in this regard or you were already just picking up new technology?

Jonathan Lockwood: Sure. The basic fundamentals of my studio here are not different than they were when I was in Arizona, which is where I was living before I moved here. but what I can say is there was extraordinary technological development over the years. For instance, I can remember in the early 1990s, so this would have been probably 31, 32 years ago.

I was trying to price. What it would cost to put together a studio. And at that time, everything was analog, it was tape. So there were reel to reel machine. you almost always had a big mixer, to route everything to where it needed to go. It was, that was the way things work. And I think at that time, I remember putting together a bare bones, basic studio, Was going to be about 12 or $13,000. Which in today’s money would be well over $20,000.

that was a lot of money for me back then when I was in my early twenties. So then comes digital audio, digit audio, recording and editing, and it changed everything. At some point you saw that you really didn’t need a mixer. That took me a long time to get my head around. And so the equipment necessary in order to have a studio just kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller.

Also, I discovered in the nineties, there was a technology coming out using an ISDN phone line. I can’t remember what that stands for, but it was a certain type of phone line. And people had created a technology whereby. In fact, I think it was, George Lucas who helped pioneer this, he would complete a movie and need actors to do a few lines that he had to replace, and they’d be in Paris or something.

So he wanted to create this technology that no matter where they are, he could get really high quality audio going over. This sort of phone line, and eventually I would have one of those things, but it wouldn’t be too long before they would create the technology that would do this simply over the internet.

So we have that now, and it doesn’t require any special expensive phone line going into my house and going out of it. There was that, there was moving into digital, there was. That whole idea, when I first put together my initial mobile studio, it was still huge, absolutely enormous by today’s standards.

And now it’s quite small actually. And I’m grateful for that. , Yeah, when I talk about remote, I really don’t use them much because I’m not a huge traveler anymore. we go to Oaxaca every year on a sort of a Mezcal adventure. and you know, I’m going to, in a couple of months, I’m going back to Michigan for my 40th high school reunion.

I’ll be bringing it then and so it’s really nice to be able to have, because your clients generally expect you to be available most of the time, and one of those things that, that rubs people the wrong way a bit, because they’re like, you’re on vacation, no, you can’t do it. And you could do that. But,

I’ll show people, we went to Oaxaca last year and I set up my studio and they were like, Oh, why are you even doing this in about an hour and 40 minutes? I made the money that probably almost paid for the whole vacation and I was done. So most of what I do doesn’t require a lot of time in the studio, which makes it really attractive to have a mobile studio because half the time what you’re doing takes 20 minutes and you’re done,

so that further incentivizes you, I think, to have a mobile setup. So I do have that, that’s not my studio that I’m working out of here in San Miguel.

Emily Bron: But opportunities to connect with people as we are speaking now, and this network with business owners all over the world, I think this one is amazing. And it’s really what’s fueling your business.

Jonathan Lockwood: That’s the internet. And because most of these clients do not necessarily need to connect with me in real time to coach me. Some people do that. I actually like it when they do that, because then there’s no question when we’re finished, but they like what we did.

But most of my clients, especially those that I’ve been working with for some time, they send the script. They just want me to do it. So now what you have is the internet, which is certainly reduced the the world to a much smaller place. So people all over the world and Asia and Europe and Africa and South America, everywhere.

Will contact me. What surprises me is how many of them for some reason wanted American voice talent, and I never would have guessed that, but sometimes they really do. So I’m grateful for that as well.

Emily Bron: So listening to you, I’m just thinking that after decades of voiceover business, How do you keep your passion burning and you deliver the fresh and engaging, promos and performances?

You’re even playing with me now. Again, what’s this internal flame in you?

Jonathan Lockwood: Look, I, I saw your question. It would have been nice for me to tell you in advance. I have no penchant for voiceover. Okay. Being honest here. I know it would be nice, right? If we were all being nice and sweet. I really don’t.

What I have is a gratitude for having found voiceovers, for having discovered that I appear to have the ability to work in this space. And I’m eternally grateful. I’m not really very passionate about it. And when I started doing interviews like this, people would say that, and I’d say, Oh yeah, and then I’d realize you’re not being honest.

I assume you want me to be honest here. I’m grateful for voiceovers. There are times when I get a client. Who knows what they’re doing and really puts together a great project. Let me share this. You go back 30 years ago and the people who, for instance, would hire voice talent, maybe they had big video production studios.

These people were extremely experienced because the barrier to entry in that world has gone down remarkably for a very small amount of money. You can have an amazing set of video tools and kids in their basement are making tremendous, beautiful stuff. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have the discipline, or the background to know how you do things, and that’s fine.

They learn. Sometimes, but for instance, somebody will hear something I did. It’s a beautiful, slow, thoughtful, moody, reflective voiceover. And they’re like, Oh my God, I want that. Okay. And they send me a script and tell me, I need this in a minute and 45 seconds. And I’m like, that’s double the amount of words.

That you need in order to get that beautiful, slow, thoughtful style that you’re looking for. This doesn’t register with 70 percent of the people I share with that. They just imagine that they can give me a script of any size and compare it to something I’ve done. And imagine it’ll all just work out swimmingly, no matter what time.

So what I’m saying is a lot of times I find people who understand what I just described to you. And they give me a beautiful script. And the time to make it work in the way that they want. And they do a beautiful job with the video and I do very much enjoy. Having participated in that and having the final product of it.

I can say that, but I would also have to say that’s a minimum of the stuff that I do. Most stuff is is fine, certainly, but I don’t really think about what I’m doing. I’m enough of a professional to know that I want to serve the client. I want to give them what it is that they want.

And if I don’t give them what they want, they’re not going to be happy and come back to me. So that’s all the incentive I need to do my level professional best to give them what they want.

Emily Bron: Okay. Looking into the future, what dreams or projects you are still excited about in your voiceover or maybe any other career?

Jonathan Lockwood: I, one of the things that happened to me when I moved to Mexico within just a couple of weeks is I discovered artisanal mezcal. And what’s weird about it is I never was a drinker of spirits. I drank red wine or craft brewed beer. But I discovered this crazy spirit that was just full of all this earthiness and dynamism and beauty.

And I could not believe what I was drinking. And so a young friend of mine invited me down to Oaxaca and we went out way out into the compound way out into the country where these families were making this spirit in the same way, largely, they were making it three or 400 years ago. And I stood there in awe of this.

And I said, this. Is a thing. This is a whole new thing. And so I started going back regularly and I do that now and I bring a lot of it back and I share it with my friends. And it’s an absolutely delightful thing that I do. We created a little documentary. It’s a 50 minute documentary on my YouTube channel, just called Mescal Hunt, which for people who are really into Mescal would probably be very interesting for people who are not.

Really what it comes down to is about 70 percent of it is me standing there with the Mescalero with the horses in the background and just taking going, Oh God, that’s good. Ooh, beautiful. It gets a little old after a while. But we did get the attention of some people, a producer and a director who are considering possibly working with me to create something like this on a professional level.

Can’t really get into all of the information. Don’t really know if it’s all going to pan out. I will say they think it’s going to pan out. So I hope it does. And we’ll see how that goes. That, Emily, will be something I will be passionate about.

Emily Bron: I will be following. I would be following you, but actually I’m more for tequila, but I need to learn about mezcal as well.

Jonathan Lockwood: Well, tequila is a type of mezcal that distinguished itself in the seventies. Yeah.

Emily Bron: And by the way, it’s the only drink. I say drink, not a period, which I don’t have headache after. That’s why it’s outstanding for me.

Jonathan Lockwood: Same with Mezcal. Yep.

Emily Bron: So many of our listeners are professionals over 50 years old, and they contemplating a significant career change maybe relocation, maybe reinventing their professional lives.

What advice would you give to someone looking to make a transition to the new business direction?

Jonathan Lockwood: New business direction. That’s a tough one, especially as you get older. I will share that. After the COVID period commenced, I lost a lot of business. I’m grateful that it was as good as it was.

So it was nothing devastating, but it was, it certainly affected us, and I found that what I believe would have been much easier when I was younger. It was just so difficult to move forward, to put one foot in front of the other, to discover new ways of marketing my services and things like that.

And so for instance, let’s say I do transition to another type of career in the vein of what I was just sharing with you. I’m going to do it because enough people believe in me to potentially invest in something like that. Just like enough people believed in me as a voice talent. To give me the confidence that I need to move forward.

And I guess what it comes down to, just like what I said before regarding what do I do? Okay. I’m in this spot. I’m in a pretty good spot in this religious organization with this family, and I come to realize it isn’t true. It isn’t what it claims to be. I could continue. I didn’t see any future in that.

I didn’t see any happiness in that. I didn’t want to ruin anything for anyone else. But I didn’t feel I had a choice. So I would say it would depend on the position that the people that you’re describing find themselves in. Are they in something that’s already really thriving and good and isn’t necessarily problematic?

Maybe it’s smartest to stick with it.

Emily Bron: But you are about to start your new project investing in Mescal. So I see you in the future really turning to this direction, which actually different business. Maybe it’s passion for now, which turned to be business,

Jonathan Lockwood: right? Yes. And so that’s what I was talking about earlier.

It may well happen. And I find myself really passionate about it. When you meet these guys and women too, there’s a lot of women involved in this as well. When you learn about all of the different agaves. And the manner in which they make it and they make it all in different ways. They have, the different profiles of these miscellaneous, the character in them.

It’s so remarkable. It’s difficult to explain in that little documentary. There’s a moment where I’m, I’d had a few mescals that day and we were a little lost. And so the guy turned on the camera and he was like, Jonathan, he just say something. And I said, this is weird, but mescal changed my life.

It sounds silly. It doesn’t make any sense. How could an alcoholic beverage change your life? I really don’t know, but somehow it seems to have. I’m really passionate about learning more about it. And I learn more and more every day. It’s funny. People call me an expert wherever I go. This is an expert. It’s just, I kept drinking it.

And one day people start calling you an expert, but sincerely, you impress people. Look, you’re

Emily Bron: living in magical city, Puebla Magica, and you are dealing now with magical drink, which is mezcal. So it’s all come together.

Jonathan Lockwood: So anyway, it’s been great for me. I’ve been grateful to have found it to have also to move to San Miguel de Allende.

I love it here. I love living among Mexican people. I look forward to an improved level of Spanish as well, as I continue with my lessons and continue to be grateful that I fell into this world of voiceovers that gives me the opportunity to make a nice income and support my family well.

Emily Bron: It’s very important to be grateful.

I believe for each of us. And the last question, golden nugget for of advice for those people who looking to relocate to Mexico, maybe as a country being after 50 for the better quality of life for retirement. What?

Jonathan Lockwood: There are so many places that you could go. Asia is offering a lot of opportunity.

At the same time for me, I knew it wasn’t going to be Asia because almost all of the areas where I was considering years ago are super, super humid. And Johnny doesn’t do that. But if there are some people who actually seem to like it or they don’t mind it, good for them. In the end, it will involve going there, of course.

And not just going for a visit. My opinion is you never want to go and just buy a property there. Go and live there. Give yourself some time, get the lay of the land, come to understand the various neighborhoods, the ins and the outs, make friends, talk to people, not only expats, but also the locals.

And try to come to understand where you are. Then you will be in a position to know, number one, is this the place for me? Number two, how shall I start my life?

Emily Bron: Thank you very much. Very valuable advice, which I mostly share with people about Mexico and about every country as well. And I’m really grateful to you for our conversation, for your time, listening to your voice and tuning to your dreams.

Thank you so much. Let’s be in touch and thank you very much again.

Jonathan Lockwood: Thank you, Emily. Pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

Emily Bron: Bye.

And that, dear friends, wraps up our heartening chat with incredible Jonathan Lockwood. What a journey. From the vibrant heart of radio to the tranquil beauty of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, his story is a lovely reminder that it’s never too late to redefine our environments and ourselves. Whether you dream you are quiet retreat, buzzing city life or anything in between, remember reinvention is just a step away.

Are you inspired by Jonathan’s thoughts to share about reinventing journey? We’ll love to hear from you. Reach out or comment. This community thrives on you inspiring stories. Keep tuning in for more Tales of Transformation. And until next time, keep embracing the adventure of life. Remember, the path of reinvention is only a decision away.

Take care and see you on the following Age of Reinvention episode.

Jonathan Lockwood

American Voiceover Artist Living in Mexico

Jonathan, a seasoned Voiceover Talent who found a unique way to blend work and adventure. Trading the traditional studio for the high-desert mountains of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Jonathan brings a polished American voice to your projects from an inspiring location. Working from a state-of-the-art studio equipped with Sennheiser 416 and Neumann TLM103 microphones, Jonathan ensures top-notch quality for every recording. He offers seamless connectivity through Source Connect and phone patch. Experience the perfect blend of professionalism and authenticity with Jonathan’s voiceover services. Let’s make your project stand out with a voice that’s both familiar and exceptional.

Quest for Liberation: Reshaping Life and Career Paths

Welcome back, dear readers, to “The Age of Reinvention.” Today, we have a delightful treat for you—a peek into Jonathan Lockwood’s transformative journey. Jonathan is not only a master of voiceovers but also a life reinventor extraordinaire. His story is a testament to the incredible resilience and adaptability of the human spirit. Let’s dive in!

Embracing Change: Jonathan’s Early Life and Spiritual Transformation

Jonathan’s journey of reinvention began with a significant spiritual and personal shift. Born and raised in Michigan, he grew up as the third generation member of the Jehovah’s Witness community, as he was defined later, “ in an apocalyptic religious cult.”

However, at age 38, he realized that the organization wasn’t what it claimed to be. The decision to leave was difficult and meant severing ties with his family. His courage to pursue authenticity set the stage for other significant changes in his life.

Jonathan relocated to Southern California with his daughter. This move marked the beginning of a new chapter—one where he could start anew personally and professionally.

Relocating to Mexico: Finding a New Home in San Miguel de Allende

In 2005, Jonathan made another bold move—the switch from the United States to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This picturesque high desert mountain city captivated him with its beautiful weather, rich culture, and vibrant expat community. Jonathan’s relocation story is one of embracing new cultures and rhythms and rediscovering passions.

San Miguel de Allende turned out to be the perfect setting. Known for its artistic ambiance, beautiful scenery, and a blend of different cultures, it provided Jonathan with endless inspiration for his work. He’s lived there for a decade now and can’t imagine being elsewhere.

Keeping the Passion Alive in Voiceover Work

Jonathan’s voiceover career started when he was just 17, working at a local radio station. Over the years, he honed his skills, accumulated clients, and eventually transitioned to a full-time voiceover artist. But how does one keep the passion burning after decades in the business?

For Jonathan, it’s all about gratitude and professionalism. While he may not describe himself as passionate about voiceovers, he is immensely grateful for the opportunities it has provided. His ability to deliver high-quality work consistently comes from a desire to serve his clients and meet their needs effectively.

Technological advancements over the years have also significantly made his job easier and more exciting. From analog to digital recording and now the possibility of working remotely with clients worldwide, Jonathan has embraced these changes and adapted seamlessly.

Discovering a New Passion: The Magic of Mescal

While voiceovers have been a steady part of his professional life, Jonathan discovered a new passion after moving to Mexico—mescal. This traditional Mexican spirit captivated him with its earthy flavours and rich cultural heritage. He even created a documentary titled “Mescal Hunt,” exploring the intricate craftsmanship behind it.

Jonathan describes mescal as life-changing. His deep interest has led to opportunities to work on more professional projects related to mescal, which he finds incredibly exciting.

Advice for Those Looking to Reinvent Themselves

Jonathan’s journey offers valuable lessons for anyone looking to reinvent themselves, particularly those over 50 considering significant life changes.

1. Take Your Time: If contemplating a relocation, spend considerable time in the new place before making any permanent decisions. Understand the culture, interact with locals, and get the lay of the land.

2. Embrace Professional Changes: Technological advancements have made it easier to work remotely across various industries. Be open to learning and adapting to new tools that can facilitate your career.

3. Follow Your Curiosity: Discovering new passions can be incredibly fulfilling. Whether it’s a new hobby, career, or place to live, allow yourself to explore and see where it leads.

4. Stay Grateful: Maintaining a sense of gratitude can help you navigate the toughest changes and keep you grounded.
   
   

Conclusion

Jonathan Lockwood’s story of reinvention—from his spiritual awakening to his relocation and new-found passions—is a powerful reminder that it’s never too late to transform your life. His journey encourages us to embrace change, seek authenticity, and remain adaptable. As we follow Jonathan’s ventures, including his intriguing mescal projects, we are reminded of the endless possibilities of daring to reinvent oneself.