how do these things happen?

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A couple of people who were so very kind to offer congrats on my latest national voice over job also asked me how the job came about.

When I explained that a virtuoso voice talent like me is world renowned for my vocal prowess and constantly chased by all the famous voice over producers to voice their projects and that it’s actually less common for me not to be doing 10-12 national spots a day so this job really wasn’t so uncommon…they uttered a word akin to cow dung.

True enough 🙂

The story of how this spot came about actually struck me as a bit humorous because I kind of ignored the call when it came in. Arrogance, thy name is Peter. Or is it idiot?

Correct either way I suppose.

It was a Monday evening and I was at a networking dinner with my fellow members of Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives. During the cocktail hour I was speaking with my friend Julie Waldron who owns Pro Forma Total Business and who was a new member to the association.

My new i-phone (which I am still loving by the way) buzzed in with a call but there wasn’t a name associated with the number that popped up on the screen. In any event, I tried to answer the call in the hotel ballroom but either I missed the call or it dropped out because of where I was in the room. It went to voice mail and I went back the cocktail hour figuring I would check it later.

Well the call was from one of my agents at Big Fish Voice Company at a phone number different than what’s programmed in my phone (I find that happens a lot…folks must be playing the “phone extension” game, I guess). And she did leave a message which I didn’t pick up because I was networking.

My Big Fish agent (thinking about that…shouldn’t I just call her “shark”…you know, in a good way) called back again and started referencing information from her voice mail expecting that I’d listened to it (I should have I suppose but there were hors d’oeuvres and stuff). So we had a fun little phone dance in which I sounded a bit like a lobotomy patient (who? what? when? who?!) until I finally understood what she was talking about.

Dates, times and studio session confirmed, I recorded the ISDN session on Wednesday and off it went to radio around the country. Total session time for the :60 spot – about 20 minutes.

Had I auditioned for the spot? Nope. This is a wonderful example of an agent who knows her business. She submitted demos to the client, based on their specs and discussed the benefits of each voice. There was not a cattle call. This time, I won and I am sure there are times when I have not. To me the point is less about the win and more about the process which includes an agent who encourages a dialogue with clients, serves as a vital resource and whose judgment is valued by the client.

Spewing an email for a customized audition to a hundred male voice talent based solely on the fact that they are not female doesn’t work so well for the talent or the agent. Sure, in some cases it needs to be done but the win ratio for both parties seems kinda low to me.

So that’s how the spot came to be. My thanks to Big Fish and to Starz…hopefully we’ll all get to do this again real soon. I appreciate the business.

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