“get what you need, share what you can” – reflections on faffcon 2
With those words above, Amy Snively kicked off Faffcon 2 in Atlanta and crystallized for me what the weekend was all about.
Voice Over Talents from Around the Globe at Faffcon 2 - Atlanta, 2011
I specifically took some time following Sunday’s close (which came quicker than any of us wanted) to really reflect on what I came away with.
* I came away with a greater respect for voice talents – who we are, what we do and how we do it
* I heard some voice over performances that infused me with the desire to get better – some were so good I’d quit now if I had any talent at all to do anything else but, oh well
* The challenges people in our industry face are universal – we don’t train enough, we don’t market enough and we are all held back by something – sometimes external and often times internal
I noticed that I think we (me too) are all too often held back by some level of self doubt with in our business. When it is paralyzing, our voice business stalls or worse, fails.
But when we force ourselves to move past or at least forward from our self doubt, we succeed, even a little. I saw this more than I expected among my new and old friends and I saw it most often in the mirror. Because I was among peers, that realization felt a little safer to recognize and build upon for me.
I don’t know if this reads as earth shattering or game changing – it felt that way for me. Your mileage may vary.
What happens at Faffcon stays at Faffcon – many talents generously share intellectual property that rightly shouldn’t be spread everywhere. So if you want diagrams and recordings, you will not find them here.
Besides, the greatest value of what is learned by participants at Faffcon is ingrained individually based on what each Faffcon participant gleans from a shared presentation or conversation. What helped me might be useless to you and vice versa.
I will say this: it is that act of universal giving and sharing -that spirit – that permeates the air of Faffcon and provides maybe the best reason to secure your spot in Hershey this September.
If you can trust in that thought, you’d probably benefit from Faffcon.
If not (and that’s OK) you’ll probably want to pass.
Thanks, Amy, very much.
If possible, I would like for you to integrate the fb like button widget into your blog. So as to enable me to like button the heck out of this post. 😉
Hi Mike,
It’s right there at the top…and GREAT to meet you at Faffcon. I hope to see you in Hershey!
Best always,
– Peter
That’s the “share” button, I’m talking about something like this fellah: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-facebook-like-plugin/
And ditto! My sister lives just outside of Hershey, so I’m likely to crash her pad, and love on my nieces in tandem with Faffing it up this September!
You made me cry! And I would like to like the heck out of Mike’s comment.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I would to note two things:
1. You can now “like” all these blog posts on Facebook
2. Without my attendance at FaffCon, I would have never met Mike, I would have not known of his professional experience in Social Media, he might not have read this blog, enjoyed this post and thus been kind enough to make the Facebook “like” widget suggestion that has now been implemented on this site which could exponentially bring hundreds more people to my site and build both my voice over business and my Voice Over Workshop business.
Mike’s suggestion is the VERY definition of a golden nugget which offered freely and frequently at FaffCon by similarly generous Voice Talents like Mike.
I cannot make it ANY clearer than that why you should attend FaffCon if you are a professional voice talent.
So endeth the lesson. For now anyway. It’s my long way of saying thanks Mike.
Best always,
– Peter
Peter,
What a great summary of Faffcon 2. I identify with much of what you’ve written and count it a privilege to have finally met you in person. By the way, you’re also quite humble. I attended one of the sessions where you read a cold script. You nailed it, my friend!
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for your great kindness and it was equally a pleasure to meet you and THEN get to spin 73 stories above Atlanta in the hotel bar with and the gang.
I hope to see you in Hershey.
Best always,
– Peter