About 1,200 of closest friends…OK my prospect and client database…started receiving my most recent marketing effort this week…the postcard you see above.
My thanks to my friend and designer Ann Hackett from aHa! Designs for her help and patience with me during the design process.
If you didn’t get it just send me a quick email (peter at audioconnell dot com) with your address and I’ll send you one.
FRONT ROW: Jill Perry, Pam Tierney, Kara Edwards MIDDLE ROW: Peter K. O'Connell, Caryn Clark, Melissa Exelberth BACK ROW: Bob Souer, Rowell Gorman, Alexander Vishniakoff, Debra Webb, Beth Whistler, Robert John Hughes CUT OFF ONLY DUE TO PHOTOGRAPHER ERROR: Mike Stoudt
So I packed a bag on Friday and flew down to Atlanta for the Marice Tobias workshop on Commercial and Narration voice over at the very nice Captive Sound Studios. My friend Bob Souer has been singing her praises for a long time; Kara Edwards and I were talking about maybe attending about 6 weeks ago and since I could see some family while I was there, I decided to pull the trigger.
Kara Edwards, Bob Souer and Melissa Exelberth
It was completely different than ANY other voice over workshop I have ever been to and I have been to many.
I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and learned much. And while I participated in the workshop, I am at a bit of a loss as to how to effectively summarize it because I think unless you’ve been through it, it’s very difficult to understand it. So my first piece of advice would be to take a workshop with Marice.
Rowell Gorman
A lot of internal performer analysis (as it relates to vocal performance) for each student went on during her seminar. I think we all came away with a specific understanding of how effective personal analysis greatly affects the performance a voice talent gives. That kind of analysis helps performers to get out of their own way. The performance improvement was immediately evident and we (each workshop participant) all witnessed it and experienced it time and time again.
Now, you’ve likely just read that and had no understanding of what it meant. Well, some things must be personally experienced, not just read about. I’m not being coy or mean but instead honest.
Kara Edwards, Caryn Clark, Melissa Exelberth, Robert John Hughes
Each voice over talent (as does everyone) learns in different ways and her seminar needs to be personally experienced, not read about. I would recommend you look at Marice’s schedule and if it’s possible for you, take the seminar.
And if you are especially lucky, you’ll get into a class with as many incredibly talented voice over performers as I did. This might be a record because we had 6 of us – about ½ the class – who’ve been long time friends from the VO-BB. There was an immediate and invaluable comfort level learning, working and performing among friends.
Jill Perry and Pam Tierney
When I signed up for Marice’s workshop, I knew Bob was going and I knew there was a chance my friends Kara Edwards and Caryn Clark were coming (they did attend) but what I didn’t know for sure until I saw the list just before I came that the great character voice actor Rowell Gorman would be there, my pal Melissa Exelberth from New York would be there as well as the lovely and talent Pam Tierney from the toddlin’ town of Chicago. What a gift to have my friends there!
Mike Stoudt, Debra Webb and Beth Whistler
The voice talents whom I had never met previous to the workshop really capped off the experience for me and I am so grateful to have been included among them for a few days: Robert John Hughes, Alexander Vishniakoff, Beth Whistler (thank you for driving to the airport!), Debra Webb (who, I found out in setting up this link shares the same agent as me), Jill Perry and Mike Stoudt (who also shares mine and Debra’s agent).
Two VO folks who couldn’t make the seminar but who kindly came out to join our group at various times throughout the weekend were Smith Harrison and Craig Crumpton.
Not to put too strong a point on it, but there were certain voice over suspects who shall remain nameless (Karen Commins (complete with brand new web site), Lance Blair, September Day Leach) who call Atlanta home but had something (anything better) to do than visit with Team Tobias Atlanta after hours at our various pubs, taverns and dives (sometimes known as the mini-bar)! Hurmph! 😉
And finally, my most special thanks to my family in Atlanta who were so kind to let me stay with (or near) them. They had fresh hay in the stable for me to sleep on and let me borrow the mule’s blanket to avoid frostbite. 😉
I hope you get to enjoy a training experience at least once in your career a unique as the one I just enjoyed.
If you’ve trained with Marice, I would love to hear your general impression of the experience. And if you have already with any professional voice over teacher, tell us about it here.
PS. Here is a shot of the WHOLE group, (including and ESPECIALLY Mike Stoudt) courtesy of Bob Souer’s camera:
FRONT ROW: Jill Perry, Pam Tierney, Kara Edwards MIDDLE ROW: Peter K. O'Connell, Caryn Clark, Melissa Exelberth BACK ROW: Mike Stoudt, Bob Souer, Rowell Gorman, Alexander Vishniakoff, Debra Webb, Beth Whistler, Robert John Hughes
There are certain times in your life when you should NOT do that math. This occurred to me the other day when I was puttering around the office doing some stuff and I noticed my membership directory from Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives (BNSME). This year will mark my 20th anniversary as a member. That means I was 25 years old when I joined in 1989. This is the kind of math avoidance I am advocating.
I am also advocating that you join myself and Todd Salansky, CEO, online thymes llc, for our May 18, 2009 BNSME presentation entitled “The New Big Three – What’s In It For Me”. The presentation will take place at the 31 Club, 31 N Johnson Park in Buffalo and is sponsored by Days Inn, Wingate by Wyndham, West Herr Automotive Group, Business First and Sound Video Solutions.
The goal of the presentation is to help participants understanding and applying Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Twitter® for their businesses as explained not by two experts (though Todd really knows his Social Media “stuff”) but rather by two active and practiced users of these services and Social Media in general.
By sharing an overview of the services, an explanation of how Todd and myself are using them to the advantage of our businesses and then offering participants a hands on tour of the services, we hope to remove the apprehension some people have experienced about Social Media and provide practical ways business owners can actively and successfully use these services as part of their marketing mix.
If you can join us, I think you’ll enjoy the presentation and some great in-person networking too. For reservations, please call Jeanne at the BNSME office at 716-662-2279.
A quick trip to Milwaukee on Friday for some biz that went successfully.
On the way to the airport, I had a bit of extra time that provided a nice cushion before my plane left so I GPS’d (on the great i-phone) the office of my voice over agent in Milwaukee, Lori Lins of (not surprisingly) Lori Lins Limited Talent Management. We partnered in 2007 but I had never met her and only communicated via email. As the stars seemed to align on this trip, I stopped by unannounced just to say hi.
Had they said they were busy or otherwise occupied, I would have been cool with that as mine was a bit of a drive-by. But Lori came right out to greet me and we chatted for a good 15 minutes about my career, her agency and the VO business in general.
Naturally, I forgot my camera in the car (stupid!) so I didn’t get a picture with Lori but the quick shot in the blog spot through the passenger window of my rental car (again, courtesy i-phone) at least proves I was there.
My thanks to Lori and her staff for being so gracious. And Lori, Nancy Wolfson says hi via Twitter.
As a courtesy, I’ll say upfront that if you’ve no idea what Twitter is or is all about then this contest I’m about to reference regarding CNN and the actor Ashton Kutcher probably won’t interest you. If you like topical stories or information about social media, it might.
Oprah’s name and that of Britney Spears will come up too. Oh, so NOW you ARE interested!
The deal is that Kutcher challenged CNN and Ted Turner to a race of sorts: be the first person or organization (as CNN is a thing not a person within the noun family) to reach 1,000,000 followers on Twitter. Late Thursday night, early Friday morning, Kutcher beat CNN to the 1 million followers mark. Britney Spears tried to ride this race’s coat tails and evidently came in third without so much as breaking a sweat.
As new people are obviously joining Twitter at a staggering rate with no followers, with my 280 followers currently, I did not come in in last place in the Twitter follower race. Phew! You can find me @audioconnell.
Kutcher has promised to donate 10,000 mosquito nets if he won. And when he won he showed up a donation check for $100,000 to be donated to the “Malaria No More”‘ fund. That’s nice.
Hitching her wagon to the Twitter train, Oprah announced she opened up a Twitter account and got 30,000+ followers before her first post which is supposed to come during a taping of her show Friday. Bet she sets the record for fastest to reach 1,000,000 followers. I also expect to see the Twitter Fail Whale a whole lot in the coming days.
What does this all mean?
Do these millions of new followers some of whom have to be joining Twitter for the first time have any idea why they are following these folks let alone what the service is and how it can be used? Using Twitter is not rocket science but I sure feel strongly that some of these people now joining Twitter are doing it because Ashton, Oprah or Britney said to and that’s where it will end for many of them.
It feels like one of those cross roads moments or possibly the perfect storm for Twitter. Tons of free publicity from a famous movie star, an international cable news organization and the most popular broadcaster and trendsetter in U.S. daytime television; to get just one of those parties to support them, most companies would be thrilled.
But Twitter is supposed to be about community. One follows other Twitter users because they think there will be interesting discussion based on content, the “name” or the “brand” matters little if nothing interesting is tweeted.
Some of my 280 followers don’t get that. They want to sell me something and think I’ll immediately follow them if they follow me. I don’t. I check their profile and only if it interests me do I follow them. I feel they are not in it for the “community” attitude of Twitter and therefore seem disingenuous to me. If I want a commercial, I’ll watch TV.
What will all these new users mean to social media as these new users get their first taste of it through Twitter and the links that often accompany tweets? Probably broader acceptance if these new users go on to follow more than just Britney, Oprah and Ashton (after all, if Britney, Oprah and Ashton lose interest and tweet less frequently, their followers will have less and less to follow).
Through the links in tweets I’ve been exposed to some interesting resources in social media, marketing, advertising, voice over and my local community that I would not have otherwise found. I’ve also followed some of the people on Twitter because of their content and they offer even more content. That is useful to me. I’ve no real idea if I’m saying anything of use to others…I guess I hope I am but I’m also not losing sleep over it.
I’ve also un-followed people whose content didn’t interest me after a while or those folks who offer nothing more than 140 characters of self-aggrandizing commercials. It’s a bit of a balancing act to gain the content that you want and don’t want on Twitter while not allowing it to be a complete time suck.
I guess as a crossroads moment, it’s an evolution for the service itself and for social media. Sometimes it takes famous peoples’ involvement to help the general public be aware or take the time to learn about new products or services like Twitter and Social Media. As there are no rules per se with Social Media, how these many millions of new users will drive the service is an unknown.
Twitter probably won’t be the same after all this and I guess that’s as it should be.
[audio:http://audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/voxmarketising_episode104_090315.mp3]
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â–º (0:00) Show Open: (Voxmarketising Episode #104, Show date: March 15,2009)
â–º (1:00) Welcome:
â–º (1:41) Oversight (Stuff You Might Have Missed):
• Mitch Joel – Don’t force your decision about marketing to consumers using social media based on YOUR uses of social media…focus on their usage of social media. common sense adoption of social media into each consumer or each company’s marketing strategy towards consumers
• Facebook has a new home page or should we call it Twitterbook? The Advance Guard’s Facebook White Paper
• In Memoriam: Paul Harvey and Brian James (Facebook link)
â–º (7:14) VMT Interview (On voiceover or marketing or advertising or all of the above):
Seattle, WA based male voice over talent Jeffrey Kafer
â–º (17:12) Brain Spanking (Funny, Weird, Annoying News of the Day But Stuff That Usually Makes You Think):
• How Google Got Its Colorful Logo
• Review– How to Work a Room: Your Essential Guide to Savvy Socializing.
â–º (20:01) Show Close:
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Email – peter at audioconnell dot com
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