Photo courtesy of CNET

It was a day like any other last week. The kids and I were leaving the Cary Library and approaching the car when my phone, which I was carrying, slipped and fell to the ground.

This has happened many times before with nary a scratch…likely due to the case I have.

This time the entire screen shattered.

As I ran my finger across the screen, I could feel the cracks on the screen and it felt like I might have little cuts on my finger tips at any time.

The phone was not going to be useable. I would have to get a new screen.

Expense was not a concern, time was a little bit more of a concern but getting an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar was a grave concern. This happened on a Wednesday and the soonest appointment they could give me was a Sunday.

That was not going to work.

So I decided to trek (and it is a hike) over to the Apple store and throw myself on the mercy of the Apple court.

And yes, the store is in a big mall and yes, it’s Christmas time and yes, ugh!

But my plan was to be one of the first customers of the day and see how that would go…maybe they could fit me in. Hope is not a plan but it can be an option.

The store hours on the web said they store opened at 10:00 am so I got to the mall at 9:30 a.m. As I walked towards the store, I saw the doors already opened and only a few people inside (Christmas hours, I soon learned).

I was approached by an Apple employee and explained my dilemma (I decided at the outset not to hand in my man card and start crying….yet). They could help me and they would help me now, he said. They would give me a new screen. That day.

#winning

I would have to wait about 90 minutes (a reasonable amount of time for someone with no appointment, I thought). Since I was NOT about to give up my prime, early arriver parking spot by leaving the busy mall and coming back at a busier time, I decided I would get some more exercise by walking the mall.

Realizing that there was almost nothing else besides a broken iphone that could get me to a mall during the Christmas season, I started to think as I walked, taking in all surroundings and the people around me.

Being in the mall, I realized an number of things I was grateful for. Here’s my list that exclude obvious things like family, home, health and job (which I am eternally grateful for everyday).

• A super close parking space

• I am thankful for the employees of the Apple store – their attitude is so positive and helpful almost always; they remind me of two other companies where I get that same feeling: Publix Grocery Stores and Enterprise Rental Cars (I don’t know how these companies profile their employees but they do a great job of finding really customer-centric people)

• I am appreciative of the designers of the Christmas decorations at the Crabtree Valley Mall — the trees and sleighs were really great….maybe it’s the same stuff they do every year but it was new to me and I thought it looked swell (I couldn’t take a picture because of…well, you know)

• It was also nice not having an i-phone and not being connected…if you need me, well, you’ll have to fend for yourself for a while; I’ll survive and so will you

• I am so glad I don’t work in retail for so many reasons, the top 2 being I wouldn’t have the patience to deal with Christmas shoppers and I don’t think sales are going well in many stores which means jobs will be cut

• Similarly I’m glad I don’t work for mall companies…there are so many empty, closed stores inside so many malls because so many retailers are closing their doors…and I think come Q1 2018, more stores will announce they are closing

• On a positive retail note, in my city, Apple is moving their current store within the mall to a much bigger space in the same mall which must bring a major sigh of relief to the mall owners

• I am pleased that there are gentlemen willing to dress up and play Santa at malls….it thrills the children (well most of them anyway) to meet Santa and their excitement is invigorating to the soul

• A super close parking space

My phone was fixed and life went on, with thanks.

Tags: blogs, commentary by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Sometimes we as voiceover business owners are so focused on the operations of our business, the business of doing business, we neglect to paint our stores and sweep our steps.

The ‘stores and steps’ references our web sites. We often look at our sites from the back of the house instead of standing out front and looking at what the visitors see.

A while ago I wrote a blog post about checking out what your web site looks like by going to electronic retailers and calling up your web site on various computers, tablets and phones.

While that applies to web sites, that advice also applies to blogs.

I’ve had a blog since 2005 and in those 12 years, I’ve written a lot about voiceover, marketing and advertising (over 1,300 posts). That’s why I named the blog voxmarketising. In all those posts there are some real golden nuggets and some absolute crap. Trial and error, baby!

But one of the areas of blog management I had fallen way behind in was managing all the links I had listed on my blog to all my fellow voiceover bloggers. It was my way of sharing the blog love by listing their blog link, in the hopes that they would do the same. Some did, some didn’t.

But recently, I did a complete review of all the blogs I had listed on my site to see what blogs were still active and what blogs had given up the ghost.

Over 80 (EIGHTY) voiceover blogs were just cut from my web site because they hadn’t published in 3 or more years or because their bloglink just went nowhere any more.

There were probably 10 or so links that needed to be updated and they have been.

But 80 dead blogs was an amazing number.

Why so many? Based on what I saw and what I know, here are my theories

• Some folks started blogging about voiceover because they thought they were supposed to for better web traction – they had no desire to blog and no point of view in their writing so they just quit
• Some people clearly didn’t not make it in the VO business — so why blog about voiceover when one is now selling life insurance?
• Some folks just got bored with the process of blogging

Sure there may be a myriad of other reasons and all of them are legitimate. Blogging is not mandatory in the voiceover or any other business (unless you’re in the blogging business, then I suppose it’s pretty mandatory.

But does blogging help or even impact a voice talent’s business? That depends.

From a broad perspective, blogging should help a voiceover talent’s business for SEO. If one is blogging about their industry, using a widely accepted blogging platform like WordPress (either as a blog or as part of an overall web site), that alone should generate attention from search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Digging down a little further, if a blogger’s content gains enough interest from a targeted audience and the blogger builds up a dedicated readership, that subsequent attention also generates positive SEO notice and builds the credibility of their brand and reputation.

So SEO is the only reason to blog? No, but it’s a big one because depending on what you write, you may enjoy some unexpected organic word search success. Sure you can buy word search, but organic is less financially cumbersome.

I think in voiceover, there are primarily two types of bloggers – thought leaders focused on SEO (and listening to myself, ‘er, um THEMSELVES speak) and then coaches who want to sell services and also enjoy some SEO love. Neither is bad. Blogs are a marketing tool…just decide what you are marketing what your audience wants to hear.

But what if you aren’t a coach and you don’t think you have a thought that worthy enough to lead anything? Should you still blog?

That’s a personal question.

Blogging requires some sort of commitment. Obviously time but, maybe more importantly, thought.

For bloggers, I think the smart foundation for having a blog should not be ‘what CAN I write about’ but rather ‘what do I WANT to write about?’. Because if you don’t have a real desire to write about something at least about 6 times a year, then blogging is not a tool for you.

Don’t worry, there are other marketing tools, but blogging will not be one of them for you. 80 of my voiceover peers, many of them well known to voiceover community, found that out the hard way. It was not the end of their careers, it was just the end of blogging….for them.

For the rest of us…full steam ahead.

P.S. If you check my blog page and see I’ve gotten the wrong link for your site, you can contact me at peter at audioconnell dot com. Of course, you DO have a link to my page on your blog site, right?!

P.P.S. If you have a voiceover blog that I do not have listed on my blog site and you would like it listed there (and you’re going to offer me a link to my blog as well) please let me know.

Tags: blogs, branding, commentary, marketing, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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RALEIGH, NC March 17, 2017 – – When the very young Peter K. O’Connell began his voiceover at a Dayton, Ohio radio station in 1982, Madonna didn’t have her first hit song yet, Reagan was president and the Internet wasn’t even a thing! Oh and O’Connell sported a mullet (business in front, party in the back).

Now celebrating 35 years as a voiceover talent, the most astounding professional accomplishment noted by O’Connell was his ability to keep working as a professional voice talent. “In the 80’s, we didn’t even understand you could have a career in voiceover,” he said.

Surprise!

With steady business from new and returning voiceover clients, the anniversary snuck up on O’Connell until he was asked by one of his three children (another wonderful surprise he didn’t ponder in ‘82) how long he’d been working in VO. The anniversary seemed like as good a reason as any to freshen up his marketing tools including a new website, branding and voice-over demos.

Having just moved to Raleigh, NC from Buffalo, NY, O’Connell’s new branding was partially inspired by his family’s new home. “I was surrounded by University of North Carolina blue, so I thought I better add that color to my logo ” he joked.

About Peter K. O’Connell

From Fortune 500 companies to companies that think $500 is a fortune, multi-award winning male voiceover talent Peter K. O’Connell has shared his voiceover skills with a wide variety of companies globally. Some of Peter’s clients include Duracell Batteries, General Electric, Kraft Foods, PBS Television Network, Shell Oil, Deloitte Canada, U.S. Army, Starz Cable Television Network, BlueCross BlueShield and SunSetter Awnings.

Known as America’s Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent, Peter is a natural born storyteller whose voice-over work has been featured in radio and TV commercials, corporate narrations, political commercial voice-overs, TV network promos, e-learning narration projects and other media productions. Originally from Buffalo, NY, now living in Raleigh, NC, Peter owns audio’connell Voiceover Talent, a division of O’Connell Communications, LLC. Peter can be reached via audioconnell.com or peterkoconnell.com.
– 30 –

NOTES FOR EDITORS

CONTACT

Peter K. O’Connell

Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent

audio’connell Voiceover Talent

P.O. Box 5493 | Raleigh, NC 27512-5493

PH. +01 716-572-1800

EM. peter@audioconnell.com W. audioconnell.com

COMPANY MEDIA CENTER

http://www.audioconnell.com/media

PETER K. O’CONNELL VO CREDITS

http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/pdf/PDF%202017/OConnell_Peter_Voice_Over_Resume_170124.pdf

COMPANY NAME SPELLING

Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voiceover Talent

COMPANY NAME PRONUNCIATION

au·dio·o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-oh-kah-nel) or au·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Tags: blogs, media releases by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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It was a quick visit to Dallas but I gave my friend and audio producer extraordinaire Cliff Zellman a heads up at FaffCon that I would be in town this week.

Cliff produces some of the best and most effective (I suppose being most effective would make them the best, wouldn’t it) automotive commercials in the country (no I’m not a voice talent on those spots – those ladies and gentlemen have wonderfully particular talents that I do not). You likely have these car spots in your market and they are amazing, in large part because of Cliff meticulous production.

He also produces impressive voice-over demos as well.

I got to hang at Cliff’s studio for a while and then he took me to one of his favorite BBQ joints, which was awesome. We solved most of the voiceover world’s problems but then realized no one would listen to us anyway.

Thank you Cliff for being a good friend and an awesome host!

P.S. Don’t touch his guitars!

Tags: blogs, commentary, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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It’s true that when you write a voice-over blog, you’re never fully sure who reads it.

It used to be that people used RSS alot. I don’t think they do as much any more. Now bloggers have to post their blog posts on Facebook and Twitter etc., for people to read them.

Some bloggers cross post SO much on social media that it looks and feels desperate— ‘read me, love me, validate me’. Ick!

I don’t want to be that person as I unconsciously embarrass myself enough. I don’t need to do it in such a planned, public way. So I post blogs in just a few places and forget it. In truth, I don’t really care how many people read the blog…shame on me.

But I was reminded in a kind way this week that this blog DOES have at least one other reader besides me.

Terry Daniel was kind enough to mention me in a podcast/audio sermon this week. He said something nice about me.

I get a mention, he gets a blog post link. Simple as that.

Tags: blogs, commentary by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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By now, most people in voice-over have an awareness of the controversy involving the Pay To Play web site Voices.com.

How the company has done everything from limiting communication of their paying voice talents with the clients who’ve hired them, to escrowing money from voice talent jobs (and taking a 10% commission – like an agent though not being held to those industry standards), to the introduction of a Project Management service where up to 50% or more of a client’s voice-over budget is taken by voices.com for “production” services (the same services provided by recognized and accredited talent agents for an industry standard average 10% commission).

It’s a fiasco.

Voices.com makes no apologies for their practices and certainly little concession for these practices to their paying voices talent. It seems that the company has enough wanna-be voice talents and existing voice talents who are tolerant of the company’s practices that they can still be profitable from membership fees, Canadian government business grants and monies secured from Venture Capitalists (who care little about bad publicity, evidently).

For myself, I dropped the service years ago and have moved on.

From the sidelines, I certainly feel badly for those whose income has been lessened because of Voices.com’s practices, which I personally consider shady (I’m not a legal expert, just a business executive). Further, I have seen good people on both sides caught in the middle of this whole thing and be pretty torn up by it. That’s hard to watch. Adults behaving badly. Again.

I’ll let the courts settle it all should the State Attorneys General in New York and California suddenly recognize that Voices.com is operating and profiting as an agency in those highly regulated states with without honoring the rules and standards in place in those states for the operation of a talent agency. Until such time as the courts or the majority of their clients (voice talents and media producers) say otherwise, Voices.com is free operate in anyway it sees fit.

But now a ray of light, a glimmer of hope. Humor.

I got pinged by Twitter the other day that a new account has been set up there called @NotVoicesDotCom. No, I do not know who owns it and no, I am not affiliated with it in anyway (well, except I’m following the account on Twitter now).

It’s a parody account poking fun at the Voices.com situation by tweeting about “what goes on behind the scenes at @voices, the #1 marketplace for taking money from voice actors and their clients.”

I’m not sure if it’s the kind of fame Voices.com and its venture capitalist investors wanted from their business practices, but they’ve got it now anyway. Hey, what’s the old axiom “any publicity is good publicity”?

I think that was written before the internet was invented.

Tags: blogs, voices.com by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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