Opened my mail today, this last day of November to receive my first voice-over holiday (read: Christmas) card! I thought it was a great one! My poor photography skills don’t do the card justice.
Congrats to my friend and fellow voice-over talent Christy Harst on her design and message. And Merry Christmas!
aHa! Designs Owner Ann Marie Hackett with audio’connell Voice-Over Talent’s Peter K. O’Connell at Buffalo Business First’s 2015 40 Under 40 event
I’m not sure how many years I’ve known Ann Hackett of aHa! Designs but it’s been awhile. I would guess it has been for almost that long as she’s been doing graphic design work for me.
So I was honored when she and her husband Tony invited me as their guest to watch Ann receive the very prestigious Business First of Buffalo 40 Under 40 Award on Thursday evening.
The goal of the award has always been to identify 40 men and women — under the age of 40, of course — who are successful in their professions and heavily involved in community activities. Ann has been a leader in so many community success but likely her most famous is her work with the Taste of Buffalo where she rose from volunteer to Chairperson of the huge and successful event in short order.
Congratulations Ann!
Voice-Over Talent Peter K. O’Connell inside the infamous Studio a @audio’connell Voice-Over Talent supporting #cans4can
John Taylor is a talented voice actor and a very funny guy but he was kindly serious this week in his post to support a charitable food collection drive called #cans4cans.
The idea for #cans4cans came from Benztown, a company that produces and distributes imaging, voice-over, broadcast programming, and jingles to broadcast and other media outlets.
Simply, for any one who posts a picture of themselves (they can be in voiceover or recording or I suppose even folks not in the audio or media industries) Benztown will donate a can of food to LA Food Bank on your behalf. Just use the hashtag #cans4cans with your post.
Early this week when I saw John’s post about this on Facebook, I was (surprise) on the road, so I published a 1985 radio station shot of me on the air. It was requested that I publish something more current. Comparing the two I think now you’ll agree my first choice was a better one.
No matter, I hope you’ll participate in #cans4cans. Thanks.
A meeting on the Buffalo, NY Voice-Over Meetup group (from l-r) Robert W. Taylor, Leslie Diamond, Dan Lenard, Chris Nichter, Peter K. O’Connell, Jen Deyo, Fred Filbrich, Randye Kaye and Glad Faith Klassen
Voice-over talents are a closeted bunch.
Meaning whether in our homes or studios, we spend a lot of time in booths (closets) churning out voice stuff.
It’s great but who do you bounce business, technical or performance ideas off of if you work by yourself? Where are your checks and balances coming from?
It was 2009 when my friend and fellow voice-talent (the lovely and talented) Doug Turkel invited me out to his Voice-Over Mastermind Group in Miami, FL. So I hoped in my private jet that afternoon and join Doug and his pals for what was my first official meet-up group. As with most things Doug, it was terrific.
From that moment forward, I wanted to start some kind of group like that in Buffalo, NY.
But Mrs. audio’connell and I had a child. And another. And another. A bunch of FaffCons later, I still didn’t start my meet-up group. Then finally, after attending a voice-over class that just wasn’t filling my needs, I did what all good leaders do to get things done.
I delegated.
See, I was not going to be able to organize a meet-up group with my family and professional commitments. I’m the guy that had always put this stuff together but this time it wasn’t going to happen and I knew it. But it didn’t mean stuff couldn’t happen. With the advent of FaffCon, more Buffalo voice talents attended together, we realized the power of what we could do and we all wanted to do it.
So I contacted local voice talents and fellow Faffers Dan Lenard and Leslie Diamond and said “help”.
Leslie offered up her house, Dan made some calls, we shared notes on who to invite (lots of people) and in August 2013, we held our first meet-up. I think 5 people showed up. I was stunned there weren’t more with so many talents around.
What I came to understand was that these were the committed ones, the ones who wanted to try. And our monthly meetings have been going on since. And growing!
Our troupe now includes: Robert W. Taylor,
To be clear, this meet-up is not like my traveling lunch dinner tours that Bob Souer and I have made famous over the years.
The Buffalo Voice-Over Meetup Group created our own agenda: reviewing successes, talking about challenges, picking a specific industry related topic and everyone just sharing info. Sometimes one of us volunteers to talk about a subject we know a little more about. We take notes….and we work on scripts. We group direct and one on one direct.
And we remember that we are not alone. Our families may sometimes question our career choices but in a meet-up, we are among those who get it. Meet-up members understand the incurable disease of voice-over performance. And for just those few hours every month, you get to talk shop where nobody looks at you funny. Usually.
They are fragile eco-systems, these voice-over meet-up groups, because they live and die by the quality of the talent (performance and business-wise) in the group. It should be a group, not something led by one individual. Plus people come and go…the success of every meeting is not guaranteed. Which is why everyone who is in an on-going, effective and most importantly interactive meetup group should be very thankful. I know I am.
Thirty days later…the above picture is the result of my Movember commitment (well, of course, I gave some money too).
Aside from Mrs. audio’connell’s complaints (not a whisker fan) my part in all this was pretty easy.
Your part (whether you’ve donated already or whether you will today – please) is a little bit more involved as you’re being asked to give a little money to support research into Men’s Cancers. Thank you for giving whatever you can TODAY!!!
Any amount will do….even $5. And yes, we would accept $5,000 if you’re so inclined. The point is we don’t judge.
As I’ve said in the past, whether you donate MY MOVEMBER PAGE or THE MO-VO TEAM PAGE makes no difference to me. When you donate to one, you donate to all. There is no competition in voice-over and there is no competition between MO-VO team members.
This event would not be a successful voice-over event without the generous support not only of the donors but of all the people on the MO-VO team (I think this is like our 2nd or 3rd year together) including: Jeffrey Kafer, Johnny Heller, Cliff Zellman, Paul Christy, Chris Mezzolesta, J Christopher, Homero Espinosa,Anthony Gettig, Graeme Spicer, Dustin Ebaugh, Matt Simmons, Ryan Calafato, Joey Pepin as well as MO SISTAS (yes, women CAN be a apart of the fund raising effort) Nancy German and Fran McClellan
Thank you ALL!
The Voice Over Cafe made its way to Charlotte, NC, for FaffCamp and recorded its latest episode there….what a blast.
Female Voice-Over Talent Trish Basanyi and Male Voice-Over Talent Terry Daniel have been hosting and producing the Voice-Over Cafe for a while and it was a special treat for me to be invited on to this live recording session as there was a room full of interesting people with whom they could have spoken. Terry and Trish are supported in their production by the lovely and talented Sean Caldwell, Tom Dheere and Peter Bishop – each a bad ass voice-over talent in their own right and all loyal Faffers to the core.
The episode stars Amy Snively and features Bob Souer, Liz deNesnera, Dan Friedman, (movie star) Melissa Exelberth, Connie Terwilliger and Cliff Zellman.
You can listen here. And I hope you will.
