My Father had a saying that I have always tried to live by. I’ll spare you the original Latin; translated it is “Don’t let the bastards get you down”.
It is easy to say but not so easy to do on days like today. But we must not let the bastards get us down.
If we do, we lose.
We’re America…we don’t lose.
I have been doing voice-over professionally since 1982. That’s not the admission of guilt.
In all that time, I have been to an Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor a grand total of once: to get my ears look at.
Never have I been to an ENT to get my throat and vocal folds looked at…that’s my admission of guilt.
Think about it for a moment…the key instrument upon which I rely for my income had never been in for a medically tune up. My microphones were better taken care of than my throat.
That’s stupid and that’s my fault.
Now, you don’t have to admit it, but I’m guessing you’ve been stupid too. When was the last time (if ever) you’ve been to an ENT to get checked out (especially a preventative exam)?
I was even pulled aside by my friend Sean Caldwell at FaffCon 5, who explained to me in no uncertain terms the dangers of ignoring throat and vocal health. That was months ago and yet I waited.
Stupid me.
Well I recently addressed my stupidity head-on…because I was forced to. If you’re skittish about unhappy endings, read on as this one turns out ok.
Here’s the brief back-story – I went down to my father-in-law’s house a few weeks ago for the Easter holiday. He has a cat and it turns out (and I knew this for a few years, having visited him before) I had developed an allergic reaction to cats (as an adult) in the form of asthma (albeit a minor but still uncomfortable form of asthma).
The subsequent significant coughing (even while on medication which I ordered up ahead of time in anticipation of my problem) left me significantly laryngitical for weeks (as my FaffCon Stand-up group can attest). That meant no voice-over work. None.
So after squeaking into the phone one day too many I decided I needed to see someone other than my talented general practitioner about my pressing vocal health challenge.
Problem was I didn’t really have a name of someone to meet with. So I called my friend Dan Lenard who was kind enough to share his ENT with me (since Dan and I live in the same area although we only see each other at FaffCons).
I met Dr. Joel Bernstein who began the appointment by condemning me for talking too loudly when I said hello to him and went on to discuss how I needed to rest my voice more when I wasn’t using it professionally, which I knew. I also let him know I have three small kids and use my loud voice sometimes to corral those feral cats. He didn’t really have an answer for that one. He just said that drugs like Modafinil, which are becoming increasingly popular, do have side effects to look out for.
So on to the heart of the exam- the throat scoping. This involves a little topical anesthetic through the nose…so that a camera tube can be put down there and the good doctor can see what’s up in the throat and vocal area. It’s a bit uncomfortable but it doesn’t hurt.
Well the good news is the exam showed my throat to be in perfect health and that there was no damage to my vocal chords and that I would be fine once my coughing and asthma symptoms subsided, which they have. I am back to voicing new projects without sounding like Harvey Fierstein.
So even though you didn’t ask for my advice, I hope you won’t be as stupid as I was…take this nudge as reason enough to contact an ENT in your area to get your voice-over money maker examined.
I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been writing this blog for so long but I’m fortunate to get the heads up on new and unique projects coming from within the voice-over community whether they be blogs, books, webisodes etc. Many of these new projects I try to include here, some I forget about and don’t. It’s not that I don’t want to include most of it, it’s just I either run out of time, plain forget or fall asleep from exhaustion.
I only make it look easy.
This latest notice kinda tickled my funny bone. Marc Cashman is writing a book entitled “We’re Auditioning For a Muse” which will be a collection of really stupid directions talents have been given in a voice-over script. As Marc describes it “You know, the ones that have you scratching your head wondering what the hell they mean.”
So if you have any of these directionally challenged directions, send them to Marc.
The one I remember happened to a voice talent named Margo Davis who was asked by the director if she could make her read ‘sound more paisley.’
Um…yeah, sure.
I got a Facebook message from my friend Andy Boyns today, giving me a heads up on some very sad news from the voice-over community that occurred last week.
Two young girls lost their mother. A husband lost his wife. Seven months after voice-over talent Andrew Swingler’s wife Sandra (surrounded in the above picture by her daughters) was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, she died last week.
Conceptually, that’s an awful thought; cognitively, it’s paralyzing…at least for me.
For Andrew and his girls, it’s got to be cataclysmic. And I don’t even know the Swinglers.
But for a neighborhood community or an online community, all we have to do is “know of” because in one way, shape or form, we’ve all been there.
We can’t undo their grim reality but maybe we can shape a part of the family’s better days to come…especially when it must be so hard for these three broken hearts to imagine ANY future.
So we help, because as people we refuse to be helpless when we have options. Andy and our mutual social media and in-person friends Natalie Cooper, Anne Ganguzza and Derek Chappell have shared their offerings, insights and ideas on how we CAN help the Swinglers in their time of need.
If you’d like to know more…I hope you’ll CLICK THIS LINK and do whatever you can, no matter how small. Even if it’s just offering a prayer, thank you for all of it.
Here’s a thought: I was just checking the stats on my Christmas card email blast.
That one email blast with a Christmas card drawing by my daughter was clicked through 830 times (that equates to 830 individual email addresses). That not the impressive statistic.
The impressive statistic is that is was VIEWED as of this writing 1,574 times.
Many people viewed it once but almost 300 people viewed it between 2-17 times!
It’s just a Christmas card right?
Actually, it was more than that…it was creative (all my daughter’s doing) and it was sincere.
Does this make me brilliant? No. I’m sexy, not brilliant….please get that straight. (j/k)
What those numbers (which could be exponentially bigger or smaller depending on your database) represent is people’s willingness, free will and desire to experience something creative…different. And honest.
So real quickly, let’s consider a missed opportunity.
You know what I DIDN’T get in the email once this holiday season? A Hanukkah card. Nobody sent me a Festivus card either.
Did they think I would be put off because that’s not what I celebrate? Heck, someone who thinks enough of me to send me a card for any happy holiday that is so special to them that they want to share it with me I will gladly accept. Wouldn’t you?
What about a St. Patrick’s Day card? Or a Canada Day card? Why not?
(Cue blowhard voice, deep. bellowing and full of gas) “Why Peter, it’s not professional! It might offend!” You know, this may be a personal bias (what offends me might not offend you and vice versa) but for example a Polish person who finds a special, fun, family tradition in Dyngus Day and who wants to send me a note telling me about it so that I might share in that happiness, does not offend me. I am honored even though it’s not my celebration. And I think “that’s different”.
If I saw a $5.00 coupon with that same note, I might question the sincerity of the sentiment
Don’t sell, just be sincere, be unique, be creative. Don’t include a press release, or holiday office hours or anything that screams “Me!” There’s a time and a place for that and certainly it’s still acceptable. But think different. Let’s your prospects become people and let those people see you as something other than a vendor.
Let them see you as a person.
How about we forget cards for a second…what else can you create for folks in your audience that just let’s them know you’re thinking about them?
What can you create that screams “Them!”? That you are thinking of them. Or that you just wanted to share this “fun” or “silly” or “special” something…just because they mean something to you as a person, as a respected individual.
If it were easy, anybody could do it. But you’re not just anybody.
What have you done that really made some client or prospect say “wow” in a good way? Or what ideas are now percolating inside you?
Look, most men (and some women I would guess) look for an excuse not to shave.
Well fellas, in the month of November, we got a whopper!
It’s a fund raiser called Movember and the concept is to raise funds and awareness for Prostate Cancer and other male Cancers all month long.
The facial hair is to create awareness and spur friendly donations for the cause. Cancer has hit my family and I’m sure it has hit yours too.
It also gives men a valid, community based reason not to shave starting November 1st. Done! 🙂
My friend Jeff Kafer put out a request to start a team on the VO-BB and now a bunch of us are on there.
Here is my request to my blog readers: Please donate $5.00 to my effort (if you want to do more or less -that’s cool too).
Here is my page to donate on and yes I will post pictures.
Now the rules say I have to grow a mustache and that’s all I am supposed to grow.
But mustaches on me look fugly (if you ask Mrs. audio’connell, she says ANY facial hair on me is fugly). And besides, I’m not much on rules, so I will be growing the goatee again which most people have seen so it will be less annoying. Some folks said they liked it but I think they were being polite. That’s OK 🙂
Again, if you can help, I’d be appreciative. Thanks.
