Here’s a fun little break from the daily grind for you…

I want to create some t-shirts for audio’connell Voice-Over Talent to give out this summer. Obviously they are promotional and I want to feature the branding. I don’t have a million dollars to promote the logo so I have to keep the design simple to basically introduce the new branding to the world.

The following designs are for a white t-shirt although I could also do black and red as well. I just would like to see if there is a consensus on which design is most popular. So PLEASE VOTE in the comments below! Please only pick ONE. Thanks!

DESIGN OPTION #1:

audio’connell t-shirt design option #1

DESIGN OPTION #2:

audio’connell t-shirt design option #2

DESIGN OPTION #3:

audio’connell t-shirt design option #3

DESIGN OPTION #4:

audio’connell t-shirt design option #4

Tags: advertising, audio'connell voice over talent, commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
13 Comments »

Voice-Over Talent Peter K. O’Connell shares his marketing insights during a VO in TO Voice-Over Meet-Up at Livingston Studios, May 2014

Recently, I was invited to be the featured speaker at a semi-regular meeting of the VO in TO group, founded by Patrick Sweeney and Jodi Krangle. For professional, intermediate and newbie voice talents, the group used to meet in a billiard room at a bar in Toronto but recently shifted locations to the Livingston Studios in Toronto. It’s an intimate location, with all the VO recording facilities you could want plus a meeting/performance area – which is where the meeting took place.

If you’re a good speaker, you get a mug; if you’re a great speaker you get a mug AND a t-shirt

Pat asked me to speak about writing a marketing plan for a voice-over business and that part of the night went well enough. Only one audience member almost fell asleep, which for me is an improvement over most of the snoozers I present to 😉

But it was the mixer after the meeting that made the biggest impact on me. A bright, friendly, young woman who wanted to thank me for my presentation approached me. But clearly she had another voice-over matter on her mind that she wanted to talk about, so I invited her to sit down and talk with me.

She was very new to voice-over although she had some performance experience. She had recently done a training session in a studio and was besieged, evidently almost from the moment she walked into the booth, by a case of nerves. She couldn’t get her mouth to do what her brain was asking it to do. Classic symptoms: words not coming out right, breathing irregularly, the whole deal. This perplexed her and bothered her and she needed to talk about it.

We did. I complimented her for being honest enough to talk about it and work through it – that’s a great start to overcoming most problems. I explained – with many embarrassing examples – how I also experienced vocal performance anxiety at various times in my VO career and that when I am in a studio or speaking publicly I still get nervous. She was very surprised by that, given what she had just witnessed.

I explained that I am able to work through it more quickly and seamlessly because of my years of experience performing and presenting but the nerves are still there. And I explained further – that’s a good thing, offering me a heightened sense of awareness to both the work being done and the audience being informed and entertained.

She and I were joined, during the course of our conversation, by two other experienced voice-over pros and fellow Faffers: Mike Pongracz (one of the 3 AmiVos – who still owe me a 3 AmiVos toque) and Elaine Singer. They too offered up to her their experiences with nerves and how they dealt with it (sidebar: sorry to brag but Faffers really do know best how to listen to and help fellow voice talent, with any type of problem better, than any other voice-over group cause I think Amy started the kind of “lend me an ear” VO philosophy – end of brag).

By the end of the conversation, I think this young woman was heartened by the support she received and the insight she was given. She won’t not ever be nervous again but she’ll now know better how to deal with it. And that’s part of how you develop into a professional in this or any other industry: by being just as scared as anyone else but doing it anyway, while everyone else cowers in the corner.

And I offer this story for those readers who aren’t brave enough to talk about their nerves or their performance fears but still want to deal with it somehow. Just know that your fears and obstacles probably aren’t unique. In this case, everyone and anyone in voice-over has and will still have nerves and anxieties. Even us old guys.

Just do it anyway.

Tags: commentary, marketing, voice over training, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on nerves are not just for newbies

During one of my Voice-Over Workshops for a voice talent last week, we reviewed some of her marketing challenges and internal struggles. She is a talented voice talent and a generally gracious human being — all wonderful traits that I aspire to.

But her marketing kryptonite is tooting her own horn – marketing herself (which is her brand) out to the marketplace. She finds it awkward, braggadocios and lacking humility (my words not hers). Like I said, she’s a gracious person.

Let me repeat a secret I have shared here before…horn tooting or self-marketing IS awkward, braggadocios and lacking humility – no matter how subtle you try to be (be warned, a subtlety overdone can completely water down a marketing message).

I have grown a bit more accustomed to it now, but when I started out in my voice-over business, I felt REALLY weird about marketing my brand: me! Using “I” in sentences, talking about MY work, me writing a press release about me. Yuck.

How self-absorbed, how egotistical, how arrogant! Just who the hell do I think I am?!!!

I feel your awkward pain frightened horn tooters but now I’ll share with you the epiphany that allows me to toot my horn with less (not none) awkwardness.

Who the hell do I think I am?

I am a small business owner who has kids to feed and a mortgage to pay…and that money does NOT come in unless I am out there telling people what I do and how I do it and how what I do will help their business. And I AM the company. Whatever the tag line, no matter the iconography, at the end of the day I, as the professional voice-over talent, am the brand. I am selling myself – just not on a street corner…yet.

So I toot (and if you’re 5 years old, you are now giggling uncontrollably at my unintended fart joke—that’s cool, fart jokes ARE funny).

But since I am doing the promotional work (writing, choosing media outlets, targeting the messaging etc), I can control the message that gets put out there, I control the tools and images I use to promote myself. Some people feel more comfortable using a 3rd party to do this…hey, whatever gets the job done for you.

It is a necessary evil in a free-lancers life – this self-promotion.

So here’s is my little imaginary trick for dealing with this unsettling process of self-promotion you must do: pretend as you going through your marketing tasks that you are marketing for another company. Not another person, another company. In your head replace your name with Acme Voice-Over Company. This psychological game with yourself might give you the distance and perspective to get the horn-tooting starting and keep it going.

Listen, you are not egotistical, you are not self-absorbed.

You ARE a freelancer. You ARE small business owner or now what people are calling a Micro Business (soooo teeny tiny like me).

And you have my personal blessing to grab your horn and toot. It’s not only OK…it’s a requirement!

P.S. I did ANOTHER Voice-Over Workshop on Saturday and wouldn’t you know…another frightened horn tooter. It looks like we may have to hold a telethon! But again, now all’s well for him too. So all you frightened horn tooters…you are not alone.

Tags: advertising, marketing, voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
3 Comments »

You are…to every man, woman and child that I know earning a living in the voice-over profession…all talented people of good heart.

If you’re not, well, you fooled me.

But with this sincere compliment offered, I pose this stinging, serious and direct critique that you are free to ignore:

Your Christmas and holiday messages to your clients and peers are NOT the time to wish us well AND let us know your holiday schedules and availabilities. When you do this cringe-worthy act, you unwittingly come off as insincere and desperate as well as seemingly ignorant about what this holiday season is all about for most of the world.

HINT: This holiday season is NOT about you getting more voice-over jobs.

In this one message to your clients at a time of year steeped in a variety of religious traditions for people of numerous faiths that most all people still hold sacred – be real.

Be human.

Be sincere.

Offer your wish, your hopes or just a simple message of good will. Then stop.

It’s not a marketing opportunity. It’s not a scheduling opportunity. If clients need you, they will find you and you will work.

A competitor won’t tell you about your very awkward yet not career-ending mistake.

But a friend will. 🙂

Tags: branding, commentary, kick in the pants, marketing, public relations, rants, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
1 Comment »

I want your opinion. My request is for you to tell me YOUR opinion about the response I received to my complaint with a recent hotel stay. I want to know your reaction to their response. This is strictly a review of how one should or should not respond to a customer complaint.

I will not give you my opinion yet on my reaction to how this was handled. I’d like to hear from you.

Here’s the background.

I had what I consider an unnecessarily bad hotel experience at a Holiday Inn Express in St. Louis, Missouri last month (June). In the scheme of life, these are minor issues except that when you travel a lot, the blatant mistakes are well, blatant.

The response I got to my complaints from the hotel while I was staying there was not what I expected. The hotel did try and fix some of the problems during my stay. In the morning, I received the feedback stated in the response below. Then I received an automated customer feedback request from Holiday Inn (Intercontinental Hotels) right after my stay and I told them all the details.

To my feedback – this was the response I received at 4:00 a.m. ET today:

Dear Mr. O’Connell,

Thank you for contacting Guest Relations regarding your experience with the Holiday Inn Express St. Louis Airport – Riverport, MO. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to bring this matter to our attention, and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

It is IHG’s goal to consistently provide superior service and accommodations and your comments are very important to us. The feedback we receive from our valued guests, like you, enables us to target problem areas and take the necessary actions to ensure similar situations can be avoided in the future. We appreciate the candid feedback we receive and welcome any opportunity to improve.

I have forwarded your comments to the hotel a copy of this file has been made available to the General Manager and ownership for their records. I know they share our vision of providing the best guest experience possible, and I am confident they will take the necessary steps to continue to improve their services.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. We value you as our guest and hope you will continue to choose IHG for your future travel needs.

Sincerely,

(Name omitted)
Case Manager
Guest Relations
IHG
Reference No. 37920958

Phone: (omitted)
Fax: (Name omitted)

Americas Region
Email: (omitted)
www.ihg.com

On 6/24/13 5:57 PM, peter@audioconnell.com wrote:

INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP FEEDBACK

——————————————————————————–
C O N T A C T I N F O R M A T I O N

——————————————————————————–
Contact Name: Peter O’Connell
Priority Club Number:
Street Address: (omitted)
City: (omitted)
State: (omitted)
Zip Code: (omitted)
Country: United States
Region: UNITED_STATES
Home Phone Number: (omitted)
Email: (omitted)

——————————————————————————–
H O T E L S T A Y I N F O R M A T I O N

——————————————————————————–
Hotel Location: Holiday Inn Express ST. LOUIS AIRPO
Confirmation or Cancellation Number: 69112792
Check-In Date: Jun-18-2013
Check-Out Date: Jun-19-2013
Comment Type: GENERAL_SERVICE
Spoke With Management: Yes
Comment: * The phone in the room was disconnected and broken * The TV changer was broken and not replaced * There were 3 kinds of bugs in the room at 3 different places in the room – When I told the front desk about all this in the morning, the lady only said “It’s a good thing we’re renovating.”

So what would YOUR reaction be?

Tags: marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
4 Comments »

All the world is fascinated with Facebook Company pages and I get that….Facebook is a popular service but it just feels to me Facebook and it’s company page has the long term business impact of neighborhood kids hosting a lemonade stand and neighbors dropping by to buy a cup which they may or may not drink (the O’Connell children will be hosting a lemonade stand today, BTW).

Facebook isn’t the best social media place to do my business.

But clearly, LinkedIn has not only every VO talent in the world (oy!) but advertising decision makers, producers, casting companies and business people who seem to me more likely to consider using my services.

So my question is this: do you have your LinkedIn Company Page set up?

And of course, you’re welcome to follow my LinkedIn page. 🙂

Tags: commentary, facebook, linkedin, marketing, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
3 Comments »