THUS, WHEREIN, THEREFORE AND SO ON AND SO ON I, Peter K. O’Connell, issue the following voiceover podcast decree…and you all shall abide by it, tho I’ve no way to prove your abidance (got all that?)

WHEREAS I have been a guest on many a voiceover podcasts over the decades…

WHEREAS I used to have a podcast with the voxmarketising brand but found it much too much a pain in the ass to record, edit, produce and publish because I art lazieth…

WHEREAS the organization within my blog of my past podcast appearances have been anything BUT organized because (see:lazieth)

THEREFORE, I being far from sound (and more likely questionable) mind but of fun and amiable spirit, as America’s Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent I Peter K. O’Connell do decree and therefore press into law – as not really commanded by God and/or by Country – the establishment of the VOICEOVER PODCAST HALL OF FAME, as of right now, whenever you happen to be reading this. Forever and ever, amen.

The very strict criteria for entrance into this VOICEOVER PODCAST HALL OF FAME (if you type the name in all caps it’s more official-like)…anyway the way you get in is having had me on the podcast.

In essence, these are all the podcasts that I have guested on (that I can recall).

Here are the VOICEOVER PODCAST HALL OF FAME presented by Peter K. O’Connell inductees thus far….

Podcast Title:
ASK ME ANYTHING PODCAST–
Guest:
Voiceover Workshop’s Peter K. O’Connell
Host: 
Tom Dheere
Original Air Date:
September 2023

Podcast Title:
GUYS WHO DO STUFF PODCAST–
Guest:
National Voiceover Talent Peter K. O’Connell
Host(s): 
Joe Woolworth & Josh Manning
Original Air Date:
July 2019

Podcast Title:
VOICE OVER BODY SHOP–
Guest:
National Voiceover Talent Peter K. O’Connell
Host(s): 
Dan Lenard & George Whittam
Original Air Date:
March 2016

Podcast Title:
MIKE LENZ PODCAST – A JOURNEY INTO VOICE ACTING –
Guest:
Voiceover Talent Peter K. O’Connell
Host:
Mike Lenz
Original Air Date:
August 2015

Podcast Title:
VOICE OVER CAFE  – From FaffCon 6 in San Antonio
Guest Host:
Voice Talent Peter K. O’Connell
Host(s):
Peter Bishop, Trish Basanyi, Terry Daniel, Sean Caldwell & Jordan Reynolds
Original Air Date:
October 2013

Podcast Title:
THE 3 AMIVOS PODCAST –
Guest:
Voiceover Talent Peter K. O’Connell
Host(s):
Garnet Williams, Dave McRae, Mike Pongracz
Original Air Date:
June 2013

Podcast Title:
EAST WEST AUDIO BODY SHOP –
Guest:
Voiceover Talent Peter K. O’Connell
Host(s):
Dan Lenard & George Whittam
Original Air Date:
October 2011

Tags: commentary, peter o'connell, podcast, podcast episodes, podcast guest by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on Peter K. O’Connell’s Voiceover Podcast Hall of Fame

I’ve been fortunate to be invited on a number of voiceover related podcasts and webcasts (because the ‘cooking show’ podcasts know I don’t really have that much to offer – as I am a Platinum Member of the Arby’s Best Customer Club).

So it was nice to have the VO Workshop invited on Tom Dheere’s “Ask Me Anything” webcast (part of his VO Strategist business) to discuss voice-over marketing.

Full disclosure, I was not his first choice for the show but his original guest had to cancel last minute. Glad to help out my friend of at least 10+ years just before airtime.

The show must go on! Indeed it did!

We spoke about marketing priorities for voice talents including databases, demos, websites and more. We also took questions from viewers of the live broadcast.

According to Tom, the show went very well. As the guest, I know hosts always say that but the response thus far has been very positive. I know I enjoyed myself.

Hope you enjoy it.

TRANSCRIPT IS AUTO GENERATED

0:00
so where you from and how’d you get started hey thanks for calling uh the uh I I started um back in 1982 officially I
0:08
mean I really always wanted to be in radio um I tell the story on on my
0:14
website when they put my bio up there um that I was in kindergarten in 1969 at at
0:20
madii school and our and our teacher sister Donna Marie was kind enough uh to
0:26
take a class of four and five year olds to a radio station so and it was webr which is a station
0:33
that kind of exists now but not certainly the way it did um and I remember walking into that studio not
0:39
really understanding radio here’s my concept of radio back when I was in kindergarten that there was a band uh
0:45
that played a song and then that band left and the next Band came on and played their song that was that was that
0:53
was my logic of in kindergarten of how how radio worked okay so when I saw how
0:58
radio worked I was just like ooh I don’t we all have that sort of moment where we go wow what was that
1:05
could be a car it could be you know a location a trip we took but that was me
1:10
that was me and I knew somehow from that point forward I was going to definitely
1:15
uh be involved in in radio and so you’re saying so you’re saying you wanted to you discovered you wanted to be a DJ when you were five years old I didn’t
1:22
know what a DJ was but I wanted to work in that place I want to work in the place with the tubes and the levers and
1:27
the microphones and people talking and was really cool cool um so I I really
1:32
like I really like that so fast forward to uh you know finishing up high school and got to make some decisions here and
1:39
I wanted to you know it it it’s tough to uh put together a radio career and a
1:47
college career together because that’s a lot of money to invest in it but the idea was uh that I get a good college
1:54
education so if the radio thing didn’t work out you know you you had a backup so um fast forward to there’s a couple
2:01
schools um three or four schools that I was looking at um and a couple of them
2:06
said no and then uh a few others of them said oh sure and one of them was the
2:12
University of Dayton which is where I ended up going so I’m I’m a Dayton flyer and the the reason um I went there uh
2:20
was was very simple uh the University of Dayton owned a 50,000 watt FM radio
2:26
station which was not a normal College radi station you’re saying a some kids come in there and they put on a t-shirt
2:33
talk to their buddies in the dorm no this had a professional paid general manager not a student professional paid
2:40
program director not a student professional paid sales team that made their living on sales traffic department
2:48
but the students were on air save um were all all the people on air were all students save for the morning man who
2:55
was the paid program director and the music director who had the afternoon shift so I I got myself on there in the
3:01
first year um and I was doing news in the afternoon uh I think I started maybe
3:08
December January around that time of my freshman year and I worked all the way through uh and and and by my beginning
3:15
my sophomore year I had a regular shift um Monday through Friday 6:00 to 900m so
3:20
I was I was the evening dish jockey and got to do all sorts of stuff but while I was doing all that
3:26
um I the the the radio station would have their announcers as most radio
3:31
stations do um read commercial copy uh sometimes it’s uh you know starting at
3:38
the theater near you this Friday back when people only could go to theaters um you know and um and then you know I got
3:46
to do some other spots and sometimes the clients were kind of fun they let me you know they let us be creative well i’ I
3:52
have a I had a shift uh in production so I work two or three hours a day so I would do you know I dub over commercials
3:58
from real toore and put them on carts but then you’d get commercial copy and they let you be creative with it that’s
4:05
where the lightning bolt hit for voice over I’m like oh I can write I can do
4:11
voices I I love making sound effects and music and all this other stuff and I became quite known for it at the station
4:17
to the point where clients would hire me uh to do their spots pay me additionally
4:23
versus the fee that I was normally getting and then take my spots and put them on other stations for which I got
4:29
remunerated again so um that was that was kind of when I went oh that’s cool um and I you
4:36
know I’d really like really like that but um you know it was it was fun but I
4:42
also realized at some point I needed to get a real job because I got some radio jobs after graduating and you know the
4:49
pay was was was pretty bad um and to think now it’s even worse uh but but it
4:55
was it was bad in 1986 so um so I you know I I got another jobs but I always
5:01
did voice over along the way one of the first things I did was start a video production company with my high school
5:06
video teacher and we did that for six or seven years um and we produce videos and so I’d narrate some of that stuff or
5:12
hire I would hire The Voice Talent um you know and some of the some of the dish jockeys that I would hire in the
5:18
Buffalo Market to do the stuff they’re you know i’ give them some direction they’d be like what I said yeah I don’t want your radio voice I need this kind
5:25
of voice and they like they thought that was kind of cool they were like wow okay thank you I can can do that so they so
5:32
anyway voiceover was always a part of that um you know going back through through all the different jobs and tasks
5:38
because you’re not going to make a king’s Ransom and voice over in Buffalo New York um to this day uh or Raleigh
5:45
North Carolina you’re going to have to be in in New York or La people some people say Chicago and I have lovely
5:50
agents in Chicago High big mouth uh but um no I uh you know I’m not in those
5:56
cities and and and didn’t didn’t want to be so um you know know so voiceover was
6:01
about um creating awareness you know around that time thank goodness the um
6:07
the internet popped up and suddenly we you know we we got the AOL dial up some people won’t know what that is but uh
6:14
but those of us of a certain age will remember you know we first we first signed into uh our first AOL account and
6:21
heard a noise we’d never heard of before and thought we broke our computer I think we all remember
6:27
that oh God what did I do wrong uninstall uninstall um and it was you
6:33
know and and then we went on from there and so with the internet came on business changed how you marketed
6:38
yourself changed we may talk about marketing here today I don’t know what the show is about um maybe a stitch but
6:44
um but then everything sort of opened up for us and around the world um and and
6:50
it became it became really really fun um and then I I’ll stop there and I can
6:55
tell you how you know voiceover for me changed a little bit and became even even broader uh scoped but I I don’t
7:02
want to take 10 minutes answering a question no you’re no it no it’s good it’s good for everybody to hear because
7:07
everybody’s voiceover journey is different and now that it’s 2023 and now that I’ve been you know
7:14
doing the V strategist coaching thing for over 10 years now and I did my first
7:19
voiceover in 1996 the landscape has changed dramatically and the changes
7:24
keep coming faster and faster and we as voice actors need to adapt more and more I think an interesting uh something
7:32
interesting I got out of it is that you had the infrastructure of radio as your entry into the voiceover industry yeah
7:39
um other people have have other other ways of doing it for what’s happening in
7:45
2023 you know that infrastructure that is Radio it still exists but not even as
7:52
remotely as uh spread out or prolific as it is because now you know that I think
7:58
it was at the tele Communications act in 1996 that really uh that really changed
8:04
radio forever and not in a good way well I think it was I think it back even farther and I and I’m not going to
8:10
remember I’m sure that that didn’t help but um the the point where I kind of
8:16
went even as a young person I went oh this is going to change things was I
8:21
believe it was in the Reagan Administration uh there used to be a limit that a company could own I and
8:30
historians please forgive me seven radio s 7 AM 7 FM and 7 TV right and then
8:36
Reagan no you don’t need those limits thanks boom right and then everything changed
8:42
soid because yeah oh yeah because then what that meant for for those the the younger viewers out there is that means
8:49
that um that Mom and Pops who are maybe not doing so well who want want to get out of the market want to be bought out
8:55
and major corporations who wanted to you know buy into a market could more easily do so they weren’t ham hamstrung anymore
9:02
for television or am or FM um you know that was that was great and then uh as
9:09
as we delved into the 90s when internet came in that was another kind of seismic
9:15
shift um and and what could that mean well for for audio production for radio
9:20
production um it allowed things to be even more automated than they already were uh it it it brought along the
9:27
opportunity for electronic um electronic audio editing instead of
9:32
realtoreal machines uh suddenly everything was digital and there was there was software out there that’ll
9:38
that allow you to do that um and and everything kind of just became seismic from there so from a from a radio
9:46
perspective the jobs became um smaller and because they radio stations would
9:53
not bother with you know bother with people because they’re expensive and they you know they’ have somebody do one
9:59
show out of atuma Iowa and somebody would insert a radio call letter jingle
10:04
and it would just be all very generic and and and pre-recorded that’s a really really uh brief and poorly surmised
10:13
explanation of how that all happened so Tellis now you are a you consider yourself a full-time voice actor but you
10:19
also I got this I got to be full-time I gotta pay for this that’s already paid for but also I know I’ve known you for a
10:25
very long time you also travel the country as a is it safe to say marketing consultant would that be the no I I have
10:32
a marketing business uh and I’ve been working with uh clients for a long time one client in particular so that’s you
10:38
know it’s pretty terrific but um it’s uh yeah I’ve been doing marketing I’ve had
10:44
uh my business uh for a long time um and you know the the industry has changed
10:51
and of course because of my marketing background and sales and marketing background um and I’ll always do that
10:56
that’s just that’s just who I am and what I am um as part of what I do uh
11:02
it’s it really it really has evolved and and it’s really evolved In from from a
11:07
voiceover standpoint as well um I know that a lot of people obviously here are very focused on their voiceover business
11:13
but what you can learn from other other marketing channels from other Industries you there are often
11:19
times applications to voice over um so just watching some of that change um has
11:24
been has been really something of of interest to me because I think um I mean it’s it’s ever evolving we’re all having
11:31
to deal with it um and there’s a little bit of everybody making it up as they go along um there is no very similar to um
11:41
I think very similar to the voiceover Journeys you referen that everyone takes one marketing uh size does not fit all
11:50
um and because so many people in voiceover
11:56
are are voiceover actors they are not marketers they don’t understand business
12:02
and some of them I think are certainly a lot of the new folks that I’ve talked to over the years and again doing this 40
12:09
years you talk to a lot of people they don’t understand that they’re starting a
12:14
business when they get into voiceover right it’s not just you sit around you sit on your you know your couch and wait
12:20
for the phone to ring and I I’ve said this for years others have said this for years and yet there are people still on
12:26
the couch waiting for the phone to ring well here’s what I’ve learned in my you know 10 plus years of of coaching the
12:32
business and Mar and marketing side is that you know voice actors have who are early in their Journey have certain
12:39
expectations they expect that they based on their talent and then the fact that
12:44
they produced a demo yeah that um they will get discovered get their lucky
12:49
break or something or something like that and what I’ve learned is that the the four words that will ruin your
12:55
voiceover marketing are breaks competition connections and luck yeah and the thing that those four things in
13:02
have in common and all of those are outside external forces that you’re
13:07
waiting upon to relieve you the responsibility of taking true true control of your voiceover career in
13:14
general and your Marketing in particular when all the things that you really need to do to move your voiceover business
13:20
forward in general and your marketing efforts in particular is all internal
13:25
developing your understanding of marketing your understanding of the voiceover industry your understanding of
13:31
self on a talent level on a skill level level a skill level level uh that’s
13:36
right we’ll edit that out in post no one will ever see it right understanding what your limitations are as a voice
13:42
actor both when it when it comes to genre and like you know you know your comfort level with technology your
13:47
comfort level with social media your comfort level with writing you know all of those things and then trying to
13:53
figure out based on what your strengths and limitations are and your understanding of the industry how you can move forward so um throwing cold
14:01
water on the heads of most people who are very early in their Journey about when it comes to marketing no one’s
14:08
going to do it for you you do have to figure it out for yourself but there are a lot of resour there are a lot of
14:14
resources um out there um well I think the other thing that’s important there
14:19
and you were you were touching on it is sort of researching and finding out who you are as a voiceover talent and who
14:25
you are as a performer um I I will show you share one of my flaws as a performer
14:31
I am not an audiobook narrator I have tried it and I did not like it uh so I I
14:37
don’t have the tolerance the patience or maybe even the talent to be an audiobook narrator nothing wrong with audiobook
14:44
narrators some of them are friends some of them maybe even in this in this camera uh you know that I’m looking at
14:50
here um so that’s all fine but you have to kind of I think as you’re identifying
14:57
yourself what as a voiceover Talent find out what that Niche feels like sometimes
15:03
when you’re early on you’re not going to know that’s okay you got to develop that takes time but say you’re two or three
15:08
years in or even a year in you have a better sense that boy I really have a knack for character or I really have a
15:14
knack for video game or I really have a knack for promo what any one of the genres and then really understanding
15:21
from there who your audience is and what do I mean by that okay so let’s say for for
15:29
example uh you are you are going to be you really feel strongly about broadcast
15:34
promo okay you feel that you really have the pipes uh and and you you offer something different something that
15:41
stands out uh from a performance standpoint that will really get a viewers attention uh from either a um
15:47
from either a a local affiliate or go for it national um opportunity that you
15:53
really think is going to work out so who is your audience stop think stop drop and roll
16:00
stop and think this is where the business part of marketing kind of
16:05
starts once you know who you are uh as a performer doesn’t mean you can’t be
16:12
other things it just means you’re you’re kind of focusing you’re trying to you got to start somewhere right you go
16:17
Gotta you got to pick somewhere right so if I would to if if I were to ask Tom you know what’s the best way to uh begin
16:25
you know figuring your your marketing out from a from a uh from a uh audiobook perspective his answers are going to be
16:32
significantly different than if I say what are going what are the ANS is going to be for trying to figure yourself out
16:39
as a broadcasting promo uh specialist big time Big Time so in in in this
16:45
example and this is just an example and and it’ll could be again be a short one because everything we’re going to talk
16:50
about has a lot more to go into than we’re going to cover here today but for the purposes of this if you were going
16:56
to be in broadcast promo you’d probably want to stop and think about who your audience is more than likely your
17:04
audience your your your most opportunistic audience is going to
17:10
be at a local affiliate level you’re going to start at the local affiliate
17:15
level versus the networks doesn’t mean you can’t start at the networks but this is assuming that you are a an individual
17:23
without necessarily representation you have to Market yourself out to these folks and you have to get your first
17:29
couple of gigs it could be radio it could be television so if it’s going to be uh radio uh you’re probably going to
17:37
want to focus on those people that hire you uh for for these jobs um and in
17:42
radio that’s going to be either the program director or the creative Services director depending on the size
17:48
of the radio station same sort of thing in television uh you’re going to you’re going to talk to the program director or
17:54
the promo more often not the promo or creative Services director at a television station station again local
18:00
affiliate why is that valuable for you it’s valuable for you because there
18:05
are oodles of local radio and television stations versus a much smaller pie for
18:13
National even cable networks now granted when I was a boy there were no cable
18:19
networks and there were four channels ABC NBC CBS and PBS and maybe fifth one
18:24
maybe you had an independent there was no Fox network at the time that was 80s five or 86 yeah so I mean we’re talking
18:31
it wasn’t that long ago uh that you know and and cable came up and everything HBO
18:37
wow uh you know it was it was a whole big thing um now HBO’s like uh they throw that in they just throw we will
18:42
get to your questions in just a moment and then I’ve got a story after Peter I’m sorry um but uh but so when you’re
18:48
going after these guys you’ve given yourself a bigger Pond to fish in so
18:54
that’s why I use this example right um and so you’re going to try and find these folks how are you going to try and
18:59
find them um there’s a variety of ways to do that I will stop here and say do you want me to talk a little bit about
19:05
that or do you want to go into another area yes but not yet so I’m gonna give you a little sto so I’m gonna give you a
19:11
little story about you know what I think oh to rephrase to to cons condense what
19:16
you were saying let the industry listen to the industry because the industry will often tell you where where you
19:24
should Place yourself and how you should Market yourself just in the past couple of months I booked three gigs very very
19:31
close to each other within a couple of weeks of each other and all of them were recruitment
19:38
ads commercials radio commercials like the Maryland Department of Transportation is looking for great
19:43
people like you come on down to the Civic Center on at on the 14th at four o’clock and bring your resume we’d love
19:49
to find out what you can do da I got like three of those for three different clients yeah and I’d never booked
19:55
anything like that spots like that before I was like oh that was interesting and then also around the same time I
20:01
also booked three spots back to back to back with three different clients all of them were well I guess we they’re not
20:08
exactly tags maybe n cards like there was one for Cousins Subs I don’t know if you know the that sub it’s a in Wiscon
20:15
it’s a Wisconsin subchain sure and the guy goes to the counter and he’s not sure what to get and one customer say get this and other saying get that and
20:22
the lady behind the counter said get both you know and at at the very last end I’m like you know sometimes it is hard to decide what to get a cousin subs
20:28
come on down and figure it out so I just did like it was a 30second television commercial but I only came in at the
20:34
last 5 seconds with the voiceover right and I got like three of those Royal Bank of Canada was another one back to back
20:40
to back also I had never gotten anything like that before either and these are all coming to you individually or
20:45
through representation they were they all came through uh voice one 123 okay all of them did and I was like oh that’s
20:52
very that’s all very interesting so I so what I did as a result of that is I got the finished spots I you know chunk them
21:00
down into the MP3 I create I created demos short demos for both of those and
21:05
I uploaded those samples to my website and to my other casting sites yeah so now I have found the industry told me
21:12
that there’s a new way to Market myself so have you ever so you have you ever had an experience like that yeah I I yes
21:19
in many ways and the other thing I’m thinking is as you’re talking about what you’re doing there is the other thing I want to tell you to do is is share that
21:26
demo with maybe some some producers that you know just to let them know that this may be a genre coming up right it’s a
21:32
great opport great opportunity it’s a great opportunity to reach out to uh to folks to have
21:38
something new to share with them right um because you have something to talk about something of value and it and it
21:44
directly relates to their business so you’re not just hitting with the the old email hi I’m great and I did this that
21:50
and the other thing it’s like no listen to this this is the thing that’s happening now so I tell my students that
21:55
that’s what’s called demonstrating value in progress if you’re going to Market if you’re going to send out something make sure it’s either demonstrating your
22:01
value your progress or both I’m going to charge you for that piece of advice I just gave you by the way just just be
22:07
very clear you get check in the mail uh let’s go to our first question Pat hello Pat Pat says okay so Peter well most of
22:14
these questions are for you unless they say it specifically for me what is your best piece of marketing advice my best
22:19
piece of marketing advice um I don’t have a best piece um I I don’t because
22:26
and and I don’t mean it in a in a joking way either I mean it there’s there’s a lot of different things I would say
22:31
Obviously um as a voice I assume this is as a voiceover Talent this I’m gonna assume that’s the question so obviously
22:38
it all starts with a really good demo because that’s the calling card of every uh voice over talent so again knowing
22:45
your business uh knowing your niche as we talked about just a few minutes ago whatever that is whether it’s commercial
22:51
narration explainer videos promo whatever so that’s that starts there um
22:56
having a uh a really good website uh that is uh search engine optimized I
23:02
would highly highly recommend that um and I would I would think that would be extremely extremely valuable for you um
23:12
and from going on from uh the website you know social media and all the rest
23:17
of it so all that said the where where
23:22
marketing the the real core of marketing begins and ends for me is in your
23:30
database I have screamed from the the rooftops for 150 years that’s how old I
23:36
am uh that you have to um that you have to have a good database um it is it
23:44
really is the core of your business more than your demos and your websites and your social media and your blogs and
23:50
your YouTube videos and all the rest why how can I dare say that uh because
23:56
ultimately if you’re you know if you’re putting out a video here or there that’s great some people may see it it may go
24:03
viral it wow great that happens not very often though if we’re being honest it
24:08
does not does not happen very often but if you have a database of qualified
24:14
people um that’s a place where you can build a business that goes back to when
24:21
I spoke about just a few minutes ago about saying you know know who your audience is we talked about the
24:27
television and radio program directors and creative Services directors you have to go out and find those people LinkedIn
24:34
is your friend um you know you can you can there are some directories you can buy all well and good but I’m going to
24:41
assume many of the people looking for marketing advice U might not necessarily have a huge marketing budget um so so
24:48
I’ll start there if you have a huge marketing budget please call me um but but if you um you know if you’re just
24:55
starting out going through Linkedin is a great way to develop that database now I’m not saying to spam people let’s back
25:02
up here um what you want to do and this is what I’ve told people for a long time
25:07
um if you’re a voice over talent if you do nothing else for your day if you get up in the morning at 700 am. go to bed
25:14
at 10 o’clock uh you get a good night’s rest and start the day again the one thing you need to do every single day is
25:22
try and find yourself a qualified lead one a day you do that once a day say say
25:28
you’re just starting out you got a regular job oh I got a lot of things to do I’m going to do I don’t have time and you can probably spend 10 to 15 minutes
25:35
on your business just finding that one qualified lead something as simple as going on LinkedIn um and finding out
25:42
information on the person not just the name and the title and you get the address and the phone number all that
25:47
goes into your database by the way whether it’s on a an 8 and a half by 11 sheet of paper a a index card or it goes
25:53
into something smarter like an Excel spreadsheet that has first name last name business address all the rest of it
26:00
I’m sure that’s been covered on this or a CRM like clothes or Nimble or something yeah I again I’m not trying to spend people’s money so I’m you know
26:06
most everybody’s got some sort of Google database something like that that’s cool um uh but however they want to however
26:12
they want to do it start start there and then we can talk about talk a little bit
26:17
later about you know how you how you reach out to them and and the proper way to uh to insert yourself into their
26:24
lives without being a real pest but all of those things the database is the is
26:30
probably more important than anything else but you got to do those other things too the the demos and the website
26:36
and and and those things because because your competition is already there right
26:42
and if you’re going to be taken seriously you have to at least look like you belong at the dance right so I think
26:48
you said strong demo strong website strong social media presence strong database yeah database first probably I
26:56
mean demo demo dat database because if you if you don’t have a demo you have nothing to send to the database but if
27:03
you don’t have a database who are you going to send the demo to okay so demo and so demo and database are have a D
27:09
and D oh wait a minute that’s that’s that’s um our dear friend roxan
27:14
Hernandez coin I haven’t seen her in so long but now I see she’s marketing herself on video and I’m seeing all
27:21
these videos popping up and I’m so glad she’s out there yeah so see it’s always
27:26
lovely to see our buddy roxan she has lots of great questions so the first one is any tips for getting clients to write testimonials or give you reviews on
27:34
Google I’m not big on Google reviews I I haven’t done that because I and that’s a
27:39
personal problem with me it has nothing to do with anything else except I’m like
27:44
my cousin could have wrote that you know I just I kind of look at that kind of funny um but I I will I I have great
27:51
advice on how to uh how to reach out uh to get uh references and testimonials
27:56
from clients are you ready I’m ready call and ask
28:02
him I know I know that’s so old school but think about the value of it
28:09
though think about think about what you’re doing um now certainly if you’ve had a problem with a client if I have to
28:15
tell you this don’t call them for the the reference but if you’ve had a good client and most of your clients are
28:21
great I know no one’s no one’s ever really mad at us um but you can reach out to them and it’s it’s a great
28:27
opportunity to touch base about a hey how are you you know I want to tell you some of the things I’m doing um any new
28:34
business coming up that’s oh no okay that’s fine hey I was wondering I’m doing something if if you’re comfortable
28:40
with it I’d really like if you could um you seem to really like the work we did in the past could you write me a
28:46
recommendation I’m talking a couple lines that I can post on my website or you know have people know about it with
28:52
that be okay MH nine out of ten times they will do it I had one guy say he would do it and he kept saying he would
28:57
do it take him two or three months he was just that busy he ended up writing me a you know I had to chase him down
29:03
just very gently you know every three weeks and say how we doing on that reference the reference if you can’t do it it’s okay to tell me um but I got the
29:10
I got a great reference and so you know that’s to me the best way uh to get to
29:15
get those folks because you’re doing a couple things you can never I was about to say you can never reach out to your
29:20
clients too much but I know that’s a dangerous thing to say um uh you you
29:26
should try and reach out to past clients one or two times a year by phone if
29:32
possible you really should just to touch base and if they say nothing’s going on you’re not going to piss them off that
29:38
much and if they don’t want to take the call they don’t have to take the call right um but but you’re reaching out to them and this way you’re reaching out to
29:45
them and just saying you know having having a nice conversation um so that’s where I think that um that has some
29:52
value for you to to do that her next question is how about SEO wait a minute how many questions does she get she gets
29:58
she until someone else types in she gets uh she says how about SEO what’s a
30:03
good place to start getting a website up to speed without spending an absolute Fortune what might be the best things to
30:09
Outsource for SEO optimization and I’ve got something that can help with that too but and and then I’ll I’ll look to
30:14
your answer on that because I the way I’ve always done SEO optimization um is
30:20
I’ve I’ve read online and I’ve talked to experts that I know and trust okay um so I the I’ve always found with SEO
30:28
um I feel like SEO can can be a little bit of snake oil uh as sold by some
30:35
people yes so uh my personal way uh has always been to try and work with people
30:41
I know vendors I trust and if you don’t have any vendors that’s a little bit more difficult but your friend Tom has
30:48
has a has a resource for you he’s going to share with you now that he’s used to help people get their SEO uh up and
30:55
running okay blogging now think about this you have a
31:01
you have your website Tom deer.com Peter oon oon roxan hernandes coin.com and
31:07
usually it’s it’s one page like especially the trend with scrolling websites for a mobile experience so it’s
31:13
more so the trend is you know have a one-page website which has your demos a little bit about yourself ways to
31:19
contact you maybe some featured YouTube videos social media links contact right
31:24
every time that you write a blog when you post that blog it P when you publish
31:30
that blog rather it creates an additional page on your website that
31:36
page if you’re writing about voiceover will say voiceover voice acting and all the genres and all that stuff so it’ll
31:42
hand off a lot of keywords related to the voiceover industry organically and
31:47
if you’re talking about this or you’re talking about that another company a website a product or a service you’re posting a link in that website that link
31:56
goes to their website once you’re creating links from from your website to
32:01
other websites it creates a little synergistic relationship so I started blogging in
32:07
2008 yeah i’ had been blogging once a week anywhere from once a week to once a
32:12
month um sometimes more sometimes less but I have well over six
32:20
700 blog entries which means Tom dear.com and then after that Vost
32:25
strategies.com which each has their own blog each of those websites are six or 700
32:32
Pages massive and all of them are dripping with voiceover related content
32:38
dripping dripping my friend like a melting ice cream sunday um I just went and checked my
32:45
website um and I have the peterk connell.com which is also tied into to audio oconnell dcom uh just Google Peter
32:53
oconnell you’ll find me on there but I also have a Blog called Vox marketizing where I talk about voiceover marketing
32:59
and advertising and it looks like my first post was in May of 2005 okay so
33:05
how often have you been blogging uh I’ve been I I blog pretty often there’s actually some time I took off because it
33:11
felt like um the blog wasn’t getting as much interaction or people weren’t paying attention to it I think I think I
33:17
think it goes in lulls quite honestly but um there’s new stuff up there has been up there for some some months uh i’
33:24
I’ve been a little bit more active about it um I I also this is the self-doubt comes in many
33:30
forms in all of us but you know I feel like I’ve said this before like I’m repeating myself on certain things with
33:36
blog that happens especially if you have been at it for a while oh my gosh and I’m like I’m going to come away like you
33:41
know a goofy old guy okay two bits I’ve got two bits of advice for you on that Peter all right I’m not gonna pay for
33:47
him I’m telling you right now I’m just let you know that’s fair um number one if you want to talk about a subject
33:55
again you post that blog but you say a few years ago in this blog entry I
34:01
talked about this in the four five 10 years since my thoughts have evolved here’s been in my experiences since then
34:07
and this is what I’ve learned since then which either supports what I used to think or it contradicts because of I
34:14
either I was wrong or the industry has changed or whatever so you can talk about same subjects again as long as
34:22
long as you’re do backlinking because if you’re backlinking to yourself that helps your SEO I I think I think that’s
34:27
a sin I don’t think you’re allowed to back backlink yourself but that’s okay well you can do it
34:33
you so what what about if the people that you wrote about four years ago are still making the same stupid mistake how
34:38
do you how do you write that because that’s some of the things I’ve had to do you people were not listening when I
34:43
wrote this four years ago so I’m GNA post it again okay well that here’s here’s the other thing is that I’m kidding I know you’re kidding one thing
34:50
that I’ve also learned especially now is that search engine search engine optimization used to be just about the
34:57
strength of your website right and then Google B Yahoo would rank it accordingly
35:02
in relation to other websites but now all of the search engines are taking your social media presence into account
35:09
it’s part of the calculation in determining the strength of your overall online presence both website and social
35:15
media so one way to increase the page ranking of your website is to increase
35:21
the quality and quantity of your social media content they are they have a synergistic relationship and your
35:28
website should have your social media buttons on them which link to your social media and your social media
35:33
profiles should have a link to your website so you are you are crosslinking to to both of them so that can help out
35:40
a lot and we won’t even get into the the the explosion of video which is our friend roxan is is dealing with that
35:47
right now she’s making all these new videos which are wonderful video is Kingo rewards a video over everything
35:53
else right now which is upsetting to people who have a face for radio w so wear a mask uh as she also asked does
36:01
anyone still use business cards what would be a good marketing item to carry on yourself at conferences and other events I have an answer for that and
36:07
then I and then I’d love to hear yours is if anyone’s ever read my blog they know how I feel about business cards
36:13
right I’m very Pro business card okay so one thing that I have done is someone I
36:20
don’t remember who recommended it to me and I’m trying to remember the name of it it’s either H ha. or something like
36:26
that and um well even that aside QR
36:32
codes were in for a while and then they were out for a while and now they are in
36:37
again yeah so one thing that I do so like literally a couple weeks ago at the Jacob Javit Center which is just a few
36:43
blocks for me here in New York City there was the build Expo B Expo oh with the so he’s got the business card with
36:49
the QR code on it so and then the and then the and it’s dinged up because it’s
36:55
been in my wallet so I’m sorry okay um so when I went so I knew that I was going to be interacting with a lot of
37:01
people and Reps and stuff at this build Expo which was sponsored by B&H uh audio and video so it was this wonderful thing
37:08
so I generated a QR code and that QR code I just took a I kept it on my phone
37:14
so I keep it in Google Drive so I can call it up anytime I want so if anybody wants to connect with me I just hold up
37:21
my phone everybody’s got their phone in hand they just scan my QR code and depending on who I’m with or what the
37:27
event is whether I’m going as a voice actor or the vo strategist or both I’ve got this I think it’s called ha. I got
37:34
to find it I’ll I’ll post it in the you when the when this when this video is over this streaming is over it turns
37:39
into YouTube and gets a permanent YouTube video I will upload I will post the link but it gives you like it’s like
37:46
about. me where you can have a whole bunch of links or link tree it’s like that but it’s but you can format it you
37:52
can use a brand kit and customize the fonts and the colors and the format and stuff so do still have b Paper business
37:59
cards which I bring but those are mostly to stick in the fishbowls for the um you
38:04
know the Expos you think you’re so cool you kids nowadays yeah but I still I use
38:09
both I use that for that and some people still want to have the physical card but I also have the QR code available so
38:15
people can quickly scan it and then they have that on their phone so what and I agree I I understand that and I don’t
38:22
disagree with it I teased Tom because we’ve known each other for decades he teases because he loves yes exactly but
38:27
but um I I’ve always been a big stickler for business cards because I believe they do work and I believe and and I and
38:34
I want to point out something that I think is kind of a unique difference for Tom is that he’s talking about Marketing
38:40
in specifically in this instance in New York City where technology is it’s it’s
38:46
not that in Kansas City they don’t have this technology as well everybody has the technology but I think in certain
38:53
circumstances for many businesses that you’re going to run you’re going to want to have the electronic opportunity and
38:58
you’re going to want to have the paper opportunity based on the culture of the event yes exactly right and so that’s
39:03
why I created uh business cards with with a QR code on them to make it as easy as you want don’t want the card
39:09
just scan this boom done thank you very much let’s go have a drink right um you know and but it’s it’s being ready uh to
39:17
to have either one of those um AA available as a marketing tool because
39:23
it’s more than you know with business cards and and that kind of interacting you’re likely going to do a lot more
39:29
networking as a voiceover talent in an American Marketing Association group in
39:35
an ad Club um it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to go to the uh the
39:40
technology Awards and meet new people who who need audio for various things and and voices all I’m saying is um if
39:48
one of the great things that a voice Talent has that most businesses don’t have is the talent him him or herself
39:55
and their voice and being able to Market that and the interaction and and the response we all get uh when we tell
40:02
somebody we’re a voiceover and they you know oh I can hear that I can just you said oh did I sound too announcing no
40:08
you sound great you know they they just and so that actually with with humility
40:14
for all of us is a great opportunity to say well here you know how can I help you whether it’s you know of course what
40:21
we want is a national ad campaign what we might get is a message on hold job I don’t care you know I done them all I
40:28
you know I’ve worked for like I said Fortune 500 companies and companies that think $500 is a fortune I I don’t I
40:36
don’t mind working with any of them um because the check clears and the mortgage gets paid yes um but it’s but
40:42
it’s incum it upon us uh to be able to share our stories whether it’s through a
40:48
card or being able to explain to people what we do in an interesting way um you
40:56
know you know I say I’m the the your friendly neighborhood voiceover Talent uh which
41:02
is kind of a tie in to the old Spider-Man theme which when I came up with it the Marvel Comics really hadn’t
41:08
blown up yet uh as far as the movies um Spider-Man had but uh but not the movies
41:13
but you know however you position yourself make yourself memorable um and
41:18
it’s more than a tagline okay it it is about you I don’t know too many voice
41:23
over talents again we talked about the voice being important but the other part of VoiceOver talents is usually by and
41:30
large they do tend to and most actors are this way they do have tend to have a bit of a
41:36
personality you know and and it’s usually a positive thing some some are divas and some are you know in in real
41:43
introverts and it’s really difficult for them but most of them like to talk to to other people and if you’re talking to an
41:48
actor oftentimes they like to talk about themselves so my advice there is remember it’s a two-way conversation uh
41:55
some actors don’t get that but enough about me what do you think about me no that’s not the right way to go with that
42:00
uh Paul pton said always be interested in what they’re interested in yes and God gave you two ears and one mouth use
42:07
accordingly listen uh it is the greatest tool of a voice actor as a performer to
42:13
to be to be a great listener it is uh it is a great uh is a great tool as a
42:19
business owner and as a um an owner of any any business to to listen and
42:24
certainly as a marketer to listen very CL L as well because they will a client will give you most of the answers uh
42:32
that you’re going to look for in life uh in your in what in what you need for their business you just have to listen
42:37
for it so talk less ask good questions and then listen right uh Rex roxan asked
42:44
specifically you how much would it cost to work with a marketing company and what type of services could you expect
42:50
from working with a marketing company well generally I mean obviously for me call me we’ll talk and and it depends
42:57
what what every voice over company whatever marketing whichever every marketing company should tell you is it
43:04
depends uh on on exactly on exactly what you want to work for um basically it works in two ways it works either on an
43:12
hourly basis or a package basis um every Everybody every marketing company that I
43:18
know of whether they call themselves a marketing company an advertising agency and advertising and marketing company
43:23
and advertising marketing and dry cleaner um you know whatever they are um you know cuz I know a couple voiceovers
43:28
that are dry cleaners too so it’s you know it’s everybody’s in in the boat but the the opportunity there is to figure
43:35
out what it is you want to achieve and and I tell this to people whether it’s
43:40
marketing companies or agents you know what is it you want to what is it you
43:45
want to achieve and the answer cannot be I want more business no it can’t be that
43:52
because they marketing and advertising can’t NE necessarily get you more
43:58
business depending on your industry okay they can create awareness and they can
44:04
try and develop a need or a um a perceived need but in our in our area we
44:10
need to make sure people know that we’re out there and we need to make sure more
44:15
importantly that the right people know that we’re out there going back to what
44:21
I said earlier about knowing your audience and knowing your Niche so taking the example that I used earlier
44:27
if I was in broadcast promo and I was going to hire a marketing company I would say to them my targeted audience
44:34
um is a is a creative service director or a promotions manager in markets uh in
44:41
broadcast markets 50 through 100 or 100 through 175 if you want to start smaller
44:47
I wantan to I want to find a way to reach them how can you reach them and marketing company tell me what you think
44:54
the best way to do that is um if you were a commercial voiceover Talent we’re
45:00
all commercial voiceover talents if you’re if you’re Focus for this purposes of this example were really about
45:07
commercial uh production commercial voiceover Talent you really wanted to be in spots there’s a couple audiences you
45:13
want to go after you want to talk to U production houses and then you want to
45:18
talk to the commercial production division of a television station as well
45:23
so there’s and and and some advertising agencies have media production departments not as many as there used to
45:30
be but there are some that still do and so you’re my my point in showing you the two difference between broadcast promo
45:36
and and and Commercial uh voiceover is that the audience changes and so you
45:42
need to have a focus on what you want to want to focus on my advice further is to
45:49
be as as niche as you can be uh and go down drill down that funnel Beyond you
45:57
know we were we’re out here and now we’re here and I’d like to try and get you into here because then you can
46:03
really gauge results now if you’re out here you have a lot more fish but they might not be the right fish here you’re
46:10
probably going to get the right fish in the right area and have a have a better idea of what that value is um and I
46:17
think you should go into I’m still trying to answer Rex an’s question because it’s multiart um is is that you
46:23
need to really have a a sort of budget in mind you should you know what am I
46:29
will what am I willing to invest in my marketing from from two two uh aspects for for the
46:38
purposes of hiring a company um how much I’m willing to pay for a fee and how much I’m willing to pay an agency fee
46:45
and how much am I willing to pay for for the advertising or fees to actually get that into the market um and that and
46:52
that could include production it could it include fees to advertise on certain you know in certain things whether what
46:58
you trade show say they say you’re going to be in a trade show and you got to have a booth and you got to have displays you there’s expenses with all
47:05
that all that’s going to come out of your marketing budget um whatever that is and I’m not saying you’re GNA be in a
47:11
trade show I’m just using that as an example but whatever it is there’s going to be a line items of fees that you’re
47:17
going to do and that you’re going to break that down uh and and there’s going to be a fee from that do you do you
47:23
spend do you do um Google ad do you pay for Google ads or Facebook ads or no no because the um the payto plays have made
47:30
that ridiculously expensive uh as as nich down as you want to get uh I think
47:36
I don’t and I don’t think the value is is there because I think ultimately and again I have no research on this this is
47:42
just my gut so I could be way wrong but specifically for voiceover and I also think there’s better ways to spend your
47:48
money than that um so maybe that’s part of part of my bias and we all have bias
47:54
you can only go by your experiences too yeah and and the way I look at it is um
48:00
I think when it comes to Google ads and all the rest of that stuff you you you’re not you’re you’re
48:05
going too wide you can go narrow but it can get very very narrow but it gets to be too expensive for what you’re for
48:11
what you’re getting I think um especially if you’re just starting out and you have a smaller budget I think um
48:19
I think smaller is better anytime you can as much as you can interact with the with your audience the better and by
48:26
interact I mean personally interact uh versus just being out there and and having the name squared away the other
48:32
thing that I will say um that’s on my it’s on my website uh regarding um the
48:39
voiceover Workshop vo workshop.com uh which I’ve had for a hundred years
48:45
and I don’t Market it that strongly because there’s so many coaches out there I’m like oh people find me and
48:50
it’s and I like that better that way but with with VW workshop.com I have on that page um the bottom of it there is a
48:58
marketing planning template so you can write your own marketing plan for the year it’s very simple uh you can you can
49:05
break it down and if you have questions I’d be glad to talk to you about it just give me a call but you can start your
49:10
own marketing planning where you don’t necessarily have to get with an agency or you can put together a plan and share
49:18
that with a perspective agency saying these are the some of the things that I’d like to achieve because this will
49:23
allow you to really focus your time and effort on on on where you think the the
49:29
best audiences the best audience for you is now an agency if they’re a good agency may be able to give you some
49:35
insight saying you know you might want to think about this from a little broader perspective um and granted there
49:41
are not too many agencies that I know of that are um that are voice over specific
49:47
marketing um even even I don’t necessarily do voiceover specific marketing for folks I I really I really
49:53
don’t because it’s you know there’s not that many people have that much money to spend I got bills to pay um but you know
50:01
there have been a few and i’ I’ve helped them out and at the very least I get them on their way to help um to help
50:08
write a plan for themselves how to execute the plan for themselves so they have a comfort level about what they’re
50:14
doing and so that they can go off for a year and know that every month uh they have to they have this goal to achieve
50:20
and they have these things to do to get to that goal whether it’s production or action steps they have to do and they
50:26
can do it every month so they’re at least moving everything forward but if you take nothing else away from this um
50:32
the the one tip that I that I gave out earlier on and I would highly recommend everybody do it especially if you’re
50:39
just starting out is figure out what your Niche is what you’re really what your what your hot spot is what you’re
50:44
really passionate about and voice over understand what that audience is and then spend some time on linked in
50:50
one lead a day by the end of the year and I mean work weekends too because
50:56
it’s 10 minutes you’ll have 365 leads if you’ve done it well that database I will guarantee you
51:03
is better than some voiceover talents who have been this in this five and seven years I guarantee you because they
51:09
don’t bother to do that right okay we’ve got time for one more question uh man
51:15
these hours always go quick don’t they um I’ve never been here before so I don’t know that was a royal that was a
51:20
was a maybe it was a rhetorical question I’m I’m glad to be here though Pat has another question opinion of using AI for
51:27
marketing wow um all right well my
51:32
opinion on AI right now is is fairly negative I um I don’t trust the
51:40
technology for marketing yet I feel like that and this may be an old man talking
51:48
you know and I’m not that old but I you know sometimes I feel like there’s no whippers Snappers in your AI get off my lawn get off my lawn and take your AI
51:55
with you um but you know I I see how I see how it makes
52:00
things simpler um I’m a guy who likes to control the marketing and control the
52:07
message and control how it’s sent out I have automation you know I email blasts and all the rest we didn’t even talk
52:13
about that yeah um you know but um I understand the value of it I’m not
52:19
sold yet that it that it necessarily works and I think for voice actors specifically I think you miss an
52:27
opportunity to um to interact to possibly interact better and follow up
52:33
faster um with with a person that where you’re more Hands-On in the marketing
52:39
now I’ve said something very very generic there about a very specific industry we don’t have time to go into
52:45
the the the who’s what’s and where’s of that we we’d be here another two hours right but generally speaking that’s my
52:51
feeling on AI and you’re a small business owner don’t you know yeah you
52:56
want to work smarter not harder but also remember that you’re you’re also in the
53:02
business more than many businesses you’re in the business is a voiceover Talent of building relationships with
53:07
your clients that’s really important and AI is a difficult way to do that not impossible right just difficult there
53:15
are there are ways there are ways and then there are there are ways um some are more reliable than others I think
53:21
Buddha said that I think yeah for example I some I don’t remember where I saw this
53:27
um oh I think Tom ago who is a a direct who is a full-time voice actor but he
53:32
also uh helps teach people about direct marketing he posted a video about a girl who discovered that you could use chat
53:39
GPT to run searches um and build and populate spreadsheets with companies and
53:47
their contact information and the person you know and the email and all that stuff and what the job description is
53:52
and maybe a recent award or a project that’s related to that company so when you do a you know human email you can
54:02
say hey and I really like the idea of that the only problem with that is that
54:07
right as it is right now currently constituted Chad GPT and a lot of the other AI stuff is notoriously unreliable
54:14
when it comes to data it has been known to create to give you incorrect information on a variety of topics so if
54:22
you are going to do that you got to vet it and if you’re GNA vet it I mean if you want to do it to try to come up with
54:28
a list of ad agencies in the Raleigh Durham area it could it could do that
54:34
easily check the information double check it check the to make sure that they did win this award or they did
54:39
produce that Nike SPoT and then you do so if you many better there there are better ways to do it but that is a way
54:45
to do it here’s another thing that you could do is I use AI to help my blogging
54:52
workflow so for example as the vo strategist I shoot a video every month talking about a different subject my
54:58
October uh blog topic is by the way AI I already shot that video and um I don’t
55:06
script I don’t script the vo strategist blog anymore I come up with a theme for every month I come up with a subject
55:12
October is AI the reason why it’s AI is because I’m speaking at La lapides New England voiceover Summit and showcase
55:19
and then I’m going to go to speak at Johnny hel’s audiobook narration Retreat and that is one subject that I’m going to uh cover yeah so what I do is um I
55:28
record the video and then I um use Google’s speech to text yeah software
55:35
and it listens to the uh audio and it spits out the text so I don’t have to transcribe it and it’s pretty good for
55:42
you uh it yeah it’s pretty it works pretty good then what I do is then I’ll go over to a hyper write which is which
55:48
is an AI and I’ll basically ask it ask it to clean up and consolidate the verbiage which then turns into the text
55:55
of the blog which is essentially everything that I said in the video but just cleaned up and Consolidated of
56:01
course you have to check it to make sure that it did everything that you ased to do but this is taking a lot this is
56:07
saving me a lot of time and it’s not forcing me to require on qu data that’s
56:14
questionable uh as a result of it being generated so I’m not using it to generate content I’m using it to you
56:20
know as an editing tool as an editing tool for my content so that is one that’s one of a number of positive use
56:27
cases but when it comes to AI for marketing you got to be at this point you got to be really careful because the
56:32
data is unreliable hopefully there will be some form of reg state or federal or local legislation or oversight so that
56:41
always works so well in every other category I say I said hopefully that so
56:46
you know because also another problem with with AI which we don’t have time to get into is that it is harvesting data
56:51
without the consent of the creators of the content artists writers and all of
56:56
that stuff and that’s a big that’s a big should should strike about that they should should have people should write
57:03
letters so that that’s a serious problem Oh terribly serious yeah it’s a big big
57:08
big problem So eventually hopefully someday chat GPT open Ai and whatever
57:14
else the data that you’re creating content from will be from content that is a verifiably correct and B has the
57:20
permission of the people who generated the original AI or book or song or whatever
57:26
and then and make sure that those people at at the very least get some form of acknowledgement if not compensation for
57:32
their contribution to that AI database so Pat um it can have some use cases I’m
57:38
sure there’s other positive safe use cases other than one I just did to use it as a Blog editing uh and you know
57:44
workflow tool but you know there there probably are some other ways okay oh look at that it is 3 o’clock wow that
57:51
time went fast um Peter yes how can people find you if they do want to work with you as a CO and or marketing
57:57
consultant well I I feel like we should be mentioning Mark Scott’s uh information here as I’m substituting for
58:03
him and he was he had a bit of an issue today so I I would feel we will do that we’re going to reschedule I’m gonna have
58:08
one with him so don’t worry about that I’ll put his information in the in the YouTube comments but how can people get in touch with you uh they can uh reach
58:15
me at uh Peter konell domcom uh they can reach me via the voiceover Workshop
58:21
where I do uh training for folks on voiceover marketing and technology uh
58:27
and you can reach me at vo workshop.com that’s how long I’ve been doing it that
58:33
domain was still available all those years ago that’s pretty impressive yes all right Peter thank you so much um you
58:40
were you did this on very very short notice you were a fantastic guest everybody asked fabulous questions and
58:45
you gave very thoughtful informed detailed answers which is exactly what everybody was looking for so thank you so much for that thank you everybody for
58:52
your wonderful questions and thank you very much for watching this ask me anything strategist YouTube video please
58:58
like this video And subscribe to my channel connect with me on Instagram and Linkedin if you’d like some help
59:04
navigating the voiceover journey in the industry go to Vost strategist dcom book a free 15minute consult and hopefully I
59:10
can help you navigate this Wild and Woolly thing that is the voiceover industry all right thank you very very
59:16
much for coming thanks again Peter everybody stay cool stay safe and happy voicing
59:27
Al righty

Tags: marketing, marketing podcast, podcast, podcast episodes, podcast guest, voice over podcast, voice over training, voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Here is the YouTube version and transcript of the Guys Who Do Stuff Podcast featuring Raleigh, NC-based national voiceover talent Peter K. O’Connell.

TRANSCRIPT IS AUTO-GENERATED

Tags: commentary, peter o'connell, podcast, podcast episodes, podcast guest by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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It was quite an honor to be the first guest in the new studio of the “Guys Who Do Stuff” Podcast, which we recorded a few weeks ago. Yes…I got to go to a REAL podcast studio, none of this phone stuff (which, of course is fine).

The podcast is produced by co-hosted and produced by Joe Woolworth and Josh Manning, both who live in the Cary, Raleigh, Durham North Carolina area where I am. Joe owns a web, media and business strategy company called Relevant Media Solutions. Josh is a media producer (web, photography and film) at his company called Jerico 7.

Joe Woolworth, Co-host of Guys Who Do Stuff Podcast

So as media producers, Joe and Josh are story tellers and through their podcast, they tell stories of unique small businesses and the people that run them. I believe the idea is that no matter how unique the business featured in the podcast, there are universal threads that run through each story and those threads are applicable to any business. By guests talking about the successes and challenges of their businesses, listeners can apply  the business and life lessons shared to their own lives.

How I got involved was just me networking, completely unaware of this podcast.

Josh Manning, Co-host of Guys Who Do Stuff Podcast

Because I’m still meeting new people (having only been in Raleigh Durham for coming up on 3 years) I was reaching out to local marketing and media people on Alignable, a locally focused business networking site. Through that site, I’ve been setting up some Starbucks marketing meetings with folks (similar to my Bagel Marketing back in Buffalo, NY but Starbucks is closer to my house, hence the name I just coined sitting here writing this blog post). I’m focused on folks in my Town of Cary, North Carolina (CARY = Containment Area for Relocated Yankees or Can’t Afford Raleigh Yet).

So I see Joe’s business on Alignable and I either emailed or called him and invited him to Starbuckies for a coffee and a chat (well, I do hot chocolate, not coffee, but it’s in the same cup as the coffee so people think I cool…fooled ’em again!) As we talked, Joe decided I would be a good guest for the podcast…or the guest he had scheduled had died…one of those two things. Anyway we talked.

What did we talk about? Easier probably to identify what we didn’t talk about but to try and summarize it we spoke about my start in voiceover, the University of Dayton, working with kids at home, Tony Stark, Spiderman, the Marvel Universe, co-working spaces (BTW in that part of the podcast, the co-working place I used was called HQ Raleigh…so embarrassed I blank on that name, sorry HQ Raleigh), then Wegman’s, the Gig Economy, Canada, getting the business, working in your underwear, greenways and parks, In-And-Out Burgers, Shake Shack, residuals, picking RDU, restaurants, Ernie Anderson, Mary Tyler Moore, The Partridge Family, Bruce Miles, D.B. Cooper, Mel Blanc, Looney Tunes, acting, Grover, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and after that, I forget.

The podcast has a fun, informative, light-hearted feel to it that makes the listen seem shorter than it is.

Now this co-working space where Joe and Josh have built their podcast studio is pretty awesome. It’s called Vibe and it’s a co-working community inside the Cary Towne Center Mall in Cary, NC. I’m not sure how many co-working spaces you’ve been in…I’ve been in more than a few.Many co-working spaces are very corporate…kinda steel and cold in tall office buildings…or they try and be too UNcorporate…and it’s too country, college-dormy. Vibe Cary is right in between for small business people, micropenuers who want professional and comfortable where you don’t feel like you should wear a tie but you probably don’t want to wear your ripped t-shirt and look like a slob either. Professionally casual. That’s my take anyway. You can get a membership or use it by the hour; you can get a private office or use a meeting space or, yes, record a podcast!

A great experience at a great place with great hosts. Thanks for including me.

Tags: podcast, podcast episodes, podcasting, raleigh, university of dayton by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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When I wrote the promo blog for my Monday night appearance on Voice-Over Body Shop (formerly known as East-West Audio Body Shop or EWABS), I had the chance to watch a bit of my 2011 appearance. That episode was George Whittam and Dan Lenard’s 4th show and it was a great deal of work for them to get the show on the net, given the tools of the time. But like true broadcasters they worked through it and got the show done. It was a fun time for me to be a part of and especially for the audience.

Fast forward to last night.

Locales have changed with Dan having moved this past summer from Buffalo, NY to Hollywood and a new studio in his new house. The show originates from this “Lenard Broadcast Center” so finally Dan and George are on the same set. The show has a new name (‘cause Dan isn’t in the East anymore) and the broadcast enjoys much better Internet streaming technology. George has become extremely comfortable as technical director with the newer technology and Dan keeps the flow of the show going very well. 5 years worth of shows will do that.

Sponsors have noticed the improved program as well because the show has many of them including (on this episode anyway) Voice-Over Essentials, Voice-Over Xtra, Edge Studio, Source Elements, VO2GoGo & Antland Productions.

I was linked in to the show about 30 minutes before air and got to have a nice visit with George and Dan, discussing how much the show has evolved. Certainly with any broadcast, that’s going to happen.

However, from my perspective as an early guest on show #4 to my latest appearance 5 years later, the show has experienced a wonderful evolution from two well-paired co-hosts who are not just committed to their show but, even more so, to their audience.

So if you didn’t get a chance to see the show live, here for your viewing pleasure is last night’s broadcast. Thanks boys. And happy 5th anniversary.

Tags: commentary, podcast, podcast episodes, podcast guest, video, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Here is the audio version and transcript of the Mike Lenz Podcast – A Journey Into Voice Acting with special guest voice actor Peter K. O’Connell.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT is Auto-Generated

Mike Lenz:

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Mike Lens’s voice, a journey into voice acting. My name is Mike Lens. I’m an entrepreneur, a professional voice actor, audiobook, narrator, and author of Paid To Talk a journey into Voice acting. My goal is to share with you stories from some of the most amazing and inspiring people from all areas of the voiceover industry, as well as other incredible entrepreneurs to help you achieve your dream of becoming a professional voice actor. So please leave us a review over on iTunes and join us over on the web@mikelensvoice.com to be notified of each episode when it comes out. Now, get ready to be inspired. Hi everyone. Thank you so much for joining me on Mike Lynn’s voice, a journey into voice acting. I’m so happy you’re here with us, and I’m really looking forward to the podcast today because I get to spend some time chatting with voiceover talent and teacher Peter O’Connell. Hello, Peter.

PETER K. O’CONNELL

Who is this? (laughing)

1:25

Why are you on my phone? scheduled an interview.

1:29

Get off my line. . I apologize. , goodbye. This is

1:34

Not a party line. .

MIKE LENZ:

As you know, Peter has a great sense of humor, as I’m sure you’ve realized by now. . Um, as his tagline says, Peter is America’s friendly neighborhood, voiceover talent. Peter’s amazingly versatile vocal talent allows him to share many voice acting styles with his clients. From his conversational every man voice to his hard sell, straight announcer voice to his, I’m annoyed with you. Hang up your phone voice that you just heard. , Peter’s natural telling.

2:03

It’s the phone when clients call. Who is

2:04

This?

2:05

You better have money in your hand. Exactly.

2:07

Exactly. Uh, Peter’s natural voiceover abilities are favored by clients for commercials, for narration, for e-learning documentary. Uh, he does TV promo radio imaging, and he even does somet

Some live announcing.

Don’t forget 900 numbers. Don’t forget the 900 numbers.

Yes. He’s very, very active in the 900 number world. So, some in, in addition that

2:27

The takeaway, we’re gonna have to probably the one takeaway that people go, you know, that O’Connell guy, he’s very interested in the 900 number world. That’s very strange. Yeah.

2:34

We may have to edit that part out. That’s

2:36

Nevermind, . My reputation can’t be sullied after how many years? 30 plus years. It’s not gonna get sed. Now, in addition to the 900 numbers that he does, has lent his voice to include, uh, they do include, uh, companies like Kraft Foods, PBS, time Warner Cable, uh, blue Cross Blue Shield, and the Cleveland Browns of the NFL to name just you.

3:01

That was a long time ago too.

3:03

. Well, there you go, Peter. It’s on your website. So first Browns.

3:05

Yeah. The very first Cleveland Browns , not the Cleveland Browns, all of them lost both, both Cleveland Browns teams lost. Uh, but, uh, that was the fir, the first go round That’s the, uh, prior to the Johnny Menzel era, I imagine.

3:17

Yes. Yes, it was. Yes it was. But Johnny’s tried to turn over a new leaf. I see. So we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and good for him.

3:24

Better days are coming.

3:26

we’ll see.

3:27

That’s all they’ve got. No, I’m kidding. It’s a joke. Cleveland, I love you. Cleveland .

3:31

So, Peter, welcome to the show.

3:33

Thank you. if you would share with our listeners, as, you know, as we talked about, many of our listeners are aspiring voice actors. They’re just thinking about or breaking into the voiceover business. So take us back a bit and, uh, if you could tell our listeners about your particular journey into the world of voiceovers.

3:56

Well, when I first met with Marconi, uh, he No, it’s, uh, I told him this, this radio thing will never work. Um, no. For me, it was, I, I actually wrote about this recently because I was doing something, uh, a little bit about my background in, in Buffalo, in Western New York, and how it all started. So my interest in broadcasting started around 19 69, 19 70. And this puts me at the age of about four or five years old. Mm-hmm . And I’m a kindergartner at Madai School in Buffalo, New York. And, uh, the lovely sister, Donna Marie, who I just remember as being the, the most wonderfully patient soul with a room full of kindergartners. Uh, and the school actually had, uh, had a building built away from the main school for the kindergartners. I’m like, how awful were we, that they put us in a different place entirely. But, uh, so she, so she’s basically fending for herself, you know, she had a phone, but, you know, uh, I don’t know if that would go over Big N nowadays, but, um, sister Donna Marie came up with a great field trip idea. She thought she took us over to a radio station, WEBR in Buffalo, uh, which really isn’t anymore. It’s, it’s been taken over by a different station with a different set of call letters, I think. Uh, but this was a news station and a music station and, you know, just a regular AM station, um, in nineteen sixty nine, nineteen seventy. And I recall not thinking much of the trip, but I remember vividly wa walking through the station and going into the control room and looking into the studio and going, wow. Mm

5:39

Yeah.

5:40

Wow. What’s, what’s this? And I remember as a child also thinking that the Ray, the way radio worked was, um, you actually, uh, had a band in the studio and they played, and then they cut over to another studio, and the next song came on the radio, and that band played, and then they went back and forth between studio and I, this is how a 4-year-old, 5-year-old thinks mm-hmm . Um, so to have this sort of set straight for me, uh, by actually being in the, in the radio station, I’m like, I wanna be in radio. So the basis of it all is I wanted to be in radio, and I thought that was gonna be the coolest thing in the world. And then when I got to, uh, high school, I was able to, uh, I got my high school’s, uh, first ever internship in communication, radio, television comm, radio communication, specifically. Uh, there’s a radio station called Foxy 93, FM, WFXZ. It was called Foxy 93. So, you know, uh, it wasn’t long for this world. That was not, that was not a handle that was gonna last long . And, and it’s like, um, Foxy, you know, it was the eighties. Okay. So this had to be 81. Right. So this is 1981. And I remember I was in, and I can tell you when I started, I’m pretty sure this is right, because my first news story that I started working on a, as a news intern, and then working in the afternoon in the programming department, but getting up at four o’clock in the morning, being down the station at 5:36 AM twice or twice or three times a week, which didn’t turn out to be so lucky, was, um, uh, was the assassination of John Lennon. Mm-hmm . So I remember getting to bed early, like around 9 30, 10 o’clock, and my brother coming home and saying, did you hear, did you hear it was on a Monday in football. And of course I wasn’t quite asleep. And I’m like, what’s going on? John Lennon was shot and killed. I’m like, mm-hmm. What? Um, and I’m like, well, I’m gonna cover that the next day. Um, and I, you know, ’cause I was a junior in high school, I didn’t know how to write a news story, but I knew how to, you know, try and gather facts. Not that any facts that were gonna be gathered at a FM radio station in Buffalo, New York weren’t, you know, weren’t gonna be stolen from a station in New York anyway, and from the networks, but, you know, it was a big deal to me. And so that was great. And then at college, I was looking at, uh, colleges that had radio stations mm-hmm . And, um, you know, in broadcasting programs. I looked at Syracuse and I looked at Ithaca. Um, I think I looked at Xavier University, and I looked at the University of Dayton. I didn’t end up at Syracuse because, uh, they just said, said no to me. Uh, I didn’t end up at Ithaca because they said, you can go to the English department, you can’t go to communication, you have to wait. And Dayton said, yes. So I’m like, whoosh, off I go to Dayton. Dayton had the most what turned, this is serendipitous, um, had the most interesting of the three programs. The Syracuse has a famous broadcasting program, you know, the likes of Bob Costas and the, like, of graduated outta Syracuse. So, you know, Syracuse kind of thinks they’re, you know, pretty great. And they’re, you know, they got a good school in a lot of ways, the New House School of Communication. But what Dayton had, which just makes, makes me all the Twitter, uh, was a 50,000 watt commercial radio station. The uniqueness of this station was, it had full professional broadcast management. So we’re talking a full-time general manager, not a student. We’re talking full-time program director, not a student. We’re talking full-time sales positions, not students. And that the only part the students had in it was to be, um, uh, the students were on air, but it wasn’t like you were, you know, you worked, you were on the air from one to 2:00 PM on Fridays, you know, let’s play whatever you want. This was a formatted radio station. You had a, if you, if you got on Monday through Friday, you had a regular shift and you were getting a paycheck.

9:22

So you got, so you got a taste of a professional run,

9:26

Wasn’t, it wasn’t a taste. I was in it, you were in it

9:28

First. Exactly.

9:28

Boom, I’m getting college a paycheck and I’m working in college. Mm-hmm . And I, I would’ve, I would’ve gladly dropped every class and just done radio all the time. Just loved, loved radio as everybody who’s ever worked in radio loves it. And then, you know, the reality sets in and you’re like, you need to pay bills and stuff, and you go, this sucks. Uh, but it was, that, that part was, was great. And so I started in, in, um, in, in radio news in the afternoon, having no business being, you know, being a news announcer, but worked my way through it. Um, you know, you fake it till you make it. Mm-hmm . And then, um, I got on the air in, still in my freshman year, um, uh, beginning of my sophomore year for getting on getting music shift. I, um, was six to nine weeknights. Um, and, and did that for I think two or three years, uh, up until I went on vacation. And I came back, and while I was away on vacation, the production department blew up. Something happened, and I, I, I turned out to be pretty good at production. I turned out to be pretty good at, um, uh, at, at commercials and creating and script writing. And, and I had some Atari decks, and I had a, a, you know, pots all over around me and a bunch of cart machines, and I could turn that into a symphony. Mm-hmm . I got pretty good at it. And I was damn handy with a wax pen and a straight razor blade, you know, cutting us all together. So I did all this stuff and, and management goes, O’Connell, you’re up. Why you’re taking me off the air? How dare you take me off the air? You know? Well, of course I was too stupid to understand this was, you know, this was fate intervening. Sure. Um, so, you know, that’s where voiceover developed. That’s where I went, oh my gosh, this is fun. And oh my gosh, I have a bit of talent for it, you know, and I’m not the, you know, the be all and end all, but I was okay at it. Mm-hmm . Um, and it, it went from there. Clients loved it. And then while I was doing that, they needed a, a new host for the oldies show on Saturday nights from seven to midnight, so they could work my, you know, I had to work a limited amount of hours, like 20 hours a week or something. So they worked it out that I could manage production and I could still, uh, do this show. And I took that to number one in the ratings. So that was great. Um, and then I graduated, um, and that was, and then I just kept doing voiceover ’cause radio turned out, I, I worked for a station in, uh, outside of Buffalo for about a week until I was fired and simultaneously quit . Um, so it worked out really, really well. And, um, and then just did voiceover and did a variety of jobs in between there. That was kind of a long story. Did, did I, is that a half hour?

11:55

Well, that, yeah, I think, I think we’re done. Thanks Peter, for coming on the show, and, uh, we’ll

11:58

Talk to you. Oh, look, the time sounds like the prom date. Oh, dear. We’ve been together five minutes. Let’s get outta here.

12:03

Where did it all go? Where did it go? Yes. Where did it go? Well, no, that’s actually a perfect, perfect. And it’s a great segue into my next question for you, because I know you’ve, you’ve already mentioned some of them. I know that, uh, everybody that gets into the voiceover world, into the industry, whether they wanna do it part-time or full-time, they experience some obstacles. Right? I mean, we all experience them. Many of us continue to experience them to this day, I don’t know anybody that doesn’t Right. Ever stop experiencing obstacles. But what are a few of the obstacles that you encountered? And more importantly, what lesson did you learn from them?

12:40

Huh? Obstacles? Well, yes. Do, do I have a list of them? Yes. But of course, as, as soon as someone asked me a question, I’m like, I had no obstacles. .

12:49

It was easy. It was easy. Next question, .

12:52

Um, no, it, I mean, there’s a variety of them. One is, um, having, I, I guess one of the obstacles is not specifically voiceover related, but is adaptable to or applicable, rather, to, uh, almost any business. And that is how much you don’t know and the mistakes you make as you go along in, in any business, whether you’re, whether you’re a voiceover talent or a CPA or, you know, you’re running a disposable waste company. Uh, I mean, you know, there are schools and, and classes in, in, in, in variety of educational institutions that’ll teach you how to run a business. I never took any of ’em. Um, so there was, so there was that issue mm-hmm . Um, and also it was at a time in doing voiceover for me based outta Buffalo, because I, I, after, after college, I went back to Buffalo. ’cause I just felt like, uh, I needed to be back taking care of my parents who were perfectly healthy at the time. Three months later, my father had a massive stroke. Um, my mom had health issues, and they were both dead by, uh, by November of 1988. Wow. Uh, fairly young. But I just, coming outta school, I, there was just, I had to go home now. Mm-hmm . It’s, it’s, there was no, there was nothing to take me home. There was things that should have, you know, could’ve easily kept me from going home and moving to other cities, you know? Uh, but I, but I needed to go home. Mm-hmm . Didn’t know why. And again, sometimes people grab you by the scruff of the neck in the another world and say, you’re going home now, and I’m gonna whisper in your ear, and you’re just gonna do this, and this is the right thing for you. You don’t know why, but that’s what’s gonna happen. So, um, you know, I, I, and I went home and did that and, and started a video production company because, um, I was with a bunch of other guys that wanted to do that. So we all, you know, popped in some money. I wish I would’ve, uh, started a recording studio, but I didn’t mm-hmm . Uh, that would probably would’ve been a better investment. Um, but, you know, I kept doing voiceovers along the way. I did some voiceovers for clients when I, for my, I did a long running, um, well, not long running, I guess two and a half years, three years, which is pretty long. Mm-hmm . Uh, a TV show, a real estate show. I was narrator of that, and I did spots. And, um, so, you know, the, I’ve done a variety of things like that. Um, and it, it all, just the obstacles that came along the way were, were my doing. The other ones were things like, when I, when I would’ve come out of radio and wanted to stay in voiceover, the expense to have your own studio at the time was pretty significant. You know, we’re talking tens of thousands of dollars, uh, to get a decent machine and get, you know, all all that stuff, you know, and $10,000 when you’re coming outta school, it’s not, you know, and you’re trying to do your own, start your own business. Holy cow. Not an easy thing to do. So, um, you know, and being partners with these other guys with a video production company was easier. Nobody’s gonna go partners with me on a VO company. Mm-hmm . At least I didn’t think so at the time. So there, there’s that obstacle. There is the, the ever present obstacle of, uh, producers who you have to woo over, or producers who are, you know, or understanding the producer mindset when you’re fresh outta college or starting a new business, you don’t understand the producer mindset. What is the producer mindset? Well, every producer’s different. Every producer has their own mind. But to me, it, it says, a in, in my head, a producer is overworked and underpaid. And it took me a lot of years to realize that my job is to make their job the producer’s job easier. Mm-hmm . So everything I gotta do, everything I’m doing as a voiceover talent is about that. So, whether it’s in my marketing, it’s in my performance, it’s in my disposition. When the mic is off and we’re on the phone, I’ve gotta be thinking in my head, what am I gonna do to make that person’s life easier? Because if I’m making that person’s life easier, they’re gonna wanna work with me. Yeah.

16:41

That’s a great point. but, but yeah, it’s a good point. Now, I wish I would’ve known that 25 years ago. Why couldn’t we be talking then? Where were you when I needed a psychiatrist to talk all this with? Who

16:52

Knows where I was Peter. But I, I wish I was there for you. I wish I could have been .

16:56

The disappointment is dripping off me

16:58

Right now. But think of all, think of all the people you’re gonna help. Now that’s try to focus

17:01

On that. Oh, they’re all gonna take jobs from me. Because remember, you know, if we’re, if, if we’re an artist of any kind, we’re, we have self-awareness issues and we have huge ego problems, and we, we beat ourselves up. And, and, and that’s one of the, I suppose that’s the third thing, and I’ll end with that as far as obstacles. Um, the obstacle of not feeling you’re worthy or, or not having self-confidence in what you do, right. Or not understanding what your value is, or not understanding what your point of difference is. There’s a, there’s a, you know, there’s a variety of things. You could go in any direction with any one of those three or four things to have an entire conversation about it when it comes to anyone in the performing arts, whether it be on camera, behind camera, uh, whether it be performer, whether it be director, whether it be management, you know, all artistic souls have a, has a, have a sensitivity and a, um, a self-awareness that is sometimes debilitating. And, and it’s just the way we are. We’re a sensitive group. Sometimes we’re, you know, we’re so sensitive. We we’re megalomaniacal.

18:02

Well, it, it, it does happen. And I’ll tell you one of, and you’re not the, the, you’re not the first, uh, guest that I’ve had on that has talked about the,

18:09

Why am I not the first guest that you had on?

18:11

Well, I, I don’t, I think you weren’t answering my calls back then. I, not first. I, I think I tried to call you didn’t, you didn’t call me back. So, so, well,

18:16

That’s right. I’m kind of a big deal in my own mind.

18:18

That’s what I’m going with anyway. That’s, but, but, but I’ll tell you, it’s

18:22

Been be my prom. How come I wasn’t your first choice so many things in your life and during this counseling session that we’re having ,

18:30

Can I have a prescription? No,

18:32

I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry about that. Thank you

18:34

Very

18:36

And we do Exactly. Exactly. So the, but I’ll tell you the, the business side of it is a big piece because there’s a lot of people out there listening thinking, well, if I just have a microphone and a, and a computer, I’m good to go. Not understanding that, uh, when you venture into the world of vo, uh, especially if you’re trying to do it as a full-time job, it’s a business. And a lot of people don’t have that. You know, I’ve talked to voice actors, very experienced voice actors from when they started. They never, you know, had knew how to set up a business checking account or incorporate themselves, or they didn’t know any of that. And then that is a big piece of it, isn’t it?

19:10

Well, it is. And, and I get two or three calls a week, used to be more, um, and people calling me and saying, and, and it’s a trite phrase, and, and people laugh at it in the voiceover business, but they laugh for two reasons. One, because it’s a trite phrase, and two, because it’s so darn real. And that is the cause that, uh, yes, my Aunt Edna says, I have a great voice and I should be in voiceover. Well, good for Aunt Edna. What casting agency does Aunt Edna work for? Oh, she doesn’t. She just sits home and knits. Well, then she knows all about voiceover. Um, and, but I mean, and, and I, and I make fun because there are people listening going, well, I’ve been told I have a nice voice too. Yes. Alright. You have a nice voice. You have a nice voice. But that’s fine. That’s great. Um, but, you know, the, the sad truth of it is, and everyone thinks you’re, you’re just being mean. Well, yes, I’m being mean. Uh, but I’m . It’s, it’s tough love. Uh, but it’s love nonetheless. And that is, it is a business first. Um, it is beyond all other things, it is a business. Uh, and it, it’s even more so with the advent of technology. Mm-hmm . Uh, ’cause now you have to set yourself up with not only a performance advantage, but a technical advantage of some sort. You need to share with people. Um, you know what your point of difference is? You need to know all about marketing. Uh, you need to know about whether it’s, you know, whether your business is, is of such a state that you need to be an LLC or incorporate, or what the business advantages of all e either of those things are, or more, you know, you need to have people like an accountant or a bookkeeper. You need to know a good lawyer. Um, and you go, oh, what? That’s a lot of work. That sounds like a lot of work. Yeah. Okay. So years ago, um, uh, it’s gotta be five or six years ago now. I can’t remember when I first wrote the book, but I got so fed up with all these calls and people trying to take my time. I, I, I, I sat down with myself and I said, okay, you need to do two things. Alright. I talk to myself a lot. So this was not a normal conversation. Mm-hmm . Um, and the first thing I said is, we, we’ve gotta find a way to let people know that this is a business. I said, we like, it’s, I’m talking with myself. This is how, this is how, doctor, what do you think is my problem?

21:27

Um, well, when you spend a lot of time in a room all by yourself, Yes,

21:30

That’s exactly

21:31

Right. Single bulb day after day after day, and you start answering your own questions. It’s, it’s so sad. Um, but what I found, what I, what I looked at it and said was, okay, you need to write a pamphlet or a blog post or something. Well, a blog post turned into a 50 page ebook mm-hmm . Um, which is, which I call the voiceover entrance exam. Because Well,

21:53

Unless, unless people think that that Peter really is as mean as he sounds, he did this for free mm-hmm . Right? I mean, exactly. Right. You really are a nice guy.

22:02

Because I was, I, I, my thought process was simply this. It’s like, okay, one, I, I wanted a solution for me. I wanted to be able to direct, you know, direct these people away from me, . Yes. And read this, and then see how, how serious they are about, about

22:19

Right. And, and then, and then call. Right. And then call. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t

22:22

Call first. So I, I set up a website, voiceover entrance exam.com. And if you go to that website, if you, if you’re so inclined, God bless you. Um, there is a free download of the book, um, that talks about what voiceover is really like as some, some resources to it. Um, and, and basically tells the honest truth about what voiceover is and, and, and sort of the thick skin you have to be to be a voiceover performer. And I’m sure if I did a little studying, and as, as we discussed in my college years, I’m not big on studying. Um, but, you know, if I did a little studying, I’m sure I would’ve found an acting book that says the exact same thing. Mm. Because it’s not just about performing. It’s not just about, um, you know, stanis ky and all their different, you know, acting methods. And I’m sure there are more than that. Mm-hmm . I know they’re more than that. Um, but it is about being able to operate yourself as a business and looking at yourself as, as a real operation, being serious about that, knowing that you’re gonna have to call people and on the phone and say, hi, my name is, and you don’t know me, but I’d like you to hire me. And that for some people is like nails on a chalkboard. Um, that there, that there is a ton of rejection and voiceover, fully, 90% of, of what you do gets ignored in auditions. Um, and so that must mean you suck, right? Well, no, uh, that unfortunately is not a clear indicator that you suck. Um, the fact that you have no money coming in at all, uh, in your voiceover, and you’ve been doing it five years, you may have a career problem you need. There may be something to that. You need to look at that. Um, you know, but, and, and, and one of the things to talk about in the book is being able to listen, uh, and, and hear people’s insight for you. Mm-hmm . You know, it’s, it’s important, uh, to be able to take real criticism. And it’s also important. This is, this is, wow, this is deep stuff. So be able to take the, the deep criticism to heart and, and, and realize that maybe there’s an issue in some way, shape or form in your life, or secondly, to step over the critics and, and don’t let them get in the way of your dream. Mm-hmm . How you manage that as an individual is you go, girl, I don’t know. Uh, because it’s, it, it, it’s hard to know. Uh, but I, I, I just go back to the fact that life has signposts, and, and, and you’ll figure it out however, you need to figure it out that this is, you know, two roads diverge in a yellow wood. Uh, and, and, sorry, I could not travel both mm-hmm . So, you know, which road is the right road for you. You’ve gotta, you’ve gotta figure that out.

24:57

Well, and everybody’s journey is different, and we know that. And, but I’ll, I’ll tell you that folks, I have read the book. I read the free download, and it’s incredibly valuable. And, and Peter’s exactly right in that it’s a little bit of tough love, but it’s, it’s something that anybody who’s thinking about getting into the voiceover industry, do yourself a favor and, and, and download that and read it. Now, Peter, in addition to that, uh, for those people who are, who’ve made that decision, they’ve, they’ve read the, the voiceover entrance exam. Uh, they’ve made that decision that they’d like to move forward with their career. You do also offer a voiceover workshop. So tell us about that and how you work with perspective, uh, voice actors, uh, in that area of your professional life.

25:40

Well, that was part two of what I needed to do when, so the first part was to write the book and say, okay, here, uh, go, go read this book. And then if you, if you want to study with me and learn from me, fine. I’ll put together a workshop. And I called it some, I, I spent hours and hours and spent thousands and thousands of dollars on the name. And I came up with voiceover workshop.

26:05

Magnificent. and Pepsi just didn’t sound right. Mm-hmm . So I went voiceover workshop. Mm-hmm . And, um, would you believe that VO workshop.com was available at the time? I was stunned. I’m like, oh, please, somebody must have grabbed this name off the internet, but they didn’t. And so I wanted to get paid for my name, . Mm-hmm . What I do. And I, and I’m, and I’m extremely clear to people about a number of things. One, if you wanna get into voiceover, it’s vital. Well, you know what, I’ll save that. I think you wanna ask me about some, you asked me about advice, and also I’ll hold on that mm-hmm . Um, but so when I, when I wrote the book, I knew I was gonna have to have this backup opportunity. I, I needed to, you know, direct them somewhere if they wanted to pay me, okay, I’ll talk to you. And if you don’t wanna pay me, I don’t wanna be a jerk, but I’m getting paid by other people, so my time has value. Right. But, you know, I’m also very clear about a number of things when it comes to teaching. I, boy, I hate using the word teacher for me, because, um, I am not as good a teacher as a Pat Fraley, as a Maurice Tobias, as a Nancy Wolf, as a Tony Sil, you know, all these, all all these teachers and, and on and on and on. I mean, there’s just a bajillion of ’em. Mm-hmm. Who are people you can learn from, who you can work with. Um, y you know, they’re just, they, they know, they understand the principles of teaching. I, as we have discussed, and this is the theme going through here, and not much on studying. Um, and so , the way I set it up was this. I said, if you wanna work with me, I’ve got 30 plus years of experience. We can cover performance, we can cover marketing, we can cover technology, we can cover, uh, problems at home. Whatever you wanna talk to me about for two hours, you can do that. Um, and, and, and so I’m sharing with them my experience, what my knowledge is. And, and so if they wanna talk about performance, I’ll tell ’em, well, here’s what I do and how I do it, and let me listen to what you do and how you do it. Mm-hmm . Or if I’m talking with somebody about, um, uh, about a marketing plan, here’s, you know, here’s how I write a marketing plan. Let me help you write your marketing plan. Um, and so, you know, that type of thing. You wanna talk about technology, I’ll, I’ll go, you know, to a certain extent, and then I’ll direct you, uh, to people who are really experts in tech, uh, technology. Um, and, and that’s the same as true in marketing and performance, because I don’t present myself as the be all and end all. I never have, never will. Now,

28:33

You, you, you refer to yourself as what the voiceover, uh, cons, cons, cons,

28:38

Cons. Because I think the voiceover teacher is just, you know, I, I, I, you know, the, the one that comes to mind first and foremost is, is, is Fraley. Yeah. Because he has a whole syllabus mm-hmm . I mean, that guy’s got it down for character, voice and everything. I mean, there’s just, I, I don’t know. There’s many greater character voice teachers than Pat Fraley. Uh, and I’ve been to a bunch of ’em. None of ’em are bad, but he’s j he just, his enthusiasm, his, his, his, his, his overall knowledge, his ability to communicate to a performer, uh, what they need to do, and how they need to get there in so many different ways, depending on the person is so valuable. It’s just, it’s just great.

29:16

Right, right. Yeah. He is, he is. Fantastic. Um, so I do want to get off subject just a little bit, because I did see on your website that you, uh,

29:24

I’m here all night. I’m not,

29:26

We, we only have a few more minutes, but, but I do want, I’m, I’m Peter, what can I tell you? , we’re running out of time. Um, the, we can talk all night. We don’t worry. I, I’ll edit most of it out. But the, the, uh, the you do have on your website about how you are, uh, your goal is to visit 50 states and stay overnight. Yes. How the heck is that going?

29:48

It’s , it’s going very well. I’m down to 16 more states. I have a marketing company that’s, that I’ve had since 1995. And, um, and, and with that marketing company, I do do voiceover. I do marketing. Why do I do that? I have three children. I have to feed them. They have to clothe them. And they like to go to school, don’t you? Yes, he does. He’s, he’s, he’s down in my booth here. He is just, he’s just hanging out with me, one of ’em. Oh, that’s great. And, um, and so, you know, I, I started this marketing company and, and I’m, and I’m pretty good at marketing, so, and, and sales. And so, um, I travel for that, for that business. And I can do, you know, I have a portable studio, and I’m, I’m the one of the best pillow fort builders you ever, ever saw. And, you know, I’ve done, I’ve done spots across the country in various cities. Mm-hmm . I remember the most memorable one for me was I was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Um, and I was, uh, I, I was connected in a, in a session with Mumbai, India, uh, and I think it was Mumbai, and it was a, a, a recession for Bacardi rum. And I was the voice of Bacardi rum in India for a while. Um, and I still don’t know how they found me, uh, but they did. And, and I decided mine was the most American sounding voice in the world. Uh, but Okay. That was, that was kind of a nice gig. And, you know, yay for me. And, and glad it worked out. And, but I was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota recording in a Marriott hotel room. Woo hoo. Woo. A good life. Yeah. A

31:14

Good life. You know, you have, if you have the equipment, it works out well. So yes, I have been to, um, I only have, I only have 16 states remaining. Um, and, and two of them, of course are Alaska and Hawaii. Mm-hmm . Uh, I don’t know if I’ll get there, but if you’re gonna go on the road, as I’ve told many friends, you’ve gotta, you’ve gotta turn it into, you’ve gotta turn it into a bit of a game. And then the other thing I get to do when I, when I travel is, uh, I get to see my voiceover friends mm-hmm . Um, and I’ve made a lot of them over the years. I, uh, there’s a, uh, a, a website called vo bb.com. It’s the voiceover bulletin board. It’s been around since, since Marconi, I think, uh, uh, DB Cooper, Deirdre Cooper, uh, Deirdre Cooper has, um, uh, put it, put it together years ago. And it really is just a very nice community and has outlasted many, uh, wannabe voiceover bulletin boards. And it’s just a good group of people. Um, from that group of people, uh, I met your friend of mine, Bob Soer mm-hmm . Who was one of the first people years ago who I met up with in person. Uh, he was in the area, and he called me and said, Hey, let’s get together. And I drove an hour and a half, uh, down to Dansville, New York, and he and I had lunch. It was, it was great fun. And, uh, so, so that, and so with that, with the traveling, I get to see all these people. I was in Min . This is a, uh, try and be a brief story. This, uh, this past week is was Tuesday. I flew into Minneapolis Airport, and I had a meeting in, uh, in a suburb of, uh, Minneapolis. And while I was, while I was taxiing to the gate at Minneapolis Airport, arriving at the airport in my plane, my private plane, I’ll have, you know, , I just wanted to make you sound, sound important. Sound important. Yes. Yes. Um, but I saw on Facebook that one of my voiceover friends was tweeting from the Minneapolis airport, who doesn’t, doesn’t usually hang out in Minneapolis Airport. Mm-hmm . He was traveling, he was connecting flights in Minneapolis. And it was, um, uh, Peter Bishop, who is a great, um, uh, UK voice talent based outta New York City. Uh, he calls himself, uh, very smartly, I think English, an Englishman in New York. Mm. Um, and so he was stuck waiting for his plane. And I got off my plane, and we met at one of the bars. We hung out for about an hour mm-hmm . Uh, and had a lovely visit. So that was, uh, that was very nice. And, uh, and that sort of stuff happens all the time. And so on my blog, which is called Vox marketizing.com, um, if you just blog it, it’s connected to the audio O’Connell dot com website, uh, under social media. But if you look under, uh, voiceover meetups, you’ll see, I don’t know how many, maybe over a hundred by now. Wow. Not including anything having to do with FAF Con, which is a whole nother story if you wanna talk about that.

33:57

Right. Right. Yes. And, and, and I’m familiar with faf Con ’cause I’ve had some other guests that have been at FAF Con, and that’s one of those conferences that I think everybody should attend. I have personally not been, but I will be in front of my computer that day typing in all the information frantically with everybody else, trying to be one of those 100 people that gets to go. Right. Because

34:15

I want to, that’s, that’s the great thing, because it is a vetted event. It’s one of the very few vetted events, possibly only the vetted event. But I never wanted, uh, you know, uh, speak in, in extremes. But, um, you know, Amy Snidely is the brain trust behind that. Uh, I have been with her, uh, on the journey since, since I guess the beginning. I helped do some, some marketing for the first one. I, I created a video and, uh, for it to help market it and get people involved. And then I got involved, and I’ve been, uh, part of the team for a bunch of years. Pam, Pam Tierney, my friend, the great actress and voice talent, Pam Tierney roped me in on, on sponsorship. And then, uh, she said, oh, you’re good. You’re great. Doing great now. That’s terrific. Bye

34:59

Where’d she go? . Um, but, uh, and, and with Amy, Amy has a co-producer, uh, Lauren McCullough. Yes. Who, uh, I believe is, uh, is, uh, Amy’s Angel sent on high to, uh, help Amy put this event together, because, uh, Lauren’s not only a lovely person, but she’s also so incredibly organized and so patient, uh, in so many ways. She has a great disposition. And so she’s perfect for that, uh, for that role, uh, of co-producer in there. So it, you know, it works out extremely, extremely well to be involved in. I think the next, uh, faf Con is, we just did a faf camp, uh, a little while ago. We’re gonna do a faf Con in, uh, in I think 2016. The date has not been picked. And no, I don’t know the city, and everybody’s still Peter Bishop. I’m walking out the bar in the Minneapolis airport the other day, and I hear Pizza, pizza. And I go, what, what? Where is the next Faf Con? I’m like, I dunno, uh, . He’s like, alright, off with you then. And I’m like, well, fair enough. Um, and so, you know, but it’s a great event. Um, and it’s, and it’s, you know, voiceover professionals, you know, working with voiceover professionals, learning from voiceover professionals, uh, not trying to sell you on books, not trying to sell you on webinars, not trying to sell you on, on anything. Mm-hmm . Um, and that’s, that’s the beauty of it. And, um, and there’s some really talented people there who I become great friends with and, and who’s, who’s now whose friendship I value most of all, but whose insights I value almost equally, uh, with that. So, uh,

36:28

Absolutely. And I, and there, there’s so many of them that I’m meeting through the podcast then, and I’ll tell you, and I’ve said this to other guests as well, you, you, you realize when you get involved in the voiceover industry, that voice actors are some of the nicest people you’re ever gonna meet. Some of the, some of the most generous people, the most gracious people. And it, it’s really is a wonderful group of people to be associated with. And it’s a great, it’s just a great, uh, organization all around. So

36:51

It’s, it’s interesting in this industry. And, and, and my you point that out so well, uh, because what I have, I have talked to actors, um, and specifically on camera actors, on not, you know, not, uh, not just voice actors, but people who actually are good looking and have some, you know, crazy talent beyond voice, uh, which I, which I don’t have . Um, but they, they look at our community, the voiceover community in stunned admiration, because they don’t have this, it doesn’t mean that all actors are, you know, all, all on camera stage actors are jerks. They’re not, they’re, I mean, they don’t, they’re just people trying to get by. And some of ’em are more insecure, so they act like buffoons and egotistical twits and all the rest of that stuff. And look, there are buffoons and egotistical twits and voiceover too. You’re talking to one of ’em. But, you know, there’s, but by and large, you know, myself excluded, the, the community of, of, of voice talent is a very supportive community. It is a group of people where, look, you know, we don’t, we’re based on voice and voice print is based on, you know, reception and subjective opinion of a producer. So it doesn’t matter how we look, it matters how we sound. Mm-hmm . And it, and the only sound that matters is the sound that’s inside the producer’s head. Mm-hmm . He can’t, he can’t reproduce it, and we can’t articulate it exactly as he wants it, or she wants it. And, and so it’s, he’ll know it or she’ll know it when she hears it. Mm-hmm. And then you get hired.

38:25

That’s right. That’s the name of the game. That’s ultimately what you wanna do.

38:28

Exactly. So for voiceover talents, it’s not a matter of us being able to say, oh, I, I sound like Mike, and so I can’t, you know, hang out with him. Like, forget it. Mm-hmm . You know, there’s plenty of different voices out there, and some people sound like me, and you sure they do. And if that happens, it’s, it’s, it’s more like lightning striking than anything else. About a, about a year and a half ago, um, I started a, a, a, a marketing cooperative called Male Voiceover, MVO, the voiceover guys. Mm-hmm . And it’s a, the domain is male voiceover talents.com. And I, I picked 20 guys who I knew were amazingly talented, who had amazing credentials, uh, in, in voiceover, who, you know, just worked for a terrific group. And all of them sound unique and, and special and all bring something, something, uh, challenging and wonderful to each production. Mm-hmm . You can’t find a group of actors. Well, maybe you can, I don’t think you’re gonna find many actors who would be willing to go into a, into a, into a website and say, we’re in this together. You know, this is us, and we’re, we wanna tell you about our business. We all sound individual and we’re all, you know, but, but we’re cheering on each other. Let’s let, let’s support each other as we go. And, and that’s what we do with, and it’s a marketing cooperative. People can, can reach us. You know, clients can reach us any way you want. And I limited it to 20. Mm-hmm . I get calls every day, can I join it? No, you can’t. Why? Because there’s 20 people in it already. Right.

40:00

So, right. I mean, that, and, and that makes sense. And, and at the end, at the end of the day, as you pointed out, oftentimes it’s not really a competition per se. The producer is going to pick the voice they like, they’re not gonna not pick you. They’re gonna, they’re going to pick somebody. And maybe it’s you, or maybe it’s somebody else, but it’s kind of a hard concept to wrap your head around sometimes. But just because you weren’t picked, as you said, doesn’t mean that you suck. It just means that they were looking for a particular sound, a particular delivery that they got from somebody that they locked in on and liked.

40:32

There is a, there is a great quote, and I, and I will attribute it to, uh, the great, uh, again, UK voiceover talent. His name is Philip Banks, and he is a friend of mine for a bunch of years, and he’s got more talent in his, in his pinky for voiceover than I’ll ever have in my entire body. But he has this great, uh, quote, and, and it, it applies to a lot of things in life, not just voiceover. Um, but it’s not about me. That’s the quote. Mm-hmm . Remember, when you’re talking to the producer, when you’re looking for the job, it’s not about me. There’s only so much you can control, because as an actor, as a performer, they’re buying you. They’re buying you in whatever gift wrap or bow that you put yourself in for a voice actor that’s, uh, you know, that’s tonal quality, that’s accents all the, all the tricks we have. So, so whatever gift wrap they want from you, and they’ll tell you, you know, we want you to sound southern, or they want you to sound like another actor, you know, a famous movie actor who’s a asks too much to do the spot. So we’re gonna, gonna, we’re gonna let you do it for a third of the cost. Mm-hmm . You know, but they want you in that, in, in that, um, in your packaging, that’s who they’re buying. So, but, but it’s, but when it comes to whether they pick, you know, pick you or don’t pick you or, or, uh, you know, give you direction on something to don’t, don’t make it personal. Mm-hmm . It’s because it’s, it’s not a, it’s not about it. They’re buying you, but it’s not about you. Right. If that makes any sense.

42:04

No, it does. It does. And, and that kind of brings me to my final question. You may have already said this in the course of our conversation, if so, you can go ahead and repeat it. But if you were sitting across the table from an aspiring voice actor,

42:15

That’s, that’s the guy there,

42:16

That’s the guy. I can hear him,

42:17

The guy say, hi, Mr. Mike. No, you gotta say hi, Mr. Mike, he can’t see you. Hi.

42:22

Hi. How are you today? He said, good. Okay. Good.

42:28

You are a great interview. Thank

42:29

You. He has a great interview. So say, say bye. You gotta go, and I gotta finish this up.

42:33

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. . What a cutie. So, um, so let’s say you were sitting across the desk for, from an aspiring voice actor. They just came into your office and said, Peter, I’m interested in getting into the VO world.

42:45

Do they have money in their hand?

42:46

Uh, they may, they may we’ll use. We’ll,

42:49

Exactly. We only go talk if they have money in their hand. Let’s,

42:51

Let’s assume they have some money and they’re asking you for some advice. They’ve got cash. Um, and that sound like

42:56

Biggest jerk in the world. Somebody who does not know me is gonna go, what a complete jerk he is. I don’t like him at all. I am never listening to this podcast again. Oh my God. He guys just ego, ego, ego. But enough about me. What do you think about me?

43:09

I’m gonna cancel my subscription to that podcast. Exactly.

43:14

Thanks a lot, Peter. . So, so let, let’s say you’re sitting across from this person and they aren’t mad at you. Uh, right. And they’re not offended by anything you’ve said, and they, and you, they ask you for one piece of advice that you could give them. What would it be?

43:30

My piece of advice is only to get into voiceover. If you need to perform voiceover and be a part of the voiceover community in the same way that you need to breathe it, it, it has to be that serious. It’s not vo being in voiceover. And, and again, this could apply to any other career in any other fashion, but I, I will say specifically for voiceover, it’s not about wanting to be about a voiceover. It’s about needing to be a voiceover. Mm-hmm . You need to, to just, it’s in your blood, it’s in your veins, it’s in your very being. It’s that moment when you’re five years old and you’re walking into that radio station and you’re looking at, at, at the, everything around you and seeing what’s happening. And you’re five, little 5-year-old brain is saying, I gotta do this. Mm-hmm. I gotta do this because me, me, like that, me like that muchly. Um, but the reason is you’re gonna face those obstacles of, you know, of whether I have the talent or not, or whether I have, uh, you know, a bookable voice or whether I have the versatility to do all the things I need to do in a, as a voiceover. And sometimes you’re gonna lose, but the, the need to do voiceover is going to carry you, you know, and it doesn’t mean you’re always gonna get to do voiceover full time. It, it doesn’t work out that way for everybody. Okay. No shame in that. Okay. You need to do voiceover. You need to follow your passion, but you need to have a roof over your head. You need to have a car to get around. You need to feed and educate your children, and your wife likes nice things. Okay? So whatever it takes to do all those things, happy wife, happy life. Mm-hmm . Then you have got yourself. And, you know, and if that means you do voiceover at night and you bus tables in the morning, nobody judges mm-hmm . You know, ’cause we’ve all heard stories of actors doing, you know, a menial jobs or whatever, and then they make it. And you know, what you forget is sometimes those actors who make it then, you know, drop off the face of the earth and the checks run out and the residuals aren’t there. And suddenly they’re, they’re selling insurance in Topeka, Kansas. Mm-hmm . You know why? Because they’ve got a family to feed and life goes on. That’s right. And, and, you know, their dream was short-lived and okay. But if you, if you need, if you need to do voiceover, that’s going to help get you through a great voice isn’t gonna do it. The passion will. Now you’re, you’re gonna say, if you’re listening to this, you’re gonna go, well, I have passion for voiceover, I need to do it. But people say, I have a rotten voice. Okay. That’s, that’s a conundrum. You’ve got a problem. I get it. You know, and if, and, and not just one person, but 50 people have said, I have a rotten voice. Okay. I, I don’t know how that dream’s gonna get filled. And I don’t have any good advice for that, except it’s, you know, if, if that many people think it’s not going for you, you can still try mm-hmm . But, you know, don’t give up the day job and, and, and, and still, you know, take care of the family. But I think by and large, if you have a passion for something, usually you’re pretty good at it. Yeah. You know, and it is gonna be an exception here and there, but by and large, if you have that passion, if you have that need, that need, NEED mm-hmm . I gotta do this. Like, I gotta breathe, then you’ve gotta, then you’ve got an absolute opportunity.

47:00

That’s great advice. And I know, uh, everybody listening, you know, Peter’s a funny guy and he’s self-deprecating and he’s, he, he claims he’s kind of a mean guy, but believe me, it’s a, it’s a very close knit community and the voiceover world. And everybody that I’ve ever talked to has recommended talk to Peter O’Connell, and you’re one of the nicest guys out there, Peter. So I want to thank you for coming on the show and sharing your passion and your expertise in the voiceover world and sharing that with our listeners. I know that your journey, your advice, uh, your, your, your passion are gonna inspire our listeners to keep working, to achieve their dreams. So, uh, everybody, if you haven’t downloaded the free ebook, it’s called voiceover Entrance exam, you’re gonna wanna make sure you check that out. And you can also check out Peter’s website, which is audio connell.com, A-U-D-I-O-C-O-N-N-E-L l.com for some more information. Peter, thank you so much for coming on the show, my friend.

47:57

Well, and thank you, uh, thank you for two reasons for, for giving me the time to be on the show. And, and I appreciate that very much. And then for doing the podcast, because, um, I started out with my blog. I was gonna do a blog and a podcast, and I got, I got too frustrated with doing blog, doing podcasting. And because I wanted everything to be just absolutely perfect and just so, and, and I, I found out that was giving me a high, you know, agita, so I stopped doing it. But there are people like you who are, who are good at it, who have a flow for it, who have a, a, a great talent for it that I don’t know that I had, or maybe I just had impatience in small children. I don’t know, . Um, but you know, I I, I, I find myself a much better guest on podcasts than a producer or host of a podcast. So I’m, I’m glad, I’m glad you’re doing this because I know it helps other people and it share, uh, you know, everybody can obviously hear your passion and your interest in it, and it, and it, and it bodes well for you. And, and thank you so much for taking the time not only to have me, but to actually do the show. That’s, uh, that’s a terrific thing.

48:54

Well, I, I, and it is passion for me, and I appreciate all of those sentiments. So, Peter, thank you again and continued success on your journey.

49:01

Thank you, sir. so much for joining me today on Mike Lynn’s voice, a journey into voice acting. Head on over to mike lynn’s voice.com for links and recaps of every show and other great resources to inspire you on your journey to becoming a professional voice actor. Catch you next time on Mike Lynn’s voice, A journey into voice Acting.

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