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.
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.
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.
Tags: commentary, peter o'connell, podcast, podcast episodes, podcast guest by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent Comments Off on Mike Lenz Podcast – A Journey into Voice Acting podcast – with guest voice actor Peter K. O’Connell
this may be the biggest thing that’s ever happened wherever there is Injustice you will find us wherever
0:07
there is suffering we’ll be there wherever Liberty is
0:21
separately they are humble Canadian voice over Superstars together they are
0:26
the three amiibos ladies and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen now the amiibos and
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Friends super fantastic Happy Hour podcast
0:39
seen dabby Coleman in um Cloak and Dagger yes that was a good
0:46
movie that was one of my favorite movies as a kid fantastic by the way um welcome to episode four of the meatballs and
0:53
Friends super fantastic Happy Hour podcast
0:59
you’re all here sorry oh we didn’t realize we’d started the show go on Mike
1:05
we didn’t realize I left the door unlocked we’ve uh we’ve just decided to you know start in a different way which
1:11
is fair enough wait is it Dabney or dabby Dabney Coleman Dabney Coleman I suppose the show he was on in the 80s
1:17
Buffalo Bill Buffalo Bill Buffalo Bill I have you know what it’s a shame the only time you have it on DVD no no I I just
1:23
mean I can pull stuff like that I’ve got like all this pop culture stuff just rattling around in my head asked me two
1:28
plus two and I need like a calculator but that kind of stuff just comes right at you know that’s like not finish the
1:36
sentence that’s that’s a good word there’s like 32 toothpicks wow I I was going to ask you to finish a
1:43
sentence I realized it would be too easy because you’re just too phenomenal yeah does it does does your brother let you
1:48
drive uh on the driveway on Sundays only to Kmart I’m not wearing any underwear Kmart do my immediate left
1:56
amiibo Dave McRae everybody it was a Rain Man reference yeah I know I’ve Seen Rain Man
2:07
as you can see this edition of the amiibos and Friends super fantastic Happy Hour podcast has started off with
2:13
a movie theme but that which is not uncommon because our resident uh movie geek I want to say yeah
2:21
I am I give you a video I could give you the year of of of almost every movie if
2:26
you tell me a movie I might be able to give you a year all right uh The Cutting Edge
2:33
come on who did not find Moira was it Moira Kelly was was the actress she was
2:40
attractive I said I’m not even gonna I don’t know what year that was what year
2:46
was that I don’t know actually I was hoping you could tell me DB Sweeney was in that he was
2:53
the Pacheco twist I actually haven’t seen it okay I’ve heard of it I know the
2:59
movie you’re talking about but I haven’t I haven’t well I just don’t fell off the rails didn’t it yes I I do have a film
3:05
background yes I I make movies and not the kind of movies you were thinking of ladies and gentlemen I make regular
3:11
movies but Dave also uh it should be noted if it hasn’t been to this point Dave also does our vodcasts he does the
3:18
video transfer or the video productions yeah the interests the trailers and all
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that stuff and he also did a video of us in the studio the last time that we were here yes yes
3:29
you posted that did you know yeah I did yeah I did I thought it was kind of funny it was except the ending there’s
3:35
some random screaming you’re telling your dog to get off some guy named Andy was under the table well
3:42
no we don’t we don’t know we don’t know because the video the video hasn’t been analyzed we need to analyze a video
3:49
we’re going to figure out whether or not I was screaming at a man under the table named Andy or if I was screaming at my
3:54
dog named Indy you as the public you decide to give us a call I’m gonna go at 1-800 three amiibos and you could win
4:01
two tickets to amiibo land next summer see this vodcast as it started off in a
4:07
weird sort of tangent but that’s because now that we’ve we’ve added guests to the
4:13
mix we’ve actually added friends to the amiibos and Friends uh super fantastic happy hour vodcast last show we had the
4:19
incredible amazing super nice and extremely talented Patrick Sweeney on incredible sort of the Canadian wave in
4:27
the Canadian flag to start with and this time we’re going to to shifting a little
4:32
bit to the South a little bit yes yes a tiny bit a tiny bit Peter K O’Connell
4:38
will join us on this episode of the vodcast if you do not know who Peter K O’Connell is uh hello get your head out
4:44
of the sand that’s exactly it he is based and he’s in Buffalo is he now Buffalo New York Buffalo New York Times
4:50
Friendly Markets I have to ask him about that because he’s America’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man voice Talent oh
4:57
voice Talent yeah well that too I’ll probably screw that up when we talk to him I’m just saying that now because I have a hard time remembering that I
5:03
think he is I want to ask him about if if he’s close to America’s Friendly Neighborhood Market which is tops tops
5:10
Growing Up in Southern Ontario that’s we’d watch wutv in Buffalo that’s right and they always at the Tops Friendly
5:15
Market Lackawanna Tanawanda oh yes I I was DJing at a bar in Buffalo uh called
5:21
good bar good bar that’s right and uh I had some time to kill before uh I I had
5:26
to actually start my shift and there was two girls there I was there with a buddy and asked if we wanted to shoot some pool uh before I had to start Eugene and
5:33
I said sure and she asked me if I wanted to be stripes or salads
5:38
I fell on the floor laughing you talk funny
5:44
yes it says the man and the boots um Peter K O’Connell who uh not only an
5:51
accomplished voice Talent uh he’s also he doesn’t say he’s a coach but uh he actually had a great phrase and you’ll
5:58
hear him say it uh uh he calls himself the uh consiglieri that’s right right because
6:05
he’s not a full coach he’s not a full coach but the man knows what he’s talking about but we don’t know if he’s gonna say it yet because he hasn’t been
6:11
on yet Garnet no but he said it in previous no previous times he’s probably gonna say it because I’ve heard him say
6:16
it to me and uh he says it on his website edit this I don’t need to sound more like an ass now got this yeah why are we trying to bail
6:24
him no you’re absolutely right uh Peter K O’Connell is is accomplished and uh if
6:30
you don’t know who he is and you take your head out of here so Peter K O’Connell who um he’s uh the
6:36
code he’s also a coach uh doesn’t say he’s a coach he’s also written a free
6:41
ebook which uh a brilliant idea a brilliant concept because I’m sure you guys like myself have been asked by
6:49
countless people that know what we do for a living how do I get into voiceover and you know people have told me I have
6:55
a great voice so what do I need to do Peter actually went and wrote a book and uh gave it away for free on his
7:02
website it’s called the voice over entrance exam we’ll talk to him about that as well and the other reason why we
7:08
we wanted to have them on is because he is um so close to the Canadian border he’s also with a Canadian agency up here uh
7:15
just to get his perspective on sort of the you know Canada America and from his perspective uh if there’s uh any
7:22
difference in in how the sort of the voice over World Works uh on this side of the board and don’t forget about uh
7:28
fav con as well that’s right because we are planning the three amiibos are planning to go to fafcon in San Antonio
7:35
Texas we’re hoping where we got the wheels in motion yeah and that’s in October I have to find out the dates
7:41
room exactly but he’s been involved with fafcon from the early stages excuse me I’m a little foot clemt
7:48
um early stage so we’ll ask him about that as well but before we get to that let’s uh do some business of the amiibo
7:54
kind with an amiibo Iceberg tip and we’ll be back with Peter K O’Connell on
7:59
the program next amiibo we’ll be right back changing the voice
8:05
over industry one two got a Time
8:15
hey I’m evil Garnet here and I want to talk to you about demos if you don’t have one then why are you listening to
8:22
me right now go out and get a demo Hurry fast I’ll wait no I’m not gonna wait however as the
8:27
rest of you know a quality demo can make or break you getting the gig or even make or break your career now myself I
8:34
have several demos commercial animation e-learning narration Etc and unless you
8:40
specialize in only one thing say like audiobooks you probably have several demos too having specific demos like
8:46
that is great they showcase all of your abilities and the client doesn’t have to sift through what they don’t need just
8:52
to hear what they do but what if we narrow it down even more say you’re contacting a company that owns a bunch
8:58
of car dealerships to become the voice of all their commercials rather than just sending them your all-purpose commercial demo send one that only
9:04
features you voicing car dealership apps could be hard sell soft sell different makes different models but it’s all
9:11
about car dealerships following that train of thought you could also do industry specific demos for concerts and
9:16
live venues medical narrations political ads and while the only limits really your imagination it’ll showcase your
9:22
versatility and expand your client base just don’t get too hyper focused you probably don’t need a specific demo for
9:28
that Asian fusion Burrito Joint although it might get you some free burritos and now the amiibos and Friends super
9:35
fantastic happy podcast joining us on the line the one thing I
9:42
really love about the website first off is it’s so well written and so
9:47
informative so I feel like I already know our guest uh but he has dubbed
9:52
himself America’s what is America’s friendliest no friendly friendly neighborhood voiceover well and I just
9:59
want to know uh Peter K O’Connell joins us I want to know America is a friendliest neighbor what is it I can’t
10:06
even say it right neighborhood Spider-Man you’re a friendly neighborhood voice over talent friendly neighborhood voice over talent are you
10:12
close to a friendly neighborhood Tops Friendly Market who is this
10:18
Peter kale you kids get off my lawn I love it Peter K O’Connell voice Talent
10:24
extraordinaire from not too far away from where we are here in Hamilton from the birthplace of buffalo wings uh voice
10:30
over Legend Don Messick and the Goo Goo Dolls and might I add my favorite hockey team the Buffalo Sabers yeah that’s
10:37
right from Buffalo New York that’s right I know I know I know but
10:43
there’s still hope Peter there’s still hope in each and every year you know I light I light some candles
10:49
and I and I pray it never works but I pray you keep praying then you might
10:54
want to find a different Saint to pray to yeah I know no now Peter what’s what’s what’s really unique and what we
11:01
we really liked and wanted to have you on the show for is because of your close proximity to where we are and not to
11:08
mention you have you have a certain tie to Canada uh with one of your
11:13
representations uh you’re with Tada Voice works based out of Toronto and we kind of like the the idea or wanted to
11:20
get a feel for a us-based talent who who does work up in Canada and and sort of
11:25
the uh the similarities the differences what you find is maybe a good thing that might be different from what you do down
11:32
uh down your way but before we get to that a little bit of a back story you have quite the the resume as far as
11:40
voice talents go uh tell us a little bit about how you got into voice uh from
11:45
sort of the early days and and into what you’re doing now
11:52
in fact when I worked with Marconi you mean when he was developing right
11:59
you know one of the similar to Garnet and I uh were uh just a a good old radio
12:04
slug um and then made the transition to voiceover you started in radio did you not I did start a radio first of all
12:10
thank you for having me on the show and secondly uh I am uh in in part of a
12:16
fellow Canadian uh because I asked my grandmother was actually uh born epic
12:21
Canada get out I am I am a I am American Irish Canadian Peter’s a frostbac there
12:28
we go now I live summers for about 43 years up
12:34
in Fort Erie Ontario Canada wow and and oh yeah oh no I and I am probably one of
12:41
the biggest uh supporters of the country just generally speaking I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the
12:47
world Peter you’re uh what you just come back I mean I hope he’s not pandering it he’s Panda that’s true I know I I don’t
12:54
have to suck up to you guys let me guess yes I did start in I did start in radio
13:01
so as you know I used to be paid in t-shirts and CDs or albums depending on what
13:08
decade back in the day when I started in radio uh I I had a a splicing block a
13:15
straight razor and some tape and that’s how we used to cut uh commercials uh back in the day started in in Dayton
13:22
Ohio it hit radio 100 um and uh they were a hot hot AC station
13:29
um and they did very well and then um one day I went on vacation and came back
13:34
and they somebody had the absolute come apart from the commercial production Department who was the production
13:41
director or something and something left terribly awry and they said uh we’re taking you off the six to nine shifter
13:47
and how our you’re now our production manager and there’s you know first thing and I’m all of like
13:53
20 years old 19 20 years old um and I’m like don’t take me off here
14:00
oh there you go if I had an Asian I’d call one um but um but I but then it turns out of
14:08
course just all those little things are in life that turns out to be this great gift and I always loved you know
14:14
commercial production I was like working in the Production Studio but I really found a niche uh doing you know just
14:20
writing spots creating uh spots and and developing a talent which you know which
14:26
was questionable at best at the age of 19 or 20 years old but you know again if you’re paying me in t-shirts you don’t
14:31
get them so so I want my flash dance t-shirt because yes we did do the
14:37
premiere in Dayton Ohio a flash day wow um oh yeah I’m telling you I want to
14:43
tell you and it was actually I was working the evening shift so I didn’t get to go to the movie I just got a t-shirt
14:49
I actually got a t-shirt I’m surprised didn’t have to suffer through the movie
14:55
I’m surprised they didn’t make you sit in the chair and pull the bucket of water down over top of you for a stun
15:00
well you know there’s you know there was that I did that at home I really didn’t need to do that in front of them
15:07
entirely so so voicing uh in the radio station as uh most production most
15:12
production people end up having to voice stuff if there’s not enough announcers around or you’re you just don’t you know have enough bodies in the radio station
15:18
it’s a Friday at five o’clock and you still got stuff to do and there’s nobody you end up voicing quite a bit and you realize that that was a natural Talent
15:26
yeah it was it came very well to me and this was back in the day when you were doing mostly announcing but I I did sort
15:32
of have um a a a friendly hinge to my voice and
15:38
I don’t mean that egotistically I’m just I’m just describing amongst tears how I how I thought I sound at the time and
15:44
and I was able to use that a little more than the you know radio announcing voice but everybody wants to listen nobody
15:50
wants to listen to that but it was the 80s you know and that was what was selling back then um you had you had the real conversational voice before anybody knew
15:57
that was a thing yeah I didn’t know it was marketable who knew I was you know 19 years old and stupid now I’m almost
16:03
50 years old I’m still stupid right now um so um you know it works for the time and
16:09
and the nice thing about it was the thing that the thing that sort of made it clear for me was that the advertisers
16:16
liked me they asked to work with me they wanted to they wanted Peter to do his
16:22
their spots and so I’m like okay and that’s you know that sounds so they come into the station and they’d make time to
16:28
work with me um so then I sort of felt like I was onto something like wow okay you know if
16:34
they like me that much that they request me and they were you know I’m not the morning guy you know and radio usually
16:39
the morning guy gets all the great gigs well not I don’t know these were clients seeking out the event evening guy and
16:45
later I hosted the oldie show on Saturday nights and had great rating success with that but I mean it it was
16:52
very nice to know that people liked my commercial voice and so I went on from there and uh and then just you know developed uh my uh my craft from there
16:59
Peter amiibo Dave here um hi Dave how are you uh not bad not
17:05
bad um I’m curious to know I mean you have a uh you know a wealth of experience behind you dating back to the 1980s
17:14
um and I’m just curious between then and now in your view what is one of the
17:20
biggest changes that you’ve seen uh in voiceover over in terms of
17:27
perception oh
17:35
a question that it is such a commodity that anybody can do it
17:41
that it it really takes no skill and it only takes technology to make your voice
17:47
over talent right I I that that disappoints me in many ways not not directly for my business because
17:54
people who want to work with me they want to work with me and and that’s fine
17:59
but it’s it’s what it does to our industry what it does to the voice over industry
18:04
um you know everybody has the right to to make their living however they want to make their their living
18:10
um and pay to play sites which I think you guys are probably familiar with those sites that you pay you know an
18:15
annual fee of something like 300 a year and they and they send you and 25 000 of your closest friends a lead for a
18:21
voiceover commercial right or a narration and everybody just sort of jumps in and well maybe I’ll get it
18:27
that’ll be terrific I’ll do it for 25. and and and then the development not
18:34
specifically for voice over but you know one of the one of the categories that this website called fiverr.com you know
18:42
I’ll do any any job for five dollars including voice over right and I I was I
18:48
was on a website and and I forget what it was it just had an ad for Fiverr on there I think it was a marketing website
18:54
so it had a an ad for Fiverr uh for a logo a logo designed for five dollars oh
19:01
my gosh that’s such an insult to these people who have such amazing artistic
19:07
talent and for five dollars and and so for voice over the change that you’re asking me about is that what what what
19:14
I’ve seen change is is this the value of what we do has been lesson absolutely
19:19
Lesson by the pay to play it has been listening by technology everything that was good about technology can also you
19:26
know be considered in my opinion bad uh because and I’m I’m usually a very optimistic person but I think a lot of
19:33
what has happened here with technology has hurt our industry and and hurt and
19:38
hurt you know the art the Artistry of our industry right I would agree yep
19:44
absolutely now gonna switch gears here because I um Garnet uh here I’m evil Garnet uh I was looking forward how are
19:52
you
19:58
and Beyond no it’s true it’s a good it’s a good point you make because you know I I find
20:04
that a few people who I know who have listened to the Vodka slash podcast
20:10
slash vodcast whatever the heck it is now um have said that if they’re not used to
20:15
hearing all three of them geez how did you know Peter because that’s exactly exactly what’s going on
20:22
right now he sees right through us if if you’re in Canada and you’re in radio you’re drinking okay so amiibo Garnet
20:30
here to preface let me uh let me ask you a question about social media because uh looking
20:36
over your website you’re uh you’re all up in it and uh I I know that you have a
20:41
yo I’m all up in it yes you are 50 year old and I’m all up in it what part of
20:46
Buffalo are you from from reading your uh your blog and
20:53
reading your uh your website that you prefer LinkedIn over Facebook but uh I
20:59
do and I understand your reasons why you’re very clear on that but do you have a strategy that you use for combining all social media effectively
21:05
and I’m talking stuff like Google Plus as well your YouTube channel Pinterest like whatever to try and effectively use
21:11
them all together in your uh in your marketing strategy oh heck no I don’t I no I mean you know I I and I I get
21:19
called on a lot by by voice over folks to help them with a variety of things I have something called the voiceover workshop
21:25
and I and I I work with voice over talents as a consulary not a coach because I’m not qualified to be a coach
21:31
like a Fraley or a Maurice Tobias or somebody like that who really knows what they’re doing I’m just telling them what I know but they come to me about
21:37
marketing and they always say well I’m on social media and you know social media has its place in in the marketing
21:45
of any business including a voiceover business um social media is is but a Channel of
21:51
what you do and so but more directly to your question about how so you know how
21:57
does social media all come together in in one you know pot it it really that
22:03
doesn’t necessarily to the way I look at it is social media should be looked at based on the audience that you want to
22:11
address your marketing message to and for a voiceover Talent there are a
22:17
variety of different audiences that we’re usually going after and I’ll give you an example and it’s just one of them
22:22
a billion you can come up with different variations uh if you were um if you were
22:28
going after and advertising agency uh advertising agency has a category of
22:35
audience that you want me to talk to maybe specifically not just agencies um maybe creative directors or
22:41
copywriters for example right because those are the folks that are more likely to hire a voice over talent you you want
22:47
to think about what social media their they’re most attracted to and what
22:53
social media channels excuse me they are most attracted to and that could be any number of ways but but what’s important
23:00
is what is the message you want to get out to them and then by when you figure out what that message is look at the
23:06
different media the social media channels that you have and and then pick your channel that way I mean can you in
23:12
essence go to uh a a a a a a web integrator like uh uh hoop Street and
23:20
send one one message we have a link to a blog post to Facebook and Twitter and
23:27
Linkedin and darn near everything else at once and get it all out there sure you can and will it will it get some
23:32
views absolutely I mean you know you got things like Twitter to give you the hashtag and people are more akin to
23:37
hashtag so they look under things they’re interested to them so they see something in there they’re more likely to fall off but when you’re using social
23:44
media as immediate as a marketing channel it’s
23:49
so important to figure out what message you want to get across and it can’t be
23:56
um something along the lines of uh call me for you know for a 25 voice
24:15
it’s getting there um but but if you if you look at the marketing message you want to get across
24:22
for example maybe you want to tell somebody about some new cool thing that you a new cool attitude a new persona
24:29
that you came up with so maybe you want to put something like that in one of the LinkedIn groups just the LinkedIn group
24:35
just that one group to get that message out that to me is a good use of social media if you want to put out something
24:42
silly like a like a viral video that has something to do with creativity you know
24:47
maybe a link on on Facebook works for you but again then again all of that
24:53
depends on who you’re connected with on those social media channels if you’re connected with you know all your cousins
24:59
from around the world they’re not gonna give her a rest attitude about that they don’t care you know but you’ve got to
25:04
make sure that you’re somehow hooked up with those with those people in in the industry that you want to the creative
25:10
directors the copywriters in this example and make sure that they are um that’s that’s my uh GPS if you’re
25:17
hearing that um turn left here exactly I’m lost turn
25:22
left here oh my God it’s a lake I’m sort of a long-winded point to say
25:28
think about your message and and use social media to its best Advantage find
25:33
those people you really need to connect with and follow them and communicate with them don’t communicate with the
25:39
world you know find a way to use social media to get your message across to the right people even if it’s a few people
25:45
I’d rather communicate with a few of the right people than a hundred thousand of the wrong people because what’s the
25:50
point well that’s an interesting uh sort of to to dovetail on that is do you find
25:56
now that with social media especially in the voiceover community that voice talent that are either new to the
26:02
business or relatively new uh tend to either a spend more time uh selling to
26:09
the to their peers as opposed to selling to potential clients and engagers and
26:16
and sort of do yeah and do they also do you find that now with social media that
26:21
Talent are I don’t want to they’re they’re building they’re I’m fighting with the GPS I’m sorry I
26:30
think I turned the damn thing off I thought I turned it off before but I guess I didn’t I thought there was a woman in the car that’s okay
26:37
my wife might be listening uh the uh but what I was sort of getting
26:44
at with social media it seems now because it’s so easy to use and because it seems to be the uh the platform of
26:52
choice for voice Talent now especially new ones that there’s this uh this need
26:58
or desire to present yourself or or give yourself a Persona without necessarily
27:04
having the goods to back it up per se you’re laughing because you you know
27:10
what I’m getting at here create the illusion it’s it’s yeah like like Dave said it’s it creating an illusion of a
27:16
talent that’s either better or further along than actually is or that they’re actually busy hey guys I
27:23
just I just finished a recording session for a car dealership in Rangoon
27:29
do you find that though Peter I mean you know in my observations Mike is right and and and it’s something that we sort
27:36
of talked about on the inaugural vodcast uh was this exact topic but it’s interesting to get your point of view as
27:42
well because you know we find that there are a lot and not everybody of course but there are a lot of people who who
27:49
are very good at marketing very good at creating the illusion that they are better and further along and more
27:55
knowledgeable than they really are well first off I think if you’re if you’re
28:00
further along and and doing more voice over work you don’t have the time for social media how’s that work correct
28:06
right there um I mean if you know and I’ve pretty much given up on Facebook I
28:12
mean like literally in the in the in the past month I’ve I’ve dwindled it down to almost nothing except for my my voice
28:19
over page like my first I’m like I’m just I’m just done with it um and uh because I just it’s nice and
28:26
people are nice it’s nice to hook up with your with your friends and family but much for business it seems to be fairly useless now there are other
28:33
people who will tell you that they make lots of money working off of social media and I respect their opinions and I
28:39
resp I respect that they make money off it I guess I don’t have that magic magic button and and I find that there are
28:45
other um uh there are other tools in my marketing quiver uh that I can call on
28:52
and and they work a lot better for me to develop my business versus social media social media has value but again it
28:58
depends on what your audience who your audience is for that message and social media as far as voice over challenge I
29:05
mean I I I know that this sort of tweet or Facebook post uh that you that you’re
29:11
alluding to and these are people who are you know basically saying hey yeah I’m
29:17
I’m I’m doing great work on this or I I just finished this project here or
29:22
um hey call me if you need a voiceover uh for a project I’m available uh I’m I
29:28
I’m between sessions right now
29:34
like no you’re between sessions because your last session was 2012 and now
29:40
2013. you know so it doesn’t it doesn’t behoove you to get that
29:47
message across you have to make social media worthwhile and many people who are much more talented in social media than
29:54
I am uh have made this point you have to offer content you have to offer value
29:59
for the for the reader you have to offer something of interest it’s the same thing if you were you know for
30:05
television and for radio you know if you’re producing something it’s got to be of interest to the to the uh to The
30:11
Listener to the viewer and so where’s the interest in somebody’s saying uh hey
30:16
call me for a voiceover I mean the symptoms of somebody first of all hiring
30:21
you based on that kind of post and second of all actually being on Facebook
30:26
at that exact moment thinking themselves damn where am I going to find a voice it’s so rare and and improbable that you
30:35
kind of go well let’s not let’s not go there so I I just think that that’s that’s kind of silly I think voice over
30:41
challenge would be better suited and and and be better off just generally if they
30:47
considered why they’re on social media what the purpose is and it is to Market
30:53
their business well their business isn’t necessarily that hey I’m a voice over Camp hire me it is that my brand is you
31:01
know Peter K O’Connell uh America’s friendly voice neighborhood voice over talent and you know you know and here I
31:09
am being friendly and neighborly and by telling you this kind of cool thing that I think will be of interest to you and
31:14
oh by the way you know I am a voice talented you know and and by by clicking on my profile you’ll find out about me
31:20
not because I’m saying I’m a voiceover challenge but because when you’re when it’s time for you to you know want to
31:25
know more about me you’ll find out that I’m a voiceover Channel But first you thought I said something interesting or
31:31
posted something that was of interest to you or it’s humorous or you know something that they garnered your attention and and and then you find out
31:39
as a voice over talent and then maybe a connection can be made that way I think that’s the best way social media works
31:45
but you know I could be all wrong that’s brilliant now uh sort of in a in
31:51
a different direction here one of the things that uh you’ve been involved with I I want to say from the start yes uh
31:58
yeah from from the very beginning you’re mentioning like I’m connecting with fellow uh voice over artists uh you know
32:04
through social media and stuff like that I’ve done that um and you know sometimes made uh
32:09
connections that have led to work um but also just networking with them and just sharing ideas and stuff like
32:15
that which um is done uh at events as well such as fafcon and fafcamp which I
32:21
understand you’re heavily involved with um how did you hook up with Amy snively and and how did uh fafcon all get
32:28
started up and actually can you tell me please why fafcon I don’t know what the faff part of fafcon stands for
32:35
the reason I got involved in fastcon um and and I didn’t actually to your
32:41
question I didn’t actually hook up with it well I didn’t mean she’s definitely married and I’m happily married to two
32:46
different people I did not mean hook up in the biblical sense Peter oh
32:54
it’s what you were no I I didn’t unders I didn’t understand is that on the leviticism no that was in
33:00
the book of Eminem I believe oh my God that’s a great book it melts
33:06
me off your mouth um so fast fast time I came to fastcon
33:15
um it was around to a a conference out in Los Angeles a
33:23
voiceover conference that I was asked to speak on a panel app uh it was called uh voice uh and it was put on by uh the the
33:31
very the very lovely and talented uh Penny and James Auburn uh Penny Abshire and James Auburn uh very nice people and
33:38
I’ve known them for years and they did a very nice uh conference and um and I
33:43
spoke on a conference uh panel with uh John Florian from voiceover extra my friend Dr Kell Trish basani uh Bob and
33:50
bean was there I mean just a ton of people and of course a lot of my voice over friends uh that I’ve known for a long time we all got to know each other
33:57
going back to social media and I’m trying to keep this all on one path going on social media um through a voice over bulletin board
34:04
called the vo-bb.com now that is a a voiceover
34:10
bulletin board that was started uh in the early 1800s um by the great D.B Cooper a wonderful
34:16
female voice over talent well if you guys ever want to start talking about uh video games and there and voicing video
34:23
games you guys should absolutely talk to her she’s just an amazing talent on the number of levels but she really she
34:28
really has a a great a great ability there um but so we all were on this board for
34:35
years and we so when we when we went to Los Angeles a bunch of us went to Los Angeles it worked out really well we all
34:42
got to see each other we had a lovely time but what we when we went to the conference uh and Amy was there as well
34:47
Amy Schneider was there as well so one of the things we noted when we went to the conference was at this particular conference
34:53
um there were a lot of people um selling their Wares so when when a
34:59
presenter came up and was talking to you it was they were talking to you
35:04
um with the purpose of hopefully selling something either that day or later on
35:09
when you’d buy something that they had but it was all sales there’s there’s nothing wrong with that
35:15
and there was still some content that was worthwhile there but it got Amy
35:20
thinking original idea and everybody immediately glommed onto it because it was such a brilliant idea that there’s
35:26
got to be a way to have a voiceover conference uh of some sort
35:32
where you can actually just um work together uh in in a conference
35:38
setting and learn without having to be necessarily sold to and so this is the idea that was
35:46
germinating with Amy and and she gave she gave it life um and it and she came up with the name
35:52
fastcon now fast goes back to I believe the British version of just sort of chatting around facting about it’s just
36:00
you know speaking with friends you know fabulous did I lose exactly did I lose
36:08
you no that was it no there was a giant light bulb that uniformly went uh went off above everybody’s head in the room I
36:15
should know this yes a blanket Moment of clarity just hit us
36:22
on your money we do and we do she’s gorgeous she’s she’s Loveless
36:29
Kate Middleton money though uh if only
36:35
yeah no it’ll happen eventually they’ll give her her own coin um but um so Amy came up with this great
36:41
idea and um and and so she wanted help from people in the voice over
36:46
communities very much a um a Community Driven event you know Amy’s not making a
36:52
a boatload of money let alone any money off of this event uh it isn’t it is not it should be a business venture but it’s
36:58
more of a venture of love and trying to break even on it it’s just there’s nothing wrong with that either and so um at the particular time she started
37:05
the event she and I had known each other for a while and certainly uh she’s one of the female voiceover talents on my
37:12
website um and I am uh she said she said you know can you
37:17
help me and and of course you know sure I can help you um so unfortunately the good news was I
37:23
could help her the bad news was I couldn’t attend the first fast film uh because uh my lovely bride was giving uh
37:30
gonna give birth around that time to our our third child and my wife kept saying something silly like you have to be here
37:39
I I said dear you’ve done this twice before you really don’t I was not critical to the process you know with
37:46
with masks on and lights and they think like doctors or nurses and stuff like that I’m really you know I’m not really
37:52
necessary you have to be here so I I paid um and and there’s all the better for it had and had a lovely time with uh with
37:59
our third with our third child the young boy who’s now two and a half uh coming up on three but um so what I did at the
38:05
time as I recall was um I crafted a uh I crafted a video and and engaged all of
38:12
uh all of my voice over friends uh to participate in it and uh you know it was
38:17
we tried to make it look good but it was ranked amateurish at best and mostly
38:22
because of my script and my creativity um you know I I was a video producer once
38:30
in my life but I seem to have lost my uh my debris but it but it worked out well to get the get the word out uh on on the
38:37
event and everybody was very um very excited about it and it and it had a it’s wrong since its first event uh
38:44
those years ago in Portland and uh now it it it sells out within hours like
38:49
within an hour uh because uh fastcon is uh is limited to just 100 voice over
38:55
talents each of the voiceover talents have to be vetted uh to be proven to be you know full-time voiceover Talent uh
39:01
making their living at it doing it doing it professionally Etc um and and the value of the event itself
39:07
um and the reason it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s so prized and cherished by the people who have attended fast time is
39:13
because it is voice over talents um the voiceover talents who are in
39:20
attendance create the event right they create what what’s going to be on the agenda for the event they put
39:26
it all together um and and so you’ve got quality voice over talents people who run their own
39:32
business who can talk to you about the business that you’re in and understand your challenges understand your
39:38
opportunities understand what what um Stepping Stones you need to make in your business and can help you through all
39:44
the things because there hasn’t there isn’t a person in there who probably has not experienced one of the challenges
39:51
that you you’ve experienced and think are insurmountable and yet they’ve they’ve overcome it correct and but by
39:58
and large you may have something for somebody there in the same vein you know you’ve overcome something but for them
40:04
it’s insurmountable and you can help them with it it’s a great it’s a it’s a great opportunity and you’ll learn a ton
40:09
oh the the learning is and it’s so specific to the voiceover community and
40:14
running a voiceover business that’s the beauty of it so I would gather Peter that that uh
40:20
um fafcon probably because of the things that you just said and because of the
40:26
environment that that the voice over talent who attend create there is much
40:31
more of a sense of community and family than there would be at something like voice
40:37
um I I I yes and no because I don’t I don’t want to diminish the worth of the
40:44
folks that voice are doing sure um there is absolutely a community for the people at any conference including voice and
40:51
and James and Penny have worked very hard on it over the years uh and I’ve attended it and it and it is a nice
40:56
community and and Lord knows I’ve made uh lovely friends uh by attending those those events and they’re very nice
41:02
people sure so I I think there is I I think there’s a community at any event
41:08
like that anywhere you go with voice over talent you’re going to have a community it’s just you you spend most
41:13
of your life in a dark room with a single light bulb you know you get out and you talk to people anyway it’s like
41:19
everybody yeah it’s like everybody who’s coming out of uh you know solitary confinement like oh you know I know
41:25
exactly what you’re talking about exactly you know but but then you know narrowing it down
41:32
to fastcon the there is a there is a community certainly uh there and and uh
41:40
you know people continue to communicate with each other long after fafcon has gone is over
41:47
um it continues to continue to share the commitment to help each other’s business
41:52
and we develop a um a Brotherhood a Sisterhood I don’t want to make it too
41:58
familiar right right and just disrespect actual families which are more important than this but um but it is really
42:04
something that it it is very important to the people who have attended fafscotch to keep post-relationships
42:11
going and and usually uh by and large most most uh staffers are very welcoming
42:17
to uh fellow fascots well I I would hope I would hope that that’s the case
42:22
because it looks like that the three amiibos are planning to make their way to San Antonio for the the next which is
42:30
coming up in October correct yes it is I think it’s the third through the fifth and San Antonio I hear I hear I I hear
42:38
the Alamo is there um
42:45
I was trying to make a peewee’s big adventure joke here oh yeah is there a basement in the Alamo I thought the
42:51
Alamo was in Arizona is it in Arizona we’re Canadians we don’t know we don’t we don’t know American history very well
42:57
apparently that’s our that’s our Regina without giggling
43:05
Peter K O’Connell the the website is audioconnell twins2ls.com correct yeah
43:11
sure it is our peterkel.com or you know uh Stupid voiceover idiot.com and also
43:18
and and if you do go to the website uh we didn’t touch on it but uh the voice over entrance exam which was the e-book
43:25
that you wrote that you put on your website for free what for free
43:30
yeah right that was done for a very very selfish reason
43:35
everybody would call me and say I have a right to be in voice over can you help
43:41
me that’s exactly what it’s like dude and I talked to them for 20 minutes and I’m like uh okay well here’s what you
43:47
need to do and after a while I just went you know I’m an idiot I’m giving this away for free I should I should get paid
43:53
for it so the first thing I did was write a book and say look you probably don’t have the talent it’s it’s there’s
43:59
a very good possibility that you suck don’t do this and then and then if you can get past that
44:06
because this is a business of rejection then let’s go on to the next level and let’s and let’s try and um uh let’s try
44:12
and you know put something together and and just so you you won’t think that I am actually
44:18
um uh kidding I have a an email from 2 45 today from a woman I will not name who
44:26
says hello I was wondering if I can get more information on how to be a voice over talent I’m planning on taking a
44:32
voiceover class at my college this summer but I’m curious to know if traditional experience is needed
44:39
from today I can’t make that up now Peter thank you so much for uh for for
44:45
taking the time and chatting with us look forward to meeting you at one of uh Pat Sweeney’s vo and Toes coming up
44:51
hopefully this Summer that would be great I would love to do that and then buy you guys a beer uh and and visit
44:56
with you awfully kind to include me in this I I I was told it was going to be 15 minutes and I I I I see the poor fool
45:04
it has to edit this mother down that would be me Peter it’s all gold
45:26
what a nice job you guys do with it too you’re very good interviewers no kidding well thank you appreciate it and uh and
45:33
again we we really appreciate Peter the website again audioconnell.com and he is your friendly
45:39
neighborhood voice over talent for commercials narrations whatever you need Peter drive safe and uh and we’ll talk
45:45
soon thanks guys have a great night take care Peter bye and now it’s time for another three
45:51
amiibos fun fact hey it’s amiibo Mike you know all three amiibos have some really neat talents outside of BL amiibo
45:59
Dave is the stellar and accomplished filmmaker kind of the Spielberg of our Trio amiibo Garnet is a top shelf Top
46:04
Chef in his own right kind of our Gordon Ramsay Jamie Oliver as for me well I can’t cut that well in my high school
46:11
film attempts were less than Stellar but I’ve always had the Knack and passion for acting so I’ve done some stage work
46:16
in my time things like On Golden Pond you can’t take it with you but I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing
46:21
Picasso in the wonderful Steve Martin play Picasso with the Le panagil now the director was a dear friend of mine and a
46:27
talented actor in his own right Jason cat now if you’ve ever seen the play you’ll know that Picasso gets to kiss
46:33
two women during the play you think that would be a breeze not so much considering one of those women was
46:39
actually Jay the director’s wife not really sure who was more Awkward for though me Jay his wife or my fiance now
46:48
a wife who was sitting in the audience so as far as the amiibos go I guess that makes me the Gerard Butler of the group
46:53
actually more like Alan Thicke I suppose
47:00
you now amiibos and Friends super fantastic Happy Hour podcast
47:07
welcome back to the amiibos and Friends super fantastic Happy Hour podcast again our thanks to Peter K O’Connell our
47:13
second guest yes um he’s a great guy yeah he’s a funny guy too really funny even though we
47:19
thought you know the first show we had a Canadian guest this one we were gonna have an American guest we didn’t we had a Canadian guest again because right
47:26
part Canadians and spent most of his time when he was uh younger as a kid in
47:31
the Fort Erie area which is which is really cool that’s not too far away here from amiibo Mountain
47:37
yeah don’t say too loud just don’t give out the longitude and latitude we’ll be fine and and he’s an and he’s Elegance
47:47
back in the old time it is uh but he’s also an admitted Sabers fan so amiibo
47:52
Dave and him that he did something we bonded we bonded that’s very sweet it was it was was it it was quite romantic
47:59
I’m looking forward to fafcon now I mean yeah I I was looking forward to before but uh in engineering and now that we
48:05
know what a faffer is yes that’s right part of fafcon stands for yes it does not stand for fabulous conference which
48:11
is what I hear which is what I thought it might be a fabulous unconference how do you get fat from that I I don’t know
48:17
so but that is October 3rd to 5th in San Antonio Texas now I believe if you go to the website uh early June is when
48:23
they’re going to open it up to the 100 submissions yeah so I don’t know if we’re gonna get let in though because he
48:28
said they vet the people that apply there’s all kinds of criteria they have one spayed and neutered yet so neither
48:34
have I and what happens Mikey honey no not that kind of that what happened Patrick Sweeney he could have he could
48:41
have warned me with his medical stuff sorry dude what happens if if you get in
48:56
she could drive a wedge between the three amiibos she could there there could be a wedge the amiibo why did you
49:04
look at Dave when you said the two amiibos
49:25
no because because in in February I missed out on meeting Rob Paulson that’s
49:32
right and then reading Pat Fraley yeah and then and then I missed the voice conference it’s
49:37
your turn it’s going to be Mike and I don’t miss anything I obviously have no life outside the group I’m the Ringo
49:45
oh I can’t top that I can’t top that uh if you want more information on the three
49:52
amiibos you can visit our website three amiibos.com individually though uh Dave McRae you can get him at thevoiceman.com
49:58
also davemcrae.ca there you go the voice
50:03
manager two ends why did you give me the finger when he says
50:11
Garnet Williams at williamsvoiceovers.com myself at all things Mike dot CA which is changing
50:18
I’m saying that that’s my catch I don’t know
50:25
psychologically he feels better if he keeps saying that it’s changing because it’s like it’s actually changing that
50:31
you can also email us at three amiibos gmail.com for the man to my left the
50:38
funny guy amiibo Dave McRae amiibo Garnet Williams in front of me
51:13
has been brought to you by the three amiibos the show’s over it was written
51:18
kinda recorded edited and produced from deep within the great white North by
51:23
Dave McRae Garnet Williams and Mike Pond Gratz for more amiibo fun questions or
51:31
comments check us out online at three amiibos.com on Twitter at the three
51:37
amiibos until next time happy birthday
Tags: peter o'connell, podcast, podcast episodes, podcast guest by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent Comments Off on the 3 amivos voiceover podcast – with special guest voice actor Peter K. O’Connell
I know it sounds silly, but I still get surprised that people read my web site.
Sure I know people visit the site, but when I talk to people that have read the site (cause there is a lot of stuff there), it’s a (pleasant) surprise.
The ‘Amivos’ in the podcast (or VOdcast) refers to the 3 Amivos with include Garnet, Dave McRae and Mike Pongracz – all Canadian-based voice-over talents who decided to put together this show about voice talents.
They were under the impression that I was to be their first American guest on the 4-show old program (as their very first guest in Episode 3 was the great narrator and VO in TO co-mastermind Patrick Sweeney) but alas, they found that I have Canadian blood in me, even though I was born in the States. So I am an Americanadian.
The show was recorded while I was driving back from Pittsburgh, PA and I gotta tell you, that drive never went by so quickly. It was enormous fun because these guys clearly know how to run a great show and are fine interviewers. It reminded me about what was great about radio.
We talked so much that they had to leave out the fun story about how I signed with Tanya and Darryl at Ta-Da Voiceworkswhile at FaffCon in Ventura Beach and how I met Tanya as well as VO in TO co-mastermind Jodi Krangle at a Deb Monroe Voice-over class some years ago in Toronto (see, I get to hang out with ALL the cool Canadian voice talents).
The Voice Over Cafe made its way to Charlotte, NC, for FaffCamp and recorded its latest episode there….what a blast.
Female Voice-Over Talent Trish Basanyi and Male Voice-Over Talent Terry Daniel have been hosting and producing the Voice-Over Cafe for a while and it was a special treat for me to be invited on to this live recording session as there was a room full of interesting people with whom they could have spoken. Terry and Trish are supported in their production by the lovely and talented Sean Caldwell, Tom Dheere and Peter Bishop – each a bad ass voice-over talent in their own right and all loyal Faffers to the core.
Dan Lenard and George Whittam have invited me as their guest tonight on East West Audio Body Shop which airs via USTREAM at 9:00 pm ET and then is available on their EWABS web site.
I hope you can join us.
P.S. Here’s what you missed:
TRANSCRIPT IS AUTO GENERATED
0:01
[Music]
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he’s the voiceover Studio engineer of the stars in Los Angeles California a Virginia Tech grad with a knowledge of
0:16
recording studios unmatched in his field he’s a voice actor from Buffalo New York
0:21
with 30 years experience in recording studios Sam behind the mic he solves people’s home voice over Studio problems
0:27
in the blink of an eye together there’s no Studio problem they can’t solve and they’ll do it for you tonight welcome to
0:34
East West audio body shop now live from a basement in Buffalo and an office in
0:40
La here are Dan Leonard and George Wham and good evening I’m Dan Leonard in
0:47
the East I’m George Wham in the west and together we are East West audio Body
0:52
Shop well what a week it’s been now I know you’ve had a busy week so why don’t
0:57
you tell us about all the stuff that you’ve been doing as far as you know all the the construction you’re doing of
1:04
course perhaps we should talk about who Our Guest is tonight too yeah let’s get that in yeah uh now we were supposed to
1:09
have Larry Davis even though you said we were gonna have Larry David on in our PR I saw that on the YouTube link I was
1:15
like well I thought maybe that would bring more viewers 11 viewers it worked people really do hate Larry David maybe
1:22
he would be in here maybe he wouldn’t uh no but Larry Larry Davis who’s who does some great voices was
1:28
going to be our guest tonight but fortunately he has the flu so uh we dug
1:34
deep to find the deepest in quality of backup guests and we got Peter Peter
1:41
O’Connell our good friend from actually here in Buffalo who has lots of lots of interesting sidelights in his voice over
1:49
business that he wants to talk about and just shoot the bull with us here on East West audio body shop so he’ll be joining
1:54
us in just a little while uh but I I’ve got some great stuff that went on this week
2:00
and what what have you been up to it sounds like you’ve had a major construction job I have um I had a
2:06
client who decided that we had a 3-we Time window to do a complete Studio construction job a total room in a room
2:13
build I mean just double double walls double ceilings air conditioning uh you
2:18
know everything everything you need for a studio in in three weeks yeah um so that pretty well you know had me going
2:26
and I was there yesterday installing I was there Friday installing acoustics Saturday installing all the equipment
2:32
about 3:30 fox called him and said we need you in a half hour and he was like oh my these guys call me like four times
2:38
a year on a Saturday has to be the day that I move the studio and uh we got it up and running just in time for him to
2:45
pull the session off and uh I even got a little validation directly from the fox
2:50
engineer saying that it sounded great so that felt pretty good um but go back on Monday to finish the Acoustics and uh
2:57
put the spit spit shine on the place but but it came out really well I I’ll have pictures up on uh the Google+ feed and
3:05
you know excellent pretty soon see that’s the fun part of your job you get it’s like having a baby you know you get
3:12
you get to you know I mean we’ve all experien well most of us have experienced it maybe you and I
3:17
personally haven’t experienced but we’ve seen it happen right uh but it’s like it’s it really is kind of nice to you
3:23
know to bring a project like that to fruition and to see it work really really well it is it really is I mean
3:28
it’s it’s the ultimate in you know I don’t I don’t have my own studio so
3:33
every every time I build one it’s like I get to build the studio I would have built if I had that money to do it if I
3:39
had the money in the space and and the need this is the studio I would build so I get to build one of those every couple of months and actually I’m building two
3:46
simultaneously but every couple of months I get something like that and it’s it’s so satisfying just to see the
3:52
client go wow this is really what I was hoping it hoping it would be and you know have everybody be excited thrill
3:59
thrilled and you know feel feeling validated after spending you know an ungodly amount of
4:04
money an ungodly amount of someone else’s money yeah not my money that’s
4:10
the part yeah that’s that’s always the fun part about this but believe me I don’t when when I design a studio it’s
4:15
to fit the need of the client so whether it’s you know a guy that does promo like
4:21
this fellow or you’re just getting started you know it doesn’t matter but if the client you have to work with at
4:27
the you have to work at the level that the client demands whatever that is that’s the most important thing anybody
4:33
knows about pricing a project or you should know pricing a product or a project is all about meeting the
4:40
expectation of the client if you’re way high or if you’re way low you will miss
4:45
the mark this is true important yeah that’s that might be a good topic for a discussion one of these weeks talking
4:51
about you know corvo has always talking my D good friend Dave quas is always talking about uh you know you know
4:57
proper pricing for your own work in the voiceover business you know anything goes but you everybody’s got their own
5:04
formula for doing it well I had a fascinating week what did you do Dan
5:10
well what happened remember you know last last Sunday uh you know when uh we
5:15
had James and and Penny on um I was going like this the whole night maybe people noticed that it was just a tad
5:22
itchy well come Monday morning it got a little bit worse and I tried benad drill
5:29
I tried zertek I tried cord a and it didn’t go away and then I remembered you
5:35
know right before the football game you know I’m devoted Bills fan even today
5:41
uh the uh you know last Sunday morning I felt something like it felt like
5:47
something was crawling up my neck and then going across the top of my head and it was itchy and then it sort of went
5:53
into my eyebrow so and and of course my wife goes off to Florida to visit her parents on on on Sunday and she’s going
6:00
to be gone for 5 days and then I’m sitting there eating breakfast and it suddenly strikes me because I used to
6:06
sell insurance and I used to know all sorts of medical stuff I’m like I wonder if it’s
6:12
shingles so I pick up the phone call my my good friend who’s a dermatologist and he yeah oh you think
6:18
you got shingles come on in and and he takes one look at it and he’s like yeah you’re right that’ll be 150 bucks well
6:27
you know I don’t care my insurance pays for that uh but he’s like because you figured out
6:33
what it was because you understood the progression of it you know of a retrovirus going down a you know down a
6:40
nerve a n nerve route obviously affected my my speaking ability yeah um uh
6:47
because you caught it early we can give you antiviral drugs and chances are it will not get even very bad at all you
6:53
know like classic shingles which is really nasty uh and uh and it’ll go away and
7:00
you won’t and and it won’t come back in most cases so I was kind of it’s time for another exciting episode of bad
7:09
audio of the week my my eye was I I’m telling my son
7:16
watch if my eye starts to droop you know if that happens you know let me know
7:22
because I won’t even be able to tell uh this thing is a weird weird virus anyway
7:27
but you know in the middle of the week you know it’s like you know I’ve got work to do I’m going to go take a nap and that
7:34
was pretty much the way the week went that’s that’s part of being self-employed right you can’t collect
7:40
unemployment you can’t go on sick Lea no and and I had a lot of work to do and I got it all done and you know so it was
7:46
it was pretty good and I had this amazing creative streak maybe it’s like you know after staring death you know
7:52
down the hall several times in the last couple of last couple of years I’m like wait I got a great idea so I had a lot
8:00
of creative output this week and I’m sure some of you will see it later on in the in the show uh so but I survived
8:06
that and you know everybody’s going God this is really dull conversation we’re glad you didn’t get
8:12
the serious form of shingles mainly so we didn’t have to hear the story but uh right because otherwise what You’ be
8:18
watching right now is is that exactly but no I’m here but we
8:25
we’ve got some other great stuff coming up tonight we’ve got a couple of great questions about whisper rooms and you
8:31
know whether you should stand or sit we also have a little feature tonight later on because people have inquiring how do
8:37
you do this show I mean what is the secret how do you make this look so good
8:42
when in reality we are using two cans in a string it’s it’s pretty impressive but anyway one of the questions we got this
8:50
week uh was about whisper rooms I can’t remember exactly what the question was
8:55
uh but everybody’s always talking about how a whisper room is the ultimate answer answer and uh is is you know
9:02
Peter oconnell is seeing here like whisper room in here it’s not it’s not happening right you know I I’m not a
9:09
believer in whisper rooms for home Studios unless you’re R Victor who had
9:15
posted a video this week about his double walled whisper room right um You
9:20
Know by ened one an enhanced Booth should I give him a little rundown about
9:26
the the kind of the differences why you spend more for one and the other as long as it’s interesting
9:31
okay well it all started with the need for a booth that no uh the reason that
9:39
they make two versions and one is much more expensive than the other I think it’s actually almost more than twice as
9:45
expensive I think it’s it’s a it’s it’s at least double because the the enhanced model is actually a booth in a booth so
9:52
you build the outer one and then they give you all another whole section of walls floors and everything and you
9:57
build another one inside the first one um so that’s why it’s that much more even the window and the door everything
10:03
is doubled um the amazing thing is even though it’s double the cost double the weight double the materials double
10:09
everything it does not have double the soundproofing and that’s just one of
10:15
those things like the law of diminishing returns you know it’s you can only you do so much with this much money and this
10:21
much effort then you can get to this stage then you can get to this stage then you can get to this St you know that’s how it goes and I I actually had
10:27
a you know a little slight tangent but I had to get in a conversation with my client just this past weekend because
10:33
his wife was expecting that you know after you spend all this money this thing should be you know the equivalent
10:38
of a bomb shelter or something that you know as though you’re 300 feet underground and I was like Saddam
10:44
Hussein would have felt sick I was like yeah no no no no I was like there there I you know maybe we didn’t meet your
10:50
expectations here but within the time limits and budgetary constraints of this project and building on the second story
10:56
of a building all these different factors we couldn’t do what you were expecting but we got about 90% of the
11:03
way there I think and once they saw that and understood it and kind of swallowed that it was okay but anyway same thing
11:10
with a whisper room you buy this thing it isn’t soundproof there’s nothing truly soundproof completely so the the
11:16
enhanced booth has the double wall it gives you like depending on what frequency range as you go down in the
11:22
lower frequency uh down in the lower mid-range and low base uh mid-base
11:27
frequencies which is where most of the voice is the double wall does a much better job at stopping a noise from
11:33
coming in which is that really critical range so if you’re in a really noisy part of town if you’re stuck in Los
11:40
Angeles New York City you’re off of a Major Boulevard and you really have to be able to work at any time day or n
11:47
night you don’t get to screw around yeah really that’s well that’s the reality
11:52
that’s the reality for a lot lot of people here in La then sometimes it’s necessary to go to that level uh
11:59
but my last I’ll let Dan take take over on his thoughts again but um the last thing about whisper room is it does have
12:05
a resale value so at least you know if you move or you do get to upgrade to a
12:10
custombuilt booth or you know you just get out of the business whatever um it
12:16
does have a resale value so you know you can turn around and sell this thing again whereas if you had something custom made from you know a doll boox
12:23
plans or something it’s a big pile of uh you know kindling and scrap wood when
12:29
you’re done it’s like building a set you know yeah yeah you know and and you’ve got to be handy I I talk to a lot of
12:35
people who are like my husband is building me a a whisper room like no he’s building you a room essentially you
12:43
know you know I you know I I know Peach draa built a really nice one and he used
12:48
excessive amounts of green glue which apparently was very successful I personally when it comes to whisper
12:53
rooms I I don’t believe in them uh now maybe that’s just my personal preference because because of how I’m located uh
13:01
yeah okay I am in the landing paned from the Buffalo airport but you know it’s they’re they’ve got their noise of
13:06
batement stuff on I really don’t notice basement I’m I’m below grade for those
13:11
of you in California got out here we take these shovels and we dig these big holes under our house and it’s like you
13:18
know I’m I’m somewhat below grade but I can still hear on the outside you the dog barking or you know if they’re
13:23
mowing the lawn this time of year you know leaf blowers and things like that um you’re you’re going to hear it but so
13:30
what I’ve tried to do down here is I’ve tried to get my noise floor down to at least minus 50 DB and I succeed at that
13:38
most of the you know most of the time you know unless somebody comes to the door and that both the dogs start barking for whatever reason um or or
13:47
somebody is mowing the lawn and even then it’s still pretty good uh but I still have an open area I find that
13:55
whisper rooms create the sound of you being in a whisper room and yeah and and
14:04
and that sound is is is something like this where you sound like you’re you know you’re you know you’re you’re in a
14:10
booth and there are ways to try and treat for that you know put in Bas everybody talks about oh put in bass
14:16
traps put in this put in that the answer is most of the time when somebody has too much of a problem with their whisper
14:23
room I say open the door right and that usually and and all the little base
14:29
frequencies just sort of float out and that’s the end of it and they’re like but then if you could open the door you
14:34
wouldn’t need a whisper room Bingo irony exactly but you you can build one
14:41
on your own you know it’s a lot of work you got to be very project oriented and
14:46
really you just want to car think about how it is that you uh you know how you
14:52
do your performance because the whisper room is it’s a crutch if you understand
14:58
how to record if you know how to keep your noise floor down initially uh you know you know dampening your
15:04
refrigerator making sure your furnace is off remembering to turn it back on when you’re done uh things along those lines
15:10
um there are ways to get rid of background noise and to if you get it below minus 50 no one’s going to notice
15:17
anyway so that’s that’s my that’s my take on on whisper room so whatever the
15:23
question was hopefully we answered it I’ve been in the chat room too while you’ve been blabbing on some of the
15:29
people saying here I the topic of Doll boox came up and I you know made a pointed comment of saying that they’re
15:35
you know a joke um that’s probably a little strong the doll you know saying that they’re a joke but I have had a lot
15:41
of people complain about those doll boox plans because they leave a lot of details out they give you the impression
15:48
of having a lot of detail and then when you get to that point where you have to make a precise cut or some kind of
15:55
precise you know something adjustment it it it’s like well you just sort of have to kind of figure it out yeah exactly as
16:02
Matt said so many details are left out so it it’s almost like to me it’s like e
16:09
if you’re not even if you’re going to sell the plans for cheap you got to make sure that they’re good because if
16:14
they’re not good you you might as well I don’t know you might as well not do it I mean you
16:20
know it’s you can just come down here into my basement I’ve had people ask me to make plans for them and like I’m like
16:26
do you have any idea how much time it would I would take me to to you know how much you’re going to charge him to do
16:31
those plans hundreds and hundreds of dollars because it’s going to take me hundreds hundreds man you charge you’re
16:37
cheap for for doing that kind of stuff well I mean you know it would be incredibly timec consuming to design
16:43
something that someone could build like they’re building uh you know something out of Legos put block here and insert
16:50
tab yeah that’s that’s Ikea furniture and if Ikea ever makes a whisper room or some kind of a ISO Booth then you got
16:57
something yeah exactly so yeah they they out of the box I feel they need quite a
17:02
bit of um Improvement for voice over uh they really do need acoustic treatment
17:08
so they are not the end all be all and if and I I talk a lot of people out of getting as many as many people as I talk
17:15
about buying one I talk others out of getting one uh because there’s so many situations where you you if you’re not
17:23
especially here’s here’s a really good delineation if you do all of your work self-directed
17:29
where you can stop and start you can work at any time day or night doesn’t matter you’re totally flexible that’s
17:34
one good reason why you don’t need a whisper room probably um because you have the time flexibility to work around
17:41
these kinds of interruptions but if you’re working on a really rigid schedule you’re called at certain times
17:46
a day you work with radio station Affiliates I don’t know whatever it is right that’s a different story but
17:52
hopefully you’re getting paid adequately enough to make it worth the investment at that point absolutely so all right
17:57
well we we’re we’re we’re rolling on here but this is a topic everybody likes to talk about we’ve got we’ve got
18:03
another question about about standing or sitting and uh and then the little thing about how do we actually do the show
18:09
here we’re going to get to that in just a couple of minutes also if you have a question for us of course you can write
18:16
to us at e webshop gmail.com we’d love to get your questions questions like
18:21
this about whisper rooms and stuff or you can call our number and what’s the number there George said
18:27
8847 eabs that’s 473 9227 and the number in Labrador is okay
18:37
anyway hey you know there half hour social Mr Mr social studies man I love it you
18:43
always pull out these like locations I’m like where the heck is that places like swasiland you know yeah
18:50
yeah it’s where my father always pulled on me you know where swasiland is where the hell is Swaziland it’s surrounded by
18:56
South Africa anyway I look it’s I’m and I know I’m right anyway so we’ll be back in just a minute and uh we’ll talk about
19:04
standing or sitting so stay right here we’ll be right back voiceover extra the
19:10
voiceover industry’s online news education and Resource Center 24/7 hundreds probably thousands of free
19:17
how-to articles for voiceover success ranging from home studio to voice acting to business a free voiceover industry
19:23
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19:29
VoiceOver free subscriptions to newsletters reports announcements Daily News and features at voiceover
19:37
extra.com voiceover [Music]
19:54
[Music] extra
20:00
[Music]
20:51
[Music]
20:57
n oh gosh if you only knew what went on during the bumpers here at East West
21:02
audio Body Shop we have a great time here guys you guys are having a great
21:08
time in in the chat room and we’re having a great time here and Peter oconnell will be joining us in just a
21:13
little while and we’ll just make M of him for for like 15 20 minutes good yeah absolutely and uh he’s actually going to
21:20
be live in studio you know you get the you get all the big stars in Hollywood I get the big buffalo Stars here and how
21:26
do we know he’s not already sitting right next to you Dan well he he he’s here I hear him laughing in the
21:33
background wait wait wait whoa whoa okay this is turning into a college
21:40
level pod podcast there it goes okay all right anyway we had a question about
21:47
can’t remember who asked it maybe we should just take better notes on who sends us these notes but you tell you do
21:52
you stand or do you sit Dave Waters it was asks that’s right so which is it
21:59
stand up or sit down you see a lot of voice actors standing up in studios but you also see many top actors sitting in
22:06
their home Studios like George deoo Ben Patrick Johnson joose siip I do a little of each depending on the project I think
22:12
he answered his own question but we’ll elate did all right well all right well let let let’s do you know let’s do an
22:19
actual visual uh visual aid here why don’t we this is this is when I actually move the camera a little bit go yeah
22:27
let’s see if I see what’s going on okay here we are in the black hole
22:35
of and here’s my microphone and here’s how I read my material I generally do
22:41
can you hear me okay in there yeah we still hear you fine oh okay all right generally I do most of my work standing
22:47
up uh why is that with a lot of people it was like people who had to wear
22:53
headphones it’s a habit it’s how my my first job in radio we stood and because
23:00
we were announcers so it can cause a bit of a problem but I generally will stand
23:05
because I got my copy right here you know I I’ll be I’ll be working at my screen over here and I turn around my
23:11
mic is right here and I can I can talk and I’ve learned it it gives me room to
23:16
move my arms I am an actor not an engineer and I’m not on the radio so it
23:23
gives me the freedom to really you know to do the ballet that I do while I’m you know while I’m working now if I was
23:35
sitting now if you’re sitting uh sometimes it helps uh to be um let me
23:41
just straighten the camera out a little bit here that a better shot all
23:47
right okay perfect though thank you three quter rule
23:54
uh when I’m sitting if you’re sitting and you’re and you’re reading copy sometimes I find that it can be much
24:00
more relaxing to do it that way sometimes I’m thinking like it’s it’s like all right you like say the copy is
24:06
like um you’re a guy you’d like to have a beer with so you think there go you if
24:12
I’m sitting in a bar and I’m talking to somebody about something like that do you know you have you ever had
24:17
hemorrhoids you know something along those lines and and it you got it it’s how you
24:23
sound real I mean you can do it sitting down and some it really depends on well
24:29
a couple of factors it depends on what’s the mood of the spot what are the specs something along those lines uh and uh
24:37
also it depends on the Acoustics in your studio because the Acoustics at my mic
24:42
back here are dead silent there’s no reflection in there at all maybe it’s a little too dead but you know you can
24:49
always you can always change that using you know a number of different methods but I generally don’t better to be to
24:54
dead than a little too bouncy that’s true now it’s it’s fairly Lively over here if I’m look if I had my screen you
25:01
know my you know my my computer screen is right here it’s it’s over here where my hand
25:08
is um and so I could I could you know I could do my work doing you know standing
25:13
staring up my screen but it sounds different it’s there’s a hard surface here called an iMac and it tends to
25:20
bounce off of that so I’m generally pretty careful about not doing that it’s just I get up I do it I’ve learned how
25:25
to relax when I stand up sometimes when you stand up it tends to support your diaphragm a little bit more and you tend
25:31
to get a little louder MH you know there’s that I must have some you know something in my DNA says talk a little
25:37
bit louder I I I have a few theories on why people stand or sit one they stand
25:43
because you you there’s obvious benefits to standing we definitely agree on that acting is mostly done standing you know
25:49
it’s just there’s a reason for that um but um for sitting I think there’s two
25:55
big reasons why people will do it and one is because I think they a lot of people that sit do it because they came from Radio yeah and I know you came from
26:02
Radio too but you had a lot of distance between your radio career and your voice career I think it seems that a lot of
26:07
those people came from radio and they have the years of practice training just
26:13
doing it that they can pretty much do what they need to do sitting I I think it’s just practice um the other thing is
26:20
if it’s really long copy man long form stuff really long form narration can be tiring now you you do a lot of long form
26:26
narration but still do it standing right Dan I I I did the entire Bible standing yeah so not all at once thank God yeah
26:34
that’s pretty impressive I mean you know a lot of people will sit when it’s very longw form but I guess you could also sit if you’re doing something that needs
26:40
to sound like you’re sitting I mean where you’re like extremely relaxed you
26:46
know it could be you could use it as sort of a a way to enhance your acting technique right absolutely yeah and
26:52
that’s and that’s why I do it I mean I’m I’ve learned through all the coaching that I’ve had that you’re an actor get
26:59
into it get into the role you know you’re doing The Godfather you know you got to get into the the character a
27:05
little bit use your hands you know it’s all part of the it’s all part of it yeah of course then you hear whoosh whoosh
27:11
bang as you’re hitting the side of the the thing there anyway I know one of big the big caveat of sitting down besides
27:18
you know the if you don’t know how to do it properly is the microphone on the desk um when the mic is sitting on a
27:24
desktop stand it often will pick up all sorts of vibration you deal with that uh
27:30
it picks up you you get that reflection off the top of the desk surface into the microphone AB or off the computer
27:36
monitor so you know if you’re working real close proximity to computer monitors or a desk you almost always
27:42
need to use like a diaphrag I’m sorry a dynamic mic something that’s really tight pattern or like a shotgun mic but
27:50
I rarely find a situation where you can use a nice rich sounding you know Studio condenser right down over top of a desk
27:57
in front of a screen it’s really difficult it’s you know I had a client that you know that I was working with last week and you know he was having a
28:05
real bad buzzing problem but he uh we solved that with a new mic cable and
28:10
then it still sounded kind of booty I said are you on a hard surface and he you know he sent me some pictures of it un like son of a gun he had it sitting
28:17
on a desk stand on this desk I said get it off the desk get a boom get it above
28:23
there suddenly his little closet sounded better than Ed Victor’s whisper room so
28:28
amazing isn’t it it totally totally changed the way that worked yeah okay
28:34
now we had another question this week have you got this package ready uh for everybody here I believe that I do okay
28:40
well we had a question how do we do East West audio Body Shop you know it’s it’s
28:47
a very sophisticated and Hightech show that we do here uh so you know next week
28:54
I think maybe we’ll show how you do it from your end but let’s show how it happens from from the East Coast on East
29:00
West audio Body
29:11
Shop well um I’m working on the east west audio body shop so um uh well
29:18
actually you know no this is really real we’re just using computer generated technology to make it seem like he’s
29:25
actually Alive by making and move and speak and the way he speaks he we use a
29:31
um a real time voice synthesizer so we’ll make him say something like hi I’m
29:38
Dan Leonard in the East hi I’m Dan Leonard in the East
29:44
there we go that’s how it works here oh the hardest part was definitely making the
29:52
mustache that’s brilliant man yeah well you know it takes a lot of work to pull
29:58
off the show I mean how much do we have to pay we have to pay your son in popcorn and uh popcorn bird seed you’ll
30:04
notice that his bird is with him all the time Conrad the Conor and um you know I
30:10
mean the kids down here all the time I figure you know might as well put him to work you know you got homework no okay
30:16
I’m putting you to work so uh anyway that’s how it’s done here in the east no
30:22
we’ll try to we’ll get we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll feed you little bits here and there but uh yeah it’s there’s a a lot
30:27
that goes into no matter how silly the show is and how halfhazard it can seem at times there’s a lot of bits and
30:34
pieces behind the scene to make this work which I spent probably two months
30:39
of experimenting and researching here and on and off to try to make this show seamless as possible which we’ve pretty
30:46
much got it after about after what we’re not this is episode 23 so we’re starting
30:51
to get there now but uh you know just stay tuned we’ll start giving you guys a
30:56
little more detail over time as to as to just just a little bit little bits here and there a little bits here and there
31:02
we don’t want to bore everybody or you know go into too much but just know that all the audio is being mixed in a real
31:07
honest to goodness mixing console you know it’s not in some software thingy it’s a real board with sliders you know
31:14
it’s to me it’s the only way to do it and make myself sane so that’s a big part of it that’s right well you know
31:22
that’s right anyway well we’re going to take another break here and and uh when we return one of our best buddies is
31:30
going to be in the uh our show tonight Peter oconnell will be joining us live here in the black hole of Kolkata here
31:36
on East West audio body shop so stay tuned we’ll be right back voiceover Industries online news education and
31:43
Resource Center 24/7 hundreds probably thousands of free how-to articles for voiceover success ranging from home
31:50
studio to voice acting to business a free voiceover industry director hi yeah it’s me the home studio Master you know
31:56
there’s no question that if you’re new to having a home studio it seems like an overwhelming amount of stuff to learn
32:03
where do you put your studio how do you set it up and even more challenging how do you use it well here’s a good place
32:09
to start starting November 3rd join me for a series of three fun webinars home
32:15
studio Basics 101 102 and 103 home Studio 101 on Thursday November
32:21
3rd we’ll talk about barebones Basics what you really need in home studio 102 on Thursday November 17th we’ll talk
32:28
about how Acoustics is everything almost and with home studio 103 on Thursday
32:33
December 1st we’ll talk about basic recording and editing each webinar is just $29.95 but you can join the entire
32:40
series which includes recordings for just 7985 which will save you 10 bucks
32:46
during these webinars we’ll dispel common myths talk about how 90% of your home studio sound has to do with
32:52
Acoustics learn what’s really happening when you record audio on your computer and the factors that can cause problems
32:59
that’s home studio Basics 101 102 and 103 live Wednesday November 3rd and 17th
33:06
and Wednesday December 1st all at 9:00 p.m. Eastern 6 p.m. Pacific to
33:14
[Music]
33:25
register but it isn’t always
33:31
perfect anyway if if you want to go to the webinar go to voiceover
33:37
extra.com with an X not with the E and there’s a there’s a link there that’ll get you to it’ll be in the show Notes
33:43
too thanks and it shall be in the show notes anyway we got a special guest with
33:50
us tonight and uh he’s he’s he’s he’s one of those guys that you know that
33:56
there are places where they have Gatherings of of of of VoiceOver folks cities where there are people get
34:02
together up in Toronto we have our friends they get together every other month well my my next guest and I have
34:08
our own little thing we get together for coffee once every two years and uh so
34:13
but I’d like to invite him in to the east west audio Body Studio here just pick the chair up and just I don’t want
34:18
to break anything that’s okay it’s kind of tight in it’s been broken before all right let’s get a little bit deeper in
34:24
here guys this is like the state monkey don’t knock that over from the love of God
34:32
jeez marks movie here okay all right see slip yourself
34:37
wouldn’t it just be better if I sat on your lap no wait a minute that wouldn’t be better that would be bad I’ll tell you what I’m just gonna move the camera
34:44
you go there we go access cable works better hi guys works that’ll
34:49
work all right right Peter o Connell everybody now you
34:55
know look at this picture yeah I I got it I got it don’t worry I’m ring it me
35:00
just adjust the camera a little bit more there you go you know where’s uh is this the seat Diane Meritt had him it is wow
35:08
wow still feel the vibe yes anyway good stuff now now you’re you’re you’re
35:15
you’ve been in the voice business a long time I actually 1982 1982 almost as long as me well I’m not quite the old jeez
35:22
that’s true you worked with Moses as I recall I did I literally did it was the voice of Moses that’s right
35:30
um you know and the voice of God that’s right which really helps on a lot of radio spots but um anyway now you’ve
35:37
been doing this for a while how did you drift into doing doing it at
35:43
home uh everyone else threw me out had no choice get out um no
35:50
basically it it’s something that evolved I when I started in radio and pardon my laryngitis which is great for a voice
35:56
voice overt oh sure is long weekend of of birthday parties for children but um the not doing them having them for my
36:03
kids I don’t actually work birthday parties anymore um but uh basically the
36:09
way it worked was I was doing um when I came out of radio I I got involved in video production and I owned a video
36:15
production company for six or seven years and just kept going through their clients who want me to do work for them
36:21
um and I would you know I would obviously do work for them and then I got spots and occasional work like that but that time you couldn’t buy uh
36:29
equipment for under like1 $20,000 I mean it was pretty you know crazy expensive and I went no thanks and then uh but I
36:37
kept working with Studios and not as much uh Regional stuff or outof state stuff it was more local stuff uh and
36:44
then some some stuff would be done locally and get pushed out elsewhere um but then uh then with the Advent of um
36:50
of computers and audio technology in the past seven years probably but probably 10 years years 10 years or so um it just
36:57
it just blew up and it was it was easy to go from there and then the business went you know grew exponentially so fortunately I had a good I had a good
37:04
pedigree I had I had a good experience and it worked out very well for me so I was very fortunate yeah so now now
37:10
you’re doing your you’re Consulting with other voice actors you’re teaching you’re coaching oh not a coach not a I
37:15
will never call myself a coach but I I call myself a voice voiceover ciliary um
37:21
because uh he exactly right you never know when you find the horse head but I’m probably responsible for it um no
37:28
because there are a lot of good coaches out there there you know there’s the fres of the world um there’s ree Tobias
37:34
of the world etc those folks come to you with with syllabuses and they know what they’re doing and they have everything
37:40
worked out when I and I I do one-on-one uh Consulting for folks um voiceover
37:46
Talent specifically um based on what their needs are and that’s what I started the voiceover Workshop um which
37:53
was about two years ago which because I really got tired to people calling me up and asking me for free advice sounds
37:59
real familiar yeah so I’m like okay I’m losing time here this is not smart uh so
38:05
I decided Well let’s see if they’ll pay for it and they do uh which is great so
38:10
um but I I work one-on-one I don’t do group sessions there are a lot of folks who are much more qualified in the
38:15
coaching area but when people work with me in the voiceover Workshop they get to pick the topics uh anything from
38:21
performance uh to business management to uh marketing and everything in between
38:27
having to do with with with voiceover performance and I go over it and a lot of that also came from when I wrote the
38:33
uh the voiceover entrance exam uh a few years ago which was another which was caused by another series of calls of
38:40
help me help me help me and I knew these people really shouldn’t be in voice over uh while there some of the people should
38:45
be in voice over some of them shouldn’t so I wrote I wrote a book and said you know you need to be honest with yourself
38:51
if you’re good enough you’ll know and if you’re not good enough and people keep telling you you’re not good enough you should try something yeah really yeah
38:57
I’ve taken that test I’ve gotten a 100 every time oh good you yeah but it’s self-graded that’s why I keep getting
39:04
100 interesting to note uh so um actually somebody asked how much does it
39:10
cost Peter oh you don’t have that much money uh no kidding no um I work uh for
39:19
with two hours some somebody works with me for two hours it’s $200 uh so two hour session uh and we go
39:26
over everything I do it by Skype if you like or if you’re in the Western New York area some people come in I’ve had people come in from Rochester and
39:32
Syracuse uh and some up from northern Pennsylvania uh to come up to Buffalo so uh and it’s you know it’s it’s it’s a
39:39
one time off you can work with me for a long time and I have a lot of those clients as well or you just need to work for you know one session we can do that
39:46
too and you guys and and the audience picks the um the audience picks the
39:51
syllabus the the client the client picks the syllabus and and we work on just that and and I take them through and
39:57
give them everything that I know so that’s fantastic and uh what is the general website where they would most
40:03
likely be able to find more information about that uh that would be vo workshop.com which was another thing
40:09
that amazed me when I named the thing I was how you call it voiceover Workshop oh that one that domain’s probably been
40:15
taken I went to I went to direct nick.com like V Workshop has not been taken so V Workshop it was uh yeah book
40:22
that mother right away and uh so V workshop.com which is
40:27
tied in with aon.com or you can just give me a call uh at aon.com I’m the same guy so it works out fine anytime of
40:34
the day middle of the night no no not so much no no don’t do that small children
40:40
don’t do that don’t wake the sleeping maybe me too me too yeah I know yeah Ella knows yeah no my kids keep me up
40:48
that’s right small kids small problems big kids yeah big problems that’s right
40:54
been getting bigger all the time yes exactly anyway um you now you also have another business you’re also in the public
41:00
relations build business or no marketing Mar I’ve had same thing that’s for sure no it’s a part of it I’ve had okono
41:07
marketing uh since 1995 which is I think OC marketing.net or ocm kg. net probably
41:14
all of them all of them um but uh yeah I’ve been doing that since 1995 and what I that business was started I wrote um
41:21
sales and marketing plans for businesses $5 million and less um and so when we
41:27
were at fafc con a couple of weeks ago down to Hershey uh our friend Doug derel did a great presentation on advertising
41:34
and I just because he asked me to participate a little bit uh in the presentation I said to everybody I said
41:40
would you mind telling me by show of hands how many people here have a
41:46
written marketing plan and I don’t know if you were in that one if that’s doing eabs at the time yeah ex
41:53
you know what you were doing eabs at the time because I remember the appla laws I’m like wait a minute that wasn’t for us um but uh but there was like crickets
42:02
as far as who has actually written a marketing plan for their business I did okay see there you go but then that’s
42:09
why you’re having some success um and some folks are having success without it but it’s it’s such a simple document you
42:15
know so um but it’s it’s about putting it together and it’s about executing it and that’s that’s where the rubber meets
42:21
the road with my marketing company so yeah I mean how much how much could you attribute your background in business to
42:27
the success of your career now I mean yeah I mean a lot of because you
42:33
know it is about well voiceover is a business and the talk about the voiceover entrance exam um that’s what
42:40
everybody forgets they like the performance part of it that you know the glamour being behind the microphone and pretending you’re Don BTO and like no
42:47
wait a minute you’re G to do that about 10% of your time the rest of it’s going to be developing the business for it you’re going to have to create uh you
42:54
know clients and repeat business and introduce yourself and explain yourself to half of your clients you you do what
43:01
again I mean it’s all the stuff we we go through all the time as as voiceover talents but new folks don’t quite
43:09
understand that as well um and people who’ have never owned a business before that’s that’s a whole another ball of
43:14
wax I mean Beyond marketing plans marketing plans is the easiest thing you do when you start up a business um you
43:20
know and we have and we have a lot of people who are you getting into the voice business perhaps they’ve been
43:26
outplaced M and perhaps they’ve been working for other people all their lives and they’re suddenly they have the
43:31
chance to be independent if you don’t have a business plan you’re in big you’re a big dooo now I remember on our
43:37
10th anniversary and I was we my wife you know and I were we figured well we’ll just go to nagra Falls and well
43:43
we’ll have a we’ll have a nice anniversary but we’re also going to take a legal pad and we’re going to plan out the next five years how romantic that’s
43:52
lovely hi honey yeah I got champagne I’ve got a fire brewing and I’ve got a legal
43:58
pad she was the one taking the notes though I I bet she was I bet she was I
44:04
bet I bet it was no about that but let me tell you something that was probably
44:09
you know aside from the rest of the weekend which was wonderful sure uh we were able to plan out very succinctly
44:17
the next five years professionally what we were going to do and we both achieved
44:22
that which we wanted and that’s a lot of what you’re seeing right now a lot of what I’ve been able to accomplish it was
44:29
like I know how many clients I want to get I know how I’m going to try and get them uh what I’m going to specialize in
44:36
and and we continue to refine it I mean we we go back and we revisit it okay now what can I do now and you know the home
44:43
studio Master is is is a whole business in itself and we had a plan on that and
44:48
uh it’s essential to plan properly so I’m glad that you’re showing people how to do this or at least telling them to
44:55
do you instruct them on how to how to go about it at all oh yes I do I that’s part of the voice well again it’s part of the voiceover Workshop if somebody
45:02
wants to talk just about marketing um then I take them through the whole marketing uh kitten and Kaboodle and how
45:07
you do that and how you budget for that and how there’s lots of free things you can do in the world um that you don’t
45:12
have to pay for there’s certainly value to spending some money on marketing but don’t have to pay for everything but
45:19
budgeting it as part of what Dan is talking about and what George has done for his business and elderado recording
45:25
is to say you know we’ve got it we’ve got it we just can’t decide one day you know we need to we need to have pens
45:31
with a logo on it why you know what’s the point of it there may be some reason
45:37
for it if you’re going to start doing a lot of trade shows Etc but what what is it you need to do that for or you know
45:43
your local business paper is giving you this great program to do advertising and and spend $1500 on advertising in in You
45:51
Know Your Business Journal is it worthwhile and and the answer may be yes or maybe no I don’t know I mean but you
45:57
got to think about it and plan it out that’s the value of planning yeah of course I have the Merit media Productions stop why and but that’s
46:05
because we’re we’re co-founders of the Diane Meritt fan club so actually there’s a question from the
46:11
chat room um that’s good for for Peter maybe and maybe uh maybe it’s not too detailed um how much of your yearly
46:18
budget should be used for marketing and advertising says Susan Bernard hello
46:23
Susan how are you we haven’t seen you since Atlanta and um the Heart of Texas exactly um well it how much of your
46:30
budget is is dependent upon some of your goals so in the old days my answer
46:36
should be 10 or 15% um but it may not be it depends on what your objectives are
46:41
and that’s part of the part of the business planning and part of the and part of the marketing plan so I’m not
46:47
trying to not give you an answer but to just throw out a number out there would to be to mislead you and I don’t want to
46:53
do that either um so I’m sure it varies as you go through your as your business progresses that number is going to
46:58
shrink or grow right yeah it is especially on what your objectives are in other words if one of your let’s say
47:06
hypothetically one of your goals is to become a radio station Imaging voice um
47:12
and there’s just a few thousand out there um but equally as many are radio
47:17
stations so if you’re going to Market to radio stations you can do phone calls
47:23
you can do uh letters you can do Direct Mail postcards and you’ve got to figure
47:28
out which one of those you can afford to do which one of those is going to be the most effective or what mix of those is
47:35
going to be able to work for you that’s what you have to look at with every marketing objective and and execution
47:41
that you want to do what’s going to be of value to you and and how is it going to work for your business and from there
47:48
then you’re going to budget if you’re going to do the printing on your on your uh laser printer or if you’re going to
47:54
go to a printer two different cost there two very different cost there uh postage involved in that uh what you’re going to
48:01
say how many inks all the you know the colors of inks I mean that stuff can start getting expensive when you go to
48:06
professional printing so I mean that’s just one really quick example of how you just can’t say what the percentage is
48:13
you know it can be you know could be 2% for Dan it could be 15% for me and both
48:19
could be right so yeah no no I was gonna say I think I think uh in my experience my brief
48:26
experience it seems like the bigger the company the bigger the percentage of their budget they seem to put in
48:31
marketing like once they have a brand they’re trying to maintain absolutely yeah is that true or is that totally
48:37
well it it depends on the industry I mean I hate to keep going back to it depends but if you are you know if your
48:44
Apple products or um you know if you’re apple sauce two different marketing budgets yeah um you know and and it
48:52
depends on where you you say you know bigger companies you know need to keep their brand out there to what audience
48:58
if they are a huge um uh widget company they don’t want to Market to Dan and I
49:04
so they’re not going to spend a huge marketing budget going public in their marketing they’re going to do some very
49:09
targeted industry specific marketing that may actually in the long run be cheaper than it would be for a
49:15
nationally consumer-driven company you know businessto business marketing company is going to in some cases spend
49:23
more because maybe they have to do a ginormous trade show like CES in which you know people spend millions of
49:29
dollars in all from trade Booth to client entertaining to marketing letters
49:34
and pens sters you know exactly I mean so it really it really depends absolutely Dan sorry go ahead I
49:42
Trump I I was I was going to get into talking a because I know you talk about social media and and when everybody’s
49:48
talking about social media it became very clear to me uh you know we were talking to uh to James elberger and
49:55
Penny Abshire last week we were talking about voice in the community and stuff like that social networking is part of it but
50:03
networking in general seems to be a much bigger piece of moving your career on
50:10
than I think most people realize especially in the voice business it was like well we’re all competition I
50:15
haven’t found that to be the case what has been your experience with that well there’s three questions there I’ll try and answer them in order um the the
50:22
first thing is you’re absolutely correct about the networking and and how social networking ties in social networking is
50:27
a component of your marketing plan you have to determine how and where you know talking to your buds about um you know
50:34
boy wasn’t that a great football game in your in the voiceover world is great um but it it doesn’t necessarily make for
50:41
decent social marketing uh as far as making sure advertising agencies or video production companies find this
50:47
terribly interesting and and you’re never sure if if that if that part of your audience uh whether it be generally
50:54
and the you know the video production world for example or narrowly in just
50:59
video production in the state of Texas uh is actually using that kind of social marketing so you have to kind of have
51:04
kind of use that um and then you know just the I forgot the second part what was the second part after that uh
51:11
networking is important to yeah networking is that’s right networking is important beyond that there’s the interpersonal networking for example uh
51:18
you and I know of a a local group called The Amherst Chamber of Commerce Amhurst New York which is one of the more uh
51:25
successful Chambers of Commerce because this area of in this area the sub suburban area has a lot more business
51:32
when you look at it and successful higher-end business then actually the downtown Corridor which you think for a big city like Buffalo which is still
51:39
relatively top 50 Market um would have so I joined uh for example talk about
51:44
your personal inperson networking I think we talked about this once the Amherst Chamber of Commerce to find that after two years of getting involved in
51:51
the AM chamber going to events serving on boards you know becoming a part of active part in it I never got any
51:57
business out of it I never was able to make a connection with anybody because at the end of the day they didn’t
52:03
understand voiceover they it wasn’t a part of their business so they didn’t see a connection so I’ve sense not
52:09
stayed a member there it’s nothing against the chamber the chamber is a great organization but when it comes to networking you’ve got to find the right
52:16
group uh my friend Mary M mckitrick up in up in Boston um loves the story I
52:22
told of uh Bagel marketing wherein is a bagel shop in town where I uh go for
52:28
breakfast on occasion and would go there uh very often before kids BK before kids
52:33
um and and go there in the morning and see a lot of business people in there and just chat and business would develop
52:40
from that um because that was in-person networking I did it because I wanted to get out of my house and out of my studio
52:46
and be around people for at least a little part of the day because sometimes you get stuck in basements or you get
52:51
stuck inside offices and you don’t see people but the the the secondary outcome that came from that was I got to meet
52:57
business people they got to see me in a social setting it was comfortable to talk and conversations happen and that’s
53:03
where networking is of value so you really to your point you have to decide and determine take some risks with your
53:10
networking whether you go out to Area events or you know industry things if um
53:15
for advertising or for marketing or video whatever um to to see if it works
53:20
for you try it a couple times you probably got to give it at least three or four different events to go to see if it’s going to work for you and then make
53:27
a decision don’t be afraid to you know to cut bait and say this isn’t working for me I don’t I don’t think it is as
53:32
long as you’re giving it you know you’re really getting involved and and givers gain it’s not just talking about people
53:37
it’s not just talking to people about how great you are there has to be inter interaction you have to ask about people
53:43
you have to uh give them the insight to say you know tell me about your business and listen for the love of God listen
53:50
because not only a is it polite and they’ll be willing to listen to you but they also May throw out a couple nuggets
53:56
where you can go I might be have a solution for that either through my business or through my network and if
54:01
you show support for other people’s businesses and networking situations where you’re offering them help um you
54:08
know even if it has no Financial benefit for you they will remember you and and it will pay off in the long run you’re
54:14
paying it forward all right absolutely well Larry Davis you missed
54:20
out Peter gave us some great advice here of course looking for Larry next time
54:25
yes I can’t till he’s on but this was this was actually incredibly valuable it thank you thank you Peter don’t sound so
54:32
surprised I’m not surprised that’s why that’s why you were that’s why you were only number two and not number five on
54:38
the on on the depth chart here but anyway we have one those yeah again now
54:45
you have the graphic there George of uh Peter’s business there and how can they get in touch with you again that’s right
54:50
here put it right over his face oh did you thank you well you know put it over your face
54:57
I would if I could I can’t that’s okay uh for the voiceover Workshop it’s V workshop.com if you’d like to uh catch
55:04
me on the phone it’s operators are standing by I was looking over my phone 716 5721 1800 uh that number again never
55:14
mind I’m kidding and so you know this is kind of weird you
55:19
know as I’m looking into you know at our picture of us here get get rid of the graphic there George uh thing is is that
55:26
yeah if we were going like this it would look like we were two cosmonauts on the spa in in you know the space station and
55:33
we we’ be just floating here and our hair be floating it’s pretty much what it looks
55:39
like we’re not that’s we have gravity anyway Pete thanks for being
55:45
with us tonight you’re very welcome thank you for having me oh our pleasure anyway we’ve got some bad audio of the
55:50
week coming up in just a couple of minutes and we’ll get ready for that that right after
55:57
[Music]
56:23
this El Dorado recording Services Randy Thomas chiming in this is Alex birdie hi
56:31
this is Bill Ratner in Los Angeles hi this is Scott Rumble here in y Belinda California hi my name is Rick waserman
56:36
hi this is Tom K hi my name is Vanessa Marshall hi my name is Zurich hi I’m Mary mckitrick hi I’m Peter McHugh I was
56:42
turned on to George by none other than Don La fontine who always swore by George is absolutely awesome ISDN Source
56:49
connect phone patch FTP you name it Georgia set it up it’s really the best thing I’ve ever done for myself myself I
56:55
feel free safe Fearless like anything is possible in here unless you like to look
57:00
for opportunities to waste time call George and he did all of that long distance over the phone and the internet
57:05
I’m very happy with George and I cherish I’ve got my travel kit I got my source connect I’ve got it all going on thanks
57:12
to you thanks George you make it
57:22
[Music] easy
57:28
[Music]
57:41
and we’re back here on East West audio Body Shop thanks again to uh Peter oconnell for talking to us a little bit
57:47
about marketing and this is you know I think we need to really talk more about industry stuff on the show as far as the
57:53
business of VoiceOver I mean our Prime thing is home voiceover Studios but with a home voiceover Studio comes all that
58:01
business stuff so we really need to know that and when it comes to knowing what you need in a home studio there’s a
58:08
bunch of places you can go but the best one the place where someone has made some wise choices for you is our good
58:14
friend Harlen Hogan and voiceover essentials.com where he’s got some
58:20
products that he has personally endorsed and personally created like the want a
58:25
microphone which we’ve been recommending to people because at the great price point it’s a great microphone and of
58:32
course the portab booth Pro and the Porta Porta Booth the port of Boo the
58:38
portao pro two which will be coming out soon apparently it’s still a little slow
58:43
and slipping slow and slipping slow and shipping sit down it’s the shingles it’s
58:49
been affecting the brain a little bit um it’s but they’re they’re going to get it in it’s supposed to be an improvement
58:55
over the first one which was really good but he’s also got some other cool stuff I mean you he’s got uh this is the
59:00
career resources page I have up here right now oh very good yeah I mean he’s got uh lots of he’s got pop filters he’s
59:08
got the microphones he has that voyo voiceover hat which everybody wants mine
59:14
you know I played golf in it once and it was but he’s got some other microphones there some just gadgets too I mean he’s
59:21
got like you know the Entertainer secret entertainers secret throat spray say
59:26
that five times fast the heck is wrong with you guys it’s it’s dry in our
59:31
profec studio yes you can you know there’s so many good resources available
59:37
on here it’s not just about the toys some of it’s about the education yeah yeah great books in here uh you know
59:44
Advanced voiceover career strategies and of course his his great book voice actors guide to recording at home and on
59:50
the road so go over to voiceover essentials.com check out with they’ve got over there because chances are if
59:57
you need it he probably has it that’s right and thank you har yeah oh always a
1:00:03
thank you to harlon for for supporting us here at East West audio body shop also it’s now time for bad audio of the
1:00:11
week now hopefully you can hear this one now George and I discussed this one earlier in the week and he sent this to
1:00:16
me and I’m like oh I hear what the problem is uh but let’s let’s see if
1:00:21
they can hear this so this one I think is well I think it’s pretty obvious let’s see what you guys
1:00:27
think faster than ever in less than 10 minutes why do we advance Aspirin
1:00:33
because when it comes to pain relief can’t come fast enough that’s why new
1:00:39
bear Advanced aspirin advanc Rel for everyday pain yeah oh boy need some aspirin after
1:00:47
that one now what’s wrong with that well you’ve got now was that a a an
1:00:52
electronically induced Reverb on that or an echo it sounded very much like that was all post effects that you know very
1:01:00
likely that I’m not going to assume that the talent that was recording that actually did it because maybe or is listening but you know um it’s it’s a
1:01:09
misguided thing to think that adding effects is going to be something that’s going to wow you know wow the uh your
1:01:17
perspective client absolutely the the thing is yeah the thing is is that
1:01:22
they’re never going to hire you you unless that’s your business they’re not going to hire you for your production
1:01:29
capability no uh they’re hiring you for your voice now if you get an audition
1:01:36
that calls for something maybe it calls for adding music maybe it says you know there’ll be an echo behind your voice
1:01:42
that little voice in your head should say maybe on this particular audition
1:01:47
I’ll do this because it’ll make it a little bit different from everybody else who’s going to do the same read and not do anything like that right once in a
1:01:54
great while every time I’ve done that when that little voice in my head’s gone off saying add the music or along those
1:02:01
lines I do and uh so and it’s usually
1:02:07
been a very successful strategy but only when the little when the still small voice tells you to do so uh that’s
1:02:14
something that comes with experience knowing when to do that when it’s okay to do that that’s right that’s not for
1:02:19
everybody it’s certainly not the first impression you necessarily want to give if they’re not expecting that from you
1:02:25
ex expecting your production skills um give it to them go for it throw
1:02:31
everything you got at it if you think you know what you’re doing you know what what the heck yeah but 90% of the people
1:02:37
who I see who who watch our show probably less than that all they want is raw voice a lot of you are learning how
1:02:43
to run your home Studios how to record the commercial production side of it and adding other elements is a whole another
1:02:51
science that you can learn and you may have a very great talent for it but you have to learn how to do it right because
1:02:57
if you do it wrong it sounds like that yeah it’s it’s all it’s going to do is distract away from your voice it sound
1:03:04
when I listened to that it sounded like if you cut through all the the the slathered layers of effects it sounded
1:03:10
like she had a pretty clean recording in there right like it sounded Fidelity was very good sounded like it was low noise
1:03:17
so it sound like a lot of things were done right and then they laid all that stuff on top and it just oh
1:03:25
now was that from a workshop I believe that came to us from uh via VIA a
1:03:30
workout group someplace um and uh you know hopefully she gets some feedback
1:03:37
from the workout group participants and uh you know is redirected um and like I
1:03:43
said I’m not going to assume that she did that she might have had somebody help her um that might have been a
1:03:48
musician or been you know some other kind of a producer and thought Oh yeah you know you you’ve got a give it
1:03:54
everything you got to make it sound cool not understanding the voiceover industry so all you know it’s it’s interesting to
1:04:01
note that I’ve been getting more work with my narration demo which is strictly dry voice than with a highly produced
1:04:09
demo probably a good topic of conversation perhaps we need to get a good demo producer on the show some
1:04:14
night and discuss that so and we we know a bunch and certainly know course we
1:04:19
don’t we don’t want to pick favorites because they’re all pretty good anyway
1:04:25
uh and we won’t say who the bad ones are yes we will no we won’t anyway well what else were you g
1:04:32
to do on a Sunday night you know was there baseball on tonight who cares if you’re in New York or Boston you don’t
1:04:38
really care anyway so uh Philly the Philly still in it I don’t
1:04:43
watch I don’t watch sports no Philly’s gone too so pH you know how about Texas
1:04:49
what’s going on we got people from all over what about Vancouver any
1:04:56
I don’t think they must have a baseball team in Vancouver as long as they have a hockey stick they probably do probably
1:05:01
do anyway our thanks to our guest tonight uh Peter oconnell for enlightening us on on on some b good
1:05:07
business practices in voice over and thanks to you George for holding down the fort with the Hydra there out in
1:05:13
Santa Monica you know we’re how what you do it’s you know I I I think if people
1:05:19
are really interested in how we do this show perhaps we need to do a little bit of a webinar on that
1:05:24
so if you’re really interested we’ll we’ll try and we’ll try and come up with
1:05:29
that anyway uh I’m Dan Leonard in the East I’m George Wham out here in the
1:05:35
west and together we are East westo shop have yourself a great week we’ll see you
1:05:41
next Sunday nine o’clock here in the East and PM out here on the West didn’t
1:05:48
want to step in your line everybody have a great week we’ll see you next time here in east west audio
