Some weeks ago my voiceover friend (and fellow Buffalo Bills fan) Tim Powers created an idea to help promote WOVOCON The Voiceover UnConference, produced by World-Voices Organization and scheduled for October 17-19, 2025 in New Orleans.

His idea was he was going to interview a bunch of past attendees about their WOVOCON experiences and turn them into one minute video shorts for social media like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

So Tim and I recorded our interview in about 15 minutes and he got the content he wanted for the socials.

This week, I got to thinking about the interview and I kept thinking – ‘there’s more stuff there that folks might like to know’, because we talked about a lot of stuff.

So I pinged Tim and asked for the footage to review it. I couldn’t recall my answers to all the questions so I had no idea what – if anything – I was going to do with it.

Then I saw it…it was the big secret that really only a WOVOCON Voiceover Unconference can unlock – because of it’s format, because of it very limited attendance limit (the comradeship of the event) and because of the very nature of the event which is unique to ANY other voiceover event.

WATCH THE VIDEO, learn the secret then make your reservations to join us in New Orleans this October.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE VIDEO:

Hi, I’m Peter K. O’Connell

and I’ve been a voiceover actor for about 40 years.

It’s so important that people understand that with an unconference, probably one of its most unique features, aside from the format, aside from the attendees creating the agenda and supporting the agenda by what they know and sharing what they know, probably the most important thing that you learn is an unconference is a safe space for everybody.

Some people understand what that means. Some people don’t. I’ll explain my version of what a safe space is. A safe space is where you can go ask questions, where you can be vulnerable. Whether you’ve been doing it for 40 plus years or for months, whatever it is, um that you can look to this event and know that people are there. They’re not judging you. It is a judgment-free zone.

So, when you come in there as a voice actor, we know that you don’t have it all worked out. Do you know how we know that? because you’re not retired off the riches of your job. You’re still doing it on a day-to-day basis. While we all look, well, how he must be a star or celebrity, stop it!

I will tell you that I know some of the well-known (VO) celebrities and well-known (VO) folks um that people follow on Instagram or have heard on network promos and all the rest of it. And I can tell you for a fact that they don’t know everything either. They’ve had some great success and they’ve built careers, but the more you build your career, the more you can be put on an island unto yourself. And so you don’t feel like you can always ask questions.

Well, no matter what level of career you have at a WOVOCON Voiceover  Unconference, you’re safe to ask your questions. Whether you ask it in a session, whether you ask it one-on-one in a hallway conversation, whether you ask it on the questions board, there is a questions board at a WOVOCON Unconference where you can put a question and somebody will come come to you with an answer at some point during the weekend.

Whatever your thoughts, whatever your concerns, whatever your vulnerabilities, you will probably have a chance to share them with somebody, get an answer with it, or just feel like you’re not the only one.

That maybe for some folks, that’s the biggest thing. Oh, I’m not the only one that thinks that way. Oh, I’m not the only one that’s unnerved by that. Oh, I’m not the only one who didn’t understand what they meant by that, and everyone else seems to get it. At a WOVOCON Unconference, it is so valuable to know that you are among a tribe, a community, a class. Your WOVOCON Unconference will be a class unto itself. The mixture of people will never be like that before or after. It will be there. And it’s very special for people to understand that and to know that you will have that connection likely for the rest of your professional life.

Tags: social media, video, voiceover advice, WOVOCON by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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One of the nice things about my voiceover and audio production business is that, because it is a web-based business, I can work nationally and internationally.

I am very fortunate that media production companies from all parts of the English-speaking world come to audioconnell.com.

But as I have pointed out before, I often and gladly work with local and regional businesses as clients too.

There are many different ways to gain the attention of these regional prospects.

Lately on Facebook, I have been enjoying promoting on some of the town and city groups in North Carolina that I joined during their specific small business day.

Some Facebook groups dedicate specific days of the week to promoting local businesses. This allows businesses to advertise their services or products on a dedicated day without overwhelming the group with promotional content every day. This approach helps maintain the overall quality and purpose of the group while still providing a valuable platform for local businesses to reach their target audience.

Some groups implement a “Small Business Wednesday” where local businesses can promote their services or products.
Others have a “Saturday Business Spotlight” post, where businesses are encouraged to comment with their promotions, rather than creating separate posts.

As you would expect, I only promote on the authorized days – not only because I would risk getting tossed out of the group for violating their terms of service but also because I don’t want to come across as obnoxious.

The graphic featured on this post is a new version of something I have used in the past…no doubt I will tweak the creative going forward so as not to be boring but also….fun!

Let me know if you have had any success getting new business in these groups.

Tags: advertising, facebook, marketing, social media, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Just a few voice actors and audio professionals who will be at the WOVOCON Voiceover Unconference 2024 – L-R Top Row: Peter K. O’Connell, George Washington III, Jodi Krangle; Bottom Row: Liz de Nesnera, George Whittam & Natalie Stanfield

For the coming days and weeks, you’ll likely see these faces and other faces within your social media feeds.

They are the faces of the WOVOCON Voiceover Unconference 2024, taking place in Chicago on October 18-20th.

To create awareness of the unconference (which can be attended by WoVO members and vetted non-members, we’ve created the “I’ll Be There” campaign. It features just some of the attendees of the conference who are posting on their social media.

We’ve also crafted a very short video featuring just a few of the faces from the WOVOCON Voiceover Unconference 2024 “I’ll Be There” campaign.

Most all of the posts (on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook) should have the hashtag #wovocon2024 – so you can search to see all the great faces (who also have great voices). They will be sharing their voiceover knowledge this October.

For more information on the WOVOCON Voiceover Unconference, click HERE.

Tags: social media, WOVOCON by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Sometimes the random voiceover business thoughts that shoot through my brain are actually pretty good ones.

This week, for example, out of nowhere came the memory that I had seen a few voiceover talents who have actually put their local city time on their websites.

The concept being that voice talents, like me, work with ad agencies, video production and recording studios all around the globe. We need to communicate our time zones with the studios so producers can coordinate recording schedules faster and more efficiently.

So the question was posed (at first in my head) about if and where to publicly share post a voice actor’s local time zone.

I wanted to solicit opinions from my respected voiceover friends (as opposed to my DISrespected voiceover friends – who are often times more fun to hang out with…for that very reason) as to their thoughts on posting one’s local time – if they did it or not and why they did it or not.

Off to the private Friends of FaffCon Facebook page I went. Many voice actors smarter than me reside there.

While many noted they posted it somewhere on their voiceover website (not always on the front page), the idea that had eluded me was to include my local time zone in my email signature. Many folks included that idea in their response to my query and I thought it was wonderfully simple and effective.

I either have very smart voiceover friends or I am just dumber than an ox.

Either way, as you can see from my now revised email signature above, now my clients know what MY time is.

Tags: commentary, marketing, social media, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I really like media and I really like voiceover and I really like audio production and I really like video and film.

But the part I like about all those things the most is the behind the scenes part of it. Most of the time nobody sees you ‘doing the making’.

Hence my on-going love affair with voice acting and deep attraction to radio.

This would also help explain why I have never been a fan of me doing on-camera work. I don’t want to do on-camera acting because I’m not a big fan of me on-camera.

Now I will make silly videos for my YouTube channel (which all the 7 people in remote jungles will ever see) but nothing like proper acting, or spokesperson stuff.

Voice actors should be heard and not seen. And I love that.

Voice actor Peter K. O’Connell from audio’connell Voiceover Talent, July 2024

Which brings me to social media and these stupid profile pictures we have to post of ourselves. To me, they feel like a lot of work.

In the profile pic I want to look like my normal fun self but also respectable. Nice but not formal. Me but not me.

Relaxed and improvised but completely planned, posed and well lit with 7 filters.

In other words, BS. I’m ridiculous! 🙂

Anyway, the other day a picture got took of me (yes I am aware of the bad grammar, intentional for humor) that I thought looked OK except for the background.

Darn!

Then I found a free background remover. Magic!

Now what? I needed a background for the photo. What to do, what to do??

I decided to plow through the likely hundreds (at this point) of background images I have on this computer and I found some great video color bars.

Oooh fun (I thought), I can use them! It will convey my bright, fun personality (ha!) and subtly reference video and television production (for which I often provide my voiceover services). All that will also be slightly creativity (which, when it comes to me and anything visual, “slightly” is the best I can ever hope for).

Reading that now, I am unsure whether that all shows thoughtful creativity on my part or my narcissistic self-absorption on a level previously not seen.

Am I over thinking my profile pics?

They *do* represent my brand to my business audience…but that brand is basically me, who does NOT want to be in the forefront. Oy!

Back to my photo idea — turns out just slapping color bars behind my head just ended up looking like a vertical rainbow (and not a very impressive one at that).

So I thought, maybe a collage of color bars? Ok, it needs something else

At this point in the creation process, I was starting to take *me* out of the design process and look at this design as sort of 3rd party omniscient. Made me feel less self-conscious.

Ok, (methinks to meself) what about including the word “voiceover” to make it look a little modern, a tad artsy and make it clear to the viewer who this idiot in the Bills cap thinks he is?

Alrighty then, that works.

Thus it was born…a new head shot.

One morning soon, I will wake up and feel this picture is ill-conceived (which was my polite synonym for stupid). Maybe this blog post is too. But I can’t think I’m the only VO who feels this way.

Anyway, for the moment, I don’t hate this new profile pic and it solves the Social Media profile picture issue.

For the moment. 🙂

Tags: commentary, marketing, social media by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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There is no way for me to justify my 6,000 tweet – which I am sure is just as meaningless as the 1st tweet was 17 years ago. And yet when I was updating my profile today — there it was: 6,000 posts.

I can’t say that anything I’ve offered on the platform was terribly worthwhile and (aside from catching a few breaking news stories) I’ve not read that much that was interesting (but it helped pass the time).

What this…I don’t what you call 6,000 tweets…a signpost? A waste of time and effort?

What this “thing” did remind me of was when I first really focused on Twitter.

My recollection was I was at Podcamp Toronto in 2007 – social media was kinda just coming into it’s own and Twitter was barely a year old. But there were a couple of thought leaders who I heard in the hallways of the Podcamp chatting about Twitter.

I think within a month I had set up my account — having NO idea what I was supposed to say or do with it (much like the rest of the world then AND now.

And I think it can only be my 17 year longevity on Twitter or X that explains how I have over 3,800 followers. At one point I had 4,000 followers but I must have said something that pissed some-200 -bodies off and that 3,800 count is where my follower count has been for a while.

If you are a follower, thanks. If you want to be a follower, thanks. If you don’t want to follow me, thanks.

There is a Science to social media and I was more of an English and History guy myself.

Let’s try not to take ourselves too seriously out that. Thanks.

Tags: commentary, social media, social networking, twitter, X by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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