Entries Tagged as 'voice over entrance exam'

50+ facebook fans have amazed me

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OK, look, for all the nice comments people make about my business’ marketing and what I know about marketing (and thank you) I did miss the boat on a Facebook fan page for the Voice Over Entrance Exam as previously noted.

Worse than that, I kind of forgot about the page entirely which is strictly a marketing no-no. Even worse than that, I almost admitted all of that in a blog post which is completely verboten.

So yesterday I check the page and see that there are 55 fans of the Voice Over Entrance Exam’s Facebook book page. The last time I looked I remember like, 5. And sadly I was quite thrilled with that number, even given the fact that 1 of those fans was the author.

For those of you playing the home game, that would be an increase of over 1,000,000,000,000 percent or 15 terabytes; not that I like to brag because I’m supposedly an introvert, according to Myers and Briggs (who also make very nice engines).

So thank you to all of you that pitied me by becoming a fan of an e-book that came out in May 2009 and which inaugurated a Facebook fan page about, ooooo, a month ago. I may have missed the Facebook fan page boat but I appreciate you throwing me a life ring.

this may be the silliest thing I’ve done (recently)

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So you may recall that in the spring, I wrote The Voice Over Entrance Exam, a free e-book about whether or not a career in voice over might be the right way to go for someone. I’ve enjoyed hundreds of downloads and a lot of gracious and passionate comments that I sincerely appreciate.

Along the way, I’ve heard about these Facebook “fan” pages, where people who follow you on Facebook can become a sort of virtual groupie (with much less traveling and certainly much less in the way of expectations).

Now I could see no purpose to have something about that about myself for about a billion reasons…but I got to thinking that I should set it up for The Voice Over Entrance Exam. Everybody really liked it. So let’s keep the communication channel opened via a fan page.

Now The Voice Over Entrance Exam has a fan page on Facebook. I hope very sincerely you’ll become a fan.

Not for the egotism of it but rather to avoid sheer humiliation. Sort of like hosting a party and having nobody show up. Or writing a blog post to ask people to join your fan page.

Let’s be clear: you’d be becoming a fan of the book, not the author so your reputation won’t be that tainted ;).

See, all the while I was creating this thing, I’m thinking to myself two things: this all seems very self-aggrandized and I should have set it up when the book came out (likely a marketing miss – see, everybody makes them!)

So if you could help me avoid self-inflected humiliation and come to my Facebook “party”, I’d be grateful.

I hope I didn’t make too much food!

headlines from the labor day weekend

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In spite of the supposed holiday weekend the emails were humming so as I watch the sun rise this morning, here are some of them I thought worthy to pass along as part of your morning (afternoon or evening) reading.

* Voice talent Paul Strikwerda wrote to share the news of a link to the Voice Over Entrance Exam in his recent blog post on boosting web site traffic. I appreciate the link and in fact it made me start to think about creating a fan page for the Voice Over Entrance Exam.

* Long time client Monica Moshenko Wharton, who has tirelessly advocated for people with disabilities, pinged me to advise that she is a finalist in Subway’s “Refresh Your Life” essay contest and needs your vote. Please visit this link by September 15, 2009 and give her your support.

* Voice talent Ed Victor sent me a LinkedIn message letting me know that he has a voice over related baseball cap promotion going on right now. When purchasing the caps, which sport a Voice Work logo, a portion of the proceeds will fund The Children’s Health Fund.

Thanks for the updates, folks!

voice over workshop’s kick in the pants – july 2009 post script

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Sometimes the person offering the kick in the pants deserves a kick in the pants and I’d be a bit of a phony if I didn’t fess that I got kicked Sunday morning for good reason.

In my July 12th post, I was so excited about a wonderful comment I read about taking the risk of going too far in a voice over performance that I omitted a key thought in the post. While you can read the whole post here, the summary of it was supposed to be that reading blogs can offer some great insights into your voice over performance because sometimes time (as is my case) and money (as is the issue for others) prevent folks from getting professional training.

While I stand by my statements completely, it is what I failed to say that caused a dust-up and rightly so. What I neglected to say was that while blogs are valuable they cannot take the place of professional in-person or at least phone training. While I have made that clear on this blog in the past and certainly pointed it out in my free e-book The Voice Over Entrance Exam, I failed to make that point clear in my blog post.

That omission got noticed by of all people my voice teacher. And she was pissed! As she wrote on my facebook page:

Ouch Peter! In my 25 years as a voice actor, I have never taken a Voiceover Seminar with a reputable teacher that has not come back to me with manifold rewards (and monetary ones). Blogs are great for sharing opinions and occasional bragging rights, but to pack your parachute with skills in this competitive biz, it takes an investment in training that should never cease, no matter what the cost. I’ve sacrificed, paid the piper and reaped the rewards.

Oh dear. This was not good. I made a mistake, I left out an important part of the blog post and the woman who’s been teaching me voice acting the longest now rips me a new one on Facebook. Well my axiom has always been if you’re going to fail, fail big!

Actually that’s never been my axiom, I just made that up here.

My response, made on bended knee when typing on a i-phone (which is no easy task):

Toni,

Your point is well taken so let me clarify (and I think you know well my belief in this from my book): nothing replaces personal voice over training. The interaction is invaluable so that would always be my preference.

But there are times when life’s priorities get in the way…at least in my case. So reading is a supplement.

BTW one of the teachers who first taught me to go farther was YOU.

Thank you for that and your (as always) wise input.

Best always,
– Peter

It’s a lesson learned but likely a mistake I’ll make again anyway: re-read your blog posts 12-13 times before posting; find your mistakes then or else you’ll piss off your voice teacher. Sorry Toni.