Voice-Over Talent Peter K. O’Connell enjoys his new traveling mic stand

There are very few days off for voice-over talents.

One reason is that, as a small business owner providing a sometimes time sensitive service in a creative industry, when the client says it’s “go-time” you need to record pretty quickly.

So when I go on the road, I need to be able to effectively and professionally record which I have been doing for years. However, microphone stands have been a problem for me. They need to be small and portable but usually that means cheap and breakable (that’s no good).

This new small, portable and pretty strong tripod and mic holder that I just purchased is doing its job quite nicely. My arm, which had to hold on to the mic prior to this solution, is very happy.

Tags: technology, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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FaffCamp is March 19-22, 2015 in San Antonio, Texas

FaffCamp is coming to San Antonio, Texas March 19-22 this year. If you’re already attending, I look forward to seeing you there as I will be there as an attendee and a presenter.

Registration information is here.

If you work in voice-over, you are invited to attend…like right here, now, this is your invitation. That knocking sound you hear is opportunity.

For those uninitiated, FaffCamp is a peer-to-peer professional development conference for working voiceover pros (not just voice talents, voice actors, and narrators, but all pros who do work related to voice overs). It’s participant driven and highly interactive, just like its sister event FaffCon.

But at FaffCamp much of the agenda is set in advance, which makes it possible for Faff Camp to welcome a larger group.

Plus, there are cool things we do only at Faff Camp, like Topic Tables, Adopt-a-Question, and Lightning Talks! And since we have two tracks, Starting Smart and Working Pro, we welcome voice talents at ALL career stages.

I don’t have an ownership stake in FaffCamp or FaffCon but I am on the organizing committee and have been for many years, because I believe in it.

This is FaffCamp producer Amy Snively, associate producer Lauren McCullough and Peter K. O’Connell (me), “the sponsorship guy” at FaffCamp 2013

FaffCamp and FaffCon have directly helped my voice-over business and here’s how I think it can help yours:

1. FaffCamp presents interactive and expert advice on performance, technology and business management from vetted industry leaders. All of this information is specifically tailored to the voice-over business because the people presenting it are working in the voice-over business

2. FaffCamp is like Voice-Over College. FaffCamp brings together a whole lot professionally and financially successful voice-over talents. Many of these folks are past Faffers who have both learned a lot and shared a lot at Faff events. Bottom line: walking and talking between sessions, at meals and in other social times is basically like going to Voice-Over College. If you have questions – the answers are likely at FaffCamp.

3. You’re surrounded by people who understand you. Either you are today or want to be someone who sits in a booth all day and talks to him/herself. You’re not normal and neither are FaffCamp attendees, cause we do the same thing. We understand the professional and personal challenges of being a performer, a small business owner and bread winner. You got questions? Very likely we’ve got experienced answers and the meter is NOT running.

One last piece of advice: Go.

Tags: announcers, commentary, Faff Camp, faffcamp, faffcon, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Bob Bergen, Lisa Marber-Rich and Tim Walsh at The Business of Voiceover in New York City. Photo Courtesy of Invision/AP

Melissa Exelberth (also know as ‘X’) posted a video of a voice-over panel she recently attended in New York City that was hosted by the Television Academy.

On the panel was a voice-over talent, two agents, a casting director and a voice-coach, all with names you’ve likely heard of if you’ve been doing voice-over for any length of time.

You don’t need any more build up for this other than to say you should watch this. Watch the whole thing.

And you’re welcome. 😉

Tags: commentary, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Too much free time. That’s the problem I think plagues many voice talents.

As busy as I am, some days I pay too much attention to social media silliness and my “likes”, “comments” and “retweets” take up more of my day than it should. Like other small business owners, voice talent get sidetracked. But I think it’s a bigger problem for voice talents.

Voice talents love to post and debate – for example ANYthing that has to do with Pay To Play sites and how frustrating those sites are. I see the start of a P2P rant thread and I think ‘do what I did, dump them and move on’ but for some, the topic continues to fester. While I respect that Pay To Plays do have some impact on a voice talent’s bottom line – it is NOT as important as the continuously recycled debate online would make it seem.

But the most recent discussion involving a blog post from my voice – over colleague Paul Strikwerda really brought this “too much time on voice talents hands” thought home to me.

It had to do with the recent Voice Arts awards. Paul wrote a very well thought out post about the awards with his opinion on their value. My take away as the reader (these are my words not his) was that the first year awards, while possibly noble in intent, do seem more like a cash grab in some ways, judged by a bunch of folks who in a few cases seemed to have served as both judge and nominee.

Discussions ensued on line (some thoughtful, some humorous, some vitriolic) about the awards, their merit, their prospective longevity and whether or not Annette Funicello really was the prettiest Mouseketeer.

To all this I say: who cares?

Not that people are not free to express their opinions. Sure they can. Paul’s points are well taken and the people who are behind the Voice Arts awards should at the very least be commended for trying to be innovative with a new idea for an awards show. Being the first to do anything is fraught with peril, financial risk and ridicule. My point isn’t to indict a blog post or an awards show.

My point IS an indictment of voice talents who continually get caught up in excessive online nonsense, preferring a social media time suck to actually taking care of business. And I see it ALL. THE. TIME!

This particular Voice Arts debate is a very good example of social media as a worthless distraction. And I believe voice talent fall prey to it waaay too often.

For example, what part of any of this Voice Arts discussion (or any other voice-over related discussion on any other social media forum) vitally impacts the daily life and bottom line of a workaday voice actor?

The answer is honestly none of it. Nor does it end up changing much.

‘But Peter, it’s FUN!’ Sure, we all enjoy the sense of community that social media affords us and I am not trying to squash that.

But it’s a business problem for voice talents when social media becomes (as it does so often) a distraction – the overactive back and forth online does not truly matter (except to boost or damage certain egos) and only serves to take our minds off of managing our businesses.

So my solution is to have voice talents do a pre-post test of what they are about to put up on any social media channel.

If you as a voice talent find yourself in an on-line debate about some voice over matter – before you hit send, even before you post or like or retweet, ask yourself if being online at that very moment the best prioritization of your time and talent.

Note, all this is about more than the occasional “like” or “comment” or “retweet”. It’s about willingly getting caught up in a time suck and focusing on that in the name of branding and marketing. And YOU do it. You can lie to me but you cannot lie to yourself.

Too much attention paid to social media is neither marketing nor branding but you, as the CEO of your voice-over business have no one above you to give you a kick in the ass and tell you to get off Twitter and get back to work.

Consider your ass kicked (mine too).

Tags: voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Faff Camp II is scheduled for March 19-22, 2015 at the Omni Colonnade in San Antonio, TX. Use this promo code: VT8988559 and I win a new(er) car! It might be a Matchbox or Hot Wheels – no way to tell yet.

IF you work in voice-over, know people in your acting class, VO workout group or wherever you’re connected to VO pals and colleagues, you should all attend if you’re all serious about a career as a professional voice-over talent.

We’re looking for bright, friendly, down-to-earth VO people (like those in the above picture –ahem) who you think would love Faff Camp’s smart, ego-free, solution-oriented learning and sharing; people who’d fit in well with the Faff culture of VO people helping VO people get better at VO stuff (and make more more money doing it).

We’re doing Faff Camp II registration “Kickstarter-style”. If we hit our attendance target by July 11, we’ll see you at Faff Camp II!

If we fall short, we issue 100% refunds and…no Faff Camp.

My guess is – FaffCamp II WILL be happening. Visit the FaffCamp web site for all the details. Registration opens Monday, June 30, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. pacific time.

Tags: commentary, Faff Camp, faffcamp, voice over training, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Voice-Over Talent Peter K. O’Connell shares his marketing insights during a VO in TO Voice-Over Meet-Up at Livingston Studios, May 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just do it anyway.

Tags: commentary, marketing, voice over training, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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