You are…to every man, woman and child that I know earning a living in the voice-over profession…all talented people of good heart.

If you’re not, well, you fooled me.

But with this sincere compliment offered, I pose this stinging, serious and direct critique that you are free to ignore:

Your Christmas and holiday messages to your clients and peers are NOT the time to wish us well AND let us know your holiday schedules and availabilities. When you do this cringe-worthy act, you unwittingly come off as insincere and desperate as well as seemingly ignorant about what this holiday season is all about for most of the world.

HINT: This holiday season is NOT about you getting more voice-over jobs.

In this one message to your clients at a time of year steeped in a variety of religious traditions for people of numerous faiths that most all people still hold sacred – be real.

Be human.

Be sincere.

Offer your wish, your hopes or just a simple message of good will. Then stop.

It’s not a marketing opportunity. It’s not a scheduling opportunity. If clients need you, they will find you and you will work.

A competitor won’t tell you about your very awkward yet not career-ending mistake.

But a friend will. 🙂

Tags: branding, commentary, kick in the pants, marketing, public relations, rants, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I’ve never started a pay to play voice-over web site for many reasons, the first of which is I think they each completely discredit the voice-over industry.

My second reason is I believe the only persons who truly profits from these sites are the owners. The overall crumbs that are intermittently handed out to some voice talents pale in comparison to the consistent fees these owners generally bring in from their sites.

Last but not least some (not all) of these owners strike me as crooks.

Again, these are just my personal opinions, your milage may vary and if you disagree with me you’re probably wrong ;).

Yet even though I have not myself started a pay to play voice-over web site and am therefore hardly an expert, I think I have found two surefire ways NOT to start a pay to play voice-over web site.

Note please that in the 30+ years of running this and other businesses, I have never made a mistake and my record for perfection has been recognized by Guinness World Records for it’s, um…perfection. So from from high atop Know It All Mountain, here goes:

Way #1 NOT to start a pay to play voice-over web site:

Recommend, in writing, a voice-over talent pay structure so disrespectful to voice-over talents and oblivious to real market factors and with pricing so biased towards bottom feeding clients that there is a near voice-over rebellion on-line when the talents (who are going to be the potential fuel for the pay to play web site’s engine) see the following:

No word yet on whether said site will be offering a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) coupon for voice talents in the near future. This site’s opening after Thanksgiving so they couldn’t offer any Black Friday voice-over specials, if in fact they wanted to.

Way #2 NOT to start a pay to play voice-over web site:

Name your pay to play voice-over web site with a moniker extremely similar to a well-respected, established site run by a well-spoken voice talent like Jonathan Tilley. Then watch your yet to be launched pay to play voice-over web site (and you as the owner) get your corporate ass publicly handed to you with fact after knock out fact showing that you, as the pay to play web site owner, have acted in what might be considered (at least by this observer) as thoughtless…to say the least.

The web video beating was so bad to my viewing I half expected to hear Howard Cosell again in his famous ringside boxing call.

So in summary, those are the two things I would NOT do if I were ever going to start up a pay to play web site.

Which I won’t, cause what do I know anyway.

Tags: commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

On Saturday, November 16th I began reading Joe and Ann Cipriano’s Living On Air – Adventures In Broadcasting.

It’s now Sunday, November 17 at about 1:00 p.m. eastern time and I have finished reading it.

Some book reviews may rate the quality of the read based on the “star” system or some other measurement.

Here’s my rating: I read the book cover to cover in 24 hours and I’m sorry the story ended.

If you’re scoring at home that’s a five out of five star rating, a “must-read” and two big thumbs up.

If you have ever worked, now work or want to work as a voice-actor – you must read this book.

If you have ever worked, now work or want to work on-air in radio or television – you must read this book.

If you work (or have worked) both in voice-over and in broadcasting…you HAVE to read this book.

We’re not talkin’ “how to” or here’s “how I do voice-over” type book.

It’s the story of one man’s passion for broadcasting combined with how his talent and luck got him to the top of his profession. And maybe even more so how he worked to pay back the universe (and his friends) for their kindnesses to him over the years.

I don’t really know Joe at all having only met him a couple of times when I was in Hollywood at a voice-over conference years ago. He came across as a simple, good guy – which is something I suppose that shouldn’t be taken for granted in La-La land where egos could overflow the Grand Canyon.

I sensed no overflowing ego in this autobiography.

Like the man I spoke with at the voice-over conference, the story was simple and good- a kind of “here’s my life and yes, I fully understand how fortunate I have been combining my work ethic with the talent I have and my passion for this industry.”

A great true story- with anecdotes about many interesting people – told by one of our own about the business we all adore.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading Living On Air as much as I did.

You can (and should) buy the book here.

Tags: commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

Is it actually considered taunting if I say nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-naaahhhh on social media? I think not.

I have received my copy of Joe and Ann Cipriano’s book Living On Air. I’m very excited.

It has a wonderful, personalized inscription from Joe that reads: “Dear Bob Souer, You’re my voice-over hero! Please don’t move to Los Angeles. Love Joe”.

If you want YOUR copy of Living On Air, you can buy it here.

Now all I have to do is learn how to read and I’ll be all set.

Where did I put my Hooked On Phonics cassettes?

Tags: advertising, commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on look what I got?

In a recent Voice-Over Xtra! article, my friend and fellow voice-over talent had some great suggestions for how to make sure your voice-over business doesn’t breakdown like her 1997 Honda CR-V.

Reviewing her checklist will probably cost you less than $3,500. It’s a good read from a smart lady.

Tags: commentary, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on roxanne coyne fixes your car, er…your voice-over business

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.

I say all this because I got a call a few weeks ago from Garnet Williams who told me all about…me. He’d read about me and the stuff I’d done and asked if I would be a guest on his voice-over podcast, The Amivos and Friends Super Funtastic Happy Hour Podcast.

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 Voiceworks while 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).

With my sincere thanks to Dave, Mike and Garnet, I hope you’ll not only want to listen to the show that I’m on (ego? moi?!) but also check-out their past and future episodes.

Tags: audio'connell voice over talent, commentary, podcast, podcast guest, social media, social networking, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »