Technology has kicked my ass this week and it’s been pretty painful.

To briefly summarize, my website’s “contact us” page has been malfunctioning and I didn’t know it. When an inquiry comes in, I am supposed to get an email notifying me. Unbeknownst to me, the technical tool has been broken for months.

I just thought business was a little slow.

Even though the technical malfeasance was caused by my web provider, it is my brand, my company, my name that has in the minds of some of these prospects, been tarnished. They don’t care about my web provider…in their eyes it’s ME that did not respond or ignored their inquires.

While on a much smaller scale than, say, the Tylenol problem of the 80’s, I have been executing my own little version Crisis Communication Response.

It’s necessary and it’s humiliating.

I don’t think I’ve ever written the words “apology” and “I’m sorry” in greater frequency. But it must be done with expediency and sincerity.

One of the biggest slaps was a lead for a voice over job that wasn’t yet 24 hours old that I responded to only to find that job had already been completed. In normal circumstances, I would have at least been in the hunt.

There were (so far as of this writing) a few voice talents who wanted to study in the Voice Over Workshop and tried to contact me through the “contact us” page. I can’t even imagine the bad feelings they were left with when one of their peers didn’t respond with an email or call. My head aches at the thought of it.

It’s NOT how I run my business but these prospects don’t know that…my actions (or lack thereof regardless of the reasons) speak louder than words.

But maybe there’s a lesson in this for Voice Over Workshop students and you too. Something about always double checking and testing your computer settings; not putting too much faith in your web provider to guard your website as if it were their own; knowing that into each life a little rain must fall.

I can’t sort it all out right now but I guess as you drive by this wreck of a technology case study, you’ll be able to pull a lesson out for yourself…and if that saves you from some fate similar to mine, then that is of consolation.

As my Mom was fond of saying “this too shall pass.”

Tags: commentary, i-post, marketing, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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<em> Voice Talents Peter K. O'Connell, Karen Commins & Craig Crumpton in Atlanta</em>

My friend, voice talent Karen Commins is a bit like Dave Courvoisier in that she and Dave put a fair amount research into their blogs – coming up with helpful content. Stuff you can use.

This blog isn’t useless but it ain’t nearly as impressive and thoughtout as theirs are.

Case in point, Karen’s recent great post about the rules of public domain which apply to any industry but are of particular interest to those who produce media.

Read it here.

Tags: blogs, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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This week I sent out my fairly irregular Voice Over Workshop Kick In The Pants eblast.

It’s a simple little newsletter to my voice over friends about things I think will be interesting and some information about available dates I have for the Voice Over Workshop

At the most, I hope the people who read it find something of value.

Well I got the nicest, simplest note from voice talent Brian Haymond who told me he wrote a blog post about the newsletter.

I completely did NOT expect that but I was really pleased that he found something so of interest that he wanted to blog about it.

Not to crow too much but only to say it was a nice feeling.

Tags: voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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When a teacher succeeds, it’s because their student’s life has been changed by what that teacher offered. The teacher offered a gift: their knowledge, their ability to communicate that knowledge in a thoughtful way and it blossomed within the student.

I got a note today from voice talent Lisa Biggs who shared a recent experience she had with an experienced voice over pro who is now sharing his gifts as a voice teacher. I’ll let you decide if the lesson had an impact.

After ten years riding the voice over crazy train I still take classes regularly, and work closely and consistently with a handful of professional coaches. Recently I decided to reach out to Rob Paulsen in hopes that I might have the opportunity to learn from him as well. Rob has been a professional voice over actor since the 1980’s having voiced over 2,000 1/2 hour animated episodes to his credit. In 1999 Rob won the daytime Emmy award for “Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program” for his role as the voice of the boisterous and energetic laboratory mouse Pinky in the hit series Pinky and the Brain.

I feel like I’ve grown up with Rob! I remember watching him as Yako on Animaniacs every afternoon, after soccer practice in junior high. So, I was beyond thrilled when he emailed me back to informed me that he’s beginning a new venture as a voice-over coach, he said my timing was “serendipitous”!

One of the things that makes Rob Paulsen’s time and expertise so infinitely valuable is it’s relevancy. He continues to work almost every day! He’s voiced thousands of commercials. He is the voice of “Mr. Opportunity” for Honda, also he works on animated projects on a weekly basis. Rob is the quintessential busy bee and a competitive force in this highly competitive industry. Whether your goal is to learn how to bring absolute believability to a fictional character, or learning to make out of the box choices when auditioning, “Mr. Opportunity” is knocking and you should answer the door. Rob says, ” those gifted with exceptional talent who focus of maximizing their potential by finding their own niche quickly break away from the pack.”

Tags: voice actors, voice over training, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Sometimes I forget that people actually read this blog.

Saturday night, my agent Erik Sheppard from Voice Talent Productions called me (I was hoping it was for a gig but was pleased to hear from him none the less) about Mary McKitrick’s EMMY-less EMMY win. He read my blog post and it really bugged Erik (as a voice talent and as Mary’s agent too) that she got stiffed on receiving the award with the “Wild View” Regional EMMY win for best audio. Mary, as you’ll recall, was the narrator on that series (a pretty major part of the audio team in my opinion and evidently Erik’s too).

And Dave Courvoisier’s opinion too because Sunday Courvo called me with all sorts of ideas about getting Mary her award and would I help etc. Meanwhile, poor Mary is fairly unaware that all this is brewing save for the supportive calls she’s been getting from her fellow talents and representatives on her win sans award.

So in a democratic society, we did what all people do when they feel wronged – Erik, Dave and I (mostly Dave cause he knows how to push the social media buttons best) started a Facebook page. The purpose of the “Statue for Mary” page is to centrally organize enough on-line support to gain the attention of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences to change the structure of their awards program to include voice actors as awards recipients in some manner…and get Mary her EMMY.

The Facebook page is here. Please “LIKE”, share and comment on it if you are supportive of its objectives which are stated on the Facebook page as follows:

Mary McKitrick, an experienced and talented voice over artist, was recently engaged to serve as narrator in the beautifully produced wild life series “Wild View” (www.wildviewseries.org).

With Mary as one part of a truly talented team of media pros on this series, “Wild View” has received many deserving honors, including the regional Emmy Award for “Best Audio”.

Unfortunately, the Emmy Awards do not recognize the narrator (in this case, Mary) as part of the audio team in spite of a narrator’s significant contribution to project’s like “Wild View” and many series and documentary programs like it.

So the attention getting goals of this page, completely created without Mary McKitrick’s participation, is twofold:

1. Secure for Mary McKitrick her well-deserved EMMY Award as narrator on the “Wild View” EMMY Award winning audio production team

2. Encourage the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences to review and update its award criteria to include either categories for or the inclusion of narrators as EMMY Award recipients in its regional and national awards

Actors get EMMY’s. Voice Actors (narrators) evidently get bupkis. That just seems wrong.

If you agree that these two goals are worth supporting

1. Please add your “LIKE” to this page

2. Please share this information with others who you think would support this page’s goals and ask them to come “LIKE” it too

3. Please also write about this page, it’s goals and your supportive thoughts about this project on your blog, twitter page or any other social media channel you feel worthwhile (links are a good thing)

Tags: commentary, community, facebook, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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So I’m passing by Facebook Monday night and I saw a post from my friend, voice talent Lisa Biggs, who wrote – “anybody wanna join me in 22min for a skype interview about how to be a successful voice-over artist?? it’s a project for a high school student : )”

So I sent her a message and later that evening we had a nice conversation with a student named Kaviyan who is using the recording of interview featuring Lisa, me and fellow voice talent Dan Lenard as a school project about how to get into voice over- a career track he’d like to follow.

Here’s a link to this fun interview.

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