I missed the very first FaffCon.

My magnificent third child was coming into the world and Mrs. audio’connell somehow felt it was more important that I not spend a weekend in Portland, OR lest my dear boy make an early entrance while I was three time zones away. My suggestion that she just hold her legs together during the trip was not accepted with grace. Need I reiterate, it was only a suggestion?!

Oh, that was also the time I found out I’m a bleeder.

So I remember that whole weekend thinking ‘I wonder what they’re doing now at FaffCon? I wonder who’s speaking? I wonder what they’re talking about?’ I was bummed even though I didn’t yet have (or fully understand) the FaffCon experience.

I made a promise to myself I would make it to the next FaffCon. After attending FaffCon 2 in Atlanta, I promised (save for something of immense importance) I would not miss another Faff-event.

As I sit here going through notes and business cards and memories, I am thinking of some of the posts of those who couldn’t go…who wanted to go but for all the right reasons (whatever they were) didn’t go. And as I began to type of my profound joy from everything and everyone at the FaffCamp event, I stopped. I really did.

I am profoundly grateful not only to everyone I spent time with, learned from and especially worked with on FaffCamp…but those feelings and opinions extend to each and everyone of the past FaffCon attendees as well. I wanted EACH of them to be at FaffCamp for their own professional and personal development but also for my own selfish reasons of wanting to be around and learn from greatness.

Yet, remembering my feelings about missing the 1st FaffCon, I don’t want to boast about the many things I took away from the event lest it make my fellow Faffers who attended in spirit feel badly, feel jealous or feel sad. That is NOT the spirit of FaffCon.

Each of you in abstentia need to know, as a matter of record, you were missed. That is not stuff and nonsense…I speak sincerely and from the heart.

Though nor do I (by way of this post) want to take away the euphoria of the other FaffCampians who ARE posting their joy and pictures and thanks….they can and they should because it’s all for the right reasons. They want to share their joy and I am enjoying it.

There are over 100 people to thank and I tried to tell them all yesterday (especially the sponsors). If we spoke, if I shook your hand, if you watched me present —if you shared any of your time with me at the event, thank you.

I thank our foundress Amy, my brother from another mother Dan, the ever- supportive and lead improviser Natalie and our dearest angel Lauren for leading this event to its very successful liftoff, execution and completion. “Tireless dedication” is an over used phrase in most descriptions…except this one.

And so I’ll end it there. If I name anyone else, I’ll stupidly forget someone unforgettable.

Call me if you want to hear my FaffCamp experience one-on one…I’ll gladly share my phenomenal experience.

Because, really, for those of you who understand a Faff-event, no description is really necessary and for those who haven’t, no description will suffice.

I hope…I mean really hope, I see you all in San Antonio. Thanks for being my friends.

Tags: 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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I’m not sure if it’s true for every FaffCamper or FaffConite but for me, when I see a Faff-event coming up in my calendar, it becomes a goal…a kind of joyous finish line for some of my marketing plans (you know, a marketing plan…it’s that written document that you need to…oh never mind).

As you know from past blog posts, I had a plan to redesign my business cards. I’d decided that FaffCamp would be the perfect deadline to have these cards ready…not really for the Campers, many of whom I’ve known forever, but for the Monday AFTER FaffCamp, so I’d be ready with the renewed marketing vigor that FaffCamp will imbue within me. The response of the recipients of these cards will be the true test of their efficacy…but I gots me a plan for that!

Branding-wise, I wanted to put a greater emphasis on the “Friendly, Neighborhood Voice-Over Talent” positioning that I created. audio’connell Voice Over Talent is still very much around but this freshening of my personal brand felt accurate from a variety of marketing perspectives; among peers and clients, the branding is getting positive reviews.

So I toyed around with some graphical ideas for the positioning and hit upon a look that I believed conveyed the feel of what I was trying to communicate while still staying true to the family branding equity that audio’connell has established for all these years. I’d focus more on audio’connell’s secondary logo mark (the “a.o.” as I call it) versus the full microphone logo to tie in with the positioning statement and new word mark.

Now in the world of business cards, I have a reputation to uphold (can you see how puffed out my chest is getting –no, it’s not some kind of allergic reaction)…after all, I get calls from clients and friends asking me for help with THEIR business card designs, so mine had better be pretty unique.

I liked the word mark design because it was minimalist (unlike my personality) but on a business card, that same quality that I prefer might just kinda sit there. While wondering (like, for months) what I was going to do to make this card stand out, I got my answer while recording at a studio in Toronto.

I committed a robbery in broad daylight AND in another country, no less.

Right there in the studio’s card holder on the reception desk: thick, heavy plastic card stock for a business card. Full color, two sided. Oh yeah.

The message via these cards to the creative community that I serve (agencies, production houses) is subtle, tactile and memorable. And it tells my story.

We talk about look and feel when we talk about design – I think (and maybe egotistically) these cards have a creative, professional and friendly look to them but their feel is substantial, durable and dependable. It’s a lot to ask from a card – but I believe it gets my branding and personal message across well.

Communication though is NOT in the transmission, it’s in the reception. You are welcome to give you pro or con opinion here on the new cards…but just know that I’ve got a lot of these new cards so if you hate them, you’re going to have to hate them for a while. ☺

Tags: advertising, branding, commentary, faffcamp, faffcon, logo design, marketing, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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The trouble with having strangers use your iphone to take pictures is they might not know how to use the iphone camera…or any camera for that matter. Such was the case with the above picture from an otherwise terrific evening.

With fellow Faffers Seattle-area voice talents Corey Snow, Jeffrey Kafer and Scott Burns, I enjoyed the opportunity to introduce my them to my other Seattle-area voice-over talent friend Grace Regis Bennett when we all got together for dinner.

The restaurant had spectacular views of the Olympic mountains which made up for their not spectacular wait staff. The laughs were plentiful and Grace joined in liked she’d know these boys forever…which I hope now she will because they are not only all great voice talents but great people as well.

Thanks to all four of them for joining me.

Tags: commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Strange – how many of you were drawn to that blog headline. 😉

But it’s a fact of life – virtual conferences have been around a while now.

It was a business that a friend of mine delved into and she seemed to enjoy it. I myself have never attended or I guess a better term is participated in a virtual conference.

It’s an intriguing idea so leave it to voice-over’s own Rupert Murdoch (aka John Florian) make the idea a reality for the voice-over community.

If you’re a plan ahead kinda gal or guy, you’ve got some time. Voice Over Virtual will take place September 18-19, 2013.

For all the details, you can check out Voice-Over Xtra’s blog post here

Tags: blogs, commentary, voice over training, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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What a nice treat for me on my recent trip to Milwaukee to visit with the great female voice talent Bobbin Beam and her husband Pete Kraeger.

Pete and Bobbin recently moved back from San Diego to their old stomping grounds and are having a wonderful time. We had so much fun talking about…well loads of stuff including Bobbin’s growth into the audiobook world (she clearly has wonderful patience that I’m kind of lacking in that particular genre).

I’m only sorry Bob Merkel couldn’t join us but we’ll all get together soon I hope! Thanks Bobbin and Pete!

Tags: commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I have been doing voice-over professionally since 1982. That’s not the admission of guilt.

In all that time, I have been to an Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor a grand total of once: to get my ears look at.

Never have I been to an ENT to get my throat and vocal folds looked at…that’s my admission of guilt.

Think about it for a moment…the key instrument upon which I rely for my income had never been in for a medically tune up. My microphones were better taken care of than my throat.

That’s stupid and that’s my fault.

Now, you don’t have to admit it, but I’m guessing you’ve been stupid too. When was the last time (if ever) you’ve been to an ENT to get checked out (especially a preventative exam)?

I was even pulled aside by my friend Sean Caldwell at FaffCon 5, who explained to me in no uncertain terms the dangers of ignoring throat and vocal health. That was months ago and yet I waited.

Stupid me.

Well I recently addressed my stupidity head-on…because I was forced to. If you’re skittish about unhappy endings, read on as this one turns out ok.

Here’s the brief back-story – I went down to my father-in-law’s house a few weeks ago for the Easter holiday. He has a cat and it turns out (and I knew this for a few years, having visited him before) I had developed an allergic reaction to cats (as an adult) in the form of asthma (albeit a minor but still uncomfortable form of asthma).

The subsequent significant coughing (even while on medication which I ordered up ahead of time in anticipation of my problem) left me significantly laryngitical for weeks (as my FaffCon Stand-up group can attest). That meant no voice-over work. None.

So after squeaking into the phone one day too many I decided I needed to see someone other than my talented general practitioner about my pressing vocal health challenge.

Problem was I didn’t really have a name of someone to meet with. So I called my friend Dan Lenard who was kind enough to share his ENT with me (since Dan and I live in the same area although we only see each other at FaffCons).

I met Dr. Joel Bernstein who began the appointment by condemning me for talking too loudly when I said hello to him and went on to discuss how I needed to rest my voice more when I wasn’t using it professionally, which I knew. I also let him know I have three small kids and use my loud voice sometimes to corral those feral cats. He didn’t really have an answer for that one. He just said that drugs like Modafinil, which are becoming increasingly popular, do have side effects to look out for.

So on to the heart of the exam- the throat scoping. This involves a little topical anesthetic through the nose…so that a camera tube can be put down there and the good doctor can see what’s up in the throat and vocal area. It’s a bit uncomfortable but it doesn’t hurt.

Well the good news is the exam showed my throat to be in perfect health and that there was no damage to my vocal chords and that I would be fine once my coughing and asthma symptoms subsided, which they have. I am back to voicing new projects without sounding like Harvey Fierstein.

So even though you didn’t ask for my advice, I hope you won’t be as stupid as I was…take this nudge as reason enough to contact an ENT in your area to get your voice-over money maker examined.

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