I got a Facebook message from my friend Andy Boyns today, giving me a heads up on some very sad news from the voice-over community that occurred last week.

Two young girls lost their mother. A husband lost his wife. Seven months after voice-over talent Andrew Swingler’s wife Sandra (surrounded in the above picture by her daughters) was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, she died last week.

Conceptually, that’s an awful thought; cognitively, it’s paralyzing…at least for me.

For Andrew and his girls, it’s got to be cataclysmic. And I don’t even know the Swinglers.

But for a neighborhood community or an online community, all we have to do is “know of” because in one way, shape or form, we’ve all been there.

We can’t undo their grim reality but maybe we can shape a part of the family’s better days to come…especially when it must be so hard for these three broken hearts to imagine ANY future.

So we help, because as people we refuse to be helpless when we have options. Andy and our mutual social media and in-person friends Natalie Cooper, Anne Ganguzza and Derek Chappell have shared their offerings, insights and ideas on how we CAN help the Swinglers in their time of need.

If you’d like to know more…I hope you’ll CLICK THIS LINK and do whatever you can, no matter how small. Even if it’s just offering a prayer, thank you for all of it.

Tags: commentary, community, social media, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Congratulations to my friend, fellow voice talent and now President of MCA-I New Jersey Liz de Nesnera on her ascendancy to the throne, er, her election to this new and very prestigious office.

In addition to knowing Liz for many years, I had the pleasure of working with the then “North” Jersey Chapter (which has now been properly christened to cover the whole state) when I was on the international board of MCA-I. Through nothing more than concentrated efforts by the full board on unified, key initiatives, this chapter has grown brilliantly.

My personal congratulations to Liz as well as Dave Landau, Dave Hall, Marilyn Avery, Dave Etra, Paul Payton, Dave Sica and everyone else involved in the chapter on its continued success.

It almost makes me wish I lived in New Jersey.

Almost.

Tags: commentary, mca-i, video, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If you live in New York State, you likely have heard of Darien Lake, which is the Empire State’s largest theme park. Rides, shows and some amazing concerts in addition to multiple hotels, lodges and camp sites.

Oh and a very nice water park.

It’s really quite a place so I was very pleased when I got the call to be the voice of their 2012 Season Pass campaign. It was fun and unique recording session that you’ll have to remind me to tell you about sometime. A brief hint, I was in Missouri at the time.

So in case you are out of state, here’s their nifty spot with a little voice-over boost from yours truly.

Tags: advertising, commentary, commercials, tv, video, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I don’t believe the song “Meet Me in St. Louis” included anything in the lyrics about Denny’s but that’s where I met my first class voice-over talent friend and popular audiobook narrator Donna Postel. And my friend has been very busy with her audiobooks!

She just got back from the schmoozing and learning at the AudioBook Publishers Association Conference in NYC. And she’s about to start another book…all in addition to the commercials and other corporate narration work she does.

Hopefully she’ll also make it to FaffCon 5! It was great to see her again!

Tags: audio books, commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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You know you’ve got a true voice-over friend when he’ll drive two hours to come have dinner with you.

Voice talent and video producer extraordinaire Todd Ellis did that this evening in St. Louis and we had an awesome time as it had been about three years since we last visited. He took me over to Pat’s Bar and Grill in the Irish part of town (because I speak the language) and just laughed the whole night.

We must have been a fun pair because the waitress said we were her best and funniest table.

Thanks Todd!

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

When I was single, I always heard the joke about the lame pick-up line: “what’s your sign?” The bright female response to this male inquiry was “exit”.

That came to mind when I wrote the blog post title “what’s your title?”

The idea is how silly we in the voice over community get with our titles. This is always evident when I plow through my LinkedIn email contacts, separating the voice-over world from the rest of my contacts.

Do you know how many VO’s list their title on LinkedIn as “President” or “Owner”?

It’s not always easy when I go through that LinkedIn list to figure out who is a Voice Over Talent, at least not via their job title listed on their profile. We make it more complicated than its needs to be, I think. It’s our own fault, myself included.

For a while I listed my title as President on LinkedIn and on my business cards. A one man company can have a president, right? Would owner have been better? Um, well, no.

Titles are all pretty EGO based (at least as I see them) and therefore not necessarily helpful for the prospect to understand what I do – what can a single owner in a voice-over company ‘preside’ over exactly? A bad choice on my part – I didn’t think it through. Shame, shame.

Something more descriptive seemed in order. Isn’t that what a job title should do, be descriptive, clarify?

Then I thought OK: Voice Over Talent/Producer. More information, more words, more important. I used that for a while. Something seemed to be missing there too but I lived with it for a while.

Then, when I was futzing with my branding (or my slogan or maybe tag line or however you want to encapsulate this overly analyzed and utterly useless “what is branding” topic – and yes I am also a marketing professional shooting myself in the foot) I decided to go with simplicity in my positioning (and position): Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voice-Over Talent.

A little branding, a little job description, a little positioning and a bit fun. If someone finds it too cutesy, screw ’em. 🙂

Don’t worry, I’ll probably hate this title in another 6-12 months anyway.

Ah simplicity!

Is Voice-Over a bad job title choice? Voice Actor? Voice Talent? No, none of them are bad because they are simple. They are also descriptive and make clear for the prospect what you do and the service you provide. And isn’t that the key to a good job title? Tweaking it just a little, though, for a more identifiable branding I don’t think hurts.

Think: “Professional Story Teller” or “Unnouncer” or the Hip Chick Voice.

What do you list as your job title or description on your business card? Do you get any client feedback specifically on it?

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