Sometimes the random voiceover business thoughts that shoot through my brain are actually pretty good ones.

This week, for example, out of nowhere came the memory that I had seen a few voiceover talents who have actually put their local city time on their websites.

The concept being that voice talents, like me, work with ad agencies, video production and recording studios all around the globe. We need to communicate our time zones with the studios so producers can coordinate recording schedules faster and more efficiently.

So the question was posed (at first in my head) about if and where to publicly share post a voice actor’s local time zone.

I wanted to solicit opinions from my respected voiceover friends (as opposed to my DISrespected voiceover friends – who are often times more fun to hang out with…for that very reason) as to their thoughts on posting one’s local time – if they did it or not and why they did it or not.

Off to the private Friends of FaffCon Facebook page I went. Many voice actors smarter than me reside there.

While many noted they posted it somewhere on their voiceover website (not always on the front page), the idea that had eluded me was to include my local time zone in my email signature. Many folks included that idea in their response to my query and I thought it was wonderfully simple and effective.

I either have very smart voiceover friends or I am just dumber than an ox.

Either way, as you can see from my now revised email signature above, now my clients know what MY time is.

Tags: commentary, marketing, social media, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on Do Your Voiceover Clients Know What Your Time Is?

I HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT….in my voiceover career 😉  – I’ve learned from many great voice acting teachers but I also feel some of my best professional learnings have come from my fellow voice actors during workshops and discussions.

One of the best examples of that for me was the FaffCon unconference events. They were awesome but FaffCon – with its wonderful uniqueness – is not coming back.

However, the unconference format (which FaffCon founder and fellow voice actor Amy Snively adopted) is about to make a major comeback in the voiceover industry and I am here for it.

World Voices (WOVO) board member George Washington, III met with Amy some months ago and Amy agreed to train George in the unconference format. While Amy will not be part of the event, WOVOCON (WOVO’s annual member conference) will adopt the unconference format in 2024.

This is not Faffcon redux – this will be its own event within the walls of a very popular and well proven voiceover conference format.

FaffCon 8 Emcee and Voice Talent Peter K. O’Connell

MY big news is that, similar to the role I had at FaffCon, World Voices President Dan Lenard has asked that I join George Washington as co-host the WOVOCON Unconference in Chicago on October 18-20, 2024.

A very nice honor indeed and I appreciate it.

Why does the unconference meeting model make me so excited for the 8^th WOVOCON in Chicago?

I am happy because the WOVOCON Unconference format is 180^° different from all the other voiceover conferences out there, both in presentation and spirit.

Does that mean the other conferences are bad? Nope, they are, generally, just not for me for — so many reasons, on so many levels.

The WOVOCON Unconference has nothing BUT fresh perspectives, discussions and topics. You pay one fee and that covers all your learning from association members. Simple, clean, effective.

I think this new opportunity wrapped up within the WOVOCON Unconference is a great gift to all the members of World Voices. I hope you’ll join us.

Tags: voice actors, voice over training, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, WOVOCON by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on A Declaration of Voiceover Networking and Education  

Voiceover talents are (or should be) always either marketing their services or planning their next marketing effort.

It’s simply part of being a professional voice actor and running a business.

It’s the same for me (or any business really) – trying to come up with inventive and pleasant ways of letting my audience know I’m out here and I am open to work on their voiceover project.

The trick is not to be a pest about it.

My most recent voice marketing project was a textbook case of “marketing as a reminder”.

This is my second year of producing a generic, self designed, free, printed football schedule (8 1/2” x 11”) for my favorite team. I then share it with a targeted portion of my database – who all likely share that fandom with me.

Aside from my logo and contact info – the majority of the calendar is just that — public information about the team schedule that my contacts can save or print out or toss. It’s just what I consider a nice way to say “hi” and promote our beloved team with a tool I’ve seen real estate agents use for years.

I say the following with 100% honesty – I had no expectation that this schedule was anything more than a “friendly wave” to my database.

About a day or two later, I get an email from a long time media buddy who received the schedule, noting that he was working on a project that would need a narrator for and my little schedule reminded him to call me.

He just needed a reminder.

Our reminders don’t have to be fancy or expensive or even a thing – I guess a phone call is a thing but the conversation is not something they can put on their shelf or tack to a bulletin board (but phone calls ARE great, subtle auditions for voice talents).

Maybe the point is to see your marketing efforts – regardless of your budget – as friendly, non-pesky reminders about your voice acting services.

A way to say “hi, when you’re ready, I’m here.”

You may find that they are, indeed, ready.

Hope this helps.

Tags: marketing, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on Sometimes, clients and prospects just need to be reminded

I love me a good headline but no, I didn’t get a facelift.

My voiceover logo got a facelift.

So I designed my new logo back in December on my Mac using Powerpoint.

I will now allow all the logo designers reading this to scream and throw their computers.

I get it.

What’s important to remember is that I wasn’t originally trying to design a new logo in December….I was only playing around and it just sorta happened. Kinda like how babies are made (or so I’m told).

Anyway, everybody seems to either like the new logo or not hate the new logo and life goes on.

Being technologically inept in the graphics part of my life (PowerPoint, for goodness sake, even I’m a little ashamed), I needed some adjustments made to the logo and I had to call in the calvary (i.e. Ann Hackett from aHa Designs).

I am her least favorite client because I am very specific about how I want things done AND I change my mind alot. She charges me triple her going rate but I still come back for more! Might be like 3 decades working together…I’ve lost count.

I sent her all and I mean ALL the darn specs/files I had on my logo (including the fonts) so she could recreate it with the changes I needed.

But her Mac and my Mac or my PowerPoint and her WhizBang graphics software don’t always play nice.

The outcome was she came up with my logo design kinda close but then made some minor changes and created a tweaked 2nd version that I really liked. So that was the facelift of Peter K. O’Connell, Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent.

I’m sure I’ll tweak it more as time goes on but I am very happy with this outcome on the revised logo.

Hope you like it too.

Tags: logo design, marketing, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on Voice Actor Peter K. O’Connell Gets A Facelift

In almost all of broadcasting, be it radio, TV or cable, making it to the 100th show is a milestone.

The same is true for podcasting and it’s especially true for voiceover podcasting (says the blogger/podcaster who couldn’t get past 3-4 episodes back in the waaaay early days of the medium).

Seriously, I’ve heard and long forgotten a large number of VO podcasts from producers who seemingly lost interest in the medium.

So when I saw a post from my voiceover pal (and fellow Faffer) Natasha Marchewka about the upcoming 100th episode of her SPEECHLESS voiceover podcast with Kim Wilson (on April 18th), I know it promises to be a big deal.

Over 2 (maybe now 3) seasons/years, Kim and Natasha’s SPEECHLESS podcast has been a behind-the-scenes take on real life in the voice over biz! The good, the bad and the ugly.

It takes true production commitment and focus to keep a podcast (or any media program) on-air for ANY length of time. Guest aren’t always great, ideas aren’t always flowing….but if you have the determination, producers like Kim and Natasha fly over the problems and focus on the good stuff.

If you get to 100 episodes, that means the audience likes all the good stuff and wants you to keep going.

And that there (as we say in the south) is the greatest cause for celebration there is!

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

Truth be told, this new commercial character voice demo was a long time in the making.

A loooong time…like 18 years.

You read that right.

Why so long?

I kept getting hired off the 18 year old demo.

LISTEN TO PETER K. O’CONNELL’s 2024 COMMERCIAL CHARACTER VOICE DEMO BELOW:

Then the character voice demo evolved – there were character voice demos, then just animation character voice demos, then video game character demos. Then offshoots and collections mixing all that stuff. Oy!

I wasn’t sure how I should roll with these changes. I can do voices and voice acting for all those genres. Heck, I HAVE done voices in all those genres.

I even worked on one of the early famous video games (with a boatload of audio files) – Bioshock. But when I saw the game, I didn’t really like the story and visuals…they creeped me out, honestly. Clearly there was a huge audience for it but that audience didn’t include me.

Plus, I realized if I played in those video game voice acting waters…I’d likely be faced with that same gut/moral conundrum more than a few times. I don’t mind ceeding artistic control on most projects…but video games could get really weird really fast for my tastes. Not judging others but it was not for me.

I decided I was more of a commercial and animation character voice person. Plus there are a ton more talented than me video game voice actors in the world.

Then there was the paralyzing (for me) question of what to include in a new character voice demo. I can do and have done a ton of unique and familiar characters…I became overwhelmed.

It was a terrible but very real feeling about this inconsequential character voice demo (inconsequential when compared to the big picture of life).

I talked to some character voice producers (smart, talented folks) but I didn’t feel confident enough in my choices and the direction I wanted to go in for my demo to make it a worthwhile partnership to invest my money and their time.

Then a few weeks ago, I spent a Saturday doing a deep dive into the archive of ALL the character stuff I have voiced. I sensed a direction and felt a great confidence to begin assembling, writing, voicing, editing and mixing.

One of the great benefits of working professionally in voiceover for over 40 years is that you become friends with very talented people who opinions you respect and who you know will lend a helpful ear and thoughtful, smart feedback.

I am so grateful for the help of my friends Bruce Miles, Steve Pogatch and most especially Rowell Gormon – who together easily total a century’s worth of professional character voice performance and production – for their insights. If you love the demo, it’s in large part because of them. If you hate, that’s on me.

I hope you love it.

And I hope there was a wonderful reason in God’s big plan that I had to wait 18 years between character voice demos. Cause I’m not sure I still be around if I have to wait ANOTHER 18 years for the next one! 🙂

Tags: character voices, Demos, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on Voice Actor Peter K. O’Connell Releases New Commercial Character Voice Demo