“This is a workshop event that will shock you, grab you, educate you and literally change your life.”

Well that’s one hell of a promise, isn’t it?! These voice over coaches mean “bidnez’!

I’ve known Deb for some years (trained with her) and briefly met Elley-Ray last year. I think it sounds like a fun and insightful weekend of voiceover training.

It starts Friday evening, September 09, 2011 and wraps up Sunday evening, September 11th over at the Broadview Studios.

You can read all about it and make your reservations here.

Tags: commentary, voice over training // Comments Off on deb munro and elley-ray hennessy invade toronto

I find it mildy amusing that in order to get the three voice over guys who live in Buffalo, NY together (yeah there are more, but these are the ones who count -ha!), we need one of our voice over pals who used to live in Buffalo to come back and get us all together.

So former Buffalonian and national voice over talent Diane Merritt (who was one of the youngest professional disc-jockeys Buffalo ever had on air) came back to visit with her family and pulled us VO’s all together for breakfast today over at The Original Pancake House (cause if you want to go out for breakfast, it’s the best place to go.)

Leslie Diamond was there early but had to go and it was great to see her (she’ll be at Faffcon 3) as will Dan Lenard. Diane also got our mutual friend and her fellow radio legend who does amazing voice overs – Bob Taylor – to join us.

Good food, great friends and some fun industry chatter. Thanks Diane for getting us all together.

Tags: community, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups // 5 Comments »

So my pal and fellow voice talent Diane Merritt pings me and a coupla hundred of her closest friends today about a fundraising walk she is doing for the Alzheimer’s Association. Di’s Mom Gert passed away from complications of the disease about two years ago.

What Diane is NOT doing is asking for donations for her walk (although she’s also not turning them away either). Her goal is to take 10% of her voice over earnings in the month of September and donate that to her walk fund in memory of her Mom. She is willing to work…then walk. A daughter’s devotion knows no bounds.

I hope you’ll support her in whatever way (money, notes of encouragement) that you can.

Here’s Diane to tell you more (and yes, I’ll specifically ask you this one time to please repost this to your favorite social media channels….Facebinkedinwitter – to let as many folks as possible know about her efforts and thank you in advance) 🙂

Hi There!

It’s hard to believe that this December it will be two years since I lost my Mom to complications of Alzheimer’s. Sometimes however – it seems even longer than that. My Mom and I were very close – I’d talk to her about everything. I’d call her to share my blues and also when there was exciting news. The last few years of her life however – I knew she had no idea who she was talking to – and it was so sad I couldn’t share my life with her like I used to. I miss her – a lot. I could sit around and cry about it if I wanted to – but I decided to turn this sad energy into something good and I wanted to share it with you.

Coming up October 22, 2011 here in Greenville, SC, the Alzheimer’s Association will be holding “Walk to End Alzheimer’s”. In fact – there will be walks all over the United States! Just so you know – I am NOT asking you for money, times are tough right now. But here’s what I’m gonna do – I will be taking 10% of my earnings during the month of September to fight this terrible disease that stole my Mother from me. Now – what I AM going to ask of you – is for work! The more work I have in September, the more I can donate. If you or anyone you know needs a voice over for a commercial, narration, eLearming project, phone greeting, on hold message – please feel free to contact me.

Oh and if you are interested in walking for this cause – here is a link to find a walk near you http://www.alz.org/walk/

I know the walk here in Greenville is like only 2 miles, so it’s not like one of those walks that the further you walk the more you raise.

If you’ve lost a friend or family member to Alzheimer’s – I am so sorry. If you have a friend or a family member in your life who is currently suffering with this disease – be as patient as you can with them. I know what you are going through. It’s hard, I know. But one day I hope they can find a cure for this. It truly sucks.

Now – if you do want to make a donation it would certainly be appreciated and you can do so by clicking this link http://walktoendalz.kintera.org/greenville/DianeCMerritt
But again – don’t feel obligated. Knowing you are cheering me on – October 22nd – will put an extra bounce in my step!

Thanks for your time!

Diane Merritt – Merritt Media Productions

Tags: commentary, community, voice talent, voiceover // 5 Comments »

…and you are a voice actor, I have a professional suggestion I would like to make: do D.B.

By that I mean do D.B. Cooper’s Exertion Sounds for Video Games and ADR Seminar from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 13th.

My friend D.B. is very good at everything she does and I know I would enjoy this class if I could get there.

So you go for me, OK?

Tags: voice actors, voice casting, voice over training, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice // Comments Off on if you’re in l.a. on august 13th…

Well if you haven’t, Bob Souer and CC Heim can fill you in!

Just click here.

Maybe I’ll see you in Hershey, PA in September!

Tags: blogs, community, faffcon, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice // Comments Off on have you heard about the faffcon 3 scholarship?

Something monumental (not really) happened recently that shook the social media world to its core (ha!).

My Twitter follower count went over 1,000 followers and my “Likes” on Facebook for my Peter K. O’Connell – Male Voice Talent page went over 100. My friends on my Peter K. O’Connell Facebook page is somewhere around 700 with a total of over 800 on LinkedIn. I’m just getting started on Google+.

So if you are in there somewhere, thanks. If you’re not, that’s OK too. And if you said “who cares?!”, I understand that too.

But it made me think of a question that has been asked before but I think still plagues folks…in Social Media, does size matter?

Nope. It does not.

It’s about the “who” not the “how many”.

I have a VO friend and a Social Media maven who has well over 1,000 LinkedIn friends (these all-welcoming connectors are called Lions). This person is actually feeling overwhelmed with all the connections. Many of the connections are not terribly applicable to his voiceover business. He was thinking about purging his list a bit…nothing personal, just practical, I think.

This person didn’t make a mistake per se in being an Open Connector, I started out as one too. And who knows where some of those currently inapplicable connections could lead someday.

But with time a precious commodity for all of us; it seems to me that making connections with people who are current friends, industry contacts or people who might be a prospect or a contact to a prospect make the most business sense for social media.

If you just want to be pals for the sake of being pals on Social Media, that’s OK. But if you are using Social Media as a business tool, as I am, connecting with people who can offer you an opportunity someday and to whom you (me) can offer help seems to me to make both business and social sense.

Tags: commentary, social media, social networking // 4 Comments »