To look at the picture, voice talents of a certain age might be reminded of The Brady Bunch. But this was not ‘the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls.” OK, the girls in the picture are lovely, but that’s not the point.

This was what happened when one voice talent (the one and only Ms. Jodi Krangle, in the upper left hand corner…where Marcia Brady used to be — that’s me next to her in the upper middle, where Carol Brady used to hangout) innocently posted Thursday evening on Facebook that she wanted to host a voiceover hangout for whomever wanted to join. I think she used her Canadian vernacular, water cooler, but hers is a country that also spells color with a “u” 😉

Like all great parties, nothing was planned but it turned out great. Voice talents who happened to catch Jodi’s post just clicked on the link she posted and were in on the video call.

What’s great about such things is that they are often a unique mix of people, like at a good party. Some people I knew, some people I did not but we all had VO in common and conversation flowed easily.

Unfortunately, I could not stay as long as I wanted to but I appreciate Jodi getting everybody together and everyone for their insights and humor during the video call.

Tags: commentary, voiceover meet-ups // Comments Off on voiceover hangouts

If you really knew me, not just from my silly voiceover posts, you would know that, for me, Canada really was a second home.

I love America and I’m proud to be an American but also proud to be part Canadian.

My family spent over 45 summers in Fort Erie, Ontario, on Lake Erie at Crescent Beach.

Caramilk Bars, Tim Horton’s Donuts and Hockey.

Great people, great place, great country. And the best national anthem.

It is still one of my goals to do the train ride from east to west, seeing all the provinces. I think that would be lots of fun!

So a sincere happy 150th birthday to Canada. Wish I could be there to celebrate with you.

I will celebrate with you in spirit!

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(l-r) Bill Jordan, Rowell Gormon, Wendy Zier, Peter K. O’Connell, Chadd Pierce & Pat Crosswhite attend the first gathering of the Raleigh-Durham Voiceover Meet-Up

June 28, 2017 is likely not going to be a date that will live in infamy.

Nonetheless, everyone who joined us this night for the first meeting of the Raleigh Durham Voiceover Meet-up had a really good time.

One of the sad parts of leaving Buffalo was that we had formed a really great voiceover meet-up group there. Not only did we have people from Buffalo but also some folks from Central New York would come in and even folks from Canada. And we had visiting voiceover pals too. It’s a great group that still gets together.

So when my family moved to RDU last August (sheesh, it’s almost a year!) I was adamant that I would start a VO Meet-up group here. I knew a bunch of great talents here who had been long time friends and they all wanted to do it. I set up a meet up page on September 2, 2016.

Then I did nothing about the voiceover meet-up group for the next 9 months.

But about a month ago, I gave myself a kick in the ass and secured a location for the first RDUVO meetup. I then put out the word to all my local VO friends.

Tonight we had our first meeting!

It was a great experience. People showed up early to help set up the room and brought snacks, Then the conversations started and you couldn’t shut us up. It was great.

Plans are underway to host next month’s RDUVO Meet-up and hopefully even more folks will show.

My thanks to Bill Jordan, Rowell Gormon, Wendy Zier, Chadd Pierce and Pat Crosswhite for attending and making the conversation so terrific!

Tags: Raleigh Durham Voiceover Meetup // Comments Off on raleigh durham voiceover meet-up begins

Tim O’Shea of Timothy O’Shea Photography was visiting Raleigh Thursday which gave me a chance to visit with my old friend.

Tim and I were both past presidents of the Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives, a professional sales association for top marketing and sales folks in Western New York.

This is the first BNSME Past Presidents meeting in Raleigh but hopefully it will not be the last.

There is now an open invitation to all BNSME Past Presidents to call me if they will be in Raleigh and I will let you buy me lunch or dinner or both. Because I am just that generous! 😉

Tags: buffalo, commentary // Comments Off on past presidents gather in raleigh, nc

Ok, well there’s actually nothing to win but certainly check your mail!

And maybe you already have, which is why you’re checking out this page. Welcome to my voiceover blog.

If we haven’t properly met yet, hi, I’m Peter.

Yes, I sent out a new direct mail postcard this week to about 900 of my media production peers who work in audio production, TV and radio production, TV promo, explainer video production, documentaries and darn near every other kind of electronic production worldwide that uses voiceover.

I hadn’t done a mailer in a while, and with this year being my 35 anniversary in voiceover, I figured that’s something to talk about on a big postcard.

Why direct mail?

People still love getting unique stuff in the mail, even an oversized postcard. It’s a reminder to those I’ve worked with before that I’m still around (give me a call). It’s also an introduction to folks who may have heard of me (or may not have heard of me) but might need some professional voice talent help – the card is a friendly hello (give me a call) to them as well.

I’ll still do email blasts every now and again but I fear those don’t get read as much as they used to…my open rates are still good and I keep the message short and sweet!

So if you’re just finding me for the first time, hi (welcome!), and if you’re returning, hi again and thanks for coming back.

Oh and if you do need to call me, I’m on +01 716-572-1800.

Tags: advertising, audio production, branding, commercials, explainer videos, marketing, narrations, tv, TV promo, voiceover // Comments Off on check your mail, you may already be a winner

You probably didn’t get the memo.

Or if you’re like me (and God help you if you are), you kinda noticed something different on your Twitter profile but ignored it and moved on…until you DID notice it.

Twitter changed the layout of your profile, not a ton but juuuust enough to screw with your branding.

The little profile picture on your Twitter profile, you know, the one the shows up next to every tweet? The size of that got changed last week.

It used to be a square and now it’s a circle.

Big deal, you say? Who cares, you say?

Well maybe it’s not Armageddon, but depending on the size of your profile picture, the image may have gotten cut off, leaving your branding looking a bit sloppier than you may prefer. Prospects look at social media accounts and judge you on your branding. Just like you judge others on their branding.

Now is it a bigger deal for you?

The fix is easy enough (just more unnecessary work). Take your original picture and make it a bit smaller so the rounded edges of the new circle don’t cut off your image.

Then re-upload the pic to Twitter, resize if necessary and save.

Then wait for some body else at Twitter to unnecessarily change something else without letting you know.

Hope this helps.

Tags: advertising, branding, commentary, marketing, social media, twitter // Comments Off on twitter screws with your branding again