Marketing – Page 3 – Connie Terwilliger

Voice Actors – are we stepping out from the shadows?

A friend sent me a link to an article published by CNN.com about voice actors (mostly cartoon voice actors) getting more recognition now because of the Internet. The fan base is increasing. Which makes sense. These famous A-lister voiceover actors – were mostly unknown for the most part, until the Internet. We’re not talking about the movie stars who have transitioned to animation, but the voice actors who stay mostly behind the mic, not the lens. And if they do appear on-camera, it is usually a character role.

The article focused mostly on voices like Frank Welker, Seth McFarlane, and Peter Cullen. One quote caught my eye – from Frank Cullen…

“The respect level (for voice acting) is climbing and climbing faster than it ever did before in the last few years. The studios are recognizing they don’t have to hire a big name actor. People don’t know […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:15+00:00November 3rd, 2012|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|

The Value of a Voiceover

Just what does it take to be successful as a voice talent in 2012? Treat it like a business. (This of course, assumes that you have some talent to start with.)

The Internet has changed what we do in many significant ways. It has 1) increased the number of people offering their services as voice talent (whether they should be or not), 2) cut out the middle man in casting (the people who know the value of voiceover), and because of a lack of truly understanding that this is a business like any other business it has 3) driven rates down down down.

Many people just getting started fail to see the big picture. Sure, the come on for so many of the endless voiceover classes screams “make $300 an hour,” but … can you live on one hour every few months?

One recent discussion centered on whether $25 per hour was a […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:15+00:00August 21st, 2012|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings, Negotiating|Tags: value of voiceover, voiceover business|

Am I on Twitter?

So, I keep seeing this question pop up on various social networking groups…

“Are you on Twitter?”

Well, yes, I have a Twitter account. @ISDNVoiceover

And I have people who actively follow my tweets. Or have at least clicked on the link to Follow Me. And many of them will probably see this post when it gets fed to the various places it gets fed to when it is published.

But am I ON Twitter? Not very much.

I still don’t get it. Unless I am using it all wrong, it seems like a pull website. Where I have to go to it and pull the information. OK, Facebook is that way too, but for some reason I WANT to go to Facebook and check out what is happening. I just don’t find myself drawn to Twitter the same way.

Perhaps I just need someone to break it down for me. Talk to me like I’m […]

Connie Terwilliger2012-07-03T12:00:16+00:00July 3rd, 2012|Categories: Communication, Marketing, Musings|Tags: Connie Terwilliger, Marketing, twitter|

Forum Decorum

I belong to a slew of groups on LinkedIn – including a large number of voiceover related groups. Why is it that there seems to be a plethora of unprofessional comments. Social media has been around for years now and it amazes me how people don’t seem to understand that what they post is there for the world to see (when a group is an open group).

I felt compelled to comment today on one of them after a couple of people actually started slamming a legitimate producer for not posting his undying thanks to the group. His post was 6 MONTHS ago and people are still posting comments with links to their demos. And now some are complaining that he hasn’t posted to say thank you!?

It is an International Group with members from all over the world, and perhaps members with little time on social media or little time in […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:16+00:00May 13th, 2012|Categories: Announcements, Business, Communication, Marketing, Musings|Tags: LinkedIn groups, professionalism, social media, voiceover work|

Spread the word! Think about usage!

One of my favorite enewsletters comes from the plethora of enewsletters published each day by MediaPost. If I subscribed to them all, I would probably go mad.

This one is called Online Video Daily and today the top story was a VidBlog by Daisy Whitney titled:

Managing Online Video and TV Campaigns: Tips from Production to Talent Rights

The part of that headline that caught my eye and prompted me to click through was the “…to Talent Rights” part.

As we struggle each day to keep rates to a level where we can continue to make a living in this business, it is refreshing to see people advocating for payment for additional usage. Of course, the resource for the article is Extreme Reach, a group that specializes in all things related to delivering and managing video advertising and is used to using Union […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00May 7th, 2012|Categories: Business, Marketing, Negotiating|

Too Busy to Blog?

OK, so my last post was about how busy people can usually find time to do something else. But at some point, things have to take a back seat. And the past few weeks, the blog took the hit.

And not because I was so busy I couldn’t actually find the time to sit here and bash out a couple hundred words. No, it all comes down to balance.

At what point in our lives do we realize that it is not all about work? Some people learn this fairly early in life. In my case, I am starting to feel like I missed so many opportunities. My life has been consumed with keeping busy doing things that in some way improved my career.

Personal relationships suffered from neglect. My plants certainly suffered. The house was alternately clean – or not – depending on if there was extra in the budget to bring in […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00May 4th, 2012|Categories: Marketing|

Study the trends, reflect on the past. Do we want to repeat history?

Spanish philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) said, in The Life of Reason (5 volumes, 1905-6) – “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Well, I guess that depends on how you feel about the past. In some cases, we must not repeat it, and without getting political, we really do need to be vigilant about remembering the past. There are some recent signs that people are forgetting.

If you want to study up and philosophize on our voiceover past, I ran across a post on the Comprehensive Technical Group’s blog that highlights the Duke University digital library of vintage television commercials. They go back some three decades, from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Some of the early spots are worth looking at again. It truly was a different time. Here is a spot for Ansco film – with a jingle, an […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00March 13th, 2012|Categories: Marketing|Tags: Comprehensive Technical Group, CTG Atlanta, Duke University digital library, George Santayana|

And Another Thing about FaffCon…

Full disclosure – I am not only a Founding Faffer and a Frequent Faffer, I am a Fanatic Faffer, so I have been part of the wonderful team helping Amy get things organized from soup to nuts.

Part of that team is all of the wonderful sponsors – without their support, FaffCon would simply be too expensive for most people.

Sure, educational conferences such as FaffCon are tax deductions, but you have to actually spend the money in order to get the deductions and there are limits to what pencils out.

So, many many many thanks to our incredible group of supporters. My friend Peter O’Connell (voice talent, bon vivant and also a Frequent Faffer) was part of the team making calls to potential sponsors as well as following up with the many sponsors who simply contacted us and said they wanted to support FaffCon. We […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00March 11th, 2012|Categories: Announcements, Business, Marketing|Tags: FaffCon 4, Peter O'Connell|

In Between Sessions

I wish I could say that I was so busy that I had back to back sessions every day and had to squeeze in the bookkeeping, marketing and plant watering. Well, I’m busy enough that I make a living doing this voiceover stuff without the back-to-back sessions. And even if I don’t have projects stacked up waiting, I still have a hard time getting all the other stuff done. But there is simply no way I can actually organize a day with any strict rules on when I am going to do anything.

The day started out like a typical Tuesday. Walk down to the coffee shop for my 7-8 AM solve the world’s problems group, but the phone rang and I had to race back home to get the car to drive out to my mom’s Assisted Living Community to call off the Paramedics. You would think after 7 months […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:18+00:00March 6th, 2012|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|Tags: Connie Terwilliger, museum narration, narrator, voiceover, voiceover work|

Happy St. Valentine’s Day Massacre!

I couldn’t help myself, I had to send out a press release announcing the opening of the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, because it includes a couple of videos narrated by myself and my friend Scott Gentle. Both videos were created by Northern Light Productions out of Massachusetts and are examples of what good video should be – from the visuals, to the editing, to the sound.

I had the good fortune to narrate a longer documentary produced by Northern Light Productions called “Weapons of Mass Disruption,” which tells the more than a little disturbing story of cyber warfare. The script was superb and such a pleasure to read.

Anyway, here is the release about the work we did for the Mob Museum. I can hardly wait until my April […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:18+00:00February 14th, 2012|Categories: Marketing|Tags: documentary, narration, Northern Light Productions, Scott Gentle, The Mob Museum, voiceover|