About Connie Terwilliger

Full-time voice talent working out of professional studio for clients around the world providing high quality VO for narration, eLearning, commercials, animation, telephony and more.
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Working Class Jill Meets Super Stars (sort of)

As a working class voiceoverist* plying my trade, I rarely get to rub producers with top name talent. By that I mean, I don’t often get to work with producers who are in the habit of hiring big time celebrities. That doesn’t happen much in my neck of the woods.

But a couple of times in the past few months, I have had “new to me” producers (who have found me on the net using a search engine, or who have heard my audition through a P2P site) use my name in the same sentence with some very well known voiceover actors.

I heard from a producer who pulled me from around 20 auditions to voice his project. Well, at least the initial showing of his project. He also has a call into (insert name of very famous actor/voice guy with gravitas) to see if he is interested in the project. I’ll […]

2018-02-06T06:48:33+00:00July 7th, 2011|Categories: Marketing, Musings|Tags: , , , |
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Cats in the Studio = Mess and Delays

I love my cats, but if you leave them alone in the studio, it will be destroyed in less than a day. Even if they have complete in and out access, it is amazing how much “trouble” they can get into.

A pile of very neatly stacked papers (receipts, old scripts) waiting to be filed is the perfect spot for a cat nap and then, when the nap is over, the pile is suddenly strewn across the floor.

The strategically balanced pyramid of new office supplies on the side table clatter to the floor as the other cat tries to jump from the table to the top of the file cabinet. A role of paper towels becomes a toy and is shredded.

The spot directly in front of the keyboard is a favorite place for my big cat to curl up and “make muffins” on my mid-section as I try to do some bookkeeping. I […]

2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00June 25th, 2011|Categories: Musings|Tags: |
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Mmmm – I want S’More! FaffCon 3 – Hershey PA

So, I pull the circulars from the mailbox the other day and there, stuck in between the Vons, Henry’s and Pancho Villa grocery ads and various requests for money was a large flat “chocolate bar.”

My To Do list from FaffCon 2

My postcard to myself from FaffCon 2 in Atlanta had arrived! I had forgotten all about it. Our fearless and extremely brilliant (did I mention funny?) organizer Amy Snively had us write down 5 things we were going to do after our energizing weekend and it would be mailed to us about 3 months after FaffCon.

I was afraid to turn it over to see what I had actually written. So I put it off for a while, taking it to my desk where I prepared myself mentally […]

2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00June 7th, 2011|Categories: Announcements|Tags: , , , , , |
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Work. Invoice. Thank. Promote. Repeat.

It’s really a simple recipe. Do the job. Send the invoice. Thank the client. Promote the results (to the right places at the right time). Repeat.

OK, perhaps it isn’t all that simple. And I am still struggling – after all these years – with the thank yous and the promotion part of the formula. The repeat part is one of the keys to actually making a living in this business. And if your database is bloated with old leads you may be missing those repeat opportunities.

If you are just starting out, this formula is predicated by knowing what you do well and finding the people who want to buy what you have to sell. If you have been in the business for a while – or a long while – you may have the same problem I am trying to address – too many names in my contact list. And if […]

2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00June 6th, 2011|Categories: Business, Marketing|Tags: , , , , |
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Time for a Studio Tune Up

I upgraded to Adobe Audition 3 recently on my recording tower and started to notice a difference in my noise floor. A visual difference apparently – certainly nothing that my ears picked up, but a distinct difference in the way the single pixel line that denotes silence looked. It didn’t “look” quiet anymore.

My mics were changed out a little while before the software change – picked up a couple of ADK Hamburgs (after my AKG capsule blew and the new capsule sounded too bright). I also had my recording area acoustically “re-treated” after experimenting with locations. I also had the whole area upholstered.

I have never had any complaints or even a conversation about the “sound” of my space, but it just “looked” noisey.

Other factors that contributed to my ultimate seeking of expert advice…

  • An aging analog Mackie Mixer
  • A Gentner phone patch that was sort of patched through the Mackie and worked well enough, but not the […]
2011-04-26T19:13:56+00:00April 26th, 2011|Categories: Technology|
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The Mail You Don’t Ever Want To See

I don’t get a lot of first class mail these days in my home mailbox – mostly store flyers and bulk mail solicitations stuffed with calendars, greeting cards and address labels. Or the occasional birthday or Christmas card.

My business address is used to collect checks, so I don’t usually see money in my home mailbox. No, when I see a regular number 10 envelope arrive, it is usually somebody wanting money – like the IRS.

I got one of THOSE letters on Friday and am on hold right now to try to clear it up. I’ll probably have to drop off before someone answers and will try again later.

The last time this happened, the IRS had mistakenly added a zero when entering the information from one of my 1099’s – instead of noting that I had earned $5,600 from one client that year, it ended up as $56,000.

After a flurry of phone […]

2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00April 25th, 2011|Categories: Business|
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Tonight! Another Part of Our Job – The Legal Side

Edge Studio has free teleconferences for the voiceover community. Some are pretty basic and I don’t pass along the information to all of them on this blog, but the one tonight looks like it would be helpful to the working pro.

VO talent and lawyer Rob Sciglimpaglia (and after many years of seeing and saying his name, I can now pronounce it without batting an eye) will be on the line to help us understand how not to get in a legal bind and not get taken. He will cover the basics of voiceover contracts, NDAs, Work for Hire agreements and more.

When: Tonight, Tuesday April 19, 2011
Time: 9pm – 10pm ET
Dial information:

  1. Dial 1-641-594-7078
  2. You’ll ANONYMOUSLY be connected with other callers 
  3. ONLY the first 100 callers get through, so dial in early!

Click to hear a REPLAY (posted Thursday) and other ARCHIVED “Talk With A Pro” tele-panels

Click for the upcoming schedule

2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00April 19th, 2011|Categories: Announcements, Business|Tags: , , , |
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J.S. Gilbert Deconstructs Parade’s Annual Salary Review

Sorry for the gushing, but my friend J.S. Gilbert is a crazy good writer. And prolific! Maybe not with his blog, but certainly he contributes volumes of thoughtful and articulate (albeit filled with interesting typos) content on various message boards. I want to be just like him when I grow up.

I don’t get the paper, but somehow, I always manage to see Parade Magazine’s Annual Salary Issue with all the little pictures with job title and “salary.” (From the look of the pictures, I guess people just send in their info along with their very best snap shot and someone reaches into a basket and pulls out the selections?)

The whole Salary Review is really sort of mostly pointless – to compare what I make to a movie star or a barista – or to someone living in Idaho – simply isn’t relevant. What struck me was the number of people stating that they […]

2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00March 13th, 2011|Categories: Musings|Tags: |
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FaffCon Vibe in the Groove!

FaffCon 2 T-shirts
FaffCon 2 T-shirts waiting for their owners

So we were in a different location across the country, in a hotel that soared above the city, with about 75 people in attendance (25 or so more than in Portland) – and the end result of FaffCon 2 – Electric Boogaloo – fabulosity.

Seriously, this sharing ideas, experiences and even a few secrets with your working peers has all kinds of consequences:

  • Better business methods
  • Cool marketing strategies
  • Increased technological understanding
  • Practical performance ideas

But probably the most important is the feeling of long-term connection with your fellow performers with whom you share much more than the space next to them at a lecture.

While many of us do benefit from more organized conferences in some ways, FaffCon is different in that it is:

“…not VO 101. FaffCon is a participant-driven […]

2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00March 6th, 2011|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|
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Conversational Read? Sure – What Flavor?

We get it all the time in casting directions these days – the client wants a conversational read. They specifically tell you that a non-announcer read required.

But what flavor of conversation do they want? There are a lot of different ways to be “conversational.” Just listen to real people have a conversation. In fact, record yourself having conversations with different people.

(It might not be a good idea to record your conversation with the phone company after your phone lines have been down for 3 days. Or your call to the power company after the hot switch of the meter blew out your dishwasher and microwave. Although there are probably copies of those calls and if you run for public office they will surface.)

A lot of the nuances in just what conversational style will be right will come from the particular script you are reading, but Pam Turlow recently blogged about this subject and listed […]

2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00March 2nd, 2011|Categories: Auditioning, Techniques|Tags: , , |
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