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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When Volunteering Collides with Work

The balance of business and personal time is changing dramatically for me this past year. And I am trying to figure out if this is a good thing or not. While business has been a bit weird this quarter, it has been steady with repeat customers and some new – but no dramatic up tick.

This could be the economy, or it could be that my marketing efforts have been waylaid by my personal and other volunteer committments. 

I’ve learned the marketing lesson before. You stop marketing yourself and people forget who you are. Well, not everyone, but you know what I mean.

Between my new responsibilities (and frankly new life) with my mom who moved close to me last April, my continuing volunteer work for MCA-I, roles in community theater performances, friends, classes, relationships – there just isn’t the same amount of time to do the […]

2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00March 28th, 2010|Categories: Business, Musings|
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Technical Troubleshooting

Argh! Turned on the system the other day and there was a phased hum/tone thing going on in the background of my recordings. Nothing had changed (well, maybe the weather), but suddenly my output was unacceptable.

I was able to clean up the background noise well enough for auditions (and it didn’t affect my ISDN sessions), but luckily, I didn’t have any paying work that couldn’t be delayed until a fix was found.

Was it the Mackie? Was it the cable to the computer? Was it the mic cable? One thing at a time – one precious minute after minute – I eliminated and pondered. Finally, I packed up the Mackie and the cable to the computer and trundled them down to San Diego Professional Sound and Music.

Turns out the 2nd channel on the Mackie is kaput – or at least has a permanent […]

2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00March 18th, 2010|Categories: Recording, Technology|Tags: , |
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New Toshiba Laptop Arrived

Ah, technology today. My new Toshiba Satellite laptop was on the front porch yesterday.

Open the box. Plug it in. It finds my network. Asks a couple of questions and boom, we are up and running. This one has Windows 7 on it. So far, it seems pretty self-explanatory and user friendly.

Now comes the task of loading all my software on it to see if it is user friendly for the various programs. This will take me until the end of the week probably.

The basics:

  • Adobe Audition (done, not checked yet for recording)
  • Office (at least Excel and Word – maybe Front Page for website updates on the road)
  • Vox Studio
  • Word 2 Wav
  • Paint Shop Pro
  • Miscellaneous enhancements for playing audio, video, etc.
2010-03-10T08:27:18+00:00March 10th, 2010|Categories: Business, Technology|Tags: , , |
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Source-Connect Ports are in Order

Forgot to update the Source-Connect saga. Followed the detailed instructions on the Source-Connect website about how to configure the ports and “voila” so simple even a cave man could do it.

Now I am going through the Source-Connect data base to say hello to folks who might be interested in knowing that it is up and running.

Most of the people who have it are either talent or audio studios – neither of which are the best for pin-point marketing, but certainly the contacts are great networking – which ultimately pays off.

2010-03-03T17:07:20+00:00March 3rd, 2010|Categories: Marketing, Technology|Tags: , , |
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Fast! Good! Cheap?

You know this adage – Fast, Good, Cheap – Pick any Two? Technological advances are putting this saying to the test – with people wanting (and many times getting) all three. The principal of the “Long Tail” – originally used to describe a retailing concept of selling a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities – is another factor in the evolution of this axiom. Apply the long tail to voiceovers and it means creating lots and lots of product that will be seen or heard by fewer and fewer people. Think about the growing number of niche television, radio, YouTube channels. Fewer eyeball and ears? Maybe. Maybe not – considering the population of the world.

So how is this affecting Fast, Good, Cheap?

Fast

When it comes to the voiceover business, particularly at the first stage – voiceover auditions – Fast reigns supreme. With online casting (either through agents […]

2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00March 2nd, 2010|Categories: Auditioning, Marketing, Musings, Negotiating|
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Paul Strikwerda Bursts the Audition Bubble

Paul is one of my favorite bloggers. He can stir up the pot a bit at times, which is fun. But usually, he has something brilliant to say about the business.

I’ve been ruminating on auditions lately. About the fact that I haven’t auditioned so much as I have since we moved into a remote casting era. But what I didn’t say (and that Paul says so well in his latest blog post), is that I am extremely picky about what I audition for. I checked my “stats” for the past 6 months at Voice123. I have deleted more than 1050 audition opportunities – and sent in auditions for about 75. Number of actual jobs? Very few from V123. Same basic ratio at Voices.com, but with far fewer audition opportunities.

http://nethervoice.com/nethervoice/2010/02/24/bursting-the-audition-bubble/

Something I talk to my introductory students about is learning to practice so that you actually improve – and not build […]

2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00February 24th, 2010|Categories: Marketing|Tags: , , , |
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Time Flies: Balancing Personal and Job Time

What happened to February!? OK, it is a short month, but really, I look up at the calendar and shake my head in disbelief that it is nearly the end of the month already. There are things on my To Do list hanging around from last December that I swore I would complete by the end of January! (Well, the mosaic garden table was supposed to be finished by the end of LAST January – that project is waaay behind.)

Balancing personal and business life is getting to be quite a challenge. On the one hand I am lucky to have a job that lets me jump up and put out fires. On the other hand, I sometimes wish that I had a job that kept me confined for 8 hours so that I didn’t have to jump up and put out fires.

I’d like to chalk up the passing of deadlines […]

2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00February 18th, 2010|Categories: Musings|Tags: , , |
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iLok Unlocked and Source Connect Installed

The iLok folks tried to reach the official “owner” (well, perhaps we should call that the unofficial owner) of the iLok I bought at Guitar Center last week. After waiting a couple of days I decided to just return that one and get a new one.

Victory! The installation went smoothly and quickly. Source Connect is up and running. I will do some tests with other SC users as soon as I can work it in, but I had audio going both directions with the Source Connect folks.

The only part left to do is figure out the “port” configuration. It seems to be working, but my router needs to be officially configured to help stabilize the connection – at least that is what I was told. So, IF I get a chance this week, I will try to follow the breadcrumbs […]

2018-02-06T06:48:43+00:00February 7th, 2010|Categories: Technology|Tags: , |
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A Stuffed PO Box!

Don’t you just love the feeling of opening the PO Box and finding it full of #10 envelopes! Checks! This time of year, however, the envelopes are usually a tad larger and need to be saved for the tax man.

1099s are flooding into my PO Box the past few weeks. Be sure to check them carefully and SAVE them! I had the IRS come back to me on my 2007 taxes saying that I owed them some ungodly amount close to 10 grand.

They thought that one of my 1009s was for 58 thousand dollars. Huh? Wow, that would have been a great client! After my heart stopped pounding, I realized that it was probably a typo and contacted my client who was able to quickly send me a replacement 1009 to show the IRS that the total was 58 hundred dollars, not 58K.

I’m not a fan of this side of the business, but […]

2018-02-06T06:48:51+00:00February 3rd, 2010|Categories: Business|Tags: , |
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Someone Else’s Dongle?

So the iLok folks tell me that someone else owns my dongle. How that could happen is a complete mystery. The iLok was in a sealed package.

They have sent that person a note asking to transfer ownership to me, but if I don’t hear something in a day or two, I will take it back to Guitar Center and get a new one (at least what I HOPE is a new one).

All of this puts the actual downloading of Source Connect on the back burner.

2018-02-06T06:48:51+00:00February 1st, 2010|Categories: Technology|Tags: , , |
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