Blog – Page 13 – Connie Terwilliger

Another of my favorite MediaPost Pubs: Out to Launch

Want to see some of the most interesting, clever, stylish or funny of the new ads (mostly video, but some print too) being produced around the world? They are even including a random iPhone app of the week (what about my droid app of the week?).

Sign up to get Out to Launch – another of the multitude of enewsletters published by MediaPost.

This week they are showcasing spots for Orbitz which are pretty funny, Tetley Tea from an Australian firm, and Jagermeister’s first ad in the US. Just wish my internet connection was faster! Takes a while to download and play them.

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:16+00:00May 10th, 2012|Categories: Communication, Musings|Tags: commercials, MediaPost, Out to Launch, 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|

Ask a Busy Person – They Tend to Say Yes

No matter how busy I am, I seem to find time to say yes to people. Actually, as I get older and time starts looking shorter, I’ve actually begun to learn how to say no, and I do use the word – mostly on the business side of things – when I can see that the ROI isn’t really going to pay off.

But when it comes to the stuff that isn’t work related, I do say yes a lot – maybe even if I don’t REALLY have the time. STOP THAT! I have the time. I don’t have kids or grand kids. I have cats. My niece is an adult. Some stuff simply won’t get done – like defrosting the ice maker. And cleaning up the mess behind the garage. But, in the grand plan – for things that really matter – I have the time!

So a few weeks ago, […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00April 10th, 2012|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: Financial Literacy Month, Junior Achievement BizTown, Personal Finance, San Diego, voice talent, voiceover talent, volunteering|

FaffCon 4 is History, but the Memories Linger On

It has been two weeks now since FaffCon 4 in Ventura. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t have some sort of memory pop into my head. Starting with Thursday night helping Pam and Lauren write questions on blow up soccer balls. We got so good at the task that we actually did more than we needed to. We laughed a lot in the process – which is something that a lot of us did a lot during the weekend.

One of the most amusing memories was the debate over what color walkie-talkies went to whom. The sunglasses decided it.

Later in the evening, I met up with a few of the early arrivals in the hotel bar – hugs all […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00April 9th, 2012|Categories: Musings|Tags: FaffCon, unconference, Ventura Beach, voiceover talent|

Matching Your Delivery

The other day I had three sessions in a row with repeat clients for whom my delivery is just slightly different. Pacing, placement, energy, warmth, etc. just a bit different for each project.

One client found me 3 or 4 years ago because they had lost track of the voice they had been using and wanted a voice match. Actually, they THOUGHT I was the same person and after I told them that I wasn’t, they asked me if I could match a sample they provided. I did and we have been doing updates every 5 months or so. This voice is in a slightly different place in my head than my usual signature sound.

Another project was 3 word changes and a new paragraph for a project originally completed about a year and a half ago. The read on this was soft and comforting.

And the third project that day was the […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00April 7th, 2012|Categories: Musings, Techniques|Tags: customer service, matching delivery, voiceover|

Check the Mute Buttons!

So, I had a phone patch session recently with a new client. It was a no audition job through one of my agents. Love those. But instead of ISDN, it was a phone patch project using my Gentner.

The client called into my system and he could hear me fine, but to me he sounded like he was calling me from Mars – a tinny little voice way in the background.

My eyes crossed as I tried to figure out what the problem might be. I checked the sketch the engineer left me the last time he was here. But with the client on the line, my stress level was such that I was not going to figure it out. We agreed on a short break to see if I could reach him my engineer. If I couldn’t figure it out, we would use a work around, which is not my preferred way […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00April 6th, 2012|Categories: Recording|Tags: Cats in the studio, ISDN, phone patch, recording technology, VO-BB|

Social Media Paranoia

Over the past few years, I have posted a few select projects to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as blogged or distributed Press Releases. Not everything we do is post-worthy, so I have tried to keep the posts to interesting subject matter, great scripts, super production values, that sort of thing.

The intent is to simply remain visible in this sea of data. Stay in someone’s mind in case a project comes up that might require my voice. Not really selling anything specific, just a little social networking.

Well, all that changed yesterday, when I got the email from ACX that my first audio book is ready for people to actually buy on audible.com. “Death of an Obnoxious Tourist” by Maria Hudgins. Now I need to promote it – and ask people to buy it and listen to it. And when they do, they […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:17+00:00March 16th, 2012|Categories: Announcements|Tags: audible.com, audio book, Death of an Obnoxious Tourist, Dotsy Lamb, Maria Hudgins, narrator|

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|