Blog – Page 8 – Connie Terwilliger

Getting Your House In Order

I am a bad homeowner. About 10 years ago, I had a major remodel done that included replacing all of my windows with new wood dual pane windows. Of course I was told that wood windows needed to be maintained. A coat of paint every few years was part of my responsibility as the homeowner.

Did I do it? No, so the result is going to about $1000 worth of repair and then new paint everywhere – which I will probably hire out because the idea of painting 14 windows and all the trim around the top of front of the house seems like a daunting time suck – plus I don’t have a ladder tall enough to get up to the roof line.

The list of things to do around the house after living here nearly 30 years is starting […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:06+00:00June 8th, 2015|Categories: Business, Musings|

The quest to get better without losing who you used to be…

Connie and Liz de Nesnera on the way to the workshop – Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner.

I just got home from a weekend workshop in Henderson (just outside Las Vegas) with Marice Tobias. It was an all-woman workshop with 10 working pros held at Melissa Moats new voiceover studio The Voice Actors Studio. Marice does this same thing with all men and also co-ed. The women’s workshop is usually – OK, pretty much always – a lot more emotional therapy along with the voiceover component. It was a wonderful weekend for many reasons and I think it has shown in the auditions and the projects I have done since getting back to my studio on Monday.

Getting coaching is something that a lot of working voice talent does during the course […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:06+00:00June 3rd, 2015|Categories: Acting, Auditioning|Tags: FaffCon, Marice Tobias, The Voice Actors Studio|

Marketing. It’s part of the job.

Most small businesses struggle with balancing time. How much time you spend working vs. how much time you spend seeking the work. There is no magic formula, but you have to be aware of the fact that no matter how talented you are, if no one knows about it, you won’t have a business very long.

That means marketing what you have to sell to the people who want to buy it.

Putting up a website and just hoping people find you is simply not going to happen. My business is global and as each day passes and more and more people buy domain names and throw up websites, it becomes harder and harder to get the right eyes on you and what you offer. Even if you throw a lot of money into SEO, there are larger companies out there using the […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00May 17th, 2015|Categories: Business, Marketing|Tags: Marketing, referrals|

Doing it for a live audience

After a two-year absence from the stage, I was cast in a show at one of my favorite theaters here in San Diego. Scripps Ranch Theatre. I played Rose, the aging neighbor in a Brooklyn apartment near Sunset Park (also the name of the show).

Marley Sims, one of the writers was able to come to the Preview and Opening Night. She hadn’t seen the show in 10 years since it premiered in Los Angeles and seemed to be pleased with our interpretation. And for me as an actor, it was fun to have her in the audience.

It wasn’t a huge part, so I was able to enjoy the process without the stress of being in every scene. A perfect way to get back on the boards.

That meant a lot of time backstage with the three other actors with minor roles and the stage manager. The interaction has […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00May 16th, 2015|Categories: Musings|

I Love My SEO – and My Production Partners

OK, I’ve been on the Internet with a website since before Al Gore had anything to do with his infamous statement about moving forward initiatives to blah, blah, blah – invent the internet. See the Snopes info here >>>

This is a good thing. A real good thing.

I don’t have to buy key words. I come up in searches. A lot. Just a fact of having a web presence since 1996.

Lately it seems that people have been doing searches for voice talent in San Diego. Which makes my website come up even higher on the search results because of the addition of the city. This has led to more VO projects, but also much more than voiceover work.

As I have mentioned before, my background is as a producer/writer/on and off-camera talent since – well, since a long time ago. I stopped producing a couple of years into […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00July 11th, 2014|Categories: Business|Tags: producing, production, scriptwriting, SEO, the business of voiceover, voice talent|

Time for a Kick Start

I am a working voice talent. I make my living doing this. And as with most voice talent outside the major markets I find that I rely more and more on my own abilities to self-direct. Especially at the audition phase.

As someone who has been doing this a long time, I have lots of repeat clients, referrals and direct leads from my website – most of which don’t ask for an audition because they know me, or they simply like what they hear on my demos and don’t ask for an audition.

But, oh those auditions…

It is true that the booking to audition ratio is getting worse. More agents receive the same copy – which means many more people end up auditioning for the same spot – where in the past one or two agents would submit just a few of their talent. This is ancient history. And if you are […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00July 9th, 2014|Categories: Auditioning, Musings|Tags: Auditioning, voice acting, voiceover coaching|

June Came and June Went…

What the heck just happened? The month of June just sort of disappeared in a vortex of VO work. Which is a good thing, but makes it hard to find the time to compose something interesting, relevant or amusing as a blog post.

And that is the goal of keeping a blog – at least as I understand it.

My class blog is easier to keep up to date, but can become a tad boring and even repetitive for people who are not active students in the class. If there was a way to filter OUT the homework assignments, and only keep the interesting videos and articles that would be different, but I haven’t figured out a way to do that yet.

One of the things I talk to my introduction to voice acting students is that just because you are hired to record […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00July 7th, 2014|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|Tags: Connie Terwilliger, narration, voice actor, voice talent, voiceover business, white board narrator, YouTube|

Who will decide who comes in first in the ISDN Alternative Race – talent or studio?

There has been a LOT of buzz lately about the death of ISDN as a connection method for solid distance recording between talent and studio. New lines are impossible to get in certain parts of the United States (primarily on the East Coast at the moment) and the cost for the lines is skyrocketing in other parts of the country. The cost for my lines has remained steady for the past several years, but each month when the pre-paid bill arrives, I open the envelope with trepidation.

There are now several potential replacements for ISDN, which will at some point no longer be an option: SoundStreak, ipDTL, and Source-Connect NOW.

So far, I have “invested” in ipTDL and Source-Connect. Should I add SoundStreak too? Yes, I probably should. Will another technology come along that blows them […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00May 25th, 2014|Categories: Business, Technology|Tags: ipDTL, ISDN, SoundStreak, source-connect NOW|

Success is all in your head – and maybe in the ear of the listener

I have had a bunch of cool things happen in the past year or so. It hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine, but that is what makes life interesting.

Business has been good. I found that balance of marketing, work and another word that starts with “f” – Facebook. No, fun! (OK, maybe both Facebook and fun.) And I think my work has improved too.

A Free-lance Life for Me
For someone who is and always has been risk averse, you might wonder why I chose to be an independent business person where there is no steady paycheck.

Actually, because most of the people who read this blog are voiceover people too – or independent business people – you probably know the answer.

I don’t think I chose it, actually. My first real job was at a TV station in Iowa. I was a part-time graphic artist in the days just before computers and character […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00April 11th, 2014|Categories: Musings|Tags: free-lancing, General Dynamics, Michael Breeding, Northern Light Productions, voiceover business, what is success?|

Is a monthly blog enough?

Just squeaking in under the wire to get a post completed before the end of March…

I don’t know about you, but this has been a very busy month – filled with many highs and a few lows. Moments of self-doubt. Moments of reaffirmation. Moments of utter confusion. And moments of crystal clarity. Invoicing for large $$. Writing checks for large $$ for taxes.

Pretty much a normal month, I guess…but I did find myself starting a post more than once and simply abandoning it to something else, promising myself that I would return to the keyboard and write something brilliant.

Best laid plans!

So, to return to the question at hand. Is it worth keeping a blog alive if you only post once a month or so? Or will that actually be detrimental to social media standings. I don’t know the answer to that and frankly, my blog isn’t all that popular, so […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:07+00:00March 30th, 2014|Categories: Musings, Technology|

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