Curiosity Creates Opportunity

(This post was published 10 years ago. It still holds true today.)

I was thinking about the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” today as one of my cats climbed up on a pile of empty cardboard boxes that were piled high on a work table to see what was going on and everything came down in a huge, yet rather quiet crash – except for the startled yelp of the cat as he was propelled into the air.

Most of us know what curiosity killed the cat “means.” Poking around can have dire consequences. But I was curious as to it’s origin, so I did some Googling and found this info on Wikipedia. It started out as “care killed the cat.”

Ben Johnson, an English playwright in 1598 used something like it one […]

Connie Terwilliger2025-01-23T18:07:33+00:00January 23rd, 2025|Categories: Auditioning, Business, Musings|Tags: curiosity, Wikipedia|

All good things …yada yada yada

Earlier this year before all hell broke loose, I was looking at my work flow and realized that my ISDN unit had been standing idle for several months. The preferred live connection was trending toward Source-Connect and only one lone client was using ISDN – and that client? Not very often.

The monthly cost here in Southern CA was still pretty reasonable – about $60 a month – a far cry from the $600 or more per month in some places. But, when the only client using the unit was also one of my lower paying clients, it just didn’t pencil out.

So, I did it. I pulled the plug and retired my Musicam Prima 120 workhorse. As one of the first voiceover talent in the country to have a personal studio with ISDN I paid for the unit many times […]

Connie Terwilliger2020-10-09T17:36:00+00:00October 9th, 2020|Categories: Announcements, Business, Technology|

Learn to use your Jitterbug Smart!

One of my favorite kinds of projects is training videos. A bunch of short pieces that help someone learn to use a piece of equipment. The challenge is to made each module stand on its own, but also be consistent with all the other videos in a series.

I had a chance to voice 15 or so How-To Videos for the Great Call Jitterbug Smart 2 phone – here is a link to the page where you can listen to one (or all!).

https://www.greatcall.com/support/learningcenter

I am also the voice of the Great Call (now a Best Buy company) voice mail and IVR systems for all of their products and customer support, as well as the voice of their Lively Mobile and Lively Wearable devices.

Connie Terwilliger2020-01-28T18:53:17+00:00January 28th, 2020|Categories: Announcements, Business, Recent Work|

Heard in a Store Near You Since the Year 2000.

Walk into any of these stores and you just may hear the sound of my voice calling someone to help you…Fleet Farm, Stop & Shop, Kohl’s, TJ Maxx, Lowe’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and many more.

The best thing about this is not that you get to hear me. No, the best thing is that I have been recording messages for the company that installs the overhead announcement hardware since the beginning of 2000. That’s coming up on 20 years providing voice files nearly every week!

I’ve recorded announcements around from my usual home studio to around the globe in a studio in Italy – my brother’s sound-proof practice room in Germany – make-shift pillow forts in hotels – and the basement of my mother’s house in New York […]

Connie Terwilliger2019-05-13T18:31:42+00:00May 13th, 2019|Categories: Announcements, Business, Recent Work|

Human Error? Who Pays?

So, what were you doing during the great Facebook outage of March 2019? Did you have withdrawals? Think about the paying advertisers! They lost their access to their targets for more than 20 hours.

So, who should pay for the lost opportunities. Facebook says it was human error – a line of stray code perhaps. S*#t happens. But any web developer worth their salt does upgrades/fixes/changes on off hours. Hard to find an off hour when you have global reach.

Here’s an opinion piece on the subject – that feels that Facebook must be accountable for the blackout.

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/333237/facebook-must-be-accountable-to-regulators-for-out.html

Connie Terwilliger2019-03-22T19:07:14+00:00March 22nd, 2019|Categories: Advertising, Announcements, Business, Musings|

Branding…What is it Good For?

We talk a lot about branding. The IMPORTANCE of branding. We spend a lot of money on branding. But do we need to?

What if we know what we do well. Charge a fair price for it. And get it into the hands of the people who want to buy what we have to sell.

I know, easier said than done. But sometimes I think may people spend time and money trying to establish a brand, when they should be creating a relationship with their target market.

Yes, a recognizable logo is important to remind your customers that you are there when they need you, but do we spend thousands of dollars on consultants and panels and testing of our brand? Or do we just do the work…

MediaPost just posted an article – We Are All Frauds: The Way We Advertise Does Not Work – […]

Connie Terwilliger2019-02-25T16:50:53+00:00February 25th, 2019|Categories: Advertising, Business, Marketing|

Ads on Apps – on a small screen near you!

So, I started (or rather restarted) playing a Facebook game a few weeks ago. And the biggest thing I have noticed (besides the much improved speed of computers and Internet connections these days) is the in-app advertising. Because this particular app is tied to your Facebook login, it seems to know what you are thinking and targets ads pretty specifically.

If you want more energy or some extra money – you can sit through an ad or two or three. Now, I play the game with the sound turned off, so I am only seeing the ad, but I get the point and find that I DO occasionally click for more information.

In-app video ad spending has increased dramatically in the past year. According to an article in MediaPost – “the ad format saw more than 200% growth from the fourth quarter 2017 […]

Connie Terwilliger2019-02-21T17:41:19+00:00February 21st, 2019|Categories: Advertising, Announcements, Business, Marketing|

Once in a Blue Moon On-camera Project

My local San Diego agent sent me an audition for an on-camera project that sort of threw me for a loop. It had been a long time since I had an on-camera opportunity and this one was to be done at home – a self-recorded audition. WHAT!? No director or casting director there to feed you lines? No sign-in sheet? How much? For a whole day? I had a million excuses as to why I didn’t think I was going to audition for it. I would have to put on makeup, fix my hair, find good light, memorize some lines. No! Just no.

I was gently convinced to give it a try. […]

Connie Terwilliger2019-01-30T01:34:09+00:00January 30th, 2019|Categories: Acting, Announcements, Business, Musings, Recent Work|

What happened to pre-roll? Ads now in the middle of social media videos

HEADLINE FROM MEDIAPOST: SOCIAL MEDIA INSIDER NEWSLETTER

Video Ads Prove Revenue Generators, Brand Builder For Social Media Platforms

Noticed those ads popping up in the middle of watching a video on social media? It’s probably here to stay (for a while anyway, until the next big thing).

https://www.mediapost.com/…/video-ads-prove-revenue-generat…

Connie Terwilliger2018-10-16T01:20:50+00:00October 16th, 2018|Categories: Advertising, Business|

Still booking after all these years

Been an interesting couple of months. For someone who has been in this business a long time (first agent in 1978), I was pleased to be picked up by an agent in LA (Voices Talent) after many years of not having one there. And I have been getting some great auditions from them.

And then another voice talent I know from one of our industry conferences referred me to an agent on the other side of the country in the DC area (Impressive Talent). I started getting more great auditions – different great auditions.

This is an important point, because I do have representation across the country and some subscribe to the same sources for auditions, so there are times when I get the same audition from multiple agents. This happens a lot to a lot of us with the better […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-07-31T17:46:48+00:00July 31st, 2018|Categories: Announcements, Auditioning, Business|

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