Musings – Page 9 – Connie Terwilliger

We Interrupt This Program…

Life happens. And our work may take a back seat to whatever situation is demanding our attention.

Right now, my voiceover friends on the East Coast are battening down the hatches, shutting off their studios and hunkering down waiting for hurricane Irene to do whatever it is she is going to do. In that arbitrary way nature has, she will surprise some with a tree limb through the front porch, or an inch or two of water in the basement, or pass over with nothing more than a few small branches in the street.

Thankfully the worst is probably over now – for Irene. But something else will come along and interrupt our regularly scheduled programming.

Actually, some of life’s curve balls can be predicted and planned for – sort of. The past couple of years I took on the added responsibility of taking care of my mother. Moved her out to San […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:21+00:00August 28th, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|

Video Marketing Works – When Done Right

One of the electronic publications that I read faithfully is MediaPost’s Online Video Insider.

The latest column – Bulleted Points Miss the Point, by Jerry Bader, took me on a little trip down memory lane and at the same time gave me some very interesting facts about online video marketing.

As a video producer and scriptwriter in a former life – I spent long hours with colleagues discussing what it was we were actually supposed to be doing for the client. Guiding them to the right media for their message was what we all hoped would be the answer from the bosses. And most of the time, in most of the companies I had the pleasure to do business with – either full-time or as a free lancer – we were afforded this power.

And our job was to make sure that the client’s message was delivered to their specific […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:21+00:00August 5th, 2011|Categories: Communication, Musings|

Thanks for the Thanks!

Everyone likes a “thank you.” And sometimes we don’t take the time to pass along a sincere thank you to the people we interact with every day. Oh, we say “thanks” at the grocery store when we get our receipt. “Thanks” at the restaurant when someone refills our coffee cup or delivers the bill to the table. The sincerity of the “thanks” when someone hands us the bill for the meal is probably in question.

So it is nice to get a sincere thank you when none is really expected. I have toyed with the idea of sending out personal Thank You cards after sessions – and actually have some cards just for this purpose. Not many talent does this from what I can glean from various VO talent message boards. The trouble is, I am so busy just recording the jobs and creating the invoices that I simply forget!

And part […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:22+00:00July 28th, 2011|Categories: Communication, Musings|Tags: thank you|

Today’s ROI Wasn’t About Money

Had a yard sale today at my mom’s house in preparation for her move to an Assisted Living Community. She is very excited actually and chatters non-stop about it to anyone who will listen. This is actually good news, of course. Two and a half years ago, this wasn’t even on the radar of options. Frankly, 5 months ago, this wasn’t something that she would consider.

But after a few months of a home share situation – with a house mate who helped her with medication reminders and getting dinners, she learned two things – that she needed help – and that she didn’t like sharing her house. All that strange food in the refrigerator! And just which bar of soap was hers!

So next week we do the final move of the heavy items to her new apartment in La Mesa California, just down the road from wonderful Lake Murray. The […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:22+00:00July 23rd, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: assisted living, La Mesa, Oakdale Heights, ROI, voiceover acting|

Tax Form for the Marginally Employed

My voiceover friend Rowell Gormon just posted a link to an important tax document for the army of self-employed working out of their homes.

You must qualify of course. Do you spend at least 8 hours of daylight in your pajamas? Do your medical expenses include naps, toothbrushes, garlic dill pickles, elixirs, etc.? Do you Tweet? There’s a complex formula for that. Don’t Tweet? Sorry, you don’t qualify for that deduction. Oh and be sure to include your time wasting allowance – and your Hollywood Protection Act deduction (100% of the cost of blockbuster movies you didn’t really want to see).

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/13/opinion/20100413_opart.html

*Be sure to consult your tax preparer to get the latest form. This is the 2009 form, so I’m sure it has changed considerably over the past couple of years. The Obamamania deduction for inauguration expenses has probably been deleted – however, they may have added an […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:22+00:00July 12th, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: Rowell Gormon, tax form, voiceover|

Balancing Life and Work

The past few years have been interesting to say the least. After getting my mom to move across country in order to be closer to me so that I could start to help her as her need to be helped increased – I started to see a dramatic increase in personal time in my calendar.

As a rabid type A – most of my time has been spent working. As a free lancer and the sole means of support for my critters and my house – most of my time was spent working or marketing or bookkeeping or networking or something else that required large amounts of time in my “cave.”

So, learning how to carve out the time for my mom was a challenge.

Combine that with the down turn in the economy and there was a bit of a dip in work – which in retrospect was perhaps a good thing […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:33+00:00July 11th, 2011|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|Tags: Marketing, voiceover work|

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 […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:33+00:00July 7th, 2011|Categories: Marketing, Musings|Tags: celebrity, Connie Terwilliger, Philip Banks, voiceover|

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 […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00June 25th, 2011|Categories: Musings|Tags: Cats in the studio|

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 […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00March 13th, 2011|Categories: Musings|Tags: J.S. Gilbert|

FaffCon Vibe in the Groove!

: 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 […]

Connie Terwilliger2018-02-06T06:48:34+00:00March 6th, 2011|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|