Anthony Mendez is a voice-over artist who focuses on network promos and movie trailers. He's also co-founder of multicultural movie marketing company Latitude Creative and blogs about network promos on PromoARK.org.
Post-amp was created as a way for Anthony to discuss life and technology as it applies to the business of voice-over and other creative marketing.
Note: The opinions expressed on this site are solely those of Anthony Mendez and do not reflect, in any way, the opinions of Latitude Creative, Anthony's clients, or his voice-over agents' buyers.
In this dog run, there is no dog. There is no owner. Hence, no pack order. So, obviously, there is no leader and no leader of the leader (i.e., the human.) That's what the picture says. That's what the photographer wants you to believe. The human. Me. Invisible. Standing there next to my dog. Also invisible. This is my morning routine. The walk. Then a stop at the dog run. Tea. Meditation. Almonds. Then the walk. Then home.
That bench is my throne. The park is my kingdom. On rare occasions, other humans and their dogs occupy my space. They just don't know it's my space and so I wait until they acknowledge me. Most of them are not entertaining (both human and dog.) I expect them to be. But that's selfish. Self-aggrandizing. And so I stop. Who am I to judge?
Is it time to do a little introspection and adjust your expectations of others? For many gurus, experts, and idolized creatives and talent alike - it's not only time, it's long overdue.
I will use social media the way I see fit. I will market the way I feel comfortable. I will not worship you. Instead, I will meditate and allow my voice to guide me. I will be "me." There are many facets of "me." There are many forms of expression. In each one, there will be varying degrees of "me" and varying degrees of expression. To expect them all to be the same is akin to expecting your chocolate candy bar to taste the same as hot chocolate or - God forbid - a chocolate truffle or - worse - a chocolate cake.
Are you guilty of idolizing those that put their pants on the same way you do? Let me simplify this - how many times have you posted to your "idol's" Facebook account or tweeted them only to receive no engagement whatsoever?
-Anthony
P.S. I know "idolizationism" isn't a word, so don't refudiate it.
Forgive me, friends, for I have sinned. It's been seventeen weeks since my last blog post. Okay, I'm not actually asking for forgiveness; Neither will I try to justify my transgressions with stories of how busy I've been with life, voiceover work, or - worse - auditions. Those are a given (or at least should be.) It's just that sometimes I, as one who blogs, feel as if I have to explain; But to whom? Where is it Written that I have to write every day or every week for that matter? My blog is not my job. I am a husband, a father, and then a voiceover artist. Simply a voiceover artist. It's what I do. I don't have to justify what phase of my career I am in. Despite that, many freelancers feel the need to add "full-time," "professional," or both before their title. Not only is it pointless (other than for the slim chance that someone is actually Googling "full-time professional voiceover artist,") but it's a dead giveaway of just the opposite.
As a freelancer or creative, how do you define "full-time?" My week, for example, can vary wildly from 10 hours total time on the mic to 15 or 20 hours total time on mic. Hardly "full-time" in the corporate sense of the word. I only count time on mic because that's when I'm actually "voice-overing." The other times, when I'm on twitter, facebook, email, Google, and blogs I'm a twit (no clue what they're called,) friend (or fan,) sender, Googler, blogger, and subscriber - otherwise collectively known as a marketer. Even though the time spent on these activities can rival paid time on mic, I don't consider myself a full-time marketer. It, just like voiceovers, is just what I do. It's my virtual watercooler. I do it because I enjoy it, not because I have to. Where marketing and voiceovers differ, for me, is that voiceovers is what I wake up every day feeling like I have to do.
Now, again as a freelancer or creative, how do you define "professional?" I'm not asking you log onto M-W.com, I'm simply asking you what is your perception of that word? How do you define it and how does it define you? In my case, it doesn't. To place the word professional in front of what I do is almost akin to bragging about the size of one's male member (sorry, I don't know what the equivalent of that would be for ladies, but if you know please send me an email.) When I was in music, my business partner and I would laugh at all the other music studios' websites because it seemed that most would include what we called "the penis shot*." That is to say, a picture of their big mixing board with all the lights on. It was splashed across their home page as if to compensate for what they were lacking - actual mixing and recording skills. Need I say more?
In the end, you call yourself what you'd like, but when a client is interested in you and what you have to offer, there are two things that are assumed:
You will be available to do the work you're getting paid well to do.
You will perform at the highest level of your craft to help bring their ideas to life.
Both of those point to an assumption of you being both "full-time" and "professional." Besides, in a world of 140 characters you can't waste time stating the obvious. Many of my producer and editor friends can easily spend upwards of sixty hours a week doing their magic while chugging down caffeine throughout the night and working under the gun to the sound of the cleaning crew. They assume number 1 and number 2 as well and don't ever refer to themselves as "full-time professional on-air promo producers and trailer editors." They just are.
How about you?
'Have to run, my full-time professional landscapers just showed up!
-Anthony
*See picture at top of article for an example of a "penis shot."
I recently listened to an interview with riCardo Crespo and it made me think about whether or not I've clearly communicated my goals to my marketing department. riCardo is an advocate for having internal creative directors in order to better communicate with an ad agency. It makes complete sense as creative directors speak the same "language" and therefore begin the relationship with several commonalities. The challenge, as a freelancer, then becomes, "Who composes your marketing department and how often do you communicate your goals with them?"
In my case, as a lone freelance voice-over artist (cue Lone Ranger theme,) my marketing department would ideally be my representation. But the reality is that all of my agents and manager are my national sales department. My marketing department is actually composed of none other than me, myself, and I. So, the second part of the question would naturally mean that I need to schedule meetings with this singular trinity. Once this creative meeting is scheduled, the next step would be to create an agenda with input from the rest of me... uh... the company. This agenda will consist of objectives. The intention is that during this meeting, I... sorry... we will come up with creative ways to meet these objectives (otherwise known as goals. "Goal," by the way is not a four-letter word. "Resolution" is - especially that of the New Year variety.) The goals should be simple and straightforward, because we don't want there to be any miscommunication. One final and crucial note; This meeting is closed to your accounting department.
I can't allow my accountant (my left brain) to hinder the no-limit thinking of my creative (my right brain) during this time of important ideation; Hence, the closed meeting. Don't worry, there will be plenty of time for both your right and left brain to work together during a future strategic meeting or, even better, a year-end review (another four-letter word depending on the context.)
The problem that many freelancers face is that their accountant is allowed into way too many meetings. If coming up with an agenda is an issue, then steal your accountants agenda and re-write it (then kick him out and lock the door.) Instead of thinking about how much money you need to generate, write down how many bookings you would love to have (daily, weekly or monthly.) Instead of thinking about how to increase revenue, think about how to shift your work to more passive income or, in my business, residual generating voice-overs (commercials) or recurring voice-overs (signature work, launch campaigns, radio imaging.) This isn't meant to be a how-to article on generating ideas. My goal is to share a way to shift your consciousness in order to allow your artist to play. In turn, it will flourish in this no-limit environment - the accountant-less marketing meeting of the mind. Who knows, you might even have fun! Don't forget the entertainment in entertainment business. Schedule that meeting. Here's a meeting I just had yesterday with my marketing department: Agenda: Increase engagement on my voice-over site by shifting the visitor's experience from an auditory one to a visual one. (i.e., Videos with audio will take center stage and replace audio-only)
Here's a meeting I had with my accountant department: Response: Adding more video would increase bandwidth and risk being shutdown or, worse, getting hit with exorbitant hosting fees.
Here's a subsequent meeting (after thought... emphasis on after) I had with my IT department: Challenge: There's more latency with video and therefore a higher risk of increased bounce rate. Now, there's no question that the marketing department's creative idea was going to be implemented. I never judged it during ideation. After the meeting, I presented it to accounting in a separate session. The accounting department raised some fiscal challenges that might present themselves down the road. At the same time, I had a discussion with my IT department. The IT department raised concerns that were later taken into consideration.
The solution, was Amazon's CloudFront service. Which I'll be talking to you more about tomorrow and, hopefully, showing you a quick tutorial on how I set it up. Presently, all of the media (audio, video, and images) on my AnthonyVO.com site are stored on my Amazon S3 account and distributed via their CloudFront service. My webhost only serves up the HTML/CSS text files (i.e., small files when compared to media.) What's the cool part about it? The specific server that presents the media is dependent upon the visitor's location - it automatically chooses the closest server - thereby minimizing latency. Very technical, but overall still very creative (and super affordable - just in case your accountant was wondering)!
With CloudFront, I've addressed marketing (allowing more media,) IT (reducing latency and therefore bounce rate,) and accounting (minimizing bandwidth costs.) Before you think I've gone schizophrenic, I'm merely suggesting you compartmentalize your multiple roles in order to create more effectively. Does your number crunching get in the way of your creativity?-Anthony
That, my friends, is a picture of where, just last Friday, I paid eight dollars for a cheeseburger and a cup of hot chocolate. It was freezing that day. Anyone with a few bucks in their pocket would have been glad to pay anything for something hot; But eight dollars for a single cheeseburger and a small cup of hot chocolate? You can get three times as much food at Wendy's. Not to mention I have yet to see a Wendy's without indoor seating (brrrr.) This place, called the Shake Shack, sits on one end of Madison Square Park (no relation or proximity to The Garden) and, despite lack of refuge from the harsh Winter, draws a line of customers that any brick-and-mortar business would be envious of in this economy. What is it about this no-frills, fast-food (gasp,) cheap outdoor seating restaurant that people seem to love? During Summer you'd better have a flexible lunch hour and lots of napkins if you want to partake of The Shack's somewhat limited gastronomical offerings, because you'll spend most of it waiting on line and salivating with the rest of the fans.
Bingo! That's exactly what this place has been able to create; Not customers, not consumers, but fans! Customers have wants. Consumers have needs. Fans, on the other hand, have desires. They desire not only a product, but, more so, an experience. The Shake Shack is well aware of this desire and how a major part of the experience is a communal effect created by doing something we normally hate to do - wait in line (just take a look at the background that loads on their site.) It's no secret that Apple too has created fans. The iPad is neither wanted nor, some may argue, needed. The iPad will sell by virtue of Apple fans' desire. In the same way, The Shake Shack sells cheeseburgers... lots of them. The question therefore is, "how has a plain looking place like The Shake Shack created such desire?" The product, without question is solid. That's a given if any sort of longevity is to exist. The answer lies in The Shake Shack experience. The perception is that being part of this young New York landmark is equivalent to being in the know. It's an initiation into cool. Burgers, shakes, and hot chocolate are pretty boring without the "cool" personal experience. As are most voiceover and freelance talent (boring without personality that is - not shakers by any stretch of the imagination.) However, it's not you that has to be cool. It's the experience of working with you. Take the focus off of yourself and you too might be able to sell a "combo meal" for well over market price.
As an experiment (and to practice what I preach... shudder,) beginning tonight throughout the rest of this month, I will remove the present styling and design from my voice-over website and simply leave a header, sidebar, and content area with links. That's it. Let's see what happens.
See you "on line."
-Anthony
P.S. For the record, I prefer Wendy's burgers for value in today's economy. Thank you. :)
Back in the days of "Lazy," I created a set of videos showing you how to have Google handle your domain's email. The idea was that Gmail provides such great features, especially spam filtering, that it would be best for you to have all of those same features within your own domain's emails. Despite filtering, email has become so intrusive that it causes productivity to suffer. As a freelancer, all we have is time and we need to use every minute of it wisely - while still being available for work. It's a challenge, because of the need to constantly check your email. But a challenge made much easier with Awayfind.
I "discovered" (I like to take credit for things) and wrote about Awayfind back in November of 2008. Now, it's all grown up with its latest incarnation, Orchant. If back in 2008 I called it a "secretary," it's since become my "executive assistant." Why? Well, aside from simply sending me a text about urgent emails, now it can also call me (and read me the actual email,) email me to any email address, tweet (DM) me, and even IM me! That's why when Jared Goralnick, contacted me about voicing the new video for Awayfind, I was honored and thrilled about telling a story about a product that I truly believe in.
If you know me, you understand how important it is for me to create time; Time for silence, time for craft, and time for fun. If I wanted to be miserable, I wouldn't have opted to become a freelancer in a line of work I love so much. Therefore, I can't allow myself to become overwhelmed with my choice of career and everything that comes with it. As long as email continues to be the preferred method of communication for myagents, manager, and clients, I will use Awayfind to sort it all out for me and ensure that I'm only interrupted when absolutely necessary.
This is the major reason why I don't have my number on my website - that's what I have agents for. Some of my colleagues don't agree with that, but in the end my focus is on continuing to improve on my self and my work. My clients - both existing and potential - will, in turn, benefit as well. (For the record, I do have my business number on my email signature.)
How do you balance being accessible and productive at the same time? I'd love to hear your opinion.
This time of year, it's easy to get overwhelmed with all of the business advice you'll find online, in magazines (remember those?), and in casual chats with colleagues. Everyone seems to have the answer for achieving success this year in one form or another. A term that has been coming up with more frequency than the bad Chinese takeout I had last night (sorry) is ROI - return on investment (intentionally not capitalized.) While this is an important measure, it's not as crucial as it's made out to be; At least not for everyone.
As I mentioned in "More Than MoMA," the problem is that who we are as artists is frequently overshadowed by who we feel we need to be as entrepreneurs; Better still, whom we are made to feel we need to be as business people. It's the beginning of the war of art. It's also common sense. If your product is not fully developed (in voiceover your product is your voice... your read,) then it's not ready to be marketed. No amount of measuring ROI is going to help you redirect your efforts into productive marketing if no one wants what you have to offer.
The real answer is actually quite simple - spend more time working on your product; on yourself; on your read. If you start redirecting too early on in your journey, you might end up going in circles. This is indeed a journey. Every individual talent carves her own path. What works for someone else will, most likely, not work for you unless you factor in all of the variables that directly apply to your business and experiences. Don't use someone else's numbers as a benchmark for making decisions in your career... especially in voice-over.
Instead, be inspired by someone else's success. Congratulate someone else on their success. Wish as much success for someone else as you would for yourself. But do not, under any circumstance, attempt to duplicate their success based on what they did or didn't do to achieve it. To quote Hugh MacLeod (from his best-selling book "Ignore Everybody:"
You are responsible for your own experience
Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb
Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside
Avoid the Watercooler Gang
There are no real benchmarks in this business. If there are, I'd like you to show them to me. Someone else's numbers do not a benchmark make. Everything is in constant change; in flux. It's the way of the Universe. Therefore, any benchmarks that exist are no longer in the same place they were just a second ago.
"Keep in mind that the calculation for return on investment and, therefore the definition, can be modified to suit the situation -it all depends on what you include as returns and costs. The definition of the term in the broadest sense just attempts to measure the profitability of an investment and, as such, there is no one "right" calculation."
The only resolution I have is to not have any resolutions. I do, however, set clear intentions around this time of year. One of my intentions is to live life outside of my vocal booth a bit more than I have been these past couple of years. That doesn't mean that I wish for less work; Quite the contrary - I anticipate more work. However, I also want to live more life through more experiences with the world, my environment, and people. By doing so, I will bring more of my self to my work; more humanity, if you will. In turn, the connection with the written word will become more... well... alive. This can only be done, if I am open and accept things as they unfold.
Yesterday, my intention was to see the Tim Burton exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (the MoMA) early in the morning and be back in my studio before work starts rolling in (usually around 12PM-1PM or so.) I knew that on weekends, the MoMA requires that you reserve time slots for this very popular exhibit, but they only suggest you do so on weekdays. I assumed (yeah, yeah, I know) that since they only suggested time slot reservations on weekdays that it wouldn't be busy; Especially after the holiday season. I was wrong.
To make a long story short, I did in fact arrive at the MoMA relatively early (around 11AM). I was greeted with a long line (that spilled out onto the sidewalk.) I was informed that the earliest available time slot for the Tim Burton exhibit was 3:30 PM. Killing time in New York, for me, translates into lots of walking, people watching, and Starbucks. Despite the freezing weather, I opened myself to experience what the day had in store for me. In turn, I was enriched.
By spending the day with an open mind and therefore a new "eye," I experienced and appreciated things that I would have previously ignored on my high-paced New York walks:
As a result of being open and slowing down, I was enriched by each of these experiences and inspired by the people that created them and, moreover, by the people that partook of them as well. The common thread was indeed LOVE. There was passion and dedication behind each one of those works and establishments. There was joy in the faces of people that visited them. There was gratitude. I, myself, was grateful for having my plans "disrupted," because whatever occurred yesterday, it was a reminder of why I got into this business of voiceover - my love of life, audio, and the written word.
In a way, who we are as artists is frequently overshadowed by who we feel we need to be as entrepreneurs. The end result is that we lose our passion for the work. We begin to focus on the technical and lose the ethereal. We kill the artist and therefore the art. It then becomes only words; Only talking. Only voiceover.
Did I inhale too much bus exhaust or have I been enlightened? Comments welcome.
We woke up yesterday, New Year's Eve, to only about two inches of snow. Not enough to make the quintessential snowman. But apparently enough snow for the not-so-ubiquitous snow owl. Kudos to the bank around the corner from my home for making do with what they had. For many, 2009 seemed to be the year for that.
The economy forced us to reevaluate those things we took for granted. And to do away with the little luxuries that didn't add much value to our lives. In a way, it made us more human. While some complained about their jobs, or lack thereof, I had what I consider to be my crossover moment in my voiceover career. Perhaps, companies wanted to push more movies, TV shows, and products in an effort to break out of the downturn; Or, perhaps, there was more money out there than we were led to believe by the doom-and-gloom news media. I don't know. What I do know is that I did more "voiceovering" in 2009 than any other year prior. The crossover itself occurred this Fall when I went from narrating the entire promo campaign for Latino in America on CNN to narrating special promos for their Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. The crossover occured when I narrated TV spots for Michael Bublé's latest album. It occurred when MTV allowed me to be a part of their push for the much-talked-about "Sherlock Holmes" All in English. It also occurred, ironically enough, when I was given the opportunity to write, translate, and voice the Hispanic TV spots for Overture Films' "Law Abiding Citizen." The Crossover Voice (a term coined by my voiceover coach, consultant, and friend, Marice Tobias) was born.
But now what? Now, the focus becomes sharper and the "burn" intensifies. For a couple of years I've gotten to work on so many of my ideas. The Meditation for Voiceover ebook, The Lazy Voice-over blog, DJ Movie Drops, ScratchAnthony.com... The list goes on. The problem has been that each of those ideas required its own website; Its own domain. I had too many pieces on the board and not one cohesive strategy. Moreover, I thought I could implement most of these ideas on my own, which took me away from the microphone. As good as some of these ideas were, there was no focus and not enough time to bring them to their full potential.
So, I took a page out Steve Rubel's hub and spokes "handbook" and created AnthonyMendez.com This blog - powered by Posterous and which I call Post-amp (after the Preamp. Get it?) - became, as Steve would call it, my "hub" and my other sites my "spokes." From here I will be able to connect and form relationships with people online. The focus is on relationships. Not marketing. I am, first and foremost, a person and then a voiceover. From this personal hub, those that want to know more about me and what I have to offer can go on to my different voiceover sites, including my main professional voiceover site AnthonyVO.com Approaching the New Year with new ideas and new ways of doing business seems like a natural way to continue to grow. But it doesn't take a calendar to push me to create and implement new ideas. That's just how I'm wired. What I will do very differently this year is allow others to help me. That's key in working on the launch for my Latitude Creative multicultural entertainment marketing company. That's key in allowing me to not only focus on voiceovers, but to continue to come up with fresh new ideas. And that's key in growing as a person. With that said, I will be closing some of my sites: Meditation for Voice-over and The Lazy Voice-over will be no more. The Lazy Voice-over will be archived in some fashion, but the M4VO site will be closed completely. I haven't found the time to create the audiobook version of it, and besides some of my ideas and approach to voiceover and meditation have changed dramatically (partly due to social networking and increased workload.) Things change and we along with it; We must. Here's to 2010 bringing about beneficial change both internally and externally. Be flexible in your approach to business and life and I can almost guarantee less stressful times as a result. Like they say in the Dominican Republic, "Be like the palm tree." (They don't actually say that, but if that phrase catches on, you heard it here first!) Happy New Year! -Anthony
This video was posted by my friend and fellow voiceover artist, Tom Ackerman, on the VO-BB. It is a testament to how small we are compared to the Universe, yet how powerful we are by having the ability to "map" such an immense and limitless space (at least some of it). Furthermore, I had absolutely no idea just how far our first radio waves have travelled!
I hope you're taking a break after the holiday and preparing for the New Year by doing absolutely nothing. I know I am.
Here's a quick video on how to create a download link for your mp3 or voiceover demos that automatically prompts the visitor to save it to their computer. The advantage of this technique is that it avoids an extra step for your visitor; They won't have to right-click (or CTRL+click on a Mac) and then choose to download it. More importantly, it won't open up the annoying embedded mp3 in the middle of a new or the same window. The latter is usually a result of having linked directly to your audio. I can think of other uses for this other than serving your demo. For example, if you change the "mp3" in the PHP code to say "aif" or "wav" and create a path to a folder on your website where you store your final voiceover files for your clients, you can then simply send your client a link to that file (formatted as described in the video) that will prompt them to download it; all without having to give them an FTP login and protecting your folder at the same time since you won't be revealing it in the link. I've attached the required php file to this post or download the ZIP'd file here.-Anthony
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