We Come in Peace

Okay, so I’m a dreamer. A sci-fi nerd. I want to believe. But in my entire life, I’ve never seen a ufo. Until last night. It was about 10pm when I stepped out on the deck to catch some fresh air. Off to the south and west was a flashing blue light. Now, there was a low cloud cover, so I figured it had to be a plane making it’s approach on the Des Moines Airport and the moisture in the clouds was making it appear blue. But I stood there for some time waiting for it to come out of the clouds and into clearer view. For twenty minutes it just hung there. Then it dipped and moved to the west very quickly. I was obviously not the only one watching, because from two doors down I heard an excited gasp at the sudden movement and one of my neighbors say, "Wow did you see that?"

It was at this point that I was curious enough to call the Sheriff’s Office. Now, please don’t think I’m a complete nut case here. My dad was the Sheriff for twenty years and I still know most of the folks there. And I didn’t call 9-1-1, I just used the regular office number. When the dispatcher answered, I identified myself and explained the situation. I asked him if anyone else had reported seeing this flashing blue light and he told me they’d had several calls and an officer was on the scene investigating. Well, at least I wasn’t crazy. I continued to watch that blue light for another ten minutes or so when it finally started to rain, driving me indoors.

I went to the internet to see if there was a blurb on the local tv news site, but nothing was mentioned. I decided to hit the hay, knowing that it would be big news for the morning programs. Nothing, nada, nyet. Not a mention on our local stations. Just before I left for work, curiousity got the best of me and I called the Sheriff’s Office one last time. "Well if it isn’t Steve Mathews", the dispatcher answered. (Told ya they know me.) "What’s up?" "I was just curious about the flashing blue light from last night". "What flashing blue light from last night?" "Oh, now don’t even try that one, when I called the deputy said you’d had a number of calls and there was an officer on the scene". "Oh, well then we should have a report here somewhere." A moment of pushing papers…and, "Oh my, we did have a few reports..on Iowa, from Kenwood, others from Ashland." (All streets in Indianola.) "So what was it?" I finally demanded. "Oh, here it is…a kite with a blue light tied to it." "You’re kidding." "Nope, that was it." I laughed, told my wife the mystery was solved, and headed off here to work.

I’ve got to tell you, that made my day. Jump started the imagination and finally made me wonder how they got a blue light that bright up on a kite. Okay, so the kite story’s probably a massive cover up and the aliens have taken over Indianola City Hall. That would explain why they made smoking in public parks illegal. And while I really do want to believe that, reality rears its ugly head and makes me applaud some kid with a good kite and a bright blue light.

That’s it, that’s all. No business analogy here. Just a thanks for giving me something to think about for over a half hour on a Tuesday night in small town Iowa. To all of you…keep your kites a flyin and your blue lights a flashin’ and we’ll leave the mic on for you. Though I’d still love to know how they did it.

The Character is You

You’re right. I recently received an e-mail from one of our "Voice Class" students reminding me that this is a "Voice Blog" and I should be talking about doing voice overs. Fine! I can do that.
One of the things I start out teaching in my class is that it’s always easier to hide behind a character voice. You know what I’m talking about. You always add a little more energy and fun to any "fake" voice you might be doing. It seems that doing someone else’s voice makes it okay to do a little more acting, add a little more pizzazz. And that’s fine. But the call for character voices is miniscule compared to the need to find real people who can interpret a script.

If you’re interested in becoming a voice actor, I would recommend you pick up any piece of script and perform it in your real voice, then as your favorite character. If you can afford one of those cheap digital recorders, it’s always a good idea to record yourself and listen back. You’ll usually find that the character voice has a little more fun to it. So, what does that teach us? That we’re more comfortable being someone else. Believe me, it’s universal.

I tell my students to create a character…that’s you. Honest, it works. You don’t have to come up with a back story, because you already know it. But this forces you to step outside yourself and see you as a commodity. If you owned a business, would you hire you to do your commercials? How can you improve on you? Your voice that is. Do you sound like you’re reading the script, or do you sound as if you really believe what you’re saying?

Spend some time listening to the pros on radio and t.v. commercials. What is it about their performance that you like, or don’t like. Try emulating them in the privacy of your car on your way to work or running errands. It’s a great way to find out if you might have what it takes to be in this crazy business.

Now, get back to having fun, keep practicing your communication skills and we’ll leave the mic on for ya.

Driving Ettiquette or Thanks Mr. Mammon

Mr. Mammon was my high school driving instructor. He was also the wrestling coach, but that’s not important right now. Coach Mammon reminded us that, when driving, we were in command of a 3000 pound piece of metal full of flammable materials and that it might be important to keep that in mind as you’re driving amongst hundreds of other 3000 pound pieces of metal full of flammable materials at speeds of 65 to 80 miles an hour. He taught us that you have to know what’s going on around you at all times. Check the rearview and side mirrors frequently, check your blind spots, drive with patience and good manners and, by all means communicate. Use your turn signals when making turns or changing lanes.

Hmmmmm. It seems to me that there are tons of life lessons to be learned from that, especially if you’re in business. We need to know what’s going on around us at all times. What’s changing, what are other similar businesses doing? Is it time to change lanes? But most importantly, we need to communicate. We need to let employees and customers alike know where we’re going and how we’re going to get there. For many, that communication will be a mix of internal meetings and external advertising, but for all the message must be clear, concise and consistent. Ahh, the three "c’s" of communication.

So, the next time you’re overwhelmed by the fact that you’ve maneuvering your business through heavy traffic, just remember to check your mirrors, manage with patience and good manners and, by all means, communicate.
Now, Mr. Mammon also taught us that the most important aspect of driving is to "Maintain the Steady Flow of Traffic". I’ll let you know when I come up with a business analogy for that one.

Now get right back to having fun, and we’ll leave the mic on for ya.

Anti Branding Works

Okay, so we all know about branding these days. How it’s all about positioning our company in the public’s mind so that we’re in, at least, the top three of the marketing categories we want to dominate. Well, for the sake of this blog, let’s assume your eyes haven’t glazed over and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Now, for the sake of argument, let’s say that there’s "Anti Branding". No, really…I was watching this Discovery Channel program about matter and anti matter, and I’m now more convinced than ever that "Anti Branding" is real and behind some of the most successful campaigns in advertising history.

Sure, I’ve got an example. A great example. It’s the State of Iowa. I’m not sure that most non-Iowans know it, but our fair state is the land of milk and honey. I’m not joking here. We’ve got it all…mountains, oceans, lakes full of hungry fish, golf courses where all the greens are terraced to feed your ball directly to the cup, hot and cold running beautiful people, wi fi internet paved into every road so that you’re always connected, and the governor is on a first name basis with everyone that lives here..not just the powerful few. But understand our dilemna here, if everyone knew about Iowa, everyone would want to live here…then, we’d be just another California.

So, years ago…the brilliant advertising minds that lived here decided they had to do something about it. They began the first ever "anti branding" campaign. Through the rumor mill, the earliest version of the internet, those marketing genious’s let it be known that Iowa was a cornball state full of hicks. They started stories of cattle running wild in the streets, pigs everywhere, wild horses gone amuck, no culture and very little education beyond the third grade. They even hired Grant Woods to come up with a graphic. You remember American Gothic. And you thought it was just a painting.

"So Steve," you ask, "did it work?" You bet it worked. People today make jokes about Iowa all the time. There’s even a Hallmark card out there that reads, "You’ve been transferred to Des Moines?" and when you open it up it says "What did you do wrong?" It worked so well that people in this state don’t even know what we have. I recently learned that the architect for the "Iowa Hall of Pride" was hired out of New Jersey and the voice talent hired to do the commercials is out of Connecticut. Boy, did it work. Those early marketing moguls even convinced the people at Rand McNally to leave all of the mountains, oceans and any interesting topography out of any and all maps of the state.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and let you know that while the advertising force is strong…I think the dark side is stronger. You may just want to use the Iowa example and think about "Anti Branding" for your next client. And please don’t come visit Iowa. You might just learn the truth. And that might just tragically undo years of successful misdirection.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll leave the mic on for ya.

A Garage is a Garage is a Garage?

When I was just a little guy, growing up in a small town in Iowa, my dad used to take the family car to Kale’s Garage. It was just a little cinder block building on the highway. Nothing special. Just a one bay, one mechanic business. Now, we’re talking the late 50’s and early 60’s here, no computers, no blinking lights. So what made it such a treat when Dad let me tag along? The people. Leo Kale always had a way of making you feel welcome. The scene was always the same. Leo working on the car and a bunch of guys standing around on a Saturday morning, watching him work, drinking coffee. I always had a Grape Nehi.

There was no pretention. Leo was a great mechanic, people trusted him and they liked him. That was it. Funny thing is, I remember thinking that if ever I had a business, this was how I wanted it to be. Pop in the fridge, people welcome to drop in. You’re not in the way, you’re a friend. I think maybe that’s part of the reason I named an audio studio “Radio Garage”. That and the fact that my first studio was literally in my garage.

Today, we’re all about branding, worrying about how we’ll appear to our customers. It is, in fact, more a slogan than a belief. More a business plan than any sort of personal commitment. So, fellow entrepreneurs, take a look back at what motivated you to start your business to begin with. Maybe it will help you in your “branding” campaign.

Two Speak or Not Two Speak

In our last blog, we talked about creativity. It should be painfully clear by now that I have a personal thing about standing out. So, let’s talk about another way to help get your message through the noise. Two voices. How’s that for simple? Two voice commercials really do cut through the clutter on a number of different levels.

Have you ever been to a party with a lot of people? Of course you have, you’re in advertising and that makes you witty and very popular. Try to remember the last party you attended. Imagine for a moment that you were involved in a fascinating conversation with an extraordinary man or woman. You know the type, attractive, probably a Nobel Prize winner, and one heck of a conversationalist. But just a few feet away two others are having another conversation. Now, I don’t care how shallow they may be, it’s just human nature that you’re going to try to eavesdrop. Seriously, you may be on the verge of hearing the cure to cancer, but your ear just has to bend toward that “other discussion”. You know it’s true. Don’t even try to deny it.

So, what can you learn from this slice of life that will make your next commercial really cut through? Two people talking to each other. Not to the listener, but to each other. There’s an old used car axiom that goes, “People hate to be sold anything, but they love it if you’ll help them buy something”. In advertising terms that translates to, “People hate to be told anything, but they love to be let in on something”.

And please do your best to make it real. A real conversation wouldn’t include the address now would it? “Oh, you really saved money on your proctology exam?” “Yes, I did and it was easy at Bob’s Proctology Mart at 11672 132nd Street.” I recommend you splurge and hire a third voice to fill in any detail you feel necessary.

“But Steve, won’t that cost more?” And I’ll reply, “Why, yes. Yes it will.” On the other hand, how much are you spending on your run of schedule? Doesn’t it seem logical to get the most bang for your buck? If two or three hundred extra dollars spent on production will get your message through the clutter then I’m thinking it’s worth it. I probably should have written this entire blog in “two voice”format. It might have kept your attention better. Now, get back to having fun and let us know if we can help on your next project.