The Company Spokesman

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You put an amazing amount of work into making your business or product stand out in the marketplace.

Even something that looks very simple, like a short explainer or branding video, doesn’t just happen.

Before that video plays on your website, someone, somewhere had to come up with a concept, write a script, storyboard the entire thing, plan each shot and record and edit hours of video.

But that alone only tells part of the story.

That is when you bring in the company spokesman to deliver your message the way you want it done.

I’ve been building my brand as a trusted source of news and information for than 30 years, and I am grateful to now be the company spokesman in projects for HP, Shell, CB&I, BP and ConocoPhillips.

If these corporate giants and dozens of others have counted on me to deliver educational, safety and corporate messages… you can too.

Get the conversation started by email.kevin@kevincharlesvoice.com

Call or text: (281) 948-9750.

DIY Is Not For Everyone or Every Project

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We live in a Do It Yourself (DIY) world.

With the popularity Home Depot, Lowe’s, O’Reilly Auto Parts and AutoZone, I often find myself working harder on weekends than I do all week at my job. There is also an increasing number of Cable TV shows dedicated to making it look easy to take something from trash and turn it into treasure.

The key is it “looks” easy. But we all know that is not always the case.

I wish I could count on just one hand the number of times I have been so frustrated by a DIY project that I ended up calling a professional to finish the job for me, but that’s not going to happen.

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For example, just a couple of weeks ago when I decided I could change the ignition coils and spark plugs on my wife’s car. I spent hundreds of dollars on parts and several days studying online videos and how to guides. Then on a bright Saturday morning, I lifted the hood and started tinkering. A couple of hours later, the job was supposedly done; but the car would not start. Not good.

I tried and tried to figure out what I had done wrong and finally gave up and called my mechanic friend. One week and $500 dollars later we were back on the road. This was the second time I have had to call the same mechanic/friend to help me finish a job I started. He is now telling my family to not let me even touch a car again, except to drive it.

battery-19983_1920I am a fairly intelligent man with plenty of power tools at my disposal and yet I get in just as much trouble trying to do home improvement projects, and have been known to call in a plumber or other pro to fix what I started.

This scenario is not limited to projects we take on at home. Let’s say you are assigned a big project at work, so you dive right in as if you know how to do everything. You’re thinking about how great you will look to the boss when you get it all done by yourself.  Sure, it’s easy to breeze through the tasks that are right up your alley, but even if your name is Jack, its not likely that your last name is “of all trades.” At some point you are bound to encounter problems.

What does all this mean to you?  Next time you’re trying to tackle a big project, don’t be afraid to bring in professionals to help.  Need artwork? Hire an artist. Putting together a presentation for a client and you want to include a video? Put your phone to good use by turning off your camera and call someone who knows how to shoot great footage. The same goes for the voice you choose to narrate the project. Yes, you have a voice and you can read, but is that really where you shine? Find a pro.

In the end, you will save time and energy and you’ll end up with a presentation that has that professional look and sound. You know, the same look you will have in the eyes of your client and boss.

 

 

Anniversaries

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October 8, 2014 is a day I will remember for years to come. How I choose to remember it is the key.

It was on that day that I moved from my full time career in radio news to working from my home studio as a voice actor, a move which was not supposed to take place until a couple of years on down the line.

Thanks to an abrupt format change, News 92 FM ceased to exist that day and I  found myself in the unemployment line along with close to 50 of my friends and co-workers. While many of those people have moved on to other jobs, some in other cities, there are others who are still struggling to find their new normal. For me, the transition was a natural one. I had been building the foundation of a voice over business for years, working at night and on weekends to learn what I could and practice my craft.

I chose to view this as a positive move and look toward the future with a faith that God had not only opened a door for me, he led me right through it. I could have wasted my time grumbling and complaining about losing my  job, and I probably did my fair share of that… but when all was said and done I considered myself blessed to be in a position to start my own business, and that is exactly what I did.

In the first year of full time voice over work, I have recorded for some of the biggest names in the corporate world.  HP, BP, CB&I, Sunbelt Steel, CenterPoint Energy & McDonalds to name a few.  As for current projects, I am producing two audio books — The Battle of the Alamo, by Ben H. Proctor and The Battle of San Jacinto, by James W. Pohl.  These will be available soon through the Texas State Historical Association. As a native of Texas, I am beyond excited to be a part of these two projects.

I won’t say I don’t miss the old job on some days. I mostly miss the people. It is difficult moving from an active newsroom, interacting with people, to sitting alone in a booth at home everyday reading. I also miss the news makers I came to know, in particular the men and women of the Houston Fire Department.

So while some are marking this anniversary as a sad day, I am choosing to think of it as the first anniversary of my business and career.  Meanwhile, I am looking forward to what the next year holds.

Observations from a guy stuck in traffic on Earth Day.

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Have you ever really looked at all the debris that lines our highways?  That is what caught my attention Earth Day morning as I sat in traffic on the freeway headed for a 10 a.m. recording session near downtown Houston.

In just a two mile stretch I passed a bumper guard off the front end of a car, license plate still attached.  A few feet away, was what appeared to be the rear bumper guard from the same vehicle.

There was a broken step ladder, a five gallon bucket and a tarp that some work crew was probably already missing.  There was the usual assortment of trash and pieces of shredded rubber that must have been a tire at one time. Then I spotted some sort of car part, I think it was a starter.  Maybe it came from the same car that left its bumpers behind. Who knows?

On the trip home I came across two more bumpers, a wheel with no tire and a tire with no wheel.  There were scattered articles of clothing, which always makes me wonder… but not as much as when I see a single shoe.  Finally I passed a giant plastic lid to some sort of container that at one time had been held on with heavy duty straps.  The straps were still attached to the lid, but there was nothing underneath.

So what is my point?

Well, you might think I was concerned for the environment because of all this waste lying around.  After all, it was Earth Day. And while I am all for recycling and keeping things clean for future generations, I found another lesson in all of this.

We have too much junk in our lives. Useless stuff that piles up, gets in our way, slows us down and distracts us.  Some things we just cannot seem to throw away or sell, I get that.  I have my own stash of memories and assorted treasures that to most people mean nothing.

But some of what we all have is like those bumpers that were ripped off cars and left lying on the side of the road. Nothing more than constant reminders of the things we have messed up along the way. The mistakes and poor choices we have made.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just clear up all the things that constantly bring us down? Relationships gone sour, jobs left unfinished, regrets.

Perhaps a little house cleaning and street sweeping would be good for us.

Just think how much more productive you would be if you did away with the reminders of past mistakes and bad times and focused on the beauty of the world around us and not on all the junk on the side of the road.

 

What’s New?

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It’s a question we hear every day.  A sort of social greeting/rhetorical question with no serious answer required.

It’s like saying “What’s up?” or “How’s it going?”  A conversation starter at best.

IMG_5365But today, I do have something new to tell you about, so bear with me please.

Not only do I have a freshly remodeled studio, complete with an isolation booth for recording, my web site, kevincharlesvoice.com has a new look too!

After years of trying to put together a professional and functional web site showcasing my voice over work on my own, I finally hired a professional to do it for me.

I invite you to take a look around.  Just click the home button on the top of this page and it will take you right to kevincharlesvoice.com.

You’ll find plenty of samples of my work including commercials, narrations, imaging,  characters, e-learning and even audiobooks.

I have also included several videos that I have narrated recently.

So please, give it a test drive. Click on the links, listen to the demos and then feel free to let me know what you think.  You can do that by replying to this blog posting or you can respond using the contact form at the bottom of each page on the site.

Thanks.

 

How was your 2014?

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Happy New Year!

I was recently asked last week to describe 2014 in one word.  The first thing that popped into my head was “rollercoaster.”  That is what it felt like to me at least.  I went from some extreme highs to the deepest lows.

Much of that not so thrilling thrill ride came about thanks to the abrupt end to News 92 FM in October.

There were things I absolutely loved about working there.

I loved being surrounded by talented people all working toward a common goal.

I loved the opportunities it provided for me to interview some of my childhood heroes from NASA and to go behind the scenes there to see where America’s space program began and where it is going.  I was there when the big 747 that once carried the space shuttle back and to Florida after each mission was dismantled and slowly moved to its new home at Space Center Houston.

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And what a fantastic experience it was to witness the shuttle mock-up being lifted into place atop the big jet as the two pieces of history become a permanent exhibit to help teach our future generations about space travel.

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I loved working with the local theater groups to get the word out about upcoming shows, meeting actors, singers, dancers and getting to tell their stories.

I loved telling the stories of Houston Fire Fighters who risk their lives daily.  I was honored to meet many of them and their families and share their tales of triumph and tragedy with our listeners.

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea.

That part of my world came to a screeching halt on October 8, 2014.

Looking back, I thank God that I had more than that job going on in my life.  I was surrounded by a loving family who was there to pick me up and keep me moving forward.  I could easily have been thrown into panic mode when News 92 FM went away, but I had already set in motion a plan that would have eventually phased that out anyway.

Just weeks before, my brother and I spent a weekend defining the goals and laying the groundwork for the future of a voice over business that I had been dabbling with for years.  I had always hoped to one day be working at my passion full time instead of squeezing it into an already packed schedule.  The change that hit in October was much easier to handle because my life was no longer built around my work/occupation.  Instead, my work was just one of the parts of my life. Now when I talk about the changes that took place I can refer to it as the “loss of my biggest client” and clients can be replaced.

As I move into 2015 I am hoping to do just that. I am looking forward to a great year of meeting new people, establishing new relationships and building on the trusted friendships and bonds I already enjoy.

So the “rollercoaster” that was 2014 has ended, but there is a bigger and better ride just ahead.

Some Thoughts about Media Coverage of Tragic Events

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Working in the media as I do, Its difficult to see so much criticism of the coverage of events like the school shooting on Friday.  Yes we covered it “wall to wall” for several hours and its still a major story today.  It doesn’t mean that the other news stories we had prepared were not important in their own right, but at a time of such and enormous tragic event, people (listeners) want to hear what happened.  They want to try and figure out why it happened.  They’re searching for information and that’s the job of the media.  I don’t personally know where you draw the line and move on to other things when these things occur.  Its hard to determine when to go back to normal programming, because as soon as you do, someone else has just heard about the event and is turning to you for information, and if you don’t give it to them, you lose their confidence as a source of reliable information.  

Some say the media sensationalizes stories to make more money.  But on Friday, the station I work for actually dropped commercials in order to continue bringing updates.

Some say the media encourages shootings like this because with all the coverage, the bad guy’s become “famous” or “infamous” and their names become household names.  But while attention at first was focused on the shooter, who he was, what was his motive etc.. we were not trying to make him into a “household name” as some would accuse.  We were passing along the same information being given out by those investigating the case.  Today, they’re releasing the names of the victims and some of their stories.  In the coming days, they will be the focus as the families deal with the loss and people pay their respects.  I can only hope that that attention will help in the grieving process for the nation and for the families more directly involved.

While I can say most of the coverage we provided on Friday was necessary, I admit that I don’t really like the idea of photos and video of the grieving parents or the frightened children.  I didn’t care for the on camera interviews with kids who had escaped the shooting, complete with their parents standing there with them.  Kids who have been through this sort of ordeal should be with their parents talking, or with counselors  or ministers… someone who can help them, not a TV camera.  

These are just a few thoughts that came to mind this morning while going through my day, hearing and watching news coverage and seeing hundreds of facebook posts and tweets.

I think that now I will take my own advice and back off the listening and watching and reading for awhile and do some praying instead.

*Note:  The opinions reflected in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer…

Answered Prayers

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A couple of months ago I was in a particularly down mood and was getting more and more upset with how life was turning out for me and my family. It seemed that the harder we tried, the more problems we would encounter… it was everything from a lack of financial resourses, to car troubles, health issues, the death of Angie’s dad and all the stress that something like that brings.. I remember praying out loud in my truck on the way home from one of my late night shifts at 107.5 the Eagle. It was as if I were speaking to a friend sitting in the seat next to me.. On that drive home, I poured out my heart and prayed for change to take place.. I prayed that God would open my eyes to opportunities to better myself and our situation… and I had a faith that He would do just that.. what I didn’t know was what he really had already set in motion that I had not been able to see.

Here’s how it all unfolded… A few weeks before this prayer, I was given an opportunity to work part time at 89.3 KSBJ, (the station which uses the slogan “God Listens”) I had been a listener and fan of the station for a while.. Angie listened to it regularly…. and a friend of mine from another job had gone to work there and wanted to bring me on to work weekends. After they offered the job, Angie and I decided that I should turn it down, even though it would be a great ministry opportunity for me… We just didn’t want to give up our weekend time together. A reasonable decision… or so I thought at the time.

Then, the day I had the conversation with God on my way home from work, I remember reading a facebook post from my High School buddy Tim Allen… he said “If you want God to listen to you, maybe you should start listening to God…” hmmm.
I didn’t think much more about the KSBJ job at the time, but this statement kept coming back to mind… Perhaps I wasn’t tuned in to what God was telling me. The next day, I had an email from my KSBJ friend again offering to put me on the air in an upcoming opening…. This time I said to myself.. .maybe I should say yes this time… because there is a reason for it being offered again…. I decided maybe God wanted me to give up my selfish desire to have my weekends off… so I should give it a shot and see how it worked out. About a week later, I was at the radio station signing employment paperwork, getting ready to step out of my comfort zone and work on Christian Radio for the first time in my life and ready to give up my free time to do it. That evening after I got back home.. my email had a note in it from another radio friend, JP Pritchard. (former morning news host on KTRH) He said a friend of his wanted to talk to me…and I should call.. so I did. That was the beginning of my association with News 92 FM, the new News station coming to the Houston market in mid November. It was a whirlwind of activity over the coming days… starting a weekend shift on KSBJ… still working a weekend shift on 107.5… and still doing news every weekday on KSEV, AM 700.. Then came the offer from Radio One for me to come work with them on News 92 FM… My wife and I could not believe how quickly it all came together.. and we wanted to go tell everyone how good God was being to us…but we were under a Non Disclosure Agreement until yesterday…so we had to keep it to ourselves… Now I want to let the world know, that God does Listen… but we must listen to Him too. Pay attention to the details of your life and you just may see God’s hand moving in your daily life. I had given up on looking for a job.. I didn’t send either of these radio stations my resume until after they came to me asking for it.. .how did they know I would be interested? I can only imagine…

I say thanks to all who have offered prayers on our behalf during the past two years of off and on employment and most of all I thank God for being gracious enough to lead me through the tough times in preparation for what I am now beginning.

There are plenty of other God moments in the story… including the way He prepared me for this opportunity by putting me in a position to learn the news side of the business in the past 10 or more years… but I won’t go into all those details now….

Thats it for now… just remember, we often have to experience what has been called a Joseph Experience before we achieve what God has planned for us. Joseph was shunned by his brothers, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery and locked up in prison before he was raised to be a leader… I can now see how all of those things have happened in my life as well.

He’s still working on me!

Blessings
Kevin

A Life Full of Clutter

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I am not what you would call a pack rat, but I do have too much stuff. For some strange reason, I have trouble saying no when someone offers me something that appears to have value or that I might be able to use… some day.

Lets start by taking a look inside my garage. First of all, I only have half a garage because the other half got closed in and became my home studio/office. The other half has my pop up camper stored in it… but you cannot even get to the camper without unloading the top of it and moving things out from in front of it. Its mostly pieces and parts of past or current “projects” including scrap lumber, broken lawn equipment and other assorted items….most of which I will probably never use again and yet I cannot seem to part with them.

Just outside my garage sits my truck…. I could write an entire book about all the things I have in the cab of the truck alone. Boxes (to be used to pack some of the items which are cluttering my studio at this time…) CDs, a blanket, and a variety of other items too numerous to mention. I just don’t get it when I see other people’s vehicles parked at church or wherever and there is nothing in the seats… nothing to be seen at all.. where is all their stuff. Mine is in the front passenger seat, on the dash, in the glove box, on the console and in the floor both front and back not to mention the entire back seat and then there’s this “tool box” in the bed of the truck..
Its not so much loaded with tools as just an assortment of things I couldn’t find a place for elsewhere, but that were too good to throw away.

In the bed of my truck I have things I came back from Dallas with that need to be unloaded…(waiting for cooler weather) Actually I don’t know where I will put everything… you see I helped my brother move for a couple of days and I ended up with a roll of carpet leftovers… (it looked like it might go well in my studio/office…) I also came home with a ceiling fan (never been opened)… a kerosene heater… great for cold winters in Chicago when the power goes out … that’s what my brother said.. problem is, when power goes out here, its usually hot and because of a hurricane… hmm…maybe I should have said no thanks to that one…. I also have a microwave, a stovetop… (gas) and an oven… these are appliances that were built into my brother’s old kitchen…but were replaced to help modernize the kitchen when he was trying to sell the house. They’re in great shape but they won’t really go in my kitchen without a major remodeling job… Not likely to happen right now.. not to mention we have only electric in our current kitchen… not gas.

Something tells me I’ll soon be listing a few items on Craigslist..

I haven’t even mentioned the hundreds of record albums and 45’s in my closet and my office… I have turntables still.. (but no needles..) so I could still play them sometime… if I can find a replacement needle or two… There are CDs… Problably thousands by now… many I bought.. .many were given to me by friends or are radio station promo copies…. Most never get played… they just exist. Plus I have at least 3 spindles of homemade cds.. the kind you put something on but never labeled…and now you have no clue what is on them.. You probably have at least a few of those don’t you? Please tell me you do.. Oh yes, I have an assortment of audio equipment from studios that no longer exist… phone hybrids that would work if I still had a land line to connect them too…. cart machines and a reel to reel recorder, a bulk tape eraser… dozens of reels of old tapes containing who knows what… and then there’s a drawer filled with cassette tapes… mostly old airchecks from my days on the radio at Oldies 94.5 / 107.5 KLDE…There are hundreds of them still around.. and I threw away and gave away several boxes of them.

Finally for now, I have a cabinet in the kitchen and a shelf in the laundry room loaded with dark room equipment.. Yes I used to develop my own film and photos before the world of digital cameras and photoshop came along.. But I can’t just toss it in the trash…. can I?

Ok so maybe I am a pack rat… but I am not a hoarder… well not a serious hoarder… but I am the kind of guy who will sit in his driveway on neighborhood garage sale day…trying to get rid of some of this stuff… while eyeing a few items that my neighbors are trying to rid themselves of as well… sometimes we have simply traded our junk… They took mine and I got theirs… sounded like a good idea to me at the time but then I realized I was getting nowhere in my efforts to clean up some of the clutter.

I think I will stop writing now.. because as I look back at what I have already listed here… its giving me a headache… and besides, Its only cluttering up my blogspace…

Thank you for your support.

Kevin

Starting the Day With A Smile :)

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I started the day with a smile today, literally.

Its not something I would expect to have happen considering all that is going on in our world. Gas prices rising, budget cuts causing teacher layoffs, kids bringing guns to schools, political bickering and blaming on both sides of the aisle. These are tough times.

Even on a personal level, Angie and I have plenty on our plate to keep us worried and working. Her dad has been in the hospital for several days now and they still haven’t figured out exactly whats going on with him. Our oldest daughter Nikki was recently involved in a wreck and her car was totaled… Thankfully, she was not hurt badly but the car is gone and it wasn’t completely paid for yet. Our youngest lives in Long Island, New York. In the same county where officials have been uncovering bodies from a suspected serial killer who preyed on young women. Meanwhile here at home, Angie’s car is in the shop, and the repair bill which was only going to be about $650 may be about to triple because they say she is likely to need a new engine, not just new fuel injectors.

I’m sure there’s more but I think you get the idea.

Even so, I started the day with a smile as I walked out my back door on my way to my home studio in the garage and saw an Easter Lilly almost ready to bloom.

Many of you who know my wife and I, know that we are not good at keeping plants alive. Our grass grows well, but so do the weeds. In fact our grass grows better in the cracks of the sidewalk and driveway than it does anywhere else. Our flower beds are almost always getting attention, but it’s the attention of the homeowners association demanding that we at least try to make them pretty. Our patio is littered with lifeless pots, with little or nothing growing in them. We have the remnants of what used to be a beautiful ficus tree in the back yard… its now a twisted and broken mess of bare limbs and roots that didn’t make it through the last winter. The same story can be told of a huge philodendron in the back yard and what we always called a fiddle leaf fig plant. All dead or dying. But this Easter Lilly is something else.

Just a few months ago, we found the pot that has held this plant for several years laying on its side, with about half the dirt falling out. We suspect a cat tried to bury something there or maybe it was the dog….I gave it up for dead, but it is back. And its right on time. It has been through its tough times in the past year, just like we are experiencing now, yet it keeps coming back each year at Easter to show us new life. Just like everything it symbolically represents. It remains constant each year and renews our faith that God will see us through all the things we face and that we have hope for our future.

Happy Easter

Kevin