Thursday, June 6, 2013

Creativity Tips: Housekeeping Happens

When I do "Voice of God" announcements for clients, we always have the housekeeping list -- here's where the exits are, here's where the bathrooms are, turn the damn cellphones off. That kind of thing. Said, of course, in a far more genteel way.

I now need to do blog housekeeping. Pretend you can hear me saying this in my most authoritative voice:

If you read the CI blog in Google Reader, you probably know this, but ... Reader is going away July 1, 2013. So, now would be a great time to sign up for the blog via email! There's a handy-dandy little button thing on the blog where you can do that. Or, if your email is already overwhelming (I'm with you), there are no doubt other wonderful options out there. My buddy Steve has been trying Netvibes.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

P.S. I was writing for a tradeshow in Vegas once, just working backstage. The official Voice of God got drunk or something and didn't show up. Soooooo, the producer came over and said:

Producer: Weren't you in radio or something?
Jan: Yep. Radio.
Producer: Then you can do the Voice of God announcements.
Jan: Well, I wrote 'em. Guess I can read 'em.

So I did. Really, really challenging. I told the ladies and gentlemen to take their seats. You know what happened? They took their seats. And I heard the producer's voice in my headphones:

Producer: How the hell did you get them to move that fast?
Jan: That, my friend, is the Voice of Mom.


2 comments:

Bud Simpson said...

Mom,

I found NetVibes to be frustrating. Switched over to Feedly this week, and while it doesn't mach Reader exactly, the transition is seamless - just log in with your Google ID and it migrates automagically.

I do VOG announcements at work and sometimes they're effective. Maybe your audience has to want to be led into the desert.

p.s. You still have a great voice. I'd obey in an instant. (8-))

Jan said...

Thank you for the Feedly advice, Big Bunny! I need to switch my stuff, so I'll do that. And if I heard you doing a VOG announcement, I would absolutely jump to it! :-)

(Thank you for the compliment. I hear myself go into radio voice now and then. It always makes the girls laugh.)