Hello to all of my friends & colleagues! I know some of you had a rough week and things may still be a bit wonky so I hope everybody is at home safe & sound, warm & working.
I was one of the very lucky ones here in Northern New Jersey. I lost power for only two hours last Monday night and it took just a couple of days for heat & hot water to be restored. That and losing cable/internet access for a chunk of the day on Friday added up to nothing more than a few minor inconveniences. Like I said, lucky!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
The 2012 New York Voiceover Mixer is on!
This is one of the great VO events of the year. I’ve been to the first four and I’ll never miss one. Click on the image above to learn more and to RSVP. Be there!
So two weeks ago I put together my quarterly newsletter via Vertical Response and one of the first things I did is update the mailing list. It’s always been a pain! Why? Because I have my ACT! database, my Outlook contact list, and now my PerformerTrack contact list. These databases aren’t synced so I have to export everything as a .csv file then import them into Vertical Response. Stinks, right?
As I was slogging through all this, I also realized that my cell phone contact list needs to be part of the mix. Ugh.
I then realized that my phone is a Samsung Galaxy S2, an Android phone which is powered by Google. The first time I activated the phone, it asked me for my Gmail address (an address I never use) and then it did all sorts of interesting things.
So this is what I did: I exported all of my contacts from all of my databases into Gmail. Now Gmail is my new CRM database. Then I exported that new consolidated contact list into Vertical Response. Then I deleted ACT!. Yes, my CRM database of almost ten years, gone!
Then I poked around in my phone and discovered that my Auto-Sync function was never turned on. So I turned that on and my phone contact list is now synced with my Gmail contact list.
(BTW there are now many, many duplicates of certain contacts in my phone, too many to merge. Has that happened to anyone?)
My next step will probably be to delete my PerformerTrack account. It’s a great service, but if I took the time to enter every single audition & booking I do every day, I would be spending my entire day doing nothing but that!
I also found out that you can directly import your Gmail contact list into Vertical Response, but I always get an error message. Any ideas?
Another thing I want to do is sync my Microsoft Outlook contact list with my Gmail contact list. I found this page:
Will this sync those accounts or merely import the Gmail contact list just once?
So, to recap:
Instead of having ACT! as my master contact list and my other un-synced lists being Outlook, my phone, Vertical Response, and PerformerTrack…
…Gmail is now my master contact list and it is synced (or will be synched soon) to Outlook, my phone, and Vertical Response. The result: Less lists and all of them synced!
TIP OF THE WEEK: My Accountabilibuddy Trish Basanyi and I were discussing how to effectively manage workflow as a voice talent. We agreed that it’s like an assembly line.
The work comes in; you QA the script, confirm the recording & delivery parameters, record the script, edit & mix the sound file, deliver the sound file, and invoice the client. Next!
You need to have an effective workflow when it comes to managing your client database as well. It needs to be easy to access & update. It also needs to be accessible when you’re on the road so the ability to sync it with your master list is critical. You never know who you need to get in touch with!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic. Anais Nin
STUFF!: Since I’ve had a lot of time for, shall we say, rainy day activities? I got to watch a lot of fun movies this past week. They included:
Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Clue, Meatballs, Edward Scissorhands, The Ref, and The Animatrix. Good stuff!
From Tom’s apartment, this is Tom Dheere; GKN News…