You may know that I’ve created a bit of a sh*tstorm in voiceoverland last week, by calling out Carin Gilfry, the VP of the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA), for something she said about Fiverr at a panel during VO Atlanta.
After my video, Carin clarified that she had not been speaking on behalf of NAVA, and that she thinks Fiverr is “problematic in many ways.”
As the storm was raging, many colleagues came to Carin’s defense, and gave me a verbal beating about attacking a person who has and is doing so many positive things for our community.
But you know… I can dish it out, but I can also take it.
In fact, I’m used to it. When I dared to make some critical remarks about the very first Voice Arts Awards, I received some very strong worded messages from disappointed people who thought I was “such a nice guy.”
When I called voices dot com out, some colleagues thought I was attacking them personally, because they were still on the site.
When I published a piece about a coach who promised his students they would make thousands of dollars on Fiverr if only they bought his program, I received intimidating texts and threats from his followers.
Look, I have better things to do than seek out conflict in my community. But the fact is that I am conflicted about certain things I see happening. And as the chief curator of content in my small business, I feel the need to speak out, even if it’s unpopular.
A message I often get is this:
“Paul, you often seem to write about the things that others are thinking, but don’t dare to say out loud.”
A few days ago, someone with a very good name in the business, someone I highly respect, called me and said: “Mate, I usually agree with you, but you’re wrong about Fiverr, and it’s damaging your reputation.”
I told him: “My reputation is the last thing I think about. The ISSUE is always more important than my EGO.”
Besides, if there’s one reputation I may have in my community, it’s that of a guy who’s not afraid to push some envelopes and stir a few pots. It gets people talking, and it’s very good for my SEO. It beats being vanilla.
That doesn’t mean I’m always right. I keep on telling people that I’m only giving my OPINION based on what I know and believe at that time. In fact, I told Carin I regret calling her out, and she replied: “I hear you, and no hard feelings.”
By the way, I’m still not crazy about Fiverr, but Carin’s really cool.
You’ve made 9 videos in the past 2 weeks about NAVA/Fiverr, repeating the same points each time. Is it not tiring? Or are you clinging to this topic because your “courage” has gotten you clicks and views?
Once again, this post could have been written without mentioning Carin at all. But it gets people talking, so why not, eh?
Hi Jeff, if you’re keeping score, I’ve published 3 videos about the issue and there’s one more coming, which is basically a narrated version of the blog you’re commenting on. Why the repetition? What’s old news to you, maybe new to someone else, so if you feel it’s repetitive, ignore the story and move on! But here’s how our memory works: what people hear the most, they will remember. Every new toastmaster student knows you’ve got to emphasize your main point several times.
You probably know that, if you want your content to stand out from the rest, it also helps to write something that’s controversial. Why -as a content creator and content marketer – wouldn’t I want clicks and views? Is it wrong for authors to want to be read? Don’t you want your audiobooks to be listened to?
Of course clicks and views are only a means to an end. The end goal (and I repeat myself), is to have people think about a certain topic, and make up their own mind. In this case the topic was Fiverr. What I didn’t think would happen was that many readers focused in on me calling out Carin. As I said in an earlier video, that was a deflection and a distraction.
The positive side-effect of all of this hoopla, is that NAVA got a lot of attention, which can only be a good thing for them, and for Carin.
” if you want your content to stand out from the rest, it also helps to write something that’s controversial” – thanks for the reminder.
I keep forgetting that I DO write controversial fiction – and am trying to market it as if it were NOT controversial but only a ‘good story.’ Well, I still think it’s good – but part of that is a thorough treatment of an ethical quagmire – built in from the very beginning of a long trilogy, and maybe I need to push that.
We read fiction about things we don’t want to live – but want to experience.
When you look at what makes the news, it’s not the bland unremarkable every day events that catch the attention. It’s the exceptional, the bizarre, and the unusual. A thousand airplanes taking off and landing safely is no news, but the one that crashes is. I’m not saying we should let planes crash to get attention, but we can use controversial topics to get people to listen.