True Friends are Always There

When Carolanne and I were at the very beginning of this business, back when we were just talking about the idea, a friend of mine from the past named Todd Mayfield kept coming to mind time and again. It had been seventeen or eighteen years since I had talked to Todd, who I had worked with in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was an incredibly talented graphic designer at the same firm where I was an Intern Architect. He had this funny quirky sense of humor, a great laugh, bright smile, and was quick to pull a prank.

Thanks to Facebook, I found him in Florida; still doing graphic design. And within a week, Carolanne and I were talking with him about our BarkingWife idea.

With Todd, it was like the years had never gone by, and I had just seen him yesterday at the office. True friendship never dies and is always there no matter how much time passes. Todd saw our vision and sent us as a present, a BarkingWife logo idea. When Carolanne and I saw what he designed we were ecstatic and knew it was close to perfect. We LOVED the logo. We were in awe. It was like seeing the first ultrasound of your baby. I kept staring at the picture; wondering what the future held, and how it was going to change my life.

By the way, Todd still has his funny quirky sense of humor, a great laugh and bright smile. As to the quick to pull a prank, well, just get to know him and find out for yourself. Here is his info: Todd Mayfield, Mayfield Creative, www.mayfieldcreative.com (Thanks Todd for our logo. We still LOVE it!)

Cheers,
Holly

A Voice for BarkingWife.com

(Originally written in January 2010) We just finished a recording studio session recording with Jim and Peggy. We recorded the first set of Reminder Calls for BarkingWife.com. To say that we had fun and laughed really hard would be minimizing how much fun we had.  Jim, who can make his voice sound like anyone you want, is one of the best in the industry. He had us laughing so hard we were doubled over with tears in our eyes. The problem was, we had to be super quiet so as to not interrupt him while he was recording. I felt like we were two girls in church trying to not laugh out loud; a near impossibility. I think my favorite was listening to him record the Drill Sargent character for the BarkingWife All Stars, Take out The Trash campaign. He was shouting, and spitting and caring on! Carolanne and I felt like we should drop and give him 50 pushups!

And then Peggy, Jim’s wife, started recording the oh so sexy and suggestive characters of the Flirtatiously Persuasive Ladies for the Take Out the Trash campaign. It sounded to us like things were getting a little hot and steamy over in the Kipping’s recording studio! In one of the Reminder Call scripts,  Peggy had to growl  – like a sexy growl. Jim, who was directing her, must have had her growl twenty different times just to get The Perfect Growl! Who knew there were so many different ways to do a sexy growl? Me? I would have been way too embarrassed to do that.

Hearing the messages that Carolanne and I wrote come to life by Jim and Peggy was beyond cool. It has taken Carolanne and me a couple of months to write almost 200 Reminder Call scripts. We have had many late nights writing and re-writing so that all the messages were as good and funny and entertaining as we could possible make them. Now, Jim and Peggy have literally breathed life into them. Our crazy business idea now has a voice and a sound. I can’t believe BarkingWife.com is starting to become a reality.

Chances are, you have heard Jim’s voice before. He has done voice work for Netflix, Sonny Delight, NBC, BMW, Geraldo At Large, Gold’s Gym, MMI, OuiFM Paris, Promenade Software Tokyo, and literally thousands of commercials. You can hear lots of his demos on his website www.jimkipping.com. Jim and Peggy are not only talented, but they are just down right wonderful people as well. They are very active in Cocker Spaniel Rescue of Austin/San Antonio http://www.austincockerrescue.org/, saving many adorable cocker spaniel dogs from terrible circumstances. Talented, wonderful, funny… what else can I say about them? They Rock!


Cheers,
Holly