A fabulous 10 hour day

My morning began at 7:50 AM when I rolled out of my hotel room bed in Pittsburgh (where I’ve been for a couple of days on a business trip) and with a decided spring in my step. For weeks now, Dan Nachtrab and Ben Wilson and I had been planning to meet for lunch in Columbus, Ohio.
I’ve talked with both of these guys either on the phone or on the Internet for months. We’ve emailed thoughts and ideas about voiceover work. I’ve offered suggestions on their demos when they’ve asked for feedback. And now, I was going to get to meet both of them in person, share a meal together and hopefully enjoy some good conversation.
I knew it would take about 3 hours to drive from Pittsburgh to Columbus. And we had agreed that we would meet at Champps Americana restaurant

in the Eaton Mall.
Strangely enough, I ended up being the first to arrive. This was mainly because my drive actually ended up taking only 2 hours and 55 minutes and I’d left about 5 minutes before I really needed to. A few minutes later, Ben walked through the door. I recognized him right away from both a photo I’d seen and from a television commercial for MAC tools that I’d seen him in on ESPN2. Just before Ben arrived, Dan had called to say he was running a bit late, so Ben and I got a table where we could see the door and sat down to talk and wait.

Just a few minutes later, in walks Dan. He has a couple of toys with him, including an incredible digital camera by Samsung and his new digital phone, which he’s holding here.

We had lunch together and all told talked basically non-stop for 4 solid hours, and could easily have kept going for several more I’m sure. But I had an appointment I had to get back to Pittsburgh for at 6:30 PM, so we all left the restaurant at 3:30.
Both Ben and Dan had insightful things to say. We talked about a wide range of subjects, not just voiceover work; but of course, we did discuss voiceover work quite a bit. I thought much about several things as I drove back across Eastern Ohio, the panhandle of West Virginia and on into Pittsburgh this afternoon.
This in particular. At one point late in our discussion, when I had talked about how uncomfortable I am with doing cold calls looking for new voiceover jobs, Dan leaned across the table toward me and said, “You’re very good. You know that, right?”
I nodded, not quite sure what to say.
“These people, when you call them. Do you understand, they want to talk to you? They want to talk to someone who is really, really good.”
Whew! Like I said, I had a lot to digest and not just the Reuben.
It was a very good day. Almost 6 hours of driving sandwiched around 4 fabulous hours of enriching, lively and intensely fun conversation and lunch. Thank you, Dan and Ben for an exceptional day.
I leave you with this final image, of Dan and Ben (Dan’s on the left) at our table.

PS: I arrived at my appointment back in Pittsburgh with 5 minutes to spare!