Erggo

Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

This Date in My History

Do You Feel Like Giving Up?

This Date In My History  is an ongoing series of blog posts taken directly from my private journal entries written at least 10 years ago.

TDIMH — Friday 16 April 2004 1:20pm

Sometimes I just feel like giving up.

No, I don’t mean on my life — just on this whole voice-over dream. I allow myself to feel confidence and think that I am talented and a capable engineer until things happen that make me think I am deluding myself.

This week, I’ve had 2 incidents — one minor, one major — that have really made me question myself and make me wonder whether I should quit. Yes, I know that:

  • These stresses are  temporary, a reaction, and something that will pass.
  • I don’t want to get to my later life and think “what if I had kept going with voice-over” or “I wish I had followed my dream”.
  • [I was reminded of] the story about the gold miner who sold his rights after years of fruitless search and frustration, only to discover the next day that the new owner found gold just 3 feet away from where he stopped. You never know how close you are to the gold.
  • And remember Mel Fisher and the Atocha — 17 years before he found it.

However, I also know that my life would be sooo much simpler if I just went to work, came home and watched TV like everyone else.

The minor thing that happened was that [Client A] at [Company A] had some unflattering comments about one of my reads for the commercials. He said it had an accent and asked “where ARE you from?” Since I’m in the speech class to improve, I could laugh at this exchange, especially when he told me that he knew it wasn’t a Southern accent. [My teacher] listened to the read and told me that any time someone hears something different that they label it as an accent.

The major thing that had me questioning this career choice occurred today. The girl at [Company B] called today and said that my files contained way too much sibilance. She said it was distracting to listen to for an hour, and she couldn’t use it the way it is. Great. I had only spent 7+ hours in creating it, and now it has a problem. I told her I’d try to experiment with software to reduce the sibilance.

I was somewhat relieved that she called back a short while later to say that someone has told her it was fine the way it was. On the first call, she said another person said they could hear the sibilance but didn’t find it troubling. She’s working with a contractor who had previous experience with TV, and apparently, the contractor is the one who said it was sibilance and caused by microphone placement.

Of course, these conversations made me feel extremely stressed. Not only am I being told about 2 problems — my incorrect placement when making S sounds and an hour-long presentation that is full of them — but I’m hearing about it while on my day job where I can do absolutely nothing about it.

I had already planned to take 3 hours of leave today so I could [run a bunch of errands] and then find some way to spend an enjoyable few hours….  I did NOT intend to rush home and start working on fixing this sibilance problem.

All the way home, I felt upset thinking about the situation  and wondering if I should just forget my whole dream. I’m tired of struggling all the time. I know that it all should be a learning experience, but I’m tired of learning. When will I be considered the master? I love the voice-over part and wish I could leave the audio engineering to someone else. When will that happen?

I downloaded a de-esser plug-in for Cool Edit and experimented for over 2 hours with it. I forgot to say that when I turned on my computer, I got an email message that seemed to be a direct answer to my thoughts, today’s motivational quote of the day:

You are where you are today
because you’ve chosen to be there.

True, but I didn’t choose to have all these problems.

I sent her a couple of MP3s with the sibilance reduced. I’ve decided that I will send a CD of everything on Monday with the sibilance reduced, with another CD with the files in their original state since I have to record some slides over due to script changes.

I talked to Drew when he got home. Of course, I’m not going to give up. I truly believe that I am destined to be a star. I’m stressed, exhausted, frustrated, needing a vacation desperately, and depressed about Daddy [who had passed away 6 months before this entry], but I’m not willing to give up on my dream.

I think — no, I KNOW — that all of these other factors have made me feel so overwhelmed and cause me to react so negatively to a problem. I need to keep in mind that a problem is just an opportunity to learn something (even if I don’t want to).

Today’s Take-Aways

1.  BREATHE. When you feel overwhelmed or stressed, take a moment to take some good, deep breaths. Chances are that your problem is not as big as it first seems.

2.  At the time, I didn’t understand how much my grief over the loss of my much-beloved dad infiltrated every part of my life. I looked like I normally did. I acted like everything was normal. Inside, though, everything was NOT normal. If you’re grieving, go easy on yourself and postpone any life-changing decisions until you feel stronger.

3.  You also don’t want to make life-changing decisions based on one bad day. Problems are inherent in any job. You have to take the bad with the good, and problems can steer you off course. However, with determination, you can make course corrections and get back on the path of your dream!

4.  You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t occasionally have doubts. It helps to talk to someone you trust and/or write in a journal to remind yourself of all your good qualities and capabilities that will lift you up when you feel like giving up.

5. The real take-away here is that I was much too critical of myself. I could’ve let the OPINION OF ONE PERSON keep me from my dream and my destiny! Don’t give away your power to another person. When it comes to your dream, yours is the only opinion that matters!

Bonus Round of Comments for Voice Talent

I was writing about a problem with sibilance. I actually went back and listened to that 10-year-old file. While I did hear some sibilance on a few words, I’ve heard much worse sibilance issues in new audiobooks from experienced talent! And when you consider the script was as overrun with S sounds as trees in Georgia are choking in kudzu, I’m amazed that I didn’t end up sounding like Sylvester the cat! 🙂

I added a sample here for your reading pleasure; you really need to read it aloud to get the full joy from it. Note that the full script had dozens and dozens of occurrences of Sarbanes-Oxley!

Sarbanes-Oxley aims to increase investor confidence by introducing a whole new level of accountability for senior corporate executives by holding them personally responsible for their company’s financial statements….The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is comprised of 11 distinct areas or titles. Each title contains additional sections which clearly outline responsibilities, requirements, and penalties.


 

Hogan’s Prescription for Success

This Date in My History is a series of blog posts taken from my private journal entries from at least 10 years ago.

TDIMH — Tuesday 20 January 2004 11:18pm on my sofa

When I leave my day job on the day before holidays, vacation, or wonderful Wednesday, I have the lightness of step and giddy heart of a child out of school for the summer. Knowing that I don’t have to get up early tomorrow and go there gives me such joy! It doesn’t even matter that I feel little stress or pressure on the job. I just love my freedom away from it!

I didn’t even mind going to the doctor for a physical this afternoon. It meant I left even earlier and could start wonderful Wednesday even sooner. It also meant I got home earlier than normal.

While I was in the waiting room, I continued to read Harlan Hogan’s book VO: Tales and Techniques of a Voice-over Actor. Reading his many anecdotes, which, of course, mentioned his clients and credit list along the way, made me feel a bit depressed and discouraged. Sometimes, I feel like I’m a dreamer (on a rough road, to quote the song Swing Street by Barry). I wonder when I’ll get my big break.

However, I was heartened when I read p. 208-210 in his book. He states that we have been taught to ask the big, breakthrough kinds of questions. [He wrote:]

These questions are self-defeating and downright depressing. They are ends, not means.

He talked about Kaizen, which is an ancient Zen philosophy that teaches small, constant improvements by taking tiny steps and asking easy questions to achieve large goals. You should look closely at small, seemingly insignificant details to learn big lessons. [He continued:]

Ask yourself what tiny thing can I do to further my voice-over career today? Keep acquiring and improving the four Ts of voice over — training, talent, tools, and technique — by asking the small questions, taking the small steps, learning each lesson and enjoying the long journey — one session at a time.

I always feel better when I record my activities on my Goals calendar. I get stars for voice-over, and I earn a star almost every day. Some of my activities are pretty small, indeed, but I guess they are better than nothing.

Today’s Take-aways

1.  Do one thing, no matter how small, each day toward your goals. I actually wrote a post on this same topic 5 years ago, which featured a lovely story from Joe Cipriano explaining why it’s important to do something everyday.

2.  You may find it fun and inspirational to track your progress on a calendar. You may even want to give yourself stickers as a small reward for each accomplishment. I got the idea for rewarding myself with stickers on my goals calendar from this post on the Barbara Sher board.  I described how I decorated and used my book in this post. Unfortunately, the links in that post to the pictures no longer work, and I don’t seem to have copies of them to re-upload to my site.

I kept the sticker format for years! I have a binder full of calendars going back to 2003. I stopped keeping a paper calendar in the last couple of years only because I wanted to take less stuff with me on trips. However, I still track my progress every day in an iPad app called Daily Notes. It allows you to create as many tabs as you like so you can track different parts of your life. You also can draw and add pictures, as well as tag and search posts.

3.  I notice in this journal entry that I was once again making comparisons between myself and another voiceover actor. For peace of mind and happiness every day, it’s vital to STOP THE COMPARISONS! Just remember: Comparison is a cancer of the soul.
 

TDIMH — Place Your Order With the Universe

My continuing series of my past journal entries — This Date in My History

 

Wednesday 20 Nov., 2002 9:35pm on my sofa in front of the fire

 

Today’s word is disappointment.

 

I was disappointed to wake up and realize it’s only Wednesday; the preceding 2 days seemed long enough to be a week. I was disappointed to learn we did not win the lottery last night, and I have to go to work. I’m disappointed that my headache came back today.

 

The biggest disappointment, though, were the calls from [a potential client] telling me that he wouldn’t use me for the commercial after all. The regular talent will be back in town tomorrow, so, of course, she gets the gig.

 

I did make 2 follow up calls, and I sent 5-6 follow up emails. I guess I’ll just have to make my own luck. I like the quote yesterday in my 28 Days marketing book:

 

When doing business with the Universe, remember you must place an order if you want to get a delivery.

 

I think I’ve placed my order many, many times, so I keep wondering when it will be filled. I have to trust that things will happen in their own good time and when I’m ready. (I think I’m ready now if that makes a difference!)

 

Today’s Take-aways

 

These aren’t so much take-aways from the entry I copied as things I’ve learned about the Laws of Attraction and Creation since I wrote it.

 

1. “You can’t achieve victory if you’re constantly talking defeat.”  — Joel Osteen

“What you think about expands” — Wayne Dyer

 

We all have disappointments in life. Dwelling on them will only ensure that the Universe serves up more disappointments to us. I wrote a blog entry titled Think/Write/Speak what you WANT into Being that goes into greater detail about changing your thoughts to a more positive pattern.

 

2. When we place our order to the Universe, we don’t know WHEN or HOW it will materialize. We waste valuable energy worrying about the WHEN or HOW. Instead of concerning ourselves with those two unknowable things, it’s important to continue taking steps and doing our best each day toward our dreams. When the Universe is free to deliver our order in the time and way that is best for us, the outcome will be better than we could have thought possible!

 

TDIMH — Perseverance Pays Off

This Date in My History — Sunday July 21, 2002 1:00pm

(A private journal entry from at least 10 years ago with lessons that apply today)

I occasionally have fleeting thoughts of quitting [voice-over]. However, I quickly remind myself of 2 stories that keep me going.

The first story is about a man who had been digging for gold for however many years. He finally gave up in frustration and sold his claim to the land to someone else.

The next day, the new owner found a gold mine worthy of a king’s fortune 3 feet away from where his predecesor stopped digging. The moral is to never give up because you don’t know how close you are to the gold.

The other story is definitely a true story, while the first one may be just a lesson.

Mel Fisher was convinced that he would find the shipwreck of the Atocha, which was laden with gold, silver, emeralds and other precious items when it sank.

Every day, for 17 years, he looked for it. Every day during those 17 years, he started the day by saying “This could be the day!” Every day, when he didn’t find it, he would tell the crew around the supper table “Tomorrow could be the day!”

His enthusiasm and positive outlook were infectious. Even when he endured personal tragedy like the death of his son during or as a result of a dive, he persevered.

He did find a shipwreck, and I believe it was the find of greatest value ever recorded — something like $400 million bucks!

He has a museum in Key West where many breathtaking relics are on display. I think it’s safe to say that he and his family live on Easy Street.

I do feel more hopeful when I remind myself of these stories of perseverance against the odds. I am so anxious to get where I’m going that I find it difficult to enjoy and learn from the journey. I still feel like my marketing is scattered, and maybe I’m not targeting the right people. [My brother] talked about having an intermediate goal and steps plotted along the way.

As for my next intermediate goal, how can I set them without being in complete control of the outcome? In other words, it’s hard to have goals when I have to depend on fickle, forgetful people to make a conscious choice to hire me.

Maybe the better question is how do I distinguish myself from the 1000s of voice talent who are streaming out of every nook and cranny to set up shop on the web?

To say people are fickle and forgetful is probably not accurate since they actually tend to be loyal to those they’ve used before by throwing more work their way. How do I break in and convince them that they should pick me as a relative newcomer?

What is my competitive advantage? I think it’s my ability to sightread long passages and speak with proper inflection. I want to target narrations and audiobooks….Perhaps my next intermediate goal would be to re-do my audiobook demos.

Today’s Take-Aways:

1) While you need to have the big picture in mind, your progress will be incremental and sometimes may even seem non-existent. Think of the stories in this post and remind yourself that perseverance pays off!

2) Do something every day toward your goals, no matter how small.

3) Spend some time in quiet reflection to assess your skills, interests, and passions and how they might help move you forward toward your dream life.

4) Give up your need for control. Actually, very little in our lives is totally under our control. If you keep the end result in mind while you continue taking steps, the Universe will open pathways and create possibilities that you never even considered.

 

TDIMH — Going Fast in the Wrong Direction

This Date in My History — Mon., 6/3/02 10:46PM on my sofa and melting

If it’s true that the harder I work, the luckier I am — which is a quote from either Edison or Jefferson, but definitely on one of my mail-outs — then I should be rolling in v-o gigs.

I sent half a dozen emails yesterday to companies I found at ozonline.tv, which has a directory of all sorts of creative companies in GA. The depressing and overwhelming thing is that the list has tons of companies I haven’t heard of and therefore aren’t in my database. So who are these 350 people in my database? Am I sending all my expensive mail-outs to the wrong people?

I know that I created my database the wrong way. I gathered names from the GA Business Directory and the Atlanta Business Chronicle Book of Lists and created a database without, as they say in marketing circles, qualifying my prospects. I could have good companies with the wrong contact name, companies who would never hire voice talent, and good potential clients all mixed together.

I haven’t had a lot of time to make phone calls while at work, and response to my emails has been limited in the past. I was pleased to get a response tonight to one of my queries yesterday, and the person said they use voice talent and to send my stuff. I wish I could prepare a media kit in less time, but I practically have to print everything new.

It bugs me sometimes (like tonight) to be working hard in my room and hear Drew downstairs laughing at the TV. I’m jealous that he has time to relax and even more jealous that he has steady business from the newspaper for photography without ever having to work for it. He said one day he’d like to do something with photography, and I suggested that he approach the local newspaper with the idea to be a stringer. He did, and they’ve been calling him ever since.

I, on the other hand, have spent countless hours and 1000s and 1000s of hours [sic — I must have meant “dollars”] trying to market myself and get my big break, and for what? This year, I’ve made $925, which is more than the preceding years put together.

I vowed to celebrate every step I take toward my goals, but, right now, I feel overwhelmed, tired, grumpy, and somewhat depressed because I feel like I am spinning my wheels.

Of course, some of my negative feelings could be caused by being hot. The temp today was in the 90s, and the A/C hasn’t been able to keep up.

Today’s Take-aways:

1)  You need to create and maintain a great contact database for your marketing efforts. In addition to contact info, I record notes about conversations, especially the personal data I learn about my contact, and actions taken like demo submissions Before entering any information in your database, you will want to be sure that the person or company actually needs your services and that this person is the one who would make the decision to choose you. Otherwise, you could spend valuable time and money marketing to people who would never hire you.

2)  Balance between business activities and the rest of your life is critical! Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your business won’t be, either. Obviously, balance is a bit more difficult to achieve if you are starting your business in the evenings and weekends after full-time job and even more complicated by your family’s schedule. Time management is your friend! Schedule time for both your business and family activities so that you can move forward on your goals without feeling like you are forsaking your family to do it.

3)  Jealousy is a self-defeating emotion that keeps you from reaching your destiny. We need to learn to be happy with who we are and where we are in order to get where we want to go.

4)  When you feel grumpy and start complaining about everything that’s wrong, try instead to make a gratitude list of all that’s RIGHT in your life. Not only will you instantly feel better, but your gratitude is the key to receiving more for which you can be grateful!

Photo:  iStockPhoto/PhilHillPhotography

 

TDIMH — Make time to take action on your dreams

This Date in My History — Thursday, March 14, 2002  10:25pm

On Tuesday, I decided to request AWS (alternate work schedule) at work and be off the 2nd Wed. of the pay period. I will use those days off to visit recording studios, ad agencies, etc. to drop off my demo and a promo item. If I don’t do in-person visits, I can always use the time to make phone calls, work on my web site, etc.

My boss approved it yesterday, so I’ll start this new schedule the week after next. I know it will be hard to get accustomed to working the extra hour, but I think the pay-off will be worth it.

Today’s Take-aways:

1) Even if you have a full-time job, you still can structure your time so that you can take action on your dreams. Ask whether your employer will allow you to change your schedule so that you can get a day off every week or two. Some schedules you could consider:

  • Over the course of 2 weeks, work 9 hours a day for 8 days, 8 hours a day for 1 day, and have a day off.
     
    I worked this schedule for the last 9 years of my career in the federal government. I referred to my Wednesdays off as “wonderful Wednesdays”. I always said that being off on Wednesday was like being on vacation in a foreign country since most people are at work that day. Even though I am now a full-time voiceover talent and audiobook narrator, I still schedule my Wednesdays off whenever possible.
  • Over the course of 2 weeks, work 8 10-hour days and have 2 days off.
  • Work a split shift of time in the mornings and evenings with the middle of the day free.

2) Your experiences will follow your expectation. If you say things like “I know it will be hard to get accustomed to working the extra hour”, it WILL be hard. If you say “It’s just as easy to work 9 hours a day as 8”, it WILL be easy.

3) Set the intention for the usage of your newly-found free time. Follow through with that intention, and watch your dream take flight!

As it turns out, I rarely did in-person visits on my Wednesdays off, but I did LOTS of other marketing activities on those days. I also scheduled voiceover jobs for my wonderful Wednesdays. I told clients that the other weekdays were “booked”, which, of course they were….just not to voiceover clients!

Photo:  iStockPhoto/donskarpo