Erggo

Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

This Date in My History

TDIMH — Write down your goals

This Date in My History — Saturday, 2/17/01  9:20am

I had 2 interesting conversations about goal-setting that I want to include here. On Thursday, Sharon and I had lunch. At some point, we were talking about the article I sent her from the 8/00 issue of Personal Journaling titled “Write It Down, Make It Happen”.

I asked Sharon whether she thought I really need to do that since I feel my goals are crystal clear. She asked a very intriguing question:  “Why are you so resistant to it?”

After a little thought, I answered that I am very self-critical if I don’t make things happen in the timeframe allotted. In addition, I am notorious in being over-ambitious, planning way too much in the timeframe allotted.

I talked about my disappointment that “Pachelbel’s Canon” was one of the first pieces I bought when I started playing harp 5 years ago, yet I still cannot play it perfectly and wouldn’t consider it performance-ready. Sharon started reminding me of all I have accomplished in such a short time. She said she views my achievements as amazing.

Later that day, Janice and I were working at the server. Janice said something which prompted me to say that Sharon and I had just talked at lunch about writing down goals. I asked Janice her views on the subject.

She is a firm believer in writing goals every day. She is a marathon runner, and her big goal is run a marathon in less than 4 hours. She said she writes her times every day. At the end of the week, she summarizes her times and adds positive affirmations like “I ran times that should give me a marathon in less than 4 hours.” While she has not reached her goal, she said that writing her times “keeps her showing up.”

After both of the conversations, I feel compelled to start writing my goals, hopefully on a daily basis. I know that Barbara Sher advocated in one of her books that you have weekly planning sessions with yourself. I think I’ll try to do that as well.

Short term goal:  Get the next gig!

Requires:

  1. contacting people
  2. sending demos
  3. marketing
    • MCA ads
    • Aruba mail-out
    • website within 6 mos.

Mid-range goal:  Become proficient at home recording

Requires:

  1. practice, practice, practice!
  2. CD burner to transfer work to computer
  3. research other equipment needed such as a voice channel strip

Long range goal:  Work full-time from my home in voice-over

Today’s Take-aways:

1. “Write it down. Written goals have a way of transforming wishes into wants; can’ts into cans; dreams into plans; and plans into reality. Don’t just think it – ink it!”
— Michael Korda

2. If you need help in formulating clear and concise goals, take a look at A Short Lesson in Goal-setting.

3. As I’ve written in the past, I’m a big fan of Henriette Klauser’s book Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It. She explains that the action of writing down your goal activates your brain’s reticular activation system (RAS). The RAS acts a filter for your brain so that it alerts you to signs and signals related to your goal that you might otherwise miss. The book offers numerous practical and inspirational suggestions of ways that you can write down everything that you want from life.

Follow-up to today’s story:

I have met and far surpassed all of the goals that I wrote that day. I’m working on some new ones!

Remember my friend Janice’s goal was to run a marathon in under 4 hours? Her best time was 3:43:xx, when she qualified to run in the Boston Marathon several years ago.

Writing down your goals works!


 

TDIMH — From panic to planning

This Date in My History — Sunday, 12 January 2003 12:30pm

This morning, I have been wondering “what have I gotten myself into?” I am filled with panic over my audiobook. Casting all of the characters is overwhelming, and the author’s comments have only served to confuse instead of clarify…

Not only am I worried about giving voice to 70 speaking people, I am worried about the actual production. What if the sound quality varies between sessions? How will I get everything done in time, considering that I have a two-month turnaround that puts my due date to be the time I will be in NY? My day job will require a trip the week of Feb. 10 to Ft. Lauderdale, and I hate to think of nights alone in my hotel room of editing this book.

Drew and I talked about it at breakfast, and he reiterated his belief in me that I can do all of this and do it successfully. He promised again to help me in any way possible.

I felt better to come up with an action plan for getting this book done. I realized that if I only work on it (recording/editing) just an hour each night that it would get done in plenty of time.

I have to change my panic into a plan. I will spend this afternoon making casting decisions, and i will do a sound check with several sessions of set-up/take down in between.

This audiobook is a dream come true and just the first of hundreds to follow. I have the talent and skill to do an excellent job on all aspects of the production. I cannot and will not give in to my fears or feelings of being overwhelmed.

Having written all of that, I’d better get started on my plan — I’m burning daylight!

More at 10pm —

I spent about 8 hours (or maybe just 7.5, but still all afternoon) in my room working on character voices for my book. I first listened to the 2nd tape of Pat Fraley’s course on character voices. He described a method of cataloging the voices which I adopted on the book.

After supper, Drew came and listened to me at my request because the process was going slowly for me. I created a database of voice characterizations rather than using individual worksheets like Pat Fraley suggested. I feel more in control of this project with 25 characters in my database and thoughts prepared on a handful of others. I was practicing all afternoon, and am I ever tired!

At some point today, I wondered if I should end my eLance subscription. Is it a sign that I received an invitation to bid tonight on an invite-only project where I was the only person invited? Anyway, I bid on that one and another one tonight; we’ll see what happens.

Today’s Take-aways:

1) When you feel overwhelmed by a task, break it down into small, manageable pieces. Figure out the time required for each piece so that you can meet your deadline.

2) We all need support from others to help us attain our goals. As Barbara Sher says, “isolation is the dream killer”. Barbara notes that sometimes strangers will be less resistant to your ideas and offer you more support than your friends or family. If you are not blessed to have the support of your spouse as I am, reach out to friends or start a meet-up group of other goal-minded people.

3) Always believe in yourself! What you think about your chance of succeeding is perhaps the greatest indicator of your success. To quote Henry Ford:  Whether you think you can or you think you can’t — you’re right.

TDIMH — Starting a business

This Date in My History — Sun., Jan. 9, 2000 1:33am

I actually still consider this to be Saturday night even though the clock says differently. It’s a new year, but I still have the old dream!

I mailed CDs and still have not had any calls or reply cards. I’m sure other people were as busy and distracted by Christmas as I was. I was also extremely distracted from my voice-over career by my pursuit of enough cash to order my Camac Clio harp! I finally ordered it on Wed., 12/29! Since then, I have been giving more thought to voice-overs; the last few days have even seen some action.

On Thursday, I bought the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Book of Lists so I could have the current information for my mail-outs. I didn’t know when or if the SCORE office would get it. I hated to pay $35 for it, but it would be worth it if even one job results from it.

Yesterday, Mike Estrada and I went to the Atlanta Public Library at lunch. I found that they have the Georgia Business Directory, so i was pleased to know I will be able to make my own copies rather than wait for the very nice but exceedingly slow gentleman at the SCORE office.

The library had another directory of radio stations not found at SCORE. I plan to go back one day next week and start making some copies.

My biggest endeavor lately has been the design of a postcard that I am going to mail to the top 75 ad agencies and top 20 radio stations as indicated in the Book of Lists. I spent about 5 bucks or so today (Sat.) designing and testing the printing of it. We even found some matte finish postcards at Office Max that will enable me to print the design edge-to-edge. I’m really excited by the design!

Tomorrow, I plan to begin entry for the database, as well as do the layout for the card reverse with my logo and the mail merge fields.

Today’s Take-aways:

1) When starting a business, research your potential customers. The library and organizations like SCORE are a treasure trove of free information. Of course, today Google and LinkedIn searches could turn up countless prospects!

2) There’s more to life than your voice-over business. Spend time doing those other things that are important to you, like playing music.

3) You can start a side business while continuing your present job if you’re willing to press any spare time into service of your dream. I often developed my voice-over business during my lunch breaks at my full-time job at the IRS.

4) You can create professional results in your DIY marketing materials by learning how to use available software and buying quality products.
 

New series — This Date in My History: Elance

Greetings, all, and happy new year! When I began my voice-over career in 1999, one of my friends suggested that I start a journal. She said that when Biography or Intimate Portrait wanted to highlight me in a show, I would have all of this great background material to share with them about how I progressed from voice-over newbie to superstar. 🙂

Initially, I only focused on writing my voice-over activities in my journal. Over time, though, I found it more helpful and interesting to write almost daily about everything in my life. I often look back at my journals and find answers to current problems along with treasured memories.

I highly recommend writing in a journal as a way to clarify your thinking. It’s important to me that I hand-write my entries as the act of writing will slow down my thoughts. Long-time readers also know that I love writing with fountain pens.

Tip #1:  If you aren’t writing in a journal, what better time to start one than a new year!

After transcribing parts of my journals in previous entries, I’ve decided to create an on-going series here on the blog of things I’ve written in my journals. I hope that you may also find answers to problems and learn from some of my mistakes!

This Date in My History: Elance

Elance logo

 
Saturday 1/5/02 10:00pm

I lost another bid on eLance. This is the one where the guy said “great bid”. He chose someone else who is a professional talent but only bid half of my bid. My unwillingness to literally sell myself short sure hasn’t gotten me any jobs on that system.

Tip #2: You won’t know if a marketing channel works for you until you try it. 

For more thoughts about on-line casting sites, you may want to read this article.

I look forward to sharing more of my journal entries with you!
 

What my hair stylist taught me about voice-over

In the last few days, I have enjoyed reading my friend Dave Courvoisier’s excellent 3-part series of blog articles about setting rates. When I saw the comments about not leaving money on the table when negotiating the price of a voice-over job, I remembered some unrelated advice given to me by my hair stylist. You might wonder how a hair stylist could help a voice talent, but we’re both business owners. I decided to dig up and publish my entries from my journal from that day as her advice is sure to help other voiceover artists.

hair cut.jpg

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Saturday, 25 January 2003

We went to get our hair cut. As I was sitting with wet hair and wearing my lovely vinyl smock, my phone rang. I thought and hoped it might be someone calling about my Prelude harp since I posted ads to sell it just this morning.

Nope. It was [client], calling about the sound files. He was trying to compress them and was getting a hissing sound. I felt bad that I didn’t do any file reduction before I sent them to him. I sent him what he asked for — CD audio. He didn’t specify the sampling rate or resolution. I told him I’d try to help him when I got home. By the time I got here, I had an email from him saying that they had converted the files.

Sunday 26 January 2003

I was worrying over [client’s] phone call yesterday while Theresa was cutting my hair. She said she understood exactly how I felt. She equated [client’s] call to me as being like one of her customers deciding they didn’t like the hair color they asked for, which would cause Theresa to have to use more product and spend time she hadn’t planned. She wouldn’t get any more money for the job, but she would make the customer happy.

Theresa advised me to create a manual that would include my procedures for different types of projects and questions I should ask. She hit the nail on the head when she said my business is in a growth phase. Even though I had been planning for it for quite a while, it’s still hard to be fully prepared for every circumstance that crops up.

I feel this whole experience with [client] is a valuable learning experience from an operational standpoint. My manual should help me to remember to ask or do:

1) to see the script before agreeing to a final price
2) ask the client how big the final file size should be
3) if I know the files are going on a phone system, I should create smaller files before sending them to the client

I’ve also been reminded in the past week:

4) When someone asks me for a quote, I should ask them first if they have a budget and a timeframe in mind.

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Even though it’s been 7 years since Theresa advised me to devise a manual, I continue to write down numerous operational aspects of my voice-over projects, such as:

  • When doing an audition, I scribble the “Moment before” on the script so that I can get back to the same frame of mind if I’m selected for the job.
  • I note the method of file transmission that a client prefers. Some people want to receive files in e-mail, while others prefer services like YouSendIt.com and Dropbox.com.
  • If I use music from my royalty-free library, I list the disc and cut that I selected. For podcasts, I also include the cues and timing in the music to maintain consistent intro and outro segments.

Writing my procedures allows me to spend more quality time producing my recordings.

As for the rates question that started this trip down memory lane, I want to add one thing. Asking people if they have a budget and timeframe (#4 from my journal entry) immediately weeds out those who are seriously interested in hiring me from those who want me to record for “exposure”. In fact, just last week, someone proposed that I do voiceover projects for them in exchange for a link on their web site. After asking them about their budget, it’s no surprise to me that I didn’t receive a reply.

Photo: iStockPhoto.com/Gerry Hernandez