Double Dutch

Some have called him the greatest performer of spoken word of our time. His videos have brought YouTube viewers to tears. His powerful performances turned comic book addicts into poetry lovers.

In 2000, he won the individual championship at the National Poetry Slam in Providence, Rhode Island – beating 250 North American competitors. In doing so, he became the first-ever winner from outside the U.S.

His first published collection, Visiting Hours, was the only work of poetry selected by the Guardian, Globe and Mail newspapers, for their Best Books of the Year lists in 2005.

And yet, most people have never heard of him.

OLYMPIC MOMENT
All of that changed when Shane Koyczan recited his poem “We Are More” at the opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia. The man who was born in the obscure town of Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories, wowed the world with his words.

Most footage of that performance is of very poor quality because the Olympic Committee regulates the rights to the original broadcast and we’re stuck with amateur video.

Here’s an extended and animated version of “We Are More”.

The reason I’m writing about Shane today can be summarized in one word:

INSPIRATION

Most days I wake up on the right side of the bed and everything just flows. Some days I feel stuck in a rut and I catch myself doing the same things I’ve always done, hoping to get a different result. It never works, does it?

To some, living life on cruise control might be the ultimate goal, but as soon as I find out that my brain has secretly switched on the autopilot, I tell it to turn it off and start doing some stretching exercises.

A big part of me has this inner urge to always learn and grow and expand what I am capable of. In order to do that, I need to be challenged beyond my boundaries. It’s the best way to escape my cozy comfort zone. But where to go? Whom can I turn to?

I am always on the lookout to emulate excellence. If I want to be the best, I have to learn from the best. That might sound straightforward to you, but in our culture that is not necessarily the predominant philosophy.

ROLE MODELS
I never understood why medical researchers seem to spend more time studying illness instead of learning about wellness. During their training, doctors-to-be poke around in dead bodies, supposedly learning the secrets to saving the living. They spend most of their time around the sick and the dying, and some of them eventually become specialists in a particular disease.

The study of the dysfunctional is the norm, but it doesn’t have to be.

In certain schools of Oriental medicine, doctors get paid to keep the people in their care healthy. Their focus is much more on preventing the root cause of a problem, rather than on treating or alleviating symptoms. Instead of trying to find a cure for diabetes, they are teaching their “patients” about a healthy diet and an active lifestyle.

It is a well-known fact that Western doctors have more problems with drugs and alcohol, and a higher suicide rate than their patients. (source) Most Oriental healers practice what they preach and keep on practicing well into their senior years. In their culture, the wisdom that comes with age is held in high regard, instead of hidden in underfunded assisted living facilities.

FINDING FAULT
Like doctors, many professionals are trained to spend most of their time on sick systems, tracking and analyzing problems. Psycho-analysts come to mind, as well as lawyers, economists and -dare I say it- politicians. We have become masters at focusing on what’s wrong and finding someone or something to blame.

“Fast food and soda made me fat. I didn’t do it! Pepsi won.”

What would have happened after 9/11, had we invested just as much money and brain power into building bridges between people, cultures and religions, as we have invested in beefing up homeland security? Or have we ignored the causes while we were busy trying to treat the symptoms?

Why not focus on creating beauty and cultivating friendships, as we fortify our nation to prevent more death and destruction? How can we sow the seeds of peace and understanding if we spend all our money and manpower building more barriers and pave over our gardens with concrete to protect us? Is that a sign of desperation or of inspiration?

I admit it: I have my dark days. When I look for inspiration and the essence of excellence, I sometimes turn to poetry and to my favorite poet: Shane Koyczan. He’s called a spoken word virtuoso for a reason.

As a professional speaker, I admire the way he hammers his words in with heart and with soul. They almost burn into my brain. I’d love to emulate his mastery of language and moving delivery. His artistry is the challenge I am looking for. His depth is what I aspire to.

Shane speaks to me in a way few other people do. One moment he seems to tenderly touch his words with velvet gloves, only to start building a tremendous crescendo of ideas and similes and associations my mind tries to process intellectually but cannot, until what’s left is an overwhelming feeling of intense exaltation.

It’s almost a hypnotic induction.

A great example of his style is the poem “Beethoven”. Even though the quality of the recording leaves a bit to be desired for, it is a monumental performance.

Shane Koyczan still performs his work for sold out houses, but he has done something else. He created a new genre called Talk Rock with his band the Short Story Long. His unique mix of song and verse won him the “Best New Artist” award at the BC Interior Music Awards in 2009.

Even though the poetry corner at my bookstore seems to be shrinking day by day, the spoken word is alive and kicking in Canada. And I can’t help but wonder: what would happen if the world would feed itself with the art of poets, painters, dancers and musicians instead of with the language of hate, discrimination, intolerance, fanaticism and violence?

Why don’t we let the poets speak?

“Because there are times when the cost of truth is so high, we endure our own hearts to hearts break. We make love into a currency that can’t be cashed in, because there has never been a bank that will give out a loan based on the collateral of hope.”

Shane Koyczan

Paul Strikwerda ©2011
www.nethervoice.com

PS What inspires you? Who is your inspiration?

Technorati Tags: 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, Beethoven, Double Dutch Blog, Dutch voice, Dutch voiceover, finding inspiration, finding role models, National Poetry Slam, Nethervoice, novel Visiting Hours, Paul Strikwerda, Shane Coyczan, Shut Up and Say Something, spoken word virtuoso, Talk Rock, the essence of excellence, treating the symptoms, We Are More

Can ten minutes make a ten thousand dollar difference?

Not so long ago, a colleague introduced me to a client in need of a narrator. His institute was searching for a European voice and for someone who could read an audio book full of names and quotes in German, French, Dutch and other languages. That happens to be my specialty, and I was pretty confident that I could take on the task.

A day later I received an email. The client had listened to my online demos and found my sound to be ‘too commercial’ for this rather academic endeavor. In other words: Goodbye, Vielen Dank and bonne chance.

Now, some people might leave it at that and move on to the next best thing. Not me. My response to this client was a short and simple F-U!

You see, no matter how good a generic sample of your product may be, it has one fundamental flaw. Whether it’s a bunch of book covers you designed, websites, sales letters, videos or voice-over demos: they only showcase what you believe to be your best work.

If that’s the case, I have news for you: your client doesn’t really care about what you’ve done for other people in the past. Every client has the same response:

I am unique. Can you solve my problem?

If I’m looking for a handyman to fix that leak in my basement, do I really need to know that this genius is also a master mason and a talented woodworker? I don’t think so!

But listen to this: once Handy Andy’s in the door and has freed me from the floods without charging me an arm and a leg, I might want to talk to him about those broken concrete steps to my front door and that railing that’s been hanging by a few loose screws.

And after Andy’s assessed my steps and staircase and has run the numbers, I expect nothing but an F-U from him, and it better be within a few days. Otherwise I’ll go to Helpful Harry.

MISSING THE MARK
Failing freelancers make two crucial mistakes.

ONE: they sin against the Fifth Habit of Highly Successful People as defined by best-selling author Stephen Covey.

Seek first to understand. Then be understood.

Instead, these freelancers tell you everything you don’t need to know and were afraid they’d bring up. If only you would understand what they’re capable of, you’d hire them on the spot, wouldn’t you?

Excuse me…  Doctor, don’t you need to know what’s wrong with me before you write me a prescription?

TWO: failing freelancers forget to Follow-Up.

In my case, not following up with the audio book people would be admitting defeat without having given myself a fighting chance. Throwing in the towel is easy. Sorry folks, but I don’t believe in ‘easy’. Forget the song title. Easy never does it.

Let’s look at these mistakes in greater detail.

FIRST BLUNDER: Not following up, period.
Some of us have become masters of hollow phrases and empty expressions. How many times have you heard the words: “I’ll get back to you,” and you said to yourself: “Yeah, right. That’ll be the day!”

How many times have you ended a conversation with “We’ll talk soon,” and sooner became later, and later became “You seem familiar. Have we met before?”

Talk is cheap (that’s why there isn’t much money in voice-overs, these days). Seriously, be a man or woman of your word and make that follow-up call or write that email. Don’t put it off till tomorrow because tomorrow never comes.

Here’s what you do after you’ve spoken with a promising contact.

As soon as you put that phone down, type up a quick email, and begin by writing something nice followed by something specific. Let’s say you promised to email a prospect an estimate. Put your promise in writing and tell her when to expect your proposal. Make it a habit to always beat that deadline. Don’t allow a hot prospect to cool off or explore other options. Get that proposal in fast.

Provide your client with all your contact information. You’d be surprised how many business-related emails I receive that are simply signed by some “Jeff” or “Ginny”.

Also, with a last name like Strikwerda it’s no surprise that people have a hard time remembering it, let alone how to spell it. It is in my best interest to give my contacts a reminder.

My goal is fourfold:

1. to show the client that I am responsive
2. to make it easy for them to get back to me
3. to offer alternative ways of staying in touch with me (e.g. Facebook or Twitter)
4. to reinforce my brand, Nethervoice

In all my years as a freelancer I’ve heard many clients complain about colleagues. Number one on the list of grievances is a lack of responsiveness. They tell me:

“It takes ages for him to get back to me. What’s going on? I get the feeling that he could care less about my business. Do you have someone else you could recommend?”

Think about it. If I were to advertise myself as someone who can offer a quick turnaround on a project, and for whatever reason I take three days to respond to a simple question, what is the real message I am sending?

SECOND BLUNDER: Only following up when something’s wrong.
Unpaid invoices. Unanswered emails. Broken promises. That’s when most people feel the sudden urge to follow-up. It’s a bad habit because it will primarily associate you with problems and negativity.

The secret to building a solid relationship is to make sure that your client, your agent (and even your partner) has as many positive interactions with you as possible. That’s not rocket science, is it?

Learn from what the Mad Men of Madison Avenue have practiced for decades. The secret to any successful campaign rests on the extent to which the advertising agency manages to manipulate you into associating negative feelings with a problem and positive feelings with a product.

Let me be clear about one thing: I am not suggesting that you trick those on whom you depend into liking you. I just want you to be mindful and treat others the way you’d like to be treated yourself. That’s all, really.

So how do you handle tricky things like unpaid bills? Guess what?

You don’t!

Do yourself a huge favor and have your bookkeeper handle that outstanding balance. Let your lawyer deal with that contract. Leave it to your agent to negotiate your rate (or to the Unions, for that matter). Stay out of the line of fire and focus on delivering the goods to the best of your ability. That’s your job.

But do follow-up to put the power of PR into practice. And by PR I mean: Positive Reinforcement. It works with kids. It works with your partner. It certainly works in business.

Follow up…

• after that meeting
• after your call
• after they’ve received your proposal
• as soon as you’re selected for the job
• when someone else got the job
• when the job is done
• to thank your colleague for the referral
• and refer your colleague to someone else
• after someone answered your question on a forum
• to congratulate, encourage, admire and inspire
• after reading a blog that was really helpful

THIRD BLUNDER: Becoming a follow-up freak.
Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Remember that it’s all about purposeful positive reinforcement, but in moderation. Just because I have shown an interest in your services at one point in time, doesn’t mean that I want to be on your mailing list, or that I want to befriend you on Facebook or follow your silly tweets on Twitter. If I’m interested, I’ll make the first move. You don’t have permission to cyber-stalk me.

This relationship is not about you. It is about me -someone you might do business with or have done business with. Stop leaving those self-serving comments on my blog. I don’t need to know what you had for breakfast or that you’re a fan of Fox News. That’s not a follow-up. That’s being a pain in the tush. Don’t you have work to do?

UNDERRATED
Used correctly, the follow-up can be one of the best instruments in your freelance toolkit. But if it turns out to be so effective, why don’t more people use it? I think that it’s in part due to laziness and sometimes even carelessness. However, I also believe that it has to do with a culture that seems more intent on punishing unwanted behavior, rather than on reinforcing positive behavior.

We tend to take action when things go wrong, and often, we’re not grateful for the things we take for granted. We want things for free. We get things for free. Why say “Thank You” for something that didn’t cost you anything?

If this is a trend we wish to turn around, you and I should lead the way. Take a minute or two to follow-up with that colleague who passed your name on to his client. Let that company know how much you appreciate the fact that they paid you in full within ten days after you sent them an invoice. Thank that engineer for making you sound better than ever. Show someone some gratitude, instead of an attitude. Follow-up! Use the power of PR!

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE?
So, can ten minutes really make a ten thousand dollar difference?

As soon as I received the message that my voice was ‘too commercial’ for this academic, international project, I jumped on-line and found the book that needed narration. I picked a paragraph with some German and French names in it, and in my best un-commercial voice I began recording. Within ten minutes, the client received an email with a custom demo.

One day later, the job was mine, as well as the prospect of receiving a nice check.

Understand first. Then be understood.

Some have asked me:

“Does every follow-up have a happy ending?”

Well… I’d have to get back to you on that one!

Paul Strikwerda © 2010
www.nethervoice.com

PS How many international clients do you have? Have you ever experienced miscommunication because of language problems? If so, my next article is for you!

Technorati Tags: attitude of gratitude, Dutch voice, Dutch voiceover, follow-up, freelance, freelance blunders, Freelancing, Handy Andy, Mad Men, Madison Avenue, Nethervoice, Paul Strikwerda, positive reinforcement, Seven habits of highly successful people, Steven Covey, voice-over talent

“Attention Voice-Mart shoppers… in aisle 7 you’ll find a fresh selection of promising audio book narrators, ready to read your epic 300-page novel for only $499.99. But hurry! Only today, they’ll throw in free editing. That’s right, a $199.99 value could be yours, absolutely FREE.”

The shrill sound of my phone woke me up out of a bad dream. So much for power naps! Ever since I had helped my friend Fernanda with her website, she regularly calls me because she wants to pick my brain about ‘the business’. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and sometimes I feel almost guilty to be the one who has to add the rain of realism to her parade.

The thing is, Fernanda is incredibly talented. I could listen to her voice for hours, and as it turns out, I’m not the only one. Not only is she blessed with amazing vocal chords; Fernanda has the uncanny ability to take you on a journey to a place where time and space no longer exist.

Her unique talent is only matched by her naiveté about the less artistic aspects of our work; minor details such as contracts, rates, self-promotion… you know, the boring stuff. In other words: she’s the ideal candidate to be taken for a ride. The other day it almost happened again.  

A GENEROUS OFFER
The phone rang. “Paul, I found this amazing project on-line. Can I read it to you?” Fernanda asked.

“By all means”, I replied. “Shoot.”

“Well, it’s for an audio book, she continued, “and they’re offering between 500-750 dollars.”

“Wow” I said. “Why so much? How many pages does this book have? Thirty?”

“Oh, I don’t know” said Fernanda. “Are you going to be a party pooper again?”

“It depends.” I said. “Any other information about this masterpiece? Is there a script for a custom demo? Do you know the word count? Are you sure these are not the memoirs of some perverted, monstrous mind?”

She gave me the web page with the job posting, and I glanced over the details… that were not there. The voice-seeker did offer a link to a page on Amazon.com, and lo and behold, we found the book. It was called “Ahead of the Curve: A Commonsense Guide to Forecasting Business and Market Cycles”, by Joseph H. Ellis*. Even the summary looked promising:

“Economic events are not as random and unpredictable as they seem. This book will help readers recognize and react to signs of change that their rivals don’t see—and win a sizable competitive advantage.”

“Alright. This doesn’t sound like the autobiography of a madman to me. That’s a definite plus”, I said. “Let’s find out who this Mr. Ellis really is.” Harvard Business Publishing gave us the answer:

“Joseph H. Ellis was a partner at Goldman Sachs and was ranked for 18 consecutive years by Institutional Investor magazine as Wall Street’s No.1 retail industry analyst.”

As soon as I read these words, my mind drifted off to a recent newspaper article that had somehow stuck with me:

“Goldman posted the richest quarterly profit in its 140-year history and, to the envy of its rivals, announced it had earmarked $11.4 billion so far this year to compensate its workers. At that rate, Goldman workers could, on average, earn roughly $770,000 each this year — or nearly what they did at the height of the boom.”

How many audio books would I have to narrate, in order to make what the ‘average’ Goldman worker would earn this year alone?

COUNTING PAGES
Back to the book. The Harvard web page also gave us another vital missing piece of information: we were talking about a 304-page hardback.

“Now, how long would it take you to read this book?” I asked Fernanda. “Two hours… a day… a week?”

She admitted that she didn’t really have a clue. That was my signal to go into my Sherlock Holmes mode.

“So far we have established that this guide is over 300 pages long. We don’t know anything about the actual word count, though. That will depend on the font, the font-size, the spaces and the margins. It’s amazing what some academics manage to fit on a page by using a 10-point font.

On the other hand, I’ve seen 400-page volumes packed with graphs and other illustrations, printed in a 12-point font, double-spaced and wide margins. In other words: the pages were filled with fluff.”

Fernanda sounded discouraged. “What do you suggest I do? Go to the bookstore and get this Guide? If I don’t put in a bid within the next five minutes, 4 dozen others will have jumped on this project and I might as well forget about it. And please stop with this patronizing Conan Doyle routine.”

“If I were you, this is what I would do.” I said. “Come up with an estimate, based on the assumption that the average manuscript is printed in 12 point Arial, double-spaced, margin-to-margin. According to the handy-dandy Edge Studio Words-to-Hours Converter, the typical reading time for such a page is one minute and forty seconds. Based on these parameters, how long would it approximately take you to read this book?

300 pages x 100 seconds = 30.000 seconds = 8.33 hours

The next question is: how much would you charge for a minimum of eight and a half hours of work? Here’s the easy answer: you are an independent contractor, are you not? Theoretically, that means that you can charge whatever you think you’re worth. If your name is Julia Roberts, you’ll probably get it. If you’re not, dream on.

Seriously, according to the same Edge studio rate card, audio books “usually pay ‘per completed hour (the length of the final product) rather than ‘per hour’ (the length of time you are in the studio).” This does not include the time you need to prepare yourself for the recording. I spent hours and hours reading and researching my last audio book. It was filled with foreign names; I had to practice unusual accents and I needed to get the script ready.

My scripts are usually packed with symbols and colors. Just as a singer would make notes on where to breathe and where to place accents, I do the same thing. Every character is highlighted in a different color, making it easy for me to change my voice and speech patterns. All of this takes time. Lots of time that you’re usually not getting paid for. 

UNION or NON-UNION?
If we were to take out  the table of contents, the footnotes and any other fluff, you’re probably looking at 8 completed hours on CD. New readers who happen to be AFTRA members, can charge $139.25 per hour, which would give you $1114. The AFTRA rate for experienced readers is $168.25 per completed hour, and that would leave you with a total of $1345 in your pocket.

If you don’t belong to AFTRA, the world you live in looks very different. Bear in mind, Edge Studio explicitly says that their numbers are “pure suggestions for less experienced, non-union talent. Rates reflect average and realistic rates being fairly charged within the industry, and do NOT include editing.” For audio books the rates are:

• Inexperienced narrator – $85 to $140 per completed hour
• Moderately Experienced – $90 to $175 per completed hour
• Very Experienced – $150 to $250 per completed hour

In other words: the very, very inexperienced reader could realistically charge $680 for 8 completed hours (8 x $85). Her colleague on the other end of the spectrum could charge $2000. But we’re not done yet. There are other sources we can use to determine your bid for this Wallstreet saga.

The voices.com FAQ reference rate page has an overview per project category. The indicated range for audio books is 500 – 10000 (even though they’re headquartered in Canada, I think this is in USD).

Voices.com even has a second list of “Average prices, rates and costs”. Based on this overview, the site suggests $300 for a one hour audio book recording session, plus $100 for each additional hour. Let’s say that you’d minimally need a 10-hour recording session to produce an 8-hour audio book. That would mean that this project would bring in $1200 (the client pays an extra 10% SurePay escrow fee).

To make things a bit more complicated, voices.com offers a third list of rates. The suggested rates for audio books in this overview are:

• 1 hr recording session: USD$125 (10 studio hrs. x $125 = $1350)
• Per finished hour of audio: USD$500 (8 finished hrs. x $500 = $4000)
• Per page rate: USD$125 (300 pages x $125 = $37.500)

If you’re still with me, let’s throw one more number into the mix, straight from the voice123 reference rate page. Voice123 clarifies:

“These rates have been calculated by surveying and averaging Voice123 non-union voice over talents with two or more years of experience as voice-overs. Prices in this document are averages for suggested minimums (base rates).”

The average rate per hour of work (regardless of the length of the audio delivered) for a project taking up to 10 hours is $164. So, if we once again assume that 8 hours of completed audio takes at least 10 hours of studio time; using the voice123 minimum rate, a talent could charge $1640 for this project.

GUESSWORK?
I’d be the first one to agree  that these numbers are based on a few assumptions, because the voice-seeker left out vital information when posting the job (either by accident or on purpose). However, the rates I used are in the public domain. “Fernanda, remind me, what book were we talking about again?”

“A 304-page guide, written by former Goldman Sachs partner and Wall Street’s No.1 retail industry analyst that “will help readers recognize and react to signs of change that their rivals don’t see—and win a sizeable competitive advantage.”

“And how much was the budget again?”

“Between 500 and 750 dollars.”

“How many responses did the voice-seeker receive so far?”

“Only 105.”

WINNER or LOSER
“How much do you think the client will end up paying for a narrator? Fernanda asked. “And is there a minimum rate per project?”

“Unless you happen to run into the person who put in the winning bid, you’ll never know,” I said. “But I would be very surprised if all 105 hopefuls would bid the $750 maximum. Can you even call it a winning bid, or is it more realistic to speak of a losing bid? Anyway, voices.com has a minimum project posting requirement for any job posted publicly, and this amount is $100. Voice123 doesn’t have a rate floor.

But let’s not turn this into another Pay-to-Play issue. It gets kind of old, and besides, these guys are only part of a huge market. Take a good look at a majority of the projects posted on these sites. With all due respect for the hard work they put in, I don’t think we’re exactly talking about the high end of the business.  

When it comes to determining reasonable voice-over rates, we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface. If you really want to discuss what you should charge, there are two crucial questions you need to ask yourself first:

1. How much do I need to make?
2. How much do I want to make?

But let’s talk about that some other time. I think I need to get back to my power nap now.”

The comfortable couch was still there waiting for me. I rearranged a few pillows and curled up in a ball. As soon as I closed my eyes, a soothing voice whispered into my ear:

“Thank you for shopping at Voice-Mart. Please come again soon.”

When I woke up, I realized that I hadn’t told Fernanda how much she should quote. Thank goodness you’re still here! May I pick your brain for this one?

- What would you tell her?
- Given the specifics of this project, is a budget of $500-$750 reasonable?
- If yes, why? If no, what would be a number you could live with?
- Would you do it for less? Would you put in a higher bid?
- What do you factor in when bidding on a project like this?
- Do you ever use the rate cards quoted in this article; are these rates realistic, optimistic, outdated…?
- If there’s one thing you could change about this process, what would it be?
- What would need to happen for this change to be implemented?
- What’s preventing this from happening?

Paul Strikwerda © 2009 www.nethervoice.com

*the author of the book, Joseph H. Ellis, was not the voice-seeker who posted the project. However, this was a real project offered on a well-know voice casting site.

PS Is there a serious disconnect between what we need to earn to make a decent living, and what voice-seekers are prepared to pay? How did we lose our bargaining power? And is there a connection between price and pleasure?  That’s the topic of my next article!

Technorati Tags: AFTRA rates, audio book narration, audio book rate, audio books, breaking down audio book rate, Dutch voice, Dutch voice over, Edge Studio, Goldman Sachs, Julia Roberts, Nethervoice, non-union, non-union voiceover rates, Paul Strikwerda, Pay-to-Play, rates, spoken books, union voiceover rates, voice123, voice123 rates, voiceover rate card, voiceover rates, voices, voices.com rates