Double Dutch

Let me preface this post by saying that I feel very lucky.

In the past 25 years I was able to develop a strong relationship with a number of clients. The longer we go back, the fewer words we have to waste on what each side is expecting from the other.

It’s almost like a marriage. And very much like a marriage, a lasting business relationship needs commitment from each partner. It can be love at first sight and it can also end in a divorce, due to unspoken expectations and unfulfilled desires.

Throughout the years I have heard colleagues complain about their clients:

“She doesn’t speak to me anymore” or “He dumped me in a heartbeat for some cheap actress. I thought that what we had was special.”

And how about this one:

“All I ever wanted was a little bit of attention. Was that too much to ask?”

It usually is.

When I just started out as a freelancer, one of my more cynical mentors warned me against romanticizing the relationship with my clients. His mantra:

“Business is business and the rest is bullish*t.”

Today, these words resonate even stronger. In these fast and furious times, online matchmaking is getting more and more popular. And nobody seems to take it slow anymore. Making small talk is so yesterday.

“I need your demo now. Are you available this afternoon?”

Before you know it, you’re off into some dark room talking to yourself, and when you’re done recording, you dump the files into a dropbox.

As one of my friends put it: “I almost feel used.”

Well, isn’t that the whole idea? We offer our services. We deliver our services. We move on. End of story.

Let’s be honest. Most times, both parties aren’t that interested in getting to know each other before the deal is sealed.

How well do you really know your clients? How well do they know you?

Does it even matter?

In most cases it doesn’t, as long as the job gets done.

That’s why it is time to take off those rose-colored glasses and get rid of your great expectations. Here’s my top ten of things most clients don’t seem to care about anymore:

1. YOU
All you are is a solution to a problem; a means to an end. It’s your job to ensure that the benefits of hiring you outweigh how much you charge. Your client doesn’t have to care about you. It’s your work that matters.

2. YOUR PERSPECTIVE
What you perceive to be the benefits of your service is not important. The question is: Do you understand and can you meet the needs of your clients?

Your take on a script (or any other freelance assignment) may be interesting, but it’s often irrelevant. You’re the stylist. The client determines how she wants her hair cut. Unless you have permission to be creative.

3. YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
The fact that you’ve been at it for a certain number of years doesn’t automatically mean you’re the right person for the part. Over the years, some people have become very good at being very bad. They’re stuck in a rut.

Years of experience entitles you to nothing. In fact, it can make you look like you’re old school. The quality of your experience qualifies you. Not the length.

4. ACCOLADES & OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
An impressive resume tells a client what you have done for others, usually years ago. All he really wants to know is: What can you do for ME, today?

If you can’t make that clear, why should he hire you?

Experience can also backfire.

One of my friends specializes in medical narrations. In order to impress a possible new client, he quoted a fine endorsement from a pharmaceutical company he’d been working for, for years. It was his way of saying: “See… I have a proven track record. I can easily handle your project.”

The other party was not impressed. The email he got back effectively said:

“Since you’ve established yourself as the voice of brand X, it would be unwise for us to hire you. People would automatically associate your sound with our main competitor.”

5. YOUR COST OF DOING BUSINESS
Never justify your fee by bringing up how much you have invested in your dream. That’s the price you pay for being and staying in business. After all, you don’t care about your client’s business expenses either, do you?

6. YOUR HIGH-END EQUIPMENT
Clients won’t hire you because you happen to own a Steinway. They hire you because they like the way you play, or because you offer the best value for money.

You might impress your colleagues with a brand new Neumann U87 studio microphone. My last client hadn’t even heard of the brand.

7. TECHNICAL CHALLENGES
It’s lame to blame technology for your lack of preparation. In voice-overs, home studios are steadily becoming the norm. Even if you record in a stuffy bedroom closet (and call it a ‘professional studio’), you’re the head of IT, audio engineering and data transmission. If you can’t handle that, don’t expect any sympathy from the client. He’ll find someone who can.

8. PERSONAL PROBLEMS
Leave them at the door. Clients are clients; not friends or family. You’re hired to do a job, no matter how horrible you might feel about your dead cat or a recent break-up. Put your life on the back burner and focus on the project. Cry when the job is over.

9. YOUR FRAGILE EGO
You are hired to make your client look good and not to boost your ego. If you’re in need of praise, visit an evangelical church.

10. YOUR SUBLIME UNIQUENESS
Sure, nobody talks like you or walks like you. That doesn’t make you irreplaceable. Even if you’ve been working with a client for years, don’t be surprised if they ask you to re-audition.

One of the joys of being an independent contractor is that there’s no long-term contract with severance pay, should things come to a premature end.

You’re on your own.

Never take anything for granted. Complacency will be your downfall. Be ready to prove yourself, over and over and over again.

If you don’t take care of your career, nobody else will.

Business is business. And the rest is…

Paul Strikwerda ©2012
www.nethervoice.com

PS Be sweet. Please retweet!

 

Technorati Tags: building client relationships, client relationship, clients don't care, Dutch voiceover, freelancer, freelancers, Freelancing, Nethervoice, Paul Strikwerda, voice-over

They’re everywhere. Haven’t you noticed?

Take one good look. Let’s start with your online Holiday shopping.

Who’s responsible for most reviews on Amazon.com?

Experts? Consumer advocates? Independent test laboratories?

No. Amateurs!

Who just gave your favorite movie two stars on Netflix? Roger Ebert?

No. Amateurs!

What kind of people put the “reality” in reality TV?

Amateurs!

Where would talent shows like “American Idol,” “The X Factor” and “The Voice” be without…

Amateurs!

Credentials are so yesterday. Experience is optional. If it breathes and has half a brain, any Nobody can be Somebody.

On the web, pretenders pose as pros, and social proof trumps scientific evidence. Now, that’s what I call progress, ladies and gentlemen!

CULTURE SHOCK
A few years ago, British-American entrepreneur Andrew Keen wrote “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture.”

In it, Keen describes how he holds the participatory Web 2.0 responsible for at least two things:

1. Making it almost impossible to find high quality material amidst mediocre user-generated web content;

2. destroying profitable professionalism.

Take Wikipedia, which relies heavily on volunteer editors and contributors. Wikipedia gets more traffic than the online edition of the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica, written by experts and scholars. Keen writes:

“Every visit to Wikipedia’s free information hive means one less customer for a professionally researched and edited encyclopedia such as Britannica.”

But why would that necessarily be a bad thing (apart from putting encyclopedians out of business)?

The ever-evolving world wide web is all about user participation. Since the dawn of the egalitarian Internet, experts have had to leave their ivory towers. Information has become democratic: for the masses, by the masses.

We’re now living in the age of the Citizen Reporter, the self-styled critic and open source software. Anyone can share anything, no matter how profound or pathetic. How liberating is that?

Think about it.

In this 24/7 global, unfiltered data dump, there are very few knowledgeable gatekeepers to separate fact from fiction. Any amateur can claim to be an expert, and no one is going to stop them until they are found out.

Case in point:

THE  ESSJAY CONTROVERSY
In 2007, a Wikipedia contributor using the name Essjay, had edited thousands of articles. He once was one of the few people given the authority to arbitrate disputes between writers.

According to his user profile, Essjay was a tenured professor of religion at a private university with expertise in canon law. But in reality, Essjay turned out to be a 24-year-old impostor named Ryan Jordan, who attended a number of colleges in Kentucky and lived outside Louisville.

“People have gone through his edits and found places where he was basically cashing in on his fake credentials to bolster his arguments,” said Michael Snow, a Wikipedia administrator, after Jordan admitted that he had fooled everyone.

Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam called the Essjay affair an illustration of the problems of “crowdsourcing” and the “wisdom of crowds,” saying that the crowd accepts authority unquestioningly. Beam:

“Who would you rather have write your encyclopedia entries? Bertrand Russell, T.H. Huxley, and Benedetto Croce, who wrote for the Britannica? Or … Essjay?”

Andrew Keen was even stronger in his criticism. He said the whole affair was just one example of people ignoring expert guidance in favor of what he called the “dictatorship of idiots.” In this new “idiocracy,” amateurs rule and professionals are no longer cool.

Thank goodness that’s not the case in my profession: the wonderful world of voice-over acting!

Or is it?

THE DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
Before I go on, let’s just define the territory, shall we?

To me, an amateur is a hobbyist, knowledgeable or otherwise, someone who does not make a living from his or her field of interest, a layperson, lacking credentials.

According to the same dictionary, a professional is someone engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or as a career; a skilled practitioner, an expert.

It’s no secret that each year, hundreds -if not thousands- of hopeful amateurs attempt to break into the business, by presenting themselves as voice-over professionals. It’s never been easier, and I’m not going to belittle anyone for trying.

However, if you present yourself as a pro, you have to leave your amateur attitude behind. In order to compete with the best, you have to hold yourself to the highest standards of professionalism. If you’re not ready, don’t enter the market. Otherwise, you’re wasting your time.

Now, some of you might say: “I’d rather hire an enthusiastic, talented amateur than a burnt-out, uninspired pro. There’s an abundance of fresh talent at the online voice casting sites and they deserve a chance. Everybody’s got to start somewhere, right?”

Well, let’s see how that works out.

HORROR STORY
A colleague with years and years of experience, gave me permission to share the following with you:

I’m trying to establish a new voiceover service targeting a specific niche.

I listened to hundreds of demos on Pay to Plays, and I was appalled at the reads (Radio DJ Syndrome) and by the Audio Quality Disorder (AQD).

While clicking through the demos, it was like… ”no, no, no,no,no,no,no,no, maybe, no,no,no,no, yes. no,no,no,no,no…” Maybe .005% of the people were worthy.

Ultimately, I found about 10 voiceover “professionals” on voices.com and voice123, and from various vo groups.

I contacted the people and explained my project. They all agreed to be involved. I needed some demos to get started. I sent them scripts with pronunciations and asked for demos as .wav files. (The 10 scripts consisted of only two or three sentences each!)

I received their demos of my scripts. The audio was shockingly bad.

Here’s what I heard:

Plosives all over the place; lip sounds; miscellaneous noises; “fff” and ”whoosh” breathing sounds; pops; distortion; headphone feedback. Additionally, there was a high pitch whine/buzz throughout the entire recording of one person’s demo.

In one case, I heard a kind of crackling noise that I knew could be due to a bad hard drive.

I sent samples of the people’s audio to Dan Lenard, the Home Studio Master. He confirmed my claims and he said he’s heard worse! (He said the noise that I thought was a bad hard disk was probably a broken microphone.)

One person ignored the phonetic pronunciations I provided. A few ignored the audio file-type specification. A couple people sent me .wav files not compressed as .zip files. One person sent me a .wav file that did not contain any audio!

One person told me he would be part of the project. In that email, he said he’d been having email troubles, and that’s the last I’ve heard from him! I tried contacting him through one of the p2p sites. I’ve had no response following his first email that stated he would be part of the project.

The audio from almost all the people was unusable.

So, in an email to each person, I explained in detail the issues with his or her audio, and asked for retakes

Then, the retakes deadlines passed, and I hadn’t received the retake demos from 5 of the people, so I emailed those 5 people and asked if they were still participating.

One guy said “I’m going to pass at this time. Thank you though”. His demo had already been sent to two voice-seekers. Had I not inquired, I would have discovered he was no longer interested only at the time I had committed to a job using his voice! He did not have the courtesy to inform me he was withdrawing from the project.

The demos of these people, on their profile pages, sounded good. The audio they sent me was crap.

According to Dan, the audio I received is representative of what ”professional voiceover talents” are giving to paying clients.

I’m absolutely dumbfounded that the poor quality of the audio that these ”pros” gave me is the same poor quality audio that goes out to clients.

I’m dismayed by the unprofessionalism displayed by some of the people.

Bad audio and amateurism are two big reasons the business is going to hell in a handbasket.

ATYPICAL OR A TREND?
It’s very easy to discard this story as anecdotal evidence. If that were the case, why are more and more voice-seekers leaving comments like:

“I cannot emphasize enough that I need high-quality audio. I expect all reads to be performed in some kind of professional or home recording studio with high-quality gear. Second-rate audio quality is not acceptable for this project.”

“MUST be absolutely crystal clear audio with none/minimal ambient noise.”

“Narrators must be able to record in high quality (either at a recording studio or at home with the appropriate equipment that can produce high quality). ”

“The audio must sound professional! Please do not send me audio that sounds like you recorded with a cassette player!”

“We would need the person hired to record the voice over in his own home studio with professional voice equipment, we had someone do it on their computer and it sounded awful and unprofessional.”

Well, one response would be: “If you expect professional quality, start paying professional rates! You get what you pay for.” My voice-seeking colleague continues:

“When clients have to ‘beg’ for quality audio, it indicates there is a problem of poor quality in the industry! Why do clients have to specifically demand high quality audio? We are supposed to be professionals!

For my new service, I’ve decided to only hire members of SaVoa, the Society of Accredited Voice Over Artist.”

The amateur invasion has opened many doors to deserving, talented individuals. But as always, if you don’t apply a fine filter, the floodgates will bring a lot of crap too, stinking up the business.

ARE YOU ALARMED?
In a strange way, my colleague’s story put my mind at ease. I’m not as worried anymore by the influx of upcoming voice talent as I used to be.

Wikipedia learned from the Essjay affair, and in an article addressing the reliability of the site, writes:

“The Wikipedia model allows anyone to edit, and relies on a large number of well-intentioned editors to overcome issues raised by a smaller number of problematic editors.

It is inherent in Wikipedia’s editing model that misleading information can be added, but over time quality is anticipated to improve in a form of group learning as editors reach consensus, so that substandard edits will very rapidly be removed.”

I predict that a similar kind of self-regulation will take place in the voice-over industry, or in any type of market that is overcrowded by freewheeling wannabes. Otherwise, something like a Pay-to-Play model will be as sustainable as the career of an aspiring voice actor.

Erik Sheppard of Voice Talent Productions puts it this way:

“The average lifespan of a voiceover “career” seems to be about a year. Every year old names drop off the radar and new ones appear, just to be replaced again the next year.

It seems to take about that long for The Blue Snowball Coalition of new talent to realize that they jumped into this without knowing what they heck they were doing and then they are on to the next get-rich-quick scheme. Sad really. I imagine there are a lot of old USB mics collecting dust out there…”

So, what’s your take on the avalanche of amateurs? Do they cheapen our community, or do they enrich us? Are they to blame for the steady decline of rates and standards?

Are they stealing jobs that should have gone to seasoned pros, or do they pick up the crumbs no one wants to eat?

Should some Pay-to-Plays put up a barrier of entry and be more rigid in their quality control, or will the weakest links just put themselves out of the game?

Paul Strikwerda ©2011
www.nethervoice.com

PS Be Sweet. Please retweet!

Technorati Tags: Alex Beam, Amateur Infestation, Andrew Keen, crowd sourcing, Double Dutch Blog, Dutch voiceover, Encyclopedia Britannica, Erik Sheppard, Essjay affair, Nethervoice, Paul Strikwerda, social proof, The Cult of the Amateur, voice acting, Voice Talent Productions, voice-over, voice-over career, web 2.0, Wikipedia

We all do it.

With the best of intentions.

We tell ourselves that this is the year we will turn things around.

Finally.

We even tell the world.

And then we move on with our lives and ‘forget’ about it.

A year passes, and we wonder why nothing has changed.

And we always find something or someone to blame.

Our greatest accomplishments and our greatest disappointments are well-planned.

People are good at setting themselves up for failure, and good at setting themselves up for success.

It starts between the ears.

Winners understand the power of planning.

Whiners live from day to day.

Winners say: There’s no day like today.

Whiners say: There’s always tomorrow.

Winners take action.

Whiners sit around and wait.

Winners get their hands dirty and dig in.

Whiners expect others to do the work for them.

Winners produce results.

Whiners have excuses.

Winners are proud of their accomplishments.

Whiners feel sorry for themselves.

I could fill an entire page with these bold statements, but I think you get my drift. It’s all about attitude.

Instead, let’s delve a bit deeper into the anatomy of a loser. Yes, I know. It’s a derogatory term and I’m only using it for dramatic effect. I’m not writing anyone off and I’m not pointing any fingers.

Here are some surefire ways to sabotage your own success.

1. WISHFUL THINKING
Life’s not a fairy tale where three wishes are granted to the humble but noble underdog. Yet, most of us keep on wishing things would change for the better, but are we really willing to work for it?

You can spot lack of commitment from a mile a way by the language someone uses. You’ll hear a lot of:

“I would like to”

“I may or might”

“That sounds interesting, perhaps I should explore that…”

Their favorite word is “but,” as in: “I really wanted to do that, but….

If you want to get something done, get off your butt. Take that first step, no matter how small.

Life is overwhelming. That’s why we break complicated processes down into small pieces. It makes them more manageable.

Nobody expects you to finish a full meal in one bite.

2. LACK OF URGENCY & MEANING
A goal is a more than a dream with a deadline.

No one gets excited about the things they want to accomplish… some day.

Be brutally honest. If you don’t want it badly, it probably doesn’t mean a lot to you at this point in time. Otherwise, you would feel that inner urge burning inside of you like a fire that makes you unstoppable.

The feeling of being driven comes from doing things that matter more to you than anything else. This feeling will excite you when things go well, and it will give you the energy to climb those mountains that still stand in your way.

So, stop talking about the things you’ve always wanted to do.

Start doing them. NOW.

3. BEING NON-SPECIFIC
If you don’t know your destination, how will you know you have arrived?

Vague ideas are daydreams. Vague ideas never inspire. Vague ideas let you off the hook, and you know it!

The statement: “I just want to be happy” is a great example.

What does happiness mean to you? It’s not even a goal. It’s a touchy-feely by-product of something else, but of what exactly?

Here’s another one: “I want to be better.”

Better than what? Compared to what?

What’s preventing you? Who’s preventing you?

A favorite of motivational trainers is the statement:

“I want to make more money.”

Some self-help gurus will walk up to you and give you a dime, saying:

“Look, you’ve just accomplished your goal. You now have more money! Are you happy now?”

Besides being unspecific, making more money is not what they call an end-goal. It’s a means-goal, meaning it is a means to an end.

Concrete goals have a starting point and a finish line. They require careful planning and a clear vision of the end result. Once you have that clear vision, ask yourself:

“What is the last step I take that will get me to accomplish my goal?”

Then you work your way back, figuring out all the steps you have to take to get you to that point, until you arrive at the present.

It’s -to use a Steve Jobs expression- connecting the dots backwards, in advance.

Unfortunately, most people find it easier to sum up what they don’t want. Take it from me: You’ll never get anywhere by focusing on the things you wish to avoid. In fact, you’re more likely to attract the very things you’re running away from. (see this article)

Great goals are always stated in the positive.

4. BEING OVERLY DEPENDENT ON OTHERS
Waiting for others to make your dreams come true is not only lazy, it also means you make yourself dependent on others as you’re giving away your personal power. How many times have you said to yourself:

“I would feel so much better, if only this person would….” You fill in the blanks.

Forget it. People won’t change unless they want to. I believe I wrote about that recently, didn’t I?

A great goal is self-initiated and self-maintained. You OWN it. You’re the captain. It’s your ship. Why is that essential?

No person in the world is ever willing to work as hard to accomplish something that’s meaningful to you, as you are.

Yes, it’s nice to surround yourself with the right type of supporters and critics. But you don’t need cheerleaders chanting empty slogans or Debbie-downers that rip your plan to pieces before it’s even born.

You need friends that can give you an honest assessment, and that can help you fine-tune your grand plan. You also need the right people who have the expertise you don’t have, and who are willing to put their weight behind your project.

However, it is your vision and your responsibility to make it a reality.

5. BEING SELF-CENTERED
You might reach your goal and feel like a winner, but I see it as a failure, if you’re the only one benefitting from your success.

There’s no doubt that it’s an accomplishment to get out of the ghetto and become a successful multimillion dollar recording artist. But all your golden shower heads and bling don’t mean a thing, if you spit on your roots instead of giving back to where you came from.

Results come with responsibilities.

Decisions have consequences. That’s why I encourage you to look at the impact pursuing and reaching your goal will have on the world around you.

Pursuing a goal with passion means you’re willing to pay a price. Remember that you don’t live on an island and that sometimes, that price may be too high.

In William Shatner’s documentary “The Captains,” Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeaway), reveals that her two children resented her always being on the set, working 18 hour days. To this day, they still refuse to watch Star Trek Voyager.

Both Shatner and Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard) link the breakdown of their marriages to the demands of their careers. That is, the choices and sacrifices they willingly made to ‘make it’.

One last example.

Your company might have successfully launched a new product, boosting business like never before, but if your production process is poisoning the wells and killing wildlife, is it worth it?

Think about the bigger picture. It’s a matter of ecology.

Before you commit or decide to quit, here are four questions I want you to ask yourself.

1.What will happen if I do X?

2. What won’t happen if I do X?

3. What will happen if I don’t do X?

4. What won’t happen if I don’t do X?

The answer to these questions will help you determine whether or not the price is worth paying.

And finally…

The greatest goals are never about personal fame and fortune, and they will never come true the way you imagined them to come true.

At the end of the day, every goal is a picture of what you believe you’re capable of, with all the resources you have available right now.

That means that every goal is limited by your imagination and your perception of what is possible.

The most ambitious goals will seem unrealistic and unreasonable, and yet, even those are confined by what you think you can or cannot accomplish.

That’s why some of the philosophers of the word will teach you to set clear outcomes, and then let go of the form.

That way, you allow the universe to exceed your expectations.

Steve Jobs’ sister Mona Simpson, was there when her brother died.

She recently told us what his last words were:

“Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”

We don’t know what prompted him to say these words, but whatever Steve saw in his final moments, I’m pretty sure it exceeded all his expectations.

Paul Strikwerda ©2011
www.nethervoice.com

PS Be sweet. Please retweet!

Technorati Tags: Double Dutch Blog, Dutch voiceover, Kate Mulgrew, Mona Simpson, Nethervoice, Patrick Stewart, Paul Strikwerda, setting goals, Steve Jobs, William Shatner, winners and whiners

“So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

It’s the dreaded question that can make a child quiver.

What do you mean, “be”?

Am I not good enough? Do I need to be something or someone else?

Who says I want to grow up? Grown-ups are boring…

Some kids know exactly how to answer that question, though.

They have dreams of becoming an astronaut, a fireman or a movie star.

At the age of eight, I knew what I wanted.

I wanted to be Uri Geller. Remember him?

In the seventies, this spoon-bending Israeli mentalist first appeared on television, performing mind over matter tricks. I was fascinated by his psychokinetic powers. Geller claimed he could fix household appliances through the strength of his mind. How useful!

Like thousands of other viewers, I took my broken watch and placed it in front of our television set, waiting for Geller to work his magic. This man was a miracle!

Inspired by Uri, I spent countless hours staring at a pencil, trying to make it move with my mind. I don’t think I ever grew up, because I still find myself waiting for a red traffic light, trying to make it turn green by using my brain waves as a weapon.

Sometimes it works and I take all the credit. Sometimes it doesn’t and I blame technology.

These are not just mind games. This type of behavior raises a few fundamental questions:

• Can we manipulate our environment and even the people around us by using our mental powers?

• Can we make objects and people succumb to our will?

Traditional advertising seems to believe so. Well, at least the people part. The mad men of Madison Avenue spend millions and millions of dollars trying to manipulate our minds into buying stuff we don’t need and don’t want.

As a voice-over professional, I’m part of the plan. If you go to a Dutch toy store, there’s a great chance you’ll hear my voice blasting out of the speakers, selling U.S. made skateboards.

I’ll try to make you buy Turtle Wax® at the local Auto World, or futuristic fluid to supergrease the chain of your mountain bike. Now on sale in aisle 4. Must hurry. Supply is limited.

Do these campaigns actually work? Are people really that susceptible (or dare I say: that stupid)?

As a freelancer, my mailbox fills up with offers for seminars like:

“Learn how to Dominate your Market in two hours”

“Making Money with your Voice, guaranteed”

“Success Secrets to Winning Auditions”

“7 Easy Ways to turn Prospects into Buyers”

My efforts to move pencils; the ad agency’s efforts to move product and the seminar’s promise to turn me into a dominator have one thing in common. They feed our natural need for control.

Somehow, in some way, we believe that -with the right ingredients, training and campaign- we can part the waters of the Red Sea and walk across to the Promised Land.

A mistake of biblical proportions…

Can we really move the minds of the masses by slogans, websites, billboards and even blogs?

Haven’t we become immune to the endless avalanche of marketing messages, sales pitches and empty promises?

I have a confession to make.

During the first half of my life, I honestly believed I could change people. It gets worse. I even believed I could change G-d. I used to pray:

“Dear G-d, if you help me get a good grade, I promise to go to church every Sunday and not embarrass my parents. PS I apologize for breaking wind during the last service and I am sorry for staring at the old lady sitting next to me, making everyone think she did it. Amen.”

Later in life I learned that if I don’t do my part and learn my lessons, G-d isn’t going to bail me out. That would defeat the purpose of being on this planet in the first place.

As an investigative reporter, I thought that if I would publicly expose some grave injustice, people would rise up and do something about it.

Then I learned that, if it’s not in their back yard or has any impact on their lives, people care more about their favorite sports team, game show or pet rabbit, than about the hungry and the homeless.

Did you hear who got voted off on “Dancing with the Stars” last night?

In intimate relationships, I tried to influence significant others by withholding love and affection if they didn’t change into the people I needed them to be. In the process, I ended up ruining relationships instead of rescuing them.

As a voice talent, I think I’m still trying to make people hire me. Just listen to my demo. Go to my website. Read my blog. I’m brilliant. Don’t you see that?

No they don’t.

They just hire someone cheaper, younger, older, sexier or Jeff Bridges.

But don’t worry. When things don’t work out, you and I can always go to our social media friends and cry out loud that life’s unfair. Why is it so hard to get hired? Why don’t people do what we want them to do? It would be so much easier!

Now listen up, and listen carefully.

This desire for control has nothing to do with others.

It’s all about You and it’s mostly based on fear.

The fear of losing something you never had in the first place.

The thing is: people rarely do things for your reasons.

They do things for their reasons.

Altruism has left the building a long time ago.

Most people have a hard time controlling themselves, let alone others.

If self-control were that easy, very few people would smoke; all of us would maintain the perfect weight and prisons would be empty.

The idea that you can control all aspects of your career is based on the myth of magical thinking. It’s not some silver spoon you can bend at will. You don’t hold all the cards. Perhaps you only hold the Joker.

Yes, you can set the stage, learn your lines and lessons and strive to be the best you can be. But you can’t force feed your target markets, especially if you don’t know what they’re hungry for.

You can be the most succulent steak ever, but if your client’s a vegetarian, he won’t bite. Of course you didn’t know that, because you never cared to be curious. All you did was give this client reasons why he should pick you.

YOUR reasons.

Oops! 

If you really want to move your career forward, you need to give up your need for control and your urge to make it about you. Especially when your product happens to be…. you.

Stop pushing and start listening.

Don’t offer a solution before you know what the problem is.

Don’t try to brainwash your prospects with an email blast or by singing your own praises again and again and again. You worked on that nice looking newsletter for hours, and within a matter of seconds it ends up in the trash can of a computer.

Unread.

You have to turn your monologue into a dialogue.

Invest in building a relationship first. People ain’t buying if they don’t trust you. And they won’t trust you if they don’t know you.

The best way to show them what you’re all about, is by putting them first. Believe me, once they get that, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to tell your story.

So, is traditional marketing as dead as a Dodo?

“Brains on Fire” is a book and a blog about word of mouth marketing. The authors quote a revealing study by Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research. According to Copernicus, the average ROI of TV advertising campaigns is 1 to 4 percent.

The Brains on Fire team also cites a 2009 Yankelovich Study. 76 percent of people believe that companies lie in ads, and people’s trust that businesses will do the right thing has dropped from 58 percent in 2008 to a dismal 38 percent in 2009 (2009 Edelman Trust Barometer).

Would you become a buyer from a liar?

Meanwhile, Uri Geller no longer seems to tell the world his mind triumphs over matter. In the November 2007 issue of the magazine Magische Welt (Magic World) Geller said:

“I’ll no longer say that I have supernatural powers. I am an entertainer. I want to do a good show. My entire character has changed.”

His critics have replicated some of his tricks by e.g. creating the illusion of spoon bending, using misdirection, another term for distracting the audience.

And in case you’re wondering, my old watch never started ticking during Geller’s television appearance. It just needed a new battery. Not a psychic.

As I grew older, I realized a few things.

Living is learning.

I can’t change others. I can only change myself.

If I don’t like the way the wind is blowing, I can always adjust my sails.

It’s okay to be out of control. Control is an illusion. I can plan. I can practice. I can participate and I can even ignite a spark.

Whatever happens next is one of life’s delightful and mind bending mysteries.

It’s not linear. It’s not logical and it’s certainly not playing by our rules.

It just is.

People still ask me:

“So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

These days I answer:

“I want to be a good person.

A helper.

Caring, kind and maybe a bit crazy.

Your spoons are safe!”

Paul Strikwerda ©2011
www.nethervoice.com

PS Be sweet. Please Retweet!

Technorati Tags: Brains on Fire, career management, control your career, Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research, Dutch voiceover, marketing, mind over matter, Nethervoice, Paul Strikwerda, psychokenesis, Uri Geller, Yankelovich

Should every (freelance) business have a blog? 

How do you become a successful blogger?

What should you write about? 

How much time does it take? 

Can blogging really increase business? 

Many readers have asked me these questions. That’s why I have written a 33-page guide to blogging.

I’ll take you behind the scenes of Double Dutch, to share my  very best blogging secrets with you.

Download your copy at Scribd.com today.

Part of the proceeds will go to www.kiva.org, changing the world, one micro-loan at a time!

You can preview and buy the guide on Scribd. International readers can purchase a download of this guide for $3.49 using this PayPal-link. Once your payment clears you will receive the PDF-file via email.

Happy blogging!

Paul Strikwerda ©2011
www.nethervoice.com

Be sweet: please retweet!

Technorati Tags: blogging secrets, blogging tips, boosting business with a blog, content marketing, Dutch voiceover, Paul Strikwerda, search engine optimization, SEO, should every business have a blog, Social Media, twitter, voice-over, voiceover, voiceovers, writing a successful blog

I remember exactly where I was when it happened.

On my way to Las Vegas, I popped in a Tony Robbins tape from his Personal Power series.

Tony Robbins is a hugely successful motivational speaker, trainer and writer. If you have a million dollars, he’ll give you his private number and you may call him 365 days a year for a private coaching session.

People either love him or hate him. Those who hate him are usually put off by his hyped up, in your face presentation style. Those who love him are pumped up by his towering presence and contagious enthusiasm, whether it’s on CD, during a live seminar or on TV.

Robbins built his career on the study of success. Following in the footsteps of NLP-creators Bandler and Grinder, he developed a toolbox based on what he called Neuro Associative Conditioning (NAC). It’s a mix of positive attitudes, beliefs and strategies that help people design and live the life they’ve always dreamt of.

MODELING THE MIND
At the basis of NLP and NAC is the process of modeling. I’m not talking about the catwalk in Milan, but about the study of exceptional people: business tycoons, sports icons, therapists, artists etcetera.

The idea is that these people -in order to achieve something extraordinary- have set themselves up for success. They have carefully (and often unconsciously) conditioned themselves to accomplish astonishing things. Modeling is all about uncovering and learning from what goes on behind the scenes: what instructions do these people give their brains and bodies?

Take Steve Jobs, Richard Branson or Oprah Winfrey. None of them seemed to be destined for greatness. Jobs was given up for adoption by a Syrian Muslim. Branson suffers from dyslexia and was academically challenged. Winfrey was born into poverty to a teenage single mother and raised in an inner-city neighborhood.

Look at what they have accomplished!

What is the secret to their success? Is there a recipe? Can it be broken down into bits and pieces and taught to mere mortals such as you and me? Robbins believes it can be done, and one of the key ingredients of this recipe for success can be captured in a single word:

M I N D S E T

You might not be able to choose the cards life has dealt you, but at least you control how you approach and play the game. Your mindset is the filter through which you look at reality and interpret what it means to you and which actions to take.

A mindset is not something you were born with that operates outside of your awareness. A mindset is a choice. You determine whether the glass is half empty or half full. Not your mother or father or teacher or upbringing or education or race or any set of circumstances.

What separates Winfrey, Branson and Jobs from the rest, is a foundation of empowering beliefs.

An empowering belief is the difference between looking at the world in terms of problems or in terms of opportunities.

An empowering belief is the difference between looking at obstacles as roadblocks or as stepping-stones.

An empowering belief is the difference between “I’ll never be able to do it” and “Yes I can!”

WHAT DRIVES YOU
As I was cruising through the dry Nevada desert, Robbins talked about another powerful principle he had modeled. Whether in sports, politics, business or in the entertainment industry, all leaders had this in common: they knew the difference between being interested and being committed.

The interested person is merely exploring options.
The committed person is going for it.

The interested person says: “I’d like to,” “I’m thinking of,” “It would be nice…”
The committed person says: “This is my path,” “This is my passion,” “Nothing can stop me.”

The interested person reactively responds to opportunities.
The committed person pro-actively creates opportunities.

The interested person is not invested in the outcome.
The committed person does whatever it takes to achieve the outcome.

The interested person is conditioned to “trying”.
The committed person is conditioned to “doing”.

The interested person always has reasons.
The committed person has results.

STOP WHINING
When I look at my own voiceover community, I hear a lot of whining and complaining about how hard it is to break into the business and earn a living. Reading between the lines, I notice an undeserved sense of entitlement and lack of respect for what it takes to make it. Sorry folks…

There are no silver platters, silver bullets

or golden shortcuts to the top

It comes down to this: what are YOU willing to DO to build a solid career and live a meaningful life?

Are you merely interested or are you truly committed?

Of course you’re entitled to your hopes, your dreams and aspirations. Don’t let me take them away from you. But it’s up to you to make them a reality.

It’s nice to be ‘interested’ in something and fantasize about your future. I’m all for creative visualization. But without ACTION a dream will always be a dream; something you intend to do… one day. And you know what they say about the road that’s paved with good intentions.

According to Robbins, successful role models know how to turn those intentions into a ‘magnificent obsession’. They channel their energy and focus it like a laser beam. To the rest of the world, it looks like these people are working their butts off, but to them it doesn’t even feel like work. They’re having the best time of their life!

Committed people don’t let things happen. They make things happen.

Committed people don’t complain about something. They do something about it.

Committed people don’t quit. They learn from experience and move on.

Commitment is a solemn agreement you make with yourself to do everything it takes to achieve a goal, and then some.

STARTING OVER
If you’re sick and tired of all the excuses and rationalizations, the if’s, the but’s and the maybe’s… perhaps you are ready to commit yourself and decide that your time has come.

If that’s the case, I have a question for you. Don’t answer it until you have fully considered it.

What’s the one thing you can do today, to show the world (and yourself) that you’re truly, madly and deeply committed?

Use the Power of Now and DO IT.

For losers, there’s always “tomorrow”.

This moment is yours, today.

Embrace it and hold on to it, for the rest of your life!

Paul Strikwerda ©2011
www.nethervoice.com

PS Be sweet, please retweet!

Technorati Tags: attitude adjustment, commitment, Dutch voiceover, empowering belief, freelancer, freelancers, Freelancing, John Grinder, making a commitment, Nethervoice, neuro linguistic programming, NLP, Oprah Winfrey, Paul Strikwerda, Richard Bandler, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, the power of committment, the power of now, Tony Robbins, voice-over, voiceover blog

How far would you go to get ahead in this game we call the voiceover market place? Would you betray your pacifist principles and record a promotional video for land mines?

Would you flirt with the casting director? Would you badmouth a colleague in the hopes of improving your odds?

As soon as money is involved, people are prepared to sell their dignity and self-respect to the highest bidder, and it’s Survival of the Slickest and every man for himself. Take no prisoners. After all, the economy sucks and it ain’t getting better any time soon. If it’s a choice between you and me, my friend, it better be me.

In an attempt to break into the business or simply stay afloat, people even start sinning against the Ninth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness. What do they tell you in this business?

If you can’t make it, just fake it!

That’s why the almighty Internet is inundated with pretenders, posers, anonymous commentators and self-styled experts. In this day and age where the latest is the greatest, nobody bothers to fact-check anymore. It’s the ideal opportunity to be whoever you say you are. No questions asked. It’s in black and white. That means it’s reliable, right?

Now, don’t believe for one second that the people in our community are holier than the Pope. They are not. Some of them are spinning a world wide web of lies. Of course they don’t call it that. They see it as innocent embellishments of the truth. The means justify the ends. Meanwhile, they are walking around with their pants on fire.

Here’s my Top 10 of the most common lies people tell to get ahead in our line of work:

1. Experience
Lie: “With years of experience under her belt, Carla can handle almost any project.”
Truth: Carla has been at it for five months; part-time, that is.

2. Training & Coaching
Lie: “Roger has studied with some of the world’s best coaches.”
Truth: He took an introductory course at the local community college.

3. Clients
Lie: “John has recorded voiceovers for some of the biggest names in business.”
Truth: John wishes he had recorded voiceovers for some of the biggest names in business.

4. Equipment
Lie: “Peter exclusively uses his trusted Neumann U87, arguably the best known and most widely used studio microphone in the world.”
Truth: Peter doesn’t even know how to correctly pronounce the name Neumann. He is the proud owner of a second-hand Chinese condenser he got off eBay for $65.

5. Home studio
Lie: “Heather records her voiceovers in her professional studio, guaranteeing you the highest audio quality possible.”
Truth: “Heather hides inside a bedroom closet and she has no idea why this mattress foam won’t keep the noise out. She wonders: Should I have used egg crates instead?”

6. Demos
Lie: It sounds like Thomas really voiced those national campaigns, doesn’t it?
Truth: The scripts were stolen from auditions that never worked out. An audio engineer friend helped him with the music.

7. Languages and accents
Lie: “Jerome speaks Dutch and is available for your eLearning projects.”
Truth: Jerome was born, raised and educated in Flanders (Belgium) and speaks Flemish. Dutch and Flemish are just as related and just as different as American and British English. Substitute Dutch and Flemish for other languages and accents to expose other actors.

7a. Native speakers
Lie: “Maria was born and raised in Germany and speaks ‘Hochdeutsch’ or Standard German.”
Truth: Maria moved to the U.S. when she was seventeen and thirty years later, she stills lives in Dallas. Ever heard a German with a Texas twang?

8. Testimonials
Lie: “Jennifer was a delight to work with. Our company would not hesitate to hire her again.”
Truth: Jennifer never worked for “that company” and she is the author of this endorsement.

9. Head shots
Lie: We see a young, smiling face, staring confidently into the camera.
Truth: After ten years, Harry doesn’t look like his old headshot anymore. He’s become bitter and it shows. He also gained twenty pounds.

10. Believing that you won’t get caught

You see, people with real credentials have real experience and a real portfolio. They don’t have to hide behind vague descriptions and false advertising. The truth will always come out and when it does, it will damage a career that never was and probably never will be.

SPOTTING THE ROTTEN APPLE
You don’t have to be a detective to find the fakers. Liars usually do a great job exposing themselves. I was emailing one of my colleagues the other day, and he shared the following story with me:

“I’ve read your blogs regarding people that want to be a voiceover talent with interest. I have some ideas on people that are “posing” as voiceover talent and how to spot them immediately.

For example: a young lady recently posted on a LinkedIn forum complaining that she wasn’t being hired via sites like voices.com and how obviously the system was flawed, and that was the reason she wasn’t getting work.

I visited her website to find that (through the placement of national logos for Burger King and Nissan) she had implicated that she’d done voiceover work for national companies.

When I listened to her demo it was apparent that she had nowhere near the skill level of a national voice talent.

Furthermore – on her website there was a mention of a client that she claimed as her client, when in fact, it had been MY client for more than four years. A quick check with producers led me to find that this person had never worked with that company.

In short, she wasn’t getting work because she sucked as a “talent”. And yet, she couldn’t hear this, and was angry with the world because she wasn’t getting work.

What are these people thinking? Do they really believe they can fool an experienced producer or Creative Service Director?”

ACTORS ARE LIARS
People in our profession have a strange relationship with the truth. We get paid to pretend. The most convincing liars get the nicest paychecks, an Oscar and a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

However, true talent, trust and integrity are the cornerstones of a successful career.

Trust must be earned.

True talent and integrity can never be faked.

Ain’t that the truth?

What are some of the lies that you have spotted?

Paul Strikwerda ©2010
www.nethervoice.com

Technorati Tags: acting with integrity, Dutch voiceover, fake credentials, fake demos, lies voiceovers tell, lying actors, lying in showbusiness, Nethervoice, Paul Strikwerda, showbiz lies

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

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass”

 

One sunny day, a fishmonger put up the following sign:

TODAY: FRESH FISH

One of his first customers said to him: “What’s this sign I see? You only have fresh fish today?”

“Of course not,” said the fishmonger. “I have fresh fish every day. You’ve been coming here for the past eight years. You know that.”

“Then why did you write: Today: Fresh Fish? That’s confusing,” said the customer.

So the fishmonger erased the word TODAY.

An hour later another customer questioned him about the sign:

“Why does it say ‘Fresh Fish’? Isn’t your fish always fresh? Or have you been selling me unfresh fish all these years?”

“Of course not,” answered the fishmonger a bit annoyed. “Each day I go to the harbor at the crack of dawn and buy my fish straight from the men who caught it. It can’t get any fresher than that.”

“Then why did you write: Fresh Fish? That’s confusing,” said the customer.

So the fishmonger erased the word FRESH. “I don’t get these people,” he mumbled. “Wasn’t it obvious what I was trying to say?”

ASSUMPTIONS
Our life is filled with unspoken assumptions. The obvious does not need to be stated, does it? If we hold that to be true, we’re forgetting one thing:

What’s obvious to one person might not be obvious to another person.

Language in and of itself is vague, inadequate and ambiguous, and therefore up for interpretation. If you have any doubts about that, talk to theologians or lawyers. In both cases you often need divine intervention to get them to agree on anything, even if they speak the same language.

Polish-American scientist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) is the developer of what he called “General Semantics”. Simply put, this refers to the study of how you and I react to our environment or an event, and how we derive meaning from it.

Korzybski coined the phrase “The map is not the territory,” meaning that a word is not what it defines (the territory), but merely a symbolic representation of it (the map). That’s why we don’t get wet from the word water. Here’s the problem: if we don’t know what the territory looks like, how on earth can we know what the map refers to?

Take Nike’s famous trademark “Just do it”.

Without knowing anything about it, would you have any idea what these three words stand for? For instance: what is “it”? And if we don’t know what “it” is, how are we supposed to know how to “do” “it”? It could mean a million things, and we’re supposed to “just” do them? Forget it!

Let’s move away from fishy advertising and “just do” a little experiment. Take this simple sentence:

“We only have a small budget.”

That’s plain English, isn’t it? But what does it really mean? Do we have enough information to know what the writer intended it to mean?

If you say “yes” to the question, please tell me what you think it means and what you are basing it on. If you say “no,” tell me what is missing.

I have a feeling that you’ve seen this sentence before. I will also go as far as to imagine that every day, freelancers like you and me allow these six words to influence the bids they put in, to win a project. Am I right?

In order to truly know what the client means by “We only have a small budget,” a lot of blanks need to be filled in. First of all: who is “we”? Is it a client? And if so, who is this client? Donald Trump? I bet you anything that what “the Donald,” considers to be small, will forever redefine your meaning of the word!

My voiceover agent sometimes sends me five hundred-dollar jobs and apologizes for the “small budget”. To some, five hundred dollars might be a huge step up from the hundred-dollar jobs they’ve been auditioning for, just to break into the business. But considering the fact that this client is a key retailer and that the job involves all major markets and a six-year buyout, five hundred bucks is very low pay.

It’s all relative, relatively speaking.

DEFINING MEANING
By giving you these examples, what did I just do?

I provided you with some context.

The meaning of words is not only determined by what you find in the dictionary. It is defined by the setting and circumstances in which they are used. In fact, dictionary editors define the meaning of words by studying the context in which they appear. They even come up with sentences in which a word is used to illustrate its meaning.

But let’s assume that little or no context is provided. What do we usually do to attempt to understand the words we read or hear?

We start making things up. Believe it or not, there’s a mindreader in all of us! To me, this is where things get really interesting. On what exactly do we base our uninformed guesses?

I remember the first time I drove on an American highway and saw a sign that said RAMP. I must confess that I had no idea what it meant (for first-time readers: I’m originally from The Netherlands).

In an attempt to understand its meaning, my mind started making associations based on my personal frame of reference. In Dutch, the word RAMP means DISASTER! Till this very day, I get uncomfortable whenever I see that sign.

Without a clear context and without the ability to ask any questions, we generally base our understanding on speculation, which in turn is based on our subjective experience. In other words: the way you interpret “we only have a small budget,” will tell us a lot about you and next to nothing about the person who wrote it. This gets us into trouble all the time.

As a service provider it is not supposed to be about us. It’s about what the client wants to see and needs to hear. But clients typically hand out maps and leave it to us to second-guess what their territory is supposed to look or sound like.

They’ll tell you:

“I don’t know how to describe to you what I want, but I know it when I hear it. As long as you try to sound warm but professional…. If you know what I mean.”

No I don’t know what you mean. How could I? We don’t even know each other. Sometimes I don’t even understand my wife, and I think that I know her better than most people.

MISUNDERSTANDING
Now, do you still wonder why you didn’t land that ‘warm and professional’ gig?

Could it be, because you were led by your own assumptions? Did you forget to ask critical questions, or were you unable or not allowed to contact the client and get some context?

Beginners often wonder: “If only I could get some feedback after the fact. That would give me some idea as to why my audition was rejected.”

I think it would be much more helpful to get some perspective before the fact; some sense of direction. Dump the vague and ambiguous verbiage. If you don’t tell us what you want, how are we supposed to give it to you? I know that words are inadequate ways of describing an experience, but can you at least try a little harder?

Meanwhile, we have a new debate in voiceover land. Following last year’s National Voice Over Appreciation Month, my colleague Dave Courvoisier has dedicated this September to “Voice Over Awareness Today”. There’s a logo. There’s a website. And each week there’s a new question. Those who answer it, could win a prize.

I applaud Dave’s ingenuity and creativity, but already questions have been raised about the meaning and purpose of a month devoted to “Voice Over Awareness”.

Dave writes that he wants to “celebrate the business of Voice Overs, and to find some collective wisdom.” (…) VOAToday seeks to elicit simple information easily shared, and makes it available for all to see.”

Voice talent John Bigl told me:

“The word ‘Awareness’ kinda puts me off … makes voice acting sound like some kind of disease or dysfunction…”

Diane Havens commented:

“I think Dave’s purpose, one of them anyway, is to shed some light on how much goes into VO, that it’s not as simple as it looks, uh, sounds.”

Mike Harrison’s response:

“I’m aware of who I am and what I do, and most other people couldn’t care less.”

Jody Silvers said:

“I think good VO is probably a lot like good acting: If you’re aware that someone is doing it, then they’re probably not doing it very well. Whether or not acknowledgment comes from a job well done SHOULD be irrelevant – as long as the check clears.”

As you can see, the map is not the territory. I’m sure you’re aware of that by now.

How would you define “Voice Over Awareness” and why would we need it Today?

Isn’t Dave in a way a bit like the fishmonger and his sign? Speaking of which, let’s go back to the story.

TODAY: FRESH FISH

After erasing the first two words, the fishmonger stared at the sign that now read “FISH”.

That should do it, he thought.

No one can argue with that.

He was ready to go inside when a boy walked up to him. He had a ten-dollar bill in his hand.

“Sir, sir…” the boy said, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” said the fishmonger. “What can I help you with, young man?”

The boy looked at him with big, hopeful eyes.

“Sir, I just saw your sign and I was wondering: do you sell goldfish?”

The fishmonger made a gesture of utter exasperation.

People are completely clueless, he thought.

Then he took a damp sponge and erased the word FISH.

Paul Strikwerda ©2011
www.nethervoice.com

Technorati Tags: Alfred Korzybski, Dave Courvoisier, Diane Havens, Donald Trump, Double Dutch Blog, Dutch voiceover, General Semantics, Jody Silvers, John Bigl, Mike Harrison, National Voice Over Appreciation Month, Nike Inc., Paul Strikwerda, The map is not the territory, Voice Over Awareness Today, voice-over, voiceover, voiceover blog, voiceovers

“I will give you my personal prediction on what will implode first: Blogs containing information that serves no one but the writer, and his/her inner circle without fact-checking.”
Steven Lowell

The dust has finally settled.

Give it a few months, and last week’s discussion will rise out of the ashes and begin a new life somewhere else.

Same topic. Different voices, perhaps.

Steven’s remark about self-serving blogs and bloggers did make me think about my vision for Double Dutch. Believe it or not: I have one, and you can find it on the About & Contact page that no one ever reads. I know, because my analytics tell me exactly which pages attract most traffic. Here are the opening words:

DOUBLE DUTCH is a platform and playground for ideas, dialogue and discourse about things personal and professional related but not limited to voice-overs and freelancing.

That covers pretty much everything, doesn’t it? Now, let me also tell you what it is not.

This blog is not some grand podium built to glorify my personal accomplishments or to sell Mr. Strikwerda’s amazing pipes. Why would anyone want to read about that? Not me!

If you’re interested in the technical side of voiceovers, you have to look elsewhere too. Although I’m fascinated with the tools of the trade, I am not a gearhead or audio specialist. I don’t receive free products from companies, take them out of the box, dangle them in front of a camera and post it as a “review”.

It’s true, I did write a series about building my voice-over booth on a budget, but I did not seek or receive any compensation for mentioning products, manufacturers or stores.

This blog is not a source of fair and unbiased industry news either.

In essence, Double Dutch is nothing but a blog revolving around one man and his ideas and experiences, and a bunch of friends who like to chime in, every once in a while. If you’re looking for objective, investigative journalism, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Just like a lot of other stuff you’ll read online or in the papers, my articles are usually a mix of subjective opinion based on personal selection and interpretation of data. If you’d like to fact-check my sources, all you need to do is click on a few links, embedded in the articles.

Nobody has to agree with anything I write. My readers are intelligent enough to understand that it would be foolish to generalize my personal stories and turn them into an overall verdict on the issue at hand.

I don’t consider myself to be an authority or expert. My opinion is one of many, and one quick look at Bob Souer’s blog roll will tell you that I’m certainly not the only blogger in this voiceover town. Of course I’m tickled to see that some people seem to care about what I have to say, but that’s as far as it goes.

I strive to inform, I attempt to entertain and yes… I also like to rock the boat every once in a while. As a voiceover professional, it is my job to be outspoken. I don’t feel comfortable standing on the sidelines.

Unlike Steven Lowell, I am not a paid spokesperson for a company. I don’t pretend to proclaim and promote an objective, universal truth. This is my personal platform and I can be as passionate and opinionated as I want. I represent no one but myself.

So, why do I take a day out of every week to write this blog?

The short answer: Because I feel like it.

The moment it becomes just another chore, I will stop and take up billiards or Bingo.

Here’s another reason: I love to write and I think I have something to say that  -at times- is moderately insightful and interesting. At least, that’s what my readers keep on telling me.

As you may know, most of my stories start out as simple Notes to Self. The series about building a voice-over studio is a perfect example.

It took me many months before I was ready to start building my own studio. During that time, I had compiled a wealth of information and I thought it might be useful to share it with you. Now it’s available as a booklet and most of the proceeds go to a very good cause. Sharing is important to me.

Over the years, I have benefited so much from the kindness, knowledge and insights of friends and colleagues. I wouldn’t be where I am today, had it not been for their advice and encouragement. In a way, I am repaying my debt to them by publishing this blog.

Thanks to Double Dutch, I’ve also made countless new friends from all corners of this planet. Many of them won’t publicly comment on my articles, but each and every week they email me with questions and observations.

As far as the future goes, I’m branching out. Most of you already know that I write on all things international for Internet Voice Coach. I also conduct interviews with colleagues across the globe.

Recently, I started recording three-minute vignettes for the International Freelancers Academy on building your business. There’s also a book on the way.

I’m not telling you this to impress you. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn if you think this is impressive or not. The fact is, I love my work and I love writing about it.

As long as I still have music in me, I will continue to sing my songs.

And if people think it’s just a bunch of blah-blah, they’ll find other blogs to read, and Double Dutch will eventually implode.

Perhaps that wouldn’t be too bad.

It’s always better to end with a bang.

Paul Strikwerda ©2011
www.nethervoice.com

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