Karen Commins

10 Business Tips From My Day at the Great Pyramids

18 December 2006

When Drew and I recently visited the Great Pyramids in Egypt, our attention was instantly focused on something. You might think we were riveted by the awe-inspiring majesty of the ancient structures that we were visiting. While we were certainly thrilled to be standing at one of the 7 Wonders of the world, we couldn’t totally concentrate on the moment as we defended ourselves against the onslaught of sales pitches of the many vendors who rushed up to us as we stepped onto the Sahara sand.

If you stood still for more than a few seconds, someone would approach you, offering to sell you something, take you for a camel ride or shoot your picture. I began to think that the sellers outnumbered the tourists.

People were hawking everything imaginable to remember your experience at the Pyramids: postcards, calendars, camels (both rides on real ones and small toys) coins, stamps, papyrus pictures, and, of course, head wraps.

In fact, head wraps seemed to be the most popular item sold by the vendors, and most of the people appeared to have identical packages of white cloth which you would tie to your head with colored rope rings. These wraps looked like the traditional Arabian, white scarves with rope rings that you see in the movies. Most people were selling them for a dollar.

When we went to the Pyramids, we didn’t have it in our minds to buy a souvenir of our visit. We and our fellow travelers had spent a lot of time, money and energy to journey to the Pyramids; all we wanted was peace and quiet to enjoy the view. All the vendors wanted was to use our limited time and waning energy under the desert sun to relieve us of money for their trinkets.

In this setting of vendors barking their prices at us as we passed them, my marketing mind couldn’t help but think: How does a person selling a product that is the same or similar to his competitors distinguish himself in a saturated marketplace? The observations I made during my trip to the Pyramids are tips that you can easily employ in marketing and improving your voice-over business.

Drew and me in front of the Sphinx and PyramidsOne of the more unusual selling approaches occurred when one person forced one of these white head wraps into Drew’s hands, started walking with us and told us he was giving us a free gift.

Observation #1: The word FREE is one of the most powerful words in the English language. When someone offers you a free gift, you can’t help but feel intrigued. Of course, our society causes us to be cynical and look for the ‘the catch’ to any offer. In your voice-over business, you can entice people with free reports, free auditions, free script assistance, free revisions in short, whatever you feel adds value to your business without taking away from your bottom line. You ARE in the voice-over business to make money, aren’t you?

He proceeded to ask us if we were American. When we said we were, he told us that he loved America and wanted to travel here someday.

Observation #2: This seller was trying to create a relationship with us. People like to do business with those with whom they have a relationship. While everyone else was simply yelling prices at us, this guy was actually attempting to develop a rapport with us.

Once he had established our nationality, the Pyramid peddler suggested that it would be nice if we could also give him a gift. (Ah, HERE’S the catch!) He didn’t specifically ask for money, but we knew he wanted money. We quickly gave the so-called free gift back to him.

Observation #3: If you give away something for free, you can’t have any expectation of getting anything in return. If you anticipate a quid pro quo, you risk offending your prospects and a loss of any future sales.

Observation #4: When you’re in a sales situation, you need to have a firm price for your product (as in voice talent and services) and be able to speak to people about the benefits they will receive from spending their money with you.

We also visited the Sphinx, which is located at the site of the Pyramids. Here, the peddlers offered the same merchandise as at the Pyramids but also added scarves and crystal Pyramids. Souvenir shops lined the road, but I didn’t see an official souvenir stand at either site. I suppose that anyone who wants to sell stuff could do so.

We had successfully skirted around the sea of sellers while entering the chamber to the Sphinx. Our guide even shooed away one particularly pesky merchant by speaking rather sharply to him in Arabic. On our way out, though, Drew noticed someone selling a head wrap that was unlike the 100 he had seen prior in the day. All of the others were small pieces of white linen fabric, while this one was a large, black and white checked fabric similar to one worn by a former Mid-East leader. Drew stopped to inquire about it.

Observation #5: Find a niche and fill it. I know that may seem easier said than done, especially when I’m talking about the voice-over industry, but we all have unique voices and unique backgrounds that we bring to the microphone. Figure out your signature sound, and find a way to use your experiences in your marketing. Also, if you have some tie-in to a celebrity, use it!

Drew and the vendor haggled about the price of this head wrap for several minutes before Drew finally bought it at a price considerably lower than the dealer’s original price. However, Drew did pay more for his head wrap than the white linen wraps seen at the Pyramids and more than he originally planned to spend.

Observation #6: Just because everybody else in your sandbox is charging low prices and negotiating price cuts with every new prospect doesn’t mean that you have to follow the trend. When you cut your prices, you are the one who bleeds. If you want to charge and achieve a premium price for your voice-over talent, you need to be ready with factual, persuasive reasons based on quality, service or other aspects why the prospect should pay the extra money. For an in-depth and fascinating discussion of this subject, I cannot recommend too highly that you get Larry Steinmetz’s book How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors: Winning Every Sale at Full Price, Rate, or Fee.

Observation #7: Even in a market that is saturated with vendors, people are willing to increase their budgets to acquire a quality product that matches their specifications.

Drew shows off his new purchaseFollowing the visits to the Pyramids and the Sphinx, we were taken on a Jeep safari and camel ride at the Saqqara Country Club near the 4000-year-old Step Pyramid, which we also visited. Both the Jeep safari and camel ride were included in the package price for the day trip to the Pyramids. Our camels were led by Bedouins walking by the camels on foot, and our guide told us that $2 was a customary tip for these ‘drivers’. Consequently, Drew and I each put $2 in our pockets with the plan to give it to each driver at the end of the ride.

The camel ride lasted 30-40 minutes, which was longer than we expected. During the entire ride, our drivers kept asking if everything was okay. They were eager to please and ensure that we were having a good time. However, they didn’t know a lot of English, so the rest of the conversation consisted of constant requests for money at the end of the ride.

I was uncomfortable during the ride because I only had one foot in a stirrup. I never found the stirrup on the right side, and I kept feeling like I would fall off the camel’s back. I told Moses, my driver, about this problem numerous times. Maybe he didn’t understand me since he would respond by telling me about needing money to feed his wife and 5 hungry children.

Observation #8: If your client reports a problem to you, you should fix it immediately. Listen twice as much as you talk. Do everything in your power to maintain your client’s trust.

Sami, Drew’s driver, gave the reins to Drew so Drew could steer the camel. Drew gave his camera to Sami and asked Sami to take our picture. Though we’re sure Sami doesn’t own a digital camera, he did a great job in using Drew’s camera. When people say I look extremely happy in this picture, I tell them it is because I was reunited with my Sheik of the Desert, who had been leading our little caravan of camels. Drew says he thinks I’m laughing because I know the hot, bumpy ride is almost over. 🙂

My Sheik and me on our camel ride in the Sahara DesertWe decided that, contrary to the advice of our guide, the drivers deserved more than a $2 tip for the long walk and value-added service. Drew had a mixture of US and European currency in his wallet. He gave a US $20 to Sami; however, he gave Moses a 20 Euro, which was worth around $25 due to the exchange rate. Even though Sami took pictures of us and gave Drew the reins of his camel, Drew paid Moses more because Moses was taking care of me. Also, Moses was also missing many teeth and had a larger family than Sami. Drew wanted to do more to add to Moses’ prosperity than to Sami’s. Rather than thanking Drew for his generosity, Sami was jealous of the amount given to Moses and demanded that Drew give him $5 more. Drew refused.

Observation #9: Do the best job that you can do and express gratitude for all of your blessings. Convey your appreciation to your clients for choosing you as their voice talent and for their prompt payment of your invoices. You would do well to set up a regular system to maintain contact with them that shows them you are thinking of them and their needs, not yours.

Observation #10: We live in a global economy. If you don’t have a passport, get one. If you have a passport, use it. Travel the world to spend time in other cultures and see how other people really live as opposed to taking your world view solely from the things that the media chooses to tell you. I can’t promise that you will gain creative ideas about your voice-over business, but I can promise that you will gain a perspective about your place in this world and an appreciation for the abundant lifestyle you are privileged to lead if you are a voice-over artist.

Audiobook Producer/Narrator Kate Fleming Passes Away

15 December 2006

I was shocked and saddened to open my e-mail this evening and find this message from Michele Cobb, president of the Audio Publishers Association:

We are sad to report that Kate Fleming, award-winning audiobook producer and narrator passed away Thursday, December 15, after being trapped in her flooded basement studio. She was a proud member of the audiobook community and will be greatly missed. We offer condolences to her loved ones, colleagues at Cedar House Audio and to all of the members who worked with and were inspired by Kate. Information regarding where you may send condolences will be forthcoming.

Sincerely,

Michele Cobb, APA President

and

APA Board of Directors

I was privileged to meet Kate at an APA conference a few years ago. I remember her as a smart, kind and funny person who generously shared her knowledge with others. She impressed me that day with her precision in pronunciation, and I frantically took note of the various dictionaries that she mentioned using in her work. She was a shining role model to me as she excelled as both a narrator and a producer. Words are inadequate to describe her loss not only to the audiobook industry but to the world.

I found an article in the Seattle Times that provides more details about Kate Fleming’s illustrious background and this tragedy, which actually occurred on Thursday, 14 December.

I have experienced loss in my life, and I send my deepest empathy to Kate’s partner, family and friends during this dark time.

36-hour delay may work for luggage but not in voice-over

15 December 2006

You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

— John Lydgate

As an aside — when I was researching the correct attribution of this quote, I was interested to learn that, according to Wikipedia, the Oxford English Dictionary cites Lydgate with the earliest record of using the word talent in reference to a gifted state of natural ability.

Lydgate’s quote was on my mind because of the first of the trip-related stories that I wanted to write. In your voice-over business, do you have a level of service that you provide to your clients? Do you guarantee your clients’ satisfaction with your work? Have you done any contingency planning so that you can provide your voice-over recordings to your clients in the event of unexpected delays?

I have not written terms of service for my voice-over business, but I strive to ensure that every client is totally delighted with the work I perform. Ever heard of the phrase ‘the show must go on’? If someone has booked your time, a professional talent doesn’t call in sick and leave the client hanging in the face of a deadline.

In contrast, many large corporations have extensive written terms of service that their customers should expect. Human error, mechanical problems and forces of nature can cause the terms of service to decline or sometimes disappear.

Prior to our recent Greek Isles cruise, Drew and I flew non-stop on Delta Airlines from Atlanta to Athens, Greece. Originally, we were ticketed to fly three segments, two of which were on Delta’s partner airline, Air France. However, weather delays at the Atlanta airport would have caused us to miss the longest segment from Washington, DC to Paris, France. Delta did the right thing to act quickly and rebook us for its own non-stop flight.

Unfortunately, our luggage was not rebooked with us. After a 10-hour flight, we arrived in Athens with only the clothes on our backs. New security regulations prevent passengers from taking even basic toiletries such as toothpaste in carry-on luggage. In all of our travels, we have never taken a change of clothes in carry-on luggage; after this experience, we’ll probably change that practice.

Drew filing the claim for our luggage in Athens

To shorten this story, we adopted the attitude that life wasn’t so bad if our worst problem was that we were on vacation in Athens, Greece, wearing the same clothes for a couple of days. We went sight-seeing and had a marvelous time. Our luggage finally showed up at our hotel 36 hours after we did.

Delta has an impressive web page which outlines in detail its customer commitment, which states

We have outlined our responsibilities and how we will fulfill them below in 12-key points. We intend to ensure that your air travel experience will encompass, to the best of our abilities, the most comprehensive customer service possible.

It sounds great until one reads just a little further and finds this jarring sentence:

Note: Delta Customer Commitment applies to domestic travel only.

Is Delta saying it has no customer commitment to its international passengers? If a business operates under the assumption that you can’t please all of the people all of the time, why bother trying? I wouldn’t say you should expect to please ALL of the people, but you should make the effort if the people you are not pleasing are in the subset of people in your client base.

We fly Delta almost exclusively and usually experience no problems. Surprisingly, though, this experience was the second time in 15 months that Delta delayed our luggage prior to a cruise. The first time, the luggage was on the next flight and didn’t cause us any real hardship.

I wrote to Delta Baggage Services about our situation. While we can never get back the 36 hours we were in a foreign country without luggage, we received a nice letter of apology and, as a measure of Delta’s goodwill, some vouchers toward a future flight. The letter also said that we could be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses we had incurred as a result of the delay. I have decided that regardless of the statement on its web site to the contrary, Delta really does have customer commitment to its international passengers after all!

Like all of my personal stories, this one has some connection to your voice-over business. A voice-over talent lives by the clock. We think in terms of spots that run :30 and :60, which really are a half-second shorter. We work with producers who want things today, in 2 hours, in an hour, as soon as you can get it done, NOW. Union contracts specify rates half-hour increments. If you must book time at a studio, you pay rates by the half-hour or hour.

If you were the cause of an hour delay on a project, you might receive a lot of negative publicity and potentially a cut in pay. Can you imagine the long-term repercussions to your voice-over business if you caused a 36-hour delay to a client?

Delays are an inescapable fact of life. Have you thought about safeguards so that you don’t cause a delay?

Your contingency planning for delays and other unavoidable problems can be your saving grace in the eyes of your client.

What will you do if your Internet connection suddenly goes down, and you can’t deliver your recordings when you promised? Do you have some sort of back-up delivery method? Sometimes a client might accept a CD by overnight mail. I have even hand-delivered a CD to clients in town. If I needed to deliver something today to someone in another city, depending on where I am, I might take my file to a friend’s house, a studio, an office supply center, a coffee shop, a hotel business office or potentially a library in order to transmit the file to the waiting client. My possibilities of getting Internet access in a hurry are endless. Write these access points down in a calm period so you will have a list if you need it.

Here’s another scenario for you: What do you do when a client contacts you and needs a recording that you can’t produce in the time allotted because you are ill, on vacation or swamped with other projects? When this situation has happened to me, I am prepared for it because I can refer my client to another professional voice talent whom I trust. We have a reciprocal agreement as she has called on me in similar circumstances.

The clients are grateful for the referral, and I haven’t lost a client by providing this service. Instead, I have kept their projects on schedule by saving them audition time and directing them to someone I’m confident would do a good job.

Are you making regular backups of your computer’s hard drive? I’ll let you in on a secret: The only day that you need to make a backup is the day before your system crashes! Trust me — if you’re working on a long narration project or an audiobook, you will want to copy those edited files to another drive, CD, DAT or backup tape.

If a client lets you know that work you completed did not meet expectations, how do you respond? Do you guarantee your work? I recall one occasion where I voiced a narration while recovering from severe congestion. My client called a few weeks later and asked me to re-record certain parts where the congestion affected my speech. However, he was thrilled that I decided to re-record the whole thing so that the tonality of sound would match throughout the recording.

I don’t try to please all of the people all of the time. I prefer instead to concentrate my efforts on pleasing that select group of people known as my voice-over clients. I even have the same level of delay-free, customer commitment to both domestic and international clients. 🙂

Curl up with some good audiobooks this holiday weekend

21 November 2006

The Audio Publishers Association reports that many people get audiobooks when they are traveling. With Thanksgiving a couple days away, you may be thinking of picking up an audiobook for your trip, and, as an audiobook narrator, I applaud your wisdom! 🙂

If you would like some help in making your selection, you will enjoy reading Stephen King’s recent column in Entertainment Weekly titled Hail to the Spoken Word in which he listed his top 10 audiobook recommendations. The discussion from readers is equally lively.

While I record in my studio, a fascinating post on Sarah Weinman’s GalleyCat blog titled An Audiobook In the Making described the audiobook recording process to the world. Sarah takes us all behind-the-scenes with her to a studio session of Jonathan Lethem recording part of the audiobook version of his new novel YOU DON’T LOVE ME YET.

By the way, if you’re interested in audiobook work, I cannot recommend too highly Pat Fraley’s audiobook class. He has another session scheduled in Los Angeles on 2-3 December. If you contact him about it, please let him know that I referred you.

If you’re an American, I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving on Thursday. I give thanks that I am married to the love of my life, live in this great country and can do voice-over work for clients around the world from my home!

Voice-Over Secrets from Adam, Bob and Bob

17 November 2006

I ran across a fantastic entry on fellow voice-over actor Adam Creighton’s blog titled Acting is a lot of work. It’s the sort of thing I wish I had written.

I don’t know Adam and haven’t previously read his blog. However, he strikes me as an extremely talented, goal-oriented guy who can inspire all of us with his tremendous work ethic and fierce determination to live the life of his dreams. I particularly liked the paragraph where he said that if you don’t have work, you make your own. I also have used comic books for character voice creation and practice, but Adam takes that method one step further by creating simple animation by taking pictures with his digital camera.

Some of the most stellar ideas for business expansion have come from people making their own work. Hollywood stars often have their own production companies; why shouldn’t a voice actor do the same thing? In his most excellent course You Must Act!, actor/writer/director Bob Fraser advises would-be actors to cast yourself in roles that you want. Whether you are acting on stage or in a voice-over booth, his advice is still sound (pardon the pun).

I was fortunate to have a personal consultation with Bob in which we discussed that point. Casting oneself means that you know your strong suit, and you also know the things that you enjoy doing. You therefore actively seek out those opportunities or possibly create them for yourself. Adam knows this secret.

As much as I enjoyed seeing all of the positive and creative things that appeared on Adam’s list, I also must mention the striking absence of something from his list that seems to fill countless hours for many people. At no point did Adam say he spent his precious time comparing himself to or worrying about his competition.

Of course, I’m sure a smart man like Adam is keenly aware of the competition in the voice-over industry and his other performing arts fields. However, from reading his detailed list of activities, I am delighted to see that he is much too busy with the improvement of his own career to be concerned about the careers of other people. (By the way, I hope that the industrious Adam is way too busy to be spending his valuable time absorbed in gossip and idle chit chat on his cell phone or consumed with the results of a reality TV show.)

Comparing yourself to other people is a guaranteed formula for feeling BAD! Without too much effort, you can always find someone who apparently:

has more credits and/or more impressive credits
has booked more jobs recently
makes more money
has better equipment
has more agents and/or more aggressive agents and/or agents in more markets
has higher search engine rankings
has a better demo
has more training
has better marketing promotions
has more audition opportunities

You get the idea. By comparing yourself and your achievements to anyone or anything, you more than likely will find fault with your own situation. This negativity can cause feelings ranging from discouragement to despair and not only jeopardize your career but damage relationships as well. We are all unique, and we all have different gifts to offer the world. You cannot use the career of another person as a yardstick with which to measure your progress because every circumstance is different.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t review the demos, web sites and other marketing materials from others in the voice-over industry. I believe that we all can learn from others’ approaches and successes. Read the biographies of voice actors, business people or anyone else whom you admire. Success leaves clues. If someone else has done something that you want to do, you can emulate their steps. Your journey won’t be the same, but at least you will be on the right path.

From Adam’s comments about suggesting the toy and comic book licensing deal, I wondered if, in fact, he even views other voice actors as competition. I prefer to have a cooperative attitude instead of a competitive one. I know that my voice is not right for every project, and I have turned down projects that I didn’t want to voice because I didn’t like the words that would be coming out of my mouth.

We are all voice talents with something special to offer. Bob Souer, a successful voice actor who is as gifted when writing on the page as he is when bringing words to life behind the mic, wrote an eloquent post on his blog addressing the competition aspect of auditions . In Bob’s mind – and in mine, too – an audition isn’t a competition. When you read his captivating words comparing an audition to a Michelangelo sculpture, you won’t enter an audition situation with a competitive attitude again.

The next time that you think your voice-over career or any other part of your life is unsatisfactory, I would offer this challenge. Ask yourself if you’re really using every bit of available time constructively in pursuit of your dreams like Adam. Are you like veteran voice actor Bob Souer, who views every audition opportunity with the excitement that a sculptor views that new chunk of marble? Have you implemented the advice of the very wise Bob Fraser to cast yourself?

Look at the name of his course again. YOU MUST ACT. Even if you don’t cast yourself for parts that you want, you must take action if you expect anything to happen in your voice-over career. If you remember your high school physics, you’ll know that Isaac Newton stated:

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

All of your actions won’t necessarily lead to the reactions that you want. However, the Universe responds in kind to the energy that you expend. Once you start devoting yourself to the full-time pursuit of making your dream life a reality, I promise that you will be as happy, creative and fulfilled as Adam seems to be.

You can trust your gut instinct

14 November 2006

Things happen for a reason. Every moment and decision has meaning — even if you don’t know it at the time.

As I sit in my beautiful soundproof recording studio with its Parisian decorating scheme, I still marvel at the newness of it. A little more than a year ago at this time, my house, my voice-over career and my life were severely disrupted because we were in the midst of building the addition on our house for the studio.

I didn’t even make the decision to build the studio until 6 January 2005. Prior to building the studio, I had been using an unventilated, small walk-in closet as my voice-over recording booth. While I could tolerate the many discomforts of the space, it was the surrounding noise that forced me to go to drastic lengths.

Even though we had decided to build a new soundproof room for my voice-over studio, I originally had no idea what the finished interior would look like. I should say I had no conscious idea, but I feel the whole project was guided by my intuition, and, perhaps, a higher power.

We had planned a trip to the Salzburg Festival in Austria in August, 2001 but canceled it when my dad was seriously ill at the end of July of that year. Sometime in 2004, we had decided we would vacation in Austria for my April, 2005 birthday.

In late 2004, I suddenly and without any reason decided that I would rather go to Paris.

In December, 2004, I bought tickets to see Barry Manilow for 5 concerts (!) in his new show in Las Vegas in mid-August, 2005. I was thrilled because I would have front-row and fourth-row seats.

February, 2005, found us replacing all of the original single-pane, double-hung windows on the house with fantastic triple-pane casement windows. In addition to their thickness, the new windows form an amazing seal to the house and really aid in soundproofing the house from the constant melee of exterior noise that confronts us everyday. I cherish peace and quiet even when I’m not recording. I saved a few of the smaller original windows, thinking I might use them somehow as future art projects. Drew thought they were just more things to take up space in the garage.

We had visited Paris for 5 hours in 2003 as part of a cruise stop, but last year, we were there for one glorious week. I loved everything about the city. On my birthday, we had the most incredible and memorable dinner of my life in the Eiffel Tower overlooking the Seine River at sunset. The Eiffel Tower is now my favorite thing in the world. 🙂 I loved to glimpse it as often as possible as we toured Paris, and I took every opportunity to watch it twinkle at night.

While we were in Paris, we bought 3 paintings. I had no idea where I would put them in my house since the walls are already covered in art. I also sketched a building on the artist plaza behind Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, never intending to do anything with it.

When we visited Versailles, we walked through the magnificent gardens, which are filled with ornate statues. It started to rain, so we decided to head back toward the Chateau. We passed a statue we had not seen on our entrance to the gardens, and I stopped in my tracks.

I told Drew that for some reason, I felt that statue was important, and I asked him to take a picture of it.

After we returned from our vacation, we selected the contractor for the studio construction. Work began in late May and dragged on until October. The details about the construction project are another story for another time! However, if you want to learn from my experience, you can download my free PDF Karen’s Crash Course in Avoiding Ca$h-Poor Contractors.

I was aware of making only minimal interior decorating decisions at the outset of the project. I chose the color of the walls and carpet. I also said I wanted track lighting because I knew that I would hang some sort of artwork in the studio, given that we have art through the rest of the house.

During the construction, I first decided I could hang the 3 new paintings from Paris in the studio since a new room meant 4 new bare walls. Since we built the studio without windows to improve the soundproofing of the room, I began to wonder how a faux window would look on the wall. After all, I had saved real windows from the house. I asked Drew whether my favorite picture from Paris could be enlarged to the size of the window and if it somehow could be lit from behind so that it would look realistic. Drew immediately saw the possibility of this idea and began working the implementation.

Drew worked with a local Alphagraphics to enlarge the picture and mount it on Plexiglas. Drew and his dad built a box to house the lights, and Drew painted it to match the walls.

Now, my studio has a window that doesn’t let in sound!

When I look out my window, my enchanting view is that of a brightly-lit tour boat motoring down the Seine at 9:10pm in front of the Museum D’Orsay, with the dazzling light show of the Eiffel Tower in progress off to the right.

In June, I was given a book which showed all of the artwork of my favorite artist, Fanch Ledan. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw a print that featured the same building that I had sketched! I started to acquire several of his older, uncommon prints featuring the Eiffel Tower, and I asked a dealer to search for that one long-out-of-print piece of art. The Parisian decorating theme by this time was swirling in my brain.

By August, I was so distraught over the cost, problems and delays with the studio construction that I almost cancelled my long-awaited trip to see Barry Manilow. Drew told me to go, relax and have fun; he would stay and deal with the contractor. A friend told me that I should definitely go on the trip, saying that maybe I’d find something unique for my studio.

I not only had a blast at Barry’s concerts, as I would expect, but yes, I DID find something for my studio.

I was staying at a hotel off the strip and had to take a shuttle to the Bellagio. Barry was playing at the Hilton, at the other end of the strip. Since the temperature was a sweltering 110 degrees (‘yes, but it’s a dry heat’, everyone always tells me when I go to Vegas, as if sticking my head in an oven would somehow make me feel terrific), I was walking outside as little as possible.

After leaving the shuttle, my normal route took me through the Bellagio, across the bridge to Bally’s and through Bally’s to the sumptuous Paris Las Vegas Hotel or the Monorail. Naturally, with my fondness for Paris, I liked to hang out at the Paris hotel, which has a lobby chandeliers and mirrors to resemble Versailles. I browsed in the lovely gift shop and found the perfect wall sconces for my silk flowers. The velvety purple color is unbelievably just a shade off from the color of my walls.

However, the piece de resistance came when I walked in the Shops at Bally’s. If I hadn’t walked through Bally’s every time I went anywhere in Vegas, I might not have visited their shops, and horrors! I might have missed this treasure. There, in the window of one luxury shop, was an impossibly huge, etched, crystal Eiffel Tower. It sparkled and shimmered as the light caught all of its hundreds of facets. I went in the store to admire it, but its impossibly huge price to match its overwhelming size made it seem like something I should ignore.

The store owner saw my interest (can you say drooling?) and led me to the counter, where a 13′ version of the crystal Tower proudly stood. The dealer told me that I could get a rotating mirrored base that has colored lights under the mirror and was sold separately. I guess it must have been a slow day and/or the guy really liked me because I negotiated a completely wonderful deal on this mesmerizing piece of crystal and got the mirrored base for free! One of the Las Vegas sconces is shown in this picture on the wall to left of the crystal.

Sometime in the summer, I started visualizing an overstuffed love seat with sleigh arms and carved legs.

Due to the placement of the interior door, I don’t have room for full sofa. I found some love seats on-line that I liked, but they would require custom work at custom prices. One was actually in Paris, so I quickly ruled it out. One hot Saturday, Drew and I went to a half dozen nearby furniture stores. We saw nothing that looked French, carved or anything that even halfway compared to the type of love seat that I envisioned. Oh, and did I mention that I wanted a green love seat?

Exhausted by a day of fruitless searching, we made one last stop into Haverty’s. We almost didn’t go there because no one else had anything, and we had no expectation that Haverty’s would be different. We should have gone there first. My dream love seat was waiting for me there.

Once construction was complete last fall, I started thinking that I would like a tapestry to cover the electrical box that is behind the door that leads in from the kitchen. We were looking for the fabric to match the love seat to use as drapery fabric for the faux window. We didn’t find the fabric, but we saw some tapestries hanging on a rack. After inspection, none were suitable for my studio.

On the way out of the store, though, we discovered that we could send our picture to a company which would create a custom tapestry from our picture! We knew immediately which picture to use: a striking shot of crimson tulips swaying in the foreground with a Parisian subway train rounding the bend front of typical blue-roofed apartment buildings in the background. Drew shot the picture while we were walking from the train station to the Eiffel Tower on the way to my birthday celebration. The company that makes the tapestry even supplied a rod with fleur-de-lis endpoints.

My studio decorating theme may seem like a happy accident until I look back and realize it couldn’t have been any other way.

It’s the voice-over recording studio of my dreams…and then some.

If you have stayed with me this far, you may be wondering why I have told you the detailed story behind my studio decoration.

So often, I think our intuition gives us amazing guidance, but we ignore it.

If we analyze the decisions in this story that I made by intuition, we see that I:

Went to Paris for vacation instead of Austria
Saved the window from the house
Took the picture of the statue at Versailles
Decided to hang the Paris paintings in the studio, even if by default
Shopped in Las Vegas for studio furnishings and found the amazing crystal statue
Went to Haverty’s to look at furniture after almost giving up
Went to a store for drapery material and instead found way to order a custom tapestry

In fact, this entire blog entry was guided by my intuition. When I started writing, I had in mind another lesson that I wished to relate. However, my fingers typed this one, as if taking dictation. Perhaps someone needs to know that they can trust their intuition in making important decisions about their voice-over career. Your intuition will tell you whether a class is a scam or a life-changing opportunity. Your intuition will urge you to make a particular phone call to a certain client. Your intuition will guide you to make choices and take action toward building your career that you may not totally understand at the time but will make brilliant sense in retrospect.

I realized I didn’t show you the picture of the statue at Versailles or tell you what I did with it. Every artist needs a star on her door, and I’m no exception. As I walk in my WhisperRoom each day, I see that splendid statue from Versailles, a lovely marble lady who looks like she was once holding a microphone in her hand. I even found a frame that matches the decorating scheme perfectly!

By the way, I still haven’t made it to Austria. I know that there’s a reason for the delay. My intuition tells me that, like my studio decoration, that trip will be better than I dreamed possible when it finally happens.

How has your intuition helped you in advancing your career? You read my story; I would love to read yours!