Away From the Mic

10 Things I Learned About Speaking at a Conference

11 October 2014

On Friday, 10 October 2014, I presented the topic “Setting Sail In Audiobooks” at the Georgia Romance Writers’ (GRW) annual Moonlight and Magnolias Conference. Although I gave a polished talk with a fabulous multimedia presentation, the overall experience is not one I want to repeat any time soon.

I’ll be honest — before yesterday, I had never given this sort of presentation. I had done presentations in my government career, of course, so I had no fear of speaking to a group.

I raise the point about this kind of presentation because a more experienced public speaker might have been able to avoid the technical and communications problems I encountered. I therefore thought it might be helpful to share some things that could have gone better to save others from a similar plight.

1. Only go when you are INVITED.

In January of 2014, I sent a message to the Georgia Romance Writers to inquire about speaking to their group about audiobooks at a monthly meeting and/or the annual conference. The conference chairperson responded that I could submit a workshop proposal for the conference. If my proposal was selected, I would have to pay the conference registration fee for attendees.

I responded that I was unwilling to pay registration fees since I wouldn’t be an attendee. My thinking was that I was offering to HELP them for free. I certainly was not going to PAY for the privilege of spending my time, energy, and creativity in developing an engaging and informative talk and then more time at the actual presentation.

In March, after the proposal window had closed, the conference chairperson wrote to me:

Are you still interested in presenting at the Moonlight & Magnolias conference in October? We have an opening in the workshop schedule, and since you’re local and provide a service to authors, we’re willing to waive the registration requirement.

My gut whispered to me that they didn’t want ME. They just wanted someone to FILL A SLOT and were SETTLING for me “since I’m local and provide a service to authors”. I chose to dismiss those thoughts, telling myself they were just my own inner resistance to stepping outside my comfort zone instead of a warning signal. I responded that I would be delighted to accept the slot.

2. Ask for equipment to transmit both the computer video and AUDIO.

I had to submit my equipment requests in June, long before I started creating my slide show. Even though my topic was AUDIObooks and AUDIO is my life, I didn’t think to specifically ask for equipment to transmit my computer AUDIO along with the screen display.

My snazzy slide show included 4 terrific videos that demonstrated key points. As I practiced my speech last week, I suddenly realized that the projector might not transmit the computer’s audio. I wrote to the conference coordinator, who said they only had a projector, and she didn’t think she could get speakers for my computer. She referred me to the hotel contact person to solve the audio problem. I’m guessing that no one at previous GRW conferences has ever had a multimedia show, so no one ever thought of or asked for audio equipment.

The hotel was only providing a microphone and podium. However, it could easily include the additional sound mixer configuration for my computer audio for an additional $130. GRW apparently was unwilling or unable to pay the additional fee.

]I had to solve the audio problem. My choices were:

Pay the hotel the $130 to set up the additional equipment.
Take an external speaker from home, perhaps even a studio monitor.
Remove the videos from the slide show.

I decided to take a Bluetooth speaker. I had to hold my microphone in front of the speaker in order to project its sound throughout the large ballroom. I’ll have more to say about this solution in subsequent points.

3. Test and re-test every aspect of your slide show.

My laptop worked well with a Bluetooth speaker that we had purchased from Williams and Sonoma. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that it must time-out after a certain amount of inactivity. When I got to the 2 videos at the end of my presentation, the Bluetooth speaker wouldn’t play the sound. I might have discovered that fact if I had played all of my videos with the external speaker during my rehearsals.

4. Ensure that your name and presentation name are the way you want them to appear on the schedule and program.

When I received the conference schedule in September, I just looked for my name to see the date and time of my session. I didn’t notice that my session title was listed as the very bland and vague “Audiobook Presentation” instead of the name I had given it “Setting Sail In Audiobooks”.

Of all the presentations, mine was the only one with such a non-descript name. The other presentations retained the names given them by the speakers. Some of the presentation names contained more characters than mine, so my presentation name would have fit in the space provided.

I only noticed this undesirable and unauthorized change on Thursday night before my Friday session. Sure enough, the printed program listed my presentation name as “Audiobook Presentation”. This name probably translated into a lower attendance level for my session.

At least my name was spelled correctly.

My presentation had an intriguing name.
The slides continued the sailing theme.

5. Visit the room where you’ll present and know how the equipment will be configured at least 1 day before your session.

I did visit the hotel the day before the conference. I stood on the stage at the podium in a ballroom of 25 tables with 10 chairs at each table. I envisioned the room full to capacity of people who were interested in my topic and excited to get my information about using ACX to create audiobooks.

The hotel A/V director told me that GRW had not ordered a screen for Friday. I had to send yet another message to the conference chairperson about the screen. She assured me that they would have a screen for Friday.

I naively thought that in the ballroom setup, the screen would be ON THE STAGE, behind me at the podium. I didn’t know until I got in the room for my session that the screen was a small thing set off in the far corner with a projector on top of a table! I asked them to move the table and screen closer to me so that I could still use the podium. I didn’t want to hold the mic for the entire session while also bending down to the table to read my presenter notes from my computer.

On Monday, I had asked the conference chairperson what kind of cable connected to the projector. I didn’t get that answer until I walked in the room on Friday.

6. Plan for all contingencies.

Take all kinds of cables and adapters that you might need. I had both HDMI and VGA cables and adapters so that I was prepared for any projector connection.

Print your presentation notes. Thank heaven I had taken this step because Powerpoint on my Mac never gave me the option for dual monitors. The attendees viewed the slide show, and I referred to my paper notes.

Make sure your printed presentation notes include the latest tweaks. I had changed the order of a couple of notes on Friday morning but didn’t print them. I was a little thrown during the presentation when the sequence was wrong.

7. Learn your moderator’s name and go over logistics and details the day before your session.

If I were a conference chairperson, I’d make sure that:

every session speaker knew the name and contact info of the session moderator
the moderator would ensure that the speaker had everything she needed and felt welcome
the moderator would be on hand to help the speaker get into the room

The GRW conference chairperson sent me no information other than the fact that I would have a moderator. She also said she’d be around to help connect the computer to the projector.

As a person outside of the organization, I expected more consideration and communication than I received. I’m sure it’s a big job to plan a conference, so perhaps the chairperson was overwhelmed by the task. I can see now that I should have been persistent with my questions until I got answers.

I met my moderator about 3:55pm for my 4:00pm session.

8. Be self-reliant.

I can thank my parents, perhaps especially my mother, for teaching me this lesson early in life.

No one from GRW met me after I arrived at the hotel to help unload my car. I had already planned to get one of the hotel luggage carts to unload my briefcase with computer, a box of postcards for my door prizes, and a gift basket and 4 gift bags for door prizes. Fortunately, the bellman said I could use the cart for the next hour. I actually kept it for 2 hours since I didn’t have time to return it before I started my presentation.

I met my moderator as we were walking in the door. I appreciated her help during the setup, and the conference coordinator did come back and help her move the table and projector. I thought I was going to have to do it.

9. If you are giving away door prizes, offer raffle tickets as people walk in the door.

To celebrate my latest audiobook and first romance FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL…, I made 4 gift bags and 1 grand prize gift basket containing some cool swag that ACX and Belle Books generously provided to me along with all of the types of candy mentioned in the book. I had printed postcards and attached stickers to 5 of them. My plan was to pass out the cards at a certain point during the presentation and determine the winners before I ended my talk. I inserted the marked cards throughout my box of postcards.

I was shocked and dismayed when only about 25 people showed up for my presentation.

My moderator passed out my cards at the appointed time. When it came time to determine the winners, no one had a winning card. I was reminded of Michael Scott’s “Golden Ticket” idea in The Office. His hidden golden ticket idea didn’t work out well for him, and my specially-marked postcards didn’t work out well for me. It would have been so much easier and cheaper if I had just handed out raffle tickets to give away my door prizes.

10. Give your best to the people who came to hear your talk.

The show must go on, so you’ve got to make lemonade….or something like that. Even though the size of my audience was not optimal, I knew that the people who were there came to hear me and wanted to learn about creating audiobooks. I did everything I could to make my presentation outstanding.

Well, I mostly did everything, but I wish I could’ve done something about the Bluetooth speaker so they could hear my last 2 videos. Those videos featured Colin Firth and Steve Martin. Just think — I was sharing a stage with Colin Firth and Steve Martin, but no one in the audience could hear them! 🙂

The people in the ballroom before me didn’t finish on time and wouldn’t leave the room until my moderator ushered them out after 4pm. I was late setting up, which made me even later in starting. I wanted to finish on time so I wouldn’t be rude to the person who was scheduled to speak at 5pm. Perhaps if I hadn’t felt so rushed for time, I might have troubleshot the Bluetooth speaker for a moment.

I really appreciated the attendees’ interest. A few people asked very thoughtful and intelligent questions at the end, and I had a delightful hallway conversation with one author as I was leaving.

I didn’t leave any business cards or my stack of postcards in their goody room. My hand-out in their binder included a copy of my business card and a link to a document I’ve compiled of audiobook resources for authors.

*******************

I spent months researching and collecting ideas for this presentation and weeks in creating the slide show. It would be a shame if all of that time, thought, energy, creativity, and money only benefitted the people who were in the room yesterday. Therefore, I’m going to convert my show to a video and add narration to it.

I may not ever present in person again at GRW, or any other writers’ organization, but I will continue to help authors through my blogs, videos, and forum posts.

The Story Behind The Story Part 1: Illustrations

6 September 2014

In July, I published the Kindle edition and audiobook of Edna Ferber’s classic coming-of-age story Fanny Herself: A Passionate Instinct. On the surface, the task of publishing new editions of a public domain work might seem simple. After all, the author has done the hard part of actually writing the text. As you’ll discover in a short series of articles from several journal entries I want to share, the effort and decisions occurring behind the scenes were almost as difficult and time-consuming as creating a new story.

You may remember from this post that in order for me to publish an audiobook from a public domain book on Audible.com — my end goal — I have to create a new Kindle version of the text. This version must be distinguished from the free version in the Kindle store in 1 of 3 ways:

annotated with substantive, hand-created content
illustrated with 10 or more pictures that are relevant to the text
translated into another language

I had illustrated my first book The Heart of The New Thought and decided to illustrate Fanny Herself.

Monday 31 March 2014

When it comes easy, you know it’s meant to be, and the Universe was certainly smiling on me this afternoon to make it easy for me to illustrate Fanny Herself!

Last night, I started looking for stock images to illustrate the book. I thought it would be easy to find a Victorian, plush photo album shaped like an acorn. I’m sure I’ve seen such a thing in a magazine. I spent at least an hour and maybe even 2 looking for that one picture but came up empty. As we went to bed, I thought I should plan to annotate my Kindle book instead of illustrate it.

I started researching the famous violinist Schabelitz to see if he really was a violinist or an imaginary character. Ferber mixes real and imagined people and things so easily that I don’t know where fiction ends and facts begin.

I found info about the German influences in Wisconsin and a journalist in Cincinnati named R. E. Schabelitz. These were interesting finds, and I thought of other things to add.

I saw several links to the book and looked at a few. One was the Emory Women Writers Resource Project, which might be a useful repository of future publishing projects.

Another link was the JACKPOT! I found Volume 83 of The American Magazine containing their issues from Jan.-June 1917. Fanny Herself, I quickly learned, was serialized in that magazine starting in April 1917! And guess what?! Within each month’s portion were hand-drawn illustrations by M. Leone Bracker! I found 10 between April and June, which is all I need to offer the book on Kindle. I also found a picture of Ferber and made copies of the magazine cover and some promotional paragraphs.

I looked for volume 84 in Google. They have digitized a number of volumes of The American Magazine, but they weren’t in order. I never could find volume 84. I was thinking about checking libraries to find it.

I decided to look on eBay. I queried “American Magazine 1917” and got 41 results, most of which were for different magazines like the American Magazine of the Arts, Mentor, etc. Someone had the April 1917 issue of The American Magazine for $20.

I about jumped out of my skin when I saw the holy grail: Volume 84, bound like a library copy, of the July-Dec. 1917 issues of The American Magazine!! I didn’t even read the description! I saw the pictures and the price of $18 plus $3 shipping, and I bought it!

I then saw that the front and back covers of each magazine are missing, along with about 12 pages throughout the book. The probability that those 12 pages were the pictures I want is too remote to even consider. It’s coming from North Carolina, so I should have my book later this week.

When I think of the probability of the very book I need being on eBay at the precise time I looked, my astonishment and elation increase. What are the odds?! Obviously the Universe and perhaps Edna Ferber herself want me to have an easy time of bringing new life to this book! I’m soooo excited that I will be able to include the original illustrations from the magazine in my book!!

M. Leone Bracker’s 1917 artwork for Fanny Herself

TDIMH — Maybe When I Retire

26 June 2014

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

I decided to make it a little more obvious that these journal entries are not current after the last article in this series caused a few people to think I was really down in the dumps. While I truly appreciate their friendship and encouragement, I share these journal entries to help encourage others along their path.

Situation

In this entry, I was in Phoenix for 2 weeks to attend a class for my day job, which I described in an earlier entry:

One down and 7 more to go. Seven more weekdays of mind-numbingly boring class on Exchange 2000 with all these people, 2 of whom are constantly, obnoxiously loud and on my nerves….The temperature here has been 109 degrees. Everyone says “yes, but it’s a dry heat.” It’s still hotter than hell. It’s like poking your whole body into an oven.

Journal Entry

TDIMH — Wednesday June 26, 2002 10:45pm watching Seinfeld in Phoenix

“Maybe when I retire” seems to be a common phrase and state of mind for most people I know.

I was trying to get [a coworker] thinking about her dreams this morning at breakfast. I guess the questions not only came too early in the day but also too early in her life. She’s 43 and said she might like to open a dive shop in Japan — someday — “maybe when I retire.” Most people can’t seem to think about the here and now, preferring to think of “somedays” that may never happen.

Not me. I am so focused on my goals, and I am determined that no one or nothing will stop me from achieving them.

Half of the people attending the class have spent the last 2 weeks drinking by the hotel pool.

Not me. I’ve spent time almost every day trying to make new contacts for voice work. Tonight, I was online for 3 hours. I posted a situation wanted at [one web site]. I looked at web sites on Mandy.com and sent an email to one company. I also have spent time today looking at [at least 5 other sites].

I am a working voice actress who makes my living voicing commercials, narrations, audiobooks and cartoons primarily from my home studio. I am well-known in the industry; well-loved by legions of fans; well-respected by peers, directors, and producers; very well utilized because I can pick and choose my projects; and EXTREMELY well-paid.

Today’s Take-aways

1. How you spend your days is how you will spend your LIFE. How will you spend your next 24 hours? If you have a day job, realize that it isn’t the thing that is holding you back. I’ve previously written about ways to find happiness when you hate your day job. Taking active steps toward your dream will spill over into every other facet of your life.

3. A dream is just a wish until you WRITE IT DOWN. Most of the last paragraph in the journal entry was so far away from my reality in 2002 but is becoming truer for me every day. It’s important to write what you want to happen in the present tense as if it’s already here. Doing so rewires your brain so that you can feel and live the truth of the thought. You become filled with a joyful expectancy that naturally inspires you to take action to make your statements a reality! To prove this point, take a look at Jim Carrey’s wonderful true story about visualization and manifestation.

Photo: iStockPhoto/maxmihai

Livin’ La DIVA Loca

25 June 2014

When we last left our hero and heroine (also known as Drew and me), they were leaving Memphis, TN and headed down 78 Highway to Holly Springs, MS. If you’ve never heard of Holly Springs, you obviously haven’t heard one of the Dixie Diva Mysteries audiobooks that were written by Virginia Brown and narrated by me!

These fun books revolve around Trinket Truevine, her cousin and best friend Bitty Hollandale, and several (ahem) “ladies of a certain age” who live in Holly Springs and can’t seem to stay away from chocolate, alcohol, and murders! I’ve narrated 5 of these books, and I understand that Virginia Brown is writing the next one in the series. I can’t wait to record it!

As I was narrating book #5, Divas Do Tell, earlier this year, I commented to Drew that it would be fun to go on the Pilgrimage some time. You see, Holly Springs has a number of antebellum homes, and each year the town Garden Club convenes a house tour known as the Pilgrimage. Many of the home owners or hostesses dress up in period costumes, and all discuss the history of the home and its furnishings.

I looked on-line for the dates and was thrilled to see it was in mid-April. (I’ve since learned that it always is in mid-April.) We decided to go so I could get some pictures and videos for future marketing efforts.

One of the homes on this year’s Pilgrimage was the Walter Place. As Virginia Brown wrote in Dixie Divas (book 1):

Since she’s been six years old, Bitty has wanted a particular house on West Chulahoma Avenue. The Walter Place is built of stone, has twin turrets like a castle, estate size grounds, and was a temporary home for General Grant and his family when they stayed in Holly Springs in 1862.

Once I saw it, I could understand why Bitty would want it! Antiques fill the house, which again would fit Bitty’s style perfectly.

The Terrace on Chulahoma is almost across the street from the Walter Place and also was on the tour. I liked how the owner of that house had mixed old and new furnishings in order to make it livable and comfortable. Some of the homes seemed more museum-like. They were full of fine antiques and knick-knacks without a TV or recliner in sight.

Much of the action in Divas Do Tell (book 5) occurred at Montrose. The author wrote:

Montrose is a beautiful home that now houses the Holly Springs Garden Club and events like weddings or graduation parties. It also hosts the annual April pilgrimage.

Like the Walter Place, Montrose has one of those beautiful curved staircases in the foyer. As we walked up to the second floor, I had to wonder how the women wearing hooped skirts — both on the Pilgrimage and the original owners in the 1800s — could actually navigate the increasingly small turns without taking a turn for the worse!

We were very interested to learn how the house was kept cooler in the days before the invention of air conditioning. The slaves who built the house knew to use charcoal in the walls before adhering the bricks. The charcoal worked as a natural insulator. The front and back doors would be opened to allow the breezes to flow through the house.

After a delicious lunch at JB’s On the Square, we went in Booker Hardware. I think Booker Hardware is mentioned in every book, and a particularly funny and memorable scene occurred in that store in Divas Do Tell. In Drop Dead Divas (book 2), Brown describes it this way:

Booker’s Hardware has been in the same place since the mid-eighteen hundreds. It still has the same wide plank floors, old wooden cabinets that hold screws, and a lot of the same kind of merchandise. It’s a great place to buy a Number 8 washtub or a butter churner, or the newest in chainsaws or drills.

Before leaving Holly Springs, we walked around the square and visited the cemetery. I was especially happy to hear Memphis radio station WKQK playing Barry Manilow’s Copacabana that Friday afternoon as we left Holly Springs and headed about 30 miles away to Oxford, MS.

Oxford is the home of the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss as it is usually and affectionately known. In each book, we’re reminded that Bitty graduated from Ole Miss, and her twin boys are enrolled there. The campus features prominently in Divas and Dead Rebels (book 4) as the story line centers around a dead professor (gasp!).

Since I went to a commuter college, I’ve adopted Ole Miss as my football team. If I had gone to school there, I probably also would have been in the marching band.

While I only got to spend a short time in Holly Springs and Oxford, I look forward to Livin’ La DIVA Loca some more when I narrate the next audiobook in the series!

Photos: Drew Commins

Hangin’ with Harley Davidson

16 June 2014

Has a character in a book ever inspired you to visit a place?

After narrating 2 series of books written by Virginia Brown, I decided it was time to visit the 2 cities she described with such love and detail: Memphis, TN and Holly Springs, MS. Of course, my main goal for the trip was to get lots of pictures and videos to use in my future marketing efforts for both series!

The Blue Suede Memphis series is set in — you guessed it — Memphis. The main character is Harley Jean Davidson, and she drives a tour bus for Memphis Tour Tyme. Drew voices all of the male parts in this series. We’ve done 3 books so far and are looking forward to recording the final book Return to Fender this summer.

Drew and I started our April trip in Memphis. We went to several of the touristy spots mentioned in the books, with the first stop naturally being Graceland. We’ve heard for years how tacky Graceland is, so we were surprised to find out that statement is not really true. Sure, everything in it looks very 1970s, but what do you expect?

Many of the rooms seemed very tastefully and expensively decorated, with crystal chandeliers and traditional furniture upholstered in velvet. For its time, the kitchen was very state-of-the-art, with double ovens and a TV. In fact, TVs were in every room. In Elvis’ lounge (think: man cave), he had three TVs on the wall so he could watch multiple stations at once. It all seemed very comfortable and homey.

The pool room was covered in fabric on both the walls and the ceiling. The stairs leading up from that room to the so-called jungle room were covered in green shag carpet. I suppose that people found those elements to be tacky.

Someone in front of us on the stairs commented that those materials on the walls would provide excellent soundproofing. They told us that Elvis recorded one album in his jungle room, so soundproofing would be a much-needed aspect of his house. The jungle room was called that because many of the pieces of furniture had animals carved in the wood. You also saw cow skulls like you would find on the street in the old West.

The most impressive thing about the tour was the trophy room. It’s more than a room, really; it’s actually a small building. Inside this building, one side was filled with all his music awards. The walls were literally lined from ceiling to floor with gold records.

On the other side of the building, they had posters, apparel, and other mementos of his many movies. I didn’t realize he had been in as many movies as he had! No matter what you think of Elvis or his music, you can’t argue with those many physical reminders of his unparalleled success.

They also had several displays showing his many donations to charitable organizations. I was glad to see that they carried on that commitment to charity at their own cash register in the gift shop. I bought a little brass guitar Christmas ornament, and they asked if we would like to contribute to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, which we did.

Two horses were in the back pasture. One was a Palomino, and I saw signage that said a Palomino was Elvis’s favorite horse. The meditation garden contained his grave, as well as those of his parents and his grandmother.

Our tickets allowed us entry into his car museum, where we saw, among other vehicles, not 1 but 2 Rolls Royces, Priscilla’s 1960s Mercedes convertible, a snowmobile converted for lawn use, a couple of motorcycles, and two Cadillacs — the pink one (of course) and the one I liked, which was purple with white interior!

It was interesting going on board his private plane, the Lisa Marie. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a private plane before. It looked very comfortable and housed TVs in the compartments, as well as a phone where you could call anywhere in the world. Elvis had a bedroom on board, too.

We also saw an exhibit of Elvis in Vegas. They had a lot of his flashy costumes in there. We could imagine why there would be so many Elvis impersonators both in Memphis and in the book Suspicious Mimes!

After a long but completely delightful afternoon meeting with the marketing director of the publishing company, we took the car back to the hotel and walked to Beale Street, thinking we might eat there. Every place had loud music, and smoke was everywhere. Let’s just say it’s not my kind of environment.

We walked on back toward the famous Peabody Hotel and ended up in a nice conversation with a member of the Blue Suede Brigade who was standing near the hotel entrance. This group of volunteers serves as ambassadors for the city to help tourists. The brigadier suggested we dine at The Majestic, which is a converted silent theater on Main Street.

People talk about the food in Memphis with good reason. The meal at The Majestic was most enjoyable, in part due to the subdued lighting, dark furniture and excellent wait staff. We had an appetizer consisting of cheese, gourmet crackers, sausage, barbecue pecans (spicy!), apple wedges and a couple of other things I’ve forgotten. For our entrees, Drew had ribs, and I had a filet. It all tasted great!

Next stop: Holly Springs, MS!

Photos: Drew Commins

Do You Feel Like Giving Up?

16 April 2014

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

TDIMH — Friday 16 April 2004 1:20pm

Sometimes I just feel like giving up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today’s Take-Aways

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

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

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

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

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

Bonus Round of Comments for Voice Talent

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

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

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

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™