I have been too busy in the past month to post an article here on my blog. In that time, a new season of the TV show Dancing With The Stars began. Given my views on American Idol, you might think I would have no interest in this show. You might also think that dancing with the stars (DWTS) has nothing to do with a voice-over career. If so, this entry may surprise you.

Watching TV is a passive activity that does nothing toward accomplishing my goals. I prefer instead to spend the time with my husband or do things to advance my voice-over career, such as marketing tasks, auditions, etc. In order to efficiently manage my TV-viewing time, I don’t necessarily watch shows during their broadcast. I prefer to record them and watch them at my convenience. I also don’t spend much time chit-chatting about TV shows to anyone because those kinds of conversations are superficial and inane.

Then why am I spending precious time writing to you about a TV show, especially one considered fluff in many circles? When I first heard about this show, I confess that I thought the idea was dull and that the show would be cancelled.  I never watched DWTS until Barry Manilow made a guest appearance. I admit that I quickly became hooked. The show features celebrities from other endeavors who are paired with professional dancers. The dancers teach the celebs the complicated steps for ballroom and Latin dances, and three judges rate all of the performances.

While the thrilling live music, stunning costumes and amazing dance routines are appealing in themselves, I believe the show is widely popular for another reason:  We have the opportunity to watch adults in a learning curve.

Learning something new as an adult is a different process than as a child. From watching this show, we can learn 12 valuable lessons that can be applied to a voice-over career:

1) You can’t expect to excel at everything, especially on the first try.

As adults, we don’t like to admit we don’t know everything. When we’re a star in one area of our lives, we take it for granted that we’re a star in every area. This show proves that you can accomplish on some level anything that you set out to do, especially when you relax, enjoy the process and forget about instant gratification. If you also accept that it takes time, persistence and dedicated practice to become a star, you will be more likely to rise to that level.

2) You need to be patient with yourself when learning a new skill.

It’s easy to become frustrated and discouraged when results seem slow in coming. Whether you’re learning to bring authentic interpretation to voice-over scripts, dance the paso doble (who even knew such a thing existed?) or do anything else, you have to remain focused and work through the discomfort of the training to accomplish your goal.

3) You may have natural ability, but a veteran instructor can help you improve and showcase your talent.

The celebs with musicality and rhythm are readily apparent to viewers. Even so, they differ in how fluidly they can execute the routine. The professional dancers create routines that maximize the celebs’ abilities. Voice-over actors are also judged on our fluidity in performing the script. An excellent voice-over coach can guide you to a style that honors, reflects and strengthens your natural vocal characteristics.

4) If you think or say you can’t do it, you can’t. You have to maintain a positive attitude that you CAN do it.

Your attitude is the most critical factor in determining your success at dancing, voice-over, sheep-herding and whatever else you may do in life. Think of the power of your words as a self-fulfilling prophecy (which they are). Would you rather sit out on the dance and wonder if you could do it, or be fully alive and embracing the pain and pleasure of learning something new?

5) Confidence in your abilities grows with each step.

Viewers are taken behind-the-scenes as the competitors learn the dance for the upcoming week. We are able to see them struggle and fall (sometimes literally) while they are learning the routine. We can see that the more they practice, the more comfortable and confident they become. Practice is the key to confidence, whether on the dance floor or in the voice-over booth.

6) Instruction and significant practice are needed in order to compete at a professional level.

Championship figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is extremely athletic and has spent her life learning a routine choreographed to music. However, she admits that ballroom dancing is very different than ice skating, and she spends long hours learning the intricacies and emotions of the dance each week. In voice-over, commercial scripts are different than narrative scripts, which require different skills than IVR scripts and audiobook projects. Professional voice-over artists continue to study with coaches to improve technique and interpretation in their niche areas.

7) It doesn’t matter how well you performed in practice. Your live performance is all that matters.

I realize I’ve made several comments about practice. It’s obviously extremely important if you expect to become proficient and at some point master anything new! The level of practice shows with the celebrity dancers. Still, they only have one shot each week to win the judges’ favor. As a voice-over artist, we make an impression the moment we step in the booth. A director wants to hear a solid performance on that first live take. When working at a studio, you can’t have the attitude that re-takes are possible until mistakes are fixed. With the confidence from extended practice, your mistakes will be minor and few.

8) No matter how good you are, you can’t take it personally if someone else is deemed better.

One couple gets eliminated on DWTS every week. A voice-over audition is the same way; only one person can win the prize. The criteria and judging are entirely subjective, and the mathematical odds of winning any particular audition are definitely not in your favor! You can’t take it personally when you don’t win auditions. If you keep practicing, submitting good auditions and putting yourself out there, some jobs will eventually be yours.

9) When you approach an activity with a sense of excitement and love, those attributes will be felt by your audience. By the same token, the audience can sense anxiety and fear.

The audience always wants the dancers to do well. When the dancers start thinking about being judged, they make more mistakes. Their anxiety can cause their performance to seem wooden or mechanical. Voice talent have the same performance issues. We allow the negative self-talk in our brains to disrupt our performance. By staying in the moment and concentrating on the feelings of love instead of doubt, we can give our audiences the performance that makes them cheer!

10) Just because it LOOKS easy doesn’t mean that it is!

My husband doesn’t like to dance; for some reason, he thinks he looks uncoordinated. As we watch the show, I will ask him “doesn’t that look like fun?” He always says, “No! It looks incredibly HARD!” The professional dancers are the epitome of beauty and grace, but it has taken them years to reach their level of accomplishment.

Many people enter the voice-over field because they enjoy mimicking others, or they think that the voice-over artist is merely talking into the microphone. While they may have a good ear for sound, they are not experienced in performing scripts, much less with a smooth and original interpretation. As in any career endeavor, I have noticed that the most successful voice talent have worked relentlessly by taking classes and hustling for jobs for 10 years or more before becoming an “overnight success”.

11) Infuse your personality into your work for the most authentic and memorable results.

Comedian and DWTS cast member Adam Corolla will never be a professional dancer. However, he inserts his sense of humor into his routines. His creative approach camouflages some of the shortcomings in his technique. I’m not encouraging you to do something to compensate for lack of technique. However, the greatest attribute that you can bring to the table is yourself. No one else sees the world the way you do, and no one else sounds just like you. The best readings are those when the voice artist can access and incorporate her own feelings in the script.

12) It’s possible to do quality work and leave the world better than you found it.

Steve Guttenberg, who is one of the celebs on the show this season, kept grinning ear to ear and gushing about the greatness of the show. This show proves that you don’t need to use foul language or violence in order to create commercial success. In my voice-over work, I won’t perform a script if I don’t like the words that I would be saying. I differ with those who think that it is merely acting to speak the words on the page. Your subconscious mind can’t distinguish between pretend and real, so I refuse to voice scripts that are opposed to my own value system.

I said I had been away from the blog for a month, and now it seems like I’ve been writing this entry for an equally long time! After reading these 12 points learned from a TV show, I hope you see that the success and creativity you observe in another field can inspire you to new heights in your voice-over career.

Since Drew and I love to travel, it’s no surprise that we enjoy watching The Amazing Race on TV each week. The show routinely starts late during football season, so we sometimes catch part of 60 Minutes while waiting for the Race to start. A story from 60 Minutes a few weeks ago has been on my mind because I have noticed a growing trend among the questions I receive about getting started in a voice-over career.

Morley Safer reported on the work habits of the generation known as the millenials those born between 1980 and 1995. The following direct quotes are points raised in the story:

• They were raised by doting parents who told them they are special.
• They have climbed Mount Everest. They’ve been down to Machu Picchu to help excavate it. But they’ve never punched a time clock. They have no idea what it’s like to actually be in an office at nine o’clock, with people handing them work.
• Zaslow says that the coddling virus continues to eat away even when junior goes off to college. “I heard from several professors who said, a student will come up after class and say, ‘I don’t like my grade, and my mom wants to talk to you, here’s the phone,'” he says. “And the students think it’s like a service. ‘I deserve an A because I’m paying for it. What are you giving me a C for?'”
• And dear old mom isn’t just your landlord; she is your agent as well. “Career services departments are complaining about the parents who are coming to update their child’s resume. And in fact, you go to employers, and they’re starting to express concern now with the parents who will phone HR, saying, ‘But my little Susie or little Johnny didn’t get the performance evaluation that I think they deserve,'” Crane says.

I’m sure every generation thinks that it is the one with hard-working folks, and everyone younger is lazy. I also believe that 60 Minutes targets an older crowd. Many of the statements are generalizations that don’t apply to an entire group of people. Still, I found one kernel of truth in the report: some parents are entirely too immersed in their adult childrens’ lives.

I receive a steady stream of e-mails and calls from people who want to start a career in voice-over. I frankly was shocked when I received the first message from a mother who asked for advice for her son, who was in college. It was the first such message, but it wasn’t the last.

My first thought when receiving inquiries from parents is:

Why doesn’t Johnny or Susie contact me on their own, or, better still, read a book about voice-over?

I am a firm believer in doing your own research and making your own way in this world. If you’re not motivated to discover and learn those things essential to advance yourself, why should I or anyone else be inclined to help you?

In one case, the language of the e-mail made me wonder if the child was old enough to be making career decisions. If the young person is of an age to work, s/he should make the decisions about the course of their life, including their work. However, if a parent is asking about voice-over on behalf on a young child, I question whether the parent is trying to live their own dreams instead of pursuing something that the child has wanted to do.

Johnny and Susie also need to face the cold reality that voice-over or any career in the performing arts is tremendously competitive. In fact, I think all career paths are extremely competitive among the people interested in that type of work. Voice-over has the added perceived attributes of glamour, simplicity and wealth to incite even more people to flock to it as a career choice.

Most people have no idea of the amount of training and equipment needed to become financially successful in this career. Dedication and perseverance are essential character traits. Through countless auditions, you will hear ‘no’ exponentially more than you will ever hear ‘yes’…if you even hear anything. Like any profession, it can take years to go through the appropriate education and become fully established.

In addition to the performance aspects, the voice talent must become proficient with managing a business. Even when you hire staff to perform duties such as accounting, engineering, IT support, marketing and shipping, you are the CEO of the business and must make all decisions related to your business.

Finally, I can’t imagine any scenario in which queries from mom and dad present a professional image of the prospective voice talent.

If you’re a parent who is eager to help your child start a voice-over career, the best help that you can give is to cut the cord and step out of the spotlight.

Johnny or Susie should be the one to investigate their chosen field. It’s a perpetual cycle to contact people, take classes, make a demo, and perform the marketing activities needed in this career.

The Amazing Race is like voice-over in that people must use their wits and skills to overcome obstacles and challenges while competing with others who are after the same prize. While the show observes the competition between 2-person teams, voice-over by its nature is a solo competition. Certainly the aspiring voice talent will need and want a good support team which may include mom and dad. However, the aspiring voice actors are the only people who can take the steps necessary first to become a working voice talent and then to sustain a career.