Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

Books

Need help in creating a marketing plan?

Atlanta has been in a severe drought, and, and long last, we finally have some rain. With nothing planned for today, the temptation is great on this cool and drizzly day to read a book and take a nap.

Even when I’m not working on voice-over projects, though, I am still working. I have written many times on this blog about the importance of marketing your services. Marketing activities should be planned and consistent so that you can move forward in your voice-over business. You don’t want to think in terms of one event, like a mailing; you want to think in terms of a system.

However, I frequently receive questions and read forum posts from voice talent who find the marketing process to be very daunting and mysterious. They don’t know how to set goals and create a system of marketing tasks designed to reach those goals. The object of marketing is to get the same people to hear about you over and over so that they feel comfortable with you and hopefully compelled to do business with you.

I have some suggestions to help you create your marketing plan.

My first recommendation to anyone confused about marketing is to read the outstanding book Get Clients Now by C. J. Hayden and published by the American Management Association. Hayden not only gives you bountiful ideas for specific tactics that you can implement with success in your voice-over business, but she outlines a structure for your plan. She proposes that you create a 28-day marketing plan based on your current goals. She uses a cookbook model by advising you to think of the plan as your action plan menu, where you choose the appropriate strategies as your recipes for success.

I have read many, many books on marketing, including Michael Port’s bestseller Book Yourself Solid : The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling. When I want to rethink or revitalize my marketing plan, I immediately return to Hayden’s book. I always achieve fantastic results when I fill out and apply the action and tracking worksheets in Hayden’s book. She breaks up the tasks depending on whether you want to contact new prospects, follow up with existing prospects and clients, or close more sales.

One comment is this book was particularly liberating to me:

Do you hate cold calling?
Don’t put it on your plan. Instead, build your Daily Actions
around warm calling and referral building.
Hayden includes strategies for personal contact and networking, writing, public speaking, advertising and web-based marketing, which build on the other strategies to reach a potentially larger audience. Some people like to throw marketing tasks out in all directions like spaghetti flung on the wall, with the thought of seeing what sticks. I believe that scattered thoughts lead to scattered actions and results. Just as I can’t be and don’t want to be all things to all people in my voice-over work, I prefer to concentrate on a few related marketing activities at one time.

For instance, I currently am focusing on marketing activities related to the Internet. I therefore was excited to learn this week that Stephanie Ciccarelli at Voices.com has created a new e-book titled Internet Marketing for Voice Actors. Ciccarelli is a superb on-line marketer, and she has outlined many of her proven strategies in this 35-page guide.

The first part of the guide provides some useful information about voice-over business descriptions, as well as an admirable analysis of the market and trends for voice-over services. While Ciccarelli briefly mentions some marketing strategies, half of this guide discusses search engine optimization and on-line networking. Ciccarelli provides an excellent analysis of various linking strategies and a terrific list of web sites containing search engine tools. The section covering on-line social networking is equally good, with descriptions of several major sites and a list of sites that I never knew existed.

Since I am a perpetual student of marketing and long-time computer geek, I did not discover any other revelations in this guide. I was surprised that Ciccarelli did not include a detailed list of the various press release sites since I know that she utilizes them. Of course, on a given day, most voice talent would not have a need to submit press releases. I also would have liked a list of sites Stephanie has used to syndicate her articles.

Still, I think most voice actors would benefit greatly from reading and applying the concepts in this new e-book, especially as a companion resource to a general marketing book like Get Clients Now. After all, marketing over the Internet is just one facet of a total marketing plan.

I just looked out the window and noted that it looks even more dreary than when I started this entry. I think I will re-read these 2 marketing books for a bit before taking a much-deserved nap!

 

Paying attention to James Allen and Harry Potter

When I hear the same thing in quick succession from 2 or more people who aren’t related to each other and have no vested interest in the comments, I feel the Universe is giving me a sign to pay attention!

Such was the case this week with the classic motivational book As A Man Thinketh by James Allen, originally published in 1902. I don’t remember, but I think this work was referenced in The Secret. Since I am vitally interested in the power of our thoughts and words to create our reality, I recently downloaded the free audiobook of this work available from LearnOutLoud.com.

I began listening to it on 13 July. Ten minutes after I started listening, I decided I had heard enough. The audiobook narrator included at least 3 stumbled words, several lipsmacks and an uninteresting method of delivery. With the availability of low-cost and free audio editing software, I am incredulous that someone would choose to leave the stumbles and extraneous noises in an audiobook, even one offered for free. An audiobook is a thing of permanence. I would like to think that people would seek out my audiobooks 100 years from now, just as I was seeking out Allen’s book.

I was showing my new business cards to a friend of mine this afternoon. She said she had a book that she wanted me to see. She and I have had many great discussions about the extreme power of our thoughts, and the book was on that subject. Which book do you think she recommended? Yep, that’s right — As A Man Thinketh by James Allen. Although I had abandoned the free audiobook, the Universe was telling me to give the book another try! I told my friend that I would get the book tonight.

However, I wasn’t the only person who made a special trip to the book store. The store was crowded with people waiting for midnight, when the last Harry Potter book goes on sale. Someone who has been living under a rock or totally new to the country might think that tonight was Halloween, given the number of young people dressed in costume at the mall. Of course, they were flocking to the book store. They were not looking for a title associated with the Law of Attraction to help them live their lives to the best potential. No, all of those young people and their parents were at the book store to buy the final installment about the boy who lived!

I am not still at the store, waiting to get my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I will, however, buy the audiobook version consisting of 17 CDs sometime over the weekend. (I doubt that I will be wearing a costume when I buy it, though!) I encourage anyone interested in performing audiobooks to listen to Jim Dale’s masterful narration of any book in this series. I would imagine that this final book will be loaded on ITunes in the near future.

Also note the high level of production quality in one of these books. The series is so popular that the audiobook is published simultaneously with the hardback edition. Jim Dale didn’t even have the opportunity to read the entire book before entering the recording studio. He read the book in segments of 100 pages. For a fascinating article about Jim Dale and his role as narrator of the Harry Potter series, you will want to read this feature story published 17 July in the New York Times.

Success leaves tracks,

and you can gain valuable insight about the preparations for audiobook narration, as well as the production, by paying attention to Dale’s comments.

Earlier this week, the GalleyCat feed included a link to a hilarious YouTube video of a Harry Potter parody. Those of you who remember the 70s TV show Welcome Back Kotter will find it particularly humorous.

Many people comment negatively about J. K. Rowling’s immense wealth resulting from the publication of the Harry Potter series. In skimming my new book by James Allen, I see a page that applies not only to J. K. Rowling, but to successful voice-over talent and anyone else who has had the courage and persistence to follow their dreams. Read these inspiring words, and pay attention to the message in the final two sentences:

The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves,
talk of luck, of fortune, and chance.
Seeing a man grow rich, they say, “How lucky he is!”
Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim, “How highly favored he is!”
And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, “How chance aids him at every turn!”

They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable,
and realize the Vision of their heart.
They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it “luck”;
do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it “good fortune”;
do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it “chance”.

In all human affairs, there are efforts, and there are results,
and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not.
“Gifts”, powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort;
they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized.

The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart —
this you will build your life by, this you will become.

 

How to lose friends and irritate people

I was talking with a friend today. This friend Don has advanced degrees in multiple disciplines, yet he continues to attend grad school to earn more degrees. Barbara Sher, author of the life-changing book I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was, would say my friend is a scanner because he has varied interests and doesn’t settle on one thing for too long. I also would say that Don doesn’t want to commit to one thing. I’m convinced that he attends grad school so that he can postpone the inevitable time when he must finally make a choice of how he wants his life to proceed.

Today’s conversation got around to my voice-over business. As I talked about recent successes and my plans for the future, Don said, as he has said more than once over the years, “maybe I should look into doing voice-overs.” I tell anyone who asks me that they should explore any serious interest in voice-over work, sheep herding, Italian cooking or whatever. You don’t want to get to the end of your life and wonder “how would my life have been if I had done that?”.

As I have done in previous conversations, I recommended that Don start by reading books on my recommended list of voice-over books and taking some classes.

He asked how I would feel if he took a voice-over class and hit it big. Don is not someone in the incredible ** 81% ** of the Gen Y crowd (18-25 year-olds) who seems to expect fame and wealth as their birthright. Quite simply, Don is yet another person who thinks that making money in voice-over is an easy thing that can be done by anyone. Since he had a few spare hours in his schedule, Don was ready to sign up for the fortune and glory awaiting him as a voice-over actor.

I don’t think he will actually follow through with any action. After all, he is the same person who could never be bothered to even listen to my demos.

Our discussion today reminded me how Don acted when I created my first demo. When you decide to go after your goals, your friends and family will change their attitudes about you. In many cases, that change won’t be a positive one.

Before I made my first voice-over demo, I read books on voice-over, took voice-over classes covering interpretation and technique, and volunteered for 5 years to read for the blind. I ran eBay auctions to save money to have my demo professionally produced. Getting a finished demo in my hands was a monumental step toward my dream that required a lot of time and effort, and I was shocked and hurt by the reaction of several close friends when I asked them about listening to it. I wrote in my journal:

I appreciated Susie’s reaction in part because other people have hurt my feelings with their apparent lack of interest. Randy had seen the artwork and given me suggestions at my request [and did other things like talk to me about recording CDs]. However, Randy acted very bizarre when I asked him if he wanted to hear it. He suddenly remembered something he had to do at that very minute.

Don was no better. I have always been encouraging and supportive of his dreams. I read his novella recently and was the only person outside of his college instructors who understood it. I even made the same comments regarding character development that his instructor made. When I asked him if he would like to hear my long-awaited demo, he brushed me off and said he was too busy.

Even my best friend Erica disappointed me with her lack of reaction. I guess I expected more. If it were HER dream project, she wouldn’t be content with the sparse [comments] devoted to the subject.

Erica had been my best friend for 4-5 years. I felt like she was the sister I never had. We were in constant contact. Unfortunately, everything about our relationship changed in the moment that I created my first voice-over demo and started marketing it. Erica said she felt excluded, and she said I thought that my voice-over career was more important than her. Each time we talked, I felt that she didn’t want to hear about my marketing efforts, equipment purchases and gigs. She even told me that I was spending more time marketing my voice-over demo and playing my harp than I did with her. At one point, in anger that I again was working on marketing when she thought I should be spending time with her, Erica told me that she hoped my voice-over career would keep me company in my old age. Not surprisingly, our friendship disintegrated not too long after that comment.

I didn’t understand until a few years later the reason behind the tremendous negative reactions to my demo and new voice-over career. I always thought that my friends would be true, supportive of my efforts to improve my life and wishing to celebrate my success with me. Barbara Sher alluded to it in I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was. Everything she wrote about a family also holds true about one’s friends:

Almost any stranger would respect our dreams more easily than our family does. If you don’t believe me, try a comparison test. Next time you’re with a group of strangers, tell them the most offbeat idea you can think of. Tell them your dream is to raise dalmatians in the Himalayas, but you have no contacts in Tibet. Watch their interest pick up. They’ll even try to solve your problem.

INTEREST IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF RESPECT.

You don’t love these strangers, and they don’t love you, but we are all captivated by each other’s visions. It’s in our nature as humans to be intrigued with any new idea — unless we have some personal reason for not doing so. Our families have plenty of personal reasons, but a stranger is a pure soul. It’s possible that one stranger in twenty will react negatively to you, for his own reasons, but you’ll find the other nineteen will say something like, “Interesting idea! My cousin raises dogs!”, or “My neighbor’s been to Nepal! Do you want to talk to her?”

Now, to complete the comparison test, go home and tell your family the same kind of fantasy….How did your family like that? Did they drop their forks before or after they scrambled to talk you out of your “folly”?

When I analyzed the reactions of Randy, Don and Erica, I realized that people have a vested interest in keeping you the same.

If you dare to create goals and attempt to reach them, you make other people think about what’s missing in their own lives. They will take out their frustration over their own lives by directing it at you. Like my former friend Erica, they express their irritation with you about your pro-active activities, when, in fact, they are irritated with themselves for sleepwalking through their lives.

Steven Pressfield illuminated the issue perfectly in his amazing book The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles (a book that should be on the must-read list for every creative person):

Resistance by definition is self-sabotage. But there’s a parallel peril that must also be guarded against: sabotage by others.

When a writer begins to overcome her Resistance — in other words, when she actually starts to write — she may find that those close to her begin acting strange. They may become moody or sullen, they may get sick; they may accuse the awakening writer of “changing,” of “not being the person she was.” The closer these people are to the awakening writer, the more bizarrely they will act and the more emotion they will put into their actions.

They are trying to sabotage her.

The reason is that they are struggling, consciously or unconsciously, against their own Resistance. The awakening writer’s success becomes a reproach to them. If she can beat these demons, why can’t they?

If you decide to pursue a voice-over career — or take up sheep herding, or Italian cooking, or whatever — I can guarantee you that your relationships with others WILL change. Some relationships will evolve, while others will disappear. You have to ask yourself who you’re living life FOR, and what the good opinion of someone else actually means to you.

Working on your goals fills your life with purpose and makes every moment meaningful. You have to decide whether you are going to live the life you were meant to lead or sit on the sidelines, watching it pass you by. Waiting to get the approval of friends and family about your plans for your dream life is a guaranteed way to ensure that your life will remain exactly as it is today.

Of course, if you can’t decide on a course of action, I have a friend who can recommend several grad schools that will keep you busy!

 

Look forward on New Year’s Day

I know I promised another article that was inspired from my recent trip, but I had to pass on something I just read that will help you move forward in your voice-over career. It’s a new year, and many people have spent part of the day setting goals and reflecting on events of the past year. Every New Year’s Eve, I write in a special journal about my plans and hopes for the coming year. I have goals for all areas of my life, especially in my voice-over profession.

However, I have learned that I don’t want to spend too much time looking back over the past year. It’s easy to fall in the trap of forgetting my many accomplishments for the year. My mind instead wants to dwell on things that didn’t happen the way I envisioned or at all. I want to stay focused on my current plans and keep marching ahead!

I just read Wayne Dyer’s new book Being In Balance: 9 Principles for Creating Habits to Match Your Desires. He makes a strong point in chapter six that made me realize yet again the detrimental effect one’s thoughts can have on one’s voice-over career.

Dyer and others have said You become what you think about all day long. He writes:

Thinking that the past is responsible for your continuing insufficiency is a major source of resistance. You’ve probably been taught that if you don’t pay attention to the mistakes of the past, you’re bound to repeat them. Here’s my take on that advice: Keeping your thoughts on the mistakes of the past guarantees that you’ll continue manifesting them in the present!…
Refuse to think about what’s failed to materialize unless you’re hoping for more of the same….
Be grateful for all that failed to show up. Then shift from resistance to the direction of manifesting your desires, and rebalance your thinking so that it matches up with those desires. 

Maybe you:

  • didn’t land an agent last year
  • didn’t book the amount of work you wanted to last year
  • didn’t get your web site on-line last year
  • didn’t connect with any new clients last year
  • didn’t attend any networking events last year
  • didn’t install or upgrade your studio last year
  • didn’t take any classes last year
  • didn’t send out any marketing materials last year
  • didn’t read any blogs last year (except this one!)
  • didn’t perform any auditions last year

Right. I could continue on with a long list of things that maybe you didn’t do, but that would be negative thinking. Why don’t you write down a list of everything — big and small — that you DID to move forward on your voice-over goals? When I look at my list, I feel fantastic! I see that I took advantage of unexpected opportunities, and I have momentum carrying me into the coming year.

I re-write my goals and plans on an on-going basis. Magical things happen when you write down your goals….but that’s another subject for another day.

I wanted to write today to encourage you to start your new year by looking forward in your voice-over career, not back. Looking back tends to crystallize your thinking and can cause you to get stuck. It’s a new year, so it’s time to move ahead! Decide what you want, and then decide that you have the power to attain it. Once you start thinking those types of thoughts, you will start taking the actions necessary to make your dreams a reality.

 

The business of voice-over is on my mind after vacation

Drew and I have been on vacation for almost 3 weeks on a wonderful Greek Islands cruise. During the trip, we visited Greece, Egypt, Turkey and Paris. If you’re interested, you can look at our awesome photo album/scrapbook that we created with Drew’s amazing pictures at Shutterfly, the best company for photo processing and related products that you can imagine.

Even though I was on a fabulous vacation, I never stopped thinking of ways to progress my voice-over business. I have some stories to relate at another time. Today, though, I wanted to tell you about something that was awaiting me in the mail upon my arrival home: my copy of Pat Fraley’s new book: The Gypsy’s Guide to The Business of Voice-Over.

I have taken classes with Pat and his business partner Hillary Huber, and I think I have a copy of everything he has published. Since I don’t live in LA, I take every opportunity to drink at the well of this master’s fountain of knowledge. I find the real value of this latest book to be in the CD that accompanies it. Pat and Hillary entertain and inform you on the CD just as if you were sitting in one of their voice-over classes. They cover the text in the book so that you can hear the material while commuting to your next voice-over gig.

Among other material covered, our delightful teachers succinctly differentiate the key concepts of brandingand style, and they play some excellent demos to illustrate their points. However, guest interviews on the CD with Kristine Oller and D. B. Cooper provide key information not included in the book. Kristine Oller’s comments about focus are something that every voice artist should hear and act upon.

Sometimes, we don’t know what to do. Sometimes, we know what to do but don’t do it. By repeatedly listening to Pat and Hillary and their guests on the The Gypsy’s Guide to The Business of Voice-Over, I have a feeling that it will be easier for me to do all the right things to improve my voice-over business in the future.

In my opening paragraph, I linked to our Shutterfly vacation photobook. As promotion is one thing discussed rather heavily in Pat’s book, I realized I could mention that I have successfully used Shutterfly products in promoting my voice-over business. Like favorite teachers Pat and Hillary, I can’t say enough good things about that company! They have a tremendous array of products, great prices and exceptionally fast delivery. If you can put a photo on something, you can also put your logo on it! Just think of the possibilities for personal branding and promotion!

 

Paint the picture of your voice-over success in your mind

—–Forwarded Message—–
From: The Universe
Sent: Sep 20, 2006 3:21 AM
Subject: TUT… A Note from the Universe
If it were fun and easy, would you do it?
If the pay was out of this world; more than you could ever spend?
If signing your autograph and being adored by fans never got old, and you truly relished retelling your story again and again?
Brilliant, Karen, because all of the above can be imagined whenever you visualize.
You are just ace –
The Universe

Mike Dooley is the creative genius behind these weekday e-mails signed from The Universe. Many times, I receive a message that is uncannily on target with things that are occurring in my life. I especially wanted to talk about the importance of yesterday’s message because I think many people don’t understand the importance of visualizing their success prior to its appearance.

Athletes who win the big championship game will tell you that they have scored the winning points a thousand times in their minds before ever playing the game. Musicians know that to play beautifully on stage, they must first consistently create strong mental pictures of themselves walking confidently before an adoring crowd. The value of visualization is true for voice-over artists or anything else that you want to achieve in your life.

If you don’t know what you want, how do you expect to attain it?

Visualization works for all sorts of scenarios, large and small. I use visualization techniques for everything, but particularly for guiding my voice-over career. In voice-over, you always want to have a picture of your audience in your mind. You want to see that one person’s face and respond to their emotion. If I feel nervous about an audition, I concentrate on the positive outcome that I want to achieve. Before attending a networking event, I picture all of the friendly people I will meet who are working on exciting documentaries, training modules and audiobooks that might be enhanced with my voice.

On a larger scale, Wayne Dyer states that

The state of your life
is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.

I have written my goals for my voice-over business. I spend time each day reviewing those goals and sometimes even rewriting them. I learned long ago that it’s not enough to say that I want to be a working voice-over actor. That sentence could mean I have one low-paying job a year, but I’d be working. It’s like when you’re in a hotel and calling room service. You don’t call them and say “please bring some food” or, worse, “I have no idea why I picked up the phone and called you. I want something, but I have no idea what I want, what you provide or what I’m doing here.” If they didn’t hang up on you (which they might in scenario number two), they could bring you a cracker when you were salivating for a steak.

My daily routine now includes imagining what it will be like when my stellar voice-over goals have been met. I actually see myself doing specific things, being in certain places and owning certain things, having a precise amount of money in the bank, interacting with particular people, etc.

I don’t question how all of these things will happen. My job is to figure out what I want in my life, and it’s up to the Universe to figure out how to serve it up to me. Because I have so frequently visualized where I want to go in my voice-over career, I find that I am constantly thinking of creative ways to analyze a company’s problem or potential opportunities, approach them and cast myself into projects that I desire rather than passively waiting for casting through traditional audition processes.

Visualization is key to creating reality as you want it. The best thing about it, though, is that your new reality is always better than anything you could have dreamed possible!

If you think you don’t know how to visualize and harvest the fertile ground of your imagination, I heartily recommend the following resources to help jump-start your creative engine: