Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

Observations

How will you use your next 24 hours?

Gone With the Wind is my favorite movie of all time. I could give so many reasons for liking it, but you would wonder why I thought about it today when this is a blog about voice-over. True, I was born and live in Atlanta, but a ride on public transportation to downtown Atlanta this morning actually reminded me of something in the movie.

Remember the big scene early in the film at the magnificent Twelve Oaks estate, where everyone went for the barbeque? The camera panned to a sign on the grounds that said:

Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

No matter where I go, I always have things with me to advance my voice-over goals. I press any spare time into service. On the way to my appointment this morning, I studied background material for a major audition. Other times, I may:

  • read books for upcoming audiobooks
  • read marketing books
  • write blog ideas and entries (sometimes jot the ideas in my PDA, other times write longer sentences by longhand)
  • plan marketing strategies
  • listen to audiobooks and podcasts on my iPod
  • listen to accents, dialects and foreign languages on my iPod (I have loaded Spanish and French CDs, and I have Italian and German CDs ready to be loaded.)
  • make notes about the podcast show that I am developing
  • write in my journal

In addition, my PDA cell phone is a Pocket PC, so I can surf the web and get e-mail anywhere. I can read my voice-over newsgroups and blogs while commuting. I also can respond to inquiries about projects and review web sites of prospective companies. Time spent on public transportation or in places like a doctor’s waiting room are always highly productive for me.

Whenever I ride public transportation, I have noticed that a majority of people get on board clutching their cell phones like Linus from the Peanuts cartoon clutched his security blanket.

I have observed that an incredible number of people are chronic cell phone abusers. Even at 7:00am, a girl sitting near me felt the overwhelming compulsion to call someone! She continued her conversation for the entire 40-minute trip; she was still talking when I left the bus.

Riding public transportation in the afternoons is like walking into the stock market, with everyone laughing and shouting into their phones as though they are the only people who exist on the planet. Aside from the fact that no one else around wants to hear these inane conversations — especially at 7:00am! — I have some advice for those of you who are serious about your careers in voice-over.

Hang up the phone.

Think of it as a golden opportunity to rest your voice.

People reach for their cell phones because they are afraid to be alone with the silence of their own thoughts.

I take notes as I read books, and you may have noticed that I love quotes. From one of the many marketing and publicity books I have read, I wrote down this quote:

Think.
Make time for self-examination.
[in the example of commuters on a train, the author wrote that]
Instead of contemplating something or giving their thoughts free rein,
they get on their cell phones.
Cell phones allow you to have conversations to pass the time
instead of passing the time in actual thought.

When I arrived at my destination building this morning, I got on the elevator with a girl who had a book in her hands. It was titled French in 10 Minutes A Day. I commented on her book, and she proudly told me that she was adding another language to her arsenal. I inquired about her other language skills, and she said she speaks Spanish and Arabic. She obviously is a girl who is going places — and not just in the elevator!

I often hear comments from people that they would love to start their career in voice-over or they want to do more marketing to increase their voice-over jobs, but….they don’t have time. We all have the same number of hours in a day. Since time is your most precious commodity, the question you should ask yourself is:

How do you want to spend your next 24 hours?

Voice-Over Days and Talledega Nights

Most people wouldn’t think that Talledega Nights, Will Ferrell’s recently-released comedy movie about NASCAR racing, would have anything to do with a career in voice-over. However, even though the movie probably wasn’t meant to teach anything, I found a few lessons in it anyway. I promise I won’t give away any surprises from the movie!

1) From the day he was born, Ricky Bobby knew he wanted to go fast. Like so many people who have an inner calling, he didn’t heed it initially. He first worked in a pit crew and had to be urged into taking the driver’s seat. You could also look at his experience another way. He took a job on the pit crew because he did whatever was necessary to be in the environment where his dream job awaited. If you’re an aspiring voice-over artist, you can always ask to volunteer or work in another capacity at your dream location to gain experience.

2) Ricky Bobby was overflowing with confidence about his ability. When he finally got his break into his dream job, he never doubted himself. He continually built upon his successes. He didn’t endlessly analyze how he could have done something better in a race that was already gone. As a voice-over actor, you have to let the past go. Once you do an audition or a job, you need to realize that you did your best and be ready to move on to the next challenge. Looking back only crystallizes your thinking.

3) The hero of the movie surrounded himself with people who believed in him. When the going got tough and he forgot how to believe in himself, Ricky Bobby had people who could remind him of his accomplishments.4) While the premise of the movie was based on competition, I noticed the cooperation between and resulting abundance that flowed to Ricky Bobby and his best friend Cal. They helped each other on the race track and in life. The more you live your life in service to others without expectation of reward, the more the Universe will be your servant.

People will tell you that becoming a voice-over actor, like joining the NASCAR circuit, is an extremely competitive venture with the odds stacked against you. Those who are in computer programming, interior design and basket-weaving would say that their fields are also competitive. Gaining skills sufficient to enter any field takes an investment of time, energy and education, but it doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. If you think that you live in an abundant Universe with more than enough opportunity to go around, you will get your chance. Not every NASCAR driver is right for every race; not every voice is right for every project. We all have talents, gifts and unique personalities that come through in our voices. No one else can see the world in the same way that you can.

5) Don’t run the race for the wrong reasons. So often, people contact me because they have been told they have a nice voice, and they think the logical conclusion is to make money as a voice-over actor. Voice-over is a business like anything else that requires a lot of marketing and ability to take rejection. Ricky Bobby showed us what it’s like to be in business for yourself and because you love what you do. Don’t become a voice-over actor because someone else thinks you should do it, because you think you can make some easy money at it or because you think it sounds like a cool thing to say you do. Become a voice-over actor because you love it.

6) If you’re not first, you’re last is not the best philosophy on which to base a career. Ricky Bobby struggled under the weight of this sentence for most of his career. He later realized that the sentence is completely meaningless! To a voice actor, you could spend lots of time and money to get ranked first on the popular search engines only to discover that your business didn’t increase exponentially like you thought it would. Maybe most of your new business comes when you network in person at industry meetings or send direct mail to your bulging mailing list.

7) Never give up. If you believe in yourself and your talent, you will always keep the finish line in sight!

 

What can John Travolta teach us about voice-over?

Drew and I watched the third Austin Powers movie again over the weekend. I had forgotten that John Travolta had cameo at the end of the movie, and I was reminded about an amazing part of Travolta’s story that proves to me once more that

things happen for a reason.

To quote Wayne Dyer:

All things are happening as they should,
and the Universe is acting in complete synchronicity.
You may not know or don’t remember that John Travolta had a hit album in the 70s. The only song that I can remember was called Let Her In. When Travolta was a guest on Oprah’s show a few years ago, he said that someone heard his song and knew he was on TV with Welcome Back Kotter, and that’s how he got cast for Grease (in my view, Travolta’s role of a lifetime #2 after Saturday Night Fever). He said that

all moments have importance

(my emphasis) because a kid named Quentin Tarantino grew up watching Grease and decided that he wouldn’t make Pulp Fiction (Travolta’s role of a lifetime #3, not that I personally liked the movie) without the guy who starred in Grease. Even Travolta said how he can see events building on each other. On another day, I will share a detailed story about my studio that illustrates how events built on each other and were guided by intuitive decisions.

I think his story also demonstrates that you have to keep doing what you believe in doing. If you keep putting yourself, your work, your talent and your ambition out in the Universe, it will come back to you in ways that you couldn’t even imagine, and your future will better than you dreamed possible. Travolta certainly made some bad films in between Grease and Pulp Fiction. He didn’t let the negative opinion of many critics stop him. I think many people thought his career was over by the time Pulp Fiction came out. Since then, he’s been in some fabulous movies and seems to be getting even better. I think even he would be surprised by the success and acclaim he has achieved.

Keep taking those classes, doing the auditions, making contacts…. Do something everyday to advance your career. It all will come back to you. If you must work another job and feel frustrated by that fact, just keep reminding yourself why you are there and choose instead to feel gratitude for the many blessings it provides you. I have a friend who says:

You don’t go on safari without having a base camp.
The base camp has to be funded, stocked and operational in order to have a successful safari.
Your other job is providing the basis for your base camp, and your voice-over career is the grand adventure known as the safari! Remember — you don’t have to risk everything just to get what you want. Live in the moment, and know that every moment has meaning!

 

Do you perform in your underwear?

I subscribe to several voice-over lists. The subject question is actually a current and very active topic on one of them. Many people have answered the question, but I will never be among them. If you haven’t already posted an answer, I hope I can give you some new things to consider before you press the Send button with your reply.

It’s not like these lists are some little private gathering where you can whisper secrets among close friends. Sure, camaraderie exists if you’ve been a list member for a long time, but you don’t really KNOW the other list members. You may have regularly contributed to an e-mail list or forum, but would you know someone from that list if they walked into the room?

Answering or reading such messages is a huge waste of time. If you have some down time, you could be doing any number of productive things to advance your career like calling a client, updating your database, modifying your web site, recording new scratch tracks for practice, learning to apply filters in your editing software, etc. You could be doing things to otherwise improve your life like communicating with family and friends, taking a walk, learning to play a musical instrument, decluttering your office, planning a trip, etc. Of course, you could just sit and be for a few minutes, reveling in the quiet, doing absolutely nothing other than enjoying being alive, perhaps meditating and visualizing the kind of life you want for yourself!

In addition to the time-wasting nature of the topic, you never know who might read your words later and form an opinion about you. Would you answer this question if you knew that your clients or potential clients were reading your messages? How about if your parents or your significant other were to find your post? Would they be hurt or shocked by your response to something that you thought was just silly banter? Any of these people could read what you write on-line because your words live on into perpetuity!

I wrote in a recent post

Nothing is more powerful on this planet
than the words that you think and speak.

This concept was driven home to me in the small yet powerful book The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz. Rather than paraphrasing the beautiful wisdom of the book, I’ll quote from the cover:

Be Impeccable With Your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don’t Take Anything Personally: Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Don’t Make Assumptions: Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always Do Your Best: Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

The Four Agreements may sound simple, but they are difficult to implement on a daily basis. Just realizing the power of your words is a life-changing step! When I first started in voice-over, I would laugh and say I would do any job where the check would clear. Now, I decline to perform jobs when I don’t like the words that would be coming out of my mouth. They may be someone else’s words, but I would be the one saying them. If I’m using the power of the word against someone else or against my own beliefs and values, then I won’t take the job.

Since I don’t want to use the power of the word against myself, I don’t want say things that might hurt my professional reputation in others’ eyes….like answering a question in a public forum about how I’m dressed when I perform my job. If someone wants to know how how I look when I work in my studio, they can see the picture of my stunning soundproof studio on my web site.

Answer the question, if you feel so inclined. However, I won’t interested in the answer.

 

Laziness and voice-over won’t mix

Last night, Drew and I had to pick up a few things, so we combined all of our shopping at the world’s largest retailer. I think you know its name, so I won’t mention it, much less give it a link. The people parked in front of us walked up to their car as we finished unloading our bags from the shopping cart into our car.

As I pushed our cart to the cart return area just down the row from our car, I noticed stray shopping carts abandoned all over the parking lot. People rolled the carts out of the store to their cars and just left the carts wherever they stopped. People couldn’t be bothered to walk a few steps to put their shopping cart in the designated area.When I walked back to our car, I noticed that the people in front of us were in their car. As Drew put our car in reverse, the people in front of us started driving forward. In other words, they couldn’t be bothered to put their car in reverse; they had actually waited for me to come back so that they could drive straight through!

Drew and I have made a promise to each other that we would not spread negativity. It may sound like I am breaking that promise to repeat this story now. I admit I was very irritated to notice 2 pieces of evidence of such extreme laziness. Since old habits die hard, I was ranting about the carts and the other driver to Drew.

I’m telling this story now for 2 reasons:

REASON #1 When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. (Wayne Dyer)

In order to stop my wave of negativity over the parking lot situation last night, I had to change my thought process. Rather than think that people are too lazy and irresponsible to return their shopping carts, I had to consciously choose another, better-feeling thought. I decided that having the carts scattered throughout the parking lot provided a necessary job to the strong person who had to corral them and run them back into the store.

Rather than think that the person in front of me was too lazy to put her car into reverse, I decided that maybe her reverse gear didn’t work or she was having transmission problems. In fact, I even thought that if she had put her car into reverse, she would have hit someone, which would have caused us to be a witness to the scene and made us get home at 3AM! Suddenly, it was easy to feel gratitude instead of irritation!

Sometimes it’s very easy to get mired in negative thinking, especially when it’s something really important like your voice-over career. It can be easy to be critical of yourself if you aren’t seeing the kind of break-throughs that you expected or the jobs are few and far between. However, keeping a positive mental outlook and being persistent in your efforts will get you where you want to be. The thoughts you think are a conscious choice.

Former talent agent Wally Amos, who invented the Famous Amos cookies, is credited with this quote:


Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your actions.
Keep your actions positive because your actions become your habits.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.

REASON #2 Without ambition, one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

I realize that I’m the only one who cares about my change in thinking last night at the store. (Okay, Drew cared, too.) However, the trend toward laziness is prevalent in our society, and I notice it constantly rearing its ugly head on all of the voice-over groups that I monitor. Every few days, someone will ask one of the perpetual questions:

“How do I get started in voice-over?” (I also frequently receive this question via e-mail. I always respond by asking people if they have read the information on my web site and suggesting that they start with a book. I refer them to my recommended reading list.)
“What equipment do I need?”
“How do I get an agent?”
“Which on-line casting web site is best? Do people actually make money from them?”
“What do I need to do for marketing?”

We live in the age of information and technology. The archives of all these groups contain an amazing bounty of information from a wide variety of people. In addition, plenty of free information can be obtained from my web site and many others on the Internet. Numerous books on voice-over have been written, and bookstore shelves are overflowing with marketing books that have brilliant ideas ready for implementation by the new businessperson.

My suggestion? READ. Read anything and everything that you can about voice-over, especially if you just getting into the field. Whether it’s an Internet forum on voice-over or some other subject, read the FAQ and the archives to see whether your question has been answered. Chances are excellent that you aren’t the first person to have the question. Don’t just jump in and ask the question because you’re impatient to be on your way and you want to take the easy road to get there.

There are no shortcuts to your success. You not only should do your own homework, but you will have to do some actual WORK (yes, even more than pushing a shopping cart to its designated area in the parking lot) if you expect to have a voice-over career. Even if I and other people told you everything we know just because you asked the question, we can’t do things for you. You’re trying to build a career, not a bologna and cheese sandwich.

If you want the prize, be prepared to work for it. By the way, the people who you think are overnight successes usually have been working diligently for about 10 years.

 

A Tale of Two Web Sites

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct
the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present
period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its
being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree
of comparison only.

Was Charles Dickens really writing about the French Revolution in his novel A Tale of Two Cities, or could he perhaps have been writing a prediction about my move of my domain name to a new web host?

It was the best of times because I have a new web site. Along with a new design, the site contains updated demos, pictures of my beautiful new studio with its stunning Parisian theme and testimonials, as well as expanded informational content. It was the worst of times because the site design has been completed for some time, but I haven’t been able to launch the site. My main domain karencommins.com still points to Earthlink’s servers, while the new site can be previewed under either the KarenCommins.com or KarenVoices.com domains on 1and1.com servers. If you have clicked the logo on my blog, you have already seen the new site.

It was the age of wisdom because I developed the new site under a different domain. Furthermore, I was wise to shop around for a new web host who offered better pricing and customer service than I was receiving from Earthlink. My web site would never go down when I made the transition from the old host to the new one.

It was the age of foolishness to think that something that should be an easy task actually would be.

It was the epoch of belief when I started to make the DNS changes to move karencommins.com to the 1and1.com name servers. I believed I would access my account on Network Solutions, quickly make the change to my Whois record and routers everywhere would know about the change within a few days.

It was the epoch of incredulity when I learned about the snarled mess with my domain registration. I own the domain karencommins.com. Network Solutions is the registrar. However, my Network Solutions account did not reflect my domain.

It was the season of Light when the Network Solutions rep explained that Earthlink was one of their wholesale accounts. While Network Solutions was the actual registrar, Earthlink had registered the domain on my behalf. I therefore needed to contact Earthlink and request that Earthlink make changes to my Whois record for that domain.

It was the season of Darkness when I had to call Earthlink. First, the people on Earthlink’s support lines could not understand that changing my DNS record is a separate issue from changing my web hosting account. Earthlink refused to change my DNS record to a different web host, even though I would continue to pay my monthly web hosting fee to Earthlink and even though Earthlink was obligated to service my domain registration. Earthlink promised to release its stake on my domain registration so that Network Solutions would have total control of it. A phone call a week later had me going through the same scenario, only to learn that nothing had been accomplished.

It was the spring of hope when I called Network Solutions again and was offered the opportunity to convert my wholesale registration to a retail account. I had to fill out a form and provide proof of my identity and fax it back to the company.

It was the winter of despair (even in May) to learn on a subsequent phone call to Network Solutions that my first fax was never received. My despair continued when, after receiving confirmation that my second fax was received, I did not hear anything from Network Solutions. They told me that the paperwork could be processed in 3 days or less, yet 3 weeks passed without any communication from Network Solutions. At least I could shake off my despair by going on vacation with Drew!

We were all going direct to Heaven when I called Network Solutions earlier this week and found out that my paperwork had been processed! Apparently, I didn’t receive the notification because I somehow had 2 accounts, so they merged the information. HALLELUJAH!!!

After over 6 weeks of effort that included at least 6 phone calls and 2 faxes, I FINALLY am able to enter a simple change to my DNS record that will cause my current domain to match up with my new web site. You might think that I have already made the change and am just waiting for the replication to occur around the world. If that were the case, though, I wouldn’t feel the need to tell the story about it in pure Dickensonian fashion.

I truly think things happen for a reason. For instance, a monumental traffic jam in New York on Sunday 7 May prevented me from getting to the airport in time to make my flight home. The next flight was delayed an hour due to weather problems in Atlanta. I had the opportunity to calm a terribly irate passenger who was in the same circumstance with me. She was railing at the Delta agents because all of the eateries in LaGuardia — such as they are — were closed. I told her that if being late was her worst problem in life, she had no real problems.

I said there was some reason we were delayed. We weren’t meant to be on that earlier flight. We might have run into bad weather that would have made us sick. Maybe we would have had to circle Atlanta because we couldn’t land. I would much rather be standing in an airport than sitting on a plane!

I also reminded her about all the things for which she could be grateful. She was standing there in seemingly good health and had not been in a wreck in the incredible traffic jam in NY. She was so much better off than the vast majority of the world’s population, most of whom would be glad to trade places with her right then. She not only said she saw my point, but she stopped having her tantrum with the Delta agents. (BTW, after hearing this exchange, the Delta agent who was helping me granted my request of upgrading my husband’s ticket to first class at no charge!)

Maybe the Universe put all of these extreme delays of moving my domain in my path for a reason. Maybe I need to do a few more things on the new site before I launch it to the world. I know it has a few missing links and a couple of pieces of incomplete content. At least now I can make the change whenever I’m ready!

I started this entry with a famous quote from Charles Dickens, and I’d like to end it with another that, while less famous, sums up my ordeal in moving my domain name:

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many
not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.