Playing the harp immediately became one of my passions. In 2000, I was thrilled to buy my first and only pedal harp, a magnificent 44-string Camac Clio.

When I started playing the harp, I was exercising my desire to do voice work by volunteering for the Georgia Radio Reading Service, which I did for 5 years. I still was a few years away from making the decision to become a voice artist and creating my first demo. Learning to play the harp taught me 5 things every aspiring voice talent should know.

I looked at and made a decision about every piece of paper in my filing cabinets. I found an e-mail message that I sent to a client in 2002. I extracted the main portion below because I wondered if you have found yourself in a similar situation:

I had produced my first demo and had mailed it without success for about 6 months to agents and prospects. I also created a database, using data I found on-line and in organization directories. I then started mailing postcards to these prospects.

Lesson 1: Always qualify your prospects before adding them to your database. I had not even contacted people to find out if they hired voice talent before entering all of the contact information into my database. Mail-outs are expensive, and I learned the hard way that repeatedly mailing things to people who would never hire me is a colossal waste of time, money and energy.

One person called me after receiving one of my postcards. I was elated when he said he wanted to hire me for a radio commercial. My first job, and a radio commercial, no less! I wouldn't have cared what the job entailed; I was giddy with the knowledge that I had hit the big time! I didn't ask any questions except for the scheduled time and directions to the session.

When I arrived at the address, I was confused. The address was at a duplex in a somewhat seedy looking neighborhood. Surely this producer had hired a recording studio? Was I at the wrong address? I rang the doorbell. I was at the correct address and felt a little distraught when the producer led me to a back room. I started thinking how I might escape and was relieved to see microphones at a table. He sat at one, and I sat at the other. I had produced my demo in a gorgeous studio at Todd A/O/Editworks (now R!OT Atlanta). I naively thought that all recording studios were of the same caliber.

We decided to redecorate my office with new furniture, which meant pulling all of the files out of the drawers before the furniture could be moved. We made numerous trips to gather armfuls of hanging file folders that we stacked on the floor in the upstairs hall. Although the clutter in the hall was overwhelming, we agreed on the arduous task of examining every piece of paper and file so that we would only keep those things we needed.

Throughout this project, we have shredded at least 6 bags of paper and thrown away countless sheets. In addition to finding a multitude of outdated records about our health, finances and possessions, I was incredulous to see just how much paper I had accumulated in my work as a voice talent.

When I do an audition, I save the script so that I will have it available when I am booked for the job. I had folders overflowing with scripts from agents and on-line casting services. I also maintain folders for clients and their jobs.

My system works well -- EXCEPT that I never got rid of anything! In making decisions about voice-over paperwork to toss, I combined principles discussed in 2 books on seemingly disparate subjects: 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 and Catherine Ponder's classic work The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity.

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: