New Business Development Feature
By Liz Raphael Helgesen

A professional voice talent and business mentor Liz will present an inspirational quote and then share a personal application of that wisdom to help us achieve greater success in our field.

“Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.” --Warren Bennis

We hear them every day of our lives. People totally comfortable being who they are in the world, easily accessing and expressing their innermost selves—their attitudes, beliefs and expectations. And we listen. We hear them as radio talk show hosts expressing their opinionated (sometimes obnoxious) views. We hear them as that know-it-all neighbor down the street who has never been wrong a day in his life. We hear them as our therapists, teachers and spiritual leaders who move and inspire us to move worlds.

We hear them and we listen. Even if we don’t agree or like what they have to say, we’re still attracted to someone being themselves, speaking their truth.

As a voice talent reading copy, I know that to attract you and lead you, I must be willing to let go and allow you to see all of me—my innermost self. I must be willing to be embarrassed, silly, passionate, powerful, imperfect, messy and vulnerable with you. My goal is to connect with your soul--the deepest part of you—so you will let me in, feel related to, and be touched and inspired to connect with my message and take action. This is leadership and simply, being myself. And therein lies my life’s greatest work.

To connect with my innermost self before a session, a great voice coach once guided me through a three-step exercise I still use today. For each step the reading is done out loud. First she had me read a piece of copy, cold. Next, she had me immediately pick up and read a deeply personal rant I had written. This rant could be about any subject, but it had to be mine and written by me. When I finished reading my rant, she had me go back and read the original copy once again. The difference the second time I read the copy was amazing. During my first read I had not yet connected with myself. But after reading my rant--expressing my opinion, getting in touch with myself--I read the copy with passion, purpose. I could feel the difference.

My best friend tells me I am most beautiful, most attractive to her when I am in my most vulnerable state—either tears streaming down my cheeks having just acknowledged a gut-wrenching truth about myself, or roaring with laughter from a great joke or silly, easy banter between friends—simply, being me. I also notice how I feel when I’m in this state: I feel free, open, available, connected, and solid. It is this state I work to achieve behind the mic to best connect with the world. To touch you, I have to touch me, otherwise we won’t connect.

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Welcome to Sound Ideas

Glen Campbell welcomes all CV Newsletter subscribers and readers with an exciting exclusive offer that you will not find anywhere else. Simply submit your name, mailing address. phone number and email address to Glen monthly...that's all there is to it. First he will offer to send you a Sound Ideas Sampler of many of their terrific products and you will also be eligible to win one of two great Production CD's, Captain Audio (450 sfx) or Mzzz Muzic (200 music tracks). Just click on Glen's name to submit. I have been dealing with Glen at Sound-Ideas for many years both in radio and in VO. He is very knowledgeable and professional about his business and is not a sales-hound if you know what I mean. Give Glen a call anytime at 1-800-665-3000 (within Canada) or 1-800-387-3030 (USA), 905-886-5000 (International). Check out their Blue Plate Specials every month for amazing deals!

Welcome to Sound Ideas Online The world's largest publisher of professional sound effects, royalty free music, and your source for a comprehensive selection of production music and production element libraries.Buy direct from Sound Ideas - our e-commerce Web site offers secure online purchasing of more than 200 different sound effects and stock music products for broadcast, post-production, multimedia, game development and other wireless and entertainment applications.

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Looking up IP addresses.....by Rick Gordon

Although we've covered this topic a few times before we still get inquiries as to how to find out who is visiting your website or at least where are they from? CommercialVoices.com supplies dates and times and IP addresses of all who visit your CV pages. Our members can access this information 7/24 and then comes the puzzle. Who visited? From where?

Well, due to security the Gods of the Internet do not supply us with this precise information for a number of reasons. But, there is some hope in at least finding out if the visitor is human. Type or copy the IP address in the box on this page http://www.arin.net/whois/ and another that I prefer is http://whatismyipaddress.com/ which can give you more details. For the latter click on "IP Lookup" under tools for more information. In CV's case they say we are located in Brampton, Ontario which is outside of Toronto about 5 hours away (463km or 288 miles). Actually we are located in Canada's capital, Ottawa, Ontario.

Fairly close considering the planet?

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The Funnies

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How much should I charge?........Jon Thomas

There are two words that I tend to dread hearing from a potential client: rate quote. I know it’s coming, and I know it’s something that has to be addressed to do business, but it still tends to gives me a little bit of agita. When I discuss rates, I find that I’m torn between wanting to close the deal, but not so badly that I undercharge for my work. Of course therein lies the beauty of having an agent; they deal with this stuff all day long, and they keep you out of the fray. So how much should you be charging for your work? Good question….......MORE

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MIC and me.......Do I need an Agent?to our members.....Deb Munro

July was a fantastic month for me, particularly because of a new agent that I’m working with. This made me think it would be a good time to remind you why agents exist, and why you might need one.

So for starters, let me share with you a typical day in your agent’s life:

Imagine contacting 30 to 40 people in one day, by telephone, email or both – and with less than 48 hours notice – needing to coordinate their various schedules with the Casting Director's trying to fill one role and then imagine that another 4 agents in town (if not more) also are submitting talent for the same part, further narrowing your chances of landing the job for your roster. And let’s
not forget re-scheduling and unanswered phones that have to be called again. Oh ... and it’s a 1-day $300 session. That’s A LOT of work for a $45.00 commission. You do this for two days, and then the job goes to a talent from another agency.......MORE

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Producer's Corner
No, you can't just use headphones...It seems so easy - don't worry about the room, disturbing family members or neighbors, just slap on headphones and start producing...

I've already written an article on why headphones won't work (http://www.bluebearsound.com/articles/headphones.htm), so I won't rehash it again - you can read the article or take my word for it!

But assuming I've convinced you, you know you need monitors, so what do you need to know about them?

It's really not as simple as going to your local store and picking the ones you like best.... there's far more to it than that.

First of all - the most important thing you have to realize is this: if you can't hear, or don't hear it properly, you have no way of knowing if something is recorded properly or not.

The second most important thing to realize is that monitors are really made up of two components - the monitors themselves, and the room they're placed in. The best sounding monitors in the world will sound like some variation of cow-droppings if placed in a poor-sounding, acoustically untreated room.

"But I heard that using nearfield monitors takes the room out of the equation?"

Well... that may be true - if you happen to be as close listening to them as you are when using headphones - but if you listen to your monitors at the more usual 3-5 or so feet, the room is definitely interacting with them.

OK - so first thing - think about the room acoustics of where you plan to use them, and consider using sound treatment as needed. (Great info on sound treatment is available here: http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html)

Next - what to look for in a monitor....

Happy recording!

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