I love sitting in my studio!

I do.  I just love sitting there and enjoying the room and looking at the equipment and taking in the whole aura of the studio.  I know it’s nuts, but I love it!

In fact, my wife (Marcia),  who knows me better than I do, will sometimes call up the stairs “Are you working?”  She knows that sometimes I’m not.  I’m just sitting there.

I admit it.  It’s goofy.  But maybe it goes back to those days when I didn’t know where the next meal was coming from or how I was going to take care of three little boys.

I’m grateful to God and clients who believe in me!  If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have a studio to sit in.

No, I’m not talking about the sun and the lake and the golf and the pool and the vacations and the summer attitude.  Although I must admit I certainly do love all that!

I’m talking about the end of the fiscal year for a lot of businesses!

See, a lot of businesses end their fiscal year around June 30.  So, around this time of year, each year, I get a lot of calls from clients with money to burn so they don’t lose it in next year’s budget.  A lot of us voiceover folk get those calls.  What a riot!

For the last two weeks of June it’s a mad house around here.

Fortunately I have the advantage of having a couple of engineers that can help things go smoothly.  My sons.  Yup!  I taught ‘em well.

Years ago we expanded Dan Hurst Productions to include video productions.  That’s what they take care of.

These whizzos are all about the video stuff.  But I must admit there’s something weird about having your son tell you to redo a VO because it doesn’t work.

“Listen here, you little brat…”

And to make matters worse, I have another son that is on staff with a major corp doing website management and development.  And now, he’s interested in joining the team to develop websites for our clients.

Uhhh, I’m a voice guy.  I don’t know about this other stuff.

“Uhhh, Dad…just read the copy and  we’ll take care of the rest.”

Uhhh, that’s exactly what scares me.  I think I’ll take a break and go sit by pool.

For me it was a move out of desperation.

I had been the Corporate Program Director for a small radio chain.  I had left a job and a new house in Palm Beach county, FL, to take that radio job in Kansas City. And suddenly, I was let go.  Happens all the time in radio.  The problem was that Marcia (my wife) and I had moved to Kansas City to be near family and to raise our 3 boys. I didn’t want to leave and there were no local job offers.

Marcia wisely suggested one day that I look into making a living with my voice.  After all, somebody had to voice those commercials.  I checked with a local talent agency and, lo and behold, they took me on and I had my first job within a week.

Most of my first jobs were done at local production houses.  But a few started coming in that just wanted me to voice the spot and send it on to their production house out of town.  So, for those, I traded production work for studio time with a small local radio station.  They needed someone who could produce their spots and I needed the studio.  It was a match made in heaven!

It didn’t take long before local agencies found out I could do Spanish voice work.  And while there wasn’t a lot at the time, it slowly started to build.  Within a year and a half my Spanish work accounted for the majority of my voice jobs. Now, Spanish accounts for about 80%.

I remember my first Spanish voice job.  It was an infomercial for The Whacky Vac!

The rate was $200 plus a Whacky Vac.

I never got the Whacky Vac.

My parents raised me in Honduras. That’s where I learned my Spanish. I just grew up speaking it like everybody else! They were missionaries. I was a brat.

But my Dad taught me a lot, mostly by example, to dream and follow my dream. I am forever indebted to him for that. He has passion, focus, drive, and commitment. He has always challenged me to do what I love and love what I do!

And he taught me about humor. Dad’s a classic prankster and a joker.

Mom and Dad now live in Richmond, VA - in a retirement center my Dad calls The Morgue (yeah, he’s a little demented!). Anyway, the other day he went to the grocery store and tripped and fell in one of the aisles. He has had hip surgery on both hips, so he’s not as flexible as he used to be.

Well, he couldn’t get back up and no one was around to help. So…he shouted out at the top of his lungs, “Clean up in aisle 8!”

Within seconds someone from the store came rushing down the aisle.

Ya gotta love an 83 year old man with a sense of humor!!!

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!!! I love you!!!

I’ve been in this business a long time. Over 20 years. And one of the constants in this business is that clients still have trouble figuring out how to hire a translator. And worse, some people who have NO business calling themselves translators are hanging their shingle out there trying to catch a bit of the action.

I’m working on a job right now - almost 50 pages of translated copy - that is positively the worst I have ever seen in my voiceover career! And it was done by a “professional translator”. It’s full of wrong words, bad grammar, syntax errors, bad punctuation, and on and on. It’s going to cost the client twice as much as he intended to pay, not to mention the lost time and wasted energy.

So, what should you look for in a good translator?

1. Make sure they speak the language fluently…and fluidly. There are a lot of people who have learned to speak Spanish in school, and they may know the grammar. But they don’t know the little nuances and attitudes of the language. I know I will anger some when I say this, but do yourself a favor and use only translators who speak the language naturally.

2. Make sure your translator can handle the demand of your translation. Most good translators are good in specific areas, but not others. For example, I can do conversational translations all day long, but I suck at technical stuff. And don’t even try to get me into a medical translation.

3. Make sure your translator is adept at translating for your desired media. You’d be amazed at the number of translations that I read for radio and TV that were written for print. Again, it’s those little nuances and attitudes that make the difference.

4. Spanish takes longer to say than English, so if your English copy is exactly :60, expect the Spanish translation to come in ten to fifteen seconds longer. That’s just the way it is. Spanish words usually have more syllables, and the terms are ofter wordier.

And one other thing along this line: Don’t think that after the translation you can just cut a few words or lines here and there and it will all work out. It doesn’t work that way. The phrasing and terminology will often not allow for that. Cut the English down by at least 25% before the translator starts on it.

5. And finally, use a translator that speaks fluent English. At the risk of insulting my Spanish brothers and sisters, many of them simply do not understand the English language well enough to understand the intent and concept of the copy. And then you end up with a translation of words instead of phrases and ideas. Use someone who can say what you want to say, the way you want it said.

Where can you find translators like that. Well, there are most certainly lots of them. And I’m happy to recommend a few. They don’t even know I’m doing this, but they deserve the kudos because they’re great at what they do.

The absolute best that I’ve ever worked with is Arleen Sola (913)522-3901. She has her Master’s Degree in Languages, she’s fluent in English and Spanish, and is a brilliant translator! I trust her implicitly.

Jan Notzon (704) 996-1151, gets it. He knows what he’s doing. I’ve worked with him several times and can highly recommend him.

Amy Taylor (860) 459-5018 is one of the best female voices in English or Spanish! And you can count on her translation skills as one of the best around.

Jurgen Stevens (915) 566-3110, is a unique talent. In spite of his name, he’s full-blooded Mexican, and he’s fluent in English and Spanish. He knows what he’s doing when it comes to translations.

Oh yeah, and there’s me. Yup, when it comes to selling cars or insurance or banking or furniture, lemme at it! But just keep me away from heart procedures and metallurgical processing systems!!!

It was a good week as far as voiceovers are concerned! I was busy. Real busy!

But the challenge was a little glitch in the audio chain in my studio. Apparently when I put all my equipment back in after moving the new furniture in, I goofed something up.

Everything sounded great until I had to process a 44/16 stereo signal down to 8/8 mono for a phone project. All of a sudden I had the worst sounding signal ever. Not even intelligible. And I had a client waiting for his project.

P-A-N-I-C!!!

Enter my son, Jared, the computer wizard. He worked on it for a few hours and then let me know the verdict: “Well, your left and right channels are canceling each other out. I don’t know how that happens, but that’s what’s going on.”

Fortunately my audio background helped me figure out what was going on. I had screwed up the polarity in the signal pre-amp.

Duhhhh!

One punch of a button and it was all fixed.

ONE PUNCH OF A BUTTON!!!

I wish all of life’s problems were that simple, don’t you?

I was really peeved at first.  I mean, how could they let this happen to me!?!?  I’m just a simple guy, trying to run a simple voiceover business.  It’s just not fair.  I was ready to jump somebody’s case! Then it occurred to me…it was a fire, you dorknerd!  They didn’t mean for it happen.  It’s not some sort of conspiracy!  Geeesh!  Then I got to thinking about them trying to handle all the irate calls while trying desperately to get everything back up and running while having to deal with the disaster of a fire. 

Suddenly, I felt sorry for them. 

I’ve never had to deal with a disaster of that proportion, thank God, but I sure have had my share of those small disasters.  Haven’t you? And I remember how grateful I was (and am) for clients that were patient and kind during those times.  God bless ‘em all!

So, next time one of those companies that you pay to make your life better or to serve your interests has one of those disasters, small or large, think about the customers that stayed with you and helped you out during your meltdown. 

Funny thing is, in spite of this little setback, it hasn’t slowed business down one iota!!!  All that work on the website…it’s down for a few days…and…Heyyyyy!!!…maybe it’s not all about the website.  Maybe it IS all about good customer service!!!

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Three day weekends play havoc with your work week, don’t they?  You get a day off, but then you have to cram all the work from that day into the other four.

But here’s where it gets intense.  One of the things I pride myself on is fast turnaround work.  Usually whenever I get an order for a VO for a commercial, I turn it around THAT day.  If I get it late in the day, it goes on the top of the list for the next day.  Well, you can imagine what that does to Tuesday when Monday was a holiday!!!

The good news is I completed the studio rebuild over the weekend.  It looks and feels and sounds awesome!  Very homey and comfortable.  I’ll have to get some pix loaded for braggin’ rights.

OK.

Back to work.

Today, as I spend time with my family and friends, I want to remember the many men and women who laid down their their lives for the freedom we enjoy and celebrate today.

I am so deeply grateful.

And to the men and women who continue to serve our country and protect our freedoms: Thank you.

I am so deeply grateful.

And to the families who pay the price of loneliness, and loss, and separation from loved ones: Thank you.

I am so deeply grateful.