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How To Sell Without Selling

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Book, Journalism & Media, Social Media 18 Comments

“So, what do you hope to accomplish with that blog of yours,” asked one of my clients.

I had just finished a recording session, and somehow we started talking about my website.

“No offense,” said the client, “but these days, everybody has a blog. I try to read a few every once in a while to keep up with the business, and usually I’m sorry I did. Just because people are good at reading copy doesn’t mean they should write it. ‘Stick to what you know, and leave the rest to a pro.’ That’s what my father taught me.”

“I understand where you’re coming from,” I said, “but we can’t fault people for trying. They’ve heard that blogging is good for SEO. Every other colleague is doing it, so they jump on the bandwagon. The first few months they’ll write a few original posts, but when the newness wears off, it becomes a burden to find something to blog about. The five people who had been following the blog, disappear, and within three months, it goes belly up.”

“For how long have you been blogging?” my client wanted to know.

“I think I published my very first story about eight years ago. As long as I can remember I’ve been jotting things down on a piece of paper. Notes to self, mostly. I had no idea other people would be interested in what I had to say.

“So, back to my first question,” said the client. “I’m thinking of starting a company blog. That’s why I’m interested in what your goals are. Do you want to increase the number of visitors to your website? Are you trying to sell yourself? What are you aiming for?”

“First off, I have never written anything simply to increase web traffic. Any self-respecting writer sets out to write a good book, but never a bestseller. It’s true that my blog drives people to my website, but that’s just a pleasant side effect. The reason I write has to do with professionalism.

Call me idealistic, but I hope my stories will inspire people to raise the professional bar in freelancing, and in voice-overs. Secondly, I love to write. It’s a simple as that. As soon as writing becomes a chore, I’ll hang up my hat.”

“So, you’re not selling yourself?” asked the client, as if he didn’t believe me.

“I don’t like that term,” I said. “There’s too much selling in social media, and people aren’t buying it. Those who are trying to sell something usually do so with themselves in mind: ‘Look what I did! See what I have to offer!’ It’s a big, boring ego trip.

I see myself more as a tour guide. You know, the guy with the silly hat, holding up an umbrella. As a blogger, it is my job to show people something they would otherwise overlook; something unexpected. At times I also want to give them something to think about.”

“That’s very noble of you,” said the client, “but with so much information available online, do you think that’s necessary? Do we really need another blog?”

“I believe it is a matter of perspective and style, I replied. “Great bloggers talk about things people can relate to. They’re not in the business of breaking news. It’s their point of view that makes them interesting, and the way they package it. The best blogs read like a conversation. Not like a sales pitch.”

The client was scribbling some notes on the back of a script as I continued:

“I agree, a lot of information is already available online, but also a lot of misinformation. I often use my blog to separate the facts from the advertorial. I don’t claim to be objective, but I do my research. My readers know that I’m not on the payroll of some corporate sponsor, and they seem to respect me for that. I always tell them: My voice is for hire, but my opinion is not for sale. I guess that’s why most of them trust me.”

The client interrupted: “The service I am offering is very much geared toward start-ups. Many of them are trying to reinvent the wheel. What’s the main thing you run into, when you write a blog for beginners?”

“Let me correct you there,” I said. “My blog isn’t only for beginners, but I do have a lot of newbies among my regular readers. I hate to generalize, but many of them tend to have a Q and A problem.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked my client.

“Questions and Assumptions,” I answered. “They make too many assumptions, and they don’t ask enough questions. As a blogger, I like taking their assumptions apart, and I address questions I know people want to ask. Blogging is not about what I want to tell, but about what readers want to know. I use that same approach with my customers. What I want to sell is irrelevant. It’s about what they want to buy.”

“Now, tell me this,” said the client. “Voice-overs is a niche market, right? How come you have over 39 thousand subscribers, and some of your colleagues only have a few hundred?”

“Well, you have to remember that I’ve been at it for a while,” I said. “That certainly helps. For one, I’m proud that I never bribed people to subscribe to my blog. Some blogging gurus will tell you to give stuff away for free in exchange for an email address. I always wonder: are these subscribers interested in the blog or in the freebie? And what happens once you give them your gift? Will they move on to the next free thing?

I sincerely think that colleagues with only a few hundred subscribers make one big mistake: they only write for the in-crowd. They preach to the choir. Had I only written about and for voice-overs in these past eight years, I would have run out of material a long time ago. We’re a small, ruminating community. We tend to talk and write about the same things over and over again. It gets predictable.

For a blog to grow, you need to step out of your protective bubble, and find new readers and fresh content in areas that are related to your expertise, but that are different. I used the same strategy for my book Making Money In Your PJs. It’s not just a book for voice actors. It’s about freelancing in general.

Many of the examples in my book are taken from the world of voice-overs, but the advice I give applies to many solopreneurs. We all want to negotiate good rates, and we want to know how to market and grow our business. Once you start writing about these topics, your potential readership will skyrocket.”

“Interesting,” said the client. Do you happen to have a copy of your book with you?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” I said. “Would you like me to sign it for you?”

As I was signing the book, the client looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Boy, you’re subtle,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I replied, giving him my most innocent look.

“You said you were not selling anything to me, but look what you just did. I’m going to subscribe to your blog, and I’m buying your book!”

Then he paused and asked:

“Is that how blogging works?”

“You betcha!” I said.

“Nice doing business with you!”

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS Be sweet, and buy the book! Click here to read a few sample chapters and to learn more.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Never Become A Voice-Over

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Career, Freelancing, Pay-to-Play 106 Comments

voice talent“Millions of dollars paid out to voice actors globally.”

“Audition for your dream job now.”

“Instant access to amazing opportunities.”

“New job postings every day.”

It sure sounds tempting, doesn’t it? Especially when you’re young, idealistic, and impressionable. It’s the way online casting sites throw out their net, hoping that loquacious people will bite.

Well, bite they do, and day after day an ever-growing army of hopefuls is eagerly looking at their inbox, waiting for the next “amazing opportunity” to arrive. It comes at a price, though.

If you’re taking part in these online cattle calls, be ready to be milked!

Of course these casting sites won’t tell you that you have to spend between $349 and $399 per year to take part in a crapshoot. They’ll feed you success stories about people who claim to make a six-figure income by winning audition after audition. Anecdotal evidence always trumps independently verified numbers, right?

Believe me: People believe what they want to believe.

So, today I’m not going to give you the golden formula to online voice-over success. Sorry to break the news, but it does not exist. Instead, I will give you a few reasons why you probably should stay clear of this business. I’ll start with the most important one.

1. The world doesn’t need you.

Yes, you’ve heard me.

We have enough people talking into microphones, thank you very much. What this world needs is less talk and more action. We need teachers, doctors, nurses, and scientists. We need experts in conflict resolution; people who know how to fight global warming, and first responders to natural disasters.

If you want to make a real difference on this planet, don’t hide behind soundproof walls selling stuff no one needs. Get out there and start helping the poor, the homeless, and the ones without a voice. They need you more than Disney does.

2. There’s no money in voice-overs.

The cost of living goes up every year, while voice-over rates are in steady decline. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Even the union can’t stop it. Thanks to online casting services and ignorant amateurs, your voice has become a commodity, sold by the lowest bidder to the cheapest client.

VO has become a game of averages, and here’s how it works.

The bottom feeders choose lowball sites like Elance, Fiverr, and to sell their services for beer money. The top end of the market consists of A-list actors making millions voicing cartoons and commercials. If you’re average, you’re forever stuck in the middle. You have enough integrity to leave the crumbs to the idiots, but you won’t get the big gigs for the big money.

Don’t be fooled by voice-over veterans posting on Facebook how well they are doing. Some of them confided in me that they’re just keeping up appearances. No one wants to hire a loser, so you’ve got to tell the world you’re still an important player. Yay for social media! Everything people post is 100% true.

3. You are a social being.

Unless you enjoy going to expensive conferences to hear VoiceVIP’s talk about themselves and plug their books, you’re pretty much on your own in this business. I mean, who likes being locked up between the four carpeted walls of a 3.5’ by 3.5’ whisper box all day long?

You have no one to talk to but yourself, and you’ll never see a response from the people you’re supposedly entertaining. If acknowledgment is what you’re secretly longing for, go to a nursing home and read to the residents. Tell stories to kids in the cancer ward. It will make their day, and yours!

The sedentary lifestyle of a typical voice-over is unhealthy for the mind, body, and soul. If you’re an extrovert, you crave contact, and you thrive in the company of others. I can tell you right now that you will curse the day you decided to isolate yourself from the world, just so you could narrate some third-rate novel for a royalty share that doesn’t even pay this month’s water bill.

4. You’ll spend at least 80% of your time trying to get work, and 20% doing the work.

Voice-overs spend a lot of time being busy without being productive. How rewarding is that? Regardless of what voice casting sites want you to believe, most jobs you audition for will go to someone else, and you’ll never know why. Don’t you love it?

But what about agents, you may ask. Once you have an agent or two, things will get better, right?

No they won’t.

The pickings are slim, and these days, all the agents in North America will send the same Quilted Northern audition to every talent with a potty mouth. That really makes you feel part of an exclusive club, doesn’t it? (Quilted Northern is a type of bathroom tissue)

5. It may take many years before you see a return on your investment.

A voice-over career cannot be bought. It has to be conquered. Slowly.

You may think you’re going to be successful because of your unique sound. Dream on! The only way you’ll stand a chance is if you stop treating your pipe dream as a hobby. This means you’ve got to invest in professional gear and in a quiet place to record. Then you have to get yourself a few top-notch demos, plus a website to tell the world what you’re doing. And this is just the beginning.

Having all of that in place is no guarantee that you’ll make any money with your voice. Thousands of people all over the world are doing exactly what you do, and they are giving up within a year. The only money they’ll ever see is when they’re selling their stuff on eBay. At a loss.

When you really think about it, you have to be a fool to become a voice-over.

I was foolish enough to choose that as my career, and guess what?

I’ve never been happier!

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS If you believe I’m being negative for no reason, you should read 5 awful things nobody tells you about being an actor. Then we’ll talk, okay?

photo credit: Sound Design: ADR Recording via photopin (license)

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Turning Resistance Into Results

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Career, Personal Leave a comment

push upEvery January I see them walk in.

The men and women who told themselves: “I can do this!”

They’re sporting brand new workout clothes, and are wearing fancy gym sneakers that have yet to be broken in. Water bottles in hand, they flock to the eight o’ clock spinning class lead by Helga, a platinum blonde transplant from Germany. Her voice is as muscular as her thighs.

As the newbies adjust their exercise bikes, the regulars look at each other knowingly. We’ve seen this sad ritual many times. Give it a few weeks, and it will all be over.

February has barely begun, and half of the new recruits have already given up. “It wasn’t really my thing” they tell their friends with a faint smile. “But at least I tried, and that’s worth something, right?”

Luckily for them, they only paid for a trial membership. It’s the ultimate cop-out for those who can’t or won’t commit. How do I know?

A few years ago, I belonged to this group of dropouts, and I’m not proud of it. But last year I made a courageous comeback, and today I feel like I’m part of the LA Fitness furniture. To me, a gym workout is the ultimate stress-busting, fat-burning, energy-boosting experience. Here’s something else I discovered along the way.

The microcosm of the gym is a powerful metaphor for the real world. In fact, there are lots of parallels between my professional life as a voice-over, and what’s happening on the gym floor. Do you think this is a stretch? Let’s talk about machines!

1. The best equipment does not guarantee results. It’s how you use it that matters.

People hurt themselves on the gym floor all the time, because they don’t know how to use the equipment. They start lifting, pushing or pulling, without adjusting the machines first.

Willful ignorance leads to lack of results and could be damaging.

This is true in so many contexts. Whether you’re a professional photographer, a graphic designer, or a musician, you need good tools to get the job done. But owning a million-dollar violin means nothing if you don’t know how to play it well.

In our tiny voice-over bubble, we love to talk gear. Some colleagues seem to be forever searching for the Holy Grail of microphones or preamps. What they’re currently using is perfectly fine, but somehow they think that getting that shiny new mic will give them a tremendous leg up over the competition.

In my opinion, it’s much wiser to spend your money on a coach who can help you get the most out of your equipment and your performance. But how do you know which coach is right for you?

2. Effective coaches are role models who practice what they preach.

Let me ask you a question. While you’re at the gym, would you want to be guided by an overweight, uninterested, uninspiring coach?

Of course not!

I’m sorry to say that many “personal trainers” at my gym just seem to phone their sessions in. There’s no enthusiasm. No encouragement. No pride in the work they do. They’re merely going through the motions, counting the hours until their shift is over. Some seem way too young and inexperienced. That’s probably because they are.

The word “mentor” means “wise advisor.” It comes from the Greek noun “mentos” meaning “intent, purpose, spirit, and passion.” A great coach or mentor embodies all these notions. Wise people are much more than an experienced source of information. They know how to apply that information with purpose and with passion. And they’re not afraid to give you a hard time and hold you accountable for your progress, or lack thereof! Here’s why:

3. Resistance makes you stronger.

Fans of the diving board know that they need the resistance it offers to jump to the right height. In the gym, resistance training increases muscle strength by making the muscles work against a weight or force.

If you’ve ever tried to get into shape, you know that you sometimes get to a point where you run up against the limits of what you believe is possible. Your body cries out: “no more,” and your mind tells you to quit. Those moments are critical. During those times you need to push through what feels uncomfortable in order to gain strength and grow. Otherwise you’ll always remain in your comfort zone and coast.

Success doesn’t come naturally to those who are always playing it safe.

Now, as you’re reading these words, something in your personal or professional life may seem to work against you. This leaves you with a choice. You can see these moments as threats, or as opportunities. Obstacles can become stepping stones, although you might not directly see it that way. Here’s some good news.

At certain times you don’t necessarily need to feel discomfort to know it’s time to up your game and go to a higher level. Here’s my rule of thumb (and I use this in the gym as well):

If it becomes too easy, it’s time for a new challenge, and time to raise the bar.

There’s one last thing I learned from going to the gym:

4. Use others as your inspiration, but never as the measure of your success.

It’s human nature to contrast and compare. When I first entered the gym, I was a bit intimidated by all these lean bodies pumping iron. I wondered how long it would take me to get into shape. I had no desire to look like a bodybuilder, but I wouldn’t mind a bit more muscular definition, and a lower number on the scale.

Then I realized that these guys and gals were once just like me. Over time they developed a routine that worked for them, to get into the shape they wanted to be in. They made changes in their diet and lifestyle, and they had trainers who held them accountable.

Above all, they consistently kept coming, rain or shine. They used persistence and resistance in combination with the right equipment and the best mentors.

If they could do it, I could do it.

And I’ll tell you what:

If I can do it, you can do it!

There’s only one question:

How soon are you going to start?

Or will you be walking out the door within a month?

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS Be sweet. Please retweet!

PPS Interested in working out? My colleague Rick Lance has published a series of “Fitness Tips from a 32 Year Fitness Novice.”
photo credit: Zac Aynsley Natural Fitness Models 1 via photopin (license)

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The Agony Of Ignorance

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Career, Personal 41 Comments

Rocking the mic?

Can you believe the stuff people put on t-shirts these days?

This morning, one of the guys who looks like he lives in the gym I go to, had this slogan printed all over his colossal chest:

“If it’s not hard, you’re not doing it right.”

What kind of message is that? It’s along the same lines as “No pain, no gain.”

Do people actually believe that stuff?

You see, I have the exact opposite experience. When I’m doing things right, everything seems to flow naturally, and nothing is hard or painful. Granted, it has taken some hard work to get to that point, but when I’m in the zone, things are surprisingly easy.

If you happen to share that experience, take it as a sign that in certain areas of your life you may have reached a level of what experts refer to as “unconscious competence.” You’re not even aware that you’ve become pretty good at what you’re doing. It feels like driving a car. In the beginning it was frustratingly complicated. Now, you don’t even have to think about it.

“So what do you find hard in your business?” one of my workout buddies wanted to know, as we were doing our exercise routine. “You’re a voice-over, right?”

He was not the one wearing that silly t-shirt, by the way.

“At the risk of sounding brash,” I said, “it’s not so much the work I find hard, but the people I have to deal with every now and then. Particularly the people who think they’re the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe it’s my age, but there are at least three things I can’t stand:

Ignorance, pretentiousness, and a sense of entitlement. Especially if all these qualities reside within one person.”

“We must be working with the same people then,” laughed my friend, as he was programming his treadmill. “I’m a professional photographer, and you wouldn’t believe how many people think they can do what I do without having a clue.”

“That’s the trouble with ignorance,” I said. “People don’t know what they don’t know, but it doesn’t stop them, does it?”

“Agreed,” said my buddy, “but here’s what I don’t get. Everyone understands that playing the violin is not something you can learn overnight. However, every ambitious idiot with a camera believes he’s the next Annie Leibovitz. It ticks me off.”

I wanted to tell him that I saw the same thing in my line of work. Give a monkey a microphone, and he thinks he can be the next Tom Kenny.

“Ignorance isn’t always bliss,” I said, as I increased the speed on my treadmill. “Usually, ignorance is a pain in the neck, and I find it very challenging to teach ignorant people who think they know it all. I mean, if they supposedly know what they are doing, why do they want me to be their coach? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I have no problem with beginners who come to me, and who are aware that they have a lot to learn,” said my photographer-friend. “Everything you teach them is new and exciting. I admire kids with an open mind. They remind me of the time I got started. That’s why I love being a mentor.”

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said: “Is it just me, or are today’s kids a bit full of themselves?”

“Quite possibly,” I responded. “Parents are quick to praise, and hesitate to criticize, so as not to damage the delicate self-esteem of their offspring. I’m all for raising confident kids, as long as they know their strengths and their limitations. In my class they’d never get a trophy, just for showing up.”

I took a sip of water, and continued:

“Now, there’s another type of ignorance I’m allergic to.”

“What might that be?” asked my friend, as he was walking uphill on the exercise equipment.

“It’s the lazy type of ignorance. You know… quasi-ignorant people who are looking for a big, fat, silver platter. I just got an email from someone who asked to pick my brain about casting sites and voice-over rates. I politely suggested she do a Google search first.

“What was her response?” asked my friend.

“Oh, I never heard back from her,” I said. “But on Facebook she told all her fans that I was the most unhelpful person in the voice-over community. To be honest, she didn’t use the word “person,” but the term she used starts with a “p” and it rhymes with chick.

“Some people think I’m rather obnoxious,” said my buddy, “just because I refuse to give them the answers they are fishing for. Of course I want to help, but I tell my kids: ‘You won’t learn anything as long as I spoon-feed it to you. The things you discover yourself tend to stick much better.’

I want my students to make an effort. I want them to fail, and I want them to overcome the biggest challenges. Otherwise they’ll attach no value to what they have learned, and they’ll have no respect for the business.

There’s no gratification in arriving on the top of a mountain in a helicopter. But when you start at the bottom and climb your way up, the journey itself becomes meaningful. And when you’ve finally reached that peak, you feel on top of the world!”

“Are you sure you’re a photographer?” I asked. “That’s a darn good metaphor you just used. I might steal that one for my blog.”

“You go right ahead,” he said. “I used to do a bit of mountain climbing when I was younger. I have the pictures to prove it. And a few scars. But what about you? Are you a climber?”

“Oh no, I’m from The Netherlands,” I answered. “There are no mountains in our tiny Kingdom below sea level. Holland is as flat as a pancake.”

“In that case, I have the perfect exercise for you,” said my buddy, as he pointed to the StairMaster.

“I believe this baby has your name on it,” he smiled. “Come on! This thing is the perfect way to get nowhere fast. Try it.”

Reluctantly, I climbed onto the steps, and started my ascend into nothingness.

“I hope it’s not a metaphor for my career,” I said, gasping for air. “This is really hard!”

“Well, you know what they say…” said the photographer with a big grin.

“If it’s hard, it means you must be doing it right!”

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS Be sweet. Please retweet.

photo credit: 50 of 52 via photopin (license)

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The Copyright Trolls Are Coming After You

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Internet, Money Matters, Social Media 22 Comments

TrollSome years ago, digital marketing firm The Content Factory got an unpleasant surprise in the mail.

A lawyer summoned them to pay $8,000 in penalties for alleged copyright infringement. Why?

Well, one of their professional bloggers wrote a story about bargain hunting in Omaha, and used a photo of Nebraska. It wasn’t a great picture, and the article didn’t get much exposure, but that was beside the point.

The Content Factory did not obtain permission from the rights holder to use the image, and that was the problem. A very expensive problem!

What would you do if you were in their shoes? Take the photo down and apologize, hoping that would be the end of it? That sounds reasonable, right?

Forget that.

The enforcement of copyright is a billion dollar business. Companies like Masterfile and CEG TEK litigate against corporations, individuals, and small businesses who have intentionally or unintentionally used images without having obtained a license.

These companies (and individual lawyers) are commonly known as “copyright trolls.” They have sophisticated computer programs that search the web 24/7 to find copyrighted works that are used without authorization. They’re not only going after pictures. They’re also targeting illegal downloads of any kind, such as video games, music, porn, and movies.

Once they’ve secured the names and contact information of the people accused of infringement, the trolls will send out “litigation settlement” demand letters. These letters threaten defendants with costly lawsuits.

Of course the suit can go away, but only if you pay promptly. The longer you wait, the higher the amount you will be sued for. And if proven guilty, you’ll pay attorney fees too.

Now, is this blatant extortion of vulnerable people who simply made an honest mistake, or are these trolls in business to protect the rights holders?

I think it’s a bit of both.

According to

copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner.”

Let’s say you’re a professional photographer, and your portfolio is on the web. You own the rights to these pictures, and you make a living selling them. Now, somewhere in a different state, a web designer is doing a Google image search for a website he’s building. He stumbles across one of your pictures, he takes a screenshot, and decides to use it.

In that moment you as the owner, lose value, because you could have sold the use of that image to the web designer. Under the law, you can claim monetary damages for financial losses, and for additional profits the infringer earned from using your photo.

That seems fair, doesn’t it? But copyright issues aren’t always cut and dried.

Under certain circumstances people are allowed the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works. It’s because of a legal doctrine called “Fair Use.” For instance, making braille copies or audio recordings of books for the blind is considered “fair use.” Recording a TV show on your DVR, is also considered “fair use,” as long as it’s for private viewing.

The U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 allows the reproduction of authored works for the purpose of “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching …, scholarship, or research.” There is a four-part Fair Use test based on the following factors:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2. The nature of the copyrighted work;

3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

For instance, using short quotations or excerpts from published books authored by others, is “fair use.” Courts do evaluate fair use claims on a case-by-case basis.

But what about if something is in the “public domain”? The public domain refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. These works may be used freely, and without permission.

There are four common ways that works arrive in the public domain:

  • the copyright has expired
  • the copyright owner failed to follow copyright renewal rules
  • the copyright owner deliberately placed it in the public domain, known as “dedication,” or
  • copyright law does not protect this type of work.

Creative Commons (CC), is an American nonprofit organization designed to foster the public domain, and it helps copyright owners dedicate their works to the public domain.

It provides free legal tools that give everyone from individual “user generated content” creators to major companies and institutions a standardized way to pre-clear usage rights to creative work they own the copyright to. CC licenses allow people to change their copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”

If you’re an artist, student, educator, scientist, or other creator looking for content that you can freely and legally use, there is a giant pool of CC-licensed creativity available. There are many millions of works – from songs and videos to scientific and academic content – that you can use under the terms of the CC copyright licenses.

First and foremost: it is your obligation to make sure that you have permission from the rights owner to use his or her images on your website, on your blog, and for your social media posts. This includes all the logos of companies you ever did voice-overs for!

Trademark owners might actually sue you for “dilution” of a trademark,” because your use might (in their opinion) lessen the uniqueness of the logo, and tarnish the brand’s reputation.

If your demos have music, make sure it is properly licensed. Copyright your own sound files if necessary, to secure payment, and to protect usage. And by the way, as long as your client has not paid you for your audio, you own it!

Attorney, actor, producer, and voice artist Robert Sciglimpaglia advises VO’s to trademark their brand, company name, website, slogans, and tag lines.

So, here’s what you should do.

Go over all the images on your website, your blog, and the ones you use on social media, and immediately delete the ones you have been using without permission. If in doubt: take them out!

Replace them with pictures from a subscription site like Shutterstock, from Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons, or with pictures you took yourself.

Check the music and videos on your site, and get permission from the owners to use them.

Go to, and read up on copyright law. Learn about the difference between a trademark and a service mark, and click here to find out what you need to know to register a trademark. When you’re ready to register, hire an attorney like Rob to guide you through the process.

Should you ever get sued over copyright infringement, know that the goal of most trolls is to obtain a settlement. They don’t want to bring their lawsuit to trial because they would have to prove the allegations. The only reason they even mention court, is to scare the living daylights out of you, hoping you will settle.

The website (a great resource in the public domain) warns:

“In order to increase settlement rate, trolls resort to lies. They conceal important information from the Court. They make unrealistic and unnecessary threats to defendants. They grossly overstate the damages to copyright holders caused by infringement.”

Get legal representation, and go over your options.

So what happened with the case of The Content Factory that had to pay thousands of dollars for the unauthorized use of one lousy photo? They hired a lawyer who negotiated a settlement. Instead of having to pay $8,000, they ended up paying $3,000 in penalties.

The Content Factory concludes

“Had we been a smaller company and didn’t think to negotiate a settlement, we could’ve been put out of business. To be honest, had this happened within the first few months of starting the company, we would’ve probably closed up shop and run back to living one-third of our lives in cubicles, where it’s safe and there’s always health insurance.”

Don’t assume this won’t happen to you.

One of our colleagues is being sued as we speak over a lousy photo he put in his blog, and had forgotten about.

You have been warned!

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS Many thanks to Rob Sciglimpaglia for bringing matters of copyright and infringement to my attention, and for allowing me to use some of the information from his talk at VO Atlanta 2017. Rob is the author of Voice Over Legal, a must-have book for every voice actor. Click here to order a copy.

PPS For more information on blogging and copyright, read the article Blogger’s Guide to Copyright and DMCA.

Image credit: EFF (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 us (], via Wikimedia Commons

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VO’s Unfair, so, Grow a Pair!

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Career, Freelancing, Personal 18 Comments

Two pears

The other day it happened again.

In mid-session, I gave one of my voice-over students a simple script for a cold read. I thought he’d be excited to try something new, but this is what he said:

“You’re giving me this now? Are you trying to trick me? You gave me zero time to practice and get ready. I don’t think that’s fair.”

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting that response,” I said. “You’ve grown so much in the last few weeks, I thought you’d be up for a challenge. Maybe we should use this as a teaching moment?”

He agreed.

“First off, just as there is no crying in baseball, there is no fair in voice-overs, or in any freelance job for that matter.”

“What do you mean?” my student asked.

“Let me give you a few examples.

Yesterday, some A-list actor made fifteen grand for saying three lines in a 30-second commercial. Today, a VO-colleague got a nineteen hundred dollar check for narrating a lengthy novel that took her a month to record, and two weeks to edit. Is that fair?

How about this one:

A voice-over veteran auditioned for ten jobs a day for four weeks straight, and landed none of them. Meanwhile, a newbie walked up to a microphone, yelling a few words and hit the jackpot because some producer thought he sounded “raw and authentic.”

Here’s another one:

A fellow voice actor had been recording eLearning programs for the same company for six years at the same rate. His work was consistent, and he never missed a deadline. He came to think of himself as the go-to voice of that company. So, when year seven came around, he raised his rates a little, in line with the increased cost of living.

He never heard from the company again.

Is that fair?

Now, here’s something that happened to me.

A few weeks ago I auditioned for a very prestigious job that would have paid the mortgage for at least six months. At the end, it was between me and another person. Why didn’t I get the job? The reason was simple: the client preferred a female voice.

“Tell me,” I asked my student, “do you think that’s fair?”

He made a noise suggesting a lightbulb was slowly coming on in his head, so I continued…

“The idea of “fair” presupposes that there’s some grand equalizing principle at work in the world that gives equal opportunities to people with similar education, abilities, and experience.

Well, wouldn’t that be nice?

In many ways we may be equals, but that doesn’t mean we’re equal, or that we’re treated as such. What do I mean by that?

In a highly subjective and personal business as ours, things like training and experience count for something, but they will never get you hired. The fact that you’ve taken a few voice-over classes, and you’ve been knocking on doors for a few years, entitles you to… nothing.

The only guarantee I can give you, is that there are no guarantees.

No matter how hard or how long some people study, they’ll never become the next Albert Einstein, Yo-Yo Ma, or Don LaFontaine.

That’s not unfair. It is what it is.

On paper you may be the most experienced voice talent in the room, but a casting director isn’t listening for your resume or seniority. She needs to make her client happy, and the client wants someone who sounds just like his grandfather selling cattle in Kansas during the Great Depression.

Oh… but the specs didn’t say that, right? How unfair!

That’s because the client didn’t know he was looking for that voice until he listened to the top ten auditions.

My student let out a despondent sigh.

“That’s why the audition was a “cattle call,” I joked.

“But seriously, the only “fair” thing about this situation is that to most people in the middle, this crazy business is equally unfair. With “people in the middle” I mean the vast majority of voice-overs who aren’t making millions voicing The Simpsons, but who aren’t new to the business either.

I call them “the Nobodies.”

It may sound derogatory, but I don’t mean it that way. I mean it literally. Not figuratively.

Voice actors get hired for the way they move their lips; not for the way they move their hips. We’re not in the game for our glamorous looks, but for the way we sound. You and I… we are a no-body. Personally, that makes me very happy because slobs like me still stand a chance.

“But what about things like merit,” my student wanted to know. “Isn’t winning something like an Audie, or a Voice Arts™ Award going to open certain doors? That would be fair, wouldn’t it? I mean, winning a prize makes people more in-demand, right?”

“It’s a definite maybe. Let me explain.

Even though audio books have become increasingly popular, most people still think of a German car when they hear the word Audie. Secondly, I’m not sure clients will hire you on the spot because you won some gold-plated statuette they’ve never heard of. Accolades may be well-deserved, but they’re only worth their weight if they mean something to people outside the cheering in-crowd.

Even Oscar winners need to audition again and again, unless a part is especially written for them. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It keeps people sharp and humble.”

I took a long sip of water, and formed my next thought.

“Then there’s this weird phenomenon in our business that’s hard to prove. Let’s pretend people actually know about your reputation as a prize-winning narrator. They might not consider you for their next project because they assume you’ve become too expensive. Do you think that’s fair?

I once thought I could convince a client to hire me by telling them about the famous brands I had worked with in the past. Big mistake! The software giant I was auditioning for, ruled me out once they heard a close competitor had used my voice in 2015. This is what I also learned:

Most clients aren’t very interested in what you did for others, years ago. They want to know one thing:

What can you do for ME, today?

I’m not saying accolades aren’t awesome, but as the Dutch soccer star Johan Cruyff used to say:

“Every advantage has its disadvantage.”

That’s unfair too, but here’s the ugly truth:

In an unregulated business, those in power, and those with the deepest pockets get to determine what is fair.

“Pardon me, but that’s depressing,” said my student. “First of all, you’re giving me a lecture instead of a lesson. Secondly, I thought you were supposed to encourage me. Now I don’t even know if I want to be a voice-over anymore.”

“Language is a wonderful thing,” I said. “Especially if you like to play with words. To the ear, there’s almost no difference between “the termination,” and “determination.” The choice is yours.

If you want to end this, it’s going to be the termination of something promising. If -on the other hand- you really, really want to become a successful voice-over, allow what I’ve just said to strengthen your determination.

Please don’t be a chicken. You didn’t hire me to stick some feathers up your butt, so I could make some money off your dreams. That would be unethical. Just like that coach in the gym, you hired me to take you through a series of exercises designed to build your muscles, and give you a strong spine. You’re gonna need it!

And just like in the gym, change is a gradual process. Some days, your muscles might ache because of the resistance training. Sometimes, it might feel like you’ll never reach your ideal weight because you see other people getting fitter faster. But remember:

You’re on a personal path.

Those scary slim people you admire so much were born with different bodies, and different metabolisms. Some of them go to the gym every day of the week, and stay there for hours. Others like you can only afford to come twice a week for a 45-minute session.

You know what isn’t fair? Comparing yourself to others!

Compare yourself to yourself instead. So, here’s what I want you to do.

Forget the word fair.

Instead, focus on the word Prepare.

My goal is to help you be the best you can be at this moment in time, and to become even better in the future. Forget the silly randomness of this subjective business. You cannot control it. But one day soon, opportunity will knock on your door, and you’d better be ready! That’s the part you can control. Do you get that?”

My student made an affirmative noise.

“Before we end this session, I want to give you one more piece of advice. I’ve known you for a while, and you’ve told me more than once that you’re a perfectionist. That mindset will hold you back, and that’s why you probably didn’t want to do the cold read I just gave you. Am I right? Were you afraid of making mistakes because I didn’t give you any time to look at the text?”

Reluctantly, my student agreed, and I went on:

“Please listen to this:

Be soft on yourself!

I strongly believe that living is learning. As human beings, I feel it is our job to evolve; to unearth and develop what we’re capable of, and to share those gifts with the world.

To that effect, life offers us lessons. And unlike in voice-overs, life’s unscripted. You never know what it will throw at you next, so you have to be prepared to catch it while you can. Sometimes you need to improvise, and try things you’ve never done before. Sometimes you’ll get it right, and sometimes you won’t. As long as you keep on learning and growing, you’re doing great. This is what I want you to remember:

No matter how long you train, and how hard you work, you will never be perfect, and that’s perfectly fine. You want to know why?

Because perfection has nowhere to grow.”

My student’s response was so quiet that I could almost hear the penny drop. Then I said:

“Let that sink in for a while, and let me know what you think, okay?”

“Fair enough,” said my student.

“Fair enough.”

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS Be sweet. Please retweet!

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The Big Secret To Audio Book Success

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Career 29 Comments

Jim Dale in "Barnum."Heroes and role models.

We all have people we admire because they inspire.

One of my heroes happens to be a dancer, singer-songwriter, comedian, stage and screen actor, as well as a first-rate audio book narrator.

Like me, he is a naturalized U.S. citizen. One of the songs he wrote the lyrics to, was nominated for an Oscar. He received five Tony Award nominations, and won one for Barnum. He also has two Grammy’s.

In July of 2014, aged 78, he finished a twelve week one-man show about his career at the Laura Pels Theater in New York called “Just Jim Dale.”

I’m sure you know Jim Dale as the narrator of the Harry Potter series in the U.S. (Stephen Fry narrated the UK version). For his voice work Dale received ten Audie Awards, and twenty-three Audio File Earphone Awards.

Dale previously held the record for creating and recording 134 different characters portrayed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The new record holder is Roy Dotrice -aged 91- with 224 voices for A Game of Thrones.

This is what the AudioFile magazine wrote about Dale:

“When J.K. Rowling has Hagrid boom, Dumbledore hum, and Aunt Marge belch, listeners can hear exactly what that sounds like, thanks to Jim Dale’s spellbinding narration. He gives voice to every wizard, muggle, house elf, goblin, giant, and hundreds of other characters who pass through Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and the other magical environs of the Harry Potter series. He is a major part of why these fantastical volumes are among the top-selling audiobooks of all time.”

This begs the question: Is there a secret to Jim Dale’s mastery? Fortunately, he gave us the answer. Dale said:

“Good acting is consistency of performance.”

The ability to deliver the same quality over a period of time is one of those things that separates the professional from the pretender, whether it is in sports, music, the culinary arts or in (voice) acting.

If you want your performance to be credible, you have to be consistent.

This may seem obvious, but as in many things in life, it is easier said than done. Imagine having to come up with 134 different character voices, knowing that many of them will return in a series of seven books.

In a motion picture, these characters are portrayed by different actors. The audio book narrator is on his or her own, and has to create and recreate these characters accurately over a period of time. It’s a daunting task, and quite a responsibility.

In an article on authentic listening, Junko Yokota and Miriam Martinez said the following:

“The audiobook narrator plays a role similar to that of a translator of a book from one language to another. A good translator can make a big difference in the reading experience through word choice and passage interpretation; likewise, the audiobook narrator helps mediate the story for the listener by selecting what tone to take, what types of voices to give to characters, what to emphasize, and how to engage the listener.”

There’s a big difference between reading into a microphone, and telling a story. Great narrators like Jim Dale are storytellers who take you on a journey you never want to end. And by the way, this doesn’t only apply to audio books. Sometimes, a twenty-second script for a commercial is a short story in and of itself.

These days, some voice-over coaches are trying to drum up business by telling prospective students that audio books and video games are booming. They are right. We’re living in the golden age of the spoken book, and successful video games make way more money than Oscar-winning movies.

Hordes of hopefuls sign up for voice-over classes because they believe they have the pipes casting directors are waiting for. Many of these beginners are making two big mistakes:

  1. They believe that in order to make it as an audio book narrator or in animation and video games, they have to be good at doing impressions.
  2. They think that being able to sing one song, makes them ready to perform an entire opera.

In the Documentary I Know That Voice, voice actor James Arnold Taylor had this to say:

“It’s not about ‘I can do Christopher Walken, I can do Johnny Depp, I can do Michael J. Fox.’ That’s great, but can you do ANYTHING as them? Can you stay in that voice for hours; scream in that voice for four hours?”

In other words: consistency is key. Consistency and stamina.

Like Jim Dale, you have to have the ability to stay in character, and then switch character and get back to the first character, while introducing a third. And you do this for hours at a time in a space smaller than a prison cell. Dale is usually in the studio from 10:30 am until 5:30 pm, recording twenty pages an hour for two weeks to record one book (source). This requires serious training, serious preparation, and serious self-care.

If you’re new to the business and want to break into audio books, I dare you to record for even one hour straight, and find out how your voice feels at the end. Does it still sound the same? Could you continue for another hour, or are you exhausted; do your vocal folds feel raw, and do you need a few hours to recover? If so, you’re not ready to meet that 3-week deadline for this 700-page novel you just agreed to narrate at $100 per finished hour (a ridiculously low rate by the way).

Gary Cantona, the voice builder

Gary Catona

There’s a reason why some VO-pros like James Arnold Taylor study with Gary Catona. Catona calls himself the “voice builder,” and he has worked with Andrea Bocelli, Usher, Shakira, Shirley MacLaine, Tony Bennett, and many others. He approaches voice building as a sport, and encourages his students to train the voice like an athlete trains his muscles.

You can read about his method in his book “A Revolution in Singing.” Gary also developed an iPhone/iPad Voice Building App ($4.99) with over twenty voice building sessions, exercises, and video demonstrations for singing and speaking voices.

A few years ago he did a talk at Google, and if you’re interested in his work and his philosophy, you can watch it on YouTube when you click this link. At 26:34 Catona answers a question from a voice-over artist in the audience.

Being consistent as a (voice) actor means more than being able to do marathon recording sessions, and staying in character(s). Pacing is important too. If you’re reading your lines too fast, the listener has no idea of what’s being said. If you’re too slow, the listeners’ mind will start to wander.

It also means being able to deliver audio files of consistent professional quality. People like Jim Dale go to a studio and work with an audio engineer, and perhaps a director. Most narrators do not have that luxury. They run a business out of a walk-in closet, hoping the dog next door won’t start to bark. They self-direct, self-record, and they edit every minute of every file. One hour of finished audio can take many hours to complete.

Dale realizes how much work goes into the production of an audio book. When Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out, he told reporter Rochelle O’Gorman:

“The magic of the Harry Potter books is really in the hands of the editors and engineers. They take all the mistakes that I make – and I make thousands of them – and edit them out, and splice the tape reading into such a beautifully seamless production. They’re the geniuses; they’re the ones that we should applaud because nobody knows how much work they have to do.”

Credit where credit is due, but at the same time, Dale gave those engineers something magical to work with:

Constant, consistent brilliance.

And that’s why he is one of my heroes!

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS When this story was first published, I received the following message from Jim Dale:

“So many thanks for the words you have written about me, truly embarrassing. I also wish to congratulate you on all your work in the narrating world, very impressive. I have also traveled through your website, really amazing. My thanks again for writing about me and my sincere best wishes in whatever you choose to become involved in next. Jim”

PS This is part 5 in my series on performance and script delivery. You can read part 1 by clicking on this link, and part 2 by clicking on this link. Click here for part 3. If you’d like to read part 4, please click here.

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The Funniest Joke Of The Year

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Career, Journalism & Media 22 Comments
Tim Vine

Tim Vine

I love jokes.

Especially the ones that make me laugh.

Every year, the public at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival votes for the funniest joke of the year. Comedian Tim Vine was declared the 2014 winner with the one-liner:

“I decided to sell my Hoover…. well, it was just collecting dust.”

I don’t know about you, but when I read that joke, I had to chuckle a bit. That’s all. It wasn’t one of those tears in my eyes – I can’t stop laughing – rib-tickling moments. Why is that? If 2,000 people polled at the Festival thought this was the funniest joke, why am I barely laughing?

The problem with that joke is the same a problem I encounter with many of the scripts I’m asked to voice. Well-written scripts aren’t meant to be read. They are meant to be spoken. Just like jokes.

I often compare the words in a script to musical notes. They’re dots on a piece of paper. Only when they’re played, you have the beginnings of music. And only when they’re played very well (and on a good instrument) do they have the potential to move you.

A great script can fall flat on its face due to a lackluster performance, but a great performer can still make magic out of a mediocre script. It has to do with that thing (voice) actors and comedians have in common with the Ob/Gyn’s and midwives of this world:

It’s all about the delivery.

Yeah, baby!

Now, those last two words might not make you smile, but when I hear them, I hear Mike Meyers say them as sixties-spy Austin Powers, and I have to laugh.

Delivery is the trademark of a pro. Done well, it sounds easy, but it’s not. And that’s what many hopefuls don’t yet get.

Someone might have a resonant, pleasing voice, but as we all know, that’s not enough to have a career as a voice-over. Believing that having good pipes is all it takes, is the same thing as saying that you only need good looks to make it in Hollywood. As far as I can tell, only Tom Cruise pulled that one off.

Having the goods is one thing, but you have to know how to deliver.

So, the next question is: What makes a good delivery? What’s involved; can it be learned or does it come naturally?

I had to think about that when I listened back to a Terry Gross interview with Robin Williams for her show Fresh Air. At first, Williams manages to stay himself, but it doesn’t take him long to start doing all kinds of voices. The amazing thing is, Williams never sounds like someone pretending to be someone else. When he does an impression, he sounds like a completely different person. One thing was immediately clear: he’s a master of his instrument; a master of his voice.

Trained vocalists would immediately notice his use of voice placement. It’s a way for singers and actors to focus their sound into a particular area (head, mouth, chest or nose) with a specific resonance, coloring the sound. During the interview, I actually got the feeling that some of the characters Williams pulled out of his hat were sitting at different places at the table. I’m sure this also had to do with the way he worked the microphone.

If you listen to the entire interview, you’ll understand why he must have driven the sound engineer crazy…

Moving away from voice placement, what factors influence the way we come across, vocally?

If I were a college professor, I’d say: Human speech can be broken down into several basic elements, and each of these elements makes the way we sound unique, very much like a vocal fingerprint. Here they are:

  • Pitch: the degree of highness or lowness of our tone, as well as our vocal range and inflection
  • Tempo: the relative speed or slowness of the way we speak, and the way our speech flows
  • Volume: the relative loudness or softness of our voice
  • Timbre: the color and quality of a voice, e.g.  clear, nasal, raspy, breathy

These four elements can be affected consciously, and unconsciously. For instance, our health -or lack thereof- influences the way we sound. We all know that we don’t sound the same when we have a cold or suffer from a bad allergy. Our lifestyle may color our voice too. If you’re a heavy smoker or drinker, if you’re on a junk food diet, and if you’re not physically active, it will slowly change the sound of your voice.

The way you are built and your posture have an impact too, as well as your facial expressions. Try saying something serious with a huge grin on your face… Then there’s your emotional state. A sad person sounds very different from an angry or a happy person. Environmental factors may influence your voice too. If you live in a very dry or polluted climate, the way you sound will tell the tale.

And finally, we should consider age. After a lifetime of talking, the vocal folds and surrounding tissue lose strength and elasticity, and our mucous membranes become thinner and drier. Over time, men’s voices become higher, and women’s voices will drop. We lose volume, endurance, and control. All of this and more will influence our delivery.

Now, here’s the good news: even though we cannot stop the aging process, you can protect and strengthen your voice. That means investing in your health. A few tips:

  • Be critical of what you put into your body.
  • Avoid a sedentary lifestyle.
  • Get enough sleep.
  • Avoid screaming and whispering.
  • Breathe deeply, and from the diaphragm.
  • Use good posture.
  • Manage your stress level.
  • Take singing lessons.

When you do all that, you will start to notice a huge difference in your delivery because you gain more control over your instrument. That’s essential if you want to get to the next level: making music.

And that’s precisely what I’ll be talking about next week, so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, comedian Tim Vine told The Independent that his award-winning Hoover-joke wasn’t even his favorite joke of the show. Tim tells about two hundred one-liners in sixty minutes.

Vine also won funniest joke in 2010. Here it is:

“I’ve just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday.

I’ll tell you what…

Never again.”

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS Be sweet Please retweet!

PPS This is part 1 in a series on performance and script delivery. You can read part 2 “The worst acting advice ever,” and part 3 “How to be believable,” in the weeks to come.

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The Weight Of The World

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Career, Journalism & Media, Personal 22 Comments

AtlasParis. Ankara. Istanbul. Brussels.

On some days this beautiful planet is so full of hatred and hardship that I feel guilty writing about such trivial things as “work.”

It sure is fun to blog about freelancing, marketing, and microphone technique, but I have to ask: “To what avail?”

Does it lead to a deeper understanding of the human psyche?

Does it tell us why young, radicalized men stuff their luggage with glass and nails, before they blow themselves and innocent others to bits and pieces?

Does it explain why so many people still believe that violence is the only way forward to further a cause?

As a blogger, shouldn’t I be writing about those issues, instead of talking about home studios, auditions, and online casting companies?

Whenever I ask myself these questions, I have to remind myself of where I came from.

Before leaving the Netherlands, I worked as one of those stone-faced newscasters informing the world of yet another tragedy. On air, I asked countless experts about the roots of evil, and I grilled politicians about their ideas on how to fix a broken world.

Day after day I reported on endless suffering and strife, and I was part of the sensationalist “if it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead” gang, that determines what is newsworthy and what isn’t. On sunnier days I would be searching for that snippet of positive news we could end our program with, to remind the listeners that not all people are perverts, rapists, or suicidal religious radicals.

Don’t get me wrong: I loved the excitement and the adrenaline of the newsroom. It gave me a steady income, a certain status, and a sense of purpose. A democracy can only function when people are able to make smart decisions based on hard facts, and I was in the business of providing those facts. My radio station also gave me a unique opportunity to hold the feet of the famous to the fire.

Yet, one day, it all fell apart when I noticed myself caring less and less about the horror stories I was covering. In the beginning I would blame my lack of response on the need to “stay professional,” meaning detached from the raw emotions that are part and parcel of every human tragedy. I was supposed to stay as neutral as our network professed to be, and not get emotionally involved. But it came at a price.

I gradually developed a tendency to disassociate myself from all kinds of feelings. Positive and negative. That invisible screen I was using to shield myself from sadness in the newsroom, had become like a second skin. It protected me, and it numbed me at the same time.

Over time, I came to a frightening realization:

I had lost one of the very few things that separates humans from animals: the ability to empathize.

I’d seen this happen to veteran journalists who were trying to cope with the crazy demands of their job. Some became chain smokers, heavy drinkers, and lifelong cynics. Others filed for divorce. It was not a road I wanted to travel.

One day, after covering yet another disaster, I just knew I had reached my limit. Years of reporting had done nothing to change the world. If anything, the world had gotten worse. All I wanted was to get out of broadcasting, and do something useful with my life. Something exhilarating. Something inspiring. Something uplifting.

When I finally left the poisonous bubble that was the newsroom, it took me a while to adjust to a new reality. A reality that wasn’t nearly as violent as I had thought it would be. Slowly but surely I discovered a world filled with kindness and good people. It was as if someone had opened the dark blinds that had been filtering the light from the windows for such a long time.

I came to realize that the news I had covered for all those years focused on the exceptions; on the grotesque and the extraordinary. The thousands of planes that land safely every day will never be on CNN. It’s the plane that crashes that ends up making headlines. And if you add all those headlines up, it’s easy to get the impression that this world is rotten to the core. But it’s a deliberate distortion of reality, contrived to kick up the ratings.

Reality is so much better and less sensational than the networks want you to believe. For most of us it is reassuringly unspectacular and ordinary. It revolves around friends, family…. and work. Ultimately, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to blog about work, even when evil forces are trying to fill this world with fear.

The question remains: how do we respond to those who want to scare us by causing panic, pain, and suffering?

How do we deal with the fact that -to quote Harold Kushner- bad stuff happens to good people?

All of us have to come to terms with this in our own time and in our own way. Life and death are mysterious teachers.

Let me leave you with what I think.

The only way we can learn to live with darkness, is to focus on the light, and to become a reflection of that light.

Whether we realize it or not, all of us were born with the ability to shine.

Once we start taking that to heart, perhaps we can begin making this place a better world.

In Paris. In Ankara. In Istanbul. In Brussels.

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS Be sweet. Please retweet.

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Call Me Oscar

by Paul Strikwerda in Articles, Career, Personal 19 Comments

Oscar the GrouchCurmudgeon.

I just love the sound of that word, don’t you?

Linguists believe it dates back to the 1570s, but no one can tell for certain where it came from.

If you’re like me, and English is your second or third language, you might not even know that curmudgeon is used to describe a bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person. It’s the archetypal grouch: unpleasant, argumentative, stubborn, and unsociable.

A while ago I made a surprising discovery. I was talking to a colleague whom I had never met before, and near the end of our conversation she said to me:

“I can’t believe how nice you are. You’re not at all what I expected.”

“What did you expect?” I asked.

“Well, based on your blog I always thought you were this grumpy, super-serious, sourpuss kind of a guy. I mean, you’re always so critical of newbies, clients, and colleagues, and you don’t exactly mince words.”

“You thought I was a curmudgeon,” I interjected.

“Your words, not mine,” she said, “but to be honest, I had expected some cranky complainer. You’re not like that at all.”

Normally I don’t fall for flattery, but her comment made me smile. A little bit.

“In a previous life I used to teach self-help seminars,” I said, “and your observation reminds me of one of the main messages I impressed upon my students:

The meaning of your communication is the response you get.

It’s the idea that it doesn’t really matter what people write or say. The meaning comes from how listeners interpret and respond to what was written or said. Intentions -good or bad- are irrelevant.

My colleague looked puzzled.

“Let me give you an example,” I continued.

“Bono, the U2 frontman, was on a fact-finding mission in Africa. One of his hosts gave this long-winded, academic spiel on the origins of urban poverty and the rise of AIDS. At one point Bono had had enough. ‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘But I just explained it to you,’ said his host annoyed. ‘I was as clear as I could be. Perhaps this is going over your head. After all, you’re not an expert.’

‘Perhaps you should explain it better,’ answered Bono.

I looked at my colleague and said:

“The meaning of our communication is the response we get. This academic thought he was making himself perfectly clear, yet Bono’s response told him otherwise. Who was at fault here?

The way I see it, Bono was right. Now, let’s bring this back to you and me. I believe it is our responsibility to communicate a message in such a way that the other person will understand its true meaning. If that’s not the case, we need to explain ourselves in a different way until understanding is reached.

Unfortunately, most of my teachers -whether in elementary or in high school- never got that concept. If a pupil didn’t comprehend something that was explained to them, they always blamed the “dumb” student.”

“And how is all of this connected to your blog?” asked my colleague.

“Perfect example,” I said. “Here I am… attempting to make a connection between my blog and your expectations of me as a person, and I fail miserably. So, let me try again.

Based on my blog, you thought I would be a certain way, correct? And as you admitted, I wasn’t like that at all. Is that your fault? Not really. Your initial impression was based on my writings. Your response was the meaning of my communication. So, I thank you for your feedback.”

I paused for a moment before I opened up.

“You know, I don’t really want to come across as the curmudgeon of the voice-over world. That’s not who I am. As you have noticed, I don’t take myself too seriously. I love most of my clients and colleagues, and I love what I do for a living. I also want to warn newbies before someone takes advantage of them. That’s one of the reasons why I started blogging.

I blog to provide an antidote to all those manipulative marketing messages telling gullible people what they want to hear. At least, that’s my intention.”

“Well, that comes across loud and clear,” said my colleague. “But perhaps you could sprinkle it with a bit of humor every now and then. Lighten up, and don’t be so preachy. I know your dad was a minister, but a blog is not a pulpit.”

“Amen to that,” I said. “Thank you again.” A few moments later, we parted ways.

Later that day I got a phone call.

“Hi, remember me?” asked my colleague. “I’ve been thinking about that conversation we had this morning, and I need to know something. Were you talking about yourself, or were you talking about me when you told that Bono story?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, earlier on I had told you about the difficulties I had communicating with a client. I didn’t feel he understood me, and I blamed him for purposely missing the points I was trying to make. After you and I talked I did my best to see things from his perspective. I modified my approach and my tone in the last message I sent him. He just emailed me back, and I think we’re finally getting somewhere. Am I on the right track?”

“I don’t think I have to answer that question,” I said. “You changed your communication, and you got a different response. Congratulations. You’re a fast learner!”

“And you’re a pretty good teacher,” she responded. Then she laughed.

“For a curmudgeon, that is…”

Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice

PS Be Sweet. Please retweet!

photo credit: Oscar the Grouch via photopin (license)

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Welcome To NetKnots.Com | The Most Trusted Knots On The Net.

Posted By: admin
24-May-2012, 12:58 PM
I found this little book, "To Hell With Fishing" at a garage sale in Taos New Mexico a few months back. It was published in 1945 by Ed Zern and it features his little one-page articles on fishing and on the opposite page are fishing cartoons by H. T. Webster. The cartoon below,
Posted By: admin
10-May-2012, 2:32 PM
Back in 1999 we had this cool idea of sharing our knot illustrations on this new thing called the World Wide Web, aka the Internet. Building a website was pretty easy and we put up our first effort consisting of about a dozen fishing knots. Over the years we have continued to add new knots, re-draw existing knots and a few years ago we started adding animated knots.
Posted By: admin
01-May-2012, 10:54 AM
Our latest App for iPhones and iPod Touch is not about knots. After publishing numerous knot apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch and iPad, Android, Nokia Symbian phones and Windows Phones, we changed gears and put out a really fun little app for FREE: "My Big Fish".

Disclaimer: Any activity involving rope can be dangerous and may even be life threatening! Knot illustrations contained in this web site are not intended for rock climbing instruction. Many knots are not suitable for the risks involved in climbing. Where failure could cause property damage, injury, or death, seek professional instruction prior to use. Many factors affect knots including: the appropriateness of knots and rope materials used in particular applications, the age, size, and condition of ropes; and the accuracy with which these descriptions have been followed. No responsibility is accepted for incidents arising from the use of this content.

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Digital Signage

Digital Signage: more than just big screens. Broadcast your news or alert messages to every screen and inform everyone in your organization, community or country. Get your message across effectively, using ANY (public) screen available: whether it’s a TV, interactive billboard or even a bank terminal screen. Netpresenter provides you with a proven, easy-to-use Digital Signage solution to publish on every screen.

Reach More People

Instantly reach your employees, customers and visitors with digital signs and (public) displays

Grab Attention

Create and display eye-catching content to grab and maintain your audience’s attention immediately

Dynamic content

Design, manage & broadcast your content in any shape or form - easily connect to existing data sources such as SharePoint

Easily manage 1 screen or 1000’s centrally, remotely, locally or globally with just a few clicks

Adapt & Interact

The ability to update content remotely over the web, adapt the screens to your viewers and interact with your audience

Additional Features
  • Place displays where employees will see them – hallways, elevators, break rooms, cafeterias, lobbies or even the manufacturing line
  • Provide and display way finding, virtual maps, attractive digital menu boards, reservations, schedules, timetables etc.
  • Present stats and graphs from other systems, such as the sales and production figures of your company, customer satisfaction rates or a telephone queue
  • Grab and draw attention to important (existing) content and the intranet with newsfeeds and Excel data on any TV-screen
  • Display nice-to-know information such as news headlines, weather and traffic information the latest (local) news, video streams, or updates from Social Media
  • Break through clutter and email overload with visually engaging digital displays
  • Display existing SharePoint content such as headlines, upcoming events, visitors, KPIs on every screen within your organization
  • Fully customizable to your own corporate identity with beautiful custom made template
Technical Details
  • Thin Client and Windows OS support (view tech specs)
  • Silent remote updates with auto resume to guarantee uninterrupted playback
  • Supports system settings for energy saving
  • Designed to run on existing corporate infrastructure
  • Smooth playback with dozens of transitions/wipes
  • Presentation scaled to fit screen resolution automatically
  • Landscape and portrait orientated view supported
  • Video in all major formats, such as WMV, AVI & MPG, YouTube and Flash supported
  • Target content via LDAP, Active Directory or IP
  • Software works on existing network and easy to install (e.g. as MSI package)
  • Security: encryption (HTTPS) and anti-sabotage (hash key)
  • Long-distance management and configuration possible
  • Software uses existing file, FTP or web server
  • Low CPU/ network bandwidth usage due to minimal local cache
  • Auto (re-)start functionality
  • Schedule playback based on time, day-of-week, month and year or time-intervals

  Compatible with Windows OS and thin client  Download Productsheet

Start achieving better results today!

Get in touch with one of our Enterprise Communication experts for a free demo or quote and find out what we can do for your organization


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5 Lessons Every Organization Should Learn after WannaCry and Petya Attack - NETSERVE365

5 Lessons to learn from WannaCry and Petya Attacks
July 5, 2017

5 Lessons Every Organization Should Learn after WannaCry and Petya Attack

Recently, two large-scale ransomware attacks have caused chaos for many organizations across the world. In May, there was WannaCry which infected around 300,000 machines throughout different countries; The UK’s National Health System was hit particularly hard. As of last week, a new variant of Petya was released that started in Ukraine’s power grid but quickly spread across multiple countries infecting thousands of computers.

As of now, Petya seems to be much less widespread than WannaCry, but it has still managed to infect machines across many high-profile organizations. Many of these organizations are still feeling the impact of these attacks to this current day, especially if they did not have the proper precautions in place to fully secure their information. So, what can organizations learn from these events?

Businesses are the key target for ransomware

As of the last few years we have seen a shift from ransomware targeting home users to causing nuisances at big businesses. Organizations naturally have deeper pockets and more to lose than consumers do, so the shift can be blamed on purely profit based actions. This threat will never stop, only evolve. Organizations need to do the same by evolving their security posture to align with the current threats. Educate your organization and invest in adequate precautions and actions to fully secure, and have a proper backup plan, for when an attack happens.

Paying up won’t get your data back

Paying the ransom to decrypt your data is not a valid strategy for multiple reasons. Remember, these are criminals you are dealing with and paying off a crook is never a good idea. First, it can only encourage other criminals to try these ransomware campaigns again. Secondly, when you see organizations paying off a cyber-criminal you can assume that they may be less willing to spend the time and effort needed to secure their systems properly. Last but not least, paying off a ransom for a decryption key might not always mean that you will get your data back. With the most recent attack, Petya, data is unrecoverable. The email account was shut down therefore shutting off the communication for decryption keys to the victims. And on top of that, research shows that the virus was created as a wiper that destroys the disk and disguises itself with a ransom message.

What’s the worst that can happen? Your business can become collateral damage

High-profile organizations are not the only targets in ransomware campaigns. Small to mid-sized businesses are a huge target because, most often, they are groups with less security precautions in place due to lack of budget, security professionals, or know-how.

Currently there is talk that Petya was aimed specifically at Ukrainian industrial targets, but spread much further than originally expected. Just because you are in a different organization or country, doesn’t mean you are safe. Many businesses in the United States were hit with Petya and are struggling to get back on their feet. Being vigilant is not enough of a defense anymore when it comes to protecting your organizations crucial information.

Patches are not an option

Patching is no longer an option, it needs to be a requirement. WannaCry was extremely infectious because it used an exploit developed by the NSA that was leaked by the Shadow Brokers group. They used this to exploit a vulnerability in the windows systems. There was a patch available for this vulnerability months before it was used in such a destructive manner. For those who properly deployed that patch, they were safe from the attack. For the hundreds of thousands of people who did not patch, they were vulnerable to both WannaCry and Petya.

Patching is tedious and time-consuming. Most of the time the patches need tested to make sure they don’t break anything else inside the business. Some organizations don’t have the time or staff for such tedious work. In this case, many companies are turning to managed services providers (MSP). A MSP can handle monitoring, patching, patch testing, and much more in a cost-effective solution. The trade-off is easily justifiable when you see the effects of something like WannaCry or Petya.

You don’t know what you have until it is gone

Understanding what data means is not always the first thing on a business owners mind; and it is not always the easiest either. It might not be what or where you think it is. It might not be properly backed up or stored in the best location. Employees using the data might not understand the importance of losing it either. It is important to speak with a technology service provider about the best practices on backup, recovery, monitoring, and much more. They can help you anywhere from monitoring the health and progress of your machines to recovering your whole environment after an attack. Ransomware isn’t the only disaster that can hit an organization, but it is a great time to talk about your mission critical data’s future. Unfortunately, you never know what you have until it is gone – and when it comes to business data, you don’t want to have to experience this cliché saying for yourself.

Take the time and speak to a technology provider about your security and backup options before it is too late. Just because these ransomware attacks have slowed down, it doesn’t mean that they are the last of their kind. They happened once and they will happen again – that we can guarantee.

NetServe365 is a managed services provider that focuses on 24/7 monitoring, support and management of small to large organizations operations. They have a suite of security services that can save your organizations mission critical data in the heat of a disaster. Call today for a free consultation.

New Connections: An Introduction to Magna5

It’s time to finally say, Happy Holidays! While the holiday season is for spending time with your family, eating way too much, and spreading the holiday cheer, it also signifies that the year is coming to an end. And, we’ve all heard the cliché saying, new year new me, right? Well, as you might have … Continue reading “New Connections: An Introduction to Magna5”

7 Pitfalls That Are Hindering Your Cyber Security

In the recent Solarwinds MSP Cyber Preparedness Survey, Solarwinds surveyed 400 Small- to Medium-Sized Enterprises. This survey investigated the cyber security preparedness, experiences and failings of these organizations to better understand what we can be doing to better protect critical information. The headlines of all the attacks this year are enough to scare people to … Continue reading “7 Pitfalls That Are Hindering Your Cyber Security”

Magna5 Acquires NetServe365

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Anne Clarrissimeaux Communications Manager Magna5 pr@magna5global.com 214-552-0910   MAGNA5 ACQUIRES NETSERVE365 Fourth acquisition in 18 months strengthens PaaS, IaaS, UCaaS services portfolio with addition of award-winning network and server monitoring and management, cloud hosting and managed IT security services   Pittsburgh (November 16, 2017) – Magna5, a portfolio company of NewSpring … Continue reading “Magna5 Acquires NetServe365”

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DIY · Gardening · Homesteading

Herbal Hair Rinses For Every Head

If you missed my recent post on making Rosemary Hair Rinse, for brunettes, you might not know how wonderful herbal hair rinses are. They can boost your natural hair color, leave it feeling lighter, cleaner and the smell is amazing. It can allow you to get off of conditioner as well, which often leaves your hair feeling bogged down, and heavy by the end of the day.

What types of herbs you choose will depend on your hair color and hair conditions you are trying to remedy. You can use one solo herb/spice or make a blend of them. Use what you like the smell of. One note though: Know where your herbs and spices came from. Buy organic or locally grown. Better, grow your own and dry them (it’s as simple as picking and drying in a paper lunch sack, then transferring to a mason jar, I’ll be posting more about dehydrating in the near future). Don’t use dollar store herbs. You don’t know what might be in them. The risk of lead, and other contaminants are high. Your skin is porous, so use the best – you deserve it!

Light Hair:

Calendula, chamomile, orange flowers, nettle

Dark Hair:

Rosemary, sage, cloves, lavender, mint, marjoram

Red Hair:

Calendula, hibiscus flowers, witch hazel bark, cloves

Oily Hair:

Lemongrass, peppermint, witch hazel

Dry Hair:

Citrus peel, comfrey, elder flowers, red clover

Herbal Hair Rinse

  • ¼ cup dried herbs
  • 1 cup water

Bring the water to a boil, pour over the herbs. Steep for 5 minutes, then strain. Add in another cup of water (cool), pour into a container to take to the shower.

After shampooing and rinsing well, pour the hair rinse over your hair, gently working it in. Squeeze out excess, but don’t rinse.

Makes 1 batch.


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Lavender Castile Soap

Lavender Castile Soap, made with lavender harvested from our farm. Lavender is grown with no pesticides, sprays or fertilizers.

Ingredients: Extra virgin olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, safflower oil, glycerine (vegetable origin), purified water, sodium hydroxide (saponifying agent “lye”), sorbitol (moisturizer), sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), oat protein (conditioner), lavender, lavender essential oil.

2-ounce bars

$ 4.00


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The NGPS Simple Guide to LED Lighting

Up to 90% less energy use

Household lighting bill cut from 19% to 2%

Our guarantees mean you will save money

LED Colour temperatures

Our colour temperature diagram is a guide to show you the warmth of light that each of our products produce.

Ranging from a very cool white light such as our desk lamp to a very warm white such as our G125 filament globes.

Why is it better?

  • Our LED lighting uses up to 90% less energy but is just as bright with similar light quality to traditional lighting.
  • 19% of the average UK household energy bill is lighting cost. This can be cut down to about 2% if all the lighting is replaced by our LEDs.
  • Over time this saves a lot of money.
  • Our LED bulbs last up to 30 times longer so saving hugely on cost of replacement.
  • We guarantee for our bulbs 3 years so you are guaranteed to save money when compared to traditional lighting

What about the environment?

LED light bulbs are so far the most environmentally friendly way to light your home. This graphic shows emissions needed to power different types of lighting over the lifetime of a typical ‘energy saver’ or compact fluorescent lamp (CFL)

CFL bulbs also contain a small amount of mercury which is harmful to the environment when disposed of or broken. All our LED products are RoHs certified which means they do not contain any harmful chemicals.

But they’re pricey aren’t they?

  • Each bulb is generally more expensive than a halogen or CFL but they last up to 30 times longer.
  • So you would have to buy 30 halogen bulbs to replace 1 of our LED bulbs.
  • If you paid £10 for our LED spotlight but £2 for a halogen you would still spend up to £60 on halogens over the life of one of our LED lamps !
  • On top of all this, the moment you replace your old lighting for our LED lamps, your electricity bill will plummet a massive 90% to as low as 10% of your old cost !  The time to change is now.


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Bayhill Plan

by Toll Brothers

101 Magnolia Street, Dresher PA 19025

At Regency at Upper Dublin

From $606,995 Why 'From' pricing?

New homes can be personalized to your needs and taste.

Builders pricing can vary greatly. Builders display base pricing because you have not selected your options and upgrades yet and some homes may indicate that the land cost is not included.

  • 2 BR
  • 2 BA
  • 2 GR
  • 2,014 SQ FT

Free detailed brochure, instantly!

Contact Info

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Bayhill At Regency at Upper Dublin

The Bayhill features an open floorplan for a casual yet elegant lifestyle. This home's versatile study can serve as a private home office, or can be used as an extra bedroom depending on your needs. From the moment you enter through the expansive foyer, which leads to elegant dining and living areas, you will feel comfortably at home. Ten-foot ceilings throughout enhance ths home's sense of spaciousness. A well-appointed kitchen features a large pantry and breakfast area with a counter. Adjacent to the kitchen area, the large family room offers access to a covered patio. The master bedroom suite is beautifully appointed with a tray ceiling, a large walk-in closet, and a master bath with a dressing area and a Roman tub.

Active Adult Community Sales Office Map

101 Magnolia Street, Dresher, PA 19025

Sales Agent: Hope Grindlinger, Roslyn Ellis, & Pam Del Pizzo

Hours: Daily 10 am to 5 pm

Request an AppointmentAsk the Builder a Question

Community Info

Regency at Upper Dublin

Regency at Upper Dublin is a community of luxurious single-family homes for active adults located in prestigious Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It boasts a central location, close to any convenience you may need. At Regency at Upper Dublin, you ll have more time to spend doing the things you love! You ll enjoy spectacular on-site amenities including a 6,200-square-foot community clubhouse, outdoor swimming pool, bocce court, and more!

Visit the website Free brochure

Schools & Amenities

Area Schools
  • SD of Upper Dublin

Actual schools may vary. Contact the builder for more information.

Health and Fitness
  • Pool
  • Trails
Community Services
  • Stunning home designs with first-floor master suites and full basements on select home sites
  • Stress-free low-maintenance living with lawn care, landscaping, and snow removal provided
  • Clubhouse with fitness room, gathering room, outdoor pool, and more
  • Minutes from shopping and dining in Ambler, Blue Bell, and Doylestown
  • Convenient access to the PA Turnpike and Route 309 for shopping, dining, and a wide-range of educational and cultural events
Social Activities
  • Club House

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Avennel Plan

by Caruso Homes

4725 Lake Wheeler Road, Raleigh NC 27603

At Olde Mill Trace

From $518,900 Why 'From' pricing?

New homes can be personalized to your needs and taste.

Builders pricing can vary greatly. Builders display base pricing because you have not selected your options and upgrades yet and some homes may indicate that the land cost is not included.

  • 4 BR
  • 2.5 BA
  • 2 GR
  • 3,520 SQ FT

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Avennel At Olde Mill Trace

Avennel (3520 sq. ft.) is a home with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 2-car garage. Features include breakfast area, dining room, fireplaces, living room, master bed upstairs and walk-in closets.

Builder Community Sales Office Map

4725 Lake Wheeler Road, Raleigh, NC 27603

Hours: Call for More Information

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Community Info

Olde Mill Trace

Handcrafted for living! This outstanding Raleigh location is a serene mix of songbirds, wind rustled leaves and homeowners laughter just down the street! A quiet escape from the Raleigh and Cary city life, these scenic ½ to over 1 acre homesites are surrounded by native landscape. Impressive homes offer a variety of designs including first-floor master retreats, one story living and basement opportunities ranging from 2600 to over 4000 square feet of living space. Finely appointed with all the elegant features to make Olde Mill Trace a place to call home!

Visit the website Free brochure

Schools & Amenities

Area Schools
  • Wake Co SD

Actual schools may vary. Contact the builder for more information.

Community Services
  • Wooded homesites one-half acre +
  • Basement opportunities
  • Ranch plans, Up and downstairs master designs
  • Feature rich interiors
  • Street lined sidewalks
  • Two award winning builders in one fantastic Raleigh location. For more information visit CarusoHomes.com and StanleyMartinHomes.com.
Local Area Amenities
  • Convenient location to Raleigh and Cary
  • Convenient Raleigh location

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About New Mexico Youth Rugby

New Mexico Youth Rugby (NMYR) is a registered non-profit and  volunteer sports organization dedicated to the development of student-athletes in New Mexico and El Paso.  Our programs offer contact and non-contact rugby and are available to elementary, middle, and high school athletes in communities throughout New Mexico.  We are celebrating our 20th year in New Mexico, continuing our youth and high school leagues, as well as introducing rugby to hundreds of elementary and middle school students.  Rugby is one of the fastest growing youth sports in the North America, COME JOIN US!

Board of Directors

President - Mark Neice

Vice President - Tom Goslau

Secretary - Jack Donnell

Member - ET Wilbur

Member - Aaron Stem

Member - SEAT OPEN

2018-19 NMYR Annual General Meeting & Social

September 22, 2018

Albuquerque, NM

Every district must be represented, and it is suggested that at least one person from every club/team is there too.

Address & Tax Info

New Mexico Youth Rugby

P.O. Box 4605
Santa Fe, NM 87502

501(c)3 Tax ID#:  51-0433520

Are you or someone you know interested in supporting positive extra-curricular activities for youth? NMYR is looking for Board Members & volunteers to help our non-profit youth program grow throughout the state. No rugby experience is necessary. Interested inquiries are asked to contact:

Executive Director

Maggie Feil

(575) 621-2375

NMYR Districts

North   Los Alamos, Santa Fe, & Las Vegas

NWest   Farmington, Gallup, & Durango

Central N   Rio Rancho, & Albuquerque

Central S   Albuquerque, Los Lunas, & Socorro

South   Las Cruces, El Paso, Juarez, & Hobbs

Don't see your town on our list?!

Let us know where you'd like to start youth rugby in NM.

Send us your irrationally passionate.

NMYR is accepting nominations for our

District Youth Development Teams

We are looking for dedicated volunteers throughout our State Rugby Organization to help coordinate & elevate our youth through rugby.

Please email your nominations to:


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Thursday 08/02/18 3PM
South GalleriesGet Directions
Conversations Exhibition-Related · Exhibition-Related

Gallery Talk: Maggie Mustard on “Hiwa K: Blind as the Mother Tongue”

Cover Image:

Hiwa K, The Bell Project, 2007–15 (still). Two-channel HD and SD video installation, sound, color; 35:25 min and 25:29 min. © Hiwa K. Courtesy the artist; KOW, Berlin; and Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milan/Lucca

Join us for an in-gallery talk with Marcia Tucker Senior Research Fellow Maggie Mustard on the occasion of the exhibition “Hiwa K: Blind as the Mother Tongue.” Drawing on vernacular forms and collaborative and performative actions, the Iraqi-Kurdish artist makes work inspired by political events, chance encounters, oral histories, and his own experiences, including fleeing Iraq on foot in the late 1990s. Mustard’s talk will address the processes of observation and reflection in Hiwa K’s work, discussing how the open-ended and exploratory nature of his practice embraces uncertainty, dislocation, and the hybrid.

Hiwa K has shown in numerous group exhibitions, including documenta 14 (2017), the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), La Triennale, Paris (2012), and Manifesta 7, Bolzano (2008). Recent solo exhibitions include S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent (2018); Kunstverein Hannover (2018); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2017); De Appel, Amsterdam (2017); Kunsthalle C, Stockholm (2015); and Serpentine Gallery, London (2010). His ongoing performance project Chicago Boys While We Were Singing They Were Dreaming has been hosted by institutions such as Alternativa Festival, Gdansk; CASCO, Utrecht; Serpentine Gallery, London; MACRO, Rome; MuHKA, Antwerp; and MUSAC, León, Spain.

Gallery talks are free with paid Museum admission, but attendance is limited. Gallery admission must be purchased in order to reserve a spot. Members can reserve here. Students and seniors, please RSVP by email for discounted admission.

This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Support for “Hiwa K: Blind as the Mother Tongue” can be viewed here.

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