Reid My Mind

With the unemployment rate among people who are blind or visually impaired said to be somewhere between 50 and 75 percent, owning your own business can be a great way to control your own financial freedom.

Today meet voice over artist Satauna Howery. She’s one of the winners of the Hadley Forsythe Center for Entrepreneurship and Employment’s New Ventures Competition.

For that and more make sure you Subscribe to RMM Radio
Can’t wait? Hit the Play button below!

Resources:

• Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired
• Satauna Howery
• Satauna on Twitter

Check out the talking baby commercial as mentioned in the piece…

Transcript:

TR:
There are some real advantages to operating your own business.
Besides being your own boss;
– You are doing something you enjoy!
– You can make your own schedule
– You have the potential for significant financial reward

The Forsythe Center for Employment and Entrepreneurship, part of The Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, recently awarded a total of 25thousand dollars  to three winners of their first New Venture Competition.

I spoke with Colleen Wunderlich, the director of the  Forsythe Center who says the goal of the competition was to incentivize their students to move forward with their business plans.

CW:
We had about 20 applicants. Students had to submit a business plan with all the components; financial plan and the market research. We had a panel of three judges. One of our judges is blind and was in the rehab field for much of his life. He was an entrepreneur. Our other two judges  were entrepreneurs as well. I wanted our judges to be people who have lost and won in business because that’s really were the lessons are learned.

TR:
Three finalists were chosen and flown out to Chicago for one last in person interview with the judges.

Meet one of the winners of the New Venture Competition

SH:
My name is Satauna Howery and I’m a voice actor, so I talk all day for a living which is really fun! [Fading giggle!]

TR:
It’s fun, but her voice is her business.

SH:
I work for anybody who needs a voice. When you walk in the store  and you hear those people come over the intercom sometimes there people and sometimes it’s just a commercial telling you what the specials are for the week. Somebody said that! And somebody got paid to say that. Voice works spans the gambit of all sorts of things. Audio books, I do radio and TV ads… I do “crazy video game characters [Said in a high pitched cartoon voice]or animated cartoon kinds of things. Audio description, that’s gotta be voiced. I’ve done “Mosha and the Bear”, “F is for Family” and “Lego Friends” for Netflix. I do a lot of corporate work. So people will want to explain their products through video. There’s a lot of E-Learning out there, I’ve read more Conflict of interest resolution manuals.
TR:
And just how exactly does she accomplish all of this?

SH:
I get the script via email on a Braille display. I have this four by six Whisper room booth that I sit in and I’m in front of a microphone which is connected to my computer and I record directly into the computer and I edit and clean it up and I send it to the client.

With natural gifts and interests, Satauna was well equipped for a career as a voice over artist.

SH:
My parents brought a piano home when I was two and I started playing with my thumbs…[Giggle] then I went to nursery school and I came home and figured out that I could play with all my fingers. I didn’t start formal training  until I was about seven. And I only took about four  years of formal classical training before I came to my parents and decided I wanted to just quit and be my own person.

When I was a kid I had my own recording studio. My Dad built that. It was actually a separate building from our house. I engineered and arranged for other people and I certainly wrote music on my own.
It actually took me a while to come into the digital world, but I eventually got there . So doing voice over I had the skills to do all of the editing and that kind of thing. I understood how to make all of it work.

TR:
As a teen Satauna dabbled in voice over related projects ,

SH:
But for the most part I did music growing up and I thought about doing a voice over demo and I thought about it for many many years as an adult. And I kept saying yeah yeah I’m gonna do it someday.

TR:
And then?

SH:
A friend of mine showed up one day and she was all excited. She was going to go do a voice demo and she had just gone to a local studio that did voice coaching and I thought wow! I have all these skills, she’s starting out with absolutely none of them and she’s just gonna go do this?
I should just go do this!

TR:
Demo in hand, Satauna signed up with casting websites connecting voice over artists with companies and organizations seeking a voice.
Two or three days of submitting auditions with no offers,  she realized the process was a bit harder than she expected.
Learning that others already established in the field had more auditions under their belt than she did, she came to the understanding…

SH:
I gave up too soon!
So I went back to auditioning and within three days I had my first job.

[Demo of Satauna here]

TR:
And her business has been growing ever since!

One requirement for entry into the New ventures competition was completion of a course in Hadley’s forsythe Center.

SH:
I took marketing research, , the marketing plan and the financial plan. Thinking that those would give me insight as to what they were looking for when I wrote up my business plan. And they certainly did … I’ve been doing this for little over three years now and I just never sat down and actually tried to write anything up because I never gone to a bank or an investor and attempted to get money. So I’ve just been flying by the seat of my pants.

TR:
Actually, that time in the industry is extremely valuable. Colleen Wunderlich from Hadley explains.

CW:
You have to work in an industry to know what’s needed what works, what doesn’t … Three to five years of industry experience to launch a successful business… unless you’re a person who started so many businesses that you really understand how to start businesses and make them succeed.

But voice over is more than just speaking into a microphone…

SH:
Right now I do everything on my own. From all of the admin and marketing to the actual voice work and then the production of that voice work.

TR:
Production includes editing and manipulating audio.

This is the business plan…
Satauna recognizes the opportunity to expand and employ part time editors and others who can perform some of these production related tasks.

Can this include others who are blind or visually impaired?

SH:
Sure, absolutely. I know there are blind people out there who have the kinds of audio skills that I have.

TR:
there are some real advantages to a voice over business especially for someone who is blind or others with disabilities

SH:
I don’t have to think about transportation… Most of the time my clients don’t know I can’t see, they don’t need to know, there’s no reason. It’s so flexible and I get to be somebody different every day. I really get to set my own hours and work with people all over the world. It’s so much fun!

TR:
While you may not get recognized in public, there are times you can enjoy and even point others to  some of your work.

SH:
I worked with Delta Airlines… I’ve done some of their overhead promotional work.
I was on a plane from Minneapolis to Los Angeles… so we’re sitting on the runway and all of a sudden it’s me talking to everybody…[laughter] about Delta Wi-Fi and you know you should download the Delta app…

There was a T.V commercial for Empire Today were I was a talking baby. That was fun cause I could say to people this is where you’ll find me …
TR:
I think I still know that jingle…
[Together Satauna and Thomas recite the jingle!]
“800 588 2300 Empire…
TR:
Today…
SH:
That’s exactly right!
[Both laugh to a fade]

TR:
C’mon now, don’t act like I’m the only one who sings that commercial.

[In the background Thomas is singing the Empire jingle to himself]

TR:
Available in every state and internationally Hadley has a lot to offer.

CW:
We have a high school program so if someone is trying to finish a high school diploma …
We still do offer courses  in Braille and large print and audio, but the business courses primarily are online. We believe if you can’t be online then you can’t really be in business in today’s world.

TR:
If you are a budding entrepreneur or business owner with an idea and want to participate in a future New Venture Competition Hadley is planning another in the Winter of 2017.

To find out more on that or available classes, you can contact student services.

CW:
800 526-9909
You can also reach us online at Hadley .edu.

TR:
For more on Satauna or to find out where she is in the process of growing her support staff, stay tuned to her website or follow her via social media…

SH:
www.satauna.com [Spells name phonetically]
I’m also emailable at info@satauna.com.
I’m on Twitter @SataunaH. You could search for me on Facebook or Linked In too.

This is Thomas Reid
[]SH:
“I started playing with my thumbs”]
For Gatewave Radio, Audio for Independent Living!

RMM:
When producing stories for Gatewave, I try to edit down to what I think would be of interest to the most listeners.
However, , there was much more to the conversation. Put me in ear shot of another audio geek and I’m asking about gear…

Now, I know I’m not supposed to be jealous and I’m definitely not supposed to admit it, but man she had her own recording studio as a teen… that’s so dope!

I remember making my pause tapes and thinking I was really doing something special…
I simulated a four track recorder by using two cassette recorders and an answering machine to make my own answering machine greeting that included an original beat. It was just me tapping out something on my wooden desk, a sample from some song and original vocals…

Last year I took an interest in audio imaging and voice over and took a shot at creating my own movie trailer.
voice over/Imaging project last year… PCB
This was done for the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind conference which  was including an original play…

You can say it’s my hat tip to the movie trailer legend , Mr. In a world… Don LaFontaine.
[Audio Trailer audio including
TR: “In a world of glamor, glitz and fame  … everything that glitters isn’t always gold!”]
That’s just a quick sample…

My voice is not as deep and is probably better suited for something else…

I do have a few characters but sharing here may put me at risk of offending a lot of people.
Maybe another time!

BTW, Reid My Mind Radio is going on a summer hiatus. I’m actually in production on another project that I’ll be sharing soon. I’ll be sharing via the podcast so make sure you are subscribed which you can do via iTunes or whatever podcatcher you use. Also go ahead and follow me on twitter at tsreid where I may drop a few details along the way.

Thanks for listening and Peace!

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
– Eleanor Roosevelt

Nafset Chenib dreams of attending school in New York City. Listen to more about her dream, challenges and experience  growing up in russia…but you especially, have to hear her voice!

And make sure you stay tuned for the Reid My Mind Radio Theme Re-Mix!

Subscribe to RMM Radio
– Or hit the Play button below!

Resources:
*Nafset’s Go Fund Me]*Closing Ceremony 2014 Paralympics Sochi, Russia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpXg1R50-K0>

Transcript

[Opening Music- Nafset  – A. Dvorak – Mesichku Na Nebi (Rusalka)]

TR:
You’re listening to Nafset Chenib, a 28 year old soprano born in Southern Russia.

NC:Now I live in Moscow. I have studied hear for five years  and then I decided to stay here cause I love this city and from my point of view it’s much easier to live in the big city when you are blind rather than a small town.

TR:
At 6 years old Nafset began attending a Russian boarding school for blind children.

NC:
Unfortunately we had no choice . We didn’t have any opportunity for a inclusive education. So I was forced to be there at the boarding school – it was quite far from my house.

TR:
While she says she received a good education, Nafset believes not all of the components that make up the educational plan are fulfilled. Meaning both academic and social including daily living skills.

NC:
There are a lot of teachers that don’t know Braille in those special schools. From my experience I wasn’t taught to use the cane.

TR:
There was even some lacking in the general attitude regarding the capabilities of blind children. Nafset recalls how the school’s director responded
when she and her class mates wanted to learn the English language like children outside of boarding schools.

NC:
He told us “Are you gonna travel or what are you supposed to do with your English?”
You know it was quite offensive.

TR:
Ironically Nafset would come to not only learn English, but several foreign languages.

NC:
I’m not Russian. I’m Sarcasian so I can speak this Sarcasian language it’s called Adyghe language. I speak Russian. I speak Italian. Now I try to study German, mainly because of music.

TR:
Go ahead and add her ability to sing in Hebrew, Czechoslovakian and Spanish.

While the boarding school may have not imagined  blind Russian students having a need for learning English, they did have a music school that would introduce Nafset to her passion.

NC:
I finished my musical school as a pianist. But I had supplementary discipline. It was vocal, opera singing. I started to participate in different festivals to sing in different choirs. I participated in the festival when there was the great opera singer  Montserrat Caballé.

TR:
Among other notable experiences, add the time she sang for Pope John Paul the second!

NC:
I was able to visit  Covent Garden Opera. They performed  Semele by Handel and I was so impressed  that I decided to go in for music more seriously.

TR:
Taking her dream seriously, Nafset  had to fill one of the components that wasn’t addressed in the school for the blind. She decided to find an orientation and mobility trainer to learn how to use the white cane in order to better travel independently.

Now able to make her own life decisions,  Nafset chose to pursue her college education in an inclusive environment, even though there is a special musical college for the blind.

NC:
After college I decided to pursue my education in Moscow. I studied at Victor Popov Academy  of Choral Arts. It was wonderful time. I sing solo; students choir. I was able to collaborate with very interesting orchestras, outstanding conductors.

TR:
In some respects,  a vocation as a singer seems like a natural fit for a talented person who is blind.

NC:
Conductors, they don’t trust you. I hear the question “How are you gonna sing if you don’t see the conductor?”
[Trailing sarcastic laugh!]

TR:
The misperceptions about blindness aren’t very logical and are more about the beholder’s limitations rather than the person who is blind.

[Musical transition – Nafset  – A. Dvorak – Mesichku Na Nebi (Rusalka)]

In the 1980’s when asked by a reporter if Russia would participate in the first Paralympic games
A Russian governmental official famously responded:
“There Are No Invalids in the USSR!”

Outright denying the existence of people with disabilities in the country.

While progress is slowly being made, it’s not surprising that
many teachers  are still against creating an inclusive educational environment for children with disabilities.

There continues to be a real lack of resources including Braille materials, access to information such as scholarly databases and information in general

While Nafset recognizes the areas for improvement, she’s very clear about her love of her country and wants to be a part of the solution.

NC:
I see that we have a lot to adopt from the United States. I’m eager to do that.

The thing is you know dreamed to study at the Manhattan School of Music and then to go back and to share my acquired knowledge and skills

TR:
Going after your dreams isn’t easy!
Most artistic endeavors  require a great deal of practice and of course you   need to make a living.

NC:
I work at the Moscow Art Theater. I sing for one performance. I like my job. It’s like a miracle for me.

TR:
Singing for one of the shows at the theater as well as occasional concerts,
Nafset is still uncertain of her future employment opportunities
but she remains committed to her dream.

So what exactly is stopping Nafset from pursuing her dream?
…The cost!

NC:
In February, I had a successful audition at Manhattan School of Music in New York And I was accepted  and I have been granted scholarship it amounted to 15 thousand dollars, but the whole tuition fees  45 thousand dollars so I think I’m not able to pursue my education in USA.

I have not a bad education here in Russia but for me self-development is the main thing in my life. I want to develop myself.

TR:
Sometimes it’s helpful to think about our past successes to provide encouragement and remind us that we can prevail.

[Audio from 2014 Paralympics Closing Ceremony in Sochi, Russia]

In 2014 During the closing ceremony of the Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, Nafset was the soloist in the closing act.

NC:
It was just a great honor for me!

I was so glad to sing there …stadium included 40 thousand people. The show was televised as well.
TR:
Making her entrance , Nafset is on a platform which rises above the rest of the entertainers and participants on the field.

[Audio: Nafset begins to sing!]

The Olympic torch is extinguished as Nafset holds her final note!
[Audio: Nafset softly holding that final note]

NC:
It’s unforgettable experience for me!
TR:
unforgettable!

NC:
Maybe I am an Idealist but it’s my dream.

TR:
You continue to follow your dream!

TR:
Maybe her entrance during the Sochi performance is symbolic of things to come. Nafset rising above all – perhaps all of the obstacles on her path toward fulfilling her dream. Her passion represented by the fire can only be extinguished by Nafset herself.

You have to respect anyone pursuing their dream. Especially those who can  still find time for gratitude when things don’t seem to be going as they wish.

NC:
I just want to say I’m very happy  to have the experience in United States. Today I can tell the people here in Russia about the things that we don’t have here but you have there in the United States. I’m very thankful to all the American companies who work out the software and different technical devices to improve our lives. I really feel very thankful.

If you’re interested in knowing more about Nafset or supporting her dream;
check out her go fund me
http://bit.ly/Nafset That’s
bit.ly/Capital N lower case A F S E T

This is Thomas Reid, .

NC: “Unfortunately we have no choice”
Thomas usually concludes with some silly self-effacing close![]

for Gatewave Radio
Audio for Independent Living!

If you’re listening to this via the podcast or Sound Cloud and want to check out the YouTube video or link to Nafset’s Go Fund Me, go on over to Reid My Mind.com where I have all the links.

A final thought as I was producing this story…

One of the things I always loved and miss about living and working  in New York City is the variety of people.
Among  most of my friends and family, I’m one of the only people who didn’t mind riding the subway. I loved people watching and the occasional spontaneous conversations  that either I would be a part of or have the chance to overhear or basically ease drop.

Interviewing different people  for me brings back a similar feeling. Especially speaking with those I’d otherwise never have a chance to randomly meet.
Like those in a different country from other cultures sharing their experience.

You just listened to  two people from very different back grounds in countries that were once  the greatest enemies.

I guess I’m old enough where I still am amazed and appreciate the technology involved in making this conversation possible.

The conversation itself took place on our iPhones via Face time Audio.
It was just a few years ago that the idea of a phone with a touch screen
was believed to be a poor reflection of the future of accessibility for those who are blind.

I’m still impressed that our Wi-Fi connection held up as packets of information were sent back and forth from the Poconos in Pennsylvania, USA  to Moscow in Russia.

Maybe it’s just my level of Geekiness that thinks that stuff is still pretty cool! And Nafset , reminds me to continue to be thankful!

Thanks for listening!{Or Reading!}

Peace!

Courtesy of RMM Graphic Designer, Raven Reid

While we’re over 30 episodes deep into RMM Radio, this is the first episode as an official podcast. That’s right, you can now subscribe to Reid My Mind Radio via the Apple Podcast app or any other podcast application.

In many ways it’s fitting that today’s episode feature’s Andre Watson, PhD. We’ll learn about his road to becoming a Psychologist an Olympian, a husband and Dad. Plus we’ll talk about the misperceptions of blindness and why yours truly when dealing with people, who make stupid assumptions about blindness, shouldn’t lose the desire to “take them down!”

• Reid My Mind Radio or any of its affiliates, do not hereby endorse random violence — at least not against innocent parties!* LOL!

I digress…but you should subscribe!

Or Listen now!

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When we think of comic books, we think of rich colorful graphics, heroes with super natural powers and often fantastic out of this world story lines. Comic books entertain. Guy Hassan believes comic books are not exclusive to the visual medium. And even more than that, he believes comics…Empower!

Comics Empower’s Aurora

So much so that he created the website ComicsEmpower.com and launched Aurora, a series featuring a protagonist that is blind.

In this latest episode of RMMR, hear the piece produced for Gatewave Radio featuring Guy Hassan. It also includes Chad Allen, one of the winners of a comic book writers    contest sponsored by Comics Empower.

Resources:

Comics Empower

@ComicsEmpower on Twitter

Chad Allen

Brendan Friedrich wants you to hear his voice…as  a public address announcer for a major sports team, a weatherman, a news reporter or DJ. He’s only 14, but he’s on his way.