It’s seems common-place these days to casually utter the phrase ‘follow your passion’.  It seems to rear its head just about everywhere.  Whether it’s career-related or merely a hobby, we seem to be implored to act as such on an almost continual basis.

I’ve been relatively lucky when it comes to ‘passion’.  I was one of those rare birds who knew early on what he wanted to do with his life, at least as far as ‘career’.  Being behind the microphone (or ‘in front of’, however you choose to phrase it!) is really all I’ve ever wanted to do as far as a ‘job’.  I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to realize that passion for several esteemed radio stations.  And now I get to stand behind (in front of) a microphone and perform for clients and projects.  And I’m appreciative.

Those who know me are also aware that I have another passion: craft beer.  While I’ve never been able to formulate this passion in to a full-time job- or career-prospect, I have been able to do a little bit of home-brewing.  And between radio jobs, I even worked part-time for a small brewer here in northeast Ohio.

I bring up ‘the world’s greatest beverage’ because of my love for it, but also because of its immense popularity lately.  You can’t pop the top off a bottle without worrying about it hitting a new brewery opening up.

Invariably, with a product that takes knowledge, skill, and an intricate dance between science and art, the question of ‘quality’ always emerges.  The brewing industry has been dominated by a couple of heavy-hitters, and those macro-producers have been blessed with huge budgets and huge followers. ‘Quantity’ has seemed to have rule the roost.

For me, ‘beer’, as a hobby, and the current state of the industry, has always reminded me of my chosen industry as a career, radio.  This, undoubtedly, also leads down the path of ‘voiceover’ and other audio and video content-creation platforms, as well, begging the question: ‘Quality’, or ‘Quantity’?

It’s the philosophy of most companies and enterprises to be able to put themselves in the position to be as big and as successful as possible.  Hiring more people, taking on more responsibility, and expanding is a by-product of growth, a by-product of capitalism.  This is a good thing…right?

When I was employed by WYHT-FM in Mansfield, Ohio, I’m not sure I worked with too many co-workers who didn’t have their sights set on eventually getting to a larger market.  A larger radio market meant more prestige.  It meant a bigger stepping-stone to even larger platforms. It usually meant more money, too.

But during that time in Mansfield, I also realized that there were some people with whom I worked who had absolutely no interest in going to a larger market.  They were content to use the skills they had in order to help produce the best on-air product that they could.  And it was during this time in Mansfield where I realized that ‘bigger’ did not always mean ‘better’.

Our station, Y-105, sounded like a station that could have been in the markets that surrounded us, like Cleveland or Columbus.  It could have been in those markets because the people involved were concerned only about quality.  It didn’t matter that the city only had 50,000 residents.  What mattered is that the station played the right music.  It mattered that the production and imaging-values were cared for and changed frequently so that the on-air presentation sounded fresh.

It’s the same with beer. The picture above is of a Double IPA from a small brewery in Millersburg, Ohio.  Millersburg is in the heart of Amish country, in the rolling hills and farm-land of east-central Ohio, about 40 minutes south of Akron.  Surrounded by working farms, small hand-made furniture stores, and plenty of Amish buggies, Millersburg would be the last place you’d expect to find world-class craft beer.  But tiny Millersburg Brewing is an award-winning brewery, producing delicious, consistent libations that have distribution all over northeast Ohio.

I have a passion for craft-beer because I have a passion for things made with the intention of being done well.  Talk to a brewer who cares about ‘quality’ over ‘quantity’, and he/she will tell you that the contents inside that can or bottle are the life-blood of their business. And more importantly, those contents say something about that brewer as a business-owner, as an entrepreneur, and as a person.  It says, “I care about every ounce of artistry in this can because you care about it.”

I like to think that I feel the same way about what I do for a living.  I like to compare it to treasured radio positions in the past, as well as to passionate brewers now.  I value those who go the extra yard because I like to think that I do the same thing for my clients.  I taste the difference in a well-formulated Scotch ale that has been lovingly cared for in the brewing process, and my hope is that our clients hear the difference after we’ve been involved with their projects.  That care makes me go back to the store or to the brewery again, and I hope that that same care keeps our clients coming back, or perhaps even urges them to pass our name on to someone else who might have a need for quality voiceover.

And that’s the thing.  You can get ‘quantity’ anywhere.  It’s the striving for the ‘quality’ that makes all the difference.

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My wife, Donna, is an artist.  Long before I met and married her, some 30 years ago, she had been an experienced artist.  Early in her artistic career, she studied mostly oil painting, and she later moved in to pastels.  She also studied with several well-regarded teachers, one being Jack Richard.  As a portrait-artist, Jack Richard was commissioned to paint many famous celebrities, including Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and President George H. W. Bush.

But for whatever reason, my wife still doubts her abilities.  Maybe all artists do, at some level.  And because of that, she immerses herself, almost constantly, in further training.  She takes classes in painting, in collage, and in drawing.  I admire her desire to be better, but I secretly think (and I may be wrong about this, but I don’t think so) that she sometimes over-indulges in continued instruction because she feels (quite erroneously) that she lacks the ability of that of her peers.

The above drawing is a style she has been practicing for several years now.  It’s called ‘Zentangle’.  It consists of ornately-drawn designs that may, or may not, follow a pattern.  The person who started this craze meant it as a sort of therapy, a bit like adult coloring-books.  But the trend took off!  Again, in pure ‘Donna’ fashion, she dove head-first in to classes and workshops.  In fact, she’ll be attending a week-long seminar this summer focusing on nothing but Zentangle.

I bring this up because we had a discussion the other night about ‘perspective’.  One of the groups with which she’s involved is a ‘journal’ group.  Basically, someone starts a book filled with several pages of art wrapped around a theme.  Then, they pass the book to someone else in the group, and that artist has to contribute several more pages centered around that same theme.  Again, she’s been involved with these groups now for several years.

But in the latest project, she was stumped.  The theme was ‘color’.  A couple of days had passed, and nothing was being done to her blank pages.  “I can’t think of anything,” she pleaded, as we sat in front of the television one night.

In addition to working in front of a microphone, I also like to take photos.  I call myself an amateur photographer, and  in some of my down-time during the day here in the studio I try to watch You Tube videos about various subjects in photography and video, everything from cameras to lenses to post-production and image-manipulation.  I also have a number of apps on my phone that help in ‘doctoring’ photos and making them better.  Or, just different.

While I listened to her talk about her dilemma, I thought of a client I had at a news-talk radio station several years ago.  His station was a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate, and, at the start of the season, he sent me several pages to voice.  But his email signified some exasperation.  Not so much with me, but with the fact that ‘the station sounded the same every year when it comes to baseball.  Wish we could do something different.”

So, instead of emulating a typical large-voiced news-talk imaging guy, I decided to approach it as just….me.  I tried to hype the upcoming season not with what you thought you should hear, but rather what the emotion of the season seemed to dictate.  R.C., the program director, and I are both HUGE baseball fans.  So I dug deep.  Not as far as vocal-range, but more so as far as the emotive-spirit of Opening Day, how we both had waited all winter for this day, and that this season was finally upon us.

And it seemed to work!  He liked the approach, and so did I.  It seemed more…natural.  More believable.  In fact, in later sessions during the year, he would reference it, making notes in an email such as, “Let’s do the baseball-read again on this promo”.

So, sensing Donna’s apprehension, I walked over to the other side of the room and grabbed the Zentangle above and took a photo.  Then, I ran it through several post-production filters, played with it awhile, and then I sent it to her in a text.  She looked at it, paused, and said, “Is that my Zentangle?”

I nodded.  “Yep.  Maybe you just need a different perspective on something you’ve already done.”

And it worked.

She was able to re-imagine something for her journal, and I was able to add a piece (with the artist’s permission, of course!) to my collection.  All done in the name of ‘re-imagination’.

So, maybe it just takes a few moment to pause and reflect, to grab that old piece of wood in the garage, stare at it for awhile, and position it in a different way.  Who knows.  Maybe what was once lodged in a corner serving no purpose now becomes something full of energy and vitality.

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