Creating An Audiobook

The process of creating an audiobook is rewarding and stressful. I spent the first few days preparing to record my first audiobook by making sure my closet did not produce an echo. I was determined to finish taping my book, The Beginner’s Guide To Finding Your Brave in a few weeks even though I heard the process could take months.

For a better part of the first few weeks, I was up to my eyeballs in clothing and hangers. I had to find a place for the laundry basket because it would be my mic stand. I also knew that I would be in the closet for hours so I had to have a place for snacks and my favorite scented candle. The scene was spectacular!

By the end of the day, my small closet was turned into a sound booth paradise.

On the first day, I sat hunched over on the floor to record. I later regretted the decision due to back pains from being in one position for so long.

The first week went by quickly. I imagined how Ta-Nehisi Coates might have felt recording In Between the World and Me or the way Brene Brown may have postured about as she taped Daring Greatly.

I made the decision up front to record the book how I spoke, meaning I talked in a conversational manner. I am from Texas so some of my words have a "southern-twang" to them. However, I was better off being myself than to put on an act and have to explain myself later when I was in front of people during book signings. The Introduction was the easy part. I wrote to the point, short sentences, and found my cadence.

The following weeks proved to be a lesson in willpower and perseverance. I made the crazy decision to edit on my laptop as I went. Which meant I would stop every few sentences to correct an “r” or entire phrase that did not communicate emotion.

It’s all in the voice inflection.

While working in the sales industry I would encourage my sales reps to smile when they spoke on the phone with prospects. The joke around the industry is to dial and smile. For me, smiling put me in a more confident mood to close.

By the end of the second month, I was tired but close to the finish line. The process took longer than I expected, but I was reminded that completing the audio version of my book would allow communities that struggle with literacy the opportunity to learn how to find their brave. That’s worth it.

You can check out the audiobook of my work The Beginner’s Guide to Finding Your Brave here. Thanks for listening. Let me know what you think (info@earlinagreen.com).

Life’s Absolutes

Can these absolutes about life be challenged?

What is more true than that in any situation I find myself in am the “constant”? I am the thing that does not change. 

Who can argue with the fact that we all have an expiration date? I am here for a “finite” amount of time.  

Lastly, that the decisions we make are coming from a place of “fear” or a place of “love” ?

Then, with accepting all these things as truth, how can we not have the absolute power to change or own lives? 

A Chance To Begin Again

I left the sports world four years ago, and occasionally I am asked about my time in the industry and the goal I had of owning an NBA team. 

Check out my interview with Jason Vo.

Here is a snippet from the piece: 

Your writing very much involves a prominent theme around bravery. 

I talk so much about bravery because without it we live lives for other people, in fear of ourselves, and we limit our potential. I lacked so much  in my early 20s, it forced me to go on a journey. Every time I hit publish on a piece, I'm riddled with anxiety, it's what's left over from when I cared most about what others thought of me. I'm a work in progress. But when I feel that emotion, I know that I am headed in the right direction.

About Jason Vo

Previously founder and editor of The Modern Block, an interview-based publication wherein Jason set out to discover the intersection between entrepreneurship and creativity, he found detouring conversations — conversations around love, happiness, introspection, and behavior — to spark a much more meaningful interest in his life. Selected interviews from his days at The Modern Block, along with new (weekly) interviews now live on this site.

A Look At The “Four Arguments For The Elimination Of Television” By Jerry Mander

I picked up the "Four Arguments for The Elimination of Television" by Jerry Mander last year at my favorite bookstore here in Dallas. I heard the book mentioned in passing on a podcast, bought it, and the book set on my bookshelf for over year. I skimmed through it then and found a few points relevant, but nothing stood out until today. 

In wrapping context around some of the broader concepts in writing my third book, Jerry Mander’s book stood out to me as I peered at my bookshelf while sipping a cup of tea. The title, ambitions, I thought, but the content could shed some light on why our brains remain so noisy, so cluttered. 

I opened the text to a portion of material Mander listed under “Television Is Sleep Teaching.” 

In the section, he covers psychologists Merrelyn and Fred Emery 1975 research. The researches of the Emery report acknowledge shortcomings in its findings and states “that it is tantamount to scandal that there has been so little research on the neurophysiology of television watching.” However, their findings still intrigued me: 

“The report explains that since television information is taking place where the viewer is not, it cannot be acted upon. The viewer must deliberately inhibit the neural pathways between visual and the autonomic nervous system, which stimulates movement and mental attention. The viewer is left in a passive but also frustrated state (207).” 

There goes my Netflix binge. Mander goes on to state: 

““Their [Merrelyn and Fred Emery] findings support the idea that television information enters unfiltered and whole, directly into the memory banks, but is not available for conscious analysis, understanding or learning. It is sleep teaching (207).”

photo by jen shoots 

So because we are not “actors” in the mental stories we willing participate in through the television shows we watch we can become frustrated and passive robots who are being sleep taught by directors who may or may not have our best interest in mind. OK, what to do what that?  

If you are like me and seek enough mental space to create and imagine then the obvious answer is to be more selective with what we watch on television. It goes back to the idea that a small amount of discipline creates freedom or at least mental clarity.