Where Was "Scrubs" Set?

Thanks to the magic of Netflix, I recently rediscovered one of my favorite sitcoms of the early 2000's. Scrubs, an early multi-camera half-hour comedy, told the story of the medical staff, patients, and others working at Sacred Heart Teaching Hospital. This is a new classic sitcom, with its unique mix of physical comedy, verbal wordplay (I wish the book of Dr. Cox's rants that JD gave him at the end of season 8 was a real book, I bet it would be a great read), and the best ever musical episode of a non-musical show. It's sure to make audiences laugh for years to come.


Unanswered Questions

By the end of its nine season run--if we include the last, when the show was renamed Scrubs: Med School--we learn almost everything about the people of Sacred Heart, including the name of its university (Winslow University). But with all we know,  three unanswered questions remain:

1. Where is the show set (city/state)?
2. What is Janitor's real name?
3. Why does Dr. Cox have such unrelenting hatred of Hugh Jackman?

While these are all important questions, today we are most interested in the first one. There are occasionally shots of licence plates, the state is never shown.


What The Production Says, and the "Seattle Theory"

The actual production of the show was at the decommissioned North Hollywood Medical Center, located at 12629 Riverside Drive, which was a real hospital from 1952-1998 (the site is now the location of an apartment complex.)

The cast and crew has famously said that the show was set in San DiFrangeles, California, encompassing the area triangulated by San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. This is interesting, but that is an awfully big area of California.

My personal theory, until my Netflix review of the show, was that it was set in Seattle, Washington. I had no real evidence of this. It was a really strong gut feeling. A feeling that was blown out of the water by the season six episode "My Road to Nowhere", in which the gang took a trip to Tacoma, Washington, which is only about 40 minutes outside of Seattle. On the show the trip took all day, so Seattle is out.


A Few Assumptions And Other Ideas

Seattle may be out of the running, but the San Diego area, thanks to Sea World, may still be a viable candidate. Elliot's on-and-off boyfriend is a trainer at Sea World San Diego, and she often takes the train there for the day or to stay overnight.

Detroit may also be a possibility due to the fact that when JD returns to work after his father's funeral, Dr Cox gives him a Red Wings jersey. But I feel that is less about location, and more that Dr. Cox is a Red Wings fan.

Before we go any further, let's consider a few assumptions:

1. The road trip mentioned above started from the hospital in the morning after sunrise, but they arrived in Tacoma before dark. There is no evidence from action or dialog that they traveled over night, so it is assumed that the outgoing trip (to Tacoma) happened in one day and they were on the road no more than 12 hours.
2. The overall average speed limit for the trip is 70 miles per hour. Let's assume that with traffic and rest stops the actual average speed they traveled is 65 mph.
3. This means that the maximum one-way distance traveled is 750 miles.
4. Finally, let's assume that the show was set in a major metropolitan area of California.


Now We're Almost There....

We can now picture a to-scale circle on a map, representing 750 miles, with Tacoma at its midpoint.

Using Assumption #3, we finally have to eliminate San Diego because it is over 1000 miles from Tacoma. We also must, based on Assumption #4, eliminate all of Washington State, Oregon, Canada, and of course the Pacific Ocean.

At the limits, however, we still have the Sacramento and San Francisco areas.

Conclusion (AKA "The Winner Is...")


Based on the above, I have determined that the location of the show is in a suburb of  California's capital Sacramento. Not only is this the only Californian metropolitan area that fits all assumptions, we have the additional fact that in all driving scenes over 9 seasons, there was very little driving up or down hills.

Movie Review: Mitt

When I started this blog, I promised myself that I would  purposely keep it non-political; there’s enough of that in plenty of other places.  With this writing, I will endeavor to keep that promise and simply do a movie review.  

With that said, Mitt isn't about politics. It’s about a family man, Mitt Romney, trying to successfully complete the most time-intensive, expensive, and grueling job interview in the country.

In this fly-on-the-wall documentary,  produced by One Potato Productions for Netflix, director  Greg Whiteley  gives us an inside look at the family life of a presidential candidate. We on the outside see only the glamour---the lights, cameras, and private planes. But behind all that is a long running string of take-out food, hotel rooms, and sleeping in buses.

The film follows Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who first came to national prominence after taking over leadership of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, on both of his presidential campaigns. We also meet his wife Anne, sons, and daughters-in-law. Various campaign workers and others make cameos.

Family means everything to the Romneys. The entire clan is in on almost every decision from deciding to run through writing concession speeches.  Mitt owes it all to his father, George. While looking over Romney's notes for the first debate with President Obama, eldest son Tagg asks why he writes 'Dad' at the top of the page. "It's to remind me of my father, " Mitt answers. "Where I came from. Dad grew up poor but worked up to own a car company and then governor [of Michigan].  I have to remember that."

Whiteley does very little interviewing, he just lets the raw footage speak for itself. One interview, however, results in one of several comedic moments in the film.  During a South Carolina campaign stop in 2008, the hotel desk clerk is asked if they knew which candidate was staying in their hotel. He and a co-worker look through the records and eventually figure out it’s Romney. “I never heard of him,” he says.

Another funny scene takes place the night of  the  2012 Correspondent's Dinner, the annual tuxedo-and-ball gown Washington tradition where all the politicians and other Washington elite gather to make fun of themselves and the press. First, Romney tries to iron his tuxedo shirt cuff----while he's wearing it. Then, at dinner, he gets a big laugh: "You wear many outfits on the campaign trail, " he says. "Maybe jeans in the morning, a suit in the afternoon. But it's nice that Anne and I get a chance tonight to wear what we wear around the house."

After the good times of the dinner, we cut to Election Night 2012. Things are looking good, but then they look bad. Mitt and family watch as one state after the next is called for the president. And so it goes late into the night. Romney is getting nervous.

Although the West Coast polls are still open, they realize that statistically, it all comes down to Ohio. A few minutes later, the news comes in......Ohio is lost. The family is both relieved and disappointed--relieved that it's over; disappointed that Dad lost....again.

After writing the concession speech, there's only one decision left to make:  What to do about the Secret Service. It is decided that they will drive Mitt and Anne home, and that's it. "I wouldn't feel comfortable with them doing any more after that." Mitt says.  And so the film ends. Anne and Mitt carry their own bags into the house, and Mitt goes into the living room, a man alone with the rest of his life ahead of him.

The film won't change any minds on the politics of Romney, you either love him or hate him. But it is a very well done documentary.  It is an unprecedented look at what life is like on the campaign trail through the eyes of not just the candidate, but his family.  It's a very select group that gets to have such an experience, and thanks to  Whiteley and his crew, we get to experience it too.

Reebok has one. So does BMW. And You and I do too.

So, what exactly do you, me, Reebok, BMW, and all other organizations have in common? We all have a brand.

That's right. A brand. As Tom Peters wrote in his article "The Brand Called You" for the August/September 1997 issue of Fast Company magazine, "We are the CEO's of our own companies: Me, Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You."

This concept of a personal brand is new to me. I've only recently heard about it in a session on branding as part of the Career Enhancement Program (CEP) that I'm taking part in this summer at work. To be honest, I don't fully understand it.

As we discussed it in class, this is not unusual for people of my MBTI type (click here for more on this). We have to really be sold on the idea. For us, we should just be able to be the best employee we can be, do the best work we can do, and the rest should just take care of itself.

But I'll try.


Part I: What is a personal brand? Where does it come from?

Simply put, your personal brand is your organizational reputation. It is the match between what you would say about yourself, and what others would say about you. It's what comes to mind when your name comes up.

Your personal brand is the combined information from a variety of sources:

• Stories people tell about you and that you tell about yourself. 
• Beliefs that people have about you. For instance, if you keep a sloppy workspace, people may believe you do sloppy, haphazard work.
• Indirect exposure, i.e. if a third party asks your boss about you, they have indirect exposure to you. 
• Direct exposure, you with a co-worker. 
• Perceptions such as what people think about your personal appearance. 
• Personal experience--what people know about you outside of work. 
• Professional experience--what people know about your career and plans for the future. 

For a brand to be effective, it has to be powerful. It has to show how you are different from the others. Also, it has to be relevant. If you won "Employee of The Year" 10 years ago, but nothing since...well, who cares? It really comes down to: what have you done lately?

Part II: The Recurring Elements of a Brand

There are 5 elements of a brand:

Personality

• Your personal style and energy
• Others' emotional responses to you as a person
• Perceptions and beliefs about you

Product

• YOU are the product--not just your role
• Total sum of your skills, experience, education, potential, knowledge, etc
• Features vs Benefits--as an example from the Peters article, a feature could be that you anticipate and solve  problems before they become crises. The benefit is the client saves money and headaches just by you being on the team. 

Wrapping

The things that "wrap" your product, such as appearance, word choice, meetings, reports, e-mails, etc. 

Marketing

• The strategic and proactive actions you take and behaviors you use to build and maintain your desired brand and reputation.
• It comes down to this: "It's not just what you know, it's who knows you know it."

"I Inc" Mentality

• Don't wait to be invited.
• Want to be the best. 
• Be accountable.

Part III: Assessing and Developing your own brand

In the few days since taking the class, I have made some progress in this part of the process. But sitting there at the table in group, I really struggled. 

Initiation

First, clarify the desired outcomes of your project. In this case, develop my personal brand. Start by asking yourself: how am I known? How do others experience  me? Do I have a following--an appetite for what I offer? 

Next, determine who will be involved in the project. Who is the Marketplace for "I, Inc"? Start with the answers for the third question above. 

Planning

Create your plan and determine a timeline----what steps do you have to take to complete the project? Define each step, decide who needs to be involved, and set a deadline for completion. I'm still working on this part. My coach, leader, and program cohort will help me with this. 

Execution/Monitoring/Controlling

Put your plan into action, manage changes, gather input and feedback, and work to complete the tasks required to achieve your goal.


As I said before, I've been struggling with this idea. But I'm starting to come around--even just writing this post has helped. By the end of the summer, I'll have it. 

**In addition to the Peters article mentioned, material for this post came from the "Enhancing Your Brand" Participant Guide put together by the Talent Management team of the BCBSMA HR department**

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

About a month ago, I applied and was accepted into a program at work called the Career Enhancement Program (CEP). Included in the program are various excersizes and group meetings meant to teach you not just about the company, but also about yourself. In the end, you should be armed to take your career to the next step.

One of the requirements is to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Commonly known as a "personality test", the MBTI surveys how you would react to and feel about various situations.

Based on the work of Carl Jung and created by mother-daughter team Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers during WWII, the team first published the full MBTI in 1962.

The Types

Isabel Myers developed four pairs of  "preferences". Everyone has all eight prefrences within them that they use according to the situation, but within each pair, you will skew towards one or the other.

The pairs are:

Where you focus attention:
Extraversion (easily relate to the outer world of people and things)
Introversion  (easily relate to the inner world of ideas and impressions)

The way you take in information:
Sensing (interested in what the five senses show, what exists in the present)
Intuition (use imagination to see new possibliities and insights, focus on the future)

The way you make decisions:
Thinking (base decisions on objective analysis and logic)
Feeling   (base decisions on values and people-centered concerns)

How you deal with the outer world:
Judging  (like to have things decided, life is planned and orderly)
Perciving  (don't want to miss anything, life is spontanious and flexable)

Once your questionaire is analized, to find your type, just take the first letter of your preference from each pair. There are 16 different types.


My results

How did I come out? My type is ISTJ--Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging. Remember--these are prefrences--we all have all eight within us, and we switch depending on the situation.


What this means

Like all things, all 16 types have benefits and negatives.

A few of the  benefits for my type:

• Strong sense of responsability and great loyalty to family, organizations, relationships
• Work with steady energy to fulfill commitments
• Go to any trouble to complete something seen as neccessary, but balk at doing anything that doesn't make sense
• Perfer to work alone and have accountablility but will work in teams when needed and when roles are clearly defined
• Have a profound recpect for facts
• Practical, sensible, realistic, sysematic
• Clear and steadfast in opinions
• Believe standard procedures exist because they work. Support change only when facts demonstrate it will bring better results. 

And a few negatives:

• If not developed in Thinking--may not have reliable ways of dealing with the world and instead may be preoccupied with thier internal memories
• If not developed in Sensing--may rush into premature judgements and actions without considering new information
• Generally don't share their wealth of Sensing observations and memories except with close friends
• Others see ISTJ's standards and judgements, but may not see the individual, sometimes humorous, private reactions

I think this is generally pretty accurate. It certainly sounds familiar. 

"Show" "Business"

"There's no business like show business"

                                                             ----Irving Berlin, for Annie Get Your Gun

Berlin's song is meant to be a satirical take on what life is like in show business. But it's true, there really IS no business like show business--an industry that is a special hybrid of the creative and the rational. 

The creative--the "show"--is made of actors, actresses, musicians, writers, set designers, hair, makeup, and wardrobe people, and countless others pooling thier talents to put on a performance that the audience will, ideally, love and talk about in the future. 

But then there's the rational side--the "business".  Like any other industry, there has to always be someone in the office, so to speak, taking care of HR, payroll, hiring, firing, and the thousand other things that have to be done to keep the business in business. 

Above everything else, there's marketing and promotion. Ultimately, nothing else can happen unless these are successful. And in a small business like mine, where I have to be both the creative and the rational, I do it all. 

While my formal training is complete, well, as much as training is ever complete, I have kept my membership at Such A Voice  (SAV) open so I have access to various one-hour webinars. I have recently taken one called  "Taking The Sales Out Of Your Voice", hosted by SAV's Jilllian Nielson. Jillian presented a step by step guide to active marketing-- another way of saying "hitting the streets and hustling work"--as opposed to passive marketing, such as joining a pay to play site like voices.com. (The webinar is geared for VO, but I'm sure the concepts would translate to any industry.)

There are nine steps to the plan, divided into "Getting the Job" and "After the Job".

Getting the Job

Step 1:  Figure out the smaller towns in your area. Ad agencies like to use talent from bigger cities as this adds credability to the job, and makes it easier to get jobs. 

For instance, I'm pretty much right between Boston, MA and Manchester, NH. There are many smaller towns in this area. 

Step 2:  Google a list of ad agencies that handle business in your area (For me, between Boston and Manchester). Focus on any located or have work in the smaller towns, then elimate any that don't have a website. 

Step 3: Check out the sites of the rest. If any handle work that requires--or could require--VO, make a note. And if any do event marketing, think about being an MC. 

Step 4; Once you decide who to contact, fill out the Contact Us form with a simple note including a link to your site/demos. If you have the name of the creative director, even better. Something along the lines of:

---------------------

Dear XXXX, 

My name is Bill Georato. I am writing to let you know that I am available for any voice work you may have. Please find below the link to my site: 

https://www.voices.com/people/william51969

I will follow up next Tuesday. 

Thank you very much for your time, and looking forward to hearing from you. 

Bill Georato

--------------------

The point is to introduce yourself and your availability. Be sure to include the link.....Creative Directors don't have alot of time and you don't want them to have to go hunting for you.

While we're at it, don't forget any local businesses you may personally frequent often. I've already given my business card to my doctor's and dentist's office. And keep in mind local school districts---someone has to record thier phone system messaging, why not you? 

Step 5: Follow up! But do so only when you say you will, not before...or after. Ask if they have any clients for which your voice will fit. Even if they don't at that moment, offer yourself as a resource. Ask if you can keep in touch with them---every quarter is good. 

Step 6:  Congratulations! You got the job! From this point on, it's all about communication. Both you and your client will have expectations....keep all lines open. Ask every question you can think of: What exactly is the job? Local, regional, national? Radio, TV, Internet? Is it a private company IVR? 

Don't forget about post production. Are you or the client responsible? What about music? (This is a big one, if you are responable for this, but don't have access to royalty free--be sure to tell them.)

After the Job

Step 7:  OK, the job is done. Time to invoice; you love what you're doing, but you still want to get paid, after all.  But be sure to wait until the job is completely done. You don't want to have to invoice twice: once for the job, and again for any changes. 

It's best to invoice your clients the first of every month. So, for work done in May, invoice in June. 

You want to have a template with your company logo, name, and address. Itemize the bill relative to your agreement with the client. 

Step 8: Track your business. This is good not only for tax time, but just for your own records. Have a spreadsheet, as detailed as you like, listing all aspects of your work: client name, dates, type of job, date invoiced/paid, which media the job was for (TV, Radio, etc). Details, details, details.

Also have an expense sheet. You want to keep track of money spent on memberships, supplies, etc.


Step 9:   Keep top of mind. Send reminders, thank you notes, holiday greetings (audio!). Use social media to keep in touch. 

So there you have it. Everything you need to know about marketing in one blog post! Well, I suppose not really. But it's a great start. 

The Big Idea

It was born in 1857. Its two most prominent people were an Oxford professor and a Civil War Veteran. It took 70 years to complete, and when it was, it literally defined the English Language.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester, is the true story of how two men from vastly different backgrounds came together and, along with many others, put together the most important dictionary ever created.

The Professor

Born in February 1837, James Murray would grow up to become not the first or last editor of the OED's first edition, but he would be forever known as the most important.

Coming from the Scottish Borderland with an "unpromising, unmoneyed, unsophisticated" start at life, he very quickly proved himself to be an adept student, becoming a lecturer, joining all manner of philosophical societies,  eventually taking a professorship at Oxford.

Later, he would become the editor of the OED, and he fully took charge of the project, which at that point was nearly 20 years old. He instituted a full scale overhaul of procedures. The new plan: have volunteer readers carefully comb through books going back to the 1200's and pick out every interesting word, make precise notes as to the book and page, and cite the sentence the word appears in; then simply send them in. Every reader was given preprinted slips to fill out accordingly.

Murray and his staff would then go through all the slips, which eventually numbered in the millions, categorize them alphabetically, double check citations, write definitions based on the citations and common knowledge,  and send them to Murray himself, who would do the final edits on pronunciation and definitions.

The Madman

William Chester Minor was born in 1834 in the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to missionaries of the Congregationalist Church. There he lived until he was 14 when he was sent to live with relatives in New Haven, Connecticut. He graduated Yale in 1863 as a medical doctor.

He joined the Union Army, but after the horrors of war, he moved to London, England, when, in 1871, he shot a man to death. The British authorities diagnosed him with what today we would call paranoia and schizophrenia (most likely brought on by the war) and sentenced him to life at the Broadmoore Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

There he stayed (late in life he was allowed to go home to his brother in CT), a brilliant man with nothing to do...until the OED came along. He was allowed to work on the project, and for nearly 30 years, he combed his books and became one of the most prolific contributors to the work.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Now we come the the final major character in Winchester's tale: the Dictionary itself. There have been dictionaries before; the idea goes back to the ancient Greeks. And there were earlier English dictionaries. But none of these earlier projects were bold enough to take on every single word --scientific and common, vulgar and sophisticated; every noun, verb (in all tenses), pronoun, article---- everything in the English language.

When all was said and done, the OED's first edition:

Defined 414,825 words
Had over 1.8 million quotations
One complete set (12 volumes) had 127 miles of paper, and over 200 million letters, numbers, punctuation marks and spaces, all hand set and letter-pressed.


Winchester's book, known in Britain as The Surgeon of Crowethorne, is a mere 242 pages long, but it is an epic tale which is gripping and well written. It is fascinating how two men with such different backgrounds and experiences would come together, and not only be colleagues from afar--Oxford was only about an hour away by train, but it would take Minor and Murray almost 20 years before they meet--but the close friendship they forge when they do finally meet.

Each chapter starts with the OED's complete entry for a word that describes the theme or events of the chapter. This is a very interesting device, and you learn some vocabulary along the way.

I had been eyeing this book for years, and I'm glad I finally took the time to read it. As William Safire said at the time it came out, "The linguistic detective story of the decade." Indeed it is.

A Launch Letter

"Launch Letter".  A few weeks ago, I had never heard that term. Now, I have one of my own.

A launch letter is something a new business sends out to friends, family, and prospective clients with the purpose of introducing the business and some relevant background on the people and industry.  In this case, the business is me, and what better way to start sending it out than a blog post.

So, with no further delay, here it is.

Dear,

My name is Bill Georato, Voice-Over Artist. Why voice-over? Well, I have always had an interest in entertainment, I had one line in my middle school production of A Christmas Carol, but it really started in college. As a DJ on college radio, first at WUMF 100.5FM (University of Maine-Farmington) co-hosting Bill and Matt’s Excellent Radio Show, then at WWLR 92FM (Lyndon State College, Lyndonville, VT) hosting my own show, Bill’s Basement, I learned how to use my voice. Over time, working in education as a middle school science teacher, and later as a health insurance  member service representative and finally volunteer presenter at the Museum of Science-Boston, I honed my voice and presentation skills teaching students and  visitors scientific principles through demonstrations and discussion. These aspects of my career- formal and informal education, and customer care- all have one thing in common: voice and presentation. This brings us to the final piece of the puzzle--formal voice-over training. One day, I was leafing through the local Adult Education brochure and saw a one night seminar being presented by Such A Voice out of Vermont. I took the class and decided that I wanted to pursue this as a career.

The voice-over industry is no longer simply radio and TV. These are still part of it, of course--Mike Rowe’s narration on Deadliest Catch, or Bob Saget on  How I Met Your Mother, for example--but there is so much more. Video games, audiobooks, GPS systems, talking greeting cards, home phone answering machines, and the recorded announcements at the airport are all voice-over. There are all kinds of voice-over in business and education too: E-learning programs, PSA’s, HR orientation videos, and IVR/Corporate voice-mail systems. Even Siri herself.

If you are in need of a voice talent, or know of someone who does, please send me their contact information. It will be kept in good hands. Thank you for your time and consideration, and looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Bill Georato

tinyurl.com/williamgvoice