Tag: Advice

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Unprocrastinate

Have you downloaded my new voice over eBook, “25 Things To Do When You’ve Got Nothing To Do” yet? It’s a collection of 25 ideas of how to maximize downtime between sessions. Below is one of the chapters.

You know what I love to do? Not do the things I don’t love to do. I’m awesome at it.

“I’ll get to that later.” Famous last words, right?

Do we ever get to it later? How much later? I don’t know about you, but when it’s something I really don’t want to do or don’t enjoy doing, it can be a lot later. A lot.

Let’s face it, we all love the fun stuff. The stuff we’re getting paid for. We love recording scripts and editing audio and delivering finished voice overs and collecting payments for our work.

But what don’t you love?

Accounting and bookwork? Marketing? Cold calling? Social media? Client follow up? How big is that stack of expense receipts you haven’t documented and filed yet? When’s the last time you updated your website?

Whatever it is you’re procrastinating on doing, now’s the time, when you’ve got nothing else to do, to un-procrastinate.

25-things-to-do-ebookGet Your Free Copy Now





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Desperation

You know what sucks? A slow day.

You know what sucks worse? A slow week!

You know what sucks the most? A slow season!

I don’t care if you’ve been doing voice over for ten days, ten months or ten years, you’re going to experience all of the above. It’s the nature of the business. Some days, weeks, and seasons are naturally busier than others.

Dry Spells

When the slow times hit it’s really easy to panic. I’ve been doing voice over work for a very long time, and when I go through a slow period, I still start to sweat sometimes. I mean, this is my income! It’s how I support myself. Pay my rent. Buy Dr Pepper!

When I talk to voice actors who are looking for advice, one of the common themes I find among those in dry-spells is a sense of desperation.

I get it. Believe me… I get it!

My first year doing VO full time I made something like $13,000. I had plenty of desperate days!!

What I learned along the way, though, is the desperation… it’s really bad. It gets in your head. It affects your confidence. In turn, it comes through in everything you do.

Desperation

desperate-timesDesperation seeps into your voice in your auditions.

It changes the tone and language of your marketing.

It affects how you interact with clients.

Desperation chips away at your perceived value.

It’s a subtle thing. One you may not even realize. Take it from someone who’s been there, done that. What I’m telling you, it’s true.

Desperation will hurt your business.

Push Forward

What do you do, then? How do you push through the dry-spells? How do you keep your confidence high? How do you fight the desperation when the gigs aren’t coming and the bank account is getting low?

You treat every audition like you’ve already booked it.

You treat every prospect like they’re already a client.

You market yourself like a pro.

You value yourself like a pro.

You remember that, heck yeah I’m good enough!

And seasons change!

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