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What Are You Making Time For?

“But Marc, I’m too busy to market.”

“But Marc, I don’t have enough time for marketing.”

“But Marc, I have a full-time day job.”

“But Marc, I have a wife and two kids and a dog and a cat and a gold fish and an alpaca.”

I’ve heard them all and then some. People are forever blaming their lack of success on their lack of time. They may not always say it that way exactly. They may not even see if that way. It all comes down to that, though, in the end. People blame a lack of time.

How Are You Spending Your Time?

Yet…

You binge watch your favorite show(s) on Netflix… and Prime… and Hulu.

You’ve got 20 minutes to play Candy Crush while you’re on the toilet.

You always seem to fit in your afternoon nap.

You spend 20 minutes standing in the shower yawning every morning.

You’ve read all the Harry Potter books… twice.

You spent two weeks beating the last game you bought for your Xbox.

You don’t even realize that all those five minute Facebook visits add up to two hours a day.

You watch Monday Night Football… Thursday Night Football… Sunday all day Football.

You have enough time to complain to your coach that you don’t have enough time.

How Successful People Spend Time

Without even realizing it, you’re literally wasting hours every day on things that might be nice or fun or entertaining; maybe even things that you think are important. But all those things aren’t going to get you one step closer to your goals.

Successful people are people who invest time.

Successful people are people who respect time.

Successful people are people who protect time.

If Jeff Bezos can build a trillion dollar company with the same 24 hours a day you’ve got… trust me… you can find the time to do the marketing you need to be doing to book the voice over work you want to be booking.

What are you waiting for?

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What’s Your One Thing?

Everything isn’t a priority.

Repeat that phrase. Out loud.

“Everything isn’t a priority.”

When you allow your task list to continue to grow, eventually you begin to feel overwhelmed. Once you feel overwhelmed, you end up getting stuck.

“Where do I start?”

When you don’t have an answer to that question, you end up not starting at all. You get paralyzed. Stuck.

Are you nodding your head in frustrated agreement right now because I just summarized your current state?

The best way to overcome it, is to figure out The One Thing.

What’s the MOST important thing you need to be doing right now? No… for the record… they aren’t ALL important!

Pick the one thing.

Take the first step.

Task lists can be great tools when they’re used properly. That includes prioritizing them.

Everything isn’t a priority.#vopreneur
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What’s Your One Thing?

What NEEDS to be done and what you’d like to do aren’t always the same thing.

Do what NEEDS to be done.

What is it?

  • Finding some new leads?
  • Sending some follow up emails?
  • Making a few marketing touches on social media?
  • Chasing down a couple of invoices?
  • Finally booking a session with that performance coach?
  • Reaching out to those past clients?
  • Writing and mailing a couple postcards?
  • Posting that new demo on your website?
  • Getting that website built?

One of the reasons I’m able to stay so productive is because I know what’s important and what isn’t. I plan out my week for success by choosing just a few goals that will get accomplished and not worrying about the rest.

Prioritize and take action.

Even small action.

Any action is better than no action.

Yes… you’ve got a million things that need to get done. They don’t all need to get done today.

Figure out your one thing and get started. Deal with the rest tomorrow.

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The Best Way to Get Things Done is Get Started

Is there an aspect of your voice over business you’ve been procrastinating on?

Of course there is!

You’ve been putting it off for how long? Days? Weeks? Months?

Lots of great “reasons,” you tell yourself. But really, it’s just a bunch of lousy excuses. Mostly, it’s probably just a project you aren’t excited about, but you know you need to get done, but you keep putting it off.

“I’ll do that later,” you tell yourself.

Later never comes.

“Marc, get out of my head,” you’re proclaiming, whilst shaking your fist at the computer screen.

The Best Way to Get Things Done is Get Started

Each Sunday evening, I sit down with my journal and write out some goals for the week. They’re written (in ink) in my journal, as a commitment. I also write them on a dry-erase board hanging beside my desk so I can have them constantly in my face throughout the day as reminder.

Like you, I’m really good at “putting off” some of those projects I’m less enthused about.

Thing is, when they’re in my journal and in my face on the dry-erase board, it makes it a lot harder to avoid / ignore them.

Which means, more often than not, those daily reminders force me to get started.

After all, if I don’t get the goals crossed off, then I feel like I failed at the end of the week, and that’s FAR more frustrating than working on a project I’ve been avoiding.

Momentum Builds

This evening, I sat down with once such project. I’ll work on it for 20 or 30 minutes, I told myself. Just enough to get the ball rolling. That way, I’ve committed a little, and I can just keep plugging away in bite-sized time chunks the rest of the week.

That was a little over three hours ago and guess what.

The project I was avoiding is now completely finished and it feels awesome!

“Motivation is a myth. If you want to get things done, just make a decision to get started.”
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Motivation is a Myth

“I don’t feel like it.”

“I’m not inspired.”

“I have no motivation.”

Ever use any of those lines?

Let me tell you right now… they’re all crap. Every last one of them.

Crap!

Make a decision to do it. Get started. Get it done.

That’s how this works.

I know it. You probably do too.

Tonight, I proved it to myself… yet again.

So… what are you going to go get started on?

When you start (and probably work until you’re finished), send me a note. We’ll celebrate your success together! marc[at]marcscottvoiceover.com

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Want To Get More Done? Do This…

When you’re a small business owner, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by everything you need to get done during the day. Emails. Auditions. Bookings. Customer service. Marketing. Social Media. Bookwork. The list goes on and on and on.

Where do you start?

How do you prioritize?

What gets checked off?

For years I fell for the myth of multi-tasking. I genuinely believed I could do ten different things at once, achieving maximum productivity and efficiency.

So I was an idiot. What can I say?

Let me be the first to stand boldly and proclaim, multi-tasking is lie and you can’t do ten things at once achieving maximum productivity and efficiency. Oh, and for those of you reading whispering under your breath right now, “yes I can. I’m a mom.” Sorry… no you can’t!

Want To Get More Done? Do This…

People often ask me how I managed to do everything I do. Make videos. Write blogs. Market my services. Find new leads. Send auditions. Book voice overs. Renovate my house. Spend time with family. Make an appearance daily on all the social networks, etc… etc… etc…

Want to know the secret? I focus on one thing at time.

Each day I know what needs to get done.

  1. I set goals.
  2. I set priorities.
  3. I set time blocks.
  4. I cross off one at a time.
You can’t focus on ten tasks at once and achieve maximum productivity and efficiency.
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This method has allowed me to accomplish far more than I never did when I was doing ten things at once. Not only do I get more done, but it’s done better as well!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by everything your business requires, do the same thing for yourself. It works. Trust me!

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5 Glorified Work Habits We Need to Break

I’m a recovering workaholic. Since a very young age, I’ve always held down at least two or three different jobs. Maybe I bore easily? Maybe I just need more friends? Or maybe I’m just so goal oriented that I’ll do whatever it takes to achieve those goals… including working too much!

Either way, now that I’m a bit older, I’ve definitely changed my perspective on certain practices that I used to think were essential to creating and growing a business.

Glorifying Overwork: Nobody ever shares a status update that they just had a glorious 12 hour sleep. But everybody shares a status update when they work at 12 hour day. Or a double shift. Or they’re working seven days straight. Or they started at 6am and are still plugging away at 3am. We want people to notice when we work hard so they can pat us on the bum and say, “good job!”

I totally get it. I’ve been that guy.

I’m not so much anymore. There’s really nothing cool about working like a slave. I’d also argue that there’s very little productive about it either.

Glorifying No Downtime: This ties into the first one. How many people do you know who can’t remember their last vacation? Their last weekend away? Their last day off without their phone or portable rig in tow? Are you one of those people? I certainly used to be one of those people. I was the guy who left his phone on all night and would wake up at 3:30a (if I had even gone to bed) to answer emails.

It’s ridiculous. And unsustainable. Take it from a guy who’s suffered burnout! More than once.

Instead of glorifying your commitment to 24 / 7 labour – which is likely less about your commitment and more about your craving for negative attention – go away for a weekend. A whole weekend. Don’t take your rig. Just go and relax and be present. Your long term business success will thank you!

We need to stop glorifying negative work habits and focus on creating positive ones!
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Glorifying Yes Men: Once upon a time, I tried to do absolutely everything all on my own. I said yes to every project. Yes to every request. Yes to every client. After all, saying no might mean I’d miss out on an opportunity, right? Oh, I missed out on opportunities, alright! Like opportunities to have fun. Opportunities to enjoy my business. Opportunities to love my work. Opportunities to get better.

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in the last few years of full-time voice over is the importance of saying no. That in doing so, I’m actually do myself a favor in the long term. You can’t do everything. You shouldn’t do everything. That’s hard to accept when you’re self-employed and trying to get paid. But it’s true.

Know your strengths and your limitations and make good choices accordingly.

Glorifying Others: There are legends in the voice over business. Just like there are in any business. People who seems to shine just a little brighter. People who book the bigger projects. Land the bigger agents. Make the bigger dollars. It’s ok to respect these people. It’s also important not to put them on such a pedestal that you begin to doubt yourself and your own abilities.

“Oh, I’ll never be as good as [insert name here].”

We all have the same 24 hours each day. We all put our pants on one leg at a time. We all have the same opportunities to pursue and achieve success. Learn from the people who are further down the road than you, but don’t make them so big that you convince yourself what they’ve accomplished is unattainable.

Glorifying Busyness: “Just look at my task list. It’s got 273 items on it!” “Have you seen my schedule? It’s packed!” “I’ve got 14 browser windows open and I’m simultaneously using every last one of them… while I eat a sammich!”

Don’t confuse busyness with success. Don’t confuse multitasking with productivity. Just because you have a hundred things to do, or are currently doing one hundred things, doesn’t mean you’re being productive. In fact, more often than not, multitasking does nothing but diminish productivity. (This has been proven time and again through science and research).

If you accomplish one big goal each day, it’s entirely possible you’ll go ten times further than the person trying to accomplish 75!

Being intentional will serve you far more than being busy.

Maybe it all summarizes by simply reminding you to run your race? Or maybe it goes a little deeper.

Really, it’s about being strategic. Intentional. Making choices that have the most benefit to you and your business… long term! Sometimes that does involve a day off. Or saying no. Or reminding yourself you can do this!

It’s possible to be successful and sleep too!

I wish someone had told me that 20 years ago!