The New Year has begun-Mother Nature says Good Morning!

The new year has begun, and I’ve decided to clarify and work with developing my Core Values and Goals, rather than develop a list of resolutions. These values determine how I live my life, relate to clients and friends, and generally move ahead in 2012.

On the voice over scene this includes more training, focused marketing, networking with colleagues – helping out where I can, I’ve already tweaked my studio space a bit, and re-doing the website with a new host.

On the personal side it includes getting out and about more, and continuing my studies with inspirational, positive materials, people and podcasts. As well as developing my Japanese, and budding Italian language skills more fully.

It also includes appreciating nature. Remember to take time to look around and see the beauty in life. Here are some piccies which I took this morning! Walking forward there was a beautiful red, orange and rose coloured sunrise. Whilst behind me, the moon was still out. It was so cool! Then a few minutes later, I noticed the moon was disappearing and on its way to bed. Nature is wonderful. Total gratitude to start my day off with such wonderful sights!

jan 2012 sunrise

jan 2012 moon a m

jan 2012 moon2 a m

Happy Holidays

Enjoy the holidays, and try not to let anything get you down!

Here are some photos to brighten your day. They were taken at various places such as the Birmingham Christmas market, the London Hyde park Winter Wonderland festival, and here and there!

Cheers! Happy holidays/Solstice!

winterwonderland

cmas galleria

birmingham1

birmingham3

crimbotree uh forum

mincepiecinnamon

Environment Equals Energy

I decided the other day that it was time to change my Voiceover working environment. Short of tearing up walls, or building an addition on to the house what else could I do? I decided to try and change the energy of my recording environment. I moved furniture around and changed the location of the mic and installed a more sound absorbing material around the perimeters of my recording space.

Then I found some inspirational pictures and hung them on the walls of my recording space. These were just small changes, but what a difference it made in the feel of my little “booth”. It felt very comfortable and cosy. Next on my wish list was “smell”. I envisioned filling the space with a fragrance that energised, but didn’t overpower. I found my special spray at a Mind, Body and Spirit festival. It’s made from herbs and essential oils which I spray in the area before every recording session. NOTE: This would be a definite faux pas in an outside studio where perfume, etc. is a no no! So don’t try this in the field kids. But at home, it’s a kind of signal to my mind that it’s time to do some very special work.

One thing I discovered after shifting everything is I have more room to move around as I record whilst still remaining on-mic. Nice! Because the space has now become fresh and new, I feel more creative and ready to work. I’m also purchasing some additional software which has different capacities than my current recording programme. So I can be more flexible in meeting a client’s requirements by being able to switch between different programmes as needed.

It’s good to keep ourselves on our toes and always moving ahead in a positive way. It’s great how change in one area of life spills over into the others. It’s good I think to keep our personal environment in a way that pleases and enriches us. If we are happy and productive then we’re in a better position to be useful and serve others.

How are you enhancing your working environment – whatever your career might be? Or maybe you’ve already done the work and are totally content and cool with where you are right now! Life is grand!

Cheers!

Manage Your Mind

The other day I received an email from one of my favourite places in Covent Garden. The Inner Space centre. They hold various self improvement, mind improvement seminars as well as daily free meditation sessions.

I haven’t been there lately due to various work commitments, but I still think of it and the staff fondly.

In this piece of theirs, they make a great analogy between our minds and computers. A lot of this philosophy applies to general life, as well as life as a voiceover artist.

Once that audition is completed, or emailed…it’s done. There’s no need to have it hanging around occupying space in our minds. We did our best. We’re either the voice that the potential client hears in his or her head, or we’re not. It’s a matter of selection, not rejection. Off to the next audition, and our turn will come to shine. And we can make our OWN turn and fortune via self-initiated projects.

Here’s the Inner Space article!

Ctrl-Alt-Del
Just as the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys are used to interrupt the operation of a malfunctioning program on your computer, sometimes, we too, need to interrupt our mind by exercising Ctrl-Alt-Del.

Ctrl (Control): Take control of your life, take 100% responsibility and clearly understand what you want.

Alt (Alternate): Look for alternatives to get different results. See things with a different perspective.

Del (Delete): Delete all negativity in your life including attitudes and habits that are not working for you.

Cheers!

And, when you’re in the mood for browsing, please feel free to nip over to my FB page for arts,crafts and jewellry news– http://www.facebook.com/BeadedDelightsByStef

Autumn’s Beauty

I’ve been enjoying myself these past few days enjoying the blessing of the change of seasons. Everything’s becoming painted in glorious oranges, yellows and reds.

It’s been very refreshing to go outside after spending time in the voiceover space recording, editing, podcasting, and auditioning for various projects.

I also got a chance to catch the last batch of roses in bloom.

Here’s a mini photo essay! Enjoy!

autumnalroses

autumnalleaves2

autumnalgrapeleaf

autumnalacornsleaf

Some of the best voiceover advice on the planet

I came across this post by my voiceover colleague Doug Turkel via Facebook. This is one of the most amazing articles that I have read on growing and maintaining a voiceover career.

Doug’s blog is titled “50+ Vital Business Resources for Voiceover Talent”. I’ll be reading, re-reading this article and applying this knowledge starting now.

Thank You Doug!

Here’s the link:

http://dougturkel.com/blog/2011/09/08/50-vital-business-resources-for-voiceover-talent/

Cheers!

Believe In Yourself

category lifestyle,voiceover,careerandwork]

This is the entire post. The previous post of this title is missing some copy!

This was posted by my colleague Michael Wilcox on Facebook.
It’s great motivation for us voiceoverist and anyone, really, who has a dream!

“Always believe in you. Listen to
your heart. Trust your instiincts. Know you can.
See your own strengths. Dream it~Dare it. Do what
you are afraid of. Keep the faith. Follow your vision.
Remember anything is possible….if you believe.”

I had to comment to Michael with the following addition:

“And you do the work. Trying this way and that till you succeed!”

I believe that we’ve got to be proactive and put in the hours, days, weeks, months to make the dream.

Keep dreaming, training, working, believing and it WILL all work out in the end! Which will in fact, be the BEGINNING…of a new, better and higher phase in our lives!

Cheers!

The Winning Team

Attention VoiceOver pals, non voicies…

Who’s on the winning team?

I am!

YOU are!

Here’s a fantastic video that was passed on to me by one of my podcast and twitter colleagues, @mikeleighcooper.  Enjoy!

It’s so wonderful when you meet a voice over pal that you’ve only known via the internet. My friend from the vo-bb Chuck Davies was recently visiting here in London. Chuck, his wife Kate, and I met up at a pub in Covent Garden and spent some pleasant time getting to know each other.

Fabbo!

When I’m not voicing, I’m here:

BeadedDelightsByStef

It’s my Facebook page for cool arts, culture and crafts news! Please pop by for a visit and a “like”. >^..^<

Know thyself! Let’s evaluate and grow.

This came in my email  from “inner space” the other day, and it’s so short, so simple…yet at the same time so powerful.

It’s about how to grow and improve as a person, but on reading the article again I dare say this could apply to how we see ourselves as professional voice artists/talent as well.

Quality List

Ask yourself:

What am I good at?

What are my strengths and special attributes?

What can people rely on me for?

How do I make others happy?

How have I overcome challenges?

Today, make time to list your best qualities.  Focus on the good

in you and watch it grow.

I’ve recently gotten myself listed on the new google+ site. One more bit to add to the social media soup mix. The interesting thing is, while many of those in my circles are my favourite voice over colleagues, I find that I’m meeting many new people who are outside of my career circle.  Somehow, I’m meeting people from various groups with whom I didn’t cross paths  previously – even though we were members of the same online (and offline) groups. It’s quite interesting and wonderful. It’s kind of like a ripples in a pond and the circles are getting wider and wider. Brilliant!

If you’re looking, I can be found here:

My google+ page

All for now….enjoy your summer!

Oh, I almost forgot…my new podcast episode is now live. I learned a little bit about The Pomodoro (time management) Technique, and speak of it in the podcast. It’s totally new to me, so I’ll be blogging more later about the results of my experiments with this technique! Here’s the link for the podcast:

stefsvoice4youBroadcast

Cheers!

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VoiceOver Bits – Positive Thinking – Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July to all my friends and colleagues in the US. It’s not a holiday week-end over here in England, but still there are lots of festivals going on and the weather’s great.

Rodney Saulsberry’s got a new YouTube video out – Practice Fast Commercial Tags With Rodney Saulsberry – I’m looking forward to adding that to my repetoire of pre audition/gig warmups. Here’s the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umXojMruUSg&feature=youtu.be

Penny Abshire of the Voice Acting Academy wrote a really powerful list of 7 Ways to Maintain a Positive (and grateful) Attitude. It’s brilliant. With Penny’s permission, I’m reprinting it here. You can find their URL on the right hand side of my page.

7 Ways to Maintain a Positive (and grateful) Attitude

1. Keep a “Happy File.” Keep a file or box full of special things – birthday cards, an encouraging note, an award you’ve won, a love letter, a special picture, etc. When you are feeling low, take a few moments to look through the file. As you do, allow yourself to feel the same emotion of pride, love or excitement you did when you received that letter, award or card.

2. Train yourself to “turn it around!” When a negative thought enters your mind, find that one extremely positive thought you keep in reserve (your touchstone), see it clearly, feel it, and then push out the negative thought! Positive and negative thoughts can’t co-exist in the mind and positive thoughts are much stronger!

3. Keep a Gratitude Journal. Take a moment each day to write down something you are grateful for in your life. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. (For instance, I am VERY grateful for the hot water I receive at a twist of a knob each morning when I take my shower.)

4. Develop the habit of daily prayer. Like any other parent, our Father in Heaven wants to hear from us. He wants to hear how we are feeling, He wants to hear about our trials, He wants to enjoy our successes and most of all, He wants to help us. So, when life gets dark and dreary, don’t forget to pray!

5. Remove negative self-talk from your vocabulary: “What a dumb thing to do!…..How could I be so stupid?……I’m an idiot!…..I am so fat!” You see, your subconscious doesn’t know the difference between fact and fiction. Keep telling it you’re incapable, stupid and fat and guess what you’ll be?

6. Develop the habit of consciously thinking about how you’d want tomorrow to be. Play it out in your mind before you fall asleep – see it like a movie. If you write a positive, happy “script” you’re more likely to have a good tomorrow! (For instance, “I wake refreshed and feeling confident. I enjoy a wonderful hot shower and then a delicious breakfast. I look forward to starting my day,” etc.)

7. Count Your Blessings! Whenever you start “feeling sorry for yourself,” get out that Gratitude Journal or your Happy File (or make the list in your head) and start concentrating on all the incredible blessings you have in your life – from the largest to the smallest. Pretty soon, you will be feeling so much gratitude that you will forget why you were feeling down.

New Arts and Jewellry Facebook Page

One of my colleagues suggested I start a separate FB page for my jewellry and crafty bits (my FBook account is for my voiceover business). So, taking his excellent and respected advice, I started a FBook arts and jewellry page a couple of days ago.

It’s a bit lonely over there with a few likes. If you don’t mind, can you visit my page and – if you feel so inspired – “like” it ? Thanks so much!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/BeadedDelightsByStef/201721309873775

Cheers all!

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