It’s voiceoverly habitual

Like the 7 habits of effective people book, Seth Godin has come up with a list of habits good and bad – that I feel we’d do well to be on the lookout for within oursrelves and cultivate or prune, as necessary.

Here’s the article!

“Seth’s Blog : Habit #7

The habit of being easily persuaded by mass media

The habit of doing it right instead of doing it over

The habit of responding to nastiness with nastiness

The habit of failing to trust people who care

The habit of wasting time in meetings

The habit of being on time

The habit of avoiding things that cause fear

The habit of reading ahead

The habit of doing more than promised

The habit of expanding personal knowledge and experience

The habit of skepticism

The habit of close talking

The habit of generosity…

There’s a million habits out there, some good, some bad, all learned.

Every habit (your market, your family, your organization has) was formed because people got rewarded for it, at least in the short run.

The thing is, every habit is changeable with effort.”

Have you got any tips on good habits that one should cultivate as an entrepreneur?

I’ll start the list off with two:
Discipline and consistency!

Bye for now…

Sent from Samsung Mobile

90 minutes to build your voiceover career

We are always very busy carrying out a balancing act between managing our voiceover careers and our other commitments.

I came across this blog entry by Susan of the great voice company which offers some very sound advice.

It’s aimed at newbies, but I think there’s useful content in it for all of us no matter what our level! I certainly found it helpful.

Here it is:

How to Find the Time To Start Your Voice Over Career By Susan Berkley

Busy? Me too. Yet if you’re like me, you want it all and you’re always thinking ahead, looking for ways to make your life more enjoyable and productive Problem is, where do you find the time to work on your new voice over career?

In this week’s Inside Voice Over, I’ve got some great advice. It’s from a very busy friend of mine Julie Steinbacher, an elder law attorney and mother of three. Julie developed a method she calls ‘Chunk It’ where she divides her time into focused 90 minute blocks of productive activity.

Here’s how it works.

Face the facts Let’s be realistic here. The day will never come when you’ll have long interrupted stretches of days or weeks to work on your voice over career. To start getting real results, all you need is 90 focused, uninterrupted minutes a day to work on your voice over career. But the key here is that time must be focused and uninterrupted. I believe anyone can find that time. . Get up a little earlier or go to bed a little later. Turn off the TV. Order take out dinner once or twice a week. And then make the commitment to sit down and do it.

Ramp up Time All tasks require ramp up time to get focused and gather your thoughts. When you switch from one task to another, you waste precious time getting ready. 90 minutes is just enough time to get focused and really get some work done.

Optimal Concentration Brain research shows that 90 minutes is an optimal amount of time for your brain to focus. After that it starts to get tired. In fact, researchers recommend that for optimal concentration, we take a short break every 90 minutes or so before returning to our desk for our next 90 minute chunk of time..

No Interruptions When working in a chunk, nothing should disturb you. Don’t go to the bathroom, don’t check email, don’t answer the phone, don’t talk to family members. This is a completely uninterrupted chunk of focused time. According to Julie, anything can wait for 90 minutes. Your productivity will really soar when you discipline yourself this way.

Use a Timer Stick with your task and don’t leave your seat until the bell goes off I’m always amazed at how much I can get done in 90 focused minutes when I concentrate this way.

Hang in there! An author recently completed a book in only 6 months working in 3 uninterrupted 90 minute chunks of time each day. She started early, finished work by 3 PM and still had time to go for a run in between two of her chunks.

And there you are! What tips do you have on managing your voiceover career lifestyle time?

Susan’s website is: http://www.greatvoice.com

Cheers for now!
Stefania

Train No. 2013 has left the station!

It’s a bit over a week into the new year and the clean up, clear up, move up campaign continues.

You might have noticed the absence of the fluffy pink borders on this blog page. The colours matched my old website, but that one has been replaced for some time. So it’s time for the energy here to be freshened up, updated and brought into line with my current VoiceOver website. Next in line were the Testimonials and About Me pages. I hadn’t looked at them in some time. Next, it was a visit to my LinkedIn page for some tweaking. Maybe I’ve been a bit too much nose to the grindstone lately. When we make progress in our lives and careers we should mark and celebrate it!

Have you checked out your blogs, websites, and social media pages to make sure that the message that you’re sending out reflects you and your product as you are today?

What kind of tweaking and revamping have you been doing or plan to do?

Another top thing on my list is more VoiceOver training. One can never be too good, and have learned everything there is to know about the field. Things change everyday. Even watching the telly or listening to the radio is often study time for me. I’ve been watching lots of animations and narrative-type documentaries lately. And, in addition to in-person work, there’s distance learning, and there’s the Weekend Workout programme as well. I’ve fallen off the wagon on that one a bit. Time to get back on the horse!

I’m finding James Alburger’s book, The Art of Voice Acting – 4th edition, The Art of Voice Acting: The Craft and Business of Performing Voiceover to be quite an interesting piece of work. It makes a good refresher study, and I’m picking up some new ideas as well. The CD that comes with the book is handy to, because I can hear examples of what the book is covering and I’ve put a few bits on my iPod as well.

There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is by Elaine Clark, There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is: The Insider’s Guide to a Career in Voice-overs is a valuable resource as well.

That’s it for today. May you be blessed, prosperous, happy and busy in this new year. Go out and let it happen! Cheers!

Please visit us Facebook for crafts,culture and arts news!

My podcast of storytelling and positive-inspirational messages.

Positive Affirmations and Audio Stories.

Merry Christmas, belated Happy Solstice, happy holidays

I hope everyone’s having a wonderful holiday, celebrating in whatever way brings happiness and cheer!

I’ll be spending part of this holiday season planning voiceover and crafting strategies for 2013…this includes more training, auditions, and self initiated voiceover projects. The winter solstice events also gave me a good opportunity to align myself spiritually, and prepare to move forward.

A lot of my VO peers – and friends outside of my VO world – have been through a lot of challenges and positive changes over 2012. And they’re still standing tall and strong. Blessings to us all.

Here are some photos gathered thus far – including our homemade Yule log.

Happy hols everyone!

Stefania
http://www.stefsvoice4u.co.uk
http://www.positiveaffirmationsandaudiostories.co.uk

yulelog23 12 12 picsay

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gingerbredman picsay

sketch226152441 picsay

A lesson on Friendship from Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have been really blessed to have many supportive, lovely friends both in the voiceover community and across the internet (and in the non-internet world too). I’ve started a website centering around  Positive Affirmations (http://www.positiveaffirmationsandaudiostories.co.uk  ), and recently narrated a “Quote of the Week” on Friendship.

I’m re-broadcasting it here and dedicating it to all the wonderful online and offline friends that I now know, and have known. They’ve been with me through good times and bad.  I shall do my best to continue to be a good friend to you as well. Blessings and thanks to you all!

 

Be Yourself!

As this is a bank holiday week end here in England, today’s post is a short one.

It’s a mini post of sorts, but the picture says it all.

Be yourself…as you are (not including personal self improvement) is good enough! You CAN make your dreams come by recognising and celebrating your own personal value, and what you “bring to the party!”

I love this poster. I found it on Facebook!

Cheers!

http://www.stefsvoice4u.co.uk
http://www.positiveaffirmationsandaudiostories.co.uk

My A-Z of Voiceover, Vol. 2

A-Z of Voiceover Revisited

Here’s my new updated A-Z

A- analyse your copy before beginning to record. There’s a time for rip and read, but it’s really best if I know where I’m headed and where my transitions are.

B- baseline. I have a baseline in terms of investments/fees that I require for any given job. I’m open to negotiation, of course, but if the offer is quite a bit less than the baseline, I use the “delete” button or refer the talent seeker to another source.

C- courage. If you’re not making the progress that you want to in your have the courage to ask for professional help to see where improvement is needed, and follow the advice received. A little coaching can go a long way.

D- diction. Get some tutoring if you need to. Tongue twisters are great. There are even apps for that!

E- effort. Put love and your best effort into every transaction.

F- friends. i love my online friends and the offline ones too. We don’t have to go it alone.

G- gratitude. every day is a blessing!

H- happy. stay happy. if a home recording session gets you tied in knots – take a break and raise your mood, then give it another go. works for me (most of the time).

I- interest. keep interested in many things. i never know what subjects i’ll be asked to voice. so it pays to learn to pick up the big picture of a subject quickly.

J- joy. even a small project can be a blessing. so be joyous.

K- kind. be kind to everyone, even voice seekers who offer ridiculous sums of money which we have to turn .

L – life. put life into reads. let it reflect our own individual personality.

M – money. it’s a very good thing. keep on top if monies due to you. Set fees according to your needs and goals.

N – Not a problem! Within reason, be willing to go the extra mile for your clients.

O- Optimise – get the optimum quality that you can out of your sound system. Get the optimum out of your website too. Google SEO for more info.

P – Perfect …edit your recordings to the best level of perfection that you can manage.

Q- Respond quickly to audition requests and client or prospective client queries.

R – Relax. when times are slow keep a determined but relaxed attitude. It’ll get better eventually. Multiple streams of income help life go a lot more smoothly!

S- Smile. Peeps can hear it in your recording, and a colleague advises that it’s good for clear “s” sounds.

T – Train. Always keep training, learning and sharpening your VO skills.

U – Keep your contact details up to date.

V- Voice. Keep your voice in good shape with exercises, practice and warm ups.

W – website that’s mobile device friendly. move with the times!

X- Xtra. Voiceover Extra run by John Florian, is a fabby site with great and helpful articles by industry experts.

Y – You Tube is great source of inspiration with lots of interesting voiceover interviews, tutorials and other good stuff. There’s a lot of nonsense there too so discriminate!

Z – Zest. Enjoy your voiceover career, enjoy your life with Zest!

Cheers!

P.s. Artsy craftsy all the way, that’s me! http://facebook.com/BeadedDelightsByStef

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The voices.com app Review

I just wanted to jot down and share a few of my first impressions from my personal exoerience of the new voices.com app available in the iTunes store. This is just me! Others may have had better experiences, so this isn’t a judgement carved in stone.

I was very disappointed. I installed it twice and it let me down each time [:(]. I tried to listen to a demo and the app absolutely crashed. Went out , and then back into app, -no go.

Then full of faith, I reinstalled the app this morning to give it another go, selected a generic demo from my list, clicked on send audition ( I think that’s the wording.), and got some kind of message that the app couldn’t do it. So that was my experience — deleted the app for a second and final time.

I think it has worked brilliantly for some people but I think I’ll take a miss and audition via the voices.com website.

Cheery bye-bye for now…
Stefania

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Taking Control

Continuing on with my self development theme for voice artists/actors and people of all trades, really.

Here is a brilliant article which came in my email from the fabby, inspirational people at Success [ http://www.success.com ].

It’s about keeping balanced and taking control of one’s life. As an entrepreneur one may sometimes wonder if this is even possible with the ups and downs which a business can go through.

Here are some tips from the “Success” online newsletter:

Take Control of Your Life

You wouldn’t drive your car without checking all the internal gauges and determining your destination, so why would you lead your life that way? If you let life happen to you and you’re just a passenger along for the ride, you have given away your control! Take it back by grabbing the steering wheel, plunking down into the driver’s seat and taking a serious look at where you’re headed. SUCCESS experts tell you how:
Best-selling author John C. Maxwell:

List your core beliefs.Then abide by your core beliefs each day, and refuse to be swayed by outside factors and influences. These become the tenets of your life that will ultimately deliver a fulfilled existence. Compile a daily-dozen list you adhere to each day.Your list should include the most important values and goals that will be influential in shaping your life and achieving your successes. Ideally, this list should be a basic outline of how you want to live as a person and what you want to achieve. If you refer to your list each day, it will help you stay on course.

Motivational coach and author Denis Waitley:

Know the person in the mirror. Quality of life begins with self-assessment, and is about the fulfillment and joy we experience every day—not someday, or during vacations or retirement. Keep a close check on what you are exposed to most.You are not only what you eat, but through repetition you become what you watch, read, listen to and internalize. Set benchmarks to see if you are making progress.Throughout the day, frequently ask yourself: Is this activity moving me forward to achieve my most important lifetime goals?

On a personal note:
This blog was composed on my fabby new Samsung phone which is turning out to be one of my best business tools ever! Highly recommended.

http://facebook.com/BeadedDelightsByStef

Inner Beauty, Outer Action

Tonight I am having a most interesting experience. I’m back in Primrose Hill – one of London’s fashionable areas (a bit expensive too)- where I used to live before moving closer to the countryside. I’m having a cappucino in a lovely Russian tea room called Trojka.

It was good to walk around the old neighbourhood and note the changes, recall my world when I lived here, and see how some things seem to be the same. It’s good to think – have I grown since my days of living here, and what will my life be like in the future?

I came to the conclusion that it will only get overall better. I continue to study voiceover technique and strive to get better. And I’m working on fostering a steady stream of craft services as well. It certainly takes discipline to stay on track I’m finding out. I find myself making good use of all my iPod organisational and motivational apps to keep on top of things and stay accountable to myself and others.

I’m blessed to be meeting many people nowadays. A big contrast from when I used to spend so much time by myself.

This article below was in my email the other day. It’s a brilliant, inspirational piece from “Inner Space” in Covent garden.

Develop Your Inner Beauty
We all want to look our best but beauty is more than skin deep. So, no matter what we look like, we can enhance our outer appearance with our inner beauty.

We all have inner beauty. Develop your inner beauty and feel beautiful.

Here’s how:

- Beauty comes from liking yourself.

Know, affirm and express your good qualities.

- Avoid being negative about others.

Instead, notice that qualities that make them beautiful.

- Shift your focus to the world around you and give back to
your community.

Time to stop writing now. I’m off to The Princess of Wales pub for a Spiritual London meet up. It’s my first time to go,but no doubt I’ll enjoy myself and meet some new peeps. And have a tasty brew as well! Enjoy your life!

http://www.facebook.com/BeadedDelightsByStef