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!

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!

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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Growing A Biz

Bit by bit, inch by inch (and sometimes with great leaps) we CAN make our entrepreneurial dreams come true. We ARE making those dreams come true.

Give the best service we can. Just keep working at it, trying different methods to create awareness and bring in the clients.

Here’s a quote from business blogger Seth Godin that came in my email today. He was talking about the usefulness, or not, of slogans.

“Not everything you do actually gets a response. In fact, most of it doesn’t. But each effort is a tiny brick in the wall of perception, even when it appears to be dumb and even senseless.”

All for now…Happy Sunday!

How to Decide if a Business Idea is a Good One

As entrepreneurs – in my case, a Voice Actor/Artist – we’re always striving to maintain a balance via multiple streams of income.

As creative people, we can maybe come up with lots of ideas – some good, some not so good.

Here are some tips that came in my email the other day via ” The Entrepreneur’s Success” newsletter. I don’t know the author’s name!

“It’s called the Decision Making Filter and here is how it works :
1. Values & Needs

We start building your own personal filter by defining what’s important to you (kinda like the traditional pros and cons list but this step is so powerful you’ll often know exactly what to do before you finish this step.) Your values are an important part of your “compass” for growth so new opportunities must be in alignment.

2. Business Priorities

This step allows us to factor in exactly what you have to focus on in the business. This criteria can include cash flow, credibility, support, funding, etc. An idea that is not in alignment with an urgent priority becomes a “should.” Which means it doesn’t get attention, becomes another item on the to-do list, and eventually falls off the radar.

3. Passion & Inspiration

In this step we identify how much passion you have for the opportunities. Others might tell you that it’s not important but in my ten years of experience with entrepreneurs, this step is critical. If you are not excited then 100 other things will get your attention. If you are not excited, your prospects will feel it. This is part of being aligned for sustainable growth.

4. Profitability

Where most decision making stops at the first three criteria, I add in when and how will it make you money. Identifying exactly how long it will take to make money and later generate a profit moves you out of a “hobby” and into a “real business offering.”A technique I use is to identify how much of a financial investment is required for the new idea. I map out every cost involved, including my time away from other opportunities (otherwise known as opportunity cost.) Then I estimate best and worst case scenarios for when and how much income will be involved. If I can take that financial risk and accept the worst case scenario then I’ll move forward.

5. Time & Resources

All other things considered, no idea is a good investment unless you have the time and resources to implement it. Consider who would be in charge of it and how will it get funded?Once you have identified your criteria for each segment of the formula, you then want to rank them (5 being the opportunity has a high level, 1 being very low.) The idea with the highest score is the one most likely to succeed. Once you have identified your criteria for each segment of the formula, you then want to rank them (5 being the opportunity has a high level, 1 being very low.) The idea with the highest score is the one most likely to succeed.”

And there you have it. It’s worth a try, don’t you think?

Cheers!

Stefania
P.S. The photo is of the St. Albans Clock Tower-c2011 StefaniaLintonbon

Knowledge is Power

I’m a big believer in CPD – continued professional development. There’s always something to learn about VoiceOver!

I have my strengths, but I’m not afraid to be taught & told how to correct and improve.

So, I’m really excited that James Alburger’s book The Art of Voice Acting is finally available here in England. Yippee. My copy should arrive from Amazon this week! I pre-ordered back in September. Can’t wait to dig in! Knowledge is power. Oh yeah ^•^

I’m also looking forward to my radio drama acting class in November. More coaching in a genre I love so well!

By the way, my podcasts are now available for listening or subscription via the iTunes store –

stefsvoice4u Broadcast (Travel,motivation, lifestyle, audiobooks, voiceover)

AudioMysteryTym
(Radio drama – Violet Strange mystery tales)

Here’s the latest stefsvoice4u: The Luck Journal book review, twitter apps, The Tale of Miss Kitty Children’s Book Narration)

http://ipad.io/PZK

Refocus & Achieve

For us as voiceover professionals – and people in other careers as well – there are always a ton of things to be done to keep all the balls in the air! How can we manage it all?

Here’s an article from Success Magazine on focussing that gives a bit of well-appreciated guidance!

“Refocus in Four Steps

The average person loses focus every six to ten seconds. When you find yourself drifting, recognize it and make a conscious effort to set yourself back on course.

Here are four ways to refocus yourself:

1. Start writing a to-do list. Just the cathartic act of writing down what you need to do will help you get back on track.

2. Dive into your email. If you’re a deadline-driven person and find yourself without something pressing to do that minute, checking your backlog of unaddressed emails will help refocus that sense of urgency.

3. Get up and walk around. Fresh air, a drink of water or a little conversation will help “reset” your mind for your next wave of productivity.

4. Do something easy, that you know you’ll do well. That sense of accomplishment will help propel you into harder tasks on your to-do list.”

That’s it! Four simple steps. Number three is particularly interesting, as often when we feel tired…the cause could be dehydration. So drink plenty of water for energy to focus & accomplish, peeps!

The photo in this blog was taken in Glastonbury, UK.

Cheers!

5 Rules of Relationships

This came in my email this morning. It’s brilliant! It’s from Success Magazine.

While these were written, I believe as general lifestyle guidelines — upon reflection — I think they make pretty good rules for us to follow as part of our life plans as success voice artists/voice talents!

5 Rules of Relationships

John Maxwell says relationships can fall into one of four categories.

Those that add to who we are, those that subtract, those that multiply our strengths and those that divide us.

To improve our relationships with others, he offers these five rules:

1. Get Along with Yourself—The one relationship you have until you die is with yourself. Treat yourself with the love and respect you deserve.

2. Value People—You cannot make another feel important if you secretly feel that he or she is not.

3. Recognize that everyone has innate value.

4. Make the Effort to Form Relationships—Chuck Swindoll said, “It’s like they say in the Army, when you dig a foxhole, make enough room for two.” Reach out, make room and enjoy new relationships.

Understand the Reciprocity Rule—What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

5. Follow the Golden Rule (do onto others as you would have them do to you) —If every person made decisions based on the Golden Rule, we would all make more right decisions.

Cheers all!