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New Year – New Goals!

January 11, 2022 by Theresa C. Ho

https://www.theresaho.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/New-Year-New-Goals.mp4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re already into our second week of the New Year! Is it too late to wish all of you a very Happy New Year? Either way, I’m going to wish you a fantastic one, filled with good health, happiness and prosperity!

Now, let’s get down to business. Many of us have new resolutions or goals that we’ve set for ourselves. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

Reflecting on the Past

Before we start implementing those new goals, we should take some time to reflect upon the past year, evaluate what worked for us and what didn’t. Sometimes it can be beneficial to literally and figuratively “clean house”.

For example, evaluate your rates. Do your rates reflect of your worth and industry standards? For voice actors, to see what standard rates are, you can consult the GVAA Rate Guide or the Gravy for the Brain Rate Guide.

For those in other industries, especially freelancers, make sure that you’re not underselling yourself. Be on top of what the going rates are for your line of work.

You may want to reflect upon your professional relationships, including those with your agents, coaches, industry partners, suppliers and even with your clients. How are those partnerships and relationships working out for you?

Setting those Goals

Why is goal setting so important? And why is writing them down equally as important? Without clearly defining and noting your goals, you might as well just consider them a daydream. You need to create a plan of action with specific and strategic steps. Each one of those steps completed will get you that much closer to your goals.

Let’s Get Real!

When setting your goals, make sure that they are realistic and achievable. I’m not saying that you should set goals that are only super easy to achieve, but you don’t want to set yourself up for failure either.

What’s your Timeline?

For me, goal setting should include dates and deadlines. I have set up my one-year goals, followed by three- to five-year goals. Within the one-year goals, I have smaller goals that will help me achieve the bigger one-year goals. I will make my smaller goals more achievable by creating tasks, steps and objectives to obtain. Some of those are broken down by per day, per week and per month.

Make Yourself Accountable

I make it a point to write my goals down, as well as the smaller steps that I plan on taking to realize them. By writing them down, I can visualize my plan of action. It’s like a business plan.

There are many tools available to help you note and track your goals. If you like pen and paper, you can simply use a regular notebook or you can use something that is designed for goal setting, such as the Clever Fox Planners. Or maybe you prefer a digital means of tracking. Trello is a popular, free online tool and app that can help you organize and track your goals and objectives. But for sure, there are other options than those I listed.

Making yourself accountable also means measuring your goals. Make sure that you’re able to measure your progress as you work towards those goals. Are you tracking your auditions? Are you counting those marketing outreaches? What about social media? Are you making those posts? Do you have a certain number of posts you want to make within a certain time period? Is the audience reach of your posts important to you? If yes, how can you grow that reach?

An additional way to keep yourself accountable is to be part of an accountability group. I cannot understate the benefit of them. This is one very important tool that I use to keep myself on track throughout the year. With my accountability groups, we list and discuss our goals, such as financial, performance, sales and marketing, as well as equipment and technology. We talk about our challenges, what may be holding us back, and we try help each other overcome our obstacles.

Celebrating Successes

Once said goal or task is achieved, it gets crossed off as accomplished, but not deleted. It is satisfying to be able to actually see that you are getting things done!

Some examples of goal setting could include financial goals. How much money you want to make for the year? You can make it easier to track by breaking them by earnings per month or per quarter.

Do you have any professional development goals? Maybe this is the year that you start coaching with someone new.

Do you have plans to network? Networking in person during Covid times may not be realistic, but there are so many options for those interested in virtual networking, including with your local chamber of commerce. In person conferences seem to be a thing again. I’m really hoping to attend at least one in-person voice over conference this year.

Part of your goals may encompass your work-life balance. A lot of voice actors, including myself, have other jobs and professions. And it’s important to be able to balance everything without burning out.

We can also incorporate some personal goals in our annual goal setting exercise. Afterall, we are a whole person that is not only about business.

Another important thing to remember is that our goals are not set in stone and can be changed along the way. People change and so can our goals.

Rewarding Yourself

It’s important to give yourself recognition when you hit those milestones. Make sure to give yourself a pat on the back at a minimum or maybe even a little reward of some kind! In one of my accountability groups, we agreed that we should treat ourselves to a little something once we hit certain income milestones, as we work towards the larger annual goal.

The most important message is to just start and get going! Make those 2022 dreams a reality, one step at a time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Business Skills, Theresa C. Ho Voice Overs, Voice Over Talent, Voiceover, Voiceovers

Vacation Time!!

December 20, 2021 by Theresa C. Ho

With the Holiday Season around the corner, many of us are thinking about taking some down time and looking forward to spending quality time with family and friends. However, for voice over actors, the reality is that sometimes it’s hard to close down shop completely. This blog post is going to discuss the pros and cons of taking time away from your studio and making the decision to book out or not.

Managing Your Business

We, as voice talent, are our own bosses and don’t have a vacation pay that we can count on when we take time off. But that doesn’t mean that we should never take some time off.

At the end of November, I took a very much needed beach vacation getaway. I considered some different factors, and made the decision to book out. About a month before leaving, I warned certain customers with whom I was working on extensive projects that I would be unavailable from a certain date to a certain date and I made sure to complete other ones before my departure date. I booked out with my agent, as well. If we manage our upcoming vacation time well in advance, we can expect that things remain under control until we get back.

Voice Over Travel Gear

I know that a lot of VOs bring travel gear. They build those infamous pillow forts for sound treatment and choose to work during their vacations. I am definitely not opposed to working a bit during certain vacations, but considering this was my first international trip since the beginning of the pandemic, I chose not to bring any voice over gear. That being said, I did end up doing a bit of work during my vacation. I allowed myself to work on little things, such as answering emails – nothing that took up too much time. Also, while I was away, my daughter, who is also a voice actor, was short listed for a series of commercials. She was required to send in an audition with very little notice. The casting director understood our situation, and we were allowed to record the audition on a cellphone. It all worked out.

I seen posts on various voice over Facebook groups discussing if voice actors should bring their travel gear or not when they take vacation time. Some say that if you don’t, you’re guaranteed to lose out on work. I am of the mindset that it doesn’t have to be either or. While that may be true, you can look at it in another way – if you choose to work during your vacation, then is it really a vacation? I’m not saying that the loss of income doesn’t matter. But considering the amount of vacation time that most North Americans take compared to our European counterparts, I would challenge you to think about if it will make a huge difference to your annual income if you take one week off.

Some Factors to Consider

I’m not saying that you should reject a super high paying, high profile job. If you were to book, say a National commercial campaign, it would definitely be wise to accept to do that job even if you were on vacation. Those jobs are few and far between, even for top bookers in the voice over industry. But you might not want to work on that e-Learning project or Audiobook while you’re taking time off, as those genres of VO are much more time consuming.

Also, you might want to consider that even if you build that pillow fort or have a travel booth, like this one from Vocal Booth to Go, the sound treatment will likely be different from your home studio. Another option for working while out of town is to ask fellow voice talent to allow you to use their studio space, or you could always rent a local sound studio where you are vacationing.

Think about the definition of Vacation by the Merrian-Webster Dictionary and this might help you in making your decision.

1 : a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation

2 a: a scheduled period during which activity (as of a court or school) is suspended

b: a period of exemption from work granted to an employee

3: a respite or a time of respite from something : INTERMISSION

Giving Yourself Permission

I’m happy that I allow myself to have the option to work or not during vacation. I am definitely set up with travel gear so that I can make that decision to work while I travel, if I want to. We shouldn’t, however, feel guilty for taking time off. We all need and deserve a break. Whether you’re going away during your vacation or you simply need some downtime during your staycation, enjoy your time off. Don’t feel guilty and question yourself about it.

Realities of Running a Voice Over Business

In today’s day and age, we can literally work all the time! 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year! Thus, the need to make that decision to shut off to keep ourselves mentally and physically healthy. We all need to mentally decompress and rejuvenate from time to time. This will help to keep us performing at the top of our game. The Voice Over industry is highly competitive, but that doesn’t mean that you should be afraid to book out. You should really consider that the time you take off could actually be beneficial to you as a voice actor.

When I got back from my vacation, I was really happy to get back into my booth and missed auditioning, etc. This is the type of feeling that will help voice over artists succeed over time. This type of mind set is so much more beneficial than one feeling afraid and/or guilty, yet tired and burned out.

My Holiday Message to you

This is my last blog of 2021. I would like to thank you for taking the time to read it and I hope that you enjoyed it! I would like to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Holiday Season! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! Best wishes for 2022! Live, Love, Laugh and be Safe!!

Filed Under: Holidays, Mental Health, Vacations, Voice Over Talent, Voiceover, Voiceovers Tagged With: Voice Over

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