Some inspiration for my fellow artists ~

Maxine Dunn

Hi everyone!

Before I write another post about the importance of marketing yourself, I wanted to take a little time today to write about the importance of on-going coaching. It can be easy when you’re a working voice-over artist, or even when you’re a beginner, to think that you just need a “tune-up” once a year or so at a big voice-over event, or that it’s adequate to “check-in” with a coach once in a while when you have some challenging copy to work on.

I think regular, monthly, coaching is one of the main reasons my client list is continuing to grow, and that I feel so motivated lately. On-going coaching is one of the best investments you can make in your career.

The first coach I ever had years and years ago and who I still continue to work with every month is Susan Berkley. She’s amazing and I’m really grateful for her continued positive influence in my career.

Last year I joined her Silver Inner Circle group and I’m so glad I did! If you’re just starting out or are a pro that wants some guidance and new ideas of how to further your career, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Each month Susan has a “guest expert call,” where we call in and listen to an hour’s conversation with an industry expert, (with Q & A at the end of the call).

voice-over agents. Casting directors. Producers. Audio book narrators. Marketing masters. Vocal health experts. Master negotiators, and of course we get a CD of the conversation mailed to us right away to listen again. My membership also includes monthly coaching calls to Susan, demo critiques, and many other learning opportunities and motivational tools. Being a recent newbie to the home studio concept, her home studio instructional DVD was a boon. It walks you through everything, step by step.

I was so impressed with a recent email that Susan sent to her Silver Inner Circle group, that I wrote and asked her if I could share it here. It touches on a subject that I find particularly challenging even after all these years; creating structure in my life and my career. I thought everyone on the boards could benefit from this and I hope you find it as wonderfully motivating as I did! Enjoy ~

Xox
Max

For a 3 month Free Trial membership in Susan's Silver Inner Circle, including a copy of her home studio DVD, go here

http://www.greatvoice.com/free-3-month-trial.htm

SILVER INNER CIRCLE #142 STRUCTURE

Here in the Northeast we had a picture perfect Labor Day Weekend. But how was it
getting back to work yesterday? Slow going for most, I'm sure. They say you
actually lose brain cells while on vacation, and not because of the Margaritas.

Some people can't wait for the day where they will be able to kiss their day job
good bye and escape to a tropical paradise. I did this once. At the age of 26 I
quit a promising radio career when I met and fell in love with a rock star. We
eloped and ran away to Rio De Janeiro, his home. For 5 months I lived on the beach
in a tropical paradise, doing practically nothing, except working on my tan and
teaching a little English. By the time my visa expired and I had return home, I was
a wreck.

Living a structured life is actually good for your health and well being. Research
shows that exercise programs benefit health not just because of the exercise itself,
but because of the fact that people tend to work out at the same time every day.
Structured exercise plans were found to benefit critically ill cancer patients whose
circadian rhythms had gotten out of whack. Autistic children thrive in programs where
everything is tightly scheduled, even their downtime.

Marketing guru Dan Kennedy is one of the most productive people I know. He writes
three newsletters and one or two books every year. He is also one of the most
highly paid copywriters in the country and a top ranked harness racer in his spare
time. How does he do it all? By planning (he'd call it 'scripting') his work day
down to the minute.

Another one of my mentors, psychoanalyst and social scientist Dr Norberto Keppe is,
at age 80, still seeing patients from morning to night, hosting a weekly TV and
radio show and writing a book a year. His schedule is so precise you could run a
train by it.

As a freelance voice talent there is no boss obliging you to show up for work on
time I encourage you to set and keep a voice-over schedule. Practice on a regular
basis. Corral your contacts and organize them into a data base. Arrange your
schedule so you can make your marketing calls at the same time every day. Schedule
your mailings of postcards and newsletters and make sure they go out on time.

The Universe has a clear cut motion, direction, and above all, a perfectly designed
and beautiful structure. Look at the crystalline perfection of a snowflake, the
beauty of a flower, of a healthy human body. Honor the beauty of your voice. Don't
debase it with ugly words or abuse it with cigarettes and alcohol. We are free to
create, but only within beauty, truth and goodness, the greatest structure of all.
Although we have free will, we are not free to do whatever we want, whenever we
want it, without suffering consequences, although we like to believe we are
bullet-proof.

~Susan

Copyright 2007 Susan Berkley All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.

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Bob Bergen

Bettye Zoller

A dear friend of mine who now has passed on to that great radio station in the clouds once said to me, "when a person attends a workshop or class, if the student receives only ONE valuable idea from that endeavor, attending has been worth the fee." How true! Remember that all teachers bring varying skills and thoughts, backgrounds, experiences to a workshop or classroom, but if the teacher truly is a professional with extensive work in voiceovers and experience as a pedagogue (some actors or directors can act or direct well, but are really not skilled teachers!--teaching is a profession that requires knowledge and study and experience too!) and this is the reasoning behind my beliefs that students at every level should continue study, and not ONLY with "voiceover coaches" but with voice acting coaches (I set that apart in my workshop offerings and also offer The Business of voiceovers which is strictly business and Cartoon Voicings and Cold Read Workshops and...) specialized instructional focus. And remember to also take care of your speech and diction abilities. Do you need speech improvement or accent minimization study? When I have a student contact me about "voiceovers" and that student needs my speech voice work first, that's where he or she goes...into my "prerequisite" courses or private coaching. When a student wants to enroll in a cartoon or character workshop with me, I first find out if that student is "ready" or if another type of course would be better suited to his or her needs at that time. Every student has particular needs that should be addressed...not just "dumped into" a "voiceover workshop." Think about this when you spend money on courses or seminars. Are you "ready" for that topic or teacher? Are you needing other types of instruction first? Just "food for thought" and my best to you all! Thirty four years as a college=private=workshop coach talking...