Focusing on goals to keep me moving forward
Every day that I open up my email inbox, I feel as if half of the emails are from people trying to sell me something related to voice over. Well, I may be exaggerating. A little. Okay, I AM exaggerating, but that's how it feels.
Now, don't get me wrong... some of what people are trying to sell me I could benefit from. Actually, most of what they are trying to sell me I could use, but it is getting a little ridiculous. It's just too much.
It ranges from coaching sessions, to a new course that they have just developed, to branded merchandise or links to websites other than their own, where they make money if I will use the code they provide to allow me to give that other person money to buy what they are selling!
A popular offering lately is where you receive good advice and suggestions either from the person actually doing the selling or from well known or accomplished people in the industry. But wait... there's more!
If you didn't get a chance to watch all of the sessions that were made available in a short amount of time, never fear, because for a fee, you can watch them for the rest of your life.
Voice Acting can be Overwhelming
I totally understand the reasoning behind each one of these types of emails I receive and part of me wishes that I had thought of each of them myself!. My issue really isn't with any of them, my issue is that it is happening so much, and they are all from really Iikeable, and from all outward appearances, successful, voice actors, that I want to check out what they have to offer, and I do learn from the free webinars, although they do take up a lot of my time.
It's just that I get overwhelmed with all of the time, energy and thought process that goes into trying to determine if any or none of them are actually what I need to know right now, on my VO journey.
I have boxes and boxes of notes (literally) that I have taken from being in classes and webinars over the past eight and a half years (thank you, Cristina Milizia, Global Voice Acting Academy founder, for advising that very early on in my VO coaching-career) so some of the information I have heard already. Sure, the industry changes, but that it seems to be mostly in regards to social media and equipment.
Pretty much what I learned early on regarding performance, I am still hearing today. You would think that I would be better at performing, but that's for another blog post...
Avoiding Rabbit Holes in Voice-over Business
Again, most of these people seem very nice, and some I would actually call virtual 'friends'. They all seem to be doing much better than I am in voiceover, so why wouldn't I want to listen to them and learn their secrets?
Who wouldn't want to know The Secrets? I have to actually say NO, outloud, to keep myself from going down the rabbit holes of each and every one of these types of emails. What keeps me grounded is looking at my very long Voice-Over-Business To-Do list that I created to keep me on my own road to reach my goals.
Now, might some of these 'free' courses help me get to where I want to be? Maybe. And have I ever signed up for any of them? For sure I have! And will I ever do it again? You can bet on it! But do I need to check out all of them? No way.
I need to stop listening to the chatter and picture myself where I want to be. Remember what my goals are and keep in mind that, at least for right now, beyond what and who I have already committed to, buying courses, merchandise, coaching sessions or benefitting from affiliations, is for others, and not for me to try to chase.
Now, and for the foreseeable future, I will do my best to stay in my own lane.
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