What To Do On A Slow Voiceover Day? – The GKN Weekly Update 8/20/13

What to do on a slow voiceover day…?

Like many of you, August is the slowest month of the year for me, voiceover-wise. I look forward to it! Why? Because it gives me a chance to catch up on stuff and do my favorite thing: Quadrant Two activities!

Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, states that Quadrant Two activities are those activities that are Important, but not Urgent. In other words, its all the stuff you never get to that you should. The stuff that really moves your business forward, the envisioning and the planning and the evaluating. The clerical stuff, the administrative stuff. The snoring stuff! That happens to be my favorite stuff. With that mind, here are a few examples of tasks you can do when you’re not in the booth:

Cash Flow: balance your checkbooks(s), review your budget, organize your receipts, check the status of your savings goals (you do have them don’t you?), reconcile invoices, try to collect on overdue invoices

Tools: Update your contact database, Google yourself to check your online presence, Google voiceover-related keywords to see where your website comes up, if you have a PC run Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter

Technique: schedule a coaching session, practice with copy, do a Voicebank Weekend Workout reading, watch TV commercials and/or listen to radio commercials and ask yourself “Why did that talent book the spot? What are they doing or not doing to be effective? Do I have that sound? Is my technique as strong as theirs?”

Marketing: make some cold-calls, write a blog, write a newsletter, call some existing clients just to say hi, put together a postcard mailing, update your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles

Health: review your annual goals and monthly Action Plan, take a walk, do some pushups, have an Accountabilibuddy meeting with a colleague

TIP OF THE WEEK: These are just a few examples of things you can do to improve your business and yourself when you have a slow voiceover day. I know some of them may be boring, but a professional is someone who does what needs to be done even when they don’t feel like it. You are a professional voice talent, right? Or is that just what you tell your friends at cocktail parties? Remember, there is always something you can do to make yourself a better voice talent!

NEWS AND NOTES

I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in my “Facebook Fan Page Friday” event. It was great to see so many people share the Fan Pages that you love or are a part of. If you want me to host that event again, let me know!

I saw “Elysium” last week. Man, was I disappointed! I saw so pumped to see it because I loved “District 9” and the thing just creeped along and I didn’t care about the characters. Better luck next time, Neil!