I posted a status on Facebook the other day about my incredibly busy month and some of my VO bookings and received some wonderful comments asking how I found so much work…what is my secret? This prompted me to write about what I truly feel is my secret and I can sum it up in one word “Passion”! I truly love what I do and I put passion behind every little spectrum of my career.
February is the month of romance! I thought today would be a perfect day to talk about passion. For some of you this may make perfect sense, for others you may not think to read further, assuming this does not reflect upon you and where you are in your career. Most of us want success. That is the bottom line. No matter the level of success we achieve, most actors carry one common trait, the need to be appreciated. Most of us unfortunately use salary as our notoriety, but when it comes down to it, many of us just want to do well in whatever we pursue.
Passion carries me through my entire life both personally and professionally. Not only do I love what I do, I have to put genuine passion into every script I read. I have to have genuine passion for the client and their purpose to put this project together to begin with. I have to possess and maintain my passion for business (good thing that came natural to me). I have the passion to create. I have the passion to be bold and confident. I have a genuine passion for helping others and this benefits me in my acting, as well as my coaching. I even have a passion for own self and what I feel I can accomplish. Technology on the other hand, well that’s been a passion I’ve had to create because this wasn’t something that I naturally possessed.
When you are genuinely passionate about whatever you take on, you can succeed it, because you’ll want it so bad that you’ll do anything for it. I know I’ve written about this many times, but I want to beat it into you that it’s absolutely necessary that you live, eat and breathe this stuff in order to make it so. I have students that I feel aren’t ready at all and they are booking work. I have other students extremely talented and not booking a thing! From my point of view, it is the result of caring enough about your goals to do something about them; to put passion into it. If you believe in the product enough – you can sell anything to anybody – that includes yourself and your business. You can convince people you’re more talented than you really are and you can truly find work if you look deeper.
If you are sitting around waiting for it to come to you through agents, friends, colleagues and a few little emails here and there, think again. You need to be proactive at this. There are more ways than you can think of. If you don’t know what they are, then work with a motivational coach like myself, who can push you…but you have to follow through with what you learn. That is the challenge you face the most. You are getting in your own way really. If you aren’t skilled enough, you need to do more to get skilled. If you are skilled enough but not booking, you have to figure out why. If you are getting stagnant in your career, it’s time to suck up your ego and your old school thinking and make a change.
Whatever is going on in the economy will ultimately affect our industry. I get it. But nothing changes the fact that almost EVERY company at some point, will likely need to hire a voice talent. There are over 1 million commercials aired everyday, there are millions of web services, channels and more, production companies, toy companies, audiobook companies, radio stations, small businesses, large businesses etc. If you make assumptions about who is approachable and who isn’t, you’re already setting yourself up for failure.
Success comes from passion. Passion comes with risk. Most successful people have tons of no’s and learning path’s along the way and in fact starve to get what they want. You can’t wait for the right moments, the right time, or for the stars to line up. You need to take your passion by the balls and push yourself forward through all your excuses. TRUE PASSION – NOTHING CAN GET IN YOUR WAY! It’s easy to give up; it’s much harder to purser veer…that’s why there are more people who suffer than succeed. Don’t give in, push harder. Allow your passion to push you further and if this isn’t the right craft, find what your passion truly is, find your way in and follow through and that is the key to success.
Remember if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got. That is my fiance’s favorite saying. My passion carries through in all I do. I left a comfy life and broke up my family to follow my head and my heart. I trusted that I could always get what I wanted and deserved, and I was right! I followed my instinct, I trusted in myself and I developed a very successful career, respect from my community, two incredibly bright and successful children, and my true soul mate to add to the list. Who says passion doesn’t pay! I LOVE ITS REWARDS…..
Happy Valentines Day!
This year, I want you to be in love with YOU!
Till next time
VO Chef Deb
www.DebsVoice.com