Welcome to 2021!
Congratulations! If you’re reading this, then that means that you and your voice over business made it through the hellscape known as 2020 and into 2021. That means that you’ve survived all of the political strife and have lived to see a new president and vice president take office. That means that, so far, you’ve managed to survive this virus that has plagued the world for the last year! So, once again, I would like to say “Congratulations” and give you a proverbial pat on the back in celebration.
Out With the Old, In With the New
It’s not a big secret or profound realization that people make decisions they are unhappy with. Most people take on the “New Year, New Me” mentality because of this. They dedicate the last few days of the previous year and first few days of the new year deciding what their “New Year’s Resolutions” are going to be. I’m sure many of us have done this as an attempt to convince ourselves we will make better decisions than we have in the past. I know I have, and I’d be willing to put money that you have to. *Disclaimer: Will not actually put money on it as it is a guarantee I’ll lose. Thank you, luck!*
So What Does That Have to do With Voice Over?
Well, that all depends on what your resolutions are. I’ve seen a lot of voice talent posting their “Voice Over Resolutions” on social media over the last three weeks. Before I get into the rest of that, I will say that I think it’s awesome to set goals for yourself and voice over business. Perhaps you have your eyes set on a new client, or you want to strive for higher yearly earnings. Maybe it’s one of the many other things it could be for yourself and your business. It’s always applicable to set yourself goals.
Why are Resolutions bad for Voice Over?
I, personally, have a fundamental problem with the idea of “New Year’s Resolutions”. Answer honestly; when is the last time you saw someone actually keep a New Year’s resolution? I think that they’re bad practice. That being said, technically they aren’t “bad” for voice over. In a business as competitive as this, it is VERY important to set goals and milestones for yourself. While a New Year’s Resolution technically does this, it’s easy to lose it. There’s something about the term, “New Year’s Resolution”, that seems to make it easy to fail. It’s almost like people associate it with failure and the enabling excuse of “maybe next year” when that failure becomes self-fulfilling.
What Should I do?
I would argue that it’s far better for us as voice talent to set goals for ourselves year round. There is a lot of good to be said about setting small, achievable goals on the road to your big goals for the year. It urges you to keep going and gives you a sense of accomplishment. I, for one, would rather feel accomplished knowing that I achieved part of my goals. It sure beats the emotional strain of a New Year’s Resolution that I’ve failed to keep. In my opinion, it is best to start small and have small increments leading to your overall larger goal. For example, I might have a long term goal of increasing my yearly earnings by 25%. Then, I might set myself smaller goals leading up to it such as one extra booking a month. Once I’ve achieved that, I might decide to set my next goal is two extra bookings a month. The next step might be an extra booking a week and so on. If you incrementally increase your goals as you achieve them, you’ll find that you’ve built your own pathway to success. Just because it might help, HERE, is a link to a free, printable goal journal for your use! This goal journal can be used for many things in your life if you print it all, or you may choose to just print a specific page. I think it’s a great and very helpful handout!
What if I Don’t Achieve All of My Mini-Goals?
Frankly, it’s alright! It’s easy to look at the negatives when you don’t reach all of your end goals. However, if you’ve even achieved a few of your mini goals, then you can look back and see that you accomplished more than you did last year. There’s still some small comfort in the “small victories” you make throughout the year. This is just a simple way to bring those “small victories” to light in a world where it’s hard to see them. Anyway, this is a fairly short blog for me, but I think I got my point across. As always, I hope you were able to take something from this to apply to yourself, your voice over business, and the rest of your days. Take care, and hang in there! Happy New Year!