Part II: The Building Game

In Part I: The Waiting Game we did the really important work:

• Establishing that this journey (as do most) happens from the inside out.
• Before taking action, you must define your mission, purpose, and values
• Define what success means to you, personally.
• Asking better questions to get more helpful and complete answers.

As usual, I got some kickback on how important this inner work really is. Why we aren't just sharing hacks on action steps. I love it when this happens, because it further illustrates why it is necessary to keep focused on what truly matters. Here's a basic paraphrase of how these types of conversations tend to go:

Q: "How do I get bigger jobs?"

A: Answer the question of where (whatever you are defining as) "bigger job" seekers are auditioning and finding talent, and put yourself there.

Q: "But outside of P2P It seems like you have to have an agent. That the bigger jobs are all kept behind closed doors."

A: (**Now we are getting somewhere.) Where did this belief about "closed doors" come from? When you encounter a closed door at home or out and about in your day, what do you do with it? The action steps are really, really simple once you clear away the mental clutter.

Q: "Look, I've done all that work. I've got a good career, and I've auditioned for agents, but can't seem to get in."

A: If you have a good career, then why are you seeking the "bigger jobs"? What's the problem? Is there an exact amount of money you need to earn to feel secure? Is there a certain amount of status or social currency that you feel are missing from your portfolio to help you feel successful? Again, this sentiment about not being able to "get in" to a closed door seems to really be the issue.

Q: "How do you get an agent?"

A: The answer is simple: You keep submitting until you get a yes. This leads to a whole slew of action steps, that would be more clear, if you weren't struggling with this idea that you "can't get in to these closed doors." You need to research agencies, their submission process, find a way of organizing it so that you know whom to contact, what to touch base on and how they prefer that touch to happen. You value relationship building, and put it into your communication. You network with actors who are already represented by the agencies you are wooing and see if you can get a referral, recommendation, or insider intel.

The action steps are simple, straight forward, and attainable.

The reason they don't appear so, at first blush is because we are often coming to them with an upside down, or inside out framework. The whole lens needs to be refocused. Cutting down a rotting tree from your yard is quite simple, as long as you don't start the process by pruning each leaf, branch, and twig from the top down. That would be exhaustingly overwhelming, wouldn't it? Trying to install shingles on a roof is much more straight forward when the walls and foundation are stable, right?

Conducting online research, setting up spreadsheets, and sending messages with attached or linked sound files is also a simple protocol, but not when we are fighting limiting beliefs like, "Self-promotion is narcissistic and gross." OR "I don't really have what it takes; I am not what they are looking for." OR "I don't even know if my website is any good/if I actually need a website." OR "Every time I touch technology my poor, weak, artistically inclined but computer-incompetent brain implodes. This is too overwhelming."

Look, its your journey, not mine. If you want to whack away at taking frantic action and feeling overwhelmed, miserable, and/or angry, I can't stop you. I can tell you that there is a better way, and to use my voice, my time, and my influence to help start filling in what that might look like. In the end you have to show up and do the work. No one will come magically make it happen for you. All I ask, is make sure you are doing the right work and hopefully for the right reasons.

Now, let's take last month's homework (and if you haven't done that yet, there is no better day than TODAY!) and start building.

Establishing Kickass Habits & Day-to-Day Routines

This next part is a life-long mission, and an excellent place to start is to identify what we do to limit ourselves rather than reward ourselves in our daily lives. To reward means to repay or give a gift in recognition of an effort, service, or achievement, and yet we don’t often reward ourselves in helpful, healthy ways that boost self-esteem and self-efficacy* (*more on self-efficacy in Part III). Most of our rewards these days have some varying levels of net-negative impact:

• A spending spree when things are going well
• Overeating and drinking, either to get out of boredom and depression or to celebrate a good time.
• Staying out late at a party, even though it will make the following morning miserable.?

Instead, we have the difficult task of developing the habit of treating ourselves as if we count (because you do count!) and by doing things that enhance our dignity, intentions, and values. While these kinds of rewards can include tangible “treats,” like vacations, purchases, or activities, their intangible rewards are living a life that is self-affirming and carry messages that imply:

• I am worthwhile and worthy.
• I deserve good and great things.
• I have succeeded in my own eyes.
• I am proud of my ideas, efforts, and pursuits.

Then, we return to our values and identify one value to work on now:

1. Focus on one as the highest priority, either something currently in your life or something you really want in your life.
2. Which value is your highest priority right now?
3. In what areas does your current life not match your values very well?
4. Is your behavior in accordance with your core values?
5. Are there things that you really value that are not in your life enough?
6. Are you doing things you value?
7. Are you doing things that go against your core values?
8. Where do you need to make changes in your life to align with what is most important to you?

Next, identify a few goals related to this specific value:

1. Goals: something specific that you can achieve that, once completed, does not require additional work.

• Contributing to the larger community is something you can do your whole life as a journey and practice. Specific goals might be to volunteer time, get a part-time job, write an article or book, host an event, etc.
• Powerful influence is something you work on over a lifetime to increase. Specific goals might include taking a course, getting a certification or degree, etc.?
• Having status or significance is something you earn with time, diligence, and by earning trust. Specific goals might include getting an agent, taking a leadership/confidence building course or speaking at a conference or an event.

2. What Goals will get you closer to living your value?

If coming up with or setting goals makes your eyes glaze over and your mind go conveniently blank, here are a few questions to help. Remember, goals are also "dreams with a deadline and an action plan!"

1. What is one thing you could accomplish that would be in accord with the value you are working on?
2. What is one thing about your behavior that you could change to live life more in accord with this value?
3. Are there significant impediments that must be overcome before you can accomplish your goal?

• Valuing financial freedom means pursuing goals such as getting an education or upgrading skills to get a higher-paying job with advancement potential.
• Caring for the environment might start with the simple goal of keeping your environment clean and organized.
• Close and satisfying relationships start with making one new friend or network colleague or possibly having a date night.
• Health and well-being could start with losing a certain amount of weight, taking up a new sport, changing one’s diet, or quitting/moderating drinking.

3. Remember the “Art of the Possible” in setting goals.

• While dreams and aspirations can be big, juicy, and inspiring, goals need to be reasonable. Deciding to go to the next Olympics in Tennis, when you’ve never played before is an unrealistic goal.?
• Avoid goals that will reduce your quality of life once achieved. (Depriving yourself by sacrificing to others in a way that limits your abilities, makes you homeless, or drives you into hospitalization, etc.)

4. Choose ONE GOAL to work on NOW.

5. Put Goals in Order of Importance and Reasonableness:

• You may have five goals, but you can only work on one at a time. (Even a whole set of china can only be hand-washed one dish at a time.)
• Organize a list of multiple goals where you can work your way through it.

6. Identify Small Action Steps towards your Goal:

• What needs to be accomplished?
• What small steps can be made on a daily basis?
• Break the tasks down into their most minor steps.
• Keep breaking them down until they are manageable

7. Take ONE action step NOW!

Example: Gaining status & recognition for your voice over business might include:

1. Getting an agent
2. Building your online presence
3. Attending conferences, classes, and networking
4. Speaking at conferences, teaching classes or workshops, or planning events

CHOOSE ONE: Get an agent

1. Research agents on the internet
2. Find industry specific resources
3. Network with peers on Linked In, Industry groups, or live events
4. Make a spreadsheet or research a CRM
5. Get objective feedback on your demos, sound quality, and communication style

TAKE ONE STEP: Turn on the computer*

[*Yes!!! Sometimes, we need to break it down into this level of simplicity to overcome the tide of doubt, resistance, or overwhelm.]

Getting Organized

There are many ways to organize these goals and action steps, but in addition to having lists, color-coding my calendar helps me see (literally in a visual sense) where my time and energy are going. For many years, all the rage was taking productivity and time-management classes, learning strategies, and then building in accountability. I have since learned that while calendar (time) management is a crucial step in the process of building out daily, weekly, and monthly routines,

what matters just as much (if not more) is energy management.

We all have unique temperaments and natural rhythms. We can learn to leverage them to make flow a real possibility. For example, while many productivity experts suggest getting up 1-2 hours earlier to write before the demands of the day start pulling focus, I find that my best times to write are either shortly after intense exercise or just after dinner.?

From studying "best practices” taught by experts and then experimenting with them in my daily life, I learned that while early mornings are great for reading, personal journaling, doing puzzles, or setting up the day, professional writing attempts during that time block only lead to more revisions.

One of the critical challenges in the freelancing lifestyle is that you often don’t know what your workload will be from clients until the day of. So, when you have your list of goals and action steps (which support the values you’ve identified you’d like to work on), you may know how much time you need to work on them, but not exactly where in the week or day they will go.?

This is where having those color-coded calendar blocks will be immensely useful. You can set them up in a rough “color block” at the beginning of the month, then at the beginning of the week, start assigning them more realistic time frames and again make fine-tuned adjustments on the day.

In this way, managing your time and energy is a little like putting together a collage or a jigsaw puzzle, and that is a much more creative and lighthearted way to approach productivity than thinking of life as a never-ending sequence of boxes on a to-do list that must be checked off…or else!

If this is an area you struggle with, I highly recommend Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In chapter 3, “Put First Things First,” he outlines the Time Management Matrix and the four quadrants of work: Important and Urgent, Important but Not Urgent, Not Important but Urgent, and Not Important and Not Urgent.

For example:

FREELANCE WORK:?

• Every weekday morning around 9 a.m., I have a TANGERINE-colored block I call “Executive Lady: Power 20” (because it reminds me of a fond memory and makes me giggle). This is where I review my list of tasks and intentions, check messages, and set up the daily (and sometimes the remainder of the week’s) flight plan.
• I have recurring 2-3 hour blocks, twice a day in ORANGE, that are meant for voice-over client work—recording, editing, uploading, and messaging with contacts every day, Monday-Friday. I set a boundary for all of this work to take place between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm. That gives me 3 hours in the morning and at night to be able to pursue other “Important but not Urgent” tasks—which are the ones that often get neglected and are the most proactive ones we can take.?
• Every Wednesday, I have a recurring 1-2 hour block in RED that I dedicate to finances. I use this time to update spreadsheets, work on invoices, analyze data, set or adjust targets and goals, and get a clearer picture of what is happening in terms of clients, gigs, auditions, and income vs. expenditure.

SELF-CARE & FITNESS

• Each month, I create a new training plan that includes mobility, flexibility, and recovery work, running, biking, swimming, circus, and strength training. These blocks (of varying lengths) are entered into the calendar in dark BLUE.
• Every day, there is a FLAMINGO-colored 30-minute to one-hour block for mindfulness—meditation practice, journaling, mindful movement, guided visualization sessions, and the like.

PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Classes or research I am doing will be coded either LIME GREEN or ORANGE, depending on whether they are focused on Performing Arts or other personal pursuits.
• Writing and other professional endeavors that aren’t included in my orange freelance blocks are also booked out in 90-minute blocks, either in the evening or early afternoon.
• When coaching or meetings are scheduled, these go in as needed in light BLUE, and I move whatever blocks they displace to the next available slot.

PERSONAL

• For many years, I have referred to my personal dates as “PURPLE time” because that’s the color I place them in my calendar. Dinner and dates with friends, artist dates, relaxation, and leisure all count in this category. Whereas when I started my freelance journey and didn’t use this system, it was harder for me to tell when my “love tank” was running on fumes or empty while I was over-working, but now I can see it coming, and proactively make sure to get some purple in as soon as possible.

I do my best to leave at least 15 to 30 minutes of blanks/buffer between blocks so that there is space to shift and not overdo it. This flies in the face of what many productivity experts teach. Still, I find that not scheduling every hour ahead of time allows me the kind of flexibility and adaptability that I need for my life and work to run smoothly. User mileage may vary; my temperament tends towards overwork.

Another thing I love is to “theme” certain days of the week, like Wednesday being earmarked for finances or Tuesdays for being Creative Flow, etc.?

Depending on how much client work actually comes through, I can move these blocks around, shorten or extend them, or even remove them as needed—but the key thing is that I am entirely aware of where my time is going and how balanced my efforts are in accordance with my values and intentions, AND I can course correct as needed.

I try to keep Fridays with as much white space as possible and call it “Flex It Friday” (another reason to smile)? so that I have space to wrap up and finish anything that may have spilled over from earlier in the week. It often becomes a wild “color-filled” day, but it starts as a nearly blank canvas!

The truth is, once you become familiar with the system, scheduling is easy. The hard part is actually doing the work when the time comes. This is one of the reasons that energy management and not getting caught in mood-based behavior is so crucial.?

Putting it Into Practice (Now)

The only way you will know exactly what system will work for you, and to refine it to serve you best, is to put it into practice.

"Practice, practice, practice all the way to Carnegie Hall!" is one way to think about building mastery. Another way is to think about playing and experimenting with curiosity and creativity.

Whichever way your uniquely personal mind likes to think about the work that supports this incredibly fun craft, you have to actively start engaging with it. Passive learning can be entertaining, but active learning is the key if you want to up level your career and your life.

With the holidays approaching it can be easy to get distracted from the fact that we have only weeks left to finish the year strong and set ourselves up for an lucrative new year. Don't let this tide pull you off course—keep your sights set on your goals, so that you don't have to recreate momentum.

When we return in December we'll wrap up this exploration with what to take with us on the journey and what to leave behind. As well as learning to change our relationship to work.

See you then!

Keep moving, swimming, and building mastery, my friends. Do not squander this one wild, precious life. ? #LiveOnPurpose #VOorBust #ALifeWorthLiving #ALifeWorthFightingFor

Works Cited for this two-part Article, which I highly recommend for further study, are:

• Beck, Martha. The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self. The Open Field, 2021.
• Clear, James. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Avery, 2018.
• Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Free Press, 1989.
• Fields, Jonathan. Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work That Makes You Come Alive. HarperOne, 2021.
• Hassan, Steven. Combating Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-Selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults. Free Press, 2015.
• Linehan, Marsha M. DBT? Skills Training Manual. 2nd ed., The Guilford Press, 2014.
• Maté, Gabor, and Daniel Maté. The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture. Avery, 2022.
• Sinetar, Marsha. Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood. Dell Publishing, 1987.
• Wilding, Melody. Trust Yourself: Stop Overthinking and Channel Your Emotions for Success at Work. Chronicle Prism, 2021.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you have questions and/or a topic you'd like to hear about. I really do love helping actors and business professionals understand our whackadoodle industry as best as can be done! ?

~Lauren Goode

www.goodevoice.com

Lauren Goode is a freelance actor and voice talent, based in Chicago, who provides voice-over work for broadcast and digital media. Lauren's voice has been featured on television, radio, online streaming commercials, video games, park tours, cartoons—including the Cartoon Network— and has narrated numerous online video tutorials, phone systems, and eLearning modules. She is a collaborative artist who enjoys working with clients to find the right angle to tell and sell the story.

While she can claim HP, Walmart, Re/Max, Salesforce, Cigna, United HealthCare, Genpact, Calvin Klein, Microsoft, Animal Planet, Full Metal Alchemist, and Assassin's Creed as a few of her "big name" social credentials, she just really loves meeting people where they are and helping them get to wherever they want to go.

She describes her very fun and weirdly-awesome life as part acting, part fitness adventuring, part goofy-yet-empowering mentorship, and pure performance. #LiveOnPurpose #VOorBust