Applause to fellow VO Amy Taylor , who nails it with this article in today’s Voiceover Xtra.
A must read about sprucing up your marketing materials while work tends to get slower during the summer.

Read it here.

I think I’ve had one week this summer that was slow. I’m actually thanking my lucky stars for all the awesome opportunities. In fact for me, I’ve been so busy with work and auditions from my agents that I haven’t even been auditioning on the pay to play sites.

I’ve been so busy working I haven’t had much appetite for spending any additional time at the computer in the evening hours writing a blog, either. Spending time in the social media deal has also been slight. But tonight is different.  And I’m glad I’m posting.

Since the acting class wrapped a couple weeks ago, I’ve been doing my summer reading, “An Improvised Life”, by actor Alan Arkin. I am getting so much from this book! I’ve truly enjoyed the process he describes to get the most of himself, and to be fully present in the moment. And he’s in renewal mode, repeatedly. I really can relate to how you feel like you’ve hit a wall in your capabilities, and then it becomes apparent  you’ve just moved your craft to a whole new level. I’ve been working to bring some of this sentiment and technique with me into the booth.  Intention and feeling are my operative concepts now when interpreting a
script and allowing my own self-discovery to take hold, and come out in
the reading.

Of course, work and life in this business ebbs and flows. So one must never get too huge an ego about it.

But I’ve also been taking care of business. Between voicing work like mad, I’ve been reaping what I’ve sown. My garden is on steroids this summer. I’m getting ready for a full two-week well-deserved vacation, and I’m picking tomatoes, zucchini, wax beans and herbs. What we can’t eat, still needs to be preserved…so next winter we’ll fondly appreciate all this wonderful goodness.
 
Yikes, I need to  water the veggies daily, take the daily “No Excuses” walk, and/or pilates class, shower and settle into the booth and crank out voiceover for several hours a day, get billing done, and be Mom and wife. And make dinner. Tonight, guess what was on the menu?

Very little “down-time”. But I’m really looking forward to some chill time coming soon.
And a sunset on a pretty lake, somewhere in Wisconsin.