Something New?

Try something new…That sounds scary. Who would want to do that? Well, maybe then, just mix it up a little. Again, that sounds scary. Who would want to do that? Quite possibly, someone who is stagnating where they are or someone who has lost motivation or someone who needs a fresh perspective or someone who actually really does thrive at new tasks even if they are scary at first.

That was me when I quit my day-job and went into Voice Acting full-time. It may have seemed cold-turkey to some, but I can assure you much planning and preparation took place. Hopefully I didn’t stay in the procrastilearning phase too long. Hopefully I jumped at just the right moment. Time will tell.

As I was preparing to go full-time as a voice actor/voice talent/voice over person/VoiceOver artist (now that’s a conversation for a later post), I took all my ideas, training up to that point and knowledge gained and made a ginormous list of everything I could think of. I called it my VO Major To-Do List. It took days for the first rough draft and then weeks spent tweaking on it. I went through each item carefully to make certain it needed to be on the list. Then I started numbering each item based on when that particular item might need to happen. For example, purchasing a room treatment like acoustic foam might need to come before doing an audition. Some items were all grouped together with a single number because I knew I’d do those things together at a similar time, if not, the exact same time.

Going back to my opening sentence, “Try something new…,” at the top of this post, I can say in all certainty that two years ago, I had never heard of 95% of the things on my VO Major To-Do List. Never even heard of them. Not, didn’t know how they worked. But, never heard of them. So totally new to me. And, no secret here but I am having the best time. I’ve learned so much! I have so many more skills in my life toolbox now. I know how to connect my microphone, headphones, and computer to my interface. I know how to work my DAW. I know how to determine my noise floor. I can edit audio. I can produce and have produced an audiobook. I still have lots more to learn. And I can’t wait…