You Control You

 

I was reading back over some old journal entries of mine from last year. I came across some interesting things that I had written…some thoughts, and various quotes all kind of jumbled together.

 

Here’s the first one:

 

You control You.

You can not control others.

You can not control the score.

“The Final Outcome”

You control You.

You control the effort you make.

Did you do your best?

Only You really know for sure.

You can fool others. Not yourself.

Did you give your all?

Take all the shots?

Give more than you are asked to give?

Were you a valuable resource?

Did you solve problems or did you create problems?

Did you serve?

Were you reliable?

Punctual?

Available?

A positive influence?

Did you encourage?

Were you selfless?

Did you play well with others?

 

Don’t fret the outcome.

Always Give your 100%.

Thats all you got.

You control your 100%.

You control You.

The Pitiful Pair

 Its been an interesting week to say the least.

My wife, Red (her nickname), has been feeling terrible the last couple weeks.

When I returned home Monday from a trip, I noticed her eyes were very yellow. From watching House (how sad, and funny at the same time) we knew something was not right.

 Off to the Dr…and the Dr. Says… “no more monkeys jumpin on the bed” (not really)

 Possible Hepatitis, or Pancreatic Cancer.

 

Wow.

 

So we had to wrap our heads around that for a couple days. 

Then the test results come back negative for Hepatitis.

She goes for a CT scan.

No Cancer. Thank God.

Gall Stones.

Big ole honkin’ ones that have caused Jaundice. (yellow eyes - and orange tint skin - think “spray on tan” - but really, you wouldnt’ notice if you didn’t know her)

There are now 2 procedures in the near future:

One for the removal of the first stone from a duct (on Monday)

One for the removal of the gall bladder (soon - not sure the date yet)

*on a personal note - I am dealing with the pain of a tooth that has to have a root canal (Tuesday - Of Course)

I call us the “Pitiful Pair”!!

A thought or a prayer for the Redhead would be appreciated!

 

Bettye Zoller Coming to Nashville

I am looking forward to Bettye Zoller coming to Nashville June 30th. What a great opportunity to take a class from Bettye!

The session is called - “The Biz of VO- Earning $$ in Today’s Talking World”

You can check out Bettye’s Site - www.voicesvoices.com for the lowdown on Bettye.

Plus, you can check out Bettye’s Voices.com Podcasts.

More details as I learn them!!!

5 Ways to Spice Up Your Creative Voice Over Juices

If your feeling drab, and just blah with VO as of late, Here are 5 quick, Low Maintenance, Low cost things you can do to get the Creative VO juices flowing:

1- Read some Old Copy… Pull out some old scripts you have and Read it with different inflections. Mess around with your speed and intonation. Mimic your favorite VO talent. Mimic your least favorite VO Talent. Mimic that guy or gal you just heard on the TV or radio. 

2- Read some New Copy… Audition as much as possible. http://www.voice123.com/ and http://www.voices.com/ are great services simply for the fact that you get auditions daily that allow you ‘on the job’ training. Hone your craft (VO) and your selling skillz (typing up your proposal selling yourself to potential clients) Voices.com has a great e-book of scripts that you can get as well. (this one DOES cost, if you aren’t a member of these services)…(other thoughts - magazine copy - books - record an hour of ‘Idol’ and write down all the VO in commercials - then read those)

3- Make Contact with another VO talent…  recently I had a great conversation with Austin Keyes. What a great guy! I sent a quick email to Brian Lee, and he sent me back a great email with encouragement and insight. Reach out to some VO peeps. Everyone that I have had contact with are just great people! 

4- A Change of Scene… Can you move your studio around at all? Face the other direction, face a different wall. Go outside and read your copy. Then come back to your studio. Maybe you can’t move your setup very easily. Who knows. Just a thought.

5- Listen to some other VO talent…  go to www.voicebank.net and listen to people. Listen to radio. Listen to VO on TV. What can you technique can you borrow to make your own? What can you do to improve what YOU do?

 And One to Grow On:

- Listen to a VO podcast and put the advice to work immediately. There are great podcasts available that you can listen to from voices.com, Pat Fraley has some lessons online, and Tracy Pattin has a great podcast with VO talent as well. Take a pointer from the teachings. Do it right now! Try it out in an audition, or grab some copy and record yourself and make the technique your own!

(A big thanks to all those who have mentioned things like these in previous posts!)

What do you do to get your Creative VO juices flowing?

Monday in the ATL

What a cool trip to Atlanta Yesterday.

I have been doing some Voice work for Winshape Camps recently, which was started by Chick-Fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy and his wife, 20 years ago.

 Last week they invited me to the Chick-Fil-A HQ to do a session for Winshape.

What a Beautiful Complex!!! Simply Amazing.

I have to say the highlight of my day was when I arrived there, Mr. Cathy was in the lobby visiting with touring School children having them yell “Eat More Chicken!”

Then a couple hours later, I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Cathy (he came to the studio to record some audio for the project as well.) 

And, in atypical “Stu style”, (I have been in radio for 14 years, and have become hardened to most “stars” so I don’t get “star struck”), I asked him to sign one of his books that I have in my library (yes, I had broght it along with me just in case).

 So, he did! And, he also was very generous offering me a couple other of his books that he has written.

 

WOW!

 

 

 

 

Great Day at GMA!

I had the pleasure of attending a day of “GMA” in downtown Nashville today. Its always good to be able to get out and see some friends and make some new acquaintances.

 

I ran into my friends from WAY FM, as well as Hope In Anguish radio.

 

Plus, I saw Alan Mason from Goodratings Strategic Services in the lobby of the hotel, and wanted to quickly introduce myself, plus thank him for his blog! (it’s a ‘Must Read’ for me!)

Voice Over Success RoundUp

I was origianlly going to write a “big post” summing up my thoughts on the input that fellow Voice Over actors Joe Szymanski, Bob Souer, Kara Edwards, Bobbin Beam and Peter O’Connell gave about Voice Over Success…

 

But, I changed my mind.

 

I did want to thank Joe, Bob, Kara, Bobbin And Peter for their time and thoughts. I really enjoyed reading the thoughtful comments and insight from VOs who are “in the trenches”.

 

If you would like to read the posts in the “series” - if you will - they are all listed here:

 

Post One - The Initial Questions to Fellow VO actors about “Success in VO”

Post Two - Joe Szymanski responds

Post Three - Bob Souer respoinds

Post Four - Kara Edwards responds

Post Five - Bobbin Beam responds

Post Six - Peter O’Connell responds

Post Seven - Peter O’Connell responds again

Post Eight - Peter O’Connell yet again!
Post Nine - Peter O’Connell wraps it up

 

 

From Peter’s Future VO Book, That You Shouldn’t Read! (According to Peter!)

Today Peter comes out a shootin’ on Question number four from a post a while back about Voice Over Success.

A couple of straight from the hip quotes:

 

…to be successful in voiceover, you have to be able to perform and performance comes from doing not reading a book (unless it is out loud)…

 

…If going to VO class feels like a chore, stop! Get off the voice over horse. You’re done…

 

…You have to want it, this voice over dream. Thousands share that great passion every day. The art of performance has to be so deep within you that you dream about doing the work, not making piles of money or dating Scarlett Johansson…

 

A HUGE Thanks to Peter for taking 4 days and 4 posts to answer these questions!

 I’ll wrap up and summarize in my next post!

 

 

 

 

Advice to a Young Grasshopper

Peter O’Connell continues answering questions on Voice Over Success with this post… to a younger, more innocent version of himself!

Here are a couple quotes:

 …Humor is good, obnoxious is bad. Learn the difference quickly…

 

 …build on that talent by learning from everyone in your industry, even the idiots (if they go left, you go right…don’t do what they do)…

 

…Flexibility and patience will be in great demand throughout your life and it will test you mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally…

Read the whole post here!

Woulda Coulda Shouldas

Peter O’Connell is back again with another post from the four questions that I threw out a couple weeks ago about Voice Over Success.

Here are a couple thoughts from his answer to the 2nd Question…

 

…Learning from history but not dwelling on it was one of the first thoughts that came to mind with this question. The wouldas, shouldas and couldas of this business can haunt you…

 

…learn from the mistakes but also learn to let go of the mistake. If your business is in a lull, don’t think about the wouldas, shouldas and couldas but rather the “ares” and “ams”…

More on “Ares and “Ams” and managing the business here.