In last week’s post, I mentioned an anecdote from college where a friend and I were talked into squatting with weights heavier than was advisable for our first time, which led to me walking like a penguin for a week.
As I mentioned in that previous post, fear of pain or discomfort can sometimes keep people from pushing themselves at all.
And sometimes the desire to keep up with those around us or to impress stupid college guys (whose names you’ve long since forgotten) can lead us to push ourselves too hard.
These past two weeks, I have been trying really hard to push myself. Last year, I hired a VA, had her do a bunch of production company research, and then I started marketing myself. That didn’t last long, unfortunately. I stalled out in March or so, and only did a small amount after that.
Two weeks ago, I got back to it, and sent 100 emails in a week. (See last week’s post here)
Then, I realized that putting the marketing on the front burner to get it done in time, and all the stress of the dog and everything else had meant I’d been slacking on my auditions. My agent auditions were still getting done, but I had barely touched the P2P auditions all week.
I told my accountability group that I wanted to submit 25 P2P auditions before our next meeting. That’s not actually unreasonable. That’s about 3.5 per day. Totally doable.
They all said “Maybe you should make it a lesser goal. You know, so it’s achievable.”
They had a point. If yet another adorably scruffy orphaned dog showed up at my door, there’s no WAY I’d make it to 25 auditions. Better to shoot a little bit lower. So, I said, “25 between P2P and agent auditions.”
But in my head…my goal was to blow that 25 out of the water.
After all, I know people who do 150+ auditions a week! One extremely busy voice actor/engineer I know said he sometimes receives 70 a DAY.
A DAY!!!
Like, holy crap.
I’m just not a fast enough editor to do that many auditions in a day.
So, I entered the next week ready to go into battle. Between Friday and Sunday, I surpassed 25 auditions. I also took on more training hours at my part time job. And I still wanted to send 100 emails.
By our meeting on Friday, I had done 19 agent auditions and 58 P2P auditions, sent 111 marketing emails, and worked 25 hours at my part time job.
And I was BURNED OUT.
And miles to go before I sleep…
When you weightlift, you have to give yourself rest days for your muscles to recover.
Well, I pushed too hard and didn’t give myself enough rest time to recover. Every day last week was booked pretty much solid from morning until late night with things that needed to get done, most of them on a computer screen. So by Friday, I couldn’t move. I spent most of Friday binge-watching Search Party in a semi-comatose state.
Part of the problem is knowing where I want to be, and wanting to make it happen faster. But there’s no shortcut to getting there.
Patience is a virtue when growing muscles or a career.
Lifting 100 lbs once does not make you strong.
Lifting smaller weights consistently and increasing them as they become too easy is the key to improvement.
There are those who struggle to do a few auditions a week, because they’re working a full time job, have a family, or have other obstacles getting in the way.
To those of you out there similarly intimidated by the idea of doing five or six auditions a week (let alone 25, 70, or 175), I say:
Don’t try to impress anyone but yourself.
Your wins are YOUR wins
Start small!
If you regularly do three auditions a week, then maybe next week see if you can sneak in a few more. Make it 5, then 7, then 10.
If you don’t send any marketing emails right now, then start with one. And if that seems scary, get someone to spot you—get a friend on Zoom and read them the email for feedback before you press send while they watch and cheer you on.
If you want to be more involved with social media, but the idea of posting every day intimidates the crap out of you, start with committing to posting once a week. Plan what you’ll post, and then post at the same time every week to start. After a month or two, increase it to twice a week.
We are all at different places on our journey. And at various times in our lives, we all have setbacks that cause us to lose skills or strengths we once had, be it an illness, a life event, an injury, or something else.
It’s useless to compare ourselves to others or to our past selves except as inspiration to slowly build up our strength to see what we are truly capable of.
Honestly, I don’t plan to stop trying to do a lot of auditions, because I know that the more I do them, the better I get at doing them well and doing them fast.
Doing auditions every day makes me more confident when I approach a script. It makes me more proficient at recognizing what is worth auditioning for, and what to pass on.
Here’s how to use weightlifting to help you get better at voiceover (or anything else):
Find a way to do that thing EVERY SINGLE DAY. Commit.
Slowly increase the difficulty. If practicing that thing is too easy…make it harder. Slow it down. Speed it up. Add more weight. More complexity. Challenge yourself!
Give yourself adequate rest. But then get back to it! Plan your breaks so they don’t break your habits.
Get a spotter or a personal trainer! Someone to push you to do the things you’re resistant to (but totally capable of).
Do it even when you don’t feel like it. Ever notice how you’re not in the mood for a party, but then you get there and you have fun anyway? Or you resist going to that Zumba class, but by the end you are totally revved up? Find ways to trick your brain into getting started, because doing the thing, whatever it is, will usually give you energy to do the thing. Sitting on the couch will not.
Well, here’s where I sign off, friends! I gotta go do my physical therapy exercises so I can regain the pain-free use of my arm and shoulder. It’s slow going, because I keep resisting doing the damn exercises at home. But I’m going to take my own advice and get to it.
Until next week!
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