During my voiceover training, I remember my instructor telling me more than once that when I was out on my own, building my voiceover business and auditioning and booking gigs, I needed to be aware that there were two times a year when things would die off: July and December. It happens every year without fail, and it's just the nature of the beast. And he was right. I do outreach every day, and for the past few weeks, I've received next to no responses whatsoever. Fortunately, thanks to him, I'm always aware and prepared for it, and I also know that things will start picking back up again soon. And also fortunately, I've had things to keep me busy during the downtime.
I started this summer with a "voice acting bucket list" - things I wanted to accomplish by Labor Day. Over the weekend, I was going through my list, and I was pleased and proud to see that I've crossed off quite a significant portion of the list. I've rebuilt my website, rebranded my business, and created, launched, and produced what will soon be two full seasons of an inspirational podcast called "Anything But Routine."
Doing the podcast is especially beneficial during downtime in the voiceover industry, because it sends me into the booth on a regular basis. It's a different kind of voice acting, in that I'm simply speaking as myself rather than a character in a commercial or a training video, but it still requires vocal care, I still read from a script, and I still need to work with the recording software and be a sound engineer. Each episode of "Anything But Routine" is my own and is produced for myself rather than for a paying client, but in doing them, I'm keeping myself in practice and on the ball so that when summer vacation is over and production companies start booking for their fall and winter gigs, I can easily get back into the groove.
Not only that, but doing "Anything But Routine" is kind of like eating dessert for every meal - it's so much fun! What I love most about voice acting is that every project is different and I get to play so many different characters, but as with any job, some work is more enjoyable than other work. With my own podcast, I already know that I'm going to enjoy doing every single episode. From choosing the subjects to writing the scripts to bringing each inspirational story to life in the booth, "Anything But Routine" is a bonus gift in my voice acting career, and because of it, I've actually gotten to enjoy the summer slowdown.
I finished the last two episodes of season two last week, and with the voiceover world still fairly quiet, I'm already starting to brainstorm for season three. I can't wait to get started!
"Anything But Routine" is available for download on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, PodBean, RadioPublic, and Spotify, and a new episode is published every Tuesday. I hope you'll tune in! #unroutineinspiration.
