Thanks for the Thanks!

Everyone likes a “thank you.” And sometimes we don’t take the time to pass along a sincere thank you to the people we interact with every day. Oh, we say “thanks” at the grocery store when we get our receipt. “Thanks” at the restaurant when someone refills our coffee cup or delivers the bill to the table. The sincerity of the “thanks” when someone hands us the bill for the meal is probably in question.

So it is nice to get a sincere thank you when none is really expected. I have toyed with the idea of sending out personal Thank You cards after sessions – and actually have some cards just for this purpose. Not many talent does this from what I can glean from various VO talent message boards. The trouble is, I am so busy just recording the jobs and creating the invoices that I simply forget!

And part […]

2018-02-06T06:48:22+00:00July 28th, 2011|Categories: Communication, Musings|Tags: |

Today’s ROI Wasn’t About Money

Had a yard sale today at my mom’s house in preparation for her move to an Assisted Living Community. She is very excited actually and chatters non-stop about it to anyone who will listen. This is actually good news, of course. Two and a half years ago, this wasn’t even on the radar of options. Frankly, 5 months ago, this wasn’t something that she would consider.

But after a few months of a home share situation – with a house mate who helped her with medication reminders and getting dinners, she learned two things – that she needed help – and that she didn’t like sharing her house. All that strange food in the refrigerator! And just which bar of soap was hers!

So next week we do the final move of the heavy items to her new apartment in La Mesa California, just down the road from wonderful Lake Murray. The […]

2018-02-06T06:48:22+00:00July 23rd, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: , , , , |

Tax Form for the Marginally Employed

My voiceover friend Rowell Gormon just posted a link to an important tax document for the army of self-employed working out of their homes.

You must qualify of course. Do you spend at least 8 hours of daylight in your pajamas? Do your medical expenses include naps, toothbrushes, garlic dill pickles, elixirs, etc.? Do you Tweet? There’s a complex formula for that. Don’t Tweet? Sorry, you don’t qualify for that deduction. Oh and be sure to include your time wasting allowance – and your Hollywood Protection Act deduction (100% of the cost of blockbuster movies you didn’t really want to see).

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/13/opinion/20100413_opart.html

*Be sure to consult your tax preparer to get the latest form. This is the 2009 form, so I’m sure it has changed considerably over the past couple of years. The Obamamania deduction for inauguration expenses has probably been deleted – however, they may have added an […]

2018-02-06T06:48:22+00:00July 12th, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: , , |

Balancing Life and Work

The past few years have been interesting to say the least. After getting my mom to move across country in order to be closer to me so that I could start to help her as her need to be helped increased – I started to see a dramatic increase in personal time in my calendar.

As a rabid type A – most of my time has been spent working. As a free lancer and the sole means of support for my critters and my house – most of my time was spent working or marketing or bookkeeping or networking or something else that required large amounts of time in my “cave.”

So, learning how to carve out the time for my mom was a challenge.

Combine that with the down turn in the economy and there was a bit of a dip in work – which in retrospect was perhaps a good thing […]

2018-02-06T06:48:33+00:00July 11th, 2011|Categories: Business, Marketing, Musings|Tags: , |

Working Class Jill Meets Super Stars (sort of)

As a working class voiceoverist* plying my trade, I rarely get to rub producers with top name talent. By that I mean, I don’t often get to work with producers who are in the habit of hiring big time celebrities. That doesn’t happen much in my neck of the woods.

But a couple of times in the past few months, I have had “new to me” producers (who have found me on the net using a search engine, or who have heard my audition through a P2P site) use my name in the same sentence with some very well known voiceover actors.

I heard from a producer who pulled me from around 20 auditions to voice his project. Well, at least the initial showing of his project. He also has a call into (insert name of very famous actor/voice guy with gravitas) to see if he is interested in the project. I’ll […]

2018-02-06T06:48:33+00:00July 7th, 2011|Categories: Marketing, Musings|Tags: , , , |
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