 Hey, it's time for VoiceOver Body Shop. Hey, we're all at home. You should all be watching, and George and I are glad to have our guest tonight, who is Christine Aller. Say hello, Christine. Hello, Christine. There she is, right there. We'll be talking to her. If you've got a question for her, throw it in the chat room in Facebook, and we will get to that question to her. We're going to talk about staying at home and how to run your voiceover business and planning for when eventually we get out of here. So, are you ready? Are you ready out there? It's time for VoiceOver Body Shop. Let's go. From the outer reaches, they came, bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voiceover audio, and together, from the center of the VO universe, they bring it to you now. George Wittem, the engineer to the VO Stars, a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build, set up, and maintain the professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today, and you, Dan Leonard, the VoiceOver Home Studio Master, a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio. And each week, they allow you into their world, bring you talks with the biggest names in the voiceover world today, letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voiceover business. Welcome to VoiceOver Body Shop. VoiceOver Body Shop is brought to you by VoiceOverEssentials.com, home of Harlan Hogan signature products, source elements, remote studio connections for everyone, VoiceActorWebsites.com, where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt. VOHeroes.com, become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training. J. Michael Collins demos, when quality matters, and VoiceOver Extra, your daily resource for VO success. And now, live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California, here are the guys. Greetings. I am Dan Leonard. And I'm George Wittem. And this is VoiceOver Body Shop, or VO. Yes. Well, we've got a great show for you tonight. We've got a great guest. Kristi and Oliver will join us in a minute. And George, we're still at home. We're still doing this all remotely. And it's kind of lonely here. It's a combination of loneliness and technical frustrations on a whole new level that we're having to deal with to make this show happen the way we like. But you know, it's happening. And we're really glad to be here with you guys, because it's our way of staying connected to what you're all doing and what's going on out there in the real world. Well, it's going out there in the voiceover world, which is complete utter chaos. Oh, man, the questions we have been getting, I'm sure we, if we start to compare stories of the questions we have gotten, it will be, it'll be, it's already been a half-hour conversation. So go on training. Anyway, because of all this stuff, we know that eventually they're going to let us out of the house. They're going to take the barbed wire down, open up the gates and let us out into the streets and stuff. And, but they'll also probably hopefully let people back into studios. But in the interim, because it looks like it's going to be at least another three weeks to a month, they'll they really let people go anywhere. We got to talk about how you're going to handle your voice business. And to help us with that is our good friend and creative business consultant, Kristine Aller. Kristine, welcome to the show. Hi, it's good to be back, you guys. Great to have you back. So how has this affected your consulting business? Well, as far as like physically, I'm doing exactly what I would be doing at this time in the same ways, because I've been working from home for many years. So nothing's really changed in that respect. The projects and things that I expected to be working on right at this time of year, I'm still working on. My husband is now working from home. So that's a different dynamic, but we're very fortunate, very fortunate to have two separate offices. So he's not intruding on my space. Really nice helps to have a big place, you know, I mean, we've we've got we've got a you're not a big house here, but there's a space for everybody. So we only see each other at the end of the day, you know, but it's like, all right, back to your private space after that. Yeah, it's a huge privilege. And it makes going through this process a lot easier. You know, I do recognize that that's the case. Yeah. Yeah. For people who don't know you, explain a little bit about what you do in your in your consulting work. Right. So I'm a coach and a strategist. I work with individuals who are looking to make shifts in their terms of their creativity or their career or their cash flow. And I was an actor for a decade. And during that time, I became a professional organizer. So I went into business for myself and learned how to do that. And then during that time, a lot of my friends were like, Oh, hey, you have a lucrative, successful little side business, I want one of those. So I would help them get their businesses up and running. And eventually I left organizing and went into just consulting and coaching and being a strategist. And so now I help people with their lives and careers. And then I also have this course called creating cash flow, which is all of my business advice geared especially towards people who haven't ever generated their own income before. How do you start from scratch doing that? And it's a course. And then there's monthly coaching that goes with it. And all throughout this year, that coaching is free. So if you buy the course, you get all of 2020 coaching with me several times a month for free. Wow, that's great. Yeah, yeah. It's amazing that people who are in the creative arts, in the performing arts, voice actors, actors, painters, people who do that kind of stuff, generally, they're not always regarded as the best business people, are they? No, but I think that they also are people by nature who have skills and strengths that can be applied to the self-generation of income. Because business muscles can be taught. They can be cultivated. You don't have to just be born with the knack to do it. It's just something that's learned. So it's much harder to be someone who has to have to learn how to be creative, to have to have those skillsets, which most of our audience has naturally. So you really do have the upper hand, I think, if you're a creative artist, because you also have the resiliency of like, oh, okay. Someone said, no, well, you know, we've all heard the no before. So we're sort of immune to that. So I think those are the harder things to learn or to have. I can teach business. Yeah, we find in the voice acting business, you know, most people don't get the concept that this is a business, that it's not really show business so much as it is an entrepreneurial type of thing. So not only do you have to be a good actor or a good voice actor and learn the technical skills to be able to send your voice places, but you also got to keep the books. But more importantly than all of that, it's getting people to want to use your voice or your your acting skill or whatever it is, right? Yeah. So how do you how do you get people do you find people just are like, Oh, I thought I was just going to be an actor or I thought I was, you know, and how do you and how do you deal with that? And how do you tell people that's not right? Well, it's that's not right. The tough thing about the voiceover industry in particular is that it is an industry that has evolved very much technology literally changed the experience that someone going into voiceover had and a lot more came on to the artist's shoulders being much more entrepreneurial than ever before and having to deal with the tech and deliver like finished work sometimes. That wasn't, you know, back in the day, it was just coming into your voices and do your, you know, read this line. It was very much more geared toward the acting part of it. But now if you want to go into it, and certainly if you want to go into it with the ambition of earning income from it, you are literally going into an entrepreneurial tech heavy business. And sometimes you get paid to read copy. Yeah, it happens occasionally, you know, the check clears, that's great. On the good side, this is, you know, not even just for right this second, but as we see the possibilities of what the future will entail for us, this is a great business to invest in because it is something you can do remotely. So on that side, it's good. On the other side, it is something where a lot of it falls on your shoulders to generate the income. There's less of an infrastructure that you can easily plug yourself into to earn money. You have to create that infrastructure. So pros and cons, but really big pros and some really challenging cons, not even cons, but just challenges. Our guest again is Christine Oller. She is a business consultant to us creative types, voice actors, actors, you know, I take it you cover the gamut for a lot of different types of creative endeavors, don't you? Yeah, because I had a background in acting, a lot of my consulting and coaching clients at the beginning were actors. I mean, my very first client for coaching was Pat Fraley. So it sort of started there. But over time, I've worked with so many different types of creative professionals, creative types gravitate towards me because I understand the crazy life. I understand lingo, I get it. I've done it. So yeah, but all different kinds of creatives. If you've got a question for Christine, throw it in the Facebook chat room and we will get that question in just a little bit. So stand by for that. Now, of course, as you were saying, the industry has changed a lot and people have changed to that. But right now, we are in a radical shift because nobody can go into a studio. Everybody's got to do it from home. And everybody's in a panic. Even though George and I, George, haven't we been telling people for the last 10 years, you have to have a home studio and you should have the ability to do it remotely. So it's yeah, exactly. I don't you know, for me, the world that I work in, because I consult home studio people, it's just always assumed a home studio as part of the picture. And now that there's a bunch of people that are coming out of the woodwork, quote unquote, that don't have one and need one, it's really becoming glaringly obvious how many voice actors, especially in obviously in New York or Los Angeles, have been having a, in some cases, very successful career without one. So that's been really interesting and real eye-opener. Yeah. And we're learning all about it. And of course, they're all like, help, help. Well, we've told you, but we're happy to help. Anyway, so I mean, Christine, it's hard enough having a business, but in this climate of staying at home, what do you think are some good strategies for people who are now having to adjust to working at home, especially as voice actors? And what are you suggesting to people? Well, let's talk about the panic factor. Okay, let's talk about the stress. There was this, I can imagine there's a certain tier of voice talent who are in a panic legitimately because they can't go into booths and they don't have something at home and they are getting offers of work of like, can you do this? Or they feel like their agents are putting them at the bottom of the list because they don't have the technology in place. So for them, there are immediate opportunities that they're missing out on. But if you're not in that tier where there's like offers coming to you, there's no need to panic. Sure. Do you need to get a voiceover studio in place in some way? Yeah, but there's no, there's not this huge amount of opportunities now just because voiceover can be done from home. Doesn't mean there's just suddenly a flood of opportunity for voice work opening up. So I recommend that if you're in the spin cycle in your head to find ways first and foremost above everything else to calm yourself down and shift into or shift back into looking at this voiceover career as a long game. You want to make it through this upheaval period, but then you also want to have a career on the other side of it. And the worst thing that you can do is to exhaust yourself now trying to get all these things in place and to make money from voice making money from voiceover is just as difficult now as it was before the virus came to town. So you're still going to need to get yourself up to a competitive advantage in terms of technology and self directing yourself and being really good and creative at your craft and then doing the research of who needs my services and where do I want to like focus in on all of that still has to be done. And there's only so much hours in the day and so much energy you have to put towards this. So there's no need to panic. There's no need to get this done sooner than you were already on the road to getting it done. You're not missing. There's not opportunities to be missed out on any more so than there was in January. The worst thing is for someone a voiceover to come out of this at the end of the upheaval exhausted from draining their energy over panicking. You want to come out with sharper tools and stronger craft so that when the opportunities do kind of start to the gears of the industry start to move again, you're ready for it and you're not depleted financially, mentally, emotionally. Sorry. Okay. Just a slight delay. So I'm like trying to catch up with it with where you are here. So one of the things that I noticed from people is that the time factor seems to be an issue with them. They're like, I have to get this audition out now or this has to get done now. I've never really found that to be the case. But then again, I'm the most patient person in the world. But if I see a deadline on something, if I have the time, if I have the inclination, if I look at a spec and go, and it's not me, I'm not going to worry about it. But if it's something, an agent says, get this in as soon as possible, we hear things like, there's birds outside or there's a leaf blower. People just panic about all these crazy things and it's especially now, since people who may not be used to working at home now have to deal with these issues, they're probably freaking out. They're going through all the stuff that most of us that have been doing this for 20 years or were worried about 15 years ago when we first started going into home studios and it's like, hey, just deal with it. We're trying to calm these people down, but live and learn, I guess. Everyone is experiencing this on their own timelines. Everybody's doing, we're all going through it, but we're going through it in different ways and different things are hitting people and confronting people at different times. No one is doing this pandemic wrong. There's no right way to do this pandemic and each one of us are going to muddle our way through it and our experience isn't going to look like the person next to us. That's the difficult thing. We're all going through the same thing and yet we're going through it differently. So there are people who are experiencing and having to grapple with and learn things that they didn't even have on their agenda in January. That's okay. The only time we grow is when we're confronted with obstacles and things. I shot video on Saturday and I found out that the camera didn't work and then I was like, well, how am I going to use this other camera and upload it and burn? I was so frustrated and I just because I spent so much time, but then it comes down to, okay, you're going to have that tantrum and maybe you do have the tantrum for a little while, but then what are the stories you're going to tell yourself? I just gave myself a pep talk of like, you're smart, you can figure this out and I figured out how to do a transfer of the footage from the camera to my computer. And now I know how to do something. There you go. Liquidity split. Did I never wanted to learn? Then I never thought I needed to learn because I had this other setup that was going fine. Did I want to learn it? No. Did I want to spend three hours learning it? No, but now I know it and now I can teach it to somebody else and that's just how we learn things, especially as adults. We usually learn things when we're forced to. Yeah, that's true. And this is a period of time where we're being forced to learn things. I think that's an excellent point. I think there are people need to, this is a great time for people to be innovative and perhaps look outside the box. Well, how could I do this? How could I do that? I was like, I can't go to the gym to work out with my trainer and he's like, well, you can't come into the gym. I'm like, well, wait a second. I just set up the camera on a tripod, you know, my iPhone on a tripod, get on FaceTime. Okay. All right. Now lift it like this. We've been doing that for a month and a half and it's been working fine. You know, I may never go back to the gym. I can, you know, I can run in and take a shower at home. It makes it a lot easier. But these are the things that people need to think outside the box a little bit and perhaps, you know, throw away some, you know, some of their paradigms of this is too hard. This is too intimidating. I ought to try it and just go for it. Yeah. There's space now. You're either telling yourself a story that's making you feel like you're choking yourself to death or you're telling yourself a story where you feel you have the space to do this. I've also been telling folks that, you know, don't be overly concerned about your home studio sounding amazing overnight or totally soundproof or completely quiet. Because keep in mind that everybody is dealing with less than optimal situations from production all the way, you know, from producer all the way to the talent and everywhere in between. So there's going to be some more tolerance among reduction to get people up to speed and running again. You know, I've been trying to tell people that because I think everybody's so nervous. And I understand that, but they're so nervous about things going wrong in a live session or a source connect session, something and, you know, the noise happening. I'm like, trust me, if there's any time in our voice over recording careers that this is going to be a little more tolerated, it's probably going to be now. So don't be overly stressed out about it. Yeah, I have been giving the exact same advice. One of the beautiful things that dropped into our lap because of these circumstances is perfection just went out the window. I mean, if Saturday Night Live can put their little home movies on national television, tell me about it, you know, with, you know, it looks literally like something any of us could film. Like we're doing right now. We've only been doing this for nine years. So this is better than what Saturday Night Live and most of the other late night talk shows, technical perspective, and I would argue content are pulling off right now. Yeah. The bar of craft didn't lower, but the bar of perfection and technology and delivery lowered, which is lovely breathing room for us all. And the worst thing would be to not take advantage of that and not give yourself a break over it. Once again, we're talking with Christine Aller, who is a consultant to people in the creative fields. And we're talking about how to survive being at home. And we're seeing lots of this, you know, people, you know, expressing themselves in ways that we've never thought of before, because they can't go into studios and we're seeing all of these star videos and stuff. Some of them really great. Some of them not so great. George, you know, you and I need to talk to some of these people about some of the technical quality they're putting out there. But yeah, it's to me, it's like, you know, because everybody's at home, it's like the little girl going into her bedroom and grabbing a hairbrush and talking into the hairbrush and doing a radio show. There's been a lot of that. I posted something recently on Facebook saying, okay, maybe it was three weeks ago now, but I was like, okay, when's the novelty going to wear off of, you know, all these celebrities doing talk shows, getting away with what I consider to be the bare minimum. Because, you know, again, we are kind of getting a pass, but we're coming up on two months into this thing. Maybe it's time to get Jimmy Fallon USB lav mic. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, there was a tribute to Stephen Sondheim last night. I was, I'm involved in a similar project and they're like, oh, you didn't watch the Sondheim thing last night. Oh, it didn't start well at all. So, but once it got going, it was great, you know. He liked tonight's show. That makes me feel so much better about the delay in getting our show near tonight, you know. Exactly. Exactly. Things happen. But once we get it, we get it right. We're talking with Kristi Nuller. Once again, if you have a question for her about, you know, dealing with the stress of the situation and how to plan for what's going to happen when this all ends, if it ever ends, throw it in the chat room. And I know Jeff Holman is in there tonight and he's taking questions and we want to hear from you so we can continue this conversation with Kristi. But I got a couple more questions for her. Now, without revealing, you know, clearly you have a confidential confidentiality thing going, Kristi, because you're talking with clients and stuff. What kind of, I won't say what specific kinds of things, but what are you hearing people say and complain about that they're experiencing and trying to cope with this situation? Well, the biggest conversation that I have been having repeatedly over the last six weeks are clients asking about how they're going to earn money during this time, because a lot of the support jobs for the creative artists just evaporated. And I did a workshop on this and it's free. You can download it right from my website. If you go to christiinauler.com slash cash flow, it's called creating cash when times are tough. And it talks about perspective shifts and action steps that you can take. And this is all the guidance that I've just been giving to my clients as we've had these discussions. But this idea of, oh, you know, no one has any money right now. There's nothing I can do that anybody would pay me for, especially because I can't leave my house. Oh, I don't want to ask for money during this time, because I don't want people to talk negatively about about me or think I'm trying to take advantage of the situation. All these stories that people are telling themselves that I think are preventing them from going, okay, it looks like there aren't going to be a lot of jobs to just easily get in the near future. Because this global crisis is different than the 2008 recession. When the 2008 recession hit, you know, businesses were still in place. They just took a lot longer to hire full-time employees back. They did a lot of temp hiring and then temp to permanent kind of thing. It was kind of a slow easing back ramping up the economy. This time it's very different because businesses are folding. So I think from my perspective, but again, this is one person's perspective and I don't know what the future holds. There's so many variables that can play out just in this year alone. But what it looks like to me is there's not going to be this economic infrastructure to plug yourself into. We're going into a two or three-year period of, oh, how do I employ myself? How do I create my own job and how do I generate my own income? And that might be something that some people listening to this will be able to do through voiceover. For other artists, though, it might be, okay, I'm going to do things from my voiceover career because I'm playing the long game and I want to be in this, you know, for the next five, 10, 20 years. But I also need to figure out how I'm going to generate money to support myself through this time so that when the gears of the industry, the entertainment industry start moving again, you'll be positioned to jump back in. That's a good place to start. And that was really one of the things that I wanted to ask you about is what should your planning priorities be during this time? During this time, you know, when we're sitting here going, what could I be doing? I mean, there's so many different possibilities. I think some people are probably getting overwhelmed with thinking about what are they going to do when this is all over? Have you been finding that? Part of the overwhelm comes from the notion that they're missing out on opportunities right now that this whole thing's going to be over in a month and that they don't have time. They're already behind. None of that is helpful. You can't build anything if you're choking yourself and your creativity and your hope to death. So the very first thing is to get your hand off your throat. People are in one of three modes right now. I call them the money modes. So mode one is the spin cycle of just, oh my god, what do I have to do? It's anxiety. It's almost a paralysis, even though you have maybe lists of things you know you have to do, but it's like, where do I start? What takes a priority? Very anxious. Can't do anything. So if you're in that, the first priority is to get yourself in mode two. Mode two is the short game. How do I pay the rent? How do I buy my food? How do I keep the utility on? You know, that keeping your head above water. If you're not in, have those bases covered yet, that's what you should be focused on. Forget about your voice of a career for right now because there's resources available now. There's people to be talked to and I think a lot of people have spent the last six weeks getting that stuff in place. So, and you might for a while be switching back and forth between mode one and mode two. Little bit of panic. Okay, focus. Do some tasks. Panic again because every week has been like a year with the amount of things that have changed. I do think what's coming up is not as much change. I think we're going to start waiting. I think there's going to be, you know, certain things that are put back in place, but I think the freneticness of the last six weeks, it's not going to be as frenetic for most people, but again, we're all on different timelines. So, something might happen in your personal life or something that just throws you for a loop. So, mode one, mode two, mode one, mode two, but when you finally kind of feel like, and some people are, everything's fine, like their life was situated or they had savings, where they're cool, they're in mode two. So, then when you're cool and in mode two and you feel a little stability, you can turn your attention to shifting into mode three, which is playing the long game of like, okay, now I'm going to look at, do I need to have an income stream? What do I want that to be or multiple income streams? And what do I need to do to get my voice over into a competitive level? And that might be technology is the most pressing thing. If you cannot record decent stuff, you need to get the tech in place. Then the next thing is, can you self-direct yourself? And if you're kind of, oh, I don't know, or I do, you know, 27 takes of an audition, which is just a lot from what I hear. You get worse each time you do it. Yeah, even, yeah, I mean, I got, you know, five takes in me and then it's like the eyes start to glaze over. So, learning how to self-direct yourself might be the thing. Or okay, I am going to put my money on audiobooks. So, start really learning what the things are. It's about narrowing your focus so that you can complete a little project and then pick the next little project. Because the other thing that can happen during times like these that is very detrimental is you can feel like you're not moving forward at all and you have no momentum. But if you have little projects that have a beginning, middle, and end that you're able to complete, completing projects gives you a feeling of fruition. Huh, I did something. I'm moving forward. And that feeling is what allows you to take the next project on. And it's important now because, oh my god, you know, you're like, what day is it? It's important on Sunday or Monday morning to plan your week. Even if there's nothing to fill it, then all the time is yours. And this is part of being your own boss. Absolutely. And that is a role I think the majority of people for the time being need to step into. Okay, I need to learn how to be my own boss. And I have a whole video for free on my website, christinealler.com slash weekly dash planning dash chart, I believe. If you can't find it, email me weekly planning chart of how to plan a week as a creative. I made this video and chart for one of my clients a long time ago. And it's many, many people have found it very, very useful. So it's just a different approach. Yeah, keeping a schedule is very, very important. You know, and it's like, and it's like, how do you accomplish things? Once again, our guest, yeah, once again, our guest is Christine Aller. And we're going to take a quick break here. And if you have a question for her, please put it in this in the Facebook chat room right now. Jeff Holman is standing by to take your questions. And we're going to ask Christine some of those right after this important break. So don't go away. Well, hello there. I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for Snapchat, were you? This is virgin radio. Well, okay, we're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working. Dickies, because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values, a leader for California and a voice for America. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smartphone, but it's so much more. It's the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song. It's the end of the road for Rick. When hope is lost, the I8 from BMW. Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's J. Michael Collins. Bet you think I'm going to try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email. It's jmichaelatjmcvoiceover.com. Now, if they will stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show. Well, hey there, hero. We interrupt the award-winning shenanigans of Voice Over Body Shop for this public service announcement. 1.5 billion. That's how many students there are in the world. Primary, secondary, college, university. 1.5 billion. And that's how many were sent home several weeks ago, along with the 90 million teachers and professors who teach them. And as they left, those teachers and professors were all told by their principals and deans, hey, keep teaching your classes from home, okay? Yeah, you know how to do that, what, that Facebook Live thing and that YouTube and that Zoom thing. You don't have to do that, don't you? Sure, everybody does, except many of those teachers don't even know where to start. What camera to use, what microphone to use, how to set up lights, how to use Zoom, and what makes online classes different from in-person classes. But I do. I know how to do that. I've been doing that for years, and I thought, well, maybe I can help. So I spent day and night for the past few weeks putting together a course on how teachers can do all that. And I figured, ah, you know what, I'll sell it for 49 bucks. Anybody can afford 49 bucks, right? But then, at the last minute, I decided to do something different. I decided to set aside the money and give it away for free. So now through May 6th, any teacher can have the course forever for free. And I've got a favor to ask of you. If you're a teacher, or if you know a teacher or two and with 90 million in the world who doesn't know a teacher or two, would you let them know about this? The course is available at teachyourcourseonline.com. And I'm going to ask Dan and George to make that link available on the VOBS website and maybe mention it a time or two on the air and in the notices that they sent out. Would you guys do that for me? Okay, great. The course again is at teachyourcourseonline.com. Help me, help teachers, be heroes at home, as well as in the classroom. That's teachyourcourseonline.com. Thank you very much. And it takes forever to get one built and go live. So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voiceactorwebsites.com. Like our name implies, voiceactorwebsites.com just does websites for voice actors. We believe in creating fast, mobile-friendly, responsive, highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use. You have full control. No need to hire someone every time you want to make a change. And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time. You can get your voiceover website going for as little as $700. So if you want your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options, go to voiceactorwebsites.com where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what. This is Bill Ratner and you're enjoying Voice Over Body Shop with Dan Leonard and George Wittem, VOBS.TV. And we're back here on Voice Over Body Shop. We're talking with Christine Oller about how to handle all this stuff we're going through as voice actors and as creative people. And Christine, you're with us, right? Yes. There she is. See if she's in sync. Hopefully. A little bit better. Okay, that's what we like to have. It makes it a little easier for me to concentrate on what you're saying when it's a little bit weird. Again, if you've got a question for Christine, please throw it in the chat room so Jeff Holman can get it to us and we can ask it of you, Christine, and we'll talk about a little bit more about how to really handle this radical shift that we're seeing in every business. I mean, it's not just voiceover, is it? It's everything. We got a lot of people sitting at home. Of course, we're also discovering that our neighbors actually have kids, which is kind of interesting too. Like, okay, you got kids? Oh, and you have a dog too. It's just amazing. I've been here five years. I didn't know they had kids. But so it's a good time to go out and explore, just to get away from all this nonsense, at least you can go out and explore your neighborhood as long as you're wearing a mask. Of course. And getting out is really important. Getting outside has been for me who likes to work indoors all the time. Getting outside is always important, and it just kind of revitalizes my energy. And again, as the days go by, you can forget, oh, it's been three days since I've seen the sun. Yeah. It's getting up in the morning. All right. Now, this is my Thursday. No, wait, it's Friday. It's for Saturday. No, like Thursday, Thursday, Thursday. Yeah, it's the new name, the new, the new word for Thursday, month Thursday. This is definitely, definitely different. We've got a question from Kim Handyside. So let's, George, why don't you toss that to her? Yeah, she says, I'm constantly retooling my business. I'm wondering if there are any questions that I just might be missing that I could ask myself about my voice over business, you know, like big idea questions, maybe that I could ponder or kind of answer during this time right now. That's a very interesting question. And it's a conversation question. It's like, it's a great place to start, but without sort of knowing the questions you've already asked yourself and what you want to explore. But I can say that I do like the fact that you are asking yourself questions from what I call the big picture perspective. And so often people stay down in the details, which is a very, you know, let's execute the tasks, let's do the to do list, let's react and, and respond to what the world is throwing at us. And the more you can pull back and look at things from the big picture perspective, you have space and that's where you plan from. And that's why even weekly planning is great because it pulls you back up here instead of just spending another week down in the details. Um, I don't have any question. The one question that I have been asking people at this point in time is how are these circumstances requiring you to grow? And often the the answer to that is found within our resistance to what's going on. Oh, I don't want it to be this way. Why does that have to be this way? Oh, why do I have to learn this thing? Why do I have to? Well, but, but okay, this is happening. So how is this asking you to grow? Because just focusing on your voice over business or your business or that during this time, I think is missing an opportunity just for you as a person. And as artists just living through this time will feed our art and let us tell the stories of this time. So even if you're not doing anything, you are still absorbing stuff for the future as an artist. You're still doing your art by being attuned and living through these circumstances. So that is a question. How are these circumstances enabling me to grow? And another question that I think is really important during this time and not from necessarily just an altruistic point of view, but how can I serve? Because I think from that can come opportunities that you may not ever have envisioned for yourself. But how can I be of service? And it can be service that you're paid for. Just serving doesn't necessarily take renumeration off the table, but it's, it's a different kind of intention with your business instead of like, how can I make money or who can pay me during this time or what jobs can I get? It's okay, I have this skill set as a voice over artist who needs me. And how can I serve? That is super brilliant. I mean, whenever there's things that come out of from left field, I mean, it's easier for what I do because my job is very from a technical aspect, clearly, about problem solving. But the same thing holds true for every voice actor is your job is also problem solving. And that's serving. So when you're trying to figure out what's the new thing you can focus on, you have to look at what are the problems that need to be solved by the client and then fill those. I think that's a that's my way of thinking of what you're referring to, I think, Christine. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess another big picture question would be, where do I want to position myself in the voice over industry? Like, ultimately, what do I want to be the go to person for? And not just sort of like commercials, not that broad, but just, but I want to be the person they think of when they need this thing, because that gives you a direction for all your effort. Another question is looking out five years, if you're in the middle of a decade, or 10 years, if you're just starting a decade of who do I want to be at the end of this decade or at the end of the next five years? Just as a person, who do I want to be? And what's the texture of life I want to have? Yeah, lots of time to sit around and ponder those things for a lot of people. Liz Dineshner asks, do you have any mind tips and focus hacks, since although we're used to being at home, this seems a little different. And she's not as motivated as she feels she should be. Yeah, that's, that is something that I have found. A lot of my go getting clients type a very focused, usually their pendulum has swung to like, what is my life even about? I don't feel really motivated to, to, you know, business, we're not in the normal swing of business. So when you try to apply your usual energy to your business, it can kind of like just fall flat. And then you get a little deflated. Because it's just not the normal pace that these folks are used to working at. So I totally understand that. And there is the thing before I just talked about like mind tips for keeping your head on straight. I think it's important to acknowledge that there's an underlying hum of loss and grief that's going on in life. It might be over, you might actually be dealing with the loss and grief of a person. But it can just also be an equally significant loss of an identity. I was this person or I was the person who would be able to fly to my parents if they had a problem. And now you're no longer that person anymore. What does that mean to you? The loss of just places that we used to love that we probably won't be able to go to and visit for quite some time, even just going out to a restaurant with a friend, there's a loss there. And it's important to acknowledge that because applying like the, excuse me, but applying like meditation and affirmation and mental gymnastics to stabilize yourself every week. If we're not acknowledging that there's deeper stuff there, then those don't work. And then we think something's wrong with ourselves because those aren't working, but if you can acknowledge where the loss, what losses you're dealing with right now, then once that's acknowledged and maybe dealt with in a deeper way with practitioners, then we can address, okay, how do we reframe every week and keep ourselves in a good headspace and go forward? So the other thing for the type A go getter business, you know, is great. And I love it. And I love being a voiceover artist and I'm rocking it. That might have been January. Now it's like, Oh my God, I don't know why are we even doing this. I just have lost my steam. There's a moment here. And a lot of people who are go getters are not comfortable with relaxing. And for some of my clients, this is the time where they have to work on relaxing and maybe moving at a slower pace. I have a client who is really great actress. She has a bunch of credits. She just got cast. She got offered a project right before, you know, right in March, it was greenlit to go and she was going to be in it, production shut down. And but the project will still very, very likely go whenever the gears of the industry turn up again. And she's sort of like, Okay, well, what should I do right now? And I said, Well, you need to get good at what it's like to be on hiatus. Because she's so used to going, going, going all the time, but there's nothing for her right now. She doesn't need to get good tape on her health self because she has a great reel. She doesn't need to boost her craft because she's really good at what she does. But what she's not good at is enjoying her life when she has space to do it. So that's sometimes, especially with my high go getting achieving clients, it's like, Whoa, why not get used to the what this is naturally and organically offering you right now. And that might stabilize if you move away from your work. That sometimes naturally makes you gravitate toward it again. Excellent point. That's interesting. I find that to be very true as well. Well, Christine, it has been fascinating, you know, hearing what you have to say on this subject. And I'm sure people are like, Oh, yeah, that's pretty obvious. So we really appreciate you coming on and telling us, you know, how we can plan ahead. Once again, if they there's a couple of things that you're offering, could you tell us about those again real quick? Sure. The free cash flow course is at Christine dollar.com slash cash flow. And then my weekly planning chart, Christine dollar.com slash weekly dash planning dash chart, I think. And if not, email me and I'll send you the link. You can probably find my website's pretty simple and explanatory. So yeah, so that would be Christine dollar.com. Yeah, with a K. Alrighty, Christine. Thanks so much for being with us. We really appreciate you taking the time while you're really, really busy and doing the things that we're doing. And we'll have you on again soon. Oh, my pleasure, guys. Anytime. Next time in the studio in the studio, we'll all be together. Big group hug. Anyway, Christine dollar, everybody. All right, George and I will be right back to clean things up right after this. This is Anthony Mendez. You're watching voice over body shop. Your dynamic voice over career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead. Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voice over industry has to offer that place is voice over extra.com. Whether you're just exploring a voice over career or a season veteran ready to reach that next professional level, stay in touch with market trends, coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls. Voice over extra has hundreds of articles, free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed. Learn from the most respected talents, coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books, auditioning, casting, home studio setup and equipment, marketing, performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one stop daily resource for voice over success. Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voice over audition. It's all here at voiceover extra.com. That's voiceover XTRA.com. It's now time to talk about Harlan Hogan's voice over essentials.com. Now today, Amazon incorporated shipped its last porta booth pro from their inventory. And as you know, the demand for many goods and services needed for those working from home has exceeded supplies and both their plus and pro recording booths are no exception. Now you may have also experienced long shipping times even for audio equipment that's in Amazon's inventory. Now voice over essentials.com, the manufacturers of the porta booth plus and the porta booth pro and Harlan Hogan signature series audio gear is shipping now. And they have ample inventory of everything voice over talent, podcasters and broadcasters need to produce professional sounding audio from home and on the road. So if you're in need of home VO studio gear, and now that's everybody, go on over to voiceover essentials.com and see all the great stuff they have that shipping now. Oh, I think I heard the voice over body shot. Hey, well, this is the time of the show where we talk about one of our wonderful longtime sponsors and that source elements, the creators of something you maybe have heard of by now if you're in any way tangentially related to voice over and that is source connect. Source connect is the tool that you're probably already been asked by now to have in your home studio why it is really the predominant way that voice over studio producers, the ones that actually record the engineers or record voice actors or productions have been doing so remotely. And now guess what? Everything is remote now. So source connect has really become far more commonplace. So if you've been watching the show and kind of ignoring these ads week after week after week, or I tell you now is the time to get source connect as a demo. Now is the time to get source connect. It's already long past due now. So head over to source elements.com and get yourself a 15 day free trial. Also go check out a little plug for myself as well. Go over to georgev.tech slash sc where I created a page all about source connect, how to get it started. There's a few helpful links, a checklist about what you want to have ready when you start doing source connect sessions. And also how to get help from me if you need extra help with source connect. So anyway, slip that one in there. But anyway, thanks for your support source elements. Let's get right back here and wrap up the show. Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky, the voice of Rocco, and you're watching Voice of a Body Shop. And we are back. It was great having Christine Alaran. She's usually, she's always so inspiring. And you have to, you know, get you thinking about things that you don't normally think about. Inspiring and relaxing. And I was actually very relaxed during those to that. But I've been very relaxed all along, except when I'm answering questions from people. About weird things. Anyway, who are our donors of the week? Yes, we've got donors. We've got lots and lots of donors. Michelle Blanker, Robert Liedem with an explanation point. Yeah, because he gave us a lot of money. Thank you, Robert. Philip Sapir, Trey Mosley, Tom Pinto, Natasha Moshuka. My dad keeps telling me, I can't go through that subscription. I'm not going to tell you that. My dad's 74, by the way, turned 74 last week. Oh, wow. Happy birthday, dad. Patty Gibbons, Diana Burbsall, Mike Gordon, and Dwayne DeSalvo. Thanks for all those recurring, mostly all recurring donations. We really appreciate it. There's subscriptions on PayPal. Yeah, and a couple of new ones. Just go to the Donate Now button on our homepage, vobs.tv. If you'd like to help us out and make sure that the technical quality of this show remains high. You think it's easy doing this stuff? Trust me, sure. It is not. It's Saturday Night Live, and all the other shows that pretend to be live, and most of the time aren't. Yeah, can't wait to talk. We really are. Yeah, I can't wait to talk about that on Tech Talk, anyway. We need to thank our sponsors, Harlan Hogan's VoiceOver Essentials, VoiceOver Extra, Source Elements, voheroes.com, VoiceHactor websites.com, and JMC-Demos. Yes, and the Dan and Marcy Leonard Foundation for the Betterment of Live and Recorded Webcasting. Jeff Holman on Chatroom Duty Tonight, and on Facebook, and our amazing technical director doing it all the way from her house in Burbank. How we're getting this together, we don't know, but Sue's part of it, and she's doing a great job, and we thank her for doing that. Well, this isn't an easy business, so we try to bring you the people that are going to try and make it a little easier for you, at least understand it better, and that's what we do every week here on VoiceOver Body Shop. In the meantime, we'll go re-rack it and get ready for Tech Talk. I'm Dan Leonard. And I'm George Whidham. And this is VoiceOver. Body Shop. Or VO. B-S. 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