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CAREER Balancing Life And Career Isn't Easy. How Do You Do It With Voice Over? November 22, 2016  By Rebecca HaughVoice Actor / Improv Coach Voice over gives us a great opportunity to create healthier and more flexible work environments, so that a balance between work and non-work life can be achieved. Many occupations put people in a rigid cycle of commuting and long workdays, day after day, week after week. In VO, many of us have the ability to work from our home studios. We have the opportunity to balance our life needs, whether it's taking kids to school, finishing up yard work or touching up the paint on the kitchen cabinets - with our VO business, training and recording. NOT ALWAYS EASY But it's not always easy to balance life and career. There are days when I'm harassed - especially at tax time! Other days, though, I balance personal exercise, client projects and marketing, then dinner with my guy! I never was able to do this before being a successful VO actress. Never! Now I'm thrilled to say that with some attention and much less stress, I do. Finding balance in a VO career can also include finding an activity that not only improves VO skills but builds community and gives you personal fun. For instance, it's important to continuously train, and fun to build friendships in a supportive environment. THREE COLLEAGUES REPORT Recently, I reached out to some friends in the VO community to get their snippets about how VO work / life balance works for them:  Nancy German: "At this stage of my life, I want to create the life I want, and voice work allows that flexibility. If it is a beautiful day I can go to the beach, or if my family needs more time, I can move things around to accommodate that. "I love combining my interests to have more time for the most important things, while still feeding my need to be creative."  Vanessa Richardson: "Voice over takes persistence, dedication - and you have to truly LOVE it in order to have what it takes to work in this business. "I work mainly from my home studio, occasionally going to different studios in town. Most days I have the flexibility to pick my kids up after school and spend quality time with them. They also see a happy mommy who is creating and doing what she loves. That inspires and teaches them to pursue and work hard for the things they love and are passionate about. "I am so grateful every day to be able to do this for a living. I have done MANY other jobs and had other careers - which is part of what makes me so grateful to be a working voice actor now."  Justin Sakalis: "As a virtual assistant to a couple of voice actresses, and my partner supplementing his income with VO, I have a front-row seat to watch how three separate successful pros balance personal and work time. "One of my clients brings a portable VO studio with her on vacations, and this gives everyone a break to do their own thing while she's doing her "power hour" of auditions and retakes. "For my family, we're used to our 7-year-old and I taking a brief adventure outside while John records. Probably the most rewarding part of it is how we're able to drop her off and pick her up from school each day, and schedule our work around spending time with her." WHAT'S YOUR BALANCE? So: how are you coping with the life-career balance? Share your thoughts and experiences in the COMMENTS below, and also at #VOBalancedLife. And now I've got to run - I have some clients who need their recordings ... -------------------------- ABOUT REBECCA Rebecca Haugh, aka Love That Rebecca, has worked with international brands including NBC TV Universal, Google Adwords, Coca-Cola, Nestle, HP, Bayer, GE, Pella Shades and Simpleshow. And in addition to the constant VO work for clients, she operates Love That ImproVO, an online improvisation community she founded in 2013 for VO talents worldwide. Since 2012, she also produces and hosts the internet radio show Love That Voiceover. When she first started acting in 2001, Rebecca worked in VO and also as an actress in TV commercials, corporate video, indie film and regional theater under her stage name Rebecca Michaels. She has been solely a full-time VO actor since 2009. Email: Rebecca@LoveThatRebecca.com Webs: www.LoveThatRebecca.com and www.LoveThatImproVO.com |
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