Two Weeks And Counting
Saturday, November 8th, 2008I can’t believe that it has been two weeks since I was let go from Cumulus. It seems I am busier now than I was when I was working. Only I am not getting paid. Which doesn’t make for happy days. Where does someone like me fit into the marketplace now? As I stated before I started working when I was 16 years old. I have worked steadily since then. Excluding time off for medical purposes this is the fist time I have been without full time work and I don’t like the feeling. I am finding that regrets are popping up now and I am trying to keep them at bay. I ask myself why I didn’t I go to college, why I didn’t take a certain job when it was offered to me, why, when I saw the way things were going in the industry, didn’t I take the appropriate steps at that time to ensure that I wouldn’t be in this situation. Regrets are not productive. They don’t help me in my search for work.
So what have I been doing? Auditioning like crazy for voice work jobs. Which in itself could be a full time job except, again, you don’t get paid. Unless of course you get hired. I have gotten 3 jobs these past 2 weeks. One decided to go in another direction after I had completed the work. Which is fine except that I put several hours of my day into completing the project. The other has been a week long process that involved lots of emails back and forth, a few phone calls, waiting and then “I need it this morning”. Finally the last one involved voice “acting”. I have never been an actor. Never been on stage except to bring on an act at a concert or show. Well I did have a part in some small play at the community theater in my home town. I had one line. That doesn’t make me an expert by any stretch of the imagination. You could say being an air talent on the radio was acting but I never acted when I was on the air. I was just myself and that seemed to work for me. So doing this voice talent job that required a real “mom” was a learning experience. It took a few redos but I think in the end I nailed it.
I have discovered something else. I may have been the best at what I do here in this market but when the “market” includes the whole world it is a whole new ballgame. There are thousands of voice talents auditioning on line now. You have to be different, you have to know your strengths, you have to be honest with yourself when a job is asking for something you can’t deliver on even though the pay sounds great. For example I know I can’t do accents. I can’t even do a great southern accent even though I have lived in the south for 20 years! So even though a voice seeker is offering a nice fat paycheck for a project it would make no sense for me to waste my time on it when I know I won’t be producing my best work. There may come a time when he/she needs just what I am best qualified for ad if the last memory they have of me is fumbling my way through the last job that they posted, that I knew I wasn’t the best for, they aren’t going to look at my name on the audition list and say “I can’t wait to hear what she has to offer me on this new project”. Chances are they won’t remember my name from all the other auditions they listened to but they might. So why take the chance? I need to be selective even if that means a day without auditions. And believe me, there are some really talented voice over actors out there today and they are getting lots of work. So part of this free time that I have now is used to really spend more time honing my voice talent craft.
I have realized also that I can’t just depend on voice work to get me through at this time. It is going to take some time to build up a client base and I need to make money now. I have been trying to figure out what the perfect job for me is. Well the perfect job for me would be a Food Network Travel Show Host. How awesome would that be? My second perfect job would be what I dreamed of doing when I was in high school and that would be a psychologist. I don’t think that is going to happen although if I had the money to do it I would pursue that in a heartbeat. So what is left for me? What skills do I possess that I can put to good use? What is important to me in this new phase of my life? I want to work from home.
There are tons of jobs out there that promise fast money all from the comfort of your home office. Well we all know most of those are scams. I think I will just ignore those. Twana, who is a great friend of mine, suggested a book she saw promoted on one of the morning TV shows. It is called “Will Work from Home” by Tory Johnson and Robyn Freedman Spizman. So I hit Amazon and purchased the book the same day she mentioned it. It is filled with great ideas for folks like me that can thrive in a home work environment. I have pretty much worked by myself for 30 years. When I was on the air I was in the studio by myself for 5 hours a day. As a matter of fact I stayed away from the sales and management office’s downstairs to avoid the office “drama”. So I have no problem sitting in my home office for hours on end working from home. There are many people who thrive on being surrounded by their co-workers who wouldn’t be happy unless they had the daily hustle and bustle of the office to keep them energized and ready to work. I can live without that. But I did enjoy talking to listeners and helping them out when the called me for information and answers. I can’t tell you all the odd questions I have received over the years. With the addition of the computer in the studio answering those questions became so much easier. So I usually had no problem doing a quick search or if I couldn’t find the answer right away I would have them call me back and hope by then I had the answer to their question. I found it very gratifying when I problem solved. So I think Customer Service from the comfort of home would be a pretty good fit and there a several reputable companies out there do employ or contract with home based workers.
Yesterday I spent most of the day applying for some of those jobs. I did work part time for a major insurance company in their call center for about 16 months a few years back so I do have experience and know what I am getting into. Sort of. But it was fun doing some of the assessment tests they had you fill out or participate in. One company even has potential hires go through a virtual day at the office. Taking calls and problem solving after a quick on line training session. I think I did pretty good! I will say if you are going to look for these types of jobs you need a whole day and no distractions to really look and apply for them. Some of them have pretty intense screening processes.
Something else that caught my eye was becoming a Virtual Assistant. I don’t really have the experience for that but there is an online course I could take called Virtual U. I haven’t really checked it out yet but I know that it is something you have to pay for. This job is much more involved. A VA is pretty much a administrative professional and you can have one client or many. I haven’t really delved too far into this one yet but I plan on it.
I guess the next question for me is do I want to get back into radio? Part of me says yes. Part of me is a bit leery because of the way the trend is going to automate everything. Maybe this is the best time in my life to take a new direction. I am really looking at my options as far as the Internet goes. What is out there that I can turn my talent towards and make money? The Internet is an ever expanding entity. Something new pops up every day. There are always new ways to make it work for you. If you have an idea and a plan chances are you can make money at it on the Internet. If you do your homework and if you are willing to put the time and effort into it. So I have been doing a lot of brainstorming and also talking to a few people mulling over ideas. I do recommend a course called The Thirty Day Challenge, www.thirtydaychallenge.com, if you are interested in doing something on line and plan to make money at it. I have just started it and I am learning a ton of stuff. Will I ever start my own on line business? I don’t know yet but because I have been checking out the options that are available to me out there I am coming up with some ideas. And keeping my brain in tune, churning with ideas and plans, is much better than letting it atrophy in my unemployment funk.
Thanks for checking in!
PS
One more thing. I have another website set up under www.gaildaniels.com. I haven’t gotten anything going on that one yet but I may move some of the stuff I have here, like my personal work autobiography, over to that page and use this page as more of a marketing tool for my voice work and other things. So even though there isn’t any content on it yet please sign up for it. I have some things I want to blog about on that site too!