Through my classes, I often recommend a variety of resources to build skills in business, marketing, creativity and other vital areas.
These are titles I recommend again and again, and I keep coming back to for reference or inspiration.
These provided links will take you to Amazon. They are affiliate links so I do receive a small percentage of the sale price. However, if you are lucky enough to have a local independent bookstore, please consider purchasing these titles there, or utilize the resource of your local library.
If you aren’t sure where to start, I’d read “The War of Art”, “Atomic Habits” and “The Practice” to get going.
And if there’s something you read which isn’t on this list, please use the contact form below to share that. I’m always looking for well crafted writing.
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Steven Pressfield – Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be
The Artist’s Journey: The Wake of the Hero’s Journey and the Lifelong Pursuit of Meaning
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
Malcolm Gladwell –
I find that Gladwell has a strong talent for distilling key ideas, and bringing lesser-known ideas into the popular culture. For example, his popularization of “the ten thousand hour rule” in Outliers came from the work of Anders Ericsson. They provide a cogent description of very powerful ideas.
Outliers: The Story of Success
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
John Acuff just released a new book Soundtracks which gives very workable tactics for resetting the playlist which often drives our day (and where those may be limiting us). His earlier work Finish – Give yourself the Gift of Done can strip away some of the preconceptions about goals and help focus on ways to achieve them.
Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking
Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done
Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Seth Godin –
In terms of breaking things down and adding clarity to a confusing world, I find Seth Godin to be a touchstone. His Akimbo podcast challenges and inspires, while his daily blog (what… 10+ years now?) helps to find focus. There aren’t many of his books I don’t recommend, but Linchpin distills a key skill you need to run your own VO business. And This Is Marketing helps you to understand that you don’t need to appeal to everyone.
Seth released “The Practice – Shipping Creative Work” in November of 2020 and it couldn’t have arrived at a better time for me.
The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See
Actions: The Actors’ Thesaurus
I love this little resource for getting out of ruts or relying upon randomness to guide a new approach.
Voice Over Legal
I know, this is supposed to be a page about “non-voiceover” books…. but technically, this is not about VO – it’s about legal concerns, contracts, your rights and obligations as a voiceover services provider. And I often share this with students and other voice actors, so I wanted to have an easy link to it.
Organize Your Year – My Favorite Calendar
I actually regard this more as gear, so I’ve put on that page as well. But one of the things that I’ve always liked is a simple year-at-a-glance calendar. It serves two purposes – first, as a way to see the big picture (something which I’ve yet to see done well in any kind of digital system. Important dates, projects, commitments, well-deserved breaks are all easy to block out in a way that is a quick visual reference. NeuYear.net has a number of designs – everything from heavy paper stock (the type I prefer) to dry-erasable if you need. Monday first? No problem! Sunday first? They have that too! Vertical or Horizontal orientation. Pick something that works well for your view of the year… then get planning!
Voiceover Microphones, Interfaces and Recording Equipment
If you are setting up a VO recording studio and looking for links to some of the equipment I use and recommend, I’ve created a gear resource page here.
Read something you like or have another resource that helped you? Please take a moment to tell me about it here –
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