VO Studio Success Planning: Goals are Personal Logistics

When setting up a home studio, or encouraging new voice actors in a performance class, I talk a lot about the idea of “iterative process”. If a Time Machine ever showed up on the front porch, that idea is one thing I’d try to impart upon a younger me. Get it out there. Pay attention to what happens. Refine and repeat.

This time of year, Goals are in the air. It’s hard to move through the day without encountering social posts, videos, podcasts, articles, or accountability groups all emphasizing Goals. It’s understandable to just want to put your head down and push past it all, doubling down on working harder.

But, here’s the thing – if you’ve decided to work as a narrator, voice actor, podcaster, or storyteller, then you are probably already working pretty dang hard. You’ve already had to learn recording techniques, file formats, acting skills, the unique requirements of specific VO genres, marketing, computer IT fixes, lead generation, and accounting. That’s a lot of hats to wear.

Working “harder” isn’t really an option. More accurately, it’s already a given.

Back in my retail ops days, I learned a lot of lessons the hard way. It was not possible to simply decide to have a sale one weekend – you had to let people know, have enough staff to handle the rush, order enough inventory to make it worthwhile. None of that could be done at the last minute. The logistics of delivery, staffing, promotion all had to be planned out in advance.

That’s all that Goals really are – Personal Logistics. We define what the desired outcome looks like beforehand, then work back from that point. If we want new opportunities – projects, representation, collaborators – what has to be “ready” beforehand? Are there missing skills? How long will it take to shore those up?

We won’t get everything right every time. But creating that structure lets us refine it into a more resilient framework. The logistics of placing assets we need in the right place at the right time lets us keep moving in the right direction, adjusting efforts as needed to keep on track.

When we decided to become a freelancer, we took responsibility for the direction of our journey. As gratifying as it can feel to dig into the minutiae of the day, it’s helpful to stand back to consider the bigger picture, to make sure we remain on course.

A Few Goal Goodies
Not all of these are strictly about Goals, but here are a few books from this past year which inspired and challenged me.

Jon Acuff – All It Takes Is A Goal – good, actionable approaches to setting up a framework and a way of working towards them.

James Clear – Atomic Habits – Still a favorite. I read or listen to this every year. 

David McRaney – How Minds Change – Not really about goals at all, but an interesting journey into why we hold onto certain ideas, and how we might go about identifying why we think we know what we “know”. 

Greg McKeown – Effortless – From the author of “Essentialism”. It all starts with a simple principle: Not everything has to be so hard. 

Matthew McConaughey – Greenlights (audiobook version) – Quite the wild ride, and it’s a stunning storyteller performance. 

Quincy Jones – 12 Notes (audiobook version) – I’d always kind of thought of Quincy as a “pop producer” until I listened to this. Inspirational and compelling. 

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