The Voice Over Industry puts the "BOOM!" in "boom mic" this year!

David Ciccarelli posted the Report on the Voice Over Industry: 2009 at Voices.com. Interesting data, that I know for certain my fellow audio workers will be pleased to see.

Of course, I'm sure many of us had a hunch that while other industries have been struggling to keep up with the fluctuating markets and ever-changing business landscape, we've been growing strong. Thanks to the popularity of Web 2.0, gaming, and mobile audio devices, it's become our time to shine...and prosper!

How do you make the most of this boom?

1. Take advantage of close-out prices and liquidation by software and recording equipment dealers and upgrade your studio! I've never met a studio owner who hated buying gear, and by having the latest technology to offer, you're that much more appealing to clients.

2. Build long-term relationships. Odds are, you're going to get a lot of clients in the near future who are going to be watching their budgets, and hiring you for a little here, a little there. Developing "bulk rates" or being a go-to in these tough times will be something they won't forget when the going gets better, thus cutting down on the amount of lead generation work you'll have to put in tomorrow.

3. Go where the business is now. Odds of doing a major car ad right now? Probably pretty slim. Voicing debt consolidation ads? Better.

4. Use any down-time between jobs to better your skills. Take a voice course, do work outside of your comfort zone, or network with other talent and trade tips.

5. Be the best you can be, in performance, delivery, communication, value, and all-around experience. This is ALWAYS the way to go.

It's our year. Let's jump beyond the projections and make this industry the best it can be!

How to Succeed in 2009 - more on the Power of the Plan!

Janet Attard has a great article on how to succeed in 2009 up at Business Know-How, which I think works in perfect sync with my post here the other day on the Power of the Plan: 2009. Keeping "the end in mind" (as my coach likes to say) is a fantastic way to really get goals (and dreams!) accomplished.

As I've said before, I'm a very "visual" worker, and I've got to get all of my senses in alignment or I start to get confused. On my vision board, I actually stuck a little drawing with my overall "end goal" at the top, with the depiction of a road leading from it. Along the road, I've got all of the things sketched that I need to do, or that are aspects of my life that I'm doing now that already lead to the road, to keep me on track. Other things, which I may also be doing (or have done in the past), that lead away from the road, have arrows pointing away, reminding me that they're not good choices if I want to get where I want to be.

The lesson is, you need tools! No good craftsman, either in business, in art, or in life, operates without them. Don't shy away from using as many as you can.

The Power of the Plan: 2009!

Happy New Year! Another one is behind us, bringing with it financial ups and downs, political changes, and beautiful opportunities to shine and grow. I have two freebies for you today, to help get your new year started off right:

1. The Power of the Plan!

A few years back (2000-2003, to be exact!), when I was a writer for the now defunct Women of Mp3.com, my first article each year was my very own personal and business planning outline. I have always believed strongly in putting dreams, goals, and visions down in physical form, as a means to not only get clearer on the steps I need to be taking, but also as a message to the powers that be that "this is what you need to aid with!". It was not a big shocker to me, as I moved deeper into studying personal and business development that many great minds also used this method to move closer towards their goals. It's a very important part of the business growth network I belong to today, and the foundation on which I've built my tiny empire.

2. Some "Soulstice"!

Download the free mp3 above to groove your way into the new year while you read the article below! Brought to you by our very own Serious Vanity Records and performed by Gentlemen Prefer Bombs! You can enjoy it and the other 11 tunes from the "wintery mix" Too Cool for the Yule at the CD's official page, for free, for a limited time.

And now...on with the plan!

Whether you're a full-time pro in your industry, a part-time enthusiast, or a hobbyist just looking for a little more direction, this will be a helpful activity to get your head in the right place.

Get yourself a pen, lots of paper, and a big glass of leftover egg nog, and let's get to work!

Page 1: title this one "MY DREAMS FOR 2009".

I like doing this page best. Let your imagination run away with you as you list all of the amazing shows you'd like to play, ads you'd like to produce, albums you want to record. It's important that you don't concern yourself with budget on this one. It's purely creative visualization material. Just let your heart play dress up with it, and list anything and everything that would be your "dream gig".

Page 2: title this one "MY GOALS FOR 2009".

Here's where we get a little more precise and budget-minded. If you think it's realistic that you could put out a CD in 2009, add this to the list. If you'd like to play certain clubs or go on a regional tour in the summer, add this to the list. If you've got a prospect that's looking pretty close to getting on your schedule, add this to the list. If you've been meaning to do more web promo, social networking, blogging, or physical marketing, add this to the list. You get the picture.

Page 3: title this one "DEFINITES for 2009".

Name says it all! If you know the CD you've got at the plant will be back next month, or your iTunes songs you submitted last week will be live soon, add this. If you've already got shows lined up, add this. If your networking, online and off, is in action, and you know it will continue, add this. It's very positive after seeing everything you want to see a list of everything you're already accomplishing.

Page 4: title this one "TIMELINE".

This is where pages 2 and 3 start to come together. Page 1 will work itself in through the year, as you accomplish these other goals and definites.

Make a calendar (this can actually replace Page 4), January through December 2009. Be precise in lining out the shows you already have, the release dates that are coming up, and (the organized Virgo AND synesthete in me suggest using a different colored pen here!) the release and launch dates you have on your goals (Page 2) page.

Put as much info as you can on your calendar. Seeing the way your business and creative endeavors will potentially fill up your year will help you to meet your goals!

Page 5: title this one "BUDGET".

Ah, the least fun page (if you're not Bill Gates).

This is called a revenue plan in other spheres, and should really be far more detailed. But I believe that you've got to start somewhere, and especially for us right-brained musician types, a big picture is very necessary before we can even begin to deal with fine tuning the details.

List your resources. What's your band's monthly income? How much credit do you have available for CD pressing or merchandising? What's your average weekly/monthly biz spending? It might be something you're not used to rigidly keeping track of. But once you start, you'll see that you are better managing the money you have left over after web fees, guitar strings, promo items, or new microphones (my favorite vice).

Break it down as much as possible. Yearly incoming/outgoing doesn't give you enough of an idea of what you have to work with. Monthly and weekly budgets are a lot easier to manage. Truth be told, I've now broken mine down into a daily picture, with my various bids and scheduled jobs worked in well in advance, so by mid-week, I know whether or not I'm hitting the targets I need to.

Hold on to your budget and your timeline, and be prepared to amend them as you go. Tuck everything else away until mid-year. When you have some down time in June, whip those puppies out and see how many of your definites are done; how many of your goals; and most surprisingly of all, how many of your dreams.

Believe in the Power of the Plan, and it will work for you!


Dana Detrick-Clark is an entrepreneur, musician, composer, producer, award nominated voice artist, writer, and all around rockin' Zen gal. What kind of world do you want to create today? Dana's mission is to help. Learn more and get more F*R*E*E information on her site. http://www.seriousvanity.com

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Attitude O' Gratitude!

Thank you to all of my dear readers who have not flittered away during my absence. We've been producing our holiday CD over the past several months, and I've neglected the blog and the podcast a bit!

Not to leave my studio clients in the cold, we've got some great deals going for both :30 radio/web ads AND last-minute holiday music licensing. More info on the latter in the next few days, but believe me, now's the BEST time to take advantage of our full production ads (I can't even mention the price here, it's so ridiculously low). Treat yourself to some exposure this season, you deserve it! Drop me an email for more info!

How Color Can Effect Your Mood...and Your Business!

I just read a great article on the use of color (in life and in business) and what impact it has on our decisions and moods. I've posted about this before, and this article is definitely another to be added to the archives!

As someone with synesthesia (I talk more about it here), color plays a huge role in how I associate many things. It's a big inspiration, as well as a guide for me. Probably a little weird, but fun!

Enjoy the article!

A Trip to the Organic Market.

It seems like every couple of months I have to take at least a few hours out of my week to sort through the various newsletters and email lists I've acquired, unsubscribe from what I'm obviously not reading, and finally get my life back from the marketing clutter that's filling my inbox (and keeping me from what I really need to be reading).

Inevitably, I gradually sub to more lists ("sign up for a free video" or "get daily motivation" usually draws me in), and the cycle continues.

Shampoo. Rinse. Repeat. The Marketing Wheel keeps turning.

Truthfully, though most of these people are really successful marketers, no doubt hitting that critical percentage that makes up their lifetime customers and guarantees them residual monthly income, it all looks alike to me.

When the Marketing Wheel spins in this hypnotic "Marketing Kaleidoscope" fashion, I become blind to anything that makes any of them different from the last one.

In fact, I cringe a little each time I realize I've fallen for another one, gotten sucked onto a list that will cost me precious seconds at least once a day (and they almost seem to be getting more frequent), and have to now deal with sorting through them all once again!

My biggest fear is that, in my own marketing, I'll become one of these people.

And THAT's a conundrum, isn't it? Because we know that at least some of them are successful, so we should at least analyze what they're doing right. But at the same time, is it worth the risk of turning off real people, who are looking for more than just the 'right' words? They want to know who we really are, what we're offering, and most importantly, what benefit it is for them, without being sold to like victims at a used car lot.

Good news! You can be an Organic Marketer. An Organic Marketer is someone who speaks authentically, all naturally, and without all of the harsh crap that your readers, customers, clients, or community don't want spoiling the precious seconds they're giving your words.

Maybe androids want some magical text that's going to lure them into throwing down cash without trust or proof that it's worth their while, but human beings (the ones behind those computer screens) don't. In a world that's ever increasingly contrived, if you've got something real to offer, you owe it to your product, service, prospect, and YOURSELF to be real in how you market it.

Here in Kansas, trees are brimming with delicious harvests of the fall. It's a constant reminder to me that the sweet, uncorrupted fruits of communication are the most appealing. Organic Marketing is the only way.

A Meatball Sundae is just what you need.

Marketing genius Seth Godin has once again hit it out of the marketing ballpark with Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?. Colorfully and succinctly, Godin lays out what you might not want to hear: that the "Old Marketing" of television interrupts and mass marketing average products, is losing ground to the "New Marketing" in the Web 2.0 world, and you've got to pick a team.

With fourteen clearly defined considerations of New Marketing in his toolbox, along with enough case studies (from companies you not only already know of, but have probably worked with) to prove his points, Godin makes a great case for not only utilizing these new tools, but also for adapting your entire business structure to work with them.

What could be so compelling that a seasoned company would restructure into a fresh startup just to take advantage? The consumer. In today's online market, the customer is not only king, he's also the boss, the critic, and sounding board from which all new ideas come.

It's never been a better time to be a consumer, an entrepreneur, or a creative. With Meatball Sundae Seth Godin makes us all feel new again!


Check out this book as well as many other great business resources at the Serious Vanity Learning and Productivity Center.

Are you "Joe the Plumber"?

It's an understatement to say people have been discussing "Joe the Plumber" this week in regards to United States politics, but it's not so much the tax plan references that have caught my interest.

What has surprised me most about "Joe" is that it seems a lot of people discussing him aren't aware of what small business people are capable of. And that needs to change!

(Note: whether the real Joe is actually named Joe, is a licensed plumber, or has an extra toe on each foot may be relevant in the candidate arena, but for changing perceptions about entrepreneurs, it's not our issue! My goal today isn't to sway a vote to either side, but to look at our own businesses in a positive light.)

For the sake of my point today, let's look at "Joe" as an archetype for people who may be looking to buy the business they currently work in, or start a business of their own.

I've seen people reference that $250K US is far more than what a plumber can make in a year. Is it?

If a plumber (or the owner of a plumbing company, who may have a background in business, finance, or underwater basket weaving for all we know) runs a staff of five working plumbers, and each perform two $500 jobs per day, five days a week, they generate $25K in revenue. Multiply that by the year's 52 weeks, and we have $1.3M. Remove from that the cost of goods, taxes (income and property), upkeep, vehicles, licensing, wages, and healthcare, and, just by my rough estimates (plumbing is clearly not my field!), the business could easily generate $250K+.

This also means that the worth of the business, if purchasing it, would be far greater than that! There's a lot that goes into valuation, as pointed out by this article, and you should either know what you're basing your numbers on, or be prepared to hire or barter with a professional who does.

My main point is that, as small business owners (whether plumber, voice artist, CPA, mechanic, or chef), we shouldn't let ourselves be marginalized in the minds of our public! Ask yourself, "How can I educate people as to the potential that lies within the American Dream (which isn't just for America--this is a shout out to all business owners in the global marketplace!)?". Inpsiring the children of today will create the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, and I'm glad that at least "Joe the Plumber" is an opportunity to raise awareness to that fact!

Recession-Proof Your Mind, Recession-Proof Your Business

“Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,’who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God; you playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. You were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

--Nelson Mandela

One of the biggest hurdles in the current Western economy is in conquering the doomsday machines. We're besieged with negative speak from the media and our peers every day about how we're all going to spiral downward.

It's hard to argue with: there have been huge drops in the stock market, here in the U.S. we now have a fat cat "rescue" plan in place that will cost us tax payers $700 billion, with little guarantee of effectiveness (Certainly, that money invested back into our education system would guarantee far more long term success! But that's another blog post...). People are losing their jobs, their homes, and their hope.

It all spells difficulty in keeping the end in mind (aka your Clear Vision) when pursuing your business and life goals. How can we say that we're certain of our year-end results, when we don't know what the market's going to do this afternoon? Even if we're not directly effected, if that fear is in the heart of our client, they'll be less likely to want to spend right now--causing the agony to 'trickle down' on us.

So what can we do? Luckily, lots of things!

Every challenge presents us with the opportunity to learn, grow, and dig deep to find those solutions that will not only move us forward individually, but as a collective, too! Just like Nelson Mandela said above, "...As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” So we MUST push onward!

Step One: Revisit that Clear Vision, hone it, and own it!

Without the end in mind, we lose our True North. That internal compass point is going to help us plot our path to what we want our businesses (and our lives) to be!

It may be that we need to approach our visions in a new way. There are many methods in laying one out, not limited to:

• lists
  
• storytelling
  
• scripts
  
• mind movies
  
• audio (recorded messages or even song mixes or playlists!)
  
• vision boards (My mentor, John Assaraf, is actually releasing his new The Complete Vision Board Kit tomorrow!)
  
• questionaires or worksheets
  

If you've laid your Clear Vision out as a story in the past, maybe developing a vision board for it will help you to refocus on what you want. A movie-like script, outlining the story of your dreams may be just the injection of excitement your current mind map needs to get you pumped up again, and take your mind off of all the gloom-and-doom you're hearing on the nightly news.

According to "Creating a Clear, Compelling Vision" by Marilyn Schwader, there are four components your vision should have:

• 1. Your Values
  
• 2. Your Dream
  
• 3. Your Purpose
  
• 4. Your Mission Objectives
  

I'll be visiting these all in more detail in the coming weeks. Until then, get on that vision, and start step one in Recession-Proofing Your Mind!

Are you a Community Organizer?

Community Organizer. It's a phrase that, during this United States presidential election, has gotten a lot of use. It implies not just an 'organizer' per se, but a leader. Someone who is not just the caretaker of a movement, but the inspiration for one.

Are you a Community Organizer in your business? Are you a leader in your industry, working in a bubble, or are you making your field a better place to work, giving all of your customers and clients industry-wide more value, no matter who they hire?

As a true Community Organizer in your field, you'll maintain the integrity of your industry's quality, pricing, education, and value. You'll build up the younger generation working alongside you, as well as respect the experience of those seasoned professionals you can learn so much from.

We launched our new Perfect Audio Solutions from Serious Vanity Music and Serious Vanity Records websites within the last week. Some are already featured, but more resources will soon be enhancing both sites to help businesses and creative professionals educate, inspire, and entertain in the new Web 2.0 world, as well as to help them live the lives of their dreams.

Both will soon be linked with the Serious Vanity Music Network, a hub for connecting professionals, artists, fans, and consumers in an open, mutually supportive environment. In essence, not just a network, but a Community.

How can you, as a leader, be a Community Organizer, too?