If you see any of my social media (though I will admit I have been quiet these days during this transition) …you will know that we just bought a home and sold our current home. To say this process has been stressful is the understatement of the year… I am a creature of habit, who does not like CHANGE or the UNKNOWN…. Let’s just say if I were at a carnival, I would be on the Merry go round, NOT the Roller Coaster. I am also someone who is a bit Technology Averse…not to say I don’t DO technology, I do…all the time… but the GEAR and Sound Equipment / Microphone / Interface that many of my colleagues love and geek out about… IS NOT MY FUN, I could care less… I just want it to work right so that I can focus on what I love to do…CONNECTING TO A SCRIPT.
We have lived in our current home for the past 11 years… in a lovely town just north of Boston. It was a home where we have had some very tough times, but also AMAZING times, growth, laughter, tears and so much silliness. This home is where I published my Children’s Book, where I began as a FULL-TIME Voice Actor in 2014 (after many years of doing it on the side), where I grew my business client by client, job by job until, at the 5-year mark, I was finally earning what I had made at the job I was laid off from in 2013….NO overnight success, but 5 years of blood sweat and tears. This house is where I finally reached a goal, I didn’t even know was possible in that career and then won 2 Emmy Awards. This empty room you see behind me is where I did ALL THAT…. At first in the closet to the top right of this picture, with bedding and pillows and a flashlight and hair clip to hold up my script. Eventually I moved to a Vocal Booth (outside of the closet) when I finally upped my game in 2019. This room has been VERY significant in my life and so, as I leave it, I reflect on the gifts and lessons I have learned there. I hope and pray I can find new success and joy in the new studio room (though I will say I am having some growing pains already in there and have NOT found my footing yet), but hey, it has only been a few days…I must trust that it will all work out…IT HAS TO…. THIS IS WHAT I LOVE TO DO…and all I want to do. I am so grateful for this NOW empty room…for its many gifts and the precious life moments it contained. I now enter a new ROOM, bringing along my hair clip from my original booth as a reminder of how far I have come and MAKING ROOM for new possibilities.
I consider myself a Brave person… and many who know me would say the same. I have had my share of challenges in this lifetime, (more than my share), and at the end of the day, I always choose to get back up, dust myself off and move forward. When I was laid off from my full-time job back in the Fall of 2013, I came to a fork in the road. I had always had a full-time job and did Acting and Voice Over on the side. My choices consisted of two paths:
When I worked at regular job for a regular company, there were certain things you could count on…Flowers on Secretary’s Day when I was an Administrative Assistant…A lunch out with cards when it was Bosses Day as a Manager…Holiday Parties and Co-Worker camaraderie……and, of course, your yearly meeting to discuss your goals and aspirations and if you met them. This meeting always felt so forced because it was usually at a job that I did not love….and therefore the dreaded question of: “Where do you see yourself in five Years” was always met with hesitation (and a monolog in my head that screamed “NOT HERE”).
My favorite noise coming from an acoustic guitar is that squeak that happens when the fingers hit the strings in a weird way. This noise is kind of a mistake and some people try to angle their fingers in such a way to make this noise less obvious. To me, this noise is what pulls me in, what perks my ears to want to listen. It feels intimate and personal and it is the imperfection (i.e. the brokenness) of it that allows me in and makes me feel like the song is just for me. The same holds true for when you fall in love. Have you ever noticed that when you fall in love with someone, it is never because they have a perfectly symmetrical face…it is the goofy laugh they have, or the space between their front teeth…it is something unique (and usually) imperfectly perfect about them. I find this to be true in my life as well as in my Voice Over Career. I cannot tell you how many jobs I have gotten because the producer “fell in love” with the imperfection in my audition, an unexpected laugh that wasn’t in the script, my voice breaking in a weird way that invited them in and made them feel like I was speaking just to them, or something intangible but imperfect that stood out to them. Imperfection makes you relatable, real, authentic, believable, dare I say “human”. There are plenty of Voice Talents out there who sound perfect and polished, but I am not that voice, and I am good with that. Perfection is over-rated and I think maybe, just maybe, you should embrace yours because it is beautiful. Instead of trying to sound perfect, try to relate to the copy and connect with the words and meaning in the script. Try to forget about “sounding” good, just bring the REAL you to the audition, because the “real you” in all of your glorious, unique, and messy imperfection, is EXACTLY what the world needs more of.
