GKN Weekly Update 3/16/09

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

I hope everyone had (or will have) a mighty green time. I went to my friend Jim's on Saturday for a BBQ and I spent Sunday with my friend Carly and the love of my life Asha!

Last week was the busiest voiceover week I ever had and it went a little something like this:

Monday was a recording session for ETS in Princeton.
Tuesday I narrated the sci-fi short story "Exhalation" for Infinivox and a few lines for an animated medical narration in Spanish (no I don't speak Spanish but they trusted me. Thanks to Shellyne Brown for helping with the translation!)
Wednesday I narrated the story "The Dream of Reason".
Thursday I narrated the first 20 pages of "The Ray Gun: A Love Story".
Friday I had another recording session for ETS.

Whew! This week will be almost as busy. I need a nap...

TIP OF THE WEEK: Let's get back to the five areas of success in our industry, shall we? Today's subject is Marketing.

The arts tend to get hit hard during economic slumps this like this so finding acting, VO, modeling, and crew work is becoming increasingly more difficult. Strangely enough, so far 2009 is the best year I've ever had! Why? Well, my main clients have been sending more work my way and I landed five gigs from new clients. Some of it is just a coincidence. Some of it came from being as aggressive as hell for the past few months. When I had my major slump in November and the kidney stone bills started rolling in, I got seriously motivated. I started making those dreaded cold calls again, I published another quarterly newsletter, and I put the Good Karma Network on Facebook. Did it help? Who knows?

Marketing is a big ole mystery. It's a gamble, a crap shoot. Nobody knows how it really works and what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. What I do know is that you need to work hard to find a system that works for you and keep at it EVERY DAY. Next week I'll talk about what I do on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis to market myself.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: A struggling Voice Over has a massive ego completely out of control. A successful Voice Over has a massive ego, for the most part, under control. Philip Banks

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: What do you do to market yourself in your field? Do you have any success stories to share?

Have a great week!