Why do you do what you do?
Are you a voice actor because you have a great voice and it seemed like fun? Or because it’s great money? Or because you just love it and you HAVE to?
Are you a marketer because you think marketing is just the bee’s knees? Or because you need to pay a darn mortgage and that’s the best way you could find?
Do you provide whatever service you provide because your parents said you were special in that way? Or you saw a need in your community? Or it just kinda … happened?
The thing that’s going to keep you going, to keep working hard and making progress is your WHY.
Because, let’s be real, a career is hard. Especially for a creative, entrepreneurial career; it’s maybe 10% doing the thing, and 90% background work. Difficult, confusing, sometimes boring, repetitive background work.
I mean, maybe some of you love learning a new accounting software program and then updating the accounts every week and making sure all those credits and debits and expenses and goodness-knows-what are in the right place. I know some of you love that stuff. It even actually makes sense to some of you, doesn’t it?
I do not love that stuff. (And lucky for me, I have a fab partner who does it!)
So, when I must do the less fun things like accounting or file organisation or so much research on potential voiceover clients… I have to remember the fun parts, and the WHY. For me, the why is simple. I always wanted to be a performer. I can’t not. I feel better, and I’m a better person to be around, when I’m regularly doing some kind of performance.
I think what this means is that the main gist of what you do has to be a case of “Look what I get to do!”, and not “Well, I have to do this”.
I love reading the words someone has carefully written for their business or creative project, getting inside those words and bringing them to life. With my voice! It’s magic! Of course, here in my studio I’m using more than my voice, I’m using my whole body, but everything I’m doing with my body goes into my voice performance. I just love that. So that’s my why.
There’s also paying the bills, of course. Which is a great why! But it’s not generally enough to motivate me to do the work. I could do plenty of easier things to pay the bills, but I wouldn’t love them like I love voice acting.
Plus, today while driving my 11-year-old son home from town, I got to demonstrate “Dorothy”, the zombie-like character I play in a survival horror game… and that, my friends, makes a fun car trip.
What’s your why?