TITLE: New Year AUTHOR: Tavia DATE: 1/02/2008 01:24:00 PM ----- BODY:
Today is the first work day of the New Year, and my first day back at work in several weeks. I've been recovering from a lingering illness that essentially served as a forced vacation for the last two weeks of the year. When you're a voice actor, if your voice is not at peak performance - you sound congested or scratchy or low energy - you cannot, or should not, work. So instead of working obsessively, as is my habit, I've been thinking obsessively...as is my other habit. (I've also been working with my counselor to break the habit of obsessively doing anything. But that's another story.) Food for thought has been in nearly every blog entry or article or magazine spread I've read in the last few weeks, which has been the typical year-end fare. Writers have been contemplating goal setting and long-term planning, those looking back at what has been accomplished in the last year, and those who are determined to achieve more in 2008. I have been thinking about those things, too, but mostly I have been thinking about stories. My attention to story could be partly because my small reserves of energy were committed for several sick days to watching Grey's Anatomy reruns. (Clearly, I am not an 'early adopter.' A few years into the wild success of Grey's, and I'm just NOW learning how dreamy McDreamy can be. I'm not proud of it. But a positive step in recovery is admitting there's an addiction.) And as I've been looking ahead to the new year of my voice acting business, I've been thinking about how very important STORY is. In nearly every market, there is more than one provider of a product or a service. Often whatever is offered is essentially the same, with similarities in quality, or price, or quantity, or style. Even with similarities, a product or service can be differentiated, and one of the most compelling and different elements of any creative business is the STORY behind the product or service. So why am I now addicted to this soap opera, and what does that have to do with my business, or your business? Because in this admittedly silly program, there's a compelling story being told, a through-line that I'm infatuated with and invested in. There's struggle and high stakes and there's always a life and death situation intermixed with the story of love and family and romance and intimacy. And we each have a story - whatever story got us into a business, into the field of work we've chosen to pursue. On our path, there is a struggle and there are high stakes, there is love and family, romance and intimacy, challenge and growth. And though we don't have a helicopter camera flying over us to record sweeping shots like the beautiful skyline of Seattle to decorate our stories, each of our stories can be just as compelling to our customers and clients - as important to our market as a one-hour, prime-time tragicomedy can be to a regular viewer. So what would happen in our businesses this year if we learned to regularly share our story in a compelling way that promoted the intimacy viewers feel when they tune in each week to catch up with the continuing saga of characters? That's my aim for this new year. While I am setting goals, assessing progress, and looking ahead, I'm particularly going to be thinking of what story I share with my market, and, even better, the unique way I can help my customers and clients share their story with their market. That's the key to the success that I know awaits us all in 2008.

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----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Blogger Clea Simon DATE: January 16, 2008 at 12:04 PM Hi Tavia,
I Googled you and made my way from your website to your blog because you just did an audio book of my new mystery, "Cries and Whiskers." My copies have just arrived, so I haven't heard it yet. I'll confess, I'm a little nervous in case you don't sound like "Theda" to me. But reading your credits, and your thoughts on story, has given me heart. Pleased to make your acquaintance! I hope you enjoyed Theda as much as I do.
- Clea Simon
http://www.cleasimon.com
http://cleasimon.blogspot.com ----- --------