I think I’ve figured out the best way to book gigs: go on vacation.  It never fails.  I’m packing, shutting off the water, herding the cats into their carrying cases, and boom!  My email sings out with a “Hey, could you do this rush job today?” thing.

Now, were I to NOT be going anywhere, you know, just sit around—it would ZIP, ZERO, just CRICKETS!

Beware of sending in audition after audition, and then letting yourself go through self doubt, let yourself hear the FRAUD ALERT going off in your head—the kind of mental stuff that can happen when you’re between gigs and the “between” part starts to seem longish.  Just remember who gives permission for the negative thoughts: you.

The nature of freelance work is that if you’re not harvesting, you’re planting seeds, you’re watering, you’re hoeing, you’re weeding.  And crops will be ready when they’re ready, not necessarily when you need them.

How to cope?  Realize that “work” is more than the billable time you spend on mic.

• It’s when you craft a plan to market yourself in this or that VO genre.
• It’s planning ahead for a conference or workshop that can help you hone your craft and make new networking connections.
• It’s time you spend giving back to the VO community by sharing something you know with a colleague in social media or over coffee.
• It’s time spent getting your bookkeeping software to keep your books the way you need them.
• And, it’s also time away from the computer and the booth, exercising, clearing your head, it’s listening in on someone with a voice you want to add to your character-voice collection, it’s listening to other colleagues’ work on TV, on the radio, online, in webinars, in downloaded audiobooks, and so on and on.

“A professional,” a drama teacher I had long ago told me, “is someone who goes to work even on the days when they don’t want to.”

So, that means you do the work of running your business, promoting your product, sharpening your craft—not just voicing your latest booking—even if you really didn’t get into this business to do cold calls or tracking your mileage.  OK.  Get over that, and become a PRO and grow!