It’s that time of year – everyone is talking about their goals for 2021. After 2020, it’s hard to imagine what 2021 has in store for any of us. What I do know is that I am going to work my heinie off for my VO business this year. I spent last year devouring tons of information about VO and entrepreneurship (or as Marc Scott calls it – VOpreneurship), and I’ve worked out a game plan for 2021. Most of these are the opposite of what everyone says goals should be – they’re less specific and measurable, but they’re important for me to speak to the universe and acknowledge for myself what I want (and need) to accomplish. Voiceover is a big dream of mine that has come to me later in life (but don’t ask me how old I am – a lady never tells). This is the year that I make that dream come true in a way that feels tangible to me.

Be consistent.

Consistency (or lack thereof) is one of my biggest flaws. Both in and out of the booth. I’ll go days (or weeks) without auditioning because I have the cushion of my day job. One day I’ll go 90 mph and feel like I’m on top of the world, but the next will be utterly unproductive. I often find that I spend more time figuring out what to do than actually doing it. That will change this year. Planning is important, but following through on those plans is essential.

Keep learning!

2020 was the year I finally started getting coaching, but learning isn’t a one and done thing. There is always room for improvement and there are always things to learn. There are a few coaches I would love to have sessions with this year, and I will continue to join the group classes offered by my current coach, Terry Daniels.

Be kind to myself.

I am my biggest critic. But I should be my biggest cheerleader! This year I am going to work on being more generous to myself. Part of that is ensuring that I make the time to pursue my dreams and passions – and that includes voiceover! I don’t do VO full-time, and that makes it easy to put it on the back burner sometimes. But if I want to become the voiceover artist that I dream of being, I have to make time for it. One thing I’ve realized is that, while I am not a morning person, I am going to have to get up earlier every morning for dedicated time to work on myself and my goals.

Invest in myself.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I don’t have any formal acting training. There was a time I thought you didn’t need to be a good actor to be a narrator or to voice commercials – how wrong I was! Everything about voiceover involves acting to a degree, and while I do have some innate talent, these are skills that I need to hone. Acting classes are the number one investment that I plan to make in 2021.

Get an agent.

It is possible to have a lucrative career in voiceover without an agent. And if you have an agent, you certainly don’t want to rely 100% on that agent for your work. But having an agent offers some amount of credibility, and it is seen as a sign of success in many circles. My goal for 2021 is to find local/regional representation.

20 auditions/week.

This is a small number, I know. But this is one area where I don’t want to aim too high and then fall short. I know that many who do VO full-time do hundreds of auditions each week, but I’m not yet full-time. I’m defining a number for accountability – though I hope to exceed this goal.

2021 isn’t my year (seriously, no one touch anything), but it is definitely going to be a year where I level up my voiceover career.