Feeding Cerberus
Keeping a multi-faceted career happy and healthy
Solopreneurs have to manage all aspects of their business in service to their career. With my various work-related tasks and diverging career paths I’m pursuing, it starts to feel like I’m not just multi-tasking at times, but managing several different careers simultaneously. My 3-headed Cerberus of a career demands mindful and multi-purpose actions whenever possible. Yes, it’s all acting, but they’re all specialties unto themselves.
Being a voice actor, an audiobook narrator, and on-camera actor means my outreach, networking, continuing education, conferences and generally the ways I show up for these various branches of my career can be vastly different without a lot of overlap. You can’t attend everything, nor can *everything* genuinely be a top priority. So how do you best manage aspects of a multi-faceted career without dropping the ball somewhere?
❇️ Figure out what season you’re in. If you’re in demand in one area, go with the flow! If you’re suddenly getting lots of great commercial auditions but aren’t booking, invest more time with a commercial coach so you can strike while the iron is hot. If your days are full of long-form narration, be sure your own supports are in place so you can handle those long days in the booth. When things are quiet all around, it may be a season of assessing your marketing and outreach to ensure you’re on target.
🌈 Lately, I’ve been seeing more action from my agents and casting sites with commercial and short-form work, so I’m adjusting my bedtime earlier so I can catch early morning overseas and East Coast auditions on P2P sites before they close.
❇️ Prioritize the essentials for maintenance. What do you need to do in the areas of interest where you’re not as busy, or in the areas you’re hoping to grow? How can you stay on potential clients’ radar even if you’re not immersed in that part of your career? Just because work is blowing up in one space doesn’t mean you should let your maintenance fall by the wayside in others.
🌈 I had several years with an incredibly full audiobook recording schedule, and I definitely neglected my voiceover marketing and direct client outreach during that time. Lesson learned, and re-shared every chance I get!
❇️ Simplify everything else to give yourself more capacity. Think about how much time you might be losing to inefficient systems, a poorly structured routine, or to the messy spaces in your home you have to deal with before you can even sit at your desk or in your booth. Would you gain a few hours in your work week if you meal-prepped in advance? Would a lack of visual clutter free you up to focus without distractions?
🌈 I decided I needed a permanent space in my home for on-camera auditions, rather than creating ad-hoc setups. I’m now dialing in the setup for my permanent backdrop with lighting in my garage, saving me hours a month and taking one stressor out of the equation of prepping for an audition. As a bonus, I’m also having to declutter spaces in order to accommodate having this setup, so it’s having a positive cascading effect!
I can’t choose my favorite baby! I love short and long-form work for different reasons and have had wonderful experiences on-set. That means I have to navigate a path forward that is not only financially viable but also has room to be flexible, and I have to offer myself support, investments and the ease to accomplish what’s needed when the opportunity arises. I feel like I’m able to take advantage of where I’m being pulled and lean into that energy, and be open to new opportunities by remaining connected in areas I intend to grow. Cerberus hasn’t bitten my fingers off yet, but I’m not taking my eyes off all 3 of its hungry mouths.