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National Autism Awareness

General

My friend Steve Stone sent me the following, which I’m posting today as a guest message.

I wanted to make you aware that April is “National Autism Awareness” month.  
Two of my three children suffer from Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
(AS) is is a neurobiological developmental disorder.  It’s characterized by poor social interactions, obsessions, odd speech patterns, and other peculiar mannerisms.  Kids with (AS) often have few facial expressions and have difficulty reading the body language of others, they have trouble demonstrating empathy; they might engage in obsessive routines and display an unusual sensitivity to their environment (for example, they may be bothered by a light that no one else notices; they may cover their ears to block out sounds in the environment; or they might prefer to wear clothing made only of a certain material) Overall, people with (AS) are capable of functioning in everyday life, but tend to be somewhat socially immature and may be seen by others as odd or eccentric.  Other characteristics of (AS) include motor delays, clumsiness, limited interests, and peculiar preoccupations.  
As of yet…there is not definitive cause or cure.  Early intervention is key, and fortunately for our family my wife got both boys into therapy early.
Obviously it’s a very personal matter to me, but I wanted to ask for your help in spreading the word on autism this month.
A very helpful link can be found here
Jake and Joey thank you, as do I.

Like Steve, this is a personal matter for me and my wife Cinda also. Our youngest son, Brian, is high functioning autistic. I love him deeply and our family wouldn’t be complete without him; but we do understand profoundly and personally how challenging autism is. Thank you for reading and for caring.

The “impossible” dream

General

I love Don Quixiote. It’s one of the greatest works of literature in Western Civilization. When I was taking Spanish classes in high school, I read the entire thing in the original. I remember nothing of the experience except that I had to look up a ton of words because much of the language was so archaic. I’ve also read it in an English translation as an adult. And though it bears only a passing resemblance to the story in the novel, I also love the musical made of the story and in particular the “Impossible Dream” song.

As recently as four years ago I thought being a full-time voiceover performer was an impossible dream for me. Impossible because as a husband and father of four I thought I would never reach the point where I would be able to provide for my family just doing voiceover work. But, impossible or not, I keep moving forward. Studying. Building relationships. Exceeding expectations for my clients. Solving problems. And here we are four years later and I’m fast approaching the one year anniversary of my transition away from having both a day job and a voiceover business to just doing voiceovers. In fact that one year anniversary, May 1, is the day before my fifth blogiversary, May 2.

Where ever you are on your journey, living your dream now like I am or still just dreaming, keep making progress one step at a time. My friend Pam Tierney did and recently wrote about how she’s made more progress than she realized. (By the way, Pam such a good writer I highly recommend you subscribe to her feed.) The day is coming when you too are going to have a similar moment.

(edited to fix typo)

Your voiceover business

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover

Yes, I said business. You do understand that it’s a business right. I mean doing voiceover work is a lot of fun, but growing your business so that you can just do this all the time doesn’t happen by magic or little green elves working overnight.

Last year in May, the very month that I made my transition and left my day job, Harlan Hogan and Dan O’Day produced a series of teleseminars on the business of voiceover that was very helpful to me. It helped me sharpen my focus on my business as a business and I’m very glad I signed up for those four weeks of classes.

Maybe you heard about last year’s classes or maybe you didn’t. Either way, that was last year. This year Harlan and Dan are going to take what they learned from us test subjects and refine the classes to be even more useful and helpful. All the detalis, including registration information is at TheVoiceoverClass.com.

If you decide to sign up and you mention that you learned about the class from me in the comments section at the bottom of the registration page, I may get a commission. Whether you mention me or not, the price is the same so it’s up to you whether you want to mention my name or not. But I hope you will check out the information.

Quote for the day

General

From my friend and manager Stacey Stahl came this gem in my inbox this morning:

 

“It is not your aptitude, but your attitude, that determines your altitude.”

 

— Zig Ziglar