Business is a lot like the ocean. Why?! It just is… There are waves, there’s stuff above the water, a ton below it that can’t be seen accurately, some icebergs are capsized and invisible to the untrained eye until way too close….

"There's just no room on this life raft or in this industry for you, Jack..."

But in this area for Voice Acting, and I think almost any self employment area, lack of success comes down to three different factors; I’ll call them Fish, Fishing Pole, Fisherman (Fisherperson?) If you have a more realistic worldview paradigm, certain ones will shine on in importance to a far greater extent than others. A more idealist sort of personality (like mine) may miss the obvious, but immerse in some of the more ‘deep, spiritual work’ and then become embittered when the results don’t come, too stubborn to look at something painfully obvious, but technical and unglamorous. Someone else might get bogged down in the details and minutae of profit/loss and I break it down as, work at the level of the Fisherman, work at the level of the fishing pole, and, awareness of the objective reality of the fish as ‘Res Externa’, to misquote Emmanuel Kant, probably. In other words, are you fishing in the Ocean, or in a puddle?

"There's two kinds of Immanuels in this world... There's Immanuel Can's, and Immanual Kant's. Which one are YOU!?"Dad Joke Level: 9000 — "There's two kinds of Immanuels in this world... There's Immanuel Can's, and Immanual Kant's. Which one are YOU!?"
Dad Joke Level: 9000

To a ‘realist’, the ‘power of positive thinking’, while seeming airy-fairy, will actually have a more powerful practical use than he thinks. Him getting out of his logical brain and into a more viceral, creative, intuitive space, will yield untold dividends assuming he can bring the technical proficiency along for the ride and is patient for the immersion or induction of that energy and focus to take place, not just to affect the content of his thinking, but also the quality.

But to like the ‘dreamer’ type, like me, the ‘law of attraction’ as it were is probably LESS powerful than they believe it is. A real ‘dreamer’ is setting goals irrationally, actually believing certain things are ‘possible’ that aren’t, and then either retreating into fantasy and wish-fulfilment, or setting themself up for massive frustration, or both.

What is the law of attraction, really, at its most verifiable? It’s the belief, maybe even the SYSTEM, of focusing on the ‘What’, before the ‘How’. The ‘How’ is necessary, but it is not Motivating. The ‘What’ is motivating, but only to the extent that it is leveraged to unleash the ‘How’.

Generally, blind spots set us up for failure and frustration, but, one CAN have a blind-spot that actually helps them. Let’s say I believe I’m the greatest lover in the world. Is it true?

COMMENT BELOW!

Just kidding. But if I believe that on an emotional level, it might become truer than if I don’t. And if it doesn’t hurt anybody, then maybe that’s a blind-spot I want to keep and even reinforce. Yet maybe if it creates selfishness or a kind of laziness, than the belief will want to be released or changed. So there’s almost always a complex duality with these very basic principles, which is why its important to get more real-world experience than one consumes of the theoretical. Let’s put it as a 3:1 ratio of experience-to-theory in virtually all matters that I can speak of with any authority.

So THAT all falls under the category of the Fisher. Practical psychology, strategy, reflexes, willpower, focus, charm, reliability, CONFIDENCE.

Now, this transitions to what in this metaphor I would classify as the Fishing Pole. This is all of the external. This cannot be separated from the fisher herself with any totality; but the fishing pole is your tools to get fish, and whatever you want to call it that gets more fish in the boat! It’s your website. It’s your tools for maintaining a client roster. It’s your demo reel. It interfaces with your vocal instrument, it’s your microphone, your command of the software, perhaps even your ear can be better optimized if moved into this category ‘As something outside yourself’. Listening to, and hearing subtlety is perhaps even more important than good delivery of the sales copy. Fishing pole is essentially, systems in your control.

The Fish, that is quite simply the business environment. How many buyers are there, how many sellers are there. This area is the one that is most ‘triggering’ as it were for us artsy types. If we wanted to take an honest look at the ‘ocean’, we probably would have gone to school for electrical engineering after all.

I have an electrical engineer friend, and believe it or not, his life isn't perfect and he puts on his pants like every God-Fearin' Man I know does; one leg at a time

But unless we can afford to ignore the marketplace (and God bless ya if you can, I personally think that’s awesome and wonderful and let me know if you want me to make a Patreon page to support me with)

Ultimately the gold in the gold mine is— fall in love with the fishies. What do they like to eat? How do they think? How heavy does your line need to be (ISDN, Phonepatch) to reel it in? How similar or different is this fish from other fish? Are the fish you're going after too big? Too small?

Fish, Fisher, Fishing Equipment. Succeeding in Voice-Over demands excellence in all three categories.

The Fish, The Fisher, The Pole