A DAY OFF OR AN OFF DAY?
Published May 5, 2010
It doesn’t happen that often but earlier this week was a “no payday”. No paid work. Nothing. Nada!
Oh, I had work to do. But not paid work.
I used to panic over days like this. Maybe get a little depressed. Wonder what I was doing wrong. I’d read about how busy other voice talents were and think my career was over.
Not anymore. I realize it’s just part of the ebb and flow of the business.
I was in our grocery store the other day. I noticed that there were only a few shoppers. I saw the manager and just casually asked, “How’s it going?”
He just shook his head and said, “We’re in trouble.”
I didn’t really know what to say, so I opted for “Hey man, it sucks all over, but we’ll get through this.”
“No,” he said. “It’s not that. It’s that since it’s dead today, we’ll get hammered tomorrow!”
It’s weird how it works that way, but it does!
And sure enough, the next day I got swamped. In fact, the night before, I received an email from a client warning me that he had a large project coming in and could I “work him in?” As it turned out, that’s exactly what I had to do – “work him in.”
Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I most certainly am not.
But here’s a little secret: your clients go through the same thing! When things are slow for you it’s probably because things are slow for them, so…
That’s the perfect time to touch base with them just to say “Hi!” Or to follow up on some leads with a personal note. Or to check your invoicing and see if anyone needs a little nudge. Or to clean out your audition files. Or to tweak your website. Or to develop a new demo. Or to work on a Press Release. Or to mine the internet for more leads. Or to clean up your database.
Or to do what I did.
Go hang out by the pool.