Rock Your Resilience! Radical Self-Care for VO Artists
Breakout, 45 min
1-1:45pm ET
DESCRIPTION:
This “Radical Self-Care” Session will leave attendees with a powerful 3-part toolkit they can begin using immediately—the moment they leave the presentation—to strengthen their ability to reframe/bounce-back, bust stress and boost peace, eject fear and clarify actionable items, employ mind-body techniques to access intuition/relaxation during auditions/booked sessions and gain practical clarity about next steps on the voiceover career path.
This Session leads all attendees through a 1-to-5-minute experience of all three tools, as they sit comfortably in their Zoom squares—so they have a very real understanding of how to use each technique and can experience their immediate impact. My own life journey led me to be a burnt-out pile of goo more than once during my creative career, so I ferociously sought answers and tools for course-correction/balance—with yummy success! It’s my great joy to share what has helped me and my clients because I want all Creative Humans to be THRIVING, FLEXIBLE Creative Humans, so we can fully enjoy our paths and achievements. When the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said “Panta Rhei” (“Life is flux,” which we have translated to “The only constant in life is change”)…he’d be amazed to know how powerful his words were thousands of years later, specifically during the past year on this planet! And now, more than ever, tools that help us reframe, reboot, and renew are paramount. I absolutely encourage questions (and leave tons of space for that!), and I would thoroughly enjoy continuing this conversation afterward; it’s an important one! This up-leveling Session can be done with a PowerPoint or without, and that deck will be made available to all who are interested.
Takeaways
- Learn a 30-second breathwork tool for instant stress-busting and vocal cord health!
- Access an instant “negative thought” vanisher technique!
- Discover a 5-minute alchemical visualization method to help evaporate fears and meet your career goals—used by all your favorite Gold Medal-winning Olympians, regularly!
*******************************************************************************************
Thurs April 22 2021
X session, 3 hours ($197)
11:45-2:45 ET
The Force is With You: Energy Work for Voiceover Artists (deep-dive)
DESCRIPTION:
This X-Session is a cozy, “deep-dive” voiceover-centric version of a large-group workshop I love to teach, called “Practical Energy Work for Creative Humans.” During this session, there will be an abundance of time for instruction, individual energy work, 1-on-1 coaching, breakout rooms, and question-and-answer. Attendees will leave with their own customized VO Energy Toolkit, applicable immediately to their work and lives.
My two huge passions? The worlds of Performance and Wellness! I adore joining the two, because I want to be (and want you to be) a mega-successful and wildly healthy creative human. For me and my Clients, energy work is often a delightful key to unlock that dual-state-of-being. For some people, energy work is a part of their daily lives, and for many others…it’s crunchy-granola-woo-woo stuff. Either way, energy work has very real and powerful applications to both the work and the play of being a thriving, resilient voiceover artist.
Several real heavy hitters agree with me (Harvard, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, and the Mayo Clinic among them). Harvard Medical School’s website praises the mind-body techniques used in yoga—breathwork, deep relaxation, and meditation—as actually “having the power to improve your health in dozens of ways.” Renowned Johns Hopkins Integrative Medicine & Digestive Center offers Reiki—a form of energy healing—to its patients “to create deep relaxation, to help speed healing, reduce pain, and decrease other symptoms.” The Mayo Clinic’s Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program offers both healing touch and Reiki for their patients. A Washington Post article reported about a UCLA study that determined over 60 US hospitals offer Reiki to their patients…with Reiki education offered at well over 800 hospitals. Energy work is moving into the mainstream and has ginormous benefits for the Voiceover Artist and any in the Voiceover Universe.
My 20+ years as a Wellness Coach, Reiki Master (Japanese energy healer), Yoga lover-and-instructor, Meditation leader, and energy reader led me to bring those wonderful energy tools into the vo booth/studio with me—with astounding results. It’s my great joy to share the energy toolkit I’ve created with this group…with the added bonus that these energy tools have a tendency to produce strength, groundedness, peace, calm, clarity, and random outbreaks of happiness. Especially in this deliciously small group, there will be a bounty of time for exploring practical applications of these energy tools toward each attendee’s aims (allowing them to leave with a highly customized set of tools and plan of action). I love talking with participants pre/post-Session in addition; I’m happy to stay on our yummy Zoom as long as there are questions, and it would be my pleasure to make myself available during the conference for questions in any way possible.
(A special note for those new to the energy work universe: many forms of energy work are done remotely, meaning that the receiver does not need to be in the same room physically with the practitioner, to receive the benefit. Reiki is one example of those modalities firmly in this category, and in fact, the Level 2 training of a Reiki Practitioner includes extensive work in what is called “Remote Reiki.” In my decades of doing this work, when working remotely, I always talk with a client afterward. During those calls, each client inevitably says something along the lines of… “Oh, you started by working on my feet today, didn’t you?” Or, “You spent extra time working on my shoulder this morning!” (They were/are always correct!) They could accurately detect, often from thousands of miles away, where I had been focusing—that never ceases to amaze me, even after all these years. Even outside of the energy work world, we’ve all walked into a room and felt what might be called the “energy signature” that was left behind, by the people/event that was there previously…something powerfully joyful, or powerfully challenging. This is a commonly understood experience of “sensing” some of the energy fields around us (I also feel it often in places of spirituality that are quite old…churches, temples, mosques…)—and I am thrilled to help us develop and employ these energy tools for our voiceover and wellness lives. This X-Session can be conducted with PowerPoint if desired, with those materials available to attendees also.)
*******************************************************************************************
Thurs April 22 2021
Industry Panel: VOCAL SUPPORT, 1 hour
6:00-7:00 pm ET
DESCRIPTION:
The Vocal Support team will be addressing the latest trends in vocal health, training, and accent work. A Q&A will be included for attendees.
This panel includes Karen-Eileen Gordon, Susan M Schuld, Monique Bagwell, & Sarah Weatherwax Weatherwax
*******************************************************************************************
Sat Apr 24 2021 (MY BIRTHDAY!!! WOOOOOO! :))
Breakout, 45 min
1:00-1:45 ET
Ohhhhhhhm: Meditation for VO Artists (a.k.a.: How to Get a Flexibility 6-Pack!)
DESCRIPTION:
Meditation has been around a long time. Seven THOUSAND years, in fact! According to Psychology Today, the first recorded evidence of Meditation is in wall art, in the Indian subcontinent dated 5000 BCE. Resilience, shockingly, is like a muscle; we can get verrrrrry good at accessing that ability—with some practice. Meditation is one of the easiest, quickest, and most powerful ways to get our flexibility muscles…shredded! If our day requires boosted reframing/shifting/energy/concentration/focus from us (and we’ve all had A LOT of those days!), the impact of meditation techniques can be profoundly positive, and delightfully fast-acting.
I will provide attendees with a Treasure Chest of Meditation Tools by offering brief/clear instruction and background, a toolkit they can begin using immediately, and most importantly…a real-time experience of the ten most popular and deeply nourishing meditation techniques on the planet today: mindfulness, spiritual, focused, movement, mantra, transcendental, progressive, loving-kindness, color. (There are MANY MORE—and the ten will well-equip attendees to make noticeable changes immediately.)
(And a thought: if it would be useful for conference attendees to be offered a guided meditation once per day, that would be my pleasure…a literal “Oasis of Relaxation”…a place to come and unwind, popping in briefly for a few minutes, or staying for 20–to refresh before experiencing either a full day or a next event. Alternately, a daily morning or evening guided meditation could be offered at a set time. If this idea is appealing, attendees/organizers can let me know, and we’ll do it!)
This experience can be done with or without a PowerPoint as desired, which can be made available to all attendees upon request.
Takeaways
- Understand the powerful resilience-enhancing, vo career-boosting, mental-emotional-physical benefits of meditation—before, after OR WHILE stepping in front of a mic (and, in daily life)!
- Learn about the 10 major forms of meditation (mindfulness, spiritual, focused, movement, mantra, transcendental, progressive, loving-kindness, color), as well as how to harness the power of things you are already doing in your own life that may be considered meditations (yes, you may already be meditating—yay, you!).
- This session could also be titled, “VO Meditation Buffet.” In this jam-packed-with-resilience-boosters Session, I will lead all participants through a 2-to-3-minute experience of each of the above 10 techniques, comfortably seated in their Zoom squares! They will experience how to quickly become calm, focused, flexible—within seconds—in any life/career situation. No previous meditation experience of any kind is required, and we will talk about each technique after each demonstration. Participants will leave with a giant new treasure chest full of ways to quickly and tangibly “change their state,” and a clear understanding of which meditation techniques most call to them for further exploration and use.