Faithful readers know I’m a planner. I prefer to be prepared and finish projects ahead of schedule, and don’t like feeling rushed or pressured. Others choose to wait until the last minute to get their work done, frittering away what could have been productive hours, managing to meet deadlines only in the nick of time and often not getting as much other stuff done as they wanted to.

However, even for the organized and (usually) disciplined, there are those “when it rains, it pours” days when not only are anticipated projects due, others come in that are due at the same time. Of course I’m very happy to have additional opportunities, but for me cramming everything in at once is a challenge.

For example, I had a gig as an eccentric character in a corporate role playing game. Most of it was improv, so there wasn’t much to prepare. The info arrived after 7PM the night before, when I was singing at Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ retirement gala (attended by appx. 600, including many legal luminaries). I also had an on camera TV commercial audition. That script also arrived after 5PM, and was long enough to require the use of an ear prompter. Laying down the copy is much easier than memorizing, but getting it right and getting comfortable with it takes some practice. The same day I was also filming a law firm video, which fortunately provided a teleprompter. I still had to review that script and prepare my character. Not to mention compile assorted wardrobe and show up on time to all events.

That morning I woke up to an email about a very interesting development with a co-authored non-fiction project. (Yea!) Which needed to be addressed ASAP…. Multi-tasking and being pulled in so many directions stresses me out, makes me think I won’t get everything done or if I do won’t get it done well. I decided I needed to stop for a minute, take several deep breaths and focus on appreciating all the fun and exciting developments.

Sometimes something very great happens to friends, yet they instantly think of possible negative outcomes instead of staying in the good news moment. For example, when they learn they’re a finalist in a major writing contest or on hold for a big acting project, instead of being happy they got that far, they’ll say they won’t win or get the job. I’ve done that, too. Maybe we’re just protecting ourselves from being hurt if we don’t get whatever that thing is.

I want to savor good news for as long as I can. Even if there are times when one exciting door opens, another possibility closes, or when opportunities don’t pan out.

Freelancers set their own rates, constantly balancing the need to make money and get paid what we’re worth (see: What are you worth ) against the need to be competitive. Clients then decide if they wish to pay from the quote or negotiate.

Sometimes I (and friends) choose to take less than we think a job should pay. Perhaps it’s outside our wheelhouse, and we want the experience or something for our reel/portfolio. We may want to work for certain clients or industry professionals in the hope of getting future work. And if we don’t take that low paying job, someone else will.

On the other hand, clients should trust that we’re billing fairly and appropriately. I recently did an hourly VO job from home via an agent. When I sent in my voucher, they had to be confident I wasn’t padding my time…like in olden days, when a butcher might be accused of putting his thumb on the scale to add weight. Building a reputation for trustworthiness takes time.

We may offer volume rates for multiple projects or repeat business, or special rates for friends/acqaintances. An attorney I’ve known for years inquired about my freelance writing rates. I offered a lower rate based on our long acquaintance. He asked more billing questions than any client I’ve had thus far (so both of us were spending unpaid time responding), and wanted to know if I used a time tracking program (like attorneys do). I don’t. Agents and other clients trust me, I assumed a friend would, too.

Employers can’t know what an employee is doing every minute of every day. Is the person working diligently and to capacity, or getting the bare minumum done and frittering away hours taking long breaks or trolling the Internet? Unless clients/employers set up surveillance cameras (and then spend an awful lot of their time monitoring), how can they be sure if their time use expectations are being met? Trust. Professionalism.

But some people just aren’t as trustworthy as others…which comes to light eventually (see: Liar, liar). If a reputation for trustworthiness has been tarnished or broken, if clients/employers have doubts because a worker turns in projects late or at the last minute, for example, there are always more freelancers in the sea.

There are too many choices for consumers and yet not enough…the specific options each of us wants may not be available. Cereal aisles, for example, offer dozens of varieties. Even so, often the particular iteration I want isn’t there. (Jewel doesn’t have Frosted Mini-Wheats Cinnamon Streusel, but I happened to find it in a Treasure Island.)

We don’t have the time to shop every store to seek exactly what we’re looking for. And sometimes, it doesn’t even exist. So we compromise.

I wanted a new smart phone. With all the fees and contract fine points, changing providers can be a pain and costly. And I’ve been happy with U.S. Cellular’s service…often more reliable than friends’ AT&T iPhones (one of their compromises). I’d hoped for a slide out keyboard, but the phones with that lacked other important features. I chose the brand new HTC Desire Android because of its large (3.7”) touch screen, lightning fast Internet, Flash (!), and number of and ease of downloading apps.

Scrolling through long Yahoo! Digest e-mails, checking in with Facebook and browsing websites is a breeze, both because of the touch screen and the pinch feature to resize text. There are 7 home screens, which offer a lot of customizing, and an easy way to access all apps. I have small fingers, so the touchscreen keyboard, when horizontal, is ok for typing.

However, I gave up what were, IMO, essential BlackBerry benefits: different notification sounds for each e-mail address, the ability to view all emails from all addresses at once, and instant delivery of messages. Apparently the vast majority of phones only offer one notification sound for texts and e-mails. Only calls can have different ring tones.

I’m surprised more people don’t want to know, for example, if they just got a text or a voicemail message. I can’t be the only person who has different e-mail addresses serving different purposes, so some are more important to check frequently than others, like my work vs. my shopping address. Maybe most people are so phone obsessed they check no matter what’s incoming.

The Desire can check for new messages every 5 minutes, which I guess will be fast enough even for those “respond ASAP” auditions I often get. Also, the Desire is a little heavier, 4.76 ounces vs. 3.70, the battery drains much faster, and some tasks I perform frequently take an extra tap or two. The user manual, like many these days, isn’t all that helpful, so there may be features I’d like but can’t find or figure out. For example, the Desire screen is so sensitive, I sometimes tap things I didn’t want. If there’s a way to adjust that, like you can a mouse, I can’t find it.

In other areas of life, from jobs to relationships, we usually compromise. Sometimes, though, it’s nice to get exactly what you want.

Our society favors youthful appearances. If we didn’t care how young we looked, there wouldn’t be a proliferation of medispas featuring Botox/other non-surgical proceduresor or such a rapid rise in plastic surgeries. The vast majority of fashion models wouldn’t be in their teens. We wouldn’t buy trendy garments much less makeup, creams, lotions or potions. There wouldn’t be so many articles about cougars or men who prefer much younger women.

As an actress, I have to consider how age affects my bookings. Certainly there are roles for everyone from infants to septuagenarians. But since I look and sound much younger than I actually am, sometimes age is just a number— meaning clients go by what they see and hear. Sometimes they go by actual age. Since many opportunities seem to be for younger or older women, I can find myself in a gray (pun intended) area—too chronologically old to be the typical mom with kids, too young to be a senior.

Examples:
–At a national commercial audition for women 20-70, seeking a young, medium and older nun, I was placed in the middle, or medium, chair. I booked it as the oldest nun…which could have been for age-related or any number of other reasons. Maybe the clients just liked my look or how I did the bite and smile. But when age is so much a factor in the initial specs, it’s hard not to wonder. Check it out, here.
–Chicago improv is a very young community, with many players half my age. So I was to be a grandmother for a live project in Las Vegas. When they decided to book me, they changed the character to an aunt.
–I just did a billboard shoot as a mom. My “kids” were 9 and 13.

So do I try to keep looking like I’m in my thirties and skew younger as long as I can…and if so, to what extent? Via anti-aging/wrinkle creams; coloring my hair, keeping my longer, curly hair vs. going with a shorter cut; wearing no-line bifocals and bifocal contacts so I don’t need reading glasses? Do I embark upon more costly measures that yield more obvious results, such as laser treatments or eye surgery, and if so, when?

Or do I embrace each wrinkle, crow’s foot, line around my mouth, gray hair…the realities of getting older?

Time will tell.

The techniques of and experience doing improv can benefit almost everyone, from actors (enhances skills plus it’s a resume credit agents and clients appreciate and/or expect in Chicago), writers (helps spark plot and character ideas) and business people (learn to think on your feet, gain confidence during presentations, work on team building, etc.). I’ve completed several improv training programs and have performed with a variety of groups in assorted venues.

Lately I prefer performing improv over theatre because:
-when improve works, IMO it’s funnier than almost any play or sketch comedy, because the humor is being created in the moment and hasn’t been tweaked and rewritten, with each move and line rehearsed. When it falls flat, audiences tend to be a little more forgiving for the same reasons. (Some audience members have said they’re impressed that we can even stand up there and create characters and scenes on the fly.)
-though improv teams rehearse (to help members work together better, grow as improvisers and learn that venue’s approach), it’s usually only once a week instead of several times a week. There’s nothing to memorize, and you don’t go over the same scenes time and again. You’re always coming up with something new, creating your own scripts.

So many elements go into each scene: individual abilities, knowledge and frame of mind; team synergy; audience mood and knowledge, and the combination of a team’s or venue’s approach and the suggestions received. Add in the usual performance elements of timing, character development, blocking, etc. Suggestions, players and audience need to click.

It’s challenging enough to get that click during a show. Add the pressure of auditioning, knowing you’re being judged, and the stakes ratchet higher. Usually you only get to do one two-person scene and a couple of short montage scenes in an audition. So an improviser can be derailed by a suggestion that doesn’t resonate, a scene partner he or she has never met, or one of those moments where you get stuck in your head and lack ideas. When you audition for a play, commercial or any scripted thing, you should benefit from knowing what you’ll say and rehearsing how.

Most major Chicago improv venues are holding their annual auditions now. There are so many hopefuls that even getting an audition time can be difficult, much less getting cast. iO’s and the Playground’s slots filled way in advance. Another venue said it had 135 auditionees and added nine improvisers to the roster; only three were women.

As with any audition, if you don’t get cast, it’s hard to know if you’re just not good enough that day or in general, or just not what they’re looking for…

Technology is amazing and frustrating at the same time. Of course computers, the Internet, e-mail, etc. make our lives easier in many respects. I remember writing college papers using carbon paper and Wite-Out because my typewriter didn’t have a correct key (at least I had an electric, not a manual), and actually cutting my first drafts into pieces and taping them together for typing because word processing wasn’t readily available; there was no cut and paste. If we weren’t at home when someone called, they’d have to call back. I won my first answering machine senior year in college when I represented the University of Michigan on The Joker’s Wild’s College Tournament. (Other prizes included some cash for me and the U of M, a case of Golden Grain Macaroni & Cheese, WD-40 and a reel to reel tape player.)

On the other hand, technology also can result in de-personalizing business and personal relationships. There’s the pressure to always be connected; I don’t want to miss something requiring a response ASAP. I have my phone set to make different sounds for different e-mail addresses so I know which messages to read right away.

Figuring out how to do a new task often takes far longer than it should. We spend time registering for various sites, keeping track of passwords/changing them, backing up. For every dollar we save in postage by paying bills on line or emailing work product such as submissions to editors/agents, we spend another in software or hardware. Do we spend as much time talking to actual people as we do catching up with e-mails, texts, Twitter and Facebook?

As a voice talent, most of my auditions are now self-recorded. Many are due ASAP, others with less than 24 hours turnaround time. Though obviously recording at home saves travel time to the agent and back, it’s hard to get the best reads when directing yourself. And you don’t get any feedback as to whether your audition is in the ballpark or if you could have talked faster, slower or with more of whatever emotion. “Friendly and educational,” for example, means different things to different people. So sometimes for big auditions, I seek coaching and production assistance from people I’ve worked with, which takes travel time and/or money. Instead of getting the opinion of the agent who has actually communicated with and is familiar with the client, whoever helps is another step removed from knowing what the client really wants.

So many people communicate mostly via e-mail or text to save time, but in the process some elements of communication are lost. You don’t get to hear the other person’s tone of voice or share reactions to conversation. Many now work at home, spending all day staring at their computers and not interacting with co-workers. We miss out on camaraderie and exchange of useful information.

Sometimes we leap into new technology because it seems fun, or maybe even because everyone else is doing it. We may not realize how many hours we spend a day with it, or how often we pull out our phones when out with family/friends. Maybe every so often we should step back for a minute and consider the opportunity costs of investing in and spending so much time with technology. Maybe there are times when our time could be better spent elsewhere.

I sometimes get asked what I do all day…given that I don’t have certain common obligations that require a major time commitment, such as full time job or kids. So here’s yesterday, a sample day in the life:

–Promised to deliver a VO job for a social networking site by 9AM. Had received the script @ 5:30PM the night before when not only were they pounding on the new house being built behind me, I was getting ready for an improv show. When I sat down to record Wednesday morning at 6:30AM, the loading dock I live near was in full, noisy swing. Then came driving rain loud enough to hear over my mic, and a thunderstorm. Then, of course, the house construction started. In between periods of hammering and running engines I was able to record the appx. 3 minute script. Did not hear if revisions were needed.

–While at the Romance Writers of America conference in Orlando last week, I met with several literary agents/editors. Worked on fine tuning one of my manuscripts to submit.

–Completed variety of email correspondence for work and play, including some with co-author of non-fiction project and possible freelance writing client.

–Examined potential new headshots; a friend is photoshopping my black shirt to a better color, apparently not an easy task.

–A talent agent called about a print looksee for a pharmaceutical company that afternoon. Chatted with him about the frustrations of the new online casting site Chicago casting agents are using.

–Printed a headshot. Primped for (aka tried to tame my curly hair in this humidity) and drove to print looksee appx. 20 minutes away. Fortunately there was no wait. Posed for 3 different pictures in about two minutes. “Smized” as Tyra advises. Photographer kept saying, “Perfect.”

–Returned home around 2PM to find an ASAP VO audition, which I managed to record between more bouts of hammering.

–Got a call from and talked for almost an hour to a friend who’d won a RITA (RWA’s Oscar, awarded at a fancy ceremony attended by appx. 2000 people) in FL.

–Worked more on my ms.

–Just after 5PM, got an email for another VO audition due this morning by 10AM.

–Went to ComedySportz for my team’s REC League show. We’re down a couple of players, so our coach and a guest coach we had (both CSz ensemble members) joined us.

–Stopped by a friend’s for a short visit.

They say that if your ears are burning, someone is talking about you. In the writing and acting businesses, you want your ears to be burning a lot…and hope you’re being talked about in a good way.

Examples:
–I booked a medical industrial without auditioning. The client must’ve listened to my demo, liked it and talked to my agent.

–A friend actually asked the other day if my ears were burning. She said she’d been talking about how helpful and encouraging I’d been at the writing conference where we first met.

–References…to get a recent VO job, I was asked to give two industry contacts.

–I was put on hold for a job, meaning a client was interested. Time passed, and I didn’t hear about a firm booking. You don’t want to dwell on what’s happening with auditions or submissions, but sometimes it’s a challenge not to wonder if the job fell through or what made the client choose another talent. Lo and behold, more than a week later I got the firm booking call.

You want your marketing materials (on camera reel, VO demo(s), headshots, Web site, or first three chapters and synopsis) to speak for themselves in encouraging industry professionals to hire you. Building a reputation for professionalism, meeting deadlines and being pleasant to work with is also important for repeat business.

Getting compliments and/or feedback is great and useful. I don’t often find out what a client liked, or if there was something they didn’t like. Some writers are offended if they receive a revision letter. Their opus is fabulous as is, how dare anyone suggest otherwise? But most know that a revision letter means that the agent/editor wants the manuscript to be the best, most saleable product it can be.

While researching the definition of ears burning, I came across another saying I hadn’t heard: Left for love, right for spite.

Hmmm.

Many Gainfully Employed and Unemployed work from home. We’re in front of our computers for many hours at a stretch and may have days without limited personal interactions, which can be rather isolating. While social networking and texting make it easier to stay in some sort of touch with many people wherever, whenever, that kind of communication just doesn’t have the same quality or depth as a phone call or in person meeting. All of this online contact, in fact, can increase isolation…because many people spend so much time and effort commenting on comments, Tweeting or checking out what others are doing that they run out of time to actually talk or see friends (Too Much Tine Online Linked with Depression Risk and WikiHow to Stop Spending Too Much Time Online)

Some people you don’t see as often as you used to, such as former co-workers or clients, but when you do get together the connection and shared understanding is still there. Whatever the reason that kept you apart, you’re able pick up right where you left off. When these acquaintances and friends return to your life, whether on Facebook or in person, is it random…a small world thing, or is there a reason?

It’s amazing how many times on acting jobs or auditions I run into someone I’ve worked with before. Examples include: last week, I had an hour long group audition with only three others, one of whom I’d worked with at Winter WonderFest. A choreographer I’d worked with for several productions but hadn’t talked to in a couple of years booked me for a voiceover job, also last week. The host of the event happened to be someone I’d worked with several years ago on an emotional role-playing job. This week at an invitation-only audition, I ran into an FB friend I’ve worked as an extra with a couple of times.

As we’re trying to get everything done, we might think we should call or have lunch with various friends or relatives, but then don’t get around to it. I’m going to make more of an effort to keep in real touch with people (not just via FB or Linked In status updates), instead of letting Life do most of the deciding about who I see and when.

Given the state of the economy and layoffs or hiring freezes, many Gainfully Employed are now expected to take on additional tasks if they want to keep their jobs, often for no additional pay. Employees are stretched thin and/or asked to do things not in their bailiwick. While some may balk, others will see this as a positive change, a chance to become more valuable to their employers and develop new skills.

Many Gainfully Unemployed are already familiar with this process. Specialization can limit opportunities in today’s multi-tasking, time-pressed environment. When you get booked by a client, the hope is to have him/her return with future projects. In order to make ourselves more marketable and expose ourselves to a wider range of potential clients, the GU should consider adding more services to their offerings. Because the more people you meet and work with, the more people you can meet and work with. And some clients also prefer a one stop shop instead of having to make arrangements with multiple vendors.

I mainly do voice and on camera work, but I also offer script and copy editing and writing. I do some print and improv, and present a variety of workshops. Other examples: a choreographer who also casts variety acts and talent for her shows. Voiceover talents who also do demos and coaching/teaching. A writer who can also do graphic or Web site design.

Sometimes I meet GU who are unwilling or perhaps afraid to expand their repertoire. Perhaps they’re happy knowing what they know and don’t want to make themselves uncomfortable by going outside of their boxes. Perhaps they don’t want to do the extra work to research and market new products.

The key is balance. You don’t want to stretch yourself too thin or offer services too far outside your wheelhouse. It can be tempting to just say yes if a client asks if you can do something you haven’t done before. More work! More money! But consider thinking it through before you commit. Consider taking classes to hone skills related to your main services. Every so often, consider stepping back from getting your work done and think about new ways to make clients want to choose you.