Creativity is not something that you wait for.
Creativity is something that waits for you.

— Neale Donald Walsch

A few years ago, Drew gave me a Valentine’s present of joint membership at a local pottery studio. While we weren’t envisioning a re-do of the famous scene from the movie Ghost, we had been interested in learning how to create some crockery. Instead, I learned something more valuable through the experience:

When I exercise my creativity in a new or different way, I’m more creative in other areas.

Each time I came home from the pottery studio, I might perform a voiceover audition with more inspired choices, play my harp more fluidly, or design a scrapbook page with lots of layers and textures. Any of these things make me feel even more pleased and give me the desire to do more.

I discovered this theory holds true when I attempt to draw in my journal. Even writing this blog, which itself is an artistic endeavor, causes me to feel more innovative when I finish each entry.

No matter how you express yourself, each way that you can be creative is scooping more good stuff into your life from the same bountiful well. Why use a teaspoon when you can use a jug?

In the last week, I’ve done a couple of things in marketing my voiceover business that allowed me to express my creativity in new ways. First, I created the book trailer video for an audiobook, which I included and discussed in my previous entry “Reasons to Create Your Own Stuff”. Many voice talent have written to me saying that they felt inspired by the ideas and marketing info that I presented, so I encourage you to read that entry if you haven’t already.

The other thing I did was enter the Voices.com photo contest on their Facebook page. They wanted pictures of voice talent in their studios with the Voices.com web site displayed on some sort of screen. While winning the prize would be wonderful, I entered because it was a direct call to action to be creative. After all, the judging criteria is the “most creative, coolest picture”.

I wanted to do something with recursion. In computer programming, recursion occurs when the program calls itself repeatedly. I also wanted the picture to be as much about me as Voices.com, making it good marketing material for both of us.

It only took a few minutes to come up with an idea that met both of those objectives.

 
I have been most gratified by and grateful for the overwhelming positive response I have received in sharing these dips into my creativity well. I’m thrilled to have inspired others, but I also benefit since creativity feeds upon itself and manifests in my voiceover business. More importantly, I live an even happier and rewarding life!

What are you doing to feed your creative spirit? I’d love to get your comments on the blog!
 

 
After seeing fellow voice talent Teri Clark Linden’s Facebook status last week, I was intrigued about the new movie “The King’s Speech”. Regular readers of my blog know that I often find hidden parallels to voiceover work in my life situations, as well as in books and movies. This is one instance where the similarity is obvious to anyone who views the movie, and, like Teri, I cannot recommend too highly that voice talent and actors go see this fantastic film.

Without giving away too much of the plot, King George VI (played brilliantly by Colin Firth, who should win an Oscar) is a quiet man who never wanted to be king. He was forced to take the throne after his brother King Edward VIII abdicated the crown in 1936 in favor of marriage to the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson.

People usually say the fear of public speaking is at the top of their lists of fears and stress-inducing events. In addition to the normal nervous sensation felt by everyone in front of a microphone, King George VI has a significant obstacle to overcome:  a stammer developed in childhood and exacerbated throughout his life.

Enter Lionel Logue (played impeccably by Geoffrey Rush), an actor and speech therapist who works with the King to help him become the kind of public speaker necessary to lead the British people through the travails of World War II. Aside from the historical relevance, much of the delight in the movie is watching a King and a commoner learn to trust each other and find the oneness that binds all of us together.

An underlying theme that was revealed in the film is that, while Lionel Logue had his own dreams as an actor, his greatest glory was achieved due to his service to others. Indeed, to quote Ralph Waldo Trine from his 1896 book What All The World’s A-Seeking, or, The Vital Law of True Life, True Greatness, Power, and Happiness, it is through service to others that we find ourselves:

The idea has prevailed in the past, and this idea has dominated the world, that self is the great concern,–that if one would find success, greatness, happiness, he must give all attention to self, and to self alone. 

This has been the great mistake, this the fatal error, this the direct opposite of the right, the true as set forth in the great immutable law that–we find our own lives in losing them in the service of others, in longer form–the more of our lives we give to others, the fuller and the richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more happy our own lives become. 

It is as that great and sweet soul who when with us lived at Concord said,–that generous giving or losing of your life which saves it. This is an expression of one of the greatest truths, of one of the greatest principles of practical ethics the world has thus far seen. In a single word, it is service,–not self but the other self. 

We shall soon see, however, that our love, our service, our helpfulness to others, invariably comes back to us, intensified sometimes a hundred or a thousand or a thousand thousand fold, and this by a great, immutable law.

We also usually don’t know the impact that we are having on others when we generously share our gifts and talents with them. After seeing the movie, I did a little on-line research and discovered that Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) wrote a letter praising Logue’s tremendous assistance to her husband:

I think that I know perhaps better than anyone just how much you helped the King, not only with his speech, but, through that, his whole life, and outlook on life

Just as the King’s speech affected his subjects, every voice talent has the ability to influence someone whenever we take the microphone. You’ll note that some of Logue’s coaching to the King are the same techniques that we continue to use in our field.

Even if you aren’t a voice talent or actor, the King’s courage, determination, and persistence in fighting his battle and Logue’s ever-optimistic attitude and problem-solving skills are traits worthy of emulation. Go see this movie!