Here are two great resources I would highly recommend for your off time that will considerably improve your on time. First, take about 45 minutes and watch the videos from Derek Sivers on how he created CD Baby. I’ve talked before about how we were early adopters, releasing our first CD in ’99 at CD [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick In my teens, I never took to babysitting the way my friends did. I was tagged pretty early on as “most likely to end up a crazy cat woman”. True to form, decades later, I have scrapbooks full of the rescued and adopted felines to whom I’ve been caregiver and confident [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick You never really hear of a psychic having a bad day. But they would see the dark clouds coming, right? The rest of us aren’t so lucky. When it comes to the psychological and emotional climate of most industries, it’s feast or famine. After awhile, that takes its toll, and you [...]

As voice talent, we’re always looking for ways to offer our clients more options, more quality, and more value.  These are often the ways we try to differentiate ourselves in a market full of gifted and capable competition. But the pitfalls of offering too much can sometimes cause our plans of “upping our game” to [...]

When working with production studios or independent producers, there are some common requests voice over talent will receive. As more and more talent are entering the field from other industries, and recording from home studios, there are terms they need to familiarize themselves with in order to adapt to the standards of the biz! Recording [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick A lot of entrepreneurs and development buffs like to cite “Man on a Wire” as a shining example that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. But what I see when I look at “Man on a Wire” is someone who unrelentingly focused on accomplishing a goal [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick We’re all guilty of making exceptions to the rules we set up for our businesses. Those rules might mean discounts for some clients, or putting them at the head of the schedule when someone else has booked first. It might mean more work than what we really intend to do. And [...]

Everyone wants to get paid more, but no one wants to be the first one to raise their rates and risk running off clients. But here’s a very quick and simple goal setting workout to start stretching your “rate muscle” into shape! First, the warm up… At the beginning of each quarter, each month, each [...]

We’ve all seen the promises: Grow a Million Dollar Business! Turn Your Idea into a Million Dollars, y’know, stuff like that. And it’s all just a gimmick to get you or your business to jump into the sales funnel, with spending a ton on training, or books, or seminars as your key to making the [...]

We invite you to celebrate our 15th birthday with us today on Facebook and Twitter! And if you’re a fellow voice over artist, while you’re online, check out these other great resources: Voices.com Answers Here’s a very cool new feature at Voices.com. It’s no doubt going to become the go-to voice over industry wiki, with [...]

This week, Serious Vanity Music turns 15 years old! To celebrate, we’re pulling another reference from Shakespeare and offering some great deals “as you like it” on things you might not know we’ve done. I, Dana Detrick, originally started SVM as an indie label back in ’96, with only the goal of releasing my own [...]

I’ve been critical of using “boring” or overly business-oriented language in the past, but one word I haven’t had a beef with is “content”. As a content creator, I actually like it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think art should be pure. Each piece should be able to stand on its own, whether it’s [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick I talked a little before about why brand loyalty doesn’t serve you as a business, but I promised to go a little deeper as to why it really doesn’t serve you as a consumer, either. I mentioned some of the things I loved most: Apple (which, at the time I switched [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick I used to love so many brands. There was the Apple phase, then Sony, for technology. Betsey Johnson could do no wrong. It was assured that if I entered, I wouldn’t leave Bath and Body Works without buying something. Even with music, if Duran Duran or Depeche Mode put out a [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick As small biz folk, we spend a lot of time trying to communicate what we are to our clients and prospects. But they still make a lot of assumptions, based on what their personal needs are, and like to throw other things we can do for them into the mix. You [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick Two words enter, one word leaves. Scratch that. No words will leave Thunderdome! I’ve saved my least favorite terms of all for my third installment in the “Borin’ Language Trilogy” (see parts one and two for further vomit-worthy vernacular). And I give you first… Innovation Create something new. Take something old [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick So I gave you 3 ways to remove the biz speak for good before, but there are a few of those terms that are useful, but just need some redefining. Make a shift in your mind about these concepts will create way more concise (and understandable) projects for your clients and [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick It doesn’t matter if you got your business education within the hallowed halls of a prestigious university, from trusted mentors, coaches, or colleagues, or on the street. Odds are good we’ve all been speaking the same “borin’ language” for awhile. Whether it’s just so vague no one can even understand what [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick In parts 1 and 2 of our 3-part series, We’ve covered fraud, chargebacks, and barters gone south, but there’s one last item you need to watch out for: the infamous “hot check”. Hot, or more commonly known as bounced checks, are similar to chargebacks in what they’ll do to your accounts, [...]

No one in pop culture has probably gone through more “Changes” than David Bowie (though he is ironically best remembered for only a few of his incarnations…maybe ch-ch-ch-ch-changes weren’t that great after all?). Ok, maybe Bowie and Serious Vanity Music. Our 15th birthday is coming up, and we’re greeting it with a fond farewell to [...]

contributed by Dana Detrick Back in February, I’d proposed the idea of independent auto makers. It’s now a reality! And not a bad success story, either, with no doubt the potential for growth. So no matter how big your competition will be, how much money and tradition you’re up against, if you’re thinking creatively instead, [...]