Show notes
A busy voice actor spends a lot of time in the booth. You're sitting down to edit, sending out auditions, and reaching out to clients, but how are you prioritizing your physical & mental health throughout the work day? Anne & Pilar have the tips and tricks to keep your body strong & your mind sound. From taking breaks throughout the day to stretch, keeping up with your fur babies, and shaking off the stress (literally), you can tackle the day with ease like a #VOBOSS. >> It's time to take your business to the next level, the BOSS level! These are the premiere Business Owner Strategies and Successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a BOSS, a VO BOSS! Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. Transcript Pilar: Hola, BOSS Voces. Bienvenidos al podcast con Anne Ganguzza y Pilar Uribe. Anne: Hey everyone. Welcome to the VO BOSS podcast. I'm your host Anne Ganguzza, and I am excited to bring back to the show Pilar Uribe, my very, very special guest cohost. Pilar. Woo-hoo! How are you? Pilar: I'm doing great, Anne. How are you? Anne: I'm amazing. Thank you. Pilar: Anne. Anne: What? Pilar: Anne. Guess what I'm wearing? Guess what I'm wearing today? Anne: Oh my, okay. Um, Hmm. I'm not sure. What are you wearing, Pilar? Are you in the booth right now? Pilar: I am. I am at the booth. Anne: It's something that makes you feel good. Pilar: It does. It does. Because this morning I went walking. I did my 10,000 steps like I do every morning. Anne: Awesome, awesome. Pilar: And then I came home. I showered, I changed and I put on my voz t-shirt and it's really cool. Anne: Awesome! Pilar: I just got in the mail, and it's so much fun. Anne: I am so excited. Guys, yeah. So BOSSes out there, in case you didn't know, in honor of the most amazing Pilar Uribe, we have really cool swag in our BOSS studio store. So you can go to shop BOSS brand gear, and we have a whole line of really cool swag. We got t-shirts, we got mugs, we got accessories. We've got all sorts of things, and they're really, really awesome. I mean, I love that it's combination of your logo and some just amazing pieces of swag that you guys can get. Pilar: I'm really liking that little bag where you can like put your stuff in and carry it around. Anne: The accessory pouch. Pilar: I love it, like you can put anything in there. Anne: We have two different sayings, Pilar, and I'm going to have you say them because I cannot do the justice to the sayings that we have on shirts. Pilar: What? Anne: The voz. Pilar: Okay. Okay. I hear you. It's voz, la voz. Anne: La voz. Pilar: La voz. Anne: La voz. And what else? We've got another logo on the mugs, not just La Voz. Pilar: Right. The other one, right. That is you say Di algo, di algo. Say something. Anne: Di algo. Pilar: Di algo. Di algo, say something. Anne: Did I do that justice? I don't think I did. Pilar: You sure did, yes, absolutely, you did. Anne: Okay. Awesome. Pilar: Yes, completely, yeah. Anne: I love that little mug, man. I'm getting myself a little mug. It's like black with this -- and it's hot pink. I love the hot pink. Pilar: I know. And it gets really cute. Anne: Yeah. The shirts we have in like so many colors, it's amazing. Pilar: The shirt is really, it's really soft, BOSS voces, because you know how like they're sometimes, you get t-shirts, and they're just kind of, they're like sandpaper. They're rough. I don't why like, like sometimes how conference t-shirts are just like rough and you're like, why are you giving me a rough t-shirt? This is not that. This is not that. This is a very soft. Anne: This is quality swag, quality swag. Pilar: Yes. Anne: I love quality swag. Pilar: It's so much fun. And there's like a little notebook. I'm kind of eyeing the notebook now. Anne: Yeah. Pilar: I'm kind of thinking I might have to get the notebook and the short sleeve, 'cause I got the long sleeve actually, and the long sleeve is just so cozy. Anne: I'm loving it. Pilar: It's so cold out here -- Anne: I'm loving a short sleeve, and I'm a big v-neck girl. So yeah. Pilar: I know, I saw those. Anne: You guys, make sure you check out the really cool swag. And in addition to our Pilar-themed line of swag, we've also got some really cool Working Voice. What else? 100% BOSS. We've got VO BOSSy. We got some really cool sayings, some really cool logos on some really great merchandise. So make sure you go visit the shop under voboss.com and then shop BOSS brand gear. Pilar: Oo, I just saw something really cute. You've got a little BOSS, onesy. Anne: I do, I do. Pilar: Uh-oh, I might be, I might be shopping soon. You've got some BOSSy pants! Oh, get out of town. Anne: We do have BOSSy pants. Okay. So now that concludes our paid advertisement. Pilar: I'm kind of getting into this. Anne: Actually, we're just so excited about it. So guys, sorry about that. But Pilar, you said something earlier that I want to talk to you about, you said, you know, you've got your 10,000 steps in, you're making sure you're drinking your water, and you're doing all these things to contribute to your wellness, which I think is so important for BOSSes that are working regularly. Or even if you're not working regularly, your health, your wellness is so important and contributes so much to your performance and just your growth in your business. So I think we should have an episode talking about what we do for wellness and some tips and tricks and things that might help you guys in the booth. Pilar: I think it's really important to think about that because even before the pandemic, of course, my life really was about being in the booth because that's where I was most of the time when I wasn't at the radio station or out and about, I was in my booth doing audio books. And, and other things. Anne: And so long hours in the booth. Pilar: Yes. And so, and usually you're, I mean, I have it where I can sit and I can stand. It's not one or the other, but still you're seated. And a lot of the times you're not in the booth, you're editing or you're in the booth and you're doing it all at once. Anne: Oh my goodness, the editing, the editing. Pilar: The editing, which is like -- Anne: Or you're doing the accounting or the marketing and you're sitting, and I will say myself, a woman of a certain age, sitting no longer is like healthy. Not that sitting was ever healthy for me before, but I think my body bounced back if I sat, you know, because I've always worked in technology, but I've also been more mobile when I had to like go into work and walk around. And even though I sat a lot, I was actually a whole lot more active, and the pandemic came and oh my goodness. I was so busy thankfully. And I'm gratefully so busy, but I have been spending a lot of time sitting, and it has not done me any favors, that's for sure. Pilar: No. And, and the thing is, is that becomes cumulative when you stop moving around and working, not necessarily working out, as I say, in a gym, but working your body, working your muscles, moving, stretching. Your body eventually atrophies. So if you're not moving those muscles, you basically, just you kind of constrict. And we are in the business of expanding for as long as we can. So we, you want to stretch -- Anne: Expanding my body maybe after the pandemic. Pilar: Well, right. That's yes. I agree. I've, I have gained 10 pounds. Anne: Maybe not in a good way, but yeah, that, the pandemic has kind of wreaked havoc with my health a little bit, in a good way, because I've been working so much, but in a bad way, because again, I've been working so much. So I need to consciously take time out to make sure that I am taking care of my health, and I will say kudos and congrats to all those people out there, which I know a number of people who actually use the pandemic to get really into shape and take a challenge so that they can be the best that they can be. And I just unfortunately was not one of them. I kind of went the other way, kind of sitting a little too much and working a little too much. But I'm coming full circle because I've made a considerable investment in getting started and more conscious, being more conscious about my health, walking. Of course, the last time I walked, I tore my sciatica muscle. So that was a thing. So now I've, I've got a, you know, an elliptical machine, which is helping me to not necessarily destroy that muscle. I have a little less impact, although I'm not walking outside as much anymore, which I miss. But that's become an important part of me being healthy, not just physically, but mentally. Pilar: Yeah, and I think you really have to factor into your day some kind of movement and some kind of sustained movement, whether it's the elliptical or it's a stationary bike or it's walking, or if you're lucky enough to live in warm weather, swimming like in the summer months, but you have to keep the heart rate up in some way, shape or form. I do it by -- now, It's still pretty cold out here, but in the summer months, I hope to start swimming. And for now what I'm doing is I'm walking. And I make sure that I have 10,000 steps, that every day I walk my 10,000 steps. Anne: That's awesome, yep. Pilar: And so on an iPhone they have, and there are multiple apps. Anne: I know on my iPhone, I think it, by default, it has a whole health thing where it tracks you. And I just bought a new Apple Watch, which is really awesome. So it will track everything that I want and actually connect up to my smart fitness machine, my elliptical, it will track everything there, how many steps, how many calories I've burned, what my heart rate is and all of those wonderful, healthy things, which I want to know, or I might look at my watch at, when I'm having a stressful day, and then go, woo my heart rate. Make sure that it's, that it's good. But also every hour, it has that little hepatic tap that tells me I need to stand up, which is really important for me. And I like you, I have a standing desk. I'm assuming you have a standing desk, as you said you can do both. I have a standing desk. So if I'm not in my booth, I can actually raise it up and stand or I can sit, which has been a great, great help for me. Pilar: Yeah. Well I have the old stand and then bring the stool in. Anne: Yeah. Pilar: And so I'm very lucky. A VO person actually fit it in for me in my booth. It's a movable arm, and it's really cool 'cause you can just, yeah, you can adjust the mic going up and down. So when I want to sit, I adjust the mic -- Anne: The boom arm. Yep. Pilar: Yeah, it's a boom arm. And I mean, I definitely one day, 'cause they're, they're kind of expensive, but the desks are really helpful for outside when I'm editing, because then I don't have to be standing and sitting. But whatever it is that you do, whatever it is that you decide to do, make sure that you do it for at least 20, 30 minutes a day, get out and about, move around if you can every hour, because you really don't want to be sitting in one place. It's just not good for the body. I mean, on all levels. And stretching really, really helps. I mean, that's one thing 'cause I, I used to suffer from sciatica as well. So I understand the pain and the discomfort and -- Anne: Sciatica comes out of nowhere some days. Pilar: Oh, I know, I know it's awful. Anne: It's like women of a certain age, not just women, but I'm just saying I never experienced sciatica. And now all of a sudden, it came on, and then it seemed to never go away, and then it went away, but then it came back. And so that is something that I struggle with, and it's very, very tough to stretch that, but it is important that I stretch every day to help that because you know, I don't want to be uncomfortable. First of all, I don't want to render myself, you know, unable to feel comfortable, and then try to go into my booth and perform. I mean, that is just something that is not a good thing. So having those conscious things that you're doing to maintain wellness, not just, and we had spoken about vocal wellness in a previous episode, and now we're extending it to physical wellness, and a mental wellness is also something that I think is super important for us. And something that I've mentioned multiple times on the podcast, your mental health is so important, so that you're in your best performance mode. PIlar: There's so many things that you can do to help yourself because a lot of times people say, oh, I don't know what to do. It can be something as simple as closing your eyes for a minute and just breathing in, you just like breathing in one, breathing in -- breathing out two, breathing in three, breathing out four. And you go all the way up to 10, and then you come back down, and let's say, you're stressed and you're trying to get a voice or a feeling, you're trying to finish a sentence or you're stuttering. Which sometimes it's like, I will just so trip over myself. And I literally just take a step back, I take off my headphones and I sit on the floor and I just breathe. And then all of a sudden it's like, I don't know where I was, but I disconnected from that stressful moment. And then I can just come back to the work. That helps me so much. I kind of envision it like, and I may have mentioned this before, like when a dog turns around three times. If you turn around three times, let's say you're really, really stressed or you're, you're in a bad mood or whatever, you turn around three times and you can't really remember what it was that feeling because it's like, you're just kind of just, just shook it out of yourself. So it's like shaking that off. That helps me a lot. Something that helps me as well, let's say when I want to just -- stress relievers. Because the other thing that we don't realize is that when we're sitting at a desk, we're not always standing with our backs straight. We might be hunched over. We might be, our spine is in a C. We've got our hands in a certain way. And then you wonder why your hand hurts because you've just been like gripping the mouse like there's no tomorrow. So there's so many things that we don't even realize as the day goes by. So to get up every hour to breathe, to turn around, to do a little bit of what I described was just a little teensy weensy part of meditation, or just to close your eyes for a minute will help get you through the day without as much stress. And what they've discovered in studies is that meditation -- and meditation can be as simple as what we just did. And it can be just something to close, just closing your eyes and sitting, or it can be lying down -- is a natural reliever for cortisol. Cortisol just makes you that much more stress. When you have cortisol in your system, it's like you're on fire, and you're all your muscles are just clenching. And so meditation is actually a natural reliever of that. So it could be something as simple as just reading in a book, reading aloud, reading a poem, just breathing in and out, all those little teensy tips and tricks throughout the day can help you. And that's important because we do spend a lot of time in our booths, in our rooms. It can be a really tight space. It can be a big space, and in one position, and you want to try…
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