Peek-a-boo

Hi Mes Amis!

Long time no write - I know! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, and I've got some cool news to share...

Yours truly, the slightly totally obsessed with recording her voice, and basically any excuse to get behind a microphone has been given a platform... a radio job!

Yup, I'm officially on the air reporting traffic every weekday afternoon on Shore 104.3FM.

Please read the following statement in a sing-song voice and picture a very awkward happy dance: They gave me a microphone, they gave me a microphone.

Heehee - I really love it! I've actually been doing the gig for a couple weeks, but just wanted to make sure I didn't wake up from some dream before sharing it with you.

I'm actually doing creative writing for the station as well as reporting traffic. It's a heck of a lot of responsibility, but dang it, if they give me that mic every afternoon I will do it! You can hear me 3 times every hour between 3pm-6pm, and if you're stuck behind a computer and want to listen to some cool jams (do people even say such things anymore?) you can hear the station online (www.shore104.com).

Thanks for sticking with this site while I've been m.i.a - and thanks to Jessy for carrying the extra writing burden!

xo
Jenny C

Flying Solo - New Starts

Bonjour amis!

Happy Friday! This week has been a busy one - my internship at a local radio station is all kinds of awesome. I got to write some fun copy this week, and give some deserving kids instruments that our listeners donated - heart warming stuff.

Tonight's plans are yummy Indian fare and a wicked concert. If you're in the Vancouver area - come out and do the same! Burnaby's Bombay Bhel is understated and tasty - but it's changing hands next week - which might be okay considering this is one of 4 locations, but why risk it - for guaranteed excellence, go in before then if you can.

If you feel like some Friday night rocking out - Shore 104.3 (shameless plug) is presenting Leeroy Stagger & The Wilflowers with Zaac Pick at St. James Hall tonight at 8pm. Tix are only $20 and it'll be fun!

Other possible plans on the weekend agenda include further exploring of Granville Island (industrial zone turned food/craft wonderland) and maybe testing a Giada De Laurentiis recipe - I'll post it next week if all turns out well.

What are your plans for the weekend?
Maybe try seeing a familiar place in a new light - you might catch some fun surprises!

Here's to surprises, and love - because why not?

Bon weekend
xo
Jenny C

Flying Solo - Week ending Feb 4 aka It's Raining Goodness!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Wow what a day, what a week!

After a drought in the voice world over the winter, the last few weeks have really turned around. I've met with a bunch of folks in the radio industry (who are the nicest people on the planet!), got some contract work with old friends and just voiced a whole handful of commercials today.

It's raining goodness!

Oh yes, and it's Friday! Woo hoo!

This solo-entrepreneur thing is definitely not for the faint of heart, what with all the emotional rollarcoasters. But man, these highs really feel good.

What highlights went down in your world this week? Maybe something fun/exciting/relaxing/awesome this weekend?

Wherever you are, whatever your plans, do something to get your heart racing - it's good for you.

Bon weekend mes amis!
xo Jenny C

Flying Solo - Week Twenty

Happy Friday mes amis!

One week from now those of us who celebrate Christmas will be full-bellied with Christmas Eve goodies. Both my family and my guy's family follow the old Catholic tradition of Fish for dinner, so it's good old salt cod (aka bacalla) to the rescue! More pics to follow!

This week has been good, Jessy and I have kicked butt on her P90x program, so we can indulge guilt free over the coming weeks. Voice over biz is hibernating like little grizzly bears, but a couple part-time gigs have come up that look exciting so I polished off the old resie and applied.

This weekend it's friends, friends and more friends. What are you up to?

If you feel like a sweet treat but don't want to bake, try this DIY chocolate hazelnut spread. This recommendation especially goes out to our peeps Ant and Chicken (best nicknames ever) who LOVE Nutella.

Bon Weekend!
xo
Jenny C

Flying Solo - Week Eighteen

Bonjour Mes Amis!

Sorry for the radio silence from me last week - it was my birthday and that filled my time with sweet parties avec friends and family as well as some serious contemplating about where I'm at in my life. I've always been a bit grandiose about what being a "success" is, so with my voice biz staying pretty quiet through November, that contemplating wasn't always super fun. Have you ever had some of those days?

Well despite some moments of "yipes I should be busier, richer, smarter, prettier, faster, bulletproof, etc?" - you know, realistic not overally-dramatic stuff (wink, wink)  overall the week ended on the plus side. I ended up sharing 3 birthday cakes with my family - I bought one, my dad bought one, and my guy's mom made me one, my guy and I split a bottle of wine and some delicious pizza (life can't be bad with pizza), I got to watch my friend and her hubby baptize their new little daughter and the amis and I hit up the Waldorf for another Tiki night of fun.

As I stood in the Tiki bar or, more accurately, mildly wobbled with a mai tai in hand, looking down the the long table of friends chatting away, I had a Tiny Tim moment. God bless us everyone? Well, yes. And also, I'm one lucky chica to have so many awesome people to count as family and friends.

So this week if you feel the world getting you down with its push saying maybe you're not "enough" - think of all the people that love you, and tell the world where to shove it, nicely.

Have a great week - big love to y'all!
xo

ps. Thank you for all your calls, emails, texts, hugs n b-day love!! I love you more than there's words to say.

Flying Solo - Week Seventeen

Happy Friday mes amis!

This week I thought I'd wrap things up with a visual display of how I've been spending my Wednesdays. For the past 3 weeks my parents and I have been baking cookies... LOTS of cookies.

Admittedly one of the best parts of not working a regular 9-5 job is the freedom to do stuff like this. We've made some great headway on the "Fill the Freezer with Cookies 2010" campaign. It may look like a lot (and ok it is) but guaranteed they will be gone before New Year's Eve! Here's some of the highlights so far:

Taralli with their sugar dusting

Pizelle in the iron

Fruits of Patience

Taralli's yummy filling - grape reduction, chocolate and nuts

Fill that Freezer!

Nallah's full just thinking about all these cookies

Have a great weekend everyone!
Spend some quality time with the people you love!
xo

Jen Being Random & Flying Solo Week Sixteen!

Hi Everybody, 

It's the weekend & I'm happy to share another video post with you. Hope you enjoy it! The amis and I are heading to "HopScotch" tonight - a beer and spirits tasting festival. Mmm yummy and dangerous. We'll tell you more about it next week.

Bon Weekend!

xo

Flying Solo - Week Fifteen

Hi Friends

Holy Guacamole it's almost the weekend! I don't know about you but this week has had an overall weekend feeling, and that's a-ok with me. Voice work was pretty slow this week  - like tumbleweed slow, but I am at peace with that at the moment.

I had a bit of panic about it earlier this week, and I was thinking that what I need to do is build great relationships with studios in town. My problem is though I'm friendly and pretty outgoing - I've known most of my friends for 20+ years. How do I make new friends again??

Do you have any tips? What's worked for you when building relationships with new clients or business partners? I feel like I'm back on the playground on my first day of school. Help!

Air Force Vet Harold Poapst - Photo Courtesy The Globe and Mail

On a separate note before signing off for this week, I want to give a shout out of thanks and remembrance to all the people that have fought, are fighting, or have given their lives for our freedom and the good of the world. Thank you for your service and sacrifice - you are heroes.

Bon Weekend
xo

Flying Solo - Week Thirteen

Hey Ghosts n Goblins!

Spooky greetings to you this Friday before Halloween.

I drove past a school on its lunch break today and got to see the kids in their costumes - it was really cute and made me smile.

Personally I'm kinda glad to say goodbye to October - the last few weeks have been eerily slow - not what a solo entrepreneur wants! I did have a session at the beginning of the week, made contact with a video game company, sent recordings from my studio and went to another Meetup group - but somehow all that didn't feel like "enough".

In my ideal world I want to be booking sessions and recording every day - but that isn't reality just yet. I'm trying to "keep the faith" as Bon Jovi would say, and remember that "the work of voice over is getting the work" as Harlan Hogan, prolific VO artist would say.

I know I need to be patient, but my little inner voice keeps asking: Why can't it all just be easy?? Do you ever think that?

Well, maybe one day, but right now I think a mini Oh Henry might be the one sure way to smile. That or a nap. Mmmmm....nap.

Have a great Halloween weekend mes amis - I'm gonna be dressing up like Where's Waldo with a bunch of peeps - see if you can find us!

Happy Haunting!
xo

Flying Solo - Week Twelve

Bonjour mes amis!

It's Friday, I'm streaming the new Kings of Leon album as I write this, and I've got a major audition this afternoon - happy days!

How's your Friday going? Any tantalizing plans for the weekend? A bunch of us gals are heading for an exploration of the Vancouver Flea Market on Saturday - so we'll let you know next week how that was & if it's worth checking out.

Another cool thing I tried for the first time this week is heading to a Meetup group. Meetup is a site that allows users to search, create and/or join groups of people that are meeting up for different reasons - from finding fellow scooter enthusiasts, or people that love brunch, to entrepreneurs looking to meet fellow business people. Try it out - you might find a fun group you'd like to join!

I went to a monthly meetup of the Vancouver Grassroots Business Association - they have a free meeting every month, with different speakers addressing all kinds of biz related topics. This month's speaker was Danielle Laporte, an evocative and inspiring woman. Danielle had a lot of great nuggets of wisdom for business people - and if you're interested, I encourage you to check out her site White Hot Truth.

Ok peeps time for me to get rehearsing. Please wish me luck for this audition - it's going down at 2:45 PST, so if you could send me some "knock-em-dead-with-your-awesomeness" vibes at that time, thank you!!

Have a quirky, cozy weekend!
xo

Flying Solo - Week Ten

Holy Frijoles - ten weeks of writing the "flying solo" posts. Dang!

Bonjour mes amis!

Another Friday is upon us and yes, us Canadians are ready to celebrate Thanksgiving on Monday. So while "Flying Solo" is supposed to look back on the week past, it's very difficult to ignore all the yumminess and extra time with loved ones coming up this weekend.

Let's address the past week quickly so we can get back to turkey talk. This week I had 2 auditions for 2 great animated projects. I sent in my first auditions from home (there's something to be thankful for!). And my engineer friend weighed in and said my home studio sounds great. Woo hoo!

I can talk more about business, but who am I kidding - I really want to get back to Thanksgiving!

Every year our friends gather to celebrate Thanksgiving together (usually a week or so after the official day). It is one of my most cherished dinner with friends all year. We usually go around the table and say something that we're thankful for. I love this Thanksgiving tradition. What are your favourite Thanksgiving traditions?

This year "Friends Thanksgiving" will be celebrated on October 16th, so stay tuned for more photos, recipes and warm fuzzy thoughts on it!

If you're looking for dessert options for Thanksgiving or Autumn in general, the photo above is a Honey Crisp Apple Cake from Serious Eats, and there is a virtual "horn of plenty" of Thanksgiving desserts on MarthaStewart.com as well.

Have a great weekend everyone! Take a moment to share some gratitude!

xo

Flying Solo - Week Nine

Happy Friday mes amis!

Are you ready for the weekend?

I'm gonna have a semi-working one because I've got 2 auditions to submit for Monday morning. Good news this week is that my home studio is up and running! It's been a journey getting it to come together but by-golly-gosh we made it! Wish me luck on submitting 2 sound files that sound wicked awesome.

On a failure note - my inaugural voice over workshop is a bust. Not enough time to promote, no students. Boo. As I was telling my peep LC last night, I'm gonna take it as a learning experience - I think when working for yourself (and probably in most other areas of life) you need to know exactly why you're doing something, and then if you decide to go forward with it, you have to give it your full effort. I honestly didn't do that with this round of classes so it didn't work. Thanks universe - it was painful, but lesson learned!

Finalmont I read on the blog Freelance Switch that when an entrepreneur starts working for themselves they gain an average of 30 pounds in their first year. Did you hear that? That was the sound of me screaming "NOOOOOOO!" while falling to my knees and supplicating to the sky. 30 pounds!?! Well I'm telling ya that story scared the chocolate chip cookies right out of me! I promptly purged my fridge of (most) unhealthy stuff, and have firmly recommitted to working out more regularly. I will not be a statistic!  I was wondering though - since we're heading into Fall and Winter - what do you do to stay healthy? Any indoor workouts you love? Any tasty dishes in your arsenal that won't break the calorie bank? I'm all ears!

Next week I'll feature some of my healthy snacks and I'd love to include at least one of your recipes too!

Have a wonderful weekend y'all- enjoy that autumn air!
xo

Jen Being Random

Hi Mes Amis!

I've been thinking of trying a video post for a while, so here it is. It's in two parts because of its mega file size. I hope you enjoy it!






Links mentioned in the video:

Danny and Annie's story
Steve Job's commencement speech
Angela Ahrendts's commencement speech
TED Talks YouTube Channel

Happy Wednesday!
xo

Flying Solo - Week Eight

Let me preface this post with the following comment: The dog is ok.

It will make sense shortly, I promise.

Now down to business.... actually, this week held a little too little business for me. I was laid up with a monster cold that had me curled on my couch sipping cup-a-soups with a pained look on my face. (I'm a bit of a baby when I'm sick). You?

By mid-week I had pretty much recovered, so I decided to celebrate being able to go outside with a trip to get my nails painted. I hop in my car, pull out of my alley and as I'm completing the turn - BANG! - a huge something collides with my passenger side.

I'm thinking "What the heck was that?!?!" So I pull over, jump out of the car and a big and bashful dog comes over and licks my hand with a slightly stunned look on his face.

Yup. I was hit by a dog. As Mrs. Doubtfire would say: "it was a drive-by dogging!"

Turns out the dog was being walked by a friend of its owner, a 50-something guy who brought the dog out without a leash and was chatting with a neighbour (i.e. not watching the dog) when the dog decided to tear up the street on its own.

The poor dog is ok, but it left a $1200-$1500 dent in my car!! I spent the next day collecting quotes from body shops to get it fixed. The guy walking the dog was giving me the run around, and it looked like a $300 deductible claim was coming out of my pocket. Not happy!

Finally JZ (my guy), in a flash of brilliance suggested I go to Canadian Tire and pick up a giant suction-cup thing that pulls dents out. Its $7 price tag sounded much better than $300, so I gave it a go. After a few heaves with all his body weight JZ pulled the dent out! Now my car looks much better, with only a minor dent left to remind me of the dog incident.

My poor car has now been hit by two uninsured things: a dog, and last year - a cyclist (the biker fell off the sidewalk, his bike dented my hood, then he bounced back up and rode away). Awesome luck, right?? JZ suggested I watch out for pianos rolling down the street, but personally I'm hoping this is the last of these bizarre incidents!

Have you ever been hit by something weird? What else should I be on the lookout for?

Bon weekend everyone - keep it clean, and keep it safe!
xo

Flying Solo - Week Seven

Happy Friday mes amis!

Can you believe it's the middle of September already? I'm aware of the cliche-ness of talking about how fast time passes, but seriously... what's up with that?!

I had a really busy week that included 2 sessions (thank you universe!), a total update of my website, and a day of postering my class descriptions around town. The postering did make me feel a bit shy - but confound that shyness, I did it anyway!

My class is now 3 weeks away and I'm really excited for it. I love teaching, and I'm so looking forward to geeking-out about all the different aspects of voice over with like-minded people. If you know anyone that might be interested, I've got 12 spaces to fill and I would sincerely love and appreciate your help getting the word out! The info is on the "workshops" page of my new-and-improved site.

Since it is Friday, I'm going to take a page out of talented photo-blogger Abby Powell Thompson's book (of Abby Try Again), and reflect on the week using the "five-senses friday" model. Basically you look back at your week and use the five senses to isolate five moments you experienced. Maybe you should try it too!

Seeing: The orange roses on my table burst into full-blown bloom.

Hearing: Two children under five learning to play the piano in the suite above me.

Feeling: Running my fingers through the new, short curly hair at the back of my head. Thanks Briar!

Tasting: Tart and refreshing Safeway Select (!!) pomegranate sorbet. So shockingly yummy!

Smelling: The conifer incense at an incredible new store in Gastown (more on it next week). Instant cosy fireplace vibe.

That's it for another week my friends. How are you liking the "Flying Solo" posts? Would you like me to focus more on anything in particular? Your comments are valued!

I hope you all have an amazing weekend - with a perfect balance of relaxing, and partying your pants off!

xo

Flying Solo - Week Six

Hey Mes Amis - Happy Friday!!

Another week of TCOB (taking care of business). Three auditions this week - a talking football, Sarah Palin and an old Creole palm reader. For serious I love my job!!

Also my class description is coming along - yikes I gotta get it out there! By Monday I pledge to have it perfected and I will start promoting. That is my promise!

Are any of y'all "leave it till the last minute-ers"? How do you overcome those tendencies?

Also next week: Trail pictures!! I know you wanna see them! Right, right??

Bon weekend!

Flying Solo - Week Five

So long week - helloooo long weekend!

My week started out rocking - I booked and recorded 3 sessions (yeehah!) and killed at an audition. The engineer at the audition was really positive, saying I take direction really well. I did a little happy dance inside.

Then... 2 former teachers of mine who I approached for some help with my voice over class refused. Eep! Basically I asked them to send out my class info to some of their former students who might be interested. One of them actually said "I approached a bunch of people teaching voice over when I first started to do the same thing, and they all said no to me, so..." So let's just keep the cycle of saying no going? Oh well... frankly I'm neither bummed nor worried, I just thought "really?" I'll just have to get the word out using other avenues.

Has anyone ever said no to you? Has it fuelled you to succeed even more?

Remember that saying "living a great life is the best revenge"? I say, let any negative nellies go, and let's just embrace being our awesome selves.

Enjoy your 3 day weekend mes amis! I'm heading to my home town of Trail, BC - I'll be sure to take some pics and introduce it to you next week.

Flying Solo - Week Three

Whew! Another week bites the dust & happily this one ends on a high note!

It was a bit of a dodgy beginning as the week began with super high humidity here in Vancity - meaning that my night owl tendencies took over. Holla to you my fellow night owls - hoot hoot! (Yes I did just make that joke.) I was up half the night, and half dead during the day. Boo! BUT my late nights, major procrastinations (online tv - why do you tempt me so!) and some general loneliness from hanging solo most of the time were far outweighed by some AWESOME highs.

A friend shared the BEST NEWS EVAH!!! (It is not my place to tell...but a wee hint is that the friend in question is Sonia our 3rd amis, and it has rightfully delayed her intro post, but man are you gonna love her post when you read it!)

Personally I had a wicked session at the Ocean/IPP studio this week, recording for a legendary Anime cartoon. My character must have gone through every conceivable situation - I had to sing (!!), play myself as a child, kill a demon, get possessed and die...twice. Talk about an emotional workout! I loved it though and send much love to you peeps at Ocean - I heart you!!

Other proud moments: I booked the studio for my upcoming voice class! Dates are gonna be Thursday nights 8pm - 10pm October 7, 14, 21, 28. Then today at 5pm I got called in for two more auditions on Monday. WOO HOO - here's to riding momentum!

So what's the weekend got going on? Well tomorrow is opening day of the PNE a giant fair that takes place during the last 2 weeks of summer. Since they're celebrating 100 years of the fair, the PNE is pulling out some big guns - especially with their concert series. The amis and I are checking out the kick off concert tomorrow with headliners Brian Adams and The Beach Boys! As the Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten would say: "How bad can that be?" I'll have to explain my affinity for the Beach Boys another time. As for tomorrow, me and the peeps will try to snag some wicked photos to share with y'all.

Ok time to cut ya loose- go enjoy your weekend! You earned it!

Mucho love,
Jenny C

Flying Solo - Week Two

Remember learning to walk?

No...me neither

But I think it would be kind of like what learning to work for myself feels like so far. After spending so long working for other people, it's been difficult at times this week to let myself concentrate full force on my dream and go for it.

Despite that, I'm making progress. I've adopted the mantra of reaching out every day and doing something or talking to someone that scares me but will hopefully bring me more success.

So far so good. I had 2 auditions this week, 1 of which I ROCKED! I usually feel pretty good after an audition, but after this one I felt fist-pumping good.

I also went to my first BNI meeting - which is a business networking group with chapters all over. There were about 60 people there, and we each had to give a 30 second pitch about our business. I steeled myself, gave my pitch and didn't instantaneously combust.

(Sidebar: do you ever get that voice in your head when you're scared about something and it thinks of the most far-out worse case scenarios ever? Ha, yeah, me too!) Anyway, it went well and I met some great folks.

Finally, I think I've found the perfect space for my upcoming voice acting workshop. I haven't struck the deal yet, but I checked it out today & it is perfect. Located in lovely downtown Vancouver, it has beautiful natural light, hardwood floors and a gorgeous patio too. I think we might have our Q&A sessions out there at the end of class.

Hey, do you or anyone you know want to learn more about voice acting? If yes, what would you like to learn or hope to get out of a class?

Here's to two weeks of surviving solo.

Happy Friday!

Flying Solo - Week One

Have you ever wanted to work for yourself?

Well I was crazy enough to try it and have just completed week one of Life2.0, life after full-time employment, life working for myself. Yipes! Now the test: can I work hard and build a successful business, or will the temptation of YouTube and other pitfalls lead to my demise?

I could feel both possibilities battling it out this week! There were uh-oh moments, one sleepless night, kindness from strangers and finally my first job apres my day job. I'm exhausted! Did any of you business owners out there feel this way starting out?

Highlights:
-Booking a voice gig
-Auditioning
-Getting wisdom from another business owner (Deborah Wallace from The Finer Details Event Planning...thanks for your time Deb!)

Lowlights:
-Unexpectedly buying a new phone after mine jumped into my friend Chicken's pool (it made a run for it then sunk- a priceless moment).
-Dealing with bureaucratic timelines ("We'll get that paperwork over to you in 2 to 3 weeks" Wait...what?)
-Discovering Word Mole

I think I ended this week on the plus side, but there is still so much to do and learn.

How would you tackle life as an entrepreneur? What should I do first?