VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #525 – Pushing Through It All
Voice Coaches Radio, everything voiceover. Welcome to a new episode of Voice Coaches Radio. Here we are. It is April fool's day. I know I have no pranks to actually pull. Uh, I am quite the ridiculous, sarcastic joker, but you know, I'm not a. A prank puller by any means. Also, who am I going to pull a prank on?
I mean, I'm in a studio by myself. Let's face it. Uh, unless I put a whoopee cushion on my own damn chair, you know, there's no reason for it. Uh, but listen, I hope nobody's gotten you too bad. You know, there hasn't been an instance where you've opened up a door and a bucket of water is falling on you. Has there?
That's, that's very like nineties. Sitcom, uh, kind of style pranks here, but you just never know. You just never know how ridiculous people are going to be. Uh, let's face it. Dad jokes have come back, you know, full strong, like full strength, you know? Uh, so, so you just never know what kind of spit take action from the nineties is going to make its way back.
Nostalgia is a thing. All right. Uh, this is something I wasn't sure if I was going to talk about this on the podcast, but I think it's. It's good to because life happens, you know, and you've got to work through Anything that life throws your way. You work on your schedule a lot of the time, you know, when you are a voice actor, this is in some cases, you know, as you're building up to maybe full time, you're working around, you know, whatever schedule that you might have for your full time opportunity that's in the moment.
So you've got to schedule things around that, that routine that you have. Maybe you do this solely, maybe this is your full time opportunity and, you know, you, you still, you build your schedule. But, you know, with that being said, it's, it's your day. Uh, you know, this is what revolves around your day is, is doing this voice work.
Sometimes things happen that you're not expecting. Sometimes life gets in the way. And I'll admit it's happened for me a lot over the course of the last year and a half or so. Before I started at Voice Coaches, I've talked about this on the podcast, I was doing this kind of holdover job just to kind of get me through and I was doing a store reset project for a big hardware department store and it involved me lifting a lot of steel, uh, throughout the overnights and, you know, just, it was a really great workout, I will admit.
I did really like the job until... It was my final week and some of that steel happened to just fall on my head, uh, you know, and it, it, it was awful. Uh, you know, it was 50 pounds of steel that fell from a bit of a distance and I mean, who knows how much it actually weighed once it did hit me in the noggin, but it did, it, it happened and it was not an open wound by any means.
Um, it was, it was very, very badly bruised my, my head, but you know, when, when it all happened, I think I was just in such a shock and like an adrenaline rush that. I didn't feel anything from it for days and really it was, I think partially also because I was nursing it a bit, you know, I didn't get off that couch.
I don't think for a solid three or four days. And then I got looked at again and you know, because I still wasn't feeling any. major symptoms, they just cleared me and I went back to that same job for my final, you know, couple days that I was supposed to fill out before I started here at voice coaches.
And then that's when I started feeling the dizziness and all the concussion symptoms that you could possibly think of. But for me, It, it made the coming months and, and, you know, year and, and whatever, uh, a bit of a challenge. And you know, what's horrible about it, and this happens for a lot of people with different illnesses that they're dealing with, is that I looked fine, you know, I looked like everything was fine.
Like I was just a normal human being going through life. Nobody really could tell what I was dealing with on the inside unless I said something, right? So, you know, the training process here at Voice Coaches was a little bit hard, uh, for me because my brain was playing tricks on me at first. You know, I was dealing with situations where it's like I was Going through this process and like repeating things back.
But then I'm like saying, no, that's, that's not right. That can't be right. Uh, you know, and, and, you know, the person training me is looking at me like I've got seven heads in reality. I felt like I did, but, uh, you know, it, it made things very difficult just even at first, but what I'll tell you too, is as the year went on.
There was a moment where I started to feel better and it was weird because I'm like, Oh, well, maybe this is just how life is going to be now. I'm gonna, you know, I'm, I'm good. Then I don't even know when it really started to happen, but I started taking that giant step backwards and it's very uncomfortable when that happens.
I mean, it's, it's, it's hard. It's tough because, you know, you just want to be better. Uh, you do, you just want to feel better. And I wasn't. Allowed that luxury for much of my my time. So one thing that did pop up that I will mention was. You know, I finished out physical therapy at the end of March of 2021, one month later, almost to the day, I had this weird kind of like what I called a blind spot that popped up in my left eye.
And that's scary because it's like, hi, I got hit in the head. Am I having a stroke? What's going on? And I was in the middle. of, of teaching one of our voice coaches classes and I mean, I couldn't just stop, you know, I, I was like, all right, you know, if I'm having a serious medical emergency, I'm pretty sure I'll find out here in the next 35 seconds or so.
Uh, but you know, I went and I finished out that class and I immediately called the doctor and you know, the frustrating part about that is the doctor never called me back. So that was fun. Uh, but I figured it like, okay, you know what? The spot has gone away in my eye. And I feel better, so next time it pops up, I'll go ahead and I'll get seriously checked, like I'll go somewhere.
It did not pop up again until June, and that is when I went and I started going down this, this path, which I have now been on this weird medical journey ever since, and it turns out, now they're not 100% sure what caused this. Now permanent problem that I have with my eye. It could be from the concussion for sure But it also could stem from a number of other things that I'm not gonna get into because I really just don't want to scare Anybody but basically this is like a permanent issue that I now have to keep Pun intended here an eye on get it.
Uh, dad jokes are back I'm just saying but as the months went on, you know here I was trying to do my day to day Which is coaching for voice coaches, which is doing the podcast for voice coaches, which is Doing four different radio stations of work, which is also commercial work on top of that I've I've been doing audiobooks in the interim and imagine doing all of that While not really fully being able to see out of one of your eyes I'm gonna tell you it feels weird It really really does.
It's scary And I just uh, i'm always i've always been the person though that I just push through Because what i've learned is that if you can't control it, you can't really let it control you. And you know, this is obviously a different little animal here. This isn't like, you know, just relationship stress or something.
It's my vision, you know? So it's hard for it not to kind of take over, but I just kept pushing through and Nobody really knew the challenges that I've been going through and dealing with, uh, unless I, I kind of like, you know, just briefly mentioned it in passing. And even then, I wasn't going into full detail, right?
So, nobody could really, really understand that, yeah, I'm over here, like, losing my vision. Like, it's not even a joke. Like, that's just a reality. Uh, and it's sad, and it sucks, and it's scary. Uh, but... I'm also doing something for work that I absolutely love. So on the flip side of it, it's like I'm living my dream, but I'm also slowly having things potentially taken from me without any control on my own.
So now you fast forward to something that happens this week. Um, while I'm recording this, it happened this week and. I had a very scary moment this, uh, last Tuesday where I, I was in the eye doctor. I was dealing with just a follow up appointment, you know, they take these pictures that cost hundreds of dollars each and every time.
My voice work, by the way, has been paying all these medical bills, which is freaking fantastic. Uh, but, you know, they, they take these pictures and they're, you know, doing, they're, they're having me read the, the eye chart. My right eye is 100% fine. Left eye also, by the way, 100% fine when that spot is not there.
But the spot was there that day. And this is the day that I think it made a lot of people realize everything that I've been going through because. I had, this is the first time I've ever had a call out of work, uh, in, in years, um, because all of a sudden, like I went to read the eye chart and I couldn't, and I just kind of lost it.
I'll admit there in the, uh, in the little doctor room, uh, and you know, when the doctor did come in to, to sit down and look at those pictures and talk to me, like he showed me, I could see it in the, in the. Chart and the photos is that I had this major swelling happening behind my eye, which is I mean again This is something that's very frightening So I go ahead and and I'm sitting there and I'm talking to him and he's like so this is what I've been waiting to See what would happen This is why I've been having you have like having you come in for these follow up appointments every couple weeks every couple months to see when and if this swelling would happen and it's happened and I feel like we Need to treat this right now So I don't want to go into like graphic detail here, but I'm just going to say that something had to happen in that room only like five minutes after he said this to me and Anita was involved.
So here I am. I just want, I want you to imagine this real quick. Okay. I'm. Not even aware that this is going to happen when I go to this appointment and I am fully ready to work the rest of the afternoon. Like I'm supposed to work till nine o'clock that night. And then all of a sudden I find out there's a needle that's about to be heading into my eye.
And I am all of a sudden panic mode. So I have to call voice coaches. And I'm sure I sounded like, like, like I looked, I probably sounded like I saw a ghost. Uh, but you know, it was one of those situations where You have to do what you have to do. It doesn't matter if there's work that needs to be done that day.
Sometimes life is going to get in the way and you need to take care of what you've got to do, like what you've got to take care of. And in this case, it was my health. Um, you know, and it's going to happen for you too at some point, but you just got to keep trucking forward and you've got to keep going and.
I will say that day off was much necessary, much needed, because of the soreness that I had afterwards. And I was sore the next day, but again, I pushed through. You know, girls gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and sometimes it's tough. Um, but, that's when you put on that smile. And you just keep going. Um, you know, and I got all my work done, you know, and I, I'm just gonna keep knocking out of the park cause until I can't, I'm going to just keep enjoying every single second.
Um, you know, and I gotta tell you, my eye doctor is fire. That's what I like to call him. He is fantastic. And if you are in the Albany area and you need an eye specialist, please send an email to info at voice coaches. com. Cause I would love, love, love to pass his information around. Um, but you know, he's going to keep taking care of me in the best of ways.
And you know, I could not feel like I am in better hands. I don't think I'm going to lose my vision anytime soon, but I will say that when it comes to like, you know, Halloween, don't think I'm not going to be left eye from TLC. You know, that is definitely going to be happening. Uh, but I just wanted to give you guys a little insight.
Again, no pun intended there of what I've been dealing with, um, and, and how, how it can affect the, the course of being a voice actor, you know, the, these are things that happen. These are, these are just real life events and you just have to keep pushing forward. And, you know, if the work has to get held off for a day, a week, a month, you know.
if people really care about you and care about the job that you do and think that you're as amazing as, as they believe, and they can hold off and push back any of that time that, you know, that due date, they will, they'll work with you. Um, you know, and I've been very, to, to have some very respectable people in my corner.
So I'm glad that, that I do. And I hope that you sure will, if not now that you do down the line. Uh, but you know, just again, wanted to let you guys in on, on my world and how crazy things have been, because, you know, this pandemic has been enough. Uh, but you know, the rest of this added on top of it. Better where world will be living in for me.
Um, so, so that's that, but listen, if you've got anything that you want us to discuss on the voice coaches, radio podcast, please, please feel free to reach on out info at voice coaches. com. We have another episode coming your way next week. Keep being safe. I'll talk to you soon. Visit voice coaches. com for more voiceover news.
I mean, I'm in a studio by myself. Let's face it. Uh, unless I put a whoopee cushion on my own damn chair, you know, there's no reason for it. Uh, but listen, I hope nobody's gotten you too bad. You know, there hasn't been an instance where you've opened up a door and a bucket of water is falling on you. Has there?
That's, that's very like nineties. Sitcom, uh, kind of style pranks here, but you just never know. You just never know how ridiculous people are going to be. Uh, let's face it. Dad jokes have come back, you know, full strong, like full strength, you know? Uh, so, so you just never know what kind of spit take action from the nineties is going to make its way back.
Nostalgia is a thing. All right. Uh, this is something I wasn't sure if I was going to talk about this on the podcast, but I think it's. It's good to because life happens, you know, and you've got to work through Anything that life throws your way. You work on your schedule a lot of the time, you know, when you are a voice actor, this is in some cases, you know, as you're building up to maybe full time, you're working around, you know, whatever schedule that you might have for your full time opportunity that's in the moment.
So you've got to schedule things around that, that routine that you have. Maybe you do this solely, maybe this is your full time opportunity and, you know, you, you still, you build your schedule. But, you know, with that being said, it's, it's your day. Uh, you know, this is what revolves around your day is, is doing this voice work.
Sometimes things happen that you're not expecting. Sometimes life gets in the way. And I'll admit it's happened for me a lot over the course of the last year and a half or so. Before I started at Voice Coaches, I've talked about this on the podcast, I was doing this kind of holdover job just to kind of get me through and I was doing a store reset project for a big hardware department store and it involved me lifting a lot of steel, uh, throughout the overnights and, you know, just, it was a really great workout, I will admit.
I did really like the job until... It was my final week and some of that steel happened to just fall on my head, uh, you know, and it, it, it was awful. Uh, you know, it was 50 pounds of steel that fell from a bit of a distance and I mean, who knows how much it actually weighed once it did hit me in the noggin, but it did, it, it happened and it was not an open wound by any means.
Um, it was, it was very, very badly bruised my, my head, but you know, when, when it all happened, I think I was just in such a shock and like an adrenaline rush that. I didn't feel anything from it for days and really it was, I think partially also because I was nursing it a bit, you know, I didn't get off that couch.
I don't think for a solid three or four days. And then I got looked at again and you know, because I still wasn't feeling any. major symptoms, they just cleared me and I went back to that same job for my final, you know, couple days that I was supposed to fill out before I started here at voice coaches.
And then that's when I started feeling the dizziness and all the concussion symptoms that you could possibly think of. But for me, It, it made the coming months and, and, you know, year and, and whatever, uh, a bit of a challenge. And you know, what's horrible about it, and this happens for a lot of people with different illnesses that they're dealing with, is that I looked fine, you know, I looked like everything was fine.
Like I was just a normal human being going through life. Nobody really could tell what I was dealing with on the inside unless I said something, right? So, you know, the training process here at Voice Coaches was a little bit hard, uh, for me because my brain was playing tricks on me at first. You know, I was dealing with situations where it's like I was Going through this process and like repeating things back.
But then I'm like saying, no, that's, that's not right. That can't be right. Uh, you know, and, and, you know, the person training me is looking at me like I've got seven heads in reality. I felt like I did, but, uh, you know, it, it made things very difficult just even at first, but what I'll tell you too, is as the year went on.
There was a moment where I started to feel better and it was weird because I'm like, Oh, well, maybe this is just how life is going to be now. I'm gonna, you know, I'm, I'm good. Then I don't even know when it really started to happen, but I started taking that giant step backwards and it's very uncomfortable when that happens.
I mean, it's, it's, it's hard. It's tough because, you know, you just want to be better. Uh, you do, you just want to feel better. And I wasn't. Allowed that luxury for much of my my time. So one thing that did pop up that I will mention was. You know, I finished out physical therapy at the end of March of 2021, one month later, almost to the day, I had this weird kind of like what I called a blind spot that popped up in my left eye.
And that's scary because it's like, hi, I got hit in the head. Am I having a stroke? What's going on? And I was in the middle. of, of teaching one of our voice coaches classes and I mean, I couldn't just stop, you know, I, I was like, all right, you know, if I'm having a serious medical emergency, I'm pretty sure I'll find out here in the next 35 seconds or so.
Uh, but you know, I went and I finished out that class and I immediately called the doctor and you know, the frustrating part about that is the doctor never called me back. So that was fun. Uh, but I figured it like, okay, you know what? The spot has gone away in my eye. And I feel better, so next time it pops up, I'll go ahead and I'll get seriously checked, like I'll go somewhere.
It did not pop up again until June, and that is when I went and I started going down this, this path, which I have now been on this weird medical journey ever since, and it turns out, now they're not 100% sure what caused this. Now permanent problem that I have with my eye. It could be from the concussion for sure But it also could stem from a number of other things that I'm not gonna get into because I really just don't want to scare Anybody but basically this is like a permanent issue that I now have to keep Pun intended here an eye on get it.
Uh, dad jokes are back I'm just saying but as the months went on, you know here I was trying to do my day to day Which is coaching for voice coaches, which is doing the podcast for voice coaches, which is Doing four different radio stations of work, which is also commercial work on top of that I've I've been doing audiobooks in the interim and imagine doing all of that While not really fully being able to see out of one of your eyes I'm gonna tell you it feels weird It really really does.
It's scary And I just uh, i'm always i've always been the person though that I just push through Because what i've learned is that if you can't control it, you can't really let it control you. And you know, this is obviously a different little animal here. This isn't like, you know, just relationship stress or something.
It's my vision, you know? So it's hard for it not to kind of take over, but I just kept pushing through and Nobody really knew the challenges that I've been going through and dealing with, uh, unless I, I kind of like, you know, just briefly mentioned it in passing. And even then, I wasn't going into full detail, right?
So, nobody could really, really understand that, yeah, I'm over here, like, losing my vision. Like, it's not even a joke. Like, that's just a reality. Uh, and it's sad, and it sucks, and it's scary. Uh, but... I'm also doing something for work that I absolutely love. So on the flip side of it, it's like I'm living my dream, but I'm also slowly having things potentially taken from me without any control on my own.
So now you fast forward to something that happens this week. Um, while I'm recording this, it happened this week and. I had a very scary moment this, uh, last Tuesday where I, I was in the eye doctor. I was dealing with just a follow up appointment, you know, they take these pictures that cost hundreds of dollars each and every time.
My voice work, by the way, has been paying all these medical bills, which is freaking fantastic. Uh, but, you know, they, they take these pictures and they're, you know, doing, they're, they're having me read the, the eye chart. My right eye is 100% fine. Left eye also, by the way, 100% fine when that spot is not there.
But the spot was there that day. And this is the day that I think it made a lot of people realize everything that I've been going through because. I had, this is the first time I've ever had a call out of work, uh, in, in years, um, because all of a sudden, like I went to read the eye chart and I couldn't, and I just kind of lost it.
I'll admit there in the, uh, in the little doctor room, uh, and you know, when the doctor did come in to, to sit down and look at those pictures and talk to me, like he showed me, I could see it in the, in the. Chart and the photos is that I had this major swelling happening behind my eye, which is I mean again This is something that's very frightening So I go ahead and and I'm sitting there and I'm talking to him and he's like so this is what I've been waiting to See what would happen This is why I've been having you have like having you come in for these follow up appointments every couple weeks every couple months to see when and if this swelling would happen and it's happened and I feel like we Need to treat this right now So I don't want to go into like graphic detail here, but I'm just going to say that something had to happen in that room only like five minutes after he said this to me and Anita was involved.
So here I am. I just want, I want you to imagine this real quick. Okay. I'm. Not even aware that this is going to happen when I go to this appointment and I am fully ready to work the rest of the afternoon. Like I'm supposed to work till nine o'clock that night. And then all of a sudden I find out there's a needle that's about to be heading into my eye.
And I am all of a sudden panic mode. So I have to call voice coaches. And I'm sure I sounded like, like, like I looked, I probably sounded like I saw a ghost. Uh, but you know, it was one of those situations where You have to do what you have to do. It doesn't matter if there's work that needs to be done that day.
Sometimes life is going to get in the way and you need to take care of what you've got to do, like what you've got to take care of. And in this case, it was my health. Um, you know, and it's going to happen for you too at some point, but you just got to keep trucking forward and you've got to keep going and.
I will say that day off was much necessary, much needed, because of the soreness that I had afterwards. And I was sore the next day, but again, I pushed through. You know, girls gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and sometimes it's tough. Um, but, that's when you put on that smile. And you just keep going. Um, you know, and I got all my work done, you know, and I, I'm just gonna keep knocking out of the park cause until I can't, I'm going to just keep enjoying every single second.
Um, you know, and I gotta tell you, my eye doctor is fire. That's what I like to call him. He is fantastic. And if you are in the Albany area and you need an eye specialist, please send an email to info at voice coaches. com. Cause I would love, love, love to pass his information around. Um, but you know, he's going to keep taking care of me in the best of ways.
And you know, I could not feel like I am in better hands. I don't think I'm going to lose my vision anytime soon, but I will say that when it comes to like, you know, Halloween, don't think I'm not going to be left eye from TLC. You know, that is definitely going to be happening. Uh, but I just wanted to give you guys a little insight.
Again, no pun intended there of what I've been dealing with, um, and, and how, how it can affect the, the course of being a voice actor, you know, the, these are things that happen. These are, these are just real life events and you just have to keep pushing forward. And, you know, if the work has to get held off for a day, a week, a month, you know.
if people really care about you and care about the job that you do and think that you're as amazing as, as they believe, and they can hold off and push back any of that time that, you know, that due date, they will, they'll work with you. Um, you know, and I've been very, to, to have some very respectable people in my corner.
So I'm glad that, that I do. And I hope that you sure will, if not now that you do down the line. Uh, but you know, just again, wanted to let you guys in on, on my world and how crazy things have been, because, you know, this pandemic has been enough. Uh, but you know, the rest of this added on top of it. Better where world will be living in for me.
Um, so, so that's that, but listen, if you've got anything that you want us to discuss on the voice coaches, radio podcast, please, please feel free to reach on out info at voice coaches. com. We have another episode coming your way next week. Keep being safe. I'll talk to you soon. Visit voice coaches. com for more voiceover news.
This week on Voice Coaches Radio, Marissa dives into her personal health journey and how it’s affected her work as a voice actor and how she’s handled it.
