VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #608 – Some Good News
Voice Coaches Radio. Everything voiceover. Hey there, welcome to a brand new episode of Voice Coaches Radio. My name is Marissa. As we enter the wild world of November, we're in fourth quarter. And, uh, for a lot of people that means some crunch time in your, your main profession. It means some crunch time in the, uh, you know, uh, voiceover.
Facet of life. It is some crunch time and if you're like me and some of my side hustles, so Hopefully you're not stressing yourself out too bad and you can enjoy yourself I know the holiday time especially can be just a whirlwind but you know I wanted to kind of update on a couple different things. Um You know, one big challenge for a lot of people is like a work life balance.
And again, that goes for just anything and especially this time of the year. But when you are doing so much voice work, it can be a challenge to be able to have that good balance. For myself, you know, in the last couple years, I had to force the balance as much as possible and, you know, it was very challenging when I was adding work to a full time work schedule and just trying to, you know, build that up to get to a certain point where I could start to, to branch off a bit.
But, uh, what I'm getting at is, is something that I have talked about on the pod before a couple times. And, and, I will state this right off the bat, if you don't know the story, like, I'll give you, like, the, the general synopsis and start by, by saying that I am not an anti vaxxer by any means, because I have found them very beneficial in the past, uh, it is something that has saved my life as an asthmatic, uh, time and time again, uh, but, The COVID vax is something that we were all kind of guinea pigs to and a lot of people didn't want to get it.
A lot of us were forced to get it. Um, I felt obligated to because of my asthma. So I went and I did my civic duty. Only to, uh, the short of the long here is that it caused a permanent issue for me. I have a vaccination injury. That's what it was diagnosed with. Uh, back in April of 2022. It took a whole year.
Of just medical, uh, trial and error, if you will, a lot of different tests that I had to go through to, to figure it out, but I have this eye issue and what it comes down to is that I got a vein in the back of my eye that it's, it's clogged and that happens, you know, COVID has a clotting component to it and you know, some people have had varying clotting issues that they have been dealing with since having COVID or the vaccination, et cetera.
So. Yeah. For me, I noticed it back in April of 21. And then it took a whole year of research trying to figure out, well, what, what could be causing this problem? We want to rule out everything. Um, and, you know, in, in April of 22, I was, I was diagnosed with, uh, retinal vein occlusion and caused by... Um, the, the vaccination because of, you know, the trajectory of swelling and bleeding behind my eye as I was getting updated vaccinations.
But that being said, uh, I, since then, so April 22 through, uh, October of 23 have had to periodically Get a shot of medicine, an injection directly into my eye. And, uh, I don't want you to think too hard on that because that's going to make anybody cringe. I'm well aware. Uh, makes me cringe as well. I've just had to, you know, put on a brave face and go forth.
Uh, because, you know, what it comes down to is, like, my vision. Was severely impaired and like I noticed I could tell it was causing daily issues. It was Really really tough because I mean think about it as somebody that's doing voiceover. It's not affecting my voice But it is kind of because it's affecting my vision which then is like how am I reading my scripts?
How am I reading? You know any kind of prep that I might have for the radio world. How am I going about? Formulating emails and and so on and so forth. So It was something that was causing such a stress for me for a long stretch of time and You know, for a while there, I wasn't even being treated because we didn't know what exactly was going on.
So, you know, the vision was diminishing. And so, from that April point in 2022 through October of this year, those, those eye shots were very important because it was saving my vision, little by little. And it felt like it was gonna just never come to an end. And it, it never will, truly. Like, this is something that I always...
always will have to, pun intended here, keep an eye on, um, but it, like the news that I caught this October, I wasn't expecting. It was kind of like when I had the first shot pop up in the first place. I'm like, oh, I'm going in, they're going to look at me and they're going to send me on my merry way, whatever.
I'm going to just, you know, going blind. And then all of a sudden they're like, yeah, we're going to, you know, do an injection. I was like, oh, yipe. Um, and then, uh, you know, it's been again, periodically. So it started out as like, Every month, then it was every couple months, then it was every, you know, ten, ten weeks, and then it went up to twelve weeks.
So I was expecting this to be like, alright, we're gonna push you out another week or two. No, we are pushing it out, get this, eight weeks, unless I have an issue. This is the first time since, like, think about that, since like the beginning of 2022, where I can actually just kinda go, whoa, alright, like, Things are kind of in check, you know, like, uh, this is a medical issue that I, I really did not see, uh, an ending point with.
And, again, this is still not necessarily an ending point, but, uh, like, what my doctor basically was saying was, Yeah, no, everything looks normal. Normal? Like, What? I mean, it's just, um, you live with something for so long that it just, that becomes, you know, what they were saying throughout the entire pandemic of like a new normal.
Um, you know, and, and listen, I, like I even took a picture while I was in the office that day because I planned on doing a social media post and I, I like to do that every so often where it's like, you need to listen to your body. You know, you need to be heightenedly aware of what your body is saying and not to ignore things because you know, if I did, I would be blind right now in my left eye for sure.
100 percent like there's no question in my mind. Um, you know, so I'm glad that I, I was very aware and in tune of what my body was telling me and when it started to pop up, but. I look at that picture, and whether it's just the way I tend to take pictures, you know, or maybe this is because of the eye issue, but I, I almost feel like my left eye looks a little messed up, and, you know, it, again, heightened awareness, maybe, nobody else is gonna notice it, but I'm over here like, do I have like a lazy eye now?
Is that like a thing? It's not, but it, kind of felt it in the picture and I'm like now self conscious. So don't take any pictures of me. No paparazzi. Um, but I don't even care. Honestly, I'm just like thrilled that I didn't have to have a needle in my eye the other day. You know what I mean? Um, it's, whoo, like people will say to me that they are frightened of just getting a regular shot.
I'm like, imagine when you can't look away. Like it's just, that's been my life for almost two years. So, um, I wanted to share that because, you know, you look at. Everything that somebody does, day in and day out. And I am like a constantly busy human. That's just how my ADHD brain works. Like, I, I flourish when I feel accomplished.
And I always have a ton on my plate. But there were days, especially in the beginning of this process, that I just struggled, because I was, I think, slightly depressed about it. Um, you know, so that then affected me feeling... You know, tired, like I struggle with energy level. Um, you know, my brain was in a lot of different places.
I've been like bleeding money. Like, I'm not gonna tell you how much I've spent. But this has not been an easy process. Uh, you know, when it comes to financials and medical bills. Like, they actually pulled me aside when I was there last time. Because they're like, hey, um, I don't know if you're aware, but these bills haven't been paid and it's been such and such amount of days.
And I'm like, well, I know, uh, you know. The other thing too is if you ever have this issue where it's a vaccination injury like there is a compensation board that deals with these things and I filed that paperwork two years ago almost and I have not heard a single thing so I went and I sent another email about it you know the other day hoping that I'll hear something because like in reality I should be getting compensated in some kind of way to the uh, The stuff that, like, my insurance company isn't paying.
Cause that's the thing. Like, I have health insurance. I can't even imagine if I was in a much different financial situation where I didn't have health insurance or I didn't have the, the little pocket of money that I have coming in, um, to feel sort of comfortable. But it is what it is. You know, at this point, it's like, saving my vision is the most important thing.
But, um, so, you know, you look at, All of that and the work life balance can be such, such a challenge for so many, um, that, you know, it's depending on what you're facing in life, you know, opposed to work and, and so on and so forth. You just kind of have to figure out, you know, what I can get done and when, uh, but I, I always feel like, you know, if you're not dealing with something like I have been, but you just have an incredibly busy lifestyle and you do want to be tackling this kind of work.
You really just need to, like, set a routine for yourself and stick to it, you know, that, that is key. Like, if you plan something out, you have to then have that motivation and that, that self discipline to, to stick to it so you can make that. All happen, you know, you, you got to kind of make it happen for yourself in all of this, you know, whether it's skill or Person ability to, you know, reach out to different people or whatever, but you know, it does it does take an interesting work life teeter totter sort of scenario So do that for yourself, you know, if I hadn't gone and you know taking care of myself when I needed to And then taking care of the work when that needed it.
You know, life could be a much different, different scenario for me, I think right now. Um, I also wanted to give you a little update because I got an email, um, that was forwarded to me. This is actually from the beginning of October. So I apologize to Charlie for taking a second to give his good news here on the pod.
But if you remember Charlie, aka C. L. Burns, uh, we had him on the pod a few months ago, um, and, you know, he was kind of, uh, painting the picture of his story, and how he went through the program, and, you know, the opportunities that he had in front of him, and I know, like, at one point, he had said something like, said for my first audio book.
It happened to him too. It's like you do all this work and then turns out the person that you did it for didn't actually have the rights to the publication and it was taken down. Uh, it's so frustrating, but at the same point, it's like, all right, well, I got an audio book still under my belt and I still have the audio on my end to showcase to somebody as like a piece of demo, um, you know, opportunity there.
Uh, but he sent an email saying, good afternoon. I want to update you and well to my own horn as well. Uh, I have completed. audiobooks and I'm working on two more. The two I am working on currently are pieces of fiction. These will be the first fiction books that I have done. Recently, I have been busy enough with the audiobooks that I have not been reaching out to many businesses to get the word out on other aspects of voiceover work.
And, um, so I think, you know, the, the thing is, it's like, you know, finally we got some stuff coming in and some different type of work for him. So I, you know, just want to applaud you from here and, uh, he had a blast apparently on the podcast as well. So, uh, hopefully I can get him back on so we can see exactly what he's been working on and get those titles too.
So maybe you can check out the work that he has been doing, but if you've got anything you want us to discuss on the pod, just hit us up info at voice coaches. com. If you're So if you're a student, portal, by the way, if you go to the podcast page, there's a little button you can click to answer in a question or a topic as well.
I would love to hear your two cents, um, and what's been like bouncing around your brain. So make sure that you send in those questions and a brand new episode is coming your way next week. Stay safe, everybody. Visit voicecoaches.
com for more voiceover news and information.
Facet of life. It is some crunch time and if you're like me and some of my side hustles, so Hopefully you're not stressing yourself out too bad and you can enjoy yourself I know the holiday time especially can be just a whirlwind but you know I wanted to kind of update on a couple different things. Um You know, one big challenge for a lot of people is like a work life balance.
And again, that goes for just anything and especially this time of the year. But when you are doing so much voice work, it can be a challenge to be able to have that good balance. For myself, you know, in the last couple years, I had to force the balance as much as possible and, you know, it was very challenging when I was adding work to a full time work schedule and just trying to, you know, build that up to get to a certain point where I could start to, to branch off a bit.
But, uh, what I'm getting at is, is something that I have talked about on the pod before a couple times. And, and, I will state this right off the bat, if you don't know the story, like, I'll give you, like, the, the general synopsis and start by, by saying that I am not an anti vaxxer by any means, because I have found them very beneficial in the past, uh, it is something that has saved my life as an asthmatic, uh, time and time again, uh, but, The COVID vax is something that we were all kind of guinea pigs to and a lot of people didn't want to get it.
A lot of us were forced to get it. Um, I felt obligated to because of my asthma. So I went and I did my civic duty. Only to, uh, the short of the long here is that it caused a permanent issue for me. I have a vaccination injury. That's what it was diagnosed with. Uh, back in April of 2022. It took a whole year.
Of just medical, uh, trial and error, if you will, a lot of different tests that I had to go through to, to figure it out, but I have this eye issue and what it comes down to is that I got a vein in the back of my eye that it's, it's clogged and that happens, you know, COVID has a clotting component to it and you know, some people have had varying clotting issues that they have been dealing with since having COVID or the vaccination, et cetera.
So. Yeah. For me, I noticed it back in April of 21. And then it took a whole year of research trying to figure out, well, what, what could be causing this problem? We want to rule out everything. Um, and, you know, in, in April of 22, I was, I was diagnosed with, uh, retinal vein occlusion and caused by... Um, the, the vaccination because of, you know, the trajectory of swelling and bleeding behind my eye as I was getting updated vaccinations.
But that being said, uh, I, since then, so April 22 through, uh, October of 23 have had to periodically Get a shot of medicine, an injection directly into my eye. And, uh, I don't want you to think too hard on that because that's going to make anybody cringe. I'm well aware. Uh, makes me cringe as well. I've just had to, you know, put on a brave face and go forth.
Uh, because, you know, what it comes down to is, like, my vision. Was severely impaired and like I noticed I could tell it was causing daily issues. It was Really really tough because I mean think about it as somebody that's doing voiceover. It's not affecting my voice But it is kind of because it's affecting my vision which then is like how am I reading my scripts?
How am I reading? You know any kind of prep that I might have for the radio world. How am I going about? Formulating emails and and so on and so forth. So It was something that was causing such a stress for me for a long stretch of time and You know, for a while there, I wasn't even being treated because we didn't know what exactly was going on.
So, you know, the vision was diminishing. And so, from that April point in 2022 through October of this year, those, those eye shots were very important because it was saving my vision, little by little. And it felt like it was gonna just never come to an end. And it, it never will, truly. Like, this is something that I always...
always will have to, pun intended here, keep an eye on, um, but it, like the news that I caught this October, I wasn't expecting. It was kind of like when I had the first shot pop up in the first place. I'm like, oh, I'm going in, they're going to look at me and they're going to send me on my merry way, whatever.
I'm going to just, you know, going blind. And then all of a sudden they're like, yeah, we're going to, you know, do an injection. I was like, oh, yipe. Um, and then, uh, you know, it's been again, periodically. So it started out as like, Every month, then it was every couple months, then it was every, you know, ten, ten weeks, and then it went up to twelve weeks.
So I was expecting this to be like, alright, we're gonna push you out another week or two. No, we are pushing it out, get this, eight weeks, unless I have an issue. This is the first time since, like, think about that, since like the beginning of 2022, where I can actually just kinda go, whoa, alright, like, Things are kind of in check, you know, like, uh, this is a medical issue that I, I really did not see, uh, an ending point with.
And, again, this is still not necessarily an ending point, but, uh, like, what my doctor basically was saying was, Yeah, no, everything looks normal. Normal? Like, What? I mean, it's just, um, you live with something for so long that it just, that becomes, you know, what they were saying throughout the entire pandemic of like a new normal.
Um, you know, and, and listen, I, like I even took a picture while I was in the office that day because I planned on doing a social media post and I, I like to do that every so often where it's like, you need to listen to your body. You know, you need to be heightenedly aware of what your body is saying and not to ignore things because you know, if I did, I would be blind right now in my left eye for sure.
100 percent like there's no question in my mind. Um, you know, so I'm glad that I, I was very aware and in tune of what my body was telling me and when it started to pop up, but. I look at that picture, and whether it's just the way I tend to take pictures, you know, or maybe this is because of the eye issue, but I, I almost feel like my left eye looks a little messed up, and, you know, it, again, heightened awareness, maybe, nobody else is gonna notice it, but I'm over here like, do I have like a lazy eye now?
Is that like a thing? It's not, but it, kind of felt it in the picture and I'm like now self conscious. So don't take any pictures of me. No paparazzi. Um, but I don't even care. Honestly, I'm just like thrilled that I didn't have to have a needle in my eye the other day. You know what I mean? Um, it's, whoo, like people will say to me that they are frightened of just getting a regular shot.
I'm like, imagine when you can't look away. Like it's just, that's been my life for almost two years. So, um, I wanted to share that because, you know, you look at. Everything that somebody does, day in and day out. And I am like a constantly busy human. That's just how my ADHD brain works. Like, I, I flourish when I feel accomplished.
And I always have a ton on my plate. But there were days, especially in the beginning of this process, that I just struggled, because I was, I think, slightly depressed about it. Um, you know, so that then affected me feeling... You know, tired, like I struggle with energy level. Um, you know, my brain was in a lot of different places.
I've been like bleeding money. Like, I'm not gonna tell you how much I've spent. But this has not been an easy process. Uh, you know, when it comes to financials and medical bills. Like, they actually pulled me aside when I was there last time. Because they're like, hey, um, I don't know if you're aware, but these bills haven't been paid and it's been such and such amount of days.
And I'm like, well, I know, uh, you know. The other thing too is if you ever have this issue where it's a vaccination injury like there is a compensation board that deals with these things and I filed that paperwork two years ago almost and I have not heard a single thing so I went and I sent another email about it you know the other day hoping that I'll hear something because like in reality I should be getting compensated in some kind of way to the uh, The stuff that, like, my insurance company isn't paying.
Cause that's the thing. Like, I have health insurance. I can't even imagine if I was in a much different financial situation where I didn't have health insurance or I didn't have the, the little pocket of money that I have coming in, um, to feel sort of comfortable. But it is what it is. You know, at this point, it's like, saving my vision is the most important thing.
But, um, so, you know, you look at, All of that and the work life balance can be such, such a challenge for so many, um, that, you know, it's depending on what you're facing in life, you know, opposed to work and, and so on and so forth. You just kind of have to figure out, you know, what I can get done and when, uh, but I, I always feel like, you know, if you're not dealing with something like I have been, but you just have an incredibly busy lifestyle and you do want to be tackling this kind of work.
You really just need to, like, set a routine for yourself and stick to it, you know, that, that is key. Like, if you plan something out, you have to then have that motivation and that, that self discipline to, to stick to it so you can make that. All happen, you know, you, you got to kind of make it happen for yourself in all of this, you know, whether it's skill or Person ability to, you know, reach out to different people or whatever, but you know, it does it does take an interesting work life teeter totter sort of scenario So do that for yourself, you know, if I hadn't gone and you know taking care of myself when I needed to And then taking care of the work when that needed it.
You know, life could be a much different, different scenario for me, I think right now. Um, I also wanted to give you a little update because I got an email, um, that was forwarded to me. This is actually from the beginning of October. So I apologize to Charlie for taking a second to give his good news here on the pod.
But if you remember Charlie, aka C. L. Burns, uh, we had him on the pod a few months ago, um, and, you know, he was kind of, uh, painting the picture of his story, and how he went through the program, and, you know, the opportunities that he had in front of him, and I know, like, at one point, he had said something like, said for my first audio book.
It happened to him too. It's like you do all this work and then turns out the person that you did it for didn't actually have the rights to the publication and it was taken down. Uh, it's so frustrating, but at the same point, it's like, all right, well, I got an audio book still under my belt and I still have the audio on my end to showcase to somebody as like a piece of demo, um, you know, opportunity there.
Uh, but he sent an email saying, good afternoon. I want to update you and well to my own horn as well. Uh, I have completed. audiobooks and I'm working on two more. The two I am working on currently are pieces of fiction. These will be the first fiction books that I have done. Recently, I have been busy enough with the audiobooks that I have not been reaching out to many businesses to get the word out on other aspects of voiceover work.
And, um, so I think, you know, the, the thing is, it's like, you know, finally we got some stuff coming in and some different type of work for him. So I, you know, just want to applaud you from here and, uh, he had a blast apparently on the podcast as well. So, uh, hopefully I can get him back on so we can see exactly what he's been working on and get those titles too.
So maybe you can check out the work that he has been doing, but if you've got anything you want us to discuss on the pod, just hit us up info at voice coaches. com. If you're So if you're a student, portal, by the way, if you go to the podcast page, there's a little button you can click to answer in a question or a topic as well.
I would love to hear your two cents, um, and what's been like bouncing around your brain. So make sure that you send in those questions and a brand new episode is coming your way next week. Stay safe, everybody. Visit voicecoaches.
com for more voiceover news and information.
This week on Voice Coaches Radio, Marissa gives an update on something that has been a pain in the neck (eye) for the last couple of years within her life, which, in turn, caused a struggle at times in career moments.
