Listen to How To Get Back Joy: Overcome Rejection & Set Better Goals here:
Get back the richness of your artist life: stop faking it and truly thrive. In this discussion, my guest Heidi Rew and I reveal aspects of living as career artists and performers, a perspective we both understand. A distinct, uncommon beauty happens when Heidi Rew enters the discussion. She shares what she’s learned from her experience that can assist your artist journey. Build an artist life you don’t need to suffer in. How to get back joy: overcome rejection & set better goals. Heidi and I talk about building a performing career, running an arts business, and letting go of busyness that doesn’t serve you. We unfold a genuine and vulnerable dialogue I knew I must carry you into.
Heidi Rew has become an authority in the field of voiceover work and also runs a very successful business. Like many performers, her artistic life journey has had moments of uncertainty, trying different pathways to her dream and finding her dream unfold in a way she didn’t expect initially.
Where Did It Begin For Heidi?
Beginning with a radio career, Heidi Rew became a full-time voiceover talent and on-camera actor for over a decade. She’s currently voicing Redfin, Secret Resorts, Autonation, and American Family Insurance campaigns. Along with her husband (fellow voice talent) Mike Stoudt, she owns Atlanta Voiceover Studio. AVS is a training and recording studio.
Heidi knows what having big dreams as a performing artist looks like.
“But whatever you’re doing right now, if you feel like your dream has died, that dream can be realized in different ways.”
Heidi Rew
Her words are powerful because many career artists and performers would not only relate to not quite reaching the dream they want the most but also the need to stop limiting themselves with thoughts like ‘this pathway is the only path my joy can come from.’ Your dream can be realized in other ways.
How To Get Back Joy: Overcome Rejection & Set Better Goals
Experiencing rejection is not related to your value as a performer. Let go of trying to get it right, and learn to embrace your weakness.
“One of my greatest regrets is getting into the entertainment industry and thinking I needed to fit ‘this mold.’ Because I missed out on discovering myself in doing so, that’s the devastation of comparing. The devastation of trying to fit into a box is that it prevents you from realizing your unique gifts and attributes.”
Heidi had a moment in her life where she shifted from thinking she was so “vanilla” referring to being another girl in the industry where there are so many of ‘me’ to say to herself, “Wait a minute, what if the things that I thought were a hindrance, were the things that made me unique and not bland and not vanilla.”
At that point, Heidi shared that she started to show up as more of herself and went into her auditions and castings knowing what she uniquely carried. Many of us have something within us that we believe is the main reason we are not reaching our dreams; it’s very limiting and often not the truth.
So many artists go through rejection, and we often perceive rejection as lacking value. Heidi said, “I feel like rejection, its impact on my heart and soul… lasts less time. As you develop the resilience and ways to cope, rejection becomes less, but there are still moments where you think what is going on.” Her words below are a powerful tip for performers to action.
“The best thing that has helped me deal with rejection is to continue to build your data; every single time you have a callback and somebody says something great about you, file that away because that is what your need to access when youre having those moments where your feeling rejected. We must access the file in our mind and heart.”
Heidi Rew
Embrace Your Uniqueness & Get Back Joy!
There will be days when someone says something that hurts us, such as ‘You’re not the right type’ or ‘You don’t have the right look.’ Comments like these should not be related to our value as human beings or as creative people.
We don’t want to start thinking; I’ve got to get myself to look like ‘this’ person, behave like ‘that’ so I can fit in and not be rejected. This is not performing your art form in a state of being fully present due to trying so hard to do what we ‘think’ we are supposed to be doing. It’s best to focus on finding your creative expression and showing up in castings and auditions as your unique self. Heidi put this in perspective when she shared the below…
“Most of us get into this business to be creative, yet when soon as we do, we take out all of our creativity because we try to fit someone else’s idea of what’s supposed to work,”
Heidi Rew
Sometimes, even the strongest and most experienced artists don’t see their blind spots and limited thinking about themselves. Their inner narrative about themselves does not always align with what others see.
Other Tips For How To Get Get Back Joy & Set Better Goals
In the full interview, Heidi shared many other fantastic tips for thriving in our artists’ lives! She talked about setting money goals amongst the unique challenges of the entertainment industry. Heidi says, “I was amazed by what setting money goals did. I broke down my annual gross income goal by asking myself what I needed to book each month, week, and day to achieve this gross income amount. It made me look at my daily to-do list and better plan how I would get to this point.” Heidi worked out she needed to increase her auditions and, therefore, her opportunities; she then scheduled her life to reach this daily intention and surpassed her financial goals. It was incredible for her.
As the industry changes, diversifying your earning opportunities is the best way to ensure things are coming in steadily. ” I do self-marketing, I have agents, I’m on rosters, online casting sites, I try to plant my seed in many places because you don’t know how long it will take for things to bloom.”
Heidi Rew
More Tips In The Full Interview! How To Get Back Joy: Overcome Rejection & Set Better Goals
Heidi also shares the journey to starting the Atlanta Voice Over Studio business. Heidi is the co-owner and also an arts business entrepreneur. We also discussed our tips for overcoming burnout and focusing your ‘water’ to create a waterfall.
To hear the rest of this interview, hit play above.
Find more about Heidi here and Atlanta Voiceover Studio here
With you on the journey, friend.
LBP X
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