Expand-Don’t Contract!

In this time of great uncertainty we’re all being challenged to expand. Expand our ideas about what’s possible, what we can do to make things better than they are, and even what we don’t have to do right now.

If you’re a control freak this time is likely extra challenging. You’ll need to release your grip on life a bit, to trust more, to allow. That’s not easy for the best of us.

What does it mean to expand?

Perhaps you’re stuck at home with family members you don’t like. Maybe the kids are driving you nuts, or you’re going crazy trying to stick to your normal routine while surrounded by a world and an economy in flux. Expansion doesn’t have to look like more stuff, or more money, or bigger and better things happening in your life. Perhaps it just looks like expansion of your patience, or your compassion. Perhaps it’s just an expansion of your own ability to accept the things you cannot change.

All are positive steps towards a better you in the end.

Expansion at BVS

Here at Blumvox we continue to expand, because we always have. Since Day One we’ve reached out beyond our comfort zone, more times than we can count, envisioned by Trina and actioned by Steve – who expanded farther than perhaps all of us combined when he reluctantly took up the challenge and answered the call from his fans: “Teach Me!”. He wasn’t going to do it, he’s told you guys that on many occasions. He didn’t think he could do it, and yet look what happened when he did?!

As I often write in these articles, Steve leads by example, he always does it first, and even when we fail he’ll often take the blame. He’s the epitome of a good leader, because he inspires us with his own sacrifices and his own “get knocked down get up again” attitude. It’s hard to wallow in the corner over a failure when he’s up-and-at-‘em after his.

Expansion in the face of Failure

Steve as you know from his own words, fails daily. It’s his willingness to try something and fail that inspires us – and many of you – to do the same. That creates a climate at Blumvox Studios of Possibility, and that’s a beautiful climate to live and work in. We’re always open to each others’ ideas, because anything is possible. Sometimes we create something amazing, other times we create something that sucks.

That’s the thing about expansion. It’s messy. It’s SCARY. You’re going to screw it up, bust out in the wrong direction at times, and step off and fall flat on your face. Those of you who’ve been in class with us for a while know that in Steve’s world – in fact in the world period – failure is success.

The whole world is going through a time of deep reflection, but it’s also going to be a time where action is going to matter. It’s a time of unprecedented uncertainly. Literally NOTHING is certain, not even the money in your bank. As such you’re going to have to be willing to fail in order to expand, because your expansion – you seeing BEYOND what is right in front of you and tangible, will be absolutely necessary for your future.

What WILL be Working?

Whats going to expand, regardless? Well, we know that companies that provide online courses will thrive. We know that online platforms will do well as demand for work-from-home options increases. We know that the world of technology and specifically audio and video recording technology is expanding exponentially!

Brilliant new technological developments will come of this challenge, and many of the studios are employing said technology to allow for remote sessions, even with entire cast members present. Check out the new offerings over at Source Connect as an example. Wow have they had to expand over the last two months!

We also know that more than ever before, online entertainment; movies, games, audiobooks, podcasts etc – will explode.

Where are YOU positioning yourself?

Is it possible that things in your life are falling apart in order to fall together? Can you quiet the fear and see beyond it? Even if just for a few moments at a time.

You are certainly well-positioned as someone learning an art form that will continue to expand in its application. If you’re a member of the Classes you also have 24/7 on demand access to more than two years of teaching from one of THE best voice actors in the business. You also have the time – the most valuable commodity we ever have, to study this art form in a deeper way.

What are you doing TO expand – even during a time of great contraction?

You’re going to have more time on your hands in the next few weeks than ever. What are you going to DO with that extra time? I’ve spoken via email with several of our students in the last few weeks, and learned that some are revamping their vocal booths – which could just mean new padding in the closet. Others are reworking their marketing, some are redoing their websites. Others are practicing their vocal skills, recording books just for practice, and working on projects that were shelved long ago.

Look, I’m no pollyanna, things are going to get real for all of us, if they haven’t already. How we choose to respond to this – either by expanding or contracting – will absolutely change the course of our lives over the next few years. People have made it through before; wars, famine, pestilence, etc. We’ll make it through again. And again. And again. I don’t want you just to make it through this, I want you to thrive through this. I want you to reinvent yourself! Besides, you may never have this kind of downtime again.

Expand, Don’t Contract!

My hope for you, indeed OUR hope for you – from all of us on the Team – is that you use this time to incubate a new you, that you also take the time to be still and to perhaps even meditate, that ancient practice that lets the Universe speak TO you, rather than you to it. That you “catch the vision” of what is possible and what is unfolding that you might not be able to see yet, beyond all that you can see.

Many people will catch the new ideas, the new inventions, the things that we can’t even imagine now that will be part of our lives just a few years from now. The products, the stories, the legends that will come out of this time will be EPIC, and if you can lean into your own expansion even just a little, you might catch a new idea of you too. So long as you act on that you’ll have a chance to come out of this thing like a boss. This isn’t the first time we’ve been in a collective flux on this planet, and it won’t be the last. Ride the wave, keep your knees bent, and your eyes on the ever-expanding horizon.

Arohanui (Big Love), from New Zealand

– Reirani