Whether you’re a singer, speaker, broadcast journalist, talent show contestant, pageant participant, stand up comic, or spoken word artist, you need a sense of purpose or focus that compels you to pursue your voice-driven career. Otherwise, you’ll become vulnerable to getting off track, making poor decisions, and your career potential will suffer as you quickly spiral out of control.

Purposeful Impact

In order to have a focused, lasting, meaningful career it’s vital to have a sense of purpose. You must come to an understanding of how you can use your voice to make a difference. The desire to have a meaningful impact on others, or on some issue or concern, ties into the principle of filling a need or solving problems in the market place.

Voice = Products + Services

Once again, you must think of your voice in terms of its value as a product and service. So, you need to take a closer look at the unique qualities, features, benefits, and perks afforded by sharing your gift.

Now there are tangible, identifiable aspects of your voice such as pitch, range, and tone. But without a sense of purpose and focus for using your voice, those impressive technical qualities can be misguided, wasted, or go unappreciated because of poor choices, selling yourself short, or by not challenging yourself to step up and reach out.

Mission Statement

Every successful business has a mission statement that defines their purpose for operation. It is just as critical for you to define your purpose for using your gift.

What Inspires Your Voice

There are a number of influences that may factor into shaping your mission statement. You should ask yourself questions to gain a better understanding of why you’ve chosen your voice-driven career – or why that career has chosen you. What it is that inspires you to use your voice?

Resonating Feedback

It’s important to get feedback from people you know and trust about the power and influence your voice has others. What do people say about your voice? How does it move them? What emotions does it trigger? How does the use of your voice inspire others?
What comments do you hear most frequently after a performance, an audition, or a lesson with one of Brett Manning’s certified associates?

Clearer Direction + Greater Satisfaction

Once you determine a statement of purpose for your voice-driven career, you will get a greater sense of direction and satisfaction. This purpose will also help you focus on choosing material, as well as help you define, shape, and reinforce your image as an artist.

Better Choices + Positive Results

This will also help you let go of bad habits and make more meaningful choices in mapping out your career. The venues you choose will be in line with the difference you want to make by using the gift of your unique voice. There will be less focus on ego-gratification because your talent is serving a purpose that is geared toward impacting others.

Rich + Famous = Service Driven

This is not to say that you shouldn’t want to be rich and famous. But these goals should truly be byproducts or the results of having a voice-driven career that is rooted in serving to make a difference in some way.

Communicating Connections

Creating a mission statement requires careful consideration in determining what moves you to move others. You need to gain an understanding of what energizes you. What is it that gives you the sense that you have connected with your audience? Since all voice-driven careers require strong, clear communication skills, what messages do you want your audience to take home in their hearts?

Affirming Touches

To create a strong mission statement of purpose, think in terms of your impact on others. What would you like to see happen? If you were to hear that an audience member had been moved to change in some way because of your performance, what are some examples of things that this person could have done that would touch you most deeply?

You want your mission statement to move beyond the “notice me, be rich and famous” mindset. Again, you want recognition, fame, and fortune to be the results of your purpose and focus in your voice-driven career.

Heroes + Mentors

Think of the people you admire most, your personal heroes. What is it that these people bring out in you? What difference do they make? What do they celebrate, aspire to, or represent that has become a part of you?

Think of people that you see as being not only successful, but also grounded, positive, and healthy. What are some qualities these people have that you share or would like to cultivate and adopt as part of your voice-driven career path?

About this Article:
This article is reprinted from Brett Manning’s Singing Success Online. This critically acclaimed, celebrity voice method has been used by starts like Haley Williams, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and More! Sing any song you want in any key you like by adding a full octave to your range—Guaranteed! Be sure to check out the latest tools available at SingingSuccess.tv!

If you want to be a successful singer, speaker, actor, or performer, you must give yourself permission to falter, fumble, fail, and fall. These should not be your ultimate goals, but there needs to be a clear understanding that, before you can fly, you need to get over the fear of falling.

Think about learning to ride a bike. What would have happened if you gave up after that first scraped knee once the training wheels came off? You would have denied yourself the freedom and fun that comes with biking, and you might have never ventured beyond your own backyard – at least not without your training wheels.

Risk Potential

Success in your voice-driven career demands an awareness of risks that must be taken in order to develop your gift to its greatest performance level, and to optimize opportunities for exercising and sharing its full potential.

Adapt to Change

That means you might stumble, and you’ll likely have weak spots that require attention. Your tastes will likely change as you gain more experience and exposure. Demands for new material or shifts in subject matter or areas of focus will also be influenced by your audience or fan base.

Spinning Trends

At times, you will be at the mercy of trends while also having the opportunity to be a trendsetter and to put your own unique spin on things that become popular or in fashion for a season or two.

Lasting Communication Comes First

Remember that the success of your voice-driven career is rooted in communication, through the messages you deliver, the stories you tell, and the images or impression you convey as you sing, speak, entertain, enlighten, inform, inspire, and engage your audience.

Don’t Belittle – Don’t Berate

When things go wrong or fall short of expectation, never berate yourself; and do not put down members of your band, development team, cast and crew, or support group. Always look at the situation to see what worked, what didn’t work, and what needs work in order to turn a falter, fumble, failure, or fall into a fearlessly faced future feat!

Learn From Mistakes

Mistakes are teaching tools that refine the design of your unique gift. Learn from the bold moves you take, the risks you shake, and the daring decisions you make that don’t quite work as planned. If your focus becomes a series of put-down’s, it will quickly evolve into a major shut down.

Stay Open

To be a successful communicator, you must stay committed to the encouragement of an open exchange of ideas and concepts often aren’t truly tested until they’re engaged in front of their intended target audience. So, be bold and brave, and be kind and forgiving, so that bouncing back and pressing on becomes second nature in developing the full potential of your voice-driven career.

Face Your Fears

Identify your biggest fears for your voice-driven career, and look for ways to face these fears as part of your career path to success. Find something in each fear that intrigues you or excites you that will become an anchor or focus for tackling each fear. This will help to boost your confidence and help you stay committed to trying out new ideas, finding fresh material, and growing your fan base.

Security – Understanding – Courage – Confidence – Education – Selflessness – Daring

Use your mentors, support team, and mastermind group to table issues on fear of failure. Create a contract or success statement that validates the need for taking risks and being bold. Come up with a personal definition for success that you can call to mind as the situation warrants. For example success could be defined by assigning key qualities that are required such as: Security – Understanding – Courage – Confidence – Education – Selflessness – Daring.

Use the forums at SingingSuccess.TV to share the successes that have come as a direct result of lessons learned when falling short. Share those successes that have evolved by facing the fear of failure and other fears and risks.

Harmonious Commitment

Step up and book a session with one of Brett Manning’s master associates. Make the commitment to invest in one of his programs, including his latest, Mastering Harmony, a program that was developed by Brett with ten-time Grammy® winner Claude McKnight of Take 6.

Reward Risk

Reward risk and use the times you fall short as opportunities to draw closer to achieving the full potential for success in the pursuit of your voice-driven career.

About this Article:
This article is reprinted from Brett Manning’s Singing Success Online. This critically acclaimed, celebrity voice method has been used by starts like Haley Williams, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and More! Sing any song you want in any key you like by adding a full octave to your range—Guaranteed! Be sure to check out the latest tools available at SingingSuccess.tv!

Supportive Feedback

You can get further feedback on your self-assessment through sharing with your mastermind group, personal support group, band members, your peers, and anyone that is a part of your creative support team.

If you feel you are too busy to take time to assess your progress or revisit goals and objectives, this is most often a sign of some more serious issues. There’s a good chance that you may be neglecting other areas of development as well.

Take Time to Make Change

You may have a tendency to skip over or skim the surface of things that you know need attention. It’s like saying, “I know I need to do this, but I don’t have enough time to fully address it.” Word of warning – the longer you put off addressing an issue that needs attention, the worse it will get, and can create bigger problems and other issues.

If you don’t take time to assess how you’re doing, you may not be aware of practices that are being neglected or are not fully engaged. If you don’t take time to review or discuss your assessment with others, you also miss out on potential reinforcement of positives and progress.

Refresh + Refuel

You may discover an area that needs more work, and you may get some fresh ideas for being more effective in tackling the things you need to work on. Sometimes you can be so deeply entrenched in a daily or weekly routine that you may not realize there are more effective alternatives to consider.

A Matter of Time

Your changes or adjustments to become more productive might really be very simple. You might discover that a shift in the time you spend working with the Mastering Mix or Singing Success programs would be better served if you made an adjustment in the time of day. It might be more fun for you to mix things up by working with a program late at night twice a week, and in the morning on other days.

To Do or Not To Do

You want to assess what’s working, what isn’t working properly, what needs to be discarded, and what needs to be engaged. In other words, what do you need to keep doing, do better, not do, and what do you need to start doing.

What Am I Resisting?

In looking at things you need to take up in order to move forward in your career, ask yourself this question: what is it that I keep putting off that I know I should do?

This question will reveal action that needs to be taken that is often related to a major stumbling block that, if addressed, would be very liberating. The “start doing” category could be anything from acting lessons to live performance skills through Tom Jackson to looking for ways to give back to your community or get some hands on vocal training.

Refuse Your Excuses

For example, let’s say you keep thinking how you really ought to book a session with one of Brett Manning’s certified associates. But, you always have a number of excuses for not doing it. They run the gamut of everything from “I can’t afford it” to you feel you’re not ready to “I just don’t have time” and everything in between.

Insight + Input From Brett’s Coaches

If you’re someone that feels you have to be at a certain performance level before booking a session, as if you’re auditioning or stepping up, it’s important to shift your perspective. You need the input and insight that Brett’s certified coaches will bring you that will affirm your talent and confirm your proper engagement of his techniques. This will give you more confidence for auditioning, showcasing, and in taking other critical steps in advancing your career.

Reason To Book It

If it’s a time commitment issue, you might discover that booking a session periodically actually saves you time, because questions you have are answered, and your skill level is heightened by the immediate feedback you receive. It brings the pursuit of your career to a level of authenticity that further validates your choice to pursue a vocal career. If it stirs up any apprehension or concerns, you can get immediate feedback.

Session Savings Account

If your reluctance to invest in booking regular sessions is an issue of cost, you can create a “personal session savings account” for yourself at home where you make it a point to set aside funds that are reserved for booking sessions. Then, you book sessions as your funds allow. Or, you can take a temporary job with the money you make strictly reserved for your session savings fund.

Share The Experience

Maybe you have a friend that is also thinking about booking a session, or maybe some members of your band that aren’t that confident with their singing ability have been thinking about booking a session. So, you might consider pooling your financial resources and taking a trip to Nashville to book some time with a coach at Brett Manning Studios.

That First Step = The Toughest

You might simply need to just get your feet wet by taking that first step to book one session via Skype, just to see how it goes. When you haven’t tried something before, it can be a little scary or intimidating because you’re facing some element of the unknown. Then, all kinds of excuses, fears, doubts, economic issues, another reasons for reluctance will be stirred up to keep you from taking that first step.

Take Action – Make Adjustments

So, be proactive. You know you want to book at least one session with one of Brett’s coaches via Skype, over the phone, or in the studio – so, do it. Get feedback from others in the SingingSuccess.TV forums on their experience with Brett’s certified associates. Talk about adjustments you need to make in order to be more productive and more proactive in advancing your career.

Consider These – Please

So remember, in doing any self-assessment, you need to consider: what do I need to keep doing, what do I need to do better, what do I need to stop doing or what habits do I need to discard, and what do I need to start doing.

If you haven’t booked a session with one of Brett’s coaches, set up a plan to just do it. If you’ve not upgraded your SingingSuccess.TV forums membership but have been thinking about it, do it now.

Take the time to make a positive change by investing in your career. Affirm and celebrate the gift of your unique voice. That is the first step toward achieving the full potential of your singing success.

About this Article:
This article is reprinted from Brett Manning’s Singing Success Online. This critically acclaimed, celebrity voice method has been used by starts like Haley Williams, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and More! Sing any song you want in any key you like by adding a full octave to your range—Guaranteed! Be sure to check out the latest tools available at SingingSuccess.tv!

About the Author:
Randy Moomaw is a native of Virginia now residing in Tennessee. He writes poems, plays, and songs that reflect the journey between the glow of small town dreams and the shadows cast beneath big city lights. He also specializes in creating games to stimulate and encourage creativity. He’s a Samuel Goldwyn Award winner as well as a winner of more than 20 American Songwriter lyricist awards. His plays have been produced in New York, L.A., Nashville, and Washington, D.C. He’s a graduate of the University of Mary Washington in Virginia and has an MFA from UCLA.

However, if you are:

1) a beginner who wants to learn how to sing faster and more efficiently than normal because you don’t want to stay a beginner for long, or

2) you are an intermediate or advanced singer who has been stuck at the SAME skill level and never really improving–or maybe even sliding backwards a little

Then I’d like to chat with you about some of the MOST misunderstood and confusing keys to unlocking your voice.

We have been gathering information from aspiring singers for decades now and there is ONE common theme that is constantly popping up within certain students who come to us for help.

Many of these singers have been singing for years and years and had experienced
very little progress or none at all. In some cases, students complained that their
singing skill had declined!

It became our sole mission to solve this dilemma. We began asking questions about their vocal coaches, how long they committed to practicing, what methods and techniques were being used, and so on.
Astonishingly, NONE of the singers had been focusing on the root of their problem,
which was that singing should be as easy as speaking and with the correct combination of practice, exercise and technique, enormous vocal breakthroughs will occur regardless of your skill level.

Here are two reasons why some vocal coaches will not teach you the right methods to sing at your full potential:

1. They fear that, if they give you the key to unlock your voice, you’ll never come
back for lessons! Of course, this further proves that they don’t know how to teach voice the right way.

2. They don’t fully understand the voice themselves! This is really unfortunate
because it is an amazing and powerful instrument!

WHY THIS IS MORE SERIOUS THAN YOU MAY THINK

Singing and mastering the voice is MUCH more than just knowing how to hit the right notes.

Fortunately, I was able to take the right path before a less qualified and talented
vocal coach had time to ruin my voice or instill bad habits when singing.

They showed me the SECRET to increase my vocal range, lose ALL strain on high notes, add POWER to my voice and go at a safe and fun pace without having to watch the clock (like when paying hourly for vocal lessons with a private coach).

I also discovered that there are a TON of misunderstandings about singing.

For example, learning how to sing the right way (and the safe way) does NOT hinder your creativity as an artist. It UNLEASHES it!

Any singing professional who tells you that vocal training will inhibit your creative process either did NOT study with the right teacher or method or never learned how to apply what they learned to their own voice.

The most important thing to remember is that vocal training is not boring, at least not when you weave it into singing songs, fun–and often funny–exercises, tips and tricks, which is exactly how you should learn to sing!

Brett Manning is the author of the Singing Success Program and literally poured EVERYTHING he knew about vocal training into this remarkable, practical, user-friendly, hands-on and just plain FUN course that will serve as the most important
step in your journey to become a singer.

WARNING: You could literally spend YEARS learning everything there is know about vocal theory. Brett even studied it for 14 years before creating Singing Success.

You are going to LOVE this newly remastered, redesigned and repackaged Program containing 12CDs, 1 DVD and a very detailed full-color workbook because Brett was able to cut out all of the non-essential vocal theory and hand-picked the stuff you REALLY need to know to increase your vocal skill and safely protect your vocal instrument.

In other words, you’ll take the quickest possible route to mastery. Brett shaved YEARS off the learning curve for you (and thousands of dollars in costly vocal lessons).

Whenever you experience major changes in your life creativity tends to either slow down to rest and sort things out, or it gets busy trying to process things. It is a vital part of who you are as a singer, singer-songwriter, or singing musician. And it must be respected and encouraged by being acknowledged or engaged each day in some way.

A Few Key Questions
You know how you feel when somebody you respect or care about checks in just to see how you’re doing? When that happens, it usually perks you up. It makes you feel you matter. Or sometimes it’s simply a sweet surprise that just makes you feel better. When it’s someone you know well or care about deeply, it can make your day. When it’s someone you thought didn’t even know you existed, it can make your week.

The same sort of positive impact occurs when you check in with your creative process by acknowledging its place in shaping your singing success. So, it’s important to take time periodically to check in just to give thanks, see how things are going, and find out what it needs.

Feed The Need
What you’re looking to nurture and encourage here is the mechanism or process that stimulates, feeds, and supports your desire to sing. You want to create a checklist of activities, behaviors, practices, and tools that can be indulged so that your creative process stays happy and healthy.

To help you determine what is needed to keep your creativity comfortable, confident, and curious, start by setting aside some quiet time to ask yourself a few simple questions. These will help you gain a greater understanding of why you create, what you want as a singer, and will help you stay in tune with ways to keep yourself creatively healthy as your pursue your singing success.

Empower Questions
To get started, close your eyes as you ask yourself, who do I sing for? This is a very simple question that we’ve looked at before. But it’s potentially very powerful and revealing. It makes an emotional connection that heightens your desire to please someone, to communicate a feeling, and to honor or to serve.

Some people draw a blank when they ask this question. If that happens, make note of the feelings or reasons for resistance, and then turn the question to: who are the people I know that are my biggest fans or supporters? Then, make note of one or a handful that clearly stand out.

The Please Factor
For those people or that person that comes to mind, ask yourself what pleases you about pleasing this person or people when you sing. Ask yourself what seems or seemed to please them the most about hearing you sing? Note any specific incidents where you were complimented, rewarded, or simply felt much better, extra encouraged, or more accomplished because of their approving presence.

The Why Me Factor
Now, follow up with this simple open question: why do I sing? Then, ask yourself: what pleases me most about singing? And finally, ask yourself: what is my first memory of singing? How does recalling that first memory make you feel? These responses will give you a clearer picture of what matters most for you personally when you sing.

Now, consider the following questions to get a read on what you respond to and are driven by creatively in terms of taste, image, and identity. These questions are: what are my favorite songs? Who are my favorite singers? Who are the people I admire most as role models? Who are my mentors? Who is (or are) one or two of my closest friends?

Trigger Connections
Once you answer these questions, note any connections between your responses. In other words, look for any common qualities or strengths. You may discover that a role model has a certain trait or triggers feelings in you that you also find coming from a mentor, a close friend, a few of your favorite songs, and a favorite singer or two. Then, look for any connections between these qualities and what pleases you about singing, and any connection between these qualities and feelings triggered by recalling your first memory of singing.

These recurring qualities will serve as triggers or sensitive areas that need to be regularly encouraged or nurtured in some way. These qualities might be used to help you develop or find new material or the courage to audition or find a new venue. In reviewing these common qualities, you might discover an activity that you enjoy that could appeal to or reinforce the energy, drive, comfort, or confidence represented by these commonly recurring qualities. You might discover a deep need to feed that’s rooted in that first memory of singing.

Celebrate – Stimulate
These activities are things you can periodically indulge to celebrate or stimulate ideas. It could be something like hiking, biking, or checking out a favorite venue or restaurant. You might find that painting or cooking or even cleaning can be a therapeutic activity that appeals to these triggers and honors your creative spirit. You want to discover activities that are connected to feeling good about wanting to sing. You can even engage an activity or two with someone from your list of those you wish to please.

Prime What Pumps You Up
To further explore triggers for your creative well being, you can even consider the following questions: why am I turned off by or don’t like this type of song or subject or artist or genre? Who has interfered with or has been turned off by my singing? Who did I want to appeal to that ignored me? Who or what would I like to prove wrong?

Once you have your responses to these darker questions, immediately turn them to the light. In other words, make note of what you stand for, believe in, and offer that validates you as a vibrant, creative, gifted singer. And then, give thanks for each of the qualities you note that affirms your gifts.

Dream Big
Finally, engage an utterly self-indulgent fantasy by asking yourself: what is my ultimate live performance experience, where is it, and who is my dream audience? Allow yourself lots of playing space and playtime. Dream big and let your faith and drive grow accordingly as your feed your creativity healthy portions of belief on a daily basis.

Take Time for Break Time
This is an ongoing process, so don’t bite off more than you can chew. It can be overwhelming. This is a lot of sensitive material to explore, and it will require varying amounts of time to process. So don’t rush your responses as you explore the questions we’ve talked about.

In fact, it’s best to devote several days to your initial self-examination. You might even spend fifteen minutes each day, or every other day, on taking just one question at a time. Then, take time to make the necessary connections between your responses.

Make it a practice to periodically revisit and review the questions to see how your perspective, tastes, dreams, and triggers have grown or have even changed. Remember, creativity is a living, breathing, thriving process.

Check Your Gauge
Use your levels of comfort, confidence, and curiosity as a gauge for your creative well being. Then, feed your needs so that you stay refreshed, rested, resourceful, and positive in the pursuit of your singing success.

Encourage Others
Share your cares and concerns for the creative well being of other singers, singer-songwriters, and singing musicians. Choose a handful of others that you will stay actively committed to encouraging regularly. Find at least three people in the www.singingsuccess.tv forums to connect with and encourage on a weekly basis. Look for fun activities to engage that will feed your creative spirit and keep you positive in the pursuit of your singing success.

About this Article:

This article is reprinted from Brett Manning’s Singing Success Online. This critically acclaimed, celebrity voice method has been used by starts like Haley Williams, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and More! Sing any song you want in any key you like by adding a full octave to your range—Guaranteed! Be sure to check out the latest tools available at SingingSuccess.tv!

About the Author:

Randy Moomaw is a native of Virginia now residing in Tennessee. He writes poems, plays, and songs that reflect the journey between the glow of small town dreams and the shadows cast beneath big city lights. He also specializes in creating games to stimulate and encourage creativity. He’s a Samuel Goldwyn Award winner as well as a winner of more than 20 American Songwriter lyricist awards. His plays have been produced in New York, L.A., Nashville, and Washington, D.C. He’s a graduate of the University of Mary Washington in Virginia and has an MFA from UCLA.

Those strong points are a potential positive resource for personal power. The confidence, comfort and gratification that comes from engaging your strengths can be tapped to help you face fears and address insecurities or areas of discomfort that present challenges both on and off stage or in and out of the studio.

Take Five – At Least

Set aside some time to identify and honor your key strengths as you assess your role as a singer, singer-songwriter, or singing musician. You don’t want to be too analytical in this process. Your primary goal is to identify the strengths that give you a genuine sense of confidence, comfort, gratification, and satisfaction in your role as a singer, singer-songwriter or singing musician.

Begin by answering this question:

1.   What are your five greatest strengths as a singer, singer-songwriter, or singing musician?

After you have written down your top five strengths, then answer this next question:

2.  What are five of your greatest fears?

Answer the question as it relates to your career-pursuit of singing success.

After writing down your five greatest fears, answer this next question as it applies to your career:

3.  What are your five strongest character traits?

Think in terms of how you define character. It may be something as simple as you feel you are loyal or honest or trustworthy. It may be related to work ethic such as commitment or discipline.

What do you feel are those five character traits that most clearly define you as an artist seeking a career in the music business and entertainment industry? You can also asses your character in terms of offstage behavior and personal walk outside of your career pursuits in this process if it helps.

Now, move on to the next question:

4.  What are the five biggest mistakes or most embarrassing moments you’ve had with music?

This can be a school performance from kindergarten or your first gig as an opening act, or it might be a slipup that took place at a rehearsal.

After noting these five moments or events, answer the following question:

5.  What are your five favorite songs?

These can be songs you love to sing. They can be songs you wish you’d written or songs you simply enjoy listening to. Write down the first five that come to mind.

Once you have answered these five questions with your top five choices it’s now time to take a closer look at what this tells you. You start off by noting any common links between your fears and the mistakes or embarrassing moments. Make note of any fear or insecurity that seems to be a recurring theme, concern, or issue.

First, look at those strengths you’ve identified and see if there are any connections with the character traits you’ve identified. It may be confidence or generosity or honestly. Make note of any common factors or strong links between the strengths and qualities of character.

Second, look at your top five songs and see if any fears, traits or strengths are represented in the themes, lyrics, style, or feel of each song. Make note of any connections or common links between these five songs and any of your strengths, character traits, fears, or embarrassments.

Third, look at your strengths and character traits and see how any of those listed can be used, are currently being used, or have been used in the past to help you face a specific fear or recover from an embarrassing moment or mistake.

Finally, look at your list of songs and see if any applies to the use of a strength or character trait to tackle a fear or to recover from a mistake or embarrassing moment. You may find a potential signature song to include as part of your song set.

This self-analysis can lead to future choices or focus in material for singing or songwriting or both. It can help you discover themes to explore in your shows and song sets. It also will help you reinforce your strengths and tap into resources for fighting fears and discomfort as you gain more experience as a performer.

Make note of any changes that occur in your private and public sense of character. This is not necessarily a bad thing. But it needs to be acknowledged and kept in check so that it does not become an issue. What you’re looking for here is anything that might create a conflict in terms of behavior or values that you personally and privately hold. Many singers are very shy when they are not onstage or in the studio, but they came alive when performing.

If your values are consistent and your character traits that frame your personality are consistent, you’ll be fine. Just be aware of any differences between your public and private persona. Keep conflicts between your personal and professional life in check.

This is also a great group exercise for you to engage with band members, your support team, as well as other singers, singer-songwriters, and singing musicians. You can compare notes, share stories, and also gain a better understanding of your peers and friends. It can encourage positive growth and serve to reinforce strengths and affirmative character traits as a singer, performer, and songwriter.

Share your results with others in the forums at SSTV (Singing Success TV)  and use the exercise as a springboard for further discussion and brainstorming. The more you share at SSTV, the more you grow and learn. Check out the clips and product offerings. Tap into the resources at SSTV to help you achieve all you desire in the pursuit of your singing success.

This article is reprinted from Brett Manning’s Singing Success Online. This critically acclaimed, celebrity voice method has been used by starts like Haley Williams, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and More! Sing any song you want in any key you like by adding a full octave to your range—Guaranteed! Be sure to check out the latest tools available at SingingSuccess.tv!

Let’s face it. Life requires a lot of busy work that often seems too great for time and space to accommodate. What often happens in the daily drive to make everything work and fit in is that you continue to press on and push through, making more mistakes and ignoring all the warning signs of a systems overload. If not properly addressed, this will lead to injury, burnout, or a breakdown. What’s worse, it can possibly cause irreparable damage.

Just as the voice needs proper care and rest to avoid strain and to recover from illness or injury, the body needs rest and care. In fact, your brain needs a break now and then. Your emotions need a little rest and relaxation to maintain proper control. And it’s all interconnected.

Lack Of Balance
Burnout comes most frequently because of a lack of balance. It can come because of insufficient rest. It can come because of abuse or overuse of substances, strenuous activities, improperly performed exercises, and so on. And once there is an imbalance in some part of your life, all other areas of function are susceptible to being thrown off-kilter. The biggest problem once burnout begins is that typically you push harder. That can quickly make the situation worse. But also, because your system is compromised, your judgment and function are not clear and healthy, and then things can quickly spin out of control.

Many that are seeking a career in music are trying to juggle voice lessons, music lessons, rehearsal time and gigging out, along with having to work as many as two full-time jobs. For many, shared housing becomes necessary to cut costs, and that can also create stressors that feed burnout.

Warning Signs – Obsessive
So what are warning signs of burnout? It will vary from person to person. But there are a few classic signs of potential burnout or indicate that you may be living in burnout mode and not realizing it. One is having a workaholic mindset. In other words, you are constantly working. This includes putting in extra time on weekends and holidays, not taking vacations, and even cutting your sleep time short, so that you can get more work done.

Another warning sign of burnout is the obsessive inability to surrender or share tasks or simply never asking for help, thinking you’re the only one that can get the job done. The key word here is obsessive. In other words, you have to do it or it won’t get done.

No Social – No Play Time
Another classic sign is having no social life or even avoiding it. This includes never going to parties, never getting together with friends or family, and not allowing time to just kick back and relax or to indulge a hobby. For those approaching burn out, leisure time is often viewed as wasted time, and there’s no sense of pleasure or purpose unless you’re working. Frankly, life becomes work. And that mindset is what eventually throws everything off-kilter.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t be passionate about singing or get excited or even energized by rehearsals or writing a new song or putting together a new set list. But, when all of your time is spent working without a break, and with no social activities or interaction, and no time for rest and play, burnout is one blown fuse or misfired spark away. Burnout then spreads like wildfire through dry underbrush. It creates more problems because you can’t function as sharply as you would if you had proper rest.

Dull The Cut-Throat
One behavior that can feed burnout, and is common to many that are serious about pursuing a singing career, is being ruthlessly competitive. It’s a good thing to want to be your best, fully develop your craft, and optimize your growth as an artist. The problem is that competitive thinking implies a “winner vs. loser” mindset, and that can be very self-destructive, because you then push yourself to try to outdo somebody else without recognizing and honoring the real true value of your unique gifts and talents.

Other Symptoms
Some of the signs of serious burnout include lack of concentration, unexplained mood swings, self-destructive behaviors, negative self-talk, and suddenly finding that friends, family, peers, and coworkers don’t want to be around you because of the negative behavior or because they’re made to feel they don’t matter.

Get A Check-Up
If you believe you’re facing some degree of burnout, it’s key to go see your doctor first, just to make sure that everything is ok physically. There may be some sort of underlying issue that could be contributing to your burnout, or there may be physical issues that could be serious as a result of an extended period of being burned out. So, you want to make sure that you’re physical health is good.

Check Your Balances
One key to avoiding burnout is self-care. It helps to take a good hard look at your life as a series of checks and balances. You want to make sure you allow yourself time for a healthy, affirming social life. You need to allow time for proper rest and to make sure you’re following a healthy diet, and getting lots of exercise that includes one or two 30-minute, peaceful walks each week. And do not underestimate the importance of allowing yourself time to simply play.

Just Say No
To avoid burnout, learn to say, no. That’s really tough sometimes because many singers and entertainers are naturally prone to being people-pleasers. But remember that you have the right to set your own schedule, routines, and priorities. If your plate is full, simply say, no thank you.

Paced To Embrace
It’s also important to pace yourself and make adjustments as necessary, erring on the side of getting rest and relaxation. Set reasonable goals you can accomplish in a reasonable amount of time. The goals should be specific, with a real sense of purpose, and should give you a feeling of accomplishment. Don’t forget to pat yourself on the back or reward yourself for the goals you reach.

But, if you find you may fall short or feel you might be better able to finish a task at a later time, give yourself permission to stop, checkout, and then regroup to finish at a later time. Don’t push when you’re starting to feel tired, edgy, cranky, or on the sizzling side of some serious deep frying. Also, do not push yourself if you’re sick or suffering from an injury.

Self-Nurture
Allow yourself time to indulge simple, playful pleasures. Go for a walk and listen to music. Go rock climbing. Run in the park. Go to the zoo. Give yourself permission to engage in a solitary activity that allows you to relax, refresh, and unwind.

A Grateful Hand
At some point every single day, take time to give thanks for at least five things, people, places – choose a handful of things that make you grateful. It can be directly related to career issues or artistry in the pursuit of your singing success. You can choose five people that you feel offer a helping hand in making you a better person or singer or friend. Write these down and actively give thanks for each as you choose.

Grief-Free Grab Bag
There is power in laughter and humor. Just like singing and music have a tremendous potential for healing, so does an infectious, side-splitting guffaw that leaves you leaking delirious tears. To tap into those healing powers, create a weekly grab bag of humor to shamelessly indulge. Your grab bag can include books, magazines, DVD’s, puzzles, Mad-Libs®, humorous websites, or numbers for friends that you know can always make you laugh. The point here is to have at your disposal an ongoing, living resource for making light of each day. It’s up to you to choose what goes in the grab bag that keeps you from taking life so seriously that you might get burned.

Exercise Your Senses
Take time at least twice a week to mix up your senses. Put on a blindfold and note what you hear, taste, touch, and smell. Think about images that are triggered and other senses it stirs that feeds your imagination. Cover your ears or put on headphones with white noise or natural sound like ocean waves, something that blocks out everything you hear around you. This forces you to really look at, touch, smell, and taste things. Blocking out a sense one by one keeps your senses fresh and alive and can even help with recovery if a period of burnout has recently dulled or compromised your sensory system.

Look Ahead Not Behind
Forget past hurts or missed opportunities. Look forward to leaning into what each new day brings. Remember that you have a gift as a singer, and your gift is unique. As you share that gift, you are serving others. Believe that your unique place in the world and your unique voice make a difference.

Whenever you start to feel burned out, give yourself permission to rest, step back, and assess your career, schedule, or training. Call somebody you haven’t had time for in a while, just to catch up. The key is to keep things in perspective while working hard and indulging some playtime. But you do not want to indulge anything that borders on excessive with a real threat of becoming an obsession.

Enhance Product Results
Make your down time a priority in you’re the pursuit of your singing career. Indulge activities such as giving thanks, or digging into your grab bag for a good laugh, as being absolutely vital to your getting the most out of programs such as Brett Manning’s Mastering Mix or Singing Success or one of the Top 7 product offerings. Your sense of balance will help you reap the full potential benefits of your SingingSuccess.TV experience.

Lifeguards
Finally, allow for two or three people you know well to serve as lifeguards that will come to your rescue when stormy situations threaten to produce a strong surge or undertow that may bring you down. The best singers are commanding communicators and sensational storytellers. So always ask for help when you need it, so that the story of your singing success shines and resonates in the hearts of an adoring appreciative audience.

About this Article:

This article is reprinted from Brett Manning’s Singing Success Online. This critically acclaimed, celebrity voice method has been used by starts like Haley Williams, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and More! Sing any song you want in any key you like by adding a full octave to your range—Guaranteed! Be sure to check out the latest tools available at SingingSuccess.TV!

About the Author:

Randy Moomaw is a native of Virginia now residing in Tennessee. He writes poems, plays, and songs that reflect the journey between the glow of small town dreams and the shadows cast beneath big city lights. He also specializes in creating games to stimulate and encourage creativity. He’s a Samuel Goldwyn Award winner as well as a winner of more than 20 American Songwriter lyricist awards. His plays have been produced in New York, L.A., Nashville, and Washington, D.C. He’s a graduate of the University of Mary Washington in Virginia and has an MFA from UCLA.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

A Sense of Interdependence

When effectively engaged and cultivated, these seven habits or principles move an individual from a state of dependency to a sense of independence to a desired lifestyle of healthy, balanced interdependence. Once interdependence becomes second nature, then the ability to refresh, revive, reinvent, or rejuvenate is readily available as required or desired.

These habits apply to you as a singer, performer, singer-songwriter, musician, manager, coach, teacher, or booking agent…the applications and possibilities are universal.

First Things First

The first three habits focus on moving from a state of being dependent to a sense of independence and self-confidence. These habits are to be proactive, to begin with a predetermined end in mind, and to put first things first.

In other words you need to answer three critical questions: what do you want to accomplish? What are your priorities? And, what do you need to do to reach the goals you’ve set to help you get what you want to accomplish?

Let’s say your initial goal is that you simply want to sing better or maybe you want to increase your range. Or it may be as simple as you want to learn how to sing. So, your initial stage of dependency requires training to help you get to know your voice, to discover your strengths, style, range, colors, textures, level of fitness, and other mysteries.

Break + Shake Bad Habits

It’s also a time when you identify and break bad habits. It’s a period of discovering unique strengths and potential power. You become initially dependent on the training. As you see and hear and feel results, and get positive feedback, you begin to feel more confident and self-assured.

The proactive element comes with choosing the right vocal coach and the right support tools for training such as Mastering Mix or Singing Success. Your priorities are set as you engage your training. Then, as your comfort level and confidence grows, priorities will likely shift to some degree. But you’re also engaged in meeting that initial goal or goals, the end result. You’re in the process of or pursuit of becoming a stronger or better singer.

Perfect Practice

At some point you begin to notice that perfecting practice has become part of your daily routine. You are naturally beginning to set goals as a singer whether it’s related to training, networking, getting gigs, auditioning, or finding a band. And the desire to expand, branch out, and grow is getting naturally stronger.

You also notice that because of the proper training you’re receiving you are becoming more naturally proactive. You’re better at setting priorities, and you’re much more goal-oriented without having to be told what you should do. In other words, the training is helping you to become more trusting of your gift and therefore more self-reliant and independent.

Circles Of Connection

This signals your move into a sense of the need for interdependence. You begin to understand the need for circles of connection for networking, more training, moral support, finding opportunities to perform, and even further developing your craft and skills as a singer, musician, performer, composer, business person, or some combination of those.

Interdependent Spirit

This spirit of interdependence is represented by three habits that heighten or optimize opportunities that require resources outside of yourself. You need to think in terms of a win-win for all parties involved in every professional and personal relationship or set of circumstances. You also need to set out to understand a person or situation before attempting or demanding to be understood by others. And, you need to learn that the sum total of the parts or parties involved in a process is far greater, has more potential, and more positive impact than any one individual.

Many Hands

In other words, your solo act requires many helping hands to raise it to its optimum level of complete reception, full appreciation, and highest excellence. Many hands working together can do far greater work, better quality work, and can reach farther and touch more people than any one individual ever can. And remember many hands ultimately equal thunderous applause.

And, never forget that part of what makes this lifestyle of interdependence thrive is a commitment to ongoing training. You need your vocal coach and support tools to keep yourself at the top of your game, so you can continue to give your very best, while exploring the full potential of your unique voice and other gifts.

Sharpening Skills

Covey’s seventh habit is referred to as sharpening the saw. This habit reflects your commitment to training, fresh ideas, finding new songs, new venues, exciting opportunities to express yourself in music, with more listeners and fans to move, encourage, uplift, and inspire.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey is a great resource to keep on hand and periodically review as you pursue, achieve, and seek to revitalize varying aspects of your singing success.

The products and programs offered through SSTV will get you on the right track, and help you continue to build on a strong, healthy foundation that is only limited by your level of commitment and talent.

Invest In Training

By investing in these products you will avoid bad habits that can limit your potential or possibly even damage your voice. You’ll quickly learn techniques that might have otherwise taken years. This will help you become more comfortable and confident as you continue to sharpen your skills and take bold steps to heighten your artistry.

Mix + Match Products

Mix and match products such as the 7 tip series to keep things fresh and exciting and challenging. Reinforce the 7 habits as you engage programs in the 7 series.

Use the resources at SSTV to optimize your unique gifts. Engage viewers of your station by holding each other accountable in your training. Compare experiences and ideas triggered as you use Brett Manning’s programs and those of his certified associates to help you achieve the full potential of your singing success.

About this Article:

This article is reprinted from Brett Manning’s Singing Success Online. This critically acclaimed, celebrity voice method has been used by starts like Haley Williams, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and More! Sing any song you want in any key you like by adding a full octave to your range—Guaranteed! Be sure to check out the latest tools available at SingingSuccess.TV!

About the Author:

Randy Moomaw is a native of Virginia now residing in Tennessee. He writes poems, plays, and songs that reflect the journey between the glow of small town dreams and the shadows cast beneath big city lights. He also specializes in creating games to stimulate and encourage creativity. He’s a Samuel Goldwyn Award winner as well as a winner of more than 20 American Songwriter lyricist awards. His plays have been produced in New York, L.A., Nashville, and Washington, D.C. He’s a graduate of the University of Mary Washington in Virginia and has an MFA from UCLA.