On Saturday, June 4th I took part in the National Alliance on Mental Illness's (NAMI) fundraising walk for the very first time. I walked with a friend who's late father suffered from bipolar disorder and I walked in honor and memory of my dear friend, Gregory Scott Lester who recently lost his fight with the same, ugly, awful disease and who recently ended his life.

As an extremely private person and one who doesn't like everyone knowing my business, I'm an unlikely mental health advocate, but I'm a mental health advocate just the same. Sixteen years ago I mentored a 13 year-old girl through a mentoring program at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California where I worked at the time. I wouldn't find out until year's later, that Nicole's mother suffered from bipolar disorder and that is the reason I was asked to mentor Nicole. It was love at first sight for the both of us and I mentored Nicole for several years. The last time I saw Kim, Nicole's mother was at Nicole's wedding seven years ago. I'm so glad I was able to attend Nicole's wedding since I was going through my own mental health recovery at that time. Lucky for me, Nicole and her husband John got married at the same chapel in Las Vegas that Kim and her husband had gotten married in years before. Because I happened to be living in Las Vegas at that time, I was able to attend the wedding. 

Doing the NAMI walk opened my eyes. While I knew the statistics before the walk: that 1 in 4 people in this country will experience a mental health crisis, the walk gave me a greater sense of purpose. I felt like I was connected to the community and took my role more seriously. Stigma is a serious problem and we as a society need to eliminate it. Since society is every single one of us, then we not only need to step up but we need to be there for our mentally ill brother and sisters and help them, even when they are unable to help themselves.

Please keep this in mind: when a mentally ill person is acting out, they aren't doing it on purpose. They are at the mercy of their brain chemistry and can't help how they behave. As someone who is close to a mentally ill person, please do your best to leave your ego and judgment at the door and know that the person needs your love and support. Be kind. That's what they need the most.

Recently I posted on Facebook that I have representation for voice-over for the first time. Friends commented, a couple said they were interested in finding out more. One person asked for my phone number, which I gave to them, and they have yet to call me.

The number of people who will actually follow up with me is likely to be slim and that's okay, because to get to where I am today, where I am competing in the market place (I haven't yet booked a job) has taken years of sweat, grit, perseverance and determination. It hasn't come easily and I can most definitely tell you: it's not for the faint of heart. If you don't want it badly and you aren't prepared to do the work to get there, it ain't gonna happen. Your fairy godmother isn't going to appear by your side handing you a voice-over career.

It has been seven years since I took my first class and I've been at it non-stop since then. I studied with a coach, which is a must, for 2 years and continued my training when I moved to Seattle. I recorded preliminary demos a few years ago which I knew needed work and I kept at it.

My Dad, who has directed TV commercials and hired VO talent, gave me some good advice. He told me to just keep practicing and I listened to Dad. I spent a year on Voice123, which is known in the industry as a "pay-to-play" site. Over the course of a year, I submitted 100 auditions and booked 1 job which is actually considered the norm. I chose not to renew my membership as I felt the payoff wasn't worth it to me. Also, most of the jobs on these sites don't pay that much.

At the end of 2014/beginning of 2015 I re-recorded my demos, which was also my father's suggestion. Rather than paying a coach thousands of dollars to record, I listened to my Dad and took advantage of a friend's kindness and recorded in his home studio for free. I've since re-paid him with dinner. I paid someone else $150 to add music and sound effects and voila! My demos were now done.

My Father was correct in telling me that over time I would know when I was ready to re-record and when my demos would be done. Since recording my initial demos, I knew that my character demo (which would be used to get video game work) was the strongest. My commercial demo wasn't at all competitive the first time I recorded it. Because I don't have the kind of sultry, seductive voice that many female voice-over artists who book commercial work have (nor do I have their vocal resonance), I knew I had to work with what I had. I used my strengths (comedy), wrote my own comedy and while I may not have the most competitive commercial reel still, it's funny and enjoyable to listen to.

If you are thinking of embarking on a career in voice-over, I have some news that will not be comforting. It's going to take time, a long time, to get good at it. You know how Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something? Well, he is correct. You're looking at 10,000 hours. Unless you are a natural (you might be, but they are few and far between), you are looking at a minimum of 5 years to get decent enough to where you can compete in the market.

If you live in a town or a city that has a reputable voice-over coach, take lessons with that person. Know that you are going to be bad at it for a very long time. That's just par for the course. Don't take it personally. Keep going and don't give up if it's what you really want. I went to my class religiously every week for a year. I was terrible at first and I knew I was terrible. But, I kept going and it eventually got easier. I can't believe that now I can look at a piece of copy (that's the script) and know what to do with it within minutes. Everything I've learned is finally clicking into place.

People seem to have the impression that doing voice-over work is easy or that having a good sounding voice is all that you need. Neither of these things are true. While it's great if your voice sounds good, in my opinion it's the people who have the really weird, quirky, unique and unforgettable voices who have an edge over the rest of us. Whatever your voice is like, it's what you do with it that matters. It takes a long time to learn all of the things you need to know how to do to have a career in voice-over.

On October 30th, I took part in an inaugural event for the Seattle non-profit, Sound Mental Health. The event was called Eliminating Stigma Through The Arts and it was an honor to be a part of it. Gayle Johnson, Chief Development Officer, for SMH feels that the way mental illness is perceived and treated by society is a civil rights issue and Gayle is definitely a trailblazer and a bright light in bringing this issue to the forefront. Mental illness is such a taboo subject in our society and nobody wants to talk about it. It is estimated that one in four people will suffer a mental health crisis in their lives. One in four. That's an extremely large portion of the population. That means we will all be touched by mental illness in one way or another. That means that we will either know someone who has been afflicted, or we ourselves will be. I don't know if that statistic takes into account the many soldiers who will return home with mental health challenges.

This past week has been an exciting one. I met with Gayle Johnson, Chief Development Officer, at Sound Mental Health about my one-woman show. The show is something I've been working on and developing since earlier this year. The first incarnation of it was seen at Stone Soup's XX Fest 2.0 and it was well received. We had a full house and the audience seemed to enjoy what they saw. Gayle has generously offered to take my show to the next level. She's putting together a special fundraising event in October and I'll be performing the next evolution of my show!

While I wasn't expecting to perform it again so soon (what I really mean is I didn't expect to get down to business and write the next draft!), I'm thrilled and honored to be a part of this evening. My performance will be just one part of the evening. The other will be hosted by two local authors, a mother and daughter, who wrote an amazing memoir about mental illness.

Together, we will all work with Sound Mental Health to do what we can to eliminate the stigma of mental illness and hopefully create awareness. The statistics are that 1 in 4 people will at some point in their lives experience a mental health crisis, and currently 1 out of 6 people lives with a mental illness.

We need to do some paradigm shifting here, folks. Awareness is key and it's important to know that mentally ill people don't act the way they do because they want to or on purpose. They act the way they do because they can't help it and because of their brain chemistry.

Non-profits such as Bring Change 2 Mind, which was founded by Glenn Close, are working hard to eradicate stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness. Who is society, anyway? It's each and every one of us. By changing our perception of mental illness, we can change the world. One person at a time.