We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jolene Mei a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jolene, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
This is a great question. Firstly, I see resilience as the strength to keep going, even when it gets rough, though moments of success, and even when you may be really questioning the choices your past self has made. I think what keeps me resilient in that aspect, is centering back on the knowledge that great transformation takes slow and steady growth.
Being a solo-preneur isn’t easy. It takes confidence, consistency, discipline, passion, strategy, and it requires me to be my own coach. I’m sure I’m not the only one witnessing the challenges some creatives and small business owners are facing right now in our current economy and in light of the recent Writers Guild and SAG strikes. I choose to believe that I can be successful doing something that I love to do. Sometimes I become worried for my future self, or look back and think of what I “could have” or “should have” done. But in the end, life tells me to be present, keep trying my best, and reminds me that growing isn’t comfortable. I got this, and to any creatives or solo-preneurs out there – you got this.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am an Asian American Voice Over Artist and I see it as my mission to deliver meaningful and high quality voice overs. I also am the podcast host of Diverseek, where we discuss nuanced conversations related to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and access. I truly feel honored to host such wonderful humans and uplift their unique and insightful voices.
I’ve done voice over work for almost 2 years now! I decided to take the leap at the end of 2021 and truly enjoy this work. I think what is most exciting is being part of the creative process and seeing a story or project come to life. My absolute favorite is voicing for meditations. I personally have discovered the impact of meditations and it has really helped me stay centered through the ups and downs of life. I’m super proud to be one of the meditation instructors on Sleep Fruits and Ohms apps. I truly find joy in being a part of something that might make a positive impact on someone listening.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
This is a great question. Three qualities or skills I think were super impactful for me are: the love of learning, being kind to myself, and strategic planning.
It’s easy to be put down by a mistake, especially when you’re the boss or the one handling everything. I learned early on that – it’s completely okay to be human. That includes making mistakes. However, another way I learned to think about it in time, was that each mistake was just a sign post pointing to the next lesson I was supposed to learn. As someone who struggles with imposter syndrome, but loves to learn – this really helped me stay headstrong and not get bogged down by the ups and downs of life.
Maybe readers can also relate – along with dealing with imposter syndrome, I am also a perfectionist and over-achiever. I was a workaholic in my past life, and found purpose in it. If I wasn’t kind to myself, I wouldn’t have reminded myself to take productive breaks, I would burn out, and I would become anxious about not finishing the 7th large task on my list for the day. I can be quite disorganized in my brain, so I overcompensate with organizing externally. I have a few apps I use that really help me stay balanced so that I can be kind to myself. I use Asana to track all of my tasks, I use the Insight Timer app to time self care, and I make an effort to celebrate small wins.
Lastly, I LOVE strategic planning. There’s something about vision boarding and backwards planning that gets me excited. My vision for my life, is that I want to live a life of balance. One where I have extremely productive days and also get to chill in my jacuzzi in my future house. I worked out what I needed to make that dream come true and I’ve broken that out to quarterly goals. Will it work? I’ll just have to find out. But I know I’m taking steps in the right direction.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Okay, this might sound weird and/or relatable – my therapist. I think mental health is so important! (Especially as a millennial who is often sipping her green tea while watching continual challenges happen to the world).
Just having an objectively caring soundboard, to process some things I haven’t yet from childhood – or even from last month – has been immensely helpful. I walk out of sessions feeling more capable and am continually trying to level up in how I can gather energy to face whatever it is I’m avoiding (although this can take time).
I had a lot of self-doubt, and the core of it is probably still rooted somewhere inside me. However, there is also a growing part of my that is being a coach and loving parent to my inner child. I see voice over as a very mentally and emotionally involved craft. So in this case, therapy has really helped me!
Contact Info:
- Website: jolenemeivo.com
- Instagram: jolenemeivo
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Jolene-Mei/pfbid0LiPfVp6b15Q57gHkNsQ2XmyPo68M3SHWg2S1mVFb3LrqCfSX43vUxwyX23Re9Riql/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jolenemeivo/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC19CyDNFOzoj0p-LF4vLn9Q
Image Credits
Arson Sefi
