The Awesomeness of Having a Stand-Up Partner

Have you heard the term accountabilabuddy or stand-up partner? Accountabilabuddy was originally coined in an episode of South Park. It’s a likeminded person that you meet with on a regular basis, share your daily, weekly and long term goals and how you’re going to get there and, most importantly, hold each other accountable for those goals.

I began working as a stand-up partner with voice talent Kelley Huston in mid-October, shortly after returning from the most incredible voice-over unconference: FaffCon. I was familiar with the concept prior to attending FaffCon, but little did I know how truly awesome and career changing having a stand-up partner is!

Kelley and I meet every weekday via Skype or phone. It’s best over Skype whenever possible so that we can talk face to face. Monday through Thursday, we meet for 15 minutes at the start of each day and on Fridays we meet for 30 minutes for a more extensive “parking-lot discussion.” I keep track of what we discuss in Evernote, so we can easily reference it to make sure we’re both staying on task.

The idea of these 15 minute sessions, is to discuss key points, motivate each other and provide encouragement and solutions to anything standing in our way so we can each have a productive day. We always review these 4 points:

4 – What, if anything, is standing in your way? Then we figure out a way to work around it. 

When trying to find the perfect stand-up partner for you, there are some things to consider:

– Time zone & schedules: these tend to work best first thing in the morning to mentally prepare you for the day.

– Personality: it’s great to have someone with the same priorities and values as you do, but if you’re too similar, or too different, you’re probably not going to work well together. You need someone that can see things from a different perspective but understand and respect where you’re coming from.

– Career: voice-over people who have stand-up partners tend to pair themselves with another voice talent, however, there are some who prefer a partner outside of this industry. There are certainly benefits to both. Ultimately, you should figure out what you need to get out of this relationship and what type of person would be the best fit for you.

– Honesty: you need someone who is going to support you, but push you when you need it. Someone that isn’t going to be afraid to be honest and candid. If you’re always nervous about stepping on each other’s toes, you’re not going to get anywhere.

Since Kelley and I started our stand-up sessions, I have been more productive, happier, better organized and more efficient than I was before. I highly recommend finding your perfect partner as soon as possible to start benefiting from this awesomeness.

image credit: http://glamlifeblog.com/2013/07/