Carrie Olsen wanted a career that gave her flexibility, independence, and the ability to work from home.
She didn’t want to stay in her 8-to-5 job forever. But she wasn’t sure what else she could do.
One day, listening to podcasts while commuting to work, Carrie heard an interview with a voiceover actor. The interviewee described her typical day-in-the-life: working from home, setting her own schedule, carrying her microphone while she travels so that she can work from anywhere.
“Could I do that?,” Carrie wondered. She decided to give it a shot. She hired a coach and began auditioning.
Within a few weeks, she had booked her first voiceover gig — earning $450 for a two-minute recording.
Within four months, she was booking enough work that she decided to quit her full-time, 8-to-5 job. Her “side hustle” turned into full-time self-employment.
She now earns about $10,000 per month as a voiceover actor.
How did she make this transition? How did Carrie battle the fear and procrastination that keeps others from achieving their goals? And what advice would she offer anyone who wants to try voice over acting as well?
Find out in today’s episode.
Whizbo
The Screen Actors Guild has rules about impersonating other actors. You can read more about it here about half way down. http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Crispin_Glover
Or you can hear Crispin Glover talking about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmuGyHb4iHE
J. Money
That’s actually pretty random/interesting! I see they changed the rules after he sued them too.
Roy Lagro @ Band of Savers
Fascinating side hustle. I would love to be able to listen to you guys read your blog posts. And I think that I might have to start reading mine out loud just to help see where the improvements could be made at.
J. Money
Try it! Then let us know how your audience likes it and maybe we’ll copy you 🙂
That podcast I was trying to remember on our show which does this is “Optimal Living Daily” – http://optimallivingdaily.com/welcome-to-optimal-living-daily
He’s read a few of my posts out loud to his listeners so far and it’s been pretty interesting to see/hear 🙂
Here’s the last one he did to give you an idea: http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/e/c/1/ec15420fc197b31c/Optimal_Finance_Daily_036.mp3?c_id=11497446&expiration=1461167325&hwt=58be38cf90e7d6d958342bd111fd9d02
Terry
Thanks for such a fun, interesting and informative interview.
Keep up the good work!
J. Money
yayyy – glad you like!
Ty
hahahahaha – you registered it!
http://www.badvoices.com/
J. Money
I never tell a lie 😉
Lisa
Quite possibly my favorite episode yet! Carrie is so easy to listen to and you can tell she is really excited/passionate about what she does! Very inspiring.
A small constructive criticism – it might be helpful to include links to any blog posts/podcasts/other resources mentioned during the show to the show notes. I was hoping to see all the resources she mentioned on here.
Other than that – keep on keepin’ on, y’all!
J. Money
Awesome! It was one of my favorite shows too 🙂
I hear ya on the show notes stuff too – we’re trying out a new avenue here and gauging how it goes. Your note is being processed!
Also, in case you didn’t catch it, here’s the link to a lot of the stuff Carrie was mentioning on the show: https://carrieolsenvo.com/money/
And here’s a full write-up she did on BudgetsAreSexy a while back too – full of good stuff! http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2015/09/make-money-voice-over-actor/
Dani
Love hearing about other VO’s journeys!
Peter Abraham
Thank you, Carrie, for sharing your story. This will truly help newbies just starting out with voiceover projects. Keep up the good work!
Dani
An interesting read, though I caution anyone ‘with a nice voice’ from thinking it is as easy as this. The subject of the post had that rare combo of talent, good luck and fortunate timing when starting out.
As a full time voiceover myself, I know it would be extremely challenging for a ‘newbie’ to set out on a similar journey at this point in time and expect to ‘afford anything’. The market is quite saturated with these types right now. But hey, good luck!