“What Do You Do For a Living?”
December 7, 2023
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There’s a lot of drama over the question, “What do you do for a living”. Some of that comes from the fact that what a
There’s a lot of drama over the question, “What do you do for a living”. Some of that comes from the fact that what a person does for a living does not necessarily define who they are. And I wholeheartedly agree. But ever since my answer to that question has become “Professional Voice Over Artist” I really enjoy being asked that question. And it’s for more reasons than you might think.
Before my job as a Professional Voice Over Artist, I was a salesman for a company that sold John Deere Equipment. It was a good job but didn’t elicit the same kind of questions that being a Voice Over Artist does. And that’s because being a salesman for a John Deere company is pretty straightforward and people understand that job. They know where they can go to meet another one of them and many of the people I’ve met could probably very well have done my job!
Since beginning Voice Over, however, most of the people I meet are fascinated by that answer. Most have never heard of that as a career and even fewer have any idea how someone would get into that career (If you’re wondering how to get into it yourself, check out this blog post here). Most people think that you have to have a silky smooth voice to do what I do but the fact of the matter is that most people could become Voice Over Artists. Sure, some of my silly accents and my ability to change my voice certainly help me get different kinds of jobs but for the most part, a lot of my work is just talking like a regular person to make a video or commercial sound compelling.
The other reason I love telling people I’m a VO Artist is because I get to talk about how amazing it has been to start my own business. When I was a salesman, my job was to make our company money and as long as I did, I got paid. The more money I made for the company, typically, the more money I made. It hit me one day, though, that, in order for me to make a little bit of money, my bosses had to make a lot more money. So I decided that if I went into business for myself, I would be making more of the profit than I had been for my previous job.
Now, that doesn’t mean I’m making lots more money yet. In fact, I’m not even making what I was making as a Youth Pastor yet! But the fact is that every job I do, I’m seeing the financial results of. The more work I do, the more money I’m able to make. Not only that but, one of the most freeing feelings about owning your own business is that you’re always working for yourself. I get to make the decisions about how I spend my time. And if I schedule things so that my day is slower, I’m able to take some time off to go be with my wife and our 4 boys.
I would be lying if I said starting your own business isn’t a little stressful. I’ve had to look into getting an actual accountant, setting up an LLC, and more. All things that I wouldn’t have to do at a regular job. Running your own business means a lot more responsibility but the fact is that every job I do, I’m seeing the financial results of. And getting into Voice Over has a very low cost of entry and it’s a ton of fun!
If you think you’d like to learn more about getting into Voice Over yourself, read this article I wrote. And if you’d like to hire a Voice Over Artist who loves what they do and will make sure that you’re happy with the final product, please reach out to me. I would love to help you see if I would be a good fit for your media!
There’s a lot of drama over the question, “What do you do for a living”. Some of that comes from the fact that what a
So you’ve heard of Voice Acting and think it might be something you’d be interested in. Where do you start? When I got started in
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