They joke that in LA everyone is a hyphen.

LYFT driver hyphen actor. Waiter hyphen actor.

They call it the gig economy-that side hustle people do while waiting to be discovered so they can live the life of their dreams.

Back in the day I did my time in the gig economy as a waitress, telemarketer and singer of telegrams for a company in New York city called “Renta-Yenta.”

Fine when you’re a 20-something.

But what if you’re a 50-something with dreams of doing voice over in retirement?

You’re got 5, 10, 15 years to go in your current career with responsibilities, a mortgage and a family to support.

You’re busy but you’ve got your eye on the microphone and you really want to get things going before you retire.

So here’s an answer to a question this week on the Inside Voice-over Video Training blog. The question is how can I possibly do voice over if I have a day job? Now, to get things straight, I am certainly not suggesting you quit your day job, because as we were talking in the previous video, this is a freelance position. So you really, as you’re getting started, do need another source of income. So 90% of your time in voiceover is spent marketing and auditioning, and preparing to work, not necessarily doing the actual work. When you get booked for something, it takes a surprisingly short time, and you can do it at home from your home studio. In most instances, after hours or on your own schedule, with a few exceptions. So you don’t need as much time away from your day job as you might think.

Number two, just like any other business you’re starting, you do need to hustle. A lot of that hustling is on the telephone, so you can do that over your lunch break or on breaks. You can send emails and things like that when you’re not during your work hours. I always say that you can progress greatly in voiceover if you have 20 minutes a day to spend consistently on the telephone.

Now, doing that five days a week is going to get you very far, and you’ll make a lot of headway in your voice over business. You can send postcards and emails after hours, not during your day job, okay? Keep your boss happy. But sending out postcards is one of the ways that we market ourselves. That can certainly be done at night or on weekends. And the auditions can also be clustered together and done during breaks or first thing in the morning, or when you get home from work. And when you get booked for an actual job, well, the first voice everybody should learn in voice over is, “I’m been really sick. I can’t come in today.” Right? So you’ll take a personal or a sick day when you get booked for something if you need to. Hope that’s helpful.

In this week’s Inside Voice Over video training blog I’ll show you how to juggle your day job and your dream job. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what I have to say.

Watch this week’s short training video Here Now

After you watch the video be sure to leave a comment. I always love to hear from you so I can support you as you grow your voice over career.

To your voice over success,

Susan Berkley,
Founder, The Great Voice Company

 
P.S. When you’re ready, the first step is my VO Start Here program including a professional voice consultation with our talent advisor and my Perfect Performance on-line training.
To get started, click here now