In a world where I get to do exactly what I enjoy doing AND I get paid to do it, well, I need somebody to pinch me right now because my life is almost unbelievable.

Today, I signed a bona fide contract to begin work on a project that I am sure came from heaven. It's exactly the type of project I would wake up every day to complete.
Listen, I make no effort to pretend that I'm an industry veteran in the voice acting world. While I have done a lot of book narrations over the years, I've never considered myself to be a professional voice actor, voice artist, or voice narrator. It has only been recent weeks that I began this journey to make it a hobby-turned career.

If Your Day Job Quits You
We hear it all the time, "Don't quit your day job!" That's fairly good advice for most people. But, what do you do when your day job quits you? What do you do when you go through life working for the "man", putting in countless hours and your best effort toward making him rich, then being thrown out on your behind because the company has a bottom line to maintain? Well, if you're like me... well over the age of 55, then you might have a problem finding a job to sustain a decent living. It's time to look at your alternatives.

If you have a hobby, you might be able to turn your hobby into a "real" job. That's what I did! In fact, when my day job quit me, I decided to find a new, more rewarding way to earn a living. I refused to go back to living a life that depended on someone else deciding how important I was and whether or not I deserved to receive a paycheck that week.

Turn Your Hobby Into Your Job
I enjoy writing. I enjoy reading. And, I enjoy acting. I don't want to come off as bragging, but throughout the years of my life, I have written a few plays, movie scripts, and books. And, people have said I should be a voice actor. I thanked them for the compliments, but no matter how many compliments I received, I never really thought I was good enough to do this on a professional level. I'm just being honest here. But, when a voice coach suggested I seriously consider becoming a voice actor and there was nothing in it for him, I started thinking about it more and more.

Fast forward to today. In real terms, I'm a novice. But, that's OK. I'm still getting "gigs". I feel like, if I can do this, so can others. I'm happy sharing my journey with people because I want to be a living example of how we can take something that God gave us as a natural talent and use it to earn the kind of living we envision for ourselves.

My message for today is... God made you exactly how He wants you to be. So, use your God-given talent to live the life you know you were born to live. There is much more joy in being the real YOU.

I just recorded my first two voice artist demos created to show my ability to read commercials.

Demo 1 is a compilation of general commercials. Demo 2 is a compilation of real estate commercials.

It was a fun process, sitting in the comfort of my little recording studio, in front of the microphone, reading my scripts. Once done reading, I handed the recording to my editor to add music and fine-tune the final output for the demo. The editor did an excellent job of capturing the essence of each commercial. Incidentally, my editor is also my husband, Owner/Producer of Sunset Video Productions. His company produces videos for training and special events.

Now that I have recorded some basic demos, I want to record additional demos to show my talent in producing audiobook narration. I also want to look for work in the video game arena, so ultimately I want to create a demo showcasing that talent as well.

Currently, I have clients who have requested my service to provide outgoing messages for real estate companies. That's a good start. And, I'm also the voice for the soundtrack of the acclaimed exercise book titled "Kindercize".

Special thanks to freeSFX for the
music accompaniment.
www.freeSFX.co.uk