And she does it by working 1-3 hours per day... max!
Please, introduce yourself and your business
My name is Alice Everdeen. I'm a voice actor (and user generated content creator and speaker.) I also travel the country full time in a school bus conversion. 🚌 @lifestooshortbus
When did you realize you enjoyed VO work?
When I was a kid, I would mimic radio announcements and voiceover talent on commercials. I didn't realize it was a job until I got older. I gave it a try and loved it, despite sucking at it in the beginning.
I loved how playful and creative the industry is, how I could work on my own terms, have no coworkers and minimal contract with clients, and of course the ability to make money yapping was pretty awesome. I did that for free anyway.
What did the road to getting your first client look like?
I got my first client on Fiverr, actually. But my first clients off Fiverr were small charities and nonprofits who I offered to record free voiceovers for to gain experience.
How much did you make in your best year? (Please include profit margin)
Around $140k. Expenses are pretty low for this line of work (mostly just the cost of equipment, memberships, and software), so approximately 90% profit.
When did you notice traction when building your business? The “Oh S**t!” moment, what did that feel like?
I first noticed traction when I couldn't keep up with jobs and I was making more in my "side hustle" than in my career as a content manager at my previous job.
But some of the biggest “Oh S**t!” moments have to include: getting featured in international publications, my first six figure year, hearing myself in media around the world, strangers messaging me and telling me how inspiring my story is, and when I'd realized I'd broken out of the Fiverr voiceover shell.
In the voice acting world, Fiverr is controversial and voice actors on the platform is/were not taken as seriously as talent off-platform.
At some point, I became one of the first voice actors to publicly move from Fiverr into the "other side" of the industry.
When I first made this transition from Fiverr into the "real world" of voice acting, some of the negative feedback from my peers was nearly debilitating.
One of my publication features was posted in a few of the voiceover Facebook groups. At that point, I was a newcomer with no experience who didn't follow the "rules" of the industry, and I'd done abnormally well for myself my first year in business.
The comments from my peers were a mix of positive and encouraging, and downright awful. Of course, I focused on the negative comments and I was devastated.
I asked my boyfriend to help step me down. He laughed it off and told me, "if people don't hate you, you're doing something wrong."
His comment has proven to be true many times, in and out of my career. People don't like change, they don't like when other people don't "follow the rules," they don't like it when idiot newcomers like me do really well for themselves, and unhappy people REALLY hate seeing other people happy.
This concept took me a long time to accept. It will never matter how good I am at my job, how much time I spend volunteering, how many Frisbee throws I give my dog, or how I choose to live my life.
People will always hate you and unhappy people will always take a steamy dump in your Cheerios. You just gotta let it go.
What has been your best marketing marketing channel?
Improving my SEO has been my main goal and the biggest way I've brought in new clients. I took the "lazy" approach to marketing and thought to myself, "how can I reach the largest amount of people while doing the least amount of work?" I decided to let Google do the work for me by overhauling my website, getting write ups in publications, and guesting on podcasts in order to increase my number of reputable backlinks.
I try to avoid cold emails and cold messages. Nobody likes to be pitched to.
How many attempts at building something did you make before you found what you’re working on now? Did you always have an entrepreneurial drive?
I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I've sold knitted goods, soap, and airbrush tattoos before exploring my love for voice acting as an adult. Voice acting was the first thing I'd done that I was good at, enjoyed doing, AND was lucrative.
What is your biggest overhead expense?
Mostly subscriptions
What’s the most important skill you’ve learned?
Counterintuitively, I think the most important lesson I've learned throughout my voice acting and entrepreneurial journey is balance. Work should never be my main focus in life.
Of course it's necessary to make money and live comfortably, but when I'm on my deathbed, I'll never say, "I wish I'd gotten that client" or "I wish I'd spent more hours working on my business." Gotta find that balance.
Life is too damn short.
Aside from that, saying no and standing up for myself was a huge breakthrough for me.
What do you spend the majority of your time doing, in a given week? (I think a lot of people hear entrepreneurs “work,” but may not understand what that means on a day-to-day basis
I've gotten good enough at my job that I spend minimal time recording and editing audio. Maybe 1-3 hours a day, maximum.
Much of my marketing and branding (social media posts and messaging to clients) are on auto-pilot, so I spend almost no time doing that.
After royally screwing up the bookkeeping side of entrepreneurship (helloooooo, taxes!) I'm now educating myself in that regard and staying on top of it.
Since I know the potential impact of AI on my line of work, these days, I also spend a bit of time growing other aspects of my business. For example, I offer an affordable voice acting course and always try to improve that for my members, since the program is new and I'm still making improvements. I'm also looking at ways to bring my course materials and experience into the education space, so I spend some time researching and brainstorming that. I'm always looking forward to it.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when first starting your business?
Talk to a CPA. Like, yesterday.
I wish I'd stuck to what worked and spent less time testing the waters in other areas to see if they'd pan out. I should have realized my strengths and weaknesses and intentionally decided how I wanted to spend my time.
For example, I value my free time and get quite a bit of work on my own. I probably shouldn't have joined online casting sites and gotten an agent, because I didn't have time for all the auditions that rolled in.
Though I did learn a ton in the process, I appreciate that, because it made me a better voice actor and entrepreneur.
The world of entrepreneurship can be misleading. Many people think it’s always easy and always glamorous. What’s a big problem you’ve faced as a business owner and what were the emotions behind it?
In the beginning, I thought people would be happy for me stepping out of a 9-5 and into entrepreneurship. On the contrary, many people were unsupportive and nervous for me.
I stopped talking to family and friends about it, which was disheartening but necessary, and ultimately, was an excellent decision.
Balance was also a difficult concept for me to learn. In the beginning, I was so excited by this new world that I found myself passionately working at all hours. I'd answer messages in the middle of the night, think about work as soon as I woke up, and hyper-fixate for hours.
On top of that, I always equated my self-worth with my job title, success, and performance. This was an awful combination. During my first year as a business owner, I lost myself a bit.
After a few difficult talks with my boyfriend, I'm a lot better now and make time for the things that I love.
Many people don’t know where to start in the business world, they feel stuck. They may want to start a business to become their own boss and create their hours. What is your best advice for someone who feels completely stuck?
Many people wait for the perfect moment to start their business or follow their passion, and others are so afraid to fail that they never get started.
The reality of the situation is there will never be a "right" time to follow your dreams or start a business. Be brave, not perfect.
If you fail, who cares? Failure means you learned an important lesson, and you can always try again. And at worst, you have a hilarious story to tell around a campfire. ;)
