This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up everybody, welcome to Side Hustle School. Over here in the United States, Thanksgiving is approaching in just a couple of days. It is the end of November, episode 1423 here. If we have not met before, my name is Chris Guillebeau. So glad you're here.
This program is all about creating freedom through an income generating project. And we're trying to help people all over the world who are doing exactly that. This year, 2020 has been our year of interaction. Lots of listener questions and answers. And in fact, that's what I've got for you today.
An Italian living in England is trying to break into the multilingual voiceover market. And she's experiencing some challenges because she's living in England. So this is really interesting because even if you have no interest in voiceover, even if you think this doesn't apply to you, I think there's a bigger principle because in a situation like this, you have a couple of options. We're gonna talk about it after her question in a moment specifically. But generally speaking, your options are to compete traditionally or look for an alternative solution.
And typically in these situations, competing traditionally is difficult. So if you can find that alternative solution, it's probably gonna be much easier. Another example is a story we did last month, episode 1394, about a woman who found a specialization in coaching by focusing entirely on the decision-making process, right? 'Cause lots of people are trying to do live coaching and business coaching, but she was like, "I am gonna help you make decisions. And in fact, if you need me to make decisions for you, I will do that." So that's the broad principle.
Let's see if we can help our caller out specifically with a similar process. Her question is coming up after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Laura from London in England. I've been listening to your podcast since the very start and it's been incredibly helpful to hear about other people's experiences with their businesses. My side hustle is working as a voiceover artist.
And my question is, how can I expand my business? I'm a native Italian speaker, but I'm based in England and a lot of the best paid voiceover projects in Italian are recorded by voiceover artists based in Italy. So the amount of projects I can work on is limited. I've also been doing some projects in English with a foreign accent, but the market is quite small for this. So I was thinking of expanding into other areas like radio presenting.
Is this the right thing to do? Thanks, Chris. And I can't wait to listen to your advice on the podcast. [Music]
Hey, Laura. Thank you so much for calling in.
I'm so glad you've been listening from the beginning. And I think this is a really interesting question. So, you know, I kind of alluded to this in the beginning a bit, and I think you're actually on the right track already. The goal here is to turn what seems like a weakness into a strength. So you have the perceived weakness of, okay, I live in England and most of the voiceover work for my native language is back in Italy.
So the traditional way to compete there is to say, okay, well, how can I, I need to spend more time in Italy. I need to use my visits there to build up relationships. I need to call up talent agencies on Zoom. Maybe I could even pretend to be in Italy most of the time. Like I could just use a local address and, you know, if I needed to be there for something, I could go there, but otherwise I'm just recording in my own studio.
No one needs to know. So that's one approach. But again, if everybody else is trying to compete in a certain way, there's already a market there. You're often going to be better served by looking for another way. So I think Laura is on the right track and thinking about what her advantages could be.
She can do those projects in English for someone looking for a foreign speaker. I think she could also maintain an active profile on sites like Upwork, maybe even Fiverr, where people will bid worldwide. People have lots of different needs. So it could be for Italian. It could be for that particular voiceover need that requires a certain accent.
She mentioned radio presenting. That could be an option. I tend to think more of a podcast or a YouTube channel. Just the idea of, you know, being Italian is also interesting. It reminds me of a story.
I think we did this on Side Hustle School. If not, it's somebody that I used to know who was living in the US, but focused on promoting Italian culture, you know, within the US and I think leading some tours and maybe doing some language trading. But it's really about how do I take the culture that I have and export it in some way or import it as the case may be, perhaps putting my own twist on it somehow. So I think like generally speaking, if you want to do voiceover work, the question is how can you be the person who is known for something specific? And being geographically distant from the country where everyone speaks the language, it does present some difficulties, right?
Like that's why we have the question, but perhaps it has some opportunities as well. So as I said, I think it's interesting. I would love to know what happens. So Laura, let us know. And listeners, if you have a question, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
Love to know what you're working on. We're gonna continue to feature them throughout the rest of the year, along with updates from other listeners as they move forward. It's been quite the year for all of us, no doubt, but I've been very thankful for this community during this time. And not just 'cause it's Thanksgiving week. I'm thankful for you every day.
Thank you so much for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
