Doctor Does Off-Hours Voiceover Work to Pay Med School Bills

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hey there, welcome to Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. On the show and elsewhere, I often talk about using your existing skills, knowledge, or resources. Again, the skills, knowledge, or resources that you already have. Not something that you have to go out and acquire.

Well, today's story highlights a resource that just about everyone has. What is that resource? Well, everyone has a voice. And the world of voiceover work can be ideal for those looking for a side hustle with low startup costs and an opportunity to work flexible hours. So in particular, today's story is about a doctor with a voice worth listening to who teaches himself the art of voiceover, then goes on to earn thousands of dollars working for some of the world's biggest brands.

He's doing this work to pay off his bills for medical school. So if this sounds interesting to you, well, you'll also learn what equipment he purchased, what website he used to find clients, how he learned to set his rates, and how he's improved as he's gone along. I'll tell you all those things and more after this quick thank you to our sponsor. [Music]

In 2016, Anatol Silach was a recent med school graduate with an abundance of bills to pay. As his funds were running out, he needed to earn some extra cash in between medical work experience and studying for his next board exams.

Anatol had once been a DJ and a friend in the music industry suggested voiceover work. After a few Google searches, he'd learned that voiceover artistry was a booming industry, albeit a competitive one. Anatol decided to see if he really had the right voice for the job. His first step was to figure out what equipment he needed. Some more Google searches taught him the basics for creating a mini home studio.

He was on a tight budget so he didn't splash out on buying high-end gear. He just went to Best Buy and bought a microphone for $150, some acoustic foam for $90, and an audio interface for $200. He used an old box to make a booth and fashioned a pop filter out of a wire hanger and a cut up shirt. From his days as a DJ, he already had good audio software, but he mentioned to us that Audacity and Pro Tools would have been good free alternatives. And as a quick side note, I'm gonna link up all these tools that I mentioned in the show notes page for those who are interested.

I actually use Audacity myself to record the podcast. Back to Anatol, now that he had the tech set up, he needed clients. He wanted to work with big name brands, so he looked around for the best known voiceover website. That website was voices.com, so he invested another $100 in an annual membership. It turned out to be well worth it, as the voices.com team works hard to find new clients and negotiate your rates.

Plus, when a client books a job, their money is held in an escrow account and then paid to you at the completion of the job. So in other words, you don't have to worry about tracking down people to get paid. Anatol's first gigs were tiny and not well paid, but knowing he was brand new to the world of voiceover, he used them as experience, and within a couple of weeks landed a spot with a national client. With his confidence boosted, he went on to grow his list of clients over the next year to include the likes of Corona, Samsung, and Dell. He now earns an extra $500 to $2,000 a month working completely flexible hours.

There are essentially zero ongoing operating costs. While his initial jobs didn't pay well, Anatol has found with a bit of experience he could bring in thousands of dollars for a single gig. Pricing for voiceover work ranges from $100 to $20,000 per job, so it's important to be aware that your income can fluctuate. Most gigs require an audition, which can take as little as three minutes or up to 20 minutes if you need to spend time getting into a specific role. Anatol learned that a good goal to aim for is eight to 10% of your auditions being successful.

The jobs themselves take anywhere from an hour to 10 hours and are charged accordingly. Lots of factors influence rates, including time needed and level of experience, and Anatol also said if you're unsure, bidding in the middle of a client's budget is a good strategy. As time went by, he got quicker at auditioning and saw a steady increase in income. He also saved time by learning to focus on only auditioning for jobs that made sense for his voice and style. He says that getting good at voiceover work is as much about listening as speaking.

A good ear makes all the difference. He often listens back to old recordings, checking for flaws in quality or intonation that he might not have picked up on at the time. And he trains his ear by listening to ads to study the voiceover artist's approach and its effect. He says that Spotify ads are perfect for this. When he was going to school, Anatol had wanted to run a business, but he assumed his first and probably only shot at it would be the medical practice he plans to open in the future.

He's been surprised to find himself with a side hustle business along the way. His focus now is to continue using voiceover work to pay more medical school bills. As his client list grows, so does his profile. So while he's taking more board exams and shadowing people in his specialty, he'll keep using his voice to earn the cash he needs to support himself. This might be a side hustle worth talking about.

All right, in this episode, I mentioned a number of different resources, from software to equipment to a website platform where you can go and find voiceover work. Gonna link all those things up for you in today's show notes. And by the way, I believe this story came from one of our listeners. So just a quick reminder that if you're out there doing a side hustle or maybe the show has helped you in some way, or even if you've been doing this completely independent of the show, whatever it is, I'd love to hear about it and possibly feature it to other listeners. We have a global community of people doing all kinds of interesting things.

And if you wanna tell me about your project, just go to sidehustleschool.com/about. And when you scroll down, there's a link that says submit your side hustle story. So if you have a story, I would love to hear from you. If you know somebody else, send them there so that we can get them in the mix as well. Also, if you have a comment or question, you can give us a call on the Hustle hotline.

That number is 8449 Hustle or 8449487853. You could also send me an email. That address is podcast@sidehustleschool.com. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Those show notes I mentioned are at sidehustleschool.com/489.

Only 11 episodes to go until we hit that big 500 milestone. I'm excited about that, but also the best is yet to come. Thank you for listening. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.