Follow my heart or follow my head/wallet

Rerolled bros, a new chapter in my life is at hand and I don't have that many ways in my life of getting feedback. So I turn to the interwebs for some career advice.

I'm 41 years old and have always had neutral feelings about "climbing the ladder". So, many of my jobs have been modest and even mundane. From third shift convenience store worker to a manager of a multi-million dollar commercial business for a large box retailer. These jobs have always allowed me the time to pursue the finer things in life (like gaming ).

Throughout most of my adult life, since I was 27 everyone has made comments about my voice. Teamspeak and ventrilo were probably the first validations of my voice. It was nice to be known for something like having a nice voice. It was something I started to take pride in. When I gave into the temptations of Everquest in 99', Guildies would say, "Oh you have a great voice, you should be on the radio". The women I've been with over the years have always told me the same thing, "you should be the movie trailer guy" or "you should be a phone sex guy". I never listened to any of them nor took them seriously, until recently. I've beenaddictedto games until this year. Games were my life. Everquest to WoW, Battlefield to Minecraft and Skyrim to Fallout 4.

I started learning about audio quality and what makes a voice sound "good". Got better microphones and started using my voice to help with my social shyness. It was if I had two personalities. My online gamer persona and my professional work-a-day personality. (Now that I write it down, I guess we all have something similar to that). In 2006 I signed up at voice123.com, made a profile and attempted to "give it a shot". The thing was though, I was lying to myself. I didn't take it seriously and I was never invested in the business of voice talent. It became a hobby.

So, I've been working for a big box retailer since 2005 and have become very comfortable with my performance and role in that company, almost complacent. I was shuffled back and forth, from department to department until finally landing at where I had started, commercial sales. I enjoy the hell out of the people I manage and customers I deal with.

My frustration with gaming and some self-actualization led me to a conclusion this January 5th, 2016. "Gaming was stopping me from committing to achieving success with my career". If I could put the same amount of effort that I put into playing/mastering games towards learning the ropes of becoming a commercial voice talent I know I can be successful. So... since early January 2016 I've invested in audio equipment, purchased materials to design an in-home voice studio. Over the past 2 months I started absorbing EVERYTHING I could online about audio engineering and editing. I feel like I did when I was learning how to tank in EQ, how to pull mobs as my monk, heal as a priest play at the top levels of gaming. Until 2 days ago...

An opportunity at my day job has arisen. It's a large step up in salary (I would go from making 45k a year to making over 75k) I'm presently an hourly wage employee, this promotion would be moving into a salaried position with a bonus structure and stock options. The prestige, the money and the experience would be wonderful (if I cared about any of those things, which I don't). I've never cared about money or ambition, I've just lived my life and comfortably as it would allow.

My heart really wants to pursue/attempt the voiceover path, but my head keeps thinking I should just try and make this new corporate position work since it's more money but I don't think I would enjoy doing it. It's only been two months in actually attempting to learn about the voice stuff, but it's been extremely exciting learning it and I'm getting positive feedback from people on reddit, youtube content creators etc. A lot of people seem to think I sound good enough to make it work possibly even be successful at it.

If you're interested in listening to some of the sample recordings I've done over the past month here's a link to my SoundCloud profile.https://soundcloud.com/chriskanevoiceoversI would also appreciate any feedback/criticism about my voice. (I know the engineering/mixing is spotty at best so go easy on it). /shameless plug


If anyone has been through a similar "follow your heart or follow your head" situation before I would be grateful in hearing about it.


TL;DR, I can make more money by accepting a corporate promotion, or I can stay in my current position but have the time and effort to drive a voiceover career.

Thanks for you time and sorry about the wall of text.

Palum_sl said:

Why not both exactly?

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Why not both? My hours worked per week would also increase to the point where the time I use now to train the voice stuff would be severely cut. (That's part of the reason, the other part is I don't really have any emotions connecting me to the type of work I would be doing) It's just bullshit sales.

If you truly want opinions, can you list some examples of jobs you would take? Have you contacted an agent/company that does it? Done any auditions?

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Jobs I would take include, narration, corporate e-learning, explainer, radio/tv and web based ads.

I'm cutting my teeth by working with some youtubers doing children's history videos. Also, working with a web-drama group doing voice acting (short stories/adaptations). I'm using CastingCallClub, VoiceActingAlliance, Reddit etc to get some experience. I've won a few auditions for fan dubbed stuff, but nothing major. I'm not diving into the Pay-To-Play sites like voices.com etc yet.

When I committed to doing this in January, I knew it would take at least 4-6 months of learning before I was competent enough to not sound like a total amateur. I had planned on going this whole year by being persistent and learning every day. That is, until this day promotion is dangled in front of me.

Tarrant_sl said:

Take the promotion, use money to save up and work towards your dream, just at a slower pace. Dreams are great, but they take money to finance and the idea of a starving artist is noble but no one truly enjoys that life.

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I wouldn't be starving. I would simply remain in my current position and pursue the voice thing the way I am now, nights and weekends. But you're right, it would be a slower pace. Still attainable but much slower.

Tarrant_sl said:

You'll go from 45k a year to 6 figures probably after bonuses and stock. You can still work on your dream, just at a much more comfortable pace and in-between both, take a trip somewhere and enjoy your life.

You can easily do both without feeling like you are selling out. I know single moms who work 2 jobs and go to school full time, if there are people out there who can do that, you can figure a way to make this work and position yourself for a much better life no matter the outcome of your voice over career, be it successful or not.

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This is really good advice, the stuff I need to hear. It's just funny how this conflict didn't exist 3 days ago and how it's made me realize that the thing I really wanted to dive into full steam might not happen for a while if at all.

Lyrical_sl said:

Why does "Here's to the Crazy Ones" sound so rapey?

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Because I'm not a professional, and you're retarded.

Corndog_sl said:

I run into this all the time. People can never find the time to do their "passions/dreams" They always say I work too much etc. The reality is, it's not your real dream if you can't find the time for it. People say thing like I work 60 hours a week at my job. I don't have time to do X. Yes you do, you choose not too.

You've got 168 hours in a week. Lets pretend you actually work 60 hours a week, which most people don't They work like 45 and claim it's 60. Then you've gotta sleep. Give yourself 8 hours a day. That leaves you with 52 hours for everything else in your life. Lets say you persue your dream 40 hours a week. And it leaves you 12 hours for travel/eating/whatever each week. People who say they can't find the time/worried they'll have enough time just don't want it bad enough. Talk to any business owner who is really trying. At the begining you'll work 100 hours every week. It's no different if you work for someone else for 60 of them, then 40 yourself.

So do yourself a favor. Take the higher paycheck, and still spend your 40 hours a week on your side business and be happy that your day job pays for all the equipment etc for your side business that is most likely going to fail. Instead of giving it 100% of your attention and failing anyways.

Just do your daily grind at work, and then do fiverr gigs after work doing voice overs to learn the business. Then if you love it keep giving it more time. You can always quit your high paying job because your own business is too successful. But you can't magically make a high paying job appear once you're done giving up on starting your own business.

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Thanks for advice bro.