Do you know my name? My full name in the Yorùbá Language means God’s gift never ends or God’s grace never ends. It’s a name I wear with pride. It’s a name that when pronounced correctly and used to get my attention, makes my head swell (with glee). I encourage you to try it sometime… not too often though so that it doesn’t lose its charm. Little did my parents know the kind of impact that name would have on me.
I was reflecting the other day and I realised voiceovers are God’s gift to me that keeps on giving, in a sense a gift that seems to never end. As a young child, when asked by adults “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I can assure you, my list of potential answers did not include becoming a voiceover artist. I never planned to go into producing voiceovers, let alone to do so full time and yet, this is where I find myself and I am so grateful for it.
Here are a few things being a VoiceOver artist has afforded me:
* Location Freedom
* Time Freedom
* An interesting conversation starter
* Compliments ☺️
* The ability to pursue a few other interests and build a portfolio career
I’ll go through each of these.
Location & Time Freedom
* Most of my clients are actually based outside of the UK and I have only needed to see 2 clients face-to-face in my entire voiceover career. Although I spend most of my time in the UK, I do have the flexibility to travel and work from anywhere as long as I take my recording equipment and portable vocal booth with me.
* The downside to this is that you miss out on office banter you might get from working in a company. There are VoiceOver meet-ups online that could act as a helpful substitute.
* Last year, I was away from the UK, in Nigeria and Benin Republic for just under 2 months. I went to Nigeria to be with family during the funeral proceedings for my grandmother. I was grateful I was able to spend an extended amount of time with family in that period without having to rush back to the UK. Before I left the UK, I had decided at some point that I wanted to visit more African countries, so I decided why not go to the country next door and see what I find… This was how I ended up in Benin Republic. It was an adventure and a half! Let me know if you want me to tell you that story in another post. I did a few voiceovers whilst out there and filmed a tour video for a co-working space there. If you’re ever in Benin Republic check out Espace Konnekt. Tell them Ore Apampa sent you and they should treat you extra well. 😁
Interesting Conversation Starter & Compliments
* These were never the goal when I stumbled into voiceovers but they’re certainly a nice perk!
* Often times when I tell people what I do, I get people saying variations of
* “Wow, that’s so cool!”, “I’ve never met anyone who does that before”, “You have such a cool voice, I can see why you do voiceovers” and “How did you get into voiceovers?”
* My thoughts here are: I have to admit… compliments are nice 🙈. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside... sometimes. 🥰
* I also get feedback from clients too saying how they enjoyed working with me and how skilled I seemed to be. They don’t realise how much fun I have when doing voiceovers. I literally get paid to have fun!
* If you’re curious to know the steps I have taken towards becoming a voiceover artist by the way, check out my previous post where I outlined the steps I took. I’ll also write another post on how I stumbled into voiceovers. It’s an interesting story to tell - if I do say so myself. 😅
The ability to pursue a few other interests and build a portfolio career
* This is a big one! The side gig became the main thing! I decided to pursue voiceovers full time after having it as a side gig for many years because I wanted to pursue other life and career goals that are important to me which traditional 9-5.30 /6 /end-when-the-work-is-done-😪 would not have allowed for.
* I reasoned that as the years went by, it would not get any easier to pursue the things I wanted. So, I made plans (financial and otherwise) and took the plunge.
* I’m one of those multi-hyphenates. I do this and that and many other things in between and I am happiest (although sometimes stressed too) when I have multiple things going at the same time. I have come to accept the fact that I am a skilled Generalist and I wear the badge with pride.
* I am interested in education on the African continent and contributing to improvements in quality, accessibility and availability. You’ll get me really excited if we talk about edtech and the possibilities on the continent. I’ll have to tell you more about this on another day.
* I started working on a startup called Pathfound, with my co-founder @Femi Longe to help African High Schoolers understand the world of careers and in a sense support them and their parents in finding their unique paths. We’ll be exposing them to career options they may never have imagined. Follow our page on Linkedin and other social media (Facebook, Twitter) to get updates. We’re looking to launch soon and you can sign up to be one of the first to use the platform.
* If you’re a parent, uncle, auntie, educator, or someone who cares about the kids around you... You might want to score extra points by being the one to introduce them to Pathfound. They’ll love you for it. Drop me a DM if you would like to find out more.
* I’m also doing a PhD (part-time 😅 - thank God 🙌 ). Ah… I’ll have to give you this gist another day. The amount of imposter syndrome I’ve had to fight through… 😭 I’ll save it for later.
* The PhD is at Lancaster University and it’s in Technology Enhanced Learning, or as I like to say “Edtech for short”. The goal here is to also see how my research in education technology can positively impact the African continent. If you want to talk about this send me a message.
* I’m also quite involved in a church I attend. I have made wonderful friends-turned-family over the years and I volunteer in different capacities where I can. I love my church community and the work they do in the wider community.
There are a few more things I am involved with which I won't be able to go into detail with but you get the point I'm trying to make, right?
I should end the post here before I write to a length that no one will read. If you got this far, please leave a laughing emoji 😂 in the comments to let me know. I appreciate you 🤗.
I realise after writing this post, that I’ve left quite a few loose ends:
* What I thought I would be when I was younger
* How I stumbled into voiceovers
* My adventure in Benin Republic
* My imposter syndrome PhD story
* The story behind how my name was chosen and how to spell it in Yorùbá.
Let me know which one you want to hear about next in the comments and I’ll prioritise the most popular ones.
Until next time… Try your best! Live life to the fullest… You only have one, use it well.
Ore
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About the author
Hi 👋, I'm Ore Apampa. I am an entrepreneur and voiceover artist based in the UK but I do love to travel so I'm not always there. I share stories about my experience being a voiceover artist whilst doing a PhD and being a startup co-founder. I'm hoping sharing the things I learn on my journey will help other people a few steps behind me on their journeys. Subscribe to my newsletter - Ore's Gist to be notified when I post something new.
