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Listening to a podcast on a long commute led to a perfect-fit career as a voice over actress for Carrie Olsen. If you listen carefully, you will hear her voice in a number of places, like Disney, AT&T, Xfinity, Pandora and others. Today, Carrie not only serves as a distinctive voice for commercials and online training --she now equips and coaches others who want to join her as a voice over artist. Her life story is one of resilience, perseverance and decisive action....
Begin Again is for people in the second half of life who sense that the identity they've been carrying no longer fits. Host Winston Faircloth — spiritual director, daily poet, and fellow traveler — brings honest conversation, personal story, and original poetry to the journey of remembering, releasing, and returning to who God created you to be. Visit www.myreuniontour.com for more resources.
Hey there, it's Winston Faircloth, and welcome back to the Begin Again podcast. Today's guest is Carrie Olsen. She is a voiceover actor, and she has a really interesting story to share with us today. She discovered voiceover after having her first daughter, and she from mere months from having this discovery, she quit her corporate role to pursue her dream career. Today, she's in high demand and represented by one of the most prestigious voiceover agencies and talent managers in the nation.
Winston Faircloth:She's done commercials. She has done jingles. She has done internal educational projects for some of the biggest logos that you've ever heard of. Walt Disney World, AT and T, Bayer, Tiffany, seven Eleven, Taco Bell, Kmart, and many, many more. I'm so thrilled to have Carrie on the podcast today.
Winston Faircloth:So Carrie Olsen, welcome to the Begin Again podcast.
Carrie Olsen:Thanks for having me, Winston.
Winston Faircloth:I'm so excited to have you and to share your wonderful story here with our audience in terms of your own Begin Again moments. And I know that you've experienced a number of those over the course of your life. So why don't you tell us a little bit first about who you are and the people that you serve?
Carrie Olsen:Sure. So I'm Carrie Olsen. Professionally, right now, I am a voice actress. I do voiceover work for TV and radio commercials, elearning, promos, really any anytime that you hear a voice and don't see a face, that's the type of work that I do. But I feel like that's a broad question.
Carrie Olsen:Who do I serve? I think of my family also. So I definitely serve my family and my clients, and I have students that I help to teach about voiceover and business and entrepreneurship.
Winston Faircloth:I don't think I've ever met a voiceover artist before. So how in the world did you get into that line of work?
Carrie Olsen:It's a long story. The short version is when I was, right after I had my first daughter, Amelie, I knew I wanted to do something different. I was working in corporate doing creating online training for an international construction company. And I actually really liked my job, but I had this long commute. I was away from home all day, and I wanted to do something where I could be with my family more.
Carrie Olsen:And on my way to work was listening to a podcast and heard an interview from another a voice actress and wasn't looking to get into voice over. Didn't even know the voice over was a job, but something about her interview, I I something just a light bulb went off. And I thought, oh my gosh. That sounds like something I could do. And I started getting training from her and eventually started booking work.
Carrie Olsen:And things began to just escalate, and eventually, I was able to quit my job to do voice over full time.
Winston Faircloth:That's amazing. I love when you find your gift and you're able to step into it and really express yourself as you are uniquely created to do. So I bet you've had some begin again moments in your life so far. What one would you like to share with our audience today?
Carrie Olsen:I'm trying to think of ones that would be most beneficial. One that comes to mind, even before that one where, you know, I wanted to you know, when I realized I wanted to switch careers to be with my family more, my husband and I, as we were engaged, had to overcome a potential foreclosure. And so we started our first year of marriage getting out of this giant hole. So that was a truly begin again moment because we were literally beginning our marriage and then also having to resolve this huge financial burden. We ended up doing a short sale, but it was a house that I had brought into the marriage.
Carrie Olsen:That was a huge catalyst for so many things. We had so many conversations about finances during our first year of marriage. That was huge for us because finances are one of the things that a lot of couples do not like to talk about. And, you know, it's a huge source of, contention in a lot of relationships. And we got really good at it because we had to do it so much early on in our marriage.
Carrie Olsen:Yeah. So that was huge for us in a lot of ways.
Winston Faircloth:Yeah. Bet it set a great foundation in terms of your all's communication as a couple, because if you can conquer that mountain and that level of conflict, you know, it sets you up really well for lots of other things in your marriage. What were some of the things that you all had to do to become more resourceful in terms of digging yourself out of, you know, that that situation?
Carrie Olsen:We were the most most committed people to our budget that you've ever seen. We did a monthly budget religiously and not only projecting what we were gonna spend, but looking over how we did the last month, cutting out expenses. You know, we lived in we didn't have a car for a while. We rode on scooters for a little bit. My husband had a company car, so we, you know, we had that for a bit, but, you know, didn't own one for a while, then a friend gave us one eventually.
Carrie Olsen:So we walked a lot. We were fortunate enough to live in Midtown, which is pretty walkable. So we walked a lot of places. It was a time of life that we kind of saw it as a challenge, and it was it was actually kind of fun for us. Now not it wasn't all fun, but that part, we dug in enough that we kind of we knew that we were doing ourselves a favor in the long run, which made it a lot easier to do.
Winston Faircloth:Yeah. So I think you've you know, one of the things that happens during these really difficult seasons is that it builds resilience in us. It builds unknown capability that we didn't have before. Right? It shows us that we can do things when we put our minds to it and we can get things done.
Winston Faircloth:And that's got to feel really empowering to you all as a couple to see these things that you were able to knock off the list. And then when you feel other challenges, it's like, well, heck, we got that done. What else can we take on? Right?
Carrie Olsen:Absolutely. And when you mentioned it laid a foundation for communication, we didn't realize that was happening. So for us, we were having all these conversations about money. And what ended up happening was when you talk about money, it's a deep rooted issue. So you bring in things from your past, from your childhood, things that you didn't even know that you were bringing into the money conversation.
Carrie Olsen:So we got to know each other really well. And that we felt like we experienced ten years of marriage in that one year because of all of the financial conversations that ended up being conversations about all these other things. So, yeah, our communication was just put on overdrive.
Winston Faircloth:So you had a corporate career before you've taken on this new season of life. Tell us a little bit about that and what you were doing and then how you made that shift into what you're doing now.
Carrie Olsen:Yeah. So I did a few things. When I I live in Kansas City now and when before I moved here, was working at an energy company, in the accounting department and got laid off. Ended up moving to Kansas City on a whim. Not on a whim, but I had a I had a friend here.
Carrie Olsen:This is before I was married, and she was like, you should move to Kansas City. And I was like, well, I have a job, but I can't move. Well, I got laid off. So was like, well, I got I don't have an excuse now. So I just packed up a a U Haul trailer, moved to Kansas City.
Carrie Olsen:When I got here, I I moved here without a job. So I started temping, and I worked in the HR department of a different energy company. Ended up getting hired on there full time. Did that for a few years. Really fell in love with online training because I was in HR and this is when the company was starting to move things from in person training to online training.
Carrie Olsen:And I was the most tech savvy person in the department so I got to do the online training. I was like, I really like doing this. Ended up having another connection who worked in the online training department of a construction company and got to apply for a job there and worked there doing exactly what I wanted to do. And I loved it. And that's actually the first well, the first voiceover jobs I got were narrating my own online courses that I built.
Winston Faircloth:And those skills have become so valuable in our current climate. Right? I mean, there's some you know, we're at, as we're recording this, we're in a season of social isolation and people having to kind of work more from home, distance learning, distance working, all kinds of things that are going on. And the skill sets that you acquired during that season have got to you know, they're in high demand right now in terms of so many people who just aren't familiar with all the capabilities that we have today online.
Carrie Olsen:Yeah. I I really I feel fortunate that all of the things that I've been doing so, there was a time when I did database development. Just kind of learned I had a friend that did it, and he was like, you could you know, I'll hire you to do some of the stuff on the side. And all of those things kind of played into what I ended up doing and without knowing that it was preparing me for not just this moment, but this, you know, this business that I have that I love. And it does feel I mean, I know nothing is nothing is secure.
Carrie Olsen:Mhmm. But in this moment, like you mentioned, having the skill set that I have, the skill sets is, you know, really beneficial. That's where everyone is turning right now.
Winston Faircloth:Mhmm.
Carrie Olsen:So it's nice to be here already.
Winston Faircloth:Yes. And, you know, I'm a firm believer that all of our life experiences, both good and bad, are preparing us for the next season that we can be of service to other people. Your story absolutely lines up with that in terms of just all the different breadcrumbs of experiences and opportunities that you got that's prepared you for this. So I'm not sure many of us understand the world that you work in. And so can you give us a little bit of a glimpse into how you go about securing your gigs, your agreements up?
Winston Faircloth:We've had some professional musicians on the podcast. We've had others who are in this space, but just what's the process like in terms of how you connect with your clients and the range of things that you've done for them in the past?
Carrie Olsen:Yeah. If you can see me, I'm in my, I'm in a black box right now. I'm in a booth. It's a prefabricated booth that you can build. So it's in the office of my house.
Carrie Olsen:And this is where I work. You know, it's a it's a small space, but I connect with people all over the world from here. And the way that I get jobs varies and and especially in different points of my business. So right now I get jobs from my agents, well, auditions, and sometimes jobs from agents, my manager, and then I have clients that I've connected with. Some of them, you know, for years I've been doing voice over work for them whether it's elearning.
Carrie Olsen:So I did work for fast food restaurants, you know, teaching people how to make tacos and burritos. If you, you know, get hired somewhere and you have to take this virtual training that teaches you how to make the food, I've I've done that kind of work. Then work for, employees at Disney World learning how to operate the rides. I do a lot of TV and radio commercials. They're playing a Grammarly ad right now on YouTube a ton, and that's me.
Carrie Olsen:One of there are a lot of Grammarly ads, but one of them is me. Let's see. Pandora. You know, if you're listening to streaming radio, you might hear my voice there. Again, commercials, promos, a fairly recent thing I've been doing is voice matching and ADR.
Carrie Olsen:So if there's a sometimes it's for movie trailers. If they don't wanna bring the the actual celebrity back in to to stay aligned, they'll find someone to voice match that person. And so I've been doing some of that lately too.
Winston Faircloth:That's fascinating. That's really cool. So if people are are facing their own begin again moment, you know, they've they've got this crossroads. And what I love about your story so far is that you've really just followed this inner prompting that you've had. It's not been like this master plan that you set out a few years ago to do the work that you're doing today.
Winston Faircloth:What advice do you have for people who are facing kind of that fork in the road? They're facing that moment of decision about whether they go left or right. From your own life experience, what kinds of stories or what kind of advice do you have for people like that who are in that similar situation?
Carrie Olsen:Yeah. I really empathize with people who are in that situation because it's a struggle. It's really hard to know which way to go and all the questions in your head about, you know, what what is right, what's wrong, what is going to be, you know, the most beneficial, and then also just the risks involved with, you know, what what might happen financially if I make this move, but what am I missing out on if I don't? So it's it's a struggle, and I understand I understand how hard that is. I feel like a lot of us know what that thing is that we wanna do if we're honest with ourselves.
Carrie Olsen:If you think about if you flipped a coin, if that's how you were gonna decide, and the coin landed on, you know, choice a, what would your reaction be? Would you go, yay. That's what I wanted? Or, oh, I was kinda hoping it would be b. Like, we kind of have that.
Carrie Olsen:We know what we wanna do. Mhmm. So if you if you know what that thing is, then, it's a matter of evaluating because you have to be responsible too. So you can't just well, this is what I wanna do, so I'm gonna jump off the ledge. So having a support system is really important.
Carrie Olsen:I'm a fan of planning, but with a do it date on the calendar because I know a lot of people tend to plan and then plan and then plan. And they'll keep planning and the thing never happens. So it takes courage to do that, but you put that date on the calendar and you say, alright. I'm I'm gonna prepare as much as I can. And then on this day, I'm gonna go for it.
Winston Faircloth:In your own decision making process, how long is that window typically for you?
Carrie Olsen:For me, it's it's faster for me. If I wasn't if I wasn't married, it would be a lot faster for me. My husband is is good at, okay. Let's slow slow down. Let's consider all of the the ins and outs and make sure that we're prepared.
Carrie Olsen:So I really appreciate that. We're a good team in that way.
Winston Faircloth:Mhmm.
Carrie Olsen:So, it's faster for me, but I think as I'm getting older and as I, you know, have a family now, it's it's a little bit more reserved. But I tend to be a jump in and let's do it person.
Winston Faircloth:Yeah. Mean, were alluding to this kind of paralysis that we could have from time to time where we can overthink the options overthink, you know, the consequences, potential consequences. But one of the things that I've noticed the older that I get is that it works out. Just works out. It works itself out and the thing that even when I've been in a dark season or I, you know, feel like I've made a mistake, it seems like later on, it's like this tapestry that I'm seeing the backside of the tapestry and not the front.
Winston Faircloth:So I really can't see what's going on. All I can see is all the loose strings on the back of it. And I find that that's true. So I don't know that we can make a completely bad decision. I don't know if you have a similar take on that or if you have a different way of thinking about that.
Carrie Olsen:I think that, yeah, the whole hindsight being a twenty twenty thing and and every step that you take is I found in in my journey when I was in jobs that felt like dead end jobs. Mhmm. Those were things that I could still pull and cultivate experiences and things that I've learned that are directly benefiting what I do now. So, yeah, even if it feels like it's a wrong turn or something that isn't headed where you would have hoped, that can that still is enriching. It's still an experience, that I think that you should take advantage of and not just feel like this is a waste of time.
Winston Faircloth:No. And, you know, I think your your story has really borne that out in terms of all the different things that you've done and the and the moving to Kansas City. I mean, heck, that was kind of a a hail Mary, right, in terms of, I'm going there. I have one friend. I don't have a job, I don't have anything really set.
Winston Faircloth:And yet that's turned out really well.
Carrie Olsen:Yeah. Well, one thing that my husband's been really good about when we make decisions together is because he he will tend to be more of the risk averse person, but we can we can literally sit down with each other and say, what's the worst that could happen? And and if you follow that through, a lot of times the worry that we put on ourselves is so unlikely. It's so unlikely that that thing is actually going to materialize, that that's gonna happen. So, to your point of it's hard or maybe impossible to make the wrong decision considering, you know, the worst case scenario is I'm not I'm not gonna say that it couldn't happen, but in our experience, it hasn't.
Carrie Olsen:And I think most of the time, the probability of that is low.
Winston Faircloth:And I think a lot of times if we don't take a step forward, regardless good, bad, or indifferent, we never know. You know, it's one of my favorite sayings is if we stop, the outcome is certain. If we continue, the outcome is limitless. And so it's true in terms of, you know, we can't steer a parked car. We have to take the action.
Winston Faircloth:Even imperfect action is going to give us a data point. It's going to give us a perspective that we didn't have before. So your story beautifully supports that. And I'm so excited that you're sharing that. So people are hearing your voice.
Winston Faircloth:They're saying, Oh my gosh, Carrie, I've got to have her on my team. I've got to have her doing some work for us in terms of what's going on. What are ways that people can connect with you and learn more about what you do and maybe even follow in your footsteps?
Carrie Olsen:Sure. So my website is Carrie Olsen, v o, dot com. And I'll spell that because there are, like, 35 ways to spell Carrie. C a r r I e o l s e n v o as in voice over dot com. And I also have a if you're interested in in learning what it looks like to be a voice actor, I have a free getting started guide that you can get access to by either going to carrieolsenvo.com slash begin again with no space, or you can text the word voice over to 44222.
Winston Faircloth:That's amazing. So if people are interested in becoming a voice actor, what are some of the things that are misconceptions or issues that people should be aware of? I think a lot of people are going, wow. This sounds like the pretty cool way to to earn a living.
Carrie Olsen:It is a very cool way to earn a living, but there are absolutely misconceptions. I think the biggest one is that I'll tell a story to illustrate this. The first time I told someone that I hired a voiceover coach, my friend laughed at me and said, why do you have a voiceover coach? Why do you need someone to teach you how to talk? You know how to talk already.
Carrie Olsen:But the skill and the practice of voiceover, it's a developed skill. And and, you know, it's voice acting, so there's acting involved. And and it's different than acting in some ways because you you don't have a scene partner. You don't have a set. You know?
Carrie Olsen:You're it's all in your imagination. Then there's the technique part. You know? You're recording yourself. You're editing.
Carrie Olsen:There's microphone technique. There there are a lot of things that go into running a voice over business. And these days, it's not just about the voice. You also have to run the business side. So you're gonna be your own marketer and your own finance person.
Carrie Olsen:I mean, eventually, can hire you could hire that stuff out. But when you're starting out, you're wearing all the hats. So it is 100% a small business. You know, you're an entrepreneur. So all of the things that come along with that, you're doing as a voice talent in addition to your voice over work, which, well, unfortunately, for some is a lot more involved than just being able to pick up a script and read it.
Carrie Olsen:I I've trained with multiple coaches for multiple years and know many people who've done the same. And for a lot of voice talent, I know their biggest expense is the training that they invest in themselves. So it's not as simple as picking up a microphone and talking. I would say that's the biggest misconception.
Winston Faircloth:And, you know, if you look to people who have excellence in what they do, they're often mentored by people who are in front of them and can help them flatten that learning curve. You know, even the greatest singers that we're familiar with have coaches. They have voice coaches. They have breeding coaches. They have a whole host of people that support them and help them get bigger and bigger and level up.
Winston Faircloth:And so advice here in terms of getting yourself under the mentorship of somebody who's a few steps ahead of you is absolutely valuable. And sounds like that's a service that you also provide for clients too in terms of mentoring and coaching other people up to to do what you do.
Carrie Olsen:Yeah. I I really love you know, voiceover was such a huge, just game changer for my family when I was able to come home from work and do this this job that I didn't even know existed, didn't know that I loved, but I love this job. So people started asking me how because I came from the elearning world, I created a course about it. So I've been doing that now just, you know, almost chronicling my journey, you know, through, you know, the courses. So there are plenty of people who've been in the industry longer than I have.
Carrie Olsen:And I learn from them and I recommend people to them. But if you wanna know about how I did it, you know, in the last six years and what my journey's been like and what that's meant for me, I share that on my website, blog, and YouTube channel, and Instagram and courses. You can follow that.
Winston Faircloth:Well, one of my mentors says there's no competition. You know, that we have a unique set of experiences, unique set of gifts, and a unique voice that draws people into our world. And regardless if there are a million people who do quote the same thing we do, no one is quite like Carrie Olsen. So I know that they're going to be blessed in working with you. And I'm so blessed that you could be on the podcast today.
Carrie Olsen:Thank you so much for having me.
Winston Faircloth:So let's draw deeper faith, inspiration and encouragement in our own begin again moments. If you'd like to help others, make sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Remember your honest review helps us spread the word. When you post your review, capture a screenshot and contact us via the link in the show notes. We'd love to send you a gift.
Winston Faircloth:And for more support and inspiration in building your own faith centered mission driven business, visit winstonfaircloth.com for free resources and guides. And remember, the biggest breakthroughs in life and business occur the moment you decide to begin again. I'll catch you on the next episode.