When Your Why is Bigger Than Your Fear

Have you ever fought against an opportunity?

I have.

For me it was my voiceover career.

For those of you who don’t know me, let me introduce myself. My name is Yolanda Spearman. By day, I’m a Director of Sales for Harley-Davidson Financial Services. By passion, I am a voice actor. In fact, my goal is to become THE go-to Black female voice actor.

But let me tell you something.

I got there kicking and screaming.

When I was 21 years old, I had a dream of being creative for a living. I wanted to earn money through artistic expression—writing books, creating crafts, speaking, performing, and building something that came from my imagination.

Around that same time, a respected radio personality told me that voiceover might be my niche. I listened. Kind of.

You know how we do.

We try something halfway. We give it a little effort. We test the waters. And when it doesn’t immediately work out, we feel justified in walking away.

“Well, I tried.”

That was me.

Years passed.

Then I had children.

And suddenly, the dream wasn’t about me anymore.

My husband – the one many of you know as “My Husband the Mechanic” – and I wanted our children to attend private school. The problem was simple.

We needed more money. About $2,500 a month more.

At the time, I was earning exactly zero dollars consistently from voiceover. I didn’t have professional equipment. I didn’t have an agent. As a matter of fact, I barely knew where to start.  I knew about one website: Voices.com. That’s it.

One evening I showed my husband the brochure about the private school.  I mused over how great it would fit our children and in the midst of the conversation my husband challenged me.

“If you get occasional calls to do voiceovers now that pay pretty well, what would happen if you actually tried?” He suggested that maybe voiceover was my niche.  I brushed him off as usual until…   he made me a deal.

He said “If I could earn at least ½ of the money needed for private school, he would agree to send them there.

In case you didn’t know… A momma will do just about anything for her children.

So I got to work fast.

• First, I took a local voiceover class and connected with the small voiceover community here in Michigan.
• Then I searched for a conference because I knew I didn’t have years to figure this out. I wanted my children in a new school within nine months. I found the Mid-Atlantic Voiceover Conference.

I went.

I learned.

I met people who were already doing what I wanted to do.

Then I came home and built what can only be described as a “studio.”

And when I say studio, I mean a very creative interpretation of the word.

Cheap equipment. Improvised sound treatment and a whole lot of hope.

Finally, I got on that website voices.com and started auditioning as much as I could.

• Lunch breaks.
• Evenings.
• Weekends.

If there was an audition on Voices.com, I would probably submit for it.

And little by little, things started happening.

The first month, I made about $300.

Then $500.

By month six, I was making $1,000 a month.

By month nine, I was earning about $1,700 a month.

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!!! We enrolled the children.

What amazes me now is that the opportunity had always been there.

• The talent was there.
• The interest was there.
• The dream was there.

But the urgency wasn’t.

The full behind my dream wasn’t big enough to push me out of my comfort zone.

Once my “why” became larger than my excuses, I found a way.

• I learned something that changed my life.
• Most people don’t fail because they aren’t capable.
• Most people fail because they never find a reason powerful enough to make them uncomfortable.

A dream is wonderful.

But a purpose?

• A purpose will get you up early.
• A purpose will keep you going when you’re tired.
• A purpose will make you learn skills you don’t have, meet people you don’t know, and walk through doors that scare you.

Today, voiceover has become so much more than a way to pay tuition.

It has become one of the great joys of my life.

And every now and then, I wonder what would have happened if I had listened the first time someone told me this was my path.

Then I smile.

Because maybe I wasn’t ready then.

Maybe I needed a bigger “WHY”.

Maybe I needed my children.

Maybe I needed a reason to pursue my dream that was impossible to ignore.

Because when the why is big enough… you will do the work.

Life isn’t perfect. Neither am I.  But every day give us another chance to get inspired again. 

Yolanda Spearman
THE Black Female Voice Actor