May 2024 – Although the tax man gutted me this past month for last year, that’s a sign that my voiceover business really grew last year. Add to that that this past month, I had my most lucrative week ever. It’s so exciting to see how things are unfolding for my voiceover business, Voiceoverpro.co, and to see how my related businesses with my wife Voiced By Us and PoliticalVoiceovers.com continue to grow!

As part of my voiceover business in April I added three more audiobooks. One was the fascinating book by Barry I. Gold, PhD, titled We’re Overdosed.  Gold is a retired pharmacologist, and he writes all about opioids and their relatives, offering unique perspectives on the drugs and their related crisis.  The other audiobooks were two different versions of the novel Irwin’s Luck by Veeraj Lal. Lal hired me first to do the audiobook for the developmental version of the book, then surprised me about a week later also requesting an audiobook for the ebook version. Each was a slightly different story creating a new challenge for me to dip back into a story but also attend to the details between the two stories.

So far this year, these are the audiobooks I’ve produced:

• Irwin’s Luck (ebook version) by Veeraj Lal
• Irwin’s Luck (development version) by Veeraj Lal
• We’re Overdosed by Barry I. Gold, PhD
• The Art of an Organizational Leader by Raymond Friedman
• From Turmoil to Triumph by Anton Dabbs
• My Invisible Father: Turn on the Light to See the Unseen by Jaer Armstead-Jones
• Princess Max Conquers the World by Kevin Cripe

On that topic, here are the audiobooks I completed in 2023:

• Burned Out by Dean Mafako, M.D.
• The Beginner’s Guide to Wholesaling Properties: From Finding Deals to Closing Sales by Erick M. Medina
• A Book for Someone by Jim Heaney (co-narrated with my wife Rachel)
• Reality According to the Scriptures: Initial Reflections by José Soto
• Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Invisible but Seen by Alan Seabell
• The Path to Senior Product Designer: An Actionable Growth Plan for a UX Design Career by Artiom Dashinsky (actually, an online course)
• The Impact of 2 Second Lean by Paul A. Akers
• The UnChristian Christ: Modern Christianity & Jesus of Nazareth by Kerry Morris
• The Balance Equation: Find Your Formula for Living Your Best Life by Rob Fiance and Stuart Rosenblum
• David Is a Vampire and It Sucks by Nicholas Mahr
• From 0 to 500 Properties in 5 Years: A Playbook on How to Grow Your Short-Term Vacation Rental Inventory by D. Brooke Pfautz
• TWiNKLE: The Light Within by Grace Leader
• Grace Life: The Authentic Path to Activate Your Superpowers by Grace Leader
• Olly & The Spores of Oak Hill by Glenn Somodi
• ChatGPT – Is the Future Already Here? by Rodrigo Serzedello
• Galaxy’s First Super Heroes by Herman Bray II
• The male narration of Living in Endless Love by Samuel J. Boucher, edited by ShaNee N. Boucher
• The short story “Occam’s Kitchen Knife” by Bridger Cummings for an anthology audiobook
• 30 Days to Your First Real Estate Wholesaling Deal by Steve Kiernan II
• A chapter of Trial by Fire (The Inner Realms Book One) by Eric Patrick Shriey

In addition to voiceovers, this year I’ve continued working on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as the host’s stand-in. I’ve been there for about a decade, for the most part since the second season of the Emmy Award-winning series. Recently I received my fourth certificate from the Television Academy for my contributions to the HBO TV show!

As for fitness, it’s been disappointingly sporadic. This is mostly because of the audiobook work coupled with the weather and temperature. Toward the end of the month I got out for some bike rides, but I’m having some motivation issues and I’ve lost some muscle. I hope things stabilize — I still enjoy jumping rope, though I want to get running back into the mix!

-Ben