We recently connected with Jennifer Jill Araya and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jennifer Jill thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
In my work as an audiobook narrator, I’m lucky enough to get to narrate in a wide variety of genres, and I’ve narrated over 350 audiobooks to this point. Some of those books have really stuck with me, and one of those titles is “The Fight of Our Lives” by Iuliia Mendel, who was Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s press secretary. I lived in Ukraine briefly in 2013 and 2014, and my daughter was born there. I have a lot of friends and family who have been directly impacted by Russia’s war in Ukraine, many of whom are now refugees in Canada, America, and throughout Europe. When I got the email asking me if I was interested in narrating “The Fight of Our Lives,” I cried. I am so honored and gratified that I had the chance to give voice to the experience of my friends and family by narrating Mendel’s work.
Jennifer Jill, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a multi-disciplinary artist and coach. My background is in classical music. I performed professionally in musical theater as a child, and I studied both orchestral cello and classical voice at conservatory. I am still an active freelance musician on both voice and cello. My primary artistic focus for the past five years has been audiobook narration. I am an Audie, SOVAS, and Earphones Award winning audiobook narrator of over 350 titles. I work regularly with all of the Big Five publishers, as well as with numerous additional audiobook publishers and producers, and directly with independent authors.
I love my audiobook narration work. I know that, within audiobooks, I have found my true calling. Audiobook narration is a uniquely challenging acting format. The narrator is not responsible for just one character in the story, the way an actor in a film or play portrays just a single character. Rather, narrators must give voice to every single character in the story. Narrators also must convey the entire story with just the sound of their voice, without the aid of body language or any visual setting. When I’m tasked with narrating an audiobook, I know that the listener’s entire experience of the story and understanding of the author’s intent will be communicated by my voice alone, as I speak aloud the author’s words. Narrating an audiobook is both an awesome responsibility and an incredible privilege.
On a purely personal level, I love that audiobooks allow me to portray characters that I would never be selected to play on stage or screen. I’m not a teenager anymore, but I frequently narrate YA (Young Adult) titles in which I get to play a whole host of teenage characters. Through characters in the books I am lucky enough to narrate, I get to embody life experiences that are very different from my own, from striking mine workers in rural Arizona to members of the upper crust in 1950s New York and everything in between. The variety of the characters I get to portray keeps me interested and invested in my work. Every day in the recording booth is a new challenge and a new adventure!
I have worked as a self-employed creative in one way or another since I was 15 years old, and while I am a creative because I love the art of what I do, the business side of being a creative has also always interested me. My parents own a small accounting firm that specializes in small business accounting, meaning my parents are small business owners and all of their clients are small business owners. My parents’ experience as business owners fostered within me a love of the business aspects of being a creative solopreneur. Over the years, friends and colleagues would frequently come to me seeking business-focused help and advice. In my own experience as a creative entrepreneur, I found that most business coaches typically do not speak to the unique needs of artist business owners. In 2022, a trusted friend gave me the push I needed to begin working officially as a creative entrepreneurship coach. Within my business coaching enterprise, Starving Artist No More, I seek to speak to the particular needs of artists and creatives who own their own businesses. I provide individual coaching, teach group workshops, and offer topic-specific seminars. Societal messages sell creatives on the myth of the “starving artist.” Through my business coaching, I am working to counteract that message with one that reassures creatives that they can be holistically fulfilled — personally, creatively, and financially — by their artistic work. Within the coaching side of my work, nothing brings me more joy than when an artist I’m working with is able to implement a workable business plan and reap the rewards that come from building a creative business that truly works.
I have two podcasts that I would love for readers to check out. Crafting Audiobooks is a deep dive into the craft and creativity involved in audiobook production, and I host that podcast with my good friend and fellow narrator Sarah Beth Goer. Starving Artist No More is my creative entrepreneurship podcast, where artists can get advice on everything from business finances to marketing and networking. Both podcasts are available wherever you get your podcasts.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Being a creative entrepreneur is not an easy life. My work is essentially made up of one gig after another, and my job is to string those gigs together to create a thriving and financially fulfilling business that also brings me creative and personal fulfillment as an artist. This is incredibly hard work! Knowing why I’m doing this is vital. If I can’t answer the question of why I want to work within this business (not just *a* business, but specifically *this* business), then I’m not going to last long in this business! Without a deep intrinsic sense of motivation and purpose, I would give up at the very first bump in the road. Josh Spector, writer of the “For the Interested” newsletter, wrote, “The hard part isn’t getting started. It’s not pushing through the messy middle. And it’s not finishing strong. The hard part is finding something you care enough about to do all those things.” He is so absolutely right! Caring about your work – knowing why it is that you do what you do – can make all the difference.
While my “why” has changed over time (and will continue to grow and evolve as I grow and evolve as an artist and as a human being), my current focus within my creative work is sharing and serving. My creative work provides me the delightful opportunity to share my creativity and my lived experience with others, both through audiobook storytelling and through creative entrepreneurship coaching. My creative business also gives me the freedom to use my work to serve the needs of others, including my listeners who listen to the books I narrate, the stories and the characters within them, the authors whose stories I narrate, and the artists I coach.
By focusing on sharing and serving in the projects I choose to accept as an audiobook narrator, I am able to connect my current narration work with my background as a classical musician. The things that I love about performing music all translate directly into my audiobook narration work. Orchestral cello playing and operatic singing are both focused on communicating stories, emotions, and ideas through sound. I am still doing that work as an audiobook narrator, only now my medium is spoken word rather than music. The books I narrate allow me to share of myself in service to the author’s story and the characters they created.
My business coaching enterprise, Starving Artist No More, is born directly out of this drive to share and to serve. As artist friends and colleagues continually reached out to me over the years for entrepreneurship guidance, I began to realize that my small business experience offered a perspective that is needed within the artistic community. This led me to formally begin business coaching in late 2022. By sharing my entrepreneurship experience, I can serve the needs of artists who want to learn how to build a viable creative business that truly fulfills their needs.
In every audiobook project and entrepreneurship coaching session I undertake, I am committed to giving all of myself to the task at hand, sharing the fullness of myself in service of the project. This dual focus of sharing and serving gives me the intrinsic motivation I need to stay committed to this work on good days and on bad. By concentrating on the delight that I find in sharing and serving, I am able to find joy in my work, no matter the external circumstances,
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
During my creative entrepreneurship career, I labored for far too long under the illusion that being a solopreneur meant that I was alone in my work. While I did have incredible teachers and mentors, I was not always intentional about reaching out to form close collegial relationships.
By contrast, for the past 2 years, I have met biweekly with two other audiobook narrators, Gail Shalan and Marni Penning, in a business accountability relationship. We are each self-employed creatives running our own small businesses, but we meet to hold each other accountable to our respective business duties and tasks. We share what’s working for us, what’s not working, where we need help, and where we want to celebrate. We follow up with each other about tough tasks and difficult projects, and we give each other the space we need to work through the problems we’re facing.
So often, solopreneurs sink into the “solo” part of what it means to own their own creative small business. But just as no man is an island, no solopreneur is an island. Every creative entrepreneur exists within a vast network of colleagues and fellow creatives, and that network is an incredible resource for growth and learning. Other creatives have advice and answers to give. Other creatives have the ability to see things about my business that I’m unable to see because I’m too close to the situation. Other creatives can be my sounding board and my support in times of struggle, and they can be my biggest cheerleaders in times of triumph. My solo artistic work is made infinitely richer when I am intentional about fostering this support network with my fellow creatives, cultivating relationships of mutual respect and encouragement.
As a young creative, I did not take enough advantage of the resource represented by my artistic colleagues. I am so thankful to Gail and Marni, my creative business accountability partners, for now holding me accountable in that way. The interactions I have with both of them and with my wider creative colleague community make me a better artist and a better person.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jenniferjillaraya.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferjill.araya/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferJillAraya/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-jill-araya/
- Other: I have separate accounts for my audiobook narration and for my business coaching. The above links are all my narration links. Here are my creative entrepreneurship coaching links: Website: https://www.starvingartistnomore.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starvingartistnomore/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086381587805 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@starvingartistnomore
Image Credits
All photos are credit to Kristan McIntosh.