Today we’d like to introduce you to Cindy Campos Alves.
Hi Cindy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Well, I was spawned somewhere between Portugal and the United States, and I feel like I’ve been working since I was born. If you consider the hard work it took simply to navigate my family situation, that’s probably true.
Before I was even 20, I had worked at General Motors and run a travel agency. When I came back to the United States with my husband, I wanted to take advantage of the American dream I had heard so much about—and I guess we did. I went to community college for a little while, then transitioned to The New School University. I worked in management consulting and later healthcare consulting, and during Y2K I traveled all over South America.
By the end of 2000, I was having twins and became fully focused on raising a family. Some part of me was desperate to be creative, though, so I wrote for small publications and began voice acting. My primary role was in the home, which was by far more challenging than anything I had ever experienced. It’s one thing to have things to do; it’s another to have actual humans who rely on you completely to live. The weight—and the enormity—of that notion still overwhelms me sometimes.
When my twins were in their teens and my youngest was 11, my marriage ended. I swore off relationships and tried to reestablish who I could possibly be as a professional. I had so many disparate skills, a weirdly keen eye for spotting gaps, and a huge love of working with small entrepreneurs to help them scale and make their dreams come true. That combination led me to build my own consultancy.
My second client ended up hiring me full-time. I took a job alongside a nonprofit consultant, helping her run her small business, and quickly became her podcast producer, PR person, right hand, business development lead, and partnerships manager. Basically, whatever needed doing, I did it.
When I was finally ready to go back to dating and relationships, the pandemic hit.
During that time, I continued to develop my voiceover work. I had some success with national commercials and eventually joined SAG-AFTRA, all while continuing to write for local publications and create features and interviews with musicians. It was all very creative and incredibly fulfilling.
Then, at the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022, I met someone. We had been friends for about six months, both of us figuring out our own lives. When I started dating him, I was at his apartment and saw this beautiful rendition of a puppet (AKA the Heap) character who seemed to literally have the world on his shoulders.
Having just come out of a pandemic where we had all been unduly burdened, I could immediately imagine a much bigger future for this character. Paul had been thinking about him for years, and suddenly, the time felt right to physically build him. So the team at Puppet Heap embarked on that.
That led me on an entirely new journey. For the last few years, we’ve been developing that character and connecting with audiences around the world.
And somehow, after all those different chapters, careers, identities, and reinventions, I ended up exactly where I was supposed to be: doing work that combines creativity, storytelling, entrepreneurship, and a little bit of the unexpected.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Oh, it’s been smooth…
From poverty to professional, worker bee to mother hen, married to divorced, Portugal to America, joining SAG-AFTRA right as the strikes started, returning to single life just as the pandemic began, multiple losses of family and friends, and career choices that would leave anyone confused.
So, yes. Smooth.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Well, I really love all things related to performance and voiceover. That’s a true passion for me, and I’m blessed to speak several languages, so communicating across languages and cultures draws on my entire life experience.
I also get genuinely exhilarated by business development so connecting dots, spotting possibilities, seeing relationships between people and ideas that maybe aren’t immediately obvious, and figuring out how to turn those connections into something meaningful. I love working with people who have a vision and helping them find the path to make it happen.
But voiceover is the place where all of that creativity really comes alive for me. I love bringing people to VO work, but mostly, I love doing it myself. I find the most joy sitting with a producer, director, and translator and discussing how a script should be approached or how a particular read, a pause, a word, or a subtle cultural nuance can completely change the way a message lands.
For me, it’s not simply about delivering the words. It’s about finding the voice that brings the message to life.
What’s next?
Well, that Heap story I told you about definitely has legs. I’m excited about promoting artistic collaboration around him and, ultimately, helping him become a household name and an allegory for the idea that we all have the freedom to make our own story.
And while I’m doing that, I fully intend to flex both my VO and business-development muscles. I see a lot of possibilities ahead, and I’m having way too much fun to limit them to just one.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Cindycapsolutions.com
- Instagram: Cindycap
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindycap
