Success stories / Elise Arsenault
Elise Arsenault · The Global Actor · The Great Audiobook Adventure
She built the program that turns actors into audiobook narrators. Then she built the team that gave her time to narrate again.
Meet the CEO
An actor, narrator and educator who turned her time at the mic into a real career path for 900 other actors.
Elise Arsenault has been an actor her whole life: national tours, regional theater, union contracts. She started narrating audiobooks in 2015 and has since recorded more than 175 titles. Her husband Justin, a sound engineer, helped her build a professional home studio, and what began as a way to replace the bartending and temp work became the model she teaches through The Great Audiobook Adventure.
The program is a full startup: vocal translation from stage to audiobook, home studio setup for any budget, publisher outreach, and mentorship from graduates who are now award-winning narrators. The promise is concrete: pay for the course with your first job, and pay for the studio with your second.
The goal
A program that was already working, built into a business with the team, the systems and the leadership confidence to stop carrying it all herself, and room to get back to her own artistry.
Before The CEO Collective®
The program was working. The business had outgrown everything she had.
01
Outgrowing every system
When the pandemic hit, the Great Audiobook Adventure took off. The team was so busy it felt like they were always a month or two behind on email. Some goals sat on her quarterly list for six, seven, even eight retreats.
02
A people pleaser leading a growing team
Growing a team meant assigning work, giving feedback and holding boundaries, and that felt uncomfortable. She came home from every retreat to a plan her team hadn’t been part of making.
03
Instant overwhelm after every retreat
She left each CEO Retreat with a great plan and then had to translate a full day of thinking for her team on her own. The podcast she wanted for two years kept slipping down the list.
“What I don’t feel anymore is that it could all fall apart tomorrow, and that I have to be working so hard every single day, otherwise all the balls are gonna drop. I finally don’t feel that way.”
The 90 Day CEO Operating System® at work
What the system actually built for Elise.
Elise came in already knowing the framework. The full Collective gave her the accountability and leadership coaching to act on it, and the top tier let her bring her right hand, Priscilla Leonard, into the planning room with her.
Phase 01
Her right hand in the planning room
Priscilla started as a freelancer behind the Global Actor Summit and came on full time in 2024. Now she attends the CEO Retreats with Elise, takes her own notes, and sees why each goal exists, not just the to-do list that comes out of it.
“Getting to bring your team member along for the ride with you at the retreats is a game changer. It’s so worth that investment.”
Phase 02
Team goals inside Asana
After the last retreat, Priscilla broke the quarter’s plan down in Asana. Now every person on the team has their own goals, and a team co-working session makes sure every piece is assigned.
“Now that we have our team goals, every single person on the team has their goals. Priscilla has her goals. Justin has his goals. Natalia has her goals.”
Phase 03
Leading instead of pleasing
The framework and the coaching helped Elise get into the driver’s seat: assigning work, asking for what she needs, and letting go of keeping everyone happy. With the foundations set, the Global Actor podcast finally launched in late 2024.
“My job isn’t to make sure everyone’s feeling happy all the time. The whole framework of the 90-day planning process has helped me really get in the driver’s seat of managing and leading a team.”
In her own words
What it looks like when the foundations are set and the artist gets her time back.
I’ve been an actor my whole life. For years, like so many actors, I was doing the other jobs, the ones that paid the bills while I worked toward the thing I actually wanted. What I discovered, first for myself and then for the 900 actors I’ve since trained, is that audiobook narration is a real career. You don’t have to go be the bartender anymore.
Over the progress of doing the retreats, I just got more and more clarity around what pieces of the business were missing. Our nurture content really needed an overhaul, so we finally launched the Global Actor podcast. Now all of the foundations are set. We’ve got multiple attract strategies, and we get to ask, “What would make life easier now?”
Because of the systems, I’m now able to get back into my own growth and my artistry.
This year we had ten graduates of our program nominated for the Audies, the Oscars of audiobook narration, and several of them won. And there’s nothing like showing up to the Audies and casting directors saying, “Thank you for the work that you’re doing. Your course is trusted.”
It didn’t feel good seeing my clients have incredible industry success while I didn’t have enough time to do both well. Now Priscilla has clear ownership over the operations, and I’ve grown in my own artistry this year. Things feel like both is possible.
What’s different now
Elise’s biggest wins.
Result 01
900 actors trained, award winners among them
“We’ve brought 900 actors through this program since 2019. So many of them are award-winning narrators today.”
Result 02
Ten graduates nominated for the Audies
“This year we had ten graduates of our program nominated. It was incredible, and several of them won.”
Result 03
A team with clear ownership
“It’s been a game changer since Priscilla’s been with us full time.”
Result 04
Narrating again, cast on her reputation
“People get to know me sometimes as a coach first, and then they’re like, “Oh, by the way, are you interested in narrating this?””
Featured episode · Promote Yourself to CEO®
Why Your Right Hand Belongs in the Planning Room with Elise Arsenault and Priscilla Leonard
Elise and her operations lead, Priscilla Leonard, join Racheal to talk about bringing your right hand to the CEO Retreat, breaking the plan down as a team, and what changes when the person running operations knows why each goal exists.
Listen to the episode Listen to her first interview: Elise Arsenault Makes Creative Work Pay ↗
More member stories.
Built on her own termsJessica Sato“It gave me permission to pull myself outside the business and really think: what am I creating? Is this sustainable?”Read her story ↗
Four books in 7 monthsAshley Jablow“What started as an idea in a wine bar in February became four books in my hands by October.”Read her story ↗
Revenue nearly doubledMia HenryShe teaches organizations how to share power. The CEO Collective® taught her how to use her time.Read her story ↗You don’t have to bring the plan home and translate it alone.
Elise started with the CEO Retreats, then joined the full Collective, then brought her right hand into the room. The framework grows with you, and with your team. Start where you are.