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Are You Engaged?

Hey there!

Have you ever signed up for a class, an event or a seminar, but had “life happen?” You had all the best intentions in the world to make the class useful, to attend, do the work and more, but you just couldn’t figure out how to best take advantage?

It’s happened to all of us. A piece of advice, however…engagement is your responsibility as well as your teacher/instructor/coach. Here’s a cautionary tale about not blaming or shaming the wrong party.


(Click/tap ↑↑↑↑↑↑ that red YouTube button to subscribe to my channel. You’ll get notified when I release new videos.)

Hope this helps!

David

All Episodes

One Step At A Time

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Five Ways To Have A Crappy Coffee Date With Me

Taking Advantage Of The Wisdom Of The Tribe

How To Be A World Class Complainer

The False Nobility Of The Struggle

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“Show Me The Secret, Daddy!”

Coaching vs Consulting vs Facilitating

The Perils of Live Performance And Why Jeremy Kappell Should Not Have Been Fired

Let’s Welcome To The Stage…Failure!

Don’t Confuse Price With Value

Whiteboards In The Hallways

Go Wake Up Your Luck

Playing and Planning

The Two Things Most Talent Try to Accomplish Way Too Soon

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The Curse of Knowledge

The Trick Charlie Munger Uses To Make Better Decisions

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“What do you mean, you’re a ‘process guy’?”

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How To Conquer FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)

The Problem In Every Commercial Script

The Job In Every Commercial Script

The Secret In Every Commercial Script

How To Pick Your Stage Name

Voice Over Is REALLY Hard. Until It Isn’t.

Helping Make Resolutions Stick

ACX Jobs: They’re ALL SAG-AFTRA-Friendly

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Who Says You Need To “Feel Like It?”

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My Insane Backup System Plus Two Helpful Tips

What Open Loops Are And Why They Work So Well

Two More Things For Which You Can Use Open Loops

Three Things Not To Say Or Do…When Trying To Learn Something New

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My SAG-AFTRA Presentation On VO Demos (Part 1)

My SAG-AFTRA Presentation On VO Demos (Part 2)

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The Threat That Made Me Create a New Page For LAME

The Resource You Must Guard Most Carefully

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Motivation: Your Three Big Needs In A Cool Little Package

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What Fair Markets Are, And Why Voices.com Isn’t One

Trevor’s Three A’s From Apple On Killing Customers With Kindness

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The Crazy Backward Way IKEA Prices Their Stuff

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The Guaranteed Way To Completely Avoid Criticism

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Prioritizing…Nashville Style

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Jamie Has Some Thoughts About Fiverr

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AMA (Ask Me Anything): Here Are The Answers (Part 1)

AMA (Ask Me Anything): Here Are The Answers (Part 2)

AMA (Ask Me Anything): Here Are The Answers (Part 3)

AMA (Ask Me Anything): Here Are The Answers (Part 4)

AMA Answers Part 5 Plus A Medical Warning

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3 More Biases You Should Also Be Aware Of

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Raw YouTube Captioning

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and I just got finished as I record this
doing my monthly accountability session
with my clients for vo to go go
we do a thing once a month where we talk
about what’s happened in their business
their voice-over practice in the last
month what they’re gonna do for the next
month we bring up issues questions and
answers we kind of get together and do a
collective hivemind kind of thing an
accountability thing where we help
people engage in what’s going on and
what came up during that session was
this very idea of engagement and I
mentioned that I received an email
saying that one of my pros was quitting
she’d cancelled her subscription no word
from her that she was doing it it’s fine
you know however people want to do that
um but I always usually write a note
saying did you mean to do this is
everything okay what’s going on and she
wrote backwards to the effect of yeah
your classes didn’t do anything for me
actually they’re pretty stupid she
didn’t use those exact words but that
was kind of the attitude and I was
concerned about that because that’s not
usually the response that I get so
before I wrote her back I wanted to
check to make sure that she had engaged
in the vo2 Go Go Pro program and I went
back and I looked through the records
and she never took a class she never
took an online class never did any of
the lessons never did any of the quizzes
I didn’t watch any of the videos she
signed up for it last year but didn’t do
anything never attended any of the
workouts never attended any of the the
monthly Pro Connect live meetings like
we just had and it it reminded me over
and over again that sometimes we mistake
signing up for something or beginning
the process with something by noting
that we’re going to do it and actually
doing it actually engaging with it
I had someone ask me maybe six months
ago and it comes up every so often so
how quickly can I make money if I take
your classes how quickly can I can I
start to you know make some cash and my
answer is I haven’t got the foggiest
idea because
I don’t know how heavily or effectively
you’ll engage with what I have to offer
I’m pretty sure what I have to offer is
valuable but it’s kind of on you to take
advantage of it and I have no idea how
long it would take you to make money
because I have no no idea how long it
would take you to acquire the skills
needed to do that – you know how long
it’ll take you to do the classes and
more importantly if anybody in this
industry tells you here’s how long it
will take you to make money even
nebulously like on average our students
make money after so you know your
mileage may vary
and I would be loathe to recommend that
you hang around and keep talking to
anybody that is willing to give you even
a gross estimate there are so many
things that are required to engage as
opposed to just sign up and go alright
yeah I got your classes here what of it
you know I mean it’s so it’s so weird
sometimes people have a bucket list and
they go yeah I want to learn how to do
audiobooks you know we have some people
I’m sure we’re gonna have some people
that sign up this week for the AC
master class that kind of have that
attitude yeah I’m gonna sign up for
we’ll see what happens well here’s what
should happen you need to engage you
need to be a part of the process you
need to hold up your end of the bargain
the bargain isn’t you sign up and give
me money and I give you a career
although I hope that happens it has to
be you sign up give me money I give you
instruction and support and I defend the
success of your career and then you
engage you actually take a look at what
we have to offer you take the classes
you take the workouts you do the work
you put in the time and instead of
because what can happen down the line is
you kind of forget that you didn’t
engage at all and then it’s all on me
right that’s what I kind of feel like
she was saying that I didn’t do
enough to make sure that she had benefit
from the classes and I just want to make
sure that you know that whatever you do
whether it’s voiceover on camera you
know you decide you want to learn how to
do woodworking and you take a class on
woodworking get in there with the
chisels and the and the in the the
sandpaper and the wood and do the work
right you have to engage and what I’d
like to know from you is what has been
your experience where you got all
excited about doing something and then
he never actually followed through on
the engagement of it what was your
result and then conversely when you did
do the work when you did engage what was
the result
I think if you look at it you’ll see a
big difference and to the person that
decided my classes were stupid I’m sorry
you have that opinion I respectfully
disagree if you’d like to know if you
have any questions about this leave me a
comment below but tell me about your
engagement stuff if you’d like to know
when the next video is coming out go
ahead and click on my head there if you
don’t see my head there there’s a
subscribe button somewhere near you
either on your phone or on the website
and if you want to see the latest video
that I put out just go ahead and click
on that frame there and it will play for
you right after this one I’m David H
Lawrence the 17th I so appreciate you
watching these one-a-day videos this
year and I will talk to you tomorrow

4 Responses to Are You Engaged?

  1. Bill Johnston February 2, 2019 at 7:57 am #

    I suspect that this situation is more common than some people would like to acknowledge — possibly a result of the strong, infantile tendency of demanding instant satisfaction/results but without investing the time and effort required. Do you have any industry-sensitive KPIs that would be helpful in permitting the mounting up of at least a rudimentary attempt at quantification of efforts made and the results of those efforts? I’m thinking perhaps of a relatively simple Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M.)

    By the way, one of my gurus, James Alburger, tells the story of a person who submitted more than 800 auditions before he snagged a gig. Talk about persistence. Wow, what endurance and dedication this guy exhibited.

  2. Kirsten February 2, 2019 at 8:55 am #

    Watching your daily video is a delight. I appreciate your honesty. Bupkis is what I’ve gotten when I didn’t engage . It’s challenging when the reward is slow coming, but we tend to appreciate what we have more if we put in effort to achieve it.

  3. Patricia Napolitano February 3, 2019 at 7:27 pm #

    Right on!
    I’ve heard that the first step is most important, but I think that followthrough is much more important. I know people who somehow think that once they commit to something it is good as done and can be put on the backburner indefinitely. By indefinitely I mean years to completion or never. With me, I get going and then some hiccup occurs, one step is to hard or too expensive right now, or a password is forgotten or instructions mislaid or a computer crashes or an emergency or vacation comes along etc. I stop and it is very hard to get momentum back. Also, we all like instant gratification and if results are not forthcoming we can get discouraged and give up.

  4. Trish Bell February 20, 2019 at 12:00 pm #

    Here I am listening to the past 2 months posts from you on the VO2gogo! I kept saving them saying “i will get back to it:, so I now have found myself commenting and “engaging”, thanks for this conversation David.

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