13285: Two. Not Three.

Raw transcript:

I want to take a moment to thank Simon
Sinek who uh famous for his know your
big why uh for prompting this week’s
discussion this this episode’s uh topic
on two not three
what it’s a it’s an apocryphal classic
salesperson story that you can use and
we’ll do that in this episode of the VO
Heroes podcast.
We sometimes want to give our clients,
our peers, our suppliers, casting, uh,
editors, etc. We want to give them as
many choices as possible. We want to
give them just, you know, you you have
all kinds of options here. I want to
give you as as big a world to choose
from as possible. That’s not always a
good idea. It’s just not. In fact,
overwhelming choice can stop people in
their tracks
and it can stop you in your tracks as
well as you’re trying to decide what
approach to take with a character or
what approach to take with a writing
passage or who knows. Uh we tend to
assume that the more choice we have the
better. And that’s actually not
necessarily true.
There’s a story of a shoe salesman in
the 50s whose name happened to be Ben
Prober. Uh I was reminded of this when
Simon Synynic mentioned it in uh an
interview that he did. And by the way,
if you haven’t seen Simon Synynic’s uh
TEDex or TED talk, not TEDex, but TED
talk on your big why, you should go
watch it. It’s like one of the most
popular TED talks there is. Anyway, he
tells a story in a recent interview
about Ben Prober whose rule as a shoe
salesman was two, not three. Let me let
me explain what he said.
Uh the way he told it, a woman would
come into his shoe store and she’d say,
“Oh, I’d like to try those shoes and can
I also see those shoes?” And he would
bring out the first pair, bring out the
second pair, and she’d go, “Okay, those
are great. Can I try those as well?” and
he would say right then and there,
“Which of these do you want me to take
away?”
Because he knew that if he brought a
third pair out, there was a good chance
that she wouldn’t buy any of them
because she’d be a little overwhelmed by
the number of choices. But if she only
had two to choose from, this or that, a
binary choice, there was a much better
uh chance that she would buy one of
them. That was his experience over years
and years and years of being a shoe
salesman.
And he was their best salesperson. He
felt because he limited the choice that
his customers had to a manageable
number. He decided that the number for
his particular case was two, not three.
And you can use this in your uh approach
to the choices you want to make as you
design a character as you’re narrating
an audio book. Uh how you’re going to
set up your profile. Uh when you talk to
a client about their options, present
them two at a time. They may have more
than two options, but just present them
two at a time. Get rid of the ones that
you don’t need. And that makes it a lot
more manageable as opposed to the
overwhelm that you can feel when you
have more than a reasonable number of
options to choose from. It’s like when
you walk into a restaurant and you look
at this massive menu and it’s like what?
Great example. There’s a there’s a a a
hamburger chain kind of chain uh that is
competing with Culver’s
in Wisconsin called Muya that my friends
Bob and Edy introduced me to last time I
visited them. Their menu has like four
items on it. Burgers, fries,
you know, uh soft drinks and and
something else. I don’t know. Maybe
maybe they have a dessert. I don’t know.
But it’s like so simple. you’re like in
and out and and off to the races you go
and you’re not overwhelmed with the menu
that many restaurants have decided is
the appropriate way to go. But for us as
performers, we tend to want to be very
generous and of service and how can we
help you? Sometimes to a point of being
too helpful,
too generous, too overwhelming with the
number of choices that we offer. So,
think about this.
Two, not three, when presenting options
to anybody that you’re dealing with. By
the way, this works really well with
kids as well. Okay, for dinner, we’re
going to you can have your choice of
this or that, not what do you want? What
in the world do you want me to make you,
right? It’s I I remember it from at some
point in my life with my daughters.
Anyway, uh let me know what you think
about this. Have you heard versions of
this story over the years that talk
about limiting choice to a manageable
number? What are your thoughts on this?
And how could you possibly use this in
your practice in your creative practice
as an actor or voice talent or writer?
My peeps. My peeps. Let me know in the
comments below on vioheres.com. That’s
where the conversation is nice and
polite and sane and respectful. Uh you
can join our mailing list there. scroll
all the way down to the page of where
this episode lives and join the mailing
list if you’re not on it. And also uh
you can hit the like button, you can
subscribe to the channel, you can click
the notification bell there. Can you see
the overwhelming choices here? Listen to
what I you know and especially about
shoes, you know, right? Shoemaker, your
children’s feet are bare. Okay. Um but
I’m really glad you’re here. I’m glad
that you you did that. You can also
forward this. We had one more thing. You
can also forward this to another
creative type who might need to hear
about this this apparently oblique
message about limiting choices. I’m
David H. Lawrence the 17th and I thank
you so much for watching and or
listening.
One, two choices. Never mind. Okay. And
I’ll see you in the next episode of the
VO Heroes podcast.

(from YouTube)