AMA II: Electric Boogaloo – Asked And Answered
Hey there, hero!
Earlier in the year, I hosted a virtual AMA (Ask Me Anything), and it was really well received and fun to do.
So, I thought, why not? Let’s do it again! And you responded with some really great questions, asked over the last several days and weeks.
Today’s questions deal with staying in touch with clients, and what mistakes podcasters make when creating their very first podcasts.
Let’s dig in!
Hope this helps!
David
Raw YouTube Captioning
hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and earlier this year in this series of
videos that I’ve been doing every day
for the year that’s the challenge and
I’ve found out that a lot of people
aren’t really interested in a new video
every day but that you know you live and
learn and you try and make it clear that
that’s what’s going on I’ve had some
unsubscribes people why do you send me a
video every day and I’m like do you
watch them do you know what I’m doing
they don’t and I get that now you know
it’s like but you live and learn
alright so earlier in the year having
said all that earlier in the year I did
an AMA and asked me anything not
American Medical Association but ask me
anything made famous on Reddit and what
I said was hey look ask any questions
you want about the business about me
about performing about acting on camera
about acting on mic rehearsing marketing
productivity anything you want and I
thought you know it went really well
let’s do it again let’s see what we can
come up with again so you guys have been
great you sent in a whole bunch of
questions let’s get right into them
Joseph Narducci says I want to improve
how I stay connected with clients new
ones and those I’ve worked with in the
past it’s easy to work together and move
on losing touch I want to nurture the
good relationships that were built from
working together and in doing so keep
that door open for new opportunities so
my question for you David is how do you
care for the working relationships you
build with your clients so I do that
with two different avatars two different
audiences I have my performance and
voiceover clients that I do work for
that I voice audiobooks for that I do
commercials for that I work on camera
for and so on and when I do contact them
it’s because I have kept them in a
tickle file and I email them when they
don’t expect it with things that are
useful right you know and and also
compliments on what they’ve done so if I
see a client in the news and I set up a
tickle file and a Google News Alert for
both so if you have a client say it’s
the ABC corporation
make sure you have them in your contact
file and you know how to send to
whomever you’re going to send to and
also set up a Google News Alert for when
they are going to be in the news I have
a client in in Minneapolis Minnesota who
is very active in the newsletter space
and in fact I do an audio version of
their newsletter for several of their
clients and I have a news alert set up
for them so that I know when they’re in
the news and when I see something that
is worth complimenting them on or worth
saying congratulations I’ll drop them a
note and that lies in place with the the
other piece of advice that I have and
that is contact them when they don’t
expect it you know everybody sends out
Christmas cards and and you know I guess
you know Arbor Day cards I don’t know
the or they’ll they’ll get somebody’s
birthday they’ll see them on Facebook
and they’ll inundate them they’ll
they’ll say hey hey you know I haven’t
been in touch but hey happy birthday
right
instead of that set yourself up to to do
this when they don’t expect it when
nobody else is contacting them and what
you don’t want to do is say anything
along the lines of hey do you have any
work for me what you want to do is be
helpful and friendly and concerned and
empathetic and complimentary and just be
normal and human right you don’t have to
be a Salesman 100% of the time if you do
that if you do that in a way that
doesn’t sound like you’re trying to stay
in touch that’s the trick it can really
be helpful I’ve had people call me back
out of the blue they’ve been watching my
videos or they banned that’s not aimed
at them right those are my videos that
I’m doing here they’re not aimed at the
clients that I do performance work for
they are aimed at the other audience
that I said add to the other audience
are my clients my students the people
that I train the people that I coach and
for them the way I stay in touch is I am
useful I want to be as useful as I
possibly can and that’s why these videos
that’s why the publicly available stuff
on vio heroes com
the free getting started classes that I
do when somebody has purchased from me
oh my gosh
I’ll move heaven and earth to help them
because they’ve shown me loyalty and I
want to do the same in return so those
are the things create a tickle file ask
them what’s going on when you contact
them themselves you know hey
congratulations on that new client I saw
you picked up what else is going on with
you
and send those messages when they don’t
expect it hope that helps
absolutely another question Christopher
Buckner says in your opinion what is the
single most important thing a person
should know or do when starting their
first podcast well Christopher you’re
one of my pros and so I know that you
have the podcasting classes available to
you what did you get from those
podcasting classes as the first thing
you should do you don’t want to worry
about the equipment you’ll figure that
out that’s a math problem you don’t have
to worry about where you’re gonna house
your podcasts again that’s a math
problem you not gonna have to worry
about what you call it you’ll figure
that out the number one thing that
people need to do that they just blow
right by is clearly defining their
avatar now what do I mean by avatar I
have an avatar for these videos my
avatar for these videos is a working
professional not necessarily in the
world of performance but who wants to be
in the world of performance if they’re
already in the world of performance as a
working professional that’s like icing
on the cake but I found that most of my
potential listeners viewers people that
are in my sphere of influence are coming
from some other place they were doing
something else and they decided they
wanted to be in this business I love
when people who were in other categories
of performance decide they want to add
voice over to what they’re doing but I
also love it when people like you come
from whatever you were doing to me and I
know that your podcast is gonna be about
Dungeons and Dragons so you want to
identify very clearly who that avatar is
is it people that are enthusiastic about
D&D
our playin it already is it people that
have never played it before and you’re
trying to introduce them to what’s going
on so you’ll be explaining things you
want to very clearly identify who your
target audience is and that’s called
your avatar your avatar so I think
that’s a mistake that most people who
put together any form of these videos
podcasts you know series webseries posts
on Facebook set up groups on Facebook
they don’t really know necessarily what
their avatar is all about what they want
what they need what they’re hungry for
what what concerns them what keeps them
up at night you know what is it about
the DND people that you’re trying to
meet that you’re trying to reach that
you want to help them with so all of
this stuff sort of comes from the idea
of being of service so again the number
one thing that I think people fly right
by and that they should do more of is
they should figure out who exactly their
avatar is and one little bonus be ready
to pivot if who you’ve come up with is
your avatar isn’t really the people that
are watching or listening to your
podcast maybe you find out after the
fact that you are talking more to
dungeon & dragon masters the people that
run the games right maybe your way of
running the game becomes something that
others can look at ago I didn’t even
think about doing that or wow that’s
really that’s really different I want to
figure that out so you never know right
when I originally started vo heroes
before was called when it was called vo
to gogo
it was because I had started making
demos for people and it was called demos
to gogo and then I kind of pivoted
because people also needed information
about voiceover so figure out your
avatar that’s the number one thing great
questions everybody there are more
questions so we’re gonna do another
episode of this I got more questions
coming down the pike you guys have asked
great questions if you have additional
information for the questions that I’m
answering go ahead and put below the in
the in the comments area below this
video
I’d love to know what you think of the
answers that I’ve been giving and if
you’d like to be on my list to find out
when these videos come out again once a
day through the rest of the year then
we’re gonna drop back to once a week and
that way people will stop complaining
that I send them videos every day go
ahead and sign up there’s a little box
that says get on the list I’d love to
have you I’m David H Lawrence the 17th I
thank you so much for watching watching
and for asking me anything and I will
talk to you tomorrow.
I always thought of “my avatar” as my personal avatar you would create of yourself for the online world, but I see now it as a way of describing your “target audience”, nice explanation David!
Such great advice David! I have to admit I hadn’t drilled down very deep into my avatar/target audience for the podcast. I was simply thinking that Dungeons and Dragons groups would listen and hopefully enjoy the entertainment value. How could I be of more service? I have to admit that I absolutely love introducing new players to the game! I’ve done so with dozens of people and I jump at the chance whenever possible. I’d also enjoy introducing Dungeon Masters to my house rules. Hmmm. I may do both, but I’ll focus more on new players. Thanks for the video David 🙂
Some of us are fine with the daily videos!
Just FYI
Helpful advice. Thanks for answering my question David! And thanks everyone else for yours too. Great guidance.
David,
I so look forward to your videos EVERY day! I am not looking forward to December 31st when they end. I appreciate all your hard work to produce them and to impart the information that you have in so many different areas. Thank you for doing them. I love them.
Mary
ditto