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