13114: Applying The Jiu Jitsu Of Quality Over Quantity

Raw transcript:

quality over quantity
how many times have you heard that
phrase well uh you can actually use that
phrase to make your performer life
better
by kind of jujitsuing it and I know
that’s maybe a little confusing but
that’s okay I’m gonna straighten it all
out here in just a moment in this
episode of the vo Heroes podcast
how many times have you seen companies
that produce products vastly expand
their uh offerings I’m looking at you
KitKat and and candy bar companies that
have tried to you know create millions
of different flavors you know by
combining your products and changing
them around peanut butter and and and
nougat and all of a sudden you know the
candy bar that we grew up with is
unrecognizable because it’s a new kind
of new version new flavor you know and
they do this to offer more variety to
offer more options to their customers
but sometimes it gets a little out of
control you know when you’re seeing a
white chocolate
non-nugget with almonds peanut butter
version of a KitKat bar and you’re like
what happened to the KitKat bar that was
just chocolate coated you know Wafers
with stuff I mean it’s very simple right
and that has
uh appeal in our world of of Performing
we have so many different uh levers that
we can push and dials that we can adjust
and we sometimes think to ourselves if I
offer more if I offer more options even
to the point where when we’re talking
about the voices that we do and the
characters that we can create and the
roles that we can play the different age
groups and the different types of roles
that we can play we’re always seem to be
thinking that more versatile more
options is better
and I’d like to lift that burden a
little bit for you and remind you of two
things number one
quality of the smaller group of things
that you do
is often more effective than having so
many different options and trying to
achieve so many different options in
your performing life
so
I make a joke all the time you know if
the if the breakdown says you know
four-year-old East Asian girl there are
actors who look like me that will think
to themselves how can I do that how
could I possibly do that right
don’t do that is the answer that’s an
extreme example but still there are
people who try to do roles outside their
obvious visual age group or uh try to do
things where they kind of don’t have the
the the the the aspect of the character
dialed in but that’s okay nobody’s gonna
tell them they can’t do that well
I urge you to consider concentrating on
the quality of the things that you can
do
and yeah look at things that push your
boundaries and are outside of what
you’re normally doing but don’t think
those are required over the quality of
the things that you can do and then a
second kind of bonus to all this
is that little tiny increments of
quality improvement
as opposed to little tiny increments of
various quantity things that you can
offer I can do other things I can you
know those little tiny uh
changes in your expertise or your
experience or the ease with which you
approach something all of these little
qualitative improvements are going to
make you feel so much more accomplished
than having some resume that is filled
with options
that yeah you may be able to offer if
you really push it but what about those
core things what about those things that
are right in your wheelhouse right that
are that are in your lane and making
those even better just something to
consider
I just wanted to share that with you
because I think sometimes we lose track
of the fact that improving the things we
already know how to do
is often more effective than trying to
add something new to uh the the variety
the portfolio of things that we can do
and qualitative improvements are often
far more effective than quantitative
increases that’s all it just came up for
me this past week and I wanted to share
it with you uh if you’d like to hit the
like button because you liked what you
were hearing if you want to you know
subscribe to the channel if you want to
get a little notification the next time
an episode comes out all kinds of
different options there on your screen
to do that and I really appreciate if
you want to share this with another
actor or voice talent that you think
might benefit from this little nugget uh
go ahead and copy the the URL on vo
Heroes and forward it their way I’m
David H Lawrence 17th I thank you so
much for watching and for listening and
I will see you in the next episode of
the vo Heroes podcast

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