13155: How To Listen Carefully For Opportunity Knocking Softly

Raw transcript:

I heard A really lovely saying the other
day that caused me to pause and Ponder
and I think you might as well the phrase
is learn to listen
carefully
opportunity sometimes knocks
softly let’s see how that applies to us
as performers in this episode of the vo
Heroes
podcast
you have decided to be a participant in
a very very odd wonderful weird world
the world of VoiceOver the world of on
camera the world of stage work acting in
general voiceover in
particular um commercials you know you
name it you’re you’re in a very
different setting than many people who
work uh on a daily basis and
and that world is filled with creativity
it’s filled with new ideas it’s filled
with new
opportunities that you may miss if you
don’t learn how to listen very carefully
listening very carefully is different
from uh
engagement it’s different from attention
it’s different from Focus
it’s almost listening with a second set
of ears because we listen to understand
what the other person is saying we
listen so that we can respond to them
and engage in a conversation with them
and the people that I find
are not the most successful but
certainly have an advantage and are more
likely to be successful are those that
not only listen in the present and are
very present in the conversations but
also listen with that second set of ears
for ideas ideas that they can put to
work in their acting and performance
practice ideas that they can turn into
products and
services that they can sell to the
general public or sell to uh other
performers or sell to people that have
nothing to do with performance who knows
I mean there are plenty of people whose
day job is being an entrepreneur just
like they are as a performer but they
sell a product that has nothing to do
with what we do as a living and you know
how whatever floats your boat right I
mean to a degree one of the most common
things that actors and voice Talent do
is they work in the service industry
they work as customer service reps or
they work as tech support people or they
work as servers in restaurants or
bartenders or hostesses or you know who
knows they work in the service
department being memorable to people and
I was at a restaurant the other day and
uh the person I was eating with wanted
to make a substitution on the menu that
was a little whack it was a little crazy
it was a little out there but the server
said ooh that that sound that sounds
like that would taste really
good and the server ended up going to
the manager manager went to the chef so
this week that item is on the menu and
it’s like wow okay just because that
server chose to listen with that second
set of ears not just to be of great
service to the person sitting at the
table eating at the restaurant but also
listening for
opportunity and the notion that
opportunity sometimes knocks very
softly that’s a killer one that’s that’s
the thing that really captured my ears
with that again the phrase was learn to
listen very carefully because
opportunity sometimes knocks softly like
it’s not as though a customer or a
client or somebody that you’re doing a
commercial for or a casting agency or a
director or a producer comes out and
says I need this problem solved I need
this to be taken care of sometimes it’s
just like the
musings of God I wish there was or I
wonder if there’s or huh it’d be really
cool
if when you hear that little tiny
tapping on the door of op opportunity
listen for that listen for how that
presents itself and listen you know
ready to say yeah that’s not something I
can do or wow that makes all the
difference in the world that’s what
happened to me with rehearsal pro that’s
what happened to me with audio cupcake
that’s what that literally that’s what
happened with me with my acting career
maybe somebody could use this gorgeous
face and this incredibly spelt physique
uh you know to make other good-looking
people look better you know or to be
funny or what maybe I wonder if there’s
somebody like me that could help you
know that’s that’s what I listen to so I
I beg of you turn up the volume on your
secondary listening your overlay
listening the maybe I can be of service
with that kind of listening because it
could end up easing your life in many
ways monetarily and and schedule wise
and uh you know in terms of self uh
fulfillment and actualization and also
give you more time to do your
performance work or at least to give
yourself room in your schedule to do
voiceover and acting and stage and
commercials and all that
stuff does this make sense to you is
this something that maybe you’ve thought
about but in a different way let me know
in the comments below uh if you’re on V
heroes.com scroll all the way down to
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so appreciate you watching and listening
I’m David H Lawrence the 17th and I’ll
see you in the next episode of The V
Heroes
podcast

(from YouTube)