How You Can Use The MVP Model As A Performer
Hey there!
Here’s something you can steal from the world of product development. After all, you’re constantly developing your product…which is you!
They have a model called the MVP. It’s not the sports MVP (Most Valuable Player), it’s something entirely different.
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Hope this helps!
David
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hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
with another one of my one a day videos
for the year we’re doing a new video
every day it’s a challenge feeling
really good about it in the last video I
did I talked about the concept of rather
than ready aim shoot the concept of
ready shoot aim and constantly iterating
to be better at what you do and I’m
gonna tie this in with my love of the
Golden State Warriors
whenever Steph Curry steps up to the
line to shoot free throws me happens
with other players around the league you
know James Harden and LeBron James but
with Steph Curry it’s awesome the crowd
starts chanting MVP MVP MVP and because
I’m familiar with what I’m about to talk
to you about in this video yeah I
sometimes think Most Valuable Player but
that’s not always what I think and
because usually when I’m at a game I’m
in San Francisco
you know the hotbed of Technology I am
even more drawn to the alternative
version of what MVP stands for so yeah
in sports it’s most valuable player but
in the world of technology it stands for
something else and it stands for
something that I think we can all use as
performers as we develop our products
our scripts our auditions our tools like
our demos and our resumes and so on it
actually stands for something that tech
companies use all the time to just
simply get something out there shoot and
then see what happens
aim and then get ready and shoot again
so what MVP stands for for those
companies is Minimum Viable Product now
I can tell you from personal experience
that I did this without even knowing
what this was about
when I first started teaching voiceover
I was teaching classes live in front of
people from a series of notes on a piece
of paper the notes were just written out
I had no PowerPoint presentations I had
no online video I had no website where
people could go and
is a member and learn and do online
workouts a whole lot has changed in the
last but 1213 years or so but what I was
actually doing at that point was for all
intents and purposes a Minimum Viable
Product you know it worked it taught
people the things that I wanted to teach
them and over time as people asked
questions and made suggestions and
brought up things that I hadn’t
considered when I first put the classes
together I aimed a little better and
shot again I created a new version of
the classes and I created more classes
so I added to the targets and I added to
the product but when it first started
off it was an MVP a Minimum Viable
Product and I think we can do that with
things like our demos our websites our
business cards anything that we think we
have to get exactly perfect before we
let it out into the wild if you follow
the MVP pattern it works better for you
because you can start to learn from your
audience what they want and what they
didn’t get or what they did get and they
really loved you get the good the bad
and the ugly but only if you put it out
there you won’t know until you actually
do it right I’m about to release a new
edition of rehearsal pro and I’m pretty
nervous about what I’m gonna be doing in
this new edition I’m gonna be looking to
my user base to tell me what works what
doesn’t and why so that I can be more
successful but I think we tend to really
stifle ourselves when we overthink what
we need to do to get something out to
the public when is it really ready and
we forget that you know the Minimum
Viable Product of today will morph into
a much better version in the future and
that too will be a Minimum Viable
Product for what comes after that so
we’ll do a resume and then we’ll adjust
it and we’ll take notes from a casting
director and we’ll change it will set up
our
our video recording situation and the
Minimum Viable Product on that earlier
in the year is not the same thing that
I’m doing now I think these look a lot
better
so MVP think about that and don’t be
afraid to let the MVP be seen by
somebody who could make it help you make
it better
there’s no permanent record nobody’s
gonna be going you know back in 2012 he
had just an awful resume they’re going
to resume from today and go wow this is
great this is nicely formatted I can
read it really well I see these special
what’s a Fritz Feld impression what is
that
that’s what if it’s relative
impressionism anyway okay no more
open-loop on that right okay so so think
MVP think Minimum Viable Product and
don’t think I have to keep it to myself
let people see it let people help you
let people help you make things better
what Minimum Viable Product have you
been holding back on hmm what’s really
okay it’ll serve the the the the need at
hand not maybe not at the best that
you’ll ever be but right now it’s enough
to get started it’s a Minimum Viable
Product what are you holding back that
you really should be letting out into
the wild and letting people see what
about yourself are you holding back
because it’s not just perfect it’s just
not perfect yet it’s not quite right
it’s not it’s not ready yet what if it
was what if you could take a Minimum
Viable Product and get going with your
life moving closer to success iterating
and making it better tell me in the
comments below I want to know I want to
know what’s going on with you I want to
know if this video resonates with you
right we’re doing one of these videos a
day this is the second of two videos on
this whole process of getting better
through iteration got more on the way if
you want to subscribe to my channel on
youtube there’s my head go ahead and
click on it you don’t see a head over
there I’m sorry but there’s a subscribe
button somewhere on the page if you want
to see the latest video that I’ve done
click on that frame if there’s a frame
there and YouTube will play it for you
because that’s what they do I’m David H
Lawrence the 17th I so appreciate you
watching these and I will talk to you
tomorrow
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You are speaking my love language! I preach this daily at my day gig in the IT shop of a large healthcare corporation. I’ll climb up on my Agile methodology soapbox with anyone. Don’t let perfection stand in the way of progress. It’s a great lesson for voice over as well.
Mornin’ David,
This MVP thing is certainly a Most Valuable Point! and at some point-in-time, an Artist, Craftsperson, and/or VO person has to put it (the product) out there for Sale. A difficult moment maybe but a moment of resistance that has to be faced & overcome in order to be able to move forward. Fear & self-doubt are insidious feelings that can hold-back anyone, sometimes for a lifetime.
I’ve been there before, and curiously I’m there again as I write this while preparing to take a Step, one small step, into a new arena that could, might, possibly open a new productive direction for me. Exposing your Art rarely generates the negative resistance you imagine especially when built upon a foundation of preparedness/skill. After all, bringing out your VO MVP is not the beginning but the continuation of your VO journey. ~Thanx for this reminder David.
Sounds like a perfect subject for the Believe Journey.
Thanks, David! I have been presenting my MVP without even knowing it! I agree completely, especially regarding business cards, websites, etc. Even my newish Meetup group is an MVP. They all will get better over time, but at least they are presentable and putting me out there…isn’t that what it is all about?
Perfection stifles. There’s no doubt about it. Just let ‘er rip, then do it again, better next time and every time after that.
That is how I pulled off recording 50 episodes of my TV show, “Yoga Time with Marlon Braccia” in 18 months. By episode 35, I had it down. I’d ask the crew for 1 min of between the bedlam of getting the set ready and beginning to tape so I could breath.Then the countdown would come, “5,4,3, ____, ____.” At zero, I’d look straight at the camera and talk to it as if I were taking to someone I knew. There was no performing. I was just me, the yoga teacher who knew this stuff thru and thru, who was driven by her desire to make yoga accessible to everyone who was willing to try it. Eventually, it was available on 11 million TV sets a week, because I mailed huge 3/4″ tapes all over the country at my own expense. I’d be up at midnight printing shipping labels and keeping track of what station had which episodes. I’d put them in my suitcase when I went to NY and beg security not to X-ray my suitcase.
At first it was was faaaar from perfect. Sometimes I had a bad director. One time I forgot my make-up and looked like a ghost on camera. Sometimes they messed up the soundtrack, so I made it dummy-proof by putting start-to-finish on a CD. Every time I shot, I had to beg someone to come over to help me put my oriental rug into my hatchback, because I just couldn’t lift it myself and it was a major part of the set. I had to think of 50 themes for the 50 episodes, so I learned a lot about tailoring a practice to this ailment or that. I met great cameramen and utterly lazy ones. I learned what did and did not work in hand-held camera work. I trained the crew to follow my moves and listen to content, to know where the CUs should be. I learned how to move when I had a lav mic on, so the sound wouldn’t spike. I painfully reviewed my tapes until I taught myself how to let go of all my nervous, on-camera habits. Eventually I was alert yet relaxed on every show.
Seven years after production ended, I got a distribution deal and sold it in DVD format thru Was-Mart and other big box stores. I’m proud to stay over 1.6 million people have done yoga with me thru the DVDs and streaming. Who knows how many on TV.
I tell you all this so you are encouraged to WING IT the first time and get whatever your “it” is out there. Just get moving on it. Get out of idea stage.
Ask David. After his audiobook course, I was scared out of my mind to take on an audiobook. I knew he taught me all the tools, I just didn’t know if I could pull off a whole book. The only thing that pushed me into a very, very hot closet to produce that month with no AC, was the fear of not earning the $100 PFH, that I desperately needed to pay rent the following month.
One day at a VO event, David publicly congratulated me, pointing to me and saying that I wasn’t scared. I shot back across the crowd, “I was petrified, but I did it anyway.” There’s a book title that says it all: “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”
Amazing Marlon! One of these days I too will be able to be more than Gable!
I worked as a PM for a retailer on an international site launch on the commercial side and the concept of MVP in the product world blew my mind at the time. I never made the connection to my own practice – so thanks for that!!