I Don’t Care About Signal Strength.

well hey there hero it’s David H
Lawrence the seventeenth and today I
want to talk to you about the ground
that is shifting beneath our feet the
changes that are occurring right before
our very eyes and the people the
institutions that are kind of being left
behind by it and why what I do when I
teach really has nothing to do with this
long-standing tradition of education and
achievement so let me let me let me
break that down for let me explain
what’s going on so one of the books that
I recently narrated is called leveraged
learning and it’s by Danny eenie he’s a
friend as well as a really brilliant guy
we’ve been in masterminds together and
he wrote this book because education is
antiquated
the education system that we have right
now the higher education system in
particular he’s not talking about you
know K through 12 but he’s talking about
colleges and universities they are a
blast from the past they are not serving
the employers that want to hire people
coming out with degrees they’re not
giving the preparation that’s needed to
operate at a high level in modern
society and one of the things that he
describes is that their signal strength
is dropping the signal strength meaning
the import the heft the meaning behind
getting a degree at a university now
there are some exceptions Ivy League
universities Oxford you know medical
schools you know they have a very
special small niche but all of these
universities state universities city
colleges all of these universities all
across the country that are pushing
people and raising tuitions and giving
them degrees that employers kind of look
at and go yeah well okay that’s great
you know that’s good
it’s so competitive and it’s so weird
because in the old days and the 1700s
the 1800s even before that a university
carried huge signal strength to people
that really didn’t need it
because the only people that were going
to universities were the really wealthy
usually male
usually white kids and they had families
that could take care of them whether
they were successful or not so but when
that started to become more mainstreamed
more maximized and other people began
attending from other socio-economic
levels and and backgrounds and races and
sexes genders all of a sudden the
university degree began to have a very
very big impact on society in the 1800’s
the early 1900’s all the way through the
end of the 20th century but what’s
happened since then is this huge
entrepreneurial change in what we’ve
been doing and a huge shift in what
employers want and in our case as
performers we weren’t really ever a part
of that whole academic thing we didn’t
need to get a degree to be an actor to
be a voice-over talent now there are
plenty of people who do they get degrees
in theatre arts or they get degrees in
performance or they go to
performance-based higher learning and
and those do have some signal strengths
but for the most part if you go to any
casting office in Los Angeles or New
York or London or Sydney and and you go
in for a part they’re not going to ask
you as a requirement of considering move
for the role where did you get your
degree that just doesn’t happen and it’s
happening more and more in other
industries as well so the problem though
is there are people running around
saying we’re going to give you
certification we’re gonna we’re gonna
give you a degree and it’s gonna be
great because you could take that degree
out and you can get yourself somewhere
my god you know and and the fact of the
matter is that signal strength just
isn’t there anymore unless it’s an Ivy
League school unless it’s a very well
regarded medical university the signal
strength from a degree at a typical
college or university means much less
and is much lower than it used to be
even just twenty thirty years ago and
that is because we have changed how we
operate in this world everybody is a lot
more entrepreneurial everybody has side
hustles and everybody wants to start
business and as performers that’s what
we signed on for we started a business
we decided to be entrepreneurial right
so when I designed vo heroes and even
before that with vo to gogo and the
other things that I teach the ACX master
class and so on
I really couldn’t care less about signal
strength we don’t offer a diploma or
certification we let you have a
certificate that says you completed the
course but we don’t have like grade
point averages and magna cum laude and
summa cum laude and and you know
valedictorians and salutatorians and all
of these ancient mechanisms that meant
something one at one point in history
but really don’t mean that much anymore
and I’m not minimizing those of you who
are super whip-smart and we’re
valedictorians and got a 4.5 grade point
average on a 4.0 scale I’m thrilled that
that’s the case and maybe it helped you
get into a really great college or
university but when it comes to my
training I couldn’t care less about
signal strength there are people that go
to other coaches because they have
bigger names there are people that go to
big organizations that sell them really
hard on their project and and what they
are they’re their process and what you
come out with in the end in terms of
people being able to say oh you took
your stuff there oh that’s great
that doesn’t happen no client comes to
you as a voice talent or as an actor and
said now before you audition for this
before I even consider you tell me about
your training they might ask as a matter
of course but it’s not a deal-breaker
it’s not something that is required it’s
it’s it’s very different and so instead
of signal strength what I rely on and
what I want to generate and what I want
for you and for my other clients is I
want two things I don’t want you to have
a piece of paper that you hold up and
say hey I went and saw I went in took
classes at vo heroes calm now we do
again we give you little certificates
and and they’re suitable for framing you
can put them up but they’re more
your own benefit and completion right I
don’t expect any of you to put them all
in a book and take them someplace on an
audition what I do want is I want you to
have engagement and I want you to have
results I want you to be connected to
what you’re learning and what you’re
executing how many of you have gone to
classes and sessions and seminars or
even school and and university labs and
and lectures and stuff and seeing people
who are completely checked out they’re
not paying attention they’re there
because they think if they can just get
through these four years or two years or
five hours whatever it is they’re gonna
come out on the other end being able to
say yeah I did that so I’m better now
but did you really get the knowledge
that you need that’s what I want and did
you get the joy of of engaging in what
you’re doing and do you get results I
want that for both you and your client
that’s why I called my company when I
rebranded it this year that’s why I
called them via euros I want to create
Heroes you as a hero to your client
you’re engaged you’re concerned you are
on it you know you’ve got their back
you’re getting results for them that’s
what I want I don’t want you to think oh
I did this I have a certificate that’s
great because the signal strength on
that just it’s just not there and when I
was thinking about this the other day I
thought wow it’s just like higher
education and I think that programs that
are like mine that I provide to give
people the ability to create businesses
to create practices to create high level
skill sets are going to be far more
important to the public at large to
employers that want to bring you on
board to clients that want to take
advantage of your services in the future
and that’s what leverage learning says
in the future then what Higher Education
is doing today so that’s what I have to
say about that what do you have to say
about that I’d love to know I know that
some of you have spent an awful lot of
money
I didn’t even talk about you know
college debt when you compare that to
the 29.95 that I charge for the
Tyger curriculum of what i do it’s it’s
like my mind’s a drop in the bucket
there are people walking around with six
figures of college debt and no job to
pay for it so I’d love to know what you
have to say about all this
and whether or not this is something
that you’ve thought about whether or not
this is something that you chose to move
away from or to move toward as you were
thinking about what would work for you
what is it that would be great do you
look back on your college or your
university experience and go why did I
do that I don’t know let me know in the
comments below I’d love to know I’d look
to open up this conversation and we do
that over on vo heroes com do make the
comments there and if you want to be on
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fill out that form you’ll be on the list
I’d love to have you I’m David H
Lawrence the seventeenth I thank you so
much for watching and I will talk to you
tomorrow.