I Figured Out What I Provide: The Onboarding Performers Don’t Get

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and I recently read an article that was
one person’s experience deciding to go
from a cushy corporate America job to a
freelance job and the article was all
about the things that you don’t think
about when you decide to remove that
safety net of working for the man you
know leaving cubicle land and going off
on your own whether it’s to a startup or
to a freelance position or in our case
becoming a performer now sometimes
people straddle you know they’ll keep
their day job their survival job their
thrival job whatever you want to call it
and they’ll work as a performer
part-time but some people make the leap
and they think about how will I replace
the income they think about you know how
will I get myself set up in my own space
so that I know what I’m doing and I can
rely on my equipment in my gear and the
technology but there are a few things
that don’t usually occur to you until
after you’ve made that decision and one
of them the one that I’ll deal with last
kind of gave me a real wake-up call when
it came to what I do you know a previous
video that I did was about getting
started in voiceover and how it provides
training so I’ll get to that in just a
second so first thing that the article
talked about was there’s no such thing
as too much preparation for that jump
you know you want to think about what
its gonna mean in terms of your income
what its gonna mean in terms of your
benefits what its gonna mean in terms of
a support group around you and we’ll
talk a little bit deeper about that in
just a second also your peers the other
people that made that same jump your
other performer friends in our case
they’re gonna become really really
important to you I want to be important
to you I want to help you and it’ll take
some time to trust that because when
you’re in a corporate environment it’s
like oh these people all got hired they
were judged by the corporate powers that
be to be appropriate and you know you
have different feelings about different
people that you work with but you kind
of get the idea that they’ve been vetted
right and then there’s pee
that you meet when you go out on your
own or when you become a performer or
you go join a startup that you don’t
know how they came to the situation
there you know there isn’t the same kind
of a vetting that occurs and you meet
people that help you you meet people
that are kind of clueless and don’t help
you but the other thing that the article
talked about is you might be surprised
by the support that you receive and I’ve
heard that a million times from actors
from voice talent who are always very
very surprised that I want to help them
that I want to support them that other
people in my program I tribe want to
help them and want to support them it’s
not just me and my tribe it’s people in
general in terms of acting and
performing I think we have a more
generous nature then a lot of freelance
entrepreneurial situations might be um
you will spend a lot of time defending
your choice
meaning family and friends really you’re
gonna do that you’re not gonna work for
that big really you know and then you
have to have a way of having that
conversation and the conversation is yep
I sure AM and I’m really happy about it
and it’s hard sometimes to say that it’s
hard sometimes to say that with a
straight face but you do want to take
the time to let people know that you’re
happy about your the decision that you
made to do this
another thing the article talks about is
you may end up being a little frustrated
that you didn’t do it sooner that you
took so long to make the decision to
jump from whatever it was that you were
doing to what you really loved what you
really want to do that sends you out on
your own that removes that safety net
you know you might think to yourself man
why did I wait so long to do this it
happens to me all the time when I when
it comes to certain technologies that
I’ve resisted or certain systems that
I’ve resisted why did I wait so long to
do this right um it will be harder to
sell your skills and your experience and
the reason is that you don’t have that
support team that you had when you
worked for the big corporation you don’t
have a sales department in a marketing
department and an advertising department
and support team you know an admin team
you know when you go out on your own you
have to find people like steena and
people like Rachel and people like my
coaches who we support each other and
it’s harder to sell what you do when you
don’t have somebody helping to describe
what you do you have to come up with
that stuff all on your own or rely on
those peers and team members that you
assemble to help you get that all in
place you have to be more proactive
about creating a professional network
because when you’re in a corporate
environment that’s kind of done for you
right you have departments and you have
teams and you have skunkworks and you
have all these different things that
help you get all those people around you
those peers around you of like mind
whereas with performers it’s kind of
hard that first time you go to a meet-up
or you go to a you know a networking
session or you go to a party or anything
that actually provides you the
opportunity to make those connections
it’s like who do I trust who do I deal
with right you will absolutely learn on
the job in more ways than just one
you’ll learn not only what you have to
do but you’ll learn how to run your
business you’ll learn how to use the
technology you’ll learn how to keep your
heads straight right and that’s why we
teach in our courses whether it’s the
free course getting started in voiceover
or the ACX master class or the the pro
the pro system the vo to go go pro
system we teach from those four
different categories not just how to do
the work but how to run your business so
the art how to do the work the commerce
how to run your business the science the
technology that you need to know about
and the mindset right the the thought
processes and the brain situation that
you really need to be in if you’re gonna
make a success out of this because
without any four of those any one of
those four things you’re kind of stuck
and so that brings me to the very last
one and that is you’ll need to find
onboarding substitutes so when you go to
work for a big company let’s say you go
to work as a barista at Starbucks you’re
going to work as a as a
regional supervisor in Starbucks doesn’t
really matter the first day you’re there
you’re gonna fill out a lot of paperwork
right your your employment forms and
whatnot and then instead of starting
your job right away they’re gonna sit
you down in front of a display and
they’re gonna show you a bunch of videos
or they’re gonna send you to a class
with a bunch of other people that
they’re bringing on board at the same
time let’s say you’re a barista at
Starbucks right you’re gonna learn not
only how to make the lattes and how to
warm up the bagel you know things that
you serve up the the snacks but you’re
also gonna learn how to operate the cash
register you’re gonna learn how to write
on the chalkboard in the way that they
want you to you’re gonna learn how to
open the doors and close the place down
at night you know open the doors in the
morning close it down at night and that
was the aha moment for me because when
you go out on your own as an
entrepreneur or as a freelancer
certainly as a performer you don’t get
the opportunity to get those pre-done
trainings that the company pays for and
the company administers and the company
makes sure you get before they turn you
loose on their customers right and
that’s what I do I do free and paid
onboarding as much free as I can afford
to do and as much paid as I can to make
myself want to do it more but the
classes that I provide again give you
those skills that you need that you
would normally get in a corporate
environment and I give them to you in a
one-on-one a team on one you know all of
our team for you or one de many
situation that that was a big
realization for me I replace that idea
of getting you set and ready to go to go
out there and kill it because when you
take that corporate training they test
you they figure out whether or not
you’re ready to go before they turn you
loose right and that’s what I do and it
was such a great feeling to know that
I’m providing one of those safety nets
for people and providing that training
that onboarding safety net where you
learn to onboard into whatever the
industry is that you’re you’re going for
it in our case it’s performance it’s
both on camera it’s voice over its audio
books it’s other categories
and that really makes me proud and I get
I’ve been getting responses to what I’ve
been doing for a long time and I didn’t
realize that that’s where those came
from
those positive hey I’m really glad you
were there to help me out those things
really make a difference to me so
question what did you think about when
you decided to become a performer did
you think about those things that I just
listed did you do or did those kind of
come get you once you decided that
that’s what you were gonna do I’d love
to know what your reaction is to that
and I’d also like to know if I’m doing
okay in helping you if I’m doing okay in
bringing to you the issues and the
processes the strategies and the tactics
that you need to really succeed as a
performer and if there’s anything that’s
missing I would love to know that as
well and you can leave comments here you
can leave comments on vo to go go calm I
hope that’s where you’re watching this
video because that’s where we have an
awful lot of free tools for you we do
have some paid tools for you there but
we have a lot of free stuff for you
there strategies and tactics that will
help you out and I’m gonna start warning
you right now that vo – go go calm is
going to be changing in a big way
including its name so eventually you’ll
watch this video and you’ll you’ll go –
vo – go go calm and you’ll say that go
over here and so we’re gonna try to make
that as smooth as possible but we’re in
the middle of Project X we are we are
doing some big things here and that’s
gonna be part of it so leave me a
comment if you’d like to join my youtube
channel and get notified when each one
of these new videos comes out go ahead
and click on my head or on a subscribe
button somewhere on the page or if you’d
like to see the latest video I’ve done
click on that frame and YouTube will
play it for you I’m David H Lawrence
xvii I thank you so much for watching
and I will talk to you tomorrow.