Want To Grow? Don’t Go It Alone.
 
					Photo by Cori Rodriguez from Pexels
Hey there!
Many of the skills we learn are those that try to help us become self-sufficient. To be able to handle challenges by ourselves. To say “I’m self-made.” Somehow, that’s become a badge of honor.
I’m here to tell you that it’s fun in the beginning, but you’ll never get where you want to go by shutting yourself away from others. And the only way to move forward past your own level of expertise is to do some awesome team-building.
Hope this helps!
David
Raw YouTube Captioning
hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
 and today I want to talk to you about
 independence versus dependence versus
 cooperation versus team-building all of
 that kind of wrapped up in one we often
 are exposed to articles YouTube videos
 pieces of media that attempt to give us
 skills that make us more competent all
 by ourselves we don’t have to rely on
 anybody we don’t need anybody we don’t
 need any support we don’t need any
 outside influence we can do this all by
 ourselves and there’s something to be
 said for being able to be independent
 there’s something to be said for being
 able to solve problems on your own and
 able to survive on your own and able to
 cope with emergencies on your own
 especially when you’re on your own when
 you’re by yourself when you’re looking
 at ways to increase your ability to be
 successful and your growth as a
 performer as an entrepreneur as a brand
 maybe you’ve created a business I can
 guarantee you that you will reach a
 certain point where you can’t grow any
 more or at least any faster if you don’t
 start to include other people and those
 other people don’t mean you have to hire
 a team that’s one way of doing it right
 but getting involved with peers just
 discussing what you’re doing with peers
 mentors people that have been where you
 are have gone on to other things can
 share with you some of their successes
 and some of their challenges and how
 they solve those challenges coaches and
 teachers and yes staff interns I can
 tell you that when I was growing my
 business it didn’t get any bigger until
 I started to add other coaches a virtual
 assistant
 now have to I now have five coaches
 other than me I have to tech people
 actually three tech people and I
 wouldn’t have been able to build my
 businesses without those other people
 and the thing is when you plan for
 things it’s always so much fun to bounce
 those ideas off of other people we’re
 about to do a huge reboot of my company
 this year and sharing those ideas with
 my team has been really really rewarding
 networking is a skill building
 relationships is a skill that is really
 valuable it’s not only valuable in terms
 of other people having input and and
 assisting you with moving forward but
 just in terms of creating relationships
 in all areas vendors and customers and
 suppliers and team members and advisers
 and so on
 building skills being in a class with
 somebody as opposed to being in a class
 by yourself I always tell people when we
 launch vo to go go every year find
 somebody to go through this with you
 because it’s always better to talk about
 these things bounce things off of other
 people than it is to just sort of sit
 there in isolation and hope to hell that
 you’re getting it right that you’re
 getting what you need right execution
 reworking when something isn’t working
 even celebration is a lot more fun when
 there are other people involved you know
 what I mean
 I remember the first big win that I had
 when it was just me you know I think I
 went over to Gordon Biersch and I don’t
 drink beer I grabbed a glass of wine and
 I sat there and I thought huh this just
 might work you know but I noted how it
 was kind of lonely it was kind of like
 you know I’m the only one that knows
 about this right so it’s become a lot
 more fun now that I’ve added people in
 my life and added people to my crew and
 added a lot more clients and you know so
 the whole idea is don’t try to stick it
 out by yourself if that’s all you’ve got
 I understand
 but if you really want to start to build
 and accelerate that growth of what
 you’re trying to do take a long hard
 look at adding more people to your
 sphere of influence and to those that
 you influence right and let me know what
 you think about that have you kind of
 stopped when it got to the point where
 you maybe needed to talk about having
 somebody added in your life either a
 staff member or a partner or even a peer
 you’re concerned they’re gonna find out
 about what you do and maybe it’s not as
 good as you think or they’ll steal stuff
 from you or who knows what is it that
 stops you what is it that made you add
 people to your world right let me know
 in the comments below if you’re watching
 this on youtube go over to vo2 gogo calm
 the link is below this video if you’re
 watching on YouTube and leave your
 comments there because that’s where the
 conversation is sane and managed and
 everybody’s nice and I like it there
 there’s lots of cool tools for you there
 too if you want to join my you know
 subscribe to my channel on YouTube and
 get notified when these once-a-day
 videos come out we’re gonna do it all
 throughout the year that’s the challenge
 is to do a video every day including
 today even when I’m not available I’m in
 the process of getting shoulder surgery
 and so I’m taping this a little bit
 ahead of time taping that is so 80s
 anyway if you want to join my youtube
 channel go ahead and click on my face
 there if there’s no face there then look
 for a subscribe button somewhere below
 this video if you want to see the latest
 episode click on that frame youtube will
 play it for you I’m David H Lawrence
 xvii thank you so much for watching and
 I will talk to you tomorrow.
 
		 
			
MeetUp groups are a great way to connect with others in the biz. I have learned so much from my VO MeetUp peeps! Plus it’s great fun to get out of the booth and socialize, pick each other’s brains, help those who are just getting started, etc. I was in two great groups in the Seattle area, but moved to Spokane last fall. I was amazed to find out how many people there are in VO in Spokane when I started the MeetUp here. Very encouraging when I thought I would be all alone. Try it!
I look forward with great anticipation to the day when I have enough work to justify hiring people! For now, I need to build my business based on an investment that is relatively…mmm…conservative. My accountant is already concerned that My business may be declared a “hobby”!
Good questions. I had employees in the past and they did me dirty so now I don’t trust the process of bringing people into the fold. I realize they weren’t the right people and that was a different time but there is still that lingering feeling. I work on it daily and hope as my business grows again I’ll have the opportunity to bring the right people into my world. I love these daily videos. They are fantastic. Thank you.
From advice and support, to sharing in my excitement, it was wonderful to share my recent victories with my friends, family, and VO family. Thanks for the video David.
Speedy recovery David! 2 things, first, your “taped” reference near the end is so appropriate today. I just saw that with “New Coke” being featured in the 3rd season of “Stranger Things”, Coke is bringing that back for a limited time. Everything old is new again, like your shoulder! Second, I get the team support thing for sure but kind of opposite that is the virtual assistant. You’ve mentioned that a few times. Would you please do a video on how that looks in your life? I think that I might benefit greatly from something like this and want to hear how you use this type of service. Thank you!
Networking Groups that are web designers, graphic designers surprisingly was a great group for Me to be involved with. Web designers like the idea of adding voice to a site–I’m sure Me pitching the idea at the monthly meeting helped too. lol. Great encouraging words today david!