Changing Directions
“I had a checklist when I started out,” Lawrence reflects. “I wanted to travel, to tour in a van, to have my own soundboard – my own rig. I wanted to mix in stadiums and arenas. And I wanted to fly in private jets.” By age 34, with checkmarks next to all of those goals, he decided it was either time to set new goals or to try something completely different.
That took the form of a decision to transition from a touring engineer to a job where he’d spend more time in one place: “The short answer is that I have a 5-year-old little girl and had toured for about four years of her life, which kept getting harder and harder.”
At 2016 NAMM Show, he once again made an important connection, this time with the folks from American Music & Sound, senior vice president Tim Schaeffer in particular. “Tim’s from Arizona, a sound engineer who got into sales,” Lawrence notes. “And he’s been a powerhouse sales guy for 40-plus years. But we connected not just because of that, but also in terms of the reasons why we’re alive.”
When Schaeffer approached him about a sales position with Allen & Heath, at first he was unsure, “But Tim proceeded to take me from an innocent freelance sound engineer and teach me. I’ve learned so much in this last 10 months, and what’s driven me is that it’s all about people and all about the gear.” Beyond spending more time with his daughter, he adds, it was a powerful motivator for him to take the opportunity to get off the road.
There’s a tradeoff in changing roles, he acknowledges, referencing a Formula One show he once worked in Mexico: “My 10 fingers were controlling what 80,000 people heard. The high you get from that, well, unless I do it again, it ain’t gonna happen. But the flip side is I that I’ve got the story to tell.”
The new gig provides many of things he consistently seeks, among them the opportunity to foster new relationships, to be positively and personally invested in technology he cares about, to help create the circumstances he benefited from for others and, most of all: “I still get to talk about gear. Even when I was freelancing, that was a top priority, because I can talk about audio and consoles all day long.”
Regardless of his career incarnations, he adds: “People skills are number one. The quickest way to drop the barrier when I go to dealers is an open conversation.” Put bluntly, it’s easier to create relationships and, ultimately, to sell a product, he says, “When you’re not trying to shove it down people’s throats and it’s more of a conversation.”
Winning Formula
Trust with customers also derives from his background and history of utilizing A&H gear as well as his understanding of their needs. “When I go to dealers and say ‘this is the dLive,’ and they ask, ‘why do you think this is the best desk for us?’ I tell them I took it around the world and there were no hardware or software issues. That personal, first-hand experience is something you can’t replicate.”
It’s a winning formula given that, since starting out in April 2017, he’s been entrusted with more reps, territories and overall responsibilities. And his sales numbers – having only been at this for less than a year – are significant. “That’s partly because I’m able to go back to that teacher mode and because I really find fulfillment in sharing information and explaining how and why, for me at least, Allen & Heath is an awesome product, not just something it’s my job to sell.”
While he still mixes acts like Snoop Dogg and works occasionally at Phoenix venues such as the Crescent Ballroom and the Marquee Theater, his passions outside of audio are highly diverse.
“I’m a fanatical drag racing fan,” he says. “It stems from my father. When I was five he took me to the races, I smelled the nitro and the tires, and that was our big thing.” Following his father’s death in a motorcycle accident, Lawrence buried his ashes at the local track. “So now when I go, like I did last weekend, I literally go spend time with my dad.”
Other interests reflect an emphasis on self-discipline – golf, ping pong, bowling – pastimes where there’s a common thread in terms of the need for accuracy, patience and precision, which are also qualities he fosters through yoga and meditation.
“I broke both ankles when I was on tour with the Dirty Heads, so I have rods and screws in my ankles and yoga is really good for them,” he explains. “I practice meditation for 20 minutes when I get up every day. My routine is to think about how fortunate I am. Every day I say to myself, ‘Thank you for my five senses, my vision, my hearing, it’s taken me around the world.”