Speaker 1Shut up, and sit down. Welcome to Being On Stage, the only podcast that gives you motivation, inspiration, and confidence to be better on stage. No matter how you entertain, sing, dance, band, comedian, public speaking, MC, drag, burlesque, performance art, or street performer, this is the show for you. Hey, rock stars. It is your host, Reggie Dawson, and again, welcome to the Being On Stage podcast. We are celebrating episode 30. We're also celebrating just over six months since the podcast launched. So, in honor of doing that, I'm doing something a little special. I'm going completely off script, and I'm going to talk about something that I actually picked up from a book I read by Livingston Taylor called Stage Performance. He teaches a college course on stage performance at Berkeley University. And. It's something that he put in his book that kind of stuck with me and resonated with me. I just finished the book, so celebrating episode 30 at the same time as finishing this book, I'm throwing something out there that I picked up from the book. It's a great read. Not that this is like a book review podcast or anything like that. This is all about performing on stage, but any performer would definitely pick up something from Livingston Taylor's book. It's mainly about singing while playing an instrument on stage, but it's a great read. I picked up a lot. So, what I want to talk about. He mentioned that. He mentioned that when it comes to performing, there's three gates that you have to get through. And this really stuck with me because I found it to be true in my own career, and I found it to be true in everybody that I've talked to. There's three gates. The first gate is, are you good enough? And I'm going to break down each of these gates here in a minute. But the first gate is, are you good enough? Are you good enough for what you're going after? The second gate is, do you want it? Think about that. Truly. Do you want it? Want it? The third gate is, are you tough enough to get it? That third one is so powerful, but I'm going to go back to the first one now. So, the first one is, are you good enough? The easy answer to this is for you to just say, nope, not good enough. I might as well give up now. I might as well just stop whatever it is I'm doing. But you can't. Because there's a way around it. There's a fix to are you good enough. You can work through these three gates. If you woke up today and you found this podcast because you decided today. That you want to become a performer. You're not really sure what you're going to do, but you just have that drive to be in front of people and on stage. If this is that day, perfect. Are you good enough? You don't know because you don't know what you're going to do, but you know what? There's a way around that. You rehearse, get help, find a mentor, take lessons. That's how you can get better. So, are you good enough? If you feel like the answer is no, how are you going to get there? How are you going to build on the foundation that you have right now? To be able to say, yes, I'm good enough. I'm good enough to make it through this gate onto the next gate. How can you get there? Think about this. And I want you to take this away. This is the podcast that I want you to really take stuff away from. So, one of the things I want you to take away is to think about what's going to make me feel like I'm good enough. Because here's the truth. Sometimes you are good enough and you just don't see it. I talked a little bit about previously, you know, checking the ego and everything. But the other thing you want to remember. Is while you want to keep your ego in check, you also want to keep your confidence on full. Because you need to know that you are good enough. And if you don't feel like you're good enough, it's a constant growth industry. You have to always practice. You have to always be rehearsing. You always have to learn the new techniques and the new technologies out there that help you perform better. And that help you build upon the foundation that is your show. Yes, you are. Because as of right now. You're going to keep pushing yourself to keep getting better. Hell yeah, you're good enough. Second gate. Do you want it? It's an easy answer to say, yes, I want it. But let's think about this really truthfully. How do you know you want it? What have you done to show that you want it? Sometimes people, and myself included. This is what happened to me. I got to a point in my career where I felt like I didn't need to work for my bookings. I just needed to wait for them to roll in. I wasn't going to call no clubs. I'm not going to call no venues. I'm not going to call no show directors. They want me. They know who I am. They'll come to me. Yeah, who's your daddy? But you know what happened? Slowly the emails stopped. Phone calls slowed down. No one wants to seek somebody that doesn't want to be found. So, what have you done to show that you want it? Have you contacted those bars? I don't care if they don't do live music. I don't care if they've never had an act of your kind. I saw a guy do an aerial act at a freaking coffee house. He did an aerial. He had a silks routine in a coffee house. I don't care if there's no place that offers your type of performing. Have you called? Have you found out? Have you tried to put something together? So, do you want it? Is this something you truly want? Because you're going to have to put yourself out there, consistently put yourself out there. I've learned that the hard way, because if you stop putting yourself out there, if you stop seeking opportunities, they're going to stop coming. Third gate, are you tough enough to get it? Yeah. You're going to have to establish that you're good enough, and you're going to keep working to get better. You're going to rehearse. You're going to seek help. You're going to find a mentor. After you make it through that gate, you get to the do you want it. You start calling these places. You start trying to get shows, trying to get bookings together. Maybe there's variety shows that you can get into. You start calling for auditions, finding out what you can do. You've shown that you want it. Are you tough enough to get it? Because there's going to be a ton of rejection. There's going to be a ton of no's, but I promise, and all those no's, eventually, there's going to be a yes. You're going to have to be tough to get to that yes. You're going to have to take a lot of no's. You're going to have people laughing in your face. You're going to have people telling you that you're crazy. You're going to have people telling you that your routine is half-baked, and you have no business being on stage. You're going to have people trying to tear you down and hold you back every single step of the way. How tough are you to take it? Are you tough enough? How do you get past this one? This is the hardest thing for most people, is to be tough enough to face all of that rejection, to get through to that yes. There are people that go their whole lives, and they don't hear yes 10, 20, 30 years or more, but they keep going. They keep pushing themselves. You know why? Because of one and two. Because they want it, and because they know that they're good enough, and they know that they're going to keep pushing themselves to get better, and keep growing, and keep showing that they want this for themselves. This is their passion. Those are the people that are going to make it. Those are the people that are going to hear the yes. So every time you fall short, every time you get a no, every time you get pushed backwards and torn down, you tell yourself, "I'm going to keep going." You tell yourself that you're going to go again, and again, and again, and again, because a yes is coming, but sometimes you have to go get it. You have to show that you want it. You have to push yourself to be better, and you have to take a ton of rejection and a ton of crap. But it's worth it. Because when you make it through those three gates, and you get to that yes, and you finally realize that through your entire life, through all the rejection, and all the pain, and all the heartache, you've gotten to live the life that you've truly wanted, doing what you love. Happy episode 30. Keep on shining.
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