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 Rockstars, Reggie Dawson here, your host of the Being On Stage podcast. Welcome back and thank you for tuning in. Is it worth it to you? All the pain and suffering that you know you're going to go through and probably already have, is it worth it? All these obstacles you have to go through, is it worth it in the end? Now a lot of people will tell you, hell yes, it is worth it, 100%. But the people that know that it's worth it are the ones that. The people that have gone through it. They have gone through their obstacles. They have climbed over things, around things, under things, busted through things, and they've pushed themselves to that point to know that it's worth it. Are you the person that's giving up because you got an obstacle or because you got a no? Are you the person that's no longer going to send out emails or make phone calls because one person said, Ah, you're not really what I'm looking for. Is that you? I really hope it's not you. Listen, I want to share a quote with you. I want to share a quote. And then I'll dive a little deeper. I'll introduce you. I'll tell you a little bit about myself. If this is your first time tuning in, stay with me here. It's going to get bumpy, but it's going to be good. Listen, so the quote I want to share with you, I actually heard it at my day job of all places. I know, right? So obstacles are put in your way to see if what you want is worth fighting for. Think about that for a minute. So the obstacles that you go through, and I mean, maybe you don't believe in the whole fate and grand scheme. There's a plan and all that, and that's okay. But listen, in performing, you're going to have obstacles. You're going to have blockades. You're going to have people telling you you can't do it. You're probably going to have people laughing at you when you do it, and it's going to be a bumpy road. I'm not going to sugarcoat things. Listen, I am not here to sugarcoat things. All right, all right, all right. I'll back up. My name is Reggie Dawson. I'm a talent coach. I coach performers to improve their presentation on stage, connect with their audience, and gain more confidence in what they do when they perform. I believe everyone on the face of this planet has the potential to be an amazing entertainer. You just got to tap into it, nurture it, make it grow. Just like anything else in life, you got to work at it. I could share quotes with you all day and relate them to performing. The one that comes to mind the most, hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard. That quote right there tells you that anyone can be on stage. Because all you got to do is work hard, and your talent will come. But listen, I want to focus on this quote. I want to focus on the obstacles. I want to focus on the obstacles that you're going to face as a performer. Now, I could sit here and I could list, like, I could list the obstacles that I've had to go through to get on stage. Sometimes there's no obstacle. Sometimes it's a phone call. Hey, yeah, sure, we'd love to have you. Sometimes it's a couple of emails. But sometimes it's, you know, you got to know somebody. You know somebody who knows somebody and pray that they can get you into something. And that's where the networking and the, you know, the learning from other people and the collaborating, that's where that comes in. But obstacles, man, these obstacles, some of them are going to be pretty big. Some of them, I'm not going to sit here and list the things that's going to go wrong and list the things that you're going to have to face. You already know what you're going to have to face. Because I'll tell you something, the biggest obstacle that you're going to face, and this is something, this is something that maybe no other talent coach will tell you. I hope they tell you because it's 100% true. Your biggest obstacle, aside from all the people that are going to tell you not to do it and all the clubs that are going to tell you we can't have you and all the no's and the, you know, unreturned emails, listen, your biggest obstacle is you. You are your own biggest obstacle to get around. So I ask you again, is it worth it to just get around yourself, get out of your head? Someone tells me, I listen to podcasts, too. I know a podcaster that listens to podcasts, right? Right. It's insane. But listen, I listen to Sam Crowley. He does the Every Day is Saturday podcast. And one of the things that he says is get out of your head and get into your heart. If you're in your head, you're dead. And it holds true in every facet of life. Now, he talks about being an entrepreneur and, you know, living a free life, being free from, you know, working for other people. But I'm talking about performing. And in a sense, we're talking about the same thing. A performer is a form of entrepreneurship. You know, you are trying to be free from the normal prescribed life, if you will. So you are trying to live a more free life. So you have to get out of your head. A performer cannot live inside their head. If you live inside your head, you're not a performer. You're like a critic of yourself. And you're just holding yourself back. And that is going to be your number one obstacle to get around. Let me read that quote again. Obstacles are put in your way to see if what you want is real. Really worth fighting for. Let me back up. People always tell me that I have a really interesting way of explaining things. I'm going to tell you how I take this quote. And I want to see if you agree with me. You can let me know. Reggie at beingonstage.com. That's my email address. Let me know. So obstacles are put in your way to see if what you want is really worth fighting for. And I just said that your biggest obstacle that you're going to face is you. And it's all in your own head. That's the biggest obstacle is your head. It stands to reason that you put yourself in the way to test yourself to see if it's worth it. And why do we do that? Why do we test ourselves? We put an obstacle in our way. And that obstacle is I can't do it. Or they don't like me. Or I'm not good enough. Or I have to keep working on it. Or I can't get this quite right. Or this part's not perfect. Those are the obstacles we put in front of ourselves. So how do we get around them? Or better your question. Why do we put them? Why do we put them out there? We've got to get away from these expectations on ourselves. We've got to get away from this need to be perfect and get into the need to be out there. The need to be with our audience. The obstacles that you put in place in your head is your test of yourself. And the best way to test past the test is eliminate the obstacle and just do it. Busting through those obstacles that you put in place in your head. Busting through the obstacles that you've built up. I'm afraid of being in front of people. I don't do well in front of people. I don't speak clearly. I can't sing. I can't really dance well. I, you know, I'm still working on my miming. You know, I'm in the box. I'm not doing a straight wall. How are you going to get better? You get better at your craft by rehearsing. You get better at your performance by performing. It's amazing how that works out, right? So you're practicing. So let's say I'm going to take. Let's use singing. I think singers are fantastic. It's something that I feel I can't do. And that's probably an obstacle I put in my own head, too, because we're all the same. You know, we all put obstacles in our own way. We all hold ourselves back for things we want to do. But anyways, let's talk singing. All right. So singing. I can't sing well. I'm not in tune. I don't play an instrument. I'm tone deaf. I don't have a good singing voice. I'm shy. I don't like to be in front of people. All these things are things that you put. You put in your own head. No one's told you this. And technically, I mean, I've been told I can't sing. Like, I auditioned for American Idol. And when they say, thanks for coming out. Have a great day. That's basically saying you can't sing. But even still, I still sing in the car. I still sing in the shower. I still sing at karaoke. I still sing. The point I'm trying to make. I'm getting off the reservation here because I'm getting distracted. I'm getting all fired up about performing and obstacles and breaking through them. But the point I'm trying to make here is. If you're a singer and you put these obstacles in front of you and in your own head. And OK, you want to be a singer, whatever. So you want to be a singer. You put all these obstacles in your head. How do you get around them? You're tone deaf. How do you get around that? You take lessons. You learn. You're shy. You get out in front of people and do things. Go to karaoke. Liquid courage is amazing thing at karaoke. I'm not condoning drinking. I'm just saying. You can't hold a tune. Lessons. You don't do well in front of people, get out in front of people. There are ways around every obstacle that you built for yourself. You just have to want it bad enough. And if you don't want it bad enough, why? Why are you settling for this? Whatever, wherever you're at in your life, wherever you're at in your performance career. If you're not busting down obstacles, if you're not pushing yourself to get better. Why are you? Why are you stuck? What's got you stuck where you're at? Is it your job? Do you need money to pay your bills? I get it. I do. I got a job too. I gotta pay my bills, man. I understand. But you still gotta push yourself to get better because how amazing would it be if you could pay your bills doing the thing that you love? And it's possible. You may not make tons and tons of money on stage, but there are other avenues that performers can also use to make money and get paid to do the thing that they actually love. actually love to do. It may take some work. It may take some hard work. It may take some time. It may take a little bit of investment in yourself, but you can do it. We all can do it. The world is full of people who can. Your head is full of people who can't. That's the difference. That's my quote of the day. You know what? It's all in your head. These obstacles that you need to figure out first if it's worth it. Is it worth beating down those walls that you built inside your head? Is it worth it? And if it is, pick up the sledgehammer, baby, and let's get to work. Thank you so much for tuning in. I got to get off here. I'm getting jerked up about this performance business because I want to push you. I want to help you. I want to see everybody be great. And I know you can do it. I know you Do it. I know you can do it. Keep on shining.
PodcastTranscript AI