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, emcee, 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. Did you know the number one reason that people fail at performing is lack of confidence? You should know that, because every single one of us had to overcome that hurdle of being confident while we're on stage. It's more than, and I'm not talking about stage fright, like I'm not talking about a fear of being on stage. I'm talking about, maybe you're past the fear, you enjoy performing, but you're still not confident, you're still not comfortable on stage. So how do you fix that? You know, what have you tried to do to fix that? I mean, for me, when I was first starting out, I tried everything. I tried wearing more comfortable clothes. That is not a good idea. You need to feel like you're performing. You gotta wear a good outfit. I did a show a couple of episodes back, check it out, it's called Dress the Part. It's all about, you know, your outfit being an extension of the performance. So, you know, I tried using more comfortable clothes, more comfortable shoes. That didn't work. It made me kind of lazy and a little more laid back on stage. So, you know, I went back to using nicer outfits and more showy outfits. So that, you know, I was trying to make myself more comfortable. I also tried doing things that, like, from my childhood, like, I started performing older songs and things that made me comfortable in kind of my safe zones. Things that I really knew and, like, since I was a kid, I really knew what I was doing. Since I was a kid, like, I've known this my entire life. Of course I can perform this now. And, you know, so that tried to make me a little more confident and it worked a little bit. One of the things I also tried is I tried just not giving a crap. Like, I tried going out there. I didn't care who liked me. I didn't care what they thought. I just went out there and did my thing. And while that's effective, you lose a lot of that connection to the audience that you need in order to gain fans. Like, you have to care. You have to. You have to care about the perception while you're out there. So what actually works with confidence and what I found really just, like, it put me in a place that I always felt good about what I was putting out there. I always felt good about what I was putting on that stage. And I always felt confident that it was going to go the way I intended it to go. Now, backing up a little bit, your audience may or may not like you. Like, you can't expect to be everyone's cup of tea, okay? So your audience may or may not like you. And that's not what we're talking about, you know? I'm talking about a successful performance is one in which you create something and when you put it on stage, it goes in a way that you intended it to when you created it. And that's kind of where we are today is that that creative process, like starting the creative process when you find out you're performing. This goes for anybody. Maybe you are a circus act. Maybe you are a singer. Maybe you're a dancer. Maybe you're a drag queen, a burlesque person. Maybe you're a speaker or, you know, a trainer in a business office. This is all the same thing. When you're going to be in front of people and you're going to be performing or presenting or singing or dancing or whatever it is you're going to do, you have to visualize what that's going to look like. And, you know, sometimes visualize your success. That's sometimes what you call it. Visualizing. Visualizing success. But it's not just success. You have to imagine what you want the audience to see when you're on stage. What do you want them to experience while you're up there? Okay. And from there, you know, you make decisions like I'm talking. You got to put a little work in the details now. Okay. But I'm talking, you know, things like where you're going to stand, how you're going to move, when you're going to move from point A to point B. Visualize your facial expressions. Work through this, you know, actually rehearse this vision as you're creating it. You know, you're going to rehearse this vision. This is not something that you're going to create the night before you get on stage and it's going to be perfect. This is something that, you know, this is a process. The creative process is phenomenal. You know, I looked up, I went to Cirque du Soleil's website. Okay. And this isn't a plug or anything. I mean, you know, Cirque du Soleil is amazing no matter where you're at. Or how you perform. You got to have mad respect for Cirque du Soleil. Okay. So I went to their website and they actually have some videos and some articles about their creative process and kind of like what it goes through when a show is being created for Cirque du Soleil. Okay. It is crazy. The things that they think about the details, like where the each individual light is going to go and what performers they're going to use and the costumes are made from scratch. Like everything is created from the. Ground up, like they literally start with nothing and then they visualize it and then they create it and that's, that's really what we all should be doing. Now, I'm not expecting, you know, you to go out there and be Cirque du Soleil tomorrow, but every time you go out there, have that vision, take the time to visualize what you're going to look like and what you're going to do. So how do you do that? You know, first of all, any performer, you should be so excited about performing that it does kind of start to happen. Automatically, but if you need a little help, like, like pushing through some barriers and some blocks, you know, it's, it's almost like a meditation. Uh, sometimes for me, it helps me to play music, um, for some other people, it may help to just sit in silence. You got to take time, relax, you know, deep breaths and everything almost put yourself in like a meditative state, close your eyes and I'll just picture the stage and picture yourself out there. What are you doing? Where are you standing? When are you crossing the stage? What sequence are you doing? Dancers and aerial acrobats and all sorts of acrobats and a lot of circus performers, when you work on a certain sequence, you go through this process, you know, you visualize what it's going to be. And then you work and you work and you work and you work and you work and you create that, that sequence, you create it. And it's the same thing for your, for the show as a whole. Singers, same thing. This is not a pick a couple of songs and go out there. You need that. You need to visualize this as well. You need to take the time to close your eyes. Think about where you're going to stand, the songs that you're going to sing, how you're going to come across the audience, mic stand, no mic stand. You know, are you going to play an instrument? Are you not going to play an instrument? Is there going to be a band behind you? Are you going to jam with the band? You know, these are the things that you really need to visualize. Dancers, same thing. You know, are you going to be dancing, you know, upstage? Are you going to be dancing downstage? How are you going to make sure that you fill the entire stage? You have to create a show that fills a stage of a certain size. What if you have to downsize? You've got to visualize this, okay? You've got to take into consideration certain aspects of your show and then create something that you want the audience to see. It doesn't matter if they like it. Now, this is not about what they're going to like, okay? This is about you are creating something and putting your talent out there. You're taking time in the creative process to create something. You're taking time to really hone in on what it is you're going to present to the audience. You know, yes, once you're there, it's about the audience. But part of this vision, okay, part of this practice is you almost have to practice as if you are an audience member, okay? Now, this goes from the vision into rehearsal. As you're thinking about audience, I mean, I talked about last episode with eye contact and how people crave attention. This all has to be rehearsed. This all has to be things that you're working on leading up to the performance. So you have to visualize that experience that you want the audience to have. And then you also have to visualize your communication with the audience and the eye contact. And you really got to think details, okay? Not a lot of performers spend time in the details. And this is not, guys, this is not like a two-, three-hour, this is not like a ten-hour all-day thing. You know, you can spend 30 minutes to an hour and really come up with something that, you know, speaks to you and it complements your talent and it represents you artistically. You're going to find this in yourself. You may have to take time to figure out what works for you. Like for me, music works. Any kind of music works. I like jammed music. Specifically, the song that I'm doing or songs similar to it. I listen to that music, okay? I know a lot of artists, like cover bands and stuff, they'll listen to the band that they're covering or the songs that they're covering. Listen, I know some dancers, they got to listen to, they have to, you know, conceptualize and create movements to whole other songs and then, you know, put it into what they're doing. So whatever works for you, you know, experiment. Sometimes it's not music. Sometimes you need silence. Sometimes you need a television playing in the background, you know? Figure out a way that works for you. My kid, okay, here's the funny thing. Okay, so not really related to performing but it's quite funny. So she's in virtual school. So she does all her, she's in eighth grade, I think. Yeah, 8th grade. It's not that I don't know the grade, it's that she's in virtual school, so she's in school online, so it's not really, like, it's not really tracking in the same sense of going to school and hanging out with 8th graders or the 7th graders. But anyways, she finds it therapeutic and almost peaceful to take the computer and do some schoolwork in the backseat of the car, like, in the driveway. Not even traveling, like, in the driveway, she'll get in the car and just sit there for an hour and a half, crack the, you know, put the windows down, of course, but sit there an hour and a half just doing her schoolwork in the car. So, you know, you've got to find what works for you and what's going to help the juices flow. You know, your creative juices need to flow. And so, yeah. Whatever works for you works for you. You have to spend time creating this vision. You have to spend time thinking about the details of what your performance is going to look like and what the audience is going to see while you're up there. You've got to think about that experience that we talked about last episode. The experience that they want to have, the experience that they're there for, that they're supporting you through, you've got to plan that. You have to visualize it and then create. That's how you get that confidence. Like, I'm going to go back to where I started. You know, this show is about confidence, but this creative process, this having the vision, this is, like, the number one way to boost your confidence is create a vision of what you want to be on stage, rehearse that vision, thinking about the audience and the experience that you're going to create, and then when you get on stage, trust the vision. Don't change what you do just because someone's looking at you. Don't change everything that you've worked on just because all of a sudden there's 30 more people here than you thought were going to be here. Don't change the vision. Trust the vision. Sometimes we get out there and we are unsure of ourselves and we all of a sudden start this negative self-talk and, oh, I'm such an idiot. Why would I say it? Why would I do this? They're not going to like it. This isn't going to go over. I don't even know if I can pull this off. You need to stop that. You've got to trust your vision. Trust the creative process. Do you think that those performers at Cirque du Soleil stop before they go on stage and go, um, you know, maybe this isn't such a good idea to fly 30 feet above the stage. No. They trust the vision. They trust the process. And most importantly, they trust themselves. And that's what you need to do. You have to trust yourself to pull off everything that you've worked on. Trust the vision. Trust the process. Oh, and you can also join our free Facebook group, beingonstage.com slash group is probably the fastest way to get there. You can also go to Facebook and search the being on stage group. As always, guys, keep rocking it and keep on shining.
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