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,
Speaker 2this is the show for you. Hey Rockstars, Reggie Dawson here, host of the Being On Stage podcast. Welcome back. And as always, thank you so much for tuning in. It has been much too long. These last two episodes, I'll tell you, there's definitely been some time in between them that I don't normally like to have in between episodes. I think we're going on like 12 days or something since the last episode, and that's a really long time for me. And I got to thinking, you know, I really need to sit down, and I really need to record an episode, and I'm actually going to record probably a couple episodes, get something ready for the holidays coming up and everything. It got me thinking that I think all performers, and all professions really, I think everybody as human beings, we go through these spells in our life. And it's, you know, for a lot of us it may be around the holidays, it may be, you know, something's happening in your life that's impacting your career. And I'm talking your performing career, you know, whatever you do on stage, there's going to be things. There's going to be things that happen outside of that that's going to impact you and sometimes, like, hold you hostage almost. And that's kind of what's been going on with me. And so I just want to share a little bit about what's going on with me, talk about how that, you know, affects everybody, and really kind of encourage you to, no matter what's going on, just kind of get back at it. And that's kind of where I'm at right now is it's like I have to get back at it. No matter what's going on, you have to get back at it. You have to keep going back to rehearsal. Doing the little things, learning new moves, teaching yourself new sequences, new chords, new songs, whatever it is you do, you have to keep learning even in the moments when you just don't feel like it or you're just not in it. And so what's been going on with me, and I mentioned it a little bit on the last episode, you know, my mom was in the hospital for, I don't know, four or five days, had a kidney thing going on. And then on top of that, you know, my daughter is in virtual. So she's home, like, all the time. We do little field trips here and there. We'll do outings. We'll go to a science museum or, like, the history museum or, you know, things like that or nature walks or, you know, sporting events, things like that. But, you know, she's home all the time. And that's been really stressful trying to get that finished up because today is actually the last day she has to finish all her classes. On top of everything else, you know, the holidays are coming up. So we've been, you know, shopping and decorating. And for the first time in two years. My girlfriend, my wife, whatever. I use those terms interchangeably just for future reference. I mention it once in a while. But interestingly enough, my wife has been in, like, super, super Christmas spirit mode. So, like, we were pulling Christmas decorations out of storage pre-Thanksgiving. I want to say it was, like, two weeks after Halloween. We were in the storage unit pulling out some of our Christmas stuff. Our tree was up by Thanksgiving. And that, to me, is just way too early. Like, when I was a kid, sometimes. We were putting the tree up on Christmas Eve. So Thanksgiving, before Thanksgiving, is really, really early for the tree to go up. A little bit of history there. Me and my wife, we spent five years apart. We had a financial crisis in 2011. She moved with her daughter to Massachusetts to be with her family. I stayed in Florida. We went back and forth for five years. I'd go up there for a couple of weeks. They'd come down here for a couple of weeks. And in 2016, we were reunited. They were able to move back to Florida. We finally got all of our finances in order. Well, I mean, as in order as you can be. We finally got the finances in order. They moved back down in 2016. So we've been together again for about two and a half years now. And in the past two and a half years, I mean, you're coming from a place where it's cold. You know, the holidays, it snows like a requirement at Christmastime. So for the past two years, Christmas spirit hasn't really been a big thing in the Dawson household. And this year. This year, it kind of changed. I don't know if like something like a switch went off or what, like a short circuit in the brain or whatever happened to her. But something happened and she's been in super Christmas spirit. So that's been taking a lot of time. We've been doing all the family stuff and short of caroling. We haven't gone caroling yet. But we've been doing all the Christmas stuff. We've been doing the Christmas festivals, the Christmas parades and the toy drives and everything like that. And then. You know, as most of us as performers, we have family things that go on. We also have jobs. A lot of us work. A lot of us have to have a full-time or part-time job to, you know, get the bills paid. And that is my case as well. You know, as much as I would love to like coach performers full-time and like produce large shows and everything and that be my life. Like that's where I'm going. But, you know, in the meantime, you got to pay the bills. So you got to have the job. And, you know, I have a job. And, you know, we've been doing all the holiday stuff there. Because I'm a manager. So I got to do all the holiday stuff for the employees. And, you know, all the engagement and all the happy stuff. And so I've just had a crazy couple of weeks. And, unfortunately, you know, as most things do, when you have a hobby or a passion or, you know, something that you enjoy doing, such as performing. Whether it be, you know, juggling or hula hoop or acrobatics, hand balancing, singing, dancing, ballet, whatever it is. You know, ukulele. I actually know a pair of ukulele players. They are pretty awesome to watch. But anyways, whatever it is, you know, a lot of times your progress and your rehearsals and the time that you have to spend on that around the holidays and the family functions or if something happens like, you know, God forbid, someone goes in the hospital or death in the family. A lot of times that falls to the wayside. And I've noticed that happen with me a lot. I've seen it happen with other performers. And what I hate to see happen is when. You let it fall to the wayside so much for so long that it's just permanently there. And it's then, you know, all of a sudden it's just this thing you used to do. And I've seen it happen to a ton of performers. Hell, it's happened to me. I mean, I used to be a. I notice I say I used to be. I used to do lip sync on stage as like a. I don't really know how to describe it other than like kind of like male burlesque with lip sync added to it. So I used to do that. And, you know, I'd let it fall to the wayside. I'd, you know, neglect making an outfit. I just pull out an old one or, you know, I'd neglect rehearsal. I'd neglect rehearsal. I'd neglect sending emails. I'd neglect reaching out and networking. And all of a sudden, six months go by. I haven't been on stage and I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. And that's kind of what landed me on the podcast due to physical limitations and change of body size. I can't really do the things I used to do anyways. And I have found new passions and helping other performers improve and just gain that confidence and that that stage presence that just makes the audience just be just captures them. You know, I've found that is my passion. And that's where this podcast has come in. But I still find myself facing the same struggles that I did as a performer. And that is when life events happen. How do I keep going with this? How do I keep the podcast going? How do I keep going to my rehearsals? How do I keep improving? How do I keep improving how many balls I can juggle in the air? How do I improve my stilt walking? How do I keep up with my talent and with my performance and, you know, with my passion and still do the family stuff and the church stuff and the work stuff and get the bills paid? You know, how do you really balance all of it? And I think that that's something that we have to constantly work on. And I don't have the answer here, guys. I really don't. I'm just I'm sharing observations and I can give you tips and tricks and kind of little things that have helped me. For example, there are times when you're going to have to look at the people that you love and say, I need to do this. And that's that's actually how this episode is getting recorded. It's unfortunate. Got into a little bit of argument with my wife. Now, I mean, don't get me wrong. She's fully supportive. She loves the podcast. I don't let her listen to it, but she loves that I do this. She loves that I used to perform. It's how we met. Like, it's it's big part of our relationship. But, you know, during the holidays and everything going on with my daughter's school finishing up and work, I'm at work like 10, 12 hours a day. You know, it it got a little rough there for a bit trying to do the podcast. So it came to the point where I was like, listen, I need to do this. And yeah, it spawned a little bit of a I don't want to call it a fight because it wasn't really a fight. It was more just like a kind of exchange of comments. But it came to that point where I had to say, you know, listen, I have to do this. And I think that that's something. That we're always going to have to do. And sometimes sometimes you have to say it to yourself. Listen, I have the works. I got Comcast. I got Netflix. I got Hulu. I got Amazon Prime Video. I got HBO. I got stars like I got the works. I got a PlayStation four with like five or six video games that I'm playing like the works. I have all the distractions that everyone has, you know, the cell phone and the Facebook. And I have all the distractions that everyone else has, too, you know. And so sometimes. you have to say it to yourself because you know that playstation or the xbox or the net flicks or the Hulu or the Amazon or, or whatever that can be. Let's not kid ourselves, you know, sitting down and binging a couple hours on Netflix that can be really refreshing and really relaxing. And, you know, you can feel really satisfied for about a day or two. And then, you know, it's time to really tell yourself, like, it's time to get back at it. And unfortunately, a lot of us will let it go, not just a day or two, but like a week, two weeks, a month, two months, three months. And then by, by the time, you know, maybe someone comes poking around saying, Hey, how's that thing going that you used that you did? And you're like, well, you know, it's kind of slowed down and it's not really, it's not really a thing anymore. I'm kind of like, I'm taking a break. Just, I'm taking a break. And I'm sorry. Like we kid ourselves when we say we're taking a break. What it really means is I just haven't got to the point where I can just tell myself I have to do it. And that's a good thing. And that's a good point to get to is the point where you can tell yourself, just do it, just rehearse, just practice, just pick up the instrument, just go to the gym, just, you know, just press record these things that we have to tell ourselves. It's what's going to keep us moving forward because life is not going to stop. When you discover your passion, life is not going to stop because you enjoy performing. Life's not going to stop. You have to keep at what you're doing and you have to tell yourself to keep at it. It's all inside you. It's a bit, you know, I've been working a lot with trying to get over procrastination because I'm a huge procrastinator guys. Like whatever I can get away with not doing today, I will always say I'll do it tomorrow. But you know what? Tomorrow never comes for a procrastinator. And I can personally attest to that. Tomorrow just never comes. It just doesn't get here. So you gotta, you gotta come to that point where it's just like, you know what? I'm just going to do it. I'm going to get up. I'm going to go, you know, I'm going to go practice my handstands. I'm going to go stretch. I'm going to go climb the rope. I'm going to go juggle for an hour. Whatever it is you do, I'm going to go, you know, sing, do your voice workouts, whatever it is you do, you got to tell yourself it's time to just get up and go do it again. My name is Reggie Dawson. This is the being on stage podcast. I kind of like dove right into this, just kind of telling you guys everything. I'm going to go sing, do your voice workouts, whatever it is you do, you got to everything that's going on. But listen, if you want more being on stage or if you want to, you know, talk to me a little bit more about what's going on with you, you can hit the being on stage group on Facebook. You can get there by going to being on stage.com slash group, or you can always shoot me an email Reggie at being on stage.com. I look forward to hearing from you. I look forward to chatting with you and keep on shining everybody. Have a great one.
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