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.
Speaker 2Hey, rock stars. Reggie Dawson here. Happy, happy new year. We are in 2019. We're a couple of days in, and we are doing fantastic, as promised. Keeping up with the podcast, starting off with podcast number one for 2019, going for 100. I appreciate all the encouragement. Thank you so much for the emails. Listen, if you haven't done so, can you start this new year off right? Help me start it off right. Go into iTunes or wherever you listen. Give me a rating, and drop a comment while you're there. And if you like what you hear, you can also click subscribe. That will make sure that you get the most up-to-date episodes as soon as they drop. Because I love talking to you, and I know you love hearing from me. Okay, that was a little bit of my ego. I talked a little bit about ego last episode, and selfishness, and how we all have a little bit of that in us. So listen, one of the things I also talked about last episode, and I guess I kind of want to start the new year, off, I got to do right by me, and be a little real and authentic, as I've been promising you, and as I've been talking about. And we talked about setting goals, and I set some pretty lofty goals. And I'm going to really work to stick to them, and I hope you set some lofty goals for yourself. But one of the things I want to also talk to you about, in addition to your performance goals, and maybe even some personal goals, and maybe even some goals to learn some new talents and some new skills, I also want to talk about. Your social goals, and more of your personal, internal goals. And setting goals is great. Having something to work for, and having that dream, and that passion, and that drive to go after it, that's fantastic. But what I really want to talk about this time is not necessarily pulling yourself back, but remembering the little things in life, the smaller details, the living the life part of your life. So before I dive into that, I know you're probably wondering, who's this guy? What's he talking about? Well, listen. My name is Reggie Dawson. I am a talent and live performance coach. I help entertainers improve their confidence and presence on stage, and overall performance-ship. I'm going to coin that word, performance-ship. That's what I do. That's what I love to do. I love everything about being on stage. The energy, the feeling of being alive, just that emotion, and that shared feeling with the audience, that we're all experiencing this together. That's what I love. And I hope you love it too. Otherwise, why are you listening to this podcast? Uh-huh, uh-huh. And if you don't love it yet, you're going to grow to love being on stage. And I'm not just talking about the podcast. I'm talking about the actual act of performing on stage. So the details, the little things in life. You know, a lot of times when we have a dream and a passion, and this is not just performers, guys. This is everybody, you know. If little Johnny's dreaming of being a CEO of a company, poor kid. You know, he's got a dream. He's got a passion. He's got a drive. It's very easy. It's very easy for you to get that wrapped up into your whole life. And, you know, when I first met my wife, when we first started dating, I was a pretty popular local performer. And I've stayed local all my life, but this was, it was kind of like the prime of my career. I was performing probably at least once a week, at least three to four times a month. Let's put it that way. Sometimes traveling to different bars in the area. And I put a lot of time into helping other entertainers. As well, I started coaching. God, it's been almost 10 years now. I started coaching entertainers 10, 12 years ago. I didn't call it coaching them. Then I called it training. But, you know, coaching's a little nicer. And I'm a little nicer than I was, man. I was, I was harsh. I was really hard on my trainees. I was really hard on them. But listen, you know, I let my entire life get into this. I mean, they were, they were over at my house. We were making outfits for performers. Um, you know, I, I looped my girlfriend and we were making props. We were making outfits. We had performers staying at our house on a regular basis. I mean, it was, it was insane. The amount of my life that was consumed with performing and she even, uh, she even started performing and going through my training program, uh, because, and I didn't know this until a couple of years later, but she, she really like, she does have an interest in performing, but it wasn't. It wasn't really her passion. Uh, she was doing it for attention, uh, to get my attention actually. Like it got, I was so consumed with my talent and my performance and this, that drive and that passion that she felt the only way to get my attention was to participate in that aspect of my life because that aspect of my life was my whole life. And I didn't realize it. I truly didn't realize, like you don't, you don't see it when you're in it. You really don't. And so I don't fault any of you. But you kind of got to open your eyes to it, man is, is the only thing in your life, what in your life doesn't have to do with performing, what friends do you have that are not people, you know, through performing, you know, if, if it comes down to literally every aspect of your life and this may be something you have to do, you may have to sit back in a room, quiet, alone with a piece of paper and really try to focus what's going on in your life right now that does not have to do with performing. And if the answer is nothing, then you need to make a change and it doesn't have to be about family. It doesn't have to be about, you know, other people. It can be about you. If you are so consumed with this and this is all you're doing with every minute of every hour of every day, it's only going to last for a couple of years, my friend, like you're, you're going to, you're going to die out, you, you, you're going to burn out and you're going to burn up, you're not going to be able to do it anymore and you're still going to have that passion. You're still going to have that. I really want to do this, but you're just not going to be able to. I was so consumed with it that I'm, I, I got to the point a couple of years ago that I still performed, but I just, I just couldn't do it. I couldn't put that work into it over and over and over again, you know, because it consumed me to the point of it's just done. I mean, you get to a point with certain things like too much of a good thing is very much what I'm talking about. Too much of a good thing. You get to a point where you're just done. So how do you keep yourself from getting to that point? Because we all love it. I mean, listen, I love performing. I haven't been on stage nearly as much as I used to be because I just, I can't, like I can't put myself through that like I used to do. And for me, it's always been all or nothing. So I have to refine that balance. You know, I have to, I had to step way back and now I'm trying to get back into with emceeing and DJing and really trying to get into it already having that balance. So if you're already in it, man, you, you gotta, you gotta get a balance and it's just going to be tipped towards performing like it's always going to be tipped. You're always going to favor what you need to do for your performance. I get that. But what, what types of things are we talking about here? You know, and it's not, it's not crazy stuff. It's not like, it's not like going to the club and hanging out and drinking until three. It's you know, little things, catch up with a friend, you know, when's the last time you took time to call a friend that wasn't a performer just to catch up, just say, Hey, what's going on? How's the kids? Oh my God. They're getting so big. The last time you did that, you know, things like that have real relationships with people, not just ones that are contingent about working together, performing together, real relationships and real friendships with people, you know, take interest in what they're doing. Even if it is nowhere near what you do, you got to make time for them. They're the little things in life and yeah, a big part of this, yeah, it's going to have to do with family. If you've got a family and you're still consumed with performing, you got to slow down and take the time and be with the family. You know, you got to spend time with the family. Lastly, we're going to talk about yourself, you know, yes, your passion and everything that you love is out there on that stage. Everything that you love to do is about performing. I get that. I'm there with you. But if you don't take time for yourself to also have other things that you enjoy, even if it's something like meditation, yoga, I mean, maybe you use yoga as your workout for your performance, but either way, you've got to have at least one other thing that you're interested in because that's that all consuming thing. If you're so focused on one thing, one thing, one thing, and it doesn't matter how many different, it doesn't matter how much you're doing with it because let's, let's say you're a dancer. Okay. So if you dance and you perform for a living and then you also teach dance classes and then you will also do dance videos, that's all still dancing. Okay. What I'm saying is maybe you're a dancer, but you also like to crochet something like that, an additional hobby that you can have so that when you are fed up and frustrated and you just want to bash your head against the mirror because you can't get that, you can say, you know what, I'm going to take a break and I'm going to go do a couple of rows on this. on the scarf I've been working on, you know? need to have something that you can do when it's time to take a break. And I'm not talking like a week or a month break. I'm talking like a couple of hours break or a day break, you know. I'm talking about when it's time for you to take a break or if it's time for you to just do something else. What is that something else going to be? Because you can't get frustrated with your dance rehearsal and then go teach a dance class because you're still going to be frustrated. You got to be able to switch it up. You have to make time to develop yourself in other areas as well. Personal development is a big aspect of being a performer. You want to keep yourself from going off the deep end when you make it big, when you're performing and touring and don't even know what city you're in half the time. You want to really keep from going off the deep end. Have another hobby. Have another skill. Have another something that you like to do. Maybe two or three somethings. Because if you are so consumed with one thing, you are going to go crazy or you are going to burn out. Either way, it's not going to be pretty to your fans. I know this one kind of got a little intense there for a minute. I apologize. It's happened to me, guys. I fell apart. I fell apart a couple of times. I'm going to share more stories with you guys about some of the things that I've done. I think you'd be surprised. I mean, it's embarrassing. Some of the things I've done and said and just participated in is downright embarrassing to talk about. But I'm going to share it with you. you. But yeah, you know, I let it all consume me and I damn near lost my relationship. A couple episodes back, I talked about how we had a financial crisis in 2011. Well, the other crisis was I was so consumed with performing that we also realized that had we not had that crisis and had we not have to separate at that point for a couple of years, we would not have made it because I was so consumed with everything that had to do with performing. I neglected everything else in life. I neglected her. I neglected our kid to a certain extent. I neglected my mom. I neglected the house. I neglected myself. Like I literally did nothing but perform, eat, sleep and go to work. I've always had a job. Never been able to do it full time. That's something I'd like to work to. I'd like to be able to to coach performers, do this podcast, emcee and DJ and just travel with my wife and kid. I think that's that's the dream. All right. Share your dreams with me, guys. Listen, I know this got a little real, a little intense, a little raw, but, you know, that's life sometimes. And truthfully, that's performing. That's show business. We're all in show business. You know, sometimes it's going to be harsh and intense and we're not going to like it, but we're going to have to hear it. And I promise you that I will always tell it to you real, raw and authentic. Thanks for tuning in, guys. I greatly appreciate it. Again, if you want more being on stage, you can join our group on Facebook, the Being On Stage group. You can get there by going to beingonstage.com. And I'll see you next time. Bye. beingonstage.com slash group. There's a couple of questions before you get in, but don't worry. I know the guy that runs it. You'll get in. I promise. As always, keep on shining.
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