How to Really Find Success

Shut 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, host of the show. Welcome to the Being On Stage podcast. And if you've been listening for a while, welcome back. Thanks again. Have you ever heard the phrase, you reap what you sow? And listen, I'm not, you know, it's a biblical phrase, but I'm not trying to get into a religious conversation here. But you reap what you sow is all about, you know, you get in, or you, you get in. You get out of something what you put into something. And I think as we progress in our career. It's just something that we need to think about on a regular basis. And I've seen and actually heard from performers recently that I've talked to recently that they just don't seem willing to put in the work to get what they expect out of it. Now listen, wanting success and having a vision and a goal for yourself as a performer is not a bad thing. But you have to put, you know, you have to expect to put in the work. You have to put in the work to get that, you know, to get there, to get that vision to go, to come, to be. Listen, I jumped right in because I actually, I actually just got off of a call with somebody that was going through this. And I'm not, I'm not saying any names. I'm not going to, I'm not actually thinking of one in particular person. It just happened to be another one of those individuals that I've talked to recently. And what, what the pattern, and I know, listen, but the, the, the pattern I'm seeing, I should say, is. Is people expect something or they want something for themselves. But when we start talking about next steps and where they need to start and going through the process, they seem reluctant to want to do so. Like they, all of a sudden it's like, well, you know, I don't really have the time and, you know, my job expects a lot from me. And listen, I get it. I got a job. But on the same, on the same token, if you want this greatness. This success, like this is what I've communicated to people. If you want this success, there's going to be work and you're going to have to make the time and prioritize things in your life to put in the work to get there. Otherwise it is going to be a pipe dream. Oh man, I am getting incredibly blunt. It is way too early in this podcast to get, to get that blunt with you. So let me, let me back up for a minute. Again, I'm Reggie Dawson. I host the being on stage podcast. I'm a stage performance coach. And I work with performers at all levels to improve their audience experience while they're on stage. And that's an important aspect of your career because what your audience experiences is a direct representation of you, how your audience walks away and that perception they get from you and how they feel in your shows that represents who you are and what you are as a performer. So I help you improve that. And with these calls, I'm talking about, I have, um, what I do is I let people just jump on my calendar and I call them and, you know, we talk through what they're going through, what they're struggling with and what they want out of their performance career, whether it's singing, playing an instrument, dancing, comedian, magician. Uh, recently I worked with a juggler. I think, I guess it'd be considered a juggle. It was kind of like a, um, yeah, I will call it a juggler, um, a juggling acrobat. Really? But it doesn't matter what you do on stage. The, the, the point of the podcast is to, you know, provide that audience experience, keeps them coming back, keeps them craving more. It gives them a connection to you, the performer. And that's what moves you, progresses you through your career. You know, people want to see you. People have a good time when they see you. They will come back. They will bring friends. More venues will book you because you have people that follow you and want to see it's a, you know, it's the progression. Um, that's how you do it. That's how you progress through your career. So when, when I talk to performers on the phone and they, you know, when they jump on my, and listen, I'm speaking to jump on my, it's not like a, a charge you thing. It's, you can jump on my calendar. It doesn't matter, um, what level you're at or what you're working on. Jump on my calendar. You go to beingonstage.com slash calendar. Um, I try to keep things pretty simple. Beingonstage.com slash calendar. Put in your name and email, pick a date and time, and I will call you. Of course you put in your phone number as well, but I will call you and we will chat it up and we'll talk about your next steps. But here's, here's the kicker here. You do know, and you do talk about what you want out of your career and you do see this vision for yourself and you do have this, this craving for this success. And what, what you see as success is relative to who you are and where you are in your life. You know, you don't, you know, multi, you know, multi platinum million dollar sales on tour for. Six months out of the year, making billions of dollars is not necessarily everyone's success. I mean, that's like, you know, one in 10 million success, but that's not everyone's success. Some people find success just, you know, performing on a regular basis at a local, on a couple of local pubs, getting to do what they love to do in front of their community. You know, whatever you view as success, there's going to be a process to get you where you want to be. And in order for you to go through that process, you have to. You have to have that willingness. You have to be able to say that you're willing to put in the work and more so you have to actually be willing to put in the work. So, you know, this thing is your passion and you want to make something of it and you want to make this career of it and you want to progress in your career as a performer. But are you treating it like you are a, you know, in a career? Are you treating it like it's something that you want to do with your life? Or are you treating it? Like a hobby? Yeah, I said the H word. Ouch. Doesn't it burn? Isn't that something that your mother or your friends or your family says to you? That little hobby that you have? Doesn't it just like twist the knife a little bit and you're wherever the knife stuck in? I almost said your back, but I guess I said it to your fit. Well, I technically said it to your ear. But yeah, is it is it a career or is it a hobby? And I think that's an important question for you to determine because you can be successful in your hobby. But if this isn't. If this is something that you want to have as a career, even if it's your secondary career, because listen, you can be successful in the work that you do. Like maybe you have a corporate job, maybe you own a business, you can be successful, but you can also be successful performer and have a career there as well. But think about the work that you put in to either of them. You know, the work that you put into the career in the corporate job or even if you work for a local business, even if you own a local business, the work that you put into. That even if you own a digital, you know, multi conglomerate business or multimillion dollar business, the work that you put into that, you're going to have to put the same amount of work into your performing career. And I think a lot of people forget that. So listen, let me let me let me paint this picture for you. So I work one of the corporate jobs and I'm like low man on the totem pole, like way down, way down. But I do work for a corporate company. I'm not going to say which corporate company, but I do work for a corporate organization. And my manager was talking to me this week about how she's going to be home this weekend and she's going to be up late at night going through some other reports and some presentations that she has coming up. And I got to thinking, man, all that extra time that she's spending, I'm spending on my podcast, my coaching business, talking to potential, you know, performers that I'm going to work with, potential clients, if you will. I spend that time. I have another business. I have a couple of businesses that I'm working. That I'm working with here. But, you know, I'm spending time on my businesses and the things that I want to pursue. And she's spending. Don't get me wrong. She's a great manager. She's spending time on things that she wants to pursue. Are you spending that time on things that you want to pursue or, you know, you've been to Netflix kind of, you know, messing around with it here and there. You'll get like one gig a month, maybe every other month. And you're cool with that. You're chill. That's fine. Or, you know, are you putting in the work? And if you're not putting in the work. That's a decision that you have to make. Everyone's got to make their own decision. I had to make my decision. Bill Gates had to make his decision. You know, Beyonce had to make her decision. I'm like name dropping. I've never met or worked with these people, by the way. I'm just name dropping to make you, like, understand, you know. But you have that decision to make of how much work you're willing to put into this thing that you want. Because you have this vision. You know, you have to. But you have to make that decision yourself that you're going to put the work in to get there. So let me ask you this question. And this one's probably going to sting a little bit. But how can you do this as a career for the rest of your life if you're not doing it as a career now? And maybe it's not. Maybe, like, the rest of your life is a little strong. But still, how can you do this as a career for any length of time? Whether it's, you know, whether you do it as a full-time career. This is my main thing. This is what I want to do. And this is the only thing I want to do. Or even if it is a side career. How are you going to do it? to do this as a career for any length of time if you are not treating it like a career today I'd love to talk to you more about that so hop on the calendar being on stage.com slash calendar I want to call you talk to you more about what you want out of your performance career and what what kind of stuff and what kind of work you can do to get yourself there and it's not it's not hard but it is you know it is work there is stuff you kind of have to do so hop on the calendar and let's chat it up and I look forward to that and as always my dear friends my performers keep on shining