Speaker 1Hey, rock stars, Reggie Dawson, your host of the show. Welcome back to the Being On Stage podcast. You know, for the past few months, I've been working on a lot of different things and I'm just kind of going to come clean about a couple of things here, I guess, and just kind of lay it out. Feels like I'm doing this a lot, but, you know, I think that there's a lot of lessons here, a lot of lessons I'm learning and everything. So the last few months, I've been I've been thinking about a lot of things, doing a lot of things and and, you know, contemplating and moving forward on this and that. And basically, I've been trying to build a training program for you guys, and it's quite a bear. I don't know if you've ever tried to build a training program, but it's not just like a video here and there. It's like an outline and and making the outline and I'm, you know, recording the videos and I'm looking up the resources and I'm writing out the details. And it's almost like writing a book. And, you know. At the end of the day, honestly, if I kept going and or if I even picked it up again, I could probably make it into a book, to be quite honest with you. And that might be something I'm going to do someday. It might be something that I'll put out there on Amazon or something like that or even make it available to you guys. But all the outlining and everything I've done for the training program, it's it's gotten to me. You know, it's almost like too much of a good thing, you know, like everything I was doing was revolving around. Building this training program and pushing myself to get it done and working on the Web site and then podcasting every episode, you know, every weekend, every night, every morning is all podcast, podcast, podcast. And while listen, absolutely, you know, that that level of dedication is admirable and that level of dedication is needed on a lot of things. But it comes to a point where you reach burnout. And, you know, I've been talking about this a little bit here. And there are probably the last few episodes. And and I have to say, I think I had reached that point. And so I'd still try to podcast here and there. But I was really, really burning myself out. And a lot of the times when I podcast, the things that I podcast about represent what's going on in my life. Or if I'm feeling nostalgic, you know, I'll share some stories from my past of when I was really into the performing scene and everything. And I still really admire every performer that's out there. But I've kind of stepped back. And taking the family approach and, you know, that's where this podcast comes in is I, I spent about 12 years really performing hardcore every weekend, every chance I got, you know, pushing myself and everything. And over the years, I got burned out there. And, you know, I wanted to start a family and everything. And it's it's really hard to continue performing while trying to have a family. And it reached a point with me and my family where we ended up having to separate because of some financial things that happened. And while we were separated. About 1300 miles apart, you know, I kept performing and I reached a point there where it was just like, oh, my God, enough is enough. And especially, you know, now that we're back together and, you know, they came back because, you know, I got a normal job where I go sit at a desk all day and everything. And so I'm able to pay my bills. So finances are not really a concern, right? I mean, we're not like we're not like keeping up with the Joneses. We're not like rich, but, you know, we're taken care of, I guess. You know, the bill. You know, the bills are paid, where you have a little bit extra, you know, we're a single, you know, a single income family living in a small apartment. So we're making it we're not by no means am I, you know. Tooting my horn or whatever you want to call it, but so finances, our finances got kind of, you know, we're fixed a little bit and, you know, they're still struggling. We all struggle. But I kind of had to step away from the performance scene. And so, you know, I started putting it all together. And so, you know, I, I started putting it all into this podcast. And over the last year and a half, you know, I've, I've said a lot of things on this podcast. I've told a lot of stories. I've gone through a lot of examples and a lot of lessons that I've learned and continue to learn. I still continue to learn because once in a while I find myself on stage, whether it be, you know, speaking and presenting at my job or, you know, if I pick up dance again and dance on stage a little bit, or if I get out there and sing at karaoke and, and stuff. And even now I'm starting to do presentation. And, and sales presentations, um, for my side business. And so that's also a form of being on stage. It all comes down to one thing. It all comes down to the audience. But what's been happening and what can happen to you and what can happen to everybody is when you push yourself and you put everything you have into this and you add the stress of, you know, you have a family that you have to support, not just financially, but emotionally. Um, you have a job that you have to also, you know, be attentive to. You can't be half in at your job. You have to be all in there. You have to be all into your family. And then you also put yourself completely into your performing. In my case, you know, the podcast, uh, building the website, building the training program, putting out podcasts. Uh, I mean, I don't know if you, if you've checking it out or anything, but my website complete overhaul, uh, it used to kind of look like choppy and like, uh, I don't know. I didn't like the way it looks. So I changed it. I learned web design and everything and I changed it. So it happened. It happened. It happened. It happened. It happened. I don't over to being on stage.com. It's completely new. Uh, if you've seen it before, it's completely new layout, uh, redesign it completely. Uh, and I even got to the point where I, I simplified it because it was getting to be too much of a bear. I really wanted to release this site. I really wanted to release my new podcast logo, which by the way, tell me what you think. I released it. This is the first episode that has it. So tell me what you think. Um, but yeah, so I, I've been doing all these things and really pushing myself and pushing myself. And, uh, it's, it's gotten to the point where it's just kind of like, Oh my God, can I just take a break from this? And when it reaches that point in one, it's important to know it's, it's okay to, to step back. I, you know, I did an episode. I want to say the last episode might've even been about this. It's okay to step back. You know, it's 100% okay to step back. Uh, not really take a break. Cause taking a break means you're stopping. Stepping back means you're, you're still actively thinking about it. You know, I'm not going to get into stepping back. Go listen to the last episode. It's all about. You know what it means to step back. And so I found myself still having to do that, you know, but what I really got to thinking about lately and in probably the last week or so is I've been over complicating this. You know, I've been trying to put out podcast after podcast and put out as many as possible, which I should put out as many as possible. My goal for the beginning of this year was to do 100 podcasts in 2019. I am so far behind on my goal, but you know what? I think I'm going to try. I'm going to try and still reach that. It's going to take some work. It'll take a lot of work to reach it, but I'm simplifying things. I'm going to take it way, way back. You know, I'm going to maybe record two or three podcasts on the weekend. And if I don't meet a hundred, that's fine. There's always next year, but I'm still going to try. I'm still going to push myself, but I found myself thinking about all this and even thinking about like, why is this becoming such work? And when things start to become work, that's when it really is time to. Think about the direction that you're going. And so I've, I've completely, and I don't want to say completely, but I have shifted the direction that I'm going with this podcast a little bit. Yeah. I want to do a hundred episodes this year, but you know what? As long as I keep doing episodes and as long as I keep putting things out there that are good and positive and build you up and give you something to think about, I'm doing my job. I'm doing my PR I'm fulfilling my purpose, if you will. Cause this, this is what I feel like when it comes to performing, I want to, I feel like my purpose is to pass all this stuff on to other people. So that's what I do. So as long as you to get something out of this, I'm fulfilling my purpose, whether I do a hundred episodes or 50 episodes, I'm fulfilling my purpose and I can feel good about that. Like, I really feel, I feel good about that. So what's the website overhaul? This is kind of where I'm going with changing direction. You know, I got to thinking, let's keep this as simple as possible. What does every performer want to do? I mean, really, we just want to perform, right? We want to be able to perform. And support ourselves and live on what we do and that's it. That's what we all want to. I mean, listen, I would love to live on this podcast. Like I would love, well, and my side, but I have a side business where I get to talk about beards cause I'm a, I'm a big beard advocate and like, uh, I have a beard going now. It's, it's the whole thing that I do. But anyways, um, so that's my other form of performing is I do presentations on beards and stuff now too. So, but anyways. Back to the whole podcast thing, podcasts and everything is, you know, what a performer as well. We want to do what we love to do and that's what we, that's it, period. We want to do what we love to do. We want to perform. So the best way to do that is to help you find a way to get paid to perform, right? Yeah. Right. Get paid for performing. So, um, when you check out the website, which I highly encourage you to do so, uh, you're going to find that I've also put out 10 ways for you to get paid for performing. And that's what the programs, it's not really a program. It's, uh, I guess it is a program. I don't know what to call it. It's a packet, I guess, but I'll send you 10 ways to get paid for performing. And each of those ways gives you some details and some information for you to check out. It's, I mean, it's pretty cool. Like I, I keep going through it myself and I'm like, wow, man, you really, like I'm giving myself pats on the back here. And I think that's a healthy thing to do by the way. Like when you really feel you've done a good job on something, it's completely healthy to be like, yeah, you know what? You, you. You did. You did great on that. So that's kind of how I'm feeling about that. So no, but check it out, go to beingonstage.com. You'll see it when you scroll down the page, it'll just say, want to get paid to perform. form, just put in your name and email and you'll get it in like instantaneously. So yeah, 10 ways to get paid for performing. The other thing I've done to like simplify this is one, I mean, when you put your name in there, you're going to get that email. And then maybe like a, I think there's a one or two follow-up emails to that. But the other thing you're going to find there is that I've opened up a calendar and allowed people to book sessions with me completely free. Like I'm not, I'm not charging anybody here. We can, I mean, if we wanted to work together on a more permanent basis, that's, it's possible. But right now, you know, I'm just, I just want to get as much information out there as possible and give you as much as I can. Any way I can help you, anything that you need, if you're stuck on a performance, if you're struggling to get started, if you're struggling with where to go next, you know, I'm, I'm available and, you know, bounce some ideas out, whatever you want, really, whatever you want to talk about as far as performing. You can schedule a 30 minute session where we, I'll call you back and we'll talk about it. But if you're struggling with where to go next, I'll call you just like literally pick up my cell phone and call you. And you let me know what you need to talk about and we'll, we'll talk about it. That's it. Beingonstage.com. It's all there. So like I said, you know, I've, I've simplified this so, so much and I want to take it way, way back and just keep it authentic because I always talk about how performers need to be authentic with their audience. So I need to be authentic with you. So the, you know, the podcast is going to be a combination of what's going on with me and what I've learned from performing and what I continue to learn. And I'm going to talk about how I've learned from performing and what I continue to learn from performing. And I also throw other things in here. You probably noticed like I throw in business techniques and, and marketing techniques and everything that I pick up at my job and through my side business and from performing, I throw it all together for you because in order to be successful as a performer, you kind of have to look at it as kind of a, of a business really. If you're going to get paid for performing, you're a business period. You're not like a, I got to register as an S corp or an LLC or, you know, how do I incorporate blah, blah, blah, band or whatever your, whatever your, you know, act is called. How do I incorporate, you don't have to work. I'm not talking about any of that, but you know, your business and you kind of have to think about it that way. So even if that's something, a new concept to you and you want to explore that, hit me up. Let's chat. I guess my parting wisdom for you is in, in the same way that I've kind of like stepped back and simplified things as, you know, here's 10 ways to get paid and let's talk about anything else. And, or even, you know, I don't know, I don't talk about more about how to get paid. I've simplified it. Podcast, 10 ways to get paid. Let's chat. You can simplify it as well. When you step on stage, it's, it's a simple thing. Be real with your audience. That's it. Be real with your audience, share yourself with them and do that over and over and over again. That's it. That's the big secret of, well, that's, is keep it simple. Keep it simple. Rockstar. Keep on shining.
PodcastTranscript AI