Mission Accomplished

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, rock stars. Reggie Dawson here, host of the Being On Stage podcast. Welcome back. Thanks for tuning in. Today is a day of celebration. It's October 12th, 2019. Not that the day is actually what we're celebrating. We're actually celebrating the episode, episode 181, my friends. Now, listen, 181 seems like a really odd number to celebrate, right? Right? But it's all about the commitments. The commitments that were made before episode 181, and that's what we're talking about today, you know, is the commitment, and when you finally follow through on that commitment and you reach that longer goal that you've been after, and that's what brings me to episode 181. So, in the beginning of 2019, on January 1st or 2nd, whenever I did my first episode of the year, I made a commitment. Actually, I set myself a goal, and I put it on the podcast, and I do this a lot. And a couple of the reasons I do this is, one, you know, just like for you, when you set a goal and you tell people about it, it becomes more of a necessity that you are accountable. You know, you become more accountable for that goal, because now people know that you're working at it. So, I do that on the podcast, you know. And I encourage you to do the same. You know, if there's a goal that you're setting for yourself, a commitment that you're making for yourself, share it with a couple of people. I mean, don't share it with people. Share it with people that are going to, like, tear you down and tell you how stupid it is. I mean, you've got to be smart about this. You know, share it with your family, share it with your friends, or do what I did. You know, put it publicly out there to your fans and your audience. And what I said at the beginning of this year, and the commitment that I made, and truthfully, at the time when I made this commitment, I had no idea that I was going to accomplish it. I knew I was biting off a lot. And when I made it, I was thinking to myself, like, you know, well, you know, if I don't follow through and I don't hit it. It's no big deal. And honestly, it is a big deal. I would feel, I would feel really bad if I didn't hit this goal. So the commitment, boom, boom, boom. January of this year, I made a commitment to do 100 episodes in 2019. And now if you do the math, 100 episodes in 2019 is roughly, roughly eight to nine episodes a month, depending on the month, you know, it's eight to nine. It's like eight point something. So eight to nine episodes a month is kind of what I was committing to. And at the time last year, I was still building. Now this podcast is coming up on two years old. And that's something to celebrate too. You know, when you're coming up on an anniversary and it's been a certain amount of time since you started what you're doing, you deserve to celebrate the fact that you're still doing it. Who cares if you're still performing in front of an audience of a handful of people? Who cares? You're still at it. You're still doing it. That's something to celebrate in itself. The fact that. But you're still making it happen for yourself and you still get to do the thing that you love to do. So 100 episodes, eight to nine episodes a month. At the time, I was probably averaging five episodes a month, you know, in, in the year 2018, 20, that's what came before 19, right? In the year 2018, I only did 75 episodes, I want to say, uh, in the whole year. So I want to, I want to say, yeah, about 75. About 75 episodes in the whole year. Um, I ended the year on episode 80 and I started, um, or I started 2019 on episode 80. Um, so between 70 and 75 episodes is what I had done in 2018. This podcast started in December of 2017. So we had a few, uh, you know, the few in 2017, maybe like five or six, uh, in 2017 and then up to 79 in 2018. And then I started 2019 on episode 80. And the last episode I did was actually episode 180. So I think I'm actually on like 101 or 102 episodes this year, but 181 was the one that I chose to celebrate because it meant that I really 100% surpassed my 100 episode goal in 2019. And it's only October, it's only October 12th. I still have two and a half months left in 2019 to do another 20 episodes. 20 episodes or more. And I'm, I'm saying 20 or more because I feel like I could probably get out another 25 to 30 episodes before the end of this year. If, if not more, I mean, hell in July and August, I did a podcast on in July. I did a podcast every single day in August. I missed, I think I missed three or four days in August and in September, you know, my daughter started, uh, we started homeschooling my daughter. She started high school. Um, my wife started her school back. And so September things. Things got a little crazy and it did fall apart. And you know, that's going to happen to you too. You know, you're going to, you're going to set yourself this lofty goal. And even as you set this goal, you're going to question if you're an idiot for setting this goal. Honest to God, I did. I 100% did. I looked at my record on my podcast of doing five, you know, four to six a month, usually about five a month. And I thought to myself, like, man, how am I ever going to do eight to nine episodes? That's two episodes a week. And then, you know, I'm like, man, I'm going to do eight to nine episodes a week. And then, you know, I, I took, I took up the banner of podcast every day. And listen, I'm, I'm not a, I'm not opposed to doing that again. Life's a little crazy towards the end of the year. So it's probably something I want to start in January. Could you imagine if I did a podcast every day for a year? Could you imagine if you did that? Could you imagine if you did a performance with, even if it's just a quick, like two minute video on Facebook or Instagram, could you imagine if you did a performance every day for a year? What kind of fan base you could. Build and yeah, you know, some of your performances are going to be live on stage in front of a live audience. Some of your performances can be recorded videos of your rehearsal that you're putting online. Um, what's really cool. And I've seen some artists do this is they do a live streaming performance, but there's no actual live audience. Like it's a full out performance, but it's entirely for the live audience on like YouTube or Facebook or Instagram. So they do, um, they do a live performance, but completely online. It's really interesting. Um, you lose the effect of having that live audience to, to build the energy up for the performer, but it, it's actually, I mean, coming from the audience that's watched it, it still moves you. Like, it's still something that you can connect with your audience and move your audience back to commitments, back to commitment. So, you know, I made this commitment to myself and you got to think about this, you know, what's something that you can commit to let's, let's do a small, you know, I committed to something for a year. Most people call it a new year's resolution. My new year's resolution was to podcast more. I succeeded. I absolutely 100% succeeded and it feels phenomenal. And I want you to feel this. I really do. So think about what you can honestly commit to. Even if it's a lofty goal, what can you do in one year? Now your commitments of, you know, I'm going to make a million dollars. That's not a, that's not a, that's not you doing something. That's not a commitment. That's not you doing something. A commitment is I'm going to make a hundred podcasts a year. I'm going to go live on Facebook once a week for the next three months or every day for the next month. I'm going to spend 10 minutes in a full out performance style rehearsal and record it and post it on Facebook three times a week. What's something that you can honestly commit to that, you know, that you can do for, you know, go for a year. What can you do? How many times for a year? What can you do? How many times for one year? I said, podcast, a hundred episodes. You can say, I'm going to post 50 Facebook videos. That's not, that's not hard 50 Facebook videos in a year. It's not difficult. I mean, if that's like four videos a month, five on a couple months, but yeah, four videos a month. You could do that. Come on. You could do that. So let's go smaller, you know, work it, work it smaller. What's something you could do for three months. What's something you could honestly commit to for three months, one month, one week today, make yourself these commitments, you know, start big, work yourself small and it's going to pay off. I like to do a three month goal and I've done them all. You know, I've done the year goal. I've done the one month goal. Truthfully, the one I find the easiest to keep up on and to satisfy is one month. It takes three weeks to develop a habit, but it takes one month to feel like you've accomplished. Something because that's a, that's a measurable standard timeframe as human beings. I mean, granted it's 30 days, it's 31 days in February. February is the weird month that decided to be 28 days, you know, months vary, but as a human being going through time and through a year, a month is a standard time period in which if we do something every day for a month, or if we set something, set ourselves a goal for the month and we accomplish it, we feel accomplished if we set a goal for for two weeks, I mean, granted, if your goal to run five miles a day for two weeks, you should absolutely feel accomplished because I couldn't run five miles in a week. But if you set yourself a month goal and you can actually say to yourself, I'm going to do this every single day for one month, it's going to pay off. It absolutely will pay off. And when you finish the month, you decide to continue for two months, three months, three months down the road, you're going to be a whole different performer than you are today. If you make these commitments and you stick to them and you hold yourself accountable and listen, if you need someone else to hold you accountable, I'll step up to that plate. I'll text you and call you at three o'clock in the morning to make sure you do what you're supposed to do, if that's what it takes. Okay, maybe not three o'clock in the morning, but listen, if that does sound like something you're interested in or you just want to, hey, maybe you just want to talk through a few things. Let me put this out there now before I forget. Hop on my calendar, go to and put in your name, email, phone number, date, pick a date, pick a time, and I call you directly on my cell phone and we chat about what you are going through, what you need to be accountable with, and what your next step is so that you can explode into your dreams, my friend. And it all starts with the first step. And truthfully, the first step, well, I talked about the first step yesterday, all about bringing the vision to life. But the first step is that commitment. You got to have that commitment to the vision so that you can set these goals. And that's what's going to make it pay off. That's what's going to make you successful, is set one commitment for one month. Now, you can go crazy. You could do the year. I did the year. Set a long one for the year. In January, set one for the year. Say you're going to do, the standard format I'm going to say is, this, this many times this year. So what are you going to do and how many times are you going to do it in a year? But right now, set yourself a goal for the rest of October or the rest of whatever month it is. Or next month, set yourself a goal, something that you're going to do every single day to enhance your art, enhance your performance, and better connect with your audience. And then do it. That's the key. Do it. It's only one month. It's 30 to 31 days. Think about it this way. If you can do this for 30 days, you are 30 days closer to making this your career. You are 30 days closer to your dream. You are 30 days closer to your vision. You are 30 days closer to the person and the performer that you see in your mind and when you look in the mirror. Hit me up on my calendar. Let's chat this through and get you moving on this, okay? I want to help you reach these commitments and set these goals and just crush it. Beingonstage.com slash Keep on shining.