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 Rockstars, Reggie Dawson here, your host. Thanks for tuning in. Listen, I want to talk about when you're on stage and when you come off stage. You know, I've had a lot of performances in my day that have been really, really good. I've had a lot of my performances in my day that were really not so good. I mean, bad, terrible, terrible performances. I've talked about a couple here on the podcast, ones where no one showed up and I performed. Anyways, I was drunk off my rocker. I probably shouldn't say that on the podcast, but hey, we're performers. I'm sure all of us have had a dose of liquid courage every now and again. Literally, no one showed up to that performance. There were five people in the bar and most of them worked there. I've had performances where people led a mutiny against me and refused to cheer. They were upset with something that they thought I had done that they assumed that I had. Whatever, it's drama. It doesn't matter. It's in the past. But one of the things that I do remember about performing, and I did this on a regular basis, is no matter how the show turned out, whether it was good, whether it was bad. Listen, I've had moments where I've fallen on stage. I had one show where I prepared for it for months and months and months. I put all this work into this simple, this one trick of the outfit that it was like a ripoff type of thing. And I had fake muscles underneath. And I put all this work into it. You know, I made everything look good, as good as I could for what I had. And I didn't put that much work into the actual performance and the energy of the song. And so when I performed, it just completely, completely bombed. And like in my head, it was going to be amazing. And in reality, it was the far, far opposite of amazing. And, you know, things like that, though, it's really hard to to to move forward from. But it's also really hard to go back and look at it and review it. Now, your good performances, the performances that you see that you did well, that even that I saw that I did well. I mean, hell, yeah, I'm going to go back and watch that over and over and over again because I was great. The bad performances, the terrible ones that I feel awful about. Ah, man, I tell you, I did go back and watch them. I always go back and review my shows no matter what. But it's it's tough to watch them today. And I still go back and review them because why? And you can learn from every single performance. But the only way you're going to learn from it is to, you know, is to go back and to look at it, to reflect on it, if you will. I mean, you know, when we're on stage, we got this sort of high going on. Things are happening so fast, whether you're doing a great job or a terrible thing. Things can happen really slow if it's not going the way you want it to. But even when it's happening fast, we we can't recall every moment that was on stage. We can't we can't replay. Every single moment. So that's why I recorded my shows, if at all possible. And I would always try to find a way smartphones help. I actually, you know, ten years ago before we had all these smartphones and everything, I went out and I actually bought a camera with a tape that you put in and had, you know, my friends record my performances. It was important to me, you know. So I encourage you record your performances. It definitely helps with going back and reflecting on it. So. How how do you reflect on a performance? Now, you don't have to record it in order to reflect, but it does make it a little easier to to look at every component of your performance instead of just the things that you remember. The high points are the really low points. Every performance gives you an opportunity. It gives you something to learn from, something to grow with. And going back and reflecting on that and really examining how you can use that to grow and to flourish. I love that word. I love the word. Flourish. I never. I don't think I use it enough. I'm going to start using flourish. You're going to flourish as a performer through reflection. You know, you see it in in other careers. You see it in athletes. You know, the coaches go back and watch the videos. They make the players go back and watch the videos. Then they rehearse on the things that they notice that needs to be improved. You see it in business. And by the way, this this practice is across the board. So athlete, business performer, this is focused on performers and entertainers. But anyone can. Use this practice. You know, I work in a corporate company right now and we have to reflect all the time on, you know, projects that we did or meetings that we had or trainings that we did. You know, there's a reflection at the end to talk about what you learned and how you're going to apply it. And so even on stage, you know, our, you know, literal performers, you have to reflect on your performance as well. It's not something that we usually like thinking about. It can make us uncomfortable. It can make us uncomfortable to find the kind of like, I guess, poke holes, fine opportunities, things you need to work on. But it's necessary. And a lot of times we always go back and watch, you know, we always think about the bad ones of what could go differently and what could go better. The important thing not to do here is the blame game. You know what I'm talking about? I've I've done it. I've done it. I've done it. Oh, I'm terrible. I've done it. I actually have done it on this podcast. I talk about the show where no one cheered because they led a mutiny. Against me. And truthfully, I mean, I shouldn't focus on what the audience has done, regardless, regardless. I should always focus on what I could do differently. And if you go out there and you find that there's nothing different that you would do about the performance, then you must be the perfect performer. And you absolutely don't need to be listening to this podcast. So you have no room for growth. Why? Why bother reflecting? But listen, by the way, that was a little sarcasm. Everyone has room to grow. So let's. Let's get. Let's get to it. There are some simple questions that you can ask yourself to to help yourself in this reflection process. OK, and that's kind of what I want to focus on. That's where I'm going today is that reflection process. Good, bad, ugly, whatever the performance, you're going to have to look back on it and see what you can improve. I recommend recording it as painful as it is. You got to watch it. And listen, as great as your show was and as much as you think there's nothing you could do differently. You got to go back and you you got to watch it like you have to review the show. I don't recommend doing it immediately because you're going to be on that. Yeah, that was awesome. That was awesome. But you really have to go into this with the mindset of, OK, what could I do different? And that's that's where we come into the question. So first of all, you got to give yourself credit for those good moments. You have to you have to give yourself a pat on the back. So good or bad show, whatever. You got to find those moments that you did really well. Well, what what did you do? That's the question you asked yourself. What did I do very well? What do I there's two ways you can do this. OK, and they're kind of similar. One of them is more in the business term. It's called a Molo Co. I learned this about this this week. OK, and we're applying it Molo Co. It's more of less of continue. There's also the other way, which is what did I do? Well, what would I do differently? That's it. What would I do? Well, what I do differently. I like both methods. Just to go over both of them. So so method number one, the two question method. And that's as simple as it's positive and negative. What did I do? That's it. That gives you an opportunity to recognize the fact that you've done something positive and also look at the fact that there's something to grow from. And it's not saying, OK, what I do good and what did I do wrong? It's not wrong. It's what you would do differently. Because remember, when you're on stage and your your emotions are going and your adrenaline is going, there's no wrong. It just happens, period. Whether you're amateur, professional, whatever you consider yourself somewhere in between, if you're in that gray area, it just happens. There's no right or wrong when you're on stage. It just happens. So it's what would you do differently? What did you not necessarily like that you did? You know, it's important to not focus on wrong or bad. You know, it's I know I said good shows, bad shows. It's just generalizing. I know I'm I'm working on it, but you have to look for an opportunity to do something different, not necessarily what you did wrong, if that makes sense. I hope that makes sense. So the other the other method I mentioned is called a mo loco, and that's more of like a business style of method, but it can literally be applied to anything that you do in your life. You could apply it. I whisper because my wife's in the next room, but you could apply it to your relationship even if necessary. But it's it's definitely it's a reflection method and it's an it's a it's a tool to improve. So it stands for more of which means what would you do more of? If you had to do that show again, what would you do more? Where would you bring out? It's also another version of saying, what did I do? Well, the low mo loco, I lose it sometimes. The low is less of what would I do less of? What did I do on stage that I wouldn't necessarily want to do again? Or, what would I do differently? You kind of see the simulation The difference here, and this is why I really like this method, is the co, C-O, is continue. So it talks about what you would just continue doing exactly the same way. And that could be any aspect of your performance. It's just what would you continue doing exactly the same. You wouldn't do it anymore. You wouldn't do any less. You just do exactly the same. So it's kind of the same way of saying what did I do well, but it's a different way of looking at it because it's more like if there was more, you want to have more audience interaction, less looking down at the stage, and continue smiling throughout the show. Like that's an example of a mo-lo-co. What did I do well? What would I do different? That's more of a, you know what, I did my choreography really, really well. What I would do differently is I didn't really have any facial expressions because I was so focused on the choreography. So you would work on your facial expressions. So that's, you can kind of use both of these methods really if you want to really dig deep. But that's kind of how they would, that's the examples I could give you just kind of off the top of my head. Like I'm just, I don't have this all written down. I got notes, but that's just an example off the top of my head. So yeah, and that's the reflection method. If it helps, I would write it down. I did not write it down. I'll be honest. I'll own that. But looking back. And, you know, this entire podcast is like my reflection on my career and things I did well and that I want to share and things that I would do differently and I kind of want you to be aware of. So that's kind of where this is. But it's important to reflect. You know, you got to go back and you got to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly. And you got to decide where you want to change it when you do it again next time. So again, I recommend. This is what I recommend. I recommend what I did well was I recorded every show that I could so that I could reflect on it and watch it. What I would do differently is I would write down my observations about my performance each time so that I have a record of my growth. And what would I continue doing? I would continue doing this podcast. I don't know. I figured there we go. That's kind of my reflection. I did the what would I do well, what would I do differently method. I didn't know the MoLoCo when I was performing. But so I would. That was my reflection for you. I did well in terms of reflecting and videotaping and recording. And I would definitely go back and write down my observations. So there you have it, folks. So take the time to reflect on your show. And listen, I want to also tell you the next episode is kind of a two-parter here. So if you listen to this one, you really got to listen to the next one. Because one part. One part of reflecting. Sometimes you can get stuck in reflection. And you also got to know when it's time to move forward. So the next episode, I'm actually going to talk about moving forward past your last show. So you want to tune into that. You can easily get notified when that drops by going and hitting subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. That makes sure you automatically get it. Yeah. So I always say if you want more being on stage, I have a free Facebook group you can join. I really go in there with some motivating stuff for performers. I share a video on Monday about a motivational song or video or funny or story. And then on Wednesday, I really go into how it motivates you and how you can use it to grow as a performer and how it relates to performing. So that's my kick. That's my spiel. You can get to the Facebook group by going to beingonstage.com slash group. Whoop, whoop. All right. Let me wrap this bad boy up, everybody. Keep on shining.
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