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. Hey, rock stars. Reggie Dawson here, your host of the show. Welcome back to the Being On Stage podcast. Something's been kind of on my mind today. One of my, I guess, I don't want to call it my favorite movie, but one of my favorite movies about performing the greatest showman. I don't know. I had to watch a little part of it today, and there's a part of it when he meets the bearded woman, and I'm sorry, I don't know the names. I just, I really like the showmanship and the lessons of the movie, where he tells her, they may not understand, but they will. And I think this is an important lesson for every performer to learn, and that is, you have to accept yourself, and they will accept you. And that's kind of where I'm going. Like, I have this, I have this in my head. I have it. I'm kind of just going for it, guys. So, hang on, because it's going to be a ride. So, listen, you are exactly who you are, and you can own that. You can try to run from it. You can try to hide it. You can try to change it. Or you can own it. And I'm telling you, especially when you're a performer, owning who you are and what's odd about you or off about you or weird or strange, that's exactly what's going to set you apart, and that's exactly what's going to draw people into you. And I bring up the greatest showman because, you know, there's a lot of very valuable lessons for performers in the greatest showman. And one of that is to accept yourself. Accept who you are. Sometimes embellish it. That was yesterday's show. But accept yourself. You know, it's as simple as saying, you know, me, personally, I'm never going to be one of those people that wakes up at 6 a.m. and gets to the job by 8 and works until, you know, 7 o'clock at night. I'm never going to be that guy. I've tried to be that guy. It sucks. I can't be that guy. I'm the sleep till 9 or 10 guy and stay up till 1 or 2 guy. I don't stay up all night anymore. But I used to when I did the shows late at night. But you have to accept certain things about yourself. One of the things you have to accept when you're on stage is how you appear. I'm fat. I'm a big guy. I'm not going to lie. I'm pushing 300. And listen, this may seem like a little personal stuff, but this is me owning who I am. I've always been big, but I still step on that stage and I perform like I weigh a buck 20. I perform how I feel that I am. And that's how you have to do as well. So listen, you may be large. You may be extremely small, you know, skinny. You may be tall, short, really short. Maybe you have a limp, a stutter, some skin issues. And I'm not talking acne, like really skin issues. Maybe you have what people consider a quote unquote birth defect. Who cares? The moment you step on that stage, it is about. Owning who you are and being true to yourself. And you have to first accept every part of you in order to do that. So I'm going to tell you the second thing that. Barnum told the bearded woman right before she went on stage for the first time. They don't know it yet, but they are going to love you. And I'm telling this to you. If you're struggling to accept something about yourself, if you're struggling to just completely let go of it on stage and just. Let everything, let the energy and the emotion flow through you. It doesn't matter what you look like. It doesn't matter what's quote unquote wrong with you. That's other people telling you what's wrong with you. That's other people's opinions getting into your head, poisoning your dreams. Accept every part of yourself. That's the greatest lesson of the greatest. That's the greatest lesson of the greatest showman. I didn't. I did not do that on purpose. The second time I did, but I didn't do it on purpose at first. But yeah, so the greatest lesson from the greatest showman. And this is something that Barnum actually had to learn himself. OK, because, you know, he went through his own. And this is the movie. I know this is not the true, true story of P.T. Barnum and how I get that. Like, I've done my research, too. I was talking purely. Listen, I get my inspiration and my motivation from music and movies and business. And motivational speakers. I get it from everywhere. This episode just so happens to be based on a movie. And I am talking super fast, getting straight into it. And actually, I'm almost ready to wrap this bad boy up. But just under just around five minutes. So it's just something that was weighing on me that I had to get out there, because I believe that when you have something on your heart or in your head or just that that drive to put something out there, I mean, somebody has to hear it or somebody has to see it. So back to it. I was saying the greatest lesson from the greatest showman is this. When you accept yourself. You shine your brightest. And everyone has to learn that. But when you truly accept yourself, I mean, look at the people. There's a stuttering comedian. Absolutely phenomenal. Like, funny as you know what. There's singers and dancers that have, you know, missing limb. You know, they were born without an arm or they were born. Missing a leg. There's there's kids that don't have legs. They've learned to skateboard on their hands. And this is this is some extreme stuff. But even as performing. So what if everyone tells you there's something wrong with you? So what if everyone tells you someone that looks like you can't go on stage? You know, that's the reason they they created the show, The Voice. That's the exact reason they created The Voice is because there are so many people judging people based on how they look. Instead of how they sing or how their talent, how good their talent was. They wanted to put a stop to that and they did to a certain extent. I mean, it's still filtered out and it's still going to look good on television. But you can you can tell they to a certain extent they've accomplished that. But truth truthfully, what the people want, this is not what America wants. And America don't know what America wants when it comes to talent. What the people really want, what the people really connect with is authenticity and self-acceptance. Listen, I. I appreciate you listen to this podcast and I appreciate even more if you would go to iTunes and drop a five star rating and a comment on it. That would help a lot. Appreciate that as well. And. You know, if if there's something that you need to work through, some acceptance or if you need some motivation, inspiration, need some help building up your confidence. I'm here to help. You can jump on my calendar. Let's chat. Go to being on stage dot com slash calendar and I'll call you at the date and time of your choice. We'll just work through what you're working through. Let's get you connecting with your audience and exploding on that stage and, you know, really, really blasting off towards your dreams. That's what this being on stage podcast is all about. And with that, keep on shining.
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