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, rock stars. Reggie Dawson, host of the Being On Stage podcast. Welcome back. It's been a while, you know, and I kind of want to just give like a, just an update and kind of download, I guess, let you know what's been going on and what's been on my mind lately and everything. And it's, it has been a long time, you know, it's been since, it's been almost about 10 days since I've recorded a podcast and it's a lot longer than I normally go. A couple of things have happened. First, my, the platform that hosts my podcast, they recently went through an update. They now have a 2.0 in their dashboard and their hosting platform for my podcast. Because listen, I don't just record directly into iTunes. Like there's a whole, there's a whole background to how your podcast gets onto iTunes and everything. But anyways, long story short, my platform was updated and over the last 10 days or so, my, it was my, my turn to migrate over to the 2.0. Uh, platform and in doing that, I guess, um, I don't know if you guys noticed anything, but I was kind of out of commission for a couple of days. Uh, I don't know if the podcast still played or not. So if you, uh, tried to download a podcast in the last 10 days, uh, try it again if it didn't go through. Uh, but anyways, yeah, so that, that kind of got in the way a little bit. And then, you know, things just kept kind of happening like that. Uh, we also, we, we were dogging. We were dog sitting for a friend and we have two dogs of our own. And when we were dog sitting for a friend, uh, that particular dog is a little bit bigger than our dog and a little rambunctious and a lot more energy. And he's not used to just kind of like, we've got our dogs to, that are trained. Like when they're in the house, they're pretty, they're pretty chill. Like they're, they're level. They're, they're calm when they're outside completely different, but when they're inside, they're, they're calm. And the dog we were, we were watching was not trained. The way our dogs were trained, great dog, love, love all dogs, by the way, great dog, such a good boy. You know, he sits when he's told to sit, but he had just had a lot of energy. And every time I sat down to record a podcast, the dogs would just go crazy. And there's like barking and growling and howling and yipping or whatever the, you know, the high pitched ones, they do the yelping. I guess it is not like in pain, but like when they're playing and it was just, it was just not happening. You know, add onto that, the day job and, you know, the commute and everything like that. We all got to, we all got to deal with doing something to, you know, keep ourselves afloat. And so things just kept kind of standing in the way from recording a podcast. And this happens to all of us. Like, listen, I talk about performing on stage and all the things that you can do on stage to connect with your audience. But, you know, there, there's going to be times when it just feels like everything keeps getting in the way of, of doing your thing, whether it's, you know, not being booked or, you know, schedule conflicts, helping out friends, you know, maybe you injured yourself, things like that. Sometimes things just keep getting in the way and it can put you in a place that makes you feel like you start thinking, well, I'm already not doing it. Maybe I should give up. Maybe I should stop. Maybe I should walk away. And, you know, it goes through your mind. It's, it's, it goes through everyone's mind. It happens to all of us. When, when you go a certain amount of time without doing what you love, you start to kind of question. Do I really love it if these things keep getting in the way? And the answer is yes. You know, you, you do, you do, you love what you do. You love performing, you know, it's just, you know, maybe right now you have a couple of other things going on. And I guess the, the message here in this kind of situation, and, you know, I always try to take a situation and turn it into a message for performing and, and how you can like motivate or inspire yourself or, or use it on stage. And, and I guess the message here is, you know, you know, even when things get in the way and even when life is going on, you know, don't doubt yourself. Don't, don't think those negative thoughts and don't, for God's sake, don't walk away from your passion ever. So that's a little bit about what's been going on and kind of why it's taken me a while to podcast. The other thing on a positive note, speaking of things not happening the way they're supposed to happen, I don't, I've, I've talked about it a couple of times on the podcast. I talk about it a lot in the Facebook group and on the page. Um, I'm starting a local business here in my community. You know, I have being on stage and I've been doing this online, uh, for about a year and a half. I've done a couple of other things like online businesses and everything, and I've never done anything local. And it's something that I've always wanted to do. You know, I've always wanted to have something local that's contributing to my hometown because I still live in the same town that I was born in. And I mean, I've, I've moved here and there I've moved, but I mean, always within a 30 mile radius. And it's not that, it's not that I don't want it. I don't want to get out because I have full plans to uproot and travel the country and everything like that with my wife and kid. You know, I just so happened to live in the same place I was born. And even if I didn't, I've always wanted to have something local, something that is, that is mine. That's contributing and, and sharing something with my town, my community, wherever I happen to be, you know? And so I started a beard care company and I found these products that I really, really liked. They let me put my name on them. They shipped it. They shipped it out to me and everything. And in my head, this was a much longer process than I thought it was going to be. And I, and I think this happens to us, you know, it's happened to me before when I was performing. Like when you think something's going to take much longer than it does, you know, like I was trying to get in this new venue and I wasn't really like putting a lot of effort into rehearsing because I didn't have anything upcoming. So I didn't have anything specific to rehearse. I was keeping myself limber, you know, practicing a couple of sets, a couple of sequences, a couple of dance moves. Some choreography that I wanted to use, but, uh, I wasn't really having anything specific to rehearse for. And I learned a good lesson here. Okay. I learned. So there's two good lessons I learned here. One with the beard company, um, clarify how long things are going to take. Cause what happened is when I was thinking we were going to launch June 1st, uh, because my products were going to take till the end of May, my products arrived May 3rd, like on my doorstep, May 3rd. And that's like true. Two or three weeks sooner than I thought it was going to be. So me and my wife slash graphic designer, uh, we, we had to dive in and get some stuff ready because as soon as these, these products arrived, I wanted to get going, you know, I wanted to, I wanted to move. So I was able to set some things up. So in this, in performing, you know, in this venue that I was trying to get into, and this is probably something you can relate to, you know, maybe you're trying to get into a venue, maybe you're trying to get a new booking, maybe you're just trying to. You know, take another step or get in with a group or whatever you're trying to do. Um, I was trying to get into the new venue and, you know, I had messaged the owner and I had messaged the, the promoters and everything like that. And I hadn't really had much response like at all. And I was kind of like giving up on it. And I mean, it was stupid because I was literally like two weeks into messaging this venue. And at that point I'm like, all right, it's going to take me a little while to get in there. So, you know, I'll, I'll follow up in another couple of weeks. In the meantime, another performer that I worked with, they were also in the process of getting, getting into that same venue. And so what happened was while I was, you know, kind of anticipating a month or two months or, you know, six months to get in to that venue and be able to get booked, uh, because this performer that I worked so closely with got in like almost immediately. She was able to bring me in. And bring me into her production and her night and her, her thing that she had gotten. And it was incredible because I, it was like November and my first show is the beginning of December. And I was anticipating like February, March or something like that. Cause I was just starting that communication a little bit. It was those, those return messages you get where it's kind of like, you know, let me check the books, see what we got. Can you send me some videos? Like just the beginning stages of hooking up with this venue. Turns out I, I got it. I, you know, when I went in with her, I became a house name at that venue for years and years and years. It was crazy. Absolutely crazy. And Oh, speaking of getting into venues and other time when things happen, like much faster is when I went to perform in West Palm beach. Um, I went down there and I just happened to walk in on a random night to this, to this club. And I just asked the person at the door, like, listen, are you hiring any entertainers? You know, what, what do I have to do to get in here? Um, they brought out one of the promoters. She basically told me to come on Monday. This was like a, like a Wednesday night or something. She told me, come down here on Monday, go for an audition. And if you're good, we'll have you on next Friday or the Friday after what I was just walking into inquire. This was so unexpected. Oh my, I mean, I went to the audition, I nailed it. They booked me like two weeks out. It was crazy. Like absolutely crazy. How fast these things can happen for you. So, you know, and I'm just kind of going through. things that are on my mind, you know? But here, you know, here's the thing. something for everyone to pick up, you know, don't expect, well, I mean, don't expect things to come immediately, but don't expect things, you know, don't expect anything at any time, prepare yourself, hope for it, you know, plan for it, work for it, but don't expect it. And I think that's, that's the problem is I was having an expectation that I wasn't going to get in or that they weren't going to be able to book me or that they weren't actually looking for performers or that it was going to take a long time. I had had that in my mind and instead I should have been working my ass off preparing something because all of a sudden I had an audition in five days. What? Does it ever happen to you? Have you ever had something just kind of like land on you and all of a sudden it's a scramble? So that right there, that particular night, I learned a very valuable lesson and I pass it on to every single performer that I work with, every performer that I meet, always have something prepared. I always, I have this saying, like, have it in your back pocket, like in case you need to pull it out, like in case you need to have something prepared, you should always have a show like kind of in your back pocket. You know what I mean? You should always have that show or that performance. That's just like when someone calls you and says, Hey, we had a cancellation. I need you. You have something and it's ready to go. And you can just put on your outfit, grab your gear and get on stage, whatever you got to grab, you know, but you can just get on stage. And believe me, if you don't think that that will happen to you, you were 100% mistaken because at some point in your career, it's going to happen. As long as you work hard and you get that reputation as a entertainer that works hard, it will happen. Someone will call on you. It may not be the same night. Like it can give you a week, two weeks, whatever, but you're going to get short notice bookings as long as you prove yourself that you can carry, you know, that you can carry it out and that you can come through. And that's just, that's just performing. That's all that is. That's just getting out there and keep doing it. And every time you get out there, you bring something new, you bring an experience for your audience. So that's the other thing that's been on my mind lately, you know, um, making your performance and experience. I was talking to my boss the other day and we were talking about an experience of, you know, for our employees, because we're trying to get them more involved and, and, you know, more excited about doing their job. It's, it's a thing, you know, you want everyone to be excited about their job. So we were talking about making something an experience and that's what your show should be for your audience is an experience. Like I hope this podcast, I hope my, my podcast, I, I sincerely hope each episode is an experience for you, you know, but I also hope that your performance in turn is an experience for your audience. That's what draws them in. That's what keeps them coming back. That's that experience that you give them. So I say, you know, connect with your audience, leave your legacy on stage, turn your audience into fans. That all rounds out to be give them an experience. You remember the first time you stepped on stage, like how hard you worked for it and how important it was to you. What happened? Like what happened? When did we stop giving our audience an experience? When did we stop thinking about every single detail that we put on stage? Think about that. Think about that though. When, when did that stop? And how can you get that back? Cause you need that. You've got to give them an experience. So that's, that's kind of the basic download. That's the things that have been going on with me. The things about my mind. I'm going to keep these episodes coming at you. It's gonna be like Spitfire, man. They're going to come like, I don't know, crazy people coming out of a crazy shoot. Don't quote me on that. Whatever. I, sometimes I just lose my train of thought and something random comes out. So you'll grow to love it. Don't worry. Listen, if you haven't done so already, can you head into iTunes and leave a five-star rating on this podcast? Comment, share it with your friends, all that good stuff. So listen, thanks for tuning in. I appreciate it. We'll be back again with another episode soon. And so subscribe. Thanks again. Keep on shining.
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