What I Learned in Two Years

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, Veggie Dawson here, your host of the Being On Stage podcast. Welcome, welcome, and of course, to my listeners for a while, welcome back. I gotta tell you, I'm actually coming up on the two-year anniversary of this podcast. We kicked off in December of 2017, but, you know, the dream and the vision started way before that. I mean, honestly, it started way, way back in like 2007 times, but. Neither here nor there. The podcast was really getting going about two years ago, and the ideas were flowing, and, you know, we were coming up with a name and a concept, and how we were going to talk about it, and what we were going to do. And when I say we, it was me and my wife were really like the backbones of this. She helped me do a lot of design stuff, and like, you know, you have that person that you just talk through it. And listen, listen, I'm going to get to the performance tips and tools to. Turn your talent into your performance, and that performance into the experience for your audience, and just, like, just crush it on stage. No matter what you're doing, singing, dancing, you heard the intro, I don't have to go through it. But yeah, so it's been about two years since I've been pumping out this Nuggets of Wisdom. I guess, I don't know if we want to call it wisdom, really, man. Like, we'll just call it Nuggets. Pumping out these little podcast nuggets for all my performance people, all my performance friends out there. But I'll tell you, when we were really getting going, it's. When you first start getting going and having that realization of what you want to do, and you really start to put it together. And, you know, you always have this vision in your head. And I'm talking about you as well as me, okay? You go through the same thing, I'm sure, with your performing. You always have this vision in your head. But when you really start to put, like, pen to paper and plan. And, like, you know, start building that plan. And, you know, for me, it was designing the logo and designing the layout of the show. Which, I mean, you guys know, I actually chucked that plan. I have no layout of the show. Most of these episodes are. I read, I study business, I study entrepreneurship, I study motivational speakers. All sorts. I get my. I study Netflix. I mean, I get. I get my inspiration for these episodes from all over the place. But what I'm really passionate about is helping performers just explode on stage in front of their audience. And I mean that in, like, the best way. Like, you know when you're on stage and you have one of those nights where you just. You come off stage and you just know. You just know that that night is the reason you started performing. Like, I've had those nights, you know? And I think everyone's capable of having those nights. So I pumped this podcast out. But getting started is really rough because you really start to think about what it's going to look like and what it's going to take. And I've got to tell you, it's been a long, hard ride. I've had my ups and my downs. You have too. Some of the things I faced, although when I was first starting out, let me just really bring this home for you. I was afraid that no one was going to like it. I was afraid I wasn't going to have an audience. Yes, me. I know. I know. Shush. Stop it. I was afraid that, you know, who was going to listen to this podcast about performing? Who was going to. What performer would actually find this valuable? Again, those thoughts went through my head. And there were moments that, I've got to tell you, sometimes I questioned whether it would actually be a thing or whether it would actually get heard. And I'm glad to report, you know, it has gotten heard. I have. I'm so grateful for all the downloads. And all the listens that I've gotten. But those thoughts that you have in the beginning of, you know, maybe no one's going to like you or no one's going to get it or no one's going to understand it or no one's going to be able to relate to it or. I mean, it's really. The one you hear most often is, no one's going to like me. No one's going to like what I do on stage. I'm not original. I'm not this. I'm not that. And it's all about what you're not. But you know what? You're missing. And the thing that you're not talking about is what you are. And that's what I've come to realize. About this podcast. This podcast is not about everything that it's not. You know? It's. I'm not in the business of making you millions of dollars with a record deal or a performance contract with Vegas. I'm not in the business of making you famous and getting you millions and millions of followers on social media. What I am in the business of is helping you create a more relatable experience for your audience so you can grow them what a marketer would call organically. Okay? There's these. You know, there's people that'll go out and they'll do crazy weird stuff and they'll just do whatever they can to get people to follow them and to like them and things. I'm not about that. I want you to be you and find people that like you for you. Because what you are is so much more important than what you're not. And that's one of the things I've learned over the past two years is what this podcast is to some of the performers out there. It's based on. It's based on some of the emails and messages and I've gotten Instagram DMs and Facebook messages and emails based on the feed. There are. I mean, it's not hundreds of people. Like, don't get. I'm not tooting my horn here. But there's a good couple handfuls of people that, you know, have benefited from this podcast. And those are the people that I do this podcast for. I don't do it for the hundreds of thousands of people that want to make a million dollars. I do it for the people that want to make a difference on stage and really. Really, truly improve and grow in their art. And when you have that realization about you, that realization that you're not doing it for the money and you're not doing it for the fame, but you're really doing it to put this thing that you do out there and connect with other people through it. Like, when you realize that's why you do what you do, that's the best day of your life. That's one of those nights that you just know that that's the reason that you started doing this. And we've come full circle. Man, I love those moments when you go full circle. So, a couple of the things that I've gone through in the past two years. And I want you to know, the reason I'm sharing this with you, first of all, is I want you to know that when these things happen to you and these thoughts come into your mind, you're not the only one. We've all been there. You may need a little help, a little guidance, a little confidence boost, a little push to get you through whatever valley or whatever low point you're in right now. But you're not alone. Every single performer on the face of the planet that is worth anything, and that includes you. Everyone's gone through times like this. And one of the other things is, you know, really coming to terms with the fact that it is not an overnight success deal with what we do. And that's one of the hardest things I think people, it is for people to realize. And, oh my God, I was watching, okay, so here's one of the things where I get my, you know, I was watching Melissa and Joey, you know, Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence did a little sitcom together for a little while. And I was watching the first season with my wife and the Joey character, he created this business where he made videos of finance tips. And on day one, he posted three videos and he got zero views and no book sales. So on day two, he posted another video of him working out while talking about finance, of all things. And he got thousands of views, but no book sales. So on day three, he sold his website and gave up completely. Like, the quick turnaround that's expected is not reality for anybody. And I'm talking, let's back it up to performers now. For us, that quick success, that overnight, that out of nowhere discovery that happens, it's not overnight, you know. And that realization that if you're expecting to. If you're expecting to pick up the guitar or pick up juggling today and in three months be able to go with, you know, Cirque du Soleil or perform at, you know, the House of Blues or the Grand Ole Opry or, you know, in Vegas, that's, that's highly, highly unlikely. I mean, we're talking less than one in a million. The one in a million that people tell you about, those are not overnight discoveries. Like, we're talking one in a trillion. We're talking one in infinity, honestly. It's such a small, small, small chance that that would actually happen. Could you get there? Absolutely, you could get there. You could get there in three months. If you applied every single waking moment and every ounce of your being to this new art, absolutely, you could get there. It may not be Cirque du Soleil. It may not be Vegas. But you could definitely be supporting yourself and having a good, solid performance career. But you're talking 12 to 16 hours a day. seven days a week dedicated to this thing. to get there in three months. It's going to take time. And that's a realization that is important for all performers, all businessmen, entrepreneurs, all teachers. I think the only people that don't have to worry about taking time is the dead, truthfully. It's not going to happen overnight. Listen, I'm blunt. I've got to tell you, I'm very blunt. But it's the truth. And I think that that's important to put out there is it's not going to be overnight. When you have that realization, it almost gives you a peace. You know what? I have time. I have time to experiment. I have time to try new things. I have time to give that a go or try that or add this to the show. Because you. You know that you've got nothing but time. You're going to get there. Why not try new things along the way and experiment and have a little fun while you're doing it, you know? It doesn't have to be work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, rehearsal, rehearsal. If that's how you view what you do is work and just straight up, I have to work on this or else. Like, come on, have some fun along the way. Change it up every once in a while. It's okay. I give you permission. You have permission from a stage performance coach to experiment in your performing. So yeah, take that. Hey, listen, speaking of stage performance coach, if you want to work together, if that interests you at all to just have someone there to help brainstorm with you and build a plan to move forward and to get you really, really gaining some strong momentum towards that vision and towards that dream that you have, that performer that you want to be, you can hit me up, jump on my calendar, just go to being, being on stage.com slash calendar, put in your name, email, pick a time. I'll call you and we'll start building that plan and talking about what your next steps are and how you're going to reach that ultimate goal in that, that big dream, the big dream, the big dream. So there's some realizations you got to have along the way. You're going to have rough patches. That's the other thing that's, you know, and I'm trying to close this out. So I'm gonna make this last point pretty quick. I'm going to close this out really quick. The other realization is you're, you're going to have rough patches. You're going to have times when things just are not working. You're going to have times when you feel like they're not where you're going to feel you're going to have times where you feel like it's going nowhere, but you're wrong in those moments. You have all the ability and the talent in the world. All you got to do is continue to push yourself to get there. No matter what, if I told you, if I told you, here's the thing. And this is the ultimate test to find out if you want this. Okay. If I told you all this, that it's going to take 10 years, 15 years, we'll go 10 years. It's going to take you 10 years and it's going to take you hours and hours and hours of rehearsal and practice a week. And you're going to have all these rough patches. You're going to have empty crowds. You're going to have rejection. You're going to have heartache, backstabbing, drama. You know, just sometimes outright, just rude comments and sometimes hatred, to be honest with you, you're going to go through all this crap, but in 10 years, your dreams are going to come true. Guaranteed gear. I guarantee in 10 years, you go through all this crap. I'm going to put you through hell, but in 10 years, you're going to be exactly where you want to be today. You're going to be that, that performer that you envision when you close your eyes or when you look in the mirror. Go through all this crap for 10 years and then you get it. Here's the test. Do you take the deal? Keep on shining.