Are you Ready?

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 Rockstars, it's your host Reggie Daughson, and thank you once again for tuning in to the Being On Stage podcast.

Today I want to talk about confidence, and not just confidence on stage, because I mean, every entertainer before you step on stage, you've got to have confidence. You have to have confidence on stage. But what I really want to get into is confidence off stage, confidence in ourselves as entertainers, confidence in yourself. I mean, genuinely, a confidence in yourself as a person, not just as an entertainer.

But also confidence in the work that you've done, confidence in the preparation that you've made, and confidence in yourself to go ahead and take that next step and move forward. Because that's what the dream is all about, is moving forward, taking the next step, following our dreams, living the dreams, going on the road to travel. Everyone's got their next step. Everyone's got their dream.

You've got that ultimate pie in the sky, if you will. You've got that ultimate dream of what you want to do with your performing. And my question here is, are you confident enough to take that step, that next step, to get you there? Are you ready for that next step? Better question, if you've never performed before, maybe you haven't even gotten on stage yet, maybe you're still working on your talent, whatever it is, it can be really hard to get yourself there.

Because you feel like you're not good enough, you feel like you're not ready, you feel like you need to be better at this or better at that before you step on stage. And if you have stepped on stage, maybe you're holding yourself back from taking that next step because you're not ready, because you need to work on this or you need to work on that. And so my question here is, when are you going to be ready? When are you ever going to be ready for that next step?

When is a good time to take the next step? What constitutes you being ready for your next step? All these questions are things that I try. I truly want to know, what will make you ready to move forward as an entertainer? If you're not ready, you've got to get ready. What I want to talk about today is I want to talk about the confidence to take the next step, even if everything inside you is screaming that you're not ready.

Because here's the thing, if the booking agent or the promoter or the manager or whoever is in charge of this next step you're taking, whoever is getting you there, if they think you're ready, why don't you? Because here's the thing, the worst thing that happens by taking that step is that you get some experience, you learn, you grow. That is the absolute worst thing. The absolute worst thing is you learn something.

The reason I talk about being ready to take the next step or even being ready to take the first step, there's two stories I want to share with you today. One, it's me personally, and this is about taking the next step. So as an entertainer, I was presented many opportunities. I had an opportunity to travel. I had an opportunity to truly grow in my craft. I had an opportunity to enter a few large competitions.

I had an opportunity to get some really amazing mentorship from other entertainers, and I passed up on every single one. Why? Because I felt like I wasn't ready. Everything inside me was saying, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet. It was more important for me to enter. It was more important for me to entertain the fans that I had already gained locally. It was more important for me to hone in on my craft and get better at this and get better at that.

And I was never ready. I was always content with being a big fish in a little pond, and that's not cool. I have regrets, people. I truly have regrets when it comes to my entertainment. So I'm coming to you from a place of experience. I passed up on so many opportunities. And you know what happened? Slowly, one by one, those opportunities started disappearing. They started getting fewer and far between, until the only place that I was left performing once every few months closed.

So now there were zero opportunities. All because I held back. I ended up retiring. I mean, don't get me wrong. I do have regrets, but it has led me here. It's led me to a point where I feel like I'm meant to teach and to show and to coach and to mentor others. Or other people. But as an entertainer, I have those regrets. I kept holding myself back. I kept telling myself I wasn't ready. I kept saying, not yet.

Keep working, keep working, keep working. But you're not quite ready yet. But you know what? I was ready. And I know that now. But now it's too late. And I know what she said. I know it's never too late. But in my situation, it's pretty close to too late. I gave up on so many open doors that literally all I had to do was, was walk through them. All because I wasn't ready. But the offers were on the table.

People told me I was ready. People told me I should have taken these opportunities. My fiancé told me I should have taken these opportunities. And I didn't. I didn't listen to anybody. I listened to this scared little child inside me that says, No, you're not ready, Reggie. What is that? Why are we listening to the fear that lives within us? And as entertainers, we are preparing ourselves for greatness.

Every time we step on that stage, every time we step into rehearsal, every time a singer sings a song, every time a musician plays a scale, every time a comedian tells a joke, every time a dancer does choreography, we are preparing for greatness. And to stay true to form and preparing for greatness, to stay true to that, you have to be ready when your shot comes. And even if you're not ready, you have to get ready. You have to make yourself ready.

Because here's the thing. What if I came at you with this amazing opportunity? I'm talking, think about your ultimate dream. Like if you could take whatever you do to perform, whether it be you're a comedian, whether you're a singer, a dancer, you know, a public speaker, whether you're, you know, whether you're in a band, maybe you're a drag queen or a drag king, maybe you do burlesque, maybe you're a street performer.

Whatever it is you do, whatever it is your dream is as a performer, wherever you want to be with this, like the furthest you want to go, I'm going to give that to you right now, everything you want. First question, are you ready for it? Follow-up question, if you're not sure or if you had the slightest hesitation in saying yes, what if I told you that this was the only time you were ever going to get this opportunity? Would that change your answer?

Because that's exactly how you need to view it. When an opportunity comes, knocking, that could quite frankly be and quite honestly be the only time that opportunity will ever come knocking. So, if you have any hesitation in taking that next step, why? If the opportunity is there and someone or some group of people is inviting you to take this opportunity, why are you the one holding you back?

Why are you the one keeping yourself from taking that next step? Why haven't you accepted your greatness? I'm going to shift gears a little bit. Now, this is for the people that haven't even taken that first step yet, who are keeping themselves from getting on stage because of fear or, you know, because they're not ready yet or because they just don't think they can do it. First, refer to podcast number two, it's about getting over stage fright.

Second, there was a local entertainer here, never performed before, it was her first time getting on stage, and it was a contest, it was a local contest. This was back, we both started entertaining around the same time, but there was a contest and she kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed by one of the local club managers. She kept getting pushed, "You have to enter this contest, you have to enter this contest," and she kept putting it off. And eventually, you know, eventually she entered the contest and she was phenomenal and took the contest, like hands down, won that contest and just scooped it away.

It was amazing and the funniest thing about it now and is like looking back at it now is like, if she hadn't taken that step and if she hadn't agreed to say, "You know what, whether I'm ready or not, I'm going to do it, you think I'm good enough to do it, I'm going to do it." If she hadn't taken that step, she would have never won, she would have never became the entertainer that she became. I mean, she did move on, she did retire to, you know, to raise a family now, but she never would have became the entertainer that she became. She was one of the hottest local performers that we had. But had she never taken that step and had she never put herself in that position to do something, even though she felt she wasn't ready for it, she would have never been there.

She would have never been that person. I'm coming at you from experience and I know I'm telling you a lot of stories and I know this one's running a little bit long, but you need to be ready for that next step and you need to be confident enough to take the next step even if you don't think you are because I have news for you. That voice in your head that's telling you you're not ready, that voice in your head that's telling you you need to practice, this more first, that voice in your head that's telling you you haven't earned this yet, that is called fear. And fear is not your friend.

You are amazing and you are ready to take this next step. Don't let yourself plateau. Don't let yourself get complacent. And don't keep yourself from starting just because you have that little fear. The only way to keep rising is to keep rising, to keep climbing to the top. Because I got news for you. When you get to the top, first of all, it's an amazing feeling. But second of all, there's still going to be another mountain to climb.

This is not over. You will have to continue to climb, but you still have to push yourself to the top in order to move on to the next, to the other side, to the next mountain. You've worked for this. You've prepared for this. You are ready to take this step and you are ready to get yourself on that stage. Stop selling yourself short. Know that you've earned it and know that you are ready.

Are you going to be nervous? Yes. Hell yes. You are going to be nervous. You're always going to be nervous. But you know what someone told me a long time ago is a friend of mine. May she rest in peace. She passed away a few years ago. But a friend of mine told me a long, long time ago when I first started entertaining, you should always be nervous. You should always have nerves. Because the minute you stop being nervous, it's the minute you stop caring about your shows.

You are ready. These opportunities, every opportunity is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you have to view it that way. Have the confidence to take that step. Know that you're ready. That's it. That's just it. I'm going to leave you with this quote. The next step is always to take the next step. So even whenever you feel like you're not ready, think to yourself, my next step is to take the next step.

That's it. Keep on shining.