Letting YOU Shine Through

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, it's Reggie Daughson here, host of Being On Stage podcast. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do for the first topic, and I really bounced around for a couple weeks here, really thinking about what I wanted to be number one, what I want to be episode one.

And I have to tell you that it just kept hitting me, hitting me, hitting me, hitting me, and I kept putting it off. But I really think that the one thing I want to talk about first. First is the one thing that everybody as an entertainer is the most scared of, and that's being real on stage, being authentic on stage with your audience. As entertainers, we, as it is, you know, we still struggle with that fear of being on stage, let alone being ourselves on stage.

A lot of us, we create a persona, we create a character that we get to play on stage. Even celebrities have a character that they play on stage. I could name a few. Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, these are, you know, these are characters that they play. And yes, there's a piece of themselves in those characters, as there should be, but ultimately it's a character. But what I want to talk about today is taking off the face and laying the real emotion and the real you on that stage and being authentic with your crowd.

And a lot of times that is the most terrifying thing to do, even if you don't suffer from stage fright. I'm not talking about your. Your run-of-the-mill nerves, you know, nervous stage fright. I'm talking, you know, you're comfortable on stage. You do very well on stage. Maybe you even, maybe you enjoy being on stage. Maybe you're just not where you want to be. But the thought of actually being you and being yourself and being real terrifies the crap out of you.

That's what I'm talking about today. Sometimes you want to take that face off. And you want. To show the audience what's real. And quite frankly, your audience wants to see what's real. That's what people want nowadays. They don't want fake. They don't want characters. They want to see the real, raw, emotional dirt that you have inside. They want to see the imperfections. They want to see honesty on stage.

That's what people want to see nowadays. That's what people have always wanted to see. It was just different forms of honesty. You can be in a great mood and be happy and energetic. And still be honest and authentic. It's not always about pain and suffering. But it is about emotions and about being real on stage. And I'm not saying this is something that you should do all the time. I know that playing the character can be a very fun thing.

And that's what kept me going all those years is getting to play characters. Once in a while, or even once a night. If you have the opportunity to do it once every show. I highly. I'm telling you. Give it a go. Be authentic. Be real. Share what's really going on in life. Let it leak into your show. Let it leak into your songs. Or your dancing. Or your lip sync. Or your burlesque. Or whatever.

And show them what's really going on. Your audience wants to see your emotion. I know I say that so nonchalantly. But it's true. They want to see your emotion. They want to see what's real. They want to feel that connection to you. That real solid connection to what's going on inside. And if you do that. If you can give them that connection. That makes the biggest impact. And creates. Let's be honest.

That creates the most fans. And sometimes even creates some friends. Just by being yourself on stage once in a while. I have a really good example of this. Okay. So a couple years ago. Beyonce did the halftime show at the Super Bowl. And it was. First of all, the entire show was absolutely phenomenal. But what really stuck with me. When we think about being authentic. And we think about like letting the emotions hang out on stage.

What really stuck with me. Is at the end of the song. She was doing Halo. She was doing Halo. And the hair was going. And she was punching the ground. And she was just letting it rip. And the eyes were closed. And she could just see the emotion and the passion on her face. As she's singing and letting these notes just rip. That moment right there. You felt a connection to what she was saying.

You felt a connection to what she was singing. And you felt a connection to the inner part of Beyonce. Not just the amazing entertainer that we all know and love. The dancing wonderful voice. But the inner Beyonce. You felt that connection in that moment. And even on television it was phenomenal. I can only imagine how it felt in real life. But those moments that you're able to share with your crowd.

And let them see some emotion. And some real authentic you in your show. That is really, really what captures them. And that is what I love about Beyonce. That is really, really what gets your audience engaged with you. And feeling you. Feeling into your show. It captures them. It captivates them. It makes them want to stick around for more. And see what else you're going to give them. Sharing that emotion brings them in.

It reminds them. It shows them that you're a real person. Just like they are. And that's what we all want as human beings. We all want connections. We want to be connected to other people. So as entertainers, we can't let that go. We can't forget about that side of ourselves that needs that human connection. Because if you start to let that go, you're going to start to lose yourself. And if you lose yourself, you're going to start to lose your art.

And that's what causes people to go so soon or be gone so soon. They let the business side and the ego side take over. And they forget to be authentic and be real. And have that connection with other human beings. So being authentic, it keeps you connected. It keeps that connection with other people. It gets them connected to you. And it's all about sharing stuff with each other. One of the biggest memories I have of myself doing this is a few years ago, me and my fiancee had gotten some real bad financial problems.

We were living with my mother. My mother was going through some financial problems. And we were at the point where we were going to be homeless. And she has a six-year-old daughter. And so we were looking at bouncing from friend's house to friend's house, couch to couch, run down motels with a six-year-old all the while trying to make sure she's in school and well taken care of and has some structure in her life.

And we just didn't see that that was going to be able to happen. So we made the decision for my fiancee and our daughter to go back to my fiancee's family and stay there. And it was supposed to be six months and it turned into a year. A year turned into three years. Next thing you know, five years later, we're still in a relationship. We're still living 1,300 miles away. But the point of this story is not to make everyone feel bad.

We're doing well. We're doing strong. The point of this story is when I was going through all this and when they were leaving, and I mean, this is the woman that I was planning on spending the rest of my life with. This is a child that I had adopted as my own. You know, when I'm going through this and I'm feeling this emotion and I have a show coming up. And as an entertainer, I don't, I don't like to cancel shows.

I like to follow through with them no matter what's going on in life that lends to my integrity as an artist. And, you know, as long as I'm healthy and well to perform, I should be performing because that's what I love to do. And quite frankly, it helps me get through things in life. And that's kind of what I used that show for that I had coming up is I took my emotions and everything that we were going through and I kind of put it into a show.

And it was my, kind of my farewell or ta-ta for now to my fiancee. And I put it in a show because sometimes that's just how you need to express yourself is through your art. And so in expressing myself through my art, you know, I also was, that was me being authentic and letting the real, the real Reggie show on that stage. And it got people. It captivated them. It really made them feel what I was going through.

And the support that I got when my fiancee did actually leave, the support that I got from the community that gathered around me because I shared myself with them was absolutely phenomenal. If it wasn't for the people that had gathered around me to support me because of my authenticity and just being real with them, if it wasn't for their support, I don't know how I would have made it through the last five years. But when you have, you know, 10, 50, hundreds, thousands of people, when you have that connection with them and you are, you know, showing yourself on stage, it is powerful. And it creates that communal feeling that we all crave.

It gives us that connection to other human beings. Now, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to feed a whole line of crap here. I'm going to tell you the truth also at the same time of telling you that you need to be authentic. I also want to tell you there's going to be people that are going to hate on you for it. There's going to be people that are going to think that you are doing it for personal gain.

There's going to be people that are thinking that you're crying on stage for money. There's going to be people that are thinking that you're using your family for some sort of ego trip. And I'm here to tell you, listen, one in a million, one in a million entertainers make it big and get paid big, big bucks. So the other 999,999 of us, what are we doing it for? We're doing it because we love it, quite frankly.

It's something that we love to do. So believe me when I tell you, there's no way that you're actually using your emotions for your own personal gain or for some ego trip. So those corner hecklers, that's all they're ever going to be. Those people that are going to hate on you and give you grief for using your emotion and showing yourself on stage. Those people, all they're ever going to be is corner hecklers.

They're going to be forever propped up in that corner, making fun of other people doing things that they can't or won't or are too afraid to do. Because I guarantee the moment you turn the spotlight on them, they will cower. So you're already doing something that they can't. So please don't let those people bother you. Be authentic on stage. Be yourself. You have to let the inner you shine through.

Let your emotions out. I want to thank everybody for listening. Again, my name is Reggie Daughson. Shoot me an email. Let me know what you think, what you want, what you want to hear, what you want to talk about. You can email me at reggie at beingonstage.com. Once again, thank you very much for listening. And don't forget, rock stars, as I'm always going to tell you, keep on shining.