Saying Thank You

Hey, what's going on, rock stars? It is your host, Reggie Daughson, and this, again, is the Being On Stage podcast. Welcome back. First, an announcement, and then I'll jump right into today's topic. I had an incident happen with my email over the past two weeks. So, if by chance you have sent me an email at reggie at beingonstage.com since January 18th, I did not receive it. My email was shut down.

You probably got a return, cannot be delivered message to your inbox. I have since fixed the problem, so if you shoot me an email, I don't even have an auto-responder on, so if you email me, I will be responding personally. So, please, please, please, if you sent me an email since January 18th, please email me again so that I can respond and add you to the list to get the free e-book that is dropping at the end of this month. Diving into today's topic, I want to talk about thanking people.

And speaking of thanking people, thank you for tuning in. But I do want to talk about the importance of thanking people when you are a performer, when you're on stage. And even when you're off stage, expressing your thanks and your gratitude is a sign of respect. It's a sign of growth. It's a sign of professionalism and maturity. And I think when you are an entertainer, that is very important to have people perceive you as a professional and people perceive you as respectful.

There's nothing worse than a disrespectful entertainer. After all, your audience is like your boss. You perform for them. You work with promoters. You work with booking agents. You work with, you know, bartenders and stage managers. And maybe you work with choreographers and vocal coaches, you know. But expressing your thanks sincerely is extremely important as an entertainer. Not all the time will you actually get the opportunity to thank people on stage on the microphone.

Sometimes you're, you know, you're an instrumentalist and you don't really talk on the microphone. Maybe you're a dancer. You don't really talk on the microphone. Maybe you're performing with somebody else who's hosting the show and they're on the microphone. But there's still ways to express your thanks. Obviously, if you're on the microphone, you should say thank you. And the people you want to say thank you for is like, you know, the people that are working there, the people that are, you know, serving the drinks, bartenders, the people that are playing your music.

Maybe there's a DJ playing the music that you're performing to. So you do want to express your thanks if you have that opportunity to do so on the microphone. But even if you're not on the microphone. There are ways to express your thanks to people. Number one, and let me let me backtrack a little bit. Number one, you have got to thank your audience. They're the ones that are there supporting you.

They're the reason that you're on that stage. I can't say it enough. If there was not an audience, there would be no stage. That's the whole purpose of being on stage is to perform in front of the audience. So first, you've got to thank your audience for their support, just for being there that night to take in the art that you were putting out there. So thank your audience, first and foremost.

Thank you for being here, ladies and gentlemen. I had a blast with you this evening. Anything along those lines is fine. So now, if you're not on the microphone, now I'll move forward. If you're not on the microphone, you can still blow kisses. You can mouth the words. Most people understand lip reading when you say the words thank you. Facial expression, your face can show thanks and can show gratitude.

So no matter no matter what you're doing on stage. You've got to express your thanks for the people that are there consuming your art. And of course, if you're on the microphone, you want to extend those thanks further to the people that are also serving those individuals that are consuming your art. Again, your bartenders, they're keeping them hydrated. Your DJ, they're entertaining them with music either before, after or during your show.

Of course, you want to thank anyone that's performing with you. Backup dancers, band members always introduce your your band members. Anyone performing with you. Side note, not to deviate too much, but you should always not only thank them, but also introduce them so that they get some cheering and some clapping as well. It's not the you show. It's the y'all show. I guess different environments and different types of performances involve thanking different people.

So if you're in a contest, any sort of contest, not only thank your audience, thank the judges, thank the people that put the contest on. If you're working at a bar. Bartenders, DJ, management, owner, thank whoever booked you, whoever manages entertainment. You know, if you're doing a festival or a fundraiser, you want to thank the organization and the sponsors. I know I run a festival every year.

And one of the things that we have to do is we have to we're required by our contract with our sponsors. We're required to mention and thank them on stage. So if you're, for example, if you're an emcee or you're a band playing a festival or anything like that, you may be tasked with mentioning. If not thanking, you know, certain sponsors for that event. So that's something that you want to be tuned into is do you have to?

Do you want to? Maybe there's someone that you do need to thank, like maybe someone sponsoring you, but there's different people you have to thank for different events and venues. And now I'm not solely talking on stage here. I'm talking in general. These people should be thanked. They should have your gratitude thrust upon them. I know that sounds really weird, but. It's true. These people are putting you on that stage.

These people are paying you. Hopefully the audience is there consuming your art. You know, the entertainment coordinator booked you. The stage manager managed you and made sure you sound good. The sound guy make sure you sounded good. I don't know. The event promoter promoted you. The fact that you were going to be there. The different people do different things to make your show happen and they need your gratitude.

It doesn't matter how you do it. Preferably. Face to face is always best. It shows that next level maturity and professionalism. You could thank people on social media. You could, you know, tag them, you know, tag the place that you were so that you can truly express your gratitude. And that also adds a little promotion in there for them as well. Thanking people and showing your gratitude.

One, again, respect shows respect, professionalism, maturity. It also shows humility when you express your thanks to people there. Respect towards you also goes up because they know that you're not just another egotistical maniac that's trying to make it somewhere and just step on them along the way. They truly feel like they've helped you. And when they feel like they've helped you in your career path, they're going to continue to help you along the way because you're humble, you're professional and you respect them as a person.

And you're not going to step on them on your way up the fame ladder or wherever you end up. People don't like entertainers. People don't like entertainers that ignore them. And I know that sounds cool. Like, I'm not saying you need to recognize and talk to every single person that's there, but the people that genuinely helped you. I mean, again, sound engineers, people that raise the curtains before you go up.

I mean, even the smallest people that go get your coffee or clean your dressing room when you're done. Those people deserve some gratitude. And I promise if you continually show gratitude to everybody and anybody, you will continue to grow not only as an artist, but you'll also grow as an artist. You will also continue to grow as a professional. And those individuals will continue to support you.

I can't stress that enough. You need people. It's almost like a networking thing, if you will. Gratitude improves your networking with certain individuals that are going to have repeat business with you. If you've done a festival, you want to thank the people that have helped you on the festival because you want them to invite you back. We've booked entertainers for our festival that have come, done their show, packed up their guitars.

And left once they've gotten their pay without so much as hanging out in the crowd, without so much as eating a hot dog, without so much as even socializing with the people that actually booked them and paid them. It's signed the check and hit the road. And we've never had them back for that reason. I've booked entertainers that, you know, they come on stage and they thank the audience and they thank me and they thank, you know, the sound guy and they thank the DJ.

And in return, we're inviting them back. And we're having those bands and those humble, professional, respectful artists come back to do more shows. You see where I'm going with this? I'm going to break it down and make it easy to remember. One, thank whoever booked you. Not just the individual, the venue, the individual, the organization. Whoever booked you and made it possible for you to be there, thank them.

Thank those who work at that venue all the time. Security, bartenders, owner, DJ. Give them a shout out. Even it doesn't even have to be like, I'd like to thank the DJ. It could be like, give a shout out to the DJ. He did an amazing job. You know, he's keeping the music pumping for you all night long. Anything like that. Thank your other entertainers. If you are not the only person on that stage, which it is, it is rare that you will be.

If you're doing a variety show with a couple of different acts, thank them. You got to thank the people that are there with you so that they know that you recognize them as an entertainer and as a true performer. That goes a long way because then again, these are other performers that can support you. you along your journey. And it's a networking thing. Maybe you do a collaboration later down the road.

Who knows what this can bring. Finally, and probably the most important, the fifth people you want to thank is your crowd. You got to thank your crowd. They are your employers. They are the people that have put you on that stage. Yes, you were booked by entertainment coordinator. Yes, you were made to sound good by the sound engineer. Yes, the curtain guy and the light guy made your outfit pop.

But the people that put you on that stage, that truly put you on that stage and will continue to put you on stage is your audience. They deserve the most gratitude out of any of these individuals. Because again, they want to support an artist that is humble. They want to support an artist that is real and respectful. And the way that you can show your realness, and I'm using air quotes here, the way you show your realness to the audience is doing something as simple as saying thank you.

Doing something as simple as going out there shaking their hands and saying, hey, I appreciate the fact that you were here tonight. That is how you will gain more fans than putting on an amazing show. That's how you gain more fans than having flames and fireworks and awesome guitar riffs. And backflips and cheerleaders and thanking people truly and genuinely and sincerely will gain you more fans than anything you've done on stage.

It will gain you more of a following and more respect from that following than anything that you could do on the microphone. Thank people because they want to support you. Following up on a couple other announcements before I end this episode, just a reminder again, please send me the email. Put a free e-book or e-book or free book, anything in the subject line referencing a book. Send that email to reggie at beingonstage.com.

You don't even have to write anything in the body of the email. I will take down your email address and at the end of February when the e-book is completed and it releases, I will send you a free copy. Absolutely free. All you got to do is send me an email. Don't forget to connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Twitter and Instagram, you can find me at beingonstage.com.

Facebook is facebook.com slash being on the stage. Still working on the new website. I don't know if you guys have visited the website. It's changed and then it changed back and now it's changing again. It's been kind of a crazy process this week with some technical issues, but technical issues happen. It's all part of growing. It's all part of learning because I'm learning just like you.

I'm learning how to produce this podcast and design a website and a training program, and you're learning how to be better on stage. I can't thank you guys enough for continuing to listen for me. Believe me, listen to me. Believe me, I am seeing the stats. I'm seeing where people are listening from. I'm seeing how many people are listening. Truly and genuinely, thank you so much. I never imagined that I'd actually have one download per episode, let alone 20 or 30.

Thank you so much for continuing to listen in all the different countries that are listening. I know I got Japan, India, Singapore, Israel. United Kingdom, Ireland, just to name a few. So thank you. Please continue to listen. And as always, keep on shining.