Ep #2: The Real Secret to Success as a Performer

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Hello and welcome back to episode two of The Confident Performer. I am Amy Adams. Today, I’m going to talk about the formula for success and some popularly know the concept as a success formula. And there are a number of different takes on what it looks like, but it all ends up being around the same thing. So this is something that I work with often with all of the individuals that I have the opportunity to work with. But the formula for success for me is hard work, talent, and determination. And that talent, I actually kind of do a backslash on highly practiced skill.

So hard work, talent or highly practiced skill and determination are the culmination that truly can bring you success in any realm with anything that you want to do. One of my favorite questions I get asked all of the time, other than, “is Simon Cowell mean?” That’s one of the most popular ones. But the second most popular question I get asked often is, “Is my son or daughter, is my child, am I good enough to make it?” And when they reference the make it, it’s very much make it in the industry. And I always think the same thing every single time.

There’s a number of ways that I could look and explain and tell them yes. There’s a number of ways I could say probably not. But in truth, if there are people who are willing to do the work that is required, to show up, to work harder than anybody next to them. If they are saying to themselves, you know what? I have this talent. I have this ability that I’m able to tap into, that not everybody else has. And I have this talent that I’ve honed into this highly practiced skill that I have.

And I’ve consistently shown up to train and do the things that are necessary, do the things that are called upon to be better at that thing, whether that’s singing, dancing, acting. Whether you’re an artist, whether you are an engineer or whatever it may be that you are that you want to be, that you have practiced at being better, that you’ve educated yourself to be better. That you’ve decided, I’m determined regardless of whatever comes my way, to stay the course and to try my best and not give up.

That determination regardless of outcome, regardless of if someone says that you’re bad, if someone says, “Hey, you do realize you’re going to probably want to plan for another career just in case singing or acting or performing doesn’t work out for you.” And your brain says, you know what? I’m going to stay focused on this. I am going to focus on what I want to do and how I want to live my life and how I want to be better. That true determination, that unwavering commitment to yourself that you say, “100% my dreams are worth it.” That determination then the answer is yes. Yes you will make it.

Yes, your son or daughter, yes, your child. Yes, you will make it. That is the success formula, the formula for success. Every part of my career that I have run into working with any artist in the past 15 years, I have come across so many brilliant artists. And that is truly just in my hometown, in my sweet little home town of Bakersfield, California. We have so many amazing, impressive individuals. And don’t get me wrong, when I was doing other projects and traveling around and working with artists in Las Vegas and other places, obviously there was access to a lot of different artists and musicians and talents about.

And then when I helped out last year, a friend with her casting company and working on a number of different things and then working in agencies and stuff. You see so many different versions of talent and how they come in. And then what that version of make it actually is, what does making it actually mean? And sometimes people can equate that, I’m not Taylor Swift so I’m not a success. There’s a lot of in between from starting your career and being Taylor Swift. So deciding to say, you know what? I’m going to navigate my career. I’m open to have it be pretty much anything, just as long as I’m working in the industry.

I’m committed to myself. I’m being honest. I’m being forthright. I’m being genuine. I’m showing up as my best version of myself. And if I’m not, and I get feedback from directors or casting agents or casting directors or producers or whatever the creative team says to say, “Hey, you know what? We really, really liked you but you weren’t right for this job?” What can you do about that? Absolutely nothing. All you can do is try again for the next one.

And then there is some information that you can get from acting coaches and directors and creative team involved. And they can say, “You know what? We really like you, but your voice has this overactive vibrato that maybe if you streamline that a little bit, that will kind of help smooth out the situation with kind of what the tone sounds like or that would have fit more for the character.” And if your brain says, well, my voice is amazing. My voice is the best. I love how my voice has an overactive vibrato. They’re ridiculous. They’re not smart. They’re lame. Then you know what? No, you will probably not make it.

And I think it’s important to realize there are so many times that it’s going to require you to play a game that oftentimes if you want to play the game and you want to win the game that somebody else created, you have to play by their rules and that’s the fun part. One of my favorite things to do in life is actually learn the rules of the game that I want to play. Sometimes I don’t even end up wanting to finish the game or play the game the rest of the way because I don’t even want to play anymore because I don’t even care about winning.

And that’s funny. It’s going to bring me to a small little example. When I did end up making it on American Idol, I did end up making it to the top 10 of season three. And my goal was to make it to the top 10 of season three. And so when I was voted off at top 10, so many people asked me as soon as I got off, “Oh my goodness, are you so sad you didn’t win?” And the truth is, absolutely not. I am not sad, and I was not sad. And I remember thinking, I just want to go home. I just want to not have people look at me anymore. I want to have a day where I just do whatever I want.

And it had actually been a while since I had had a solid day off where I wasn’t told to do something the next day or you have to do this. And you have to be up at 4:30 or you have this, and you have to stay awake until 1:30 because there’s this shoot or that shoot or whatever it may be. Don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful, so, so grateful that I was able to learn the game, play the game. To actually make it and make my goal by doing the things, by learning the game, by playing the game by their rules. And there were so many other things that I got to learn and pick up along the way.

And so when I think about the formula for success, that is what I want to pass on. That formula is choosing to operate by their rules, choosing to say, “I’m going to show up and work the hardest I can, I’m going to work just as hard, if not harder, than anybody next to me. I am going to use my talent and my highly practiced skill for my favor, and I am going to be in this game until I am done playing.” And that determination, that will to show up and do the thing that I was called to do, I had done it. I had reached my goal.

Now, as far as careers go, obviously that was not the end all be all for me. So I didn’t want to just make it on American Idol, be top 10 and then that be all of it. So in my mind, I always had this kind of vision of wanting to do more, wanting to be more. But every single time it was always about, I’m going to do this. I’m going to try this. And then I’m going to see how I can help people in the meantime. I’m going to see if there’s somebody else who is afraid to do this.

And when I was younger I was always the person I loved to talk to the new kid in school. And I always loved to make people feel welcome. I always loved to say, “Hey, are you new here? And where are you from? And do you have any friends?” And I actually met one of my best friends in my entire life, he’s actually still my best friend and we are very grown up. But I met him when he had just moved to Bakersfield.

He was coming here to work for a company called Eye Street Productions. And he was a producer, writer, director. And I was hired to do a public service announcement for a company here. And I was the lead actress on it. And I asked him, “Hey, do you have any friends?” And he was like, “No, no, I don’t.” I said, “Okay, well, do you want to be my friend?” And he was like, “Sure.” I said, “Okay, great. Give me a call.” Well, he never called. And I actually kind of still even to this day give him a hard time about that.

But it wasn’t until a couple months later, I was hired to do another project and I was the lead actress on that. And then it was a very funny commercial. It was a parody commercial, but it was very funny. And he was the director and producer on that. And so I saw him again and I said, “Hey, do you have a million friends?” And he was like, “No.” And I said, “Hey, then you need to call me.” And it’s funny because those types of things we have in our brain that kind of stop us from doing a particular thing.

I said, “Why didn’t you call me?” And he said, “I thought you were joking.” And I was like, “No, why would I be joking? Come on, I’m welcoming you to this city, to this sweet city, baby. Welcome.” Anyway, he did end up giving me a call. And it is what, nearly, sweet heavens to Betsy, 25 years later, and we’re still best friends. And obviously have gone and traveled and are all over different parts of the country, but we are still best friends and that’s super cool.

But with that example I kind of want to just share that the creation of relationships and the learning to play the game and that overall connective factor where you decide, I’m going to be that person that is committed to living my life full out. I remember being on the show, American Idol. When I was on the show I was committed to learning people’s name. I was committed to learning the camera people’s names.

I was committed to learning the people’s names that were backstage, that were helping us, that were our handlers, more or less, our drivers, everybody involved. And it was super fun because that adventure, that journey again is so much a part of, I think what my daily success is. And it’s that operational style that there are some rules that I absolutely change if I don’t want to play a game like that. And then there will be much more information about that in episodes to come. But for the most part, I really, really enjoy showing up and being my authentic self and deciding I’m going to do this until I’m done doing this.

I am determined to reach this goal until I’m done playing this game. I am determined to make connections simultaneously. I am determined to build these relationships. I am determined to enrich the quality of my life by doing the things that I feel I’m called to do, by doing the things that I feel I will not regret doing. I will not regret showing up for myself. I will not regret living my dreams. I will not regret having these big dreams inside of me as a small young girl and deciding to come back once I have reached those goals and mentor other kids and other people just like me with those same big dreams. I will not regret that.

And that is what I wanted to talk about today. So that formula for success aka also known as like I said, the success formula. It’s a combination of a number of different things. It’s those three things, hard work, talent or highly practiced skill and determination. Those are the things that if you consistently tap into, they will bring you the results that you want. You will be the determining factor of your own dreams. You will be the determining factor if you succeed. You are the person in charge of all of your success. And in my opinion, that is the best news ever.

Any single time someone stops me and says, “Oh, I don’t know. That’s going to be a lot of work.” My brain instantly says, I can’t wait for that. My brain instantly says, the outcome will be a success because I decided I wanted it. I know that I am worth living my dreams. And getting to that place has been a long, long, long journey. That will be a ton about what The Confident Performer is about. And the confident performance, the confident performer, it’s so funny when I say that. Sometimes I sound like I’m not from California, but I’m totally a California girl.

So anyway, that final, final is decide. Decide you want to show up for yourself and decide that you’re absolutely worth it and tap into the components that are the pre-existing components that help us live our success. The pre-existing components that allow us to play the game by someone else’s rules. And if we want to win and we want to succeed, we adapt, we adjust and there are sometimes, again, like I said, you can change the rules. You can’t think that you’re going to win at that game, sometimes if you change the rules sometimes you just don’t win, and those are great lessons too.

And I’m actually going to lead into those in some of my next episodes. So thank you so much. I hope this was a helpful episode. And I hope that you really decide as you’re driving or running or doing whatever it is that you’re listening to this podcast, that you decide to show up for yourself. Know that you’re absolutely 100% worth it. You are worth it. There is a reason you have those dreams inside of you. There’s a reason you are chosen to do and think the things that you’re thinking.

And if you are in a place where you are down, I promise you, we can change your mindset. We can adjust that mindset. All of what we’re constantly focused on, all of what we’re constantly thinking about is an absolute choice. And stay tuned for more episodes of hope and inspiration and great stories and how you can be your most beautiful, confident self. Thanks so much.

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Visit amyadamscoaching.com/podcastlaunch to learn more about the contest and how to enter. Be quick! You don’t have long. I'll be announcing the winners on the show in an upcoming episode.

Thank you for listening to today’s episode of The Confident Performer. If you want to learn more about living your truth and showing up as your most authentic, beautiful self, visit www.amyadamscoaching.com. See you next week!

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