Performance Coaching – Episode 6: Thank You

I hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd get personal for just a minute and share one of the best calls I ever received. I was on my way back to the conference room after a short break when my college age daughter serendipitously called. I answered the phone, just wanting to say hi, hear her voice, let her know that I need to call her back. But before I could say much, she says, Dad, I just had to call to say thank you. Well, she had my attention. For any parents watching, you know that it's not every day or maybe any day where you hear those words like that. The people in the conference room, they were just gonna have to wait. So I responded saying, You're welcome, but what are you thinking me for? So quick backstory, my daughter is working her way to Broadway. All the rigor and work you're thinking, yeah, she's been doing it. As is everyone else she's been doing it with. In fact, her entire life has been one competition after another. Like an athlete in the Olympics, it's often a fraction of a second, or the tiniest of things, that can make or break an opportunity. We've been preparing since she was ten, but really preparing since she was fifteen or sixteen. Watching and scrutinizing recordings, trying different things to increase authenticity, and of course, her favorite, putting herself through the ringer, asking all those hard questions, and making her think about herself in ways she often didn't. Many, many work sessions ended in tears and frustration. We put in the work because I knew she wanted it, but as a dad, I often wondered if it was all really worth it. I mean, if things were just gonna end in tears, why did I wanna be the source of that? But here I am on the phone with my daughter. She begins to tell me that her professor and casting director has pulled each of her cohorts onto stage one at a time and began interrogating them. Who are you? Why are you on this path? What kinds of parts are right for you? What does that song mean? Why are you singing that song? One by one, the professor was able to fluster every performer into frustration and tears. It wasn't a great day for the class. But when my daughter got up, she had answers. She was prepared and the director remarked how she knew who she was and agreed with her assessment of what was right for her. Her experience was remarkably different. It wasn't that she didn't have the tears, she just had them behind stage, in private, while she was doing the hard work in advance. When the lights came on, she was ready to give that performance. You're probably not planning on a move to Broadway, but your next sales pitch or investor call, it's not that different. Will you have done the work to be ready when your lights come on? Doing these things won't