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The Dive Podcast
Welcome to The Dive Podcast
Hey, I’m Taylor Scanlan—a Musical Theatre performer with over 10 years of experience, and the creator of The Aligned Performer, a community-led business dedicated to helping emerging artists like you step into the industry with confidence and clarity.
This podcast is your go-to resource for navigating the performing arts world.
Whether you’re preparing for auditions, managing self-doubt, or figuring out how to sustain a long-term career, The Dive Podcast is here to guide you.
Here’s what you can expect:
🎭 Live Q&A Episodes: Every other week, I’ll answer your questions directly, sharing insights and strategies to help you move forward.
🎤 Industry Expert Interviews: On alternate weeks, I sit down with seasoned professionals who share their journeys, actionable advice, and what they’ve learned about thriving in this industry.
If you’re ready to build confidence, master your mindset, and create a sustainable, fulfilling career in the arts, you’re in the right place.
Let’s dive in together! 🎭✨
The Dive Podcast
28: How To Build Unshakable Confidence with Taylor Scanlan
- Viewing ourselves as structures needing strong foundations
- Gaining clarity and managing daily stressors
- Letting go of the myth of perfection
- Trusting yourself and persisting through setbacks
- The importance of resilience and a growth mindset
- How to convert thoughts into actions and results
- Practical steps like reflecting on performances and journaling insights
- Turning setbacks into stepping stones toward improvement
- Create a list of goals and short affirmations
- Celebrate others and create a supportive environment
- Attract opportunities for personal growth
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Hello and welcome If you are new here. I'm Taylor. I'm the host of the Dive podcast. I'm also a musical theatre performer and I've been in the industry for over 10 years. Alongside that, I'm also a yoga and dance teacher and I'm the creator and founder of the Dive, which is the fastest growing support platform for musical theatre artists, both emerging and professional. Join us for conversations on mindset behind the scenes, stories of professionals in the industry and how you can navigate the challenges that we face as artists. Once a week, you'll have a professional guest come on the show who we will interview, and every second week you'll have me as your podcast host, where I'll be coming on and sharing with you practical exercises and resources to help you on your way to becoming a professional in the industry.
Speaker 1:Okay, welcome to another podcast. This is going to be a beautiful, short and sweet episode. I will be starting to do these episodes every second week. They are focused on really giving you actionable steps to move forward and apply some things that I've been starting to teach over the past few years to students and also into the programs that we've been starting to launch and resources that we've been giving out for the dive. So that's what the episode of today is going to be about.
Speaker 1:The title, as you have probably seen, is about building unshakable confidence, and I really wanted to talk on this topic because it's something that we all struggle with confidence, confidence in our abilities, in how we do well in the audition room, on stage. Really, confidence comes down to so many different things and I really wanted to give you actionable steps to start building that unshakable confidence within you, because it definitely is possible, it is taught, it's not something that you're just like born with. You know, some people say like, oh, you're born confident, you're born talented. I don't believe that. I believe that we're all brought in with specific skills and we're all at different stages of our journey. So when we are in the arts and we're in a big room with all other professionals, it's really easy to compare and not feel confident because we're really just going at it with so many different people and, just like I said, we're all at different journeys and all on different roads to actually where we are on our own career of becoming a professional in musical theatre. So I brought my notes with me today. So if you're watching on YouTube or even on the socials, I'll be going through my journal because I really wanted to give you this episode, to really just kind of give you an insight in my journaling practice.
Speaker 1:I love journaling. It's something that's really really helped me over the years gain more clarity on what I'm thinking and whether it's important or not, and also help just decipher the influx of information that we kind of get given, especially if you're training and you're in full time, you're just learning so much. But even now, being a professional in the arts, there is, you know, auditions that happened last week, which we'll get into and just so many factors that come into the day. You know, when are you doing washing your clothes, when are you, you know, going to yoga or doing the gym and then are you going to cook, like there's so many things that go on, or doing the gym and then are you going to cook, like there's so many things that go on. And journaling for me, has just been that thing that helps me gain more clarity and gain more insights into. Okay, let's just take a moment, let me write out everything that's in my head, and that action of actually just writing it out really just helps you keep it on the paper and almost like downloading your information onto paper and out of the brain.
Speaker 1:So what does it mean? To actually build unshakable confidence? So I want to emphasis on the word build, because we need to start looking at our bodies and our whole self as like a house, or a car, or a house is a really good analogy, because think about a house that is unshakable. What do you really need? Like? You need to have a really strong foundation. It needs walls and windows, a very strong, like cemented floor to hold up all this structure so that when we are going in to the high stress weather or the high stress of auditions and performances on stage eight shows a week we really need to have a strong base to withstand all of that. It can't just like tip over at the you know first side of a dance double pirouette, and it's fine. If you can't do that, that's totally good, but that's.
Speaker 1:I love kind of putting things into analogies and to visuals. If you've started to learn from me, you'll see lots of that. I love giving kind of just ways for you to envision what I'm talking about. But yeah, let's start to think of ourselves today on this episode as a house. So we need, like I said, we need the strong foundation. We need the things around us to be really solid so that when stresses do come in, we not only stand strong in it, but we are really assured and we're really resilient between all of those, the setbacks and things that come in. And that's what we're going to be talking on today.
Speaker 1:The real two fundamental things that are going to be your walls and your strong structure is resilience and reassurance. So they're the two things I want to go into today, and what I really just want to highlight here is that confidence comes and goes, and I've put somewhere here that I mean I've got the definition of confidence that I can put over here and that basically is it's saying here the feelings or belief in one's abilities, qualities and judgment. It involves having a sense of assurance and trust in oneself, which can manifest in various areas of our life. Confidence isn't about being perfect or never feeling nervous, but rather about having the resilience and self-assurance to face challenges, take risks and persist through setbacks. So it's really what I was just saying. It's all about not necessarily being perfect and not feeling nervous. I was doing an audition last week and I was still feeling nervous, but when you start to learn how to have a strong, resilient mindset.
Speaker 1:I talk a lot about mindset on the dive when you start to learn how to really put yourself forward in a way that is resilient and in a way that you already feel quite self-assured in your abilities. That's where confidence comes from. So it's not just like I'm a good dancer so now I feel confident. No, it's so. It actually is a deeper rooted thing and a lot of things, um, are a lot more deeper than, um, this surface level things that we kind of go oh okay, for example, you may have gone into an audition and you don't feel like you're a good singer and then you're already stressed and now you're not a confident singer because of just that.
Speaker 1:But really, you know, if you were putting in the work to do a singing class once a week and you were actually showing up and I'm already giving so many different things away that I want to talk about in this podcast but by actually showing up and doing the thing, you're building that resilience, because you're not only showing up time and time again, despite the setbacks, but you're also starting to share with yourself that yeah, like literally by the act of showing up and working on it, you're showing yourself that you are working on it and that you're assuring yourself that you're doing what you need to do to progress, and in that progression you will basically start to build that confidence, and that's where it comes from. It doesn't just come when you wake up one day and just like all of a sudden, yay, I'm self-assured and I feel amazing and confident, and it's something that builds over time. Just like all of a sudden, yay, I'm self-assured and I feel amazing and confident, and it's something that builds over time. Just like a house. If we have a crack in our wall of our house, you could easily just put a piece of tape over it. But when you know if the storm comes through you know a big three-day audition or an eight-show week comes through that crack is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. So we need to maybe look at bringing a stronger foundation. We're getting the cement out, we're getting the DIY on the walls. This is what I mean when we're talking about building strong foundations around you so that when the setbacks come, when the tricky auditions come, when the eight show weeks and all of the life stuff is happening, you are able to still be confident because of how you are building the things that are surrounding your life. So let's get into two of the ways that you can actually start to implement and build upon each.
Speaker 1:So, starting with resilience uh, resilience building really starts with embracing failure, and I really want to like put failure on its head, because, in my eyes, you can never really truly fail in musical theater, like, there's not a test. You know, maybe, when you're in full-time and you're doing a test to like get a certificate, but we never even use that. When you're going into an audition, right, we don't go. Hey, um, I'll be singing this and also I've got a cert for, and that, like, it's just not something that we do anyway. But by embracing failure as a learning opportunity, so actually switching okay, maybe I didn't get into the show, but that doesn't mean that you haven't learned something right and by looking at it this way, you not only start to see uh, things more of a lesson, but you start to shift your mindset from like well, I tried, it didn't work, so there must be something wrong. I'm never going to do it again, right? No, you need. Just there's a reason why.
Speaker 1:Right now, if you are listening in and you've just been for some auditions and it's not going your way and you're not getting in. There's a reason why you are not getting in and it's not the universe trying to get back at you. It's not anyone being like, oh, you're terrible, you're not getting in. There's lessons in every single audition and if you go into it with that mindset, okay, what's the lesson today? What am I going to learn? What am I learning from this experience?
Speaker 1:You know we are creatives. We love to create things, we love to perform, we love to use our emotions and our bodies and all the sort of things. So we're constantly in that growth and expansion and moving and creating. So if we're not seeing big auditions and performances as areas for growth and learning, then we're really starting to miss out on so much beauty behind the art of what we're doing as well. So that's the first thing. I mean. I've already spoken a little bit about why it's important, but I've put here in my notes and what I was writing out just before if you start using setbacks, failures, as places to redirect, learn and grow, you'll start to feel better and your next actions will show that, and that's something that we've been starting to learn a little bit in the momentum program, which is a online program for aspiring musical theater performers looking to become professionals in the industry. In our first actual module, we talk on mindset and what the professional mindset is built up of, and we talk about how our thoughts actually just thoughts until we attach feelings to them which lead to actions, which lead to our results. So an action step for you right now in building that resilience and trying to shift into learning something from the lesson itself.
Speaker 1:You can begin by reflecting on each performance audition and just simply writing out what went well, what can be improved, and literally just write that out. It doesn't have to be so complicated. I feel like a lot of people when I get asked questions about how to improve this or do that, like everyone's expecting this most profound thing that they've never heard of. But a lot of the things that I teach are very, very simple, very actionable and very practical for you to go and do now. The thing is that a lot of things that are easy to do are also easy not to do, and that's where the percentage of the people that do really well in the theater and those that miss out on the opportunity to have an awesome, thriving career that we love and that we can enjoy.
Speaker 1:So by simply reflecting. If you are reflecting, I mean I always talk about. I'm like a big reflector, and what I mean by that is the journaling, like writing out, okay, how did I go, what went well, what, how can I improve? Because if you're someone, especially now coming out of full-time and you've had teachers telling you all this stuff, and then all of a sudden you're just by now coming out of full-time and you've had teachers telling you all this stuff and then all of a sudden you're just by yourself, you need to start building a frame of mind that can support you, and what I mean by that is you've got to start reflecting and being like okay, how did I go? What can I work on? What, how, what, where am I going to go from here? Because you may have amazing agent that can do that, but I honestly swear that you are the only person that is going to actually actionably take the steps to move forward.
Speaker 1:And if you're waiting for an agent, you're waiting for people around you to tell you like no one is more obsessed with your dream and your desire and where you want to go in musical theater than you, right, and where you want to go in musical theater than you, right? So we have to start becoming our own best reflective self, someone that is able to look at where we are and go right, what do we need? And if you are confused, then reach out, Because by doing this, you're actually bringing yourself the assurance and the confidence that you do know what you need to do and I'm a big believer in that, too that you already know yes, you listening. Now you do know what you need to do, and I'm a big believer in that, too, that you already know yes, you listening. Now you already know exactly what you need to do to improve and to go to that next step. You're just not taking the actions to get there. And if you are amazing, brilliant, but nine times out of 10, we know what we need to do, but we don't do what we need to do regularly. And the missing little ingredient I'll give you to that is you've just lost your passion. You've lost why you're doing it. So if you're feeling like things are a little bit overwhelming now, take a pause and just start asking yourself right, why am I doing this? What's the purpose of I'm doing this? And you know, really, keep asking yourself that question till you get to something that is actually more meaningful, that will inspire you and move you forward.
Speaker 1:The second thing I've put here to really build the resilience in you. I know I'm like giving you lots of different information. Actually, let's just take a breath for a second. So, if you're listening in, take a breath, take a little pause. Maybe you haven't paused today. I know, just today I know I've just been coming on giving you all the things Great, amazing.
Speaker 1:So the second thing I was going to give you today is on really developing that growth mindset. We've kind of just been speaking about it already, but it's really important to start developing this growth mindset and a mindset that is pulling you towards, like, improvement and growth and areas of like okay, what's the next step? I've always kind of been surrounded by mentors and teachers that have shown me this and now that's just how I live my life. I'm very solution based, very virgo, uh, and this has just really helped me with just keep moving forward and focusing on growth and focusing on you know what's the next step, and not dwelling in like oh, the past and how terrible things have gone and stuff, because that's not improving you. That's just like keeping you where you are and, of course, I fully accept and recommend feeling the feelings when you need to, but don't stay there for too long, like if you need to, if you spend a day, a day like for me, it's like spend a few hours or a few minutes and then just go. You know what, brush it off, give yourself a laugh, you know, laugh with a friend about something, and you know, just move on.
Speaker 1:You know we're in musical theater, we're here to tell stories, we're here to have fun. You know nothing is really, unless you're playing. You know a very serious character or something. Nine times out of 10, things aren't as deep as you think they are and if they are, generally what happens is it's got to do with something that's a little bit more deep-rooted and maybe you're being triggered and that's a whole nother episode in itself. But we really need to start building a growth mindset because that encourages our continuous improvement and your adaptability, which is a massive thing in musical theater. That's really crucial because the industry itself is just ever-changing. Do you feel that you feel like every year? I do. I feel every single year like auditions are different and different things are coming and different producers and different choreographers. You're working with different people every day, so our mindsets need to be in that adaptability way so that we can adapt to the things that are going on. If you're watching online, I'm like I've got my pen in my right hand and I'm literally waving it around like a wand, and I've also got my cat here Link Linky Into the frame as well. Side note we get back.
Speaker 1:So an action step that you can actually take to build resilience is to reframe your thoughts. So reframing is a term that you may or may not have heard about before, but it's something that I've been starting to teach to students inside our Momentum program, which is our program that's online for through the dive, this online platform that you're hearing now, I've been starting to build out programs and offerings and things for students like yourself to learn and grow and really just understand how to get to the next stage of where you're wanting to be in the musical theater industry. So we talk about reframing and basically what we do is it just allows you to change or replace something that's really critical like a critical thought into a frame of mind, or reframing it into something that's really critical like a critical thought into a frame of mind or reframing it into something that is a little bit more positive and a little bit more helpful, because a lot of the time our critical thoughts aren't actually helpful. They're actually diminishing us and bringing us into that lower state vibration where we don't really want to be, especially when you've not really done, maybe you're not done, so you know, by just being self-critical you're literally layering on layers of just no good vibes, and we're all about good vibes at the dive. Good vibes, that's it.
Speaker 1:You can do this with nearly any critical or negative thought or a thought that maybe is just not empowering you. You can just start to reframe it. Think as if a negative thought is in a picture frame. I've kind of got my. If you're watching online, I've got a frame here that is actually perfect, because I've got a photo of my two cats and I've got it in a frame, but actually the picture itself of my cats doesn't fit the actual frame, so it's just got a little picture inside a bigger frame, but this is perfect. So think of the my cats or a little picture inside a big frame as something that's just not right. It's not working, it's not, it's not complementing the actual frame and the stability that we're looking for. So you can look at that and start to maybe even use that as a cool analogy. If a critical thought or a thought that's not serving you is coming up, is it matching the frame and foundation and the success and the fulfillment and all the goodness that you really are laying out for yourself? And if it's not, let's reframe it, get a different frame. I might have to reframe my cat's photo there.
Speaker 1:So let's talk quickly now on reassurance and reassurance comes from. I just want to say reassurance is something that I've personally been learning a lot about. Growing up, I was kind of like hard on myself and I didn't really know the power of reassurance and now, getting a bit, a little bit older, I'm understanding that. You know, we're all kind of just like kids at the end of the day and we're all just doing our best right, and the need, I think, for reassurance to people is so much more important than ever now, with so much information out there, so many things going on. I really love in my teaching and how I live my life now, giving space for you to feel how you need to feel work, how you need to work but also celebrate people. I think that needs to change in our industry. I never used to kind of fully celebrate anyone gosh, I make myself sound like a terrible person but I used to kind of always think, oh, I think they're amazing. But I never used to like go and tell them or reassure them that what they did was amazing.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't until I started being dance captain on a few shows and not only just giving notes to change you know something that maybe have not hadn't gone, but actually reassure people of things that have gone good. Because when you're in the arts itself, a lot of the time the notes that you get are just notes for you to change things that have gone wrong. Because that's kind of our job as dance captains and people of the, you know, in the creative team. We're just here looking to make the best possible show happen and you know, if we just went around with telling you all the good things, you know we wouldn't work on the things that actually needed changing.
Speaker 1:But I think there is some space that you can sprinkle in and even if you're not a dance captain and you're not in a musical theater show, you know there is space for you right now and that's definitely an action step I would take is there's someone in your life right now whether it's a friend, a relative that could use with a little bit of reassurance, just to know. Let them know that they're doing a great job, like they're showing up there. It could be anything, and I know you listening in. Maybe there's someone you can think of right now that could do with a little bit of reassurance, and maybe it's yourself. Maybe you need to just reassure yourself, like, oh, I actually am showing up, I actually am doing the thing, and that's just going to really help you build the reassurance.
Speaker 1:So one of the ways that you can continue to reassure yourself and build on the reassurance to help promote the confidence that you're looking for is to not only use the tools of reflecting and reframing your thoughts, but you can start to create a list, and that's something I would love for you to actually do today, after listening to this, or whenever you next get the availability to do so. Start creating kind of a list of where you want to be, what do you want to achieve and you know what's like the ultimate goal of why you're performing and where you want to achieve and what's the ultimate goal of why you're performing and where you want to go. And out of that list you can begin to create like five to ten short affirmations of reassurance or affirmations of just kind of actually having that goal or getting to that place. Because what we were talking about before and what we've been teaching inside the programs for the dive is, you know, the thoughts that we think are just thoughts until we give them feelings. Then they produce the actions that we take and then that gives us the results.
Speaker 1:So by actively reaffirming to yourself that I am, you know, doesn't have to be like I'm the most talented person ever, but it can just be something simple, like I am improving every single day by such and such and such. So bringing it into the present and making it feel real to you, but also sprinkling in ways that you can still give yourself a little bit of wonder. You know, go into this with curiosity. Don't think you know yourself a little bit of wonder, you know, go into this with curiosity. Don't think, you know, don't kind of. It doesn't have to be an affirmation or an intention. That's like I am in a musical today and I get three contracts tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Like, make it a bit more realistic and a bit more open-ended so that you, you know, you really don't know what the possibilities are going to be like you know, on a side note, for the past 10 years, like if you told me all the things that I've been that I would have been, I would have just done like I would just look at you and think you're absolutely mad. So by being open to possibilities, you actually increase the likelihood of you getting more opportunities. When we're a bit more narrow-minded and I know this may even sound a bit more like in kind of two ways, because we do want to be focused and like laser-sharped on where we're going but there is this beautiful quality if you can just open the umbrella and you know, clean the house, like what we're just talking about before, making the space that you live in and the space you know within your body and even your surroundings open and clean and expansive, you're just allowing more things to come into your sphere. I know there's a little bit more energy that I'm talking on there if you don't gel with that, but that's everything that we speak about the dive, I'm all about energy, I'm all about all the practices that are gonna basically help you in the wellness space and looking after yourself. But definitely creating space for yourself is going to allow you the space to have reassurance and have the things that are going to promote you to that next level. So, just coming into the end now, because I don't I don't want to make this too big of an episode I wanted to give you some actionable steps to build that strong foundation so that you can have the confidence that you seek. But I just wanted to kind of leave you with that.
Speaker 1:You know, the house of confidence, your house, what you're building right now, takes time. It's not going to happen today, it's. You know, if you just started building a two-story, three-story house, it's going to take time. It can take a few months, it can take a few years and there may be, you know, may come, crumble down and then go back up, like there's so many different ways of you know it's the ebb and flow of life, right? So just know that this is. You know you don't just go and do an affirmation and then all of a sudden, tomorrow you're just going to be that confident. Think about all the times you have told yourself how not good you are at something and so then you can imagine, like how long you've spent doing that. So you can't expect out of one day of feeling good and talking to yourself good to make a massive difference. It will in that day and it will have that progression. But just know that through the dive, I'm hoping to give you actionable steps to start building a life that you can really be proud of but also be accountable of.
Speaker 1:And that's the kind of last thing I wanted to add, for you know, in this whole entire episode is showing up. When you show up, you know this can be specifically to like class, when you're training anything that you know, like by being in the room or being online in class, whatever it is. For you, that's like improving your skills, improving and moving forward. This could be going to yoga, doing stuff that is wellness for you. You know cooking, having a day for yourself of you know, rest. These are all things that you're actually going to start building a strong foundation and, yeah, it's basically just going to help you in the long run, build that resilience. It's going to reassure you that you're not only here but you're showing up every single day and over time, you're going to start seeing your confidence soar. I absolutely, absolutely guarantee it. So I hope you've enjoyed this episode and I hope it hasn't felt like I've just been speaking at you and just know that you can always reach out to me. I'm always open for a chat, either through our Instagram or even send us an email. Send me an email at info at the dive dot com dot au.
Speaker 1:And a few little action things you can take from here. If you're looking for one step further of community, I have a Facebook group, or the Dive. We have a Facebook group that is all about career and mindset development for aspiring musical theater performers. It's an absolute free community. We have nearly 100 people on there now and that will be in the show notes. If you want to go check out that community, I come on there live once a month and we also run a five-day mindset challenge in there. If you want access to five industry professional coaches we actually ran the masterclasses in this group and if you go to guides in the Facebook group, I'll leave you the links below. You can check them out and that's all free and accessible for you right now.
Speaker 1:If you're wanting to learn more about the Momentum program that I was speaking about a little bit in the program in the episode, rather, you can go ahead and check that out. In the link below you can read a little bit more about it and, as always, if you have any questions about the programs or offerings that I've been bringing to the dive, you can always reach out to me and ask me personally. Remember to share this with a friend, share this with someone that you know that may help with a bit more confidence and a bit more action steps to get there, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. I'm sending you so much love and I can't wait to connect with you next week, where we'll have a special guest on the show and we'll be talking about different topics that help us, that can help us tackle the industry challenges and help bring you to the life that you desire on stage and performing at your peak. See you on the next episode.