The Cameo Show
The Cameo Show is a podcast about sharing our life experiences and learning from each other. Through solo stories and inspiring conversations with a wide variety of guests, we explore the secrets and strategies for feeling confident, empowered and equipped to live the life we want to lead. Tune in to learn how to find joy and fulfillment in your life and to gain valuable insights from the amazing stories and lessons of our guests.
The Cameo Show
Fear as Your Guide: Shift Your Mindset and Thrive
Fear often points to the exact path you need to take. In this episode, we explore how shifting your mindset can help you recognize fear and move right past it. As Cameo prepares to sing the national anthem before a massive audience, the conversation centers on why perspective is everything when facing challenges, making decisions, or seizing opportunities. Through personal stories of past performances and moments of vulnerability, we unpack the power of preparation, visualization, and self-belief to transform fear into confidence.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why fear signals the path to growth.
- How the amygdala shapes your fear response—and how to outsmart it.
- The role of preparation and positive self-talk in overcoming anxiety.
- Why vulnerability is the gateway to courage.
- How both faith and fear demand belief in the unseen.
Challenge for You: Embrace what scares you most—it might just lead to your greatest breakthrough.
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Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host, cameo, and we are joined by my husband and co-host, mr Greg Braun.
Speaker 2:And I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1:We're excited to have you. You start us with a dad joke. Do you have one?
Speaker 2:Yes, I used to not really be a big fan of facial hair, but then it started to grow on me.
Speaker 1:You're such a nerd.
Speaker 2:Very good, that was funny right, that was good right.
Speaker 1:Through my teeth. That was a good one.
Speaker 2:You have been rocking a beard for, like gosh, 10 years 15 years, and every time I try to shave it off, I get in trouble and told that it doesn't look like me and that I need to put that beard back on.
Speaker 1:Well, because it's a big shocker he doesn't tell anyone, and then it'll come out out of nowhere, especially when he had long hair. So Greg used to have hair not as long as mine, but past his shoulders down into his chest area during the 2020 era, and his beard was very long then too. And then one day he didn't have a beard and it was like, oh my God, you didn't tell anybody. It was a big shocker for everyone. You had this long hair and no beard all of a sudden.
Speaker 2:We hadn't seen your face in that way and it was not a small beard we have to put a picture up or something of it but it was like a big old amish, like birds living in a beard it was a lumberjack stuff.
Speaker 1:Giant beard yeah, birds living in it is pretty accurate, yeah. So today I'm going to be a little bit vulnerable. Eye roll If you're not watching the video I rolled my eyes hardcore. I have an opportunity to do something really cool in the next couple of weeks, something that as a little girl, I dreamed about doing. I will be singing the national anthem for a large event in a stadium that seats 65,000 people.
Speaker 2:And they will be full of people.
Speaker 1:And it will be full of people, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity. But I'm also, if I'm being honest, scared to death. And the reason that I'm scared to death is because anytime you get to do something big, your amygdala the part of your brain that says I don't know what to do, so just run, fight or flight pops in and goes through every freaking, worst case scenario ever that you can imagine happening, that you can imagine happening, and without the tools, without meditation, without, you know, an evolved mindset here, I would just succumb to that and be like I can't do it, I can't do it, I can't do it. And I still sometimes feel that way. But I know that it's a huge opportunity, it's something that I get to do and that, with practice and preparation and playing out the best case scenarios in my head as well, that it will all, it'll be awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you have to have a killer mindset here. You have to have a great mindset about this stuff, because if you had any doubt about your ability, you would pass on this opportunity. Because why don't you share with our friends here what happened the last time you sang the national anthem in a public setting?
Speaker 1:okay. So let me back up even further than that. As a little girl I did a lot of performing and I sang the national anthem all the time for events big events, little events, cinc, cincinnati, reds, games, like solo with groups Just the national anthem is something that I've done so many freaking times that you would think it should just come out of my body like effortlessly. It's a hard song to sing, first and foremost, but you know I have a lot of reps. But then I grew up and I didn't practice and I didn't do it all the time and a decade goes by and I'm like, well, I still got it. I'm going to go try out. I saw this ad when we first moved to Florida that they allowed members of the local community to come try out to sing the national anthem for the Pittsburgh Pirates spring training games. They're here in Southwest Florida and I'm like I can totally do that. Like the national anthem is my jam, like this is my thing. I still got it for sure, I don't really need to practice.
Speaker 2:Without any practice, I still got it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I definitely didn't practice. I just kind of like maybe ran through it a couple of times in the shower before I'm good to go saying it.
Speaker 2:You're like I'm good good to go.
Speaker 1:So we pack up the kids who are little then and go to this ball diamond and we sign in and sign up and sit down, and when you sign in you just put your name on a sheet and they're going to call your name. Let me just pause right there. Perhaps a better process would have been you got a number, because then you would at least know, like okay, well, we're on number 10 and I'm number 18. I'm going to be coming up here soon, but they didn't give you numbers. It was just whoever's name got called and I didn't know anyone there and there were. Nobody knew anyone there. There were like a bunch of people there. You would never know who you were going to be after.
Speaker 1:So we sat there with the kids for way too many renditions of the national anthem and it was cold and drizzly. It wasn't a very nice day and, like I said, the kids were little. They were probably bored out of their freaking minds like oh my god. And I was thinking like this is mom's opportunity to like show the kids. Well, at some point I'm like I gotta pee and I can't hold it anymore, so I'm gonna have to go. So we leave our seat in between performers and I go to the restroom, and so this is outside of the ball field area you go down the first baseline on the outside of the diamond, so you're pretty far away.
Speaker 1:Pretty far away, like you're trying out singing on the field by home plate.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm pretty far down the way, yeah, and all of a sudden I hear midstream by the way, greg, go, babe, babe, you're up and I'm like what my you know? Here I am hovering over a potty, squatty potty pants, like at my ankles, and I'm like, oh shit. So I don't you know, without getting into too much detail, I don't think I, I definitely didn't wash my hands. I don't know what I did. I pulled up my pants as fast as I could, you skedaddled.
Speaker 1:I skedaddled out of there. I ran out on the field. I'm here, I'm here, they on the field, I'm here, I'm here. They hand me the mic. You're huffing and puffing. I start singing and I realize I don't. I'm not, I'm completely out of breath. I just ran basically around the freaking bases.
Speaker 2:Pulling your pants.
Speaker 1:Pulling my pants up, I'm coming In a frantic, in a frenzy, and now I'm singing the national anthem, which is a very hard song to sing, especially when it comes to breathing and phrasing and using your diaphragm and holding out notes and range and all the things. It didn't go very well. I mean, it wasn't like horrible we have the video. I knew immediately I was pissed. I kind of threw like a little mini tantrum like let's go.
Speaker 1:I kind of stomped out to the car a little. I was just embarrassed and disappointed and the kids had waited so long and it sucked because it's my thing and it was also like a rude awakening that it might not be my thing anymore.
Speaker 2:Now I'm psyching myself out you handled it like a champ, though I didn't. I, I feel like I didn't thank you for saying that you did well, I feel like I externally and and I knew when it happened. What did I say? I was like this is gonna be a great story someday yes, you did, and here we are telling that story.
Speaker 1:Maybe I should have waited until after I sang in the stadium, because now I'm freaking myself out again about it. But I won't be like. I'll know when I have to sing. I won't be peeing at the same time.
Speaker 2:I won't be in the restroom. It'll be more organized for you.
Speaker 1:Right and I get a sound check. And I'm practicing and preparing daily because failure to prep, you know what that means. So I'm practicing. I'll start practicing more from this moment forward, because now I've put my, put my neck out there a little bit more by sharing, there's that vulnerability thing, so that sticks with me. You know that story. It is a great story, it's funny and hopefully it will not happen like that ever again in my lifetime. There's also one other time that keeps popping into my mind. I used to sing the national anthem in high school for basically like every basketball game and my dad did the announcing and uh, one game in particular that stands out again hundreds of times. I don't remember any of the great times, but the two times where it was like oh my God, freak out, panic mode, I remember, and this is one of them too. So I'm singing just normal, normal basketball game, I'm singing, you know, elf.
Speaker 2:Yeah and uh.
Speaker 1:I just blank out on the words.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's the national anthem. Everyone knows the words. So, thank God, my dad was like right there on cue, as if someone told him I don't know if you remember this, dad, if you're listening, but you totally saved my ass because you started singing the words and I picked back up without too much of a gap.
Speaker 1:It was like he knew. But that sticks out in my mind and, like every time I go into this fight or flight mode of panicking about what's upcoming, I go to those two stories and I have to stop telling myself those stories because the words that we speak to ourself are so powerful. So if I envision these things that have happened in the past, that have been bad, as what could possibly happen on the day, then I'm like kind of reverse, subconsciously, unconsciously manifesting bad things and I don't want that. So yeah, so we're going to run with that and that's. That's.
Speaker 1:The message here is that when you fear something, usually it means you should dive in and take on the challenge. Do it with preparation, do it with grace and remember to tell yourself whatever these stories are you're making up about, worst case scenario, whatever fear you have, lean into it Because neurologically, this is where I know, this is where I know to like talk myself off the ledge. I've learned enough and I've heard enough and picked up enough and have enough evidence that when I do this it ends up being okay. But neurologically, our body experiences fear and excitement. The same way, we have the same response anatomically. So, like our palms get sweaty, we get like shortness of breath anyway without running out of the bathroom.
Speaker 1:All of these different sensations yeah both when we're nervous or fearful and when we're excited yeah and if you can decide in that moment that I'm going to choose excitement over the description word of fear to classify what's happening neurologically or happening physically to your body. It changes your perspective and it's powerful to be able to do that.
Speaker 2:Plus, I don't take for granted the idea that you're a human being and that you did have a traumatic experience the last time you tried to sing the national anthem publicly you know it was. It was enough for, I think, a lot of people to be like I'm never doing that again. Yeah, seriously, and I wouldn't have been able to say that to everybody like, this is going to make a great story, because I knew someday you're going to sing the national anthem in a kick-ass situation. It's going to be killer.
Speaker 1:Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It is a kick-ass situation, but I haven't kicked ass yet.
Speaker 2:But you know what I mean. It's like I just knew that you wouldn't give up. Yeah, that's right that you would still show up and you would not shy away from an opportunity. Another example is like your book's done, your book's done it. Another example is like your book's done, your book's done, it's a memoir.
Speaker 2:And it's about your life, it's about our life, and this whole time, for four years, you've been just head down, chapter by chapter, hashing through it, working through it, and it's taken forever, you know, and there was never. It was just like just get to the next part. Well, now we're at the spot where it's like set a release date and make it available for people to buy and read and learn about your whole journey.
Speaker 1:And that's scary as hell y'all and now there's that fear kicking in going.
Speaker 2:Oh shit, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, Well, that one, that's for another day, because that one is still hot and heavy fear.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Fear based thinking.
Speaker 2:Like, might not release it, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like it's quite scary, but you're right and you're that way too, and I know a lot of people who are that way, and I look up to a lot of people and follow a lot of people's example who behave that way that you have to lean into fear. You have to befriend failure, you have to take chances. That's what makes living life worthwhile.
Speaker 2:That's what allows you to do things that are exciting and big bigger than you well you, you don't realize what your limitations are if you don't push up against them a little bit and see what even just our in our little space, that we take up on this planet.
Speaker 2:You know, we've done some things that were like, looking back, it was like that was scary as shit and we you think of all these worst case scenarios, but you just push through and you just do it and it's like, well, none of those 100 things that I thought was going to happen to be bad never happened. You know, they weren't even part of the mix, it was just straight through and it happened 10 times better than I thought you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, I saw this. I am going to butcher where I saw it or who said it originally. But it said faith or fear both require you to believe in something that you can't see. Faith or fear, both require you to believe in something that you can't see. And I was like it struck me like oh, that's speaking directly to me.
Speaker 1:Like I can either have faith in myself, belief in myself I can't see it, I don't know what's going to happen, but I can choose to lean that way or I can choose to lean into the fearful, worst case scenario side, and so that again comes back to choice of like. What word do I decide to follow and to lean into? You know, that's gotten us through a lot of difficult times as well, not just big things that are big and scary, but scary things that we've been subjected to, maybe not by choice, subjected to, maybe not by choice. There are many things that we all tackle on a daily basis that we didn't choose, but we can choose how we view them and how we approach them. That's how I'm going to view this one too.
Speaker 1:I'm big on visualizing. I know that sounds all hokey and all that, but I'm big on playing it out in my mind and the best possible scenario. Anytime that worst possible scenario or those traumatic events from the past pop into my mind, I do my best to catch them and call them what they are. Like I'm being interrupted by negative, fear-based thoughts and dismiss them and get back to my beautiful best case scenario and practicing and I will plan to practice way more often, like everybody in my house is going to be, like we cannot hear the national anthem again. My God, stop singing it, woman. But I'm going to anyway and fingers crossed for the best. I'm sure if it goes well, you'll hear about it and if it doesn't, you won't.
Speaker 2:So it's like it never happened.
Speaker 1:We'll just quietly delete this episode at a later date, and uh just like when we played with jason momoa's band we've never shared that story, shall we?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's not really that much of a story it's not jason momoa.
Speaker 1:We all know him as aquaman and all the other things he's done, most notably aqua man. He's in a small cover band supported by his own vodka label and celebrity status and they did this tour and they're great. They did, they did a great job. But I thought like we're gonna go see them one, it's jason momoa and two, they're not that big of a deal. Nobody knows who they are. I'm sending them a message and we're gonna play sweet child of mine with them and I'm not taking no for an answer, except they never like opened my message or anything. But that was like an exciting moment because it was scary. What if they said yes, greg even practiced, he believed it enough, don't you sit over there? I brushed up on it.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's what's exciting about this, though, is it's not nothing happened. We went there, and you know we saw the show and we didn't, but like not shying away from interesting situations.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like Primus is looking for a drummer and I emailed him my resume. You know it's like it's probably not going to happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you would never know if you didn't put yourself out there.
Speaker 2:But I've toured a couple of times because I sent an email and it happened.
Speaker 1:You know you get the opportunity, so you just yeah, and like the night we went to see Jason Momoa, for example, it was a lot more exciting because you didn't know what was going to happen or not, like what if it would have. So it was exciting and we didn't go to the concert and be all scared like what if jason momoa says get up here? We were like excited and ready yep, you were warmed up ready.
Speaker 1:You're, like you, ready to go on stage I was ready, I was like in my mind, played it out a million times, but didn't happen, didn't matter. Funny story though. Great story for later, similar vein.
Speaker 2:So keep coming up to bat, keep trying stuff, because it's what makes life fun and interesting, and that's right just because it didn't work out.
Speaker 1:You know the first time fear is going to keep showing up. It's going to keep showing up as many different things to try to stop you from being vulnerable and looking stupid and all the things, and you just have to be like, nope, I'm not doing that, I'm going the other direction with excitement. Best case scenario.
Speaker 2:Let's do this.
Speaker 1:Let's do this. That's right. So wish me luck, because it's coming up and it's scary as hell. Thank you for being here. We have new episodes every Wednesday of the Cameo Show. If you're new here, like follow, subscribe, don't forget, so you don't miss a beat. And if you're always here, we can't thank you enough. It makes what we do have purpose and it's so much fun. So, thank you, we'll see you next time.
