#221- Why Be a 9 When You Can Be a 10? Confidence, Dreams, and Owning Your Story

In this episode of The Salisha Show, Salisha shares a vulnerable and empowering reflection on what it truly means to be ready for your dreams.

Broadcasting from Gotham Production Studios in New York City while nearly nine months pregnant, Salisha opens up about building the life she always imagined while navigating motherhood, creativity, and the unpredictable path of a performer.

From Broadway stages to writing her book Why Be a 9 When You Can Be a 10, Salisha reflects on the mindset shifts that helped her stop waiting to be discovered and start creating opportunities for herself.

This conversation explores the power of visualization, authenticity, and preparing yourself for the life you say you want.

In this episode, Salisha talks about

• The question that changed how she approaches her dreams
• Building a creative ecosystem while pregnant
• Writing and publishing her book Why Be a 9 When You Can Be a 10
• Creating mentorship spaces for young women
• Moving from a Broadway-only income model to multiple creative avenues
• Why embracing your uniqueness is the real secret to confidence

As performers and creatives, it can be easy to wait for permission or recognition. But Salisha reminds us that the real shift happens when you start building the life you want before anyone is watching.

If your dream showed up tomorrow, would you be ready?

@salishathomas @thesalishashow, www.thesalishashow.com

Many thanks to Gotham Network in NYC, TyNia Brandon for writing and laying vocals down for the updated theme song and Big Red Studios for the intro video wherever you watch the latest season of The Salisha Show!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Hello, what's up? It's me, Salish, and welcome to another episode of the Salisha Show. I am so excited to be coming to you from Gotham Production Studios here in Midtown Manhattan. Y'all listen, I am very pregnant. When you hear this, hopefully I'll have a little baby in my arms. But today we're

Being nearly nine months pregnant while building new dreams

SPEAKER_02 0:43

getting big. We're getting big. We're like um eight and a half going on nine months pregnant. And so I'm definitely 1000% wearing my husband's clothing. Because nothing, nothing fits, okay? And uh I just didn't want to buy a bunch of maternity clothes. I don't want a closet full of maternity clothes. But you know, today I want to talk about what we're prepared for. Are you prepared for your dreams to come true? Like if you like, think about it. If what you actually wanted were to happen this week, today, would you be ready? This is one of the themes of my book. Which I brought today. Why be a nine when you can be a 10? A

The question that changes everything: Are you ready for your dreams?

SPEAKER_02 1:39

cheat code for winning at life. And in one of the chapters, I talk about what are you prepared for your dreams to come true? So now, okay, if you know a little bit about me, I live in a world of Delulu. I am a daydreamer. I always, I always have been, since I can remember like being in kindergarten, literally looking out the window, daydreaming of all the things that I, little five-year-old Salish, wanted to do. And everybody around me growing up seemed to be very grounded in reality, which is also important. A lot of the people who I dated before getting married were very logic-based, very grounded in reality, very like just grounded. Bring me back down to earth. And I think that there is a place for that. But this world that we live in, no one told us in school that it starts in the mind. And so you gotta visualize the life that you really want. And if it exists in your mind, it can exist in your real life. Does that sound crazy? Am I crazy? So this for so for example, this year I have been pregnant since January. It's coming up on nine months. And I've always had this dream of, gosh, it's so scary to say your dreams out loud, huh? Especially when you haven't like finished them yet. Do you know what I mean? But I've always had this dream of being my own version of Oprah or to have like this autonomous. I want to have this feeling of autonomy.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

We are live here on the black carpet. It is opening night for Sunset Boulevard on Broadway.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

And so I have been very busy this year. I gave my friends a heads up that, you know, I've never been pregnant before. And so this is my opportunity to just be pregnant, whatever that means. Maybe I am need a rest. I might not be able to go out. I've like given them the heads up of all of these things. And so, in doing that, when plans arise, I really don't feel bad when I have to cancel or when I just have to say no. And I think I've felt bad my whole life, and right now I don't. So in the time that I've gotten to spend at home, I've actually had the opportunity to build this foundation for the life that I actually want. What do I mean? Well, last year I wrote this book and I published it, self-published it, in as a hardcover book. This year I got the paperback out and I finally produced the audiobook of this. And so it's on Audible. I'm like, part of my it's part of my like ecosystem. I actually have something to sell for the first time in my life. For the first time in forever. What else? Okay, so wait, why am I breaking this down? I'm giving you a very vulnerable, real life example of me. If Oprah were to be like, hey, I see you. I would love for us to have a conversation. If if she had eyes on me, would she be proud of what she saw? This show that I'm bringing to you right now, that's my proof of concept of I'm here. I'm doing the thing. I'm not

Why she stopped waiting to be discovered

SPEAKER_02 5:18

waiting to be discovered. I'm out here just doing it. And before I got in this gorgeous production studio, I was in my closet doing the thing with no backdrop, with no multicam, with no support. And so being here already is kind of like a dream come true. In addition to the book, I have an accompanying course. The be a 10 course goes with the Y B a 9 when you can be a 10 book. So you can listen to it, then you can order the course. I also started a free mentorship community online on school. Have you heard of school? It's like Alex Hermosy's like new thing. It's S-K O O L. I have a free community on there for mentorship. I've been trying to figure out, like, when young girls ask me, how can do you take mentees? Can you mentor me? I never know what to say. I never know what to say. And so I finally found a place. Actually, it kind of found me of a community that I could start. And so, and it's free, it's completely free. And I'll meet with mentees once a month in this space. And they we can just talk, they can ask me what they want. It's just like a little coffee date, really. And so obviously, one day when it grows, I'm not sure what I'll do when I get to that, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. That is part of the whole vision. And another level of the life that I'm trying to create, the bigger picture is I want to be able to start a family and live wherever I want and give my family the attention they deserve while being able to make sure that all of my needs are met and all of our needs are met. How can I do that? I'm coming from a world of Broadway where the only way to make money is to be there in person eight times a week, six days a week. That's what I'm used to. And so anything else has seemed kind of foreign. It has seemed like a dream world. It has not seemed like real life. But what's the Bible say? Write the vision, make it plain. Write down your goals, write down what it is you want, not what it looks

Writing Why Be a 9 When You Can Be a 10 and building a creative ecosystem

SPEAKER_02 7:43

like is possible to you, not what it looks like, oh, this could actually happen or this seems logical. No, write down the life that you want and then watch, watch it slowly start to infiltrate your real life. That is the beautiful part. Like I started writing this book because I was trying to create a cheat code for myself. And after working on it for a while, it was getting to be kind of like dense. I'm like, is this a book? Should I share this? So really, this was a letter to me so that I can remember. I have like, I can barely remember anything. So I have to write down. I it started as my list of 12 commandments. And there were things on there that just were like reminders to me, things that I'll cover in other episodes, some things that made it in the book that got a little bit formalized, like honor your A-list, do stuff, look like Miss California. And there's a deeper meaning behind that. But these were reminders to me. Take the pressure off. And when I lived by these, my world seemed to kind of just open up. I was in expansion, I was in flow. And so that's the origin of how I wrote this book. And when I look at it, why be a nine? When I look at the title, why be a nine when you can be a 10? What is being a 10? It is not, I'll tell you what it's not. It's not perfection. I mean, look at me right now. If you can see this, if you're listening, just pretend I'm so skinny right now. But if you're watching, if you're watching this episode, I am literally in men's clothing. Like this is the opposite of perfection in my world. But being a 10 means showing up as you, like a hundred percent authentically, unapologetically yourself. You want to learn how to be that girl, like to walk into the room and for other people to be like, oh my goodness, I'm so underdressed, or oh, I'm so overdressed because they're basing it off of you. Why are they basing it off of you? Because you have confidence. How do you have confidence? Because you like who you are. It there's inner work that needs to happen there before you can go out into the world. But I'm telling

The real meaning of confidence and embracing your uniqueness

SPEAKER_02 10:04

you, like, there's a magic that happens when you just decide that who you are is who you are, and the world's gonna get what they're gonna get. And you when you stop, when you stop trying to be what everybody wants you to be, and when you start showing up with how you want to be, how you want to look, how you want to act, what you want to do, it's scary at first because you're like, what if nobody likes this part or this version or what I'm showing? What if? But then you realize that the people who don't get it kind of trickle away. And the people who do get it are attracted to you like a big old magnet. Like you can't even help it. That is the goal. Like that is being a 10. That is being a 10, opening up your eyes and seeing that the people around you get you, understand you, that the life that you've created is the life that you actually want, not the life that somebody else wanted you to have. That's not a 10. So that is where this is born from. And also in doing that, showing up unapologetically yourself, that means embracing your flaws. It means embracing the parts of yourself that maybe you didn't used to love, that have taken you a while to like accept the things about you that you maybe were teased about growing up. Those are the things about you that are probably like the most special parts. It's like the most special parts about you. And it's like, why do we think we need to get rid of those? When I think about Bernadette Peters, her voice is like wild and crazy, but it's like she's a Broadway legend and we know that voice. If you're trying to fit in with everybody else, it's like, uh, is this the right voice? Guess what? Yeah, she's Bernard, she's Bernadette freaking Peters. There's other people who like have a nose that you're like, oh, is that nose? Whatever, but they're known for that nose. Like, what are you, what could you be known for? What are you known for? What makes you stand out? Growing up in California, it was all about fitting in, at least where I was. Like the school that I went to, the grade that I was in, it was all about fitting in. And when I moved to New York City, you were cool if you stood out. You didn't want to be like everybody. So what was that thing that makes you you? So that is where we're at. I had to circle back, like, where did we start? Are you prepared for your dreams to come true? And I just went on a tangent about this book that I've written because this is a part of my vision. It's it's the first token of okay, we're going to start. We're going to begin this new chapter of diversifying my income of something that isn't just on stage, which is something that will always be a part of my heart and my life in some way. I hope that this like resonates with you in some kind of way. Whether it's like, okay, what is it that you need to be doing to have the life of your dreams? Or if you were to get that phone call, what is it that you need to get ready? What classes do you need to take? What do you need to be writing down? Where do you need to be going? Who do you need to be talking to? Whatever that is for you. I hope that you feel inspired to get up and go do it. Because you have everything that you need already inside of you.