#236 - The Freedom I Didn't Know I Was Allowed to Want

For a long time, I believed that if I wasn't exhausted... I wasn't working hard enough.

Long rehearsals.
Eight-show weeks.
Always chasing the next opportunity.

I wore busy like a badge of honor.

But somewhere along the way, I realized I had tied my worth to how hard I was pushing myself.

In this episode, we're talking about what it really means to build a life you actually enjoy living.

You'll hear about:

•  The unexpected paycheck that completely changed how I viewed my career 
•  Why Broadway will always have my heart—but can't be my only dream 
•  How stepping away from something you love doesn't mean you're giving up on it 
•  The difference between being busy and being fulfilled 
•  Why hobbies might actually become the careers we're meant to build 
•  What success without burnout looks like 
•  The question I've been asking myself that has completely shifted my perspective 

If you've been questioning your next chapter, feeling burned out, or wondering if there's another way to build your life...

CHAPTERS

[01:13] Welcome back to The Salisha Show

[02:41] The paycheck that changed everything

[03:38] Discovering there are other ways to build a career

[04:51] Why hard work isn't the only measure of success

[05:32] Building a platform because you love it

[06:40] Could your hobby become your career?

[07:14] Why it's okay to step away from what you love

[08:27] What does success without burnout actually look like?

[09:18] Burnout doesn't mean you're done

@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_00 0:00

That there are other worlds. And part of the beauty of this life is when we are free, what do we do with our freedom? What do we do with our free time? It has taken me quite a long time, and I still have unlearning to do to wrap my head around putting my body through the ringer does not have to equal the only way for my day to matter. What does it really look like to build your dream life while you're living it? One day I'm on stage singing with Hugh Jackman at 36 weeks pregnant, just trying not to give birth in Oklahoma. And the next, I'm having real conversations about love, loss, career pivots, and becoming someone I didn't even know I could be. Because this show isn't just about Broadway, it's about the moments that change you, the risks you take, the dreams you almost talk yourself out of, the strength you don't realize you have until life asks you to use it. If you've ever felt like you're in between chapters or stepping into something new, you're not alone. You're just getting started. This is the Salicia Show, where Broadway meets culture and your real life becomes the main event. Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Salicia Show. I'm your host, Salicia Thomas, and I'm here recording at the beautiful Gotham Production Studios in New York City in Midtown Manhattan. Thank you, Gotham, for being my incredible network. And thank you to Carla at Metafit, MetaMind for editing this content. You're incredible. Thank you so much, girlfriend. And thank you to my listeners and viewers for watching or listening to this and helping me grow and build my channel. This has been such a crazy journey. This is currently April when I'm recording this. I don't know when you'll see this, but January of this year, I had 17 subscribers on YouTube, and now I have two over 12,000. So I just want to say thank you for helping me build this platform. And if you haven't already subscribed, please subscribe. Like we're going places. We the whole point in this, well, I have a lot of different points, but one of the reasons why it's important to me to start my own platform is because I want freedom. You, if you know anything about me, I am a theater kid till the day I die. I love the theater. But I also realized the first time I got a check from a voiceover job that I did, it opened my mind so much. I was doing a production at a gunkwit playhouse in Maine. And I had done a voiceover gig weeks prior, forgot about it. And when I got back from a gunkwit, I went to the mail, I opened, this is not to brag, this is a praise report so that we can all be on the same page of what is possible and why it's important to start our own branches of things. I got home from a gunkwit, I got to the mail, I opened up the mail, and I had a check in the mail that I was not expecting for twice as much money, blink blink, than my entire three-month contract or four months, however long it was, three-month contract in a gunkwit. In a check that I was not expecting from a job that I recorded weeks prior that took me under an hour from my closet to record. What am I saying? That there are other worlds. And part of the beauty of this life is when we are free. What do we do with our freedom? What do we do with our free time? It has taken me quite a long time, and I still have unlearning to do to wrap my head around putting my body through the ringer does not have to equal the only way for my day to matter. I am so used to um like equating a hard long day equals I did something that day. We're reframing this, okay? I used to think that because it's like, okay, I have an eight-show week, I've been in rehearsal all day, I had to do all of this for this, and there is so much fulfillment in that. I that is actually like my number one. I love, that is what I love to do. But I have learned that there are other ways. And since learning that, I'm like, oh, well, what happens if I actually start putting irons in the fire for what I want, in addition to these other things that I have been doing. So I have been, I've been doing this show for free for years. I have made some money, pennies here and there. I did get a great uh a few sponsorships that were wonderful, but it was right before I started rehearsals for my last Broadway show. And if you know anything about starting a new Broadway show, it's all consuming. So as soon as I had just like cracked the code on monetization, I started drowning in rehearsals somewhere else. And it was so hard for me to multitask like my brain. And so I stopped the monetization piece so that I could focus on other things. But bringing it back here, I realized I would do this, I would do this without money because I love it. But what happens if? Like, what if I built the platform of my dreams? Like, Tobiro, this could be my full time. Like, what is that for you? What is that thing for you that feels like, oh, this is just a hobby? Oh, but I just love it. Oh, I just love working in the garden, or I just I just love making food for my family and friends, or I just love doing my little sister's hair, or I just love working on my bonsai trees, or I just love whatever it is, like that thing that might feel like a hobby. Like, what if you could do it for your living? Wouldn't that be awesome? What does success look like to you? What does success without burnout look like to you? I talk a lot about the theater, about Broadway, about how that has always been my passion, how I love it. But I also really want to bring home the point that it's okay to take breaks from the thing that you love so that when you go back to it, you still love it. Like, I want to give you permission to not feel guilt for stepping away temporarily from something that you have always loved to do. Sometimes we need breaks to go live our lives. Also, like life happens in the breaks. When it's go, go, go all of the time. How can we truly live a well-rounded life? It's gonna be lopsided because you're putting all your focus into this one thing, which has its time and place. Like that is important when you are racing to the finish line of getting something done. I absolutely understand that grind. But when you look at your whole life, like what does success look like for you? And how can you attain your version, your definition of success without burning out? What would it take for you to achieve that? Rhetorical question. Maybe it's not rhetorical. Maybe you can say that out loud. Maybe you pause this right now and just think about that for a second. Success without burnout. What does that look like for you? For me. I want to hear from you. How do you define success? What are those markers for you? What are you doing to avoid burnout? Because I don't know about you, but feeling burnt out on something that you love, it feels like a failure. It feels like, oh, I guess I'm done with that thing. But no, I as somebody who has stepped away from a passion more than once and then went back to it, I can say now with confidence, it's gonna be okay. Also, like sometimes I'm mad that I'm like, oh, I just stopped that momentum. But you have to do what you have to do so that you can like enjoy the whole process. It all becomes a part of your story in the end. So there's really no wrong answers here. Um, but let me know how you approach burnout, how you look at success, and how you navigate it all. And until next week, I'll see you on the Salicia show. Thank you for tuning in and be sure to hit that subscribe button and tell a friend. All right, see ya.