Intentional Energy: The Hidden Skill That Changes Everything

Your energy walks in before you do — and it’s often the quiet reason you get noticed, rehired, and remembered.

In this episode of The Artist Behind the Art, Jennifer dives into one of the most overlooked skills in a performer’s toolkit: the ability to generate and direct your energy with intention.

Drawing on Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s wisdom — “Please take responsibility for the energy you bring into the room” — this episode explores how your physical, mental, and alignment energy shape every interaction you have, from auditions to rehearsals to daily life.

You’ll learn:

• How to recognize and shift the energy you bring into high-stress spaces like auditions
• Why emotional contagion is real — and how your energy literally shapes the atmosphere around you
• The difference between reacting and responding with purpose
• Three key types of energy that help you show up calm, grounded, and magnetic
• And how to become the person people love working with again and again

Because your talent gets you in the room — but your energy is what makes people want you back.

🎧 Tune in and start redefining what it means to “show up.”
 Follow @Arete.ActDevelopment for more insights, tools, and upcoming mentorships designed to help you become the artist people remember.

Thanks so much for listening to The Artist Behind the Art.
This podcast exists to support performers in building sustainable, aligned, and castable careers — beyond just the skills.

Ready to Unlock What’s Next?

If you know there’s more inside you than you’ve unlocked on your own…
 If your skills are strong, but you’re unsure how to shape them into something undeniable…

You don’t have to figure that out alone.

Inside the Own the Stage Act Creation Mentorship, we bring personalized feedback and clear strategy to your creative process — so every moment of your act is masterful, connected, and intentional. From entrance to bow.

The mentorship begins March 23rd, and the founding members round will be intimate and focused.

If you’re ready to build an act that makes an audience lean in and feel time stand still:

📩 Email: Jennifer@aretementorship.com

📱 DM: @arete.actdevelopment

I’d love to see what we can create together.

🎙 Follow the podcast on Instagram:
 https://www.instagram.com/theartistbehindtheart/

Remember — you already have what it takes.
 The question is: are you ready to prove it to yourself?

Until next time — show up big and own the stage.

Transcript

Speaker 5 0:01

Welcome to the Artist Behind the Art, the podcast that lists the curtain on what it takes to thrive as a professional performer. I'm your host, Jennifer Pierce, artist coach, creative strategist, and lifelong advocate for performers who are ready to go from unsure to unforgettable. This is where the gatekeeping ends and your journey to thriving in the industry begins. Let's dive in.

Speaker 0:29

Your energy walks in before you do, and we all think our success comes down to skill, talent, and timing, but this, I promise you, is one of the most important qualities that quietly determines who gets noticed, who gets rehired, and who people love working with. The way you walk into a room, how you respond under pressure, and how you make people feel. On today's episode of The Artist Behind the Art, we're talking about what Dr. Jill Bolt Taylor calls being responsible for the energy you bring into the room. Because when you learn to generate and direct your energy with purpose, you stop reacting. And when you start setting an intention on how you want to show up and how you want to contribute and handle situations, you will be proud of yourself for handling these gracefully. And in the end, you will end up feeling just like. You have stepped into the next version of yourself. I want you to become the person. People remember that casting trust and wants to work with again and again. So I want you to do an honest assessment of yourself on how you presently show up rehearsals, or for call times for shows, and how you show up for practice. Are you the type of person that comes into the room carrying the energy of a conversation you just got off the phone with, and maybe this is something that you've never thought about or it's something that this is not gonna come naturally to you, but. If you work really hard to move past this and be the person that walks in and feels like you are holding space in a way that contributes, this is going to completely shift how everyone receives you, and you will be the one that is helping set the energy of the room. If you shift the way you show up for rehearsals and you start getting really intentional about the way you engage with your peers and engage with casting and choreographers, you will not only feel your energy and connection shift, but also you'll start lifting up others in the process. So maybe you're thinking, I'm actually the person that needs to tone it back and make sure that my energy is appropriate for the time and situation. And I have to say, this was a huge lesson for me. I remember early on in my career, I was not great at relating to others and how my energy was received. I was 100. Percent invested in my career and in PI technique and making sure that I showed up 100% on stage. But my ability to network and connect with others was severely lacking. And I remember stepping back and noticing how others carried themselves, their energy, and how my intensity was. Being received and it shifted my perspective and allowed me to grow into a more intentional person that could not only read the room, but know how to show up authentically as me, but appropriate for the occasion. And I think in retrospect, I can look back and I was just a lot with a side of extra. So today we are going to explore the different ways we can show up with intention, purpose, and with a positive collaborative energy. So you can take responsibility for the energy you bring into a space. So I want you to think of your energy, like a vibration, and it affects everyone around you, whether you realize it or not. I think we can all picture someone in our life that when they show up, they light up the room. And on the flip side, there's also the person that is the energy vampire and a room that once had great energy. Now feels like it has had the life sucked out of it, and we need to be aware of how we are either contributing to the energy of the room or depleting it. So. Keep in mind, we can most certainly be having a bad day, but choose to bring a certain energy and experience to the present moment or rehearsal or show. These two things can exist at the same time. If we choose what energy and emotion we want to feel and share. So intentional energy is everything, and we can do some things in advance and shift a few habits, so we find ourself positioned to also feel good and equipped to be the person that shows up with present and great energy. So I want you to stay with me. This is not putting on face or showing up on authentically. I want you to really dig deep and think about the person you want to be, the person that choreographers and casting wants to work with. Who is that person and how do they show up? So what can affect our ability to show up in an intentional way? There are three things to consider in advance that helps us set ourself up for success. And these are our physical, our mental, and our alignment based energy. I. Alright, let's talk about our physical energy, and I want you to imagine that you are planning on going to an audition, and this audition requires you to fly somewhere and it has many moving parts that are gonna be stressful. The physical part of this is going to challenge your ability to show up for the very thing that you are traveling to do. So we want to look at what is going to allow you to be able to show up, calm, confident, and rested. And I don't know about you, but just getting in a plane requires a lot of physical and mental energy from me. So maybe you need to fly in a day early to be sure you are well rested, or maybe you want to check out the space that the audition is in, so you will be able to familiarize yourself with the space and its energy. If you plan in advance, you then have control of your physical energy and you shift your ability to show up intentionally because you guys, it is hard to show up with great energy if you are at a physical deficit. the next thing that can impact you is your mental energy. This could be a conversation that you just had prior to walking into a rehearsal or self-talk that is negative or work just stressful things in general. And we can't shut all of these things out, but this is the very thing that keeps us from being able to carry good energy into a room. So when we want to show up as our best self, we need to set up a few habits that will help get us focused and our intention and what energy we want to bring in the room with us. I want you to think about something today, like a rehearsal or it could even be something as simple as a coffee date with a friend and walk through how you are going to get there. And at some point in that journey, you can shift your thoughts on how you want to feel and how you would like others to feel as a response to the energy that you are bringing. And when you set this intention up, you shift the way you are going to show up and the experience. And if this is a rehearsal or a moment with the friend, I promise you people, they will remember. Your energy. People in the line of entertainment, they may forget your skills, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Your presence sets the tone of the room, the audition, and the rehearsal. The third is your alignment energy, and this is based around your standards and how you show up no matter what. This is the one thing that I think is most important because it sets up the guardrails on how you show up in any situation regardless of drama and how others are acting around you. This allows stressful moments to pass through You. For you to recognize that yes, there is a problem, but to create the appropriate time and space to address them. And I want you to reflect on this quote by Tony Robbins. He says, you get in life what you are willing to tolerate. The life you live is a direct reflection of the standards you set up for yourself. And we want our standard. To be an in demand and contributing artist. So I want you to make some time today and think of where you are and where you want to be and start living. At this standard, we want our alignment energy to guide us in our choices and how we show up. So when you get your physical, mental, and alignment energy dialed in, it will shift your ability to show up as a completely different artist. This is where you choose how you want to feel and what energy you are going to bring to a space, especially in high stress situations like an audition. We have all been there when you walk into the room, everyone's subconsciously scanning who's there and how you stack up. And this robs us of our energy and then we recede in the very moment. We need to show up as our best self and we all. We all feel it. Everyone in the room feels this, and it's called emotional contagion, and it is a real psychological phenomenon. And our nervous systems, they are wired to mirror the emotional cues of others, the facial expressions, your posture, even breathing patterns. Within seconds, your energy becomes part of that room's atmosphere. So I want you to imagine. If you walked into your next audition, not guarded or tense, but with confidence and curiosity, and I think the curiosity aspect is really key. That kind of energy, it invites connection and it says, I'm just like you. I'm scared, but I'm here to be my best and here to collaborate. And the space that once felt cold or intimidating starts to shift. People feel that energy and reflect it back, and if you pair that moment of connection, even just with eye contact or a small smile, it spreads and suddenly the whole room can start to. That's the power of social contagion. The energy you choose doesn't just change how you feel. It has the power to change how others show up too.

Speaker 6 12:28

Thank you so much for listening today. I'd love to hear what you're navigating right now and what topics you want me to cover because this podcast is all about serving you and helping our community thrive. You can find me on Instagram at the Artist Behind the Art, also big announcement. I've been working on some artist mentorships and I'm gonna be kicking it off with a free three day mentorship that's all about strengthening your submission materials. And I can't wait to get to know more about you. Be sure to follow and like RTE Act development on Instagram. That is A-R-E-T-E ACT development. I want to be able to get all of the details to you as soon as they're available. Alright, guys, remember you already have what it takes. The question is, are you going to prove it to yourself? Until next time, show up big and own the stage.