This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:23] Justin Guarini: Hello and welcome to a brand new edition of Audition Secrets. I'm your host, Justin Guarini, and things are changing around the Audition Secrets universe, and for the better.

[0:33] Justin Guarini: Last week, I had a wonderful time being on The Kelly Clarkson Show. It was so great to see her again. It had been about ten years since we'd seen one another. I think it was the opening of the Disney American Idol experience. If you've ever been down there to Disney, you'll know what I'm talking about. I don't think it exists anymore. They might have closed it. But back in the day, it was a really fun place where you could actually go and audition. And then if you were chosen by the audience and you won, you would get the golden ticket and the fast pass to the front of the line. It was a really cool thing. Anyway, I hadn't seen Kelly in ten years, and I hadn't seen the judges Simon, Paula, and Randy in probably fifteen years. Easily. Fourteen, fifteen years. So it was a great reunion. All the 2002 feels happened. And I got to cover a lot of that behind the scenes on my Instagram.

[1:23] Justin Guarini: And speaking of Instagram, if you have not followed me on Instagram, all you have to do is open up your Instagram and go to Justin Guarini. If you don't know how to spell Guarini, that's totally cool. I'll help you out. You could just give a goog for that guy from American Idol with the hair. Whatever works, follow me on Instagram because that is where I am doing so much daily work. So much daily mindset work. And that's basically the subject of today's episode.

[1:45] Justin Guarini: In past episodes, and believe me, I have just started out with Audition Secrets. It is going to continue. It is going to grow. But on my Instagram, I asked you all a very, very vital question. I said, why do you follow me? Why are you interested in hearing what it is that I have to say? Why do you go to my social media and engage with me? Why do you listen to my podcast? And overwhelmingly, the answer that you came back with was because of your positivity. Because of the way you inspire. Because of the way you motivate me. And you know what? I listened.

[2:20] Justin Guarini: And so what I'm going to do with Audition Secrets, the podcast here, is I'm going to adjust it just a little bit. And I'm going to start to do more episodes like the one you're going to hear today. They're going to be a little bit shorter. And they're going to be packed with more motivational, inspirational, and actionable items. Things that you can take and you can listen to in a short amount of time and use that day in your auditions or in your performance life.

[2:46] Justin Guarini: And what do I mean by actionable items? Well, I kind of just said it, but I'll be a little bit more specific. I mean specifically address a problem. Show you a solution. And then show you how to put that solution into action. Okay? Well, also, yes, have interviews. Have some conversations with amazing people. I don't want to cut that out. But, you know, I feel like a lot of what you have asked me for when I asked that question of you was give me more stuff that I can use right here, right now to nail my auditions, nail my performances, inspire, motivate me, and give me a different perspective. And that's exactly what I'm going to do.

[3:25] Justin Guarini: So, today starts the day where we make a shift in the Audition Secrets Podcast and where we work a little bit more or a lot more, actually, with mindset work. Mindset work surrounding auditions, performance, and how to overcome the things that have been holding you back from the career, the life in this business that you deserve. All right. The topic of today's quick hit is this. Don't ever lie.

[3:49] Justin Guarini: If you have my book, Audition Secrets Volume 1, you'll know that I devote an entire chapter to don't ever lie. Not ever lying when you're in the audition room. And if you don't have it, don't worry. You can just go to Amazon, look up Audition Secrets Volume 1, and you can get a book shipped to your house or you can actually get the digital version right there on your device. But what I'm going to do today is read you the chapter, Don't Ever Lie, because it identifies the problem, offers a solution, and gives you a step-by-step process on how to make it happen.

[4:26] Justin Guarini: Okay, here we go. Starting off, you may hear page turning, but hey, look, I'm keeping it real. This is life. Chapter 2, Don't Ever Lie. For every good reason there is to tell a lie, there is a reason to tell the truth. Bo Bennett. A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity. Balthazar Gracian. You control the audition. And the audition starts the second you receive the material in your inbox.

[4:52] Justin Guarini: Now, we talk more about the whole process inside the Audition Secrets Facebook group, which is actually going to be the Audition Secrets Vault. That's coming up soon. But for now, let's talk about the part of the audition where you walk into the audition room. When I first started auditioning for musical theater in particular, I had a routine that was pretty much the same as everyone else's. I would be at home, living with the audition material like it was a lover, talking with it, working on making my relationship with it stronger, memorizing its lines, and discovering its subtle clues, getting the feel of it into my body, and becoming comfortable with it, as comfortable as anyone can be with something so new.

[5:28] Justin Guarini: Like you. I would practice, practice, practice until I felt good about the material and then make my way to the casting office on the audition day. And this was where things would start to go wrong. I'll never forget the feelings and how they affected my mind and body. One minute I'm walking up to the casting building and I feel excited and I'm buzzing a little. Then the next minute, I feel like the foolish youth in the horror movie who decided to split up from everyone else during the power outage on the same night they lost their virginity. I begin to feel the dreaded feeling we all experience at some point or another, and that is the cold, gripping fingers of nerves.

[6:03] Justin Guarini: I know exactly what's happening to me. And I can't stop it. My palms start to sweat. I get that butterflies in the stomach feeling. There's a weird tension between my ribs and in my chest. My breathing starts to get funny and I obsess over the places where I feel weak in the material and all the mistakes that I just can't make in the room and blah, blah, blah. You know the drill, right? Then, to make matters worse, I walk into the casting room and I begin to pile on the self-doubt as I look around, scoping out the competition, all the while pretending that I'm not scoping them out.

[6:34] Justin Guarini: I always, always see someone I know and then I have to talk to them. And a part of me wants to talk to them because I adore them and I don't get to see them that often, but the larger part of me just wants to sit and focus on calming down and getting the material right. Even when I do actually sit down, I hear the other people going before me. The sounds of their performances wafting out from underneath the door of the audition room and I just go right ahead and judge their audition against my own choices or lack thereof. Finally, and yet sooner than I want, comes the dreaded moment when the casting assistant or the actual casting director calls out my name.

[7:09] Justin Guarini: Just when I think I'm good to go, my blood pressure, heart rate, and the urge to run screaming out of the casting office spike my internal panic-o-meter into the red. But on the outside, as always, I just put on my best smile, stand up, walk over to the door, and into the room. So I'm going to fast forward here a little bit and get to the meat and I'm talking about the second you set foot in the audition room. Here's what I used to do and what most people still do. Outside the room, panic, panic, panic, panic, panic, mild to severe, hear my name called, smile, and do my best to shove the panic down.

[7:43] Justin Guarini: Then walk into the audition room with a smile plastered to my face. Then, as they almost always do, the people who I was auditioning for would say, Hi, how are you? I, perhaps like you, would open my mouth and the first thing I would do upon entering the room and making my grand entrance would be to lie. How did I lie? I would answer their question with, great, I'm so great, I'm having the best day ever. Or something to that effect, which was a blatant lie. The feelings of panic in my heart, the deer in the headlights look in my eyes, and the anxiety that flooded my entire body gave away the truth of how I was feeling.

[8:24] Justin Guarini: And wouldn't you know it, one of the things a casting director is just best at is sniffing out lies and liars. People lie all day long to casting directors. Now that lie might come from the performer in the forms of being unprepared, underprepared, or having absolutely no idea what the true meaning of what they're saying or singing is, but trying to pretend that they do. Or, trying to make themselves look or sound impressive by bloating their resume with fictitious credits, this or whatever. It doesn't matter, however you try and spin it, there are lies.

[8:53] Justin Guarini: Have you ever tried to pull any of those tricks or others I didn't mention? I certainly know that I have. So, I think you can guess my point here. It's the name of the title. It's the name of the chapter, rather. Don't ever lie. It doesn't matter if it's an over-airbrushed headshot or when you're in the room and chatting. Please, don't ever lie. Why? Because a good casting director gets a feel for the actor within the first 30 seconds after that actor walks into the room. Wait, Justin, does this mean that the casting director or director or producer or whomever on the other side of the table will cast you or not test you based on those first 30 seconds? Absolutely not. It varies from situation to situation, project to project, and casting director to casting director.

But I know for a fact that the first impression you make is of the utmost importance for you and for the people on the other side of the table. If the first thing you do when you walk in the room is lie, like almost everybody else does, like I used to do, then you have already put yourself in the big pile with all the, quote, other actors, end quote. Once that happens, you must fight even harder to stand out. And just to freestyle here for a second, isn't standing out part of what we want to do, folks? I mean, we walk into the casting room and there are 50 other people who kinda look like us, kinda sound like us, kinda act like us. How the heck are we supposed to stand out? And this is one of the ways you can do it.

So, back to the text. So, I told you what not to do. But unlike some of the other places that you can go to find do's and don'ts of auditioning, I'm gonna give you a very powerful and very simple solution. And that's this. Tell the honest truth with a twist. Now, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you crazy, Justin? I should tell them the truth about my sweaty palms, my shortness of breath, and the fact that I feel like I may be having a mild heart attack? Well, the simple answer is yes. But do it with a twist. Remember when I said you control the audition? Well, here's a way you can play by the rules. And when I say play by the rules, I mean it. You can control any audition you walk into without lying, without trying to fool the people on the other side of the table, and without trying to do things that will manipulate or alter the audition to tilt it in your favor by using underhanded or just flat-out stupid methods.

No, we are not walking in that room to lie. We are walking in the audition room to tell our truth and to show the people on the other side of the table why we deserve to be the one. That's it. End of story. You can control the first 30 seconds of your audition in a very simple way, by telling the truth about how you feel when the people on the other side of the table ask you the question, How are you today? Instead of lying and saying that you're just right as rain, you're going to be honest and here's how. And by the way, if you're feeling truly calm and confident whenever you walk into an audition room, more power to you. I don't know how the hell you do it, but go on with your bad self. But if you aren't, keep the instructions below.

Or even if you are, keep the instructions that I'm about to tell you in your back pocket just in case. All right, ready? Here we go. If you're feeling nervous or shaky and your auditors give you the old, How are you? Simply respond by saying something like this. You know, I'm actually feeling really nervous. And when I was walking here, I almost had a mild panic attack. But I'm really excited for this audition. I'm fully prepared. And with your feedback, I'm going to give you the best I've got. Now, those are all true statements. You told them how you actually feel. You told them how you value their time and the opportunity to audition for them. And you let them know you were on your A-game prepared.

You told them that you're going to give them your very best. You also subtly mentioned that you want them to give you notes so that you can be even better for them. Are you getting this? Are you seeing what I'm doing here? Do you see how the subtle shift towards honesty, with a twist of course, can completely and powerfully change the whole audition process from the second it starts? If every actor walked into an audition room and led with that kind of honest, vulnerable, joyful setup, especially when they felt nervous, it would create a whole new framework for performers, casting directors, and creative teams to work in. There wouldn't be this codependent mess of a victim-savior relationship going on in the room.

More importantly, we the performers would take our power back. Also, how much happier would a lot of people on the other side of the table be not to have to deal with yet another lying performer who in some way or another falls apart in the room and just has to be rescued? Okay, so here it is, broken down into a very simple three-step process. Alright? When you're feeling nervous, when you're feeling crazy outside the room, I want you to be prepared with this statement as it is broken down in these three steps. One, tell them the emotions you're feeling in as few words as possible. This is very important, folks. Just tell them how you're feeling in that moment. Don't drag on and tell them about your Uncle Remus' pet lemur having throat cancer and that you couldn't find your luck in.

Nobody cares about that. Two, tell them how you feel about having a chance to audition for this role and or you can briefly tell them how much you love the character or something that brings them into the present moment's joy and your excitement or anticipation about the audition. Third step, let them know that you are fully prepared, that you're going to give them the best you got and that you can't wait to hear their thoughts about your performance. You want them to give you notes, right? You want to show them that you're flexible and coachable because it ultimately makes your performance better and shows more of your range and abilities to the people on the other side of the table. Now, a very, very special note about step three.

The third step is the most important step to get right. If you say that you are fully prepared, you must be fully prepared. Or else you're dead in the water. Nothing bothers the people on the other side of the table more than a performer who's unprepared. Trust me, I've talked to so many of them and it is one of the, if not the biggest no-no. Being unprepared or underprepared is a waste of everyone's time and it's effectively a nail in the coffin of you not being asked back to audition for that casting director again. So, in summary, three steps, truly that simple. When you set yourself up, not to lie, it gives you ownership of your process, your truth, and your right to be a human being. Not just some performance machine that has to be perfect.

All right, let's hear it again. Step one, tell them the emotions you're feeling in as few words as possible. Step two, tell them how you feel about having a chance to audition or briefly how much you love the character or something that brings them into the present moment's joy or excitement about the audition. Three, let them know that you're fully prepared, going to give them the best you got and that you can't wait to hear their thoughts about your performance. Okay? Really, at the end of the day, and I'm going to freestyle here, this is a breath of fresh air for the people who have to sit on the other side of the table and listen to the same old lies, the same performances again and again and again for up to eight hours or more.

So, there it is. Don't ever lie. You don't need to and it's an absolute losing game. That is your quick hit today. It wasn't quite as quick as I wanted it to be. We're about 17 minutes in, but hey, man. Look, I'm trying to give you something new, something actionable. We found out what the problem is. You lie when you walk into the room, just as I have lied when I have walked into audition rooms. We've identified the solution, which is to tell the truth with a twist, and then you've got a simple and powerful three-step process that will help you to take your power back by not walking into the room being full of shit, but by truly owning how it is that you feel and taking that nervous energy, that anticipation, all of those things that have gotten in my way, gotten in millions and millions of other performers' ways and channeling that into something that serves you in the room.

Alright. Well, this has been your quick hit, Don't Ever Lie. You've been listening to Audition Secrets, the podcast. I'm Justin Guarini. Hey, if you want to find out more about this, and I do, make sure that you follow me on Instagram at JustinGuarini, as well as StopByAuditionSecrets.com. You can hear all the previous episodes there, and you can find out about more of the wonderful free things that we are giving away to help you be a better, more confident, more powerful performer. Alright. Again, I'm Justin Guarini, and remember, at the end of the day, you're only one audition away. Thanks for listening.