Life Lessons Learned In Live Production
I have been in hundreds of productions since I was 8 years old — so I know a thing or two about them 🙂
Whether my role was:
Dancing in a Concert,
Managing the Ushers,
Stage Manager, Calling the Cues,
Producing/Marketing an Event,
Assisting for Landmark Education,
Or Crewing for Tony Robbins,
Speaking at a Conference,
Attending a Seminar for a client,
Hosting a Live Webinar,
Week-Long Summit,
Or Producing a 4-day Livestream.
… the lessons are the same.
Once you are in “GO” mode — there is an unexplainable magic that happens.
(1) Everyone becomes a conductor of their own ecosystem and yet, everyone is working in coherence.
(2) You have planned everything down to the last detail, and yet, you know, that something unexpected will happen. You don’t know what it is, and you won’t know until it gets here… but you do know it’s coming. Then when it’s over you can’t remember what it was to begin with.
(3) Somehow, someway, miracles happen on the regular, and the right person is in the right place at the right time, even when they weren’t supposed to be.
(4) People show up in a big way to get the job done.
(5) The dress rehearsal is always a disaster! If the dress rehearsal goes smoothly, you’ll have an opening night disaster, almost without exception. This is normal and you just need to get through it and then it’s smooth sailing!
You must:
- Follow the plan precisely and improvise at the same time.
- Follow directions and give them.
- Make executive decisions, even when you don’t feel qualified.
- Be ok with people not being nice. There is no time for nice. There is only time for being direct.
- Call people out on their mistakes, immediately forgive them, come up with a solution and get back to teamwork without holding a grudge.
- Be the one getting called out for messing up. Don’t hold onto it either.
- Take one for someone on the team when it’s for the best of everyone.
- Get mad, vent, scream and then let it go and get back to teamwork.
- Celebrate at the end!!!
The exhaustion, the emotions of the ending.
The gratitude for the team, knowing that without each person being there, it would not have been the same.
All of your hard work has been leading to this peak moment and now it has passed.
You can throw away all those little post it note reminders. Your cue sheet is tattered, with scribbles all over it — notes which no longer mean anything.
The theatre is empty. The audience has gone home.
It’s not entirely over. There is still work to be done…
Whether it’s striking the stage, or packing up all the costumes… sending the survey emails or editing the video…
It is still part of the event, but it doesn’t feel the same.
There’s a vacuum — an emptiness in the space.
Peacefulness after the storm has passed.
Until now, this time was completely filled up and spoken for.
And soon, sure, it will be filled again with something new.
But for now, in the stillness…
rest.
self-care.
restore.
reflect.
There’s always growth — life is forever changed.
You did it. You pushed yourself. You showed up for yourself and your team in uncommon ways.
You proved to yourself that you can do anything you put your mind to.
You know you made mistakes along the way.
You know you can do better next time, but you are proud of the work you did.
You go home, you rest, you have a glass of wine and hot bubble bath, you write this blog post.
And life resumes. But it is never the same.
