hello alan welcome to all ears english how are you today i'm good how are you doing lindsay
good i'm so excited to have you on the show guys on today's show we have alan seals and he is a
broadway producer the co-founder uh and cto of the broadway podcast network and the original global
lead of talks at google that is an awesome resume alan i'm excited to have you on the show today
we're gonna be how are you doing today by the way let's start off with that oh i am great i'm here
in brooklyn new york uh here in lovely usa and it's a warm what is it 73 degrees fahrenheit which
uh i don't know if it translates to in celsius but man people are walking around in shorts for the
first time it's beautiful this weather always puts me in a great mood i love it and i'm so excited
to get into this today because alan you have experience again as a producer on broadway you've
seen broadway i know a lot of our listeners have heard about broadway have maybe visited new york
and have attended a show i've been to wicked i love that one phantom of the opera love broadway
you also are coming to us from new york city right this is the city that we dream about yeah it's
worldwide it's known around the world and so i'm excited to get your insight here on this idea for
our listeners of becoming your own product so that you can succeed in the working world or if you do
if our listeners do decide to come to new york to make a life what does that mean
when we say you are your own product if you decide to go into the wonderful world of acting and
performing and putting yourself out there for the world to judge and critique and and just watch all
the time right then you have to realize that you have your own brand and content creators on tick
tock or instagram or facebook or whoever wherever the case is they get this and they realize that
and it equates to to you as a performer because you showing up and being great at dancing and
or being great at singing and or being great at acting and now you basically have to be all three
you have to be a triple threat to to make it make it i put in air quotes on broadway right right
and but along with that some people will make it there by sheer luck but the majority of us
make it there because we draw because of our drive and and continued pursuit of
trying new things putting yourself out there and as to your point marketing yourself because you
are your own product you are a product an entity that you're trying to sell to producers to casting
agents to directors to audiences because you want people to want you for their projects
i love that it's so good and then to take that idea you are your own product guys
into your professional life if you're working in a company in new york city and you are from
japan or korea or brazil you need to know this too right you're it's like a stage presence so
on today's episode alan is going to show us three things that we need to think about to get into
that prime spot mentally and physically to be able to have that stage presence to be our own product
and to perform again so we can get the raises we're looking for
right get on the teams get the projects we want right i'm sure it's not easy to always
get that project that we know we're capable of but we never quite get the chance right alan
right and and i think along these lines as well uh you said we don't quite get the chance there's
there's part of this industry that that just dictates you have to create your own chance
which again goes back to marketing yourself and making your own opportunities like you look at
at the success story of lin-manuel miranda and creating in the heights and hamilton and now he
has everything disney lyrics and composition he's composing music all over the place and uh as as a
a person of latin descent in the new york area at the time there was hardly any roles for him so he
just went off and wrote his own stuff and then he went and performed it and found somebody who
believed in him and created these opportunities and then created another and created another
and now he's giving back and and this is more commonplace but the point of bringing up the story
is that if what you want doesn't exist go make it and then get the word out and people are
gonna come to you because they're if you feel like you're alone in this industry and theater
especially i promise you you're not everybody wants to belong everybody wants to feel this way
and this translates into the corporate life too because yep you hear famously about imposter
syndrome all the time and and at google right that's one of the common running theme themes
is like do i belong here i i'm one of the best companies in the world and now all of a sudden
i don't belong next to these people this is crazy oh i love that i love that you hit that ellen yeah
what else yeah and the the imposter syndrome side of things to get over that that that is is
really embracing who you are on the inside which makes you absolutely unique and different because
step one look around and realize you're there because you deserve to be there
okay right everybody again going back to what i just said everybody else feels the same way
they're just afraid to admit it so you deserve to be there then once you realize you're supposed to
be there what opportunities do you want to make for yourself and if it's in theater if it's on
broadway if you if you don't see a type of show you want to be in go write it if you don't if you
try try taking a music class and learning how to write music if you want to sing
higher or sing in a different way or whatever the case is like always look ahead and say this is
where i want to be and here are the opportunities i am going to make for myself to get there yeah
and that translates directly to broadway podcast network and why that exists okay awesome i love
it we're gonna get to that in just a minute for sure but i love that you said imposter syndrome
because i know our listeners here guys when it comes to speaking a new language or working in
english our second language this can come up right we have all experienced this and today's episode
is so interesting because we've got the broadway parallel and we're drawing the connection between
the working world and and getting a sense of you know what does it take so let's go into those
tips then more specifically alan here let's go through them so what would be that first
tip for our audience that you can you know what they can do to really perform and get what they
want in their work lives or just in their lives in general well i i mentioned it a little bit already
and in a nutshell tip one is embrace what makes you different don't try to be like others because
if you're trying to be like somebody else you're never gonna be the best version of yourself and
you're never going to be them you will always be you yeah and look at someone like like josh gad
the voice of of olaf in frozen right he's got this kind of nasally silly voice and he's made this
whole career out of that now right and everyone loves that character a lot and everyone loves it
and when you're different like gilbert gottfried right like he just passed away but uh comedian he
talked like this he's got this thing where he's just doing this voice so you look at everybody
who's unique and what makes them stand out is because they're doing something nobody else did
and they ran with it and they embraced it and right translating that into the corporate life
you can come in as a manager you can come in as a low-level employee you can come in
as at any level in a company and say all right what are my strengths what makes me different from
anyone else and i'm going to dig into that and help and use that as my magic special super power
powers to make everybody else around me better i love it because a rising tide lifts all ships
you make everyone else better they're going to in turn make you better and it's the cyclical
yes the cyclical process yeah find your quirks find your strengths and amplify them don't try
to hide them don't push them under the rug i do want to make sure we just review your next two
tips here alan but i want to ask one question here because our audience is so international i think
this can be different culturally around the world right different cultures encourage less of this
or more of this so what would you recommend for someone who's coming from another culture where
maybe it's not quite as praised to pull out our quirks and our differences and our strange tone
of voice or something unique i mean what would you say to them how would they handle that well
i always say you know read the room which is a phrase a phrase that means look around and and
see who you're with judge what the situation is and figure out what would be the most appropriate
in that situation again playing to your strengths not giving other people what you think they want
yes so there's there is a subtle difference and so for people who are in other situations um
if if you feel i mean i guess i'll take a step back if you feel that something is not right
if it's pulling at the back of your neck then then it then don't do it that doesn't feel right but if
you feel like this warmth in your chest your solar plexus pulling you forward that's the direction
you need to move in and so it gets a little bit uh you know kind of metaphysical when we're when
we're getting into into this bit but to answer your question i feel like the best thing to do
is to evaluate the situation again read the room and and think about this ahead of time and maybe
even write it down what are my strengths what are my weaknesses and focus on those strengths
this is what i'm going to bring into the situation applicable to the room in the situation that i am
in and here's how i'm going to make it better yes i love it so good i think you know guys so listen
into yourself i think that is such an important tip feel into how you're feeling at that moment
our body sends us a lot of signals and we're going to get a little bit more into the body
real quick here in just a second but so good i would say you guys should be studying these cases
who is the person who does olaf's voice again what's his name josh gad okay guys so look up
josh gad and study his career i think we can get a lot of inspiration from these broadway actors
and actresses so good so alan can you tell us real quick what the next two pieces are that we should
keep in mind yes i will in addition to to josh gad you mentioned wicked kristin chenoweth who is the
original glinda and wicked again this tiny this tiny lady with with again okay she can do this
kind of nasally voice and she turned this into this iconic role that is now just often imitated
never duplicated right fantastic guys exactly so get inspiration from these people i love it okay
all right so what would be just real quick what would be the next thing alan yeah my next thing is
is whenever you can plan ahead and as as any good business person will tell you you need a business
plan you need to plan ahead you need to strategize and my next tip is just don't put yourself
in a position especially when moving to new york where everything is stupid expensive
don't put yourself in a position where you have to work to live yes and what i mean by that is
that if all you're doing is working working working because you have to to
make ends meet then you're going to lose sight of of your goals you lose sight of the opportunity to
grow yourself uh to make the connections to do the networking to go to the events that that are going
to help you get where you want to be so i i have friends that when they first moved to new york
they didn't make it because they didn't plan ahead they just showed up with the false um false sort
of confidence to say i'm here and where's my job and literally eight million people who live in
this tiny little 12-mile island we call manhattan yeah and not all of them are actors granted or or
aspiring actors but there's a lot of people here so how do you stand out that goes back
to what you've already talked about but in terms of this tip if you're getting a job
that is keeping you out until midnight one two three four in the morning like if you're
serving tables waiting tables serving in a bar open calls guys open calls start sometimes at six
a.m and just so our listeners know alan what is an open call now again this is speaking directly
to our listeners who actually are trying to go on broadway but i like this idea of adding white
space into our live space to breathe right so what is an open call just real quick an open call is
um it's required for all big shows like go back to wicked again right so the ensemble of wicked uh
is gonna have periodic required open calls because the show is always required to look for
more people to add to their roster their ensemble i'm an open so if it's a if it's a closed audition
that means that me as an agent or somehow like i reached out to you and i said lindsay i want
you to audition for glinda here's your here's your script come in and check it out at this particular
time okay but an open call is just we have a bunch of it's basically like a career fair for one show
so you you it usually auditions are like eight to five line the line begins the sign up for
auditions begins at six a.m or earlier sometimes and you show up and you hope you can get seen for
the day and you hope that you can get picked out of a crowd of sometimes hundreds or thousands of
people to be that one person they're looking for or be if they're looking for two or three or four
people there's literally hundreds that show up throughout an open call so if you've been
waiting tables or at the serving drinks behind a bar until 4am you are just not going to be
able to do it guys so again and yeah new york is the center of where people come when they have a
dream you know when i lived there i noticed that everyone was trying to do something amazing so
you need to give yourself that space in that time let your body rest that leads into the last thing
ellen what was your final tip for our listeners on how to perform how to be their best perform
and get what they want in life so my final tip is never stop learning don't lose your humility
realize there's always more you need to know if you're an expert in something keep practicing
if you if you are on broadway if you've made it the best broadway stars that i have worked with
are always in voice lessons they're always taking dance classes they're always doing new readings
for things that's to stretch them and on my podcast i host my own podcast that uh i end
every episode with three questions one of which is what advice would you give to your younger self
and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path and the most common answer
i get for that is the first tip which is embrace what's different and then the next common answer
is always keep learning and never stop trying to improve because you're always it's it's
super easy because dancing singing acting all of this is a muscle and just like any muscle
if you're not exercising it regularly it'll start to atrophy it's going to start to go away and then
as you get older the l it takes longer to get back into it just like anything right so always
keep learning take classes especially in new york there are dance classes there
are sometimes free classes you can sign up for depending on what may or may not you qualify for
and voice lessons acting classes uh workshops going going to open calls even if you don't need
the job is good experience to handle to know how to handle an open call once you do need the job
i love it the more experience you get the better you are and tony winner andre de shields one of my
favorite actors who's who just left hadestown when he uh accepted his tony speech a couple years
accepting his tony in his speech a couple years ago he said the top of one mountain is the bottom
of the next never stopped climbing deep i love it and that that it just exemplified what i'm saying
is that he got a tony award he's on broadway he he's he's this dude is later on in years we will
say he's more experienced and just won his first tony and that's what he's saying like never stop
never give up and you're gonna get there and then once you get there stop for a second look around
to make sure you know where you are and how far you came because it is a great accomplishment
and then keep learning i love learning always be a student keep learning always be a student i think
that is such a good place to leave it that really is what high performers do guys as you've seen on
broadway that's what they do and in the world no matter what you want to do with your life
keep learning i love it and i love the idea again of getting inspiration through broadway
actors and actresses and interviews with them tell us a little bit about your podcast alan
yes so uh my podcast that i host myself is i have two one is the theater podcast with alan seals
and the other one is with a friend a mutual friend of ours heather vickery called was it chance
and my first podcast i talked to my solo podcast i talked to broadway stars and sometimes tv and
film stars just about what makes them unique what makes them human i love to get into these behind
the scenes moments of talking about things with them that really get them excited and and one
of my favorite things to discuss is is how do they deal with success success is stressful to maintain
that level is sometimes emotionally exhausting right i love to figure out and talk to them
about that and how they maintain that and then the other podcast was it chances it's just so much fun
it's a comedy podcast with heather where we take these people and we're like what is essentially
a moment of failure that or what's a moment in your life that most people would have seen in
as failure that you've turned into a success story okay and was it chance that these things
all happened in your life was basically the the was it chance i love it i love it so tell
us one more time so the first podcast is was it chance and tell us the the your your show with
interviewing the broadway uh actors and actresses what is the name of it again that is just
the theater podcast with alan seals okay and uh you can all of this is on broadway podcast network
and so you can go straight to my podcast my solo podcast at bpn.fm ttp for the theater podcast was
a chance is bpn.fm slash was it chance all right good stuff so guys i want to encourage you to go
over and check out alan's work and see what he is up to over there take inspiration from these
interviews where you get that extra that little glimpse into the lives of very successful new
york city actresses and actors i love it well alan thank you so much for coming on all this
english today this has been great thank you thank you for having me absolutely take care