This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:04] Kerry Butler: Once I played a penny who just couldn't stop the beat. Yes, with all the skates on her feet. Although just recently to see. A real cool mom. Usical version of Tina. Tina. Now come with me, I'm alive. I am your host, Miss Kerry Butler. Together, you and I are breaking...

[0:54] Kerry Butler: Um, my friend Sierra Boggess, um, you know where I like to consider you, I don't know if this is wrong, but as uh Andrew Lloyd Webber's Muse.

[1:02] Sierra Boggess: Okay.

[1:03] Kerry Butler: Am I wrong? Am I wrong?

[1:04] Sierra Boggess: No, that's fine. That's fine. She has done School of Rock, Phantom, Love Never Dies, and my all-time favorite show, which I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little jealous. She played Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Um, so tell us how did you get your start in the business? Did you always dream of being an actress?

[1:25] Sierra Boggess: No. Oh, the answer is no. I wanted to be an ice skater more than anything in the whole world, because I'm from Denver, Colorado.

[1:36] Kerry Butler: Woo!

[1:37] Sierra Boggess: No, everyone's not from Denver. Um, never mind. Um, so that's what I wanted to do. And um, it was a really expensive sport, and we didn't have any money. And so as you kept progressing, like in the competitions, it costs more and more money, and eventually it was just like we just we couldn't afford it. So I was about 14 years old when I stopped. I've been skating since I was four.

[1:59] Kerry Butler: Wow.

[2:00] Sierra Boggess: That's all I wanted to be Nancy Kerrigan. Like what? Because that was like that was my time. Wasn't she the one who hurt the person?

[2:06] Kerry Butler: No time.

[2:08] Sierra Boggess: She hurt my girl. But then you watch that movie and you're like, oh.

[2:12] Kerry Butler: Oh.

[2:13] Sierra Boggess: Um, so you were really good.

[2:16] Kerry Butler: I guess so. I mean, I it was just, I just love, and I loved the I realized all this later. I loved the discipline of it. And basically, and I'm not a sports girl, but that is a sport. But when I reflect back, it's like the sport of that and the sport of what we do, because it is a sport.

[2:33] Kerry Butler: Oh, yeah. You know that. And it's the same type of, you have to have the same type of discipline and drive and willingness to work, and you want to be consistent at something so that you can. You like what she did just now, you guys, like singing all that is like the most incredible. Like, that's a sport. Do you know what I mean? Everybody's nodding right now. I know we're not like filming this. So just for everybody listening, everyone's nodding because you can you know can that you've worked and worked and worked, that you can consistently I can sit here and be belting some Ds for you at you know 12:30 in the morning. And that's the same with I guess what I was doing, like as a kid, and ice skating and practicing and practicing.

[3:12] Sierra Boggess: So once I stopped, I don't know why, but it's like I just fell into like acting, and we had like an acting class at my middle school. I don't know why. Um, it's so random. Um, and I was like, oh, I'm obsessed with this.

[3:26] Kerry Butler: And you weren't even singing then?

[3:28] Sierra Boggess: I well, I was always singing, but singing in my house, like singing with my sisters. Um, and it was always musical. I played the flute, so I was like, Oh, we I was in band, and I was like, and I was in marching band. Yes, um and so I was always musical, but I thought that everyone could sing like the way I sang. I didn't think it was a thing.

[3:50] Sierra Boggess: Uh-huh. I just always sang. Um, and so then I don't know. It I think from competing in ice skating, you're performing in front of people. And I was never afraid of the performing aspect, and I loved it. So I don't know. It's from that that I became, and I'm and in Colorado, I I didn't know what Broadway was. It wasn't a thing.

[4:10] Kerry Butler: Oh my god.

[4:12] Sierra Boggess: So it's like, I I just was like, my biggest dream. I feel like you guys are gonna understand this. My biggest dream was to be like a singing waiter at the at like the local um like non-equity um dinner theater, which is now closed. It was called the country dinner playhouse. But that's what where I would see my shows, and I was like, I didn't even want to be on the the like I didn't want to be one of the actors in the show. I wanted to be the like warm-up act. I wanted to be like the people who like served you your food and sang for you.

[4:44] Kerry Butler: Like did you do high school plays?

[4:45] Sierra Boggess: I did high school plays.

[4:46] Kerry Butler: Okay. Yes.

[4:47] Sierra Boggess: So, and that was my teacher, Nancy Priest. Um, she she taught at this school, and it was an inner city high school in Denver, Colorado. We had no money whatsoever, but we put on four shows a year, and it was because of her that I was like, I love this. And do you know what I loved is the community aspect of it?

[5:06] Kerry Butler: Yes, you know, yeah, it's the team, it's the like family, it's the family. And I feel like everybody responds to that here because we're all like the weirdo kid that's for some reason is like, oh hey, bunch of other weirdos that are in drama class, and then you're like you're a that's it. You're like, oh, I guess I'm not weird.

[5:26] Kerry Butler: Did you know after high school that that's what you wanted to do then?

[5:29] Sierra Boggess: Yes, I knew during high school, um, my sophomore year. My teacher took us to New York, and that was my first time in New York.

[5:35] Kerry Butler: Your first Broadway show?

[5:36] Sierra Boggess: My first Broadway show was Chicago.

[5:38] Kerry Butler: Oh.

[5:38] Sierra Boggess: And I was like, if I'm if I was in Chicago, then I've made it. Like that's what I thought, you know. And then cut to my first audition for Hal Prince for um Phantom of the Opera.

[5:52] Kerry Butler: We'll take a second for that.

[5:54] Sierra Boggess: Was on the stage. Hal used to audition everybody on Broadway stages, which is like the smartest thing in the whole world instead of like a tiny audition room with battle all the time. You're too young. But I used to do that all the time. And it's so much better.

[6:06] Kerry Butler: You don't do it?

[6:07] Sierra Boggess: What it's expensive.

[6:08] Kerry Butler: No unions.

[6:09] Sierra Boggess: Oh. Yes, because you'd have to pay for a crew person now to be there or something like that.

[6:12] Kerry Butler: Dang!

[6:13] Sierra Boggess: Because it's so it feels better. It's it's yeah, yeah. That's how your the audience is gonna see you. So it makes so much sense. And you yeah, it's so hard to um project in a tiny little room when you're auditioning for people.

[6:25] Kerry Butler: Yes, you perform better. You're like, this is what I actually do.

[6:30] Sierra Boggess: But my so my actual Broadway debut was my audition for Hal on the stage of the Ambassador Theater where Chicago plays.

[6:37] Kerry Butler: Oh my gosh.

[6:38] Sierra Boggess: What the heck?

[6:40] Kerry Butler: Oh, God. And that's where the first show you got was Phantom in Vegas.

[6:46] Sierra Boggess: So you auditioned on Broadway for Vegas?

[6:48] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[6:49] Sierra Boggess: Oh, that's so exciting.

[6:50] Kerry Butler: That's what you do. You audition on Broadway. And you did go to college because people are always asking whether they think you should go to college.

[6:55] Sierra Boggess: Did you go to college for the I went to college for musical theater at Millican University in Decatur, Illinois, soybean Capital of the World. Um, it was it's a very small school. It's in the middle of nowhere. I mean, Decatur is literally the middle of nowhere, and I couldn't have loved it more because all I did then was focus on what I was there to do.

[7:15] Sierra Boggess: I was that kid. I was in the practice room all the time. I was always in the dance studio. I was always, always, always working because there was literally nothing else to do. So it's really the only time you can get um a chance to just immerse yourself in that way and play parts you'll never get a chance to play.

[7:34] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[7:34] Sierra Boggess: And find um find your gifts.

[7:37] Kerry Butler: Yes, really.

[7:38] Sierra Boggess: Oh, you're being asked to stretch in ways that you wouldn't do if you just came to New York.

[7:42] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[7:43] Sierra Boggess: And you're not distracted by, I mean, like, and to be honest, I mean, I auditioned for big schools too, because at 18, 17 years old, I was like, I just gotta do whatever it is. But I'm so glad that I didn't get those schools.

[7:58] Kerry Butler: Listen to that, everyone.

[7:59] Sierra Boggess: Yeah. She didn't get the schools that she wanted to get, and she still got made on Broadway. Because you know, people get so depressed when they don't get into the school they want.

[8:07] Kerry Butler: Oh, yes.

[8:08] Sierra Boggess: And I talk about this all, and one of them was CCM. And I just recently did like a masterclass panel with a bunch of seniors from CCM, and I started and they're all nervous, you know, to meet me and stuff. And I was like, I'm just gonna start by saying I didn't get into the school that all y'all just went to. So you're already like leaps and bounds.

[8:28] Kerry Butler: But I was too intimidated at 17, and you know, people think this all the time about performers, don't they? That we're so outgoing and we're just like all extroverts and stuff. And I am an extrovert, but I'm like an introvert of that shirt.

[8:40] Sierra Boggess: Yes.

[8:40] Kerry Butler: Me too. That's why we have to. You have to put it on.

[8:42] Sierra Boggess: Yes, ma'am.

[8:42] Kerry Butler: But then I need my downtime.

[8:44] Sierra Boggess: I do too. And I was so intimidated when I was a kid. I was so I never thought, and even throughout, even now, even now you check yourself of like, when are they gonna find out? I have no idea what I'm doing. I get nervous at the stage door.

[9:02] Kerry Butler: Wow, that's what they're touching me because all I'm saying is thank you know. I can't think of anything else to say right now.

[9:09] Sierra Boggess: It's like they're nervous to meet me and I am nervous and an autograph.

[9:13] Kerry Butler: Yeah, because aren't you still the kid that is the one waiting for the autographs? And I have all these pictures of people where I waited at me's door and I was and the pictures are of someone else taking a picture of me just like standing there, like I wasn't even like, may I have your autograph? I was I just stood there. Like I was the one who stood there.

[9:32] Sierra Boggess: You are too afraid to say that.

[9:33] Kerry Butler: I have so many pictures. I should do like a thing on Insta about it.

[9:37] Sierra Boggess: That's funny.

[9:39] Kerry Butler: So our show is about for young people trying to make it on Broadway. And um, you know, we like to keep it real.

[9:47] Sierra Boggess: Yeah.

[9:48] Kerry Butler: And it's very difficult, I mean, almost impossible to constantly be in a Broadway show on Broadway if you're going to have a career. It is possible to have a career as a working actress.

[10:00] Sierra Boggess: Yes.

[10:00] Kerry Butler: And so we have to fill, we have to branch out as much as we can. So today's topic is about concert work. And you do a lot of concert work.

[10:07] Sierra Boggess: Yes.

[10:10] Kerry Butler: Did you do it before you were Sierra Boggess or after?

[10:15] Sierra Boggess: After. I did it after, but I talked to a lot of people who haven't made their Broadway debuts yet or are like, there's something inside of me that I want to sing about, but I'm afraid to do it because they think that they can't if they don't have a name attached to them. And that's a whole that's a whole separate thing. And to that I say, you must do it. Because the truth is it's exactly what you're saying. It's um it's no, you can't consistently be in a Broadway show, or you can, but that's a thing. I mean, you gotta very unless you're in a show that runs like 12 years.

[10:47] Kerry Butler: That's right.

[10:48] Sierra Boggess: Yes, it's it's not it's just very unlikely. It's very unlikely. You would be crazy lucky to have consistent career every single year. I mean, I've gone like five years without being on Broadway. I'm sure you've had breaks too.

[11:01] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[11:02] Sierra Boggess: Oh, I'm in a break. I can't, I can't get on Broadway, Kerry Butler. I can't get on Broadway.

[11:05] Kerry Butler: But I'm doing, yes, but um, when I first got asked to do my solo show, my own solo show, it was when I was doing Phantom on Broadway. And it what's crazy, what happens to you is you go back to that place of what we were just talking about, which is oh my god, like nobody is gonna gonna want to see this. I'm being asked to play myself. Do you know what I mean? I'm being as opposed to we're trained to play characters, all my training is in all that stuff. So I know how to do that, and I know that the audience loves me when I'm on stage doing a character, you know, that they love and know. So now I'm being asked to be myself authentically. And I'm like, oh god, um, no one wants to see that.

[11:51] Sierra Boggess: So I had a whole come to Jesus about it because I was like, what am I gonna do? And all this, and um what I realized is I can't. I Sierra in my legit authenticity of self and in my meditative state of like, who am I and what do I want to talk about? I can't get up here and be like, first I did this, and now here's the song. And this song is from 1960. Like, that's not Sierra. I wouldn't, I don't know what that is. So I got very clear on what I wanted my message to be about. And one of my favorite things and like a mantra before I go on is get off yourself and get on the other. Which is how can I serve as opposed to what can I get? So once I came at it from a place of how may I serve? What do what do you guys need to hear? As opposed to what do I need out of this? And it's just this mindset shift. You do know am I speaking your language?

[12:45] Kerry Butler: Okay.

[12:46] Sierra Boggess: And so once I did that, I wrote down the list of songs that I know people expect from me. So they're gonna want mermaid, they're gonna want Phantom, they're gonna want some a lot of Andrew and whatever. And so from that, I look at this list and I come up with oh, how does this message of actually the message is we're not what we do and we're not what we have, and we're not what other people think of us, Wayne Dyer. It's like, yes, and so it's like this is by the way, why we bonded, Kerry Butler. Duh. Um, we knew, like when we met, we were like, oh, my sis. Uh-huh. That that's it. Because we speak the same language, you know, this like it's it's more than just like, here's my resume. Um, and so once I got clear on that, then I it became addicting to do my own concert to be myself on stage, and I couldn't get enough of like, oh, this is so this is heaven, like just getting to stand up here, sing sing the songs that you want to hear, and and help you like here's a message, here's some maybe inspiration or something. So now it's my favorite like day job.

[13:51] Kerry Butler: Wow.

[13:52] Sierra Boggess: Yeah. I started this podcast because um I was reading a Mr. Rogers book, and you know, his quote is to be a helper. And so this is the question that I get asked all the time on my Instagram. Um, how do I make it in the business? And so many people are so like they have no idea because they're like you have, and it's you really have to come here with knowledge.

[14:13] Kerry Butler: Yes, and the more knowledge we have. So that's why I started this.

[14:18] Sierra Boggess: That's amazing. Now, what do you think?

[14:20] Kerry Butler: I think people just starting out can do concerts. There's 54 Below, there's Don't Tell Mama. And there's places all over you could do it where wherever you live.

[14:31] Sierra Boggess: Yeah.

[14:31] Kerry Butler: Just do a cabaret.

[14:32] Sierra Boggess: Yep.

[14:33] Kerry Butler: And you never know what could happen from doing that.

[14:36] Sierra Boggess: Yes. And I think for people just starting out who maybe don't have connections of like, oh, but no one like important will come. That's that's all relative. That's not the most important thing. What is important is you for some reason you have this message inside you, you have this reason that you want to sing. Yeah, you have a story. Your life story, like something that happened to you.

[14:57] Sierra Boggess: And just get in front of people and sing that and tell that and practice that because that applies to every aspect of your life. And if you're on purpose, and if that's part of the way that your purpose gets out there and that you feel alive, then you've got to do it. And it doesn't matter who's there.

[15:16] Kerry Butler: Yeah.

[15:17] Sierra Boggess: It doesn't matter. And I'm sorry, but rent a practice room and do your own concert for yourself. You know what? And the amount of times I used to do concerts in front of my stuffed animals, and I'm talking about as an adult. It's like, you know, and that gets me nervous enough. It's like their little beady eyes watching me judging me because they've loved me since I was a kid, and I don't want to let them down. I love you. And they're like, we didn't buy a ticket, so you better be good. You know what I mean? It's like we slept in your bed. You better be good. And every time you do it, you just keep getting better, whether it's five people or 150 people.

[15:58] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[15:58] Sierra Boggess: That's it. Um, do you know how people can get a start in doing concert? Because there's all different kinds of concert work too.

[16:05] Kerry Butler: Yeah.

[16:05] Sierra Boggess: Um you have an agent that that's I have an agent now, but I didn't at first. Um I mean I had an agent, but now I have a concert agent.

[16:14] Kerry Butler: What is that?

[16:14] Sierra Boggess: Um, and she's so her job is she literally knows everything about venue concert venues, places that do this, and bring people like us in, and you have to they look at like your website and like all these things that you have to do. Um, but she knows like how to negotiate all that stuff and all these things.

[16:32] Kerry Butler: So that's fancy.

[16:33] Sierra Boggess: Right. But I've only just um started doing that. The first concert that I did was it's just word of mouth. It's people, people I guess by you doing your work authentically on stage, people are like, oh, I think that I'd want to know like more about that, or people would want to like listen to that or something. So I guess for people just starting out, it's everything that we're saying. You just you just get up and you sing wherever it is, and also I believe in saying yes to almost everything.

[17:01] Kerry Butler: Me too.

[17:02] Sierra Boggess: Yes. And then you can then you can decide. That's like, oh no, maybe not this, like, you know, later. But at the start of when I graduated, I said yes to everything. And it didn't matter if they were paying me no dollars or a hundred dollars or whatever. I just you just show up.

[17:21] Kerry Butler: Yeah, I think.

[17:21] Sierra Boggess: Yep. Um something that happened to me, I think this applies now. Tell me if I'm going off track. But in 2017, for some reason, 2017 was like this really difficult year. And if you reflect on it, maybe it was for you as well. But I was just having a crazy year, personally, professionally. It was like I just couldn't get, couldn't it couldn't land anything. Everything was going wrong. And I literally woke up one day and I was so deeply sad. And I knew something was wrong because I don't wake up deeply sad usually. But I was like, what's the point? And I literally Googled, like, what's the point of this life? Like, what's the do you know what I mean? Like those days where you're just like, I don't get it.

Like, what's the joke? Like, what am I supposed to be doing? And I found this TED talk, and I can never remember this guy's name, but he said, find your life's purpose in five questions. And he went down and you answer these five questions. And the first question is who you are, and it's just your name. So the first question, who are you, Sierra? The second question, what do you do? And I'm like, I act and sing. Number three, who do you do it for? I said, the audience, which was weird. I was like, maybe it should be myself. But it was actually the audience, let's be honest. Um, and number four, what do those people need? I said, they need release. Um, I said, and then uh number five, and by you doing what you do, what happens to those people?

And I said, they feel better. And he said, the answer to your question of what's your life purpose is the answer to number five. So, what do you do for a living, Sierra? I help people feel better. Isn't that amazing?

[19:00] Kerry Butler: Yes, and I take the time to say this because I feel like it's the answer of like, how do you get started? Get in touch with your purpose. And notice that the answer isn't the only out of those five questions, there's only two about yourself, your name and what you do. The rest is about the other. Get off yourself. So it all, and I was like, oh my God. I was like losing my mind. It's like, as long as I'm on purpose, so that's whether I'm on stage in a show, whether I'm concerting, whether I'm doing this, it's all under the purpose of I want people to feel better. So instead of answering the question of what do you do when you've just graduated and you're trying to get your start, even if you're working at Trader Joe's as your day job, if your purpose is to help people feel better, you better make sure that you're on purpose while you're at Trader Joe's.

[19:49] Sierra Boggess: That's right.

[19:49] Kerry Butler: Do you know what I mean?

[19:50] Sierra Boggess: Yes, 100%. So all of this is if you're on purpose and you're just then you're doing exactly what you're there to do, and you don't get so sad that you're not on stage like when you want to.

[20:00] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[20:00] Sierra Boggess: You know what I mean?

[20:01] Kerry Butler: Yes, because your identity is so wrapped up in what show you're doing.

[20:04] Sierra Boggess: Yes.

[20:05] Kerry Butler: And so many actors get depressed about that.

[20:07] Sierra Boggess: Yes.

[20:08] Kerry Butler: And it's just it just ain't so.

[20:10] Sierra Boggess: Yeah. And I sometimes think my purpose is what I do backstage.

[20:15] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[20:16] Sierra Boggess: Because so many, so many people that do this, they bring so much joy to people, but they're filled with darkness.

[20:24] Kerry Butler: And very depressed.

[20:26] Sierra Boggess: Yep. And so I'm bringing energy. I play with people backstage and just try and be a light for people backstage.

[20:34] Kerry Butler: Yep.

[20:35] Sierra Boggess: And I've often thought maybe that's why I'm here. You know, yes, what I'm doing on stage is important, but also what I'm doing backstage is important.

[20:41] Kerry Butler: No question, because you know, and I always say too, there's a difference between being a star and between being a leading lady or a leading man, and you're a leading lady. You are like leading, like, think about like a star in in like the physical starness of it, in order for it to shine so bright, everything else has to be dark around it. So you know that you can be like a star, the star on stage, but you didn't see anybody else. There wasn't a team. Whereas a true leading lady, a leading man is bringing everybody, you're checking in, you're making sure that everybody's on the team with you, and that we're all doing this together, though you're the one that's you know, that might be the title of the show or whatever it is. And that's what's up. Like you're that's why you're a leading lady. And it's like that's that's more interesting, I think.

[21:27] Sierra Boggess: Uh-huh.

[21:27] Kerry Butler: You know, because it is a team, and like that's how we started talking about this is the team effort and the community aspect and all that kind of stuff.

[21:36] Sierra Boggess: What has helped you stay so positive in those dark times?

[21:40] Sierra Boggess: Brene Brown.

[21:41] Kerry Butler: Oh, yes.

[21:43] Sierra Boggess: If y'all don't know who Brene Brown is, I'm telling you right now. People like that. So things that help me stay positive. I Brene Brown is an she's an author, but she's like a she's the a vulnerability researcher, or what I I mean, it's just like the craziest, like coolest job in the whole world. And um, I found her language, I found Wayne Dyer's language, um, all these different people that's just like that have much more wisdom than I do. And I'm very visual. So reading um their words or just listening to them like for free on YouTube, you know, like conferences or whatever. Um, my community, my people, I can't do this alone. I cannot, and I wouldn't want to. So it's it's the people that I surround myself with, making sure that I have time with my friends, where you get out of your head and and talk to them.

Um, meditation and yoga, I'm the big like I can't do anything without a yoga situation, um, and meditating. Um, nature, because I'm from Colorado, so if ever I can't get myself in the place I need to be, I get out in nature, I get into Central Park, or you know, in New York, it's and or or to to the river, whatever it is, because I feel like all our answers are in nature. So those things that help keep me centered and clear, or or just listen to some Barbara Streisand.

[23:04] Kerry Butler: I am the same.

[23:05] Sierra Boggess: I am all the same things, except what about Oprah Super Soul Podcasts?

[23:10] Kerry Butler: Oh, girl.

[23:11] Sierra Boggess: Super Soul Sunday. That's how if there's anybody that's like, oh my God, that's what it is. And that's that's my like ultimate dream is I just want to sit down on Super Soul Sunday.

[23:22] Kerry Butler: Let's make that happen.

[23:23] Sierra Boggess: Yes, let's see. Okay, and so now you also have your cards.

[23:26] Sierra Boggess: Oh yeah, light lessons.

[23:28] Kerry Butler: Light lessons.

[23:28] Sierra Boggess: Um something that I to help me when I was on stage, I used to like pull a word and focus on that word, and and that would be the thing. Because as you know, doing eight shows a week, you can come in and you have all this life stuff going on, and you just need to get focused and to uh to shift down to maybe one thing um that you can focus on while you're on stage. And so um I developed this thing called light lessons, and you pull one card, there's 20 different words or phrases in there, and it's the word that you focus on if you're in a show for your show, or in life, I pull one um like today. I pulled one strangely, it was listen, but I'm talking so much. But I'm listening.

[24:07] Kerry Butler: No, you're listening.

[24:09] Sierra Boggess: But you're listening. Um, and uh so yeah, and you can buy them on my website, sieraboggess.com. And we are gonna talk about um the concerts more because there are ways for people without a name to do this whole concert um circuit. Uh we both haven't done it, but I'm gonna have somebody on to talk about that. And but what are some of the skills that you think um people need to do concerts?

[24:33] Sierra Boggess: The like the symphony kinds of concerts. You have to learn the music super fast, right?

[24:36] Kerry Butler: You do, but I also I mean, I'm such a person that's like I gotta be in the work. So I'm always learning music. And I'm I'm also like trying to get ahead of the game of like um what songs would people expect me to sing or want like recently I just got asked to do a symphony concert that's like all Andrew Lloyd Weber. Well, I've been I'm like, oh fine, and I'm like, oh god, I haven't sung like anything outside of what I've been doing for Andrew in so long that I need to start learning those songs. So you do have time, and a lot of times I will say this for those of you who do get into symphony work, they actually book so far in advance more than Broadway. You know, our schedules change in like a second, but we tend to with Symphony concerts, I booked things that aren't until 2021 or sometimes 2022. Because they with their symphony season, they want to get that in the program and stuff. So you actually have more time unless you're replacing someone real quick.

[25:34] Kerry Butler: Okay.

[25:35] Sierra Boggess: So I guess the answer is just be learning music all the time. Because if that's what you're doing, anyways, like, don't you want to just sing everything?

[25:42] Kerry Butler: I do.

[25:43] Sierra Boggess: Is there anything that you wish you knew when you started that you know now?

[25:48] Kerry Butler: Um yes, everything.

[25:54] Sierra Boggess: I wish that I knew that um I wish I had known earlier that who I am is enough. And coming from that place, um that's why my war cry is to everybody, you are enough. And if you're coming from that place, instead of trying to um trying to fit in what you think that other people are expecting, and one of my new favorite things to say to everybody who is trying who's just starting out is you have a superpower that you don't even realize that you and I don't have, which is nobody has an expectation of you. So you get to tell us, the world, who you are, whereas people have have expectation of us now. And so you have this superpower, and it's like Super Mario. Like you get it once. You get that like flying thing once.

And then you can use it once, and then once you've used it, everybody knows who you are and they decide. But so know that. That's like, okay, so I'm enough, and I go in the room, and people don't expect, therefore, you can't do your worst. And you also can't do your best because no one knows what that is. So you don't have to, you don't have to feel like um you can you can feel like I got something, I got this like this awesome armor that I take in with me. Nobody expects anything of me yet because I haven't got to tell you who I am. I think that's cool, right?

[27:26] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[27:27] Sierra Boggess: Um tell everybody all of your, I love your Instagram, just like you're here, Sierra. Sierra. She's so beautiful on the inside and outside. So you should follow her on all of the social media because you know, you want you don't want to be following people who make you feel bad.

[27:44] Kerry Butler: That's correct.

[27:45] Sierra Boggess: I say this, this is my homework assignment I give whenever I teach. My homework assignment to everybody is cleanse your feed.

[27:52] Kerry Butler: Yes.

[27:52] Sierra Boggess: And what it is is you go through your feed because just as you have as much, you have control over what you put out there, you also have control of what you take in. So cleanse your feed, go through, and anything that you're following that doesn't bring you joy or inform you, unfollow it. Because you won't always be joyful by the things that inform you because the news isn't always joyful, but you want to stay informed. But if everything else isn't bringing you joy, then why are you following it? And that's so bring in just like what we eat, what we bring into our bodies, it helps us. If we're eating clean, if we're not eating dead things, then we don't feel dead. You know, we feel alive and we feel like we can give our best stuff. And that's the same with we all roll over and we look at that phone and we scroll through that insta. And if there's anything that's like, oh, I just can't, then you gotta unfollow it. Just unfollow it.

[28:43] Kerry Butler: So tell everybody all of your handles.

[28:45] Sierra Boggess: I think it's we're gonna put them on our website too. Yeah, it's mostly Sierra Boggess, but I think I'm official Sierra Boggess or something on Instagram because somebody was like pretending to be me, so I had to put the official.

[28:57] Kerry Butler: So sad.

[28:58] Sierra Boggess: Um, and then my website, SierraBoggess.com. Thank you so much for being with us.

[29:04] Kerry Butler: What a joy!

[29:05] Sierra Boggess: Love this. This was such a treat. Thank you.

[29:24] Kerry Butler: Thank you so much for listening to Breaking Broadway, produced by Broadway Podcast Network. Opening song by Erin Acurso and Joey Mazzarino. If you like this podcast and want to hear more, please like, leave a comment, or share with your friends. See you next time for more insider tips to making it on Broadway. Together, you and I are breaking Broadway.