Out of the Comfort Zone and on to the Stage Part II

Back in February, I wrote a post about stepping out of your comfort zone as being a way to grow and improve as a person. In this post, I say:

Working in customer service is like being on the stage. You have to put your best face on, do your best and perform your best. It’s challenging and can be uncomfortable, but you do it because you want to help others and improve yourself.

I wrote about how I played my first open mic night in over 10 years and ended it with, “I hope to continue this challenge, just for the sake of growing stronger in my life and stepping further and further out of my comfort zone.”

Who knew that this was only the start to a whirlwind of adventures in my musical journey? A lot can happen when you push down the comfort zone blockade!

I was given the opportunity to play six shows at the beautiful Southwind Vineyard in New Jersey. Being the soundtrack while people tasted wine grown off vines right outside the window was pretty great.

I played more open mic nights, including the Philly Rising Open Mic at the fantastic venue, World Cafe Live, in Philadelphia.

Playing this open mic led to a showcase performance with other artists at Lickety Split, a bar in Philadelphia.

I was receiving so much positive energy with my music that I figured it was time to record some songs so I had something to hand out to people upon their request.

I purchased a Groupon deal for 3 hours of recording time at East Coast Recording Studio and had the most amazing experience. In fact, that’s a future blog post all on it’s own. The picture at the top of this post is from my evening of recording. I’ve started putting songs online as well. You can check out the sites below to listen and if you’d like a CD, let me know.

• Grooveshark
• Bandoozi

I was then asked to play a showcase for undiscovered talent in Philly at North Star Bar with the Broad Street Music Group which was an absolutely amazing evening.

I have more shows coming up too! If you’re in the area and interested in seeing me perform, keep in touch by liking my Facebook music page and follow me on Twitter.

So wow, sorry for all the horn tooting, but it’s very cool stuff going on, especially since the whole reason I did it initially was just to step out of my comfort zone.

I step up on the stage, extremely nervous and look out at the crowd. I wonder “WHAT am I doing here?” and wish I could run off the stage because I’m not sure I belong here. I’m not the most wonderful singer nor do my lyrics have the most depth, but when I push myself to start singing and playing, I’m entranced to another realm. And, receiving feedback from people after the performance, telling me that they like what they hear, is great validation. Having the strength within myself to create songs that others hear is extremely powerful. Plus, after a day working in customer service, having an outlet of some sort, outside of the office, is beneficial!

So, I guess I’ll keep going with this. Challenging myself with every performance to improve and be more awesome.

And, I hope you decide to do the same!

[custom_author=jenny]