Rockstar Confidence: #1 Secret to Overcome Stage Fright & Performance Anxiety in Music

What if I told you that there’s just 1 secret to overcome stage fright and performance anxiety? That you could instantly have bulletproof rockstar confidence (even when it seems impossible)? Today’s your lucky day.

Before we tackle this topic, if you want a shortcut to boost your confidence, then build up a wardrobe of rockstar clothes and cool jewelry that convey the confident character that you’d like to become. Full article on just that topic is RIGHT HERE. Fake it till you make it works.

99% of us have been there…

1. you get on stage for a performance…
2. your stomach is full of butterflies…
3. you’re over-analysing every little thing you’re doing…
4. your performance starts to suffer…
5. worst of all, you don’t get to enjoy the thing you love doing!

If you’re reading this article, then you’re most likely in that position right now.

I know what it’s like and it’s damn scary to be in that position. Having a bad experience on stage feels like the end of the world and fills you with doubts about whether you should be performing or not.

This is an absolute travesty because you NEED to share your art with the world.

Don’t just accept performance anxiety as your reality. Don’t keep playing it small and running from this feeling. Life is too precious to waste it feeling like that. If I continued to do that, then I may never have discovered my passion and purpose.

You should not be held back from expressing yourself by that nagging inner voice that tells you to keep small and play it safe.

It used to be this way for me, but not anymore. I discovered one little trick that absolutely DESTROYED any shred of stage fright or performance anxiety.

I’ll also be dishing the dirt on a secret group of supplements that will boost your health, confidence and creativity. 99% of people don’t know about this, so you can rapidly overtake the competition.

I was able to fully overcome stage fright INSTANTLY, and I’m here to share that secret with you today…

The #1 Secret to Overcome Stage Fright & Performance Anxiety in Music – Bulletproof Rockstar-Level Confidence in an INSTANT

Your Anxiety Is Actually Excitement

Yes, you read that heading correctly. Studies have shown that the physical sensations in your body that you experience from anxiety are the same physical sensations as excitement.

• increased heart rate
• butterflies in the stomach
• thoughts whizzing by

These all happen in situations where we’re anxious and in situations where we’re excited. ^[R] Our bodies release the stress hormone cortisol in both situations, which invokes a fight-or-flight response.

Cortisol gets a bad rap because of its association with negative emotions. But cortisol is a part of positive emotions too. It just depends on how you interpret the physical feeling you get from it.

It triggers us into action. When you’re excited, you don’t feel relaxed. Same situation when you’re anxious.

When we experience these feelings, we want to run away from them. But we don’t need to do that even one tiny bit. There’s actually nothing to be afraid of here, and as crazy as it sounds now, you’ll actually cherish those feelings.

These feelings are what push you to new heights. They push you into a state of euphoria on stage. Those feelings create lifelong memories.

I’m going to show you exactly how to feel empowered and in control.

We Put Meaning Onto Physical Sensations – Decide Your Own Meaning

A physical sensation doesn’t have to mean anything. It’s just a physical sensation in our bodies, and it’s neither good nor bad.

We mentally decide to put meaning onto it.

If you have butterflies in your stomach, that doesn’t inherently mean anything. Sure, that physical sensation can be triggered by certain things, but it doesn’t mean anything unless we decide that it does. It’s just a physical feeling.

It’s in this decision-making process that we can choose to either embrace it and use it to our benefit, or we can put a negative connotation on it and let it control us.

I’ve seen this first-hand with my bandmates. Before shows, they get really nervous and anxious about performing, whereas I’m usually hanging out at the bar watching the support bands, just dying for the time to hurry up so I can get on stage. We are all experiencing the same physical feelings, but I use them to my advantage.

It can be hard to grasp this fact if you’ve never done it, but YOU have the power to decide what emotion to attach to a physical sensation. Even if only for a split second, you CAN catch yourself doing this and shift it towards a positive interpretation.

Most of us are just so used to allowing our mind to run freely on auto-pilot and dictate how we’re feeling, and often it doesn’t run towards positivity. If you have little awareness of your thought processes and tendencies then it can be hard to catch it. This is an incredibly disempowering position to be in.

If it seems hard to you right now, the good news is that we can train ourselves to do this, and we can train ourselves FAST.

How I Overcame Stage Fright

If you saw me performing now, you’d probably never believe I ever had to overcome stage fright. I hurl myself around on stage and get lost in the music. There’s no analytical, thinking part of my brain involved. It’s like something else takes over and I feel truly free. I live for playing shows.

“You’re just a natural”, you’d say. “You’ve just never experienced anxiety”. Well, guess what? I have. For YEARS.

I also used to dread the thought of performing in front of people. It felt like death counting down the days until a performance. I hated it at school (school concert performances were the worst!). I even hated people just watching me play guitar.

I hated it so much that I never believed that I would be a performing musician. I dedicated myself to just recording music in the studio, never even considering playing shows.

Then I went to music school and was forced into performing in front of people. I was terrified at first. I had to audition to get in and was stressed out of my mind the whole entire time. In spite of this, I still did well and passed the audition.

First semester, we had a performance night at a live music venue and this was my first proper experience on an actual stage. I was nervous as hell, but I experienced a high that I hadn’t before. It was like an out-of-body experience as some other force took over.

But simultaneously, I was still terrified. It felt like a really intense experience, and I was pulled in two different directions.

One part was stressed the whole entire time, and another part had a glimpse of how amazing performing can be.

My Game-Changing Discovery

A little while later I became aware of the studies that had shown anxiety and excitement are the same bodily experience, and just awareness of this knowledge alone was the cure.

I had my first win when I was able to begin busking. This was WAY outside of my comfort zone, but I was able to use this knowledge to overcome my performance anxiety and play my music for strangers.

A while later, I started performing with my first band and I vividly remember feeling nervous before our first performance. I was able to interrupt that auto-pilot stream of thoughts and tell myself that I was actually excited.

And you know what? Once I did this, I realised it to be totally true. You will too.

I got up there with a sense of freedom that I never had before. I didn’t try to block any of the physical sensations I was experiencing, and instead, I allowed them to completely consume me and carry me to new heights.

I embraced my former anxiety 100% and turned it into excitement.

That night was the discovery that performing live is so exhilarating and satisfying, to the point that I can never get enough of it now. A year prior, I would have been terrified.

Now every performance is a joy. Anxiety is non-existent. Excitement flows through me. The physical sensations I experience are EXACTLY the same as what I’ve always had – I just interpret them differently, so now they feel good.

No running away from them needed.

So How Do I Use This to Overcome Stage Fright Practically?

It’s one thing to understand this on an intellectual level, but it’s another to actually put it into practice. What we need to do is reframe 0ur thoughts before a performance.

Like I said before, awareness of this fact alone is often the cure to overcome stage fright, and a lot of you will get instant results by simply reminding yourself.

However, some of you may need a bit of extra assistance to get some initial momentum before it just effortlessly happens (and it will if you’re consistent).

• Any time we have a thought that tells us we’re nervous or anxious or stressed prior to a show, we need to reframe that into a positive

• AS SOON as you notice an emotional reaction to thinking about the performance, IMMEDIATELY tell yourself that you’re excited

“I can’t wait to get on stage! I’m so excited that I’m getting an adrenaline rush just thinking about it. I’ve been waiting for weeks and now I finally get to go up there, share my art with the world and have fun.”

Yeah I know, it might feel phony at first, but with enough repetition you will begin to understand that it’s actually real.

You ARE excited! You’ve worked hard on your art and you finally have the chance to make your mark on the world.

Art is a sacred experience and it will live on long after you’re gone. Taking action and reaching your potential as not only an artist, but as a human being as well, makes life so much more meaningful than just a mundane, day-to-day, routine existence.

You’re doing something that other people would kill to have the opportunity to do. You have talent and you’re enriching other people’s lives with it. You’re creating life-long memories and self-actualizing every time you perform. That’s INCREDIBLY exciting.

But What If I Still Can’t Do It? 5 Steps to Reframe Your Thoughts

That’s okay! It can take a bit of time at first. We become so deeply entrenched in patterns of thinking that when we finally say “enough is enough” and try to fight back against it, it can feel difficult.

There is a 5 step process developed by Noah Elkrief that really changed my perspective on emotions. In really difficult situations, this formula has allowed me to feel empowered and back in charge again.

Use this formula in every area of your life and you’ll naturally find it easier to overcome stage fright and get in the right frame of mind when performing. It will become automatic.

Step 1 – Pick an Emotion You Want to Let Go Of

Be specific too. For a musical performance, it could be “I feel fear that something bad will happen during the show. I’m scared that I’ll play a wrong note and people will judge me.”

Step 2 – Identify the Deeper Thoughts Behind That Emotion

Look into your thought process surrounding the emotion here. Don’t just stay on the surface of the issue. The deeper you can go here, the better.

For example:

1. If I make a mistake and perform poorly, then that means that I’m a bad musician...
   
2. If I’m a bad musician, then I’m not good enough as an artist...
   
3. If I’m not good enough as an artist, then I feel as though I’m not good enough as a person...
   
4. I am fearful that the audience will decide that I’m a bad musician, which will make me feel that I am not good enough as a person
   

These things can be so much deeper than we initially realise, and it often goes back to things from our childhood. That’s way beyond the scope of this article (therapy is an amazing tool that everyone can benefit from), but trace it back as far as you can to actually address the root of the issue to then overcome stage fright.

Step 3 – Recognise That Your Emotion Has Been Caused by Your Own Thoughts & Assumptions

This is where we start unravelling it. Things can get a little trickier here, so don’t stress if your head starts spinning a bit! Just have an open mind.

Notice that just by thinking about the scenario of a bad performance playing out, you have a physical reaction to it. You feel tense and stressed out.

But also realise that nothing is actually happening to you in that moment. You’re most likely just hanging out at home, or maybe in bed trying to fall asleep the night before.

You’re not experiencing the situation yet, but you’re feeling the same sorts of things that you expect that you will when you’re actually on stage.

Because of this, we can see that our emotion on this topic is caused by our thoughts ABOUT the scenario. This means that it’s NOT the external scenario itself, but an internal thought process interpreting it as “bad” that’s causing it.

This includes when you’re in the actual situation. It’s your thoughts creating a story about the on-stage experience being “bad”. But your performance on stage is just a thing you’re doing – it’s not inherently good or bad.

There’s something else involved in creating that reaction in you, and it’s not the scenario that’s playing out. It’s your thoughts and your own personal internal reaction to what is actually a neutral circumstance (it’s not good or bad, it’s just a thing happening).

If you had different thoughts about the situation (e.g. that making a mistake on stage is normal and doesn’t matter, and that you even find it funny when it does happen), then you would have an entirely different emotional reaction. Your thoughts would create positive emotions in that situation.

Two different people having the exact same situation occur, but having entirely different emotional reactions. Sounds like it’s something to do with what’s going on internally.

It’s thoughts that are the cause of negative emotions here.

Step 4 – Discover That You Don’t Know if Your Thoughts Are Actually True

If our thoughts are the obstacle in the way of feeling empowered, then we need to disbelieve these thoughts to free ourselves.

Can you be factually sure that a “bad” performance means all the things that you think it does? If your anxiety about the performance is also about being “good enough”, then what does “good enough” even mean?

Is “good enough” a factual thing that exists in the real world (can you hold or see “good enough”?), or is it just an opinion, concept or an idea about something?

You’ll find that it’s a conceptual idea that doesn’t factually exist.

If it doesn’t factually exist, then how can your thought about not being good enough be factually true? Why is a musical performance even related to a totally abstract idea that you have about yourself?

It’s just a perspective that YOU and you ALONE have. You don’t know what other people are thinking, and there’s no way to factually prove that the audience thinks you’re a bad musician just because of a mistake.

Recognise that the opposite of your thought can be true too.

Maybe they actually LIKE seeing a musician make a mistake, because it’s a relatable and human thing to do. People like punk music because it isn’t polished and perfect. Many musicians in punk bands can barely play their instruments. They make constant mistakes, yet people love this music.

There’s nothing that factually exists that proves that making a mistake is “bad”. It’s just a perspective YOU have.

The audience may find your mistakes endearing and actually like you MORE as a result. This perspective is just as valid and true as your negative perspective about the same situation.

You literally have no idea what someone is actually thinking, and it’s borderline arrogant to assume that you do know.

Your thought couldn’t possibly be factually true when you look at it for what it is. By extension, your idea of not being “good enough” is also NOT true either.

Step 5 – Let Go of the Thought

We can get trapped in these negative spirals, but we have to consciously let go of the thought at this point. We can see that the thought is just a perspective and not the actual facts, therefore we don’t need to give it power anymore.

Can you let go of this negative thought? If you can, then congrats! Job done. But it can be hard to do that sometimes.

We can even unconsciously get addicted to thinking a certain way, either because we’re just so used to thinking that way, or by convincing ourselves that we need to keep thinking this way. This doesn’t serve us.

What’s stopping you?

Maybe you feel like you need stress and anxiety before a performance in order to perform well. I’ve heard this one a fair bit from other musicians. Supposedly it makes them put more effort in.

This is categorically untrue because, as we’ve discussed, if you’re excited then you’re feeling the same physical sensations as when you’re anxious.

The feeling that pushes you to perform better will still be there! You have the same level of focus and presence, but you’re responding to the same stimuli in a positive way instead.

These feelings cause us to respond to them in different ways.

• we can react positively (e.g. singing a note with extra oomph and confidence from the excitement)
• or we can react negatively (e.g. our throat tenses up and we can’t hit the note from the anxiety)

You will perform so much better if you’re not doubting yourself in the moment and making assumptions about what other people are thinking.

And most of all, you’ll actually be LESS likely to even make a mistake and create the circumstance that you’re fearing because you will be less tense.

Why hold on to that anxiety (as if it’s helpful) when it’s actually going to lead to worse outcomes? Just let it go. You don’t need it anymore.

This Will Change Your Whole Life

Once you use this to overcome stage fright, you can apply it to any situation that comes up where you feel like you are being held back by your emotions.

Any fears and doubts, whether it’s about performing, or even just something as simple as striking up a conversation with someone at a show, will dissipate over time.

• You will be less dictated by a shoddy thought process that doesn’t want you to step outside of your comfort zone and grow

• You will feel more comfortable and at ease on stage, and you will love every opportunity you get to perform

I’m not kidding when I say this changed my whole entire life. I’ve accomplished so much more since discovering this, and I throw myself into my work fully, because I’m not held back by anxiety.

I knew going into that first show with my new band that I needed to tackle this thing head-on and set the tone for myself. I was going to be performing live constantly, so if I didn’t do that from the get-go then it would be an uphill battle.

It’s never too late to start though, and you can start rewriting the ideas you have about yourself and about performing immediately.

Bonus Confidence Boosting Tips

Just using the advice I’ve given you alone will be more than enough to start feeling empowered right away. But there are a few other things that you can do to amplify those good feelings and feel even more confident.

1. Take Mind Lab Pro + Maca Powder

I go into great detail about these miracle supplements in my creativity-boosting supplements article. They’re amazing for creativity, but even more amazing for boosting your confidence.

Mind Lab Pro

Mind Lab Pro is a “universal nootropic” for creativity. Essentially it is a super-supplement, containing 11 different 100% natural safe ingredients that fuse together to create a powerful impact on your confidence levels.

This stuff has absolutely changed my life. Read my full report on how exactly it has improved my quality of life in my full Mind Lab Pro review right here.

I’m so much more confident and in command of where my life is going after 6 months of this amazing stuff. My creativity flows with ease and everything in my mind feels crystal clear. It really feels like a cheat code for life.

When you take this stuff, your mood and wellbeing get a huge lift. You’ll feel happier and more confident. You’ll be relaxed before big events. Your stage fright will vanish.

Kick your stage fright in the butt by grabbing some right here.

Maca Powder

Maca is a root vegetable that’s grown at high altitudes in Peru (in the Andes mountain ranges). Taking the powdered form of maca has scientifically been proven to…

• kick depression and anxiety in the butt ^[R]
• boost your mood ^[R]
• increase your energy ^[R]
• improve your memory and overall brain function ^[R]

All of these things combine to deliver a big confidence boost for you and help you overcome stage fright without much effort on your end at all (all you have to do is drink it with some liquid and you get the benefits).

Maca is also:

• 100% natural
• legal
• scientifically proven to be safe (it’s also been safely used for centuries in Peru) ^[R]
• has no side effects for 99% of people (the 1% that should avoid this are people with thyroid problems – the other 99% of you, don’t sleep on maca!)

Having taken maca powder for years now, it was a night and day difference in the quality of my life. I became way more driven and confident. I had a fire lit inside of me that just doesn’t ever go out.

This will change your life in every single way, and it will allow you to enjoy performing live even more. Your self-esteem and self-belief will skyrocket.

You want to get good quality maca because there’s some crappy ones out there (as I’ve experienced). Get a good one like this one right here and you’ll start seeing good results between 1-3 weeks of taking it every day (it has to build up in your system first).

Start with 1 teaspoon and slowly build up to about 3-4 for best results. I like to put an extra teaspoon or two in on the day I have a show for a little extra kick that night (and this is safe to do so).

You’ll be tearing up the stage and leaving your mark on the music world in no time!

2. Get Physical on Performance Day

Moving your body around is a fantastic way to get the good endorphins flowing and get your inner game on point before a big performance.

It’ll take you out of your head, and males will get a nice boost of testosterone flowing through their body to boost that confidence.

It also helps a lot to stretch before a performance (or do foam rolling). This gets you nice and loose and energy starts flowing through your body with ease.

Pick whatever physical activity you like to do and do it in the late morning/early afternoon (assuming you’re performing at night).

Lift weights. Go for a run. Dance. Whatever you like. Just make sure it’s something that gets your heart rate up and gets you a little out of breath.

• Important note though: don’t overdo it. If you do, you’ll be tired when you go to perform. I’ve experienced this first-hand. You have to find the sweet spot of pushing yourself a bit, but not burning up all your energy. Don’t go trying to set new personal records or running marathons or anything like that (do that on a different day). Just do something that gets the blood pumping for 20-30 minutes.

I feel a huge difference whenever I manage to do this before a show. I feel looser, more present, and significantly more confident. It gets me out of my head and into a flow.

3. Meditate Meditate Meditate!

Meditation is seriously unbelievable. Everyone should do this regardless of whether you want to overcome stage fright or not.

I truly believe that you can’t reach your fullest potential in life unless you have a consistent meditation habit. My life became dramatically better when I started making it a part of my life.

Meditation will make all the other steps significantly easier. You’ll get deep insights about who you are and your thought processes.

You won’t have to wrestle with your thoughts and emotions all the time, because you’ll see them for what they truly are and decide if they’re valid or just patterns of reactions related to something else.

Side note: the point of this article isn’t to invalidate emotions. Sometimes they’re completely legit, but then sometimes they can be total bullshit. Meditation will help you decipher which ones are legit and which ones aren’t.

Being able to decipher them will allow you to heal the root causes of a lot of your anxieties. You’ll also feel empowered because you’ll catch yourself when you get into negative thought spirals. You’ll be able to disbelieve the thoughts you’re having before they start doing damage, just like we talked about earlier in the 5 steps.

Meditation sessions alone alleviate symptoms of anxiety, as has been proven in countless studies. It’s insanely powerful to say the very least.

Read my guide to getting started with meditation and you’ll suddenly have a life-changing tool under your belt to overcome stage fright and performance anxiety.

In Conclusion

You’ve now got a handful of powerful tools at your disposal, so there’s almost no way you won’t overcome stage fright and performance anxiety if you use them!

These all took me a long, long time to discover, so by simply implementing what I’ve just told you, you’ll save yourself years and dramatically speed up your growth. This will make your performing career, and just your life in general, a joy.

If I didn’t discover these things, then I never would have known that sheer elation that you can get from performing live. Performance anxiety and stage fright completely robs you of that, and trust me when I say this – it’s an enormous loss.

It can feel tricky at first, but humans are very adaptable and there’s a way out. Drum it into your head that you’re excited to perform and you will begin to rewire your brain.

Best of all, once you start having better performances on stage, then you get positive reference experiences to refer back to. These experiences will literally be all the evidence you need to tell your brain to shut up, because you’ll know with 100% certainty that you can be confident on stage.

And at that point, it’s game over for your anxiety. The world is your oyster. Your live performances will be better. You will gain more fans as a result. You will create endless memories. You will reach your full potential and squeeze every drop of juice out of this life you were given.

Congrats! You’ve just overcome stage fright and now you’re conquering life.

Let me know your experience with stage fright/performance anxiety in the comments down below! If you need any further clarification, or have any struggles about this topic that you’re dealing with, then drop any questions down there and I’ll get back to you. You can also catch me on email if you would prefer to ask privately.

Be bold