I used to think the smartest move was keeping pressure low. No familiar faces in the crowd, no awkward eye contact, no chance to bomb in front of people who actually know me. Then I realized that “less pressure” wasn’t protecting my stand-up comedy, it was limiting it. So I’m breaking my own rules and inviting everyone, because the only way to become elite is to learn how to perform when the stakes feel real.
We dig into what that shift looks like in the real world: moving from comfortable reps to moments that demand focus, timing, and trust in your material. I talk about why this upcoming show matters for my career as a clean comedian and why private and corporate gigs can create a marketing bottleneck when you don’t own the visuals or can’t build fresh, usable comedy clips. If you’re trying to grow a personal brand, book more shows, or level up your craft, this is the unglamorous truth: you need current proof, not old footage and good intentions.
The mindset comes from jiu-jitsu and deliberate practice. In training, you can start in a worse position on purpose to sharpen technique under stress. I’m applying that exact idea to comedy and promotion: meeting people, swapping contact info, following up, and treating networking like a skill. We also go deeper on procrastination and self-sabotage, and how faith and purpose can push you to stop hiding from the work you feel called to do.
If you’re ready to stop rehearsing your life in private, hit play. Then subscribe, share this with a friend who’s been playing it safe, and leave a review with the pressure you need to add next.
Pressure makes diamonds. You know, I have been doing this thing where purposely I have avoided um having anybody that I know personally, right, uh come to my comedy shows because I felt like in a weird way, uh, if I locked eyes with them, I wouldn't see them as an audience member. Uh, I would see them as someone that I know, like a friend of mine. And I also kind of self-sabotage myself to be able to say it's less pressure. It and maybe I didn't want to uh have them see me fail if I didn't do a good job on stage. But realistically, that's not what makes a champion. A champion isn't just the guy that practices doing free throws on his own time and tries to be the best in practice, but it's that game-winning shot that's gonna get me to my next level, which is why I've chosen to invite everybody that I know, plus everybody that I'm performing for that's a new audience member, to come out to see me Friday, September the 25th at 8 p.m. in Grand Prairie, Texas. It'll be phenomenal. It'll be the best show I ever did. You know, I'm literally breaking all of my rules as far as uh uh pressure, right? As far as um my philosophy to avoid potentially uh things getting worse or thinking that things will get better if um I avoided inviting guys and girls out that I know to come watch me do comedy. Because
number one, I don't like to necessarily ask anybody for uh money to come to a show, but respectively, if I provide a service, and by the way, this show that I'm doing uh in a few weeks on the 25th of Friday uh of September on Friday, um it's it's more than just that, you see, because all the shows that I've done have been primarily corporate shows or private shows, and I don't own the images in the background, and I cannot be able to uh advertise myself as a clean comedian if I don't have clean comedy. And I've been doing clean comedy for over a year now, more than that, probably two, but anyway. And all of the material that I have is older, uh out-of-date clips. So all of my career advancing as far as stand-up comedy goes has been kind of coming to like a bottleneck to this exact moment. And just like a bottle, a champagne bottle specifically, right? The more that you shake it, the more pressure it gets. And I can't wait to just perform. Um, you know, it in some weird way, like I don't mind talking about failures because that means that I learn from them. Uh, I don't mind talking about successes. It's harder to learn in a successful moment than it is in a failed moment. But I am a big believer that uh uh failing to prepare means that you're preparing to fail, which is a very common expression, okay. Um at no point ever, ever before did I invite such important individuals that I haven't met, plus um friends of mine, friends of their friends, and put myself in such a pressure style situation to where I had to make that game-winning shot than I am now. But in a weird way, I truly believe in like my hyper focus, my ability to be in the moment. And realistically, like when you trained jujitsu, if you're a smaller guy with more
experience going against uh a bigger guy that's heavier and maybe stronger or whatever, right, with a lot less experience, you can always add difficulty. And I have been failing. I've been failing to add difficulty to my performances. Uh, and I could do that by uh in exact way in jiu-jitsu, I could start out from the bottom and have a guy that's heavier, bigger, taller, stronger, whatever, more leverage right on top with less experience and rely on my technique. So taking lessons and taking um uh a point of view, right, that I do in jiu-jitsu, which is adding difficulty to me on purpose, all right, to make me better. I have not been doing that in my comedy. So again, train jujitsu, things are gonna come around full swing, and you'll end up right back where you started, but with a different point of view to be able to have you prepare, dominate, and execute. This is such a a big deal for me, not just to do this show, not just to do this show, but now that I consider myself as a promoter, prior episode, right, that promotes my stand-up comedy and I'm the one that perform that performs it, the way that I see things is completely different because everywhere that I go, I love, I think that uh Grant Cardome, multi-billionaire,
check him out, Grant Cardome, right? He has one phrase, he has many phrases, but he's a great, great uh business guy, but he's really philosophical in the way that he presents his information. One of the things that he says is that contacts make contracts, and you're dang right. Okay, because now everybody that I meet, I'm advertising myself, okay? I'm leaving their contact information, I'm giving mine, okay, and I'm inviting them to my show. Inviting them to my show. All of my shows. When? The next one. How often? All the time. And I am doing, I am more successful now as a promoter for myself because I'm the only one that's my own cheerleader, right? I'm the only one that's going to get me to that next step. You can't, if I were to have a team that were to advertise for me, I could rely on them. But I have to be my own boss, which is another great lesson that I learned in a book called, uh I'm pretty sure it's called Read Your Mind. And it's by O's Pearlman. It's a great mentalist, uh, possibly the best mentalist, uh, maybe ever, I think. Uh possibly so. But my point is, is that I'm in my car. That's a sound of a green light when uh my car sees it anyway. Um, but what I'm trying to get to is that um I feel like this is something that's not just noteworthy, but it's a permanent addition. It's a permanent addition to make me better as a stand-up comedian, but also realize that at any point, in the exact way that you lift weights, you get stronger by lifting heavier weights. When something gets too easy, you can always add difficulty to it. And that is something that I have purposely avoided for any number
of reasons. And I am admitting to all of them that I can possibly agree to. I might even say some stuff it's not true as far as the reasons why. I'm not really sure if it had to do with me failing. Uh consciously, subconsciously, maybe, you know. Um would I ever want to fail in front of anybody that I know? No. Does it add more a degree of pressure? Absolutely, and that's what I need. So, in addition to constantly, always rehearsing and constantly, always performing, okay, rehearsing by myself, performing in front of others, okay. In order to be great, you've got to make that game-winning shot. You got to make that game-winning shot when it counts most, because that's what separates champions from players, from participators, spectators, the whole line, right? The only way I can be elite is by knowing that I can have pressure on the line and always perform. And I cannot wait, I cannot wait to thrive on that test because now that I now that I see that is a weakness, I'm gonna make that into my next strength. And I'm gonna start inviting everybody out to all of my comedy shows. Okay, if they're busy, they're busy. If they're not, they're not, right? But whereas before I purposely did not invite anybody, I'm inviting everybody. Adding difficulty to yourself, to myself, is what makes you a champion. It's what will take you to the next level. Okay. This can be seen in
all walks of life. If you compete, uh if you love jujitsu and you want to compete, well, look at all the different ways and reasons, etc., that you would not want to compete. You winning is not one of them, right? So pick one combination or all of them and realize that this is something that you're passionate for, okay, that you need to do it. That's part of your purpose. That's kind that's part of the obligation that you have, okay. Um, and I say under God and with God because I truly do believe that when you're passionate about something, that's a gift that God gave you. And he would want there's only one guy, and that's the guy downstairs, if you know what I mean. Uh I don't want to say his name, but you get what I'm saying. The guy, you know, got the Lord upstairs, you got the guy downstairs. But anyway, what I'm getting to is um there's only one guy uh that sees you benefit from not just failing, but you can fail before you even start, or choose not to, right? Procrastination, self-sabotage. There's tons of ways that will keep you away from doing what you have been gifted, what you're passionate about, that God would love for you to be doing. Okay. And you could be part of the reason. It could be self-sabotage, it could be um it could be uh different pressures, okay, such as not wanting to fail um uh in front of somebody that you know, not being judged. Uh, it could be any one, like
I said, a combination or all the above. But the point is, is that if you feel like if you have something you're passionate about, that is an obligation that I have, a gift that I truly believe that I have been given from God, okay, and I'm a Christian, right? And um I feel like God would want me to not just do my best but not be afraid, okay? And um by doing my best, it w it is honoring him, right? And by hesitating and by resisting and procrastinating and putting things off or just not following through, those are all small, tiny wins from the guy downstairs. Because he doesn't want you to succeed in life, he doesn't want you to be doing what you're doing for life. I mean, if you ask yourself this question, if you could live your life, if you had all of all the money that you could possibly need, if there's something that you would still do regardless of the money, maybe even do more of, what would that be? For me, that's stand-up comedy. And it opens up into so much other artistic endeavors. Like I've been writing this, I wrote this screenplay and I'm writing a book, and uh I just need more hours, days, minutes, months, etc., to continue to edit it because the screenplay is done, but the book itself, it's a lot longer. Uh the format's different than uh writing it uh than a screenplay. And um, I have a lot of artistic things that I've created that I want to work on. Um and that's that's my obligation, right? I'm obligated to do it. Um so anyway, I'll let you all go. I appreciate you. Thank you for listening. And just remember, if anything that I said clicks with you and it makes you better towards your goal, well then great, because at the very least, and as always, this is a mental note of a permanent addition that I've adding into my life, which is adding difficulty to my passions, in addition to jujitsu, right? First and foremost, stand-up comedy and all the other pursuing all these other endeavors, okay, writing, acting, my screenplay, the book, right? It's all passionate. And one guy wants me to succeed, God, and another guy wants me to fail. So if you look at more as a holy endeavor, right? There's all kinds of art. You could be pulling a trigger, you could be a sniper, you could be a freaking uh singer, okay these gifts that you're passionate about, all right, the Lord God,
He wants you to do it. He knows that it makes you happy. And if that gift can radiate and spread joy to others, then that's a blessing. And there's no one that wants you least to spread joy, happiness, and blessings are making at the very least you happier. Because the happier, more blessed that you are in your life, the more that you can spread that joy to the ones that you love the most, the most ones that you care about the most, and you can really live your life the way that you should be living it to the fullest extent, to the truest form of your of your being. So with that being mentioned, I'm at the mall right now. That's where I always uh do all of my um uh rehearsals, right? I mean, I I uh by myself, I'm always saying my uh my lines, my um, my comedy and stuff, you know, solo drills as I call it, kind of like is in jujitsu. And um, but all the time I am uh rehearsing with random strangers uh and getting their contact info, following up with them, getting them to come to my shows, getting them to come to my shows, and um taking the opportunity of anything that I can get, you know, because I don't do open mics anymore. I just I do it live with everybody who's actually listening, not like random comedians who don't want to listen. That's a whole other topic. I just I don't really care for open mics for that reason, you know. Um but these random guys and girls that would that I can stop in the mall and just do 10 minutes, there's no comedy club that I can do 10 minutes uh at. And yesterday I did, yesterday I did 45. I did 10 with one guy, five for another, ten for another, five, you know. So anyway, I gotta hop off. I gotta make things happen, but add pressure to your life because that's what I am doing. And if you do it to that thing that you're most passionate about,
I promise you right now, it'll make a diamond. It'll make a diamond, it'll make something that you can not just be proud of, but you can really outshine and be a better version of yourself. And that's why I'd encourage to all of you, everybody listening to this right now, and me, myself, of course, most of all, uh keep doing it. And that's what I'm doing right now. That's why I gotta get off the phone and get after it. So y'all have the best day. I'm Benjamin Well done. Check me out.
