I had no business taking the first ten or so auditions I ever took.
I don’t mean that in terms of job readiness — though, I was absolutely not ready for any of those jobs. The real problem was that I didn’t see the auditions as an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop my process.
Auditions were just confusing torture events to me.
I’d go in with no plan, have a miserable time, and leave angry with zero insights on what to fix.
Of course, we don’t take auditions for the experience points — we take them because we want a job! But statistically speaking, unless you are one of the rare few, you’re not going to win your first few auditions right out of the gate.
Whether it's your first or fiftieth, it's important to adopt a growth mindset toward auditions and open yourself to the learning opportunities they present. A key way to optimize this learning growth is to take detailed notes following each audition.
Auditions as learning labs
Eventually, I wised up and started preparing for auditions by asking myself, “Ok, well, what happened last time?”
A great step.
The problem was that the last audition was weeks or even months prior and my memory was hazy. So I started jotting down thoughts immediately following each audition — on bar napkins, sticky notes, whatever. I remember one of the first notes:
“When rushed, walk slower.”
After drawing lucky #1, I was rushed from a warm-up room straight to the stage. The committee got a late start and was trying to make up for the lost time. Not knowing better, I let them rush me and played a frantic round.
I was mad. I never wanted to let that happen again.
But now I had important data for future auditions. I wrote it down immediately to remember what happened and to provide a solution for next time:
Don’t let them rush you — in fact, walk even slower.
I think about that day every time I feel rushed in an audition... then I take my sweeeeeeet time to empty every last drop of water from my horn.
24 hours to write it down
Whenever a coaching client texts me after an audition, my response is almost always: “Congrats!.... Now write it all down!”
It’s crucial to write a reflection of your audition experience within 24 hours — no matter where the post-audition hang is heading. You WILL forget… how you felt, how you thought, what worked, what didn’t…
The vividness of the details fades quickly: how a dry room made you hyper-aware of your chops... or how thirsty you felt... or how a change in the schedule made your energy spike... or how your brain went a little haywire in the warm-up room.
Some clients prefer to free-write their reflections, but I suggest creating a structured template that you reuse from one audition to the next. Your data is more consistent this way and it becomes easier to compare insights and measure progress.
After Audition Report
I model my post-audition reflection after something called an “After Action Report” — a catch-all term for a type of report used by companies, governments, or military units to assess how they handle major events — and how they can adjust course for next time.
Below are the questions I ask myself about my audition day performance and my preparation in the weeks leading up. When I answer each question involving a challenge, I also try to provide possible solutions as well.
AUDITION DAY:
What went well?
What are some things I could have handled better?
What surprised me or jolted me?
Other things to note?
PREPARATION:
What did I do in preparation that was particularly helpful or beneficial?
What challenges did I face?
What other changes would I like to make or experiment with moving forward?
Other things to note?
Measurable data on your progress
It’s interesting to look back on past reflections or After Audition Reports and notice how things change. What jolted you two auditions ago is nothing to you now.
It’s also validating to see measurable progress in your preparation when it might not feel like it otherwise. You have the data that things are actually improving.
Download free PDF template
If you’d like to use my version of the After Audition Report, please fill out the form below for an instant download. Print it out and throw it in with the rest of your personal Playbook! For more downloadable tools, please click here.