Meet Jayshon Portalatin

We were lucky to catch up with Jayshon Portalatin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jayshon, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

This is something that is still an on going process for me. It took me years to get to where I am and even then I am human and have off days. Off days are normal. My mother has been the biggest support system in my life. She has a nice balance of letting me feel out my emotions and also get my head together and work. I am an actor, I stream, I create content for anyone around the world to possibly see. I have received plenty of “nos”, I have auditioned for plenty of projects, I have posted content that didn’t get any views. It has been tough, but you find ways to push through and keep on creating. If there is any advice I could give to anyone out there in a similar position as me or debating on pursuing these paths, work on your mental. You have to build up yourself and show up for yourself better than anyone else around you. Affirmations have been a huge help, The Artists Way by Julia Cameron is phenomenal. Having off days to relax is also a big help. Regardless of how mentally strong you are, breaks are needed to keep on pushing forward. I hold on to the vision that one day I will be performing in a large way, that keeps me driven. I work hard, I practice, I put in the time for my craft the best way that I can. No matter the “nos” I get or little views on my content, I am happy and proud of whatever work I do because I know what I did behind closed doors. Putting in th work is the best way to build your confidence and even self esteem. Regardless of how much a perfectionist you can be, you can always see the little improvements over time. Improving everyday little by little goes a long way. Building your confidence and self esteem is a constant project and it takes time, not something that happens over night. So be patient with yourself as you nourish yourself.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I have grappled with being a creative person since I was little. I am fortunate to have parents who believed in me and helped support me as I pursued this career path. I love acting, streaming, creating content, and performing in general. I have stumbled into many avenues as a performer. Stumbling into the book community on tiktok, becoming a cosplayer and working as an interactive actor for fantasy balls. Now working on audio book auditions for ACX. I had the amazing opportunity to perform in Whimsy Gossip chapter 65 short film which is available on Youtube for anyone to see. I put in a great deal for the character, for an accent I had been teaching myself for months, and loved seeing the final product of it. I work as a Squire and am currently training to be a Knight at Medieval Times for stunt training as well. I am open to any opportunities that come my way, modeling, short films, audio books, cosplaying, working events, stunt projects, collaborations with brands, working with authors, directors. I am open to any wonderful opportunities that come my way. My Instagram, Youtube, Twitch, and Threads (all jayshon111) have grown a great deal these last few months and it has been a truly wonderful experience. Getting to see my hard work finally pay off towards the things that I have dreamed of since 2020 is really amazing.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I needed to improve my balance of work and relaxing, practice makes perfect mentality, and applying the things that I would learn. I had a struggle of going back and forth between working every single day nonstop or not doing any work at all for weeks at a time. You have to do work for whatever your dreaming of, but you have to also give yourself grace and relax as well. Off days are good for the overall mental and will help you maintain a good work ethic towards the goals you have. The biggest thing that holds people back is getting in their heads about everything needing to be perfect. Things are not going to be perfect. You will make excuses over and over again. “I will wait until I have a new job.”, “I will get this new mic.”, “Let me spend a few months of research before taking action.”, I have been there before. The only way that you can improve is by actually practicing. There is no better time to start right now. And you won’t get better if you don’t make the rough content now in order to learn from your mistakes. Starting out no one is going to pay attention to you and even if they are so what? Everyone of your favorite creators, actors, creative people in general all had to start from square one. As long as you work on improving one thing no matter how small every time you sit down to work, then you are doing the hard part. Which brings me to my last part, don’t get stuck in a research cycle. Too many times I have found myself in my room doing research for hours and not actually doing any work. I learned plenty but I never applied anything that I learned. Youtube University as I like to call it has taught me a lot, so learn what you need to and then apply it. Apply whatever you learn and keep on working hard towards what you want.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

The Artists Way by Julia Cameron was an amazing book that took me on a three month healing journey. There were many prompts brought up in it that forces you to go inward and challenge beliefs that we have formed over the years. One of my favorite moments from working on it, Julia speaks on working with clients who are hesitant to pursue a creative life and stating “Do you know how old I will be when I finally do whatever it is I want to work on?”
“Yes, the same age you would be if you don’t pursue it.”
That really got me going and made me stop getting in my own head and self sabotaging. There is so much that we do to ourselves to stop the dreams we have from being realized. The society we live in and backgrounds we have usually don’t allow for us to just follow our dreams. Especially to follow our creative endeavors, and to follow more “realistic” path ways. Regardless of what you believe in, we have this one life, and you are still here reading this story which I appreciate greatly if you have made it this far. Get the book. Do the work. And send me your creative endeavors that you are finally allowing yourself the freedom to pursue.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: jayshon111
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jayshon111
• Other: threads: jayshon111
  twitch: jayshon111