Meet Ayana Major Bey

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ayana Major Bey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ayana Major , so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

I still have moments of imposter syndrome but thankfully because of therapy I can now identify them and stop the spiral in its tracks. I am overcoming imposter syndrome with mantras, like “I am enough”, “I am worthy” and “I am capable”, as well asking myself is this really imposter syndrome or just a moment in the vulnerability hangover state? I’ve also come to the true understanding that no one else on the planet is living my life. No one else is on my journey or has my God given assignment. So, if no one else has my life how can I be an imposter? My life, my lived experience, my essence is mine and no one else’s, so thinking about being an imposter no longer makes sense to me. I am a firm believer that I belong were I am and if I wasn’t meant to be there the opportunity would’ve never presented itself. I also think as an actor I had the limiting belief or thought that I only had “permission” to do other people’s work and not create my own. Once I discovered that no one has to give me permission but me I started to dismantle that limiting belief and expand my own creativity, including the launch of my podcast The Artist Pivot.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I started my artistic career focused mainly on musical theatre. I worked in regional theatre’s around the USA, worked on cruise ships, and lived in Scotland for a time as I got my masters in acting from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. 6 months before the pandemic I met my now voice over agent by sitting next to her in a restaurant as my friends helped me celebrate my first Off-Broadway opening night. So I started down the path of voice overs before the pandemic but in all honesty I probably would’ve continued down that narrow focused musical theatre path if it were not for the pandemic. Now in my post pandemic artistic life I have broadened my view and can see that my musical theatre skills lend themselves to so many things. I am a voice over artist, a podcaster, and the co-chair of an artist career guidance program. I also feel like I am coming to all my artistic endeavors with a feeling of fulfillment because I am not just waiting on someone to cast me but I am creating things I am proud of and that allow me to express myself.

With that said I am catapulting myself out of my comfort zone and doing my first solo cabaret this fall in NYC. It is entitled “In Pursuit of Joy” and it will be on Sunday Oct 20, 2024 at 7pm at The Green Room 42 in NYC. If you’re in the NYC area come to the show, and if you aren’t you can live stream the show!

https://thegreenroom42.venuetix.com/show/details/EnPQvostR5XGgJdDZp2C

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

The most impactful things on my journey so far had been learning to ignore society imposed timelines, accepting that I do things expecting excellence from myself while most people expect mediocrity, and not to chase but to attract.

Unfortunately we’ve all grown up in a society that has imposed upon us timelines for our outlook on life. Once I got into my 30’s and started to really discovery who I am, how I operate, and what I actually want, the timelines for me became just noise. I truly believe I live my life in divine timing and so society’s “suppose too’s” by a certain age are irrelevant. My advice is to ignore the timelines, search within yourself for your true guidance, and proceed one step at a time.

From a young age I have done things at a high level expecting excellence from myself. Not perfection because I am human and make mistakes but excellence. I have found that a lot of people expect mediocrity from themselves but that doesn’t resonate with me. So continue to do things at your high level and if people judge you for that, tell them to look in the mirror and adjust there own expectations of themselves.

Third do not chase but attract what you want out of life. The energy, feeling, and art you put out into the world will resonate with those it needs to resonate with, and those are the people and opportunities you want to be attracting. I have experienced that if I try and chase or force a collaboration, a conversation, a situation to go my way it turns out not so good, but when I let things flow and find me they seem to be in alignment with what I was wanting in the first place. Let your energy, actions, and your mindset attract what you need and want.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

The first thing I do when I am overwhelmed is to pause. Take 3 deeps breaths and feel my body, then I can proceed to combat the overwhelm. Whether I am overwhelmed with work, or emotion, or things to do, I have discovered I can’t deal with that overwhelm unless I stop the ruminating in my head. Some things I do are to meditate, schedule time for naps, have random dance parties, go out side and sit for couple minutes. I also am a fan of priority list. Putting tasks in high, medium, and low priority. If I am feeling overwhelmed can I move anything in high priority to medium or low and get it done another time? Most often I can and with that move of priorities I can lower the saturation of my overwhelm.

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Image Credits

Ambe J. Williams of Ambe J. Photography

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