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The Practice of Being Yourself | Justin Schuman | TEDxBroadway
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The Practice of Being Yourself | Justin Schuman | TEDxBroadway

Introduction

The speaker introduces himself and talks about his name, birthday, and the reason for the talk.

  • The speaker introduces himself as Justin Schuman and talks about how he finds other people's names memorable but not his own.
  • He mentions that he only has 10 minutes to speak and talks about how he started to become self-conscious about his name in second grade after someone made fun of it.
  • He talks about how childhood bullying led him to create a "box" where he could hide parts of himself that were deemed undesirable by others.

Coming Out

The speaker discusses coming out as gay at age 14 and hiding parts of himself that were deemed undesirable by society.

  • The speaker reveals that he came out as gay at age 14 and joined his high school's kickline team.
  • He talks about being Jewish and flamboyant, which made him feel like an outsider in a world that celebrated Christmas.
  • He discusses how years of bullying led him to construct a palatable version of himself that would be accepted by others.

Performance

The speaker discusses how he created a performance persona to hide parts of himself from the world.

  • The speaker explains how the outside of the box is the version of yourself you create to please others while hiding your true self.
  • He talks about playing the part of an overachieving perfectionist teacher's pet to distract from what he was hiding.
  • The speaker shares a memory from high school where someone expressed surprise that he was funny, which he attributes to hiding his true self.

Finding Authenticity

The speaker talks about how he is finding authenticity by owning his name and performing as himself.

  • The speaker discusses how his box worked flawlessly through high school and college until he booked a role on Broadway.
  • He introduces himself as an actor, entrepreneur, and creative director who likes to help people "human better."
  • The speaker talks about how he took what others pointed out about him as shameful and made it his identity. He concludes by saying that by claiming his name and performing as himself, he is finding authenticity.

Authenticity as a Practice

In this section, the speaker discusses how authenticity is not just about being yourself but also about actively practicing and performing a chosen version of oneself. The speaker emphasizes the importance of directing this performance towards self-discovery rather than fear.

Performing Yourself

  • The speaker explains that everyone is already performing themselves, but what matters is who is directing this performance.
  • Authenticity is a balancing act between the small boxed-in version of oneself and the larger-than-life caricature performative person.
  • To perform oneself authentically, one needs to refine their technique and build up stamina and resiliency.
  • This practice cannot be done in private because old habits creep in when there's an audience.

Human as a Verb

  • The speaker proposes that human is not just something that you are but something that you do. Therefore, it can continuously be learned to do better.

Social Media as a Tool for Self-Discovery

  • The speaker suggests that social media can be used as a tool for exploring authenticity and catalyzing self-discovery.
  • However, social media currently reinforces putting people into boxes by celebrating labels and sameness.
  • Instead of creating from the outside in, social media should be used to explore one's real self.
  • Social media becomes a microcosm for the real world where one has to choose between using others' blueprints or cutting open their box from inside with an X-Acto Knife.

Using Social Media to Grow Authentically

  • The speaker emphasizes that they care about helping people grow using social media, not just growing their social media presence.
  • Social media can be used as a personal balance beam for practicing being oneself loudly.

The Importance of Being Much

In this section, Justin Schumann talks about his last speech which was his sister's eulogy. He shares a message about the fear of honesty and being much.

The Fear of Honesty

  • Justin talks about how people are heavily filtered these days.
  • There is a fear of honesty and being much.
  • Life is short, so choose to be much.

Be Unafraid

  • Justin mentions that his sister was unafraid of being much.
  • We need your "much" - you're boxless.

Final Thoughts

  • Life is short, don't have time to be anything less than much.
  • Justin concludes by thanking the audience for coming to his TED Talk.
Video description

The actor and content creator discusses how people perform versions of themselves and how he found his own authenticity. Justin Schuman is a passionate multi-hyphenate and entrepreneur currently in the cast of Broadway's Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. He owns and runs a headshot photography studio in New York City, Jshoots. He’s an authenticity strategist and content creator with a diverse roster of clients and a following of over 200k across multiple social platforms. As a consultant to CEOs, mega-influencers, & creatives, he considers social media a tool for self-discovery, and he empowers his clients to explore their authenticity through content creation. Justin distills his client's stories and breaks down the energetics behind the tools in their human toolbox, allowing them to show up as their most purposeful and consciously chosen version of self on social and in life. As a person, he encourages those around him to step into their power and dig deeply into deservingness in a way they previously hadn't. He works daily to create a world where people feel empowered to live their loudest, most authentic lives and truly human well. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx