Drew Seeley - Spotlight

Drew Seeley is an award-winning Canadian-American actor, singer, songwriter, dancer, andperformer.  Drew grew up in Toronto and later moved to the United States. He has worked on several prominent television and film productions, including Disney Channel’s High School Musical and ABC’s Another Cinderella Story. Drew has recorded numerous songs for The Walt Disney Company, and was nominated for an Emmy for co-creating “Get’cha Head In the Game,” featured in High School Musical. Drew has also forged careers off-camera, both in music and on stage; he starred in several stage productions, including the Broadway play Jersey Boys, and has released three studio albums between 2006 and 2018.

HOW TO SING

My two favorite vocalists ever are David Archuleta and Drew Seeley. So my burning question to Drew was, how can I get good at singing? How can anyone become a singer? Drew told me:

“Honestly, there’s kind of two points here. One point is, anyone can improve their singing with some voice training and a lot of practice... The other point is, I think to be truly great, it has to do with your ability to listen - the way in which your brain is connected to your ears - more than your voice itself. That’s the art with really great singers. Think of someone like Louis Armstrong. He has such a unique voice, and it’s more about how he could listen to himself to achieve a certain character with his singing, rather than sheer technical ability.”

I think this is so interesting. There’s not some trick you have inside you, some button you have to just learn how to press, but a sensibility you have to develop - the way in which you can hear something and recognize it as beautiful. Drew is lucky to have such natural talent!

GIVING UP ALCOHOL

I asked what Drew has done over the years that has really changed his life, non-career wise, and Drew told me it was giving up alcohol. Drew told me a story. “I drank a lot on my 40th birthday, and the day after I woke up feeling like garbage, so I decided no more.”

With the encouragement and support of his wife, Drew was able to let go of drinking, and since then he told me he has felt his creativity, focus, and energy improve. I love the disciple behind making a change like this.

EMBRACING YOUR SHADOW

Drew told me that his biggest personal challenge in life is dealing with the mental barrier of feeling like he has already peaked in his career. I don’t think Drew has peaked - I think his great potential still lies ahead, but I understand where this feeling comes from... Drew was part of High School Musical – one of the largest entertainment phenomena of my childhood.

Drew went on tour for the movie and people would try to put their children in front of the tour bus to try to keep it from leaving. That’s a lot. Moving past that is a lot.

But since then Drew has continued developing himself physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. He’s started a family, (he even volunteers at his daughter’s co-op once a week) has continued growing his music career, and hasn’t stopped trying to improve himself and the lives of those he loves.

THE POWER OF WHO

I was thrilled to share with Drew the idea of the power of who from Bob Beaudine. Beaudine’s idea is that you already know everyone you need to know through connections, friends of friends, family of friends, friends of your family, etc. The trick to expanding your network is to hone and nurture the relationships you currently have, and not let them wither into nothingness.

Drew pointed out to me that this can be very difficult in the entertainment industry, because you often work with people very closely for a brief period, and then work stops and everyone goes onto other projects. Drew even told me that he lost touch with Selena Gomez after Another Cinderella Story.

But the point is that everyone can naturally diverge from one another; you have to sacrifice a lot

of time into just nurturing your relationships so that they don’t just diverge.