Wayne Brady on Being a DWTS Front-Runner: 'I'm Approaching It with the Mindset of, This Is Mine '

Arturo Holmes/WireImage Wayne Brady

Wayne Brady is taking his role on Dancing with the Stars seriously — and he's here to win!

Brady opened up to PEOPLE about how his perspective has changed and the relationships he's cultivated since coming on the show.

"The way that I approach life, or any job, or any challenge that I'm given, is if you're going to do it, you should go in with the mentality that you're going to win," shared Brady, 50. "Now, whether the outcome is that, that's not really up to you. You can be as prepared as you can, you can work as hard as you can, but I know in this scenario, I can put in all of the work and I may not win. But I'm approaching it with the mindset of, This is mine."

He adds, "I'm going after this. And that's what's going to happen — just like I did The Masked Singer [and] just like I have done my career. So I think when I started it, I was very guarded, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't know if I completely trusted the process. It was all new to me."

ABC/Eric McCandless Wayne Brady and Whitney Carson

Brady later realized that they key to his success on the show would be to trust the process and the people around him.

"I think at some point, maybe second or third week in, I just decided to surrender to it and really, really go 100 percent. And not in terms of 100 percent effort, but I mean 100 percent in terms of trusting my partner, Witney [Carson], trusting the process and being open to the other people on the show."

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Afer Monday night's episode, Brady spoke to press about how his positive mindset was tested when he had to take stage even as he battled a cold and felt at some points like he might not be up to the challenge.

"That thought definitely crossed my mind. Part of it is truly physical and then the other part is — and this is my favorite part of this show — it places you in an uncomfortable place where you may not be used to. I'm used to shining in everything that I do hands down."

He continued, "So, to be in something that makes you go, 'Oh, is this not right?' It's a very human moment, and I love that because that's real. Shiny isn't real. Real is bumps, good, bad, ugly, ups, downs. And that's what I find is the best part of the show, the humanity. So, yeah, I questioned it and we were both talking and I was upset and scared, but we're here and we still pulled something out."

disney+ Wayne Brady and Witney Carson

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But Brady's not only rooting for himself. He's especially enjoyed "watching everyone else's story and cheering for them — I love that feeling."

Before coming on the show, the only other contestant he knew was RuPaul's Drag Race veteran Shangela. "[I] always knew that Shangela is an incredibly gifted performer and one of the sweetest humans to walk this planet. I knew that Shangela's star was going to rise. And I'll be damned if I wasn't right. I love being right."

He was also pleasantly surprised to get to know Charli and Heidi D'Amelio: "To some people you hear TikTok star, and now they've got a reality show, and it's easy to dismiss people based on what you think that they do or don't do. And so I know that in some people's minds they're either loved for it or they're dismissed for it. So I wanted to come in with a completely open mind. And I have to tell you, Charli is a wonderful young lady, and Heidi is a great mom — she loves to have fun. So getting to know them as people, not as their titles, that's awesome.

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And finally, Brady has been inspired by the courage of Selma Blair, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018 and left the competition last week to take care of her body.

"I'm in love with Selma Blair and the courage that she taught us, and I truly don't know if I could get up every morning knowing what she lives with and come and do a dancing show, subject herself to that every single day. She did up to the very end. She's a warrior, she's a champion. So she inspired me," he said.

He concluded, "I just fell in love with the whole cast. And the pros. Top to bottom, this show is everything that I didn't think it would be and 10 times more."

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Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Disney+.