Written by: Claire Maynard, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Whether you have an online business or a bricks and mortar business, having your business visible online is crucial for business promotion, brand awareness and sales. The best way to be visible online is through video content; lives, reels, Tiktoks, etc. The algorithm favours video content and pushes it out to more people, interactions, engagements and views are higher and the majority of people seem to prefer watching video content to reading written posts. All of this means that video content increases your reach, grows your audience, builds brand awareness and ultimately increases your sales. Video content also improves and speeds up the like, know and trust factor. We know that people buy from people, especially from people they know, like and trust. With it taking seven to fourteen touches for people to buy, the more visible your business is the faster those sales will come.
However, showing up on camera can feel very daunting and even scary. The common fears and worries I hear from my clients, at my workshops and on my trainings are; being worried about what other people think, worried it won’t be perfect/will make mistakes and don’t like being on camera. Of course, there are lots more and everyone is different but these are the main ones. I get it, I really do, I used to be exactly the same! 3 years ago I wouldn’t even turn my camera on in a zoom training never mind go live! Now, I go live all the time, post reels and am the one delivering the training! If I can do it, so can you! I’ll share with you some of the things that helped me; write down your fears, make a list of what you’re scared of and what’s stopping you. Then ask yourself, is that actually true? 9 times out of the 10 the answer is going to be no! So call out that fear and face it head-on. Once you’ve done that, you can reframe that fear into a positive statement by writing the opposite and then make that new positive statement a daily affirmation. Let go of perfectionism! No one is perfect and people don’t want to see perfect, they want to see someone relatable, someone they can connect with. People are more likely to like and trust you if they can see you’re like them, not perfect.
Embracing the imperfections and releasing the need for perfection will instantly remove some of the pressure and make you feel more relaxed. On that note, know that there is no such thing as failure. Whenever we do or try something, we either succeed, learn or grow. If life didn’t go as you thought it would, you will learn things from the experience and grow from what you learn.
Changing your perspective and going into it knowing you can’t fail, will relieve the pressure and help to relax you. It will also improve how you deliver life. When you first start, make the sole purpose of doing the life, doing the life. Don’t attach any other outcome to it (sales, business growth, etc), that way, when you’ve done it, you will feel accomplished and your confidence will grow through that achievement. Confidence comes from competence and competence comes from practice, so get practicing! You can do this in several ways; recording yourself on your phone, opening up a secret Facebook group with no one in, selecting “only me” on your Facebook feed. Then build up to having a couple of people you feel comfortable with within the Facebook group and changing the” only me” to “public” once finished. Put pre-recorded videos in your stories, then move onto lives in stories (some people find this less daunting as they disappear after 24 hours). When you first start going live on your profile or in groups, swipe the comments to the right so that you can’t see them as this will reduce nervousness and make it less Riley you’ll get put off.
With reels, whilst you’re getting used to them, you don’t have to have your face on camera. You could do clips of your products, a behind the scenes look at your workspace, video testimonials of your customers or clients, walking through nature, anything really! You don’t have to talk on camera, dance or lip-sync, until you’re comfortable (or at all!). Look at what others in your industry are doing, take inspiration and adapt to what feels right for you. And remember, it’s not about you! You have a product, service or business opportunity that people need, but they won’t know you can help them or that you have the solution to their problem, until you show up and tell them! It’s your responsibility to show them what you have to offer but what they do with that information is not responsible. People will buy when they’re ready, so if they don’t buy, it's not personal or a reflection of you, it’s just that they don’t need your product or service right now. If you go into a shoe shop and the shop assistant asks if you need help you either say yes, or not right now. If you leave the shop without buying, it’s not because you didn’t like the assistant, it’s the shoes weren’t right for you at the time. I know it’s hard when you are your brand and business and it feels personal, but to everyone else, it really isn’t. If you can master that mindset, you will start to show up munch more fiercely and your visibility will grow.
Lastly, whether on lives, reels, Tiktoiks or even written content, remember to focus on providing value; help, serve and educate. Doing this will warm up your audience, grow your audience and also help to change your mindset. When we are showing up to help others rather than ourselves, we show up more consistently and confidently.
I hope you’ve found this article helpful, I will be going into these points in much more detail (along with much, much more) in my upcoming workshop, Confidence for Camera. Please check out this link for more info on the workshop and how it can help you.
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Claire Maynard, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Claire is a qualified and accredited life coach & confidence coach, specialising in mindset & visibility coaching for women in business. Claire is a featured guest expert, live trainer, guest author, guest blogger, magazine contributor and Amazon best selling author. Claire is passionate about helping and empowering women to believe in themselves and achieve their goals. To develop their confidence & mindset, to become visible with their business and live the life they desire.
