The Four Big Fears That Stop You Showing Up On Social Media, And How To Overcome Them
- Brainz Magazine
- May 31, 2024
- 9 min read
Denise Chester is a leading Physical Intelligence coach helping female entrepreneurs tap into the power of their brain and body for better results. She is the creator of The Empowered Entrepreneur System and the She Creates Confidence coaching programme.
Do you want to use social media to promote your online business, grow your audience, share your message and attract your ideal clients? Yet when it comes to posting, sharing or creating content, you freak out as you hear the voice in your head, whispering, or perhaps screaming at you, to stop, run away and hide?
Do you find your finger or cursor hovering over the ‘Post’ or ‘Share’ button, desperately trying to find the courage to click, but the panicky feelings start to arise as the doubts and fears flood your mind, the blood rushes in your ears, and you end up clicking ‘Delete’ instead?
If this sounds familiar, you are one of many. It is a common experience amongst entrepreneurs who want to embrace social media marketing. Platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok offer access to huge global and local markets and can be a relatively low-cost marketing option for many. But they can also trigger negative feelings for others, such as shame, embarrassment and low self-worth.
In this article I’ll share the four major mindset blocks entrepreneurs experience as they try to promote their business on social media, and how to overcome them.
The four big fears
Entrepreneurs, especially service-based business-owners, want to share and serve, but repeatedly come up against the same mindset blocks keeping them from showing their expertise and building their authority online.
The four unhelpful beliefs I hear most often from my coaching clients are:
Who am I to say this?
Nobody’s going to watch or read my content anyway
Even if anyone does it’s already been said a million times
I only have 5 followers and two of those are my BFF and my sister
Without strategies to overcome these fears, they talk themselves out of hitting ‘post’ and especially ‘Go live’.
They post inconsistently, they only reshare other people’s content or inspirational quotes, or they don’t post at all.
Because of this, their voice goes unheard, their message unseen, and the people they can help don’t know they exist. Audience growth is sloth-like, leads don’t come in and the business can struggle or even fail.
The effects on entrepreneurs and their business
Entrepreneurs in this situation feel stuck. Trapped in a cycle of ‘Yes I’m gonna do it’ morphing into ‘I’ll do it next week..’
The effects can be devastating:
An ongoing reminder that they can’t do the thing they say they want to do, leaving them feeling ashamed at their lack of action and disappointed at their low confidence.
Worse, they scroll the social media feeds of their competition and feel increasingly inferior as they compare their own ‘amateur-hour’ video with the polished perfection of the gurus and social media giants.
They think they’ll never look/sound/write/speak as good as their competitors, and somewhere a tiny part of them shuts down as the future they dream of gets shoved even further away.
They experience imposter syndrome as they start to believe they’re just not good enough to create or share content online.
How to reframe and overcome the big fears
The great news is it’s entirely possible to move past these blocks and learn to love sharing your content on social media platforms to promote your business. Let’s look at each fear and how to overcome it separately.
1. Who am I to say this?
Let’s say you’re a Life Coach. You’ve been in business a few months, worked with a few clients and want to build your brand on social media to grow your audience. You have an idea for a content piece and search Facebook to do a bit of research, to find out what other people are saying about this topic.
Right away you’re looking at posts from Mel Robbins, Tony Robbins, and Marie Forleo, some of the biggest names in the field of personal development. You immediately begin to compare yourself to these giants and the imposter starts to creep in:
I’ve only been a coach 3 months
I haven’t worked with enough clients
I don’t have any expertise in this subject
I’m not good enough and I’ll get found out
Who am I to say this when these experts are saying it?
With these thoughts running around your head, it’s no surprise you close your laptop and walk away.
But you matter. Your ideas matter. You have something worthwhile and important to say. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a coach for 3 months or 30 years; whether you’ve worked with 5 clients or 5000. You have something of value to share and you don’t need permission to share it.
Your content is for your audience. Let go of worrying that you’re not an expert and ask yourself the question: ‘What can I write that will help them?’ The truth is your audience doesn’t care as much about you as you think; if your post resonates with them, they don’t care if you're a well-known, industry-leading coach; an expert or not. They just want help solving their problems.
2. Nobody’s going to look at my content
You spend hours creating a post, writing, editing, and amending, getting it as close to your idea of perfection as you can. You finally pluck up the courage to hit ‘Post’, feeling your heart racing and your blood pumping. And then…nothing. No likes, comments or shares.
It can be disheartening when it seems like nobody’s reading your posts or watching your reels. You might feel ignored, judged and rejected. It’s understandable you might be wary of posting again, afterall, it hurts to put your heart into something only for it to be dismissed and sidelined. What's the point, you wonder, nobody’s going to see it anyway?
But can you be sure? What if people did read the last one and just didn’t engage? Not everyone who likes your content will click ‘like’ or leave a comment.
And think about this. What if next time you post, people do look? What if the next post you share is read by one person. And that person just happens to be the exact person who really needed to hear it?
Remember, when you start out on social media your engagement, followers and clicks will be small; it’s normal because you’re new. The way to increase the number of people looking at your posts is to keep at it. Experiment with different formats - text, videos, carousels, captions etc., see what lands, and, importantly, engage with other people’s accounts.
The only way to be sure nobody will look at your content is not to share any. Just start, improve as you go and watch your audience come along with you.
3. Everything’s already been said
Imagine you talk yourself into posting again, this time determined not to let your fears get the better of you. So you jump onto Google to research your ideas and boom! Your search brings up literally millions of articles from thousands of creators, all writing about the same thing.
The more you scroll, the worse you feel. Your heart sinks, your body sags and your courage fails as you wonder why anyone would bother to read your content when everything you want to talk about has already been said a million times?
It’s a common trap entrepreneurs fall into, preventing them from sharing their wisdom and ideas with the world. And it is a trap, make no mistake. Think about it. Health coaches talk about health. Business mentors talk about business. Career coaches talk about careers...
You see the pattern. They’re all talking about the thing that matters to their audience, but talking about it in their own way.
You have a unique voice, your own way of seeing the issue and creating a solution. And remember this: somebody might finally hear it, might really gct it For t2c first timc, because of the way you said it, the way you talked about it.
Another point to remember is that some people will be new to the world you move in, and they simply won’t have heard it all before. These people need someone to guide them as they navigate their new experience, and your expertise and insights could be exactly what they require.
Speak up and share your valuable perspective so the people who need you can find you.
4. I don’t have enough followers
This one is a catch-22. Business-owners who are in the early stages of building their brand on social media will likely have small audiences, simply because they’re new. They’re reluctant to post because they feel embarrassed about low or no engagement or they don’t want to draw attention to the fact that their follower numbers are low.
But without posting and engaging, this isn’t likely to change. For people to follow you, they need to be getting something from you, and on social media that’s your engaging and helpful content.
It’s important to keep your focus on serving your intended audience. What do they want to read about? What are the problems keeping them up at night? How can you help them solve these problems?
Shifting your attention from the metrics to producing content that people seek out is a game-changer. When you’re desperate for your follower numbers to increase, you’re coming from a place of lack, of ‘not-enoughness’.
When you stop giving the numbers meaning, you can focus your energy on creating content that people want to consume, and you’ll be coming from a place of service and support.
This will come through energetically in your posts, your audience will feel it and people will be drawn to it. If you’re consistent in producing content in this way, more people will follow.
Leverage your physical intelligence to create confidence
Have you ever been in a situation where your mind says ‘Yes’ but your body won’t comply? Perhaps you want to share your caption on Facebook but your finger just won’t click the ‘Post’ button? Or maybe you want to shoot a reel for Instagram but every time you press ‘Record’ you freeze and forget everything you were planning to say?
To overcome the fears of showing up and being visible on social media (or any kind of public speaking) it’s important to look to the body as well as the mind. The ideas and insights in this article will help shift to a more empowering mindset but how can you take action when your body is stuck in the freeze stress response?
Physical Intelligence, like emotional intelligence, is a form of human intelligence defined as ‘the ability to detect and influence the actions of key chemicals in the body.’ This becomes super-relevant when you’re in front of your laptop or camera, feeling like a rabbit in the headlights, and you can’t think straight or do what you want because your body has been hijacked by the emotions of fear and anxiety.
In this situation, thinking your way out becomes impossible and the only way forward is through the body. Here are two simple exercises you can do to leverage your Physical Intelligence to get unstuck, call up your courage and create confidence in just seconds.
Paced breathing
Take long, slow, deep breaths, in and out through the nose, breathing diaphragmatically. Mentally count as you inhale for 4 and exhale for 8. Repeat this pattern for 2-10 minutes.
This exercise lowers the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline and floods your body with acetylcholine, bringing a sense of balance and coherence. In a study of South African financial executives, practising paced-breathing for just 21 days resulted in a 62% improvement of performance during high stress cognitive tasks, and an 84% mean improvement in physiological and cognitive functioning overall.
Winner’s pose
Stand with your feet wide apart and your hands in the air so you’re shaped like a starfish. Lift your chin slightly and gently push your chest forward. Palms are open. Stay in this position for 2 minutes.
The debate around the hormonal effects of this pose are ongoing, however a 2022 research review found significant evidence that people feel more confident, powerful, and stronger after taking this pose
Combining these practices with the mindset shifts outlined above is a powerful way to overcome the big fears many entrepreneurs face as they begin to create social media content.
Start showing up today
Showing up on social media to promote your business and grow your brand can be scary as you put yourself out there to be seen and heard. But it is a great way to build awareness, share your message and generate leads for your business at relatively low cost.
If you’d love to start showing up on social media and want to get past your big fears, sign up today for my free email series 7 Days To Show Up On Social Media and let’s get you seen and heard.
If you’re a female entrepreneur and you’re ready to dive deeper and find out more about how Mindset and Physical Intelligence Coaching could help you overcome your fears, create rock solid confidence and empower you to build the business you dream of, click to book a call with me.
Read more from Denise Chester
Denise Chester, Mindset & Physical Intelligence Coach
Denise Chester is a leader in mindset & Physical Intelligence. Giving up her first business due to chronic imposter syndrome and total lack of confidence, she learned how to use her body and brain to switch the beliefs & behaviours holding her back for ones that empowered and ignited her growth. She is now obsessed with helping other women change the way they think and feel about themselves and their potential, so they can unapologetically build the business and the life they dream of.
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