My confidence SECRETS - how to be brave and go after your social media dreams
So many people struggle with having the confidence to put themselves on social media. I always talk about the importance of being personal, vulnerable, and sharing yourself openly with your followers because that is what leads to true community growth and true relationships. But what if your followers only consist of your friends and family at first? What if it feels uncomfortable and awkward? Today, I want to provide you my confidence secrets on being brave and going after your dreams on social media. Let’s rip off that bandaid together.
Have you ever wondered why sharing yourself on social media is so scary in the first place?
Imposter Syndrome
One of the biggest reasons I believe so many of us feel intimidated or nervous about getting started is because of good ole' imposter syndrome.
What is imposter syndrome?
Imposter syndrome refers to an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be.
We often feel like we are not qualified enough to share content online. How many times have you told yourself, "I would be a YouTube creator, but I don't have anything to tell people?" or "What would I have to teach someone?". We have all been there, I have definitely felt that way throughout my journey on YouTube. But it's my firm belief that there is always someone who could learn from YOU!
Fear of Judgment
I want to share a little bit about my specific experience because I believe a lot of you could relate. When I first started around the age of 12 or 13, I really didn’t want to tell my friends at school that I had a YouTube channel. It wasn’t necessarily that I thought they would judge me for my interest in cameras and filming, but what I feared was the judgment of looking like I’m trying too hard and not succeeding. Can you relate?
Let’s start ripping off that bandaid and talk about some of the ways you can move towards confidence and feeling good about what you’re creating.
It starts within.
It might sound cheesy, but this is a self-love journey. It really takes time to learn that you don’t need the approval of other people. It’s when you try to eliminate that negative self-talk and encourage yourself, that you will start losing that fear of judgment. You should be PROUD of creating something you are passionate about. When you gain that self-love and confidence, you’re going to be able to let your personality shine through - which will really be able to help you build a community so much better. I want you to know, you ARE worthy of sharing yourself online, it’s not narcissistic to want to build connections, provide inspiration and value to people.
Practice.
“Practice creates confidence. Confidence empowers you.” - Simone Biles
I believe one of the best ways to start getting comfortable on camera is by talking to a camera, simple enough right? If you want some time to build your confidence, I suggest focusing on a less public platform, like Snapchat. Heather Torres from Think Media (a great resource for creators) shared how she didn’t have any camera confidence, so she started by doing daily, vlog-style Snapchats for friends and family.
When doing stories, speak to your current audience first, maybe friends and family. Just until you get comfortable. You can start practicing by sharing information that would be relevant or interesting to them and then once you build up your confidence, you can then start talking to the audience you want, but don’t have.
This is the point where you need to commit and go for it! You won’t be able to attract the audience you want until you start acting like an “influencer”. It might seem awkward, but you can’t become an influencer until you start acting like one.
It takes time.
The more you do it, the more comfortable, natural, and less scary it will become. To me, that awkwardness - that weird online puberty - is worth it for being able to follow your dreams and do what you want to do. I believe in you, I support you and I know that you can do this! And... you can have some solace knowing your videos will never be as awkward as my first videos - trust me, you will never be as awkward as 12-year-old Katie. I can’t wait to see what content you start to create.