Episode 84 Transcript:

Speaker 1: (00:01)
Hey there and welcome back. So this week I want to talk about video content, why it's important, where the fears of being on video are coming from how you might be able to get over that fear and consider starting using video in your business and in your online spaces for your doula business. So the first thing I wanna talk about is why video is important, especially in the online space, right? We know that in digital marketing speak video is still the top performing type of content. So you have video, you have pictures with written captions, you have podcasting like this audio, uh, and we just we've. The market research shows that video is still the highest performing highest engagement, meaning people are clicking it more. They're watching it more. They're engaging with it more. They're consuming the content more. And why I think that is, is because we can really get a feel for somebody.

Speaker 1: (01:11)
When we watch a video of them talking, there are very few people who, when they write, you can really feel them in their words. At least for me, you know, a lot of what I see on social media, reading captions. It's like you have no way of connecting with that person, especially if the image that's being used as a graphic or a stock photo, which I'm not bashing those. We need to use them sometimes. It's okay. It's not a bad thing. It's just that, um, it's really tricky for me to get a feel for somebody. If I see a stock photo and a very plain vanilla caption that they've written when I see a video of someone though, whether it's a real or an IGT V of them talking or a Facebook live or a blog, so a video on their blog, if you're into YouTube, I'm not really into YouTube that much, but I get a much better feel for that person.

Speaker 1: (02:10)
You know, I get a feel for like, do I like them? Do I connect with them? Do I trust them? Because you can start to develop that, that feeling immediately, you know, and it's, it's really, it's something that I first heard from Jasmine Ivy, where she described it to me a long time ago as the highest energetic exchange online. And that made a lot of sense to me, it's the highest, it's the strongest connection that you can have with getting to know somebody in the virtual space. And yet so many small business owners are like panicked about video and I was too. So I get it, you know, I've been there. And I know that I wanted to talk about this because I feel like there are actually a lot of my clients and potential clients and people. I have discovery calls with ask about getting confident on video, you know, have, has it always been easy for you and it, well, it's just so easy for you. And I'm like, no, it was not. And it hasn't always been easy. I had to build that. I had to develop that comfort level with being on video. It took time.

Speaker 1: (03:18)
I actually knew a girl when I was sad. I was probably fresh out of college. My first career in real estate finance, many of you have heard me talk about that. I was, um, I worked in corporate real estate finance for about 10 years before moving into the birth industry. And I remember feeling, um, a lot of things about working in a cubicle and just that whole lifestyle just really, uh, drained everything out of me and was, was really miserable in a lot of ways. But I remember having a friend at the time who was a radio personality and did a lot of video work for the radio. And back then, I mean, this wasn't that long ago, but it was really just Facebook and in terms of, you know, social media. And I remember her being on all these videos on the news on TV, you know, that's part of the gig when your radio personality, her voice is on the radio all the time, every morning.

Speaker 1: (04:11)
And then she's in all these videos. And I just thought God had to have that kind of confidence. Can you imagine, you know, I, I just never could understand. I thought that is frightening to think of having a camera or a microphone in your face and people looking at you and listening to you and what was underneath that fear for me was being seen. And I know that now, but at the time I didn't have the words at the time. I just thought no way that felt, um, I don't like this word it's coming up in my head, but I'm trying to find, uh, an alternative, but the word that popped up was that felt paralyzing to me. And I don't, I don't like that word. Um, so I'm trying to find something else open to suggestion, learning as I go as well with you.

Speaker 1: (04:56)
So I've, I just felt like it, it brought me to a standstill. Like I just, I could not move past that and the thought of starting a business. And when I did start a business and one of my business mentors suggested that I would be really great on video. I, I laughed and you may have heard me talk about this in prior episodes, but I thought no way in hell, are you getting me on a video? That's I will not do that. If you've seen the reels in the audio over where they're like, you want to change your life, I will not do that. That was me. That was me in 2017, 2018. I'm like now that's, that's a hard, no, for me. And over time, over time, I started to shift and build up the courage. And there were a lot of things that helped me do that.

Speaker 1: (05:43)
And I'm going to explain some of those to you. So that first time is what I kind of joke about as being called my sweaty story. And I was doing a Facebook live in a private Facebook group of about a little over 3000 women entrepreneurs. And I was going to talk about my birth because this was brand new. And my, this was like Christmas time of 2017. I hadn't even launched my website yet. I was just starting. I'm like, you have to just start. I hired a business coach and I was ready to start, even though my, my website, wasn't time, I hadn't taken my doula training yet. I just knew I needed to get out there and start talking about things that matter to me. And I did. And I PA you know, and I presented to this community about my VBAC at the time I hadn't had the money, so I didn't yet have the baby on the bedroom floor situation.

Speaker 1: (06:43)
At the time I had just had about a year and a half prior, I had had my first VBAC. And so I wanted to tell that story and, you know, and, uh, I was sweaty all over that day. I was so nervous and the whole morning I had to pump myself up to get ready for that video. Listen, I was listening to Beyonce all morning, just bopping around the house, trying to get in the right mindset. And I was so sweaty and I just, I felt shaky, you know, going back and watching the old video. I'm like, my goodness is it is comical. If I can find it and grab a clip of it, I think it would be helpful for you guys to see it. I might try to do that. Um, I was so shaky and I was so jittery and so nervous.

Speaker 1: (07:27)
And before we, I clicked go live. I remember it feeling really hot and my face felt really hot. And I just, I hype myself up and said in my head, if this could help one person, if one person listening to this opens up to the idea of doing birth a different way than what we've been told. If you have a C-section, then the next birth has to be a C-section. That's what I was told. And that's the understanding that a lot of people I know felt. And so I thought, you know, there's 3000 people in here. They're not all going to be on the live at once. If one person watches this and know somebody who's pregnant or know someone who's had a C-section and says, Hey, have you ever heard of VBAC? Then I know it's worth it. My discomfort, my anxious feelings, all of that is worth it. If the mission moves forward, just one little step. And that was really what got me through that first video. Um, and it was in a private Facebook community and it was a safe space. So it felt, it felt safer than like a public live, you know, those feel different.

Speaker 1: (08:35)
So my suggestion to you, if, Oh, and by the way I didn't die. I was okay. After it was over. That's basically what I said to myself was, okay, I did it, I did it. Good job, Nicole, you didn't die. And like, that's what we do when we do something that's really frightening and scary and all of the things, and then it's done and we're like, okay, well, I can do that again. And so I did it again. And then again, and then again, and obviously now I do, you know, I do video all the time, um, and podcast, which feels different, but also has its own weird feelings sometimes. So I hope that was helpful. But now I also want to talk about suggestions for how you can move forward if you're thinking. Yeah, you know what? I probably, I probably do need to consider video because here's the thing.

Speaker 1: (09:30)
I knew that if I wanted to get to the place that I wanted to be the version of me, the version of my business, that I desired, I couldn't keep holding back. This fear of being seen. I couldn't do that to myself anymore. I had to be willing just, I had to be willing to do the scary things for the sake of growth. I wanted to grow so badly because feeling so squeezed into that little corner of a cubicle and whatever else, that former version of me was just felt so painful that I couldn't do it anymore. And I'm like, you know what? This, this is worse than anything else. I'll do some scary things because I know that something on the other side of that has to be better.

Speaker 1: (10:15)
Okay. Don't mind the very loud sneeze attack happening in the background. This is real life. And it's six 15 in the morning when I'm recording this before the kids get up. And this is how we have to do life sometimes around here and in my life. But anyhow, going back to that thought, I knew that I was going to ha I was willing. And I knew that that was going to be something I needed to do to get to that point. So if you're kind of there and you're looking forward to a version of yourself and your business that you desire and you feel like, yeah, doing some scary things, possibly video, maybe something I need to look at, let's talk about how you might do that, how you might get there, how you might get from that place, where you're at a standstill and nothing is happening to, okay.

Speaker 1: (11:07)
I'm willing to take the first step first, know that you don't go from zero to confident, a hundred percent confident in video or anything, I guess, overnight. That's not how that works. At least that's not how it worked for me. For me, it was one step at a time. Just like most things, you know, there's not many things that you snap your fingers and they're just done. Not really there's stuff involved. So the first thing I would look at is assess your fear. You know, how afraid are you? Is this a fear that's so overwhelmingly frightening that your whole body shuts down and you're like hard, hard, hard, no, I cannot do that. I might die. Then you don't have to do it. I will never force people. I will never tell you. You have to do video in business. You don't have to do video. There are lots of other things you can do, but if it's a fear that is that like nervous, scary, that excited kind of nervous, frightening. Ooh, I'm nervous. Oh gosh. I don't know. I'm sweating. I'm a mess. I'm not sure if I can do this,

Speaker 2: (12:10)
Then keep listening.

Speaker 1: (12:15)
Here's a couple of tips of how you can get started.

Speaker 2: (12:20)
Start

Speaker 1: (12:20)
With videos that maybe don't have your face on them. And if you're like, well, what the hell is the point of that? It's because it's a step, right? Like you might have a reel and Instagram real is the new thing. And you could do a tutorial or behind the scenes. I have a client that does placenta encapsulation. And so, you know, I thought that would be a really cool and another one that does virtual vaginal steaming, she's been on the podcast before. And that was something we had talked about was, you know, doing a video, a reel of behind the scenes, like this is what goes into it and stuff like that. So that's a way to kind of get started. You don't even have to have your voice on it. You can use a song or audio other people's audio that are saved to their reels to just start having some video content.

Speaker 1: (13:03)
Another thing you might try is collaborate on a video. So do maybe an interview with another person, another birth professionals, somebody who, or a former client, somebody that would bring value to your community, a conversation that you enjoy having sometimes not being the only one lessons that fear a little bit. Cause it's not all eyes aren't just on you. You're sharing that. Right. And so that might be one of those things that helps you get to that point. Another idea is have a plan for what you'll cover in the video. You know, maybe don't jump on Instagram, live or Facebook live with no agenda, just to say like, Hey, I just wanted to say hi, which by the way, not a great way to open a video or an ID story. I just wanted to pop in and say, I did not have that part scripted of this podcast episode, but I just, I just have to say, please, don't say, I just have to say I'm learning that just as a really crummy word, especially when it comes to video and leading with that, people are generally like, I don't care.

Speaker 1: (14:06)
Just get to the point. Right. So anyhow, have a plan for what you'll cover. It doesn't have to be scripted, but maybe an outline, maybe bullet points or just knowing, you're going to tell a story, like have something in mind. So, you know, when you get on video or you click live or you record that, you know what, you're going to be talking about. Some people like to have the whole thing scripted. I don't, um, I find that I do best with them. Excuse me, with a, an outline that has a couple of, um, that has phrases and statements, but not fully flushed out. I need space to like, be able to riff, like I just did a minute ago. So I need that, that wiggle room. I don't really do well with outlines because then I feel like I sound too canned, but some people really like them and work well with, and I've listened to podcasts that I know they do scripting, but it also, you know, they've practiced it enough.

Speaker 1: (14:57)
I think that it sounds pretty authentic either way, whatever works for you to have a plan for what you'll cover. Another idea might be doing your first video. If it's going to be live, for example, in a safe space like I described earlier. So maybe a face, a private Facebook community, maybe somewhere that you can practice. You know, I used to do this in the beginning. We had a practice Facebook group that a couple of my business peers and I just opened a Facebook group. It was private. There was no one else in it, but maybe I don't know, five or 10 of us. And we just took turns, practicing, going live just to get the tech and the logistics down of like, okay, this is how this feels. Okay. And we, we didn't even really watch each other. We just, it didn't matter. It was just practice.

Speaker 1: (15:38)
And it was people that I felt safe with and they felt, they felt safe with me, which leads me to my next thing practice. So you might want to practice a little and that can be, I still do that. You know, I still practice my reels when I'm recording or I've recorded a really yesterday. And the first time the audio runs through, I was like, okay, my mouth was totally not sinked up to that. So I go back, delete it, try again. And that's kind of like practice, you know, I still do it. And when I'm recording videos for Facebook ad, I had a Facebook ad that went out last month and I had to film a couple. I wanted to film a couple of videos for the ad to test and I had to practice them multiple times. So like, it's okay. The first one is never even on the podcast, the gist of the episode, I don't usually practice this whole thing, but the intro, um, if there's some intro that I want, sometimes it takes me a couple tries to get, you know, to get it concise so that it doesn't feel like I'm rambling in an intro.

Speaker 1: (16:35)
So practice. And then a couple of things I want you to know that are not required. So I think that there's this misconception and I used to have it to that, to do video properly for your online business. You need things like fancy equipment, not required. Your phone is sufficient if you're using an iPhone or I don't know much about Android, but I'm pretty sure Android video quality is perfectly fine. That is enough.

Speaker 1: (17:03)
You don't need fancy lighting, expensive lighting equipment. The sun, the natural light coming from the beautiful, beautiful sun is perfect. It's actually my preferred form of lighting. I have a little clip lighting that I got on Amazon for probably 20 bucks or less. Um, and I use it sometimes, but usually I open the curtains and I face myself so that the video, the sun is the way that the video is recording. The sunlight is on my face now. Not like bright, bright, direct sun, but kind of in a shaded area. And you can you'll know because turn the camera around on your phone and move around until you're like, Oh, okay. That lighting is really helpful because you want people to be able to see you when you're speaking, right. Or if you're showing products or you're doing something, you want them to be able to see it, right.

Speaker 1: (17:48)
Dark just, they're not very helpful. Another thing that's not required is a professional editing or production team. I used to think that, Oh my gosh, to record all these, you know, online birth course modules, I'm going to need to have video editors and I need a team and I need people to come help me. This is going to be so expensive. And the green room background and all this stuff like you don't need any of that stuff. You really don't. I still don't use any of that stuff. I do have a video editor, but I've only done a couple of projects with that person that I'll send them a couple of things. And usually it's for personal things. Like for my kid's birthday last year, I wanted them to compile a bunch of longer videos into like one video with a song. And it's just like a special birthday part. So I sent them that, but like most of my class videos and things like that, I don't have them professionally edited. Um, it's not necessary. It really isn't your phone. Our phones are like our like little powerhouses nowadays. You can do so much with your phone, your laptop, your desktop, whatever you're working with. Just keep moving forward.

Speaker 2: (18:50)
So

Speaker 1: (18:52)
This came up for me yesterday several times and it felt like it was something important to give you as an example, If you are trying to move from that place where you're at a standstill into a place where you're just trying and you're just taking steps and you're moving forward

Speaker 2: (19:14)
My seat.

Speaker 1: (19:14)
And you're like, well, I think I need a filter, or I think I need makeup or full face of makeup or hair done or whatever. If you think you need all of those things, first, I want to say that you don't need filters. You don't need makeup. It's not required. If you like makeup and filters, use

Speaker 2: (19:29)
Them. Think about

Speaker 1: (19:31)
Those kinds of things as training wheels on a bike or bowling lane, bumpers, things that help you when you're learning how to ride a bike, when you're learning how to bowl, right? You use the bumpers, you use the training wheels to get you to that point where you're trying and you're learning. And then when you're like, okay, I got this, I take the training wheels off. So if you make, if makeup feels you've makes you feel, goodness, if makeup makes you feel confident enough, if a filter makes you feel confident enough, if a fancy camera, I use a logic tech Breo webcam. Now, um, I I've only had it for a few months,

Speaker 2: (20:06)
But I don't.

Speaker 1: (20:08)
You have to have it to make video. Like a lot of my Facebook ad stuff, I made it on my phone. So there was no Logitech webcam for that Instagram stories. I make it on my phone. Yeah.

Speaker 2: (20:19)
But in the beginning

Speaker 1: (20:22)
You need the training wheels and the bumpers use them. It's okay. If that's going to get you to the space where you're just starting and those bumpers and bullet the training wheels, they might be makeup. They might be filters. They might be practicing in a private group or only going live in private groups. It might be videos that aren't of your face. Those are all something I would consider the bumpers and the training wheels. And as you get more confident over time, you can start to take the training wheels off. And then after you give it your first run, ask yourself too, like I did, but did you die? And then try again and then try again. And the last thing that I want to share something, and for you to remember about going on video and your fear of being seen is that your community and your audience is not sitting there picking apart your parents on video.

Speaker 1: (21:18)
They want to be in your energy. They want to learn from you. They have a problem or an issue or a situation that they need support, and they need a solution. And my hunch is that if you're listening to this, the problem that they have is not picking out new makeup. And you're a beauty blogger. And they're looking for that. That's probably not my ideal client. Who's listening to my podcast. So my instinct tells me that, or audiences don't care about that kind of thing. And we're not here to be beauty. I mean, nothing against beauty bloggers. They're great. I love it. It's fun. Makeup can be fun. You can look at it that way, right? It is fun, but like, that's probably not what we are doing right now, like our missions. Um, and remember, you know, that you're hardest on yourself. It's true that we are truly are our own worst critics. All right. So keep me posted, let me know how it's going. And if you muster up the courage to get started and you do video for social media, tag me in it, share it to your socials and tag me so that I can cheer you on from wherever you're at, wherever I'm at. All right. Talk to you guys soon. Have a great week.