3 Tips to Overcome The Fear of Putting Yourself Out There

Do you want to promote your business on social media to reach more people? Do you feel anxious about putting yourself online and don’t know where to start? Do you get sweats every time you think about taking pictures or filming yourself? Don’t worry, I got you! I’ve been there, and I’m about to tell you how I overcame it!

Before being able to share my thoughts on my blog, Instagram, and YouTube, I was pretty anxious about expressing myself online.

When I decided to start coaching, I knew I was going to have to get out of my comfort zone. Showing up online to express myself and help people was pretty far from what I could handle at that moment. But when I realized that I was so afraid of people’s judgment that I was compromising living my own life, I thought something had to change. The idea of not building my business and achieving my goals because of what other people might think of me seemed a bit extreme. This was something I couldn’t allow, I had to get over myself. And this is how I did it.

Focus on you

I deleted social media from my phone. I know, this seems pretty counterintuitive, but bear with me. I didn’t want to see what other people were doing so that I could flush out all perception of what I should be doing on social media and figure out what I was ready to share and how.

I stopped worrying about what others might think of me, and I slowly started to understand that I actually didn’t care about what others would think, what I cared about was sharing my message with the people who wanted to hear it. I started to focus on my message, my audience, and building my business.

I started curating the content I consumed (on YouTube since Instagram was out of reach), to stop pressuring myself about what my content should look like. I watched only content that empowered me, instead of watching content that made me feel sorry for myself.

This allowed me to better understand what I wanted to share, and with whom I wanted to share it. After a while it also dawned on me that I could create new social media channels and start fresh.

I’m not saying delete your social media, but maybe pay more attention to the kind of content you consume and how it makes you feel. Maybe skip the content that makes you feel like you could never be that good, look that good, or be that successful. If you watch other people’s content with resentment, you’re telling the universe that this is not what you want for your life, and this can create limiting beliefs and blocks around what you actually want to achieve.

Focus on you, focus on creating content that makes you feel good, empowered, and brings you joy.

I wrote a blog post about creating content that brings you joy, you can check it out here if you’d like.

Practice

I started to plan and write content that made me happy, content I wanted to see. In the beginning I didn’t even create it to publish it, but to practice. I started to write and film myself to see how it felt, and doing it without the endgame of publishing it in mind, really allowed me to let go of the pressure and actually enjoy myself in the process!

After a while though, I picked a date to release my first YouTube video. And because I’d been practicing, I was able to push through the fear and just get it done. Actually, the anxiety kind of vanished, because I had found joy in the creative process, I was excited to get it done!

I was driven by the process rather than the result. I had empowered myself to go down the path I wanted to take.

If you’re not sure what kind of content you want to create, just try it out.

Practice, try things out without publishing, see how it feels, and figure out what works for you.

Pause, reflect, adjust

After just a few weeks of making YouTube videos, I had to stop and take a break. This was not the plan at all. But, if you’ve been around my blog, you know I’m all about listening to myself and doing anything I can to prevent a burnout.

When I started to realize that publishing on YouTube was not sustainable for me at that moment in my life, I had to pause and figure out how I could keep showing up for my business without compromising my health.

I had been thinking about turning my YouTube scripts into blog posts for a while. I had noticed that when I write YouTube scripts, I actually write blog posts. So I decided to stop making videos, and focus my energy on blogging.

So far this is the best decision I took for myself and my business. Since I started my blog in June, I’ve been consistently publishing new blog posts every week, without burning out and without feeling pressured to do it. Each week I get to sit and write down my thoughts, figure out what I want to share, and what my audience (you) wants to hear about. This process is really helping me grow as a coach, an entrepreneur and a person.

Make sure to take breaks in your content creation journey, make sure to create the right content for your at that moment in time, and make sure to enjoy the process.

Six months after publishing my first piece of content as a coach, I am not afraid to share my experience and knowledge anymore. I’ve never felt better. I love using my voice, showing up, being vulnerable, and sharing my message to help others on their journey. Creating that first piece of content, lead me to meet like-minded people and have conversations I’ve been dreaming of having for years.

This feeling of alignment, is the fruit of the seeds I sawed when I decided to show up for myself and ignore the fear of judgment from others. It’s the result of empowerement to believe in myself, my message, and my ability to help others.

What results are you looking for? How can you move past the fear of putting yourself out there so you finally get to share and talk about your service, your product, and connect with the people you want to work with? I encourage you to follow the tips I just gave you and see what works for you.

Don’t let the noise make you feel like you’re not good enough, or that no one cares about what you have to say. Someone is out there waiting for you to speak. Someone needs to hear exactly what you have to say, the way you’re going to say it. Someone wants to buy your product or pay for your service. Just start somewhere, and I promise, it will get easier, and it will pay off!