The Fear of Being Seen
It was a quiet Tuesday night in March, me, my photographer and my bestie walk down a spiralling staircase to an underground fancy-pants bar (Boom Boom Room in Brisbane). We are there with one thing in mind, holding a whole-ass photoshoot for my branding and content (dirty little martini in hand) 🍸.
Slightly panicking at being photographed outside of the comfort of the chic Airbnb I’d hired. Even better, it was my fucking idea to do this to myself. I had the vision, I wanted full Sex and The City energy, the main thing on the to-do list: get on the good side of the waiter who could easily kick us out for disturbing the vibe.
The good news, he was great, he loved us and thought we were cool. We tucked ourselves into a booth so no one could see us, but in my eyes the flash photography was honestly bouncing off the walls. Like paparazzi flashes going off in this quiet bar.
Me, the ‘star’, my lipstick cracking and getting on my teeth, my posture started swallowing me whole in an attempt to hide, me saying words to the photographer that I paid good money for like, “can we stop? Can we do it without flash?” (No, and we couldn’t.)
I had no choice but to hold the fucking vision. Because I’m doing this shoot to cement my reinvention as the bad bitch I am. My Samantha Jones era. WWSJD? (What would Samantha Jones do?)
I had to start telling myself that I could let this opportunity slide and just drink my martini in peace - even though I spent time and money preparing for this shoot OR, I could remind myself that this is my moment. I assured myself no one was caring. I’m harming no one and I’m hot and having fun.
And surprising no one: the photos were fucking hot! And now I show up happily as my bad B self online!
Was dying inside
I looove that you voted for today’s topic. Because it’s something I have overcome (and still working on being better at) verrry recently.
Why do we have the fear of being seen?
🙃 If you’ve EVER caught yourself telling you “I could never do that” when you scroll past a streetside fit check where someones stuck their phone to a wall and are showing off their fit.
🫣 If you’ve EVER subconsciously wondered what a very specific person (Mum, Aunt Sally, or in my case my Father-in-Law) would think of your content.
🪞 If you have an amazing idea that you want to execute, but when you watch it back, you don’t recognise who is talking to you.
📂 If your drafts folder is either full of ideas that you’re too scared to post, OR absolutely dusty and empty…
You’ve probably got a fear of being seen.
It can be terrifying to be seen trying to achieve your goals.
But there’s some actual practical steps we can do to start overcoming this.
Lean on your brand content foundations. What is your authentic, spicy brand voice? How do you actually interact with others? The visuals, what aesthetic is so you?? These can feed into your content themes and create endless ideas that have BACKING and will get you to your goals. If you can’t really answer these, that’s why we have Main Character Content. [All the modules are based around these ESSENTIAL foundations].
Remind yourself that the fleeting split-seconds of anyone seeing you take a photo is not as bad as the hangover of having an idea and not trusting yourself to execute it. (READ THAT AGAIN) Also, pretty sure no one truly cares. And if they do, that’s on them and we wish them luck in therapy. Also capturing being heckled in public does really well for engagement and shows the reality that it’s not always easy but you are brave.
Separate yourself from your content and put your CEO hat on. The self-employed CEO’s job is predominantly marketing. You need to keep the wheels turning. So I hope you are actually analysing what your content is doing or can do for your business, instead of playing the ‘what if’ game. [I teach you how to do this in Module 1].
What can we change about this fear in just 8 weeks? Can we make it 8% less threatening?
By the end of Quarter 2, can we absolutely NAIL your content messaging? What it looks like? What reactions it gets? The sales it makes you?
🌶️ For my spicy girlies, can we finesse how you dance around the community guidelines in a way that is actually MORE engaging for your audience?
Can you tuck and roll out from your safety net of product photography, pinterest images and canva mockups and make a difference in how hard you content works FOR you? (The opposite to working endlessly for your content).