144 - Why You Hate Being On Camera (and How to Get Over It)

If you've ever avoided picking up your phone to record because you hate how you look or sound on camera, this episode is for you. 

In this episode, my friend and video coach, Helen Polisi (aka @themuthership), joined me on the show to talk about why any of us resist video, how to push through that fear, and practical ways to start creating content, even before you're ready to show your face. 

I was so excited to finally have Helen, a long-time TV commercial director turned social media strategist, on the podcast — I've followed her for years and was one of the first members of the Muthership Creator Studio. 

Top Takeaways

Consistently creating videos will help overcome fear of the camera.
Starting with simple videos and baby steps builds confidence.
Authenticity and relatability drive engagement and followers.
Editing skills empower creators to improve content quality.
Community support and shared experiences foster growth.
You don't need a linear story; spontaneous content works.
Focus on impact and service rather than perfection.
Documenting life events can lead to unexpected opportunities.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction and guest background
02:12 The psychological benefits of creating videos
04:01 Overcoming self-criticism and building confidence
05:56 The importance of authenticity and relatability
08:05 Using trends and editing to enhance videos
09:57 Common mistakes new creators make
11:53 The power of documenting life and experiences
13:46 Engagement, reach, and community building
15:58 Tips for beginners and advanced creators
17:53 Success stories from community members
20:08 Final thoughts and encouragement

🔷If you're ready to stop thinking about video and start doing it, sign up for my Smarter, Faster, Fun Self-Paced Video Bootcamp. Start anytime, learn on your schedule.   

Visit ➡️ SFFVideoBootcamp.com

Join me in The Lab on Substack, my space to test, tweak, and share smart ideas worth chasing, especially around video, content strategy, and showing up online without burning out (or wasting your weekends) Click Here

📌 When you’re ready to make creating engaging social media videos a priority, I offer 1:1 coaching and done-with-you video services. 😉 Click Here

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➡️ Need more? Check out the 300+ videos on my YouTube channel Click here for my YouTube channel 

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For additional insights, connect with Annette Richmond and Black Dog Marketing Strategies on social media.
Substack: https://substack.com/@annetterichmond
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetterichmond/
YouTube: ...

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Content marketing, especially video, is something we know we need to do. But figuring out where to start, that's another story. In Content Marketing School, we talked about video creation, content strategy, social media, and how to make it all work for your business. I'm Annette Richman, your host. Let's get on with the show. Hi, I'm Annette Richmond. Thanks so much for joining me today. I am so excited to have Helen here with me, also known as the Mothership. You know, I have been following her for years on TikTok. And as soon as she opened up her studio for content creators, I think I was one of the first ones to actually sign up for it. So, Helen, for anyone who doesn't know who you are, please tell us a little bit about you and what you do.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Okay, thank you so much for having me. All right, my name is Helen Polisi. It is pronounced Polisi. A lot of people are not sure. And my uh handle is at the mothership, and that is with a you. I am a TV commercial director, a social media content director. I've been a producer. I'm now doing social media strategy, teaching people. I have over, I hate to say it, but I'm gonna say it, over 40 years experience directing. And I started doing toy commercials at first and then moved into testimonials. I do work for Sensodyne, Blistex, Olay, Clarel, NFL alumni, and lots of other brands. And it has been a journey because my career almost took a pivot when I got on social media and grew a following here. So I'd love to talk about that. I now have a studio where I teach creators every week and I have live meetings, and it's just the most fun thing. I look forward to those meetings every week. So take it away, Annette.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yeah, you know, that that is true. I belong to a few different memberships. That yours is by far the funnest. And that's what I always say, even if I'm talking to people that I know that run on the memberships and like, and that is the video community is the absolute funnest place. So, you know, we talked a little bit about this before we went um uh live, and I am on my soapbox all day, every day, video, video, you should do video. I read studies um by Wistia and even by Pew that say it delivers ROI. And yet people are so resistant to it. You know, they're just and it's so hard to get people to even pick up the camera. So, kind of what's your take on that whole, you know, resistance and is and it does deliver ROI, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

I I first of all, I love the question because you're speaking to someone who's been 40 years behind the camera. And the idea, if I even think 10 years ago, if I was going to tell myself where I am now, I would have said no effing way, because I'm not playing in front of the camera. And that's how it always was for me. But what has happened to me, and I truly believe it's through exposure therapy, putting myself there and then slowly accepting myself. What has changed for me has been so much more than just career things and just influencer things. It goes so beyond that, it's almost psychological. So that's I would love to touch on that because I do think that's such a big part of it. And to people who don't want to do it, it's I will start sharing ideas for them, but it's really taking small steps to acceptance of yourself, and it changes the game for your mental health. And I tell me, ask me anything now.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

No, no, so no, I I am with you 100%. And I am one of those people, I still hate pictures of myself. Do you think that's a good idea? You know I am just a group photo, and I'm kind of like, you know, whatever. But I don't even see myself on video anymore. And you know, I have videos, I've been doing video for probably about five years. I think I started into it really during the pandemic. And, you know, the same thing, look at it, and oh, and I have the videos, the sucky videos to prove it. Right. Um I really I I really don't even see myself anymore on video. I mean, is that what I that's the truth? And I tell people and they don't believe me.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

When you say you don't see yourself, you mean you don't see yourself through a critical lens, really. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

I'm there and I'm fine.

unknown 4:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Exactly. This is what you have to push through to get to the other side. And it's just a matter because it does take practice. And it's just because you're gonna continue to look at yourself and initially your instincts are always gonna be to judge, to judge, to how do I look and how do I compare and had a lot of the comparison problems when I first got on the apps that I was very safe behind the camera, behind the music, and I would do a little dancing, but I had to make sure my camera angle was right so I didn't do that or I didn't look too double-chinned or whatever. So I was I took my critical eye from production and I took it into my videos and I was overcritical of myself. And the more I did it, it was like poke, poke, poke, and after a while you don't even feel the poke anymore. It just got easier and easier to let go. And the healing that came from it, which is well beyond just visually seeing myself differently, but it's also taking other people's comments where before I would be more of a people pleaser and I'm gonna win this person over in the comment section and I'm gonna, they don't know me, I'm gonna make sure they you know they like me. And then and all of that, I feel so healed. I don't, it doesn't phase me anymore, but it's from doing it again and again and pushing through the uncomfortable part. That is what has helped me.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

I absolutely and you know what I tell people is if you're watching a video, are you looking at it and saying, Well, that woman could lose 10 pounds, or oh my gosh, what is that guy thinking?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

No, no, and if you're that person thinking that, then you're the problem. Yeah, right, exactly. So if you're thinking that, you really need to think about yourself a little bit. Like, why am I judging this person? Like, what do I have to say about what they're living there, how they're living their life? So that is it's a little bit of a viewer, you know, a viewer checkpoint. If are you thinking that, then maybe you're the only one thinking that, and other people really aren't thinking that way.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Yeah, and but and the thing is too, when I ask people that, they're like, oh no, of course not. And I try I've tried to tell people um, you know, that if they're thinking about it more as a service, like I am creating a video and uh who's gonna be helped by it? So um if you can just touch on that, and I just want to um that is so important.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah, I mean, from a standpoint of even growing on social media, your first your first goal for growth shouldn't be how am I gonna be so uh important to people? But it's gonna be more, what does this person need that I have to offer? And that doesn't have to be a skill, it doesn't have to be you're teaching somebody something, it could be just being you going through. I have a uh studio member who's going through a divorce, and she posted about how she was blindsided by uh this other life of her husbands. And that she gained like 5,000 followers just from making one video because people wanted to hear. They were, it's like a relatable thing. So it doesn't necessarily mean you're teaching, it means you're somehow impacting someone who was potentially going through the same thing, something that's relatable, something you did that touched on something for them where they'd want to be friends with you. So there's lots of reasons people follow and hop on the ride. And you have to just find what your what is your special sauce that you feel that you can add to your friends that you're gonna make in an app. Think of it in real life, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

No, yeah. I mean, and I I love I love that you said that because it's also and and I think this started for me with back in the pandemic during Clubhouse. I was on Clubhouse all the time. And you right, and you learn that how you get to know people through their voice, and video just takes it to a whole other level, and you know, it lets people actually feel like they know you. Like I felt like I I actually got a chance to meet you about a year ago.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Oh my god, I felt like I wanted to talk about that today. Because I remember you, I was spoken at a luncheon and I was invited to guest speak, and you were you came to it and you came up to me, and I was like, Oh my god, I felt like we'd known each other before, and then we were finally getting to like close the loop on our friendship. And then do you remember how bad I felt? Because I thought that I called you the wrong name. Like I had an A name, Amber and Annette, and we had some Amber's in the studio, and I I thought that I called you the wrong name. And you said, No, you didn't. And I said, Oh, okay, because I was feeling I because I felt like you were a friend already. How dare me call you the wrong name? Like, how could I do that? So that's how connected I felt when I Yeah, I I I did the I did the same way.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

There were big hugs all around, and you know, it it's it's interesting with video, and then I want to I gotta get and pick your brain a little bit to feed my audience. But you know, how we get to know people who video. I have people friends in other parts of the country, some in other parts of the world. Uh I've never met some. I may never meet some. Yeah, but I get on video zoom, like a couple of good friends once a month. We're on Zoom, hanging out, chit-chatting for like an hour, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:05

That's why it's called social media. People are forgetting that the word social is in it. And I look at how lucky we are as, and you know, I I don't even like to use the word aging, but as we get older, I see people and in the world, like I'm seeing my mom, she's much less mobile. And if she was, if this was her time to be this old, and she was she could have, I mean, obviously she doesn't have background to be on social media, but I see some of the older people in the retirement homes on social media and they are connecting with people and they have a social life, even though they can't mobily go to see these people. And we are gonna be so lucky to have that as aging people when we you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

I'm always gonna have friends everywhere. No, no, no. I I so hear you. And I will just say I I remember briefly, I don't know, 20-something years ago, my husband was traveling in Europe often, and we would be on video, it was kind of new, then it'd be all like the you know, garbly and everything. And now we're, you know, miles away, but it feels like we're sitting here. Yes, I love it. So I I want to um pick your brain a little bit. If you could just talk about some of the kind of mistakes people make, maybe in their thinking. We talked a lot, I think, about that already, but mistakes people make when they um decide they're going to start. I love this. Finally doing the work.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

The other thing is when people they think they have to get on and suddenly be the focus of the content, and then therefore, oh my God, I'm the center of attention. And that's when the second guessing comes in. Who am I? What can I offer? And I see it a lot of times with new, I'll see a new creator come up on my for you page and they'll say, uh, they'll a big pause because they don't know how to edit. So you know, the big pause. We hate that. So it's a big pause, and then it's hi everybody, hi TikTok. And they're just trying to think in their mind, they have already set up that so many people are listening to me. Oh my gosh, I better present so clearly and concisely. I better tell my story from my perspective. And people, as a viewer, we're not looking for that. I'm not scrolling my page to find somebody's new introduction and they're gonna talk about how they're gonna impact my life. I'm not. I you almost need to be in the middle of a conversation when you're on someone's board page. So you want to show up and it's like they're trying to catch up. Wait, what's this person talking about? So it doesn't have to be so organized. A lot of people think they have to organize, they have to have a plan. Video number one is gonna start here, and then it's linear. And we come from, as older folks, we come from a linear world where things were in an order. And now you have to think of the whole experience as nonlinear, and you could be talking about something in the middle of a conversation, and you could pick up somebody that just is scrolling and then starts tuning into it. So the mistake is you don't have to have a plan and start from the beginning, and there it doesn't have to be a linear story, it can be throw it, throw it, throw it, throw it. I think I thought of this today, I'm making a video, and you just start. And it's not, hi everybody, I thought of this today, I'm making a video because you'll lose everybody immediately. You're just gonna start. I got this teacup and I am in love with it because of the pattern. Whatever it is, you're gonna talk jumping into the middle. You don't have to start with an introduction and you don't have to set the stage. That is the biggest mistake I see.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, and and that's what I when I talk to people about that. I say, you know, if I start to think, hi, I'm a net Richmond, nobody cares. Nobody cares who I am. If they want to know if I'm on TikTok, LinkedIn, wherever, they will find you they know it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

We live in a world of sleuths. Everybody's a sleuth. You can find out anything we need. Just look at the women on TikTok that find like the man who cheated on the you know, all those stories that come out on social media. I mean, we can we can find our way, and anybody can find their way around. And if a person can't, they ask somebody who can help them. So you don't have to think linearly. So that's a big mistake. I do see people a lot, and this was, you know, I have this pet peeve, but the people who pick up their selfie cameras and they look at themselves, and it's immediately to me, that's an immediate amateur looking at themself on camera, doesn't know that there is a camera at the top. So, of course, that that's a little bit more. Maybe we could forgive that if somebody's new, but that's another mistake I see. And no editing. That's another just being able to, I think learning how to edit is so empowering. You will get used to seeing yourself more when you're editing yourself too. So it's like you're forced to look at yourself and accept yourself again and again. So I think editing is a great skill to have, and it also gives you something to do to distract yourself from did was that a good video? No, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Just chop it up and it's gonna be fine. Yeah, no, no, I I I love that. And you know, people don't realize either, like if when when you pause, if it's like four seconds, if you if I'm talking and then it's my microphone.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

I can hear you. Okay, good. I think that's disconnected. Okay, anyway, carry on.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

But the thing is, like if I stop talking and then it's like there's silence for one, two, three, four. It feels like forever, right? Forever.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

I have a lot of people asking me, how do I overlap the voice? Because people are catching on that holding people's attention is keeping them don't even breathe. I I like cut my words together. Even if I didn't have a pause in talking, I still cut it tighter. So there's like a negative pause.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah, no, I do that too when I'm editing. It's like I I started just my mouth is already open. I'm already open in speaking and I and I cut it.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

So that's the mother's first lesson.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

So so I love that before I ask you for some more tips. I just want to, because this came to mind. Um, I love how you talk about the idea of um people, uh viewers. And you know, reach is down across platforms. I mean, and on LinkedIn, they talk about it every single day. Reach, reach, reach. And, you know, TikTok. Um, I mean, I'm not on TikTok like you're on TikTok, but still I see the stuff is down. But um, but I love how you talk about, but think of all, think of those people as like people in the room, kind of yes, and there can be just 10 of them, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

You know, you might reach one in 10 people. That's better than reaching zero if you do nothing. So views are down. I want to also say this about views. There is so much less, less engagement now on videos. So many more people are watching and watching, and then moving to the next video and not ever hitting the like and not ever hitting the comment button. Oh, okay. This is like a new trend in social media that people are taking for granted that their view is the gift. Like they've stayed long enough, they've watched it, and they're moving on. There's there are many less people hitting the like button like button and the comment button. So that is adding to the lower engagement because people aren't doing the things, they're enjoying the content, maybe. And then I find myself the same thing. I'm watching a video, I'm watching a video. I'm like, oh, let me go back and even like that video, and I watch the whole thing, you know. So sometimes we're just moving too fast. And so that's why I take less uh, I guess I put less importance on the number of views, and I worry more about the few people that do take the time to comment. Those are my potential customers, those are the people who are interested in my content. When I say customers, of course, I mean just for studio teachings, not trying to sell them products, but those the people that are doing shop videos, they want potential customers. So those are the people who are engaging in your videos, those are the people that care about your content. And you know how I feel about an email list. Get them on an email list.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. And you know, I know that that you're not on LinkedIn much, and I keep begging you to please come on LinkedIn and share your stuff because it's so good. But I think that too about about um video on LinkedIn. And I have noticed LinkedIn, um, I don't know, it seems seems like almost two years now. It's been quite a while when they added a video tab to the mobile, and um, you know, and video became more important and they talk about it being more important. And I have noticed as I look at it that I see creators like just posting bigger creators from like TikTok and stuff on there. And I'm I'm assuming there's some kind of a financial relation relationship, but you know, who knows?

SPEAKER_00 17:10

You know what? I just wrote down put put posts on LinkedIn because I want to take your advice and run with it. And I want, I guess from my standpoint, I have a question for you. Would you think that just posting the content I put on TikTok, or do you think it has to be packaged a certain way on LinkedIn? I I would love to ask you.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Well, I I will I will say what I told you before we we started uh on the podcast today. Earlier last week, I posted a video that I created who had dancing boots, you know, used a little masking effect, just the dancing boots dancing. I jumped in them and I danced like for three seconds. Oh my god, she danced, you know, and she's over 50, dare I say 60, and you know, she's dancing on video. And I I just um I got a lot of engagement on it. Amazing. A lot of engagement. And yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't share, I have more trouble getting people to look at me on TikTok if I'm doing like a talking head video than I have people looking at me if I'm doing some kind of a trick video. And I try to do them, you know, I've been trying to get back more into it. So yes, I think absolutely okay. And and um, you know, I I talk about you all the time to to people because this is the thing too, and and people are so nervous about their age, their age, their age. I told you I've had people that I know in their 50s and they're like, oh, my kids say I can't be on video. And it's like it's so so not true. It's just so not true. And um and people want to, I think, learn from people that are not 25.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Listen, people want to see people that people of our age want to see people that aren't 25 doing things. Yeah, I don't necessarily take the same stock of watching you know 25-year-old doing a fitness routine. I pay attention when I see the 65-year-old doing a fitness routine. Yes, I'm not stopping on the scroll of a 25-year-old. I'm not because that's not something I can I can aspire to backwards. You know what I mean? I'd much rather look at the 90-year-old lady who's in the in the gym. And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. And and and I need the inspiration people.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Yes, yes, yes. And I follow a granny who does that kind of stuff. But but it's it's it's the same type of thing as when you see, you know, the magazine ads with, you know, it's like somebody 22 with for the uh cream, you know, facial cream, wrinkled cream. It's like, okay, so let me get off my soapbox there. And I love it. And you know, you talked about the studio, and um I know that you have students of all levels. I feel like when it's first started, the people were sort of a at least a little bit experienced, but now you also have a lot, you have a wider range, but something for everyone. If you wanted to learn to do tricks like I do, you got that there. If you want, if you're just starting, you've got that too. So, can you talk a little bit about maybe um some suggestions for people that want to be a little more engaging if they're new and maybe if they're, you know, a little bit at a higher level. Okay, great. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

So, what I will say that I've done because of the people that have joined my program is I have now adapted to the people who are in it. So I will, as new people come in, I'm like, we need to figure out how to steer them to the beginner lesson. So now they're labeled green and the blue lessons are labeled blue, so more intermediate. So you can right away visually know which things to watch first and which advice to take first. And I will always, I mean, I'm gonna fall on a sword for this one. People who don't want to do trends, like completely okay. But if you can understand how to use a trend, the entire social platforms are built on trends. And if you're gonna be in your stuck in the mud, like I'm not even gonna try this, you're missing an opportunity. And so my thing is always when someone new comes in, whether they're new or experienced, I want to make sure they're going directly to how to use trends to make sure they're maximizing. If someone's new that comes in, I want them to understand how to edit a basic speaking video because you can take a very poorly recorded video, as I did for a longtime friend of mine who is now social media famous. I took a video of hers and she said, I don't know, I just feel like I sound like I'm just droning on and on. And I edited her two-minute drone on to 20 seconds, and she was like, Oh my god, my eyes are open. So when someone can move to the two things is learning trends and learning to edit. You can take any crappy video out of your phone and make it into something amazing. And you don't have to be an experienced 40 years in an edit room person. You can learn it as a beginner. I love when beginners come in because I feel like I got a blank slate and I don't have to fix anything. I can help them, you know, from the beginning. That's really nice. So I do have both of those things going on.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah, no, I I love that. And again, I I that's where I is a failing of mine. I I am not up on the trends, and I am not, you know, as as sharp on things since life's been a little life lately. But anyway, um, you know, I I I love that about um that there's such a mix and it's uh it's a very supportive, supportive group. Can I just add one thing?

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Because I just came up with the group. Of course. Of course. I I just feel like I need to share this. So when, as you said, you were one of my first members and my core beginner members when I first launched the studio, and those who jumped in. Most of them are still with me a year and change, almost two years later. Yep. And one of them ended up on a TV show on the Golden Bachelor. Yes on the meeting this morning. She was on the meeting this morning. And I because I know her so well for so long, I know that I can show her videos and use them as examples. So we did a whole lesson where I said, here's a really good video of hers, and here's one where I'm going to show her how to improve. So I also use the content from members and with the members who have, she came in as an influencer. She didn't need to grow a following. She already had something like 50,000 followers. She wanted to learn how to make better transition videos or she could do fashion and she could get noticed by producers, which she did. So I love when it's someone, and then convert conversely, I have a mom, an autism mom, who was one of the first members. Yeah, one of the first lessons and ended up with a viral video. And now she gets little brand deals for autism. So it goes from one extreme to the other, but it's everybody when you are seeing other people succeed, you feel that you can. I always like to say if you see me succeed, you could say, Oh, she's a producer, she knows what she's doing. But if you see someone like yourself who's also doing the things, you can do it too. And that's the joy of a community going through something together.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Yes, yes, that that is so true. And it's so funny because I, you know, because you do commercials and and I feel like a brush with celebrity, like, my coach, she did that commercial.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

I know the commercials is true. Because I'm always posting behind the scenes, and then you guys do the actual finished thing up there, and it's like it's exciting. It is, it's fun. It is fun to do those things because it keeps me on the pulse of what's happening from brands. So I've since being on social media, I before was doing TV commercials, but now I'm being brought in to do social media ads, and I'm actually have a shoe coming up at the end of September for Pronamol, a new product for social media only. I'm doing ads. So I it has pivoted my career just being present, never talking about it online. I don't talk about being a TV commercial director in my videos, but people see me and they're like, wait a second, go to my bio. Oh, wait a second. So people find you for what they need you for. And it could be something that you didn't even know was coming. Hint hint.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Just while while I'm think of thinking of it, in case you forget to mention it, I want to talk about your podcast. You have a great podcast. I listen to it every week. And when you mention pronamel, you have talked about them on and I I started using the toothpapes like that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

And it wasn't even like it's influencing, but both.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

But the the the um what's the name of the podcast again?

SPEAKER_00 24:51

This the mothership creator strategy. Okay. So everything is mothership branded. So we have the mothership creator studio, the mothership creator strategy is the podcast, and the newsletter. And the the newsletter, email newsletter, goes out twice a week. It shares trends, content ideas, it gives you your content, kind of your arsenal for what to do this week to week. And then the podcast is really a deep dive on a topic. So I've done deep dive on the TikTok shop. I've done deep dives on how to do good speaking videos, how to do engaging opening lines. I like to go deep into a topic each Friday. So I enjoyed it so much.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

No, I I love it. And again, I wanted to mention it because I know that I've been listening to it obviously, you know, since you started it. Um, and so I know that you had gone through a little bit of a rebrand, and I just have it on my, you know, that I follow the show. So if you rebrand, I don't remember the name of the rebrand. So we're we're getting kind of close to the end. We still have some time to chit-chat, but I always um, and it's been such a great conversation. I feel like we've touched on a lot of different things, but I always like to ask everyone that I speak with for final thoughts of something I didn't ask you, we didn't talk about um that you think would be helpful to people who are listening uh to this episode.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

I have a good one actually that I just I bet you do. Which is if you are afraid to put your face on camera, you don't have to do that first. I I think this is an important piece of the puzzle people skip over because they're like, do it, do it, pick up the phone, record. But as a person who's never recorded yourself before, that might seem like a leap from here to like jumping from Mount, you know, climbing Mount Emberse. You can do a simple video. And a simple, I always like to think of we are all possibly music video directors. We have an app in our hands, we can direct our own music video, and we don't even have to star in it. That's the beauty. So you can say, I'm on vacation, I'm gonna make a music video, I'm gonna take these scenes of all the things that I've done from a point of view lens. So it's just from me filming it, me filming it. And you can make take little two-second clips and make a beautiful music video. Step one. Step two, maybe you make a version with a voiceover on it. So now you're introducing your voice and you're getting yourself more comfortable just putting your voice on there. And a lot of people don't like their voice, but get a microphone. You sound great, trust me. We love accents. If you have a crazy jersey accent, I am here for it. You know what I mean? I love it, and I love so I think you can take baby steps to one day, then you pick up the camera. And I've seen it happen again and again with my studio members. I love it. I had one woman, she was hell-bent not getting in front of a camera, and she's doing on-camera videos, and she's one of my first members, also. I love her to death. She's like, I can't believe you did it. You got me, you got me on camera. Yeah, and I didn't have to force her. I just, I just like laid the pebbles out and she just followed it, you know?

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Yeah, it's true. And and some people are are so reluctant. And then once they got get into it, I I have a couple of people that have worked like that too, and they're like, oh wow. It's like, oh, I've been sitting at my studio at home, and you know, it's empowering to be able to do it. Yeah. And one thing that I want to ask you about too, and I know we're I don't want to, I want to be respectful of your time, but um the idea that people um can can document rather than rather than just recording. And I've done that sometimes where I've had my phone and I'm recording myself recording my solo podcast. And it's just me talking. So I I think that um is a way for people to ease into, you know, not having to speak on camera, but maybe no camera, then no vo no speaking.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

And then just a little bit of, you know, documenting makes it very easy because you can document something and never post it. And I'll use the example of I in 2022, I started to lose my eyesight, I didn't know what the hell was going on, but I started picking up my phone and going, I am at the hospital, I don't know why my site, blah, blah, blah, which ended up turning into me documenting a journey of lymphoma and chemo. Never did I think that was what gonna happen, but it was because my instinct was to document what's happening for myself. I really will be honest, Annette, when I was recording those videos, it was more so to have in my phone so I'd have a timeline of how I lost my eyesight, what was happening, the progression so I could look back on it myself. And then when the diagnosis came, Julia and I sat down together, I was still blind, and she helped me edit that video to let people know. And then I took people on the journey with me. So that was not an expected part of my uh my little social media adventure. It was just like life throws you a curveball, you just you know, try and hit it. That's what I did, you know. So you can document things and you can document very simple things. Like here's something I just got from my kitchen that's changed the game for me. It doesn't have to be you're trying to sell it, just you're you know, talking about it because it changed something for you. So documenting. I love your ideas.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

No, I I I love it. I love it. So um, again, a best place is we're just about to say goodbye for people to find you.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

I don't want to say goodbye. Okay, mothershipstudio.com is where you can find my program. You can find anything about me on at the mothership because of course I have the link in the profile and it's the mothership with a you. You can find it there. But the studio is a wonderful place to just try and dabble. You know what? I'll make a special code in that for your listeners so that if they join for the first month, they can get ten dollars off. It's you know, or at this juncture the price is going up. So if you get in right now, at this juncture, it's 36 a month with the $10 coupon for the first month, you can get in for $26. And I would say get in before our app launches, because when the app launches, the price is going up, but you'll be able to you'll be stuck at your price. So your price.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

So I just want to clarify though that this this code will be available. That's the that's my only thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Like it'll be available indefinitely. Indefinitely, yeah. They stay the codes stay there. Okay. So whoever is listening to the podcast right now, I'm gonna make the code. It's Annette 10. So I'm writing it down. Annette 10, all caps. That's gonna be your code. Whoever listens to this whenever, the code will be valid to get it ten dollars off. Okay. Now, mind you, if you do this code in three months from now, the price will be ten dollars off the new price. So you want to get in when it's at the lower price of 36, so you can get in at 26. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

I yes, absolutely do it now. So I want to thank you so much and thanks everyone for listening. And I will see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

I love being here. Bye. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Want to continue the conversation? Connect with me on LinkedIn or find me on Substack and let me know if you found me through the show. And if you find content marketing school valuable, please follow the show and leave a five star review. It's the only way I'll know that I'm on the right track. Thanks again for joining me, and I'll see you next time.