68. Facing the Fear of Putting Yourself Out There

In this episode, we're diving into the common fear that holds so many content creators back: the fear of putting yourself out there. Whether it’s fear of judgment, comparison, or perfectionism, it’s time to push past the anxiety and start creating. I’ll share practical tips on how to embrace imperfection, focus on providing value, and gain the confidence to share your voice with the world. It’s all about taking small steps and remembering that your unique perspective matters. Tune in and let’s break through the fear together!

//Resources Mentioned//

• 📚 Content with Confidence Course: Purchase Here (Sale is on through the holidays!)
• 🎥VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pERIk3pifEg&t=11s
• Join My Mailing list at HerBusinessElevated.com

Let’s elevate your business, together! Tune in now.

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💻& Don't forget to Visit the Official Her Business Elevated Blog for more business advice and tips and pick up your free downloads! http://www.herbusinesselevated.com!

💻To Inquire About MARKETING services, please visit- https://herbusinesselevated.com/work-with-me/

📷My Solopreneur YouTube channel  https://www.youtube.com/@demetriazinga/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, they're beautiful people. Welcome back to the HERB Business
Elevated Podcast and Happy New Year. I'm so excited here
in twenty twenty five to be with you as we
kick off a brand new year full of possibilities. It's
time to stop holding back and a step into this
creative energy that's been waiting just for you. And I'm

(00:36):
your host, Dimitria Zinga. You're excited, passionate and real life
content creation coach. I hope you all had an amazing
holiday season full of rest, enjoy and hopefully new beginnings,
and I'm beyond thrilled to start twenty twenty five with you.
And let me just tell you some big things are

(00:57):
coming this year. I'm shifting my phone just a bit
and I'm dedicating more of my time to building up
my YouTube channel. I've got this solopreneur channel that I
will leave a link to and I know it's going
to be a game changer for you as you grow
your business. So again i'll leave that link in the
show notes, So go check it out and make sure
you're subscribed so you don't miss all the exciting content

(01:20):
that's coming your way. But today, let's talk about something
that is going to set you free this year, and
that's overcoming your content creation fear. Yes, that thing holds
so many of us back from showing up as the
content creators that we're meant to be. And the number
one thing I hear from my clients and listeners is
that they're scared. They're scared to share their content. And

(01:43):
maybe your second guest seeing yourself, maybe you're afraid of
judgment or even comparing your work to others and feeling
like you just aren't good enough. But guess what, you're
not alone, and I've been there too. In fact, it's
something that even the most seasoned content creators face at
some point. So I'm here today to help you push
past that fear and start creating content that really matters.

(02:06):
And hopefully in the upcoming year, I will have a
few guests that will also help us to be inspired
in the area of content creation. So you'll hear from me,
and you'll hear from a few others, and together we're
going to encourage you that you really and truly can
do this. So let's talk about understanding content creation anxiety.

(02:27):
You know, that fear you feel when you're about to
hit publish on your content right before you hit the
published button. It's a real fear, and for many of us,
it's easy to fall into a cycle of creating and
then deleting and then rethinking without actually sharing anything. The
root of that fear often comes from comparison and perfectionism,

(02:47):
which I talk about I'm a YouTube channel as well,
and a big fear of criticism. But listen to me
when I say this, nobody starts perfect. I have been
creating content for over twenty years and my early work,
let me just tell you, it was far from perfect,
but you know what, it's still had value and that's
what kept me going. Your voice matters, and even if

(03:10):
you don't think it's perfect, it's about showing up, helping
someone and just knowing that what you create has the
potential to make a difference. Let me tell you why
your voice matters. If you've been wondering why should I
get out there, let me tell you why. You may
be looking at other creators out there with their fancy
reels and perfectly edited videos, and you might feel like

(03:32):
you're not measuring up. But hear me when I say
you matter. Your voice matters, your story, your perspective, your knowledge.
It is powerful now. Whether you're creating a YouTube video,
or a podcast episode or a blog post, it's all
about serving your audience. And even if you feel like
your content is not at the highest level yet, it's

(03:52):
still valuable. The feedback I've gotten from people who've said
things like your podcast episode helped me make a tough decison,
or that blog post gave me so much clarity. It
just reminds me every day that it's not about perfection,
it's about connection. So how do we get past this
fear and start creating with confidence? Just a quick plug,

(04:15):
I do have a course that's entitled Content with Confidence,
and I will leave a link for that course if
you are interested in getting a motivational boost to get
you started on creating your content, so that will be
in the show notes. My first tip for you is
to embrace imperfection. Your first few pieces of content, my
friend will not be perfect, and that's perfectly okay. You've

(04:37):
got to let go of that perfectionism mindset and just
start creating. Trust me, I look back at my first
podcast episodes and I cringe, and of course my videos
are even cringier. But I'm grateful for them because looking back,
I can see the growth that has happened over the years,
and it's encouraging to know that what I'm doing today
is far better than what I did fifteen years ago,

(04:58):
and so I'm so grateful. And also these videos, in
these podcast episodes and blog posts have helped me to grow.
So in doing the work, I'm growing, and that's what
I want to encourage you to do. Just get started
doing the work. And the second thing is to reframe
your mindset. Shift from this competition idea to contribution. You're

(05:19):
not here to compete with other people. You're here to
help your audience. Focus on adding value and not on
outshining someone else. When you realize your content is about
helping people, that pressure to be perfect it just completely
falls away. So you're just here to be a support
system and a help to those who are your audience,
the people that you're called to work with. Don't worry

(05:42):
about competing. The third thing is to set manageable goals.
You want to start small, like seriously small. Don't try
to make a twenty minute YouTube video right out the
gate if that's not your thing. Instead, you can start
with a quick Instagram reel or a three hundred word
blog post, something really short in quick easy for you
to do. Those small steps will build your confidence and

(06:03):
get you in the habit of creating consistently. And that's
what we're going for, consistency, right. So if you find
that creating this twenty five to thirty minute video every
single week is too overwhelming to even think about because
it's too long of a video, too much content, then
scale it back, make a fifteen minute video, make a

(06:24):
ten minute video. Start small, and then grow from that.
The fourth tip I have for you is to leverage
short form content, and that goes right along with those small,
manageable goals that I just talked about, because platforms like
Instagram and TikTok and YouTube shorts, these are perfect for
testing out your ideas, especially if you don't have everything

(06:44):
planned out just yet about what you want to talk about.
Maybe you have some ideas of the type of content
you want to create, but you're not quite sure and
you haven't nailed your niche just yet. That's okay, you
don't have to nail it, just play around with some
ideas I've had. Like I said in another episode, I've
created over ten brands over the years and these are
all different types of brands, anything from health and holistic

(07:07):
care to homeschooling, to Christianity and faith and now business.
So I have done a lot of different things under
different topics and brands, and I've learned how to nail
the niche that feels good to me in this space
of my life. So in order to do that, sometimes
you have to start with small content, small pieces of content,

(07:30):
so you're not creating these long drawn out content pieces
that don't serve you in the long run because you
don't end up staying with that niche anyway. So this
will give you a chance to create these quick, engaging
content without the pressure of perfection. So just play around
with these different platforms until you find your style that
works for you. And my fifth tip for you is

(07:51):
to focus on your audience when you create. I want
you to think of the person who's going to benefit
from your content. Make this your ideal person that you
are honed in on in your mind. In your head,
you have to be thinking about this particular person and
how you're helping them, Visualize them and speak to them
directly like a friend. And when you focus on serving

(08:12):
that person, it makes the process so much more rewarding
for you and for them when they're listening to you. Now,
I'm going to hit you with some actionable tips to
help you thrive in content creation this year. And my
first tip, I'm going to reiterate this tip over and
over again because it's such an important one. But I
love batch creating, and so batch creation is important. Set

(08:33):
aside a day to create those multiple pieces of content
at one time. It's going to save you so much
stress and keep you consistent. Then you'll want to repurpose
that content. So one idea can be shared in several
different ways. A blog post can become a podcast episode,
or a video or social media post. Just get creative.
And that's exactly what I'm doing on this episode. This

(08:53):
episode was initially a video, and I've taken that video
on YouTube and I've created a podcast for you guys.
So this is a different format for you to consume
it if you're more of a listener to this show
than you are watching me on YouTube. But I like
to do this because it allows me to take one
idea and manage that idea, sharing that idea in so

(09:15):
many different ways, and then you'll want to use tools,
platforms like Canva, Trello, these can all help you stay
organized and streamline your content creation process. I'm currently using Notion.
I love Notion right now, it's becoming kind of a
brain dump for me, a second brain, so to speak.
I really like Notion, and I've come off of Trello
and I've come off of Asana and now I'm doing

(09:37):
everything in Notion. I do have an Evernote account as well,
but Notion's becoming the thing for me. So just a
tip for those of you who are creatives who love
to have that second brain. That's what Notion has been
doing for me, and I love it, so I highly
recommend it. It's making my life a lot easier. So
find tools that work for you and work them. Use

(09:58):
them to make your life more streamline when it comes
to your content. And then lastly, I want you to
track your progress. Take note of how far that you've
come over the weeks and the months, and then a
year and another year and so forth, because looking back
at your progress is really going to encourage and inspire
you to keep going on this journey. And I know

(10:20):
that the temptation to delete that old, imperfect content is real,
but I'm telling you don't do it, don't delete it.
Those early pieces show your journey and they remind your
audience that you didn't start like a pro. And guess what,
someone might still find value in those old pieces of content.
So keep it up and keep those videos up, keep

(10:42):
those podcast episodes up. I still have my videos from
over ten years ago, and my podcast episodes as well,
from way way way back in the day. Today, I'm
pretty embarrassed and I cringe every time I listen to
them or watch them, and I almost want to just
delete them or put them on private so nobody can
consume this content that I don't really want floating around

(11:04):
out there because it does not represent who I am today.
But I keep it up because I know that that
content still is valuable to someone somewhere, somehow, and that's
the reason why I've kept them. So if it's not
too to embarrassing, keep your content up. And this will
help your audience to see your journey, how far you've come,

(11:25):
and to see how you got started. It might even
inspire them to get started. So it's time to take
this leap. This year, I want you to write down
three topics that you're passionate about pick one of those
topics and then outline a simple structure and create something
around it, whether it's a blog post or a video

(11:47):
or a podcast episode. But don't overthink it. Just do
the work, create that outline, create the content, and then
hit publish and then move forward. That's all I want
you to do. Just break through the fear and do it.
And the truth is success does not come overnight, but
you know what you'll get there. By embracing imperfection and

(12:09):
focusing on value, you're going to overcome your fear. And
I promise you the world is ready for your voice.
And before we wrap up, remember big things are coming
from me this year. I've got new products on the
way and I'm so excited for you to get your
hands on these products. So stay tuned and let's make
twenty twenty five the year that we stop holding back

(12:29):
and we show up as the amazing content creators that
we are. Thank you so much for tuning in today,
and remember, as always, you've got this, And until next time,
take care of yourself and your business and to your
online business success.