Episode 492: Documenting life without feeling stupid
Ready to document your journey as a small business owner?
It’s easier than you think, and it doesn’t need to be perfect. In today’s episode, Fiona Killackey dives into why sharing your real, unfiltered business story is one of the best ways to connect with your audience. Fiona will walk you through:
How being real, even on the messy days, builds stronger connections
Simple tools you already have to start creating content
How to feel comfortable on camera without the pressure of perfection
Easy steps to get started and keep it simple
If you’ve been holding back because you’re waiting for everything to be “just right,” this episode is for you. Let’s get into it.
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A business that you can be proud of and that actually aligns with your values, your beliefs, and your hopes for the future. So much of our daily life is spent working on and in the businesses and the brands that we are creating, and so it makes sense to actually love what you do.
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Hello and welcome to episode 492 of the My Daily Business Podcast. It is a hot one. As I'm recording this, I'm literally sweating in this studio. But I'll do so without a fan for the goodness of the audio take of these.
But my heart goes out to anyone in and around Australia who is impacted right now by either the massive heatwave that we're having, or the floods, or so many other things. And yeah, across the world as well. But here in Australia, there's the most hectic weather at the moment as I'm recording this.
But today, it is not about the weather. It is about you and how to document your life for social media, for other parts of your marketing channel, for, you know, just getting your brand out there without feeling like an idiot.
So, before we get stuck into that, I want to, of course, acknowledge where I'm coming from on these lands that are very, very hot at the moment. I want to, of course, acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of them.
And for me, in North Warranite, that is the Wurundjeri and Runjurr people of the Kulin Nation. So, I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never, ever been ceded.
The other thing I wanted to remind you of is that group coaching is open. It is the final call out, guys! If you're listening to this in real time, we will be shutting off interviews shortly.
So, if you'd like to get into it, you can apply and find out all the information at mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching. Again, that's mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching.
Alright, let's get into today's coaching episode.
So, I just want to start by being really transparent. Trying to think about things in your life or in your business or behind the scenes that you think are going to be engaging and interesting to other people can feel incredibly intimidating and confronting.
I have sat with so many business owners, some really big who have marketing teams, some very small, where it's just them doing everything. And equally, they will say, "I just don’t know if anyone would find that very interesting."
The things that are so mundane or seemingly ordinary to you can often be the things that are extraordinary to other people. They may find it really interesting, or there’s something that resonates with them.
It could be that they say, "Oh my goodness, I feel the same," or "I have the same pair of glasses," or "I have something else like you." And they feel some way connected to you, and connected, in turn, to your business.
So, I want to get through today thinking about how could I start documenting more? Whether that's building out your personal brand, or just, you know, building out more of the founder’s story, or the people that work in your business.
And how can you do it in a way that doesn't make you feel like an idiot, doesn't make you feel like a sellout, doesn't make you feel like, oh my God, I'm just stuck to my phone all the time? Creating content is one part of a business, and for a lot of people, it's almost like they've had to become a content creator in order to just have a business, even if the business has nothing to do with content creation.
So today, I just want to go through a number of things that hopefully will help you. From really basic tech tools that you probably need to invest in, which you can do so at a pretty affordable rate, through to the bigger things, like the feelings, the emotions, and all the kind of confident stuff that comes up.
I guess the first thing is to think about why you need to do this, or why you might want to be doing this, and why documentation kind of matters. Now, I've been talking about this since the beginning of my career in marketing. Even before social media, this was a thing. One of my very first jobs was the editor of a magazine by David Jones. David Jones is a department store here in Australia.
And way back, I think it was 2004 or 2005, I edited their magazine. Part of that was they were trying to bring their brand to a newer, younger, more fashion-forward audience. So, they’d invested heavily in this fashion family. They had brands like Sass & Bide, White Suede (I think that’s what it was called), and oh my God, so many others. 1Teaspoon, and some other big, big brands that were, you know, huge at the time.
So, they had invested heavily. They had redesigned their stores, they were doing this whole thing, and then the magazine was part of that, you know, delivering that connection to their audience. This was before social media, so they didn’t have that kind of digital way. But within that magazine, we were talking about the founder stories. Who were the women behind Sass & Bide? Who were the couple behind, you know, XYZ Brand? Who were the people behind the music that we loved?
I remember interviewing amazing musicians like Sia, The Knife, De La Soul, and so many others. It was about the people, bringing that human element. So, this whole idea that personal brand humanisation is something new, it’s absolutely not.
The idea of bringing that to light is because that trust — that element of, “Oh, I have a genuine connection with you” — that transparency of showing who you really are is what builds trust. It builds long-term brand loyalty. It helps your business. It helps people feel confident to exchange their money, their time, or their email address with you. It builds credibility.
And it does so because it’s creating an authentic connection. The amount of people that listen to this podcast and then email me and say, “Oh my God, I feel like you're my friend. I feel like we get on. I feel like, you know, we have the same humour or this or that,” it’s because this is who I am. I don’t script this stuff. I just, you know, occasionally write some notes. But it’s who I am.
And so, I’m documenting what’s going on in my life. I have a weekly email that goes out every single Sunday. If you’re not on the email list, you can just go to mydailybusiness.com/subscribe. And I’ve shared so much of my personal life in there.
And every time you do, you get such great feedback from people, being like, “I see you. I have been there,” or “I’m about to enter that part of my life or that season.” And so, it’s really driving credible connection and, for want of a better word, authentic connection.
Because the power of showing up consistently as you, not as somebody else, not putting on the mask and everything else, really helps people like connect with an actual real person at the end of whatever tool or device they seem to be using.
The other thing is that we connect. You know, we’re humans, and we have used storytelling since the beginning of time to help people figure out what’s right and wrong in the world. Like moral compass, emotions, how things work.
And so, we’re so used to that. We are so attuned to it. It’s how we help children learn before they can read or anything else like that. And so, you want to think about, in your business, how often are you really telling a story? How often are you really bringing people into that narrative, as opposed to just kind of pushing a message out at them?
Even right now, I’m literally, like I said, sweating in this office. And you can see it if you’re watching the video version. For me, that is like, ah, you know, I could have waited until maybe, you know, the heatwave has gone. I could have gone and done my hair better. I have no makeup on. Actually, I do have this little lip balm. I have to really shout out this Nivea red-tinted lip balm. Not an ad, but I’ve been using it for years. People always say, “Oh, what lipstick do you have on?” I’m like, “It’s a lip gloss and it’s this little Nivea one.”
Anyway, I digress. The point is I’m just showing up as I am right now. I’m not trying to put on a mask or make everything perfect and polished. And I think that is what resonates mostly with people.
So, you really want to think about, and I talked about this in the latest episode as well. Are you documenting kind of the milestone moments? Or not even just big milestones, but are you documenting all of the things that happen to make your business your business? Are you talking about how you start your day, or what you’re super excited about, or a big win that you’ve had, or a challenge that you’ve gone through?
Because that and that storytelling and that humanity is what will drive brand loyalty over the long term. The other thing with that is that if you get into a habit of documenting these small things, you can utilise that content later on.
I know that with my first book, Passion, Purpose, Profit that was written—God, it was written like 2019, but it came out 2020. That book has sold more than 15,000 copies. And what people tell me about that resonates so much are the stories at the start of that.
Now, those stories are things that I’ve shared with clients. They are also some of them stories that I’ve shared previously in my Sunday email. And so by documenting these things in some capacity, whether it's video format, whether it's a podcast, whether it's an email, whether it's, you know, your captions on social media, you can then draw on that later on, like I did to build out my first book.
Likewise, I utilise this podcast and I repurpose it in so many different formats. And so by documenting, by getting used to documenting things, it gets over the "IC" of it, but also it allows you to then draw on that later on and deepen those connections with a whole bunch of people that may not have heard those stories before. But also, even if people have heard it a few times, they’re like, “Oh yeah, I love that. I love that about you. I remember hearing this when I saw you speak at an event four years ago and now I’m back in this.”
That familiarity and that sense of “you are who you are” and it’s genuine and real and I can drive a connection through it. So let’s take a minute out of the whole reason of why you need to do it and think about what you need to actually execute on documenting yourself, documenting your stories, documenting the connections, the behind the scenes, all the things.
Now, I’m going to talk about it in a way today that I think is the most common at the moment, which is video content. And I’m recording this podcast as video. We look forward. YouTube is coming. It has been—my God, I feel like it’s been years in the making, but this is what people expect. I mean, so many of us are utilising video and we have been for years and years and years.
And now, it’s becoming not just a nice-to-have, but almost an expectation of, say, podcasts, for example. And so, I want to talk about today documenting yourself and getting used to doing it on a tool and a medium like video.
The reason that I’ve chosen video is that, one, you can obviously cut it up and use it across multiple platforms, including social media, but also including your ads. Including, if you sell any kind of product or service on the actual detail page or product detail page, you can use it to pitch yourself into speaking events. You can use that same video content.
Take the audio, take it as text in a blog format. You could take the audio and put it in some other kind of tool or just have it as like a private podcast. There’s so many ways to cut up a video, perhaps more so than some other sorts of mediums. So that’s what I’m going to focus on.
So when I talk about tech tools or equipment or things that are going to help you execute this documentation, then that’s what I mean. I’m using it potentially for video, but you could use these tools for other such things, including just having a podcast that’s not a video podcast.
So I guess with all of these, we will link to ones that I recommend in the podcast show notes. So for this episode, that’s going to be mydailybusiness.com/podcast492. But I want to say that you may already have access to some of this stuff already.
I mean, most people, if they’ve got a phone, they’ve got access to a video camera really and an audio tool and so many other things. But don’t feel like you have to go and always buy the most expensive of everything or you have to get the top tier to start. With this podcast, which is almost at 500 episodes, I cannot believe that, and has brought so many things into my business—connection, sales opportunities, all this stuff.
I did this podcast for a long time with a super cheap microphone that I bought from Amazon. I think it was about 100 bucks. I had a pop screen that I think I paid $10 for and I didn’t have anything else. That was it. I didn’t soundproof my room.
I used to record this in my old office, which was a concrete floor, glass and like pretty thin plaster around it. So it was actually built into the shed at the back of my garden. So I definitely didn’t have this like fabulous soundproof room and a state-of-the-art podcast microphone and all the things.
And so don’t let what I’m going to talk about in these tech tools make you feel like you have to go and spend thousands. You absolutely don’t.
So I think that the absolute basics that you need to start things like documentation, at its absolute simplest, is just a phone—just literally your iPhone. And for me, that has been the majority of whatever I’ve created video content on.
I also have created podcasts when I’ve absolutely needed to, just using the Voice Memo app on an iPhone. I’m sure they have something similar on an Android. I remember once I was out with a friend. We were out doing playdates with our kids, and my editor contacted me saying, “An episode is going live tomorrow, and we actually don’t have the outro for it.”
And I was like, “What?” I was sure that I’d recorded it, but I was like two hours away from my house and my laptop and everything else. So, I had no way of accessing if I had recorded it, like on my laptop. And so, I had to sit in a car that was also quite hot, not put the air conditioning on.
And I had to tell my kids, who were sitting in the back, “Can you be silent for five minutes? Because I’ve just got to record this.”
And I just used my voice memo and I kept having to re-record it because I kept getting things wrong. But it was fine. And to this day, nobody has ever said, "Oh, that sounded a bit different." I have a great editor, Scott, shout out. But really, don’t feel like, "Oh, I’ve got to go bigger than a phone." You can totally use a phone to start with.
Other things that I’d recommend if you’re going to start documenting yourself, your journey, your life, is a proper microphone in terms of… I mean, I’ve just said that you can use your phone, you absolutely can. But if you want to be out and about and maybe you’re going to put your phone like a few metres away from you or just resting it somewhere in a café, and you’re going to kind of walk or say something or, you know, maybe you’re in your shop as a retailer and you want to talk and walk around.
So, I have just this little lapel microphone, one that I will link to in the show notes, and you can just clip that onto a shirt or top or, you know, anything. And you can also… What’s really good is that it’s got another little bit that can go into your phone as well. So, it’s really awesome that you can put this on and it’ll take in that microphone from metres and metres away and it will still sound really good. There are so many other ones. I mean, you see everyone walking around with their little rod and their fluffy microphone part on top, but if you can’t afford that right now, there are so many other ones that are available too.
Another thing I’d get is some sort of stand or sticky feature or something for your phone. So, I have often used literally just a charging station and put my phone on top of it. And we’ll link to that in the show notes as well. I think it’s just like a Belkin one and it has a space for your Apple Watch and your headphones and your phone. And I’ve just put that on a bunch of books and filmed myself that way.
I also have, in the past, bought, I think it was called Picture Pal. It is a sticky sort of… I don’t know what you would call it, like a suction thing, like the mat that you would put on the bottom of a shower or a bath. But it’s phone size and you can put it on one side of your phone and it will stick to a window or glass or, let’s say you’re in the car and you want to do some video content, but you want the camera to be far enough away that you’re not having to hold it. You can literally put this sticky bit on and then attach it to the window and you can use it there.
So, I have used one. I think it’s called Picture Pal, but there are so many others out there. Another one that I have just bought recently and want to see how it works out is, again, I don’t have a brand name that I can say. I cannot remember the brand and it’s not printed on it, but it’s like a circular suction grip and it’s a magnet and it goes on the back of your phone and again, it will link to anything. You could put it on your fridge, you could put it on a plate, you could put it on a whiteboard. You can literally stick your phone to anything.
And from far away, you know, as long as you’ve got a good microphone, you can film anywhere. So, I do think that these small things that, you know, might be like $20, $30 or even less… Also, I definitely think you could probably find some of this stuff on Facebook Marketplace or a secondhand site as well. Or even, you know, go in with some friends and be like, if you live near each other or maybe you work in the same studio, you can be like, let’s get some content creation tools. And we all kind of just book in as to when we use it.
Obviously, it’s going to be easier if you have your own group of those tools, but these are sort of starting points. So, you know, there’s a good microphone, your phone, if you want to. Of course, you could extend to different cameras and everything else. At the moment, I use for all of my course content and a bunch of video content as well, I have to say, is my Logitech webcam. And I’ve talked about that before. I think I’ve had this for about five years. I think it cost $240 Australian at the time, but I’ve used it for everything.
And I know people have like booked studios and everything else to get really incredible quality podcasting stuff, but I’ve heard people talking about like spending $800 a session for that. Now, for me, I just think that’s a huge waste of money if you’re just starting out and especially if you’re not monetising your podcast or, you know, getting gigantic downloads. So, I do think that building these things into your tech tools is really important.
Also, if you wanted to… Some sort of tripod or selfie stick. I bought a selfie stick in Covid so that we could all, me and my family, could sit on the couch and have enough space to be able to see all of us on my phone, as we called, you know, family and everything else. So, I do have one. I’m about 5’10” in height, so I often find that when they say they’re like full adult height, they’re really only to like 5’6”.
But I have this one and again, we will link to it. It is just a pretty basic selfie stick. You can hear it if you can’t see the video. And it just extends at the top. The video can be horizontal or portrait. You put your phone into it. It has a Bluetooth remote. And I think this one extends to about 5 foot 9, so just under, you know, my height. It has a full tripod on the bottom. So, you can make it really short and just do it on your desk filming yourself. You could put it really high and do your full body. If you were doing all sorts of things, let’s say you’re a retailer who sells fashion, you might decide to have one that’s full length so that you can put it at one end of the store and you can make a whole bunch of content.
That way there’s so many tools and everything else out there and I’ve seen people spend thousands on them and I just think set yourself a budget and decide these are going to be my tools and also these are going to be my tools for like the next few years, I think.
I've seen so many people, and I've been guilty of this, just race to get the next thing and the next thing and the next thing, without actually needing to get something new. Recently, I was looking at whether I needed a better webcam. Do I need this? And I was like, you know what? The Logitech has worked absolutely fine. I have the Logitech Brio 4K, I think it's called. Again, we will link to that in the Show Notes.
So, that's just a little bit about the actual tools that you'll need for documenting yourself and your processes or behind the scenes, and other things, without feeling like an idiot. Obviously, these tools are not going to prevent you from feeling like an idiot, but at least they're pretty discreet and not hugely expensive.
It also gives you, I think, a little bit of confidence. At least, if the tech tools are there, you're somewhat supported in creating decent content. Another thing on that, I should say, is getting familiar with some sort of video editing tool. Now, again, don’t think that you have to become an overnight Spielberg using an app, but you do want to get used to using one.
Now, I think this has been my problem as well. I've jumped around a lot. I've jumped from CapCut and InShot, and then I tried to use... oh God, what was it? I can't remember. I've used Riverside. I am now loving, I have to say, Descript. Absolutely love it. I'll put a link into the Show Notes for this because it seems to be super easy, and you can edit everything on your desktop.
Now, I have also used iMovie in the past, the Apple one. Haven't found it the most user-friendly, but that could just be me. And this was years and years ago. But I do think you should just choose one thing, whether it’s CapCut, InShot, or whatever, and decide. Have a look around, have a play, and then choose one.
So, for 2025, the tool I’m going to use is Descript, and I do really like it. I think, between that and maybe CapCut as well, but I think I’m just going to stick to Descript. Because what happens is that you get into procrastination, and then you end up in this research stage forever without actually executing anything.
So, I would try to research and have a look at any tools that seem to be intuitive to how you work. I’m old school, and I like, you know, I’ve also got glasses and stuff, so I like working on a bigger screen. So, I really like that Descript has a website platform that you can work on and edit, as a bigger version, I guess, than using my phone.
So, think about the tools that you need, but also think about a platform that you’re going to use to then edit video content. The last thing I’ll say in the tech space is thinking about where you’re going to store this video content. It takes up a lot of space, especially if you’re just using your phone.
I tend to use those big orange... I think they're like terabyte external hard drives, and I will often just back up a whole bunch of videos to that. I'll airdrop things or use that so that they’re there, but they’re not clogging up my phone, my storage, and my capacity as well.
I've also used Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive, and everything else. But I think choosing, again, like choosing one platform, choose one place to store everything so you know where to find it. And it doesn’t become this thing where it takes you weeks to just find two or three videos that you need to then pull together to create some sort of reel or Instagram story.
Alright, so we’ve talked about a little bit of the tech tools and the things that are going to help you in terms of confidence in the actual creation of it. I also want to think about the practicality of, if you’re going to document your life, your brand, or the behind the scenes, how can you do that in a way that becomes structured but still creative, and doesn’t again give you the whole “where do I start, where do I start from?” issue, and having to start from scratch all the time.
One thing that I think works really well, and I’ve worked with a number of businesses on this, is to choose four or five locations. So, these are the venues, the sets, as you will, that you’re going to film in front of. Especially if you’re doing, like, face-to-camera videos, or you’re going to walk around.
It’s super easy for you because you’ve chosen those things. Often, you don’t have to clean up and do this whole thing. Like, this is my office. You know, you can’t see it unless you're looking in the video. This is how it looks all the time. Like, you know, this is the wall, this is the bookcase, it doesn’t really change. I have a locker behind me, I have a piece of artwork over there. I’ve got a giant pencil that doesn’t really move. I’ve got this desk.
I don’t have to really do anything besides sit in this chair if I’m going to record, or, you know, start a podcast episode or whatever it is. So, try and choose locations that you don’t have to style or make perfect every single time. Because that’s just going to add to the idea that this is too hard, and you’re going to procrastinate and not do it at all.
For example, I have this. I have a shelving unit, like a Bito shelving unit, and I have stuff on top of that I often film in front of. I have a piece of artwork over here that I have filmed a bunch of videos in front of, and we’ll start pushing those out more soon. I have, like, nature all around me, the bushland.
For years, in the old house, which was literally a kilometre from where I am now, I used to use that nature all the time as my backdrop. If you don’t have an office space, or if you don’t have a dedicated space that you know is styled somewhat, use nature.
You know, if you have a particular walk to work each morning, or you have a particular commute, or maybe you have just like a concrete background outside the shed where you create ceramics, use that. But choose a couple of locations that you can come back to again and again.
So, as I said, the first reason is that it's going to make it easier for you. The second is that that's what you're going to become known for, over and over. People will recognise, before they even start listening, “Oh yeah, there’s another video from my favourite ceramics maker,” because they recognise the background. It becomes part of your brand and showing up, as opposed to every single time, them going, “Oh, who am I watching here?”
I think we're only going to get more used to that idea of, like, “Oh, there’s no context.” More and more platforms will become more and more like TikTok, where you’re seeing everything on a “For You” page, and everything has no context. You’re often seeing people you don’t follow. So, you have to think about, if you're going to create video content, doing it with that in mind.
I do think that’s where more and more platforms are going, even if new platforms come up, where the content has to speak for itself without always being someone you follow. By having a few locations to shoot in front of, that's going to help you cement that familiarity and connection quicker than if you start from scratch every single time.
Now, if you have a retail space, you might decide that you're going to build a mini area out the back that has, I don’t know, let’s say, for example, a candle and a thing here, and a pot plant. Just keep it as much as you can like that, from whatever else you're doing. Try and keep that one space, even if it’s quite small, just looking that way.
So again, it doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch every single time. Really think about those locations and also if they speak to what you want to be known for. My bookcase that you can see here, if you're watching the video, is very colourful. I’m wearing black right now, but I’m usually wearing colour, and I often have colourful nails and other things.
It goes with both of my books, which are very colourful. My brand is very colourful. So, you also want to look at these locations and think, “Do they somewhat represent the brand?” Now, it’s not going to be absolutely perfect, and you don’t need to spend all this money styling something.
But do think, “Does this reflect my brand?” And if it doesn’t, maybe you tweak it a little bit. Maybe you borrow things. Have a look at the free version of Facebook Marketplace; you can also filter it to "free" and see what comes up.
Because again, this whole idea shouldn’t make you feel like an idiot. And part of not feeling like an idiot is not wasting a bunch of money and then feeling like, “I’m not even doing anything,” when you’ve just spent $3,000 on a set, and now you're not even creating content.
So, we are all about not trying to make you feel like an idiot by documenting your life or parts of your business to grow your business. Now, before I move on to another part of this, which is building your confidence, you also want to think about, in terms of the location, things like a rotation schedule.
How often are you going to shoot from one location versus the others? Maybe it’s literally 20% each across five locations. Maybe it’s 40% in this one. Maybe it’s 60%. This is my desk area setup, so I’m usually at my desk when I’m working. And for me, this would probably be like 70% of my content is filmed in this little box of my office.
So, you want to think about that. You also want to think about things like natural light. I am sitting directly in front of two big glass doors, which is why I’m sweating here – it’s very hot. I think it’s about 38°C at the moment, and I don’t have a fan on. So, aside from the heat, this works really well.
Now, let me show you – if you're going to watch the video version, we’ll link to that in the show notes for this. Let me show you what happens if I close the curtain. I’m just going to do that now. It becomes darker. You see all these shadows underneath. I have zero makeup on, but it’s just not as flattering.
I have no other lights. I don’t have a ring light. I don’t have anything else on. And so, if I go back and open the window, the curtain, sorry, instantly it is clearer. Now, again, if you're just listening to this podcast, I will try and maybe make a story or something of this to put onto social media so you can see it.
But that sort of stuff – thinking about your location, thinking about whether it has natural light, if it’s easy to set up – for me, literally, I’m just opening or shutting a curtain. That takes seconds, versus when I first started.
I remember in 2016 or 2017, before I built my first course, I bought a very expensive ring light, but I could never figure out how to turn the thing on. Then, years later, I bought a cheap, crappy ring light, but it used to always flicker on and off. I have glasses, so it’s quite hard to have a ring light with glasses without the reflection.
So again, I just decided, “You know what? The best light I can have is natural light.” And I’m very lucky to have that. If you don’t, then get a ring light, or you can now get these things that look like an iPad. Again, we’ll try to link to some that you can buy. It’s almost just like an iPad of different lights.
And just choose one. Choose one that is going to work for you that predominantly, you can keep it on that setting. You shouldn’t have to change things around all the time. Same with art, same with anything else. And there are so many affordable ways. Even if you absolutely love an artist, you know, go and support them and hopefully buy from them. But you might decide, could I loan something?
In return, I’m going to make a whole bunch of content for you for two weeks or a few days, or, you know, something else. So it’s figuring out how can you create these locations and how can you make the most of what you have without spending a huge amount of money, like I’ve just said.
The last thing I will just say on that is that if you have five locations, it does allow you to have quite a bit of variety while staying consistent and not feeling like every single thing looks quite boring. And the same, same, same, same.
All right, so let’s get into a really important part of this, which obviously, if you looked at the title, you’ll be like, “Okay, that is super important,” which is building your confidence to do this. I think it starts with just knowing who you are and just showing up as who you are.
And so, like, today I’m just showing up, I’m sweaty, I’m a bit of a mess. And people could have said, “Oh, you should put a bit more effort in, especially if you’re going to make a video.” But for me to have to do that, or to wait, like I said, until it’s not so hot or I’ve got a big fan in the room or something else, it’s just going to delay the process.
It’s just going to be more procrastination. And then it’s going to maybe set a standard that I don’t necessarily want to have to hit every single time I want to create a video content. And so that’s the first part. Just really be like, “Who? Like, who am I?”
But also, how much of my real self am I okay to show? And am I expecting that I have to be this type of polished person to show up? No, I am absolutely not polished. And that, I think, is part of what has attracted certain people to me, where they’re just like, “Yeah, you are who you are.” And it’s pretty natural and normal.
And so that is how I’m going to show up here. So the first thing is to really get to grips with who you are normally. And also on that, though, are there certain things that you really like to have ready to feel preened and ready to go? For example, I often have my nails done.
I always have. I’ve been doing them for years and years and years. And so that’s just a little part of me that, as long as those are done, I feel like the rest of it doesn’t have to be so polished and stuff. But going back into the building confidence, I think the biggest thing is just doing it.
You can watch all the videos, read all the books, listen to all the podcasts, but if you start doing it, you’re going to have real experience. And that is only going to grow your confidence. And you know, they always say the first few things that you do of anything should embarrass you.
We are up to almost 500 episodes of this podcast. I have never listened to the first few episodes, and I probably never will because I know that I was nervous. I know that I was scripting everything instead of just talking naturally. I probably talked even faster than I normally do.
So just start small, start somewhere. That is the biggest thing I think that will build confidence with anything, whether it is writing and putting yourself out there, whether it’s making videos, creating a podcast, pitching yourself. Start somewhere and start small and stay consistent.
The other thing with this is to, especially if you’re a woman, work to your energy. And the reason that I say if you’re a woman is that if you are in a menstrual cycle, there are going to be parts of the month that you just, are more excited about doing this stuff. You have more energy.
There are going to be parts of the month where you are depleted of energy. And it’s probably not the best time to be pushing yourself into something where you already feel a lack of confidence or feeling a bit like an idiot. So, you could look at your monthly schedule and be like, “Okay, where, you know, according to your menstrual cycle, where are the weeks where I’m going to feel my best?”
I know for me it’s usually the week after my period happens. And so that’s when I try to batch-create content or do more or show up or know that I’m going to pitch, because that is when I’m feeling a bit more confident than maybe the other parts of the month.
The other thing is knowing just, you know, regardless of what gender you are, knowing when you work well. Do you work best in the morning? Do you work best in the afternoon? Are there days in the week where you tend to go to bed earlier on a certain night so then you have more energy, potentially, the next day?
Are there times in the week when nobody else is in your house or no one else is in the building? So maybe you have people that come and pick and pack your orders during the week, but on a particular Monday from 9 until 4, no one is ever there. So it’s always you. So you can just do it and not feel like an idiot because, you know, obviously, we’re talking about not feeling like an idiot.
You’re doing it because no one else is around. And that can be really, really useful as well, especially when you’re starting out. Just do it. I know even almost 500 episodes into this podcast, I much prefer to record this podcast when my whole family is out of the house.
Now I’m recording this today and every single person is here. We also have other people staying here as well.
And so I know that I just feel a little bit more funny about doing it, which is silly because they're not listening, but I know that I do feel a bit more comfortable doing it when they're not around.
So also look at your week or even in your month and think about when are some days that you could be batch creating content, recording things or even, you know, like I said, it could be just times of each day.
At my old house, I used to have my office out the back in the garden. There was a period of time once the kids had gone to childcare that I would know, okay, from this time before my first call, no one is at home, my neighbours have gone to work and I used to record in the garden.
It would always be like a little… there would be a tiny bit of me that's like, "God, I hope the neighbours have gone to work." But even if they hadn't, whatever, they're probably not even listening.
I knew that that window existed where no one was home, the neighbours had all gone, and I could record in my garden without anyone really listening. So, it sounds so simple, but scheduling that time in is already going to give you a bit of confidence because there's not a big audience to watch, you know, or have to re-record it three times because you've stuffed up.
That is a really important part of trying to build up that confidence.
The other thing is just knowing that sometimes the more natural you are, the more people engage with it. Often, when I've made bloopers or like said things… and I actually made like a whole blooper reel when I did my course, just of me laughing and stuffing up and saying things 500 times, or when I recorded this podcast, and I've purposely shown the bloopers on like Instagram stories or an Instagram reel, it has done really well in terms of engagement because people are like, "Yeah, it's normal, it's natural."
I know that when I'm watching YouTube or anything else and people are a bit more normal or they make… they say like, "Oh, I'm cutting in here as the editor, because this and this didn’t… you know…" Like, I saw one the other day actually, and somebody was saying, "Oh, you'll notice here that my plant suddenly falls over, and then it's suddenly back and it's not really broken."
And they were like, "Ah!" But it's normal, it's natural. These things happen.
So I also think that building your confidence is about just letting those things go and being like, "It's fine." Like, it's fine to not be this perfectly polished human where every single thing looks perfect all the time because it's just not reality.
As I said numerous times already in this podcast, it is a really hot day. I'm sweating. If you're going to watch the video version, it's not that pretty. But it's better for me to do something and get it out than wait for everything to be perfect.
Now, if you are filming like outside, like in a cafe or in a public space, then yes, it's going to be awkward. And yes, you might get one or two people looking at you. But there are ways to counteract that.
One is, if you're going to use your video, you can just pretend you're on a FaceTime call. They don't need to know. You could just be like, "Yeah, let me show you," and then just record or say whatever you're going to say. They don't need to know.
Half the time, nobody is actually looking at all. And we can imagine all sorts of things. But pretending you're on a FaceTime call, pretending that you're filming some scenes and then you're just swinging around to you, like, whatever it is, you can just do that.
But also thinking about if somebody came up to you and they were like, "What are you doing?" You can tell them whatever. You could actually make it an opportunity to tell them about your business because who knows, they might be your perfect customer.
So don’t see it as this, like, "Oh my God. I can't be looking XYZ or I can't be looking like I'm so into myself or I'm egotistical or whatever." Just use it as, "This is part of my content creation. I'm actually a business owner and I'm running blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know if you know anyone in your life that needs my services, but if you do, please let them know about me. But lovely to meet you and I'm going to go back to doing my content creation now."
So you don't need to make it into this, "Oh my God," elaborate story or act like you're some influencer or a content creator. It's just a part of business now. And most people know that.
You go anywhere and you will see everyone with their phones out, taking things, recording things, documenting things. Some of them may well just be recording it for a friend to send to their family after the event. Some of them are going to create a reel that blows up. You don’t know who is who.
So try to also have that mentality. Also thinking about yourself, would you go up to somebody and like make them feel stupid? Probably not. So most people are not going to do that.
Even if they look at you for a second, chances are within 30 seconds it's gone from their mind and they're on to what they are going to eat from the cafe. So, really thinking about that.
The other thing is, if you're going to film again… and we're talking about videos and not feeling like an idiot… try to have some sort of structure around it.
Like I said before, choosing, you know, four or five locations to consistently film in. You might have some other things as well, but choosing those is going to help you have some sort of restrictions or boundaries about what you do.
Now, I’ve been coming up with content strategy and content ideas for like 20 years. Whether it's in magazines or books or online or Amazon looking after huge brands there, or Audible and how do we retain people, or magazines for department stores or books or, you know, online e-commerce brands that are bringing in hundred million plus.
I've worked on so many content strategy packages and content plans and so many other things. One thing that I can tell you is that if you can come up with some structure and some templates, it's going to help you so much.
So what I mean by your filming, you might decide what are the kind of five to eight templates that you usually want to create. That might look like five quick videos with text over the top. It could look like a longer video that’s 30 seconds, narrated. And again, it has, I always think, put captions, put captions. Lots of people don’t listen to, I mean, lots of people don’t listen as they watch these days, or you're doing it in a place that you don’t want to have the volume up. But think about that.
It could be face to camera. It could be, you know, if you've got a retail shop, it might be a swing around the store and like “12 hours in the shop today, here’s what’s happening.” Timestamp, timestamp, timestamp. But there are so many different content ideas.
What you want to think about is: What is easy to film? What goes with your brand? What can be executed simply? What doesn’t make you feel like an idiot? And maybe choose, like I said, five to eight templates. Then, when you're looking at what to film, you're like, "Okay, which one of those templates do I want to use?"
You may decide to chop these up depending on when you schedule them into your content plan. Or you may just go, "You know what? We're going to do 20% face to camera, 40% swinging around the store, 10% X, 20% whatever." I can’t remember the maths, but thinking about how you can use those templates.
Again, I’m not sitting there thinking, "How do I edit this? How do I start this? What should I say?" You’re like, "This is the normal template that we do." This is 90 seconds, this is 60 seconds, this is 15 seconds, this is six seconds.
Having those to start with is going to help you so much. In addition, obviously to content themes, plans, what do you want to be known for, all of that, which I've talked about so much on this podcast and we'll link to some other content episodes that I've done.
So I guess things that you know are very normal and that people are interested in and have always been interested in. Again, I feel like people are always like, "This is a trend," but these have been around before social media. I’m old enough to know this stuff.
So day in the life of, the whole “day in the life of,” did not start on TikTok, everyone. I mean, if you look at magazines way back, it was, "Let's show you from morning latte to lights out." We used to do desk to dinner, 12 hours in your outfits. Like, this is 20 years ago. This is well before TikTok.
So the whole “get ready with me,” “day in the life,” “outfit of the day,” it's not new. It is not new. People have always been voyeuristic and wanting to see what other people are doing.
So, you know, it can be that, it can be voiceovers, it can be literally six seconds of… I did one recently just of the rain falling. I just put something about the weather. Again, I’m talking about the weather like I am today. But that did pretty well with engagement. It was just literally I opened up the door, there was rain pouring, and I was like, "Let’s take a six-second video of rain. Let’s put a nice music with it and a caption. Done."
I think the thing with content and not feeling like an idiot is to not overthink it and have some plans and some structure in place. Like, yes, I’m saying think about it and have structure, but also don’t overthink it. This is why if you have the structure and the plans in place and you have your locations and your templates and your themes, it then just becomes a puzzle that you're putting together.
“I want this piece, with this piece, with this piece, done.” Almost like a menu that you're just checking boxes from, as opposed to feeling like it has to be this Wes Anderson incredible thing that you've created every single time.
So really thinking about that, you know, really simple ones like the "get ready with me," "day in the life," "behind the scenes," “12 hours,” blah, blah, blah. I mean, there’s so many, there’s an endless amount.
If you want content ideas, we actually have a PDF you can download with 100 content ideas and you can just go for your life, you know, download that. It’s really cheap, it’s from our website, and we’ll link to that in the show notes.
But you can also just Google, you can use AI, you can come up with so many ways to find content ideas. The ideas are not the problem. I think the execution is the problem. Half the time. A million creative people that I've worked with, I haven’t worked with a million, but I’ve worked with so many creative people. They are not short of ideas.
What happens is that they’ve got the idea, they don’t execute, and then nothing happens. So nothing changes if nothing changes.
And I hope that today’s podcast has helped you think a little bit about the sorts of things that could help you document your life, document your business, document your brand without feeling like an idiot.
So I guess, in conclusion, really think about what feels natural to you, what feels good to you. Find your style, find your locations, think about the templates, think about content, you know, ways of executing the content.
Come up with, "This is Storyboard one, this is Storyboard three." And even if you’ve got a team or you’re like, "Okay, cool, we’re going to do Storyboard 3 today and then we’re going to do Storyboard 5, and then we’re going to do Storyboard 8," so everyone knows this is what we’re trying to achieve, this is the end goal.
And you can change them up, you can swap them out. You might see some new things happening online that you're like, "I actually want to try something like that." And it's like, cool, go for it.
So this is really about not making you feel like an idiot. And I really, really hope that it's helped.
In conclusion, I guess looking at, do you have the tech tools? Do you have the sort of support stuff to help you? Do you have your locations figured out? Have you worked on what could you do that's just small and starting, and what feels natural to you?
If it's better for you to not be face to camera, then just do a whole bunch of like video content, do your narration so at least some of your humanity comes through. That is really important to help build that connection that I talked about at the start. That's so important.
And then think about really focusing on consistency over perfection. Showing up in some capacity, because that is what is driving the connection overall. It's not how perfect you look or how perfect your set is or anything else. It is what do you have to say and do I resonate with it? I mean, really, that is at the crux of good content in terms of any brand marketing.
The other thing is to build it gradually. You don't have to be some gigantic content creator tomorrow. You're building gradually so that people understand who you are and have that connection with your business. And ideally build that brand loyalty that is going to stay for a lifetime.
So that is it for today's podcast. If you want to go through this in text format and find links to anything that I mentioned, you can find that at mydailybusiness.com podcast 4 90.
And if you found this useful, I would love it so, so much if you could share it with a friend.
As I said, we will be putting this in video format on YouTube shortly, so we will link to that in the show notes for this and across our social media, which you can find at dailybusiness on Instagram or mydailybusiness on TikTok.
Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Podcast for a range of tools to help you grow and start your business, including coaching programmes, courses and templates. Check out our shop at mydailybusiness.com and if you want to get in touch, you can do that by email at hello@mydailybusiness.com or you can hit us up on Instagram at mydailybusiness_. You can find us on TikTok at mydailybusiness or find me Fiona Killackey on LinkedIn. I look forward to connecting.
