Hello YouTube | My First Video

This week there was a lot of deadlines to meet.  I had the “Bridging The Gap” campaign, with the Fierce 50 Campaigners.  This involved months of planning with the organisers to get 100 Millennial and 100 Midlife Influencers together to be a part of this movement.  My daughter and I organised a photoshoot, prepared and drafted our blog posts, sent off our links and sized up our duo graphics, then sent them off with blog posts scheduled for the 17th October.

I must admit as the deadline drew close I was getting a bit stressed.  However, we managed to get everything done on time and can now relax.  We both feel a great sense of accomplishment to of taken part in such an empowering project, which is crossing boundaries and generations across the globe.

If you have not had a chance to read my blog post contribution yet, then here’s the link  Like Mother Like Daughter  My daughters blog posts can be found on her blog at A Touch of Cree.  I hope you enjoy them, and I would love to hear your comments.

Anyway, the other deadline this week, was to launch my YouTube channel.  Which is something that I have wanted to do for such a long time.  However, I have been so terrified of getting in front of the camera that I just found so many excuses not to do it.

This week my accountability buddy and I had a deadline to get our channel launched on Monday 16th October.  As terrified as I was, there was something quite exciting about the thought of having my own YouTube channel to connect with my audience, kind of like my on TV show (not quite Oprah Winfrey yet) but you know what I mean.  You can take a look at my first video Tracy J Reid on YouTube.

I guess my fear of getting in front of the camera was overshadowed by the excitement of having my own YouTube channel.  This year I am trying to do things that will take me out of my comfort zone.  I recently listened to an audio book “Year of Yes” by Shonda Rhimes – that Lady is so inspiring.  She is the woman behind the hit TV shows – Greys Anatomy, How To Get Away With Murder and my favourite show Scandal.  I have been so inspired that I have given myself permission to say YES to myself alot more.  Getting in front of the camera after listening to a couple of chapters gave me the courage to step up, with no more excuses.   So, with heaps of dutch courage and support from my accountability buddy, my kids and Shonda Rhimes – I got it done!!

My daughter helped with setting up my YouTube channel and editing the video (much needed – I love to talk).   The video filming itself was all me, as everyone was out of the house.  I set up my office area, got the lights on, set the camera up on the tripod and filmed away.  It was magical, it felt great and I did it!! I actually really enjoyed the whole filming experience.  The longer I practiced seeing myself on the playback, the more comfortable I became with seeing myself on video.  I knew that once I got into the swing of things that the initial fear would disappear and that I would be ok.  I enjoyed the process so much, I think I might do a weekly video.

The main reason for me wanting to do this at this time, is because I have an online course that I am building at the moment behind the scenes, and one of the things that I have to do is prepared videos for my students.  I realised that the reason I have not got round to finishing the course yet was because I am terrified of doing video.  So I thought if I could master my fear and do a video on YouTube, then I can definitely do it for a handful of students – right?

So, now I have got over that hurdle I am ready to continue building my online course – no excuses.  I am ready to do this!

I would love to know if you have any fears or if you are you fearful of being in front of the camera too? Do you have a YouTube channel already?  If you do, I would love to hear your experiences of shooting your first video and please share your channel with me so I can pop over and say hello!!

Until next time, I look forward to connecting with you again soon.