My Debut: Video Blogging. I Really AM a Dork.
We all have our strengths. One of mine is words. I love them. I love thinking about them, rolling them around in my head, lovingly putting them into sentences, crafting paragraphs out of sentences, arranging, rearranging, editing, massaging, making them perfect. I love words.
I also love speaking. Big groups, small groups, one-on-one one, you name it, and I love it. I was a Coms major in college and reveled in every bit of that experience. Give me a room full of people over a math problem any day. Might explain why it took me five tries to finally pass College Algebra, huh? My point – we’re all good at something and sometimes it makes sense to move outside our respective comfort levels and learn something new. Plus, I truly believe that video blogging is — and should be — an integral part of smart social media strategies, so if I’m going to talk the talk and tell my clients how important it is to vlog, I’ve got to walk the walk. I’m just that kind of gal.
For me, video blogging is a whole different milieu. Don’t get me wrong – I’m so not afraid of a camera. I’ve been on TV a hundred times. Had my picture taken a million more. You don’t do what I do and not have considerable media exposure. But, when it comes to sitting down alone in front of my FlipCam and doing a video post – goodness, but I’m my own harshest critic. Anyone relate to that concept? I’ll bet so.
Here’s the thing. Whether it’s your first blog post, your first presentation in front of a group of people, your first sales pitch or your first video blog post, it’s probably not going to be perfect. But, the only way to get started is to take the first step–get over your insecurities, take a leap, and get the darn thing out there. Or, as I learned at Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker’s SOBCon event, the veritable think tank of the social web, launch the damn thing, then tweak it.
And so, without further ado, I’m launching it. My first video blog post. Sure, I cut off the top of my head – but I wanted you to see the necklace I was vlogging about. Sure, I could’ve used some lipstick but, guess what, that’s what I look like. Not always perfect. Sure, I need to learn a few tricks, and I especially need to learn how to edit, but what the heck, I’m putting it out there, warts and all, so that you can see that we all start somewhere. I’ll work on perfection next time. But, until then, I’m not afraid to show you my first effort.
And, in case you missed it because you were (1) blinded by my beauty, (2) entranced by my words or (3) counting my many wrinkles, my cool necklace is from the folks at Survival of the Hippest, and you can stalk them on Twitter at @TheHippest.
So there, I’ve done it. Gotten over the hump. Launched the damn thing. I’ll get better. But there’s gotta be a starting point. Now it’s your turn. What are you procrastinating about? What are you dragging your feet on? I double dog dare you to launch the damn thing. And then tell me about it so that I can give you a virtual pat on the back. And maybe even buy you a beer.
