Do you Suffer from “I-gotta-make-sense” Syndrome?

You may have heard me talk about ‘holistic marketing’ and how important it is to share ‘behind-the-scenes,’ fun, videos of your non-professional side or the ridiculous side of your of biz side every now and then, to spice up your biz vid repertoire.

Not only does this create greater engagement, because it’s unpredictable and entertaining- remember- video is primarily an entertainment medium!- but this is also a GREAT way for people to get to know, like and trust you in an ‘organic,’ right-brain kind of way.

So you may be inspired to share a quick, “on the fly” video of something you did that was fun or important to you, like your daughter’s birthday or going to the Farmer’s market!

But then you go into panic low-frequency mode: “I gotta give MASSIVE VALUE!   Who cares about my personal life?  What can people possibly get out of this?”  You discredit your inspired impulse.  You are now officially  “in your head,” no longer in the realm of magic and inspiration— trying to “make sense.”

And guess what?  Now, it’s No Fun!  Ugh… It feels really Heavy… You might even feel like a loser and stupid for even shooting the video in the first place.  What were you thinking?

You’ve officially ‘killed’ the original inspiration…

Well, I totally get it. I went through that with this video!

This moment that I shot of my Mom was magical to me.  It was about 3 minutes of random footage, but I instinctively felt compelled to do something with it.  So, on the plane ride home, I played with it and edited it down to a 30 second montage.

It really didn’t take that long, but then I was left wondering: “What’s the title? What SEO keywords should I use?!! (Ha!) What’s the point? Why the heck am I bothering?”

I had to journal for the last several hours of the plane ride, brainstorm with a dear, brilliant colleague, chew my nails, feel totally straightjacketed and particularly foolish since I advocate doing these kinds of ‘non-biz’ biz videos!

I was amazed that this teeny, tiny, little video was causing me such grief!  I refused to cast it aside like sooooo many of my videos that I’ve dropped–never to see the light of day! NooooOoooOOOoooo!  Not this one!

But why?

The torture lasted a week before I began to connect back to my original inspiration and my passion to fully express myself.

So,  I say “YES!” to my inspiration, impulse, playfulness and I say “NO!” to “gotta-make-sense-or-why-bother!”

I practice and flex my inspiration-sharing muscle with this video.  And I want to share a few steps on how I got through this to help you flex your inspiration-sharing video muscles!

Step 1: Ask yourself, “What inspired you to pull out your iPhone and capture this moment?”

1. Answering this question connected me to the joy and gratitude of seeing my Mom–who on my last visit could barely walk–  walking and frolicking and sporting her groovy new pair of red snow boots she had bought to celebrate being able to walk!!                                        [My Mom started taking Diatomaceous Earth that I had brought her on my last visit and within 3 days was starting to have less pain in her knees!!  She’d also been yearning to get a dog (it’d been 35 years since she had a dog!) to inspire her to walk, and now she had Chloe and she could actually do it!!]
2. It was also the first time we were getting outside together after conquering a 5 Day liver detox!   [I took 2 planes from Los Angeles to Ottawa and then drove an hour to the little artist colony of Merrickville to do this detox with her.  I’d been wanting to do a Liver Detox for over 5 years!]
3. My Artemis spirit was elated being outside in the lightly falling snow, all bundled up, and walking with Mom and Chloe!

So all of this has helped me really receive how important it was to capture this momentous, victorious moment!!  And that feels so good!!  It makes sense! Right?  And it is important….to me!

Great, so I was starting to back myself up, which is key when you are ‘breaking the rules!’

Step 2:  Ask yourself, “Why is it so important that you share this video?”

1. I realized that I have a Very Strong passion to be Seen, and to be seen doing things I love!  (Ask yourself: “But why?”)
2. I want to Break Free and feel free to share Anything I want, Without Apology!  (Ask yourself: “But why?”)
3. I tapped into my childhood and adolescence, when I felt VERY straightjacketed by being a good girl, an A student, perfect, always right, etc… and how utterly UN-FUN and restrictive that felt.  I made a vow at some point to not censor myself and really allow myself to express myself!

So now, it’s really making sense to me why this seemingly ‘dinky’ little video is so darn important to me!

I also realized that while I was struggling with what to do with the video, I was actually scared and embarrassed to share something so personal that seemed to have NO value to anyone else and therefore to be breaking the rule of sharing “Massive Value!”

However, once I got clear why it was important to me, I wasn’t worried what other people would think anymore!

Can relate to any of this?  No doubt you might if you resonate with my video and visibility crusade tendencies! 🙂

If you keep  digging deeper by asking yourself why the video is important to you to share with your tribe- the information will help you understand yourself better, the greater, spiritual meaning behind the video and help you tweak (if necessary) and complete the video!

So, emboldened by these new insights, I added some of this information into the titles of the video, which grounds the video and makes it more understandable to my tribe.

As you can see, I was compelled to make “spiritual sense” out of the video, in the end, but definitely not ‘business sense.’  I decided to break the video marketing rule of “Massive Value” that I was  wrestling with and found so hard to follow.

I got to connect even more passionately with my holistic marketing philosophy. I learned to a whole new level that:

Sharing what is important to you is actually Massive Value to your tribe!!

So, my dear tribe,  I’m excited!  I intend to break free from video/marketing rules some more!  I’ll definitely keep you posted!!

Let me know how this lands for you.  I’m curious!  And I encourage you to break out of any straight jacket you may be putting yourself in.  Express YOUR joy, YOUR passions, YOUR values in your videos!  You are the CEO of Your business!  You get to decide!  Watch how your tribe responds!!

To your freedom of expression and No More Straight-jacketing!

Michelle

PS The not-so-closet Health Coach in me has been aching to make a video about the wonders of  Diatomaceous Earth and to let more people know about it! But I kept straightjacketing myself with the ‘rule’ “Don’t confuse your tribe!” (yet again!) But no more! It’s a testimonial!  Self-healing is one of my PASSIONS!  And helping my Mom avoid knee replacement surgery makes me sooooo happy!!

And I take it every day for hip/arthritis issues.  I want everyone to know about it! And it’s dirt cheap!!!  I’ll probably make a ‘real’ video about it at some point!!  This was just a teaser 🙂

There are MANY different brands out there.  As long as it is FOOD GRADE, you’re fine.  I chose this one (after doing tons of research!) because it comes in a plastic container which is the best way to avoid dust and mess and super convenient.  And it’s an excellent price for 3 lbs!  Don’t be foiled because it’s marketed for pets! It’s the same stuff and works equally fabulously for pets and for peeps!  It’s truly the best kept health secret out there because pharmaceutical companies and vitamin companies can’t make money off of it!  Give it a whirl and let me know how it works for you!!