Showing Up on Social Media

𝐈’𝐦 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚. 𝐖𝐡𝐲? 𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 ‘𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭.

When you’re starting a business, it can be hard to determine how to differentiate yourself. The easiest way is WITH YOURSELF. No one else is going to bring your unique passion, strangeness, personality, and charm. Two people could be making the exact same cookie, and you’re going to experience that cookie very differently based on the person talking to you about it. YOU are your strategic edge.

This also gives people additional “way in” to supporting your business. There’s your product (or service), and then there are all the things you build around it. There are plenty of people who follow me who’ve let me know, “Hey, I don’t like marshmallows, but I do like the energy you’re bringing, so I’m gonna try yours/get yours for my friends.” I’m constantly looking for ways to open as many doors into supporting Nomadic Kitchen as I can; finding all the ways I can make it as easy for people to get on board with this venture.

This is all coming from someone who sucked at social media on a personal level. I posted crappy pictures of nothing. I never did stories. I grew into this. For the longest time, showing up here felt like dying. I would—no joke—write myself and practice scripts before hopping on stories, I’d re-record 10 times over ‘til I nailed it without anxiety in my eyes. Now, I show up unfumbly and fumbly, and it’s okay—I’m showing up human. It’s less about developing a comfort with the technology, and more about developing comfort with being uncomfy.

My top 3 pieces of advice:

1. Just starting a business? Swap your personal handle to your business handle. Why start with 0 followers when you could start with 100, 200, 500? People can unfollow you if they’re not into it. Get in the practice now of not making hills steeper than they need to be.

2. Document, don’t create (credit: Gary Vee). If you follow me, you’ll notice that I try to give a full picture of what it’s like to own a company and what it’s like to be a person who owns a company. That gives me so. much. leeway. And so much flexibility when it comes to “creating content.” This can be such a stress-point for entrepreneurs, but if you switch the mindset, the challenge simply becomes remembering to turn on your camera. You are more interesting than you believe you are.

3. Do what you need to do to develop the comfort levels. Write the scripts, record 20 times, find the filter (that doesn’t change your face, but improves your lighting) that makes you feel confident. Eventually, you’ll notice that you haven’t done any of that in 5-10 stories. You might even notice that you’re havin’ fun.