Everybody's Awkward the First Time

☕ Why Do Beginners Hate Being Beginners?

Because being competent feels good. You know your business, you know your customers, and you know what you're talking about. People hire you because you know things they don't.

Then you turn on a camera and suddenly you're wondering where to put your hands, why you said "um" six times, and whether that's really what your face does when you talk. The expert suddenly feels like a beginner, and you do not appreciate this development.

So instead of tolerating the discomfort long enough to improve, business owners decide they're "just not good at video." Nope. You're just new at it, and there's a difference.

You were once a beginner at everything you now do well. You learned your industry, figured out how to talk to customers, learned how to price your services, and survived approximately 4,782 other things nobody warned you about when you decided to own a business.

You weren't amazing at any of those things on Day One. Video doesn't get some magical exemption from the learning curve just because there's a camera involved.

☕ Why Are You Trying to Skip the Awkward Stage?

You've finally started recording. Fabulous. Now you're annoyed because you're not immediately good at it.

Welcome to being a beginner.

Nobody orders one espresso and suddenly becomes Italian. Nobody records three videos and suddenly develops perfect timing, camera presence, storytelling skills, and the ability to deliver a hook without looking like they're being held hostage.

The awkward stage isn't evidence that you're bad at video. It's evidence that you're finallydoingvideo.

Your first cup of coffee probably wasn't the best cup you've ever made, either. You figured out the coffee-to-water ratio, found the beans you liked, and eventually stopped drinking whatever sad brown water you started with.

Video works the same way. You make one, learn something, and make another.

Reps make the brew better.

☕ Why Does Your First Video Feel Like It Has to Prove Something?

Because you've given it entirely too much responsibility.

Your first video does not have to prove that you're brilliant, charismatic, funny, attractive, trustworthy, successful, and worthy of being hired. It's a 45-second video, not a Senate confirmation hearing.

Its job is to answer one question: the hook (see the end of the blog).

Pick a hook that makes you want to tell the story. Look at the camera and answer it the same way you would if they were sitting across from you having coffee.

Your first video doesn't need to prove you're an expert. Over time, your presence and answers will do that.

☕ Was Every Expert Really Awkward at First?

Of course. The people you watch online who seem completely natural on camera didn't crawl out of the womb holding an iPhone and delivering an excellent response to a three-second hook.

They've done hundreds, sometimes thousands, of reps. You're comparing your Video Number 4 to someone else's Video Number 847 and wondering why you don't look as comfortable.

That's a terrible comparison.

Watch your fourth video, learn one thing from it, and make your fifth. That's the comparison that actually matters.

☕ What Should You Actually Be Improving?

The content.

That's it. Stop giving yourself seventeen things to work on every time you press Record. Look at the little dot where the camera is, talk to it like there's an actual human being on the other side, and say something worth listening to.

Answer a question. Explain something your customers don't understand. Give them a tip that saves them time, money, or frustration. Tell them something that makes them think, "Well, shit. I didn't know that."

And talk like a real person while you're doing it. You don't suddenly need a "video voice" or a personality transplant because your phone is pointed at you. Talk the way you talk when a customer asks you the same question in person.

The ums? Edit them out. The weirdly long breath? Gone. The three-second silence while your brain went out for coffee? Trim it.

You can edit the messy bits.

You can't edit value into a video that had nothing worth saying in the first place.

☕ How Many Reps Does It Take to Stop Feeling Awkward?

More than one. That's the answer nobody wants.

You don't become comfortable on camera by thinking about being on camera. You become comfortable by recording, watching, learning, adjusting, and recording again.

The first ten videos help you get used to yourself. The next ten help you notice what works. The next ten help you find your rhythm.

Somewhere along the way, you stop performing and start communicating. That's when people finally get to meet the business owner your in-person customers already know.

☕ What If Your Videos Still Aren't Perfect?

Good. Perfect videos aren't the goal; useful videos are.

A slightly awkward business owner answering the exact question a customer has is infinitely more valuable than a perfectly polished video that says absolutely nothing. Your audience isn't grading your performance. They're deciding whether you know something that can help them.

Give them the answer.

☕ How Do I Edit the Video Without Creating a Whole New Excuse?

You recorded the video. Excellent. Now don't turn editing into the next thing standing between you and posting it.

For beginners, I recommend Edits, Meta's video creation and editing app. You can record there, clean up the beginning and end, remove pauses, add captions, place your title on screen, and get your video ready to post. You don't need to become a professional video editor. You need enough editing knowledge to make your helpful video clean and watchable.

Remember this when you're recording: if you lose your train of thought, pause instead of stopping. Find your thought and keep talking. That pause is much easier to remove than restarting the entire video because your brain took a three-second coffee break.

Editing is also much easier to teach when we're looking at the same screen. Bring your video and your questions to my free Friday Coffee Break, where I can help you figure out what to tap, trim, move, or leave alone before editing becomes your new ring light.

Join the Friday Coffee Break

☕ What's Your Assignment This Week?

Make the next video. You're not trying to make the video that finally proves you're a "video person." You're making the next rep.

Then make another.

You don't get to skip being a beginner because you don't like how it feels. The only way out of the awkward stage is through it, one slightly less awkward cup at a time.

You don't need a better first video. You need a twentieth one.

☕ The Hook Buffet to Talk about Being a Beginner

Beginner & Learning Hooks

• I wasn't always good at ________. Here's what changed.

• Nobody tells you how awkward ________ feels at first.

• Here's what my first attempt at ________ taught me.

• I wish I'd known this when I started ________.

• The beginner version of me believed ________.

• I used to overthink ________. Now I do this instead.

• You don't have to be good at ________ to start.

• The hardest part of learning ________ wasn't what I expected.

• Here's what gets easier the more you do it.

• I almost quit ________ because I thought I was bad at it.

Reps & Experience Hooks

• I've done this hundreds of times, and I still ________.

• The more I do ________, the more I realize ________.

• Experience taught me to stop worrying about ________.

• Here's something I only learned by doing it wrong.

• You can't learn this part from a tutorial.

• This took me longer to learn than I'd like to admit.

• The first time I did ________, I ________.

• Here's what repetition taught me about ________.

• Getting better at ________ required me to stop ________.

• One thing I do differently now than when I started...

Expertise Hooks

• You don't need to know everything about ________. Start here.

• If you're new to ________, this is what matters first.

• Before you worry about ________, focus on this.

• Stop trying to perfect ________ before you've done this.

• Most beginners spend too much time worrying about ________.

• Here's the mistake almost every beginner makes with ________.

• If I were starting ________ today, I'd do this first.

• The fastest way to improve your ________ is simpler than you think.

• You probably don't need more ________. You need more ________.

• Here's what I'd practice before worrying about ________.

Behind-the-Business Hooks

• Here's something I'm still getting better at.

• Running a business taught me how to be bad at things again.

• This part of my business didn't come naturally.

• Here's what looked completely different when I started.

• I didn't wake up knowing how to ________.

• There's a learning curve nobody talks about in ________.

• This used to take me ________. Now it takes me ________.

• Here's proof that practice actually matters.

• I used to think experts never struggled with ________.

• Being good at ________ started with being terrible at it.

Customer-Focused Hooks

• If you're worried you're doing ________ wrong, read this.

• You don't need to master ________ before you ________.

• Your first ________ doesn't have to be perfect.

• Before you give up on ________, try this.

• You're probably better at ________ than you think.

• If ________ feels awkward right now, that's normal.

• Stop comparing your beginning to someone else's ________.

• You haven't failed at ________. You're learning it.

• The goal isn't perfect ________. The goal is ________.

• Here's permission to be a beginner at ________.