‘Showing up Daily’ as an introvert

If you’re growing a business, Twitch/YouTube channel, or following of any kind, you’ve probably been told the importance of Showing Up Daily. After all “80% of success is just showing up. ”Turning up and engaging with your people. Sharing content. Responding to comments. Leading. Selling. Promoting. Showing off your products, your services, your channel, your show, your wins, and your process, providing value, entertainment, giving your followers a reason to be there.

It’s all about developing relationships, not sexy ones, though I’d be lying if my online presence hadn’t led to offline funtimes…

Introverts have to show up too

If you’re an introvert, like me, you’ve probably struggled with it. The showing up part I mean. Especially the early days when there was nobody really here, no engagement or interaction. I’ve been ready to set fire to it all and walk away, laughing. Why bother?

I’ve got the key

I will let you into a secret – I don’t always find it easy. It takes effort to put myself out there, and sometimes that inner voice is against me, even with a 1994 dance banger in my ears.

‘What if they don’t like what I have to say? ‘‘What the hell am I supposed to put out there today?’ ‘I’m repeating myself’

‘This sounds awkward’

‘This seems really basic…’‘What if nobody cares?“I’ve run out of things to say”“I don’t want to seem like a show off”

If you do something that enriches peoples’ lives in any way, whether that’s a real play D&D podcast that could be entertaining someone who’s unhappy, game reviews to help someone decide what game they want to play, putting on a fantasy festival so people can escape the horrors of reality for a couple of days, video services so people like me don’t spend fucking hours frustrated at not being able to get the fucking software to do the fucking thing the fucker’s supposed to fucking do, then you have a duty to tell people about it.

Every day. Whether you feel like it or not. If you don’t you are being selfish and preventing people from having a better, easier, happier, more fulfilled life. You prick.

I’ve got the secret

How do you start getting over yourself?

Those inner voices get louder if you let them, you’re going to start by telling them to fuck off, and countering them. Like you’re swordfighting in The Secret of Monkey Island. You’re going to give your brain some comebacks.

‘What if they don’t like what I have to say?‘ – then they’re not going to be my client anyway, what if other people DO like it?

‘What the hell am I supposed to put out there today?’ – It doesn’t always have to be related to your project, what about a meme?

‘This seems really basic…’ – And your clients need basic. You’re the expert and you know way more than they do.

‘What if nobody cares?’ – Then nobody cares. What if somebody does? What if EVERYBODY does? You’ve got to give them the opportunity.

“I’ve run out of things to say” – I promise you, you haven’t; what’s going on in the world related to what you do? What quotes from your latest or older episodes can you share? What content can you repurpose from elsewhere? What have you created lately? What have your clients achieved? What blog posts can you share?

“I don’t want to seem like a show off” – You won’t. Stop being selfish and share your work, someone out there needs it. Nobody else is going to blow your trumpet for you. Be proud of your achievements, it’s contagious.

Commit to it

Commit to it in the comments below, or over in the Coaching for Geeks Community commit to showing up to all of us in here, to me, and to yourself. Make that decision. Accept that it may be difficult at first. Write it down. Schedule it. What starts as a choice, a choice whether to post or not, becomes a habit. Remove the choice and commit fully, and get some accountability.

Accountability

It’s a lot easier to let yourself down than it is to let someone else down. Whether you have other people involved in your project who can chase you up, an accountability group, friends, family, people who are expecting your content, or indeed a coach to check up on you – getting some accountability for posting will help you commit. I know that if I don’t post the goal setting thread, in the Coaching for Geeks Community on a Monday, people will be asking where it is.

Create some of your content in advance

Social media burnout is real, I have disappeared a few times and left the CfG team to handle things. Managing your energy and your posting is important – you don’t want to start hating it. It’s not simply creating and posting to the void, it’s responding to comments, more notifications pinging, so let’s get prepared.Set aside time every week to plan your daily content. It’s up to you whether you write them all out, and to start with I recommend that you do. The more you do, the easier it gets, and you can start to have topics/headlines that you can take around.

I spend a couple of hours at the weekend mind mapping topics, asking you for topics, looking at what’s going on in the group and in other geeky groups. I keep a trello board of topics and each week choose what I am going to talk about.

This week I have written a bunch of it and I’m tweaking it right now, minutes before I hit publish.

“I don’t know what to write about”

The voices are back. The one that’s going to try and talk you out of it.

Analysis paralysis doesn’t just affect boardgamers trying to plan their next mood, when there are too many options it will creep inhere, so remove some options.

1 – It’s not an option whether or not you’re going to post. You are going to post. You committed to it.

2 – You have 40 minutes to write something. Start.

Creativity thrives when constraints are added. If I have a full day to write then I will fanny about for 90% of it; reddit, Facebook, PlayStation, Tinder, a walk, some washing… Add constraints; choose a theme for the week, set a time limit. Go.You’ve already brainstormed/mindmapped/looked at repurposing/asked your followers what they want, so get started.If you make things, show off your pieces, your process, tease what’s coming, tell people what events you’ll be selling at, do an explainer on something I could make at home, show more shots of your work. However many you are sharing now, it’s not enough.

Look at what I share, it’s not all hardcore coaching content.
Schedule ItTo start with you’re going to write and schedule a week’s worth of posts and repurpose them across all your social media.Facebook comes with scheduling tools for pages and groups.

WordPress comes with scheduling tools for blogs – and you can bet your arse that these longer pieces of content are going to be made into blogs too. Twitter lets you schedule tweets with tweetdeck. All of these are for free and don’t take long to get to grips with. There are plenty of paid tools too and I can give you advice on these if you want it.

In particular I love Social Bee, Crowdfire, and Missinglettr for their simplicity and repurposing options across different social media.

BOOM! There you go, the internal voices dealt with, accountability added, constraints to remove analysis paralysis, your energy conserved so you don’t burn out. What starts as a choice will become a habit. It won’t always be easy. But you owe it to yourself and the world to share your awesome things. Now it’s on you to get cracking. You can have results or be a massive fanny and have excuses, what’s it going to be? With that said, where are you going to show up daily from now on?

As for that header image? You don’t have to fit in. Be your glorious self! We’ll cover that soon…