Do it badly- Going Live for beginners

Hello and good evening. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist, Money mindset coach. Welcome to my live, everyone, where I'm talking about going live. It's very meta. Anyway, looks like, oh gosh, Twitter did not connect. Probably are having some issues. Just a little housekeeping. So I am going live to Instagram over here, the Facebooks, LinkedIn and YouTube and apparently Twitter is having a whole meltdown and I have an itch in my nose. Anyway, tonight I want to go, I want to talk through the three principles that I follow when I go live. I also want to give you like, the background information and the story about like, why I decided to go live so often, what it has done for my business and why. It's a tool that I recommend everyone utilize in building your business, in building your personal brand in and in building anything really. Like, if you, if you believe something, like, go live about it. If you want to teach something, go live. If you want to have impact in the world. Like literally you can hop on to any live platform and you can broadcast yourself into the pockets. Sounds so weird. Into the pockets and all the screens of the people who already follow you, who already like you, who already trust in you and believe in you and want to hear what you have to say. It is a magical, magical thing. Could you imagine, like, I can't imagine a world without this, right? And I grew up in a world without this. Like, you know, I was, I was, I'm old enough. I'm older than the Internet people, older than Google, which completely astounds my niece. Anyway, So when I started my business, let's get right into it, right? If you have any questions, if you've been thinking about going live and you're a little nervous about it or you're not sure it's going to work for your business, or you're not sure what you talk about, please put it in the comments. Sometimes I don't see all the comments from all the places. So if I don't call your comment out, please know it's not you unless he said something rude or offensive. But I will go back and answer any comments that I see after the fact if I didn't see them during the live. But please, I love these to be, be interactive. So, you know, ask away any comments you have need for the clarification. This is a teaching one. Like, I really want to tell you how I approach this and how I got to the point where it's something that actually helps my business because it is such an incredible tool. Okay, so when I am just going to get comfortable here. So when I started my business, I was just getting over my fear of public speaking. So I was in Toastmasters. I did own the room trainings. I was previously terrified, terrified of public speaking. Okay. I had had some really traumatic events where I had gotten up in front of hundreds of people and absolutely humiliated myself. There, there is one memory that I have from college where I was voluntold by a retired professor to read a letter at a literary luncheon. That's right. Literary meaning lots of authors of books were there and I was just meant to read a letter. Simple, right? No, I stuttered and stammered and sweated and misspoke through this letter. It was the most painful four, five minutes of my life. I was so bad that after, after all the speaking was done, people came up to me to apologize to me for how bad I was. Okay, that is what we're talking about. I was so afraid of public speaking speaking. I put a lot of work into getting over this fear. Right? So Toastmasters, if you're not familiar, if you're afraid of public speaking, it is an incredible organization. There's a whole curriculum that you follow. It's voluntary, like you can, you know, volunteer to do a speech or not. There are games to kind of get you in the mood. And of course, like everyone who are, who's in these groups are there to get better at public speaking. So it's an incredibly supportive, supportive environment. Likewise, you know, I was like, okay, cool, I need to get comfortable in front of people, but I also need to learn the mechanics of speaking. Like, I know how to speak, I know how to like use words and they come out of my face hole and that's one thing. But I needed to know, like, how do you use tone, how do you use speed, how do you use your hands? Like there's stuff that really incredible speakers do that, you know, you notice, but you're not quite sure how they're doing it. And so I went through this intensive four day training through on the room, which is the training was incredible. Fun fact. I actually applied to work for them and they turned me down early on in my coaching business. Anyway, story for another day. So, okay, so did all this work got over my fear of public speaking? I mean, let's be real, I still get nervous before I speak publicly, but it's not like I'm going to vomit and like go and hide in the closet kind of fear. Okay, but so then the pandemic hit, right? And like I had built A whole strategy for my business around me, going and like speaking at events and running workshops and doing all this stuff. And that wasn't going to happen anymore. And so I realized with the help of my coach and with the help of my little support mastermind group, that if I was going to get out there, if I was going to get in front of people, I really needed to get in front of them in the only way I could. And that was going live. The difference between going live and speaking publicly to a group is that when you're live, you don't have an audience. Like right now I'm going live because Streamyard doesn't really read metrics. I actually don't know if there's anyone in the audience on the Facebooks, on LinkedIn or on YouTube usually there are usually people. Like even if it says zero with a little eyeball, that's. I mean, it always says zero even when people are commenting. So, you know, it's just a mystery. And then of course, on Instagram, I don't have a very active following on Instagram, so I don't have anyone here yet. Right. But like, here I am. I know this is being broadcast. I'm about to make myself very nervous just acknowledging this to myself. I'm. I'm broadcasting this live, knowing that this video is going to be shared in perpetuity for the rest of all eternity. Onto the interwebs. Right. That takes a. And I will, I want to say this and I'm like, oh God, like you're gonna sound like you're patting your own back, but why not? Hi, the Gazelle. Welcome. So, but that takes a lot of comfort and you can't get that level of comfort overnight. It's something that you have to build. Justin, we're here to support you. Thank you. I appreciate that through my, my self imposed discomfort. I appreciate that, Justin. But anyway, so I decided I needed to go live. But the thing about lives, like I said, you don't know if anyone's watching and if they are watching, you have no way of gauging if what you're saying is interesting or if what you're saying is pleasing, or if what you're saying is educating, or if what you're saying is pissing people off, you just don't know. And for someone who has adhd, who's always scanning the room, who's always reading other people so that I can adjust and mirror that is incredibly nerve wracking. And so when I first started going live, I decided to go live in A safe space. Hi. I went live to my Facebook channel, to a bunch of people on Facebook. It was not actually the most safe space, ultimately, because I would go live and, like, guys that I'd been on dates with with would watch and they'd comment, and I would get incredibly awkward and uncomfortable just imagining these guys who had, like, been on several dates with, watching me go live and completely bomb it. Right. Just not do it well at all. So I continued to, like, practice and practice and practice, and then I finally branched out to doing LinkedIn. I applied for LinkedIn Live back when you had to apply for it. Now you can do it. Like, if you turn creator mode on your account, you can go live on LinkedIn. Um, so I started doing that, and I started really figuring out, like, what worked for me. You know, I know a lot of other live streamers. They find it's helpful to have a person on there with you, so interviewing or having conversations, you know, I do this from time to time, but I actually really love speaking into the camera and talking directly to my humans. And what was incredible is, after a while, after I kind of, like, found my groove with it, I would get on sales calls, you know, with prospective clients, and I'd be talking to them, and they would literally quote me back to me. And there were more than a few times where someone said that they had binged my entire. Every single live stream I'd ever done. Um, at that point, I think there was only like, 80 of them, but still, like 80 of them. That's a. That's like a long Netflix series, right? That is like multiple seasons of a Netflix series. That's like suits on Netflix. Okay, That's a lot. Because I was live for a fair, fairly long time, right? And it was just incredible, like, the impact it had. And here's what I found it actually does for your business. So when we're building our business and we all feel fairly safe posting static posts, written posts onto social media and letting people get to know us and how. What we do for work that way. If you're not comfortable with that, then I urge you to start. Because people cannot give you their money unless they know what you do. Okay? If they don't know what you do, they cannot give you their money for doing that thing well. And I just want to see what Justin said. Dr. Seuss has said it best. Be who you are and say what you feel. For those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. I love that. That thing. That's one of my best, my favorite ones. I pause watching suits to watch your life. Oh, my God, I'm obsessed. I'm actually like mid watching it right now. I'm on season four, so don't tell me anything. I mean, you can tell me stuff. I probably won't. I won't remember, but so anyway, so people will encounter you online, they're gonna see your stuff and they will, you know, get a little educated about how you're useful to them. But most people will not buy or will not book a sales call based off of just seeing a post. Right. They're going to have to need to experience you in a low stress environment so that they can get to know you better, so they can build that trust and get that camaraderie and kind of understand, like, you are who you seem you are in your written stuff. By the way, this is why I urge you, urge you to be writing your own content as you're getting up and running. Unless you have an incredibly gifted ghostwriter who can really capture your voice and tell your stories. Like, it's one of the easiest ways to break trust with someone when they get on a sales call with you is to not sound the way you write for social media, right? We all read social media posts as if we're talking to a friend. Could you imagine if that friend, like, had automatron, like very formal language? And here's how I, you know, automate, blah, blah, blah. I can't even think of formal language. It's just, it's so separate for me. They get on the phone with you and that's not who you are. It just, it doesn't work. It's a great way to break trust anyway. So going live is a beautiful way to break through that and let people kind of see who you are, you know, because when you go live, you can screw up. You know, I've stumbled over my words like seven times already in this life, right. I just kind of roll past it. Right. But it happened. I'm a human who is fallible and can make mistakes. And you know, that, that really does give people a sense of comfort that like, okay, this person can make mistakes and they help people like me do the thing. Then I'm actually allowed to be imperfect when I work with them. Right. It also just gives people, like a sense of what your sense of humor is. What would you be like to talk to? All really helpful things when you are building a personal brand and when you are wanting to get clients from online. Anyway, so I want to go through My top three principles that I stick to. And I really didn't realize I was sticking to these principles until I really thought about it today, before this live, what are the things that I do that I find work in me doing live as part of my marketing strategy? And actually, now that I'm thinking about it, it's not just three. There's a fourth one that'll just be your bonus for watching further. Let me see. Before I get in, I want to read what Justin saying. My mom used to tell me, son, you can't cuss in business. And I'm like, why the fuck not? I'd rather have someone who is honest and cusses versus someone who has a clean mouth but a dirty heart. Yes, it's funny. So, Justin, when I first started going live and, like, posting on social media, my aunts who live in California, they're kind of, you know, they're proper. They would reach out to me and be like, katie, I don't know if you realized, but you swore, you said. Or you said crap or you said the F word. Like, do you want to do that? And I made this point that, like, I don't want to attract people who will be scared, scandalized by the fact that I swear. Right. Because I swear, it happens. Like, I find I trust people more when they swear. You know, they swear appropriately, not when they, like, swear to shock, when they swear for accuracy. And, yeah, I mean, like, it's just, you know, I'm not going to hide who I am. Let me see. Personal voice and post is so important. It really is. I mean, it just. I wish. I wish there was a way to, like, video, like, someone reading a post, getting on a sales call, hearing this completely different voice, and like, like, record that inner monologue of, like, who the hell is this person? This isn't who I wanted to get on the phone with. I wanted to get on the phone with someone else. The person who wrote that post. Yes. Anyway, okay, so we have three principles, plus a bonus one. So stick with me. So the number one principle is. Get it. Let it go wrong. Let it go terribly, terribly wrong. All right, Some of my. Hi, Winston. Oh, hi, Josh. I didn't recognize your thing. Hi, Josh. Winston. That sounds so proper. So let. If you're going live, let things go wrong. They're gonna go wrong. Okay? You are going. If you have too stringent of a plan, you know, you're gonna have someone who's fun in the comments, like Justin, who, you know is adding to the conversation. And, like, if you're too, like, dedicated to your talking points, then you're not gonna be able to integrate that in there. Right? It just. It's not gonna happen. Also, like, if you are going off script, this happens to me all the time, okay? I start telling a story, and I'm, like, telling the story, and I'm really into it, and I'm, like, getting towards the end of the story, and I'm like, guys, I completely forgot the point. I forgot, like, why I'm telling you the story. Like, I remember the end of the story, obviously, but, like, what was the point? And then the whole chat sometimes erupts in, like, this scavenger hunt of, like, what the fuck was Katie gonna say? And then we just kind of, like, jive with that. Um. You're gonna stumble, you're gonna stutter. You're gonna trip over your words. You're gonna go blank. There are gonna be moments where you're like, oh, my God. I. Like, it's just. There's nothing. There's nothing. And, like, you have. You get to recover from that, I find. If you're. If you're really nervous about making mistakes and you're really concerned with looking stuff stupid, I urge you to go and take some improv classes. Okay? Improv classes. I. I should have mentioned that when I was getting over my fear of public speaking, that was another thing that I did that was an absolute game changer for me. Right? Because, like, in improv, you look stupid all the time. And it's the point, right? It's the point to look stupid and making mistakes, like, you just bounce off them. Right? I mean, snl, like, if you. If you're in the United States, I'm sure you've seen snl. If you're outside the United States, I'm sure you've seen some clip that is snl. Like, the funniest SNL clips are when they break character and, like, they can't help but, like, start to laugh, and they're, like, trying to hold it in, like, stay in character. Right? It goes terribly wrong, but it actually makes it better. Right? So let things go wrong. Okay, let me see. Justin, ditch the slideshow and be human. Showing your humanness in business will gain trust and clients more than. Than always being Harvey Spector. Yeah, I mean. I mean, Harvey Spector, I think he has some other things going for him, if you know what I mean. Right. I would hire him anyway. That sounded so creepy anyway, but totally true. You know, I want to remind you, when we're looking for people to hire, to be in business with. We're not going to the interwebs to the Google machine and typing in like, who's the most bland, boring, straightforward, not interesting version of a business strategist or a copywriter. No, no. We're going out into the world and we're observing people and we're looking them up and we're seeing like what personality shines through their social media and their marketing. And if we like that personality, then we follow them. And you know, if in following them we really, really, you know, build trust with them, then we might add ourselves to their newsletter. We might go to a webinar, we might see a live that they did and there might be something that we're just like that, that thing that they said, that is why I need to hire this person. And that's when they hop on a call with you. You know, you can't do that through a slideshow. To Justin's point, your personality comes through when you are on camera. Okay. Like you wouldn't be able to get the same Katie McManus experience right now through a slideshow. Especially my slideshows. My slideshows suck because I'm not that good graphically. Anyway. Let me see. Justin. Mama's family Siamese elephant skit. Best improv ever. Oh my God, I haven't seen that. Oh, gosh. Okay, I'm going to have to go and Google that afterwards. My, my all time favorite were the two Betty White where she's talking about her muffin. It's like the, the NPR interview and it's. Oh my God, it's just so funny. And then the same kind of segment but with Alec Baldwin and he's talking about a sweaty balls. So funny. It was like a cooking segment and they're talking, oh, it's just, it's comedic gold. So good. I don't know if they screwed up. I think that's besides the point of the point I was making. But those are my two favorite skits on snl. Anyway, go watch them. Not right now. Stay with me right now and then go watch them afterwards. And if you forget them, just DM me and I will tell you. Okay, so you are letting everything go wrong. You are just letting the shit hit the fan. You're rolling with it. It's all great. And worst case scenario, you end. You're just like, this is going badly. I'm gonna stop. I have done this before. If I've had lives where just stuff was going wrong and I was like, guys, I gotta love with you, this is just not fun for me right now. So I'm gonna end this right here. And people respect that. They respect you honoring your own energy. Okay, number two, I know I already kind of touched on this, but it can't be said. Enough. Ditch the script. Ditch the script. Okay? You are an expert. You are an expert in whatever it is that you are doing for your, your job, for your business, right? If you're not an expert, you should be doing it. But here's what I want you to remember is like, people are there to experience you. They're there to hear you speak. So I want you to imagine you're sitting at coffee with some of your best friends who are just really curious about what you have to say about what you do. And they're there and they're just kind of like sitting there and they're like, you know, drinking their little iced coffee. I'm gonna pretend this is a little iced coffee. Hello? Like, tell me more. I want you to imagine, like, how weird would it be if your best friends were there, you know, watching you and asking all these questions about your business if you were to be like, well, here is the script. And like, oh, gosh, like, what's this? And it would go odd. It would go oddly. I can't really show you this because I have like client notes on here and I don't want to pilot any, any confidentiality. But literally my notes, I'm going to do a little. My notes for the live fit into this. Like, literally, my notes for this live are this big. It's medium sized writing. It literally says, let it go wrong, ditch the script and get vulnerable. That. Those are the only notes that I have for this live today. You know, we've. It takes, it takes practice. It takes practice and to the point, like, you're going to be bad at this. You're going to suck. You're going to suck. You're going to get it wrong. You're going to forget things, you're going to, like, go down weird rabbit holes. It's all gonna happen. But over time, you are going to get more confident. Over time, you are going to learn, like, how to flow from one thing to the next, how to balance speaking to the people in the comments, how to like, stick to your, your agenda, for lack of a better word. You're also going to learn when to throw it out, right? You're going to learn how to read the audience that you can't see and understand what it is that they need from you. Okay? But the script is never going to help you do that. A script is never going to get you to that comfort level. If you do need to, like, like, create an outline for yourself. If you have, like, a really complicated thing that you want to do, I will say this. Complicated things on lives. I've done them. I've done them when I was like, first, you know, getting up and running. They don't go well. Like, people get lost. They get confused. Because I want you to imagine I might just, like, picture. How are you watching this live right now? You're probably not sitting, like, watching me on screen. I mean, I would love it if you did, like, I did my makeup for you guys and everything. I put earrings in. Like, my hair has a braid in it today. But honestly, you're probably watching this, like, with this off to the side. You know, you might be, like, cooking dinner or brushing your teeth or, you know, like, folding laundry. You're probably not looking, and. Because you're probably not looking and there's other stuff happening in your life, in your world, you might not be completely tuned in to what I'm talking about. So if I'm going over something that's way too complicated, that requires a whole outline for. For me to even remember what I'm saying, how are you going to remember what I'm saying? Like, how are you going to take anything useful if what I'm talking about is that kind of complicated? Okay? So if I haven't convinced you yet, I hope that convinced you. Ditch the script, okay? Let. And just back to the first point. Like, let yourself be awkward, okay? Oh, my God. Scared myself. I was gonna knock this over. You know, we all love all those videos of, like, the baby elephants that are, like, chasing the ducks around and then they slip and fall, right? And you're like, oh, I hope they're fine. And they are. They're fine. But they, like, get embarrassed and they go back to mom. You know, baby giraffes with their, like, long, spindly legs, and they, like, can't really walk that well, and until their mom kicks them and makes them walk, because that's what mama giraffes do when they have their babies, they kick them until they walk. It's not very nice. We love awkward is my point. We are here for the awkward, okay? When we see other humans out there, brave enough. Brave enough to let themselves be publicly awkward, we're there for it. So let yourself be awkward. Let yourself be awkward without a script, okay? Let yourself be awkward as you're getting better, okay? And worst Case scenario, pick a time to go live when no one usually watches. That's fine. As you're practicing, as you're getting better at it. That is totally okay. Okay. If you end up doing an incredible live, then you can save it. And if it ends up really royally sucking, you can delete it. Okay, Full permission there. Lastly, I know this one is hard for, for everyone because, like, okay, well, how vulnerable is too vulnerable and. But I want to remind you, you get to decide that. But you really do have to get vulnerable. You have to share a little bit about yourself. You have to let people in. You have to let them see who you are as a human. All right, now I am very comfortable getting vulnerable. I have shared everything from like being an egg donor, escaping an abusive relationship, having breast reduction surgery. I'm very comfortable sharing all. I have a hair movie. Whoops. Anyway, I'm very comfortable sharing all parts of my, of my life on social media. I make it into a business point when I do, right. I like, tie it back. I find a way to like make it funny. Like, for. For fuck's sake. Like, my post today was about how building a business around only getting referrals is basically like using the pull out method for your birth control. I'm very comfortable going there. Right? You don't have to go there. Okay. You're vulnerable, can look like, this is what I did this weekend. You're vulnerable, can be like, this is my favorite pair of socks. This is my favorite pair of socks. They're my favorite brand. This is why I like them. This is what I don't like about other socks. I want you to remember. Okay, here's what I want you to think about. When we were kids and we had a new friend come over, like, they came over to our house for a play date. What was the first thing you did when they, when they like walk in the door and they say hi and they're like, maybe put their backpack down, take their shoes off. You're like, you know, you're like, timmy, let me like, how was your day? What are you doing? You don't do the small talk thing. No. You're like, timmy, come to my room. I want to show you all my stuff. Right? And then you take them to your room and you're like, here's my Barbie poster and here's my Hulk poster. This is my, my Raggedy Ann doll and these are my Pokemon cards. And this is this, and this is this. And you just show them. Like, these are all the things that I like and that I care about. This is who I am. We get to do that as adults, too. It's so much fun. And here's the thing. When it comes to you building your business, letting people get to know you, it makes it so much easier for people who are interested in working with you to start a local, low pressure conversation with you if they have something in common with you. Okay. It is magic when someone like, I am a huge Harry Potter nerd. I have a Harry Potter tattoo. I get messages all the time about my Harry Potter tattoo. Right. I get messages all the time about my. My sheepadoodle Luna. Right. Who's named after a Harry Potter character now, I think. But I wasn't even gonna go there. But I get messages all the time about that. That turn into. I think I might want to work with you right now. Those people usually are not going to be that comfortable just messaging me. I think I want to work with you. No, like, they want to warm it up. They want to have an actual interaction with me and make sure I am who I say I am. Right. Like, how would they think of something to say to get that ice broken? That was a weird way of saying that, of breaking that ice if I didn't give them, like, some details about myself. Right. You get to do the same, but you get to decide how vulnerable you want to get. All right. It's 100% up to you, by the way, if you want to learn how to decide what to share, how to leverage your own personal stories to get high paying clients. I am doing a training on this Saturday. I've been very bad about promoting it. I was actually supposed to do it on Wednesday, but Wednesday afternoon I got this massive headache and had to reschedule. I. Yeah. Anyway, but it is happening this Saturday and I would love for you to come. If you want to come, then shoot me a DM and I will send you the link to join. So so far, the three principles, we have a bonus still. So stick with me. Let it go wrong. Let it go wrong. Number two, ditch the script. It'll never serve you. And number three, get vulnerable. Share about yourself. Now, number four is the bonus one that I didn't think of while I was writing the description for this live, but I thought of it while I was, like, going through it. So here we are. Get consistent. Consistency is key, first and foremost. Like if you're new at it and you suck, the only way to get better is to consistently practice. That's the only way you're going to get better. Okay. So be consistent with it. You can do it once a week. You could do it the way I did it, which was I went live every day for about a month, multiple times. It's up to you. 100% up to you. But be consistent with it. It really does help build trust with your audience. It helps you get better, and you will get more comfortable with it as you go. That's all I've got, guys. It's for 32 minutes, so thank you all for hanging with me. Justin, thank you so much for all of your contributions. Today I'm gonna go and be looking up your your SNL Siamese elephant skit. Really looking forward to that. Josh and the Gazelle, thank you for joining on Instagram. I hope you all have an amazing rest of your week. Tomorrow's Friday. Thank God. And I hope to be going live with you tomorrow, but we will see. But reminder, if you do want to come to that training I am hosting on Saturday, just shoot me a DM. Anyway, thank you all. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. Have a great night. Bye.