TJ Walker explains why your first videos feel awkward: the camera triggers self-awareness about your voice and appearance. Record 10, 20, 30 takes. Awkwardness fades with repetition, and your focus shifts from how you look to whether your message is clear.
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Ultimize. Let's address something right away. Your first videos are going to feel awkward. Not a little awkward, very awkward. And most people take that as a sign they're doing something wrong. They're not. They're doing something new. Let me describe exactly what's going to happen. You press record, you start speaking, doing some version of your motivational speech, your motivational content, and within seconds You become hyper-aware of yourself. Your own voice sounds strange. Your hands don't know what they're supposed to do. You start thinking, 'Do I always sound like this?' That's the moment most people stop. They say, 'Oh, let me try that again,' and then again, and then again, and pretty soon they've done 12 takes and they don't like any of them, so they give up. Now let me show you what's really going on. When when you speak in everyday life, you're not watching yourself, you're just talking. But the moment you add a camera, you introduce a new layer, self-awareness. And self-awareness at the beginning feels uncomfortable. Here's the bad reaction: I sound awkward, something's wrong, I'm not good at this. So you stop. Here's the better reaction: Of course this feels awkward, I've never practiced this before. So you keep going. Here's an example. Think about hearing your own voice on a recording for the first time, maybe a voicemail. Almost everyone has the same reaction. Do I really sound like that? Yeah, you do. You just weren't used to hearing it. Speaking on camera is the same thing. You're not used to seeing yourself speak, so your brain interprets that unfamiliarity as a problem. Well, it's not a problem, it's exposure. Now here's where this becomes powerful. The more you do it, the less strange it feels, and eventually it feels normal. I've seen this transformation over and over again. Someone records their first video, they hate it, they don't want to watch it, they feel uncomfortable. Then they record 10, then 20, then 30. At some point they watch themselves and think, hey, that's not bad. That's a huge shift because now they're no longer fighting the process, they're working with it. Let me show you another contrast. Here's the early stage. You focused on yourself. How do I look? How do I sound? Am I doing this right? Everything is internal. Me, me, me, me, me. Later stage, you're focused on the message. Is this clear? Is it useful? Would this help somebody? Now everything is external. It's not about you anymore. The shift is what you're working toward, from self-consciousness to message focus. Here's the idea I want you to install: awkward means I'm practicing something new. It's not failing, it's not practicing, it's not the worst in the world. So when you feel that discomfort, that's okay, it's good. That means you're doing the work, because the people who avoid that feeling never really improve, and the people who move through it become comfortable, then confident, then effective. So Don't wait to feel natural. Record until you become natural. And once that happens, you'll realize something. What felt awkward in the beginning was actually the fastest path forward. And then you start sharing it with other people and getting feedback. And not all of it will be positive. I've had people even a long time ago say, hey, TJ Walker, where'd your, your 'Your hair go. I don't like your teeth. You have beady eyes,' which is true. Guess what? It doesn't matter. I have messages that help people and that motivate people. I keep sharing it every day, and that's what I want your mentality to be as well.
