Why Being Yourself is Dangerous
The Paradox of Authenticity
I used to believe my fear of being perceived
was about how you saw me.
Then I realised
it was about how I saw myself.
I never actually knew what you thought of me.
I only knew what I feared you thought of me.
My inner critic was an asshole.
So I created an asshole version of you inside my head
and used it to stop me from doing cool stuff.
My fear of being seen
was rooted in my creative shame
of not being good enough.
I felt like a failure inside.
So I imagined that if I shared my ideas
you’d think I was a failure, too.
So I didn’t.
For decades.
The ideas that flowed through me got bored
and went to other creatives.
I got angry and envious watching others succeed
with ideas I’d had squandered away.
That reinforced my creative shame.
I was a shadow artist.
On the outside, it looked like I was building a business.
On the inside, I knew I was still hiding.
The fear of being seen
crushed my creativity
and massively limited my opportunities
and financial goals.
To overcome the fear of being seen,
I had to change
how I saw myself.
I had to reinvent my creative identity.
I stopped hiding.
Not because I wanted to.
I needed to.
My business was failing.
My partner has an autoimmune disease.
It was solely down to me
to bring home the family bacon.
So I swore to myself
that no matter what
I would overcome my lifelong fear of being seen.
I did a 30-video in 30 days TikTok challenge
It was hard.
I wanted to quit.
Every time I wanted to quit
I thought of my six-year-old daughter.
With every video, my fear diminished a little.
And my creative confidence increased.
A little
By day 15, I started to really enjoy it.
I was getting healthy dopamine
by facing my fear
and overcoming the challenge.
On day 31
I had my first viral video.
Six weeks later
I had my first five-figure month.
Every time I numbed myself with doomscrolling,
my fear of being seen grew.
Every time I faced my fear,
my creative confidence increased.
I still have shame and fears, of course.
But I process them
through my creativity.
Every TikTok video.
Every article you read.
Exists because I’m processing an emotion
or articulating thoughts and ideas.
This is the creative methodology you will learn
in my January cohort.
To process emotions through your creativity
and create engaging short video content.
A 6-week cohort.
30 videos in 30 days.
Weekly group coaching.
Daily support.
Complete this
And you will reinvent your creativity
and overcome your fear of being seen, or pay $0
If you want more clients and an audience that deeply connects with your authentic content, you can learn to create engaging short-form video content like this:
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P.S. I was 50 when I reinvented my creative identity. I’ve had clients in their 70s do this and go viral.
P.P.S Happy Christmas, everyone!