Showing up online isn't about you. It's about the people that you are helping.
And yeah, there might be people out there who look at the content
I share and they're like, who does she think she is for doing that?
But what I've realized is that there are even more people out there who
listen to my podcast, who've read my posts on Instagram, who watch my
videos, who are learning something from it. It's having that tangible impact on
their lives, and that matters to me so much more than the opinion of
somebody I don't even really care about. Welcome to Imperfect Action. I'm Steph
Taylor. For years, I read all the books, downloaded all the freebies,
and did all the courses, but it wasn't until I started taking imperfect
action that my business had its first million dollar year. Imperfect Action is about
doing things before you're ready, prioritizing consistent action over perfect action, and moving
forward even when you're not sure you're doing it right. On this show,
you can expect mindset advice, actionable marketing tips, and stratus used to build
a business that brings you more profit, more freedom, and even more joy.
Are you want the list to get my daily businesses every day, I'll
send you a bite sized prompt designed to help you grow your business in a
more intentional way. Sign up at Steph Taylor dot Co, forward slash DBB,
or at the link in the show notes. Hey, welcome back to
Perfect Action. This is episode seven hundred and sixteen. Today we're talking about
the fear of judgment. Now, this is something that I have come up
against over and over and over again in my business, and when I first
started building my personal brand, I worried NonStop what other people would think of
me. Now, would people think I was weird for putting myself out there?
Would people laugh at me? Would people troll me? These days,
I generally don't care a whole lot what people on the internet say. Obviously
I don't love getting mean comments, but I've also realized that, in the
broader context of how many people I'm helping by showing up online, the occasional
mean comment doesn't actually mean very much. So this episode, I'm going to
share three big tips that helped me to overcome my own fear of judgment in
the hopes that if you are afraid of what others will think, and you're
afraid of putting yourself out there. I'm hoping that these tips will really help
you because they have been big shifts for me as well. So Number one,
what people think of you is a reflection of themselves and doesn't have that
much to actually do with you. Now, a very popular concept in modern
psychology is that the things we dislike or resent in other people are often the
things that we are unable to see or accept in ourselves. So the things
that we envy in other people are the things that we wish we could do
ourselves. For example. Now, for example, if somebody is afraid to
speak up and get visible, then of course they're gonna resent me or envy
me for building my own brand and getting visible. That way, if somebody
feels guilty for promoting their own work and sharing their own accomplishments, then of
course they're going to be triggered by me sharing my wins. Back in twenty
twenty, when my business grew really quickly, pretty much overnight, I posted
about it on Instagram and I had a lot of people unfollow me as a
result of that post. But I also had a lot of people commenting and
messaging me to say, hey, this is so inspiring. If you can
do it, so can I, and they were consuming the exact same content.
Both of those groups of people were consuming the exact same post, but
they had completely different interpretations of it. One group saw it as a little
bit triggering, the other groups or it is inspiring and regardless of what you
do, your actions are going to create some kind of judgment in somebody.
So you can either do nothing and hide under the kitchen table and hope that
nobody ever judges you, or you can get out there and do what feels
right to you, do what you really want to do, and know that
the right people aren't gonna judge you. The second big shift was realizing that
everyone else cares too much about themselves to think about me as much as I
think that they do. Right, nobody cares about you as much as you
think that they care about you. And if I find myself getting caught up
in overthinking what will people think? What will people think if I say this?
What will people think if I post this? I always remind myself nobody
cares, which might sound a little bit depressing, but it's actually so freeing.
You know, nobody cares what I say, nobody cares what I do,
so I can do what feels right for me rather than what I think
people want me to do or say. And if you're really worried about what
other people are gonna think, pause and ask yourself, who are these people
who are so bored and unhappy with their own lives that they have the time
and energy to judge me for this thing? And why am I letting their
opinion matter to me? Why do I care about their opinion? I have
always been super self critical. I think this just comes as being part of
an overachiever. We tend to be pretty harsh critics. And another thing that
I've realized is I'm probably always going to be my own harshest critic. Anyway.
Other people aren't looking at my every move in nearly as much detail as
I am. They're not being as critical of me as I am being critical
of me. Then the third big shift that I realized was showing up online
isn't about you. It's about the people that you are helping. And yeah,
there might be people out there who look at the content I share and
they're like, who does she think she is for doing that? But what
I've realized is that there are even more people out there who listen to my
podcast, who read my posts on Instagram, who watch my videos, who
are learning something from it. It's having that tangible impact on their lives,
and that matters to me so much more than the opinion of somebody I don't
even really care about. Now, people are going to judge you regardless,
So let them judge you for who you actually are and have a little bit
of impact do some good in the process. Show up and help the people
that you can help. I once had someone call me a skid mark on
Facebook, and I had another person put a poop emoji on a photo of
me and send it to my email. And I actually feel really sorry for
trolls like this because they have nothing better to do with their time than to
send these things. So if you're worried about people judging you and saying mean
things online, remember that it's not about the people who are going to troll
you for the sake of trolling you, but it's actually about the people who
you can help. And why would you let the people who are gonna call
you a skid mark stop you from showing up and helping the people who you
can have a real impact on. So, if you're worried that something like
this will happen when you start showing up online. I do want to say
it doesn't happen that often. I have very rarely had any actuals and I
don't get that many mean comments. It's pretty rare. But remember that when
you start showing up online, it's actually gonna If somebody says something mean,
it says more about them than it does about you. Right, So there
are a couple of little shifts. Hopefully those help you to overcome that fear
of stepping into the spotlight, because you definitely do have something to say,
even if you are doubting what you want to say and whether you know enough.
The confidence will grow. It will come, and the more that you
start showing up, the more you start sharing, the more comfortable you will
begin to feel with all of that. Now, if you're not already subscribed
to the show, hit the subscribe button or the follow button on Apple podcasts,
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every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thank you so much for listening.
Catch you next time.