How to overcome the fear of social media in your business.

Welcome to The Empowered Edupreneur Podcast. My name is Michelle Smit, and I am an ex-teacher turned online business coach for Edupreneurs. The owner of Digiteach and a six-figure entrepreneur. I am in love with empowering educators, just like you to create freedom filled online businesses and lives they love.

If you are looking to uplevel your skills, your finances, your mindset, and change the trajectory of your life as an educator in business, then you are in the right place. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of business and mindset development to help unlock the infinite potential within you to play bigger with your life and go after your dreams.

We are going to have so much fun together. So thank you so much for pushing play today. Now let's dive in. 

Hello. Hello. It is so good to be chatting to you today. Today, what I'm going to talk about is something that comes up all the time, all the time, all the time. And when I'm talking to people about, launching courses, building an online business, creating this freedom business, the thing that I love most, the thing that I help people do and what comes up.

Almost every time, especially when I'm launching or sharing how you would launch a course and how you would sell courses online. I get this thing where people are like what if I'm scared of social media? And it happens over and over again. What if I'm scared of social media? I've got a fear of social media.

So I'm going to share my thoughts around this on how to overcome your fear of social media. For business so that you can grow a freedom filled online education business. So the first thing is reframing what social media means to you, because I think people have this perception of it or the story of it that isn't a very positive story and therefore it just creates this whole resistance to it.

So firstly, you just need to reframe what that means to you, what social media means to you, create a new story for it. So I want you to understand that social media is a powerful tool to help you share your mission, your unique perspective, connect with people and serve them all over the world.

It is actually a privilege to be living in a time where we can literally speak to people from all over the world. As long as you have internet and a phone. And share your story and your perspective and your lived experience and whatever you want to share with people all over the world. This never existed in the past.

This is a very unique time to be alive. And there's a lot of positivity that can come out of this, right? So instead of seeing social media as this big, bad wolf that's just terrible. Which of course it has a very bad side to it. And there are things that are not good about it, but there is a lot of good to social media as a tool for business specifically as a tool for business.

That's what I'm thinking of it as not necessarily just for the sake of being on it or whatever. But as a tool for business and impact from the perspective of impact, connection, and service. Social media is incredibly powerful. You can really help someone connect with people, give people hope, give people inspiration, make people feel not alone.

If they're going through something that's very difficult and it just gives people a place to find community and connection in a virtual way, right? Of course, there's nothing that can beat, personal connection in person, but it is an opportunity for people to connect with people all over the world.

It can be so powerful for your business. It can really help you build up a brand. Share your mission, share your perspective and change lives. And literally it's free. You just need internet and you just need a phone. So it's accessible to a lot of people, right?

There's very little barrier to entry. So that's the first thing. Reframe what social media means to you, because there's a good chance you've got a very different story in your head about it. The next thing is you want to get to a point if you really want to build an online freedom business and launch courses and make money and, create more for yourself. Then you need to get to a point where your fear of staying in the same situation is far greater than your fear of showing up on social media for your business. 

So I'll say that again, the fear and the discomfort of staying in the same situation that you are in is far greater then the fear of you showing up on social media for your business. And that's where you create action and momentum for change. When the thing that you're experiencing now is worse than the other option.

And that's how I was able to really change my life as my discomfort and pain of being in my online ESL teaching job was so bad that it exceeded the pain and discomfort of me making a change and doing something out of my comfort zone, like going on social media when it was also very, very scary for me. Because I also really struggled with the whole process and it took time.

That's what I think is really important. When people change, it's normally from a place of they're in such discomfort that they're in, they are willing to do what it takes to change their situation. And if sometimes you need to hit rock bottom or you have something needs to get so unpleasant and unbearable for you.

For you to get almost grow the balls to make that change. And to really say, you know what, screw it. The fear of me staying in this situation far exceeds the fear of me leaping and launching a course or going on social media. And so I'm going to go and leap and I'm going to go do that thing because that at least is moving me towards freedom and change and all of these things.

Instead of staying stagnant in the same situation. So that is something I would also mention. It really helps when you are not really happy in your current situation and you're willing to do what it takes to change your situation. So let that pain that you're in use that. As fuel to drive you forward and to face your fears. 

The next thing is to create safety in the act of being on social media. So I think people feel very unsafe with being on social media. And there's many, many reasons as to why they would feel that. But you need to figure out what is causing you your fear. What is the root of your fear? Is it the fear of what people are thinking about you?

The fear of judgment, the fear of, I don't know, security. What is the source or the root of your fear and how can you create safety in that? Like, how can you flip that script and show maybe that isn't a valid fear or maybe that isn't, a realistic fear potentially, or maybe it's irrational or whatever it may be.

And then how can you create safety basically in your nervous system in the act of being on social media? And that I think is important is just like doing it in a way that is stretching yourself, but also creating a space that is still safe and you feel safe to do the thing. I think that's a big one.

And there are different ways of doing it. Maybe you are really fearful of having your coworkers or your colleagues see you and you starting your business and your stuff, you don't want them to see you. Or your students, you don't want them to see you. So maybe part of creating safety in that is like hiding your profile from those people or potentially even blocking people that you just don't want to have watching your stuff. 

You can do that. It's your choice what you want to do to make sure that you feel safe and okay as you do it. You don't want to put yourself in a place of risk or whatever it may be. The next thing is so important. And this is a lot easier said than done, but it is so important to stop caring about what other people think.

I believe the main reason that people are scared of going on social media for their business is because they're worried about judgment and what people think of them. Like family, friends, students whatever. And I get it because I have had that too. Like I had to go through this process of going from zero to building an online business and getting very visible online.

And it's been a process of five years. It didn't just happen overnight. It was a slow burn. But I had to make peace with the fact that I'm not going to keep everyone happy. Not everyone's going to like me. And that's okay. Like the friends that truly are my people that are truly my friends that actually care about me and my wellbeing and my success, all of that. They are going to support me no matter what. Especially as I shine my light brighter.

So there's a realization that comes with the people who are meant for you and want the best for you will support you. There won't be judgment and the people who will judge you, they're just not meant for you. And that's because a lot of people are going to judge you for playing bigger with your life, for sharing your perspective, for shining your light brighter people aren't going to like it because it either will trigger them.

Because you're being brave and they can't. Or your perspective might be different to what theirs is. And so they, they get triggered by that. Whatever it means, you're going to trigger people. The more you shine your light and the more you expand yourself, you're going to piss people off along the way.

And your job is to live your life in the best way possible to make sure you live your soul's expression. You follow your alignment, you live out what you want to live out. That is like your job in your lifetime, is to live what you need to live, like your soul's purpose. And part of that journey is going to include not having everyone agree with you, support you. 

You might lose friends, people might judge you a little bit. But at the end of the day, who cares? Because those people are not worth the energy and time. It just isn't worth your energy and time. The sooner you can come to a place where you can stop caring what people think, the sooner you can liberate yourself in such a big way.

That is absolute liberation. When you can say, I'm going to be me and I'm going to be fully me and I'm going to share exactly what I want to share and I want to do it exactly how I want to do it online, because it's important to me because I want to help people. The sooner you can get to that and not hold yourself back.

It's just so freeing. And so if you can work on that, like just work on that. Just stop caring about what other people think. Only care about what the most important people think, like your husband or your children, or like those people, like the people who matter. And let the rest of everyone else just fall away before you know it.

They might judge you for a day and then they've continued with their life. And then it's old news anyway. So you might as well just do you be you shine your light and know that the right people who are meant to support you will be there and the rest can actually just take a hike. So that's something that I think is really important in the process of overcoming your fear for social media in business.

The next thing is just to start small. Someone looked at me the other day when I was doing a masterclass and was like, wow, you're so confident. And I don't think I could ever do this. No one saw me when I started, well, actually people saw me, but five years ago, it was a hot mess and I was not confident.

I was terrified. I had no clue what was happening. I was just doing things and trying things and doing stuff that I was so deeply uncomfortable doing. I would go live on social media and my throat would basically close up and I was so scared and I've walked a long journey to get to where I am today.

I've overcome a lot to get to where I am today. It hasn't been, oh, I just was born and I could just suddenly do what I'm doing now. It has been a process of starting small and incrementally extending my muscle of visibility and, confidence and being on camera. Literally just growing that muscle and growing that capacity.

And so I started very small and I started with what I could do. And I just challenged myself every now and then just to do a little bit more. Going live was very difficult for me. So I would just challenge myself to do 10 minutes of a live. Just to get the practice so I can start building the confidence.

And that's how you build confidence is through just practicing something. That's literally where the confidence comes. And I've done so many launches and I've been doing this for so many years now that I've just developed the capacity for it. Where I just don't have the fears anymore. I just don't care.

I just do the thing now. It just is who I am. And that is a process. It's not going to happen overnight. So start small. And maybe that means you first don't show your face on social media. Maybe it means you just do image posts or other types of posts. But then as you strengthen your capacity, you stretch yourself and you start showing your face.

So you start doing some reels, you start doing videos, whatever it may be, you start small and you increase your capacity from there. So that's all you need to do. Don't think that you go from zero to a hundred. You will go from zero to one to two, to three, to four, to five. And you will take little steps before you know it, two years down the line, your fears don't even exist anymore because you've just overcome them all.

And that is fricking amazing. The next thing is to set healthy social media boundaries, because obviously social media has a dark side to it. We all know it has a dark side to it, and it can affect one's mental health if we do not use it responsibly. Social media is addictive, the dopamine hits are addictive. 

Doom scrolling for hours before bed is not healthy. Or when you wake up and you doom scroll, when you start to compare yourself with others, when you start to look at profiles and think, oh, look how amazing their life is and look how shitty my life is. That's not a healthy place to be. So you have to have a strong level of responsibility when you use that because you're using it for your business.

So just use it as a business owner would use it and really create systems to help you set boundaries around the use of social media apps. So for example, you can set a time limit on the app so that the app reminds you when you've reached your limits and you must close it for the day. You can do this on Instagram.

You can say, I allow myself one and a half hours on Instagram for the day. And that will allow me to post what I need to post for my business and do what I need to do for my business. And then once that's done, you close the app and then it's done. So you only allow yourself that time. You could set time blocks in your schedule where you're like, cool.

I will only use social media between these times. And I won't look at it at night or the morning because those are sacred times for me. You can delete social media apps when you're on holiday. Some people even delete it over the weekend to give themselves a break. You can do that if you really need to cut yourself off. You can switch off the likes feature.

So you don't get fixated on people liking your stuff or seeing other people's likes, because that can affect someone's mental health after a while. And those things don't really matter that much in business anyway. So you can just hide that stuff if you want to do. You need to decide what a healthy use of social media for your business looks like, and then you need to set boundaries and systems to help you stick to that because it is a bit of a slippery slope.

It can go a bit pear shaped if you don't have any strong boundaries around it. And it takes time to learn, right? You're not going to get it right every day, all the time, but you need to pay attention to how you're feeling and have awareness around the apps and the social media stuff and how it makes you feel.

Also, you must unfollow anyone who makes you feel like crap. Just unfollow them. Only follow people who make you feel good. There's so many things that you can do on social media to make it more healthy for you. And it's really important because this is now using social media for your business. This isn't for personal use, but if you want to use it for business, you need to make sure that it's with the goal of, okay, I'm going to do my business tasks and then I'm going to be done.

And that's what I do now. Yes, I do occasionally doom scroll, especially I get addicted to like cat videos and then I just do scroll cat videos. But I love how that makes me feel sometimes. And sometimes I just need it. But typically I have my bad moments, especially before bed is a weak spot for me.

But in general, during the day I'm like, cool, let me just do the thing I need to do on social media and then I can get off it. And then the last thing I want to share on this is to challenge yourself to overcome your fears because they're actually keeping you playing small. So do you want to reach the end of your life and not have done what your heart and soul wants you to do out of the fear of maybe what other people will think of you?

Because that is what keeps us playing small. I believe is that you're worried about what people are thinking about you. You're caring more about people's perception of you, then you actually living the life you want to live and doing the things you want to do and sharing your mission and perspective with the world, you're keeping yourself small because you don't want to ruffle up the feathers.

You don't want to shine yourself too brightly. You don't make yourself too big. You don't have to be on social media, right? You can probably build a business without it. Especially an online business is going to be a little bit challenging because you need to be visible somewhat online to have an online business.

Otherwise people won't know you exist. But if you do really want to create a freedom filled online business and you want to launch courses and you want to make money and you want to impact people, then I challenge you to overcome this fear of social media and keeping yourself playing small. 

And I challenge you to work on your self love and your groundedness in yourself and your certainty in yourself. So that doesn't really matter what other people think of you, because you know what you think of you. And that is your truth. You're not going to break apart from what other people share about you or say about you because you know who you are and you love yourself for who you are and you're very happy with yourself and you're happy to share your story.

And that is a challenge because many people aren't at a place where they are fully happy with themselves. And so the judgment and the things from other people can be very triggering. And of course I've gone through that myself, but as I said, it's a journey and I challenged myself to overcome my fears because I wanted to create an online business that made me money and impacted people.

 And part of that journey was me overcoming my fear of visibility online, getting on camera, speaking to people, connecting with people, serving people, getting on social media and getting out of my own way and not letting my fears hold me back.

And I was very aware of that. And I push myself out of my comfort zone and I challenged myself to overcome it. And I did, and here I am, and I've been able to do what I wanted to do. And it's deeply fulfilling when you do that. And so just always keep that in mind. Do you want to reach the end of your life and have not have done what your heart and soul wants to do? 

Or do you want to reach the end of your life and know that you did what you wanted to do? Because it was aligned to you, it lit your soul on fire, it shared your perspective, it gave you the life you wanted to live. You lived big, and you didn't let the fear of what other people think stop you. Yeah, that's my take on social media for your business and ways in which you can overcome your fears of being on socials and just start small. Whatever capacity you have for it now, just start there.

And just start getting used to posting some stuff. Have fun with it. Don't make it so serious. Don't make it such a big deal. No one is paying that much attention to us anyway. Really, no one cares that much about us. People are too busy living their life to pay that much attention to what we do with ours.

And that's what I believe. And honestly, if people are being trolls and are judging and all of that stuff, I just believe that their lives are very sad and I send them love and light because my life is great. And if you are going to be a troll and treat people like crap on the internet, there's got to be something very wrong with your life and you as a person to do that.

And for me, that's more sad and pity than anything else, right? Surround yourself with people who support you and empower you even in person and online, and just ignore the rest because they are not worth your energy or time. All right. So I hope this inspired you a little bit and you are feeling a little bit more equipped to get on the socials.

I challenge you to do it. I challenge you to push yourself out of your comfort zone and know that everything that you want in life basically lies on the outside of your fear. It lies in you overcoming your fears. The growth happens when you challenge yourself to do these things. All right, have an amazing rest of your day and I will chat to you again soon.

 Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you are a teaching business owner, freelance teacher or online teacher, and you are interested in creating a digital course or group program to scale your income and impact without teaching more hours, then I have just the thing for you. Grab my free Scalable Digital Course Roadmap, and it will walk you through the six steps of turning your one on one classes into a scalable offer that frees you from the teacher burnout trap.

Creating scalable courses and programs have allowed me to 10x my hourly rates, hit six figures in my business, and impact hundreds and hundreds of people around the world without having to be actively teaching all day. If this is what you desire, then grab my guide in the show notes and let me help you.

I appreciate you so much. I can't wait to connect with you in the next episode. In the meantime, go create a business and life you love.