Yesterday’s video post about why you should give up perfection and start aiming for awesome got some great comments and emails. Thanks!
What I learned from shooting the video
I’d been planning to make the video for two months.
- I wrote a mind-map of the points I wanted to make.
- I bought a new video camera with my Christmas money.
- I played around with the camera.
- I bought a nifty tripod.
- I took Elizabeth Potts-Weinstein’s 4 Weeks to Video course.
- I signed up for Andrew Lightheart’s free Presentation Superpowers course.
- I changed the mind-map.
None of this mattered diddly-squat.
What mattered was that on Sunday I picked up the camera and started making the damn video. Then editing it. Then uploading it. Then telling people about it.
It was terrifying.
When I write one of my posts I’m confident that I’ll get some positive feedback. I had no such certainty with the video, and I was nervous.
Yesterday my web server and comments system both had the hiccups and everything went awry and so instead of the half-dozen comments and tweets I usually get in the first hour or so of posting I got zero. None.
I had a minor anxiety attack and had to go lay down for half an hour so I didn’t frantically hit refreshrefreshrefresh on Twitter, email, forums etc to see if someone had responded yet. I was even reloading the YouTube account page to see how many views the video had, which is truly sad and I’m resisting the urge to go do it again.
Was it worth it?
No.
I spent my entire Sunday shooting, editing and watching the damn thing upload (it took 12 hours) until I was so brain-friend I watched Johnny Mnemonic and thought Keanu’s acting was okay.
I spent Monday excitedly thinking about how this was going to be the Next Big Thing and wondering if I should up my server’s resources in case I had a thousand people watching it.
Tuesday was a nightmare of everything going wrong and hand-clenching why-is-no-one-reponding pacing and the realisation: being shouted at is better than being ignored. (At least shouters care, even if they don’t approve.) And when there were commenters again, they were pleasant and supportive and offered good advice but it was not enough to slow my racing anxious heart. I had a sick headache and I got no work done because I could think about nothing other than how it was being received.
The supreme irony
I was acquiring more resources instead of shooting. I spent more than two months planning and planning and never executing. I was incredibly anxious about whether it would be liked.
It sounds a bit like I was trying to make it perfect, doesn’t it?
Hilarious!
What I should have done
If I’d shot the video on the first day I’d thought of it, I would have moved faster than my expectations. It wouldn’t have been as good (I had less presenting and technical skill and a much dodgier camera), but I’d be happy with the number of views, comments and tweets no matter how small it was. And I would have made another video the next day. And the day after. By now I would have two months of regular footage and I know I’d be better at it than I am now.
By taking the time I let perfectionism sneak in and whisper in my ear. And perfectionism can sound so reasonable! I did need a better camera. I did need to learn more about editing and lighting and presentation.
But that’s still bullshit. That’s still fear talking. Every time I think I have it beat, that sneaky little bastard finds a new way in.
What I’ll do now
I’ll be reshooting that video in the near future with improvements from the feedback: the new version will have louder sound and be much shorter. (The two-shirts schtick will stay since everyone seems to like it. I’m glad!)
Most important, I’ll keep being vigilant about stopping perfectionism from sneaking in to my awesome. And my best chance of doing that is to act before he gets a chance to whisper in my ear.
Your five-minute mission, which you should damn well accept…
1. Pick one thing that you’ve been too uncomfortable to do because too much seems to be riding on it: calling a prospect, writing a post, confronting someone, building something…
2. Go and do it Right Now.
3. Come and tell me what you did in the comments.