Video, voice and face: how an artist can overcome shyness and tell her story on social media

Art, voice and courage: my path to communicate beyond the paper

I never liked taking photographs, selfies or videos. In fact, the idea of speaking into a video-or worse, looking straight into the camera-made me extremely uncomfortable and so I avoided it with all my being.
I have always defined myself as a shy person. Expressing myself has never been easy, especially in the world of social media, where everything seems to go fast and where you often feel watched and judged.

Yet today I am writing this article knowing that, at least in part, I have overcome that fear and difficulty.

How did this change happen? I'll tell you about it here. And if you, too, are a creative person but feel stuck, maybe it will help you.

What gives rise to the need to speak on video

After doing a couple of live events, markets, and events with other artists and illustrators, I perforce exposed myself to a real, physical audience that I could actually interact with.

I found that people were intrigued and fascinated by what is behind the scenes of my drawings, the history of the ninja, my thoughts that generated those drawings.

Expressing those concepts in words, verbally with a friendly and informal chat with the people in front of me, was extremely pleasant and easy. 

Why is it not as easy to express yourself on social media? 

• Fear of judgment: first there is definitely the fear of being judged by others, and then being criticized. This is normal, but I also think you have to fight with this feeling. One cannot please everyone, and unfortunately many people are rude, but this should not limit my freedom of expression.

• It's not enough just to talk, you have to prepare a set, check the composition of the image that is pleasing, that gives an impression of professionalism. You have to set up, and take the time to prepare all the technical equipment to do the shoot. It is not illustration, it is another job (which is not my passion!).

• The impostor in us tells us that we have nothing interesting to say, nothing special or that hasn't already been said. So we tend to hide and convince ourselves that it's not even worth putting in the effort.

So I decided that I would like to overcome shyness, with the aim of making my life easier in expressing my concepts, in communicating my thoughts to the world. After all, what do I have that is less than those who actually use social media to launch their thoughts to the world? 

The first time I put my voice

I have been posting on social since 2013, and slowly I became more and more aware of how and what I was posting. At first I only put up photographs with a description in English, then I switched to Italian to be able to express myself better.

In October 2023, I decided to publish my first video with voice-over, to tell about the project I was working on, which was the 2023 Inktober. I recorded it a thousand times, deleted it and re-did it. Hearing my voice sounded so strange to me, so I finally decided to stop listening to it and publish it. 

The amazing thing is that people saw the video, listened to it, and the world didn't fall apart! I had simply communicated with a slightly different channel, which had all the potential to become a convenient and faster way of communicating than an elaborate montage. 

Training makes everything easier

With the belief that one should not do more, but do better and optimize, I continued to put my voice to video description until I found a methodology that allowed me to create beautiful social content in a relatively short time. I thus had the ability to express more difficult and elaborate concepts by simply telling them.

The more voice videos I made, the less I was bothered by them. Until one day I realized that I was making them naturally and easily.

I had overcome a block that I thought insurmountable: putting my own voice to video description.  

Training without pressure: the “secret” videos

After that first step, I told myself I would have to take a more difficult one: add a face to that voice. Since I had seen that practice helped to improve, I started recording videos of me narrating. But I didn't publish them. Sometimes I wouldn't even watch them again, but I would leave them there a few days saved in my phone and then delete them.

It was an almost daily exercise, like a gym for my voice and my presence.  

This phase was most important: it allowed me to experiment without the burden of judgment. To train myself to overcome that performance anxiety and embarrassment.  

The face, the voice, the look: the time has come.

One evening during a particularly difficult and intense period at work, I came home exhausted. I absolutely had to do something to turn the day around, to regain energy and make it positive and victorious. So I decided to go for a cold swim in the river, as I have been doing since August about once a week now (I tell about it in this blog post). 

As I walked to the river, and was absorbed in my thoughts, I decided to combine that energizing moment with my daily video practice...and I recorded my thoughts. I recorded them even as I was soaking in the water, and even as I was returning home regenerated and stronger than ever. And it is precisely that strength, which made me decide to publish those videos. 

I had talked about my vulnerability and insecurity in front of everyone while doing something extremely strong (well, taking a cold bath in the river is not really that common!!!)... and the feedback was extremely positive. 

It's done now! If I have done it once, I can do it other times. 

Has something happened? Has the world fallen? No. Absolutely not. On the contrary: people appreciated it, the messages are easier to convey, so there is no reason to lock yourself in your shyness again! 

What I learned and what I would recommend to those who, like me, feel closed and too shy

If we want to change, improve in something or overcome one of our blocks or difficulties, we can do so by working on ourselves and identifying a personal growth path that suits us.

1. Identify what is blocking you, and decide if you want to overcome it. If you don't want to, don't even try! The willingness to overcome one's limitations is the key ingredient for success in the endeavor
2. try to figure out what elements are blocking you the most, and try to become familiar with what you are doing quite well instead. In my case, the biggest problem was publishing and thus exposing myself to everyone. So I went through the whole process, but without addressing the biggest problem.... at least until all the other parts were easy for me
3. training helps to improve and get used to it: as in sports or music, repeating the same actions until they come naturally helps to be able to focus on one problem at a time
4. weigh the risks and benefits: what's the worst-case scenario if I post a video while watching on camera? I get some negative comments... and then what? Something happens to my person? No. I am big and strong enough to accept criticism, and ignore rude comments.
5. Be kind to yourself: don't demand everything right away. Accept the journey, the small improvements, even when they don't seem to come. Insist but without the expectation of having everything right away. 

And you? 

Have you ever felt the block of not being able to show yourself, but at the same time wanting to express yourself and tell something, or communicate a message? Would you like to tell me about it in the comments or via email? 

If you want, you can start today to find the little ninja in you with a small gesture: try recording your own voice telling why you love what you do. Do it just for you. And maybe in some time, that file will be ready to come out of the drawer.