MBA2705 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Get The Confidence To Create & Share Content?

Putting your work out there can feel intimidating especially when doubt creeps in. If you’ve ever hesitated to hit publish, you’re not alone. This week’s question comes from Sherry, who asks how to build the confidence to create and share content consistently. Omar offers a fresh take on what confidence really is, and how to earn it through action. You’ll hear how to lower the stakes, shift your mindset, and build habits that help you move past fear and into momentum. Wondering how to stop second-guessing and start sharing? Hit play at the top of the page and learn how to build the confidence to create content that truly connects. To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q. Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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  Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block Incorporated brand. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app/legal/podcast. Welcome to Q&A Wednesday, where I answer a real question about starting, growing, and scaling your business. Today's question comes from Sheri, and Sheri asks, "How do I get the confidence to create and share content?" Sheri, you're not alone. Every creator, every business owner, every entrepreneur, including myself, has felt that fear of hitting publish, of putting that video out there, of posting that content. So today, let's take some time to break down where this fear comes from in the first place,

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  and how to beat it and have what I call unstoppable confidence. And when I say unstoppable, it's not some sort of jargon word. I'm talking about creating confidence that will allow you to not be stopped from publishing, because you need to put that content out there to build your business and brand. So I'm going to show you how to build that unstoppable confidence, so you can create and share your work.

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  Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.

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  Real quick, if these episodes help you in any way, hit the follow button on this podcast app. It helps us to keep bringing you practical business insights three times a week for free. Thanks. Let's start with the truth that most people want to hear. Confidence doesn't come before action. It comes after it. You don't wake up one morning magically feeling confident. Confidence is built by doing, not by thinking. Think about anything that you're even semi-confident about. You're confident because you've done it over and over again. Think about learning how to drive. You were nervous the first few times behind the wheel, but after a few hundred times, you built confidence. Your confidence became automatic. You can now drive and listen to

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  music, and talk to somebody, and even eat some fries or drink a coffee. The point here is that that didn't just manifest itself from one day to the next. You built that confidence of driving because you drove so much. And creating content works the same way. You don't get confident so you can post, you post so you can get confident. And that's great news, because it means you don't have to wait to feel ready. You can just get started. And the catch-22 here is that the further along you push this, the more you delay this, the longer it will take for you to feel confident, right? Because you're only going to start feeling confident when you start doing

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  it. So just start doing it. Let's dig deep and really answer the question, why are we afraid to post this content, create this content, put it out there in the world? The biggest reason, in my opinion, is not about time or skill, it's about the fear of judgment. We ask questions like, what will people think? What if I sound stupid? What if no one likes it, or watches it, or hits that like button, whatever it might be? The truth is, is that no one's paying as much attention as you think, because you're just starting out. Everyone's too busy. Thinking about themselves and what's in it for them. So that's really something you need to focus on. How you can add the most value and make it beneficial to other people. They're not really thinking about you and how confident you look.

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  And honestly, the few people who will judge harshly, they don't pay your bills, right? You don't need them anyway. Every successful creator that I know and admire and that you admire with massive followings, they started with zero confidence and zero audience and zero followers and zero emailless subscribers and zero dollars. The only difference is they hit publish anyway when they weren't confident. Let me share a little honest story. One time I was driving in my car and for some reason my media player, my radio, looped the playlist and played the first episode of this podcast, $100 MBA Show that published on, I believe, August 11th of 2014. This is over 11 years ago. And I couldn't find the pause button fast enough.

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  It was so painful for me to listen to. I was, you know, scrambling to just stop this, right? And honest truth is to say, I can't listen to the first 100 episodes of this podcast because it's cringe worthy for me, right? But I'm glad I did it because those reps allowed me to get better and better. And if I don't have cringe worthy work, it really means I started too late. It also means if I don't have cringe worthy work, that I wasn't progressing. I wasn't getting better. So it's good to know that in comparison to what I believe I'm creating now, it's cringe worthy. So it's okay. You gotta get started before you're ready. It's okay. And the beauty of this whole situation is that your audience is small in the beginning. So not a lot of people are listening, not a lot of people are watching, not a lot of people are reading your posts.

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  So therefore the embarrassment or, you know, the uncomfortable feelings is not at a large magnitude. With all the reps you're going to put in, in the days and years to come, and as you start building your audience, you start to grow as your audience grows and that way your content gets better and better. Be honest, as a business owner, how much of your day is actual work? And how much is it just getting ready to do the work? Answering emails, tweaking presentations, hunting for numbers? That stuff adds up fast, which is why upgrading to the premium tier of Google Workspace with Gemini is a game changer. One subscription gets you Google's AI right into all your apps like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Meet, so it can handle all the heavy lifting across your day.

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  The fastest way to gain confidence is to shift your focus when you're creating the content about the audience and not yourself. When you're just thinking about yourself, you're really saying, "I'm the most important thing here. What will people think about me?" You're making the content about you. It's not about you. When you think, "How can I help somebody today? How can I make their life a little bit better?" You make it about them. And confidence comes when you're in service. When you're really trying to serve your audience. So instead of thinking, is this perfect? Ask yourself, will this help someone take one step forward? One step closer to their goal. What I've found is incredibly helpful when I'm creating content is I ask myself, would I have found what I'm about to share to be helpful when I was getting started?

• 8:58Speaker 01

  I put myself in the shoes of my audience member, of my listener, of my viewer. That's the bar. That is where you want to be. When your intent is to serve, you stop performing and you start connecting with people. One of my favorite hacks when it comes to video content is try to shoot videos as if you're having a FaceTime conversation with somebody. If I was giving advice to somebody, a friend of mine, a family member, how would I speak to them? And this is what I would do, right? I would present in a personal way, being myself, and give examples that would be relatable to them. When I started the 100 Hour Show, like I mentioned, I was nervous too. But I told myself, if this episode helps one person, it's worth it.

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  So I hit record, then another day I hit record, another day I hit record, and fast forward, hundreds of millions of downloads later, literally 300 million downloads later. The truth is that I feel a little bit nervous before I hit record, even till today, but that means I care. That means that I want it to be great. And that's all right. I have more confidence for sure because I've done it so often and I've done it for so long. But I also lean on the fact that it's okay to be a little bit nervous. It's okay to be on your toes and want to deliver. So I want to give you a quick system to build confidence quickly. It's a practical system you can use right now, like this week, to build confidence fast. Step one is to lower the stakes. You're not delivering a TED Talk here, right?

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  You're recording a 30-second video, for example, or a short post or tweet. Keep it small and doable. Just put yourself out there. Step two, set a schedule. Consistency builds confidence. Pick a certain day of the week or a few days a week to create and publish content. You could batch it so you're creating content for the whole week in one or two days. And make it non-negotiable, like a debt you have to pay. And actually put it in your calendar so you're reminded. Number three, use the 10 rep rule. Promise yourself you won't judge your content, like watch it, look at it, review it, until you created 10 pieces of that content. The first 10 are just practice, and practice has to be real practice where you create

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  and you put it out in the world, you share it with the world. No one critiques their first 10 workouts, right, at the gym. Why are we doing this with our content? Don't worry about it, just put it out there. Success is publishing. Step four, build a feedback loop. Ask your audience one question, was this helpful? That's all you really need. Ask them at the end of your video or in your post, was this post helpful? If so, how so? So you can learn what to double down on and what to do better. And of course, what resonates with your audience? And step five, celebrate your effort, not the outcome. You can't control the views, you can't control the likes, but you can control consistency. Reward yourself for publishing, for being out there, for sticking to your publishing

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  schedule and not the amount of views or likes you get, because you can't control that, especially at the start. Do this program I just shared with you for 30 days, and you won't need to find confidence, you will have earned it over those 30 days. So Sheri and everybody who's listening, how do you get confident to create and share content? You don't wait for it, you build it yourself, okay? Confidence is the reward for taking action and not the prerequisite. You want to serve, don't perform, okay? Don't try to, you know, tap dance for people here. What you're trying to do here is really connect with people like a FaceTime call. You want to post, you don't want perfection here, you just want to share with the world. And remember, if you're nervous, that means you care. It's okay.

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  If you show up with that intent to help, you really can't lose. Thanks for the awesome question, Sheri. If you have a question you want to ask here on Q&A Wednesday, make sure you ask it by just submitting it over at 100mba.net/queue and we'll answer it right here on the show. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Confidence is one of those things that builds over time. You can't rush it, you have to be patient and understand that you're never going to be 100% confident, okay? You're just going to be more confident than yesterday. So be patient with yourself and make sure that you do so you can build that confidence.

• 13:07Speaker 01

  If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow, and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically, and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free, and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.

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