Fear of Going LIVE on Social Media? You're Missing Potential Sales
Updated: Jan 5, 2021
I get incredibly nervous when I have to speak in front of crowds. I can hear my voice crackle, feel my breath get shorter, and see my palms get sweaty. Then I think that everyone else can see my nervousness, which exaggerates all my symptoms.
But one time, someone asked me to give a presentation on branding. I chose to speak on the subject of "Discovering Your Calling as an Entrepreneur." Since it was the subject of my book on Amazon, I wasn't nervous. Instead, I was confident and bold. I actually walked out of that meeting with 3 new clients!
Why didn't I feel so nervous this time? I believe it's because, by this time in my entrepreneurial walk, I realized that the knowledge I carried was a gift from God, and I was sharing that insight with others.
Most of us entrepreneurs aren't born with a natural ability to speak in live audience situations. It doesn't matter if it's a TV segment, radio show, live speaking engagement, or a Zoom interview; we all experience stage fright. It's human nature to fear that we're going to mess up, so we protect ourselves from the potential pain, and we shy away from live presentations.
However, the key to overcoming our fears of failure in front of a live audience, is to understand that these platforms should make us feel honored to present the audience with the calling God has gifted us with.
The Bible says:
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:6-7 NIV)
In this verse, Paul is encouraging Timothy to expand on the spiritual gifts he has been given so that he continues to serve others. One must fully implement power by fanning a flame, making it stronger, brighter, and hotter.
God bestowed gifts that, through the spirit, replace any fears with love and service to humanity on behalf of God.
The fear of speaking is gone when it's replaced with true, authentic service to others.
Public speaking and Facebook Lives are not channels for you or others to receive adoration and affirmation from, but instead, teach others what God has shown you. Teaching through live events or streams is God's calling within you, being expressed to MANY at once!
As a Christian with the gift of helping others find THEIR purpose and calling, you participate in live events to live and serve the audience. Period. Your knowledge expresses through your voice, and your emotion makes up your unique, supernatural creative gift to vulnerably serve entrepreneurs by offering them guidance, empathy, perspective, truth, joy, and hope for the success of their business.
We Kingdom-minded branding agents have the gift to transform all entrepreneurs' hearts and lives that hear our message. Live interviews and events are about the audience - brothers and sisters that we've been called to serve.
Remember: there's an enemy that doesn't want you sharing your calling with others because it would fan the flame, expand gifting, and draw others closer to God. The enemy wants us to fear speaking, so we cower away from opportunities to serve a bigger audience.
However, God-first entrepreneurship was never about you as the guide, but instead the audience as the hero in need of a plan….a plan we've been allowed to share with them.
The power that God's gift gave us to help others find their identity, makes the audience our focus. We're not doing all these live events to find our identity in the applause, comments, or even the sales resulting from it. When we make this distinction clear, the stage becomes a place of love instead of fear.
There is no more risk of failure when we're sharing our calling with others. When we're focused on serving others, the fear of failure is gone.
Reflection Questions
Any tips you can share on how you overcome fear when participating in live events?
Think about a time in business where you have seen the power of prayer supernaturally bring peace into a difficult or new situation. How will you incorporate prayer before live events to receive that same power to cast your fear?
To read more articles about sales, click here.