Like so many of us, I don’t love being on camera.
And yet it helps create trust and it’s algorithm friendly - generally a video will be pushed to more people.
Being on camera makes it more likely I will get the things I want, such as making WOW Studio Live a successful TikTok agency or Bloody Bens Bloody Mary Mix being in thousands of pubs (including Young’s!) or building Best Before or just generally doing more fun projects and meeting more fun people along the way.
So, I started doing little videos each week to preview my latest Sunday Service Substack posts.
The first one I was almost too shy to speak and there were quite a few takes.
But I realised I find it hard to monologue to camera.
That got me thinking, how could I do more on camera?
I realised I’m better in a conversation.
So how could I find a solution, with the least friction, that would allow me to practise.
And then it occurred to me.
Claude could help.
It could ask me questions about my latest Substack, to get under the skin of whatever I was writing and ask questions that hopefully some readers were pondering or to give the post a bit more depth.
The sort of thing I just can’t seem to access on a monologue to camera.
So I started “Cringe On Camera”.
It felt pretty self indulgent.
Answer AI generated questions about your own post.
But the cringe subsided, I actually started to look forward to doing them, and having done 4 of them, I’ve now decided to change the name to “Claude Asks”.
This is episode one, and it’s asking about my last Sunday Service Substack, this one:
Ironically, for this debut Claude Asks, I probably felt more self-conscious than normal.
Why?
Well I’m on holiday, so it kind of feels ‘a bit naughty’.
But I couldn’t sleep, the rest of the family are asleep and the hotel breakfast hadn’t started, so I thought, ah well, I may as well jump on and do this (it was slightly gnawing away at me that I hadn’t done one for last week’s Sunday Service).
I’m all bleary eyed and in need of coffee!
I’m also conscious of talking too loudly as I’m sat outside on the apartment deck and everyone around me also seems to be asleep.
So the cringe factors are raging but part of this series is to prove to myself that I can get more comfortable with being uncomfortable on camera - so this felt a good test of that.
Also, this week’s Claude questions are, I would say, a bit-off and probably the lack of caffeine and sleep combo is slowing down my cognitive responses!
Anyway, have a listen, let me know if any of it resonates.
And please do take this as inspiration for you to show-up on camera. If I can do it, I’m sure you can… and from there, who knows what will happen next.
I’m back from holiday next week (even though, as a freelancer, I’ve had to do some work everyday but I won’t be alone in that) and I suspect I’ll be straight back onto Sunday Service… there will likely also be episode two of BASKET CASES, if you missed it, you can watch the first ep here:
