Using Video to Connect with Your Audience

Damianne President: [03:45] I often hear of storytelling in relation to marketing; it comes out a lot in terms of personal branding and marketing. Does it matter in our day to day lives as well? Do you think.

Rachel Tapscott: [03:56] I think, yes, it definitely does. If we use the big idea of telling a story, it also comes out as being really authentic with people and being really personable and opening up to people in our every day interactions as well. For example, you know, we go to the shops and we say, Oh, hi, you know, how’s the weather, and a lot of the conversations we have a really surface level, but when we start to dive a little bit deeper and ask more personal questions or share just more slightly personal stories about our day, I think storytelling becomes the way that we can really relate to people a lot more in our day to day interactions as well. And also with more of our personal relationships, our family, our spouse, our friends, I think really diving into telling more of a, of like a personal story, deeper story, just helps you relate with everyone around you than what it is so surface level.

 When we go into talking about the promotional and the business side of things, then telling a story and being authentic with your audience is how you can take the personal relationship you have with the important people in your life and share that with your audience.

Does that answer your question?

Damianne President: [05:20] Yes, I think so. Often people talk about professional life versus personal life, but I tend to think of it as being one life and that really things blend from one place to the other. It’s true that I might be a bit more assertive in one place than in somewhere else, but I’m still essentially the same person or at least I would like to be the same person everywhere I show up. I don’t want to be kind of known as the person that everybody avoids in one space, even though my family might like me. To me, that’s not living in a congruence. So yeah, it definitely makes sense to me.

When you’re working with someone, how would you describe your process? Do you set an intention or do you always have an intention when you’re working with somebody and what’s your process like?

Rachel Tapscott: [06:05] Yeah, definitely. I think the intention is almost always the same now and it’s helping that person to kind of come out of their shell and share what they really want to share with their audience and to help them feel comfortable and confident to do that. And that can be from looking at a promotional video perspective or now, especially with the world of COVID and lots of businesses having to move online, even doing that with a course creation type situation where that person is then taking what they would teach people in person, putting it on video to put on a line, but still letting their personality come across so they can connect with people through a screen rather than in-person. So I guess looking at the whole process, working with someone I’d start with asking them what their intention is for the project. And then working with them.

This is a bit of a process in the beginning, initially talking to them leading into the day that we actually do the filming and then seeing what might be holding them back, what they’re nervous about or unsure about, and working with them individually to be able to get rid of those limiting beliefs, whatever they are, and feel comfortable talking on camera.

A lot of the time, it’s just getting them to talk to me first as the person in the room and looking at talking to camera and not as you’re talking to the whole world and it’s going to be, you know, out there and there’s dozens of people, but you’re only ever really talking to one person like I’m talking to you now. Through a screen, we’re having a conversation.

The way that makes it a lot easier for people to talk on camera is to allow them to picture they’re talking to one person and if that means they’re literally just talking to me, I’m sitting behind the camera, but they’re just having a conversation. So it’s just taking it back down to make it really simple and making it fun and not about I have to be perfect, and, you know, I have to look a certain way. It’s helping them to deliver what they want to deliver in a way that feels comfortable to them for one person. So in a nutshell, that’s what it looks like.

Damianne President: [08:25] Yeah, that one person idea really resonates. My sister works in social media and the healing space. I’ve been working with her in terms of the podcast recently. And so one of the things she had me do was create a persona of who is the person I’m talking to when I’m creating the podcast. I’ve heard about how important this is before when you’re creating something, when you’re making a video, when you’re speaking in front of an audience or whatever it may be, and so I understood it conceptually, but when we actually did the exercise of putting it down on paper, I was like, Oh, when I think about it this way, it really does change what I say.

And so it really started to make sense to me how important that idea of that one person you’re speaking to really helps. And I guess some people might think, Oh, but then aren’t I missing a lot of other people, but I don’t think so. That’s kind of the thought process I’ve had to go through myself in terms of, if you don’t even know who you’re talking to, then you miss a hundred percent of people, whereas at least if you focus on one, then you know, you’re making that connection with at least one other person, which is enough, I think.

Rachel Tapscott: [09:43] Yeah, I think that is so important. You’ve really like got the nail on the head there, where if you try to talk to the whole world, it’s probably not going to resonate with many people because it’s too broad and too vague. But when you really narrow down and identify who is it that you want to get your message across to, it’s going to connect with that person. And there’ll be heaps of these one persons, but it’ll connect with the right people and it’ll actually be meaningful to them. Whereas if you’re trying to connect with the whole world, It could fall a bit flat.

 If you’re a business owner, it’ll help the right clients and customers come to you and the wrong ones, they won’t feel the energy and they won’t feel that connection so they weren’t come, but you will be attracting the right people, which at the end of the day just is a win-win-win for everyone. 

Damianne President: [10:35] I guess it’s also about being respectful to yourself in some ways, because when I speak to one person, I’m also being myself, like I’m being who I want to be in that moment. Not who I think everybody. Wants me to be. So it’s recognizing what the person you were talking to needs, but also being authentic to that.

You talked earlier about limiting beliefs. What are the most common limiting beliefs you encounter or what are the ones that you struggle with yourself?

Rachel Tapscott: [11:08] Yeah. Yeah. So quite often when I first talked to someone about creating a video for their business, they say, look, I want to create a video but I have nothing to say about my business. I go, okay, cool, I don’t know about your business so just tell me a bit about what you do. Then they can talk to me for 10 minutes without even taking a breath about all the stuff they do and what they love doing and who they’re helping, what their product is, whatever that may be. But it’s the idea of it’s not going to be perfect is what is holding people back. So they can easily talk to me about what their business is about. They talk to it with their clients all day, every day, but the idea of having to put it down on video and it not coming out perfectly the way they want it to. 

That perfectionism is probably one of the main limiting beliefs that I see and also have experienced as well. When I first put myself in front of the camera, cause I would, you know, be helping people with this all the time, but I’d never really done it myself. So I sat in the chair with the camera on me. Okay, okay, I really understand how my clients feel now. You have that kind of daunting feeling. And the first video that I did, ironically, it was about having confidence on camera and it took me about 45 minutes to film five minutes worth of usable content because you get in that zone, you kind of psych yourself out, but just practicing that, and just putting yourself in that position, and I had a really good friend there in the room helping me as well. She talked me into doing this video in the first place. Having someone there to give you feedback and just practicing it, it can really help you to move past that.

 Also seeing yourself on video and seeing the way that you talk and especially the way that you talk about something that you really care about, that can help you push past that perfectionism and realize that you do have something to say, and it is going to help someone. So a lot of the time, it’s really scary just to take that step and put yourself on video. But it is also a really therapeutic and transformative exercise.

 The other thing, which is probably the second biggest fear of the camera thing is not liking what we look like, which I think every single person on the planet can relate to that or not liking the sound of our voice or not thinking that our audience will, you know, accept what we sound like and what we look like, and having that fear of judgment around that as well. And we can do things with the camera and the lighting to obviously help that and make us look really good. The most important thing to remember is that what you have to say is so much more important than what you look like and what you sound like. And people are really going to resonate with your message if you care about it and you really feel compelled to get it out there.

The judgment that we have, I think a lot of the time, is just us judging ourselves when our audience and the people who need to hear what we have to say will not have those same thoughts that we have about ourselves.

So those are the two biggest ones. Just getting on camera, I’m a really big advocate now of just getting on camera and filming yourself to watch yourself and help and move past that judgment and perfectionism.

Damianne President: [14:43] For me, I have an audio podcast because I like the idea of audio. It still helps me to get my message out, but it’s a bit of a barrier still. One thing that I’ve been learning is that video allows a connection in a different way that just audio doesn’t. So audio might have more portability, but video has the benefits of connections as well.

Rachel Tapscott: [15:08] Yeah. Yeah. And as well with video, if we jump in and look at a bit of neuroscience, I think about 90% of communication is non-verbal. So when people can see our body language and our facial features and the way that we present ourselves while we’re talking, it can give them a really clear idea if we are someone that they want to work with, or if they don’t feel that connection. And if they don’t, again, like we said before, that’s okay. Because we’re going to attract the people that are right to work with us, that do resonate with the way that we are and our personality, if they can see us as a full package.

Damianne President: [15:52] It’s so interesting when you bring that up, too, because I was a teacher for many years and I worked internationally. And so when I had to do interviews, they were on video calls often. And so, even if we’re not choosing to create videos to put on social media or to advertise our businesses or whatever, we still have instances now, even with zoom where we do find ourselves on video. That can still be daunting for a lot of people in terms of do I turn on my video, do I look okay and all of that kind of thing. So it’s even more applicable now in our Zoom era.

Rachel Tapscott: [16:30] Absolutely. Yes.

Damianne President: [16:34] As you know, the topic of this podcast for this season is self acceptance. How do you see self acceptance being a factor in people’s use of the camera and video.

Rachel Tapscott: [16:47] Yeah, I think the things that we’re concerned about, people maybe judging us on video are things that we haven’t accepted in ourselves. I think using video as a medium can really help us with self-acceptance at the same time. So for example, back to that first video that I made and I was terrified doing it. I’m sitting there in a room with my good friend, but I’m still thinking about the rest of the world who’s going to see this video, and is what I’m saying actually going to make sense, is it actually going to help someone? Why would anyone even care? All these things start popping up. But eventually we got through the 45 minute long filming session and I took it away to edit it.

And I procrastinated on that for a long time, again. Is it even worth doing and you get all these thoughts in your head. And then when I actually released the video, the amount of positive feedback that I got just for putting a video out, it wasn’t even necessarily about the content, but just doing that because most people are too afraid to do that themselves.

So I think we will look at other people putting video out and rather than, you know, tearing them down, it’s like, wow, you’re actually putting yourself out there and how much confidence must this person have to do that. And I was really, I wouldn’t say surprised, but it was really warm to get that kind of feedback from people about actually putting a video out.

So then the next ones that I make, I can look at refining that, but not from a judgment point of view, from a, okay, how can I make this better so that I can grow and develop and make better videos for the people who are watching them, which are going to be my clients and the people that I want to help with my business.

But always looking at the things that bother us, that we don’t like and asking why, like not judging it going, Oh, my voice is terrible, which is something that I wasn’t very happy with at the start, but why does that bother me so much? And look at that from a constructive point of view, not tearing ourselves down about it, and looking at it from a self-love point of view too. Okay, what can I do differently next time to help myself grow? Maybe I wasn’t happy with this time, so that’s okay. Let’s look at it and move on and we’ll try and do better next time. So using it as feedback for yourself as well.

 When you vocalize the things that are in your mind when you’re talking about your business and things that you care about, or when you’re trying to teach people something, I think actually speaking it out loud and using video to do that helps you to figure out what your purpose is, what your direction is. And as an exercise in itself, whether you’re aware of it at the time, it can really help you move into more self-acceptance just by doing it over and over again.

Damianne President: [19:52] As you were speaking, the word that was coming up for me was curiosity, because I think curiosity is much more neutral than judgment, for example. So if we’re curious, we’re looking to see what can we learn from this, what’s happening here, what do we notice, and all of those kinds of things, which does allow for improvements if we wish, but it also allows us to notice the things that went well as well.

 That really ties in to the idea of Changes BIG and small because I actually thought about calling it The Curiosity Closet at some point when I was brainstorming names. To me, the whole thing is that often we won’t start something because we expect that perfection, or we don’t really know how to get to the level we want to be at yet.

But I really think that as we start doing this, as we take action, then we begin to be open to more possibilities. We actually start learning and the path becomes clearer for us. So I really like what you said about make that video and then learn from it and make another video because one thing we know for sure is that you’re not getting any better if you’re not making videos. 

Yeah. 

Rachel Tapscott: [21:04] Absolutely. Yeah. So I think the best time to start anything is before you’re ready because you can spend years if you’re just waiting for the time to be right and waiting to have all the answers, when you can’t have all the answers until you’ve actually tried it and actually experienced doing it.

The first video, even if it’s terrible, no one actually has to see it, but you’ve just done it for yourself so you can see what that looks like. And what you said as well about you’re not going to get any better if you’re not doing it, it’s just like if you’re working out in a gym and you know, you’re working on building your muscles, it’s going to be really hard for the first few weeks. And then you get into a flow and then you notice your muscles are growing, you can lift heavier weights and what you were doing for your main workout before becomes so easy that’s what you’re warming up on. And so you find after you’ve done a number of different videos or different podcasts or whatever it is that you want to create, the more that you do it, the easier it’s going to be, you’ll be able to refine your process. And then one day you’ll come and you’ll sit down in front of the camera and you’ll make video and you will realize how easy it’s become and how natural it’s become for you to just talk about what you’re called to talk about.

Damianne President: [22:27] The first time I actually was on a video was on a news story because my step-mother and I had a non-profit. And I remember watching that video and my eyes were shifting all over the place. I was like, what am I doing with my eyes? And I really wished that I had done a video before that, just to kind of notice. It’s the same as when you record yourself the first time speaking and you start to notice your little ticks, you start noticing, Oh, I say um a whole lot, oh. I said it like a whole lot, and those types of things. 

I think that’s part of self acceptance too, because if you don’t pause and notice what’s really going on with yourself, the way you speak, the way you present yourself, the actions you make with your eyes, for example, then you have no opportunity to be able to change something because you don’t even know what’s present either because you’re blind to it, willfully or accidentally.

I guess I’m going to have to start doing some more videos.

Rachel Tapscott: [23:32] Yes, that’s excellent.

Damianne President: [23:37] If someone has some belief about themselves that is standing in their way of them getting on video, what might they do besides creating that first video? Is there any process they could go through mentally first to help them overcome that barrier?

Rachel Tapscott: [23:52] Yeah. So there are a couple of things that you can do. The first one is identify why you want to make that video. Are you sharing something with someone that is really going to change their life? A lot of the time, and this is coming from looking at business owners, their service or their product is a really, really strong why for them and just really tuning into that driving force and just ask yourself if I don’t make this video, if I don’t get that message out there and the person that needs to hear it doesn’t hear it, their life is going to stay the same. So what am I doing for someone else by getting that video out there and sharing what I have to say? How could that change someone’s life?

So that’s the first thing. What is your why? And it has to be really, really strong. If you are really anxious and really terrified of the camera, then you have to have a really strong why to help you drive through and do that.

The next thing is you can watch other people that you really admire talking on video or doing presentations and look at what it is about them that you really admire. So if you’re worried about the way that you look and you might say I’m a lot and you don’t really like that about yourself or whatever it is really, watch people that you do think are really great speakers and write down what it is that attracts you to watching them. 

You don’t have to even use the camera in the first place, but write out your presentation or your message. It only really needs to be short, like a minute long and just practice saying that out loud to yourself at home by yourself. No one needs to be there and just practice talking out loud. Because I think a lot of the time, and especially if we’re working at home by ourselves now, we might not even talk to people that much and hear our own voice that often. So it is quite foreign to start with, if you’re not used to talking and presenting. So write out a bit of a script, if you want to and just practice saying that out loud. And if you say it in front of the mirror, you can work on incorporating those attributes that you’ve written down that you like about watching other people speak.

The third thing is just to practice. And again, no one has to see this; you just have to do it and just see what it feels like and what is bothering you about it. If you do feel really nervous when you’re sitting there with the camera in your face by yourself, just write down what is going on there, what is making you feel so uncomfortable and see what comes out. It might surprise you what is actually holding you back from wanting to be on camera, but once you identify what that is, that’s when you can start to move past it.

 My good friend helped me with my first video and that was really helpful just to have someone else in the room to bounce my energy off. This is different for different people, but I find my energy is a lot higher when I am in a room of people. And when I do sit here at my desk and film videos for myself, for YouTube, I have to really kind of summon the energy out of nowhere because there is no one to bounce off so you need to kind of visualize that person that you’re talking to. But when you do it with someone, especially when you’re just starting out and they can give you feedback, so definitely make sure it’s someone that you trust and will be supportive and what you’re doing. That can help you as well feel more confident in yourself and get another person’s feedback on what it is you’re doing and if your messaging is making sense and you can work with them to help refine that as well. 

So those are the three things that you can go through yourself. So what is your why is the biggest long, and then watching other people that you love watching, it could be speakers or people who might work and your company, or people on YouTube, or even podcasters. Identify what it is that you really admire with them. And then practicing. Practicing is definitely a major one that is going to help us get through those concerns and insecurities and help you to be able to speak better and feel more confident on camera.

Damianne President: [28:27] I was listening to a talk recently and the presenter said how do you build certainty? By practice. And that really made sense to me when he said that. I used to teach a unit in grade nine on presentation skills and so I would have the students do two presentations. One was a PechaKucha, which is a type of presentation where automatically the slides change after 20 seconds so you have to be really tight with your presentation. And the second style was a TEDx, TED style presentation. One of the activities they had to do was watch TED presentations only because I know that there was a lot of practice and a lot of preparation that goes into TED presentations. So they would have to watch those and create a list of the criteria that they thought made the presentations effective and then present it themselves.

And it was an amazing activity because some of the students who would not engage in all the things just went up there and talked and were so captivating. They had that storytelling gift. Right now so many people are thinking what activities can I try because so many things are closed to so many of us that it really seems to me that storytelling and getting on video could be an interesting opportunity for people to explore and discover something that they didn’t even know was available to them or that they might even enjoy.

Rachel Tapscott: [30:02] Yeah, exactly. I think there’s probably been a massive amount of new YouTube channels as well just coming on and it could be, you know, do you love gardening, do you love cooking, like whatever it may be. I think if you love it, like he said about the kids that would just get off and be really captivating because they’re talking about something that they really enjoy. A lot of the presentations that we have to give over our lifetime are mandatory. And even if we do enjoy our jobs, they’re not necessarily something that we’re really passionate about speaking about. So we have an idea of giving presentations as a task that is, you know, it’s difficult and it’s confronting and there’s all these negative things around having to talk in front of a group of people, but when you take it back to something that you love, you’re passionate about, you can, you know, walk up to someone and they could talk to you all day about something that they love. So bring it back to the why again, as well, I think is really, really important.

Damianne President: [31:11] I was thinking about this yesterday and I was thinking that there is a movement about embodiment where you are in your body. Then I was like, I wonder, what is it called when you’re in a place? Is it emplacement? I think so often when we travel, at least when I travel, I’m not in the photos I take, I’m not in the videos I take, I take them off the nature of the landscape and I decline offers from friends to be in videos quite often. And so I was thinking, what is that all about? Where does that come from? It occurred to me that part of it, part about being in judgment about myself prevents me from truly being in the moment and experiencing a place because I set up those barriers or this controls in that moment. No, I can’t be in the video. It’s so consuming when I could really just be enjoying the moment of having fun and being playful as we made a video in our travels. So I was like, wow, that may be something that I’m losing with my barrier to being on camera.

 Rachel Tapscott: [32:22] Yeah. Yeah. That’s a really, really good point. That’s just in our every day life now as well, because you go anywhere and instead of enjoying the moment, a lot of times we’re taking photos and videos. But like you said, instead of just enjoying the experience because those barriers are there, they’re so strong, it’s kind of like separating us from that moment in a way. 

What I’d say is, again, ask yourself why. What exactly is it that’s coming up when you’re experiencing those thoughts in our everyday life. Break it down to what it really is about and start small. If you don’t want to jump on video and talk about your life story to start with, you can do it in a smaller way like that, which is taking photos and videos with your friends. I think that is another way just to start getting used to that as well in your life.

Damianne President: [33:16] Earlier, you gave us a process that we could go through so that we can build some confidence for us to make that video. If somebody has a few minutes right now, one minute, five minutes, 10 minutes. I don’t know, a whole week and they’re interested in taking that first step, do you have an invitation or a challenge of what can they do starting today, because we really like to focus on action…

Rachel Tapscott: [33:42] yeah.

Damianne President: [33:43] to be able to be more comfortable with video or to get that first video out there for themselves or for others.

Rachel Tapscott: [33:49] I would say, do the, I’d call it the elevator pitch, video exercise. Something that we do when we first record a video, say that the script goes, hi, my name is Rachel and I run That Camera Girl. I do this… It’s a few sentences and the first thing we do is say our name and a lot of people will skim over their name like it’s not very important. 

So the very first part of the exercise is say your name like you mean it with a full stop on the end. So instead of going, hi, my name is Rachel and I run That Camera Girl and I help business owners feel more confident on camera and you sound really nervous, not sure of yourself. Become sure of your name and what you do. And this can be like a thirty second video that you record. And once you get used to doing this, you can make an actual video with that information to put on your website or on your socials as an introduction video to you, which is the first video that I work with with a lot of my clients.

So it’s a really quick rush through elevator pitch type situation. You work on that 30 seconds and go, hi, my name is Rachel Tapscott, and I run That Camera Girl. I help business owners with this and everything that you say, you sound really sure of, but it helps you to refine what your message is as well for yourself. And then super short, you probably already have a bio written, so you can just read out your own bio, but practice saying it like you really mean it and you really are excited about what you’re doing and then record that in a thirty second video.

 Damianne President: [35:36] I took a course from Seth Godin, I’ve taken several classes from Seth

Rachel Tapscott: [35:41] Yeah.

Damianne President: [35:42] but in one of the courses, he talked about, speak much more slowly than you think you need to be speaking. And so the first exercise we do is to record ourselves speaking really slowly and then record ourselves at our regular pace. And then listen to both of them and realize how sometimes when we speak at our regular pace or what we think is our regular pace on camera, it tends to be really quick and there’s no breath and you lose your energy or you lose your voice in the process. And I found that to be a very helpful exercise.

I listened to audio quite fast and I know that I can speak quite fast because people have told me that in the past, but then listening to myself, I realized, Oh, you sound really nervous when you’re speaking quickly. You can hear that jittery noise in undertone. And I think really slowing it down actually is a way of combating your own nerves in some way.

Rachel Tapscott: [36:51] Yeah, definitely. When I work with clients as well, and I know I definitely did this myself when I first started making videos, we’ll sit down and if it’s an interview format and I’m ask them about their business, the first answer or two might be really fast and rushed because you just want to get it over as quickly as possible because you feel uncomfortable and you feel nervous, but once you settle into it, and this is going to just take a few minutes or a few questions and you really start to calm your nerves down, the answers come out a lot slower, a lot more controlled. As well, having someone there to give you feedback on if you are speaking too fast and recording yourself and watching it back, and it might feel unnatural, but if you try and focus on even halfing the speed that you speak to start with and just seeing how that sounds afterwards. 

It will feel ridiculously slow when you’re actually saying the words but when you do speak slower, especially on video, your audience can also take in what you’re saying a lot easier as well. They have time to keep up. And some people do listen to audio really fast, but a lot of the time, if it’s really important information you want to sink in, having a slow pace will actually help people to take it in and absorb it. So another good practice is what you just said with recording yourself, normal talking speed, and then half the speed and recorded again. And just have a look at the difference.

Damianne President: [38:25] It’s interesting because I think that when you speak slower as well, and you give yourself time and space, then you’re less likely to say those ums and those kinds of ticks, because the reason this happens is because you’re kind of rushing through and thinking and speaking at a different pace. So slowing down can actually relieve some of that stress.

Okay. So since you gave people a challenge, I’m making my first video. What do I need?

Rachel Tapscott: [38:58] You can record this video with your phone, if you don’t have any kind of equipment. You can do it in a selfie type style. You can just record it with your phone. If you want to write a script, get a pen and paper, write it out, practice it a few times. You can read it the first time you do it and just find a space that’s pretty quiet and your house. Hold your phone up and record your video.

 If you want to get more advanced than that to record an actual one, you can create quite a good quality video, like phone cameras are amazing these days, I’d grab a tripod for your phone, which you can get them for as little as $20 and set the tripod up with the phone on it so you’re not holding it, it’s not shaking around. You can create your first pretty good quality video in a quiet room with the phone on a tripod.

Damianne President: [39:46] The most recent video that I made, where I had a script and everything, it was actually for the podcast, I must have done 25 takes or something because every time I messed up, I would start again. At some point I had to decide what did good enough look like and decide, okay, this is not perfect, but maybe perfection doesn’t need to be the standard.

What do you say to the whole idea of people who might feel like, okay, it’s never good enough. How do we find good enough?

Rachel Tapscott: [40:17] I think good enough is are you getting your message across? If the words aren’t quite right, or if you forgot something, if you had ums in there, most people aren’t even going to notice those things. But as long as you feel like what you’re trying to say, if the message comes across, then that that is good enough.

 The beauty of video as well, even if you’re using your phone, you can get editing apps. So if you really just want to tweak it a bit and you don’t want to start again and do the whole thing, you can still do it in stages. And then just cut out the bits, you know, in between you might look at your notes or whatever it is, or do the outro again, if that wasn’t quite right, but the rest of the video was good.

Overall, especially now that everyone is using video all the time, there’s a big shift, I think in being more real and not having super polished videos all the time, because then your human and people can sometimes relate to that a lot more if you do mess up and it’s not quite perfect. You’re also showing off who you are and your personality and people can get even more of an understanding of who you are if you do just let some of those things slide. Perfection is different for everyone, but I think if you’re always striving for it to be perfect, you’re never going to post a video.

So as long as you’ve got the message there, I think post that video, because that is at a level where it is good enough.

Damianne President: [41:54] If you want to participate in this challenge, then you can tag us with #cbasoncamera.

 You are so generous in sharing online in your blog, in your podcast, on YouTube. Your podcast is Mindset Mastery Podcast. Tell us about your podcast and why should listeners go check it out?

Rachel Tapscott: [42:17] I really love looking at why people tick, why people are the way they are. So the Mindset Mastery Podcast came from wanting to take knowledge that I could get from people about neuroscience and self-development and be able to share that with more people. A lot of the work I do with video, it also dives into the mindset side of things so the podcast is kind of a side project to build a community around mindset development and breaking down limiting beliefs and just striving for the next step and looking at that in a self-love and self-acceptance way as well. So if you want to dive into neuroscience, psychology, mindset, fitness, then have a listen to the Mindset Mastery Podcast.

Damianne President: [43:09] I recommend, especially episode 13 for listeners of Changes BIG and small, because it’s on releasing the people pleaser, which is a topic that has come up several times in this show as well.

Rachel Tapscott: [43:24] Definitely. Yeah.

Damianne President: [43:26] I’m going to end with five questions where if you could answer with one word or one sentence, that would be great.

Rachel Tapscott: [43:35] Okay.

Damianne President: [43:37] I think that self care, celebration, fun are all crucial parts of building a life with intention, on purpose. I hope that ending with these questions will help people realize that life is about many different things. And so there could be lots of different areas that we’re working on and that we’re interested in. 

So, number one, you have a high power meeting coming up. What do you do in the 12 hours before that?

Rachel Tapscott: [44:05] Hmm. That is a good question. Okay. One word.

Damianne President: [44:14] Or, one sentence.

Rachel Tapscott: [44:15] One sentence? Working on taking care of myself, practices of meditation for me, meditation, working out and reading.

Damianne President: [44:27] Do you have a phrase or a pep talk that you give yourself when you feel your energy lagging or when you need some motivation?

Rachel Tapscott: [44:36] If you can see my office wall, I have lots of phrases on sticky notes back there. The one that I always go back to is a quote from James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. And it is, “we do not rise to the level of a goals. We fall to the level of our systems.” This is a long answer, but the reason for that is when you’re lacking motivation, it’s normally in the day-to-day, but keeping the good systems in place to get to those goals is what it’s all about. So lacking motivation, it all comes back to this is part of the system, which is going to take you to your goal in the long run.

Damianne President: [45:14] So where do you live? And if you have guests, what’s the first thing that you show them or the first place you’d take them to.

Rachel Tapscott: [45:23] In Brisbane. Ooh. Okay. Oh, that’s a good question. I’m a coffee lover so I would take them to one of my favorite coffee shops in the city. Yeah, I would take him to one of my favorite food and coffee places.

Damianne President: [45:41] I like that.

Rachel Tapscott: [45:43] Okay. 

Damianne President: [45:46] And the last one, you are given the gift of time. You have a free day and you can do anything you want. So you have some time affluence. What are you doing on that day?

Rachel Tapscott: [45:58] I love fitness and working out so I will be doing some kind of physical activity hiking or sport, something like that.

Damianne President: [46:10] Will there be some coffee involved?

Rachel Tapscott: [46:11] Definitely coffee to start the day followed by one physical activity.

Damianne President: [46:18] Thank you for playing along, being such a great guest.

Rachel Tapscott: [46:22] Thank you so much. It was really good to talk to you. Damianne.

Damianne President: [46:26] Rachel’s links to her website and to her social media will be in the show notes. So please show her some love. 

Thank you so much once again. And have a nice rest of your day.

Rachel Tapscott: [46:38] Thank you so much. You too. It was really great to meet you and talk to you.

Damianne President: [46:41] Yeah, same here.