Aside from my core client work (see my home page at tommccallum.com which shows the type of people I love to work with), I also mentor a number of individuals and businesses.
Last week, in a mentoring session for two young people with a small local business, we agreed that the next step for them was to video themselves and share that on their channels. It is one thing for happy customers like me to say “use these guys, they are great”, and another to create a way for people to confirm that by seeing them and their personality shine through in short videos of themselves.
Now, they already do this all the time with Instagram stories that are both entertaining and widely viewed, but they mostly point them away at what they are doing as their service, not standing talking to camera. In these, the voice on the videos is fun and that of the partner in the business who holds the phone as the videographer, while the other partner does get captured on the videos a bit, but is not the main focus.
However, when we talked about filming videos of each of them speaking to camera, the partner who currently does the filming totally shied away from being on camera, which, to me and their business partner, seemed to make no sense as irrationally shy and restrained for someone with a BIG personality. What I actually said person was, stealing the words of my favourite movie critic, Mark Kermode: “other opinions are available, they are just wrong”, as I told them “just do it!”. We all laughed and they agreed.
These two are quite brilliant, and a phrase which then occurred to me then was simple: Share your brilliance
In addition to the value to their business of sharing their brilliance, authentically and passionately, I am also reminded of the words of Marianne Williamson:
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?
Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.