I visited the Clothes Show last weekend and had such a crazy, fun time. I had 5 on-stage hair tutorials infront of an audience and completely live, wow. You guys know I love to help you out, so I put together a little post on how to overcome shyness, and fears of public speaking… so… here goes..
Overcoming the shy world.
One of the main questions I get asked when I do onstage demos, like this one at the Clothes Show Live, is.. how do you do it?! It seems to shock people and many tell me they couldn’t ever do it themselves. They tell me I must be so brave and confident.. this makes me think back to my little 16 year old self – the girl with massive amounts of shyness and a surge of panic that went through me every time someone spoke to me. It’s then I realise that I’ve kind of overcome my shyness, especially my fear of public speaking… and I hadn’t even noticed.
When you’re shy and generally lacking confidence it feels like you may never get over it. “This is me for life then!?”, but I’d like to think I’m proof that it’s not forever. I’m 27 now, 11 years older than the ‘me’ I mentioned earlier and whilst I still get a little stuck for words sometimes and definitely get the nerve shakes before I go on stage.. I think practise makes perfect, and that’s what’s helped me the most. Oh, and I’m old. I guess you might generally grow out of it, but there’s always ways to help it out along the way.
Throughout University we had to do presentations. I hated the god-damn things. Standing at the front of a room of fellow-students, reading out a script I thought I knew off-by-heart.. until I actually had to do it. The beads of sweat began to form, my voice with it’s regular shake and my hands clammy. Then, 15 minutes later, it was all done. The more I did the better I became at being confident. I made sure I knew exactly what I was talking about, I read my script until I was blue in the face, and I just ignored the pesky voice shakes (I’m sure they’re in my head anyway..)
So, that brings me to now. My YouTube is obviously the place I speak most, but I film myself. I set everything up, press record and no one can see me. If I say something silly, I can edit it out. So, being on stage or being filmed by a crew is VERY different. I remember my first on-stage hair tutorial with the Lee Stafford team and I was terrified. But now, I can’t even remember how many I’ve done and let me tell you, it’s a lot easier.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that if you’re suffering with being shy, you don’t have confidence or you’re always stopping yourself from doing things you wish you could do.. then try your best to go and do it. Go and face your fears, even if you mess it up a little, at least you can say you’ve tried. And then the next time.. well, that won’t seem so bad at all.
The Clothes Show Live
The Clothes Show this year was super manic, it was my first time attending and I’m told it’s pretty much always like this.. wow. I visited with Lee Stafford and had to do 5 on-stage demos featuring different hair styles and using various products, which was so fun. Having been the brand ambassador for Lee Stafford for almost 6 months now (that went super fast!) I pretty much know all the products, so I felt like a pro, ha! Check out the too for all my video-tutorials!
I got to meet Lilah Parson who presented me on stage, which of course was a treat and the wonderful Caryn Franklin, who I remember watching on TV years ago. If you fancy seeing my outfits per day – head over to my instagram, I linked all the pieces and you can also see a few behind the scenes photos too!
Photos by Chris Bradshaw – chris@alotofbradshaw.com
Aww I thought you was going to reveal a big secret on how to overcome shyness. I suffer from social anxiety where you worry to excess about things like this and however much I want to ‘just do it’ I’d probably have a panic attack. I have to accept I can’t do the things some people, like you, can do and live with it. I am glad you have found a solution but I don’t think it’ll work for everyone.