How Important is Mindset for Video Performance?

Do you wonder how you can get started with online video if you're an introvert? The mindset in video performance plays an important role. In this blog post, we'll discover the obstacles that pull back your mindset in video performance.

I, Michele Osorio, with Dare to Dream School, was recently a guest on Paola Rosser's Fearless Female Podcast talking about my journey from being a very very shy young kid who had stage fright, all the way up into being a teenager and an adult who was able to go on to become a stage performer, an actor, a filmmaker and eventually a YouTuber.

I went from being very awkward on camera and not wanting to be in the spotlight, to learning to embrace that. So if you want to get some tips on how perhaps you can go from being an introvert to still being comfortable on camera and in online videos then check this out.

Some Rad Tips for Confidence on Camera

Question: Tell us a little bit about how you got started on YouTube. What made you start a YouTube channel? What was your first intention for the YouTube channel?

So I started on YouTube in about 2007. I got the idea from some other people who had done a show somewhere else, it wasn't on YouTube. At that time, I was working for a corporation making online videos for them.

So I was already a filmmaker, I loved filmmaking and I found out oh you can make a show on the Internet? What? This is crazy!

YouTube Vs. The Real World

I'm just old enough. I actually did the real film festival circuit and I went to film school, although I didn't finish. But I went to most of the film school for three years and I took and I ran with it. So I was used to making videos and then showing them in public in theaters. If people don't like it then they don't laugh and you are embarrassed. You have to look at all those people after the show. It's really awkward. That has happened to me. But also, you get that wonderful feeling when you're sitting in the theater and they do laugh when they're supposed to laugh. It's one of the best feelings in the world.

I discovered in 2007 that there's this whole audience of people online that I can tell that story to and you don't get to hear them laugh in person but they'll leave you comments!

That was so thrilling to me at the time that I could take these stories I had already made, and then share them with people online.

As a creative person, somebody who's been creative since I was a little kid, whether it was drawing or singing. I was always doing something creative and I always wanted to express myself. The internet was just this huge gift especially to somebody socially awkward – which was me.

So I get to hide behind a computer screen and still get to tell my stories. This was the best thing ever.

Early Years

Question: So when you started in 2007 how long had YouTube already been out?

A year. Only a year. I was right on the very first bandwagon. Going like I am gonna get on this, I'm gonna like do my creative stuff, I am gonna like share what I wanted to share.

It's been stuck inside me. At the time I don't think anybody really knew what YouTube would become. It was just a place to host your videos for free. But that was huge because it was very expensive to put your videos online.

In the past as a teenager, I had made these action figure movies. With little action figures and I still have a copy somewhere. It looks terrible because it is the size of a postage stamp! Because I believe at the time I was using Yahoo Geocities and I hosted my website back then. On the site, I had videos that were the size of postage stamps because that was all the space you were allowed. At the time, that was all you could get unless you had lots of money which I didn't when I was in film school student.

So later when YouTube came around that was a big deal.

Mindset is a Key Factor in Determining Your Success in Videos Online

Mindset plays a really important role for confidence on camera whether you're an introvert or not so make sure you check out this next clip also from this podcast where I talk about pushing out negative thoughts and how to be positive, so that you can not only appear confident on camera but you can eventually genuinely gain that confidence as well.

Are negative thoughts keeping you from taking the spotlight you deserve?

Well then make sure that you check this out.

Question: What negative thoughts did you have when you started?

You can get stuck in this script or this idea and negative thoughts can keep you from taking the spotlight you deserve. Whether that's being on stage or being on camera, it's really important to be in the right mindset.

I can look back and realize there were many times when I was pushed to realize my talent. But for some reason I was not listening to those voices, I was focusing on the negative voices.

The negative voices are there. They're permanent and they are daunting sometimes. They can almost paralyze you from stepping into your true self.

Mean Comments?

A lot of times people, nowadays, are afraid to get on camera because they're afraid of the mean comments they're gonna get. Even a big YouTuber or a famous person will tell you, that they'll never come to a point where you are just numb to comments. Every once in a while, something will get through and it'll it will hurt your feelings. It's hard to absorb. The trolls are out there. It's human nature that no matter how much praise you get, it only takes one mean comment or one negative comment. And then we fixate on it. It bothers us for days.

That's how it was, just feeling like I don't deserve the spotlight growing up. But now I can look back and realize there were people rooting for me. I had a choir teacher and she gave me a solo that was meant for

like an older kid. It was just like one of the scariest moments of my life. Yet when I was ever feeling a lack of confidence as an adult, did I remember that time?

No, I always thought about the time I was a teenager and I had a choir director make fun of me in front of the whole class and tell me I was slow. He said it as a quote-unquote joke. But it always stuck with me. I think he was frustrated with me at the time.

Just one negative comment can literally pierce your soul forever and ever.

That's when Self Doubt Ticks In

I mean I don't want to say my age but I obviously haven't been in school for years and it's like I still

remember that, and I can still picture my standing in the middle of the classroom and being made fun of in front of the entire class.

It's in the past and I didn't realize how much I was holding on to the past. But also how I had painted this narrative in my head, the story I told myself was: people don't think I'm any good. I'm not any good. I don't

deserve to take the spotlight, but I'm creative so let's find another way to be creative.

Question: So, why you thought you are going to be behind the camera?

Yes, I decided I'll stay behind the camera. It's not to say I don't love film. I love being a filmmaker I love telling stories. I knew and I'm so glad I learned these very valuable and lucrative skills, but I didn't realize

when I was learning them in my earlier YouTube years. I didn't realize it was a way for me to continue hiding.

Is it just the Mentality?

It's not just negative thoughts and negative mentality, it can also be fear that keeps you from hiding from the camera or from the spotlight.

So make sure you check out this last clip from the Fearless Female Podcast where I talk about learning to

face your fears and how I actually hid behind the camera as a filmmaker. A lot of people don't know that and how I was able to overcome that, so make sure you check out that video.

Do you really want to be in the spotlight and tackle online video but you have these fears that perhaps you haven't addressed or overcome?

If you have some fears, whether you can acknowledge what they are or not, when it comes to taking the spotlight learning that you deserve to be on camera is the key.

Question: How you overcame your fears to go from behind the camera as a filmmaker, to finally acknowledging that you deserve that spotlight and tackling online video?

Paola Rosser: As you're sitting there and you're singing, literally singing from your soul and someone says “Oh my god you sound just like Ariel!” And even listening to the lyrics of the words of that song, like

I want to be where the people are…

You were in your house alone with this creative bug inside of you this beautiful gift that you were gifted with, it's bringing tears to my eyes. Because it's honest. It's like you wanted to be where the people were, yet you were stuck at home aching to show your creativity.

And then YouTube comes into your life.

My Family's Role

I did study, I did go to choir. My family wasn't totally supportive, so they didn't pay for singing lessons. They'd let me do it but they weren't crazy about it. So I grew up in a mixed family.

Question: What was your mix?

My Dad is Mexican and my Mom is Vietnamese. So my Mexican side was always saying “You're so talented, you're the best you can do anything.”

But on the Asian side, it was mostly like “Okay, well that's interesting, how are your grades?”

You know it was all about my grades.

You know it's interesting because I still hold on to some of that baggage as an adult. I always was listening to this voice from my past saying “Mmm that's not realistic Michelle, you know the creative thing”

It's funny because for a long time, even when it came to YouTube, I was hiding behind the camera. There was a reason I hid behind the camera, even though I did choir and I did do stage stuff as a kid but it was very hard. But there was always this voice in my head saying you don't deserve the spotlight.

Do You Know What Your Fears Are?

So do you know what your fears are? Let me know and let me know your requests, maybe I can help you with them. Remember I'm not just a YouTuber, I was an actor for many years on stage even though I had terrible stage fright and was an introvert and was very shy. I also have been a Director for many years and I've learned how to make people feel comfortable on camera and eliciting genuine performances.

So I want to know what are your questions? Until next time, Dare to Dreamers never give up.

Go ahead and listen to the full podcast here: