76: Ep2: Nobody Told Me My Camera Energy Was Part Of My Brand Visuals

Your Canva templates are perfectly on-brand. Your color palette is locked. So why does your content still feel a little cold when you hit record? You're not imagining it, and you're definitely not alone in wondering why the visuals aren't translating to connection. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I'm getting into the part of visual branding nobody talks about: the energy you bring to camera, and why it might matter more than any font pairing you've ever agonized over. If your branding feels done on paper but flat on video, this episode is for you.

Check out the full show notes for this episode CLICK HERE.

Things I cover inside this episode:

• Why my own visual branding started with a color I borrowed from another creator
• How my palette evolved from muted and safe to bold as my confidence grew
• The 2017 video I almost couldn't watch back, and the one shift that changed it
• Why smiling before you hit record changes how your content actually feels
• What "done" really means for your visual brand, and why it doesn't exist
• Why your energy on camera matters more than your font choices right now

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Done doesn't exist. Your visual identity is going to evolve as you evolve. The version of your brand that you have today is good enough to start, and the confidence you build by showing up will absolutely shape what your brand becomes way more than any color palette you agonize over. Welcome to the Creative Bodega Podcast. I'm Em Connors, Instagram content strategist, one of 43 Canva Verified Experts worldwide, and a mom of two who is not on Instagram for fun. I'm there to market my business, grow my email list, and get the heck off my phone, and that's exactly what I teach. You can expect simple content strategy, visual systems, and Instagram to email tactics that actually work without taking over your life. Let's get into it. Welcome back to The Creative Bodega Podcast, and welcome back to the Nobody Told Me series. If you missed last week, I kicked off this summer series with the truth nobody tells you about how long building a personal brand can actually take. So go back and listen if you haven't heard it. It's a good one. Today we're talking about visuals, and before you assume this is, like, a Canva tips episode, it's actually not. I mean, it's kind of, but, like, mostly not. Because when I say visuals, I mean something bigger than your color palette and your fonts and everything that really falls into that visual branding category. I mean everything someone sees when they encounter you online. So that includes your face, my friends, your energy, your warmth, or your lack of it that comes through the second someone hits play on your reels Nobody told me that, and I wish they had. It's something I had to figure out and learn for myself. So I have to come clean about something first here. I am a Canva Verified Expert, one of 43 in the entire world, and visual branding is genuinely, like, my thing, okay? I've been obsessed with colors and fonts and prints and design for as long as I can remember, honestly. So you'd think that I would've had my branding, like, very locked in from the second that I showed up on Instagram. And listen, I definitely had a color palette. I had my fonts. I had all that stuff, but my color palette very early on was heavily inspired by Jenna Kutcher, specifically that, like, warm, burnt sienna brown that she was known for. I loved it, and I thought it was beautiful, and so I also used it. And I'm not saying I copied her brand, because I paired that color with very different colors than she did, but was I influenced by it? A million percent. And here's the thing, it's actually fine. Like, that's how it works. Like, before you kind of know what you're working with or how you wanna show up or whatever, like, you're gonna kind of borrow from things that you're attracted to. And I've heard this said many times, and it rang true for me personally, like, brands start out as pretty subtle, meaning mostly your colors, right? Kind of muted, kind of safe, and as you gain confidence or as you find your footing in this crazy world, you start to bring in some more bold colors and, like, stronger choices, right? And my palette has evolved so much since those early days. The bright, warm, sort of maximalist colors I use now feel so much like me, but I had to work up to them, okay? And you probably will too, and that's not a detour. That's a path. And if you hung out with me for even five seconds in my world- I will tell you that everything that we do is just ever-evolving, you guys, whether it's your pillars or what you want to be known for or your branding. Like, this is just, this is just our world, okay? Nothing's, like, set in stone forever. If it is, I feel like that's actually kind of weird. But anyways, here's what I want to spend some time on today. Instagram has shifted so dramatically towards video and even picture, okay? So Reels, stories, face-to-camera content, that your designed graphics are secondary, honestly, now to something else entirely, and that is you, your face, your expressions, especially if you're building a personal brand. The energy that you bring when you hit record, whether someone feels warmth from you or gets a vibe that makes them want to keep scrolling or hit follow, right, or engage with that piece of content, that is part of your visual brand, a huge part, and most people are not thinking about that. And I kind of want to take you back to 2017 again when we had our CrossFit gym, and I was starting to do video content for it. I would record these videos, and then I'd watch them back after I published them, and what I saw made me want to, like, close the app immediately and never watch myself again I looked like a deer in headlights. I talked really monotone. That's the only way to describe it. Wide eyes, like super stiff shoulders, really no warmth, and I looked like someone was like pointing a weapon at me, seriously, not just like my phone recording myself. And I remember thinking, "Nobody's gonna wanna watch this." Not because like the information I was giving was bad, because it was actually good, but because my energy was just so off. There was really nothing inviting about it, so I made this one tiny change. I still remember thinking to myself, "What if I did this?" You know, "And what would that do?" So I started smiling before I hit record. So I'd have my phone count down like three, two, one, record, and I would just be straight up smiling. Not like a fake I'm performing for you kind of smile, just like I would take a deep breath, and I would smile, and I would then start the video. And when I watched those videos back where like the video starts with a smile, oh my God, they were so different. Like I looked so approachable, and I looked like somebody that you might actually wanna listen to, and I looked like somebody who wanted to be there and felt really inspired by what they were talking about. But here's honestly what surprised me the most. It wasn't actually about the audience first. It was about how I felt watching myself back. For the first time, I didn't cringe all the way through my video. I didn't want to immediately delete it. I saw someone I recognized, and that changed how I showed up the next time, and the time after that. So it was one small little change, but it had a very massive ripple effect. So what does this mean practically, okay? A few things I want you to take away from this episode. Your brand visuals are not just your Canva templates or your visuals, right? Colors, fonts, all that good stuff. Yeah, that does matter, and plus, I mean, not only just for brand recognition, but just for saving you time. Listen, you're not trying to like pick different colors and different fonts every time you make a template in Canva, right? But all of this is gonna build recognition over time. People should be able to scroll past your content and know it's yours before they even see your name, and that's really the goal. But if your graphics are beautiful and your face to camera content feels cold and stiff, and like you'd rather be literally anywhere else, that's what people are gonna remember. So the feeling always wins Start with one small adjustment before you record. Try smiling before you hit record, whether that's with a reel or with a story. Take a deep breath, smile, do a countdown, do whatever gets you out of your head and into the moment. It sounds embarrassingly simple, but I swear simple works a lot of the times. You don't need, like, crazy lighting or whatever. You just need to look like you actually want to be there talking to the person on the other side of the screen. The other thing is just let your palette evolve. Don't wait until it's perfect. Oh, I see so many people like, "Oh, like I'm still trying to figure out my brand visuals, so like I haven't started posting yet." No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you're sitting on the sidelines because your brand doesn't feel done, please hear me when I say this, done doesn't exist. Your visual identity is going to evolve as you evolve. The version of your brand that you have today is good enough to start, and the confidence you build by showing up will absolutely shape what your brand becomes way more than any color palette you agonize over. Okay? So start with somebody else's burnt sienna. Do you know how many people in my courses take like my, my bright green? Everybody. No, not everybody, but so many people are like, "Oh, I need a highlight color. Can I have yours?" Sure. Take it. Like take it. It's not mine. But I, I figured out my own thing from there, right? Like I had to s- kind of borrow from somebody else to start, and I figured it out from there, and you will do the same The through line in all of this is the same truth from last week. It comes back to reps, you guys. You get more comfortable on camera by being on camera. You find your visual identity by posting and noticing what feels like you, and noticing what you're drawn to, and slowly leaning into that. Nobody gets it fully right on the first try, or sometimes even the 10th. You keep showing up, you keep refining, and eventually your brand will start to look and feel unmistakably like you, and that is a glorious thing, and that's when it gets really good, okay? If you want support on this, both the visual side, and the showing up consistently side, and the getting comfortable showing your face, come hang out with us in the Content Coven. We do monthly trainings, we do Oh my God, I provide so many template resources and a whole lot of real talk about what's actually working when it comes to social media right now. It's just a really great room to be in. And just a reminder, the Coven's always been an open enrollment, but that is likely changing in August. So once the doors close, they're not gonna reopen until towards the end of the year. So if you've been thinking about it, the link is in the show notes. So this is episode two of my Nobody Told Me summer series. Next week, nobody told me who I was talking to would change everything. We're going to go deep on some ICA work, or ideal client avatar kind of stuff, but not in the, like, fill out this worksheet kind of way, more in a I might have been shouting into the void for longer than I'd care to admit kind of way. Okay, I'll see you then Thanks so much for hanging out with me on the Creative Bodega Podcast. If you loved this episode, please be sure to share it with a fellow solopreneur who could use a little content creation inspiration. And hey, don't forget to check out the show notes for any resources I mentioned on the episode to help you create content that feels easy and actually gets you results. If you want even more Canva and content tips, head over to my website, thecreativebodega.com, or find me on Instagram under the same name. Until next time, keep creating, keep showing up, and most importantly, try and have a little fun with your content. I'll see you on the next episode