“YOU HAVE TO GET ON CAMERA,”
my boss at the time said.
Wait - what??
Today as a former network producer and an on-camera and media expert, having worked with 1000s over three decades,
I am firmly confident in helping high-achieving, talented women with an established business
who aren’t reaching more people, platforms or the media to become polished on camera, fine tune their message and create their weekly online stream so that they can be seen as an industry leader and change even more lives.
But looking back, I sure had my doubts…
There I was in my second job in television,
AS A PRODUCER IN MY MID-TWENTIES
at the headquarters of what was the largest cable company in the world and all I could think was no f-ing way. No way was I going to be the one staring at the lens – I was ALWAYS behind the scenes. I loved producing and directing and had already been doing it for five years before landing this position.
I also had worked with city officials and c-suite executives on their messaging for their information, training or public affairs programs and there was NOTHING on this job description that mentioned anything about having to be on-air and ZERO about going live.
As a shy native of New England, the message I absorbed growing up was DO NOT BE SEEN that’s for those other people who love attention. But my rural roots also gave me a strong work ethic and I was already a decade into what would become a 3-decade background in personal development I knew I had to say ‘yes.’
Thanks to my new found confidence in who I was and having the leaders of the self-help seminars I attended in my head saying “face the fear and do it anyway” I got on camera for the shows I was hired to produce.
Granted I got hives on my neck for the first and only time in my life, but I got on camera and went live – and I survived!
As I became 3rd down on the org chart from cable pioneer and media mogul, John Malone,
I hosted weekly live shows and was nervous; Every. Single. Time. On my next adventure being an on-camera coach and line producer of over a 100 live shows with the nation’s top educational consultants, I was tossed in the hot seat another time when the regular host, yep the trained and top-rated news anchor out of Denver couldn’t show up – and oh – did I mention I had to use a teleprompter for the first time as I replaced her? o.m.g.
Thank goodness, by the time I reached the network level no one was asking me to be on camera-ha! I was already well on my way to producing hundreds of episodes and I could happily produce, write, travel the country and tell the talent what to do. (behind the scenes!)
The years leading up to the
END OF MY 2 DECADE PRODUCING CAREER
I was primarily working on multiple prime-time series for HGTV and loved every minute of it, being responsible as the Series Producer for the team, crew, budget and every second of content for a global audience. I had also worked here and there with The Food Network, Showtime and Starz.
Then my mother’s doctors gave her 30 days to live and every fiber in my being, the stressed being who was already raising an 18-month old son and trying to juggle a demanding career, said to go be with mom –
….and so I walked away.
In 2010, when my then two young boys
REACHED SCHOOL AGE,
I decided to start my own business as a holistic practitioner (with some intuitive gifts thrown in) which actually morphed into personal success coaching and mindset-shifting sessions that would help hundreds. I first practiced out of my local medical office in Colorado and grew to international clientele in a few years by word of mouth. But I knew I was meant to reach more and had stagnated at a certain income level.
AND SO I INVESTED IN SALES AND MARKETING
know-how and at one of the business events,
a speaker, who would be a mentor of mine for years, Keri Murphy, said that if you weren’t using video, you wouldn’t grow your business. Wait. Whaaat?! Are you kidding me? I have to be on camera AGAIN??? It truly was like the biggest cosmic joke.
Before rebranding and becoming the CEO and Founder of Elizabeth Walker Media, I was hired for multiple years by two, 7- and 8-figure global brands to be a business and marketing coach for their clients.
I coached these entrepreneurs to reach 10k months, master their message and the camera, as well as leading hundreds through an online program I co-created called Broadcast your Brilliance, which generated millions in revenue for the company. And as I gladly helped others make money, my soul eventually said it was time for me to step into my own visibility again in order for you to find me so together we can get you streaming to be seen. This is a place I’ve watched many women (including myself) resist. But going out on multiple platforms and having your own YouTube channel is a game-changer.
Because of my own investing in business education,
practicing to be authentic on camera, learning what to say and how to say it and spending hundreds of hours teaching video marketing and hosting live trainings with social media marketing, media and podcast experts and that little career I had in television,
