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

🌟 Why Your Grid Might Look Right and Still Feel Wrong

Your fonts are locked. Your color palette lives in a Canva brand kit. You know your hex codes by heart. And you still hit record on a Reel and feel like something is a little off.

I get it, because I used to think visual branding started and ended with colors and fonts too. I'm a Canva Verified Expert, one of 43 in the entire world, and design has been my thing for as long as I can remember. So you'd think my branding would have been locked in from the second I showed up on Instagram.

It wasn't. And the piece I was missing wasn't a font pairing or a new template.

It was me. My face. My energy. The version of myself that shows up the second someone hits play.

If you've ever felt like your visuals are "supposed to" be working and they're still not landing the way you want them to, this one's for you.

😅 The 2017 Video I Could Barely Watch

Before The Creative Bodega, my husband and I ran a CrossFit gym, and back in 2017 I started making video content for it.

I would record a video, publish it, and then make the mistake of watching it back. What I saw made me want to close the app and never look at myself on camera again.

I looked like a deer in headlights. Wide eyes, stiff shoulders, completely monotone, like someone was pointing a weapon at me instead of just holding up a phone.

The information in those videos was actually good. My cues were solid, my coaching made sense. But my energy was so off that none of that mattered. There was nothing inviting about it, and I remember thinking nobody's going to want to watch this.

So I made one small change. Before I hit record, I started smiling first. My phone would count down three, two, one, and instead of launching straight into the video, I'd take a breath and smile before I said a single word.

When I watched those new videos back, the difference floored me. I looked approachable. I looked like someone worth listening to. I looked like I actually wanted to be there.

But something mattered more than any of that. It wasn't really about the audience first. It was about how I felt watching myself back. For the first time, I didn't cringe through the whole video. I recognized the person on the screen, and that recognition changed how I showed up the next time, and the time after that.

One tiny adjustment. A massive ripple effect.

That's the piece nobody told me about visual branding. Your color palette can be perfect and your camera energy can still be the thing quietly working against you.

🎯 Your Palette Is Allowed to Start Somewhere Borrowed

When I first showed up on Instagram, my color palette was heavily inspired by another creator I admired, Jenna Kutcher, specifically that warm, burnt sienna brown she was known for. I loved it, and I used it. I paired it with different colors than she did, so I wasn't copying her brand outright, but was I influenced by it? A hundred percent.

And that's actually fine. That's how it works. Before you know what you're building or how you want to show up, you're going to borrow from things you're drawn to. Brands tend to start subtle, mostly muted, mostly safe colors. As you find your footing, you start bringing in bolder choices. My palette now, bright and pretty maximalist, feels completely like me, but I had to work up to it. That's not a detour. That's the path.

People in my courses ask me all the time if they can use my bright green as their own highlight color. Sure. Take it. It was never mine to guard. I figured out my own thing starting from a borrowed color, and you will too.

💡 Confidence Comes Before the Bold Colors, Not After

What I've learned watching my own branding evolve is this: you don't earn permission to use bold colors by feeling ready first. The confidence comes from showing up in the muted, safe version long enough to find your footing. Nobody starts maximalist. If your current palette feels a little quiet or unsure right now, that's not a problem you need to fix before you post. That's just where you are in the process, and it's allowed to change later.

😳 Your Face Is Part of Your Visual Brand Now

Instagram has shifted so dramatically toward video and photo that your designed graphics are secondary now to something else entirely: you. Your expressions. The energy you bring the second you hit record.

Whether someone feels warmth from you, gets a vibe that makes them want to keep scrolling, or feels pulled in enough to hit follow, that's part of your visual brand. A huge part. And most people building a personal brand aren't thinking about it at all. They're still picking fonts.

✅ The One Adjustment That Changes Everything

You don't need better lighting or a new ring light to fix this. You need one small habit.

• Smile before you hit record, not during it

• Take one real breath first

• Do a countdown (three, two, one works fine)

• Start the video already mid-smile instead of building up to one

It sounds embarrassingly simple, and it works more often than not. You don't need to perform for the camera. You just need to look like you want to be there, talking to the person on the other side of the screen.

💪 Why the Audience Isn't Actually First

The surprising part of my own experiment wasn't the audience response. It was how I felt watching myself back. I stopped cringing. I recognized the person on the screen instead of flinching away from her.

That recognition is what changed how I showed up the next time, and the time after that. Fix how you feel watching yourself first, and the audience response tends to follow it, not the other way around.

🌟 Done Doesn't Exist, and That's the Point

If you're sitting on the sidelines because your branding doesn't feel finished yet, I need you to hear this: done doesn't exist. Your visual identity is going to keep evolving as you evolve. The version of your brand you have today is good enough to start with, and the confidence you build by showing up will shape what your brand becomes far more than any color palette you agonize over ever will.

🛠️ Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Every template, highlight cover, and graphic I use for The Creative Bodega gets built inside Canva. It's the tool I'm most known for as one of 43 Canva Verified Experts worldwide, and it's genuinely still my favorite part of this business.

If you want the piece that comes right before this one, go back and listen to the first episode in this summer series, Nobody Told Me How Long Building a Personal Brand Takes. It sets up exactly why "done" was never the goal to begin with.

💪 Your Visual Brand Is Never Actually Finished

Your color palette matters. Your templates matter. But if your face-to-camera content feels stiff while your graphics look great, that's what people are going to remember, not the other way around.

Start with something ridiculously small: smile before you hit record. Let your palette keep evolving instead of waiting for the perfect version of it. And stop treating "done" like a finish line you have to cross before you're allowed to post.

If you want support on both sides of this, the visual side and the showing up on camera side, come hang out with us inside The Content Coven. We do monthly trainings, I hand over a genuinely large amount of template resources, and it's just a good room to be in.

One thing to know: The Coven has always been open enrollment, but that's changing in August. Once the doors close, they won't reopen again until toward the end of the year. If you've been thinking about joining, this is your window.

I'd love to know: what's the one small camera habit you're going to try this week? Drop it in the comments, and if this helped, send it to a friend who's still waiting for their branding to feel "done" before they post.