We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tanya Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tanya, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I would like to be known as that woman who encouraged & inspired people to try something new and see things from a different lens so they could experience the power of courage.

As an introvert, having courage on camera was one of the last things I ever thought I’d do for a living. I was always ‘that girl’ who was the quiet one in the corner on the sidelines watching life go by. But I loved to share whatever I was learning in that rare case that someone had an interest in what I was doing.

Out of a sense of loss and desperation, I was ready to give up my side gig as a business coach a few years ago. I had been following all the checklists and the rules the gurus told me and still couldn’t generate a steady income. My social profiles were dying and it seemed stupid to continue to try when I had a full-time job.

But something happened – I stepped out and decided to try doing something ‘crazy’. Live streaming video was a repeated push from all the major social platforms, but I was afraid to put myself out and be judged.

I made a silent commitment to go live at least once a week for a year to see what would happen. Doing this and staying disciplined helped me to grow both professionally and personally in many ways.

Today, I have the privilege to deliver a weekly live video show that streams to multiple platforms all over the world. And quiet, mousy me – I get to encourage women who struggle with their looks, size, age (#allthelabels) to be more bold and test the waters of live streaming for their own growth.

My legacy – I hope – to them and to my two daughters is that you deserve a platform too. Nothing should you back from being visible and sharing your gifts.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I work with women in service businesses – e.g. health & wellness coaches, life coaches, financial consultants, relationship coaches, course creators – to leverage live stream marketing so they can serve more people, stand out online, and sell more of their services. My specialty is working with women who are often underrepresented due to labels others in society have put on them related to age, race, and/or size.

Besides offering free weekly live stream (and soon, podcast) training via Stream Like a Boss TV, my company offers paid courses as well as private and group coaching opportunities, including our incredible Stream Bosses Academy.

The Academy helps women-owned service businesses find the encouragement, technical advice, and support they need to get on camera with confidence and promote their brand with purposeful video content.

I’m proud that we are becoming known as a catalyst for cultural change, promoting positive portrayals of women through video-based traffic generation.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I first decided to become self-employed, I thought I had to focus on a niche that was related to my corporate role. As an HR professional, naturally, I thought, “I’ll become a Career Coach”.

I actually built a fairly solid brand around this under the name, Be Promotable, and I hosted an international telesummit with 10 speakers focused on women of color establishing themselves in their jobs for promotion. I was even included in a book collaboration about career advancement.

However, it didn’t take long before I realized I was not passionate about this topic. People would either reach out to me for one of two things – to see if I would write their resume (which I hated to do), or to find out how I was using technology to be seen online!

That latter was a much more attractive niche for me, so I moved into the digital marketing space and began advising my clients on trends and tools. This has been a much better experience for me and for my clients.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Early in my live streaming career, my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer. We both were under tremendous stress as he was traveling internationally while undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.

The stress showed up in many ways, and visually it was attacking my skin and hair. The patches in my hair got so bad that I had to find a stylist to cut it super low. As I was just beginning to build up confidence to be on camera, I was very sensitive to how I was perceived but I pushed through the anxiety anyway.

During one broadcast where I was sharing live comments onscreen, a woman wrote, “If I were to look up the definition of unprofessional in the dictionary, your picture would be next to it”.

I was shocked, hurt, and frustrated. And I didn’t realize the psychological impact of her statement until after I’d started wearing wigs for several months. At some point, I had the revelation that I was carrying her baggage. I had no issue with women in short hair – she did. Everyone else on that broadcast was asking me questions about marketing, while she was focused on what I looked like.

Once I figured out that I’d given away my power to some random woman online, I took it back. And I was determined to help other women feel more encouraged, to feel empowered, and to be supported as they put themselves out on video and dare to show up.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://getnoticedwithvideo.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/getnoticedwithvideo
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/getnoticedwithvideo
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/videocoachtanya
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/videocoachtanya
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/tanyasmith
• Other: My weekly live schedule and socials are here: https://streamlikeaboss.tv.

Image Credits
Most of the images were taken by Ashley Kay Photography