Scared Of Being Seen? Read This.
After almost 20 years in the branding, marketing, and businesses spaces, I’ve learned there’s only one thing that scares most entrepreneurs more than failure.
(Nope, it’s not success. It might even scare them more than that.)
It’s the part of entrepreneurship that brings up allll your hidden stuff and puts it out in the open and into the spotlight.
It’s confronting, it can be scary, just because of how powerful it is.
What’s that one thing?
It’s being seen.
Yep, every single entrepreneur I know — including myself, including the most successful, profitable business owners on the planet — carries a piece of that fear with them at all times.
Real talk: Putting yourself out there, being seen on a global platform, and taking things to the next level in your business in a way that puts you at the front and center of your industry is an intimidating prospect for anyone.
It’s also a risk, because when you falter or fail? The world sees it. And we all know the internet is full of trolls who can’t wait to jump on the slightest misstep.
That’s why I always say success is 99% mindset, and 1% mechanism.
(My girl Selena Soo almost flipped when she heard me say that on a call with her Impacting Millions program students, so I’ll tell you what I told her: stay with me!)
The reason I say brains are 99% of our success is because if we do the deep work on the way we think, lead, and feel about the actions we want to take, that process supports absolutely everything else in our businesses — especially in the “being seen” department, like publicity or influencer marketing.
That’s the reason why some of the biggest powerhouse successes have also invested thousands on coaching just around mindset. I know I have!
It’s the instinct of most entrepreneurs to invest in business or sales coaches first, treating mindset as a “when I’ll get to it” project, But in reality? Any time you invest in a program, or a coach or a mentor or anything that builds your own personal development and your business development, you are feeding your mindset, which feeds the mechanisms you need to do the work you love.
But I’ll let you in on a secret: what all that coaching comes down to is one small trick (and truth):
At the end of the day, if you want to overcome your fear of being seen?
All you have to do is choose yourself.
Choose yourself over the fear.
Choose yourself over the haters and trolls.
Choose yourself over the backlash.
Choose yourself over the controversy.
Because when you choose yourself, and choose to build a business, and put yourself out there as a brand, you’re actually saying: “I may not feel ready to be seen, but I’m willing to be seen.”
Do that over and over, and it gets easier and easier.
Is it going to be perfect? Absolutely not. And look, it’s not fun to put yourself out there only to be disagreed with, or confronted by internet trolls. But here’s the thing:
We’re all human beings. People are going to have different world views, and if you want to build a community and audience that cares about you?
They have to know where you stand so that they can decide from a place of what I call “true choice”, to be in your tribe.Even if some of what you say could be controversial or whatnot, being willing to consistently show up every day is a way to actually trick your mindset into knowing that you deserve it.
And the truth is?
Great brands should be polarizing. They should repel people. Or they’re not doing their job.
More on that in a later post, but for now I challenge you:
Choose to show up today.
Choose to make that post, or share that article, or write that blog, or film that Facebook live.
Start doing the reps to push past your fear of being seen, because every time you do? It gets a tiny bit easier, bit by bet. And your mindset grows stronger.
All you have to do is choose you.
Are you up for it?
Thought you might be.
Now: Step forward into your spotlight.
Build your brand and your business, with all of
the fun and none of the fluff.
