E11: Visibility Feels Cringey…But It’s Kinda Non-Negotiable

Let’s talk visibility and why it feels so hard when you’re the one putting yourself out there.

In this episode, Emma and Leanne tackle one of the biggest (and most uncomfortable) parts of building an online business: being visible. Whether you’re camera-shy, stuck in perfectionism, or just unsure where to start, this one’s for you.

We’re chatting about:

• Why visibility matters (no audience = no sales)
• What makes it so scary — especially after a corporate career
• The difference between being everywhere vs. showing up with purpose
• How to find the right visibility channel for you
• The myth of ‘overnight confidence’ and why consistency beats intensity every time

Whether you’re ready to post or still hiding behind your logo, this episode is your gentle nudge to show up in a way that feels aligned, sustainable, and actually you.

🧁 Quick Win

Pick a platform. Make a post. Start small...but start.
Because you can’t sell to people who don’t know you’re there.

🔗 Links & Resources:

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☎️ Join our free bi-weekly 'don't ask google, ask us' call where we can help you first hand move the needle in your business.

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Final Thought:

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Transcript

 Welcome to the Real Talk and a Slice of Cake Podcast with your favourite business besties, Emma & Leanne

No fluff. No jargon. Just straight-talking advice, smart strategies and a dash of mischief to keep things interesting.

If you’re starting or growing a business and feeling a bit overwhelmed don’t worry, we’ve got you.

Between us, we’ve built four successful businesses - and learned a lot the hard way.  Now we’re sharing what actually works… PLUS the stuff we wish someone had told us sooner.

From hobby to hustle, side gig to full-time business…you’ll get honest conversations, practical tips, and lots of laughs along the way.
So grab a brew, cut yourself a slice of your favourite cake, and let’s dive in!

Hello and welcome to Real Talk and a slice of Cake with me, Leanne, and my business bestie Emma. In today's episode, we want to talk about visibility. And I feel this is one of the biggest challenges an online business owner service provider can have. Some people love the limelight tado. Here I am.

Other people, um, want to be kind of more behind the scenes and I'll put my hand up. I am definitely more of a behind the scenes person, I guess that comes stems from my corporate. Career. Um, I had a long career and I guess my role for the majority of that time was to make others. Look good, make others look organized, and to get the results.

So suddenly when that spotlight came shining on me, when I decided that I didn't want to be employed anymore, I wanted to be a business owner, that light was shining brightly. And I'm not gonna lie, I felt very much like the rabbit in, in the headlights. Um, so Emma, can you remember when you. I know you've come out of corporate as well.

You had a another business and then into the online space. Can you remember that first post? Gosh, can I remember the first post? I think for me, um, I sort of got a little bit, I. I dunno what the word I'm looking for here is a little bit adapted to being a business owner in between like my corporate and, and this business and my other online service-based business.

Um, 'cause obviously I had my business in between, which I had for, I don't know, 15, 16, 17 years. I even know how long I had it. That's terrible, isn't it? Um, but that business, I never needed to be the face of the business. You know, it was an e-commerce business and the website was the face of the business.

So I never had to be seen nobody beyond, you know, the warehouse and everything else would've known that I even existed. Um, so for me, when I stepped into this online world, it was more about. Fear of judgment, it was more about what were people gonna say? And that is often like friends and family, isn't it?

The people that are closest to you, you think, well, I'm gonna say, you know, she suddenly starts talking about this stuff. They're gonna think who's she type, you know, that sort of thing. Um, so I think my very early posts were probably the most boring, stale. I dunno, even if they were professional, but they were just probably really like boring.

Hello, my name is Emma. You know, type stuff. Yeah. Like really robotic, um, on unthought through stuff. Certainly not the sort of stuff that was coming from me, the real me. Um, and I think it's taken me a long time to get to the point where I think. Eat, you know, put your word of choice in front of that and, and, and just be the real you.

But the minute I started to do that was the minute that I really did start to build, um, an audience, you know, build people that were around me, because I think visibility is. It's not just about putting stuff out there, it's also about this, what you're putting out there, isn't it? And I think you can spread yourself too thin.

I need to go on all the platforms I need to be putting on here. I need to be putting on there. Um, and I'm, I'm going off on a tangent here a little bit. So let's pull this back a bit and let's, let's come back to what actually, Leanne, do you think visibility is and why do you think it matters? Yeah, so visibility is is for me.

If people don't know you can have the best business, if people don't know you're there. They dunno what you can do, how you can help them. That is what visibility is. And I've not said that very in, in a very articulate way. Um, it's about that know, like, trust. So people buy from people. People need to know the person behind the business.

Um, and interestingly for me, I think I was, I was really surprised. I knew I was a, a behind the scenes person as I, as I described, but my first, um, kind of. Promoting a business online wasn't actually my business. It was my husband's, um, join me in landscaping business. Um, he, he'd set that up in 2021 and it always makes me smile because I had no problems.

I had no problems, um, marketing his business. It makes me smile because he used to go to people to do quotes or to, to, to visit them. He had no clue. He still has no clue what goes on social media, but because I was doing that, I was writing it as if I was him almost again. It's, it's that kind of, that comfort, that cloak around me that it, the spotlight wasn't.

Completely on me. Plus, I do think his business was easier to market in that he could do lots of before and after tangible. You could really see the difference in terms of photos and things like that. Whereas for a lot of service providers, what, what, what we do emir, it's hard to to show. That transformation, isn't it?

It's actually at the beginning before you've actually got like, client results. Mm-hmm. You know, you, you, it is difficult to, to prove, isn't it? That what you do actually does deliver what it says it's going to deliver. Um, but it, it's key isn't it? It absolutely is. And I think the, the learning for me, and this is, there's a lot of, there's a lot of noise.

There's a lot of people saying it's easy, there's a lot of people saying, you must do this, you have to do this. And my learning is actually, I. Finding your, your comfort zone, but also that stretchy bit of the comfort zone because we need to move outside of the comfort zone. But there's no point. There would've been no point in me setting up a TikTok account, for example, where I was singing and dancing.

I mean, we know what my singing's like Emma, so you know, it's, I talk about su being sustainable, but also understanding where your clients are. Now, I'm not saying that my clients aren't on TikTok. They could well be there, but there are different ways I can use that, that platform as well. I'm not gonna start singing and dancing and I think one thing I want to really share is, so coming, again, coming away from corporate, LinkedIn was my nemesis.

I I, and 12 months, a whole year I avoided LinkedIn and that was through fear of. What are people gonna say? What are people going to think about me? And actually I think I've had so much success through LinkedIn and ironically and interestingly for me, I've had a lot of clients of those people that I thought were going to be the ones that judge me on LinkedIn.

Interesting. That isn't it? Mm-hmm. Interest in that just goes to show, doesn't it? That. We have these thoughts that this is what is going to happen. Whereas the reality is actually quite different. And I'm not saying there isn't some people who are gonna sit there and go, oh, that's lean to that. There's always those people, isn't, there's no point in pretending that there's not.

Um, but they don't matter, do they? Because they are not the people that are gonna come and buy from you, the people that are gonna come and buy from you, other people that actually are gonna be interested in what you're putting out there. Um, but yeah, I think, you know, you, you hit the nail on the head there in terms of.

There is so many different, you know, channels and places that you can be visible and, and I suppose we're talking more here about like online service providers, but let's be clear, whatever your business is, you have to be visible in some form of way. You know, whether that is my e-commerce business, again, go back to that as an example.

It was a very visible business. It just wasn't me doing that visibility piece. It wasn't my face that was being visible. It was the website through Google. Um, but it was still visible. It was still doing that marketing piece. You know, if you're an online service provider, then it's gonna be, your social media is gonna be a key part within that.

There's, there's no hiding from that. That's the way of the world now, isn't it? But you don't necessarily have to be visible everywhere because I think you can start to create this obsession with have to have loads of content going out. But it's not about loads of content going out, which I'm not saying is a bad thing.

It absolutely is. The more the better, the more people are gonna see you. But it's about having the right content going out. So you are much better focusing on one, maybe two. Platforms, um, to forms of visibility that might not be social media. You might prefer to go and speak on stages or, or to do it via networking.

You know, it's, it's, it's all of these different places that you can get your visibility, but find at least one or two places and be consistent on there because simply you are not gonna make sales if people don't know you exist. No, and you've just, you've just taken the words right out of my mouth when you were talking.

The, the key word for me there is, was, is consistent. You know, I see it all the time and people throw in what we call a spaghetti at the wall. Literally, you know, on it, they are on it, and then you don't hear from them for. Weeks, months, and then on it again. And actually two posts a week. One post a week consistently with the same message.

People getting to know you is much better than seven posts a day for seven days and then not hearing from you for weeks. And I think, again, that being that face of the business, that when you want to work one-to-one with people, you want them to, you know, you wanna take them on that journey with you. I'm very much what you see.

What you hear is what you. Get, if you come on a discovery call with me, I'd like to think that you've done a bit of, you know, you've done a bit of scouting around online, you know exactly who you're gonna see. Okay. Sometimes I might not look quite so presentable, but, um, you know, that's about being comfortable with your visibility though, isn't it?

That's practice, isn't it? Absolutely. Yeah. You know, I mean, I remember, I mean, I, this doesn't come naturally to me, as I said at the start, and actually I know in six months time, the more I do this. Just, we kind of come. Second nature. I remember the first time I went live on Instagram, you know, I had to make sure my hair was, there wasn't a hair outta place, makeup was on and what have you, but it, you just got to start.

Yeah, that, that's my, my key takeaway. And just be yourself. Exactly. Just be yourself and just get started. But I think the key, key takeaway here has got to be you have got to be seen somewhere or in some form if you wanna get sales. So pick your channel, pick your place, and go and just start doing it. Go and start making some content.

Go and start putting yourself out there and let people know you exist. Anything you would like to end with Leanne? No, go and post. Go and do a post. Go and post. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.

That’s it for today’s slice of real talk…we hope you’re walking away with something you can actually use.

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Thanks for tuning in and remember, no fluff, no jargon…just real talk.

See you next time!