WHY YOU NEED TO BE VISIBLE IN YOUR BUSINESS STARTING TODAY

Starting off this one with a little tough love truth bomb… Being visible in your business doesn’t start once you’ve “made it” or have your branding and messaging perfectly ironed out, it starts once you decide you want to have a business!

If you wait until your branding, website, messaging, offerings are perfect you’re not really making all that much progress in growing your audience. Working behind the scenes and/or taking mental health days are essential at times—especially during this challenging and strange time in 2020. If you need this space for your own well-being, please, do just that. But if you’re holding off on being visible because you feel the need to have everything set and perfect… you 👏 must 👏stop 👏

Listen, I get it, being visible can be super scary! I have nightmares about getting in front of a huge crowd to make some sort of a speech or announcement. Whenever I step up my visibility game or do something new in the world of getting out there, I’m normally terrified. That all being said, something in my gut has been pushing me lately, and I realize if I don’t get out there, I’m losing a chance to connect with others 🤯

Friends, you’re hitting pause on your business if you’re not being visible.

Running a business can be enough to deal with, but when we make even the smallest effort to connect with others and become more visible we see movement towards a thriving business ✨

Below I’m breaking down a few ways you can start becoming more visible in your business, in order to connect with your right people and run a thriving business!

1. Figure out where your people are hanging out.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with all that’s out there these days, and the best way to narrow down which platform you should focus on is to find out where your audience actually is. Think over who your people are, how they take in information, and where do you see them the most.

This may take some research on your audience and trial/error, but once you find it, focus your efforts there. Spreading yourself thin will lead to minimal impact.

For me, my audience hangs out on Instagram and Pinterest the most. I show up on Instagram almost daily and add content to Pinterest every other week—including new work, quotes, photography, blog posts, etc.

My newsletter and blog posts (hi!) are the other two places I post content, but I don’t do that daily. To start, focus on one platform and really start showing up.

2. Simply get started. Start posting, talking, writing, etcetera…

I know this may seem easier said than done, but start by taking baby steps. You don’t have to do it all overnight, and you probably shouldn’t try that method. Trying to do all of the things all at once (especially on your first go) will lead to burnout and overwhelm. You’ll then find yourself thinking that maybe this isn’t for me, which will lead to simply giving up.

Instead, pick one platform and one thing to try out for a few weeks.

For Example: You decide you’d like to be visible on Instagram and show up in your stories at least once a day (excluding weekends), and one day during that week you show your face and talk to your people.

A few things you can talk about:

Work…

• What you do.
• Why you do what you do.
• Your values.
• How you help others.
• Tips and tricks.
• How they can work with you!

Social Proof…

• Have other’s talk about their great experience with you!

What makes you you…

• Your beliefs.
• Your values (normally very similar to your biz values).
• Your style, work style, dress style, you name it.
• Your personality.

Daily Life…

• Your morning routine
• Life in a day—what does your daily life look like?
• Your pets, friends, family (if you feel comfortable sharing).
• Adventures, weekend, cooking, exploring, you name it!

… and there is so much more!

You may find yourself thinking that your messaging isn’t perfectly curated, but the thing is, you won’t discover your voice and messaging by being quiet. You need to start showing off the voice you already have. Each and every one of us already has insights, values, and, yes, a voice! As you start becoming visible, your voice will evolve and become more aligned with your business and messaging.

Don’t be afraid to show up imperfectly. You’re a human with a purpose, and a business you wanted to start. Start where you are, and you’ll grow so much faster by actively getting out there, perfectly imperfect.

Another way you can cultivate your messaging is by either signing up or going back through my free mini-course Building a Purpose-Driven Brand! Day 1 + 2 will help you craft your brand messaging in an authentic way for your vision and for your audience.

3. Cultivate Relationships.

Once you start becoming more visible you’ll notice that you’ll be talking to more people. People you may or may not know will be responding to your stories, leaving comments, or sending you DMs/messages. Those people are doing just that because they love what you’re putting out there! (Ok, yes, trolls exist, but that’s not what I’m talking about here 😉.)

It’s important to start responding, start the conversation, and start cultivating relationships. For many businesses, these relationships will go much farther than the number of followers or subscribers you have. The people you’re interacting with the most on a genuine level will be the first ones to become your client or customer. They know, like, and trust you at this point, and they want what you are offering.

When cultivating these relationships act as if they are a good friend, which many will become anyway. Don’t think of this as an immediate sale. Showing people what you offer and how you can work together is vital for a thriving business, but during this time, don’t sell, just connect.

4. Work smarter not harder.

When you start getting more comfortable with being visible, you may realize it takes up more of your time than you’d like. There is a way to remain visible and still do it all yourself (if that’s what you’d like to do). If you’re feeling this overwhelm, it’s time to start batching your content!

You do not need to space out time each day to put together a post, video, etc., you can do a bunch of these all in one day at one time. I’ve personally found that doing newsletter and blog content for the month has helped me stay consistent. I block out a day at the beginning of each month and write up a few of these. Also, you don’t need to recreate the wheel with the content you come up with. Once I have a few things I want to talk about, I repurpose that content and post it on Instagram, in stories, and on Pinterest in a smaller form. For Instagram, I batch my posts weekly at the beginning of each week. The way I do this works the best for me, but it may look different for you! Try out a few ways and see what works best.

There are a few exceptions to batching content, with Instagram stories being one. Stories are better done at that moment (for the most part) and on the same day. Luckily stories can take up a small amount of time, and you can schedule a small section of your day to post these.

A note on Instagram/Facebook stories: setting up reoccurring themes can be incredibly helpful when posting consistently. This can look like a certain theme of the week or even month! This can also look like a consistent daily brand theme.

For example: find one thing you do consistently almost every day (workday) to post in your stories. This can be as simple as saying cheers to your audience with your morning cup of coffee, how you take your coffee, where you drink your coffee, is today hot or iced, etc. This is something I actually do! It helps me stay consistent and creates momentum in continuing to post during the day. I’m not 100% sure why that is, but it works. There’s also something comforting about seeing a brand almost every day show up in this kind of consistent way. It’s simple and keeps your brand more front of mind to your right people.

There are so many ways you can do this! A few other things you can do to help you show up consistently in your stories:

• Set up a timelapse video on your phone of what you’re working on. Find a way to prop up your phone and start recording. I like to do this when I’m working on an illustration or design project.

• Write up a checklist of your daily agenda. This is an easy and fun way to show what you’re working on, who you’re working with, and what your day looks like overall.

• Quick tips/tricks you’d like to share about your services or products. This can be on video or in writing, whichever works best for you and your brand. This doesn’t have to be super long, they can be short and sweet. If you’re feeling hung up on this one, trust me, you have a lot of knowledge and insight you can share within your expertise! 

One thing I do each day is I ask myself, what am I doing right now? Is there something I can share? This can be personal insight on something, my daily schedule, any epiphanies, or even just what’s on my screen. The more I’ve done this, the more natural it feels. A little over a year ago, I started showing my face and talking in my stories, which terrified me, but I knew I had to start doing just that. I love seeing others showing up in their stories this way, and if I love that, I have a feeling others do to.

I told myself to just try it out and to be easy on myself as it WAS something very new to me. Now it feels so much more natural and I really don’t even think about it, I just pop on when I’m inspired to. And as an introvert, that’s saying a lot 😂

I hope these tips help and inspire you to start getting out there!

And since my Instagram is my favorite, I’d love to connect with you and cheer you on!