6 Visibility Blocks All Entrepreneurs Need To Tackle For Feel-Good Audience Growth
6 visibility blocks that are blocking you from growing your audience
When I see people wanting to grow the amount of people seeing their work, they usually fall into 1 of 2 camps:
They love the idea of being seen & their work reaching more people (but it’s not happening, for some reason)
They hate the idea of being more seen, but believe audience growth is important to hit their other business goals.
Whether or not you would love to be more visible personally, audience growth does make business easier.
You can OF COURSE have a thriving, abundant business with a tiny audience (I know multiple people who made their first multiple-6-figures with only a few hundred people following them on social media / on their email list - me included!!) –
– but as someone who has made plenty of money without a group of people aware of my work, and with a large group of people aware of my work, I can really say that it is WAY easier with the latter.
My initial business success came from lots of cold pitching. It absolutely worked, but it’s definitely an emotional rollercoaster with all the potential for direct rejection 😅
But when I decided to become an actual visible “public figure,” develop thought leadership, and create value that people can access for free online – I had to look at my visibility blocks. Which is what we’re talking about today!
It is SO natural to be afraid of more eyes on you and your work (even if you say you want it, and it’s happening on an unconscious level). Being seen by more people, and more STRANGERS 😵💫 puts you on that evolutionarily engrained fear response because our brains evolved in societies and communities where you were actually dead if you went against the tribe, or the king, or the religious leaders.
Our world today is so different than that – society REWARDS being different. So let’s start cleaning this up
Here are 6 potential visibility blocks that could be blocking your audience growth.
Visibility Block #1: Feeling entitled to people’s attention
If you’re good at what you do, there’s a tendency to feel entitled to people buying from you without you sharing yourself.
You know your shit. You’re better than other people in your field… so people “should” be flocking to you!
If you run a 100% referral-based, word-of-mouth business, then this can be true. You can encourage your clients to tell other people about you.
But word-of-mouth business can be quite risky, because it is totally out of your control.
And if you want to grow - you have to step beyond word-of-mouth, and add in intentional audience growth.
When it comes to strangers – you absolutely aren’t entitled to your attention!!
It requires work on your end to meet people (or be seen by people), explain what you do, build the relationships, have them experience your magic… all before they’re ready to take the next step and work with you.
Instead you want to lean into:
“I’m entitled to no one’s attention. I get to create a place that people seek out.”
When you take this to heart, everything changes.
The value you provide, the energy, the inspiration, the advice – all calls people in.
It suddenly doesn’t matter if an algorithm changes, because people seek YOU out.
Visibility Block #2: Being on the wrong platform
There are SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS to be seen online & SO MANY DIFFERENT CHANNELS/PLACES to be seen on.
I love being on Instagram - I find it fun & playful & my people hang out there. But that is not true for everyone!
Some people HATE social media with a passion, but they begrudgingly stay on it “because they have to.” LIES!!
There are 4 main categories of places to be visible online:
Being Google-able (i.e., working on SEO, creating a YouTube channel, podcasting, Pinterest, blogging…)
Getting in front of “other people’s people” (i.e., cold pitching, PR, speaking on stage, going on someone else’s podcast…)
Social Engagement platforms (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok…)
Paying for visibility (I.e., ads on Facebook, paying to be featured in a newsletter, sponsoring an event…)
If you hate one of those – CHOOSE ANOTHER!!!!!!! There are so many options - you do not have to torture yourself, because sure, you can make money & grow your audience on one platform/channel doing what’s standard in your industry… but you can also do it on a platform you actually enjoy!
P.S. I teach how to become visible on all 4 of these categories within my program Peak Visibility: The master program for opening the pathways to more eyes on your work which is on PRESALE until July 31, 2024 for 50% off (!!!)
Visibility Block #3: Thinking everyone has said this before or someone is saying it better
“Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.” – Andre Gide
Guess what – it’s kinda true!! Everything HAS been said before.
BUT (and it’s a few big but’s)
First off - no one can say what you say, how you say it. You are truly a shiny 1-in-8-million snowflake.
No one can say it like you can. No one can teach it like you can. There are people who have done all the things & the courses & hired folks & read the books on the topic you’re an expert on, but it won’t click until they meet you. YOU!
You saying it in your way is needed.
Even if people speak on similar topics. Doesn’t matter.
Believe me. I have bought many many trainings on the exact same topic from different people, just because I’m a forever learner.
We need you.
Also – Most people know what they should be doing & they aren’t doing it…
This is why Dave Ramsey has a radio show that millions of people tune into. He doesn’t say anything new. He goes live on the radio every single day. And has for DECADES. But people keep tuning in, because it’s not that they need something new, but instead they need the motivation & inspiration.
In this case, it is to get out of debt - usually large amounts of debt - which can take months if not years to do. Them being able to tune in every week to Dave Ramsey keeps them focused and on track, especially when paying off debt is a lot less fun than retail therapy…
(To be clear - I’m not Christian & I’m not anti-credit card, but I do think the massive empire that Ramsey has built is super interesting AND has been life-changing to people trying to get out of debt!)
(Better financial advice IMHO is Tori Dunlap of Financial Feminist.)
You saying the same thing over and over and over again is actually OF SERVICE to your people.
They need to hear it again and again. It helps them stay focused, on track, motivated, inspired.
Visibility Block #4: Seeing people as numbers
Seeing people as numbers = objectification ;)
If you’re thinking in terms of “I want 1000 new followers this month” then you’re probably doing this.
Instead of seeing the HUMANS you’re seeing the numbers.
Business is building relationships.
Building relationships FEELS GOOD.
When you reorient your “audience growth” and “visibility” around building relationships with more cool humans that you can help – that’s where you can get a boost of authentic motivation.
I mean- this is what a room of 500 people look like:
(Here’s an article that shows more crowd sizes - which is fun to actually visualize)
When you think in terms of human beings versus numbers, you can see the real, big impact you can make & are making.
Visibility Block #5: Thinking you need to change to be worthy
“Identity work” is a big thing in the coaching space. Changing your self-concept is deep work… but also can be limiting and shame-inducing.
My beef with “Identity work” is it can make you feel like you need to change to be worthy of what you want.
“oooo imagine your $1M self!”
And you see someone wearing all white in Bali with someone fanning you.
If that’s something you actually want - cool! Work towards it!
But you don’t actually need to change who you are to get what you want. Instead you need to change what you believe is worthy of that result.
What if you started believing that your flavor of human gets the result you want?
Like - believing it’s possible for an ADHD person of color can be a self-made millionaire? Or a twenty-something woman can be paid to speak at a cool conference? Or you can run a wildly profitable business from an RV even though you forget to shower for a week?
Extra credit: Now go find actual humans / business owners who have done that to give your brain a boost of proof that it’s possible ;)
Visibility Block #6: Making it be work, instead of making it be fun
If you’re committed to becoming more visible, a big block is seeing that kind of work as work, instead of making it fun.
Back in 2020 I had a goal of recording weekly 1-minute videos to put on YouTube, as apart of my audience-building journey. I kept procrastinating.
I ended up hiring a hypnotherapist and working on it, because the resistance felt deep.
What I uncovered was a younger self that LOVED being in front of the camera. I remember playing with kids in the neighborhood, writing and recording movies with a camcorder. That memory immediately had me realizing that THIS SHIT GETS TO BE FUN!!
Is there a younger you who loved performing? Loved playing in that way? Loved being creative with friends?
Pull from that.
Writing, recording, creating – it gets to be apart of your visibility growth.
When you do that, you become magnetic.
(P.S. I love Grace Space for guided hypnotherapy. There’s an inexpensive app AND amazing hypnotherapist you can hire virtually for private sessions.)
Want my help with visibility??
My new course Peak Visibility is on Presale now! That means it’s 50% off until July 31, 2024.
This is a master program that doesn’t focus on ONE platform, but on all the pathways you can open up for more eyes on your work.
