GET OVER YOUR FEAR OF BEING VISIBLE

People will judge and criticise you.

They will laugh at your viewpoints and say you don’t know what you’re talking about.

The first time I wrote a guest blog post all these emotions ran through my body.

I was new in business and although I had a 20-year corporate career in Marketing and Sales, with 17 of those years spent on PR as part of my remit – I was still scared to put my views out there.

BUT I knew that if I wanted to grow my business, if I wanted to share my knowledge, insights and (dare I say) wisdom, then I was going to have to take that first step into the unknown.

I knew I had a voice and a viewpoint but that didn’t make it any less scary.

It gets easier…

It took around 6 guest posts for me to start feeling comfortable with my blogs going live on a site that I had no control over. 

And not being able to control the outcome is one of the reasons people stay stuck.

They want guarantees and there are none.

Part of the entrepreneurial journey is living with the fact that there are no guarantees, we take risks every day and the journey inevitably has its ups and downs.

With all that in mind, here’s three steps you can take to get over your fear of being visible:

Step 1 – Ask yourself the key question

The first step towards overcoming apprehension about GETTING VISIBLE is understanding where your fear is coming from.

Ask yourself: ‘What am I really afraid will happen?’

Get as much clarity as you can about where your concerns and worries are coming from. You may need to sit with this for a while and keep digging deeper until you find answers that make the most sense.

Think about possible situations that have contributed to your fear.

It could come from your school days, sibling rivalry or from the workplace.

The ideas you land on don’t have to involve major events, it could just be that certain sentiments have taken root and you believe them to be true even though they really aren’t true at all.

Or maybe your answer to the question is based on a viewpoint you’ve created by being an observer of certain behaviour.

Or perhaps it is simply a lack of prior experience that’s giving you most cause for concern. It could be that you have never done something like a Facebook LIVE, written a blog, or been a guest on a podcast etc and you are quite understandably scared of the unknown.

Step 2 – Be okay with discomfort

If you want to be more visible, you have to recognise that you are going to feel some level of discomfort because you’re doing something that’s new and challenging. There’s every chance it won’t be as bad as you’d expected but it will still take some getting used to.

In a sense, the reason it’s uncomfortable is that our brain is trying to protect us. Our brain is always trying to keep us safe from harm and any attempt at sudden change sends our brain into a bit of a spin because it prefers more familiar, less risky scenarios. 

In these situations, our brain uses the same neural pathways that it uses when we experience physical pain. Our brain doesn’t distinguish between real pain, for example, falling over, to perceived pain, for example, someone not leaving a comment on our blog post.

Because our brain thinks we are in danger it stops us from doing the things we need to do by focussing our attention elsewhere. That’s why, for example, we procrastinate, make excuses and do everything else before we do the thing that is going to start making you more visible – and potentially more vulnerable in certain ways.

What you need to do to counteract this is recognise how you might feel but decide that you are going to do it anyway and push through those feelings of discomfort.

You will definitely feel much better once you have done it. You will also probably realise that it wasn’t that bad after all and you may even get to a point where you will enjoy putting yourself out there more – whether it’s via Facebook LIVES, guest blogging or any other visibility enhancing activity. 

Step 3 - Break it all down and trust the process

I am a great believer in taking small steps because when you look back from where you started you will see that you’ve actually taken a huge leap forward. Also, our brains cope better when we take small steps into new adventures.

So when you are faced with being visible and doing something that will take you outside your comfort zone - break that thing down into smaller steps.

Let’s say you want to do Facebook LIVES, you know it will be good for your business and will raise your profile. But the thought of going live on Facebook brings you out in a cold sweat.

Come at it from a slightly different perspective.

Start creating videos that initially are just slides and music – use something like Lumen5 which is a free resource.

You will start to get feedback and views and this will help build your confidence.

Try and create a video every day or every other day – these videos are generally not that long. 

Then create a secret Facebook Group which only you have access to.

Take your best performing video and do a Facebook LIVE into your secret group that no one else can see or have access to.

Watch the video back. Ask yourself, ‘What do you need to change?’

The answer might be nothing but if there are issues then make the changes you want to see. Do the LIVE again and keep repeating the process until you’re happy with the way it’s working.

Then you are ready to go LIVE on your business page or into your group.

Your first Facebook LIVE doesn’t need to be that long – it could be just 60 seconds and from there you can make that next LIVE 70 seconds, then 80 seconds etc.

And if you still feel you are not ready to go LIVE then do a video using something like Zoom where you can pre-record and then upload.

You can ease yourself into any situation and providing you are prepared to keep taking those small steps your comfort zone will grow steadily.

This way, you will not feel like there’s a mountain to climb. Gradually, your confidence will soar, and you will be taking steps towards becoming much more visible, which then allows you to demonstrate your true value and you can build up a reputation for excellence in your area of expertise.

*****************

If you would like to learn more about boosting your visibility then Anita Wong, Debbie Gilbert and myself are running the Business Visibility Summit on Friday 1 February 2019 at The Bull Hotel, Oxford Road, Gerrards Cross, Bucks.

It is going to be an AMAZIING day - we have some BRILLIANT guests lined up, all your food will be catered for throughout the day and there will be lots of interaction with the expert speakers.

Click here to sign up, we would LOVE you to join us.