Entrepreneur School

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on my year in business and visibility. Spoiler: 2024 wasn’t a banner year financially, but it was full of lessons, exploration, and rediscovery. I’m sharing my honest reflections, from visibility strategies that worked to the tough moments of figuring out what truly lights me up in my business.

You’ll hear about the visibility experiments I tested, the results I saw (and didn’t see), and why staying consistent—even during a year of uncertainty—was my non-negotiable. If you’re looking for insights on building visibility in a way that feels aligned and sustainable, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Why visibility is the first step in the sales cycle and why it matters even in challenging times.
  • The strategies I leaned on in 2024: collaborations, speaking, podcasting, and in-person networking.
  • How one visibility challenge led to a speaking opportunity in Nashville.
  • Honest reflections on what didn’t work, including lessons learned from a collaboration that felt misaligned.
  • Key takeaways to help you build a visibility strategy that aligns with your strengths and supports your business goals.

This episode was originally recorded for an online event called “The Great Debrief” by Cat Griffin. Check her out here.

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>>RESOURCES YOU’LL LOVE<<

Ready to get visible without relying on social media? Get your custom plan and apply for the Brand Visibility Accelerator!

Kickstart your visibility plan without social media! Grab our Ultimate Roadmap to Visibility Off Social bingeable audio course.

Want to save time creating content? Snag The Simplified Content System for only $47!

Time to elevate your brand? Book a coffee chat to explore working with Kelly

>>THANKS FOR LISTENING!<<

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Transcript
Kelly Sinclair:

One thing I did stay consistent with was visibility. Because no matter where I am in my business, I know visibility is essential. I will say this part again, if people don't know about you, they can't buy from you.

Kelly Sinclair:

This is the Entrepreneur School podcast, where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you, the emerging or early stage entrepreneur, on your journey from solopreneur to CEO while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair, and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under three. I'm a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short to waste doing things that burn you out on this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to Entrepreneur School.

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So I want to get a little tactical with you now. You're probably like, she's a Visibility Coach. What are her favorite things to do, right? Here's a quick rundown of the strategies that I focus on this year. Number one, collaborations, my favorite way to grow, to build new relationships, to make a connection with someone, and just really talk about, how can I add more value to you, and what you're trying to do, right? Because that doesn't feel salesy at all, either it just gives you an opportunity to say, hey, I have this expertise or this skill set, and I can come in and, you know, speak in your community, be part of your Summit, contribute something to your digital bundle, offer whatever it is. Those are all fantastic ways. One of my favorite ways speaking, both in person and online. For me, it's about positioning as a thought leader. And anybody who has a business where you sell your expertise, you sell your brain, someone has to believe that you know what you're doing in order to buy from you. This is definitely a core aspect of your visibility is, is getting out there and showcasing what you know really how smart you are. That's what that's all about.

Kelly Sinclair:

Podcasting. For me, as a podcast host, it's really great because I create weekly long form content that helps me to continue mastering my messaging, figuring out the ways that I'm talking about things, and also having a platform then where I can exchange that for somebody else is I do a lot of podcast swapping, like, let's be on each other's shows and give each other the spotlight. And that works really well, too. And then my favorite thing that so many people overlook, because we are in this digital space all of the time, is in person events and networking. So these have been total game changers for me, for building credibility in my local community, like, don't forget, there are people who are literally outside of your door, they're down the street, they're meeting in coffee shops. They're doing these things, and you could tap into them in a totally different way than you can tap into the people that you're depending on an algorithm to be seen to, to be shown to, right? So on a monthly basis, I track everything. I think that's really important. Actually, I'm going to show you, this wasn't part of what I prepared, but I happened to be standing right above my calendar because. Excuse me as I wiggle this around for a second. You know this is legit when, right? I have, I have one of these for every single month. It's like $1 store tabletop calendar. And every day I write down what I did that day that has to do with visibility, whether it's applying for something, recording something this recording, this summit, will be on that list, for sure. Those kinds of things, and it just keeps me accountable, right? But when I look at my overall year, I probably do two collabs every single month, so something like a bundle or a summit, plus, I'll record a few podcasts with other people. And those always come out whenever they come out, depending on the production schedule, when I'll attend one to two events. And those could be a virtual event or an in person event. And those could also just be networking calls with individuals that I met. So it doesn't have to just be like you go to a formalized thing, but actually having a conversation, that's where those collaboration relationships can start from, right? So essentially, in my world, something's happening every week where I'm I'm featured somewhere that I could be building my audience, both my audience of potential clients and potential collaboration partners, both need to be considered. So that's sort of my matrix and the back end of my strategy, and you'll notice that I didn't say social media, right? While I use this as a tool, it's not a core part of my strategy. It's not really where I find clients. It's just where I continue to have a presence and where I build relationships with people like once we've already met, basically.

Kelly Sinclair:

So now we want to know the results, right? Me too, some that we don't know yet, so that's okay, but here's where all this visibility has led to and a lot of this is intangible, and I think that that is important to accept. Sometimes the results of what you're doing are intangible, but they are still valuable. So the first one is confidence and clarity. Every opportunity has helped me to refine my messaging and feel more confident in sharing it. And as that builds, that translates into so many other things, like you can go and speak somewhere, and then you're going to have a sales conversation with somebody, and you're going to do way better at it because you've built that confidence through the other actions that you're taking. It's a practice. It's something it's that's happening all the time. The other thing that's really shifted for me, that I look at as a positive result of this is that I'm starting to receive invitations a lot more than I'm having to pitch myself. So I have no problem with, you know, actively seeking opportunities, and you certainly have to start there, but as you start doing stuff, you're going to be seen in all these places, and you're going to start receiving the invitations, like I did a podcast episode A little while ago about how I landed five speaking opportunities in one day zero pitching. And that came from having been in other places, having spent time in other communities, having built relationships with other people. That's where it came from, right? So this is a direct result of that showing up consistently, and it's great. It's great to know that at the end of the day, you can get to a place where people are seeking you out and you're not having to do all of the efforting, which is great.

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You did it. You just listened to another episode of the Entrepreneur School podcast. It's like you just went to business school while you folded your laundry, prepped dinner or picked up your kids at school. Thank you so much for being here. I want to personally celebrate your commitment to growing your business, you can imagine I'm throwing confetti for you right now. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review. Make sure you're subscribed and let us know you're listening by screenshotting this episode and tagging us on Instagram. Head to entrepreneur school.ca. For tons of tools and resources to help you grow your business while keeping your family a priority. You can subscribe to our email list and join our community and until next time go out there and do the thing.