If You Want to Be More Visible in 2025, Do This Now

Mitzi McMahon: 00:00:00

Just take action, even if it's a small action, just take the first step.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:00:04

And specific to visibility, that is exactly what keeps people stuck. We think of visibility as, I'm not ready for it yet, like visibility is not a result. Visibility is a tool to get you there. It's not a thing you get later.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:00:27

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.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:01:13

I am bringing you another tables turned episode where I am the one being interviewed. This is a recording from a summit that I participated in back in the summertime called the let yourself be seen Summit, and we talked a lot about kind of the barriers to visibility, in terms of some of the fears that we have, some of the things that we do that keep us hidden, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and how to move through that from both the mindset perspective. But as you know, if you've been here for any length of time, I'm all about the action taking and how we can use those actions to help us get over that fear, to actually be seen, and to build the momentum that helps you to continue to do that and really build a habit then around visibility and making it part of just what you do on a regular basis. So I talked about proactivity, and it's funny because this is episode is coming out in November, and it was recorded in June, and sometimes that is the amount of time that it takes to leverage and build something up. So all about thinking ahead, and I know that we're getting to that time of the year now where it's either like, let's shut her down. We can't do anything else until January, or you're actually thinking about how to springboard yourself into the new year. And that's what I really encourage you to do when it comes to visibility and thinking about what's that going to look like for you in 2025 because the time to get that sorted is now, and your final few weeks of work, or whatever that looks like for you in 2024 really are important into setting yourself up for success in January. And so that is why I'm inviting you to look into being part of the brand visibility accelerator, because that is what we're all about. There is figuring out your plan for visibility for 90 days and what that looks like. So you can find the link in the show notes to get all the information about becoming a founding member of brand visibility accelerator, and how that's going to support you into 2025 I would love to be part of that journey and enjoy this episode.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:03:53

Welcome to the Let Yourself be Seen, series where we're exploring tips, strategies and solutions so that you can stop hiding in the background and start living out loud, I'm your host. Mitzi McMahon, joining us today is Kelly. Sinclair. Kelly is the podcast host and founder of entrepreneur School, an education hub for women who want to start and grow their brands. Welcome Kelly. So nice to have you.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:04:22

So great to be here. Mitzi, I'm really excited that you're creating this platform to help women really step into being seen, because it's something that we really all struggle with.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:04:32

I hear that and I was kind of when I was coming up for the the theme of this letting yourself be seen is something I've struggled with. It's something all my clients struggle with so I thought it would have broad appeal. And no matter where you are in your trajectory of your career, your life, I think it's really important. So tell us a little bit about what you do in terms of helping entrepreneurs be seen.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:04:58

Yes. So this is. Where my heart lies, for sure, I was saying a little bit in our little pre chat that I have a background in communications and public relations, and I've worked with different types of organizations with helping them get their message out and connect with the audiences that they need to connect with to achieve the goals that they have. And when it comes to small businesses and entrepreneurs, we're wearing so many hats, and we're trying to do all of the things in the reality is we started our business to do the thing our business does, like I just want to be a coach, or I just want to be like a creator, or I just want to be a fill in the blank thing that you do, and then you realize that there's nobody out there promoting you, and that's that's your job too, and so you have to be able to step into that being your number one cheerleader, really, in getting your message out there and in knowing that when you really want to Make the impact with the business that you have, with the message, with the actual service, or the results that you can deliver. The only way to do that is to get clients and is to make sales. It's like it's the barrier between and it's also the thing that kind of keeps us resisting putting ourselves out there too, because we're heart centered, and we want to really help a lot of people, right?

Mitzi McMahon: 00:06:26

So true. So true. I can speak for myself. So I'm a healer, right, doing energy work and other things, and it's almost like two different hats you have to wear. And you know, it's like we need a bridge or someone to show us how to put this hat on and what to do, because you exactly as you said, We're heart centered. We're wanting to do the things that we're called to do, and it's like it's very difficult to overcome those hurdles. So what are some of the strategies that you help your clients with, or what are some of the things that you've seen that they struggle with?

Kelly Sinclair: 00:07:02

Yeah, so a lot of the time, I think we're hung up in the actual in the tactic, where it's like, what is the weight that I can get in front of the people, like, should I be, you know, putting ads out or posting on social media or going to networking events or doing this thing or that thing, like, you know, and a lot of this too, is there's digital stuff, and then there's in person stuff. So depending on what kind of business you have and where you might want to blend those online and offline strategies, I call them, we're kind of hung up in the what. And it's really not that much about the what. The only thing that you need to understand is who your audience is, and that will guide you to where you can find them. And then there's layers of that where you can determine, well, what is actually like in alignment for me, and what does my own strengths allow me to do? Because I'm not going to like, I have worked in communications and marketing for over 15 years and never written the same plan twice, right? There is no formula that is like, if you just do A, B and C things, then you're going to find all the people and make all the sales. It's very much about customizing it to yourself, your own business and your desires, so your audience, your goals and the things that you actually can get yourself to do that where you shine, right? So Mitzi, you're hosting a summit right now, and not everybody is wanting to do that. Not everybody wants to step into a leadership role like that, and put in that kind of effort and be seen on camera and using their voice. That's not everybody's initial strength, like maybe we can work up to that. But, you know, there are people who say, do a summit. A Summit is the way. It doesn't have to be, right? I love what use of other options.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:09:01

Yeah. Sorry to interrupt you. I was just gonna say, I love what you said about we focus on the what that is so true. Because maybe it's because we just have no idea how to get from point A to point B. And so someone, someone else, says, do this. So we go, okay, that's the white. But from what I'm hearing and my own experience. If it doesn't align, it just creates obstacles and hurdles that are just really hard to overcome.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:09:27

Oh, it's so true. Because we're trying to put ourselves then into a box, right? We're like, well, let's just follow the rules. And if I do that, I should be able to get the same results that the person who's selling me this got. And I get that in theory that's like, it's beautiful if you had an amazing result from an experience, and you can teach it to other people, like, go you. But I'm a really big believer in customization and allow, like, providing a roadmap that allows you to make choices and allows you to. To learn and experiment and test and see what your results are, rather than just trying to like stick into a box and a path that somebody else is sharing. Because I know I've tried that too. I've tried all the things I've spent so much money on, all of the different strategies and how to do Facebook ads and how to create this kind of offer and that kind of thing, and it doesn't work when you're not in alignment. And coming into alignment is really about knowing yourself a little bit and doing things that feel good for you, like this should feel good at least, we should be able to get ourselves to make it feel good, right? And we should be allowed to celebrate wins for things that weren't overly complicated, too.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:10:54

There's a couple of points there, one where you said, Having options. I think that's really important, because, like you said, we put ourselves in a box. We get ourselves down this pathway. It doesn't feel good. We feel like we're locked in and we don't know how to pivot and make a different decision. And I also like the point you said about celebrating. I think we don't do that enough, and we've we've been taught that it's not okay to do it, and I think that it's important that when you succeed at something, or even if you try something and it doesn't succeed, but you had the willingness to try it, so now you have that lived experience of this didn't work for me, and taking a moment to acknowledge that, I think it's really important,

Kelly Sinclair: 00:11:34

Yeah, because I have this framework that I call my momentum framework, and it's about like, How to get yourself to actually take action, right? Because this is where we get stuck. We're like, let's sit and think, or, like, take another course, or listen to another like, series of podcasts, or read a book, or whatever we think we're gonna do, like, behind the scenes. And I realized that the most information we can get is from taking action. And how do we get ourselves to take action is to, like, inspire ourselves to feel connected to what we're doing. So here's your reminder that you are a healer, and you can't heal people if they don't know about you, right? And you are whatever you do, and you're not able to do that if people don't know that you exist. So you can't be the impact that you want to make, and also a best kept secret, right? So remind yourself of that, and then go out and do something so small, like take an action, you're going to get a result. And that result might be something epic, and it might be that you got, you've got to know from somebody, or, you know, somebody goes to do or whatever, and again, all of this is like the worst case scenario is somebody said no, and nobody dies. That is that you just have to keep

Mitzi McMahon: 00:12:50

Right, right. But I think we, well, I've seen it, and myself am guilty of this. We make it mean something about us. When someone says no, oh, it's like, okay, I'm fear of being judged, or I'm not good enough for all those things. And I think these are the undercurrents that are in play that for a lot of us, when we're trying to make ourselves seen or we're trying to take action, and I love take your comment about taking action, that's actually, I agree with you 100% that's actually where you get the most information, because you have something to pull from. Now, you tried this, it worked, it didn't, and then, so I think that's just beautiful advice.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:13:32

It's so true, like both of those pieces, that the we do personally attach our own value to the outcomes that we can create, and that is a an ongoing effort to detach from that as a business owner and even like in your career, no matter where you are, you are not the thing that you do. You are a person, and this is part of it, but it's so easy to slip into that being your whole identity, especially when you are an entrepreneur and you're doing this thing because you love it so much and it fulfills you, and it is actually a choice that you're making to pursue this because it gives you something. But still, we have to, kind of like meet our business as a partner instead of as ourselves. And so that way we can kind of pull back a little bit and go, Okay, well, then what I need to do is learn the way that I'm going to be the most successful in making sales and getting the clients that I want to get right. So therefore it becomes like a little bit of an experiment. And how do we do experiments will be test things right? So we have to, we have to create the experiment and the actions that we take are all tests. I love to play this game where I look at something that happened in like, it's like, if I never did x, then I would never would have gotten y. And I can take this all the way back to when I was choosing the high school I went to. I was like, so 13 years old, right? And I was like, I. Go to A or B High School? Well, if I had made the other choice, I would have never met my husband. So I went to high school, I met my husband. It was all because of a choice that I made that I didn't know was going to be that monumental. And so sometimes in business, we're worried about, what action should we take, what is the right strategy? And asking ourselves, like trying to overthink, what is the right strategy when it's almost to me, even more exciting to think it could be literally that you sent an email to someone and that created a partnership that lasted for five years, right? And I have an example that I can share, too, yeah. So when I first started my business, I was like, Okay, how do I start this? Where am I going? How do I tell people I exist? Like, I made a business card that doesn't make anybody, like, hire me.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:15:53

I did that over getting to,

Kelly Sinclair: 00:15:55

Yeah, right. It's like, business cards. Is that a business? Right? Gonna go somewhere with those so I was reading the newspaper, and I found a local event that was happening. It was a co working session for entrepreneurs. So I was like, Cool. I'll go there. I'll meet other entrepreneurs or the people I want to work with. I want to create a, you know, a reputation for myself in my community, first and foremost. And I went there, and the person who was hosting it ended up being my first client. I helped open a co working space. I worked with him for over a year, and that led to my the second meeting that they had. I was like, that was cool. So I went to another one, and I met another client who I worked with for five years, and so did I know that going to that coffee shop that day was going to turn into, like, the entire first five years of my business. No, but it's very cool that it did.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:16:50

Yes, well, and I love this sort of vein about staying curious. That's kind of how the phrase I use with my clients is, we're doing the deep work, you know, just be curious about it. So what would you say to someone who really wants to do these things like go to the coffee shop or go to the the all the things that are out there, but it's just too afraid?

Kelly Sinclair: 00:17:11

Yeah, I want to say, like, I acknowledge this, like we are afraid. And also it's not that big. I, like, nobody ever likes my answer when I'm like, well, just do it right? So true, though, but sometimes, sometimes we have to try and get ourselves out of our own way. So I have this, this thing that I've coined called the future, you mindset now. And I don't know about you, Mitzi, but I hate meal planning. Like, what is for dinner is the worst thing to have to think about every single day. And if you don't pre plan your meals, you're just buying pizza and feeling guilty about that, and it's like a whole downward spiral, right? So Sunday nights, I plan my meals. I don't want to, I don't want to do it ever, but I sit down and I plan out the whole week, because that way, when Thursday rolls around, I'm not buying pizza, and I'm so proud of myself because I've implemented the thing that I made myself do that was uncomfortable and I didn't like it for, like, the 30 minutes that it took me on a Sunday, right? So you got to think about future you, future you and and how much you can pat yourself on the back, for back, for doing that thing right? Like this session is being recorded on June 10, but whoever's listening to it is way past that. It's in July. It's maybe later. We're doing all of these things proactively, because that's what it takes. It's for the future version of you and the people that I get to meet because of doing this now, right? And so just thinking about that, I also think about it. Sometimes it's even as like, you know when you're changing your bed sheets, but you forget to actually put the new sheets on. You go up to bed at 1030 and nine, you're like, oh, yeah, who wants to do that? Remember? You actually remember to put the fresh sheets on. You climb into your bed, and you're like, and you're like, Oh, this is the best, right? Do it for future you. Because even if the you right now doesn't want to go to the networking thing, doesn't want to send the email, doesn't want to fill out the application for the summit, do it for future you.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:19:18

I love that. I love both analogies you gave that the meal planning and the sheets, yeah, taking just a few minutes, or however long it takes beforehand. So I'm assuming that if someone is we could take this, if someone wants to do the things, maybe if they sat down and planned ahead of time some things they could try, some strategies they could do, or applications they could fill out like beforehand, and then make it a plan and work through that through the week. What's your take on that?

Kelly Sinclair: 00:19:47

Well, I think that visibility is actually a habit, right? So if you think about it like that, it's something that you have to practice, is something that you have to commit to and do regularly. And this is actually where I came up with my. A framework called the visibility tour method, where, like, last summer, I was like, Well, I don't really want to work all that much, but I want to make sure that I don't show back up in September and have, like, to start from scratch. You know that feeling where I'm like, Oh, I took time off. So how can I identify how to do one thing per day that's going to help move the needle. So the parameters for this are, this involves another human. Somebody else needs to know this is not listening to that. It's not the internal stuff or the consuming. It's actually putting yourself out there. And either, you know, reaching out to get an opportunity, going to an event, committing to doing something in the future where you're going to be involved, like buying a ticket to something, that kind of thing. Then these things really can take under 10 minutes a day, but it's all of the momentum that's built from taking these actions. And so like last summer, I ended up the very first thing I challenged myself to do, being that I have a background in PR and have a podcast entrepreneur school. I wanted to talk about the podcast in the media, so I reached out to the local media. And I was like, hey, my podcast is six months old last year at the time, and this is what it's about. This is who it's for. And I got amazing coverage. It turned into, turned into a radio interview, two online articles and a half page in the print paper, and they even put me on the front page like as a mention in this edition. So it was huge. That's awesome. It wasn't just that I was like, first of all, felt really pumped, right, because of the excitement around being able to, like, experience this and leverage this, and since it was about my podcast, I'm doing the whole connecting the dots back from like, if I never did that, what would have not happened? Well, my podcast rating spiked. I got pitched from a company that was representing a really big guest, like multi million dollar entrepreneur who was, like, just casually mentioned that he was going to be on the Joe Rogan show after mine. And I was like, same caliber, not really, but that's cool. But I challenged myself to do that interview, and that interview got me all excited. And then after that, I saw this speaking opportunity that I really wanted, where I used this whole thing as a case study to talk about PR for your podcast, and I got myself a speaking opportunity in Nashville, and in person in Nashville, and I've never been to Nashville. I've always wanted to go. And so, like the whole thing, just from that manifested all the way into me flying to Nashville and speaking to a group of mom podcasters just a couple months ago.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:22:51

Wow, wow. What an amazing story. And just from the playing your sort of what if game, what if you know, and also I like what you said before, like your future version of self that plays in, comes into play here, too, just having the ability to visualize or to dream and to see and pull that in and sort of like if we took fear off the table, what might this look Like, right? I love that idea. Wow, that's pretty amazing. All of that results came from.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:23:26

It's the momentum, right? Because, like, one thing happens, then you see, and then your energy changes, and, you know, being a healer, like, yeah, you know, the power of that. Like, this is the the subtext that we're not necessarily thinking about, but that absolutely has so much to do with it, right? And it was like, I didn't say in any of those things. I didn't say I got 10 clients, or I made $100,000 or any of that, none of that. It was just this other momentum, which is getting me into, like, a visibility position that I want to be in because that aligns with my goals as wanting to be a speaker, more, you know, really growing my podcast, doing things like that. This is all in alignment. It all supports it.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:24:10

Wow, yeah, it's beautiful. What a beautiful falling out or ripple effect, just one thing that if you follow through on one thing, especially the things that sort of light us up right and going back to what we talked about before we get so hung up in the what I know I experienced this, the what, what am I going to do? Or and it sort of ends up boxing us in so that the things that light us up, we don't pay attention to them. We don't notice them when they come in. So finding a way to just connect back to the what lights us up maybe is a place to start for someone who's looking,

Kelly Sinclair: 00:24:47

Yeah, yeah. And this is exactly like, why I support people the way I do through my like membership and program. It's about like, creating that consistency and building it up and just having. To support, like, it's really about accountability. That's what I'm good at supporting people with. Like, we can talk about strategies. We can figure out what exactly is going to be the best way for you to move forward, but at the end of the day, showing up and taking action is going to have the biggest impact for you.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:25:15

Accountability is a big deal. We sort of put it on the back burner. Don't put a lot of weight to it, but that's actually the thing that helps you take action, right? Being willing to show up and either say, Yes, this worked. This didn't work. I did this, or didn't do this. All of those things are really important. Yeah, what sort of advice would you like to leave us with? Those that are watching, that might be wanting to be more visible. I just not maybe sure where to start.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:25:44

I think to summarize our conversation, it really is about momentum and habit building and so taking that first little step that helps you move towards where you want to be. So if you can think about your goals, think about your big picture, get really excited again and remind yourself that in order to get there, you're gonna have to do some stuff. We can just sit around and strategize and learn our ways to the to the results that we want. We need to take action, and action doesn't have to be a big hurdle. It's like a baby step at a time that puts you into momentum and puts you into motion, right? And that creates, like, there's physics around this that's really happening, right? You're, you're going to see results. You're going to start, you know, getting that energetic connection and all of the pieces that come into place and really confidence is a result of it. All right, the more that you put yourself out there, the more comfortable you add are at it. And, you know, I've heard it said before, like, confidence isn't is like, it's a result, it's a state of mind. It's not something that you have or don't have, you create it.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:26:58

I love what you said about taking in more information, or this is how I heard it. There's a lot of us that if we take one more course, if we learn one more thing, and I think that's we use that as a way to keep hiding, right? We just, I get one more thing, then I'll be ready. But actually, for your comments, just just take action, even if it's a small action, just take the first step.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:27:22

And specific to visibility, that is exactly what keeps people stuck. We think of visibility as, I'm not ready for it yet, like visibility is not a result. Visibility is a tool to get you there. It's not a thing you get later.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:27:37

Oh, I love that

Kelly Sinclair: 00:27:39

you get it.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:27:40

I love that. That's a huge perspective shift. That's really cool,

Kelly Sinclair: 00:27:44

right? Like, if an author didn't go on a book tour because they hadn't sold enough books yet,

Mitzi McMahon: 00:27:51

they're never going to sell the books, right? Books, right?

Kelly Sinclair: 00:27:55

We're getting visible to sell the books.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:27:57

Right, right? Well, this has been awesome having you. Thank you so much. You have a free gift you'd like to offer our audience? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Kelly Sinclair: 00:28:07

Yes, absolutely. So again, around the tactics and getting stuck on the what there is this narrative that we all have that is, will we need to be on social media, and I'm supposed to be doing all this stuff on social media, and I am not into it, so, oh, yay. I created an audio course called The Ultimate Roadmap to Visibility Off Social, and it talks about the different tools that you can use that aren't social media reliant, that aren't you know, you stuck in an algorithmic game where you feel guilty all the time for not showing up online like you can use social media. But how do we shift the way we look at that into having a digital presence without relying on social media to build our business?

Mitzi McMahon: 00:28:54

Oh, I love that. I could hear like a collective sigh from our watchers. Is there listening to this, because I think, you know, social media is its own beast, and it actually brings to the forefront this fear of being seen because we're putting ourselves out there. So I love that there's an alternative.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:29:12

Yes, maybe there's about six different strategies in there that aren't social media.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:29:18

Wow, awesome. Any last words of wisdom you'd like to leave us with.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:29:23

You know, I feel like I have to say just, kind of like my tagline, which is, just go do the thing, because your gifts are no good hidden.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:29:35

I love that.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:29:36

You need to share them with the world.

Mitzi McMahon: 00:29:37

I love it. Go do the thing. That's great. Well, thanks so much for being here, Kelly. It was wonderful having you. For those that are watching, the link to pick up Kelly's awesome gift is below, so be sure to tune back in to catch the rest of our let yourself be seen series. Thanks for watching you.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:30:00

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 entrepreneurschool.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 you.