Get comfortable with visibility as an empath

Today’s Musings on Marketing and Magic starts a 4-part series on “Creating and Sustaining Marketing Presence as an Empath” and this first post focuses on being comfortable with marketing visibility.

This can be really tricky for empaths, sensitives, and introverts who might prefer to stay in the background. What I usually hear from my clients is “I shouldn’t have to promote myself – my work speaks for itself” or “I want to have my products and services in the spotlight. That’s what I want people to focus on.” I get it – I’d rather speak all day about my methods too.

How people make buying decisions

Unfortunately, that’s not how people make buying decisions. Purchases are almost always based on an emotional connection and that isn’t achieved by passively waiting to have your work discovered or just talking about your products and services. When you go to someone’s website, do you read up on all their method information as a first step? I know for myself, the very first thing I usually do is check out their “about” page. I want to get a feel for them. And that’s what visibility is about – allowing potential clients to get a sense of who you are.

Our fear around visibility

Which brings up the fundamental question behind it: what is your fear around visibility? For myself, it was the fear of being judged. I thought “if I put myself into the spotlight, I will be judged for who I am and what I am talking about.” As I kept working through that fear, a bunch of old stuff came up that I needed to let go of, but it also brought forward the question “for the sake of what am I actually doing this?” I had been dancing with that question for a very long time, but as I let go of more and more of the fear, it became really clear to me: my for the sake of what is about generative transformation of business – the possibility of creating businesses in a way that is beyond anything that has ever existed before.

Have you ever heard the expression “feel the fear and do it anyway?” That’s the motto I eventually embraced to get out there with my message. There’s still some fear, but my for the sake of what is now bigger than that fear and it has allowed me to take the leap into increased visibility.

What is your for the sake of what?

In the next post of this series on “Creating and Sustaining Marketing Presence as an Empath”, I take a look at what marketing presence actually means and the vulnerability of standing out.

Until then, be magical!