Ease Into Visibility With This Visibility Layering Technique

Who Am I? What is my message? What am I all about? Who is my audience, and how do I then choose visibility opportunities that are going to align with that audience? How do I know what to say when I get on podcasts or when I'm pitching for media, or when I even go to a networking event and introduce myself? How do I answer that question?

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.

So I thought I would do something really fun for the podcast this week, which was to recorded live with listeners. So I have some listeners in the studio with me, and at the end, we're gonna do some Q and A which may or may not be shared on the live podcast. But just wanted to let you know that if you are a listener of entrepreneur school, sometimes we do fun things like this, and in order to find out about those, you need to be on my email list. So if you head to ksco.ca You will find a variety of different ways you can get on the email list. I have free visibility tools that you can access and then you will get in the know on all the fun things that are happening.

So before we dive into today's episode, which is all about my visibility layering technique and how you can take the overwhelm out of visibility and build on what you are doing one layer at a time. I have to tell you a story about cake. So let's talk about cake. It was my oldest daughter's fourth birthday, and first of all, a little PSA for all the parents out there. Don't look at Pinterest before a kid's birthday party. It like is designed to just make you feel bad, because if you don't have, like, the perfect themed birthday and the matching crafts and like the goodie bags and all the things, you just feel like you are a terrible parent. At least that's how I feel. And so I now have a rule that there's no Pinterest for birthday parties. Also, children's birthday parties are not my favorite things. So I've just learned what works for me, right? And that's really part of part of the observation, too, and it totally relates to how you do visibility. But in this moment, I thought I was going to make my daughter a cake, and she had requested a strawberry Moana cake. That was like, What is a strawberry Moana cake? I don't know what that is, so I talked to a friend, and she suggested, well, maybe you just, like, make an angel food cake, slap on some cool whip and some strawberries and, like, stick a Moana in it and call it a day. But I was like, Yes, that sounds totally doable. Fast forward to like, 11pm the night before the birthday, and I have this oversized, completely inedible donut on my hands. If you've never made angel food cake, don't try. It's just, it's not a beginner cake, for sure, so I essentially threw it out, and the next morning, I went to the grocery store and I bought a big slab cake pre made a container of strawberries, and I stuck a Moana on a popsicle stick, put it in that cake. And my daughter was thrilled, like she literally talked about this cake for years, like it was her favorite cake, and here I had tried so hard to complicate it. And the way that this pulls back into visibility is that you really need to simplify things, right? And that's what worked simplifying it.

Sometimes this is how visibility feels. You think you need all of the pieces to be perfect from the start, your content, your message, like a ready moment, but often it's really just about starting where you are and building those small, intentional layers over time. I want to share a couple more examples of how I have grown visibility in layers and the way that this has played out for my business, just to show you and for context, right? Like visibility is something I constantly hear everyone saying, I need more. I need to figure that out. But also it feels intimidating and like it has to be flashy and in front of everybody, and way out there, and so maybe it feels like two. Big to get started. But the reality is, it does take time to build all of this up. And so this is not a like tomorrow you're gonna go and pitch like, the biggest podcast you think you can get on, or the biggest stage you think you can get on and like, start there. No, we can't do that. So where I started, and when I talk about my visibility kind of journey. I think back to summer 2023 when my kids were home from school and I didn't have them in a bunch of camps, so I knew like they were going to be, you know, around a lot, and so I was going to have to be really intentional about the visibility that I was taking so that I could continue to make progress, build momentum, and have a September where my business didn't feel like it had been ignored for the whole summer. Because, you know, side note, what you do now, the results happen in the next two to three months, ultimately, like that's where you are looking at in terms of building this up.

So for me, that looked like doing a PR pitch about my podcast. The show, this show that you're listening to, it was only a little baby. Was six months old. It had a couple 1000 downloads, 30 episodes, or something like that. And so not really big. And I could tell myself all those things like, Oh, this isn't a big deal. This isn't like hitting all of these numbers that big podcasts do, so therefore it's like, not newsworthy. I shouldn't bother talking about it. But I got out of my own way, and I did, and that pitch led to radio coverage, online articles, print paper coverage. Yes, there's still print paper here. I was even on the front page, and that led to big guests being on my show, and like growing this platform, which then led to me being able to take that as a case study and pitch myself to speak at an event, which I did last spring in Nashville. So that was a big step, but that wasn't the first step. And that's really the point is that that visibility, it grows over time. It's like ripples, or, as I'm going to go into this analogy of of like building a cake. So if visibility feels overwhelming or like something that you're waiting to be ready for, don't worry, you don't have to do it all at once. You don't need everything to be perfect to get started. And so that's why I'm going to share this visibility layering technique, because it's about building a strong foundation and then adding layers as you go, and letting your visibility grow in a sustainable way.

So the first layer of the cake is called the foundation, right? We're not going to try and be too fancy. Foundation layer, setting up your visibility assets like as in a cake. If you don't have something there, it's not going to work, because this is the foundation that holds everything up. It needs to be solid. It needs to be balanced and ready to support the other layers. So what does this include? It includes clarifying your message, understanding who you are, what you stand for, why people care. This is all the brand work, which is work that I always do with clients no matter what. Because the reality is, when you start thinking about putting yourself out there, you then realize there's other questions to answer, like, who am I? What is my message? What am I all about? Who is my audience, and how do I then choose visibility opportunities that are going to align with that audience? How do I know what to say when I get on podcasts or when I'm pitching for media, or when I even go to a networking event and introduce myself? How do I answer that question? Right? That is all part of the foundation, and it is important to get that clarity, because likely, that's actually what's probably keeping you from leaning into visibility even more. And part of this can also be creating some of those initial assets, like website, landing page, bio, setting up social media profiles, like, even if you're not heavily relying on social media, which, if you've been here for a hot minute, you know that's not what I recommend, but I do still think it's important to have an online presence, and that's where people can come and connect with you. So essentially, you get all of the pieces in place that when you go out and do quote, visibility. The things that's pointing back to you are set up and they're there, and they're consistent and cohesive for you. So we make sure that all of these assets are clearly communicating your value, and you're ready for people to start noticing you. So building all that out right is a really important exercise too, because the clarity that you get from going through that process helps you to build more confidence and be more sure about where you want to start focusing your efforts when it comes to visibility.

So the second layer then is connection, and that's all about. Building relationships and awareness. So we got filling now, right? So, you know, I'm going to share that actually, my mom's favorite cake was black forest cake. So it's a chocolate cake, and then there's a layer of like, cherry. Like, yeah, sugary cherry. So basically, and whipped cream, and then another layer of chocolate, and then on the outside, you've got cream and you've got sometimes sprinkles and sometimes chocolate flakes, and more cherries, delicious. So anyways, the the connection layer is that cherry layer in the middle, and that's what's bringing the flavor and the connection to all the layers and holding together different parts of the cake, right? So when it comes to visibility your connection layer is really networking, forming connections with key people in your industry, potential peers, affiliate partners, collaborators, reaching out and making those connections, maybe finding partnerships, maybe finding ways that you can just start those relationships with people to help reach more of your ideal audience, because this is where you can build a warm audience that knows and likes and trusts you. So visibility really starts with people. It's about building relationship that's eventually going to turn into opportunities. You don't need to be on that big stage yet. You're just starting with one on one connections. You're going from there. This is a lot of what I do, especially what can be done in under 10 minutes, right? Like, reaching out to somebody. And you probably already have this person on your list, it's probably been something you have been moving for days or weeks or months on your to do list. Like, oh, I just need to send an email to x person. Like, I gotta call, I gotta call Stacy. Like Stacy has been on my list, and I just keep not emailing Stacy, and I know that once I email Stacy, we're gonna create something together. We're gonna do something together. It's gonna lead to something right? And these, these little reach outs, this is how you maintain relationships with people. If you went to a networking event and you came home with a stack of business cards, you need to connect with those people, right? You need to follow up, build an actual relationship. It doesn't count that you went to the event, you came home and now you don't have like new business friends. You need these business friends. This is truly so much more than just about like connections that you're making, but this is how you build a business. You create these connections, opportunities, ways of like a not feeling alone, but just building that trust, that mutual trust from other people's audiences as well.

So then when we move on to that amplification layer, which is the third layer, this is when we're starting to think about those strategic platforms for visibility and other people's audiences. So for your cake, we're now getting a little fancier. You know, maybe you've actually baked a couple cakes before. Now you're ready to start like doing a double layered cake. As I mentioned, I will not be making any more cakes, and that's fine, but this is a tasty analogy, and I wanted to go with it. So the second layer, this is the height. This is a substance. This makes the cake stand out. It creates more impact, a more like contrasting, delicious experience to eat it. So when it comes to the visibility, your amplification layer is guest speaking opportunities, getting on podcasts, being interviewed, media features. Maybe you're contributing content to other platforms. You're collaborating with larger audiences. You're finding people who have you know bigger things going on that you can start being part of, that you can step up into so this should feel like more of a stretch. This should feel like not what you're doing on day one, but like you know your 60 to 90 day longer term goal for what kind of visibility you want to achieve. Maybe you're a writer. You like to write things out so you could be guest blogging or writing articles, contributing to publications that take in guest writers, those kinds of things, but essentially, this is a phase where you can focus on collaborations that amplify your visibility. So again, podcasts, joint ventures, guest blogs, cross promotions, just working with other people and reaching their audiences right away. When you think about connecting with other people's audiences, you need to know that that means you have an automatic trust that is passed on to you. So when people have already like gathered the people that you want to reach, they've built relationships, and they're just saying, Hey, have you met my friend? Fill in the blank, and as soon as fill in the blank comes in, let's say Janelle. Have you met Janelle? Well, Janelle now has more credibility right away, just because I introduced her to you, because you already trust me, right? And so that is a magic. Pull not to be overlooked and not to be taken for granted. Part of growing your visibility through other people, and that's why creating those relationships and those like collaborations and connections is so important. And why, obviously, you have to do that first. You don't get to skip to using somebody else's audience like I get pitched multiple times a day with guests for this show, and I rarely accept those cold pitches, not just because, quite honestly, a lot of them are really terribly written and they're not customized to my audience, because I don't know the person, and I have plenty of people that I want to bring on to the show who I do know and trust and know can add value to you, and that I want to share with you, and that we can also, like do something collaboratively together as well. So that's a really important thing to consider, is like, you don't really get to just skip to the front of the line, right? So, which I'm putting out there as a way of saying it's a good thing that you start small and you grow your way up, right? It's not just it. That's the only way to do it, really.

So let me get to the final layer of your cake. This is the icing. This is the momentum layer, where you're starting to build consistency, where you're creating follow up an ongoing visibility icing. It makes the cake look polished. It gets people's attention. It's like the delicious extra pieces, maybe on a fancy cake, they're getting like MOBA fondant, and it looks like whatever they make it look like. But essentially, from your visibility perspective, like momentum is when you step into thought leadership, you're starting to show up as an expert. You're on larger platforms. Maybe you're speaking at events or getting featured in media. It's that top layer, the visual appeal, that gets you noticed and invites people to engage with you on a different level, on a deeper level, and this is important, like you're creating a system now for staying top of mind as well, so your momentum is also the place where you get to move from maybe just being pitching and like reaching out and doing all of that legwork to starting to receive invitations as well. There's an amazing shift that happens once you've been putting yourself out there for long enough, and you've started making those connections, you're going to start getting invitations. Things are going to start happening for you. It's going to become easier. It's not intimidating, it's it's just who you are now. You just are a person who gets visible, who focuses on that, and it doesn't feel like it takes up all of your time. It doesn't feel like you are always hustling for visibility. It's just coming with ease. You're regularly connecting, following up on collaborations, keeping those visibility efforts going, not letting the opportunities go cold, right?

And you're building habits. This is one thing that's so important, building habits around showing up consistently, even when you don't want to, even if you're you can do what you can do, right? And it keeps that momentum building over time. And this is truly like the magic piece that I love when I see the results from this, and like, when it comes to how this actually plays out. What we know about habit building from books like atomic habits and all of the research that has been done about how to get yourself to, like, start doing something different that you're not currently doing. So, like visibility, if you're not currently focused on visibility, how do you build a habit around it? Well, first of all, it's by taking it one step at a time, doing this layering approach, and also committing to it for a longer period of time, for 60 to 90 days. And that's why I always recommend the 90 day window. It helps you to really create amazing results. That's why that's the length of my program, as well brand visibility accelerator. So once you start doing it, and you get consistent at it, you let it grow over time, you're going to have this amazing cake. It's going to feel easier. It's going to be something that you do without hesitation, at the top of your list on a daily basis in less than 10 minutes a day. Truly like the beauty of this visibility layering technique is it's not about diving head first or feeling like you need to be everywhere at once, either. Right? It's about building that visibility over time, just like the layers of this cake and each step takes sets a strong foundation. It allows you to grow your momentum without the pressure of needing to have everything figured out from day one, right? And I get it because so many entrepreneurs hold back on visibility. They don't feel ready, or it seems too overwhelming, or like. Need all of these pieces in place before you get started. But I hope that you can see that with this technique, you don't have to wait till you're 100% ready, because part of the process is creating that foundation and creating that clarity and your plan right Getting started is what builds your readiness and your confidence. When you start small, you build consistency, and before you know it, those layers are stacking up and your visibility is working for you.

You don't have to figure it out all on your own, and that is why I created the brand visibility accelerator. I've been talking about it on the podcast. I've been sharing about it in my emails, and I'm just going to share one more little summary of what this program is, because we're taking this visibility technique and applying it directly to your business, so you get a personalized strategy that you follow step by step. No more second guessing, no more trying to do everything at once with my personal support to build a tailored plan that grows your presence in a way that feels sustainable and fits your strengths Right. Like the whole conversation we've been having is about how I no longer make cake, and that is also a metaphor for like, not doing the things that you don't want to do. When it comes to visibility, you still have to find ways that are going to work, that are going to actually get you the results that you want, but also fit with your strengths. And usually that's the space where we talk about how it doesn't have to be social media. This is not about posting more or getting showing your face more online. It's about building relationships and doing what is going to work for your specific business. So I know that visibility can feel intimidating, but part of the way that this is built in BVA is that you have 90 days of support and guidance to make it happen. And even more, I am giving you absolutely everything that I use to grow my visibility, the tools, the templates, the systems and even access to my network, my platforms and my audience to help you amplify your message. So I don't know about you, but I am tired of programs that make you figure everything out on your own, and that's why I wanted this to be a really supportive container with a small and dedicated group of entrepreneurs working alongside you, plus live calls with me to guide you through every step of your visibility layers.

So there are still a few more founding member spots available, which are at a very special rate. And once those are filled, the price is going to go up. So if you feel like you're ready to stop waiting and start building your visibility foundations now, before you feel ready, then this is your chance. Let's make your visibility simple, layered and totally aligned with who you are and where you're going. You can get to the program application by going to KSC, o.ca, forward, slash, BVA, and apply for your spot. We'll have a conversation. Make sure it's a good fit for you, and I can't wait to help you build your visibility with confidence and momentum.

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.