Feel the Fear and Be Visible Anyway

Jessica Killingley is a publishing consultant and literary agent who helps entrepreneurs write and publish game-changing books that grow their business, create lasting impact and establish them as the go-to expert in their niche.

Sadly, we are not handed a manual on ourfirst day of ‘my grown-up entrepreneurialadventure’.

But if we were; chapter 1 of ‘The Dummies’ Guide to Starting A Business Without doing Ugly Crying Whilst Eating All the Biscuits’ would almost certainly be all about VISIBILITY. In shouty capital letters.

Because if it weren’t all hard enough just getting the moving parts working, you quickly realise that you have to do it whilst everyone is looking at you.

We are constantly bombarded with reminders from all quarters that if we want to be found by our unicorn clients then we have to be VISIBLE. Again, with the shouty capital letters. Which, for those of us that started a business so we could spend most of our days sitting in our back bedroom being left alone, is a bit of a blow.

Visibility so often goes hand-in-hand with vulnerability. Even the most benign bit of social media can feel excruciatingly exposing when you’re first starting out. It is a rite of passage we all go through; being quietly sick into your home office bin shortly before and after your first Facebook live.

All I can say is, it does get easier. And, of course, the beauty of those early days when you’re putting yourself out there, and you can’t actually remember your own name, is that there isn’t really anyone watching anyway. So, mess up to your heart’s content!

Most of the clients I work with tend to have got to the point where they can take the whole visibility thing in their stride.

They’ve honed their message, they know what medium works best and they’ve found their tribe. Easy, right? Ha. Now it’s time to throw a book-shaped spanner into the works.

Suddenly being visible is one thing but being visible because you’ve written a book sends even the most experienced entrepreneur to run and hide behind a big rock marked ‘imposter syndrome’. All those original fears come flooding back - What if it’s terrible? What if I sound stupid? What if people laugh at me? What if my old English teacher leaves a review on Amazon saying ‘See? I knew you’d never amount to anything and this terrible book is proof that I was right. Mwahaha’, etc.’.

There’s no question that writing a book is one of the most exposing things you can do. And you know who else agrees with me?

Every single author since the dawn of the printing press. Maybe earlier. Maybe there were monk’s fretting about their illuminated letters because they were really bad at doing the ’S’. So, here’s what I tell them. The clients. Not the monks. But I’d have told the monks this too:

You have a message to share. And you have a unique voice with which to share it. You might be the perfect messenger at just the right time for someone. They need to hear what you have to say and they need to hear it right now, in just the way you’ve expressed it. So, if you don’t put yourself out there, if you don’t push past the vulnerability, if you don’t make yourself and your book visible (see? doesn’t have to be shouty capital letters) then that person is going to lose out. You’re not going to change their game. (And if you don’t change their game, then you’re not going to change YOUR game).

Because when it really matters most visibility is not just about being seen. It is about seeing. Seeing those around you that you can impact, that need your help. Those that need you to find the courage to push past what makes you want to hide out in your back bedroom and get out there where they can see you.

Find Jessica online at www.JessicaKillingley.com or sitting quietly in her back bedroom where she can usually be tempted out by coffee or a very dirty martini.