The Cinderella guide to getting visible in business

A recent Working Women Club event at Eastthorpe Hall in Mirfield had visibility as its theme. One of the biggest challenges we all face in business is this: for our customers, clients, or the right opportunities to find us, we have to be findable in the first place. Yes, footfall helps and word of mouth is wonderful. A well-optimised website doesn’t hurt either. But, the real value and the thing that truly brings a business to life, comes from you being visible. From showing up, sharing what you do, and letting people understand why you do it.

One attendee shared that she wished she could do her job but remain invisible. She didn’t want to promote herself and just wanted to quietly get on with it. I understood that feeling completely but I had to gently challenge it with a story we all know.

Cinderella would not have married Prince Charming if she hadn’t gone to the ball. We all know how the story ends – she showed up, she was visible, and she left her mark behind. But Prince Charming was never going to find her bent over the floor in the basement, head down and scrubbing away, even if she was wearing the ballgown. She needed to be in the ballroom first.

Visibility is no different and sometimes it’s simply about putting on your best outfit, walking into the room where your people are, and being present. That might be a different networking group you haven’t tried yet,  Networking for Good by Fresh Futures, the HD8 Collective, or the Huddersfield BID Huddle are all brilliant for this. It might be co-working somewhere new. I love an hour or two at BigBox Café and more often than not I’ll bump into someone I know. The point is: be in the ballroom.

Another woman at the event worked in skin treatments. It was only during a group exercise, where each person was invited to write a business postcard addressed to a real, specific individual, that she revealed part of her personal story. She had melanoma and it was that experience which had led her to her work, to treating skin with the respect and care it genuinely deserves.

She told me, a little shyly, that she had shared this story on Instagram and it had gone viral, racking up thousands of views. People are naturally curious. We are, all of us, genuinely nosy about other people’s lives and it is so often the things we have overcome, the raw, real, personal things,  that generate the most connection. I asked how many times she had shared that story since it went viral. The answer was none.

I encouraged her to be more repetitive about it. In a world that is relentlessly noisy, we need stories to come back around again and again before they truly stick.

Inspired by my own advice,  as I often have to be,  I tried the “yapping” trend on Instagram, where you simply speak directly and unedited into the camera about something that matters to you. I shared my own story: how I went from sleeping on a mattress on a landing to building The Career Remote®. I had my wobbles before pressing post. Even a confidence coach has moments of will anyone actually find this interesting? But it was met with comments and messages and people reaching out. More evidence, if I needed it, that your story is interesting to others  and that sharing it is one of the most powerful ways to become visible.

So, put on the ballgown, walk into the ballroom and tell people how you got there.