10 Visibility Blockers Stunting Your Business Growth and Success

Visibility is absolutely key in your business.

If you want more success, more revenue and more sales, people need to know you exist. Period.

The more visibility you have for attracting and meeting — and connecting with — new fans, new followers, new potential clients, new customers, the more money you’re going to make, the more authority you’re going to have, the more demand for your work.

Business is a math project and visibility is a big part of the equation.

So if business is a numbers game and visibility is a numbers project, then we need to get to the bottom of your visibility blockers.

I’ve given this a lot of thought over the past year in my role as a business strategist for creative entrepreneurs — who tend to be humble and diminish their work — who want to uplevel, grow or pivot their brand.

As long as there are visibility blockers at play your business is not going to grow as fast as you would like.

10 Visibility Blockers Stunting Your Business Growth and Success

ALGORITHMS

The number one visibility blocker that we must talk about is the elephant in the room and that’s algorithms.

Algorithms are the tools that social media giants — all the internet gods like Google, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, or whatever channel you use — use to keep you on their platform and determine what show up shows up in your feed, timeline or search results.

When you do a Google search, the algorithm there is what is going to come up in your search and what it’s going to look like. Same thing on Facebook, what shows up in your timeline, but what Facebook is willing to give to you is based on an algorithm a computerized system that determines what you will see.

Now, I am against algorithms in that I really believe we are grown adults who can choose what we want to see and how we want to see it. But that’s not how they make money. So algorithms are determined by each individual platform, and they have a method to their madness.

How is this a visibility blocker for you?

Well, if the content you’re putting out on social or on Google is not meeting their standards, then only a few people are going to see it. And, that is a huge blocker. You have great content — I know you do — but if it is not what the algorithms want or are rewarding, then you are substantially less visible. And that is just the way of the game.

There’s a few tricks to the system that the marketing gurus are selling but the bottom line is if you’re creating brave, bold content — which is the work that I love to do with my clients around your branding, your messaging, your core themes — all of that is going to show up and the right people are going to find your stuff. This how you cultivate demand and grow your visibility.

If that’s how you show up, it doesn’t matter whether the algorithm is your bestie or not. It just matters that you’re doing the right content for your potential client. That’s what matters.

TIME AND TIME SCARCITY

A second visibility blocker is time and time scarcity.

So visibility is probably the hardest thing we can do and practice in our businesses, especially for solopreneurs. Companies with a big marketing team won’t have as much of an issue in this but if you’re a solopreneur, which is most of my clients, and it’s what I am as well, time and time scarcity can really be a huge visibility blocker.

Visibility takes time, intention and practice. It can’t be shoved into the edges of our days.

But, it competes with a lot of things — such as client customer service and delivery.

You’re gonna have to take time away from the day to day stuff that you are already doing in order to make space in order to get on the schedules and in order to put yourself out there so if you’re going to go to an event or if you want to speak or if you want to be on podcast time and time scarcity is a huge factor in your in your visibility blocker.

Now with this is the other side of this when you have enough time when you have an abundance of time to create and to really put yourself out there you are going to see more visibility, so less time, less visibility and more time, more visibility.

FEAR OF …

The third visibility blocker is fear.

We tend to let fear get in our way if we start to think about everything that can go wrong if we are seen more or take up more space or put ourselves out there. And there’s a whole list of fears that I have been thinking about and talking about with clients that prevent us from putting ourselves out there.

Fear is one of those visibility blockers that once it gets in your head — unless you work with the root of it — it’s going to keep bubbling up over and over and that’s isn’t great for the long game of your business. I was talking to a recent client about fear of getting on stage and speaking in front of a group — a common fear that will keep coming up until you address it.

A Negative Mindset

With fear is another visibility blocker which is your mindset.

If you have a mindset that you know social media is bad and you never want to be on it, and you hate it and that’s just the way it’s going to be then your mindset is yeah, you’re not gonna like social media and it’s not going to be for you. And that is going to be a visibility blocker.

Same thing if your mindset is you know, I don’t need to go out and, and network I hate networking. Networking is hard. It’s you know, I always hate the people that I have to talk to. If your mindset is a negative one around all of these options for visibility, then you’re going to remain in a visibility block. And that’s just the way it goes.

Visibility. And allowing yourself to be seen requires what I call a Brave YES Mindset that needs to be shaped and formed and really worked with because let’s face it, many of us have been conditioned to not be seen, we’ve been raised to be quiet and not have opinions and don’t be too much.

A mindset shift needs to be happen. If you really want to put yourself out there and be more visible.

LACK OF CLARITY

The next one is lack of clarity. And this this might be if I had to give a number one we just be on or maybe number two because algorithms really are a big piece of this.

Lack of clarity is a huge one and lack of clarity is a visibility Blocher because if you don’t know what to put out there if you don’t know how to communicate what to communicate, when you’re on stage, or when you’re in an interview or when you’re at a networking event or when you’re on social media or when you’re blogging.

If you don’t know that you’re going to have lack of clarity and you’re going to refrain from putting anything out or maybe just a couple of things out. And so this is where we get writer’s block if you’re somebody who does a lot of writing for marketing, this is when you’ll get videoblog because you don’t want to put yourself out there and video.

Lack of clarity is a huge, huge, huge visibility blocker. Also lack of clarity will lead to many many other things like comparisons, looking at what everybody else is doing and then trying to mimic it getting overwhelmed because you’re you know you’ve got so many ideas, so many ideas and you don’t know which ones to choose. Also distracted and then also just chasing all the shoulds like well you know I should do this because it seems like the right thing to do.

Clarity is queen. It’s so important.

LACK OF CAPACITY

With lack of clarity, comes another lack … a lack of capacity. This is a huge blocker I see on the regular. If you lack the capacity — you’re feeling burned out, exhausted, no energy, oryour life circumstances are hard or heavy or overwhelming — you are not going to want to do what it takes to be visible.

You won’t want ot attend that networking event.

You won’t want to go LIVE on Instagram.

You won’t want to write anything to put up on social.

A lack of capacity is a pesty visibility blocker that will keep you in your comfort zone and hiding.

You’re not going to feel confident you’re not going to feel like putting yourself out there, you’re going to want to crawl onto the blanket and go back into the quiet comfy cave.

The comfort zone is going to be calling you nonstop when you are at lack of capacity.

This is a huge visibility blocker I see more than any of the others because to me when I see someone who is in that state of lack of capacity, it’s apparent to me.

I can see when somebody is exhausted and burned out.

And, once you know you know, it’s like one of those things you can’t unsee.

Your confidence is directly influenced by your capacity.

OVER-THINKING, OVER-PLANNING, OVER-STRATEGIZING & PERFECTIONISM

Okay, I love this next visibility blocker. I wastotally at fault for this for many years but have finally mastered it.

This visibility blocker is overthinking, but not just overthinking, it’s also about over-planning, over-strategizing and trying to get everything exactly so. This one includes a bit of perfectionism, for sure.

It’s when you spend too much time over-preparing — such as planning out all your content for the year — and you’ve got it all mapped out but you tthen you don’t follow through on any of it.

Yeah, it happens.

This is a big visibility blocker. When we spend more time over-thinking, over-planning and over-strategizing, this will kill your creativity and it will kill your spaciousness in your in your process and you will just get into a blocked state. All of this prevents taking action and doing the things.

Trust me I know I’ve been there. And I’ve seen others. I’ve seen this happen to so many others.

LEARNING CURVES

The next visibility blocker is learning curves.

When you hit a learning curve, it’s where you start to think oh I don’t know enough I need to do more. I need to learn more. I need to take this course I need to you know do this thing. You’re gonna go into learning mode and you’re not in leading mode.

This is a visibility blocker that I talk with my clients about all the time, especially when they are about to sign up for another course, program or certification or degree program.

If you want to cultivate demand and your work when you really want to put yourself out there. You’ve got to be the you’ve got to be the expert, not the not the beginner.

I wake up a beginner every day but I tried to really show up as the as an expert every day.

And how do you move easily from expert you know, into, Oh, I’ve got to learn something consistently over and over and over. It’s exhausting.

So learning curves are visibility blockers and watch them because they are tricky little beasts and they will get you they will get you because you’re going to say things like, “Well, I can’t do that yet because I haven’t mastered this and I’ve got to get this degree or I’ve got to get this certification.”

Doubting your ability and talents puts you in The Waiting Zone and The Waiting Zone is tricky and sticky and you can end up in there your whole life.

This is why it becomes a huge visibility blocker.

COMPARISONITIS

Okay, number nine comparisonitis.

We all know what this one is. I’m sure you’ve experienced it over and over. Comparisonitis can be a huge visibility blocker.

This blocker will stop you cold in your marketing tracks because you start telling yourself that your work is not as good as so and so or somebody else is farther along or you’re really caught up in where you should be instead of where you are and so you don’t do anything at all.

This is a huge visibility blocker and one I see a lot.

When comparisonitis takes over, it stops all your own inner power and inner creativity and inner self-sovereignty because you are so focused on what other people are doing and making sure you are keeping up with them and their ideas and work.

ASSUMPTIONS

The next visibility blocker I see a lot is making assumptions, especially assumptions around what people know or what they don’t want to hear about or what they’re tired of hearing about from you.

When you assume your audience knows everything or your potential client doesn’t need to hear from you — again — you are creating a visibility blocker that also impacts you communication.

The thing about assumptions, though, is that they are often actually wrong. A favorite story I like to tell is how a super fan of my work once told me — after a launch of a new offer — that despite how she follows my work very closely she didn’t know about my offer until two days before the cart closed.

This was a huge lesson for me that I shouldn’t assume everyone is seeing my work and getting annoyed.

In fact, don’t assume anything because …

AFRAID OF BEING TOO PUSHY, TOO SALES-Y

This next visibility blocker is similar and related to the last. When we are afraid of being too pushy or salesy, we hold back and we don’t share our work widely.

This has been my own biggest struggle with visibility. You know, I don’t want to be pushy. I don’t want to be salesy, but I do want to make money. And mostly I really want to do good with the work I do.

Being pushy and salesy is something that definitely is a visibility blocker if you’re not letting people know what you are offering and doing.

And trust me, there’s no way to really be that pushy or salesy right now in this market unless you are a direct, you know, DMing and harassing people.

If your fear of being too salesy or pushy is keeping you from putting yourself out there, this is a visibility blocker that needs addressed and you can do that through adopting organic, authentic marketing tactics rather than forced, manipulative marketing.

THINKING LIKE A BEGINNER

Finally, the last one in this particular list, and it goes back to something that I said a little bit earlier, but that’s always being the beginner and not knowing how to move from beginner to expert. This creates feelings of imposter and as long as we feel like an imposter we refuse to put our work out there.

When you feel like you’re an impostor, if you’re new and you know you’re everything is new, and you’re not really 100% sure of yourself, that is visibility blocker.

The truth is you’ve got to allow yourself to be and learn how to be the expert or the authority — and step out onto the bigger stage with your ideas and thought leadership.

That’s how you earn authority.

It’s vital to get past the beginner stage as quickly as possible so you can start owning your power in your industry and showing up as a leader. That’s really all that it takes to start to play bigger and grow your business and get more clients and have more revenue.

SOLUTIONS TO VISIBILITY BLOCKERS

So, what do you do if one or more of these visibility blockers are holding you back?

Well, lots. And this is work I do with my clients and work we’ll be doing in my group coaching program.

The first solution is taking action and being consistent.

Consistency is everything.

If I’ve been nothing, I have been consistent in my businesses over the years.

Being successful in a business requires showing up consistently. Not just when you have the mood, not just when you have the time, but really being consistently visible. That is how you move the needle in your business.

Making space to create and do the things that are going to demonstrate your expertise.

Embrace a Brave YES Mindset

When we say no to ourselves over and over, we start to fall into a small, cozy box where we aren’t taking real action to do what is necessary to grow, uplevel or pivot a business.

My work centers around helping my clients embrace a Brave YES Mindset, which is where you are tuning in and turning on to decisions based on possibility — not fear.

A Brave YES Mindset allows you to say yes to yourself — before you are ready.

Invest in Clarity

One of the other solutions is to invest in clarity and having a really strong strategy in place to help you meet your goals.

Once you know exactly what your vision is, and if you know what your goals and tactics are going to be, taking action becomes a breeze.

When you know what you need to do to put yourself out there, you know what you need to say in interviews, in blog posts and on social media rather than just throwing spaghetti at the wall.

Clarity is Everything.

And that strategy, that clarity piece is so big because once you know you’re not putting the energy into the figuring it out or in the deciding you’re putting it into the action of putting yourself out there putting your work out there doing the things that leads to more business more leads.

So those are the 10 Visibility blockers that will help you uplevel your visibility in your business so you can start to play bigger and see more business growth.

The next step is to practice, practice and practice.

Give yourself the time — and build the capacity — to show up and keep showing up over and over.

Because business is a numbers game and visibility is vital.

Get better at practicing being visible and you’ll grow your business, too.

Shawn Fink is a business strategist & couage coach who helps creative entrepreneurs Brave UP so they can uplevel, grow or pivot their business. She is the founder of The Brave YES Business Show podcast. Learn more about her coaching and work HERE.

Originally published at https://shawnfink.com on March 1, 2023.