Why Visibility Feels So Hard

It’s Time to Acknowledge and Pop Your Invisibubble.

As business owners, what’s one of the most important elements that determines whether we succeed or not? If you thought “visibility,” you’d be correct. Are you someone who really loves getting on camera? Do you have no problem posting a selfie or going live? Is visibility one of your strong suits? If so, this article won’t do much for you.

Nor is the focus of this article on strategies to make your business more visible, such as by running ads. It’s about the person behind the business. It’s about you. Especially if you're offering a service, doing one-on-one sessions, or want to fill your group programs.

This post is for those of you who struggle with visibility in some way or another. You find it hard to get on camera, you dread going live, or you’d rather post a bunch of quotes instead of a reel of yourself talking to the camera.

Visibility was definitely one of my weakest points. It’s why my business struggled so much when I started out. To say I was uncomfortable with visibility is an understatement. For me, it was a real struggle that impacted me in my personal life as well.

I was happier and much more comfortable behind the scenes. I was the one always taking the pictures but was almost never in them. When I look back now, it feels sad that I have very few photos of myself. On top of that, I also struggled with interacting with people I didn’t know.

In my late teens, I found it painful having to order in a restaurant or deal with a bank teller. I really had a hard time looking people in the eyes. I was delighted when I moved to Japan, as prolonged eye contact was not a thing there. The worst part, though, was that I struggled to look into my own eyes.

People will say that visibility is a confidence game. In part, they’re correct. As I began to network more and more, I found it easier to show up that way. But visibility is also reliant on self-worth. When you have a low sense of self-worth, it can make being visible to yourself and to others feel like torture.

About 8 years ago, I was taking a women’s empowerment course through Claire Zammit (which I highly recommend). She did these amazing group lessons on Zoom and then would send us into breakout rooms. I physically could not turn on my camera. Even when I tried to press the button, I would feel nauseous and overly stressed. I was the one with my camera off week after week after week.

By the end of the course, I realized that I’d had enough. Something had to change. I knew how important visibility was, but it was like pushing a boulder up a mountain covered in slime - it felt ridiculously hard and impossible.

Realistically, you could have the most amazing service, but if you don’t get it out there, the people who need you won’t even know you exist. On top of that, thanks to the AI slop, it’s getting harder to trust what’s online. People are longing for a human connection. Your visibility plays a big part in that connection.

Visibility looks like going live, sharing a photo of yourself, talking to the camera for social media, networking, running webinars, presenting at summits, or giving talks to local groups. It’s about getting yourself out there so you can activate the know-like-trust factor but also become seen for your expertise. In business, you have to be consistent with your visibility.

When I was in college, I coined the term “invisibubble.” Even though I was very active in campus activities, I often felt like I was floating around in this bubble that made me invisible to people. It felt so unfair. I couldn’t understand why this was happening.

It made me angry that people put this bubble around me. Why couldn’t they take five seconds and actually see me? In my mind, they were the problem. They were the ones choosing not to acknowledge me.

It took many years before I finally became aware of what was actually going on. No one else put that bubble around me. It was me; I did it to myself. It seems obvious now, but I truly had no idea back then. You don’t know what you don’t know until you know, right?

It turns out that I held the subconscious beliefs that I wasn’t safe and that I needed to be protected, and that’s how my invisibubble was born. It took a lot of inner work, but eventually I was able to free myself from it.

So how did I “pop” this invisibubble? First, I had to begin by getting comfortable with seeing myself. I was someone who couldn’t even look in the mirror into my own eyes for more than a second. I had such a low sense of self-worth that loving myself felt nearly impossible. It took a lot of inner work to shift that scenario.

Second, I had to go after the belief codes that were supporting my invisibubble. As I discovered the beliefs, both the ones I was aware of and the ones that were hanging out in the subconscious, I began to understand why this invisibubble had formed and that I was the one who constructed it.

Again, it all came down to protection, survival, and safety. Even though it went against what I wanted (to be seen), the ego was running off my old beliefs trying to keep me safe. That’s what the ego does as our S.O.S. - our Survival Operating System. The problem arises when it runs off of old “software.”

Think of it in terms of software computer files. When we encounter a situation, the ego will go through our files - files full of our beliefs and the emotional charges attached to them. The situation and the emotions involved will decide which beliefs are activated.

Even though I desperately wanted to be seen, my ego was running off the old software, the beliefs that had served me at one time in my life but were outdated. Just as we can update the software on our electronics, we can also update the files our ego works from.

How? By shifting or clearing the old beliefs and bringing in new empowering ones.

Every once in a while my invisibubble does surface, and when it does, I know it’s time to dig deep and see what belief codes, emotional blockages, and inner child wounding are there that need to be addressed.

Due to all of the inner work I’ve implemented over the years, I’ve gone from being behind the camera to being in front of it. I now have no problem turning on the camera when I’m in a group or a meeting. The most important result from the inner work is that I can hold my own gaze in the mirror and even look myself lovingly in the eyes.

If you happen to be someone who struggles with visibility, I see you. I get you. Just remember that there’s a solution; it doesn’t have to be this way. I created a special course called the Limiting Beliefs Breakthrough: Visibility Edition for Entrepreneurs. In this self-guided course, I lead you through a simple process that helps you identify and disempower your limiting beliefs while embodying your new empowering beliefs around visibility.

It’s easy to recognize the feeling of resistance when it comes to being visible. The empowerment lies in knowing exactly why that is. When you start digging, you’ll find that the reason is almost always something deeper than what you believed it to be. When you’re aware of what’s at the root of it, that’s when the transformational work can begin.

If you’re someone who would rather have the beliefs be identified and cleared for you, especially the subconscious and unconscious ones that are harder to access on your own, I invite you to look into an Inner Shift session.

I don’t want it to take years for you, like it did for me, to step into your visibility. This isn’t just another thing to add to your busy to-do list. This is a needle-mover. This is a game-changer. The added bonus is that the inner work we do for our business also impacts our personal growth.

Your future clients need you NOW. The world needs you to own your place and space on this planet, to show up fully and authentically, to share your gifts, and to serve those who are looking for someone like you to help them. I encourage you to take action and step into your visibility.

To Your Inner Growth & Success,

Adrienne