by Lisa Cybaniak
How comfortable are you at tooting your own horn about the work you do, the skills you have, and what you’ve overcome? Despite being completely counterintuitive, so many entrepreneurs struggle with this every day. So, the question becomes, “How are you expecting to be successful without people knowing about how amazing you are and how what you offer will help them?”
Today we’re talking about the reason behind this modestly, and how to overcome it in order to get visible with your business. Because, to be honest, getting visible to your target audience is not just about great marketing, or understanding your target audience. It’s actually more about knowing yourself.
Anna Parker-Naples is a best-selling author, speaker, multi-award-winning business coach and host of top iTunes podcast Entrepreneurs Get Visible. She helps entrepreneurs and creatives to stand out from the crowd and get visible so they can have more confidence, influence, impact and income.
Meet Anna Parker-Naples
Anna knows the difference getting to know yourself makes on your business. Ten years ago, Anna was wheelchair bound, being told by her doctors just how difficult her life was going to be – all the things she wasn’t going to be able to do. Having to leave her husband and children to move into her parents’ home, which was wheelchair accessible, she fell into the downward spiral of pain, guilt, resentment, and grief.
When she decided to get help to shift her mindset in order to physically progress, she found her way to a Hypnotherapist and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner. It was here that she realised that her language to herself and others was all centred around negativity. She was consistently speaking about resentment, anger and limitation. She told her therapist that she is always in pain – that all she thinks and talks about is disability and pain.
After she confronted those thoughts, realising that she does think and talk about other things, her mind was open to how she may not be right about some of her other beliefs.
And that’s when she realised that those thoughts and beliefs didn’t end with her personal situation. Her work was also affected by beliefs that just were not true. Understanding this and taking the time to really get to know herself, opened the door for her to become wildly successful with her career, and get visible in ways she never dreamt of.
Are you ready to learn how getting to know yourself is crucial to getting visible in your business? This episode is packed full of amazing tips and strategies that you can begin implementing today.
So, let’s dive right in!
Journal
Anna’s first tip is to start journaling with intent every day. She suggests you let anything and everything out, without censorship. Anna calls this stream of consciousness journaling and still is a fantastic way for her to keep an eye out for any negative language she’s using. And that’s exactly what you should do. When you journal daily, and read it back, you’ll start noticing patterns in the way to speak about yourself and your circumstances.
Your deeper beliefs
Once you are aware of your language patterns, it’s time to look deeper to identify where this language is coming from, such as your deeper beliefs. Are you using language similar to Anna’s, or are you saying things such as, “I can’t do it”, “No one will want to buy this”, “I’m not an expert. Who am I to be offering this?”
When we see this type of pattern, the underlying belief is not far off from your language. For example, perhaps you truly believe you can’t do it, or shouldn’t do it – that you’re not capable. Or you might believe that you’re not good enough to present yourself as the expert.
Whatever the belief, it’s not hard to see how much potential power they have in influencing all the decisions you’re making.
How is this serving you?
Whether it’s your language pattern, you beliefs, or both, there is much to be learned from it. Anna went through a period of time of experiencing regular migraines. She started paying closer attention and asked herself how these migraines could be serving her. Then it hit her. Every time a migraine hits, she needed two days to recuperate. Was it possible that her unconscious mind was manifesting these migraines in order to force her to stop and take care of herself? That’s exactly what she asked herself.
Listen and develop a plan
When Anna realised her migraines were really her unconscious mind begging her to take a break, she started to implement a plan to mitigate the problem – essentially, to listen. Anna decided to listen by planning two days a month (not including weekends), to just re-group and allow herself to have the space she clearly needed. And just like that, no more migraines!
Get clear on what you want
Notice what you want and how your inner critic is reacting to those desires. How do you feel about yourself? Are you sabotaging your progress towards gaining what you want because your inner critic is popping back up? If your desires and your feelings towards reaching them are incongruent, go back to step one and journal about it. Use that tool to discover your language around this, and then the subsequent beliefs you uncover.
Craft your story
Now that you’re over that, it’s time to get visible! Let’s start by crafting your story and shout it from the rooftops. Why are you the best person to offer whatever it is you’re offering? One of the things Anna sees often in her practice is entrepreneurs who are reluctant to talk about themselves, what they do and how they are helping people. If that resonates with you, even after going through these steps, then start again at the beginning with this problem at the forefront of your mind.
Get visible!
Now that you’ve identified your language and the underlying beliefs, learned how they are benefiting you, developed a plan to make the changes you need, have become crystal clear on what you want, and have crafted your story, it’s time to get visible.
Anna recommends you determine what you want to talk about and then find the platform that’s growing fast – podcasts.
Not only does Anna have her own podcast, but she regularly guests on other podcasts, like this one, in order to reach as many people as possible. After all, that’s what getting visible is!
More from this episode
Anna and I discuss so much more in this episode. She walks us through what it was like to be wheelchair bound, in the darkest place in her life, her a-ha moment that gave her the motivation to get help, her revelations made during her healing time, and how those revelations have impacted her life. Her honesty in sharing her story is simply inspirational.
Press play on the episode above – you don’t want to miss this!
Follow Anna Parker-Naples on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also join her Entrepreneurs Get Visible Facebook Group and check out her website to get information on her podcast and book.
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Voice over credit: Shari Vandermolen. Shari is offering a free download of one of her songs to the fans of the Life Like You Mean It podcast! Just visit www.GiftFromShari.com and tell her where to send it. Shari’s debut album is available for streaming on all the major platforms including Spotify and iTunes.
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