How To Increase Visibility
Whenever I’m about to release a new digital offer, I work with the same photographer and videographer for my brand photos and reels.
Both of them know about my fupa—the dreaded belly fat that sits between the navel and top of the legs.
And both know that no matter how great a shot looks, if my fupa shows, I’m not going with it.
It took me a long time and many conversations with my ego to rationalize why it shouldn’t matter.
But it did.
It still does, though not to the same degree.
And I’m way more relaxed about how I support my launches online. No lie though, those brand photo shoots are tea.
BUT…
I have traded falsies for a good brush of mascara. TBH, I show up many times for my everyday reels makeup-free.
I am comfortable being who I am. And that’s what I need you to know if you’re tying to increase business visibility without losing yourself in the process.
Too often, founders focus only on the mechanics of social media: create the post, record the reel, update as needed, engage, all of the things.
When really visibility involves two things: overcoming fear and knowing how to build an infrastructure that moves beyond social media.
But after doing so many photos and videos in support of my launches, I know this much: my marketing plan is only one-third of visibility.
The other two-thirds is courage to show up after I’ve built the plan and my the visibility infrastructure to drive eyeballs to my assets, both owned and rented.
But first, before I tap into infrastructure, let’s knock down the walls—the reasons why you prefer being invisible and yet wonder why your phone isn’t ringing.
You’re not going to believe this, but your brain has a big part to play in this quagmire.
Why Visibility Feels So Hard
There is a kind of visibility struggle that shows up in your body and your mind before it ever shows up online.
Your pulse quickens when you hit “publish.” You second-guess yourself when you’re asked to speak on a panel. You delete the video.
That’s the psychology of visibility at work. Or maybe I should say the psychology that stops you from showing up at all.
And this is often the hidden reason founders struggle to learn to increase business visibility consistently.
Let’s talk, for example, about the neuroscience behind why getting on camera consistently can change not just your business, but your life — and why so many of us hesitate so darn much in the first place.
First of all, we’re of a certain age. We didn’t grow up with cameras shoved in our faces all the time.
And yet here we are, staring at ourselves on camera, wondering if we should add a filter as our brain quietly says:
Whoa… let me turn on that self-referential processing.
And that’s where the cross-examination begins.
Psychologists describe self-referential processing as the part of the brain responsible for how you understand and narrate yourself.
So every time you watch yourself speak, your brain is not just looking at a video.
It’s tapping into a self-image shaped by other people. By rooms that made us feel like too much. By years of editing ourselves to make other people comfortable. By things parents, teachers, partners, or even old colleagues said over time.
And eventually, it becomes too much.
So we turn off the camera. We hesitate. We hate how we look and think: “OMG, I’m occupying too much space.”
Or worse:
“What will [INSERT ANY NAME] think?”
Now I need to be clear. This doesn’t happen just happen when you turn on a camera for social media.
Insecurity bubbles to the surface anytime your work, your face, your voice, your ideas, or your name become easier to find, judge, remember or recommend.
You Become Confident When You Learn To Increase Your Business Visibility
I talked about consistency HERE before: digging into the boring work repeatedly. And I’ll die on this hill because it applies to your visibility too.
And I don’t only mean social media visibility.
To learn to increase business visibility, founders need to become comfortable being seen in rooms, in emails, in online search, and in conversations, in partnerships, and inside the work you keep publishing online.
But for now let’s turn back to the camera because each time you do hit and hit it consistently, your nervous system builds a new reference point.
You begin to see yourself as someone whose voice takes up space without apology.
There is also something called the mere exposure effect. And it refers to how seeing something, promotes familiarity and safety And yes, this applies to your your own face too.
Every time you get on camera, you are desensitising your nervous system to your own presence.
You are making yourself feel normal to yourself. Yep, read that again because I love that line.
The end result of that is that And you stop performing and begin to communicate.
And as someone who wore the communications strategist hat for two decades, I can tell you this: communication is what wins and sells.
You want visibility?
Let’s get specific. You really want sales, students, subcribers, reputation.
This isn’t the validation game
Business visibility is built on serious intent and through repeated exposure, repeated communication, and repeated trust.
Practice creates confidence.
I said this to one of my students just today.
Take a look at this conversation between us. Don’t worry, I asked her if I could share it.
You can tell today was a huge win for my student, and if this helps anyone, it’s worth it for that alone.
Now, lets move on to your visibility infrastructure.
What Are the Building Blocks of Business Visibility?
Look, there’s no shortage of people who grift online.
They build their entire identity through the sheer force of being visible.
Scroll long enough and we can all drown in an ocean of people selling, teaching, performing, and positioning themselves as experts.
Some of them even build their castles on claims that don’t hold up. The latest example making the rounds is Cheyenne Bryant, the “doctor without the doctorate” story.
Visibility without credibility = noise.
Visibility with credibility = trust.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to learn to increase business visibility is reducing it to media performance alone, whether online or offline.
We think visibility is the reel. The carousel. The media interview.
And listen, social media absolutely plays a role in business visibility. I use it too.
But visibility is much bigger than that.
Visibility is really about discoverability.
It’s about how easily people can find your work, remember your ideas, trust your voice, and return to your ecosystem over time.
That’s why some businesses feel everywhere without constantly posting.
And why others post every day and still feel invisible.
Visibility is not one action. It’s an ecosystem. It is a chain of actions built on a few foundational blocks working together over time.
It took me a long time to stop thinking social media was the be-all and end-all.
It was only when I took up my planner and looked seriously at what was actually working in my business that I saw it: social media was contributing far less to my business visibility than I thought.
My visibility was being built elsewhere.
Ads were sending people to my landing pages.
Leads were coming from people signing up for my newsletter.
My SEO’d blogs were attracting strangers from around the world.
Were they liking my posts? Not really. But they were opening my newsletter and reading my blog.
That’s when I realised visibility and attention are not always the same thing.
And when I saw the data, I knew I building my foundational blocks around what was clearly working: my owned assets was the strategy to follow.
But that’s me, whatever your path a solid visibility infrastructure demands a few thing.
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Five Building Blocks To Learn How To Business Visibility
1. Discoverability
Can people find your work after you close down your computer today?
Because social media timelines move fast.
Jenna Kutcher, who has built a multi-million-dollar business teaching people about longevity online, always reminds us that great posts can disappear in hours. Sometimes minutes. And only a tiny percentage of your audience may see what you post.
Heck, word on the social media streets is that Adam Mosseri and his team over at Instagram launched Insta as a way to address declining views on the platform.
But blogs? Search? Pinterest? Podcasts? Newsletters? SEO?
Chef’s kiss.
Those create searchable pathways back to your business.
This is one of the reasons I still believe so deeply in long-form content. A thoughtful blog post or long-form video can quietly work for you long after the dopamine hit of a reel disappears.
And now, with AI search changing how people discover information online, searchable content matters even more.
2. Recognition
Visibility is built through repeated encounters.
People usually do not buy because they saw you once.
They buy because they keep seeing you.
Repetition is marketing.
Zara does not show up in your inbox once. Sometimes they show up multiple times a day. And then you wonder why you suddenly feel like checking the site.
To become visible, you need to share your ideas repeatedly in slightly different ways so your people — the ones you actually want to attract — begin associating you with a certain perspective, a certain expertise, a certain tone.
And eventually, familiarity turns into trust.
Consistency matters for this reason: repetition helps people remember you.
3. Trust
Trust is one of the most overlooked parts of business visibility.
A lot of people are visible.
Far fewer are trusted.
Trust is built when your communication feels clear, grounded, and consistent over time.
It’s built when people begin to feel like your work matches your message.
And honestly? This is why trying to perform online eventually becomes exhausting.
Because people can feel the difference between communication and performance.
One creates connection.
The other creates burnout.
4. Recall
Can people remember you when they finally need help?
This matters more than founders realize.
Because many people are not ready to buy the first time they encounter your work.
I recently held a Planning Table session, and one of the women who showed up had been following my work for years. She had liked my work for years. It was simply the first time she was buying from me.
Life happens.
Budgets shift.
Timing changes.
Attention drifts.
But when your visibility ecosystem is strong, your name stays somewhere in the back of their mind.
And later, when the problem becomes urgent, they remember you.
That’s the power of recall.
5. Owned Infrastructure
I want to go back to the idea of rented land because I think it carries enormous weight inside an entrepreneur’s mindset.
Social media is rented land.
And while I absolutely believe it can support growth, you still need assets you own:
- your website
- your newsletter
- your blog
- your customer list
- your search presence
Visibility becomes fragile when your entire business depends on borrowed attention.
And honestly, I think this is one of the reasons I use Substack strategically while keeping my main blog on WordPress.
Owned infrastructure creates stability.
It allows your business visibility to compound over time instead of restarting every morning with a new post.
I think this is the shift more founders need to understand right now.
To learn to increase business visibility today, founders need more than attention, they need searchable, trusted digital infrastructure.
It’s about search and being searchable, memorable.
Oh and let’s not forget trustworthy and easy to return to.
The Visibility Scorecard:
Now for the tools of our visibility infrastructure. I thought sharing this score card would be a fun way to end this blog.
My ratings go from 1-10 with ten being the highest on the scorecard.
So if you see 9/10 it means my recommendation is super high for that specific tool or action, the opposite is true if the rating is low
And can I ask you a favour?
Can you write back and let me know what two things you’ll begin working on within the next seven days? I’m responding to every comment
Blogging + SEO: 9/10
Quiet visibility. The ones who are doing this properly are outside winning on Google while everybody else is dancing for 14 views on a reel.
Newsletter — 10/10
If people willingly invite you into their inbox repeatedly? That’s intimacy, infrastructure and data you own.
Pinterest — 8/10
The dark horse. I don’t use this one well as yet but those who do give it a super high score.
Social Media Reels — 7/10
Great for attention. Exhausting as a sole survival strategy.
YouTube Search — 9/10
People go there with intent. They’re not doom scrollers.
Going Viral — 4/10
Cute for dopamine. Unstable for strategy. Can you repeat it?
Word of Mouth — 10/10
The holy grail. Still undefeated since biblical times.
Building a Searchable Website — 10/10
Because if your business disappears the second Instagram sneezes, we need to talk.
Posting Randomly Without a Strategy — 2/10
Respectfully… this is just journaling in public.
Long-Form Content — 9/10
People underestimate how powerful depth becomes in a short-attention-span world.
AI-Search-Ready Content — 9/10
Your future customer may never visit Instagram first. They may ask AI who to trust.
Consistency — 1000/10
Annoying. Boring. Life-changing
