358: How to Be Visible in 2023

Hey movers, it's Sally Z with Be Moved. Let's go create some talks that will move this world. We're going to talk with amazing speakers, share tips, tricks, resources, and we are going to be moved so that our audience can be moved. This moved me. What is moving We're talking about a really important idea today. It's visibility. Every January, I kind of start right here. We start with this concept of visibility. I don't know if you saw this, but I went live with my friend Molly over on Instagram, and Molly is a social media strategist and a small business strategist that helps people grow their impact in a way that really feels right for them. She's amazing. And I wanted to have a conversation with her about this idea of visibility because I come at it from a speaker perspective. And as I work with my speakers, I'm like, mm, visibility is really, really important. Obviously, for us, from a social media perspective, it's really important as well. We know this. But it doesn't necessarily make it something that we get through and we don't avoid sometimes because even I avoid it and I like this stuff. This is what I do. This is what I'm all about. So I want to just lay out the foundation for you of why this is so, so important. But I wanted to connect some really important dots for you in terms of why visibility is so, so important. For us as speakers, not just for growing your social media reach. Duh, it's gonna do that too, but because where it ultimately can lead you. So if this is our goal, this little dot up here being your goal around speaking more, having a bigger impact, making more money with your speaking, being seen as an authority, Like this is, as a speaker, even if you don't just speak, but it's one element in your business, this is where we're moving towards. Where it all begins is this stop right here. And this is of course visibility. And here's how we're gonna define visibility for ourselves as we're talking about this, and that's truly being visible. Seen, okay, which sounds like a no duh, but it's not just about strategy. It's truly about making sure people, and I want to be really clear when I say you're working on your visibility, it's about showing your face, showing your face and speaking your words. Okay. So it's not just a picture. It's not just, which is lovely and wonderful and great. It's not just a beautifully written caption. It's not a blog post. It isn't even just an audio version of your podcast. As speakers, these are our tools, our voice, our face, our full expression. This is how we do what we do. And so we want to start showing people that. Long before they hire us over here, we want to start showing people what it really looks like to work with us here. What's the experience of you like? That is visibility. And once you are consistently showing up, you're consistently being visible to your audience, you start to see the impacts. And it looks like this. It looks like trust. It looks like connection, right? They start to go, oh, I see what you're all about. I like what you have to say. I feel like you're the right person for me or for my group. If you're a conference organizer, an event person, you're, when you're hiring somebody, you're not just going, oh, I like their application. Done. They're, they're checking you out online. They're saying, what do you have to say? What does it look like? What are they like? What's their vibe? Right? So you're also establishing credibility really early on. And the big one is authority. Okay. Credibility, authority are so closely connected, but to me, authority is about your sense of leadership and the way you have authored your point of view, which is why it's not just about doing the things that everybody else is doing. It's truly about showing your face, using your words in a way that is authentic to you. And as you consistently do that, as you consistently do that, You start to build towards this right here, where people go, ah, yes, I know her. She's amazing. She's got a really unique point of view. She's got something to say that is important and needed and powerful. Okay? Now you're building towards that, but it all comes back to visibility. So as you are starting off 2023, if your goal is speaking more, we're gonna dial those dots all the way back to showing up consistently, showing your face, using your words, letting people experience you, bringing your point of view on a consistent basis so that they see you. As a speaker, a trusted, connected, credible, authoritative source for them. Does that make sense? Okay. I wanted to connect all of those dots for you on this, because this is not just about a social media strategy. It is truly about establishing that level of connection and authority with your audience. So I want us to, to talk for just a minute, minute about 2023 in particular, like what's different about 2023 right now. Okay. Because I've been talking about visibility for a really long time. I just had a panic moment that it wasn't 2023, that I was using the wrong Oh my gosh. Okay. It is. It's 2023. We're still— we're good. So it's 2023, which means things have evolved a little bit. And here's what I'm observing and noticing about what people really expect and want to see when it comes to visibility this, this year versus in years past. Okay. I feel like. We, we're making a slight shift away from the everyday more and more post as much as you can, right? That kind of go, go, go hustle approach. And what we're looking for more is what I am just calling balance. Okay. It's totally okay for people right now to say, I'm taking a little time off. I'm taking a little break. Right? Mental health, mental health awareness is at an all-time high, which I am so happy about. It's really important. This is about who we are in our lives. And so this balance piece is really, really critical. Okay. So as we talk about visibility and consistency and go, go, go, it doesn't mean at all costs, but it does mean we are being clear about when we show up and how we show up in a balanced way. Okay. So that's the first thing that I'm noticing about visibility as we shift into 2023 that I want you all to keep in mind. The second thing is I use this term show up anyway a lot, and that piece is still important, but the way this is connected to me for you, as you think about this next year, is it being really truly about your uniqueness. Okay. So when I say show up anyway, what that means is we are going to get past whatever fears are holding us back. So if what keeps you from Being visible are some fears around what will people think of me? I, I haven't showered yet today. I am worried about how people are gonna respond to this. When we let our fears hold us back, we're not actually showing up as fully ourselves. And this part right here is the most important ingredient. Okay? So yes, I want you to show up anyway, but not like push through no matter what. What it means is I want you to show up as you fully. 2023. If we're showing our face and we're speaking our voice, then we really need to use video. But video is the closest people can come to really experiencing what it's like for you, what you are like as a speaker. So as you think about how to be visible in 2023, I want you really thinking about it in terms of video. Now, there are a lot of platforms that you can play with in terms of video. So this is not, this is really platform agnostic. This is just the flavor of visibility I want you to keep in mind as we shift into 2023. It's about balance. It's not about hustle, but it is truly about you showing up as you, getting over whatever the fears are that keep you from showing up and letting yourself being fully seen and leaning into video. So I think of, when I think about all of this, one of the people that stands out to me so much is Elise Myers, and my guess is that you all Follow Elise on TikTok, here on Instagram, on Facebook, whatever. Like, Elise is— she embodies all of this so well. Okay? She is not go, go, go at all costs. She shows up so fully herself, bravely herself, even when she's scared about it. And she has embraced video as a tool for herself, so If, if, if you're looking for inspiration, I want you to look to Elise. Now, what's slightly different about Elise is Elise's goal is not to become a speaker. So one thing, if Elise wanted to become a speaker, what I would tell her is we need more of your point of view. We need more of your voice, not just your entertainment, which is amazing and beautiful and powerful, but what are those things that you are putting a stake in the ground on? What are those areas that you want to draw out and become known for? That's really more of a content approach rather than simply visibility. Okay. Now let's, I want to share with you, we're keeping these things in mind in terms of the flavor of our visibility for this year, but I also want you to take a few strategies with you as you think about becoming more visible in 2023. Okay? And the first thing is I want you to find a playground to play in. Okay? A platform that you feel like is playful for you, that doesn't feel like work to you, so that you can let loose a little bit more. So in the past maybe 6 months, I've been playing a little bit more on TikTok. It was a fascinating experience because I've been on Instagram forever. Here on Facebook forever, but something happened over on TikTok. I released a little bit more. I felt a sense of freedom. There's something about the personality of that platform that helped me let go a little bit more and be a little bolder. And versus Instagram, sometimes I feel like I gotta polish things up a little bit. I don't know if that resonates with any of you. But the important thing was I found a place where I could play a little bit more. And that's what I want you to do. If you're like, okay, I need to be more visible here in 2023, I want you to find a playground where you can feel a little bit freer to be more fully you, because as we know, that's what people want in 2023. You. Freer, you more fully expressing yourself. Okay? That is the first thing. We talked about this a little bit, but the show up anyway attitude is not about hustle, hustle, push through, push through. But it is not letting our fears determine whether or not we show up and serve our audience. That does not get to decide whether you are ready. Okay? You are more ready than you think, because I haven't met anybody who that has not been true for. I shouldn't say never, but it rarely, rarely is it the case where someone is more prepared than they think. I want you to think of it as a show up anyway attitude this year, which is like, whatever, it's gonna happen. Now, here's one thing that I'm doing. To live this out more in my own visibility, and that is I made the commitment to not re-record things. So in small context, low risk context, okay, we're not talking about a course video or something that's a little more permanent where you take a few swings at it and you might be truly providing something that is clearer and more confident and more impactful. What I'm talking about is when you are on social media and you're just focused on is I wanna show up and serve my audience and be present in the day. And you're recording yourself and you're like, oh, I sounded dumb. That was stupid or silly, or I said this wrong or whatever. And you discard it and you go back and you're like, okay, I'm gonna try that again. Okay. That is actually just your fears getting in the way of you showing up as you. So there's a, there's a wonderful woman on Instagram. She's hilarious. Jen Todrick. She like does design stuff and she has a show on a cable network. Anyway, she's hilarious. And she made a commitment years ago. She's like, if I'm going to be on social media as my job, I am not, I'm not rough drafting anything. It is just how it is. I press record. I press go. This is who we are. This is who I am. This is how it works. This is who we are. This is what my house looks like. This is me on a bad day. This is me on a good day. Whatever. She was like, if I'm gonna let you in, I'm letting you in and I'm not going to V2 everything. I don't have time for that. And that's not actually real. I think this is an amazing way to practice a show up anyway attitude. Is to let go of the option for V2, just on the low stakes, no big deal stuff. Okay? I'm gonna commit to that, and I want to encourage you all to do that as well. Show up anyway attitude. I love it. Okay. And then the last thing, which you all know, but is worth repeating, it is so important, and that is Leveraging stories in your visibility. Stories are the thing that pull people in, that engage them into your ideas, that turn an abstract concept into something that is tangible and meaningful. And if you are not sure exactly how to do that, I want to invite you to grab this really simple freebie. It's called the Simple Story Framework. So it's a simple freebie and here you can get it at bmoove.com/ssf. And this is a great, just tactical approach to how you can leverage stories in your visibility in the everyday. You could also use the strategy in the Simple Story Framework. In your talks, right? As you're building new content, it's persuasively grounded, theoretically grounded in persuasion theory, which is what I have my master's degree in. And it works. It just simply works. I've used it with people forever and ever. And this will show you how to do it. The other thing, the other resource I want to share with you, and these are all free. So I'm not, I'm not selling you anything here as you do this. Is my Speaking Confidently series. So if you are somebody who's like, hmm, I know I need to get more visible. I just need the push and I end up, it's like on my list every day and it gets lost or other things become more important and it's just not happening the way it needs to. My Speaking Confidently series is a 7-day email series every morning. Really early in the morning, I send you what I call a spark, and that is just an idea for how you can show up and serve your audience in that day. So by the end of the day, I want you to do this simple thing. Okay. So if you need a little accountability, a little push, a little nudge, this is going to help you do that. And you can get that at bmoove.com/spark. Confidently for the Speaking Confidently series. Because it does, it helps you show up with more confidence. Ultimately, it's about visibility, but the tools in there are gonna help you do that. So there's tools, sparks, ideas for you to show up and to do what we're talking about doing and do it in all of this with all of these things in mind. Finding a playground where you can play using a show up anyway attitude, like letting go of perfection. We're not gonna let our fears get in the way and leaning into stories, letting stories do so much of the work for us. Okay. This was— there's, there's good stuff in here. And so I hope you take this in. I'm so grateful that you are here. I hope you are having an awesome kickstarts to 2023. I can't believe it. Amazing. Reach out with any questions. I'm here for you. I will talk soon. This moved me. What is moving you? I'd love to know. See you soon. Bye.