Are You Hiding?

Many times we don’t communicate what we really wanted to. We play it safe. We toe the line. I remember entering the world of business with my first job and hated the backstabbing. The politics of a corporate position. I was in a small team of young graphic designers in Fargo, ND.

After three years I quit my job and started freelancing full-time. I was a business owner at 27 and there was so much about myself and business that I needed to learn.

At that time businesses were told to not really have a personality but to play it safe. We stopped trying to be clever and interesting and tried to appeal to everyone. We made one of the biggest new business mistakes and said “Every business is our customer!” so we can work with anyone.

And we did.

I played the part as the green designer who wanted to have a business. I do admit I played that part very easily. I worked almost every weekend and holiday, dropped everything for a “big client” and spent too much money on things that really had no effect on our business.

But when I wanted to be taken seriously in my industry, it was impossible to get those bigger clients. It was hard to ask for the money that it actually took to do the project. I changed who I was and started dressing the way I thought I should and even started straightening my naturally curly hair to look older and more professional.

Talking football is how I landed the largest credit union in Minnesota as a client. Now, there is nothing wrong with this but once you start adding them all up and I wasn’t showing up as myself anymore.

Who am I? I’m a person who loves people, who is passionate about business development and I get so excited to see the people around me succeed that I sometimes forget about myself.

Have you decided it’s easier to play a role then be yourself and to see your talents and issues as they are?

It’s not too late to recreate yourself and your business into something you love and are proud of. Something that you don’t even need to explain what you do because your excitement attracts people.

Ask yourself these questions to see if you are hiding.

1. You take any client or project you are offered.
2. You have a really hard time saying “No.”
3. You dress differently at work then you want to.
4. You don’t voice your opinions because you don’t think they are any good.
5. You don’t think you can be an expert because there is so much more you need to learn before you can do that.
6. You say “I can’t…” a lot.
7. I don’t share on social media because I don’t have anything good to say.
8. The idea of public speaking or content writing scares me so much that I can’t even start.

If you answer yes to more questions than you would like, then it might be time to adjust your way of thinking about yourself and business. For years I would have to admit a lot of these would be yeses. Even today some of these are still yeses. I’m a work in progress just like you are. I didn’t do this work alone. I have a wonderful husband and partner Avery, my sister, amazing friends, and a business coach that assisted in this life journey of discovering my true passion for coaching and business strategy.

If you find yourself wanting to talk to someone about finding your purpose and message contact me to see if we would be a good fit for working together.