Women CEOs: Here’s How to Create a Wealth-Building Visibility Gameplan
One Day a Week just Using your Story + FREE Visibility Strategy Template
By Keisha Shields
The problem. You’ve been in the game (and excelling at it) for a long time and yet because you don’t care to be the loudest one in the room or because you struggle with finding your lane on social media (and therefore don’t post consistently), you’re not well-known enough — and that means that you’re not making the money, building the wealth, enjoying the fruits of all of your years of labor. Even worse, YOUR dream clients seem to be spending their money and hanging on to every word of someone else.
If there was an award for the person who has been in the school of hardknocks in this arena, my name would certainly be submitted as a nominee in this category!
What I have found, after working with several hundred women CEOs and leaders, is that not being visible is rarely just about visibility. In fact, I’d say it has a lot more to do with more personal stuff — even if that personal stuff is directly tied to the business that you’re in. In summary, three things need to happen in order for your visibility to work for you: 1) you have to know why you’re not being visible, 2) you gotta create a plan and 3) you gotta do it. Simple enough right? Maybe ;). Let’s get into it.
#1: Assess Why your Visibility is Suffering
Feeling like you don’t know what to say
There is something interesting that happens with really smart women who are some of the most brilliant minds out there. People come to you for advice, for insight, for your genius and you can instantly give them the exact solution they need (and the solutions you give work!), and then when it comes to writing a blog or putting your expertise and perspective out there you can freeze up and suddenly feel like you don’t have anything useful or effective to say.
Out of all of the reasons why the visibility of women CEOs suffer, this one is the one that I have battled with the most. I had to finally own that I prefer to share my genius in conversations where there is an energetic exchange. That’s why one-way energetic exchanges are such a struggle for me! There’s something about teaching and being able to see or feel whether the recipient is getting it or if they need more clarity that makes a world of difference for me. It’s tough to do that when there is not an instant exchange. And there’s a remedy for it, too, which we’ll discuss in section 2 (the game plan). P.S. the following 2 visibility problems can also absolutely affect you feeling like you don’t know what to say when it’s time to be visible over and over again.
Feeling like you don’t have the time or energy to do it consistently, effectively
Ok, let’s say you do have some things that you clearly want to say but you are so friggin’ exhausted that you can’t even bring yourself to wrap your mind around executing on it. Everything begins to feel like ‘one more thing on the never-ending list of things to do that are draining the little bit of energy you do have left to give’. And it’s a cycle lately. And by lately, I mean the last couple of years. Yep, I’m gonna just have you own it right now. Just know that you’re not alone. Being a CEO, whether it’s your own empire you’re building or whether you are championing an enterprise, requires a lot out of you energetically. So long as you are burned out and running on fumes your visibility (in terms of building wealth) will suffer because you won’t have the mental or spiritual energy to be consistent and effective when you do show up.
Because having such little ‘energy of abundance’ is a real issue for women leaders, structuring your wealth visibility strategy as a tool that you only have to “think about” organizing one day a week can change everything! Once you have the week planned out there will require less energetic thinking on your part to figure out what to say and when. You’ll be able to use the energy you do have to show up and do it and not be spread so thin amongst thinking of what to say, figuring out how to say, figuring out when to say it and so forth.
Feeling all the feels
Whew. How many times in the past month alone would you say that you’ve been feeling all the feels? Feeling is such an involuntary state of human nature and yet feeling is still seen in many circles as a sign of weakness, especially for CEOs and especially for women who are CEOs and leaders in many capacities. So let me tell you right now; feeling all the feels means that you may be having a TIFF (an inner battle or even outer quarrels) battling through unresolved traumas, insecurities, fears and frustrations all while needing to lead your enterprise through a successful and profitable journey.
Being aware of your TIFFs (Traumas, Insecurities, Fears, Frustrations) are a very important secret weapon — not just for visibility but for profitability (which we’ll cover in a future post) because they are often the same intersections at which your dream clients and dream partners are having tiffs in their lives. Share them in your story and you’ll be incredibly surprised how your people start to come out of the woodwork.
Knowing WHY you’re not being as visible as you need to be is the most important step into becoming more visible. Give yourself the space to reflect, to cry, to journal, to go out in nature and clear your mind, whatever you need. And if what you need is a highly confidential, professional conversation where you can do any/all of the above and get down to the core of why you’re feeling all the feels or have such little energy or can’t figure out what to say go here to schedule a complimentary call with me.
#2: Create a Game Plan (that you’ll actually want to follow)
Having a game plan aka a strategy for being visible will help so much to those of us who get stuck on figuring out what to say and how to talk about it in a way that won’t get drowned out by everyone else shouting similar things and instead actually showcases our intellect and expertise in the matter and helps us to stand out in front of the right people.
Here are 7 different ways you can know exactly what to talk about and show that you relate to the problem that your dream clients or dream partners/collaborators are experiencing:
Determine What to Talk About
- Shared experiences (street cred) – Do you have a personal story relating to this problem?
- Solved the problem (expertise) – Have you given excellent advice to anyone on this problem?
- Any educational connections related to the topic you’re discussing (degrees, awards, certifications, conferences you attended, etc)?
- What do you think about the highly accepted view of the problem?
- What do you think about the misinformed view (what irks you about the bad advice people are giving) of the problem?
- Why do you think this problem occurs for women in [insert your specialty]?
- Any resources that you’ve come across regarding this? I.e., books, magazines, articles, experts
Map Out the How & When
- What platforms do you feel most called to share on? Or
- Is there a certain format in which you feel most called to share? (i.e., are you really wanting to hop on a video and talk about it, are you feeling compelled to write about it, are visual imageries calling you as a way to express it)?
#3: Accountability Check
If you know that your issue is that living in your head causes interference to your visibility and your profitability, then accountability is going to be imperative for you. Since the goal is to reduce overwhelm and to reduce some of the energetic drain, the accountability check should be simple.
- Download and print the template or take out a journal or notepad
- Decide one problem that you know is affecting “her” (her being your client, whether it’s a her or not) and write it down
- Identify at least one way that you can connect with her and relate to this problem. HINT: it might be the way you’re feeling right now or something you’ve just gone through
- Write a thought on social media, on your blog, or to your newsletter sharing your viewpoint. DO NOT OVER COMPLEX this! Lol. It can be 3 sentences or 2 paragraphs long. As simple as possible.
- You did it! Rinse and repeat.
If you’re like me and you like even more structure to organizing your thoughts, my Wealth Visibility Strategy Template goes into a bit more detail so download it and check it out!
Wanna see me walk-through the visibility strategy?
The Sabotaged Subconscious:
8 Signs You’re Sleepwalking through Life
by Keisha Shields
Becoming sophisticated is a skill, a level in which one reaches. As a sophisticated man or woman you hold yourself to high standards, have your daily rituals in place, and you accomplish more in a week’s time than many people do in longer stretches of time. You are an icon, a role model, an up-and-coming generational leader who is inspiring so many others to pursue their callings. But what happens when there is a curveball, a shift in the atmosphere, a major devastating change in your life? Many of us who have reached sophistication and climbed many ladders of success may find ourselves in an unfamiliar place. One where suddenly, days seemingly go by with little to no progress made, or you notice that the oomph that was in your step seems to be gone, and perhaps you realize that you haven’t been achieving things like you used to. This is a major sign that you may have unknowingly sabotaged your subconscious mind, and for high achievers like you, this is an urgent problem that needs to be addressed or it can become your downfall — the thing that brings your empire to a grinding halt.
So what can you do to stop your subconscious mind from sabotaging you? First things first, let’s understand the core functions of the conscious vs the subconscious mind. Although there are many official and complex definitions for these terms, at a simplistic form, the conscious mind is the rational part of the mind that gives the commands and the subconscious mind simply obeys the commands. Your subconscious is not rational. It obeys, strictly from information that is programmed in your mind; things like your self-concept and your beliefs about what you can and cannot achieve in your lifetime. After all, the function of the subconscious is to store and retrieve data.
Let that sink in for a moment.
The subconscious simply obeys commands from information that is programmed into your mind! When your subconscious mind becomes your master — meaning that this becomes the source from where you are retrieving data to make decisions in your life, you will find yourself being constantly pulled back into your comfort zones, or you will find yourself making decisions from a highly emotional place because this is the part of the mind that memorizes your comfort zones and memorizes your patterns and does whatever it can to ensure that you continue those patterns throughout your days.
Anything outside of the comfort zone makes the subconscious mind enter a place of being emotionally uncomfortable, and that is when you are most susceptible to begin feeling as though you are actually sleepwalking through your daily and feeling as though you are settling and unable to pull yourself back out of it.
Let’s take a look at 8 carefully selected signs that you (the change maker and tastemaker) may be sleepwalking through your daily life.
Sleepwalking through life Sign #1: You feel hopeless, and you feel that you have lost your power; the power to turn your life around and to get back to that level of efficiency and achievement that you are used to.
Sleepwalking through life Sign #2: You don’t recognize yourself or your life anymore. When you don’t recognize yourself, or your life, it usually indicates that you feel that you have lost control of your destiny and that you are disconnected.
Sleepwalking through life Sign #3: You spend your days being very busy, but actually having very little (if any) productivity.
Sleepwalking through life Sign #4: You dread getting out of bed in the morning. You have lost your mojo, your oomph, your zest. Operating from a place of a zombie-like state is a very hard place to be in. Dreading getting out of bed every morning may be a sign that there is something even bigger happening, and is a sign that you may be in the throws of depressive like states. If this is the case, please seek professional help to address what is happening in your mind, spirit, and body.
Sleepwalking through life Sign #5: Your days are completely repetitive, unfulfilling, and you are in such a state of unawareness that you don’t even notice it (or worse, you do notice it but can’t do anything about it).
Sleepwalking through life Sign #6: You feel isolated and feel that you don’t have the level of support that close friendships and relationships can provide. When you feel this way, this is a great opportunity to awaken and take proactive steps to meet some new people. You can join meetup groups to do things in person, or at minimal you can find some online support groups where you feel safe and can meet other similarly-situated people. Just be careful that the people you surround yourself with are uplifters and not downers.
Sleepwalking through life Sign #7: Your life is consumed with your business or career. Yes, it is important to feel engrossed in your work, especially when you have high-profile work or work that brings you to work with affluent and high-impact clientele, however, if every conversation and action that you do throughout your daily life is consumed by business, that is a sign that you are sleepwalking through your life. To combat this, use your schedule to your advantage. Be sure to schedule in some time off, some time to play, and some time to enjoy leisurely company.
Sleepwalking through life Sign #8: The final sign in this list is that you can identify most (or all) of the above signs as being true for you and your life. Look, I know all too well what it feels like to go from being a high-achiever with a heart of gold, to feeling like an underachiever who is struggling to just breathe and keep some level of sanity and normalcy in her life. Sleepwalking through your life means that you’re not fulfilling your mission. Reconnect with the things that light you up in your life.
Your subconscious mind can be reprogrammed. Remember, that all it does is obey. So, step up into consciousness and make intentional decisions that will get you back moving in the right direction! Take a breath. You can absolutely make it happen! Start today.