Why ‘Visibility Blocks’ Are Costing Businesses Big Money
The fear of being seen is quietly costing entrepreneurs money and most of them don't even know it's happening. PR founder Luana Ribeira on visibility blocks, what they look like in practice, and the only thing that actually fixes them.
Visibility blocks are a mindset problem very few people are talking about and yet they are holding many entrepreneurs back and costing them money.
The fear of being seen, challenged or “too much” is quietly stopping smart people from growing their business because they block themselves from pitching for PR, going after bigger clients, or raising their prices.
However, most people experiencing visibility blocks won’t even know about it. Visibility issues are often disguised as procrastination or perfectionism but at their core, they’re about fear of judgement and criticism.
Visibility is the growth bottleneck that a lot of people aren't even aware of and yet these blocks affect everybody at every level. Most people, when it comes to growth, will look at things like strategy, improving their skill, improving their branding, and they don't realize that actually, what they need is help overcoming their fear of being seen.
Common blocks include fear of being judged, imposter syndrome, worrying about being too much or not enough, wanting to be liked by everybody and being afraid of backlash.
So how can an entrepreneur, business owner or senior executive spot when they are experiencing visibility blocks?
Photo: Luana Ribeira
Habits people tend to slip into when they are struggling with fears about becoming more visible include being reluctant to take risks and choosing to play it safe instead. People will often justify not investing their time and money in things like PR and marketing which would help them to become more visible by telling themselves that they are the ‘world’s best kept secret’.
Even those who desperately want more people to know they exist will often sit around waiting to be discovered as if visibility is something which happens by accident with no effort or intention on their part. They will tell themselves things like “my work speaks for itself,” or “I want people to find me organically” but really they are terrified of getting in front of people and being seen.
This fear often comes from being worried about being misinterpreted or misunderstood by people. But the fact is that we can't control what other people think about us.
Visibility blocks are our brains trying to keep us safe from the unknown. These fears are built into our DNA as throughout history when people spoke out or went against the grain, that often meant real danger, especially for women.
Your amygdala – the part of your brain often referred to as your reptilian brain which processes fears – doesn’t know the difference between feeling frightened because of a life or death situation like being chased by a sabre-toothed tiger and anxiety about going on a livestream where no one can actually hurt you.
The reality is that not working on visibility blocks is costly for people’s businesses. It leads to missed opportunities and means many entrepreneurs aren’t building the authority, credibility and reach they deserve.
People who are afraid to own who they are and what they do and promote themselves often struggle to attract clients and make sales. Even if they are selling, they often aren’t charging what they are worth as they don’t believe they are established enough to command a higher price point.
On sales calls, they have to convince their leads as they haven’t built that reputation and trust already so people don’t already have an understanding of who they are, what they do and how they can help.
Sometimes the visibility blocks show themselves for people who are already established and well known and will often kick in as they start to reach a new level of exposure. Those in this position will often convince themselves that they should be prioritising something different within their business and they will make what seem like logical arguments to themselves to convince them not to continue with their PR or to bail on a high-profile interview.
The most effective way of overcoming the blocks is just to do the thing which is scaring you – go on that podcast, pitch yourself to that dream outlet, go live on your social media. Accept that you cannot control what people think or say about you and understand that you don’t have to be perfect to be visible. Perfection is a myth but for your business to succeed, people need to know you exist.