This transcript has been generated by AI - apologies for any mistakes 

Pippa Goulden (00:43)
Right, let me ask you something. If I told you that the biggest barrier to growing your business isn't your competition or your pricing or even the economy but actually you hiding in the shadows, would you believe me? Hi, I'm Pippa Gordon and welcome back to PR Made Simple. Today we are talking about one of my favorite subjects but something that makes so many of us squirm and that is getting known for what we do is stepping out

and owning our expertise. But here's the thing, this isn't about becoming someone you're not, it's about finally letting people see who you are. If you are a female entrepreneur, founder, expert, small business owner, and you are brilliant at what you do, but somehow invisible in your industry, then this episode is for you We are gonna talk about why building your personal profile matters, what's really stopping you from doing it,

and most importantly, how to get started and taking action without feeling like a complete fraud. Let's be honest here. Let's look at the problem that we really need to address. You've been building your business in the shadows for long enough. You are the expert who's been quietly perfecting your craft. You've built a business that works. You've helped clients transform their lives or you've created products that...

are brilliantly received by your audience and you've proven that your concept, you've proven that your business works but maybe you are tired of being the best kept secret in your industry. You've hit that visibility ceiling, that word of mouth just can't break through

And while your competitors are out there getting featured, landing speaking gigs and becoming the go-to expert, you are stuck watching from the sidelines and feeling incredibly frustrated. If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. I speak to so many, usually female founders who feel exactly the same. And before we get any further, I just want to clear up a couple of things

to do with the language around this whole thing that gets thrown around in this space because I think that they are actually quite problematic and some of them actually are stopping you from getting out there and getting known for what you do. The first one is the term personal brand. I hate this term, I really don't like it, I've done a lot of thinking and work around this over the last kind of year or so and I think the term personal brand that we see so many people talking about

really often puts people off actually stepping into who they are and what they want to get known for because the whole idea of creating a brand implies that you need to manufacture some fake version of yourself like you're some product on a shelf and that is absolutely not what I'm talking about here. I prefer the term and maybe it is semantics but I prefer the term personal profile and that is simply letting people know who you are and what you stand for.

It's about being authentically you. But sometimes we might need a little push in the way that Beyonce steps into being Sasha Fierce. She's still Beyonce, but she's just owning that CEO energy when she steps into being Sasha, stepping into her power. And that's what I want to do for you. And whilst we're talking about the little niggles that I have,

I find the term visibility really frustrating. I have a bit of a problem with that because visibility isn't just having professional photos taken and posting them on Instagram with motivational quotes. That is just being online. Getting known for what you do is different. That's people actually hearing your thoughts, your opinions, your expertise. It's not about being seen. It's about being heard and remembered for what you bring to the table. And I just want you to shift

you're thinking around those things a little bit. We're not just talking about visibility here, we're talking about getting known, okay? So let's look now at what is stopping you. Why aren't you doing this already for your business? Because you've probably spent some of this year feeling frustrated. The algorithm, whether you're on LinkedIn or Instagram, is really not working for people at the moment.

you're spending hours on socials only to reach a handful of the same people, your audience isn't growing as quickly as you'd like. I think also the key to this is that you know that you have some really important things to say, but you get stuck on the how and you're not taking the action. It's really simple as that. And when you do pluck up the courage, you're overthinking, you're spending too long wondering what to write, how to pitch, wondering what the other person on the other side is going to think.

So let's break down what's really happening here. The first thing is this overthinking trap and I see this so much. I do it myself. What if I say the wrong thing? What if no one cares? What if they laugh at me? What if I offend someone? What if I get it wrong? What if they find out that I'm a fraud? You're thinking yourself into paralysis before you've even started. Then we have the judgment fear. What will people think of me? And this is so tough for us, especially in, the UK.

where we are worried

putting ourselves out there, we're worried about what people are gonna think of us. There's a real cultural thing about not showing off, about staying humble. But here's what I want you to remember, that most people, aren't watching you as closely as you think they are. I've said it before and I'll say it again, nobody cares about your business in the same way that you do and that is so freeing. They're too busy worrying about their own stuff.

Also think about when you do see someone who's been featured in a magazine or done something brilliant in their business and they post about it on their socials. You're not there thinking, they're so too big for their boots. You see comment after comment after comment of people celebrating them because that's what we do inherently. We celebrate other people's success. So I want you to try and remember that you are not going to be judged in the way you think you are. In fact, you are probably more likely to be celebrated by the people who are watching you in your business.

We have that imposter voice as well. Who am I to have an opinion? I'm not qualified enough. I don't have enough experience. This is not true. This is your brain trying to protect you from something. It is lying to you. You know more than you think you do and your expertise deserve to be shared. A really good tip for this, I find, is making it less about yourself and thinking more about the people that you serve with your business. Who benefits from what you do? Do they not deserve?

to hear about your work. Do they not deserve to find you because you can then help them with your services or your products? So make it less about yourself and more about the people that you work with. And the whole too big for your boots fear, it's so British. We worry about appearing arrogant or boastful, but confidence isn't arrogance. Owning your expertise isn't boasting. When you step into your authority, people don't see a big head.

They see somebody who knows their stuff and is comfortable in their space and they want to get to know you more and they want to find out about you more. So let's have a bit of a reality check here. Your expertise is valuable. Somebody right now needs to know exactly what you know, but they can't find you because you are hiding behind your Insta squares. And while you're sitting there worrying about what people might think, those opportunities are passing you by and your competitors

stepping into them but they are rightfully yours right? So what we're going to do about this? I want to talk a little bit now about why this work actually really matters for your business because it's not just about your ego, it's not just about feeling good although sometimes it can feel good, it's about real tangible business benefits.

The first thing is that human connection. When you share who you are, what you think, your opinions, your expertise, what you have that deep knowledge in, it shows that there is a real person behind your business.

heard it so many times, People buy from people they know and trust. It creates genuine connections with your idle audience and the people who want to work with you.

Then there's the opportunity magnet effect and this is where it gets really exciting. When you start showing up and sharing your expertise, more opportunities start flowing to you instead of you having to chase them. It's quite amazing to see that momentum happen in businesses. I've seen it in my own business. I see it in so many of the businesses that I work with. I talk often about the snowball and you have to push it up the hill to get it to the top of the mountain and that can feel like a real hard.

schlep up the mountain and then you get to the top of the mountain and you start pushing off and it builds momentum and it gathers and it gathers and it gathers and you do a lot of the hard work at the beginning to establish yourself to get known for what you do but then opportunities start coming to you and people start asking you to do things and that is incredible to watch.

you know, the opportunities, the interviews, the podcasts, that kind of thing, they start coming to you rather than you always having to be the one that's proactively trying to find them. And this works whether you're service-based or product-based, you know, if you're the service provider, then this becomes a really powerful lead generation tool. I see this time and time again in my own business. And if you've got products, it opens doors to retail partnerships, media features, deep dive interviews.

collaborations and that kind of thing. Being seen for more than just your products will help you to create a brand. And this business impact is real. know, premium pricing becomes a lot easier when you are seen as the expert rather than just another option. Your marketing becomes more effective because people know who you are. Your sales conversions are shorter because trust is already established. That trust that PR can give you

that credibility cannot be underrated. It is so powerful for your business. And then there is what I call the peacock effect. Now, as I say, we're not doing this for our ego's sake,

time you show up, each time you get interviewed on a podcast or you get asked to stand on a stage and speak or you get asked to collaborate or you get asked for your opinion for a media article,

Each time it has a ripple effect and it builds your confidence. Your expertise becomes undeniable not just to others but to you. You stop second-guessing yourself or maybe you stop second-guessing yourself quite as much as you were and you start backing yourself in ways that you never did before and like like I say I call this the Peacock Feather Effect because it's quite amazing the people who I start working with and they you know they're not sure if anyone wants to hear about them and you can see the shoulders are kind of sagging

And then suddenly they start getting these opportunities and the peacock feathers come out and they start really believing in what they're doing. And it's quite amazing to watch that transformation because that is what attracts people into your world. That self-confidence, that belief in what you're doing, the belief in what you're doing that's bigger than just yourself and the impact that you're creating with your business.

Pippa Goulden (11:58)
I'm going to touch a little bit on storytelling now because that is one of the key things behind putting yourself out there, building your personal profile. It enables you to tell stories and stories are such a strong piece for us to be able to do within our business to create that connection with other people.

Now what I want to be clear on here though is that I'm not asking you to tell stories that are totally unrelated to your business, to talk about something that happened to you when you were 24 that's got nothing to do with what you do now. You might be incredibly private and you might not want to share your personal life and that is absolutely fine, you don't have to. This is where boundaries are really important. Putting yourself out there doesn't mean

spilling all, telling all, in fact I don't really recommend doing that anyway for most businesses, you don't need to share what you have for breakfast or relationship dramas, when I'm talking about this I'm talking about your professional experiences, your perspective, your values, things that have happened to you in your business. I use storytelling a lot in my own business, I talk a lot about what happened to me when I put on my own pair of big girl pants when I stopped letting fear rule the business and it's

those things that actually connect me to my target audience, not what my kids did last night or what my husband and I argued about at the weekend or where we went on holiday. What creates connection is that authenticity piece over perfection. It's the sharing the why behind what you do, the lessons you've learned along the way, your opinions on industry topics or what's going on within your sector. And yes, it is really important here to have opinions.

you know, to talk about things like me talking about the fact that I hate the term personal brand when every other PR person talks about it. it's using those things, those opinions, those areas that set you apart from other people and that is what's going to connect you.

It might be behind the scenes of how you work, it might not be. It might be what you stand for and what you stand against, your approach to solving problems, the mistakes you've made, what you've learned from them, all those kind of things. You can be professional and personal at the same time. You don't have to give away your private life. You can show your personality within the professional context. That's what people are going to remember about you and that's what makes them think of you when an opportunity comes up.

So I want you to think about this in terms of when you're wanting to get out there, when you're wanting to get known for what you do, remember it doesn't have to be about your personal life, it can actually is going to be more personal if it's to do with who you are and the business owner that you are.

Right, so how do you actually get started with all of this? Because I know that some of you are incredibly keen to get going, but you just don't know where to start. It feels really overwhelming. My advice is to start small, but to make sure you actually start. Have a look at what you're currently doing. What stories are you telling online right now? Or what stories are you not telling? Where are you hiding yourself? Where are you holding yourself back?

opportunities are there out there for you to start putting your opinions out there to start getting known for what you do. If you're totally new to this and you haven't done anything a really good place to start with it could just be doing an Instagram story talking to camera. I know for a lot of people that makes them feel really nervous at the beginning but trust me hardly anyone's watching it doesn't matter if it goes wrong you can delete it.

It's starting with those little baby steps that will actually lead you to doing the bigger things. Start thinking about those key areas that you want to get known for. This is something that we work on in the first part of Get Known, which is my six week group sprint, which is all about getting you known for what you do. And the first part is really deep diving into you and your business and what you want to get known for, the ways that you can get known for those things and how you're actually going to go and do it.

And the key thing here is being consistent, not perfect. You're gonna get it wrong, but it's trying things, it's showing up regularly, it's sending the emails with thoughts and opinions, it's putting your opinions out there on LinkedIn and Instagram. It's getting comfortable with moving through this process because the more you do it, like I said earlier,

the momentum will build and you will start getting known. And then it is a case of starting to think about a strategic approach to this, leaning into the things that you actually like doing. So for example, if you find that you are a natural talker, then maybe podcasts, panels, talks, that kind of thing are going to be the thing for you if you hate writing.

If however, the thought of going on a podcast fills you with dread, actually maybe we focus on the writing side of things and maybe there's some Q &A's you could write for another brand, a collaboration, that kind of thing. So leaning into what you like to do at the beginning is key because then we are going to push that comfort zone. But until you actually start doing it and you start building that momentum, I really recommend staying in that area of comfort.

to begin with because that's where you are actually going to take the action to make it happen.

And it's these actions that are going to allow you to step into the business owner that you're supposed to be, that you want to be.

2025 and into 2026 look really different for you. You can be confidently pitching yourself for the right opportunities, securing speaking gigs, press features. You can make yourself discoverable so that people are coming to you for your opinion. You're being talked about when you are not in the room.

People who've never even worked with you are recommending you because they've seen you, they've heard about what you do. Somebody out there right now needs what you offer, but they can't find you because you're playing small. And I promise you, if you take the action to change that, great, brilliant things can happen to your business. And if you are ready to stop hiding, to step out of the shadows, to stop being your industry's best kept secret and start getting known for what you do, then I do have something that might just help.

My Get Known group sprint starts in October. It's a six week action focused sprint designed specifically for ambitious female founders who are ready to position themselves as the authority in their field. It's not about vanity metrics. It's not even about being everywhere. It's about strategically building your profile to create real business impact. So we cover everything from finding your voice to taking action on the right PR opportunities for your business.

And the key thing is taking action. This isn't a dusty course that sits in your inbox that you never get around to doing. It's about the momentum building and I will be there every step of the way. You can find all the details in the show notes and DM me if you've got any questions about the whole thing. But remember that this work attracts people into your world. It doesn't repel them.

Shared expertise is expertise that creates opportunities and the only person stopping you from stepping into your authority is you. right that's me for this week. I hope you have enjoyed this episode. If it's resonated with you please do share it with any other female founders that you think need to hear this message and I will see you again next week for another episode of PR Made Simple.