89: Why You’re Not Getting More Leads And What Visibility Has to Do With It

Welcome with your host and business guru, Nikisha King. This podcast is the ultimate destination for women creative entrepreneurs who want to break free from burnout.

If you are overwhelmed by client demands and feel like you're doing this all alone, you, my friend, are in the right place. Now, let's dive in for steps to take back your time and some simplify your workflow. All right, Nikisha, take it away.

Hello, and welcome to Iconic CEO Podcast. My name is Nikisha, and I'm a certified coach who works specifically in sales and systems.

And this is where my beautiful free spirits come to fall in love with systems. So last week, I introduced you to my story about being invisible, about what being invisible looks like from an unintentional space.

And other than being invisible, today, I want to talk to you about something every women entrepreneur carries. And also men, even if we never say it out loud. And that beautiful word is judgment.

Not just the judgment we get from other people, but the judgment we quietly hold against ourselves.

The kind that whispers when we try to be visible, when we try to say something new, when we stretch into a bigger version of who we know we're becoming. Or better yet, we know we're meant to be. And I want to open this episode with a question, something I had to ask myself.

Is it really other people judging me, or is their judgment only painful because I've been judging myself on the topic for years? Did you hear that question? Let me ask it again.

Is it really other people judging me, or is there judgment only painful because I've been judging myself on that particular topic for years? That question changed everything for me. And it's the reason I built the rise framework inside my Invisible to Visible membership.

Because visibility isn't only a marketing problem, it's an identity problem. And the way we break out of invisibility begins with the R in my Rise framework. For a second, I thought I was a pirate.

I felt quiet, muted.

And yet, I still found myself shrinking in rooms where I should have been standing tall. And every time I, Nikisha, tried to show up bigger, online, offline, in conversations, in my offers, this familiar feeling showed up.

What will they think? What if someone doesn't like it? What if they judge me? What if I sound stupid? What if I look like I'm trying too hard? What if I'm not ready?

Does any of these sound familiar to you? But I want to share what I learned. The truth in what I learned. The judgment wasn't coming from them. It was coming from me.

It was coming from a version of me, a version of myself that didn't fully know who she was yet. A version that was still waiting for permission to speak. A version that wanted visibility but didn't feel safe being seen. Can you relate?

Does that feel like a little bit of your story? Once I learned how to reveal who I actually am, at my core, judgment started losing its power.

And that's why, in the Rise Framework, the R matters so deeply. So let me introduce you to the letter R. Pirate in my Rise Framework. So inside my invisible to visible membership.

When I created the Rise Framework, the R stands for reveal your identity. Before you can be visible to the world, you have to be visible to yourself.

Most people think visibility is work that starts with posting more, showing up more, doing more, just being all of the mores. But visibility begins with who I am when I'm not edited, who I am when I'm not filtered, and who I am when I'm not performing.

Who am I when I'm not trying to fit into what people expect of me, Especially when it comes to family, partners, friends, the people who know us best. Because here's what I know. After coaching hundreds of women and myself, judgment feels heavier when your identity is so unclear.

If you don't know who you are, people will tell you who you are. If you don't know your voice, the world will give you one. And it won't be yours. You won't recognize it.

If you don't anchor yourself internally, every external opinion feels like a threat. How do I know? Do you dare ask? Women come to me saying, I'm scared. People will judge me. But what they really mean is, I'm not rooted in who I am.

Yet the R and the rise reconnects you to to yourself so deeply that judgment will stop sticking. Because once you know who you are, you no longer are available for people who try to tell you otherwise.

And this is something I want a lot of you to know. Because you're an entrepreneur, you're a woman, or you Identify as a woman. But you get it now. Why does judgment feel so big for us?

Let's talk about the emotional side, the real side of this journey. Women like us fear judgment because we were taught to be agreeable, not powerful. We were taught to blend in, not stand out. How dare you.

We were taught to be polite, not bold. We were taught to take care of others before taking ownership of our voice and ourselves. We were taught to be grateful, not ambitious.

How dare you be ambitious. So when we step into visibility, when we dare to take up space, part of us still hears the old conditioning whispering in the background.

Deep in our souls. Children should be seen, not heard. And there's another layer. We are always judging ourselves. Consistently or constantly, I should say.

For example, do you recall when you said the last time, my voice sounds weird? How about, my story isn't good enough? Or my ideas don't matter? Or how about this one? I know this one really well. Someone is doing it better.

Another one. Who am I to talk about this topic? What if I embarrass myself? What if I fall flat on my face in public?

When the internal dialogue is loud, even the smallest external judgment feels like a punch to the gut. But, my love, I want to be really honest with you. I want you to sit with this. Judgment only hurts when it hits the places you have not healed.

Once you reveal your identity, truly reveal who you are, you are no longer in need of validation to speak your truth. You are no longer needing applause to stand tall. And you no longer will crumble when someone disagrees with you.

I've learned to laugh at that one, because no longer do I worry about disagreement.

Judgment shapes your visibility, and it shapes it when you lived for years, sometimes decades, with old conditioning that's running in the background. Judgment becomes more than an external experience. It becomes internal pattern.

And that pattern shows up in your visibility long before you've ever hit post. So it shows up when you shrink your ideas because you don't want to upset anyone. I know that really well. Sometimes I felt that way.

It shows up when you soften your message so no one misunderstands you. How dare you stand for something. It shows up when you edit yourself again and again until the real you is barely present.

It shows up when you hold back your expertise. You're afraid someone might just agree or not agree. It shows up when you tell yourself, I'll share more when I feel ready.

But readiness never actually arrives. How many times have you said that in the last 30 years? 40 years? Even 50?

Judgment becomes this quiet filter shaping everything you say, everything you attempt, everything you dream of doing. And here's the part most women don't realize. Internal judgment creates invisibility long before external judgment ever shows up. Did you hear that?

Let me say it one more time for people in the back. Your internal judgment creates invisibility long before external judgment ever shows up.

Because when you judge yourself, you stop trusting your voice. When you stop trusting your voice, you stop using it. When you stop using it, the world stops hearing you.

And when the world stops hearing you, you start believing visibility isn't meant for you. This is why visibility feels so vulnerable. This is why stepping into your new year as a visible woman requires more than strategy.

It requires identity work. It requires handling judgment you've carried within yourself purse.

When you understand how deeply judgment shapes your behavior, you can finally understand why. Why visibility has felt so hard and why in our invisible to visible, the rise framework starts with R. Now that R is something to reveal.

Your identity isn't about becoming someone new, is about returning to the version of you who existed before the judgment, before the conditioning, before the shrinking. And when that shift begins, everything changes. So what happens when we stop fearing judgment?

When we stop fearing judgment, something powerful begins. It begins to unfold within you, not just individually, but collectively. Hence the reason the invisible to visible membership, a collective community.

Because we know when visibility isn't a solo experience. It's an actual ripple. It's a fact. And when one woman rise, she gives every woman around her permission to rise, too.

When we stop fearing judgment, we stop shrinking ourselves to fit inside expectations that were never meant for us. We stop making decisions based on who might not approve and start making decisions based on who we're becoming.

We show up with a voice that isn't edited for safety, but expressed from truth. The depth that honesty is what our clients respond to. That's what they say yes to. Not the curated version of us, but the aligned version of us.

We start speaking before we continue, feel perfectly ready. Because we understand readiness comes from action. It never will ever come from hiding. We stop apologizing for our ambition.

And we stop dimming our goals to make other people comfortable. It's time people stop making them comfortable. We stop pretending we want small when we know we were men and built for more.

We expand our capacity for being seen. And we let people witness our ideas, our wisdom, our evolution. Even when it's imperfect. Especially when it's imperfect, my love.

We stop internalizing other people's opinions. Our partners, our spouses, our families, our Friends, their judgment, even the trolls, no longer becomes our truth.

Their discomfort no longer becomes our burden. Their projections no longer become our identity. We begin to understand that visibility is not about proving ourselves, no more proving yourself.

It's about expressing who we are deep within. That's why the work is important, of identifying our core, finding our voice. And that's the difference.

When we stop fearing judgment and we no longer wait to be chosen, and we choose ourselves, we no longer hide behind our work, but we lead with it. We no longer shrink our message, we amplify it.

And in that shift, we unlocked a level of confidence, a level of creativity, and a level of clarity that has been waiting inside of us all along. You have it right there in you. This is when visibility starts feeling natural. This is when opportunities begin to find us like a magnet.

This is when we realize our voice was never the problem. It was always the judgment. The judgment within.

And once judgment loses its power, visibility becomes a new way of being, a new way of living, a new way of showing up and taking up space to do exactly what you were made for.

So what comes next when you step into your visibility, when you choose to take action and create a visibility plan, now that you've opened that door by being here and listening to this podcast, to what happens when you stop fearing judgment? The next step is understanding the structure that helps you stay visible. Right? Remember, stay and create sustainable visibility.

Not just for a week, not for a month, not for just a quarter, but for the entire year ahead. Because visibility is in a one time burst. It's a rhythm, it's a practice, it's a way of living your leadership, not just marketing your business.

And that, my friend, is exactly why the Rise framework exists inside of my Invisible to visible membership.

When you begin with the R to reveal your identity, you're not only removing the weight of judgment, AKA the weight of the world, you're shifting the foundation you stand on. You're building it from cement rather than clay.

You're moving from insecurity to groundedness, from uncertainty to clarity, from shrinking to expansion. And once that foundation is set, everything else becomes easier. Igniting your message no longer requires forcing yourself to sound like someone else.

Shaping your visibility strategy no longer feels overwhelming because it's built from who you authentically are. Evaluating your leadership or elevating your leadership. Better yet, not evaluating it.

But elevating becomes natural because you're leading from identity, not fear. Each part of you is built on the other. Each shift makes the next one possible. So this is what I'M here to share with you.

Judgment is not about the outside. It's about the inside.

And in our next episode, what I'm going to do is talk to you about the second layer, the deeper reason why so many of us as women, speak, post or share, but still feel unseen. Even when we show up. It's not really because you're invisible, but sometimes it's because your messaging hasn't been ignited yet.

So for our next episode, we're going to talk or I'm going to walk you through what it looks like, why it happens, and how you can move through it with intention. So when you step into that new year with a message, that resonates so well. But for today, I just want you to sit with the truth about judgment.

When judgment loses its power, visibility becomes accessible to every and anyone. And once visibility becomes accessible, your business will rise and rise and rise. So I have an action for you.

If this episode stirred you and in some way, somehow you felt something soften open or seeing your own relationship with judgment differently, that means this work is ready for you. Remember, you're not behind, you're not late, you're right on time.

And you're not the only one who has felt silent or small or unsure about being visible. I was once right there with you. You're simply a woman or creative who's ready to rise like the Phoenix.

And if a new year is the year you want to step into visibility with clarity and confidence in that journal sais quoi, then the invisible to visible activation, AKA membership, is where that transformation begins. And inside this community, we go deeper than the tips and the algorithms. We're past that. We want to rebuild your identity.

We want to reshape your message. We want to create visibility strategies that feel human and aligned with you, not everyone else but you.

In our program, we elevate the way you lead so the presence matches the version you're building, not anyone else but you.

And if you're feeling the nudge, the pull, the whisper that says it's my time, you are welcome to join me by just clicking the link in the show notes.

And if you're still listening quietly, still taking this in, still figuring out what visibility means for you, keep coming back to the iconic CEO podcast. This month is dedicated to you who are done hiding and ready to honor your voice. We're rising together.

We're taking up space together, and we're stepping into a version of visibility that feels like home. So thank you. Thank you for being here with me. Thank you for showing up for you.

Thank you for listening on today's iconic CEO podcast, one that was dear to my heart and deep. And sometimes I'm grateful I can show up without tears running out my eyes. But thank you for being here with me on this journey.

If today's episode made you realize you're ready to be seen in a new way, then I want to invite you into Invisible to visible, my 12 month visibility membership for creative professionals and women entrepreneurs who are ready for consistent leads, stronger visibility and a message that actually connects so many talented women and creative professionals. Enter entrepreneurship with the skill, perspective, the passion and the work ethic, but without a visibility plan that feels simple or sustainable.

That's why they stay quiet, inconsistent or overlooked, even though they're incredibly gifted.

Invisible to Visible changes that Inside the membership you learn the Rise framework, how to reveal your identity, ignite your message, shape a visibility plan you can maintain and step into leadership with confidence. When you do this work, you stop hoping people find you and you start attracting clients who value your work.

If this is your year to take up space and finally, finally become visible, join us using the link in the show notes. I would love to support you inside our audacious community. Sam.