November 28, 2025 • 32 mins
Five Steps for Female Founders to Fall Back in Love with Their Business
In this episode, we explore how female founders can reconnect with their businesses and reignite their passion. We delve into five key reasons why they may feel disconnected, including a lack of joy in their work, uncertainty about success, misconceptions about posting as a strategy, the pressures of maintaining an online presence, and the fear of self-promotion. The episode offers tough love, practical advice, and gentle reframes on how to overcome these challenges. Key themes focus on visibility, self-leadership, and the importance of building a business that aligns with one's values and vision. The host also emphasizes the need for a single core offering, a strong voice, and a unique sales mechanism to maintain business momentum. This episode is packed with insights and reflections to help female founders find joy and belief in their entrepreneurial journey once again.
00:00 Introduction: Reconnecting with Your Business
00:28 Five Reasons Female Founders Fall Out of Love with Their Business
01:46 Reason 1: Lack of Joy in Your Work
03:42 Reason 2: Doubts About Success
13:57 Reason 3: Posting is Not a Strategy
16:57 Reason 4: Pressure to Show Up Online
20:02 Reason 5: Fear of Self-Promotion
26:29 Conclusion: Falling Back in Love with Your Business
Hey there, and welcome to the Visibility for Female Founders Podcast. I'm your host, Ika Lucas, and this podcast is for you if you're an impact driven, founder, coach, or consultant who wants to find your own voice to speak, present, and amplify your message Online.
We explore how to get past the visibility roadblocks and grow your capacity to be seen so you can attract then chase your perfect audience, while staying connected to the most important things by building a business th
This is your invitation to fall back in love with your business!
Whether you are sick of posting for the sake of posting, or left feeling a little disillusioned with how to show up..
Join me over 4 weeks to help you reignite what's keeping you stuck.
Join me in Jan 2026 for the season of love
On Apple Podcasts, you can scroll all the way down to the end of all the episodes, where you have an option of writing a review and where you can also rate the show.
On Spotify, you can do that by leaving a comment on every episode, by clicking on an individual episode and leaving a comment and leaving a rating on top of the episode right under the podcast heading.
Thanks so much.
Get my free private podcast on building your pre visibility foundations!
A five part framework to help you go From Second Guessing Your Visibility To Speaking For Sales Using Your Voice As A Bridge To Your Visibility .
Let's connect beyond this episode.
Follow me on either Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook.
https://www.instagram.com/radhikalucas
https://www.facebook.com/radhikalucas https://www.linkedin.com/in/radhikalucas
Or on my website: https://www.contenthalo.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:28):
Hey there and welcome back tothe episode.
Today we are talking about howto fall back in love with your
business again.
This is a visibility andself-leadership episode for
female founders who feeldisconnected.
Overwhelmed or burdened by yourbusiness, and if you just need
one more reason to believeagain, then in this podcast, I
want to share a few perspectivesand give you some reflections to
(00:52):
stop and think about in what Iam coining this season of
self-love.
So I'm gonna kick off byexplaining all the five reasons
why you might be in the placethat you're in right now, and
why so many female foundersmight fall out of love with
their business.
The first of these reasons isthat your work has no joy.
(01:14):
The second thing that we'regonna be covering is that you're
just not quite sure whether thisis going to be working out.
You may have tried a few things,and you may just be in a season
of needing a bit moreself-belief.
You're just not sure whetherthis will work and you're
looking outside of yourself forthose solutions.
The third is.
Thinking posting is a strategywhen it's not.
(01:36):
Number four is really feelingthe pressure to show up online
while navigating many differentenvironmental energies as well
as navigating life itself.
And the fifth one is really thefear of self-promotion and going
against the grain of whateverything that we've been
taught that might be in conflictwith what you are seeing online,
(01:57):
which is the comparison.
Versus your old identity.
And I'm gonna be unpacking allof these for you in this week's
podcast, which I'm so incrediblyexcited about.
This is a jam packed episode, somake sure that you have all the
attention that you need just foryourself to enjoy this one.
So the first one that I'm gonnabe talking about is that work
(02:18):
has no joy.
Now I'm gonna just mention that.
From at least a couple ofconversations that I've had over
the last week.
I'm hearing one or twoscenarios, and one is that they
may have already built up asuccessful consulting business,
but the work in itself was, 12to 14 hours a day every single
day, all kinds of hours, middleof the night or whatever,
(02:40):
working across various differenttime zones.
And now they might be wantingthat scalability that comes with
an online business.
So this is the firstconversation that I've been
having just in the last week.
And then the second conversationthat I've had in the last week
is that they left their job onlyto have a business that's now
basically paying the bills.
(03:01):
That is, if there is businesspredictability of being paid for
the work, when the invoices doget settled.
Only to make them feel depletedwith the kind of work that
actually is coming in the firstplace, causing a bit of
resentment and not reallywanting to do it because there's
no motivation to keep going,which really does the opposite
(03:21):
of injecting joy.
And really the reason for thisis that there hasn't been a
single way to monetize yourexpertise through one single
scalable offering.
While you take care of the meatand potatoes in your business to
bring the scalable part of yourbusiness forward, and this is
(03:44):
for the accelerators.
Now, if you've taken myVisibility Foundation's
workshop, you'll know what thismeans is that this is for the
accelerators for people who areactually already have that
expertise and that IP built up.
But you actually just need a wayfor people to, uh, bring people
into your expertise and your IPand package it up in a way where
(04:05):
people can actually access yourexpertise by leaning into what
they need the most.
Now, the second reason that I'mhearing is that there's a
general sense of distrust, whichis, I don't know if this will
work.
Now I have said that we are in aseason of self-love, but for
this one I'm actually going tobe giving you some tough love
(04:26):
and you may not like hearingsome of what needs to be said in
this podcast.
But if this statement issomething that you have said or
are saying when you are lookingat investing in yourself in
anything, any situation, anymentoring, coaching, or.
Business development framework,whether it is to work on your
voice, whether it's to work onyour brand, whether it's to work
(04:48):
on your messaging or anything,your website or whatever this
statement of this better workthis time, it actually puts the
owners outside of yourself.
Now, unless you are contractingout a service in which you have
a set set of deliverables thatyou are getting from a person,
this better work.
(05:09):
Well, what are the conditionsthat.
You know, you've gotta askyourself what are the conditions
needed outside of yourself forthings to work?
So what I mean by saying is ifyou are not ready to work for it
and you need someone else to dothe heavy lifting for you in
your business, are you reallybeing the leader for your
business?
Are you really leading yourself?
(05:30):
And so the, the thing that youmay have invested in the program
that you may have invested in,maybe it didn't give you the
return because they may, youknow, in some, in some cases.
There are some genuinesituations where people have not
delivered on the thing that theysaid that they would, in which
case that is bad players, that'sbad actor.
You know that that's bad onaccount of, uh, these people.
(05:53):
However, if you haven't actuallydone the work yourself through
the container that you were in,then does that onus really sit
on the person?
Or does that owner sit on you?
And I'm saying this completelyas a person who actually has
invested in lots of differentthings and there have been
certain things that I didn'tfully take on and run with them
(06:16):
myself.
And that fully falls on me andI'm taking ownership of that.
So there is a little bit ofthis, you know, reframing that's
needed off.
I don't know if this will workbecause you really need to be
able to back yourself.
Um, when you are going into aconversation with yourself on
that topic, which is what kindof self-trust are you ready to
(06:39):
put forward for yourself withknowing that you've got the
support to carry you forward?
So here are some practicalthings to think about and what
you really need is that beliefin what you have to offer, and
then the courage and motivationto make it work for you from the
ground up.
So I'm gonna be giving you sometough love for this, and
apologies in advance again, ifit offends.
(07:02):
But it needs to be said, andthat is for every finger that's
pointing outwards, there'susually four back in your
direction.
Now entrepreneurship is thebiggest project of
self-development that you willever take on.
I have certainly experiencedthat myself, and which is why
I'm sharing this with love, isthat the one thing that I have
learned from balancing both ajob as well as a business is
(07:24):
that building a business isbloody hard work and building a
business that has scalability isbloody hard work because there
are lots of different factorsthat need to go in.
To making a business work?
Well, from a scalabilityperspective, you'd have to have
the volume if you're going, fora really lower priced product in
(07:45):
your business.
So if you don't have the volume,you've gotta overcome, you've
gotta compensate for it throughincome that you get from some
other means while you arebuilding the volume part of your
business.
This is really just, simplemaths.
This is not rocket science.
So.
Think about the journey that youare on right now, and if you are
thinking about setting up ascalable part of your business,
(08:09):
then what you are really goingto need to commit to is you're
gonna need to commit to havingan income that can support you
while you are building.
Out the foundational stuff thatyou need in order to get volume
into your business, with yourown ip, with your own expertise,
with all of the life experiencesthat you've had.
But it's not going to happenovernight.
(08:30):
It's actually gonna take time,effort, and energy, because
anything worthwhile actuallytakes time.
It doesn't usually happen in asprint.
A sprint is when you can.
Come up with certaindeliverables that you will get
handed to you and you run withthem.
You take them and you run withthem and you make them your own
right, but you're not gonna havesomething that's set and forget
(08:51):
turnkey done for you like youwould do when you exchange a
contract, say to build a house,a brand new house.
You exchange dollars in exchangefor product that gets built for
you and all you have to go inand live in it.
Well, a business is not exactlylike that because at the end of
the day, if you don't have atool that you can operate and
operationalize such as an app orsomething that actually helps
(09:12):
people do something specific,then you are the face of your
business and your expertise andyour IP are what you are
selling.
And it really needs you to be inyour best optimal condition.
And the pointing fingers andreally looking at the ones that
are actually pointing back atyou are the most important piece
of the puzzle in this wholeprocess.
(09:34):
So coming back to.
The volume versus, income model,which is the scalability versus
(11:49):
a service based business, isthat if you lack systems and a
proven offer that people havealready paid you for time and
again, then I'm gonna repeatthis.
You don't have the luxury ofsaying you want ease and flow if
you are just starting out.
And because as I described tosomeone just earlier this week,
(12:10):
is that you can't have takeoffwithout thrust.
Now, let me repeat that again.
You cannot have liftoff.
Without thrust.
And yes, that might mean that itmight take some hustle.
So there is some out talkinggoing on here in this podcast
episode, which someone reallyneeds to hear because quite
frankly, no one really talksabout this as much as they
really should.
(12:31):
And so no one is actually goingto bring you leads that convert
easily without proving your ownmethodology and I am just gonna
say this with kindness thatactually sits with you.
So this is actually as much,about self-trust as it is about
self-leadership and takingownership, which is what part
are you willing to play?
(12:52):
To get your content out thereand what part are you willing to
play to validate and closeoffers when they're created?
So that's something to ponderabout.
And you can have all thehandholding but you can't expect
to get to cruising altitudewithout there being enough
pressure in the lead up to thatliftoff or the takeoff so that
you can get to cruisingaltitude.
(13:14):
And that's my tough talk settledon this one for this episode.
But I do wanna offer you agentle reframe despite
everything that I've said, andthat is that the way that you
are thinking about this wholesituation, which is, this may
not work this time, is that youmay be basing.
Your past results on futureoutcomes.
(13:34):
And there's a really good way ofreframing and looking at this.
And there's a really strangelife parallel that I wanted to
share, that will help with apenny drop actually from my real
life scenario.
And literally this has again,played out this week.
Which is that I've been helpingmy son navigate through some
challenging exams for which hedid about some total of two days
(13:56):
of work before he sat the test,and naturally the outcomes spoke
for themselves.
Now, there is a, olive branchbeing offered where he can REIT
that test again, but it doesmean that his summer holidays
will be taken up with preparingfor the second chance.
And so there is naturally a bitof built up, pent up tension
(14:19):
about the thought about thissitting, this test, because the
data points that we have to lookat are two days worth of effort
for one day's outcome andresults.
Now, if you look at the resultsthat you may have got, or I may
have got, I know fully well theresults that I have got are
(14:41):
fully.
On account of the work that Iput in, it's directly
proportional.
It's all, literally physics.
Every action has an equal andopposite reaction.
And when you decide on inaction,you will get the results of
inaction.
And so I will say this is thatif you think about the two data
(15:01):
points, which is the 48 hoursleading into an exam or a test
versus two whole months of dailypractice and.
Consistency in the lead up tothe finale or the test.
Those two data points arecompletely different.
And so the outcome that youmight be looking at when you're
asking yourself is this evengoing to work, are based off of
(15:24):
two very different data points.
So you've gotta really be ableto compare apples with apples
when you're looking at outcomesand thinking about whether or
not this is going to work outbecause you are actually
starting to look outside ofyourself when in fact.
A, a large part and a real keyplayer in this whole, situation
(15:44):
is quite often the person itselfand what they are or what
they're not doing.
And that is the reason why thereare so many scaled offerings in
the market is because peopleunderstand that inherently
carrying somebody else isimpossible unless the person is
actually willing to meet, uh,the market where they're at.
(16:06):
Through putting in the workthrough self-direction, through,
self-leadership, through guideddiscipline and focus despite all
of the energies and things thatmight actually be affecting you.
So I just wanted to leave you onthat gentle reframe, given that
I just laid into the second,example, a fair bit there with
my tough talk on this.
(16:26):
Particular topic, which I feltquite deeply about and spent a
long time thinking.
Now, the third thing that I havenoticed why people fall out of
love with their business isreally thinking about posting as
a strategy when it's not.
Now you can post all you like,but it's not posting that will
get you sales.
It's when you change your.
Perspectives and withpositioning and your personal
(16:49):
brand, that is when peopleactually start knowing what you
stand for and why, rather thanjust the how you know and what
you would sell and what yourprocess is.
And it's when people willactually start gravitating
towards you.
So post, but only post, when youhave formed your perspective and
are not afraid to go out thereand lay a stake in the ground
(17:11):
for what you actually stand for,because that is ultimately what
leadership is all about, isstanding your ground and, and
not ready to back down on yourpoint of view just because.
You think someone won't agreeand you, because you have formed
a perspective of based off ofyour real life experiences that
(17:33):
if you haven't yet validated,you will be feeling that.
Friction of, but what if I putmyself out there and, someone
says something, right?
So you've gotta be able to bewilling to validate your
offering as you're going along,and which is why, which is part
of the reason why the salesprocess.
In posting is so incrediblyimportant is because it actually
(17:58):
helps to give you those microwins as you're going along,
from, it being, not just aboutvolume, but actually more about
the breadcrumbs that you need tohave along the way to validate
what it is that you're gonna be.
Offering and then with the viewthat you can then scale it with
separate experts who can helpyou with the scaling side of the
business.
But more often than not, comingback to my previous point is
(18:21):
that a lot of the times peopleactually want to be able to get
to cruising altitude withoutnecessarily having the thrust or
the work that you need to put infor the liftoff.
And you will find yourselftrying to clutch at straws.
With buying an AI course, withtrying to, create content with
ai.
Well, I'm just gonna say thisagain.
This might again, upset a fewpeople, but I'm really on a fire
(18:43):
here today, which is you can'tautomate creativity.
You don't understand.
So if you haven't yet created.
A magnetic system for yourselfwhere you know that from having
put out the content you are, thepeople are actually gravitating
towards you, and you've donethat with any length of
consistency, that is when the AIsystems will play in.
(19:06):
With amplifying the existingimpact that you've made in the
marketplace.
So leave it on that one for, forthere, but coming back to the
point of.
Posting is not the strategy, andit's really changing
perspectives and your own corepositioning that actually puts
you front and center for what itis that you do and what you
(19:28):
share.
But without oversharing.
The fourth point that I wannadiscuss is the feeling, the
pressure to show up online whilenavigating life.
Now, there have been many timesin my life when there have been
endless energy swings that I'mmanaging.
It could be.
From social media with, eachscroll that I've taken at a
(19:48):
fraction of the energy from theperson whose perspective of, or
POV that I was taking in.
So I get that you don't want toadd the noise, but have you
asked yourself whether the noisethat you are perceiving is
actually a glimpse into your ownreality of what you are
perceiving and what you areconsuming?
There certainly is noise, butpeople, you will usually seek me
(20:11):
out.
Through that noise because theylove what I stand for.
And similarly, there will bepeople who will love what you
stand for and is where you wantyour voice to shine and share
your perspectives without theenergies getting you down.
Now the second is, you know, thefeeling, the pressure to show up
online while navigating lifeand.
(20:33):
Could be.
The reason why you fall out oflove in your business is all of
the energies from yourenvironment.
Now, we can't control the peoplearound in our environment, but
the cliche of, we can controlhow we choose to respond to the
environment has never beentruer.
And I will share that I've beenin a negative environment and a
(20:53):
negative mental state in thepast, and I realized that I
couldn't control my environment,but I could choose my response
by giving myself the gift ofmicro wind.
Something that gave me a reasonto wake up in the morning rather
than not having a vision, and itwas with putting one step in
front of the other when I didn'tknow what else would work.
(21:14):
It's the full and utter belief.
And giving myself and reframingthe proof that I was giving
myself despite the fact.
That I wasn't necessarily alwaysmaking big wins, but I knew that
what vision I hold for myself,and that is the gift you can
give yourself as a femalefounder, is the gift of vision,
which will carry you througheven through the darkest of
(21:36):
time.
So when you can't alwaysovercome.
Mental chatter and you justwanna hold onto a single reason
to believe it'll be the visionthat you come back to for your
business, and is the reason whydespite there being pressure to
show up online while navigatingyour life and circumstances and
environment, and if you feellike you're falling out of love
(21:58):
in your business.
That is the reason why a lot ofpeople that I see struggle is
because they struggle toreconnect back with the vision
that they may have had, and thatquite often helps to open up a
window or a gateway through myinitial conversations when I
first bring.
And onboard clients into myprogram activator is that the
(22:19):
first thing that we do isactually help you get back in
touch with your vision byunderstanding the whole map of
your business.
So that is one of the ways inwhich, you can control the
environment by actuallycontrolling your reality and how
you respond to that.
So the fifth thing that I wantto go into is the fear of
(22:39):
self-promotion.
And this is very real becauseI've actually felt it myself.
It's really about going againstthe grain and in conflict with
what you're seeing.
As people, we have been treatedlike sheep, where, the flock
stays together and we have thesheet mentality of.
Doing what everybody else isdoing, because let's face it,
standing out means that we'reactually putting our neck out
(23:02):
there.
And, I put it down and akin tobeing, without night vision
goggles in the middle of a sav.
You know, you are out there andyou can sense that maybe there
are lions and tigers and allthese wild animals they can see
you through their night vision.
But you can't see them.
And that is the feeling thatsometimes I've had through this
(23:24):
whole posting online, situation,especially in the early days.
And I tell you what though, isthat the fear actually is like.
An erosion in itself.
It will chip away at you.
It'll chip away at you and it'llkeep you exactly where you need
to be.
And it can be incrediblydraining.
Fear really keeps us fromtapping into ourselves because
(23:48):
we go into this trap.
Of shuttling betweencomparisons.
So comparing what other peopleare doing and then comparing
what we are meant to be doing,and then looking at what
somebody else is posting, andthen looking at what we are
supposed to be posting, and thenlooking at how somebody has done
something with AI and thinking,wow, that must be great.
So I need to do that with aiand.
So no wonder there is thatfeeling of noise, which I
(24:11):
mentioned earlier in theepisode, which is really taking
that comparison, state of mindand replacing it with what do I
have to offer my voice, myvalues, my, identity, my POV,
and I'm gonna be sharing alittle bit more of that in a
second.
But speaking about identity.
It is the identity that we hold,in ourselves, who we have been
(24:34):
in the past.
Someone who I was speaking toearlier last week said that, uh,
the identity that she's had hasalways been behind the scenes.
Not really an out in front.
And so it can be.
A bit of a process getting fromthat old identity into a new
identity, which is suddenlyyou're going from, or it could
(24:54):
actually be.
The second, example is a currentclient of mine who, actually had
an established business and wasnever actually the face of the
business.
So the business did thepromotion entirely on its own,
independently without thefounder necessarily needing to
be the face of the business.
And so there can be that shiftbetween.
The identity that you may haveonce had versus say, if you are
(25:17):
starting out, then the identitythat you have, you know, that
your family sees you as, or yourcolleagues see you as, and then
this new identity or this newbrand where you'll actively be
eroding the part of you thatsome people may have known you
as.
And you're building this newidentity, uh, where people will
be starting to get to know youas, and that shift.
(25:39):
In our own minds can actually bea lot more amplified than say
for somebody else, because forsomebody else, they'll be taking
in the perspective, they'll belooking at the thing and not
everybody will agree with whatit is that you have to say.
And that's where the judgmentdoes come in.
That's where the fear comes in.
But it's really about, again,being rooted back in that
(26:00):
self-belief with the clarity ofknowing what exactly you stand
for.
And with clarity then comes.
Momentum with clarity comesconfidence.
And so that's part of the reasonwhy two of those are my themes,
is that I really work towardsclarity because unless I give
clarity to people, they're notgonna be able to get the
(26:23):
confidence that they need inorder to, in order to then build
on the connections that theyneed to have in order to then be
successful in what they do.
So a really big gift.
Of my voice themes is clarity,is because I'm seeking out
clarity and looking at patternsand, making deductions from the
patterns that I'm seeing in themarketplace.
And obviously sharing thatwithin my podcast for you as a
(26:45):
gift for me to be able to share,the things that I'm learning so
that you don't have to befinding out things the hard way.
And that is really my hope forthis podcast is really about
reframing visibility in a waythat is specifically for female
founders when there is so muchnoise out there.
So I will just say that, I couldsay a lot about the fear of
(27:06):
self-promotion and obviouslyactivate within, um, my business
is a place where people can, uh,sound more like themselves and,
and offer that.
But regardless of what, whichbucket you are in, I'm just
gonna say, I've covered fivedifferent scenarios.
Whether you are, lost in the joyof why you started the business
(27:28):
in the first place, or you'renot sure of whether this will
work, whether you are posting,thinking.
You have to, then with astrategy that is platform
agnostic.
Or if you're ready to ditch theenergies from, that are bringing
you down or separate yourselffrom the fear of self promotion,
then before you either chuck itin or fall prey to yet another
(27:49):
quick fix.
There are only really threethings that you will need to do
to be able to speak and presentonline, uh, with your own unique
perspective and with your ownvoice.
And to do that as a femalefounder, you will need one of
three things.
One is you will need to createas.
Single core offering that peoplecan know you for.
(28:10):
The second is that you will needto develop a voice that is based
in three things, brandpositioning and perspective that
will keep you top of mind.
And the third is actuallydeveloping that unique sales
mechanism to fill your pipelineand test and learn approach that
improves over time.
And what I'm gonna say is this,that the execution of these
(28:33):
three things is highly de.
On whether you are establishedwith a proven offer and things
that you have already done and,and how much cred and authority
you have in the marketplaceversus if you're sta if you're
just starting out.
And the path to both thesethings are two very different
things.
So it is the, these are thethree things that you will need.
(28:55):
In order for you to then feellike you can speak and present
from a point of view,perspective, and brand that is
uniquely yours.
So if you are finding yourself,ready to fall back in love with
your business in this season ofself-love, then, and if you're
find, if you're finding yourselfspeaking from either obligation.
Exhaustion or perhaps strategyfirst thinking instead of
(29:19):
showcasing your voice with yourvalues.
Building desire not only in whatyou offer, but actually falling
in love with what you offer andshowcasing perspectives and
positioning with identityshifting activities, uh, and
then sharing those insights thatyou know you can share through.
Knowing what cards to hold andwhat cards to fold.
(29:41):
When you're sharing thoseinsights, you're sharing without
oversharing, and more, mostimportantly, with an embodied
experience that showcases theimpact that you're wanting to
make and creating room for it,then know that the cue to this.
Is your next steps, which ismaking a plan that helps you
fall in love with your businessagain, so that you can amplify
(30:02):
your impact you wanna make.
Because the exact execution ofeach lies heavily, as I said on
your personal circumstances.
And if you want to know how tobest do that, I've shared an
opportunity here, this episodein the show notes to help you
craft your next steps.
So I'm gonna close off this bysaying that you can fall in love
with your business by doing.
What feels like you, again, I'llleave you with this soundbite,
(30:25):
which I thought was really cool,which is your voices, your
compass, your values are yourstructure and your energy is
your strategy.
And when you bring your voiceback to the center, everything
begins to come alive again.
Hey there and welcome back tothe episode.
Today we are talking about howto fall back in love with your
business again.
This is a visibility andself-leadership episode for
female founders who feeldisconnected.
Overwhelmed or burdened by yourbusiness, and if you just need
one more reason to believeagain, then in this podcast, I
want to share a few perspectivesand give you some reflections to
(00:52):
stop and think about in what Iam coining this season of
self-love.
So I'm gonna kick off byexplaining all the five reasons
why you might be in the placethat you're in right now, and
why so many female foundersmight fall out of love with
their business.
The first of these reasons isthat your work has no joy.
(01:14):
The second thing that we'regonna be covering is that you're
just not quite sure whether thisis going to be working out.
You may have tried a few things,and you may just be in a season
of needing a bit moreself-belief.
You're just not sure whetherthis will work and you're
looking outside of yourself forthose solutions.
The third is.
Thinking posting is a strategywhen it's not.
(01:36):
Number four is really feelingthe pressure to show up online
while navigating many differentenvironmental energies as well
as navigating life itself.
And the fifth one is really thefear of self-promotion and going
against the grain of whateverything that we've been
taught that might be in conflictwith what you are seeing online,
(01:57):
which is the comparison.
Versus your old identity.
And I'm gonna be unpacking allof these for you in this week's
podcast, which I'm so incrediblyexcited about.
This is a jam packed episode, somake sure that you have all the
attention that you need just foryourself to enjoy this one.
So the first one that I'm gonnabe talking about is that work
(02:18):
has no joy.
Now I'm gonna just mention that.
From at least a couple ofconversations that I've had over
the last week.
I'm hearing one or twoscenarios, and one is that they
may have already built up asuccessful consulting business,
but the work in itself was, 12to 14 hours a day every single
day, all kinds of hours, middleof the night or whatever,
(02:40):
working across various differenttime zones.
And now they might be wantingthat scalability that comes with
an online business.
So this is the firstconversation that I've been
having just in the last week.
And then the second conversationthat I've had in the last week
is that they left their job onlyto have a business that's now
basically paying the bills.
(03:01):
That is, if there is businesspredictability of being paid for
the work, when the invoices doget settled.
Only to make them feel depletedwith the kind of work that
actually is coming in the firstplace, causing a bit of
resentment and not reallywanting to do it because there's
no motivation to keep going,which really does the opposite
(03:21):
of injecting joy.
And really the reason for thisis that there hasn't been a
single way to monetize yourexpertise through one single
scalable offering.
While you take care of the meatand potatoes in your business to
bring the scalable part of yourbusiness forward, and this is
(03:44):
for the accelerators.
Now, if you've taken myVisibility Foundation's
workshop, you'll know what thismeans is that this is for the
accelerators for people who areactually already have that
expertise and that IP built up.
But you actually just need a wayfor people to, uh, bring people
into your expertise and your IPand package it up in a way where
(04:05):
people can actually access yourexpertise by leaning into what
they need the most.
Now, the second reason that I'mhearing is that there's a
general sense of distrust, whichis, I don't know if this will
work.
Now I have said that we are in aseason of self-love, but for
this one I'm actually going tobe giving you some tough love
(04:26):
and you may not like hearingsome of what needs to be said in
this podcast.
But if this statement issomething that you have said or
are saying when you are lookingat investing in yourself in
anything, any situation, anymentoring, coaching, or.
Business development framework,whether it is to work on your
voice, whether it's to work onyour brand, whether it's to work
(04:48):
on your messaging or anything,your website or whatever this
statement of this better workthis time, it actually puts the
owners outside of yourself.
Now, unless you are contractingout a service in which you have
a set set of deliverables thatyou are getting from a person,
this better work.
(05:09):
Well, what are the conditionsthat.
You know, you've gotta askyourself what are the conditions
needed outside of yourself forthings to work?
So what I mean by saying is ifyou are not ready to work for it
and you need someone else to dothe heavy lifting for you in
your business, are you reallybeing the leader for your
business?
Are you really leading yourself?
(05:30):
And so the, the thing that youmay have invested in the program
that you may have invested in,maybe it didn't give you the
return because they may, youknow, in some, in some cases.
There are some genuinesituations where people have not
delivered on the thing that theysaid that they would, in which
case that is bad players, that'sbad actor.
You know that that's bad onaccount of, uh, these people.
(05:53):
However, if you haven't actuallydone the work yourself through
the container that you were in,then does that onus really sit
on the person?
Or does that owner sit on you?
And I'm saying this completelyas a person who actually has
invested in lots of differentthings and there have been
certain things that I didn'tfully take on and run with them
(06:16):
myself.
And that fully falls on me andI'm taking ownership of that.
So there is a little bit ofthis, you know, reframing that's
needed off.
I don't know if this will workbecause you really need to be
able to back yourself.
Um, when you are going into aconversation with yourself on
that topic, which is what kindof self-trust are you ready to
(06:39):
put forward for yourself withknowing that you've got the
support to carry you forward?
So here are some practicalthings to think about and what
you really need is that beliefin what you have to offer, and
then the courage and motivationto make it work for you from the
ground up.
So I'm gonna be giving you sometough love for this, and
apologies in advance again, ifit offends.
(07:02):
But it needs to be said, andthat is for every finger that's
pointing outwards, there'susually four back in your
direction.
Now entrepreneurship is thebiggest project of
self-development that you willever take on.
I have certainly experiencedthat myself, and which is why
I'm sharing this with love, isthat the one thing that I have
learned from balancing both ajob as well as a business is
(07:24):
that building a business isbloody hard work and building a
business that has scalability isbloody hard work because there
are lots of different factorsthat need to go in.
To making a business work?
Well, from a scalabilityperspective, you'd have to have
the volume if you're going, fora really lower priced product in
(07:45):
your business.
So if you don't have the volume,you've gotta overcome, you've
gotta compensate for it throughincome that you get from some
other means while you arebuilding the volume part of your
business.
This is really just, simplemaths.
This is not rocket science.
So.
Think about the journey that youare on right now, and if you are
thinking about setting up ascalable part of your business,
(08:09):
then what you are really goingto need to commit to is you're
gonna need to commit to havingan income that can support you
while you are building.
Out the foundational stuff thatyou need in order to get volume
into your business, with yourown ip, with your own expertise,
with all of the life experiencesthat you've had.
But it's not going to happenovernight.
(08:30):
It's actually gonna take time,effort, and energy, because
anything worthwhile actuallytakes time.
It doesn't usually happen in asprint.
A sprint is when you can.
Come up with certaindeliverables that you will get
handed to you and you run withthem.
You take them and you run withthem and you make them your own
right, but you're not gonna havesomething that's set and forget
(08:51):
turnkey done for you like youwould do when you exchange a
contract, say to build a house,a brand new house.
You exchange dollars in exchangefor product that gets built for
you and all you have to go inand live in it.
Well, a business is not exactlylike that because at the end of
the day, if you don't have atool that you can operate and
operationalize such as an app orsomething that actually helps
(09:12):
people do something specific,then you are the face of your
business and your expertise andyour IP are what you are
selling.
And it really needs you to be inyour best optimal condition.
And the pointing fingers andreally looking at the ones that
are actually pointing back atyou are the most important piece
of the puzzle in this wholeprocess.
(09:34):
So coming back to.
The volume versus, income model,which is the scalability versus
(11:49):
a service based business, isthat if you lack systems and a
proven offer that people havealready paid you for time and
again, then I'm gonna repeatthis.
You don't have the luxury ofsaying you want ease and flow if
you are just starting out.
And because as I described tosomeone just earlier this week,
(12:10):
is that you can't have takeoffwithout thrust.
Now, let me repeat that again.
You cannot have liftoff.
Without thrust.
And yes, that might mean that itmight take some hustle.
So there is some out talkinggoing on here in this podcast
episode, which someone reallyneeds to hear because quite
frankly, no one really talksabout this as much as they
really should.
(12:31):
And so no one is actually goingto bring you leads that convert
easily without proving your ownmethodology and I am just gonna
say this with kindness thatactually sits with you.
So this is actually as much,about self-trust as it is about
self-leadership and takingownership, which is what part
are you willing to play?
(12:52):
To get your content out thereand what part are you willing to
play to validate and closeoffers when they're created?
So that's something to ponderabout.
And you can have all thehandholding but you can't expect
to get to cruising altitudewithout there being enough
pressure in the lead up to thatliftoff or the takeoff so that
you can get to cruisingaltitude.
(13:14):
And that's my tough talk settledon this one for this episode.
But I do wanna offer you agentle reframe despite
everything that I've said, andthat is that the way that you
are thinking about this wholesituation, which is, this may
not work this time, is that youmay be basing.
Your past results on futureoutcomes.
(13:34):
And there's a really good way ofreframing and looking at this.
And there's a really strangelife parallel that I wanted to
share, that will help with apenny drop actually from my real
life scenario.
And literally this has again,played out this week.
Which is that I've been helpingmy son navigate through some
challenging exams for which hedid about some total of two days
(13:56):
of work before he sat the test,and naturally the outcomes spoke
for themselves.
Now, there is a, olive branchbeing offered where he can REIT
that test again, but it doesmean that his summer holidays
will be taken up with preparingfor the second chance.
And so there is naturally a bitof built up, pent up tension
(14:19):
about the thought about thissitting, this test, because the
data points that we have to lookat are two days worth of effort
for one day's outcome andresults.
Now, if you look at the resultsthat you may have got, or I may
have got, I know fully well theresults that I have got are
(14:41):
fully.
On account of the work that Iput in, it's directly
proportional.
It's all, literally physics.
Every action has an equal andopposite reaction.
And when you decide on inaction,you will get the results of
inaction.
And so I will say this is thatif you think about the two data
(15:01):
points, which is the 48 hoursleading into an exam or a test
versus two whole months of dailypractice and.
Consistency in the lead up tothe finale or the test.
Those two data points arecompletely different.
And so the outcome that youmight be looking at when you're
asking yourself is this evengoing to work, are based off of
(15:24):
two very different data points.
So you've gotta really be ableto compare apples with apples
when you're looking at outcomesand thinking about whether or
not this is going to work outbecause you are actually
starting to look outside ofyourself when in fact.
A, a large part and a real keyplayer in this whole, situation
(15:44):
is quite often the person itselfand what they are or what
they're not doing.
And that is the reason why thereare so many scaled offerings in
the market is because peopleunderstand that inherently
carrying somebody else isimpossible unless the person is
actually willing to meet, uh,the market where they're at.
(16:06):
Through putting in the workthrough self-direction, through,
self-leadership, through guideddiscipline and focus despite all
of the energies and things thatmight actually be affecting you.
So I just wanted to leave you onthat gentle reframe, given that
I just laid into the second,example, a fair bit there with
my tough talk on this.
(16:26):
Particular topic, which I feltquite deeply about and spent a
long time thinking.
Now, the third thing that I havenoticed why people fall out of
love with their business isreally thinking about posting as
a strategy when it's not.
Now you can post all you like,but it's not posting that will
get you sales.
It's when you change your.
Perspectives and withpositioning and your personal
(16:49):
brand, that is when peopleactually start knowing what you
stand for and why, rather thanjust the how you know and what
you would sell and what yourprocess is.
And it's when people willactually start gravitating
towards you.
So post, but only post, when youhave formed your perspective and
are not afraid to go out thereand lay a stake in the ground
(17:11):
for what you actually stand for,because that is ultimately what
leadership is all about, isstanding your ground and, and
not ready to back down on yourpoint of view just because.
You think someone won't agreeand you, because you have formed
a perspective of based off ofyour real life experiences that
(17:33):
if you haven't yet validated,you will be feeling that.
Friction of, but what if I putmyself out there and, someone
says something, right?
So you've gotta be able to bewilling to validate your
offering as you're going along,and which is why, which is part
of the reason why the salesprocess.
In posting is so incrediblyimportant is because it actually
(17:58):
helps to give you those microwins as you're going along,
from, it being, not just aboutvolume, but actually more about
the breadcrumbs that you need tohave along the way to validate
what it is that you're gonna be.
Offering and then with the viewthat you can then scale it with
separate experts who can helpyou with the scaling side of the
business.
But more often than not, comingback to my previous point is
(18:21):
that a lot of the times peopleactually want to be able to get
to cruising altitude withoutnecessarily having the thrust or
the work that you need to put infor the liftoff.
And you will find yourselftrying to clutch at straws.
With buying an AI course, withtrying to, create content with
ai.
Well, I'm just gonna say thisagain.
This might again, upset a fewpeople, but I'm really on a fire
(18:43):
here today, which is you can'tautomate creativity.
You don't understand.
So if you haven't yet created.
A magnetic system for yourselfwhere you know that from having
put out the content you are, thepeople are actually gravitating
towards you, and you've donethat with any length of
consistency, that is when the AIsystems will play in.
(19:06):
With amplifying the existingimpact that you've made in the
marketplace.
So leave it on that one for, forthere, but coming back to the
point of.
Posting is not the strategy, andit's really changing
perspectives and your own corepositioning that actually puts
you front and center for what itis that you do and what you
(19:28):
share.
But without oversharing.
The fourth point that I wannadiscuss is the feeling, the
pressure to show up online whilenavigating life.
Now, there have been many timesin my life when there have been
endless energy swings that I'mmanaging.
It could be.
From social media with, eachscroll that I've taken at a
(19:48):
fraction of the energy from theperson whose perspective of, or
POV that I was taking in.
So I get that you don't want toadd the noise, but have you
asked yourself whether the noisethat you are perceiving is
actually a glimpse into your ownreality of what you are
perceiving and what you areconsuming?
There certainly is noise, butpeople, you will usually seek me
(20:11):
out.
Through that noise because theylove what I stand for.
And similarly, there will bepeople who will love what you
stand for and is where you wantyour voice to shine and share
your perspectives without theenergies getting you down.
Now the second is, you know, thefeeling, the pressure to show up
online while navigating lifeand.
(20:33):
Could be.
The reason why you fall out oflove in your business is all of
the energies from yourenvironment.
Now, we can't control the peoplearound in our environment, but
the cliche of, we can controlhow we choose to respond to the
environment has never beentruer.
And I will share that I've beenin a negative environment and a
(20:53):
negative mental state in thepast, and I realized that I
couldn't control my environment,but I could choose my response
by giving myself the gift ofmicro wind.
Something that gave me a reasonto wake up in the morning rather
than not having a vision, and itwas with putting one step in
front of the other when I didn'tknow what else would work.
(21:14):
It's the full and utter belief.
And giving myself and reframingthe proof that I was giving
myself despite the fact.
That I wasn't necessarily alwaysmaking big wins, but I knew that
what vision I hold for myself,and that is the gift you can
give yourself as a femalefounder, is the gift of vision,
which will carry you througheven through the darkest of
(21:36):
time.
So when you can't alwaysovercome.
Mental chatter and you justwanna hold onto a single reason
to believe it'll be the visionthat you come back to for your
business, and is the reason whydespite there being pressure to
show up online while navigatingyour life and circumstances and
environment, and if you feellike you're falling out of love
(21:58):
in your business.
That is the reason why a lot ofpeople that I see struggle is
because they struggle toreconnect back with the vision
that they may have had, and thatquite often helps to open up a
window or a gateway through myinitial conversations when I
first bring.
And onboard clients into myprogram activator is that the
(22:19):
first thing that we do isactually help you get back in
touch with your vision byunderstanding the whole map of
your business.
So that is one of the ways inwhich, you can control the
environment by actuallycontrolling your reality and how
you respond to that.
So the fifth thing that I wantto go into is the fear of
(22:39):
self-promotion.
And this is very real becauseI've actually felt it myself.
It's really about going againstthe grain and in conflict with
what you're seeing.
As people, we have been treatedlike sheep, where, the flock
stays together and we have thesheet mentality of.
Doing what everybody else isdoing, because let's face it,
standing out means that we'reactually putting our neck out
(23:02):
there.
And, I put it down and akin tobeing, without night vision
goggles in the middle of a sav.
You know, you are out there andyou can sense that maybe there
are lions and tigers and allthese wild animals they can see
you through their night vision.
But you can't see them.
And that is the feeling thatsometimes I've had through this
(23:24):
whole posting online, situation,especially in the early days.
And I tell you what though, isthat the fear actually is like.
An erosion in itself.
It will chip away at you.
It'll chip away at you and it'llkeep you exactly where you need
to be.
And it can be incrediblydraining.
Fear really keeps us fromtapping into ourselves because
(23:48):
we go into this trap.
Of shuttling betweencomparisons.
So comparing what other peopleare doing and then comparing
what we are meant to be doing,and then looking at what
somebody else is posting, andthen looking at what we are
supposed to be posting, and thenlooking at how somebody has done
something with AI and thinking,wow, that must be great.
So I need to do that with aiand.
So no wonder there is thatfeeling of noise, which I
(24:11):
mentioned earlier in theepisode, which is really taking
that comparison, state of mindand replacing it with what do I
have to offer my voice, myvalues, my, identity, my POV,
and I'm gonna be sharing alittle bit more of that in a
second.
But speaking about identity.
It is the identity that we hold,in ourselves, who we have been
(24:34):
in the past.
Someone who I was speaking toearlier last week said that, uh,
the identity that she's had hasalways been behind the scenes.
Not really an out in front.
And so it can be.
A bit of a process getting fromthat old identity into a new
identity, which is suddenlyyou're going from, or it could
(24:54):
actually be.
The second, example is a currentclient of mine who, actually had
an established business and wasnever actually the face of the
business.
So the business did thepromotion entirely on its own,
independently without thefounder necessarily needing to
be the face of the business.
And so there can be that shiftbetween.
The identity that you may haveonce had versus say, if you are
(25:17):
starting out, then the identitythat you have, you know, that
your family sees you as, or yourcolleagues see you as, and then
this new identity or this newbrand where you'll actively be
eroding the part of you thatsome people may have known you
as.
And you're building this newidentity, uh, where people will
be starting to get to know youas, and that shift.
(25:39):
In our own minds can actually bea lot more amplified than say
for somebody else, because forsomebody else, they'll be taking
in the perspective, they'll belooking at the thing and not
everybody will agree with whatit is that you have to say.
And that's where the judgmentdoes come in.
That's where the fear comes in.
But it's really about, again,being rooted back in that
(26:00):
self-belief with the clarity ofknowing what exactly you stand
for.
And with clarity then comes.
Momentum with clarity comesconfidence.
And so that's part of the reasonwhy two of those are my themes,
is that I really work towardsclarity because unless I give
clarity to people, they're notgonna be able to get the
(26:23):
confidence that they need inorder to, in order to then build
on the connections that theyneed to have in order to then be
successful in what they do.
So a really big gift.
Of my voice themes is clarity,is because I'm seeking out
clarity and looking at patternsand, making deductions from the
patterns that I'm seeing in themarketplace.
And obviously sharing thatwithin my podcast for you as a
(26:45):
gift for me to be able to share,the things that I'm learning so
that you don't have to befinding out things the hard way.
And that is really my hope forthis podcast is really about
reframing visibility in a waythat is specifically for female
founders when there is so muchnoise out there.
So I will just say that, I couldsay a lot about the fear of
(27:06):
self-promotion and obviouslyactivate within, um, my business
is a place where people can, uh,sound more like themselves and,
and offer that.
But regardless of what, whichbucket you are in, I'm just
gonna say, I've covered fivedifferent scenarios.
Whether you are, lost in the joyof why you started the business
(27:28):
in the first place, or you'renot sure of whether this will
work, whether you are posting,thinking.
You have to, then with astrategy that is platform
agnostic.
Or if you're ready to ditch theenergies from, that are bringing
you down or separate yourselffrom the fear of self promotion,
then before you either chuck itin or fall prey to yet another
(27:49):
quick fix.
There are only really threethings that you will need to do
to be able to speak and presentonline, uh, with your own unique
perspective and with your ownvoice.
And to do that as a femalefounder, you will need one of
three things.
One is you will need to createas.
Single core offering that peoplecan know you for.
(28:10):
The second is that you will needto develop a voice that is based
in three things, brandpositioning and perspective that
will keep you top of mind.
And the third is actuallydeveloping that unique sales
mechanism to fill your pipelineand test and learn approach that
improves over time.
And what I'm gonna say is this,that the execution of these
(28:33):
three things is highly de.
On whether you are establishedwith a proven offer and things
that you have already done and,and how much cred and authority
you have in the marketplaceversus if you're sta if you're
just starting out.
And the path to both thesethings are two very different
things.
So it is the, these are thethree things that you will need.
(28:55):
In order for you to then feellike you can speak and present
from a point of view,perspective, and brand that is
uniquely yours.
So if you are finding yourself,ready to fall back in love with
your business in this season ofself-love, then, and if you're
find, if you're finding yourselfspeaking from either obligation.
Exhaustion or perhaps strategyfirst thinking instead of
(29:19):
showcasing your voice with yourvalues.
Building desire not only in whatyou offer, but actually falling
in love with what you offer andshowcasing perspectives and
positioning with identityshifting activities, uh, and
then sharing those insights thatyou know you can share through.
Knowing what cards to hold andwhat cards to fold.
(29:41):
When you're sharing thoseinsights, you're sharing without
oversharing, and more, mostimportantly, with an embodied
experience that showcases theimpact that you're wanting to
make and creating room for it,then know that the cue to this.
Is your next steps, which ismaking a plan that helps you
fall in love with your businessagain, so that you can amplify
(30:02):
your impact you wanna make.
Because the exact execution ofeach lies heavily, as I said on
your personal circumstances.
And if you want to know how tobest do that, I've shared an
opportunity here, this episodein the show notes to help you
craft your next steps.
So I'm gonna close off this bysaying that you can fall in love
with your business by doing.
What feels like you, again, I'llleave you with this soundbite,
(30:25):
which I thought was really cool,which is your voices, your
compass, your values are yourstructure and your energy is
your strategy.
And when you bring your voiceback to the center, everything
begins to come alive again.
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