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December 21, 2025 17 mins

Understanding Visibility: Stories, Barriers, and Female Founders

In this special podcast episode, Radhika Lucas discusses key insights into the complex layers of visibility, especially for female founders in their thirties, forties, and fifties. Drawing from personal experiences and working with women across various industries, Radhika emphasizes the critical importance of feeling safe to share one's message, managing reputation, and balancing professional and personal branding. The episode explores three dominant stories that hold women back: loss aversion, self-imposed narratives, and the reframing of failures. With an invitation to join a comprehensive workshop, the host offers solutions and support for women looking to navigate their visibility journey effectively.

00:00 Introduction and Purpose of the Podcast
00:38 The Complexity of Visibility
01:16 Personal Branding Challenges
01:44 The 5,000-Year-Old Penny Drop Story
04:46 Experience and Risk Aversion
07:03 Three Big Barriers to Success
11:30 Reframing Failure
14:11 Season of Love Workshop
15:56 Conclusion and Next Steps

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

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.
(00:30):
Hey there, and welcome to thisspecial podcast episode, which I
have felt really drawn to shareand which is why I wanted to
come on and talk to you aboutsomething that I have noticed in
the last few weeks, and that isafter working with women from
over a dozen industries.
And working within thespecificity of stories and the

(00:55):
stories that we share andvisibility and putting ourselves
out there and all of the thingsthat go with being visible that
very few people talk about inany great detail.
Visibility it's verymulti-layered.
It's not, as simple as justshowing up on video.
I think it's a very onedimensional way of looking at

(01:17):
visibility.
It's, it's about whether youfeel safe in which to share your
message.
It's whether you feel like asthough you are.
Outwardly showing a reputationthat is going to be valued by
people around you.
And so therefore give you thatadditional reputation, give you

(01:37):
that additional status that youneed in order to, for example,
if you're competing against,bigger companies as an example.
And if you really wanna make amark and, uh, position yourself
differently, you really areswinging between being
professional versus beingpersonal, and what does that
personal brand look like and howthat shows up in the way in

(01:59):
which you might actually holdyourself back from.
Fully expressing yourselfbecause of this constant
variation and swings between howyou wanna show up as a business
and how you wanna show up andas, as a personality.
So, I shared recently a storyabout how a 5,000 year old penny
drop revealed the reason whymany women or many female

(02:23):
founders in their thirties,forties, fifties, and beyond.
More at risk of not reallymaking it in business because of
three distinct stories that areunique to us that have to be
resolved in order for the realstory can, that can be shared.
And so, um, the reason this cameto being is.

(02:47):
Mainly, and predominantlybecause I have seen the same
themes or the same kind ofconversations come up over and
over again.
What I have noticed is that thevery thing that actually gives
us an edge, you know, we allhave the expertise.
We are looking at people whoare, you might have heard this,
you know, in the wilds of theinternet, that the, the people

(03:08):
who have less experience thanyou are killing it, even though
you might have more experiencethan them and all of that kind
of stuff.
And I think that's a realreality for a lot of women in
their thirties, forties, andfifties, is that yes, we have
that real world.
Experience.
Yet somehow we feel held back onaccount of many different
issues.
And I'm not saying this from,,sitting on top of a pedestal by

(03:31):
any means.
I have felt all of this and moremyself, and as part of the
reason why I feel compelled toshare is because half the time,
I find that the visibilityadvice given by people who
didn't have a fear of visibilityin the first place.
So they really only can talkabout it at a surface level.
And as female founders in ourthirties, forties, and fifties,
we have more to lose.
And it's that reputation, it'sthe.

(03:54):
It is how we wanna positionourselves.
The, it's how we wanna showcaseourself to the world.
And all of those factors thatcome in, play a really big part
in then how we show up.
And then not only that, butthere is conflicting advice.
There is, half truths, there is.
Endless amount of layers ofmarketing material and people's

(04:17):
energies and advice that you areconstantly bombarded with time
and time again.
But really the idea being that,there are essentially three
stories that people have to getover.
But before I go further, Iwanted to just share that in my
twenties I was able to,, jumpoff a cliff straight into a
raging river and.

(04:38):
My swimming skills are averageat best.
I really didn't think about theconsequences of those actions
when I dived straight into theriver from, going off a cliff.
I had no idea whether they weregoing to be boulders at the
bottom that were gonna hit me,whether I'd.
Taken further down downstream,and I just dived in feet first

(05:01):
and, obviously the rest ishistory.
If I was asked to do that today.
I would hesitate and I would notdo that without there being a
certain degree of safety inplace.
And so the reason I mentionedthat is because as we get older
what experience does is itactually teaches us many

(05:23):
different things.
And the, the experience ofhaving learned not to do things
actually gets more hardwiredinto us than the experience of
doing things.
And you'll notice that as peopleget older and older, especially
into their seventies, eighties,and beyond, that their risk

(05:43):
aversion starts getting, morehardwired.
And it's because of.
All of the multiplicities ofstories that they have got
hardwired in themselves to stopthem from taking action.
Because firstly, the lifespanthat's available to correct
those actions has shortened,which means that in your
twenties you might be moreinvincible, your ligaments might

(06:05):
be more flexible, your.
Ability to recover from physicalinjuries might be higher versus,
say, if you are in your fortieswhere you are injuring yourself,
you are pro more prone toinjury, even through something
as trivial as exercise at home.
If not done the right way.
And so these little thingsactually stop us from taking the
right steps that are neededwhilst in the build phase,

(06:27):
especially with marketing ourbusiness online.
And so what happens in.
A, putting ourselves out therecontext is that there is a
certain degree of reputationaldamage that we have.
To be able to endure or face therisk of, and that risk or loss

(06:49):
aversion is actually greaterthan the gain.
That we are likely toexperience.
And so that is something that Ihave thought about a lot and
I've actually mentioned that inmy latest newsletter that has
just gone out and I've mentionedabout the 5,000 year old penny
drop that actually revealed thereason why you know about what

(07:11):
is real and what we perceive asbeing real.
Now, if you'd like to get andinsight into that then sent me,
one word on either one of mysocial media platforms with the
word newsletter, and I'll putyou on my newsletter for
anything that comes out, lateron.
And I can also forward you thatspecific newsletter for you to
get an idea of the concept.

(07:32):
So I have seen that there arethree big barriers standing in
the way.
One is.
About the story of what we thinkis real.
So the stories that are basedoff of any kind of loss
aversion, whether that is thefear of visibility, whether
that's fear of what is real, um,and fear of what is real, is

(07:56):
really quantified by the valuethat society thinks is valuable.
So if we don't think that whatsociety feels is valuable.
Or we might know what isvaluable to society, but the
issue is that society may notsee what we have as being

(08:17):
valuable unless it is packagedup in a way that meets people
where they are and which is whythe penny drop story is so
important in the context ofthis.
So if you are curious aboutgetting that, then do subscribe
to my newsletter by just sendingme.
The one word newsletter on anyone of my social media platforms
as you're listening to this.

(08:37):
So, speaking of value, the lossaversion that I mentioned, which
is one of the stories that needsto be resolved and is one of the
ways in which it will holdfemale founders back.
Now the second story that gets,mentioned is actually the
stories that we tell ourselves,which is all of the ways in

(08:57):
which we're observing the worldaround us, and the stories that
we are making up about why wemay not, and the rules that we
might put in place for why.
We can show up versus why wecan't show up.
Now, one of those rules could bein the case of someone who I,
will be interviewing soon is thestory of.

(09:21):
Whether this person actually hada story to share.
Now, this person did not feelthat they had a story to share,
and so some of the ways in whichit came up wasn't so much
through questions, but it wasmore through statements.
Statements such as, I don'treally even know that I need
this.

(09:42):
I don't know that I have a storyto share.
So if you look a little bitdeeper into the statements that
are, I don't really need thiswithout the context of
understanding.
How the person wants to show upwith what, what they stand for
and the reasons why they want todo what they wanna do.

(10:03):
It would be easy to assume thatthis statement is actually a
truth.
And that then brings up thatwhole question of, well, what is
real?
So this person at the timedidn't feel that they needed
something, that they didn't needthis particular offering the
fact that there was actually amismatch or a values mismatch.

(10:28):
Between the way in which theywanted to show up and ultimately
the plan that they had, which iswhat they ultimately wanted, and
that would lead them down thepathway of a strategy based
visibility plan alone, whichwasn't going to be helpful
because if there is an identitymismatch between.

(10:51):
The ultimate vision of what youactually want versus the loss
aversion that you are likely tohave to undergo to then meet
that plan.
That is where the work of theresolving actually happens,
because unless story isresolved, unless that statement

(11:14):
is resolved, and understandingthe story behind that statement.
It would be easy to assume thatthis is actually a direct
reflection on say, youroffering, for instance, if
someone was to say that to you,which then ends up becoming
about more about a salesconversation.
So it's important for us femalefounders in our thirties,

(11:36):
forties, fifties, and beyond tounderstand the.
The things, the stories that weare telling ourselves, which is
the second story, which I'vejust mentioned here, which is
the story that we tellourselves.
And then the third story that Iwanted to mention is about how
we can look at the stories thatwe glean out of failure.

(11:59):
Um, and this is especiallyimportant because I was
listening to a podcast.
It was by Mark Rober.
And Mark Rober is, is amechanical engineer and my son
used to watch Mark Rober videossince he was about eight or
nine.
And, he created these incrediblevideos only once, one video.
Every single month on YouTubeand now ends up it has about 72

(12:22):
million followers, which isapparently he won every four
Americans technically, um,subscribed to his channel.
And what he had to say aboutfailure was that treat failure
as though an engineer would lookat failure, which is to test
iterate, and then.
Go again, which is somethingthat I see happening around me

(12:44):
in my working environment aswell is the, the testing of our
hypothesis and then seeing howthat hypothesis works out.
And then almost looking at it asthat, as an experiment and then
going again.
However, I feel like as though alot of women put a lot of store
on getting things right, gettingthings perfect, and I see this

(13:06):
time and time and time again isthat they're so held back by
getting everything perfect.
And the main reason for that isthat there has been a big study
put out by Oxford Universitypersonally, I mentioned that in
one of my other podcasts, isthat there is additional
pressure that is put on women toget everything right.
So it creates this culture ofhypervigilance, which is

(13:30):
actually detrimental to the wayin which we show up.
So.
You can, on the one hand you canhave my, have the likes of Mark
Robus saying, use an engineer'smindset.
But on the other hand, you haveinequities as a female founder
that you are actively workingagainst in this whole, arena of
visibility.

(13:50):
And so the third one really isabout reframing failures by
gleaning them.
As insights based upon the workthat you're doing, whether it is
activating your marketing plan,whether it is putting yourself
out there, whether it iscreating a post, whether it is
anything, whether it's checkingconversions on your landing
page.
And we can go, I can go into thedepths of a lot of marketing

(14:11):
speak, but I feel like it'sreally important at this point
of the year to really take stockof the stories that we tell
ourselves.
And so, firstly, there's thestory of loss aversion.
Secondly, there's the story ofhow we reframe, reframe failure.
And thirdly, it's the storiesthat we are telling ourselves
that we want to share and thatwe would like to share, but

(14:33):
without oversharing.
And so what I would like to dois to offer you.
A chance to come and work withme in what I'm calling the
season of love.
So if you're listening to this,then right now at as of the time
of this recording, I'm creatingthe how to share your story.

(14:54):
Without oversharingcomprehensive guide, that's
going to be as included as abonus with the current workshop
that I am running right now.
And in this workshop, you getnot only the things that you
have to do, so you get touncover.
Your story, the way in which youwanna show up, what you stand
for, and the reason why youwanna do what, what you wanna

(15:15):
do, and then mapping those tothe outcomes that you want based
on the marketing plan that youmay have, in your mind.
So it's really about mapping,the plan that you have along
with the identity shift that youneed to make.
And the best part about this isyou don't have to figure this
out on your own, because inthis.
Amazing guide that I'm gonna beputting together.

(15:37):
You get to work with me in abonus setting, which is part of
this special workshop offeringwhere you get to work with the
stories that you have for eachof those stories that I've
outlined in this episode andwork with me to resolve so that
you can then evolve and shareyour message without
oversharing.

(15:57):
So if you would like to knowmore about this, then simply
message me with the word love.
And I would love to be able tosend you details about how to
fall back in love with yourbusiness by reframing the
stories that you're tellingyourself.
So if you'd like to know aboutthis, then simply message me
with the word love, and I wouldlove to be able to send you

(16:19):
details of all of that, whatentails in this workshop that is
coming about very soon.
So that is all for thisparticular shorty episode for
today, and I'll see you in thenext episode.
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